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Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (SFDK) Discussion Thread


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  • 3 weeks later...

I would not be surprised if Sidewinder Safari gets pushed back.

 

We know Jersey Devil is still happening this year due to rapid construction progress. CraZanity at Six Flags Mexico also briefly opened just before the park closed. Everything else is up in the air, potentially including Aquaman at Six Flags Over Texas. I predict that the larger additions (like Jersey Devil and Aquaman) will still happen, but all the small flat rides and water park additions will get pushed back, in addition to Sidewinder Safari. I am very interested to see how all of this plays out...

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Sidewinder Safari page has been taken down from SFDK website and the link leads to a page that says access denied.

 

https://www.sixflags.com/discoverykingdom/newfor2020

 

Six Flags also said today they are cutting 40 to 50 million of discretionary spending. Is Sidewinder Safari getting pushed to 2021?

 

I think this is going to be the first of many capital projects throughout the industry delayed or canceled.

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Seriously though, aren’t the ride pieces already on site? What does it cost to assemble a portable wild mouse—a thousand bucks? Lol

 

Its possible its still a go, but it looks unlikely at this point. I think its more of they want something to market next year when they actually have a season. And supposedly this ride was supposed to have an indoor queue with live snakes around you and under you in the floor, which all sounds very expensive if true.

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My home park Frontier City which did not have a big capitol project. That money was used to renovate, remodel and update infrastructure through out the park. I went on a off season tour every square inch was pretty much getting a makeover in the park. Also OKC has Hurricane Harbor and was getting a Racer slide Wahoo Racer. That construction was going vertical and the slide parts were sitting in the middle of the parking lot. The area of construction is massive so I think they will complete the project. They still have the ride on the water parks website.

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  • 1 month later...

It's been a while since I've surfed these boards, but I wonder if the park will go ahead with the project once they have a clearer picture about what their season is going to look like. SFDK has the benefit of being a year-round operated park so I wonder if we could see a non-standard ride opening (e.g. in winter or early spring) to help encourage people to start coming back to the park? Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but at this point, anything is possible.

 

Also, if any of you are interested in the animals, Captain Lee has been posting some really neat live videos on Facebook. I've seen some with the baby lions and the other day, he shared one from Alligator Isle with them feeding the gators and a GIANT snapping turtle. I always make a point to look at the gators but I don't think I've ever seen that turtle before. It's definitely been cool seeing some of the different views of the enclosures that you don't get as a regular guest.

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  • 1 month later...

Is anyone planning to go to the Marine World Experience? We're going tomorrow. I know the rides won't be operating, but I look forward to being in the park and seeing the animals. I'll also get a good look at the Sidewinder Safari construction.

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... We know Jersey Devil is still happening this year due to rapid construction progress...

 

 

As for SFDK, I’m betting they will hold off on instal and have the coaster be “New for 2021.”

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TRIP REPORT

7/3/20

 

We arrived at the parking lot around 9:40am. There were no cars in front of us or behind us. We noticed a few people walking the path toward the park. We parked and took the shuttle to the front gate. (Note: They are only allowing groups with a disabled person on the shuttles to the park.)

 

What happened next was amazing. We stepped off the bus and walked through a new tunnel/entryway. There were six people in my group and another group behind us, but all of us kept walking. No one stopped for a temperature check. No one stopped for a bag check. It was completely seamless. We all kept walking until we found ourselves in the entry plaza. Next, a park employee scanned our reservation bar code and wished us a great day. Finally, we breezed through the turnstiles with no wait (other than the time it took to scan our passes). We were off the bus and into the park in less than three minutes.

 

We were inside the park just before 10:00am...in time to wait for rope drop. We did most of the shows and animal attractions. Right off the bat, we noticed that the animals were much more active than we have experienced before. The snakes were slithering around, not hiding. The lions were front and center (one was on top of the rocks). The cougars were not hiding, and neither were the wolves. It was nice to get a good look at the animals.

 

They have cleared out the land for Sidewinder Safari and put up a construction fence around the area. They might have even poured some concrete footers. It's hard to tell. Other than that, not much going on. No big surprise.

 

Here are a few of my observations (and some advice if you plan to go).

 

1. Shark Experience is closed, which makes sense because it's indoors.

 

2. Butterfly Habitat is open (according to a park employee), which is surprising since it's also indoors.

 

3. Mobile ordering at the restaurants is (mostly) a hit. It's very easy to do and (most of the time) very fast. We ordered food from four different places and they were all fast. The one exception was Johnny Rockets.

