Sir Clinksalot's Bay Area Bash (and more) Trip Report (Gilroy Gardens Added)

[sir clinksalot]

First off, I want to send a BIG thank you to Robb for not only putting on yet another AMAZING coaster event at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on Friday, but also allowing me and my son to hang out with the rest of the TPR group through the weekend.

If you have ever thought about doing one of the big TPR trips, I can tell you that from my experience over the weekend, they are NOT to be missed.

In 3 days we visited 4 parks, rode 20 coasters and I only had to pay for 2 meals that were not part of the "group" activities.

Not only that, but the people we got to meet and hang out with over the weekend are some of the funnest people to hang around with and I hope we get to do some of the longer trips with them soon.

With that said, it's time to start with the Trip Report.

The Event: West Coast Bash and hanging out with the TPR crew at 3 additional parks.
The Parks: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Gilroy Gardens, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California's Great America

Friday August 7th: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - Bay Area Bash

Started off bright and early from our hotel in San Jose to the park in Vallejo. We were expecting quite a bit of traffic that never happened.

Arrived to the park at approximately 8am since registration for the event was set to begin at 8:30am.



The park has a nice mix of Marine/Land animals and rides.




The Park Entrance




Our first stop was the animal meet and greet and tour of the new tiger stadium which is AMAZING.

Just inside the park:




Dolphin Harbor


Mmmm, Cold Stone.


The Shouka Stadium (Killer Whale Show)


Boomerang


It was actually a decent one, as far as Boomerangs are concerned.


Our first animal we got to meet was a camel.




Some Parrots


A Chinchilla


A Porcupine


And my personal favorite from the morning animals we met, an Otter.








After that little bit of meet and greet, it was time to head into the new stadium.


I'm not even exaggerating when I say this stadium rivals those at Sea World or Disney's Animal Kingdom. It's THAT awesome.


And of course the stars of the show










Who's a pretty kitty???


We also had a Q&A session with many of the animal trainers which was AWESOME.

One of the questions asked was how much training does someone need to be able to work in with the animals.
The Answer: "I've been working with animals for 27 years and I'm not getting in there". It was great.



The absolute funniest moment was the tiger eye-balling a 1 1/2 year old baby who was walking at the top of the stadium. The question was asked why it was following her ... the answer: It's looking for the weakest prey.

Just goes to show that yes, these animals are beautiful, but dangerous.

After our animal meet and greet it was time for a brief ERT (exclusive ride time) session on Medusa.

This is what a train-full of coaster enthusiasts looks like.


And then once the park opened it was time to hit some rides. First stop Kong:




However, this one got a BIG thumbs-down from Josh.


And now that we were free to move about the park ... here is the fountain just beyond the front entrance.


The Characters were out and about


After picking up our Gold Flashpass it was off to Tony Hawks Big Spin








The ride is WICKED fun, we ended up with (I believe) 5 rides on it throughout the day including the AWESOME night-ERT session (which we'll get into later).

Coming up a little later, sir clinksalot FINALLY get's to meet a penguin and MUCH more!!!.

[pratt55]

Great start but enquiring minds need to know why did Josh give Kong a thumbs down?

[sir clinksalot]

Originally Posted by pratt55

Great start but enquiring minds need to know why did Josh give Kong a thumbs down?

Because it sucked!!!

The rest of the rides in the park were really good, that one, not so much.

[Ginarella]

Awesome pictures so far and those coasters look wickedly fun. Josh and Otter too cute for words.

[aashee]

Awesome report Gregg. So glad to see you and Josh had a great time!

[MickeyMaxx]

What a great time you two must have had.

Can't wait to see the rest!

[OogieBoogie]

Dude!!! I wish I knew you were in the area. I would have come up to join you guys.

[sir clinksalot]

After Tony Hawk is was time for a spin on Vertical Velocity (otherwise known as V2).

This is one of my favorite rides in the park.






ZOOOOOOOOOOM


We then did another ride on Tony Hawk, a ride on Roar (the wooden coaster which was MUCH rougher than when I rode it in 2005) and headed off for lunch in one of the picnic pavillions.

More surprises were in store for us.

Some of the park characters came out for a meet and greet




General silliness ensued




And then just as we were getting ready to leave and ride even more rides, this little guy came out to play. Boy was I glad we ate slow.


