The Joker Construction Photos from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

The Joker Construction Update

I swung by Six Flags Discovery Kingdom yesterday to take a look at the how the construction has been going on The Joker, the new Rocky Mountain Construction conversion of the Great Coasters International “Roar” coming to the park next Spring.  Lots has been happening on the coaster, and the track up through the initial drop is pretty much all complete.  Some of the supports for the first inversion are also in place.  So far it looks awesome, and I can’t wait for it to be completed!

Joker entrance at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

The entrance to Roar/Joker doesn’t seem to have had any work done to it yet.  I wonder if they’re planning to keep the station as is, or if the redesign (maybe some repainting and decoration like on Twisted Colossus) is yet to come.

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The pre-lift sections look complete along with the lift hill.  It looks pretty fun coming out of the station, with lots of little bumps after the twisted drop out of the station.

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Sadly the area in front of Vertical Velocity was closed off (along with Vertical Velocity being closed), so this was as close to the lift hill I could get.  The two-color track does look really good on the wooden structure, it actually makes me wonder why more coasters aren’t don’t use multi color track.

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The trackless structure on the big turns is kind of weird looking, it’ll be fun to see it get filled in.

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The tracks on the station return are also installed, so it looks like they’re working from the ends to the middle (or it was easiest to do the flat straight section first).

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The full profile of the hill and drop, courtesy of the dry, empty, Monsoon Falls.

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Of course, the most exciting part of the completed track is the initial drop.  Look at that twist!  And that steepness!

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After the initial drop you can see the steel supports for the first inversion in place (note how the supports start to bank, then further up the hill a third cross piece completes the inversion through the top).  Cannot wait to see it completed.

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So you can’t actually see it at all in this shot, but the side of that truck said “Rocky Mountain Construction” on it, which made me a little giddy.  There wasn’t a ton of obvious work going on, but I did see a few guys in the construction site, so progress is definitely happening!

In case you can’t remember what The Joker is, or what the ride should look like, check out the animation of the ride in the video below.  It is interesting to see a few things a little different already on the design from the video, like that it appears there is at least one extra little bump in the prelift, as well as some extra banking the animation doesn’t show.

 

Holiday In the Park

In between taking pictures of The Joker, I strolled through the park to take a look at some of the Holiday In the Park decorations, as well as do some animal viewing (something I don’t do often enough at the park).  One of the things I like about Discovery Kingdom is the fact there are still a decent number of animal attractions, which can provide a nice break between coasters, and give some more for families with small kids (or people who aren’t thrill ride fans) to do.

 

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There weren’t a ton of random decorations around the park, but several midways did have things like rows of candy canes, Christmas trees, or giant toys.

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The snowy (snow!) sledding hill was a popular attraction, with lots of kids waiting to ride and lots of parents watching.  It was actually a decent length sled run, and the snow looked fresh (I guess with fake snow in 50 something degree weather it has to be fresh).

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Carriage rides in Christmas-y carriages were another Holiday attraction added for December.

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The animals were fairly out and about (I consider a tiger sleeping somewhere visible “out”) despite the cool weather.  I stopped by the Tiger show as well, and they had removed the swimming and diving behaviors from the show to keep the tigers from having to jump in the cold water.  It meant the show was a little truncated, but they also kept two young (1.5 year old) tigers out after the show to help practice some of their behaviors and get them used to having crowds around.  That was fun to watch as they were more active than usual, running and jumping around the stage area.

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The giant Christmas tree in the center of the park looked good, even while unlit in the middle of the day.  Nice to see the park continuing the Holiday in the Park event, and while I was hoping to see a little more decoration compared to last year, there were enough special things to keep it looking festive.

I’m hoping to be able to get back at least once more before the opening of The Joker this Spring to get one more construction photo update, hopefully after some more of the inversion elements are completed (love seeing that twisted steel).  One of the great perks of a year round park is being able to see all the progress!

Looking for more?  If you really like seeing photos of other Rocky Mountain coasters under construction, check out our recent update on Lightning Rod at Dollywood.  If you want to read about how I recently learned that I love Rocky Mountain Construction, read our post on a recent visit to Magic Mountain.  Finally, if you want to learn more about The Joker and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom check out their site, and, remember, Holiday in the Park lasts through January 3, so if you’re in Northern California you’ve still got a few more days to swing by!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone!

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