I just got monetized and I had to remove a section at the beginning of the video. Sorry for the weird cut after I'm at the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks for watching everyone!
Worked here for my first job when was 16 and again 20 years later in security for a side gig. The problem is its ran by 20-25yos who don't care. Maint and the animal care teams were someone the few trained adults there, and they're so understaffed 20 of the animals died during 2020 alone. It's really a shell of what it used to be.
It was actually called Marine World, and it was originally located in Redwood City, but then they moved to Vallejo. Six Flags purchased in park in the late 90's/early 2000's and changed the name to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
@thatcoasterdudeAndrew It was so much better. They had Popeye's Sea Port in the kids' area, and the big rides were originally themed. I was shocked and sad to see the super hero themes and renames of their rides. I haven't been to the park in years, but your video shows how Six Flags tends to treat their parks as time goes on. They neglect their rides so much, and there's too much down time. When Six Flags recently purchased a water park here in Arizona, the place went downhill so fast and so bad that I don't even try to go to the water park anymore. They seem like a company that kills theme parks.
They even had water ski shows at the Redwood City location 1972 when I was in 6th grade. Nesbit Elementary. I got to ride an elephant, the actual animal, and I petted a cheetah that growled at me. The handlers said “hey your not supposed to actually touch her”. Ah, the good old days. No coasters at all. The Six Flags in Vallejo ? You are spot on, it sucks. I took the family there a couple of time. Once in 1987, I remember at the the killer whale show, little “Vika” the baby Orca, was not having it. Then went again in 1995 with 3 kids, it’s just nasty 🤮
It was also called MarineWorld Africa USA before the move. They had an elephant on skis! Vallejo location is right next to Lake Chabot. And they used to have water ski shows there too.
This used to be my local park. Far from the worst park, but definitely one of the most frustrating examples of Six Flags buying a park with a solid infrastructure and slowly turning it into a concrete jungle of carnie trash?
I had a membership for several years and barely got to ride V2 bc its always down. And not just down for hours, down for weeks at a time. It has potential to be a descent park if they fixed V2 replaced Kong with either a launch or Raptor, added another bar, and a flat ride. You can tell Six Flags doesn't care about this park.
You would think that the proximity to the Bay Area alone would make this park worth investing in, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. Replacing Kong with something like HangTime at Knott’s would be a great addition and not take up too much space.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew part of it and why Great America is closing is cus no one can afford to pay for parking, tickets and gas just to go. Vallejo's already and small city, and (as far as i know) there isn't any good bus connections from the ferry for people to get on from Jack London, San Rafael, or SF. there isn't any rail connections. but again, NO ONE CAN AFFORD TO GO. California's to expensive for smaller theme parks now that most residents are just gonna save for Disney and Universal and call it a day. yes, if six flags invested more into the park and updated, things would look better for them, but if no one can pay the ticket price or even have the means to get to the gates, why bother?
This park seems to have a major maintenance problem and a huge operations problem. Too bad this is the norm for Six Flags but seems especially bad here
I’ve talked to many people that have these same thoughts. It’s a shame that the quality of Six Flags parks have declined because they have some solid coaster lineups.
Hey Andrew, this is the guy who was formally in the American coaster enthusiast who was on Lydia‘s live the other day as bear just wanted to say thank you for visiting Six Flags, discovery Kingdom, and giving your honest opinion. I haven’t been there yet, since it was transformed into the amusement park, but I may take a second look at going there and probably not visit it anyway enjoy the video and again congratulations on the new home and enjoyed the live the other evening with you and Lydia and the cats take care and keep on coasting
This place has gone downhill. Back before all the coasters, it was called Marine World. Lots of animals, watershows, etc. Like a fun zoo. Now the place is a fraction of what it was. The newer coasters never work, and the Kong actually caused me to have to visit my doctor days later for head/neck pain. It bounced my head around like a pinball.
Luckily someone warned me about Kong years ago, so I avoided it. I already have arthritis in my neck and getting my head slammed around would be the worst thing for it.
@@KrayzieCDno one wants change we all just want things refreshed, painted and looking new again. Last time I was there parts of the park were overgrown w weeds, paint chipping off buildings, it wasn’t a nice place to visit. Go visit Silver Dollar City or Dollywood and you’ll instantly see how little money is being spent w Six Flags parks.
This park used to be great but has really gone down the tubes in the last decade. They used to have a whole Thomas The Train themed area and we took our kids there and they loved it. I'm a big coaster fan and it makes me sad to see it. I'm honestly done with Six Flags in general. Six flags doesn't give a rip about customer service. Their business model is to close rides and run fewer trains any time crowds are not near capacity, so you're stuck with long lines, no matter what. Also, I purchased my Magic Mountain tickets online and accidentally purchased a second parking pass, which I didn't need. After making several phone calls and literally give the runaround, it was clear that I was never going to get a refund for a parking spot that I would never use. It's hard to believe that a company worth billions of dollars could care so little about their customers. It's clear to me now why they've been in the verge of bankruptcy for so long. I'm done with them.
It’s a shame because they have some really good coaster lineups and some very good park locations. They’ve been surpassed by well run parks and don’t feel the need in invest heavily because they know people will still show up. I will be interested to see what the next 10-20 years look like for them.
The wife and I used to be season pass holders for Discovery Kingdom, we stopped going because the operation of the park is terrible. The food service is actually terrible, the people working at the restaurants are working in slow motion very irritating. One thing we noticed, on a slow day the park is actually great, when the park gets crowded, they just can't handle it correctly. 🤨
Man when you said your first coaster of the day was Batman I started screaming NO GO RIDE FLASH IF ITS OPEN!!! Joker often goes up and down but never usually takes too long, Flash is just limping along and will likely be removed any day now. It sat dormant for nearly 3 years!
It seems like it would be a good investment to build something more reliable but I feel like this park is slightly neglected by Six Flags, like it’s not their priority.
This park’s problems are immense and mostly operational. It used to be better back in the day, but the constant ride closures and breakdowns have become intolerable.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew Oh, definitely! SFDK is such great looking park on the outside, and inside, but the operations are terrible. Worse than SFDK in that regard is Six Flags Magic Mountain. I remember the days when SFMM and Disneyland were at each other's throats in competition to be the better park. Now, it's no contest due to SFMM's horrific park operations and its atmosphere similar to an abandoned theme park.
this is my home park!!! it's not the greatest, especially compared to other coaster parks in california, but its not all terrible lol. it sucks that you had such a bad day there, hopefully if youre ever back, its better than this time was!!
For me I went there 2 weeks ago for Columbus day and.. IT WAS THE BEST DAY I'VE EVER BEEN THERE. First of all this was a weekday and second, I GOT TO RIDE JOKER 4 TIMES!!!! The Operations there were great and most of the rides there were just a station wait. Joker seem to be doing the best for its operations as it only took 20 to 30 minutes to get on and sometimes a station wait. Joker was running 2 trains on a monday. Superman Ultimate flight was also doing good and was surprisingly doing a station wait despite it has terrible capacity. Even their spinning wild mouse took only 30 minutes compared to its usual wait time of 1 hour. Unforuntnety Flash was closed as well as their boomerang. Also this is unrelated but the ops at kong were making fun of it lol. In total i got to do 13 Rides (most being the Coaster) and got to ride all of the Coasters that were operating. The staff were kind. Batman seemed the odd one out and had its usual wait and i only got 1 spin on it. It went down in my rankings. As a local whos homepark is discorvey kingdom have never expericened a trip just like that. I feel so sorry that you had one of the worst days at this six flags park.
I didn’t realize it was the first Sky Rocket 2! Good fact to know thanks. Even though I know Kong wouldn’t be much fun, I still like to do every ride at least once for the credit.
Another fun fact. Vertucal Velocity was origanally built as a standard intamin impulse, vertical twist and taller vertical back spike, even had the holding brake until they got caught for having a ride taller than their height limit. It only operated this way on its opening year,...2000?
Moreover it's literally custom built for the old plot there of Zonga and Pandemonium. It's a tight spot so they made this and the SR2 was born. It's the only one to have the triangle tower because of the clearances.
@@AmusementLabs with zonga being thriller it was quite interesting and it shut down as it wasn’t really permanent so in 2011 that was the year the SR2 was born
Just found your channel. Great video, and got a new subscriber. Will start looking up others now. Try to hit Indiana Beach sometime, especially if they get Triple Loop running. Its honestly one of my ATF parks. 7 roller coasters doesn't found like a lot til you realize it's only 10 acres.
