Six Flags Discovery Kingdom?

        The names get weirder every time.   I still remember when I first went there and my dad (misinterpreting the name) called it just Marine World.   I later learned it was Marine World Africa USA, which made no sense to me at all.   It’s like naming something Lava World Antarctica Greenland.   How could you have a marine, oceanic world and a continent, a land mass called  Africa, in a country, USA, at the same time? Every part of the name is a different location… I guess it makes the name unique though.

        They later named it to Six Flags Marine World - which was fine.   The name didn’t sound as awkward to say; most people I knew just called it, and still only call it, Marine World.   Now they rename it to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.   Why? Apparently, it’s supposed to reflect the animal sections and thrill rides of the park as well.   The park did not change much at all, however.   Looking through the map, it looks very different from the park I remember last year, but upon closer inspection, what they really did was give everything a more cartoonish look (only on the map though fortunately).

        Instead of renaming the park, Six Flags should focus more on actually improving it.      It seems more or less the park is just getting ready to shut down.   Six Flags Marine World  actually  spend the first 4 years of the millenium without any killer whales at all.   The water raft ride was rarely open.   The ‘DinoSphere’ 3D theater ride somehow went from escaping dinosaurs on a volcanic island, to rescuing dinosaurs, to somehow riding inside the head of a warrior, and finally to not being 3D at all (they ditched the glasses) and being a Stargate ride.   One of the few rides I actually like, Starfish, they took out.   They tried to add a new coaster, Zonga, but the ride was almost always closed and was shutdown after a mere 2 years.   Vertical Velocity is no longer vertical, but actually shorter by 30 feet.

        Instead, they go off and install a ton of kiddie areas.   The first one was fine - it more or less rethemed a section of the park.   They seem to be running out of ideas however, as they later plopped a rotating orca ride right amongst Roar, the go-karts, and V2.   Next they get Tava’s Jungleland, which doesn’t even have a jungle by the way, and now they’re building a Thomas town.

        They had me fooled for a bit when they renamed it to Discovery Kingdom; I actually thought they had something new.   But it’s still just Marine World (with a lot more little kid rides than there used to be ).