Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (SFDK) Discussion Thread

[Andrewoplis]

^Maybe, but there is a lot of room left over by Pandemonium as well, and I don't think they turned that left over room into a maze.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

With Pandemonium gone, that side of the park will be almost completely thrill rides (minus the little whale ride ). I'd love to see them do some sort of scare zone over there. It would probably be the best place for one.

[Andrewoplis]

^ They did have a scare zone near that area last year, and SFDK's fright feast really needs other "True" scare zone, and not that lame grave yard zombie thing they had this year.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

They should do one over by the old iwerks theater. That way, when people get scared, they'll fall down the stairs.

 

But in all honesty, the only two places I could really think of having them would be Oasis plaza (but past Cobra) and over by V2/Roar/Superman. Even then, they probably wouldn't be very much in depth.

[pdcon]

i think they should make one big scare zone. back over by the butterfly place, monkey cups and thrilla. its already creepy enough back there at night time.

[SoCalCoasters]

I agree with the comments above. SF really should consider doing a scare zone back there, seeing as it's isolated enough and has little to no attraction for kids whose parents bring them to haunt.

 

I've always found the idea of a superhero-gone-wrong sort of maze to be interesting, and with S:UF going in...

[Nibbler]

Rule number 1 of Scare Zones: "No matter where they are located, parents will end up wandering in with their children."

[pdcon]

^^ Agreed, i watched a parent have a scared child walk into a scare zone with the child, as a zombie person was walking up to the kid the parent was like dont come close, back up, hes scared, leave NOW, and as the zombie continued to scare the child the parent pushed the zombie down and continued to walk through and out of the scare zone.

 

So i dont know if it was right for the zombie to continue to scare the child even after the parent told them not to, the family looked as if they where just walking through it to get the other side of the park, not causing trouble, are the zombie trained to scare the little kids like that, the boy was frightened and the zombie would not leave him alone, it was like harassing him, is that OK. I know it was not right for the parent to push the zombie down but after numerous times of him tell him to leave him alone he continued to torment the child, so he did what any parent would do i guess.

[Nibbler]

Approaching this from a haunt trained side of things;

 

Was it wrong to scare the child? Not exactly, however it is in your best interest as a monster to guage your intended target. If the parent brings their child willingly into your zone, it is your job technically to scare. On the other side of the situation, the parent gave the monster a clear sign that they were not having a good time and as such the monster should have let them pass thus avoiding the above situation.

[pdcon]

Agreed, i like to just sit in the scare zones and watch the actors freak people out, its great. But this family looked to avoiding any kind of contact, the actor should have stopped when the parents asked them to leave the child alone. But on the same note the think the parent could have handled it a little bit better then to shove the actor on the ground. The parent went in there knowing we may get scared.

[MrSum1_55]

I was in the park yesterday, and I could see scare actors just just scaring in scare zones, but all over the park! I actually liked this, knowing that no matter where you are, you are not safe from being scared.

 

The scare actors were good, but that was really the only good thing I could say about the night!

 

The Medusa crew was just terrible! It should not take three ride ops 3-4 minutes to dispatch a train (sometimes taking up to 5 minutes). To make matters worse, the staff member running the priority boarding line was letting in people at too often a rate; literally half the trains in the front row line were sent out with only priority boarders. I should also mention that the air gates would remain open for literally 5 seconds. If there were empty seats on the train, you were unable to make it to them in time. The operator said that this was "your fault for not arranging this ahead of time". However, even if two priority boarders were sent through, and a party of two was behind another party, there was no time to make it to the front beofre she shut the gates, and refused to open them for being "too slow". In reality, it is rarely slow guests that effect dispatch times, but slow ride ops, and boy were they slow! They are literally spending 10-15 seconds on each seat! Not even the Tatsu crew moves that slow!

 

I should also mention one more thing: getting a priority boarding pass at a SF park is about as hard as logging into a Facebook account. Here are a few things I saw:

-One guy walked up the special access steps carrying a set of crutches. He was not using them or anything. He had no hint of a limp, and could walk up stairs just fine. Yet, he and his ten friends got to cut the line!

-Another girl came up the ramp with crutches that she was using. When boarding, after being allowed to cut, she left the crutches of the opposite side of the station, while walking to her seat on the other side. She had not one hint of a limp, did not favor one leg over another, just treated it like a walk in the park! I'm no medical expert, but I do strongly believe something might be up in both of these situations. I totally understand requiring a disabled person to use special access, but what about people who may be in healthy condition who just want to bypass the line? It is just shameful. I saw many other people in completely healthy looking condition able to bypass the line, for some reason.