You didn't miss anything with Kong. For the first three years of its life, it was called Hangman and resided at the long-defunct Opryland theme park in Nashville, TN. It was rough even then. If you've ridden a Vekoma SLC, you've essentially ridden Kong. Nothing to see here!
(Taking a deep breath) Well, if my 6 Flags membership didn't get me into Magic Mtn, I'd gave dropped it long ago. In my last EIGHT visits to 6FDK, I was able to ride The Joker on 1 of them. I actually haven't seen The Flash V2 operating in years. Kong is an SLC, nuff said. The one time I rode Sidewinder Safari, they were literally operating with an actual hourly capacity of 103; 2 vehicles that were taking 4.5 minutes each to completely do a circuit. I love The Joker; wish I could ride it. If there's a park with worse operations, I'm not visiting it.
So it seems that my experience in not unusual. The problem is they have a decent coaster lineup but they are rarely all working at the same time so you never know if you can get everything.
I love this kind of Six Flags. Me and my Besty have been here a bunch of times together. I love the cobra ride the sidewinder and the little tube water ride ride. It is so cool. I love it. I would give it a five star rating. But boomerang is always closed when I go there due to injuries I think
What you said about wonder woman being the tallest ride was false! It is only 147 feet and Superman and Medusa are both 150. Wonder Woman is the fastest though!
The ride operators specifically mentioned that it was the tallest ride in the park, but maybe they just say that for fun, I was just going off what they said
Look at them, I tiger or Lion enclosed in such a small place when he should be running free. They don't even take good care of them, some staff from the park said a lot of animals die cause they are unstaffed...
Been riding Medusa for 20 years, and it isn't rough to me. Kong is very rough, though. Flash is ALWAYS closed, so you got LUCKY. The park runs single cars often is why wait times suck. But its all we have in The Bay Area so we have no other options than Great America and Santa Cruz....
Just went here. I waited over 2h for Medusa, a B&M floorless that should be able to have way higher capacity then it did. Flash, Kong, and Boomerang were closed but I got an infield tour of Flash bc I was at the Coaster Con 46 event. So amazing! As an Intamin fangirl, that made my day. The operations were so slow but the ride operators were definitely friendly and funny:). I got on most of the major rides at least once and then got my kiddy credits during ERT and also rode Joker again 1x, Superman 4x in a row, and Medusa 4x in a row getting LROT on Medusa. It was a fun day, but this park could definitely be improved. Still fun, tho!
Sounds like you had relatively good luck then. I just think the problem is probably understaffing and cutting capacity on rides to save money. Makes for a poor experience most of the time though
I enjoyed Six Flags as a kid. Because of the Looney Tunes "theme", although they don't really use those characters anymore. I also enjoyed the DC characters. As a young adult, I just enjoyed the rides & mostly time with friends. During those times in life...I lacked money. But now that I know the value of a dollar, I find it hard to throw away money on garbage. I know it takes money to make money, and money doesn't grow on trees...But, people are always looking for a value. Since, Six Flags is not really a theme park, but an amusement park...They should focus on the themed properties they do have...Why can't Duck Dodgers go head to head with Buzz Lightyear? It takes time to build wealth, so take that time to satisfy customers. Then invest that wealth into the park accordingly. Why can't there be character meet & greets, while people are waiting on line for a ride? It would give people something else to wait for, & hopefully make them feel like they are getting more value for their money. Kids don't care if a six-foot rabbit is dressed as Superman to appear as if he is also withing to ride Thr Superman ride also...lol. I know, that will cost money...another employee/actor and so on. But, people will notice the time & care you put into customer satisfaction...and they will keep coming back.
In the 70's "Adventures Inn" Flushing Queens NY...was seriously dangerous. But every kid wanted to have a birthday party there. I went to few, the rides were rusty, shaking and a test of bravery. The oval Go-Karts track always had a line, and you breathed exhaust. The sound was deafening, the "detangle crashes" guy was an artist. Hitching rides and jumping for car to car, going at least 25mph. Might not sound like much, but the enclosed board track, was lumpy and short...like a mini "Bristol"
Went to the park in April. Superman, Flash, Boomerang, And Kong were closed. But it was very fun. For this specific park, the ultimate flash pass is highly recommended by me because it’s useful. Joker became one of my favorite coasters and the whole park is amazing. The only breakdown i experienced in line was cobra. I was there for about 4 hours and i got about 9 rides in. So pretty good.
Oh man oh man , I just watched more of the video. Yes ur right discovery kingdom is so bad. I went with my girlfriend and we waited 1:20 min for the joker and wonderwoman 50minutes. Those are the only 2 rides we went on the whole day and we got a refund the next day and went to great America with the money instead .
Just watched this whole video, I can 100% agree with all you said about this park. This is also one of the worst parks i've been to. I first visited in June 2021 and it was not great, as half of the park was closed like Medusa, Kong, Superman, etc. And I only rode 3 coasters that day in 4 hours. Then I did a redemption visit 2 1/2 years later in December 2023, it was actually kinda worse. Not only Superman, Kong, and a few others never opened, but the experience was worse. Operations were terrible, staff weren't that friendly (especially at Joker, definitely the rudest), food was not good, no shows, and half of the park closed. And we tried using flash pass for Joker and it kept declining for us, which was no fun. The only good part of the park were the animals. The lineup is decent, but not the greatest. If you want a better park, highly recommended going south and visit California's Great America instead. Overall great video 👍
Recently I went on a 8th grade trip(may 24 2024)to this park and went on 2 rides in the 7 hours I was there. Me and my friend waited in line for Medusa for an hour and then it broke down and we were told that it's gonna take a long time to be running again. We then got free flash passes and went to joker. We then went back to Medusa and waited 3 hours for it because they were running one train 🙃. We then ate and then we had to leave. I can say that was my worst experience at a theme park. If you've been here recently you can see the flash and boomerangs trains aren't on the track but if u look to ur right on jokers brakes u can see boomerangs trains just being stored.
I moved to Vallejo from San Francisco about nine years ago in 2015. Before moving out of the city, I HAD gone to Marine World/Discovery Kingdom several times, BUT, I only became a Season Pass member when I moved up to Vallejo. TOTALLY worth it, EXCEPT for the food. 🤮 I also ❤ it for the Animals.
They have a huss breakdance thats fun.... That's it... if the rides are not closed because of weather... yeah total waste and parking...ohhhh boy ha ha ha what a joke
Worst one I’ve been to is Six Flags America outside of Washington DC. Between the layout of the park, lack of shade, the food, and the staff, definitely the worst one I’ve been to
Just yesterday , I was there , I was unfortunately able to do 3 attractions , due to ride delays , closures and malfunctions . while Joker's only lasted 10-15 minutes , I'm a little disappointed by yesterday's outcome .
huh, i went there 2 weeks ago for Columbus day and.. IT WAS THE BEST DAY I'VE EVER BEEN THERE. First of all this was a weekday and second, I GOT TO RIDE JOKER 4 TIMES!!!! The Operations there were great and most of the rides there were just a station wait. Joker seem to be doing the best for its operations as it only took 20 to 30 minutes to get on and sometimes a station wait. Joker was running 2 trains on a monday. Superman Ultimate flight was also doing good and was surprisingly doing a station wait despite it has terrible capacity. Even their spinning wild mouse took only 30 minutes compared to its usual wait time of 1 hour. Unforuntnety Flash was closed as well as their boomerang. Also this is unrelated but the ops at kong were making fun of it lol. In total i got to do 13 Rides (most being the Coaster) and got to ride all of the Coasters that were operating. The staff were kind. Batman seemed the odd one out and had its usual wait and i only got 1 spin on it. It went down in my rankings. As a local whos homepark is discorvey kingdom have never expericened a trip just like that. I feel so sorry that you had one of the worst days at this six flags park.
I have been going since it was called Marine World and I always have a great time my fav Rides are Superman, Boomerang, VooDoo, Medusa, I could ride the all days
literally only looked at the thumbnail and said "Vallejo? Yep that's Vallejo" My great-grandfather used to live on the other side of the freeway from there, so to me, if i can't recognize this park, something must have drastically changed. But yeah, Marine World was always fun as a kid.
I dont hate SFOG so much now. Everything you said was literally like looking into a mirror and seeing my reflection. Rides closed or just break down. LONG LIKE TOO LONG QUE. Catwoman whip too an hour and thats a mid ASF flat ride. The flash pass is too expensive without the pass so your just forced to wait sadly. Great video man
I was actually thinking that as I was waiting in line. I don’t know the exact number but probably like 40 people. Some of these older family coasters have crazy long trains.
