Chiselphane

My youngest and I visited UO and IAl from 2/12 to 2/15, staying yet again at Cabana Bay. About half of my visits to the parks have been in February and it was a great time to visit, but that may no longer be the case. The 13th and 14th were extremely busy, I'd say the 13th rivaled summer crowds to the point I bought Express passes for the first time I've ever been visiting the parks. The 14th was a bit better but definitely not low crowds, and the morning of the 15th seemed similar. Apparently it quieted down later in the week so maybe just bad luck on my part but this was my son's birthday trip and it was a bit of a downer to be so crowded on his first trip to the park, although we made the best of it. Everything was running except Jurassic Park River Adventure since it's under refurbishment. Hagrid's never went below 80 minutes that we saw but Velocicoaster was surprisingly under 30 rather frequently and it's just as amazing as everyone has said. Most of my pictures are of my son, and most of the ones that he's not in are ones you've all seen a million times before, so just a small selection of things I found interesting: Since we almost always visit off season, I dont get to see the parks at night very often; they really do a wonderful job of lighting. Badgers! The water tunnel in Poseidon is still awesome, my son was in awe. Spiderman queue has such great stuff in it. One thing I discovered is the Express line goes through a couple unique rooms that you'd never see in the normal line, so that was pretty cool. Didn't take the sting off the extravagant (for us) expense but you take what you can get. Celestina and the Banshees bringing the fire as always. We also sat for the Three Brothers puppet show, just such a great story. Despite the business of the parks, we took time for Jurassic Playground. My son would have spent half a day just in there. A real plant finding purchase on the fake roots and rockwork. Life finds a way. Mardi Gras was in full swing. Secret evil avocados are best avocados. Most of the Simpsons area staff are actually really nice; one of the guys running the games was helping kids out, etc. My timing was just a second or two off but got this clip from the line of Pteranodon Flyers with both coasters hitting their high points at the same time. 20230215_081801.mp4

Nothing in the park for Valentines Day at least that I saw, although it was so freaking busy I might have missed something >< Will do a better report later

What's the hurry, they have to wait for the trees they planted to grow first. Locally sourced wood and all that

I like the concept of pre shows but the execution is almost always lacking, and most of the time the crowd talks over it anyways. Not that I expect rapt silence but you know what I mean. We'll be in the park a few days next week so I'm kind of glad it's running, I havent been since Hagrids or Velocicoaster have opened, so at least getting the 'full experience'. Does Universal do anything for Valentine's Day? I'd assume no since Mardi Gras stuff going on.

I think it comes down to being spoiled. The park is fantastic the vast majority of the time, so it stands out more when it falls a little short, compared to lesser parks where you expect a certain amount of disappointment. I hope I hadn't come across as down on the park; very much not the case. The only thing I viewed definitively as the park's fault is the food thing, it really sucks to wait 20+ minutes in line for nothing; they do have Sold Out signs/stickers because I've seen them used but they don't use them enough (and I told guest services as much). One small thing that again speaks to their attention to detail is they fixed the ghost trap! Little things like that just endear the park to me so much.

Went to the park yesterday. Temperature ended up not being a concern, it actually came close to 60 degrees in the afternoon, so 'everything' was running. In quotes because all of the coasters except for Wildfire had operating issues over the day; Time Traveler in particular was down a few times and the 2nd time was down for so long we weren't sure it was coming back. We ended up skipping a 2nd ride on it even so; they were running one train and even a short-ish line for that moves so slow. And the app was not showing any wait times until evening; even the few rides such as Outlaw Run that have wait time displays outside weren't working either. It did at least show operating status. Needless to say the park was very, VERY busy; the busiest I've ever seen it personally since normally I work to avoid busy days. We got parked in lot 76 and bussed over to the park itself, I've never had to park so far away before. It's funny because I was doing the usual plan of drive past SDC into Branson West, turning around and coming in that way, saves SO much time when there's traffic coming from Branson proper, but employees were trying to get people to turn into the 76 lot, with few takers, so we zipped right in. That saved us probably 20 minutes of car time if not more. Lot of the same things happening that really bothered me on our last visit though; once again food stands running out of food but you don't get to find that out until you're through the line, and with it so busy that line can be long and slow. That was probably the biggest frustration of the day, and I actually left the park hungry, which NEVER happens. We did have a good time nonetheless, the lights are magnificent as always. I particularly liked they stuck lights on the construction walls that are around the site of the fire. And they decorated that little shack that's out by Wildfire's old extended queue. Just reminds me how detail oriented the park is, like who would have even thought to bother to go out there and do that.

