Leaderboard
Popular Content
Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/22/2025 in Posts
-
We were at the park all day 4/16 and part of the day 4/17. The Friday was the park's 50th birthday and my son's 22nd birthday so it was fun to have the fireworks and special atmosphere. Had not been to there for about 3 years so first time on Darkoaster and Nessie with the enhancements. Darkoaster is kitschy in a fun way and the theming is well done. The retracking on Nessie was noticeable and appreciated, I liked the added screens in the tunnel but I'm guessing some purists will view it as an unwelcome alteration. The giant Nessie is a bit over the top and was definitely bigger than I was expecting. The new BBW was available for passholders but we did get ert on it Sat morning before park open. Just like most of the other new gen family inverts it's butter smooth with a nice layout. Just as fun it has a creative story line, fun trains, and very well done theming throughout the ride. I never rode the original so not sure how the people that have apparently never forgiven the park for taking it out feel, but I thought the new coaster to be a great addition to the park and will probably take some crowd pressure off of Invadr for all those looking for a slightly tamer experience. Verbolten very very dead. I mean cobwebs growing over the entrance dead. Everything else open without any noticeable downtime. The log flume was out of action both days but there were employees on site messing with it. Griffon, Appollo's Chariot, and Pantheon still probably my favorites and was able to get night ride's on AC and Pantheon which we had never had before so that was fun. The food festival was great! We tried several booths, everything was pretty good and there was a good variety. To honor the 50th they were selling 75 cent beers on Friday and while it doesn't affect me because I don't like beer, it was obviously very popular with the masses. Sorry I didn't partake so I cannot tell you if there was a limit or the size of each, etc2 points
-
We were at the park last weekend and got a couple rides in on Rapterra. While it's not a blow me away top ten coaster, it is a solid addition to the lineup. Well themed and creative that they got it packed into a relatively small footprint. In my opinion worth a wait if you are already at the park, not necessarily worth a trip for it alone. Still no action at Pantherian. Timbers running well but of course only if you appreciate the typical ejector air of an RMC. I actually thought the star was Grizzly. That thing is running really really great after all the retracking. I was actually quite surprised at how smooth it is right now.2 points
-
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.1 point