Don't bother with Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo

[NVDisMom]

Its not worth the money. My DH and I remember it from when we were younger...in Redwood City and Vallejo...with fond memories. We were there four years ago for my DD's 6th bday. Had a blast. Decided to take her again for her 10th bday. They will never see us again. My list of complaints are endless; amazingly rude guests, more grab your money schemes than rides, the cost of food/drink is REDICULOUS, and almost all day only two coasters were going. One that is 48" wasn't open at all. I understand a ride or two down for maintanence or whatever...we see it at Disney all the time...but this was well beyond that. Even the animal displays were disappointing...except the sharks and walrus/ I don't believe they have changed at all. Very disappointing

 

[mrs.beast]

wow so sorry. we had a great time last week. we went in a large group (me, hubby, ds6,dd4, dd2, sis, mom, dad, bil, nephew2) and loved it. all rides were up except some boat in the baby area. food was WAY overpriced and pretty nasty, but that was only complaint. the animals were great. much better than the zoo, and my son loved the sharks. the babies loved the dolphin pool where you can feed them (did not do it) and we loved riding the coasters (medusa is by far the best ever! )
we go to Gilroy Gardens and Great America all the time (we have passes) and all felt that there were more rides than those places and my DS6 said the the wooden rollercoaster (Roar) was much better than the coasters at the other 2 places (out of all the ones he can ride-tall 50 inches)
we loved it so much, we might get passes next year. even my dad, who compares everything to Disney, said it was pretty good (huge compliment.)

so funny because i had logged on this board to post a thread about how much we loved it.

 

[NVDisMom]

Go figure. Completely different experiences one week to the next.

It was me, Dh, DD8 and DD10. We did Roar and enjoyed it, the kiddie parts were just a little too kiddie for my girls. I think that is where some of the problems came. The elephants and camels weren't there. Never did see any big cats, escept one out front. A young cougar. I thought my DD10 was gonna deck a few of those kids! She had absolutely had it with being ushed, run over, and hit. Its not like it was that busy and she is normally very quiet, take everything as it comes...calm down Mom...type person. We spent about 15 minutes comparing to Disney and decided it was not a good idea to continue on that course. It really would have bummed our whole day.

I'm happy to know that it isn't always that bad.

Still, I couldn't believe $13.99 per meal for the slop I saw, or $9.49 for a funnel cake. No more complaining about DL food prices. It made BB look reasonable for what you get.

 

[mrs.beast]

wow so different, except the food. the food was just disgusting. the food had been set out forever it seemed, and was just way too expensive. we had a large variety of food, burritos, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, pork sandwiches, etc and it was not worth the money at all. i would highly recommend bringing your own food if you go. we also could not find any fruit or veggies, thank goodness we brought grapes and carrots. ** also forgot to add that they were out of all sorts of food-ben and jerry's cookie dough, garlic fries-and none of the places had condiments.
when we were there all the animals were out. we have great video of the elephants under water with just their trunks out and the cats were all over (one even peed on my mom ) we saw tons of animals and the dolphins were actually playing with the babies.
we compared the wooden coaster to the one at Great America and boardwalk and thought it was better. too bad you could not ride the others. the medusa was truly amazing. the first drop is scary. my sister wouldn't do it again. our nanny said it was the best coaster ever.
guess is just depends on when you go. when we went is was unusually crowed for a weekday. a couple of the workers said they were understaffed for the crowds, but the only place it showed was in waiting in line to get food.

 

[DLR29]

Its not worth the money. My DH and I remember it from when we were younger...in Redwood City and Vallejo...with fond memories. We were there four years ago for my DD's 6th bday. Had a blast. Decided to take her again for her 10th bday. They will never see us again. My list of complaints are endless; amazingly rude guests, more grab your money schemes than rides, the cost of food/drink is REDICULOUS, and almost all day only two coasters were going. One that is 48" wasn't open at all. I understand a ride or two down for maintanence or whatever...we see it at Disney all the time...but this was well beyond that. Even the animal displays were disappointing...except the sharks and walrus/ I don't believe they have changed at all. Very disappointing

Well, we go every year and have never had a bad experience. Though I'm not just trying to argue, some of your complaints are not things that the park can do.

