Silver Dollar City (SDC) Discussion Thread

[tinaalsgirl]

Exclusively everywhere. I have a lot of pain I deal with from fibromyalgia, and the Crocs support my feet better than any other shoes I've worn. I couldn't even tell you the last time I wore a pair of sneakers.

[prozach626]

Have you tried to go to a dedicated running/athletic shoe store? I get sore arches when I run, which bleeds over into normal walking if I push myself too hard. Spending $150 for a pair of shoes once seemed crazy to me, until I realized how much better I walk, run, and exercise in them.

[sdcfan88]

It's fun at the moment. After that, you have to walk around with swamp ass and blistering soggy shoes.

Obviously appropriate dress is helpful. Shoes that won't get/stay soggy, pants & shirts that dry quickly.

 

Does SDC have a dryer nearby? DW has one near the rapids ride and (I think) the log flume. They had one near the water battle too.

 

 

Here is a pic of the dryers right by the entrance I took earlier this year.

[prozach626]

Word. I saw those, but it's going to take a lot of wind to dry off and get the shoes. It's just not worth the trouble for me.

[teacherkim]

For water rides you can also wear hiking type sandals, they are waterproof and comfortable or water tennis shoes that are designed to be worn without socks and are water proof. Yes, they exist just google them. And if you don't want Zach's all day swamp ass you can also buy water shorts......look like shorts but made out of swimsuit material. Lands End has them for women, men, and kids. Although you do sacrifice getting as many pockets as say cargo shorts. I wear my "water gear" for water ride heavy parks.

 

Of course this is for people who really want to ride the water rides, just not worth it to some.

[DBru]

My recent trip to SDC/Mystic River Falls experience has convinced me to get some Chacos before heading to Orlando next month. They’re supposed to be really comfy and only somewhat ugly.

[Nrthwnd]

^ My only concern is those who insist on wearing gawd-knows-the-height in high heels in any park! Eep.

 

Any of the Klassy Kruise line patrons we know and love, I just can't figure out,

when it comes to comfortable clothing and shoes to wear to these parks.....WHY?

 

My 4-3/4 cents.

[prozach626]

just not worth it to some.

[teacherkim]

I get it! Just putting my 2 cents in, lol.

[Chiselphane]

We visited this past weekend for the Harvest Festival.   We had a good but not great time.  Good because the park decorations are beautiful, the weather was great (although a bit hot), and riding at night is just wonderful at SDC.   Not great because, similar to my Spring visit, people's behavior is AWFUL.  If anything it's gotten much worse than Spring.   Next to no mask enforcement, you need one to get in but once inside the park then pretty much nothing.  And forget social distancing, almost every ride we went on people were just flat out ignoring the spacing markers and one group actually got belligerent with us when we politely asked for some room.  We were planning on a Christmas lights visit as well but are now reconsidering. Just very wearying having to deal with such disrespect towards the park and other guests.

The park had a rough weekend for ride operations as well, pretty much every big ride was down at some point and Time Traveler flat out broke Saturday night and didn't reopen on Sunday (at least not before 6 when we left).  This as you might imagine led to pretty hefty wait times as once one or more ride went down, everyone would flock to the ones still running. Mystic River Falls got up to 3.5 hours on Sunday!  The wait time estimator was pretty much useless because of this, other than being able to determine whether a ride was open at the moment or not.  

I don't want this to sound TOO negative, we had fun despite all of this.  But the confluence of behavior and operations trouble was disappointing. 

Both Sat and Sun were very foggy in the morning, Wildfire in particular was amazing to ride in that condition.

I think everyone takes a picture of this one

Subtle reminder that yes, there are pumpkins here

The jackolanterns are the stars of the show but I like the simple yet effective way they light the trees themselves.

