Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (SFDK) Discussion Thread

[SFOverTexasFan]

As far as I know the sports bottles are good at all Six Flags parks. I used my 2012 one at Fiesta, Over Texas, and Over Georgia.

[singemfrc]

Looks like the park was extremely busy today. Glad I decided to wait until at least next week to head down. Anyone here feel like waiting 80 minutes for Kong?

[JRA1959]

Random question - are Six Flags souvenir drink bottles valid at every park, or just the one you buy them from?

 

The cups can be used at any SF park for 2013.... Next year it will change colour and you will need to purchase a new one.

[azza29]

^Thanks. We're visiting five SF parks in the space of a few weeks, so that should help save some money on drinks.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Random question - are Six Flags souvenir drink bottles valid at every park, or just the one you buy them from?

I got my drink bottle at SFGAdv and it just says Six Flags on it. I'm bringing it to the park today so I'll know for sure if we get drinks, but thinking they work for all parks.

 

Also, I've done the dolphin feeding before, and highly recommend it! Unless they've changed the policy (it's been a few years since I did it), there are a limited number of slots and they sell out fast, so you have to buy your tickets ASAP! You come back at a certain time in the afternoon/evening and they explain how it'll work, give you a few little fish, and you basically wait your turn to get less than a minute with the dolphin to feed it, touch it, and take photos... but worth it in my opinion!

 

And @Angry_Gumball: they lead guests around the other side of the pool, there is no touching the dolphins at all from the side closest the path.

 

Going to use my bring a friend free during Spring Break coupon today, hopefully it won't be too crowded or rainy, but oh well! Still worth it!

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Today was my 2nd visit of the season, and I finally got to use one of my bring a friend free coupons that usually end up going to waste every year! It was a win-win situation because we had school off today, and the crowds still weren't too busy.

 

Finally got to experience Roar in the rain! The sky opened up to a perfect amount of rain just as we were in line, and it was awesome! Surprisingly great airtime and less rough....but then my friend had to do this to dry off her soaked socks!

One way to dry your socks

Dolphin Harbor is closed until Cirque Dreams opens, but I was pleased to see Drench! scheduled for 1:00 and 5:00!New signage for ex-Shouka StadiumIt was awesome to watch the dolphins playing in the old whale tank. The tank looks so huge with the dolphins in there rather than the orcas!The stadium looks AMAZING. I don't know if I ever remember seeing it this painted and fresh!

Now, for a barrage of dolphin photos!I really thought this show was great for SFDK, and I hate to say it, because I LOVED the Shouka show and I'll always miss the whales, but I think it was better than the Shouka show. Here's why:

--There were 8 dolphins (count em... 8!) performing. I realize this number will probably drop when the Cirque show opens

--Tons of dolphins = constant action. One side of the audience was getting soaked while the dolphins on the other side were doing tricks while the dolphins in the middle were getting instructions. Something to see on all sides!

--The dolphins did a good job soaking the "wet zone." They usually went at it in twos. The best dolphins were able to soak the entire wet zone while others barely splashed the first row. This meant you that if you were in the wet zone, you had to be constantly on your guard because you never knew if you were going to get splashed or completely soaked.

--The show was really action-packed, and the crowd loved it! The stadium was pretty full and the crowd was constantly reacting positively during the show. I really think SFDK has a hit with this!

 

Next we rode Taz and then VooDoo, and then headed over for some calm butterfly ERTWorst GP moment of the day: Adult guy on Wave Swinger that kept going on and on about how this ride seemed really unsafe and was the scariest ride in the park and "is it over yet?" I was thinking: "Chill... the eff.... out"

My you're looking lovely there!

Me being a dork

New store! I don't really care for the superhero gear, so I like this store better than the one that was there before. This one had a good mix of general Six Flags wear, coaster-related stuff, and superhero stuff.

Formerly the superhero gear store

Anddd... after talking about how much I wanted a Freestyle machine at SFDK like all day... on our way out I noticed signage in the shop to the right of the exit andddd....