Rude guests is a bummer, though you can never control that. Even DL and WDW have tons of rude guests, even more than SFDK. You complain about "grab your money schemes". You don't HAVE to fall into those ripoff traps. I'm not sure if you're talking about pay-per-ride attractions like the skycoaster, rock wall, bungy thing, go-carts, midway games, pay to feed animals, elephant rides, etc. But those are certainly optional and pretty much anywhere you go, those things are going to cost extra. I have never seen any of those attractions I mentioned for free at an amusement park.

Cost of food and drink. Well, you are at an amusement park. You're not going to get a bargain. The rides situation is a bad thing and a major complaint, though, if that really was the situation with only 2 coasters being up. But the thing about SFDK that is totally different than other Six Flags parks is that they have way more than roller coasters. The one that you mentioned was down all day was probably Boomerang. Let's just say you didn't miss much. Same with Kong if it was down. Hopefully Medusa and V2 were reliable. Did you see any shows? The Shouka show, the tiger show, and the dolphin show are pretty good. They also added an African stunt show this year. They do have a good collection of other rides too.

You say the animal exhibits were disappointing, but compared to many zoos out there, the habitats that they have at SFDK are pretty good. The sharks and walruses are good, but so are the Butterfly Habitat, Tiger Island (especially the show), Ocean Discovery where you can feed and touch rays and dolphins, and the whole elephant area.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

 

[barkley]

sorry to hear you had a bad time-but honestly i'm not surprised. the parks had problems for quite awhile with inappropriate behaviour from guests-the local paper has periodic articles about this issue and a year or so ago the park managment said they were going to crack down and address it (but it sounds like it's still an issue).

as for the animal stuff-honestly it's gone down hill. the only reason it's kept around in large part is because of the tax exempt status it provides for a portion of the operations.

i have to agree about the food-and it's been a problem from day one. i recall that the original operators complained that there was not the response they anticipated from locals wanting to purchase season passes-well, one of the primary reasons people without kids pointed to was the lack of quality food. lots of people said that they would have bought passes and just went to the park for the animal shows and a light meal, but without any decent food options it just was'nt appealing. what i don't understand is why they can provide some realy great food for group events yet they don't extend that to the park concesions (i've gone to several group picnics catered in and by the park-the food was wonderful, never seen anything like that offered for sale though).

a bit of trivia for those interested in that sort of thing-the primary reason the park is not open in the evenings with the exception of those few nights for 'hallowscream' is because the homeowners in the houses that sit next to and above it successfully lobbied to make it a requirement that operations cease by a certain time each night to ensure peaceful enjoyment of their homes/yards (this has been another reason given by the park for it's lackluster success-they can't stay open at night and allot of people enjoy amusement parks at night).

 

[NVDisMom]

No arguing necessary. I'm happy others have had positive experiences. I expected the food to be expensive...I'll never complain about Disney again though. The rides that were up were Roar...most of the day(and we enjoyed it) Kong for about an hour, and Medusa for about two hours, I don't recall seeing V2 up and running, but we left for lunch for a couple of hours. I guess being a Wenesday meant the animals weren't out in full force...that was disappointing. The guests, I realize it is not the parks fault. It just made for a trying day. While I have encountered the occasional rude guest at Disney, it was nothing compared to this here. Non stop. I see it as quality of guest being attracted. Not everyone, just too many. And the fee attractions...We did not participate in one of them. I felt they were placed to fill space b/c they didn't want to pay to put something more useful to the guest there.
My overall conclusion was it is not worth my money to go again and we'll spend our money elsewhere. I love capitalism!

 

[pixiewings71]

Wow, I'm sorry you had such a negative experience. We have Season passes and go about once every 6 weeks, we'd like to go more but we just can't seem to squeeze it in. lol We go on Sat. or Sun. and the rides are all open and the animals are quite viewable. My favorite is Tiger Island, the show never really changes but I can watch it every time! My DD's love Roar, it's the one coaster we are always able to ride! We never eat there, we always eat before we go into the park or we leave and go to Carl's Jr across the street. It's just too $$$ inside the park for what you get. I wish I had known you were going, I may have been able to send some coupons for feeding the animals. We got a TON of them when we got our passes.....I'm not sure we will use them all.