 

4. Johnny Rockets. What is it with this place? I waited about 70 minutes for two shakes. There were at least 30-40 people standing around waiting for their orders and all of them waited at least an hour. Keep in mind that park capacity is about as low as it will ever get. This place is typically slow, but I THOUGHT with mobile ordering and low capacity it would help. It didn't. If anything, it's worse. Normally, I would never wait that long for two shakes, but I had nowhere else to be (the rest of the group was at a show) and I was genuinely curious to see how long it would take. At one point, the park president and another fellow (similarly dressed) walked up to a woman near me and talked to her about an issue with her order. They said they would look into it. They disappeared into the restaurant and I didn't see them again. Bottom line: AVOID JOHNNY ROCKETS

 

5. No food on the bus. Maybe this was always the rule, but they never enforced it. We took our dinner to go and got on the bus. Immediately, the bus driver told us food wasn't allowed on the bus. We tried to explain that we were not going to eat on the bus and that the containers would remain closed. The bus driver was firm (and rude, in my opinion). We got off the bus and walked to the car...and arrived before the bus.

 

6. Show capacity can be an issue. When is the last time you were turned away from a show due to capacity limit? It's only happened to me once in seven years...and that was a very busy Saturday in July at the dolphin show. We were turned away from the tiger show today due to capacity. I think that there are two main reasons for this. The first is (obviously) social distancing. Limited capacity for the shows. The other reason is that everyone is on the same show schedule. Each show is scheduled 30-45 minutes apart with very little overlap. That means that many of the same people go from show to show because there isn't much else to do. Some of the venues have much more capacity than others.

 

7. The games are open. This was a nice break for us in the middle of the day. They clean all of the game equipment (balls, rings, etc.) after each use.

 

8. Food Court. TONS of new table umbrellas! Remember when just a handful of outside tables had shade? Now, nearly all of them do.

 

9. There are areas in the park where you can take a break and remove your mask.

 

10. There's nothing in the parks referencing Marine World or The Marine World Experience. There is one sign outside the park with The Marine World Experience logo. I thought there might be some special event merchandise. I asked several gift shops (including the main one), but there is nothing. No 1980's music in the park or anything else to reference the old park. Think of it as a typical day in the park without rides.

 

11. Everyone was wearing a mask, with the exception of people sitting down to eat. Social distancing was not an issue. The park was very clean and we felt totally safe.

 

I posted some video and photos. I hope its okay to post these links. If not, please remove.

 

https://www.facebook.com/sixflagsroadtrip

https://www.instagram.com/sixflagsroadtrip/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWu05hQ_REo1TUqCDtczt0g

https://www.sixflagsroadtrip.com

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Thanks for a great report. I'm really impressed with Six Flags' use of technology at park entry. With the camera-based temperature checks and the new Evolv bag scanners it's totally frictionless and requires almost no staff interaction. Compared to Seaworld they seem to be taking it really seriously and that message seems to be filtering down to the guests too.

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Great report. I also checked out "The Plan" on your website and I must admit that it looks like it's going to be a blast! Definitely unfortunate that you had to put it off due to COVID-19 but I'm sure it will be worth the wait and I'm eager to see your trip reports.

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Thanks for a great report. I'm really impressed with Six Flags' use of technology at park entry. With the camera-based temperature checks and the new Evolv bag scanners it's totally frictionless and requires almost no staff interaction. Compared to Seaworld they seem to be taking it really seriously and that message seems to be filtering down to the guests too.

 

We are so conditioned to stand in long security lines and jump through all these hoops (empty pockets, metal detectors, bag checks, etc.) that it's become normal. Honestly, when we breezed through security without stopping, it felt very odd. It was nice, but we were like, "Wait, that's it?" I really hope that all major venues (theme parks, sports stadiums, airports, etc.) implement this technology.

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Great report. I also checked out "The Plan" on your website and I must admit that it looks like it's going to be a blast! Definitely unfortunate that you had to put it off due to COVID-19 but I'm sure it will be worth the wait and I'm eager to see your trip reports.

 

Thanks! We cannot wait to hit the road next year and finally visit all the parks. I'm a little worried about the aftermath of COVID-19 and how it has devastated the theme park industry. I hope that Six Flags (and all the theme park companies) can recover and none of the parks will permanently close.

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Any word on how they are doing refillable mugs (if they are doing them at all)?

 

The park is honoring the refillable cups. Implementation varies throughout the park. Some of the restaurants gave us a paper cup with the drink in it. Some of the restaurants actually took our bottles and filled them.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Is parking free? If so, I assume they're not doing the Premium Parking for Diamond Elite.

 

Parking works the same as before. If parking is included in your pass/membership, you're good to go. I would assume that includes premium parking for Diamond Elite, but I cannot say for certain since our membership is only Platinum.

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