 

NEW FREESTYLE MACHINE!! YESSSSS!!! I am DEFINITELY bringing my souvenir cup (which, BTW, I bought at SFGAdv but had no problem using at SFDK) like every time I go now! $1.07 to choose from like a million choices of soda? Yes please!

"OMG THERE'S LIKE CHERRY FLAVORED EVERYTHING!!"

[Angry_Gumball]

Nice update/report! I'd like to check out the Drench show on my next visit, which I assume will be a warm day...where a soaking will be a must. Last time I got soaked was when I was little and visiting Marine World Africa USA...no rides, just animals...and Yakka & Vigga were the star attractions. I remember that we had taken a family trip for my birthday and getting a cold shower of salt water.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Nice update/report! I'd like to check out the Drench show on my next visit, which I assume will be a warm day...where a soaking will be a must. Last time I got soaked was when I was little and visiting Marine World Africa USA...no rides, just animals...and Yakka & Vigga were the star attractions. I remember that we had taken a family trip for my birthday and getting a cold shower of salt water.

Those were the days in that stadium! It worked much better to have two killer whales in there! Then they would both jump and do the same trick at the same time, but Yaka would take one side of the crowd while Vigga the other. Then the wet zone was always guaranteed to be soaked every time!

 

In hindsight, I really don't know how they had two full-grown killer whales (Vigga was smaller like Shouka, but Yaka was pretty big) along with a seperate pool of maybe 5+ dolphins. All the people who said Shouka didn't have enough room in that tank, in there alllll by herself obviously didn't consider 1997/earlier times in that stadium!

 

I'm not sure if this was before in the Redwood location or if it was like this in Vallejo for a bit, but didn't they have 3 killer whales at one point? Like maybe in the 80s. I remember reading about a male named Nepo and a female named Kianu, but Kianu hurt Yaka so they had to get rid of her and that's when they got Vigga.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Okay this is going back a bit, but I was curious and looked up a lot of things about past whales at Marine World. Most of the stuff I read about happened at the Redwood City location.

 

Idk how to confirm this, but I read that the first ever whale to give birth in captivity was a whale named Bonnie at Marine World, who gave birth to a stillborn.

 

There were three whales, but never at the Vallejo location. Here's a link to a photo on flikr of the three at the Redwood location:

www.flickr.com/photos/14696209@N02/8276119282/

 

Thought this photo was cool too!

From SF chronicle with more photos of marine World from the 70s and 80s.

 

Nepo is the whale in the back, and Yaka is in the front. Also, they starred in a movie called "Orca" that was a cheesy, Jaws-like movie where the whale attacks everyone...which I watched just for the first scene footage of Yaka and Nepo playing together.

[Mechanic]

Thanks for that link. The Banana Splits rocked!

[gromithere]

How have the crowds been for spring break? Debating on taking my first trip of the season tomorrow or waiting a bit.

[Swornenemy]

How have the crowds been for spring break? Debating on taking my first trip of the season tomorrow or waiting a bit.

 

I went yesterday. Crowds weren't bad. Roar and kong only running one train so wait on those were horrible. Medusa was 20 minute wait at the most and I didn't wait more than 30 minutes for superman.

[jray21]

Roar with one train is really bad. Hope they get a second one on there soon. I know they just re-did one of the Kong trains. It's looking really nice, but still very painful.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I was just at the park yesterday too. There are a LOT of chilluns, which I think is why the coasters don't have too long of a wait but the flats do. I waited about 45 minutes for Whitewater Safari.

 

I also saw Drench! again at 5pm, and braved the front row of the wet zone! I got pretty darn soaked, but I highly recommend the show! It was a little different than the 1:00 show I saw on Monday, but both were amazing!

[The49er]

NEW FREESTYLE MACHINE!! YESSSSS!!! I am DEFINITELY bringing my souvenir cup (which, BTW, I bought at SFGAdv but had no problem using at SFDK) like every time I go now! $1.07 to choose from like a million choices of soda? Yes please!

[attachment=0]IMG_3871.JPG[/attachment]

 

Where. Is. THAT?!?! I must use it on my trip on May 4th!