 

[DOOM1001]

I made it to Six Flags in Vallejo last October when I visited San Francisco.I wouldn't call the park exceptional but I actually enjoyed myself for the most part.As I had visited other Six Flags parks before I knew I would be ripped off in the food and parking department,so since I expected that my only judgment was on the park which I found to be pretty nice.Except for one of the coasters which opened later in the day everything was operating and running well.I went early in the day and the crowds were light but since it was a Frightfest night they probably had a full staff and expected heavier crowds at night.I didn't have time to stick around for the Halloween event but saw all the animal exhibits and sure it wasn't Sea World or the San Diego zoo but I found the combination of the animal attractions and coasters to make for a decent park.

 

[mrs.beast]

I made it to Six Flags in Vallejo last October when I visited San Francisco.I wouldn't call the park exceptional but I actually enjoyed myself for the most part.As I had visited other Six Flags parks before I knew I would be ripped off in the food and parking department,so since I expected that my only judgment was on the park which I found to be pretty nice.Except for one of the coasters which opened later in the day everything was operating and running well.I went early in the day and the crowds were light but since it was a Frightfest night they probably had a full staff and expected heavier crowds at night.I didn't have time to stick around for the Halloween event but saw all the animal exhibits and sure it wasn't Sea World or the San Diego zoo but I found the combination of the animal attractions and coasters to make for a decent park.

i forgot about the parking until you mentioned it. it was insane. i think it was 14/15 per car? wow we were shocked. we go to theme parks all over and ususally pay 10 at the most. my sister had to get out of her car and go to the back and get her wallet out of her diaper bag because she did not have enough cash on her. it was funny. sad but funny.

 

[DLR29]

i forgot about the parking until you mentioned it. it was insane. i think it was 14/15 per car? wow we were shocked. we go to theme parks all over and ususally pay 10 at the most. my sister had to get out of her car and go to the back and get her wallet out of her diaper bag because she did not have enough cash on her. it was funny. sad but funny.

Actually many, if not all, Six Flags parks are charging $15 for parking. It's ridiculous.

 

[silence]

Went to the park last week. I still can't bring myself to call it DK, it will always be Marine World to me!

I found there is a lack of good rides for those kids that are "in between" heights.

My DD (4) loved everything she could go on and I think all the little kiddie rides were a good pace for her.

My DS (9) is small for his age at 49 inches. He did Roar and Boomerang (i think) and then pouted for most of the day on the kiddie rides with his sister.

Hubby and I spent the day comparing it to Disneyland. It was bad, but we couldn't help ourselves.

We watched a couple of shows and the kids loved seeing the whales and dolphins.

Now, as far as food, I guess I just expected it to be the way it was? We ate at the Papa John's. Liked that they had kids meals with PB&J since that is all my DS will eat. We had a refillable drink bottle so our beverages were only a buck. We bought the funnel cake, but we just got it plain, not with all the extra stuff so the price didn't seem outrageous.

Now, I had 2 free adult tix and a free parking pass, so we didn't spend that much on the trip, but it was totally last minute for us anyways.

 

[DLR29]

I just went today and while we didn't experience any rude guests, we did have a very similar experience with the closed rides. V2 was closed all day and we heard it was all week. Cobra was down all day, as was the rapids ride, the teacups, and several kiddy rides. It was a little disappointing.

 

[raidermatt]

We went back in August. I agree that if you are paying the regular single day admission price, it's not worth it. All the big rides were operating the day we were there, but many of the smaller rides were not.

The parking was not only expensive, but inadequate. The main lot filled up but there was nobody directing cars to the overflow lot across the street. You had to hunt down an employee to figure that out.

The food was expensive, but I didn't think it was any higher than other similar venues. What did bother me was wanting to get a frozen lemonade and seeing a line 10 people deep with the register right next to it closed.

The animal exhibits are ok. Not spectacular, but ok.

All of the "extra fee" stuff is a little annoying. I know you can choose not to do those things, but most people still don't like to pay what can be a pretty hefty admission only to find out so many things cost still more money.

Six Flags is stuggling financially and new ownership took over about 2 years ago with the promise of making Six Flags more of a family destination as opposed to simply thrill parks. From what I can tell they've made some progress. They've added character meals and brought characters back into the parks. They've cleaned things up somewhat.

Still a long way to go though and they are still struggling to get attendance up. I hope they make it.