Bro your so lucky. I went here yesterday. Boomerang, Wonder Woman, kong, and flash were all closed. The park was so packed too that the waits got up to 3 hours for Medusa and joker. I ended up getting on 1 RIDE! 😭
Well, if there is any takeaway from your well done video, I'm glad they are approved by the AZA for their zoo element. Yes, the Ops there have always been questionable, and there is no way the waits should be that long, and way too many breakdowns. From what I hear, you are lucky that KONG was down all day; I heard it is absolutely horrible(from Employees as well) and a total head banger. I passed on it, even though it was running about 5 years ago. I wanted the Credit, but not the concussion.
It's surprising to hear how rough Medussa is. I went to this park a lot in middle school and rode it when it was new. I remember it being so smooth. Kong, on the other hand, was so rough and awful. I'm surprised Kong hasn't been destroyed. It was like a discount Top Gun
Some of the B&M coasters built in the early 2000s have gotten a bit rough lately but Kong and the other Vekoma SLCs have always been rough, I agree with tearing that down!
Live pretty close, and have gone to discovery kingdom atleast 50 times by now. My experiences with the park vary extremely differently every single time. From amazing and transcending to wishing I was dead. For just nostalgic reasons alone, it’s awesome to me. I love the rides, Medusa and joker especially, and getting to see the animals if I have the time. Like many say however, the maintenance and handling are so inconsistent. I have the patient of a saint, and waited 3+ hrs to get on Superman. My group was the last people waiting. The ride had malnfucntioned near the end, so they gave my group a free pass for any ride. That was awesome. What triggered me though was that another group who just went into the line much after us, and didn’t wait, ALSO got a free pass, just for entering the line, not for actually waiting. That was extremely triggering. Prices, obviously, are gonna always be expensive. That’s fair. But I’ve gone to a Halloween event, and there was a singular haunted house where you had to pay for the experience. Because it sounded interesting, my friend and I both payed to go inside. I kid you not the walk was less than 30 seconds in the dark. We both payed 10$ for that. Bruh. One thing that makes me sad is how the animals don’t get recognized enough. Like. It’s discovery kingdom. It’s basically a zoo. But I feel like anytime I go to that side of the park, no one’s really batting an eye at them. Makes me a lil sad how they go under appreciated. Many small exhibits and kiddy things have been changed over the years, and it makes me a lil sad. Overall, it is a fun place if everything goes according to plan. Most things are like that. But when things aren’t working right, it REALLY doesn’t work right. Some expeiorences are 11/10, and some can be 3/10. My average placement would be: 6.5/10.
I just went for my first time and the operations were not that bad but....Flash, Superman, Kong, and Boomerang...closed! Joker and Batman were rlly good tho.
@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I've ridden Steel Vengeance, Iron Gwazi,Twisted Timbers,Wildcats Revenge,Storm runner, and Goliath all on Saturdays and never once waited that long. You are probably right about the operations at that park.
Operations has been an issue at D.K. For year’s along with down rides mainly Kong and Vertical Velocity. The Joker always has one train running so the lines are over an hour everyday.
I flew specificly from Seattle to Southern California to go to Magic Mountian. It was just as bad. A slow Saturday, but they were only running one car, and that's if the coaster was running at all. The maintenance was HORRIBLE! Waited for 30 minutes in line for lunch and got to the front to only find out the BBQ restaurant was already out of food? It's Saturday, at lunchtime!!!! I ONLY GOT TO RIDE FOUR COASTERS ALL DAY!!!! WHAT A JOKE! SIX FLAGS NEEDS TO PUT SOME MONEY INTO THEIR EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE OR GO BANKRUPT!!!
Oh man! Waiting an hour to get on a ride and then get told to get off because it's broken down!! That must be so frustrating. Aza accredited zoo was a nice touch. Even if there were only 2 sharks 🤣
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew 🤣 those lines would drive me crazy and all us British do is que!!! At what point is an aquarium so small they should just call it a fish tank 🤔
Thanks for your video. I live closest to Six Flags in Jackson, NJ. I have only visited there twice and one of those trips was due to getting a free pass. However I was really disappointed with their operations both times. Most rides especially the coasters were at least an hour wait time. The food was also so so and priced high. The only good thing was all the rides were running. I have visited one other Six Flags park and experienced about the same wait times. Lucky for me I live in Pennsylvania and we have many relatively good operating parks. Kneoble’s which is about a three hour drive is my favorite. Free parking, free admission and usually a choice of paying one price or buying tickets to get on the attractions. Their food is excellent and not over priced. Even on one holiday weekend the longest wait time to ride their premier wooden coaster the Phoenix was only about 15 minutes. They were running two trains and their crew knows how to get the passengers on and off so that’s most likely why the wait time was so good. They have a good variety of rides both exciting and family friendly and feature many unique older rides that they are expert at maintaining so there seldom is a breakdown. So if you can get to this park to see an overall great running park.
Well, it's not false advertising. YOU might have a "big belly", and it looks like it will remain that way after you consume their cardboard "burger". 😅
I just had my first day here last week. I had a very similar experience. I had flash pass platinum so I was able to ride a bunch but 3 creds were down all day. NOTHING opened on time. Literally 1hr in and Superman was the only operating ride. No flats were open. Everything constantly broke down and I even got stuck on TWO rides. Joker for 25min, and Superman for 15min. Hours were also super bad so I didn't have time to check out the animal exhibits. By the time the rides opened hours were noon to 6. I didn't eat as most food places were closed so the ones that were open had 1hr waits. Hands down the worst six flags park and one of the worst parks I've been to.
This park is not what it used to be. I went a couple weeks ago and not joking most of the thrilling rides were closed the WHOLE day. Medusa, flash, kong, joker, boomerang, and half of the day Superman was closed down as well leaving only wonder women and Batman which was fricking ridiculous. They need to invest more into this park otherwise it’s not worth it to go and a complete head ache.
If you're a coaster enthusiast at a park you've never been to and maybe won't ever get back to, faced with 1.75hr wait times, what are you literally doing not getting a Flash Pass?
Marine World which is the name was never meant to be a big park. It was animal-based with zoo exhibits and performances. Six flags bought it in the 2000s and started building like crazy.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I agree. Us that live here always wondered why there. But, for decades now they've been talking about buying the fairgrounds across the street and expanding. I totally think they should and can have a monorail, overpass or/and skyride to transport across.
I honestly think that this is a downgraded version of SFOG lol. Unlike SFDK who is known to have horrible operations all the time , SFOG has been improving a lot on that. They even have one of the best B&M hypers created in their coaster lineup and new coaster called the Georgia Surfer coming this summer. Other than that, it’s unfortunate that DK can’t have a hyper cuz of the strict 150ft limit
My family and I went to Discovery Kingdom June 19th and June 21st. AMAZING environment. OK food. HORRID operations. One train on Joker. One train on Medusa. Flash Vertical Velocity is down for the season. Boomerang was down both days all day. Kong was down both days all day. They staggered the opening of different coasters both days (which stinks on week days when the park is open for a total of 7 hours). Saturday the 21st Medusa was down half the day. It took 2 AND A HALF HOURS to get on Medusa. Overall I am exceptionally disappointed with Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and it's going to be hard for me to overlook these two days (plus one HORRIBLE day at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor) to spend even one more dime with Six Flags. BTW... the shows were maybe 10 minutes each... there was a total of only three of them... bottom line... Six Flags obviously doesn't give a DAMN about their customers experiences... it's all about the cash baby... a money grab like none other. HOW could they not be running multiple trains on the coasters that support them? Absolutely horrid operations and management should be fired yesterday. 😒
As the park I visit the most due to location, I understand the frustration you had to experience and unfortunately it is not uncommon. The flash ride is almost impossible to get on. They tested it, said it was good for me to ride, I got on the first ride, and said it broke down. Joker, Batman, Wonder woman also break down a lot, leaving lines for other rides to be longer and it can be very frustrating. You kind of have to see it testing and go over to the ride. This is very annoying due to most of the thrill rides being on opposite ends of the park. So if you see it testing you could have to walk like a half mile and it might not even open. I think it was just a bad time when you went due to little staffing, I went during this time and had a similar experience but went not too long ago and most rides were operational for the majority of the day. The park is a very good time when everything operates but normally 1-3 thrill rides aren't in operation and it is a drag if you don't go multiple days for a better chance to get on every ride. I don't think it's the ride operators fault just because of the frequency in which rides close but I could be wrong. Also due to being short staffed, some rides just won't be in operation that day. I'm sorry your first experience was so bad and I have had a few visits like this and sympathize. I hope you do go on another visit and have a better experience as some of the rides you missed out on are the best in the park.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I hope so. It always sucks to have a bad experience at a park, especially if it is your first impression. It took me about 4 visits to get to ride vertical velocity, which was the coaster I was most excited about. If you do go again someday, from one coaster lover to another, I genuinely hope it is a much better experience.