 

EDIT: I would also like to know the following:

-Standard waits for SUF

-Bracing strategies for Kong

[Swornenemy]

NEW FREESTYLE MACHINE!! YESSSSS!!! I am DEFINITELY bringing my souvenir cup (which, BTW, I bought at SFGAdv but had no problem using at SFDK) like every time I go now! $1.07 to choose from like a million choices of soda? Yes please!

[attachment=0]IMG_3871.JPG[/attachment]

 

Where. Is. THAT?!?! I must use it on my trip on May 4th!

 

EDIT: I would also like to know the following:

-Standard waits for SUF

-Bracing strategies for Kong

 

Superman's wait depends on when you go, from my experience mon-fri are your best bet. The wait on those days is usually no more than 30 minutes. As for kong, I found that if I forced my head against one side of the harness for the whole ride that I didn't get any head banging.

[The49er]

Unfortunately the trip is planned for the first Saturday of May :/

[JJnCFL]

Was there for a few hours on Friday as it was the last day of Spring Break plus my bring a friend ticket expired so I brought along a friend of mine. The parking lot was near capacity and there was a good sized crowd. Did only 4 rides: Superman, V2, Sky Screamer & Medusa. Superman ops were as fast as ever, the whole bottom queue in between the station & the covered queue was full and took less than 40 min, we were lucky enough to get assigned the front row with my friend screaming the entire time as it was her first time ever on it!

 

Roar was still running run 1 train with the whole queue filled up, didn't bother as it definitely was a 1 1/2-2 hour wait.

 

V2 had no line, though the best moment was the operator announcing out loud "Oh wait, we just loaded a flash pass, they have to wait 1 cycle before they can get on", wish the Medusa Ops got the memo on opening day.

 

Sky Screamer was next with a 5-10 minute wait, the ops were hilarious as a person dropped a hat and then another guest later dropped a shoe and they kept saying "yay thanks for the hat, thanks for the shoe!"

 

Medusa line was short as it was 30 min till closing, only had to wait 20 min for the front instead of the 1+hour during opening day when they kept putting flash pass users constantly in our row without any breaks in between. Overall a nice quick visit!

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

NEW FREESTYLE MACHINE!! YESSSSS!!! I am DEFINITELY bringing my souvenir cup (which, BTW, I bought at SFGAdv but had no problem using at SFDK) like every time I go now! $1.07 to choose from like a million choices of soda? Yes please!

[attachment=0]IMG_3871.JPG[/attachment]

 

Where. Is. THAT?!?! I must use it on my trip on May 4th!

 

EDIT: I would also like to know the following:

-Standard waits for SUF

-Bracing strategies for Kong

If you're walking toward the exit of the park, on the right side there's a shop called Kingdom Market, and attached to that is a candy and fudge shop called Cartoon Candy Kitchen. You'll see a big sign advertising the freestyle machine on the front of the building, and the machine is in the fudge shop toward the back. If there's another freestyle machine at the park, I haven't come across it yet.

 

I generally like to speed walk to S:UF first thing after opening, and the waits have generally been pretty short. Do you have the Six Flags app with the coaster wait times? Maybe check up on it the weekend before your trip.

 

For Kong, I'm partial to the front row (although on a recent trip, the ride op said, "There are no rows on Kong that are less rough...they are all equally rough"). I hold on tight, tense up my shoulders and press into the restraint, and rest my cheek lightly on the side of the OTSR. Also, to me it seems worse when it's colder, so I recommend riding Kong in the heat of the day.

[singemfrc]

Great day at the park today. Weather just overcast enough to keep the lines short, at least in the early part of the day. My gold pass got me some mini ERT as Medusa and Kong opened for gold pass holders about 5 minutes before the park was scheduled to, which allowed me to grab the first train of the day on Medusa and then Kong as well. Ended up riding everything by noon (except V2 which didnt open until about then).

