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Ok then! I was wondering if I was going to have to put the two of you in detention..........

It’s hilarious that everyone on the internet is worried because they’re going to have a structural engineer make sure the ride isn’t on the verge of collapse before they reopen it and EVERYONE knows that’s a pretty lofty standard for this thing.

It has been so long baby!

I just saw that you can now buy Timesaver online and just scan your phone at rides rather than having to go to the Timesaver building if you don’t want to. Is that new? It’s awesome and I don’t think I’ve seen another park offer that (though they probably do and I just don’t know about it).

Got an e-mail from SDC today about them now having a Gold Pass. It's got some very tantalizing benefits. Unlimited Visits To Silver Dollar City Unlimited Visits To White Water FIRST TIME EVER: 1 BONUS Free Any Date Bring-A-Friend Ticket To Silver Dollar City One 2021 Refill Mug Good For Reduced Price Drinks FIRST TIME EVER: 20% Off Full-Price Food & Beverage 50% Off 1 Full-Price Ticket Per Day At Silver Dollar City or White Water 25% Off Silver Dollar City Preferred Parking Pass (Limited Qty. Available) 25% Off Premium On-Park Experiences at Silver Dollar City & White Water $30 +tax Showboat Branson Belle Cruise, Meal & Show Tickets https://www.silverdollarcity.com/Tickets/Season-Passes/Gold-Pass

Yeah, I'm expecting a shitshow. Hopefully people are just happy to get what they get for the first few weeks because the trade-off is waiting another month. For example: if someone shows up with a stupid refillable drink cup and complains on here that it took 45 minutes to fill it or something like that I'm just warning you now that I'm going to laugh at you. ...hard

Yes, the area is good to a few people, and that's the hallmark of the growth around there. You pointed out the rise in average wages, but I would submit that the average wages are not telling the whole story. A few exceptional blue collar jobs that can match the exceptional white collar jobs don't really help to tell the whole story here. For that, we need to look at the median income in addition to the average income. Arkansas is second to last in median income, behind only Mississippi.1 A rise in average income without a corresponding rise in median income means a small number of people are making substantially more than the vast majority. A population base who are all making near minimum wage is not the base you want for a theme park. You need a strong middle class with disposable income for that. Walmarton isn't creating a strong middle class; they're elevating wages for upper middle earners while leaving working class wages stagnant. As to your other point about the airline, in theory that's what will likely benefit the park more. Branson has always depended on out of state tourists, and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon. I wish them luck, but I've seen several ultra low cost carriers come and go from BKG and SGF, so count me skeptical that one flying out of XNA will be more successful.

Definitely.

"[T]he Benton County wage increase can be tied to a surge in professional services jobs that include engineers, lawyers and some technology-related occupations. Those jobs tend to be high-paying positions." Yeah, your average Arkansawyer isn't seeing any of that money. As always, when you look under the surface, a few people benefit and everyone else gets the scraps. So sure, SDC might see a few passholders among those professionals, but wouldn't it be better if wages were increased for the vast majority of Missourians and Arkansawyers so that a greater number of people could afford to go to the park? A rising tide lifts the boats, sure, but it doesn't do a whole lot for the people who are clinging to driftwood.

@teacherkim we good. . like adults, we chatted about it via message. (at least I think we good) , right Zach?

I’m legitimately just really happy for you guys after waiting so long. Have a great time.

Bert, Zach..............play nice, I already broke up one fight at school today and most amazing of all somehow my mask stayed on even though I got a glancing blow to the head for my trouble. Thankfully they were two kind of small, wimpy kids. It does make way more sense to me to have the plexiglass between the station rows and not worry so much about spacing people out on the coaster. Vaccinations are ramping up quickly now, most teachers are getting a chance in the next week. I get my first shot tomorrow. Will be really interesting to see how restrictions change/evolve over the next couple of months.

I think that's one of the reasons this year they are going with a season pass "with parking benefits", instead of GOLD season pass, because people assumed gold season pass was the same as Gold (+plus) membership, when they are very different things.

I do not think it will happen this year, because we would have heard by now Also, news:

Looks like DW will be open Mon-Wed-Fri-Sat-Sun throughout April, so I would go on a Monday or Wednesday in mid to late April. Spring breaks should be over by then and no schools will be out yet.

Glad you finally got to go to Texas! It's a great park, despite the idiotic membership/season pass stuff. I believe I posted on here a while back about SFStL denying us benefits of a Gold membership when we had a Gold season pass, even though they had signs that said both were good for it. Six Flags still has yet to figure out the membership model. Overall I like it, but they just have to get it together chainwide.