[Chiselphane]

After some back and forth we decided to visit one last time for the year for Christmas in the park, and glad we did! We went on Sat 11/14 and had a wonderful time overall.
Crowds were pretty low despite reservations theoretically filling up; I say theoretically because they weren't even checking reservations on park entry.  I suspect the weather kept a bunch of people away, it was a little rainy in the AM, cleared up during the day, but we finished the night literally fleeing the park due to a tornado warning.  Riding the parking tram while sirens were going off and my umbrella being destroyed by wind was an experience I won't soon forget.

As said it wasn't terribly busy and I noticed a marked improvement in mask wearing, but line distancing was still the hit-or-miss-mostly-miss it's been the whole year.  Not much waiting; Fire in the Hole had a bit of a line early on due to it being the only thing running during the rain.  Rides were working much better than our previous visit with hardly any down time anywhere.  They did seem to be having some electrical trouble though, some trees were out and most notably the big centerpiece tree had lots of dark sections on it (see pic below).   Some of the holiday booths never opened either which was a bit of a downer, but wassail was open so I was happy.

 

 

[xVicesAndVirtues]

^Nice report! I was there this past weekend as well and the storm/possible tornado on Saturday night about an hour after closing ripped the roof off the station at Wildfire and also did quite a bit of damage from the exit/observation deck platform as well, all according to the ride op manning the entrance, which was caution-taped off all day on Sunday. He said something about it ripping a hole in the water tower too, but I didn't realize they have a water tower there.

The good news is that they already have people working on it and they expect the repairs to be done some time by next week.

[LegendLover]

So what do we think about the supposed land clearing behind Fireman's Landing and Mystic River Falls? Do we think it'll be a new roller coaster or a new park area, or is it just part of internal park improvements? 

[tinaalsgirl]

It's an expansion for Pumpkin Nights. They've got a concept art map here: https://www.silverdollarcity.com/theme-park/Festivals/Harvest-Festival

[Jaykethekid]

I believe the area in question is behind and left of Fireman's landing. It's wedged between Fireman's landing, lake Silver, the train's roundhouse, and the park's Maintenance and Construction buildings. I haven't seen the clearing personally, but I attached a rough sketch of what I believe the clearing might look like.

It appears that this isn't part of the Pumpkin Nights expansion as the park shows the event now extends into Mystic River Fall's plaza area. Assuming that this clearing isn't simply an expansion of the park's M&C area (which I feel is the most likely situation at the moment), seeing that it's decently compact clearing, I don't see this being any huge new addition like a coaster. If it does end up being a new attraction, I wouldn't be surprised if it's some tower ride like Dropline at Dollywood. Though, it would be kinda odd to have a high thrill ride like that placed in a children's / family area. Maybe this could end up being the rumored new dark ride intended to take the place of Flooded Mine and Fire in The Hole? It's way too early to know at this point, just thinking out loud... Only time will tell.

[tinaalsgirl]

Ah, yeah, okay. I see it now. Wasn't sure exactly what area was being talked about and had gotten the email about expanding Pumpkin Nights, so just assumed. Thanks for clearing it up for us!

[Bradley Klouzek]

13 hours ago, Jaykethekid said:

I believe the area in question is behind and left of Fireman's landing. It's wedged between Fireman's landing, lake Silver, the train's roundhouse, and the park's Maintenance and Construction buildings. I haven't seen the clearing personally, but I attached a rough sketch of what I believe the clearing might look like.

It appears that this isn't part of the Pumpkin Nights expansion as the park shows the event now extends into Mystic River Fall's plaza area. Assuming that this clearing isn't simply an expansion of the park's M&C area (which I feel is the most likely situation at the moment), seeing that it's decently compact clearing, I don't see this being any huge new addition like a coaster. If it does end up being a new attraction, I wouldn't be surprised if it's some tower ride like Dropline at Dollywood. Though, it would be kinda odd to have a high thrill ride like that placed in a children's / family area. Maybe this could end up being the rumored new dark ride intended to take the place of Flooded Mine and Fire in The Hole? It's way too early to know at this point, just thinking out loud... Only time will tell.