We wasted money on season passes never again. Everytime we went at least one of the main coasters were down (usually more than one) we waited in line for a ride that broke down after we had already waited well over 2 hours we were close and then it broke and they didn’t get it back up. Then we were in Batman at the end of the night one night and they closed it on us before we got to ride. Then the icee cup was bs, we used to 2 times the whole season and one of the days which was the last straw, they cut off the machines hours before the park closed and we were In line and happened to be the only Latinos in line, the line went through the whole maze, for some reason the worker said sorry we’re closed after these people…we were at the end of the line and had one cup. The food was crap and expensive. customer service is non existent and if you go to guest services they treat you like crap and could care less about any issues. The response from one of the workers in guest services was that’s not my problem you need to go talk to them (the worker) about it… We will never go back there
I find that a lot of the Six Flags parks have bad operations. Even here in San Antonio at Six Flags fiesta Texas which many regard is the best Six Flags park in the chain for its theming, it often haa three or four major rides down at the same time just like your experienced at Discovery Kingdom.
Unfortunately a Six Flags theme it seems. I’ve had similar experiences at Magic Mountain. I remember going to Great America in Gurnee many times as a kid and I don’t remember rides being down as often. Six Flags has really neglected properly investing back in to their parks outside of just adding new attractions.
What a shame that you ran into so many issues. Vertical Velocity and Kong always have issues. Idk about it being a “terrible park”. I love the place. They have came a long way from Marineworld
i went there as a kid in the 2000s. it was definitely more popular. but it’s in the worst location now. Vallejo. Has more crime than Oakland. It isn’t safe to go there now.
So this park was always a "struggle park in Six Flags chain. Even worst, this park was one of the parks that their staffing was slashed resulting in mantanice problems across the board. This was all before the merger of course. Hopefully it can be turned around. And oh yea the waite times on the apps in general. I found that all parks apps for predictable waite times are always skewed. They are never accurate because half of them don't account for fast pass volume. I see this with Hersheypark alot that their fast pass messes with the waite times extremely.
I went like 2 weeks ago. It was such a let down. 1/2 the roller coasters were not working. Cost more to park than to walk in. Just so over priced for what it is or isn’t.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I wouldn’t recommend it, a lot of their animals are not in the best of conditions. You should look up what happened to Billy :(
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I hope so because we really need good theme parks in the Bay Area. I’m so jealous of Southern California for having all the awesome theme parks.
I just got monetized and I had to remove a section at the beginning of the video. Sorry for the weird cut after I'm at the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks for watching everyone!
Worked here for my first job when was 16 and again 20 years later in security for a side gig. The problem is its ran by 20-25yos who don't care. Maint and the animal care teams were someone the few trained adults there, and they're so understaffed 20 of the animals died during 2020 alone. It's really a shell of what it used to be.
Very sad. Lots of potential being wasted.
Yes it is run by alot of young people
It was actually called Marine World, and it was originally located in Redwood City, but then they moved to Vallejo. Six Flags purchased in park in the late 90's/early 2000's and changed the name to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
I wish I could have visited when it was still Marine World.
@thatcoasterdudeAndrew
It was so much better. They had Popeye's Sea Port in the kids' area, and the big rides were originally themed. I was shocked and sad to see the super hero themes and renames of their rides. I haven't been to the park in years, but your video shows how Six Flags tends to treat their parks as time goes on. They neglect their rides so much, and there's too much down time.
When Six Flags recently purchased a water park here in Arizona, the place went downhill so fast and so bad that I don't even try to go to the water park anymore. They seem like a company that kills theme parks.
They even had water ski shows at the Redwood City location 1972 when I was in 6th grade. Nesbit Elementary. I got to ride an elephant, the actual animal, and I petted a cheetah that growled at me. The handlers said “hey your not supposed to actually touch her”. Ah, the good old days. No coasters at all. The Six Flags in Vallejo ? You are spot on, it sucks. I took the family there a couple of time. Once in 1987, I remember at the the killer whale show, little “Vika” the baby Orca, was not having it. Then went again in 1995 with 3 kids, it’s just nasty 🤮
Yup and it will always be Marine World
It was also called MarineWorld Africa USA before the move.
They had an elephant on skis!
Vallejo location is right next to Lake Chabot. And they used to have water ski shows there too.
This used to be my local park. Far from the worst park, but definitely one of the most frustrating examples of Six Flags buying a park with a solid infrastructure and slowly turning it into a concrete jungle of carnie trash?
You have a good point. I’ve got many parks to visit still so we will see where it stacks up.
I had a membership for several years and barely got to ride V2 bc its always down. And not just down for hours, down for weeks at a time. It has potential to be a descent park if they fixed V2 replaced Kong with either a launch or Raptor, added another bar, and a flat ride. You can tell Six Flags doesn't care about this park.
You would think that the proximity to the Bay Area alone would make this park worth investing in, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. Replacing Kong with something like HangTime at Knott’s would be a great addition and not take up too much space.
38.7
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew part of it and why Great America is closing is cus no one can afford to pay for parking, tickets and gas just to go. Vallejo's already and small city, and (as far as i know) there isn't any good bus connections from the ferry for people to get on from Jack London, San Rafael, or SF. there isn't any rail connections. but again, NO ONE CAN AFFORD TO GO. California's to expensive for smaller theme parks now that most residents are just gonna save for Disney and Universal and call it a day.
yes, if six flags invested more into the park and updated, things would look better for them, but if no one can pay the ticket price or even have the means to get to the gates, why bother?
@@Yvonne-Bella a good observation. Definitely a factor.
This park seems to have a major maintenance problem and a huge operations problem. Too bad this is the norm for Six Flags but seems especially bad here
I’ve talked to many people that have these same thoughts. It’s a shame that the quality of Six Flags parks have declined because they have some solid coaster lineups.
Six Flags can't keep their rides going.
This Park Has The Worst Operations Of Any Six Flags Park
That's being generous, it's horrible 😮
Welcome to the hood 🤣🤣
Hey Andrew, this is the guy who was formally in the American coaster enthusiast who was on Lydia‘s live the other day as bear just wanted to say thank you for visiting Six Flags, discovery Kingdom, and giving your honest opinion. I haven’t been there yet, since it was transformed into the amusement park, but I may take a second look at going there and probably not visit it anyway enjoy the video and again congratulations on the new home and enjoyed the live the other evening with you and Lydia and the cats take care and keep on coasting
Thank you for the support! Much appreciated
This place has gone downhill. Back before all the coasters, it was called Marine World. Lots of animals, watershows, etc. Like a fun zoo. Now the place is a fraction of what it was. The newer coasters never work, and the Kong actually caused me to have to visit my doctor days later for head/neck pain. It bounced my head around like a pinball.
Kong is an SLC roller coaster model, which are know to be very rough! I wish I could have visited years ago when it was still called Marine World.
Luckily someone warned me about Kong years ago, so I avoided it. I already have arthritis in my neck and getting my head slammed around would be the worst thing for it.
Marine World Africa USA! I still remember the commercials
Worst amusement park is Michigan's Adventure. Discovery Kingdom doesnt suck that bad. The Joker when operating is a good coaster
Funny enough, MA was my home park growing up in Michigan. I’ve been there a ton of times. It’s really not too bad to me if you consider what it is.
The horrible state of some of the rides in this park is unreal. Maybe the new Cedar Fair deal announced today will bring positive change.
I am really hoping these Six Flags parks will see some improvements now
Bro this is my home park don’t change it
@@KrayzieCDno one wants change we all just want things refreshed, painted and looking new again. Last time I was there parts of the park were overgrown w weeds, paint chipping off buildings, it wasn’t a nice place to visit. Go visit Silver Dollar City or Dollywood and you’ll instantly see how little money is being spent w Six Flags parks.
