I remember Six Flags was one of many “cool” things when I was in grade school. I had never visited one until recently. (I did go to this park before Six Flags bought it, when it was Marine World AfricaUSA. It was great!)
I was troubled by all the negative reviews of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my experience was nothing like the reviews. Many, if not most, employees were friendly and enthusiastic, and contrastingly, no employees stood out in a negative way. The people who worked with the animals seemed very knowledgeable and caring – I think people have more of a problem with the fact that there are animals at the park, not with the way they are treated and housed, which seemed at least adequate to me. I took the technical difficulties on several rides as a sign of safety and good maintenance, rather than a lack thereof. Also, although there were ads here and there, the atmosphere did not seem too commercial or money-grabbing to me.
Anyway, I was amazed by my experience. My favorite rides were Medusa and Vertical Velocity. My second/third favorite was ROAR! The scariest was Kong. My least favorite was Tony Hawk’s Big Spin – a weird combo of scary and not-scary/tame. Cobra was very tame, but great for “practice”. I completely missed Boomerang Coast-to-Coaster – I saw no sign of it, strangely and sadly.
The next Six Flags park on my agenda is Magic Mountain! I can’t wait – too bad I have no idea when I can go!