They could end up finally making a roundhouse that is actually round for the trains, knowing that they've expanded their fleet of locomotives recently.

[LegendLover]

Looking at the plot of land, I almost like the idea of a dark ride there. It is so close to the maintenance area that I wouldn't want to have a tall ride that would put that area in full view for the guests. Though I have always wanted to see a vertical swing attraction at Silver Dollar City. 

I feel like it will probably be just an expansion of the maintenance area. However, if it was a ride, I'd like to see it be a dark ride/indoor coaster or maybe some kind of thrill ride. Like I would love to see some sort of frisbee ride at the park.   

[Jaykethekid]

1 hour ago, LegendLover said:

Looking at the plot of land, I almost like the idea of a dark ride there. It is so close to the maintenance area that I wouldn't want to have a tall ride that would put that area in full view for the guests. Though I have always wanted to see a vertical swing attraction at Silver Dollar City. 

I feel like it will probably be just an expansion of the maintenance area. However, if it was a ride, I'd like to see it be a dark ride/indoor coaster or maybe some kind of thrill ride. Like I would love to see some sort of frisbee ride at the park.   

I've always been quite fond of adding a tower ride like Texas SkyScreamer to the park somewhere between Wildfire and Powder Keg. The views from that would be simply breathtaking. And with the lattice style design of the tower, they could easily give it a mechanical theme and tie it in with Wildfire. They could say that it's one of Dr. Horatio Harris's new inventions or something similar. 

[sdcfan88]

5 hours ago, LegendLover said:

Looking at the plot of land, I almost like the idea of a dark ride there. It is so close to the maintenance area that I wouldn't want to have a tall ride that would put that area in full view for the guests. Though I have always wanted to see a vertical swing attraction at Silver Dollar City. 

I feel like it will probably be just an expansion of the maintenance area. However, if it was a ride, I'd like to see it be a dark ride/indoor coaster or maybe some kind of thrill ride. Like I would love to see some sort of frisbee ride at the park.   

One of the theory's out of the speculation and rumor mill about the fate of Fire In The Hole would that it would actually be moved and rebuilt in some fashion over there to tie it into the Fireman's theme already present at Fireman's Landing. That plot of land could fit it when you overlay the structure.

Another rumor to go with this is the old train station would then be demo'd and relocated as a larger version in FITH's current plot of land to accommodate the larger park crowds at Christmas.

[boldikus]

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

[sdcfan88]

23 minutes ago, boldikus said:

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

If this does come to pass it will be a modernization like what was done with Lost River becoming Mystic River Falls. They let the current ride/structure deteriorate to the point where some are saying its beyond saving in its current form where doing what Dollywood did with their younger version (AKA Blazing Fury) which was a retrack and other refurbishments is moot in this case.

[Jaykethekid]

24 minutes ago, boldikus said:

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

"Move" may not be the best way to word it. "Build a new version of it" is a better way to describe it.  Think of what Mystic River Falls is to Lost River. More than likely, it would be a completely different ride, but with a similar theme. And putting a Firefighting themed ride in Fireman's Landing makes more sense than having it plopped down in the middle of the city. 

 

*edit* sdcfan88 beat me to it

[DBru]

21 hours ago, sdcfan88 said:

Another rumor to go with this is the old train station would then be demo'd and relocated as a larger version in FITH's current plot of land to accommodate the larger park crowds at Christmas.

The train station was definitely a mess last summer, even on a day with moderately light crowds. Of course things were being handled a bit differently due to covid procedures, but the station was cramped and unorganized and the line extended way out into the midway and up the hill, causing lots of congestion and confusion.

All of this to say... I revamped train station would definitely be welcomed.

[coastercrazy216]

So with everything happening to Lightning Rod, how is Outlaw Run doing? Is it tracking well? Any issues with it? I rode it the first and second year of operation and thought it was absolutely amazing, but I wasn't sure if it had started to show its age?