This park used to be great but has really gone down the tubes in the last decade. They used to have a whole Thomas The Train themed area and we took our kids there and they loved it. I'm a big coaster fan and it makes me sad to see it. I'm honestly done with Six Flags in general. Six flags doesn't give a rip about customer service. Their business model is to close rides and run fewer trains any time crowds are not near capacity, so you're stuck with long lines, no matter what. Also, I purchased my Magic Mountain tickets online and accidentally purchased a second parking pass, which I didn't need. After making several phone calls and literally give the runaround, it was clear that I was never going to get a refund for a parking spot that I would never use. It's hard to believe that a company worth billions of dollars could care so little about their customers. It's clear to me now why they've been in the verge of bankruptcy for so long. I'm done with them.
It’s a shame because they have some really good coaster lineups and some very good park locations. They’ve been surpassed by well run parks and don’t feel the need in invest heavily because they know people will still show up. I will be interested to see what the next 10-20 years look like for them.
The wife and I used to be season pass holders for Discovery Kingdom, we stopped going because the operation of the park is terrible. The food service is actually terrible, the people working at the restaurants are working in slow motion very irritating. One thing we noticed, on a slow day the park is actually great, when the park gets crowded, they just can't handle it correctly. 🤨
I would be interested to visit on a slower day to compare. I went on a Saturday in August so obviously that’s going to be a peak time.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrewhave to go during fall
There are a ton of spiders over one of the food stands🤢
@@Lily-b4x Are you sure, this is pretty serious claim. Pictures would be a good thing.
The things you have to go through for your subscribers!! Thanks Andrew! Hope you have better amusement park experiences to come!!
It can only get better I guess 😂
Man when you said your first coaster of the day was Batman I started screaming NO GO RIDE FLASH IF ITS OPEN!!! Joker often goes up and down but never usually takes too long, Flash is just limping along and will likely be removed any day now. It sat dormant for nearly 3 years!
It seems like it would be a good investment to build something more reliable but I feel like this park is slightly neglected by Six Flags, like it’s not their priority.
Great shots, great information, reasonably critical, makes me wanna go ride a roller coaster. Keep grinding kid, you’ve got the goods.
Appreciate it! I’ve got so many places to visit and roller coasters to ride. The future is exciting.
This park’s problems are immense and mostly operational. It used to be better back in the day, but the constant ride closures and breakdowns have become intolerable.
That’s why it’s frustrating. You can see the potential for a decent park if Six Flags cared enough.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew Oh, definitely! SFDK is such great looking park on the outside, and inside, but the operations are terrible. Worse than SFDK in that regard is Six Flags Magic Mountain. I remember the days when SFMM and Disneyland were at each other's throats in competition to be the better park. Now, it's no contest due to SFMM's horrific park operations and its atmosphere similar to an abandoned theme park.
I bet you never even been there
@@ChaviBeanerI’ve been to SFDK at least six times from 1998 to 2022.
@@biederland4926 god dam
this is my home park!!! it's not the greatest, especially compared to other coaster parks in california, but its not all terrible lol. it sucks that you had such a bad day there, hopefully if youre ever back, its better than this time was!!
Hopefully they can change some things and get better! I root for the success of every park.
For me I went there 2 weeks ago for Columbus day and.. IT WAS THE BEST DAY I'VE EVER BEEN THERE. First of all this was a weekday and second, I GOT TO RIDE JOKER 4 TIMES!!!! The Operations there were great and most of the rides there were just a station wait. Joker seem to be doing the best for its operations as it only took 20 to 30 minutes to get on and sometimes a station wait. Joker was running 2 trains on a monday. Superman Ultimate flight was also doing good and was surprisingly doing a station wait despite it has terrible capacity. Even their spinning wild mouse took only 30 minutes compared to its usual wait time of 1 hour. Unforuntnety Flash was closed as well as their boomerang. Also this is unrelated but the ops at kong were making fun of it lol. In total i got to do 13 Rides (most being the Coaster) and got to ride all of the Coasters that were operating. The staff were kind. Batman seemed the odd one out and had its usual wait and i only got 1 spin on it. It went down in my rankings. As a local whos homepark is discorvey kingdom have never expericened a trip just like that. I feel so sorry that you had one of the worst days at this six flags park.
I’ll have to try on a weekday sometime and see if it’s better. I’m glad you had a good experience!
21:01 perfectly cut screams
Fun fact Superman man was actually the first sky rocket 2 to ever exist and don’t ride Kong it’s not worth it 🤕
I didn’t realize it was the first Sky Rocket 2! Good fact to know thanks. Even though I know Kong wouldn’t be much fun, I still like to do every ride at least once for the credit.
Another fun fact. Vertucal Velocity was origanally built as a standard intamin impulse, vertical twist and taller vertical back spike, even had the holding brake until they got caught for having a ride taller than their height limit. It only operated this way on its opening year,...2000?
@@joshfreund6008it still exists at valley fair and the brake still works
Moreover it's literally custom built for the old plot there of Zonga and Pandemonium. It's a tight spot so they made this and the SR2 was born. It's the only one to have the triangle tower because of the clearances.
@@AmusementLabs with zonga being thriller it was quite interesting and it shut down as it wasn’t really permanent so in 2011 that was the year the SR2 was born
Just found your channel. Great video, and got a new subscriber. Will start looking up others now. Try to hit Indiana Beach sometime, especially if they get Triple Loop running. Its honestly one of my ATF parks. 7 roller coasters doesn't found like a lot til you realize it's only 10 acres.
Thanks for watching! Indiana Beach is on my list for sure! I’ll get there, can’t wait.
You didn't miss anything with Kong. For the first three years of its life, it was called Hangman and resided at the long-defunct Opryland theme park in Nashville, TN. It was rough even then. If you've ridden a Vekoma SLC, you've essentially ridden Kong. Nothing to see here!
I know how bad they are, but it’s worth at least one ride for me so see how it compares to the other SLCs I’ve been on
(Taking a deep breath)
Well, if my 6 Flags membership didn't get me into Magic Mtn, I'd gave dropped it long ago. In my last EIGHT visits to 6FDK, I was able to ride The Joker on 1 of them. I actually haven't seen The Flash V2 operating in years. Kong is an SLC, nuff said. The one time I rode Sidewinder Safari, they were literally operating with an actual hourly capacity of 103; 2 vehicles that were taking 4.5 minutes each to completely do a circuit.
I love The Joker; wish I could ride it. If there's a park with worse operations, I'm not visiting it.
So it seems that my experience in not unusual. The problem is they have a decent coaster lineup but they are rarely all working at the same time so you never know if you can get everything.
extremely underrated!
good stuff man
Thanks for watching! 🙏
Calling Madusa "rough" is insane
Different for everyone 🤷♂️
I've been riding Medusa since it was built and I've never had a bad ride on it.
I got headbanging
Madusa is no way close to being “rough.” lol one of the smoothest roller coasters I’ve ever road. Kong is the definition of “rough” 😂
@@FilmWithoutReason congrats on knowing how to spell
A Great America employee warned me about the Operations at discovery kingdom knowing they are bad, so he's like roasting the park
🤣 My experience at Great America was definitely better but still has room for improvement
I love this kind of Six Flags. Me and my Besty have been here a bunch of times together. I love the cobra ride the sidewinder and the little tube water ride ride. It is so cool. I love it. I would give it a five star rating. But boomerang is always closed when I go there due to injuries I think
I’m glad you’ve had some good experiences here!
What you said about wonder woman being the tallest ride was false! It is only 147 feet and Superman and Medusa are both 150. Wonder Woman is the fastest though!
The ride operators specifically mentioned that it was the tallest ride in the park, but maybe they just say that for fun, I was just going off what they said
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I think they did that for me too.
I didn’t know that Six Flags was AZA accredited! 🙌 I would go just to see those baby animals.
They were pretty cute!
Me too 🙌
Look at them, I tiger or Lion enclosed in such a small place when he should be running free. They don't even take good care of them, some staff from the park said a lot of animals die cause they are unstaffed...
Been riding Medusa for 20 years, and it isn't rough to me. Kong is very rough, though. Flash is ALWAYS closed, so you got LUCKY. The park runs single cars often is why wait times suck. But its all we have in The Bay Area so we have no other options than Great America and Santa Cruz....
I am hoping that eventually there can be some good changes here but I guess we shall see
Just went here. I waited over 2h for Medusa, a B&M floorless that should be able to have way higher capacity then it did. Flash, Kong, and Boomerang were closed but I got an infield tour of Flash bc I was at the Coaster Con 46 event. So amazing! As an Intamin fangirl, that made my day.
