After landing in San Francisco just before midnight on Monday night, May 28, my dad and I got into our rental car and drove through San Francisco and Oakland to our hotel across the street from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Upon arrival, Superman: Ultimate Flight, which is coming along nicely, Medusa, Roar, V2, and Kong were all very visible from the parking lot of our hotel.

The next morning we ate breakfast and headed to the park around 9:30AM, hoping to be first in line for Medusa. At 10:00AM, the park gates opened, with the rides opening a half an hour later. First time visitors to this park will find the usual Six Flags advertising and bright yellow employee shirts, but the feel of other Six Flags parks is not as evident. With its abundance of wildlife shows and exhibits, this park feels much like a mix of a thrill park and a Sea World style park.

I ran to Medusa to snag a first train, front row ride on it before the line built up, and then got right back in line with my dad to ride again but this time in the back seat. Both spots provide an exceptionally smooth, yet strong ride. The first half of the ride is very reminiscent of Kraken down in Orlando, and then the “Sea Serpent” element, which is similar to a “Cobra Roll,” is where it changes. The second half is fairly intense with two larger corkscrews and a few nice turns, which made for a great way to start the trip.

After Medusa came a ride on Discovery Kingdom’s try at a Vekoma SLC, Kong. Generally speaking, I am not a huge fan of the head banging the SLC models bring, but I do like the layout of these rides and if the roughness was eliminated, these rides could really be enjoyable. As far as Kong goes, it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. It was not as rough as some other SLC coasters I have been on, but was far from the smoothest.

The new Sky Screamer swing tower was a walk-on at this point, so I decided to take a quick spin on that. Unlike the similar Windseeker rides at Cedar Fair parks, this ride moves up and down a few times during the ride, rather than raising to the top and then just coming down. I liked the feeling of freedom with the swings being attached by only chains, giving it more of a thrilling feel. After that I took my ride on the Cobra junior coaster, a ride that is fun, yet surprisingly loud considering how much many the park spent to silence Medusa.

Discovery Kingdom’s Boomerang was one of the better ones I have been on, with almost no head banging at all. Like the other models, it leaves you feeling quite dizzy, but I love that feeling, because it is a sign that the ride wasn’t too rough and actually was enjoyable. We than sampled some of the parks lemonade, which seemed to be very fresh and was actually pretty good, before catching the Celebrate Shouka show, which is essentially a killer whale show very similar to those found at the various Sea World parks. It was a good show, but nothing drastically different than what you have seen at other similar parks.

At this point we were really happy with the time we were making, so after getting the Road Runner Express credit we headed towards the last two coasters in the park we had yet to ride. First up was Roar, the only wooden coaster at the park. I have ridden the east coast version, and the PTC trains on the Maryland ride really do reduce the fun factor of the ride. The Millennium Flyers that run on the California version perform spectacularly, and much to my surprise gave a good dosage of airtime throughout the ride along with the signature GCI twists and turns. Roar earned a spot in my top ten wood coaster list.

V2: Vertical Velocity, the modified Intamin “Impulse” coaster was the last coaster to ride. It was actually quite a long wait, probably forty minutes or so, but it is a great ride. The modified front spike to a forty-five degree angle turns the front spike into an inversion, and on the first and third passes the train doesn’t go all the way through. The result is some awesome hang time towards the front of the train. If only the back spike still had the ability to hold the train vertically for a split second, I would have this as my favorite impulse coaster, but since it doesn’t have that ability, I would still put the versions that do ahead of it by a nose.

On a side note, Superman’s construction was progressing nicely, with the station area and parts of the non-inverting loop complete as well as much of the support structure. Clear progress had been made even through the time we spent at the park.

That concluded our day in Vallejo, as we wanted to get to the Golden Gate Bridge before sunset to do some sight seeing in San Francisco. We also drove down Lombard Street (the craziest road ever, look it up if you don’t know the significance), and ate dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf. For my dad, it was the first time being in the city since his honeymoon with my mom over twenty years ago.

There you have it for day one, be sure to keep an eye out later this week for day two, which included trips to California’s Great America and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.