[Photo TR] Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

[OCaml]

I am interning in the Bay Area this summer, so I made the hour drive to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom today with some friends. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised at just how fun all six roller coasters were. Here's a breakdown of the big six at the park.

 

Medusa

 

This is your standard B&M floorless coaster. Of course, standard for B&M generally means high quality and fun. This ride was no exception, as its smooth track and relentless inversions were really great. Its first drop also had surprising floater airtime. The top moment of this ride, in my opinion, is the zero-G roll.

 

We rode this twice — once from the last row and once from the second-to-last row. The wait was about 20 minutes all day.

 

Kong

 

This was the big surprise of the day for me. I was expecting this Vekoma inverted coaster to be painful, but I really enjoyed this ride a lot more than I thought I would. Sure, it's rough and has a bit of headbanging, but the drop is great, the inversions are intense, and the leg-chopper on the first zero-G roll was by far the best near-collision element I've ever experienced on a roller coaster. I normally am very good about not having an emotional reaction to these elements, ranging from hand-choppers on wooden roller coasters to the vertical loops on Dueling Dragons (back when it used to duel, of course). However, this leg-chopper gave me an emotional "holy crap" adrenaline rush where my gut instinct was that my legs were going to hit the track. I'm a pretty rational person, so the intensity of this moment was remarkable to me, and we actually rode it a second time specifically because of the leg-chopper.

 

We rode this twice — once from the last row and once from the second-to-last row. The wait was about 20 minutes all day.

 

V2

 

I rarely wait for the front row of a roller coaster since I prefer the intensity of the back row. However, my friends and I agreed that the front row was the clearly superior option on V2. Not only is the effect of going up the spike more effective from the front, but the front car goes through more of the twist on launches one and five than any of the other cars. This ended up being the right decision; we all agreed after riding that being in the front row was what made this roller coaster so fun.

 

The wait was about 20 minutes all day.

 

Roar

 

Roar is a terrific wooden coaster that throws you around and gives you ejector airtime. It's rough, even for a wooden roller coaster, but that's totally fine since it's not like you're slamming into an over-the-shoulder harness. There's not much more to say about the coaster experience itself. I will comment that this was running one train today, as the other train was under maintenance. This, combined with the ride operators being generally slow to unload, load, and dispatch a train, contributed to the wait being about 90 to 120 minutes all day.

 

We rode this from the back row.

 

Superman: Ultimate Flight

 

This was a really unique roller coaster that we all enjoyed, which seems to be a trend with Premier Rides designs. All of the 180-degree twists are very intense, and the big drop has great floater airtime. I also loved going backwards on the second launch.

 

We rode this from the front row of the last car (second-to-last row overall). The wait was about 60 to 90 minutes all day.

 

Boomerang

 

This is your standard boomerang roller coaster. I'd actually never been on one before today. It turns out that I really enjoyed this and would ride it at another park. The cobra roll pulls some very intense G-forces, and the entire backwards half of the ride was disorienting in a good way.

 

We rode this from the second row of the front car. The wait was about 60 minutes all day.

 

Overall

 

I would visit this park again (although I probably won't this summer due to time constraints). I'm also looking forward to going to California's Great America. I actually interned in Santa Clara last summer with a clear view of the park from the office window, and yet I somehow never managed to go to that park.

[Superbatboy]

Great pics!! I gotta get up there one of these days to ride Superman, I only live about 4.5 hrs from the park and have never been

[OCaml]

Yeah, I'd say that the park is a pretty solid day trip. There's also a good assortment of animals, although nothing like Busch Gardens, one of my home parks.

[gardyloo!]

Great TR!

Was the line of superman moving slow (Because of its low capacity)?

[The49er]

Was the line of superman moving slow (Because of its low capacity)?

 

I would assume so. I've only had the chance to ride SUF twice, but it always fills up the switchbacks.

 

It's interesting to see that the Oasis Plaza coasters (Kong and Medusa) had short waits while Boomerang had an hour-long wait all day; it's generally out of the way of the guests who don't care for the animal exhibits. I'm also glad to see I'm not the only one who actually enjoyed SFDK's Boomerang.

[OCaml]

What can I say? I have no idea how the general public thinks sometimes.

[Canobie Coaster]

Nice trip report. I was just there a few weeks ago.

 

Was the line of superman moving slow (Because of its low capacity)?

 

I would assume so. I've only had the chance to ride SUF twice, but it always fills up the switchbacks.

 

It's interesting to see that the Oasis Plaza coasters (Kong and Medusa) had short waits while Boomerang had an hour-long wait all day; it's generally out of the way of the guests who don't care for the animal exhibits. I'm also glad to see I'm not the only one who actually enjoyed SFDK's Boomerang.

 

I was able to ride Superman without any wait 3 times a few weeks ago. Once the park opened, I made sure to hit it first. When I returned later in the day, the line looked very long.

[laqueefa]

Awesome report! I need to get my duff up there and ride Superman and the Hammerhead!