The operations were so slow but the ride operators were definitely friendly and funny:).
I got on most of the major rides at least once and then got my kiddy credits during ERT and also rode Joker again 1x, Superman 4x in a row, and Medusa 4x in a row getting LROT on Medusa. It was a fun day, but this park could definitely be improved. Still fun, tho!
Sounds like you had relatively good luck then. I just think the problem is probably understaffing and cutting capacity on rides to save money. Makes for a poor experience most of the time though
I went on a day where the lines wete short, like 5 mins
@@xabban16b you got lucky then!
I enjoyed Six Flags as a kid. Because of the Looney Tunes "theme", although they don't really use those characters anymore. I also enjoyed the DC characters. As a young adult, I just enjoyed the rides & mostly time with friends. During those times in life...I lacked money. But now that I know the value of a dollar, I find it hard to throw away money on garbage. I know it takes money to make money, and money doesn't grow on trees...But, people are always looking for a value. Since, Six Flags is not really a theme park, but an amusement park...They should focus on the themed properties they do have...Why can't Duck Dodgers go head to head with Buzz Lightyear? It takes time to build wealth, so take that time to satisfy customers. Then invest that wealth into the park accordingly. Why can't there be character meet & greets, while people are waiting on line for a ride? It would give people something else to wait for, & hopefully make them feel like they are getting more value for their money. Kids don't care if a six-foot rabbit is dressed as Superman to appear as if he is also withing to ride Thr Superman ride also...lol. I know, that will cost money...another employee/actor and so on. But, people will notice the time & care you put into customer satisfaction...and they will keep coming back.
I agree completely. I wish Six Flags would invest more into guest experience. Could make a big difference.
In the 70's "Adventures Inn" Flushing Queens NY...was seriously dangerous. But every kid wanted to have a birthday party there. I went to few, the rides were rusty, shaking and a test of bravery. The oval Go-Karts track always had a line, and you breathed exhaust. The sound was deafening, the "detangle crashes" guy was an artist. Hitching rides and jumping for car to car, going at least 25mph. Might not sound like much, but the enclosed board track, was lumpy and short...like a mini "Bristol"
Every park has its own charms! Sounds like there’s a reason it’s not open still 😂
Went to the park in April. Superman, Flash, Boomerang, And Kong were closed. But it was very fun. For this specific park, the ultimate flash pass is highly recommended by me because it’s useful. Joker became one of my favorite coasters and the whole park is amazing. The only breakdown i experienced in line was cobra. I was there for about 4 hours and i got about 9 rides in. So pretty good.
That’s a pretty solid day I would say
Is this a mirror-match of the track of the B&M floorless at SFGAdv New Jersey? 18:05
Different layouts for these two rides but similar
I only do know that at SFGAdv is the first of its kind.
The mirror match of bizzaro is Scream at Six flags magic mountain
Oh man oh man , I just watched more of the video. Yes ur right discovery kingdom is so bad. I went with my girlfriend and we waited 1:20 min for the joker and wonderwoman 50minutes. Those are the only 2 rides we went on the whole day and we got a refund the next day and went to great America with the money instead .
Every ride here could be like a 30 min wait if things were run properly. It’s so frustrating!
Just watched this whole video, I can 100% agree with all you said about this park. This is also one of the worst parks i've been to. I first visited in June 2021 and it was not great, as half of the park was closed like Medusa, Kong, Superman, etc. And I only rode 3 coasters that day in 4 hours. Then I did a redemption visit 2 1/2 years later in December 2023, it was actually kinda worse. Not only Superman, Kong, and a few others never opened, but the experience was worse. Operations were terrible, staff weren't that friendly (especially at Joker, definitely the rudest), food was not good, no shows, and half of the park closed. And we tried using flash pass for Joker and it kept declining for us, which was no fun. The only good part of the park were the animals. The lineup is decent, but not the greatest. If you want a better park, highly recommended going south and visit California's Great America instead. Overall great video 👍
Thanks for watching! I do have a video on Great America, definitely had a better experience there
Recently I went on a 8th grade trip(may 24 2024)to this park and went on 2 rides in the 7 hours I was there. Me and my friend waited in line for Medusa for an hour and then it broke down and we were told that it's gonna take a long time to be running again. We then got free flash passes and went to joker. We then went back to Medusa and waited 3 hours for it because they were running one train 🙃. We then ate and then we had to leave. I can say that was my worst experience at a theme park. If you've been here recently you can see the flash and boomerangs trains aren't on the track but if u look to ur right on jokers brakes u can see boomerangs trains just being stored.
Your experience seems to be the norm for this park!
Very entertaining and fun to watch. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for watching!
I moved to Vallejo from San Francisco about nine years ago in 2015.
Before moving out of the city, I HAD gone to Marine World/Discovery Kingdom several times, BUT, I only became a Season Pass member when I moved up to Vallejo. TOTALLY worth it, EXCEPT for the food. 🤮
I also ❤ it for the Animals.
The food is definitely not great
Obviously you have never been to Elich Gardens, aka the worst park in America!
Second comment I’ve gotten about Elitch Gardens 🤔 Looks like I need to make a visit so I can compare.
They have a huss breakdance thats fun....
That's it... if the rides are not closed because of weather... yeah total waste and parking...ohhhh boy ha ha ha what a joke
@@billchief397no the best ride there is the shuttle loop thing. That drop is insane when you are backwards!!
@chuck4714 ah I suppose...it was closed when I was there...mind bender wasnt...ouch
I've been places such as western playland
I love your videos Andrew. Keep em' coming!!
Thank you for the support!
When you don’t build the maintenance shed in RC Tycoon….
😂😂 need to hire more mechanics!
Worst one I’ve been to is Six Flags America outside of Washington DC. Between the layout of the park, lack of shade, the food, and the staff, definitely the worst one I’ve been to
I have a video on that park as well. I enjoyed Six Flags America more but that isn’t saying much 🤣
Just yesterday , I was there , I was unfortunately able to do 3 attractions , due to ride delays , closures and malfunctions . while Joker's only lasted 10-15 minutes , I'm a little disappointed by yesterday's outcome .
This seems to be the norm with this park unfortunately
huh, i went there 2 weeks ago for Columbus day and.. IT WAS THE BEST DAY I'VE EVER BEEN THERE. First of all this was a weekday and second, I GOT TO RIDE JOKER 4 TIMES!!!! The Operations there were great and most of the rides there were just a station wait. Joker seem to be doing the best for its operations as it only took 20 to 30 minutes to get on and sometimes a station wait. Joker was running 2 trains on a monday. Superman Ultimate flight was also doing good and was surprisingly doing a station wait despite it has terrible capacity. Even their spinning wild mouse took only 30 minutes compared to its usual wait time of 1 hour. Unforuntnety Flash was closed as well as their boomerang. Also this is unrelated but the ops at kong were making fun of it lol. In total i got to do 13 Rides (most being the Coaster) and got to ride all of the Coasters that were operating. The staff were kind. Batman seemed the odd one out and had its usual wait and i only got 1 spin on it. It went down in my rankings. As a local whos homepark is discorvey kingdom have never expericened a trip just like that. I feel so sorry that you had one of the worst days at this six flags park.
@@NitoriTheKappaLeader eh , I've experienced the same in 2018 and 2019
I have been going since it was called Marine World and I always have a great time my fav Rides are Superman, Boomerang, VooDoo, Medusa, I could ride the all days
19:40 I think they got new trains for Scream, like they did Batman. It was super smooth last time I road, really good.
Good to hear
literally only looked at the thumbnail and said "Vallejo? Yep that's Vallejo" My great-grandfather used to live on the other side of the freeway from there, so to me, if i can't recognize this park, something must have drastically changed.
But yeah, Marine World was always fun as a kid.
I really hope they can make some changes, has the potential to be a nice park.
I dont hate SFOG so much now. Everything you said was literally like looking into a mirror and seeing my reflection. Rides closed or just break down. LONG LIKE TOO LONG QUE. Catwoman whip too an hour and thats a mid ASF flat ride. The flash pass is too expensive without the pass so your just forced to wait sadly. Great video man
Thanks for watching! Flash Pash would be amazing to have for these six flags parks but it’s so expensive I can’t afford it 😭
This is one of my favorite parks, not too much, but not too little. Plus, all the animals and one ride called the Boomerang is an experience.
It’s definitely an experience 😆
8:27 How many people does that thing hold? I KNOW its a weird thing to notice but dang it caught my eye.