That sounds like a great day to me. Good work!

At least it sounds like they'll open Alpengeist if the park gets busy. I'm deliberately going to visit on an upcoming Saturday to see if I get lucky. Otherwise I'll keep eating pretzels and plunging 200 feet on Apollo and Griffon.

No random regional park in Pennsylvania is going to put a bunch of different size drop towers right next to eachother, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Please don't be ridiculous.

I think Dorney should buy it, put it right next to Demon Drop, and open some kind of f*cked up living Intamin Tower museum. That would get me to visit Dorney like once a week.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Busch Gardens Begorrah! It's almost St. Paddy's Day and the wee folk be on the loose at Busch Gardens, looking for their Lucky Charms, drinking green beer, and scarfing down corned beef. Wait--that's just the guests at another BGW special limited-attendance event, although you might spy a few leprechauns if you look carefully. This marks the first time that the entire park has been open since. well, 2019. That's not to say that everything's running. The water rides remain closed, but you can ride all the coasters, except for Loch Ness Monster and Tempesto. My understanding was that Alpengiest was to be closed, too, but it was running last Saturday with both trains. No Skyway or Rhine River Cruise, though. The Smokehouse is still closed, but the Brauhaus in the Festhaus is back in business--yay for beer and German meatballs! If you want green beer, corned beef and cabbage, and bangers and colcannon, Grogan's is the place to go. But if you want your photo with Clancy the Leprechaun, you'll have to walk to France. It looks the park has been doing some work on Pantheon. One train (covered with a tarp) was on the track, and the other was in the barn. I haven't heard whether they've done any testing, but there's been some more painting and other "finish" work on the station and queue since last October. It's projected to open this year. For now, we'll have to content ourselves with views from the Apollo's Chariot lift hill, Verbolten's covered bridge, the top of Griffon, and the train. Let's look for leprechauns and beer, shall we? I think Bill and Brit are around here somewhere, too. You just might see a few of the photos they tagged me in on Facebook here. Welcome to Busch Gardens . . . who the hell is that looking over my shoulder? Everything is green from Big Ben . . . . . . to the traditional tree balls of Italy. Pantheon sees you shiver with an . . . . . . tici . . . . . . pation. But Apollo’s Chariot is open. Let’s start there. Sheesh! They’ll let anyone in here. “Aye, they will, me bucko!” N-o-o-o-o-o-o-o . . . A leprechaun in lederhosen? Has the world gone stark raving mad? Look at all these hopeless drunks lining up for beer before noon! Well, when in the Festhaus . . . What excites Bill almost as much at the Brauhaus being open again? Good guess. Here’s a good spot if you want to see a bit more of . . . . . . Pantheon. Sigh! Opening this year, I hope. This ride has some crazy airtime potential. Meanwhile, back at St. Paddy’s Day Central HQ . . . That’s the biggest freakin’ leprechaun I’ve ever seen. If you’re in Ireland, you must have either green Bud Light or Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale with bangers and colcannon. It’s the law (at least until March 17). “When Irish wolves are smiling, they’re about to eat your leg.” With colcannon, no doubt. “I’ll swallow your soul, begorrah!" All in all, a very nice day with great company at Busch Gardens--just watch out for soul-sucking leprechauns.

Here's the thing with Outlaw Run that Lightning Rod isn't lucky enough to have. Outlaw Run's track issues aren't preventing it from running. It's incredibly reliable and doesn't seem to experience many extended periods of downtime. Sure, it has potholes and isn't perfectly smooth, but it isn't literally broken like lightning rod. So what would happen if they poured the money into giving the ride I-box track? A few enthusiasts might think of the ride slightly better? Most of SDC's guests would still find the ride to be too aggressive for their likings, so there wouldn't be an improvement in ridership numbers. It wouldn't improve the ride's reliability since it's operating smoothly most of the time. There wouldn't be anything to make that expense worthwhile in HFE's eyes. It seems as of late that whatever they invest in must have some sort of ROI or improve ridership somehow. Converting Outlaw Run likely wouldn't do either of those things. It's also worth mentioning that if the park won't even attempt to fix the two massive jolts in Thunderation's tunnel that arose a few years ago, then they likely won't be interested in extensively retracking Outlaw Run because it's slightly rough in spots.

What possible financial gain would this park get from moving that entire ride to another section of the park?

Remember the lady who married 1001 Nachts? Well now there's Lady falls in love with a ride....The Movie!