Branson Photo Trip Reprt

VegasCoaster · October 30, 2006

For fall break (all one day of it) my girlfriend and I went to Branson as its close, different, and cheaper than Chicago. We drove from St. Louis to Branson with relatively few incidents and arrived at the Branson Tourism Center / Gas station to buy see what they had show wise and buy some tickets. We wanted to see something amazingly hokey to fit the Branson atmosphere but Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede was sold out so we bought tickets to see the New Shanghai Circus. We also bought tickets to SDC here, which is a really good deal as you get a two day pass for the price of one day admission if you buy your tickets from them. Sweetness!

Right after trying to leave there my battery decided to die so we found a nice local who jumped our car so we could buy a new battery. After that good hour of fun we went to the outlet malls to see if there were any amazing deals and then headed to one of four of The Tracks in Branson (they're a go-kart place called The Track). We rode the lumberjack which is a large wooden go-kart track with somewhat slow karts which shake you to death (still not as bad as Psyclone). Soon after that we checked into our hotel and went to a Chinese Buffet before our show.

If you are in Branson I would highly reccomend the New Shanghai Circus as they do some amazing stuff. They had one act where one kid juggles this little kid with his feet, flipping him upside down while people jump between them. If I had a picture it would help describe this, but they weren't allowed.

Day 2:

This day was entirely devoted to SDC, which is an awesome park with a very friendly atmosphere. The park seems to have tried to save every tree they could as they are everywhere in the park giving it a nice atmosphere. Also the theming was impeccable compared to what I was expecting. The craftsmen really added to the atmosphere and the combination of all of this made it impossible to find anything in the park without a map since you can't see anything. After finding out that Powder Keg was closed we rode WildFire a few times and became amazingly confused after going on Fire in the Hole without knowing what a baldknobber was. We then made a really dumb move by going on American Plunge in October, which was fun but made me cold the rest of the day. While I really wanted to try some of the food from the huge skillets or the cheeseburger soup, my girlfriend is vegetarian and there weren't many veggie friendly places. Luckily funnel cakes are vegetarian so we downed a pumpkin spice funnel cake (wasn't around long enough to get a picture of it), which was delicious. It started to sprinkle so we headed home, stopping at a Mexican restaurant on the way back, but being from Tucson I wasn't too impressed, but it was decent.

That night we went to the Branson Landing which looks to be a brand new New-Urbanism condo complex with shops on the bottom and condos on top. As with Branson tradition they tried to be Vegas with a quasi Bellago-esque water/fire show, which was pretty cool.

Day 3:

Since we had two day passes to SDC we took advantage of that, and rode Powder Keg a few times, did a bit of credit whoring with the kiddie coaster, and rode some of the other rides we had skipped. I was really disoriented after Grandfather's Mansion which had some amazing effects in the bottom floor where we were literally running into walls without trying to (everything is built on an angle).

On the drive home we tried to stop at Lambert's (home of throwed rolls) but there was a 2 hour wait (about 4 times longer than anything in the park all weekend), so we ate at Olive Garden on the way home.

I hope you enjoyed the novel and the pictures to come!

VegasCoaster · October 30, 2006

Pictures!

They do have fire with their show though, so they do get some points for that one. Branson is kind of like Vegas but with morals, which doesn't seem to work as well.