I was actually thinking that as I was waiting in line. I don’t know the exact number but probably like 40 people. Some of these older family coasters have crazy long trains.
Bro your so lucky. I went here yesterday. Boomerang, Wonder Woman, kong, and flash were all closed. The park was so packed too that the waits got up to 3 hours for Medusa and joker. I ended up getting on 1 RIDE! 😭
I titled my video the way I did for a reason! Man I feel bad for you. This place needs to be bought by someone who cares
Love the videos! Are you planning to go to knotts soon? It's my hometown park.
I am hoping to get to Knott’s this winter or spring!
@thatcoasterdudeAndrew perfect! Xcelerator should be back up open by then, and maybe even MonteZOOMa's Revenge
Well, if there is any takeaway from your well done video, I'm glad they are approved by the AZA for their zoo element. Yes, the Ops there have always been questionable, and there is no way the waits should be that long, and way too many breakdowns. From what I hear, you are lucky that KONG was down all day; I heard it is absolutely horrible(from Employees as well) and a total head banger. I passed on it, even though it was running about 5 years ago. I wanted the Credit, but not the concussion.
I’ve been on SLCs before. I know Kong is a terrible roller coaster, but I want at least 1 ride on every coaster I can get to!
It's surprising to hear how rough Medussa is. I went to this park a lot in middle school and rode it when it was new. I remember it being so smooth. Kong, on the other hand, was so rough and awful. I'm surprised Kong hasn't been destroyed. It was like a discount Top Gun
Some of the B&M coasters built in the early 2000s have gotten a bit rough lately but Kong and the other Vekoma SLCs have always been rough, I agree with tearing that down!
The irony the Batman ride is almost identical to the Joker ride in Six flags in Texas
It’s a clone! Same exact ride. Six Flags likes to do that at their parks.
Live pretty close, and have gone to discovery kingdom atleast 50 times by now. My experiences with the park vary extremely differently every single time. From amazing and transcending to wishing I was dead. For just nostalgic reasons alone, it’s awesome to me. I love the rides, Medusa and joker especially, and getting to see the animals if I have the time. Like many say however, the maintenance and handling are so inconsistent. I have the patient of a saint, and waited 3+ hrs to get on Superman. My group was the last people waiting. The ride had malnfucntioned near the end, so they gave my group a free pass for any ride. That was awesome. What triggered me though was that another group who just went into the line much after us, and didn’t wait, ALSO got a free pass, just for entering the line, not for actually waiting. That was extremely triggering. Prices, obviously, are gonna always be expensive. That’s fair. But I’ve gone to a Halloween event, and there was a singular haunted house where you had to pay for the experience. Because it sounded interesting, my friend and I both payed to go inside. I kid you not the walk was less than 30 seconds in the dark. We both payed 10$ for that. Bruh. One thing that makes me sad is how the animals don’t get recognized enough. Like. It’s discovery kingdom. It’s basically a zoo. But I feel like anytime I go to that side of the park, no one’s really batting an eye at them. Makes me a lil sad how they go under appreciated. Many small exhibits and kiddy things have been changed over the years, and it makes me a lil sad. Overall, it is a fun place if everything goes according to plan. Most things are like that. But when things aren’t working right, it REALLY doesn’t work right. Some expeiorences are 11/10, and some can be 3/10. My average placement would be: 6.5/10.
I have only been here the one time, but I wish someone could make this place run better
I just went for my first time and the operations were not that bad but....Flash, Superman, Kong, and Boomerang...closed! Joker and Batman were rlly good tho.
They can’t seem to ever get all their rides running at the same time unfortunately
The park has actually gotten a little better in terms of reliability this year
I hope that’s true!
Yeah I have actually noticed that. Except every single coaster has only been running on only 1 train all season
Golden gate is always foggy 😂
Thought I might get lucky 😂
I'm sorry, 1 hour 45 minutes for joker? I love rmc but that's a joke
It was literally the slowest line of all time 😤
@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I've ridden Steel Vengeance, Iron Gwazi,Twisted Timbers,Wildcats Revenge,Storm runner, and Goliath all on Saturdays and never once waited that long. You are probably right about the operations at that park.
I got sad when I saw the thumbnail cause I new right away it was my park
There’s potential here but unfortunately it’s just run so poorly 🤷♂️
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew yeah I agree
Operations has been an issue at D.K. For year’s along with down rides mainly Kong and Vertical Velocity. The Joker always has one train running so the lines are over an hour everyday.
Seems like it would be better to replace these rides with something more reliable
Great video Andrew! I can't believe the wait times were so long for the amount of people in the park!
Rumor has SFGA is getting a new ride next year🤫
I haven’t been to SFGA in years! Need to get back.
I flew specificly from Seattle to Southern California to go to Magic Mountian. It was just as bad. A slow Saturday, but they were only running one car, and that's if the coaster was running at all. The maintenance was HORRIBLE! Waited for 30 minutes in line for lunch and got to the front to only find out the BBQ restaurant was already out of food? It's Saturday, at lunchtime!!!! I ONLY GOT TO RIDE FOUR COASTERS ALL DAY!!!! WHAT A JOKE! SIX FLAGS NEEDS TO PUT SOME MONEY INTO THEIR EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE OR GO BANKRUPT!!!
Your experience is unfortunately pretty common. It’s unfortunate how these parks are run currently.
Oh man! Waiting an hour to get on a ride and then get told to get off because it's broken down!! That must be so frustrating. Aza accredited zoo was a nice touch. Even if there were only 2 sharks 🤣
Those lines were starting to make me go crazy 😂 and the the sharks were underwhelming considering I used to work at an aquarium!
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew 🤣 those lines would drive me crazy and all us British do is que!!! At what point is an aquarium so small they should just call it a fish tank 🤔
Thanks for your video. I live closest to Six Flags in Jackson, NJ. I have only visited there twice and one of those trips was due to getting a free pass. However I was really disappointed with their operations both times. Most rides especially the coasters were at least an hour wait time. The food was also so so and priced high. The only good thing was all the rides were running. I have visited one other Six Flags park and experienced about the same wait times. Lucky for me I live in Pennsylvania and we have many relatively good operating parks. Kneoble’s which is about a three hour drive is my favorite. Free parking, free admission and usually a choice of paying one price or buying tickets to get on the attractions. Their food is excellent and not over priced. Even on one holiday weekend the longest wait time to ride their premier wooden coaster the Phoenix was only about 15 minutes. They were running two trains and their crew knows how to get the passengers on and off so that’s most likely why the wait time was so good. They have a good variety of rides both exciting and family friendly and feature many unique older rides that they are expert at maintaining so there seldom is a breakdown. So if you can get to this park to see an overall great running park.
I plan on visiting, I’ve heard great things about that park!
I was hopeful Big Belly Burger was good, the name is great, certainly looked like a dud! Six Flags needs to step it up across the board!
Six Flags has some great parks, they are just not managed well at all! I hope some things change.
Well, it's not false advertising. YOU might have a "big belly", and it looks like it will remain that way after you consume their cardboard "burger". 😅
If I was younger... I'd try to work at RMC. They are just up the road! :)
Now that would be a cool job!
I hate when the day goes bad like this. It’s so frustrating.
You get them sometimes! Comes with visiting so many parks. Just gotta hope the next visit is better.
They were cursed the minute Ryan the Ride Mechanic left the park
Is there mechanic lore I need to know about?
I just had my first day here last week. I had a very similar experience. I had flash pass platinum so I was able to ride a bunch but 3 creds were down all day. NOTHING opened on time. Literally 1hr in and Superman was the only operating ride. No flats were open. Everything constantly broke down and I even got stuck on TWO rides. Joker for 25min, and Superman for 15min. Hours were also super bad so I didn't have time to check out the animal exhibits. By the time the rides opened hours were noon to 6. I didn't eat as most food places were closed so the ones that were open had 1hr waits. Hands down the worst six flags park and one of the worst parks I've been to.
Oh ya and normal waits were 60-90min with everything on 1 train so RIP to people with no flash pass.
That’s what I’m saying! It could be a great park but ownership seems to really not care unfortunately
This park is not what it used to be. I went a couple weeks ago and not joking most of the thrilling rides were closed the WHOLE day. Medusa, flash, kong, joker, boomerang, and half of the day Superman was closed down as well leaving only wonder women and Batman which was fricking ridiculous. They need to invest more into this park otherwise it’s not worth it to go and a complete head ache.
I completely agree!