 

I even had a Flashpass, and I was pissed off enough. Imagine what people who waited 2.5 hours thought! (That was really how long the wait was, line was all the way back to Sky Screamer's entrance)

 

Next time, I will walk up to a customer service counter, say I have ADD, and see if I am given an access pass.

 

MrSum1"This also shows that----------------Hay look a Seagull!"_55

[DarkStitch626]

Rule number 1 of Scare Zones: "No matter where they are located, parents will end up wandering in with their children."

 

Darwin theory at its finest?

[SoCalCoasters]

^^ I've encountered a similar problem with SFDK's seemingly insane amount of "priority boarders". I've complained to the park about them in the past, as they often spam a ride and take the most sought after rows over and over. This happened to me on V2. I had a Platinum Flash pass and still waited 30 minutes for the front row because of priority boarding.

 

I really think they do need to take a look at how they evaluate a person to be "priority" and also not allow them to sit in the sought after rows, unless they wait like the rest of us.

 

/end rant/observation

[MrSum1_55]

^Yeah, I was in the same situation. I had a gold FP, and waited 45 minutes for the front. Meanwhile, the actual line went all they way back to Sky Screamer's entrance, past the entrance of Kong and the hammer-bell game. I really wish they had a system like SFGAdv; there, when you use fastpass/priority boarding on RMT, they assign you to the row with the shortest wait. Also, even with people who were using priority boarding, I saw FAR less people using it than SFDK. I could be wrong, but I believe New Jersey has one of the highest rates of disabled people in the US. When people abuse the system, it not only serves as a middle finger to normal people, but also people who actually are disabled. For example, as a young kid, I broke my leg in a skiing accident. Two months later, to celebrate the removal of my cast, my parents took me to Disneyland. However, since my leg muscles had sat dormat for eight weeks, I still had a horrible limp, and could barely walk short distances, let alone around the happiest place on earth. So, I spent most of the day in a wheelchair. Having complete special access really was an awesome experience, and I lost count of how many times I rode Matterhorn that day. Knoebels takes a lot of crap for not being disabled friendly (exit-ramp wise). However, most of their normal queues are wheelchair accessable.

 

Since I have actually been in this situation before (although quite a long time ago), I do see both sides of the debate. I do know one person who was able to get her kid oup the access ramp at Disneyland because he had ADHD! However, they did have to show papers confirming this was true. I wonder what SFDK's policy is. Can you just walk up and say "I stubbed my toe walking out of my car?"

 

Overall, I believe people are just looking for more reasons to jump the line. On the one day, I have never, I repeat NEVER seen more line jumping on any ride, ever. Some got caught, some didn't.

 

The saddest thing about this whole visit was how operations seemed to go downhill a bit from August. On the TPR day, I was shocked how much better operations were than their usual standard. I hoped they would stay this way, but they are now back to their usual (low) standards. So, I will probably go back to ranting on this park after all! (Come on. It is required that a person MUST rant on their home park at least a little)

 

MrSum1"SFDK would really be a nice park if it weren't for their awful operations"_55

[SoCalCoasters]

I think the summer staff left ^

 

Another fact to consider is the fact that Disney has the capacity to allow people to jump constantly and have it very minimally effect the line, whereas with SFDK, these "priority boarders" never seem to have any problems running onto the rides. To be honest, none of these people ever seem to be incapacitated in any way whatsoever. I know I'm wrong but it often appears that way.

 

I have ADHD and I have trouble waiting in lines occasionally, so I usually support the park by buying a Flashpass, not getting a "priority pass" simply because I can't sit still.

[pdcon]

MrSum1_55, I am not trying to argue but the one of the facts you mentioned is incorrect, i have worked all over the Disney parks and resorts, and know for a fact that cast members are not allowed to ask for proof of a disability. We had to give them a Guest Assistance Card (GAC CARD) no questions asked. We had or suspicions of who was telling the truth or not, but you cant be completely sure just by looking at someones physical appearance.

 

On the other hand I am not sure how they do it at six flags parks, weather there allowed to ask or not, its just seems like when it comes to ride operations at six flags its very unorganized. I believe they should have some that stops the lines and tells people what row to go to, that way all seats will be filled, and its not so hectic in the Loading area. kind of what X2 or CA Screaming does.

[MrSum1_55]

^^/^

 

I really do wish more people were like the people on these forums. I totally understand how some people really do need access. If you don't like lines, either purchase a Flashpass, arrive early to get in all the credits, or do not arrive. Disney's lax policies are probably due to the fact that people who visit Disney are generally the trustworthy group. However, at SFDK, it does seem like they need to tighten their policies. Also, at other Six Flags parks, I have noticed that when a deluge of priority boarding guests walk up through the exit, they will assign them to the rows with the shortest waits, rather than having them pick the row. Usually, they will go for the front. I think I saw more priority boarders during that one visit than in all my previous ones to both SFMM and visit SFGAdv. Why is it that SF's two largest parks can handle boarding of this type just fine, but SFDK can't?