Penguins are my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. So forgive me if I took lots of pictures.






Who's a pretty penguin!!!


For you comic book geeks, his name was Oswald.


And then a 2-toed Sloth.




On our way out to ride some more coasters, we stopped by and saw the dolphins.


It's happy to see us.


And then this guy ... you leave that roadrunner alone!!!


Next up was the Boomerang. This is probably the 7th or 8th boomerang I've ridden and this one was probably better than 5 or 6 of them. Still a boomerang, but a tolerable one.


Moving into the rest of the park and elephant trails.


Tava's Jungleland, a REALLY nice kids play area.






Took a spin on the rapids and got SOAKED.






We then decided to leave the park for a bit to not only charge my cell phone, but to go to Jelly Belly and do the tour. Well, traffic was REALLY bad ... and we never made it. Turned around after taking about 45 minutes to go 5 miles.

Back at the park ... tried to get Josh on the Hammerhead, he wasn't having it.


We caught the Six Flags "parade". I could say things about it, but I'm going to give them credit for trying.
















At the games, you could win a Ben 10 figure, but we all decided it looked MUCH more like Justin Timberlake. Thoughts???


Had dinner at Panda, which was actually quite good for Theme Park eats.


Some more character interractions






The top of the dolphin tank


So as the evening wore on, we were all meeting in one of the picnic area's while they cleared out the park for our ERT. We were originally supposed to have ERT from 8pm to 9pm on Tony Hawk, Roar and V2. The park awesomely extended it to 10pm.

And they also announced a contest of sorts.

Tony Hawk is a spinning coaster, but it also has a LOT of diving drops, etc. Well, the goal was, to have the 4 people in your car (you all face each other) hold a cup of water and the team that had the most at the end of the night would be the winner.

What ensued was one of the absolute greatest hours of continuous rides on a coaster ever. Just think of is as a water fight on a coaster. It was AMAZING!!!!

Most teams were getting off of the ride absolutely SOAKED. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my entire life, it was absolutely amazing.

We left the park a little before 10pm after some rides on Tony Hawk, V2 and Roar.

I didn't get too many pictures of the ERT session because I was too busy having a great time. Hopefully I can get some from Robb later on and share them with all of you. I'm sure there are some great shots of the night.

After Six Flags it was back to our hotel, utterly exhausted as we were we needed to get up early the next morning for 2 more parks on Saturday (Gilroy Gardens and Santa Cruz) and more ERT at Gilroy and some AMAZING back-stage tours at Santa Cruz.

Stay Tuned ...

[sir clinksalot]

Originally Posted by OogieBoogie

Dude!!! I wish I knew you were in the area. I would have come up to join you guys.

I totally thought about PMing you on Friday Morning but I didn't want to have to pay $10 for internet since we were hardly in the room all weekend.

I know there are already talks of doing the event next year.

[OogieBoogie]

Originally Posted by sir clinksalot

I totally thought about PMing you on Friday Morning but I didn't want to have to pay $10 for internet since we were hardly in the room all weekend.

I know there are already talks of doing the event next year.

Sweet. I'll keep an eye open for it. I also just noticed that you did post another thread about the event some time ago. I guess I should have noticed. lol.

[SummerInFL]

Great TR Gregg! It looks like you and your son had a great time!

[stitchon]

In my opinion, Discovery Kingdom is one of Six Flags' best parks in terms of environment and variety... it still has some charm and coasters haven't taken the spotlight off of the animals. Great trip report... I would have loved to have been there.

[MickeyMousePal]

Glad to see that you had fun Gregg.

[miapoepia]

Looks like a ton of fun!The Vertical Velocity picture made me queasy,I can't even imagine riding it-but i'm sure it was exhilarating. Your son is adorable .

[sir clinksalot]

Originally Posted by miapoepia

Looks like a ton of fun!The Vertical Velocity picture made me queasy,I can't even imagine riding it-but i'm sure it was exhilarating. Your son is adorable .

My son didn't ride it either. He has ridden some pretty intense stuff, but opted to not ride.

It's certainly one of those rides that's MUCH scarier "looking" than the actual ride is. I find it just a fun, fun ride that I could ride over and over again.