If you're a coaster enthusiast at a park you've never been to and maybe won't ever get back to, faced with 1.75hr wait times, what are you literally doing not getting a Flash Pass?
It’s expensive to travel to all these parks. I’m not at a point where I can afford that. Gotta save where I can.
Marine World which is the name was never meant to be a big park. It was animal-based with zoo exhibits and performances. Six flags bought it in the 2000s and started building like crazy.
It shows too. Should have been a more gradual build-up with better plans
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I agree. Us that live here always wondered why there. But, for decades now they've been talking about buying the fairgrounds across the street and expanding. I totally think they should and can have a monorail, overpass or/and skyride to transport across.
There is nothing like the anticipation for your first freespin coaster, until you ride it and realize how much of a pile of feces they are..... 😆🤣😂
Not exactly as good as I was hoping 😂
Closed rides sounds just like cedar point. Flipping terrible visits there this season.
Sorry to hear that, I went to Cedar Point as a kid many times and seemed to always have a good experience
Went to CP in August, everything was open, rode everything we wanted to and a few marathons
lol slipped in that cobra there
I honestly think that this is a downgraded version of SFOG lol. Unlike SFDK who is known to have horrible operations all the time , SFOG has been improving a lot on that. They even have one of the best B&M hypers created in their coaster lineup and new coaster called the Georgia Surfer coming this summer. Other than that, it’s unfortunate that DK can’t have a hyper cuz of the strict 150ft limit
They could really use a taller standout coaster, really holds them back in think
When it had the Roar ride, it was in its prime.
Wish I could have gotten a ride on it before it changed but The Joker is a great coaster.
My family and I went to Discovery Kingdom June 19th and June 21st. AMAZING environment. OK food. HORRID operations. One train on Joker. One train on Medusa. Flash Vertical Velocity is down for the season. Boomerang was down both days all day. Kong was down both days all day. They staggered the opening of different coasters both days (which stinks on week days when the park is open for a total of 7 hours). Saturday the 21st Medusa was down half the day. It took 2 AND A HALF HOURS to get on Medusa. Overall I am exceptionally disappointed with Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and it's going to be hard for me to overlook these two days (plus one HORRIBLE day at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor) to spend even one more dime with Six Flags. BTW... the shows were maybe 10 minutes each... there was a total of only three of them... bottom line... Six Flags obviously doesn't give a DAMN about their customers experiences... it's all about the cash baby... a money grab like none other. HOW could they not be running multiple trains on the coasters that support them? Absolutely horrid operations and management should be fired yesterday. 😒
I agree with all of this! This park is run like a joke as far as I’ve seen
As the park I visit the most due to location, I understand the frustration you had to experience and unfortunately it is not uncommon. The flash ride is almost impossible to get on. They tested it, said it was good for me to ride, I got on the first ride, and said it broke down. Joker, Batman, Wonder woman also break down a lot, leaving lines for other rides to be longer and it can be very frustrating. You kind of have to see it testing and go over to the ride. This is very annoying due to most of the thrill rides being on opposite ends of the park. So if you see it testing you could have to walk like a half mile and it might not even open. I think it was just a bad time when you went due to little staffing, I went during this time and had a similar experience but went not too long ago and most rides were operational for the majority of the day. The park is a very good time when everything operates but normally 1-3 thrill rides aren't in operation and it is a drag if you don't go multiple days for a better chance to get on every ride. I don't think it's the ride operators fault just because of the frequency in which rides close but I could be wrong. Also due to being short staffed, some rides just won't be in operation that day. I'm sorry your first experience was so bad and I have had a few visits like this and sympathize. I hope you do go on another visit and have a better experience as some of the rides you missed out on are the best in the park.
Maybe someday I’ll get a better time when I return!
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I hope so. It always sucks to have a bad experience at a park, especially if it is your first impression. It took me about 4 visits to get to ride vertical velocity, which was the coaster I was most excited about. If you do go again someday, from one coaster lover to another, I genuinely hope it is a much better experience.
To wait 60 minutes for a boomerang is mind boggling. The 90 minute waits aren’t close to worth it either.. people in California are bizarre.
It was pretty crazy!
We wasted money on season passes never again. Everytime we went at least one of the main coasters were down (usually more than one) we waited in line for a ride that broke down after we had already waited well over 2 hours we were close and then it broke and they didn’t get it back up. Then we were in Batman at the end of the night one night and they closed it on us before we got to ride.
Then the icee cup was bs, we used to 2 times the whole season and one of the days which was the last straw, they cut off the machines hours before the park closed and we were In line and happened to be the only Latinos in line, the line went through the whole maze, for some reason the worker said sorry we’re closed after these people…we were at the end of the line and had one cup. The food was crap and expensive.
customer service is non existent and if you go to guest services they treat you like crap and could care less about any issues. The response from one of the workers in guest services was that’s not my problem you need to go talk to them (the worker) about it…
We will never go back there
A truly awful management system here. Unfortunate.
I find that a lot of the Six Flags parks have bad operations. Even here in San Antonio at Six Flags fiesta Texas which many regard is the best Six Flags park in the chain for its theming, it often haa three or four major rides down at the same time just like your experienced at Discovery Kingdom.
Unfortunately a Six Flags theme it seems. I’ve had similar experiences at Magic Mountain. I remember going to Great America in Gurnee many times as a kid and I don’t remember rides being down as often. Six Flags has really neglected properly investing back in to their parks outside of just adding new attractions.
DUDE!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO DISCOVERY KINGDOME???????????
Hopefully some changes can be made.
Six Flags St. Louis was pretty bad, so was Michigan’s Adventure
I’ve not made my way to St. Louis yet but I’ve been to Michigan’s Adventure many times. It was almost never busy so I usually had a good time.
What a shame that you ran into so many issues. Vertical Velocity and Kong always have issues. Idk about it being a “terrible park”. I love the place. They have came a long way from Marineworld
Maybe I’ll get a better visit in the future. I hope so. I want every park to succeed!
i went there as a kid in the 2000s. it was definitely more popular.
but it’s in the worst location now. Vallejo. Has more crime than Oakland. It isn’t safe to go there now.
That’s disappointing!
I live there, never heard a single gunshot
So this park was always a "struggle park in Six Flags chain. Even worst, this park was one of the parks that their staffing was slashed resulting in mantanice problems across the board. This was all before the merger of course. Hopefully it can be turned around. And oh yea the waite times on the apps in general. I found that all parks apps for predictable waite times are always skewed. They are never accurate because half of them don't account for fast pass volume. I see this with Hersheypark alot that their fast pass messes with the waite times extremely.
I really hope for the best. We shall see!
Is the fright fest there good at least?
I’ve only been to the park the one time in this video, so I haven’t actually been there during Fright Fest
Fright fest is definitely lit there!!Especially if you dont mind seeing fistfights between the local high schoolers 😂
Rides and free entertainment!
I was at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH and back to back rollercoasters broke down us. Steel Vengeance and Maverick
It happens at every park, I just always hope it doesn’t affect the day too much, you never know
I went like 2 weeks ago. It was such a let down. 1/2 the roller coasters were not working. Cost more to park than to walk in. Just so over priced for what it is or isn’t.
I swear they have one mechanic in staff
i really like your content! keep it up!
Thanks for the support 🙏 I appreciate it!
Six Flags America: “First time?”
I’ll be there next week 😳
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew Good luck! I love the park all things considered. Just make sure to come in with tailored expectations.
Los Angeles zoo is AZA accredited and they have the Billy the elephant case.
I haven’t made it to the LA zoo yet. Need to go.
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I wouldn’t recommend it, a lot of their animals are not in the best of conditions. You should look up what happened to Billy :(
Tried going a couple months ago, ended up being on a marine only day so all the rides were closed, so I've got that going for me.
Oh man that’s crazy
With Great America closing, this will be the only theme park in the Bay Area ☹️
But it looks like Cedar Fair and Six Flags just announced a merger. Maybe then can relocate some rides here and improve this park!
Sierra sidewinder is at Knotts berry farm in Buena Park That one is named sidewinder Safari
I may have gotten the names confused my bad
The Joker ride seems to always break down. I was super pissed! Quality has definitely gone down at that park over the years 😢
Has the potential to be a really solid park if they could improve some operating issues!
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrew I hope so because we really need good theme parks in the Bay Area. I’m so jealous of Southern California for having all the awesome theme parks.
California’s Great America is a nice park, but obviously it’s scheduled to close eventually, so I see what you are saying
@@thatcoasterdudeAndrewThe closure’s still a bit up in the air.