[acq10uaz]

I can recall a few instances at SFNE with disabled guests. Those times it was a big group and the disabled person would wait at the exit and wait until the rest of the group came - therefore the disabled person was waiting the same amount of time in line. It's sort of like child swap.

[YoshiFan]

Great Adventure never lets people coming up the exit have the front or back row unless there are so many people at the exit it can fill up a whole train (Spring Break 2010, I had a Funatics exit pass and still had to wait 20 minutes for Nitro and a couple of times they let exit pass people take the whole train and I got the last row). They also require a boarding time for anyone with a disability, they have to wait the length of the line just not in the actual line. I saw people getting a ride time last week.

[Andrewoplis]

^^ I've encountered a similar problem with SFDK's seemingly insane amount of "priority boarders". I've complained to the park about them in the past, as they often spam a ride and take the most sought after rows over and over. This happened to me on V2. I had a Platinum Flash pass and still waited 30 minutes for the front row because of priority boarding.

 

I really think they do need to take a look at how they evaluate a person to be "priority" and also not allow them to sit in the sought after rows, unless they wait like the rest of us.

 

/end rant/observation

 

This is very true, this is why I only take the first few rows when there is little to no line for them, because there's a good chance a "priority boarder" will take that seat. But what day did you go when this happened? Because I have there was only one time out of my many visits that I would be willing to spend $70+ on a Platinum Flash pass, the lines never get lone enough.

[MrSum1_55]

^I believe SFDK's problem is its lack of orginization. At GAdv, if enough people came to fill the whole train, the whole train was filled. At SFDK, when enough people came to fill the whole train, they were let in 4-8 at a time. This system sounds better on paper, but it actually is the worse system imaginable, considering they almost always go to the front. On Medusa, the wait for the front row was 45 minutes, and I even had a gold Flashpass. The actual wait was 2:15, so, if you wanted to ride Medusa in the front, you would have to devote 3 hours to one ride.

 

Generally, the worst parks in terms of operations are the hit-or-miss ones. SFDK is always either empty to fairly crowded, usually with no in between. As a result, their systems that do work with few people do not work with more people. Also, from what I have observed, it is actually better to go during the summer months than any other time, since I have noticed the summer crews are significantly better than the off-season crews. On the TPR day, the crews on Roar and Kong were doing awesome, always finishing checking the restraints before the blocks cleared. During the other times I have gone, the ride ops would wait for the trains to stack before even starting to check restraints!

 

I hear a lot of people complain about SFMM's operations. However, their operations are a bowl of cherries compared to SFDK.

[nannerdw]

I really hope they aren't going to sell merchandise with B&M Flyers on it, though knowing Six Flags, they probably will

[Andrewoplis]

^I believe SFDK's problem is its lack of orginization. At GAdv, if enough people came to fill the whole train, the whole train was filled. At SFDK, when enough people came to fill the whole train, they were let in 4-8 at a time. This system sounds better on paper, but it actually is the worse system imaginable, considering they almost always go to the front. On Medusa, the wait for the front row was 45 minutes, and I even had a gold Flashpass. The actual wait was 2:15, so, if you wanted to ride Medusa in the front, you would have to devote 3 hours to one ride.

 

Generally, the worst parks in terms of operations are the hit-or-miss ones. SFDK is always either empty to fairly crowded, usually with no in between. As a result, their systems that do work with few people do not work with more people. Also, from what I have observed, it is actually better to go during the summer months than any other time, since I have noticed the summer crews are significantly better than the off-season crews. On the TPR day, the crews on Roar and Kong were doing awesome, always finishing checking the restraints before the blocks cleared. During the other times I have gone, the ride ops would wait for the trains to stack before even starting to check restraints!

 

I hear a lot of people complain about SFMM's operations. However, their operations are a bowl of cherries compared to SFDK.

 

 

You say that SFDK's operations can be sketchy, but so can SFMM's. Actually, the same goes for every SF park....

[Andrewoplis]

From Screamscape-

 

According to SFDK’s page promoting Holiday In The Park, they list Pandemonium as being open and available for the winter holiday event days. So it sounds like you still have a little longer to get your last rides in on it before it goes to Mexico.

 

It looks like Pandemonium will be open for Holiday in The Park after all!

[SharkTums]

FYI - Premier Rides confirmed Superman will run ONE train.