I think if it was an existing character, they wouldn't have held back on promoting it. The 3rd paragraph pretty clearly says it's a new character. It does seem a little weird not having a name though, might just be "The Conductor" etc

Pick 3, maybe 4 rides you def must go on, hit those and be thankful for anything above that. If you must do both parks then at least don't take the train, walk between them instead. Bring aspirin.

Hey Universal, we''re tired of rides where you just go around looking at screens, give us something new. "Ok, we took out the ride part of the experience."

Just checking on thoughts on visiting Feb 13-14. I think thats probably still relatively quiet in the parks but I havent been in a few years. My youngest turns 11 in January so we are continuing the tradition of bringing the kids to Hogwarts, since they start wizard school at 11 in the books.

We're planning a post-Xmas visit and yeah temps are a concern, although Thunderation staying open would be just fine for my youngest, he'd ride that all day. But that's just how our timing worked out so will make the best of it. Maybe doctoring up some wassail will help

Actually it's been the opposite. Premier has been slowly and quietly downgrading the City Museum (in my opinion, at least). Don't get me wrong, its still wonderful and amazing and literally one of my favorite places on earth. But there have been slides closed for years now, and one of my favorite slides is definitely not coming back (the one on the first floor where you hang from a bar and drop into the basement). The ball pits have been emptied. And they put up a map. A MAP I tell you. Bob is rolling in his grave. They've definitely added some great stuff too, but it feels like every time I visit, some little feature I used to adore has been taken away.

Some pretty good news about non-ride developments coming. Replacing the restaurant and furniture shop lost in the fire, student employee housing, and parking improvements. Particularly interesting to me is the Indian Ridge purchase; the site is an infamous abandoned development project where a bunch of McMansions were nearly-but-not-quite completed then left to rot. It used to be pretty wide open but local police have cracked down on trespassing the past few years, although you can still get a good view of it from Route 76 and even Google Street View. Its odd because the parcel is a pretty good distance away from the park, and its specifically not being used for the employee housing, so... ??? https://www.ky3.com/2022/10/25/silver-dollar-city-investing-30-million-employee-guest-parking-infrastructure-projects/

We had considered getting a pass and yeah it was intended for HITP, with the thought that OK since the pass is so cheap, we'll go see that and maybe use it at least one other time so it 'pays for itself'. Never did it though, I just don't enjoy the park enough to make the effort, its about an hour +45 min drive for us. Being closer would have made it more worthwhile though.

I'm truly sorry for your loss. We've never met but in your trip reports, your relationship with him always shone through, the care and love always evident.

I havent been to Story Land in 10 years since moving away from New England and it just warms my heart that it hasn't changed a bit. So many good memories

I love charming little parks like these. The tower of Pisa in the water park is a nice touch.

That would be why I had no idea, I only ever go in off season so I've never had to wait much if at all for Wildfire. I've only used that bubble machine thing in the queue once because I've never been in line long enough to get to it lol

No single rider entrances on anything.

Sad to hear Flooded Mine has slipped back into a sorry state, and so quickly too. Our last visit was late 2020 and it had been fixed up pretty well after being how you described it now for some time.

Not a lot of details yet but recent tragedy at the park. An employee in construction and maintenance has died on the job. https://www.kktv.com/2022/07/22/silver-dollar-city-employee-dies-after-incident-amusement-park/

Yogi's Dark Harvest: No More Rangers

I think she'd like feeding the fish at the Shepherd of the Hills fish hatchery. 9-5 but closed Sun & Mon, and need to bring your own quarters for fish food; we havent been in a few years but afaik they don't have change machines on site.

We stayed at Still Waters once and it was great, but overkill for us personally. There's a lot to do on the grounds for no extra fee but we are generally the 'just need a room' type. The biggest plus as far as SDC goes is as Tina said; being on Indian Pt road makes a huge difference getting into the park itself. Making it even easier is that Still Waters has a shuttle service to and from the park as well but make sure you check on the times it runs, I dont know their current policy but some resorts that provide this service don't always match the park hours.

When are you planning to go? I personally don't like SDC as much in high summer (with the admission I don't tolerate extreme heat very well so YMMV). There's a good amount of stuff for kids that age to do but there's not a lot of ways to cool off, couple that with a lot of walking including some pretty substantial hills that can be daunting. I asked Mrs Phane if she'd like walking while pregnant up Hugo's Hill Street and she had some rather impolite words for me, my goodness.