Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo packs a legitimate coaster collection into a park that is half thrill machine and half marine and wildlife park. The lineup spans an RMC hybrid, a classic B&M floorless, two launch coasters, and a stack of credits, and the crowds are light enough that you can ride all of it in one focused day. Here is every coaster ranked.

1. The Joker

The 2016 RMC hybrid conversion turned an aging woodie into the best ride in Northern California: a 78 degree drop, three inversions, and ejector airtime on every hill. It is short, but every second is dense.

• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Best seat: back row for the drop, front row for the view through the lattice of track
• Best time: rope drop and again in the final hour

2. Medusa

The park's signature since 2000, a Bolliger and Mabillard floorless machine with seven inversions across 4,000 feet, including a huge vertical loop and a zero-g roll over the marsh. In our tracked wait data it averages under five minutes, which for a coaster this good is absurd.

• Height requirement: 54 inches
• Best seat: front row, floorless coasters live and die on the view
• Best time: literally anytime, its capacity crushes this park's crowds

3. Superman: Ultimate Flight

A 150 foot twisted top hat with two launches, a beyond-vertical drop, and a slow heartline roll ten stories up. The catch: it runs one short train, so its line moves slower than anything else here.

• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Best seat: back row, the final launch pulls hardest there
• Best time: first thing at rope drop, before its tiny capacity meets the crowd

4. The Flash: Vertical Velocity

An Intamin impulse coaster that launches you to 70 mph along a U of twisted vertical spikes. The repeated launches keep hitting harder as the cycle builds.

• Height requirement: 54 inches
• Best seat: the very front, dangling feet-first up the spiral spike
• Best time: morning, another one-train wonder

5. Batman: The Ride

An S&S 4D Free Spin where the seats flip head over heels on their own schedule. Some cycles flip twice, some flip six times, and you do not get a vote.

• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Best seat: outside positions flip more
• Best time: midday, its posted wait overstates a line that keeps moving

6. Kong

A Vekoma SLC hanging coaster from 1998. It has five inversions and a reputation for headbanging that is only partly earned these days. Ride it once, brace your head, count the credit.

• Height requirement: 52 inches
• Best seat: front row minimizes the rattle
• Best time: whenever it is a walk-on, which is most of the time

7. Harley Quinn Crazy Coaster

A Skyline Skywarp where two trains chase each other around an interlocking figure eight loop. Novel for two minutes, dizzy for ten.

• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Best seat: any, you spend equal time upside down everywhere
• Best time: early evening when the queue is a station wait

8. Sidewinder Safari

A spinning wild mouse through the park's safari corner. Fun with a balanced car, and notably the longest average wait in our data, because tiny cars load slowly.

• Height requirement: 42 inches with an adult
• Best seat: load the car unevenly for real spin
• Best time: first two hours, before the family crowd arrives

9. Boomerang: Coast to Coaster and the family credits

The classic Vekoma shuttle takes you through three inversions forward and backward, and it is exactly as smooth as you remember, which is to say not. Cobra and Cocoa Cruiser round out the family and kiddie credits, both painless morning pickups.

• Height requirements: 48 inches for Boomerang, lower for the family rides
• Best time: morning credit sweep

First-timer order

1. Superman at rope drop

2. The Flash: Vertical Velocity

3. The Joker

4. Batman midmorning

5. Medusa whenever you pass it, twice

6. Kong, Harley Quinn, Sidewinder Safari after lunch

7. Joker again to close

Enthusiast order

1. Superman, then Flash, the two capacity traps, before 11 am

2. Joker back row twice

3. Sidewinder Safari before the families wake up

4. Boomerang, Kong, Cobra for the credit sweep

5. Medusa front row laps all afternoon

6. Joker and Medusa night rides if the park closes late