 

[Grim_Grinning_Girl]

Hi, I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area my entire life. My amusement park options are: Great America, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Gilroy Gardens, Discovery Kingdom (Marine World). Though not entirely great my top 2 options are Discovery Kingdom and Santa Cruz. Great America has become very bad and ghetto over the years, don't even bother unless you like the company of thuggy teens. Gilroy Gardens is awful unless you are traveling with kids under about 11, it's a kiddie park. My friend has a 4 year old so we sometimes go.

Discovery Kingdom is not that bad, it has gotten a lot better. I've gone several times this year and it's really not that bad. Found it to be a little better than Sea World San Diego. Yes, the food is AWFUL and expensive! There's several fast food places in the area, my suggestions to anyone is to stop by first and fill up. Or try to sneak snacks in, they bag check.

 

[SanFranciscan]

My husband and I generally do not take vacations. We simply work too much. We did go to Disneyland last April and just returned from Disney World earlier this month. We were thinking of taking a local-level vacation, maybe just for a couple of days next spring. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom was one of the places that we have considered.

The whole chain has had some problems with its parks. It was in printed I think Newsweek in 2006 that efforts were being made to make Six Flags in general more "family friendly." It is sad that young people who just want to hang out with their friends and who have money to spend would be discriminated against in the policies designed to discourage teenage hangers out, but even they probably feel unsafe surrounded by the very thugs they are suffering guilt by association with.

We are an older couple with no children. Would we most likely be more comfortable in Great America or Discovery Kingdom? We generally do enjoy theme parks because they are cleaner and more secure than most city streets. The advantage to going to Great America, where we were once in the 1980's, is that it puts us close to a very charming tea room we have enjoyed in the past. The advantage to Vallejo is that it would give us something we have never seen before at all.

 

[myleftfoot]

We were just there two days ago. It was so bad! For starters we waited 52 mineuts to get up to the booth to pay for parking! My son was just tall enough to charge full price but he is too young to go on the coasters. And really the only thing he could go on was Roar which he was scared of. He rode Cobra for an hour with out ever getting off because there was nothing else for him to do. But Half of all the rides that are not roller coasters were closed. The fright fest was laughable. My 8 year old was laughing while we walked though the dark "sacry" part. The park had bearly a decoration around but there were a few Santas. Half of the shows did not happen. There was no reason for it no rain or wind. All and all bad time and a huge waste of time and money.

 

[barkley]

i'm wondering how the park will be affected by all the bad p/r they are getting over the fraudulent issues with the gospel show they held a couple of months ago. people were hopping mad when they showed up and the headliners were not as advertised, and now people are finding out their credit cards were hit with upwards of thousands in fraudulent charges (they purchased 2 tickets but were charged for hundreds ). i realize they were just the venue for the event, did'nt know the promoter was'nt on the up and up and don't hold any legal liability-but i would think it would make people very hesitant to attend future events (that bundle admission with a concert or celeb appearance) when the park's been shown to not verify that the actual promo is on the level and will take place (and then tell the upset attendees that they won't assist in facilitating refunds for something they got their cut of the $$$ for ahead of time).

 

[Grim_Grinning_Girl]

We are an older couple with no children. Would we most likely be more comfortable in Great America or Discovery Kingdom? We generally do enjoy theme parks because they are cleaner and more secure than most city streets. The advantage to going to Great America, where we were once in the 1980's, is that it puts us close to a very charming tea room we have enjoyed in the past. The advantage to Vallejo is that it would give us something we have never seen before at all.[/QUOTE]

This depends. Do you and your husband enjoy roller-coasters and other rides? Most of the park is a 'thrill ride' type park, if there are any shows or parades believe me they are most likely not worth watching. Discovery Kingdom has rides but they also have a lot more to do for people who do not wish to ride the rides. I recently went with elderly family members and there was plenty to keep us busy. I think both parks cost about the same, unless you plan to ride rides all day I think Discovery Kingdom would be a little better.

 

[audrabolster]

I lived in Sonoma County, and it isn't bad if it's all you have.

However, they do not take good care of the animals, and the people that attend the park are GHETTO. they are rude, the food is overpriced and not worth it (not as good as Disney! lol)

If you are visiting town, I would pass on it, and spend the money on something else.

Like Safari West