Theme Park Review

Awesome sauce! 

I told them they needed to paint it different colors to build the hype and they snubbed me, too. The audacity.

^ the one here near me is TERRIFYING. I've been really giving the CotA team a hard time about how I just can't understand why they are sitting quietly when Circuit Breaker (CotA tilt coaster) and Palindrome (unique shuttle coaster) are sitting there built, and everyone talks about Siren's Curse. I mean, I GET the park isn't anywhere near ready to open. . but piggyback on the publicity at least - ESPECIALLY since CotA started building their tilt coaster first. here's a pic from May 12th (one of the few CotA has on their site):  

really is scary looking 

We went to the last Epic preview day on the 19th.   They are NOT ready for full opening.   I know its a preview yadda yadda but only 2 of the rides that we were even able to ride were fully operational and I dont see that changing in 3 days.   There were places to buy express in the park but if it's already sold out then I wouldn't hold out much hope, but it's at least worth a try.   Unless some miracle occurs between now and then I would say express is a must if Ministry, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong are on your list.   We didnt get to ride Ministry because it broke down before it even opened, opened back up hours later for about 30 minutes, then was broken the rest of the day.   MK's standby line is SLLOOOOOWWW but you could see Fastpass people breezing through.  DK is similar but not as slow as MK. If you have early access, don't go to Nintendo World, go to Ministry and hope it opens on time. Bring an umbrella, the sun was PUNISHING especially in Celestial Park.

Yeep. The earliest video I could find was May 16th.       

Nice! Congrats on being selected. Let us know how you like it.

I will be attending the commercial shoot Friday!

Enter the world of Titans! KONG X GODZILLA: The Ride Only at LOTTEWORLD – December 2025! SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA Source   No details have been announced about where or what kind of ride. I tend not to post until there's some evidence on construction walls or park announcements, but presumably this will be going where the park's indoor rapids used to be, because rumors online have been saying a Godzilla I.P. ride would be replacing it for over a year now.

Wrath Of Rakshasa is nearing its media day as well as it's grand opening. Anyone plan to attend.

Crap. Sorry. My Express Pass question was about Islands of Adventure in July.

This place is never coming back. 

Silver Dollar City looked great last weekend during our short Branson trip to celebrate my daughter's fifth birthday. At the park, we started off with Fire In the Hole. The ride feels like modernized a copy of the old ride, which I consider a good thing. It was received with, "I'm never ever riding that ride again until I die." wtf ok I rode Outlaw Run by myself. It still kicks ass as my favorite RMC. It's borderline getting rough, but not to the level of real discomfort.  I also grabbed a ride on Wild Fire near the end of the day, because it was walk-on. I'm always surprised by the airtime on the first drop. It's very smooth for its age. The observation deck was great for the family. When given the choice between "log flume" or "the bumpy kid's coaster" in exchange for a neurotoxin Dip-N-Dots reward, the "bumpy kids coaster" surprisingly won out. Earlier in the day it had the random walk-by rating of "That Holiday World roller coaster is TRASH!" (where does she get this from?) All in all, the Grand Exposition Coaster was much more suited for my daughter now than it was when she was three. At that time it received the rating of "I'm never ever ever riding that ride again." I think she actually had fun, which made me optimistic for the future. It's hard to tell. The Marvel Cave tour was a nice challenge for the kid. Caves make me uncomfortable. In my opinion, the tour guide took way too long incorporating the cave's history with story telling. We weren't the only ones in the crowd who looked bored with the five minute explanation of the original explorers throwing rocks into the deeper part of the cave that led to a bat shit filled pit. Like legit, dude went over the "He threw a rock and heard no response" reenactment about five times. I have a feeling the drawn out stories were to give the growingly restless crowd a break from the 600, but I don't remember the guides taking that long. I wish the extended story lengths would have instead just contained additional history, since the younger kids didn't seem to give a shit about the dramatization, anyway. Thankfully, the tram back to the top worked, because the lady gasping for air and breathing on my neck behind me was about to die. The train was great. The experience near the back half was a lot different with the Fire In the Hole area added. The robbery show was good. I feel like it got longer. Again, at one point I was wondering when it was going to wrap up, but the actors took extra time to interact with every row, which was worth it for all the kids. Staff did a great job of filling the train to make sure almost everyone in line got on. Flooded Mine is a great ride for kids. A lot of the effects weren't working, but the scoring was spot on and it's still a lot of fun. The gun accuracy is better than most considering this ride is old school. There were three animals out in the petting zoo. lol We originally made the mistake of getting in line for the BBQ place near the raft ride. (As I have gotten older, I really don't give two shits about most ride names anymore if you can't tell.) We got out of line when it seriously didn't move for the five minutes we were in it. I didn't understand the mistake of trying to grab lunch during prime time until I had a kid. Avoiding excessive hunger is a big part of preventing a meltdown, so the urgency of getting lunch increases. The quick-serve food stand pretzel nearby was decent and they had a fruit cup, which was nice. We later made it to the BBQ place when it had almost no line. The pulled turkey was ok, and the slaw was surprisingly not loaded with sugar. The pulled pork my wife had didn't taste like typical wanna-be barbeque crockpot meat. It's nice to have a healthy(er) choices for meat and vegetables. I'm not going to elaborate further on the kid and family rides we went on. Our experiences on all of them were great. The park was clean and the staff was friendly. I love how shaded the park is. It's a nice place to take it slow and enjoy the atmosphere.  Does anyone know what they're building near the north side of the park? There was a lot of land clearing. It may be just the deconstruction of Fire In the Hole version 1. As far as Branson in general, we did the Runaway Mountain Coaster a few times. Two of the three times I went at a slower pace with my daughter and let her tell me when to slow down and speed up. If your kid is still afraid of roller coasters, this is a nice way to break them in at the pace you choose. I went by myself on one of the rides. There are a lot of small double down airtime hops in the layout and it cooks through the helix sections. Some of the areas seem to jut out at least fifty feet or so from the hill, with the optics of overlooking the valley making it seem much higher than that. For those interested in hiking, there's a nice waterfall hike nearby. Hiking is my daughter's jam, and this one doesn't have a lot of steep climbs. It's good for young kids. It takes a couple 2-3 hours if you stop to explore. If you go without kids, you can probably knock it out in a little over an hour. We chose to stay at a one room suite with a pullout, kitchenette, and porch at Hyatt's Timber Ridge. If you're looking for a well maintained property, I recommend it. There are activities at night for families. The resort has an indoor/outdoor pool that was unfortunately unavailable due to storm damage repair. The fitness center is really nice, but I chose to go the grueling route of steep elevation changing laps around the property, which was well worth it for being scenic and quiet in the early morning. Constants in Branson/SDC are that the gyms and running trails are rarely occupied... (Honorable mention to Holiday World area.) If you're in the area, I HIGHLY recommend Mr. Gilbertis pizza across the dam in Hollister. The cast iron Chicago style pizza seriously rivals Lou Malnati's.  Cheers.