That's kind of our experience in Chicago. We were SF pass holders for a couple of years here, but the dinginess, bad/expensive food, occasional rough/gang vibe, freakishly expensive ride reservation system, and restraint systems clearly engineered for European-sized riders caused us to stop going. It costs a lot more to go to DLR but we both agree we get so much more in return that we're OK with fewer, pricier visits.
We also group WDW in with SF, because our first visit together there felt a lot like a SF experience to us. So we're pretty exclusively committed to Anaheim!
Have to agree with you on Six Flags! See my thoughts below.
Hi!
We live about 20 minutes from Discovery Park. I go to
Disneyland more frequently and I haven't been to Disneyland since 2012. When they first moved to the area we were excited but it took one time taking our small children and that took a lot of the luster off. Just not a fun place for us. We have tried to go back but it just isn't Disney to us. The cost of the food, water and parking all higher than Disney believe it or not.
We live in Fairfield so we have been to Jelly Belly a few times. I am always moved by the smells in there. I am glad I never went when I was pregnant.
There is also a Sepay Olive Oil place near there that has samples of their infused oils. So good! Plus you can take tours of Anheiser Busch here too. And there are wineries in the Suisun Valley. Plus there is the museum on Travis Air Force base that I have heard it good.
Just a few ideas.
I've always wondered about if the Anheiser Busch place gives tours. I hate beer, but I love taking tours. I'll also check out the oil place too. Love the Jelly Belly factory! As for wineries, we live in Wine Country so plenty of tours right here. And we've done some of those too.
Ok, just got back from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. We got the $28 ticket deal from
AAA so decided to give it a try. We won't be back.
The only rides they have are giant twisty rollercoasters (we like coasters, but those look nuts! ) or small spinning carnival rides. (Spinning is ok for us on occasion (Teacups) but that's all there was and it just didn't seem worth bothering with. They had a lot of small children only rides too, that I'm sure little kids would love. And the water ride was closed.
When we first walked in to the park, we were greeted by a large fountain of blood with some dead people in the middle. Yep, it happened to be the first day of Fright Fest.
Now we both appreciate a good scary movie but this was just gross. They had all kinds of dead things all over the park. And haunted house and mazes with horrible names like Blood Bath Bayou. (for an extra fee, of course.)
So we focused on the animals which is what the park used to be all about before SF took it over. We enjoyed the animal shows but there weren't that many and some didn't seem to be running at all that day. Our favorites were the bird show and the dolphin show.
The park had garbage tossed here and there with park employees just standing next to it instead of picking it up. The bathrooms looked like the ones you see at a rest stop. Parking was $20- more than DLR! And food and drinks were more expensive than DLR. We paid ahead of time for the AAA all you can eat picnic in the picnic area and good we did. Same food as in the park, but only $10 a person. We even left after eating and came back later for another soda.
We left at 5 because we ran out of things to do and we didn't want to stay for the "scary" stuff at night with the teenagers anyway.
DH said going there will make him appreciate our trip to WDW even more. I certainly hope WDW won't be even close to that experience for us and I feel pretty sure it won't be. (Even if we do end up liking DLR more). He kept pointing out how very "unDisney" things were. But I do have to say, the employees we talked to were very friendly, and one even came up to us while we were looking at a map and asked if we needed help.
Overall, I'm glad we went because now we know. We also know if we want to see animals we'll just go to the zoo. It was a nice day, but I guess we'll just stick to Disney. It may be expensive, but you get your money's worth.
For October we are going to the Disney Family Museum for our monthly outing. I just realized DH hasn't seen it, I went with someone else.
Go figure. Have to plan trips with my girl friends for that. 
