No Roar No More, Bay Area Briefs
By Marc Ricketts
August 16 was National Roller Coaster Day, and at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom it was also the last day for Roar, the park’s woodie since 1999. Roar was the first coaster to feature Millennium Flyer trains. With only one row per car, these trains can handle the tight turns and twist that have become common in subsequent years in heavily padded seats with individual lap bars. Roar also featured a Speed Shed, a semi-tunnel that gave an enclosed feeling without being completely cut off as with a tunnel.
Personally, I think it has held up well. I’m aware that some feel it has gotten too rough, but to me it simply has the frantic, out of control wood coaster ride that isn’t smooth, but isn’t as brutal as Knott’s Ghostrider by any stretch. Although the park had a live band playing just inside the turnstiles, the “party” from noon-7 had little going on when I dropped by beyond the amplified voices of some people that should never have been given access to a microphone plus a photo backdrop. The ride did briefly go down after one of the trains was stopped before reaching the covered area where it would normally wait until the station has cleared. It was only offline for about 10 minutes, but employees were waiting with cups of ice water for those that had been stuck in the sun. This was a great customer service move by Six Flags, especially on a day that hit triple digits.
As to what is coming next? Nothing has been announced, but the rumor section of the internets sees a hybrid coaster in the future. We offered Six Flags the opportunity to exclusively comment on these rumors on Micechat. Six Flags declined. So we’ll await an announcement and take a look at Roar’s last day.
At the Dolphin Stadium, the colorful acrobatics and music of Cirque Dreams did not return this summer. In its place is a return to a more traditional dolphin show called Discover Our Ocean Friends. There was nothing groundbreaking in the presentation, but it provides a contrast to the flashier Drench show playing in the park’s larger stadium. It also looks like taking part in the Trainer for a Day program get’s one an opportunity to be in the show.
And as promised, I made a visit to see the show in Odin’s Temple of the Tiger. The white one himself didn’t make an appearance, but the other cats were on hand. Like the new dolphin, the trainers emphasize that the behaviors on display are all ones that are natural to the animals. A couple of audience volunteers got to assist in feeding a piece of meat to a grateful tiger; it is a much better use of a stick than taking a photo of yourself.
Amazingly, the natural skills of tigers include…swimming! In fact, in the wild they capture prey four times more often in the water than on land. Swimming tigers have set this park apart from others since the days of the Marine World moniker.
I dropped by for a quick visit since Flight Deck had been closed on my previous trip, after an incident involving an employee retrieving a dropped phone resulted in a foot and head collision. It reopened quickly after it was determined that the ride itself is safe, although there are many new warnings and a barrier on the maintenance walkway leading to the area of the accident. I’ve always liked how this coaster ends by skimming a lake, although cleaning the scum of the water’s surface isn’t the worst idea in the world. And I never noticed how close it is to that house in the background; hope that window isn’t the baby’s bedroom.
I also took what I hope is my last ride on the stand-up-soon-to-be-floorless(?) coaster Vortex. How the park managed to let this become arguably the roughest coaster ever built is a mystery, so new trains of just about any type would be beyond welcome, not to mention perhaps slapping a little paint around the area.
Gold Striker continues to be a world class coaster, but it’s like a team with one great player that doesn’t have much support. Throughout its history, to be blunt, Great America has been an undistinguished park. Even when they built the world’s first flying coaster with Stealth, it was only a few years before it was dismantled, packed up and shipped across the country to be replaced by an undistinguished water park. A water park so small there is often a wait to enter the lazy river on a slow weekday. Only time will tell if Cedar Fair will improve things and make this a place that can be of interest to more than just the locals.
In the last few years our little parks here by the Bay have closed for the season soon after the start of the school year. Discovery Kingdom has gone to year-round operation, at least on the weekends, and both parks now feature Halloween events. After many years of turning my own home into a Haunted House on Halloween, your humble narrator is putting that on hiatus in order to see some of the offerings that have sprung up for this increasingly popular holiday. So we’ll take a look at those events on a future Day by the Bay.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Fright Fest September 26 to November 1
Thrills By Day
Enjoy the park and all the delights of Halloween for kids with a Twick or Tweat Twail, cookie decorating and all your favorite shows, rides and attractions! Kids can even dress up (no masks please!) and get into the true spirit of the occasion!
Fright by Night
As the clock strikes 6 p.m., the fright begins when hundreds of zombies are released to haunt the park. Watch your back as you wander into our four free themed scare zones, where ghoulish creatures are waiting to jump out of the darkness. Enjoy new and favorite haunted walk-through mazes (additional fee required) when doors open at night. There’s live monstertainment, strolling zombies and much more! Don’t forget to ride your favorite coaster in the dark for an all-new bone-chilling experience. Fright by night is not recommended for children under 12.
California’s Great America’s Halloween Haunt begins September 26 and will run weekends until October 31.