 

Side note on Kong - it was running only one train (same as Kong and Roar, whose second trains were nowhere in sight) which was the yellow train, which normally might make me skip it, but I decided what the hell and for the first time it didn't try to kill me. I thought of a logical way to try and prevent the usual headbanging..just before each turn in the track, I turned my head towards the inside of the turn and put the back of my head against the side of the restraint facing the outside..I thought it worked pretty well as it kinda sorta turned those oversized OTSRs into not-so-comfortable headrests instead of the normal ear-smashers, but I'll have to try it on subsequent rides and other coasters (really curious to see how well it might work on Revolution) and see if its just a fluke.

 

Mini side note on Medusa.. two trains were running, and the third train was sitting in transfer apparently ready for use. It has been years since all three trains have been in once piece. I could be wrong (I forgot to actually look) but I believe one of the trains in use today was the long-in-rehab train 3 as the restraint mechanics felt significantly different than usual (ie they didnt have the usual play).

 

Average wait on S:UF on an average day is about 20-40 minutes. The SUF crews are always on their game and really do a great job dispatching the train quickly. Ive only seen it get over 60-90 mins a couple of times on exceptionally busy days like Key Club day where I think it was over 120. If it's a busy day they will do single riders by having an op come out of the exit and ask for singles to come out of line and get on the current train.

[jray21]

Bracing strategies for Kong

 

When you get to the entrance of the queue, hang on real tight to the railing, then quickly turn around and leave.

[scooterdoug]

Bracing strategies for Kong

 

When you get to the entrance of the queue, hang on real tight to the railing, then quickly turn around and leave.

 

QFT.

[DJeXeL]

ThemeParkOverload

 

New catwalk for S:UF

[The49er]

NEW FREESTYLE MACHINE!! YESSSSS!!! I am DEFINITELY bringing my souvenir cup (which, BTW, I bought at SFGAdv but had no problem using at SFDK) like every time I go now! $1.07 to choose from like a million choices of soda? Yes please!

[attachment=0]IMG_3871.JPG[/attachment]

 

Where. Is. THAT?!?! I must use it on my trip on May 4th!

 

EDIT: I would also like to know the following:

-Standard waits for SUF

-Bracing strategies for Kong

If you're walking toward the exit of the park, on the right side there's a shop called Kingdom Market, and attached to that is a candy and fudge shop called Cartoon Candy Kitchen. You'll see a big sign advertising the freestyle machine on the front of the building, and the machine is in the fudge shop toward the back. If there's another freestyle machine at the park, I haven't come across it yet.

 

I generally like to speed walk to S:UF first thing after opening, and the waits have generally been pretty short. Do you have the Six Flags app with the coaster wait times? Maybe check up on it the weekend before your trip.

 

For Kong, I'm partial to the front row (although on a recent trip, the ride op said, "There are no rows on Kong that are less rough...they are all equally rough"). I hold on tight, tense up my shoulders and press into the restraint, and rest my cheek lightly on the side of the OTSR. Also, to me it seems worse when it's colder, so I recommend riding Kong in the heat of the day.

 

The problems here:

-I can't be there at opening; I'll probably arrive at noon or 1

-I won't have Internet access in the park unless they have free Wi-Fi (which I doubt)

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Thanks for the update singemfrc! Glad to hear that Medusa might get the 3rd train running this year!

 

Bracing strategies for Kong

 

When you get to the entrance of the queue, hang on real tight to the railing, then quickly turn around and leave.

Hahahahha good one

 

The problems here:

-I can't be there at opening; I'll probably arrive at noon or 1

-I won't have Internet access in the park unless they have free Wi-Fi (which I doubt)

I meant you could look up on it the weekend before because it probably won't change too much in one weekend. I don't have a smart phone so I've never used the app and Idk if the park has wifi or not. Or text a friend who can look it up while you're at the park.

 

 

So I don't think it's official yet, but my favorite Christian alt/rock festival says this year they're looking at having the festival at SFDK! The fest posted their plans on Facebook and sent out a newsletter, so my guess is it's fairly solid that it will be at SFDK, just no date yet (probably some time in September). I know some people get turned off at the idea of "Christian" bands, but there are some really good rock bands that you might enjoy even if you're not a Christian. Bands I've seen before at this fest: Switchfoot, Skillet, Thousand Foot Krutch, Relient K, Red, Family Force 5, and a bunch more.