Park Review
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Vallejo, California July 19, 2001 Just a bit of a warning: anyone who, for some reason, is attached to Six Flags Marine World maybe shouldn't read this. I left Santa Cruz on Thursday at about 10am and wasn�t sure what I was going to do until my flight left San Francisco International Airport at 11pm. So I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco and tried calling a couple of friends who live there. I wasn't able to get a hold of anyone (my own fault, since this whole California trip was planned last minute and I didn't give anyone advance notice of my coming). So I decided to head out to Six Flags Marine World. Yeah, I know it's a long drive from Santa Cruz, but I had been to Paramount�s Great America last year and wanted to do something new. I made it there at about 1:30 in the afternoon, and here�s where the complaining starts. Complaint #1: I had read on this list that parking was $10, but I was still floored! That's just ridiculous! Complaint #2: The park maps - on the right side of the entrance plaza is a map of the right side of the park and on the left side, a map of the left side. WTF!?!?! I was looking at the right one thinking, �Where are Roar and V2?� I was most excited about Medusa west, so that's where I headed first. This being my second floorless (B:KF is the other) I'll now say with certainty that the floorless gimmick does little for me, as well. Medusa is a decent ride, but nothing special. Kudos to B&M, though, for not installing another one of those damn "twisting" first drops, although the only good air on this one comes from the back seats. The "sea serpent" element felt exactly like a cobra roll, only smoother. I've said that I don't like cobra rolls because they are too rough � this sea serpent was pretty smooth, perhaps because if its size. This thing is much bigger than I had imagined it to be. Hulk, with it's giant cobra roll, is the only other one that�s not rough (okay, B:KF's is decent, too). Overall though, I thought this ride was just another cookie cutter B&M - awesome ride, but nothing new to me. The general public loved it, though, as they should! Complaint #3: No bathrooms anywhere close to Medusa! I really had to go by the time I got to the park, but thought for sure that there'd be restrooms by the largest ride. I mean, after standing in a long line, what's the first place most people go after they are done riding? I had to go way out of my way, back to the entrance. Complaint #4: This was the worst ride operation crew I have ever seen!!! There were no lines, maybe a three-train wait, and they were running a two-train operation. However, the second train would be finished and stacked and they were still loading!!! If I didn't know better, I'd think they were in some sort of "work slowdown" program. (Not that I would know anything about that...heh heh!) From there, I checked out Kong and the Boomerang, but the lines were too long. Even though I recently started counting (coastercount.com) I wasn�t waiting that long for those! Over to the other side of the park for more coasters. Complaint #5: Roar was down for the entire day! There was no sign of any work being done; it was just sitting there abandoned. Yes, I rode it two years ago at Six Flags America, but I was looking forward to doing it again. Right next door was V2, which is an awesome ride, but since I live in Cleveland, it�s nothing new to me. Is this ride shorter, height-wise, than Superman: Ultimate Escape? it looks like it. I got in two rides, one in row two and one close to the back. Again, very slow turn-around times on this ride. Complaint #6: No hang time on the back spike on V2! I asked the girl and she said that they were having problems with it and it should be back by the end of the season. Is the V2 at Six Flags Great America having this problem too? I've never seen this at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. Oh yeah, and the ride broke down three times in the three hours I was there! Not too impressive. I walked around a little more towards the back of the park and ended up back at Medusa again, but first grabbed a ride on Cobra since there was no line. Medusa had even shorter lines this time and a slightly better crew. After two more rides it was about time to leave. I was meeting a friend for dinner back in San Francisco and besides, I wasn't really having a great time at this park. I decided to check out the line for Kong once more, since it had grabbed my attention earlier. Here's why: Watching this ride, it is the slowest running SLC I've ever seen! It looks like it almost pauses on that "half-cobra-roll" thing that it does. So I really was curious to ride this slowed down version. It had a short line, but still took a half hour to get on. Complaint #7: Again, crappy crews were sending trains out with empty seats; they were just letting people fill the styles by themselves and not making an effort to fill the empty ones. I apologize to anyone who might take offense to this negative review, but I just did not have a good time here. Congratulations to you if you've made it this far through all of my b****ing! AFLAC! -Brian F.
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