Silver Dollar City (SDC) Discussion Thread

[ytterbiumanalyst]

On 12/13/2021 at 1:44 PM, Shavethewhales2 said:

Speaking of the apparent FITH replacement project, when I last visited a week ago, the site was compacted and it looks like most of the underground infrastructure they were burying earlier in the fall is complete? At least from what we can see. I hope that means they are getting closer to vertical construction once the park closes for the offseason in a couple weeks. 

Ooooh, I certainly hope so. I have loved FITH, but it's also gone to sh*t in the last few years, so I'm all in for this project. SDC has built some great dark rides in the past, and I'm really interested to see what they can do with dark ride technology younger than personal computers.

[mikeykaise]

This sounds like a story I heard on the news last night, the employees of the Candlemaker plant in Mayfield are hiring attorneys and are going to sue the company for not allowing them to leave when the storm hit, seriously an EF4 tornado is bearing down on you and you want to go outside, if the company let the employees leave there would have been more than the 8 unfortunate deaths from that company.

[Dan the Coaster Man]

I'm looking into a trip to visit the park on Friday April 8th and am getting ahead of myself for planning.

There are no prices for 2022 tickets besides season passes. Does anyone have an idea how much a ticket might run that day?

Will Mystic River Falls be running, weather wise?

I'd love to do the Marvel Cave tour. I see it takes about an hour. Does anyone have any advice for doing this while sacrificing the least amount of park time? For example, do any tours start before park opening? Is it smart to start the day in the park, then do the cave in the middle of the day when lines pick up (I wouldn't expect lines on this day though, right?), and then go back in the park?

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Mystic River Falls will be running. SDC has all of their water rides open on opening day and runs them through the end of October, unless temperatures go below freezing (very rare here).

 

Do the cave tour in the afternoon. The last tour is 1.5 hours before park close. You're better off running to coasters, then doing the cave later in the day, then finishing up with re-rides. You don't have to leave the park to do the cave tour.

 

Sorry, I've literally never bought a one-day ticket, just season passes for three decades, so I have no idea what they charge. 

[Chiselphane]

One thing to keep in mind about the cave is while the tour itself takes an hour, you generally want to get in line 15 minutes earlier than the posted tour time, and probably more like 30 if the park is busy, because they have a group size limit, I want to say its in the mid 20s.  It can be a pain to schlep back to the front of the park just to find the tour's already full for that time. 

You could spring extra for the last tour of the day, which is an upcharge but you go through with handheld lanterns instead of the built-in lighting and you go into areas of the cave beyond the normal tour route.  Doing so reserves your spot in that tour.  HIGHLY recommended if your schedule allows for it.

[PKI Jizzman]

When we visited in October we did the lantern tour and it's absolutely worth it, although, it ran long and ate into night time rides.

Maybe it was because it was an incredibly busy day, but the staff was taking reservations for regular cave tours if there was an opening, I believe they just charged an extra buck or two. So you could stop by first thing in the morning and ask. Not sure how often they do reservations outside of the lantern tour.

[Shavethewhales2]

Mystic River has the most downtime of any ride in the park, so while it may be technically open for the season, getting a ride on it is a challenge. Your best bet is to head to it first, but it doesn't always open with the park, so you just have to scope it out and see. Then you have to watch the app and see when it opens, because usually it will fill up with a 2 hour wait pretty quick. It'll probably be chilly in early April, so that my help with the line size. 

I'll be curious to see if any further modifications have been made to it this year. It has been such a challenge for them. It was supposed to have higher throughput than the ride it replaced, but obviously that has not been the case. I'd be surprised if it even has a quarter the capacity that the old Lost River had. They've also had to modify the drop several times since the boats keep getting stuck. Guests also report a high rate of injury on the ride somehow... It's getting to the point that I wonder if this will be another Buzzsaw Falls. Wouldn't surprise me if they do away with the drop as we know it and re-route the channel in various ways within the next few years. 

[Dan the Coaster Man]

Thanks for all the information! I didn’t even know about the lantern tour, I’ll keep that in mind. 

[prozach626]

On 12/12/2021 at 2:50 PM, tndank said:

People can make their own decisions.  

 

How dare you sir. How dare you.

[teacherkim]

18 hours ago, Dan the Coaster Man said:

Thanks for all the information! I didn’t even know about the lantern tour, I’ll keep that in mind. 

Keep an eye on the website. During Christmas you could buy the lantern tour on line ahead of time. Not sure if that is always a thing or just during Christmas when it is super busy.

[VegasBaby]

On 1/13/2022 at 9:01 AM, Shavethewhales2 said:

Mystic River has the most downtime of any ride in the park, so while it may be technically open for the season, getting a ride on it is a challenge. Your best bet is to head to it first, but it doesn't always open with the park, so you just have to scope it out and see. Then you have to watch the app and see when it opens, because usually it will fill up with a 2 hour wait pretty quick. It'll probably be chilly in early April, so that my help with the line size. 

I'll be curious to see if any further modifications have been made to it this year. It has been such a challenge for them. It was supposed to have higher throughput than the ride it replaced, but obviously that has not been the case. I'd be surprised if it even has a quarter the capacity that the old Lost River had. They've also had to modify the drop several times since the boats keep getting stuck. Guests also report a high rate of injury on the ride somehow... It's getting to the point that I wonder if this will be another Buzzsaw Falls. Wouldn't surprise me if they do away with the drop as we know it and re-route the channel in various ways within the next few years. 

Seriously, we were in Branson for a week last summer and Mystic River was down both of the days we went to the park.  I was really looking forward to riding it and had no idea they were having so many issues with the ride.

[Rai Fox]

On 1/15/2022 at 5:29 PM, teacherkim said:

Keep an eye on the website. During Christmas you could buy the lantern tour on line ahead of time. Not sure if that is always a thing or just during Christmas when it is super busy.

I was able to do that back in August as well.  Absolutely do it if you can, even if it means taking a little time out of the rest of the park; it's an amazing cave tour.

[boyerracing69]

Does anyone know if the coasters have cubbies, in the station, at them to store bags, for when you ride?

[Chiselphane]

18 hours ago, boyerracing69 said:

Does anyone know if the coasters have cubbies, in the station, at them to store bags, for when you ride?

Yes, they do. 

[boyerracing69]

Thank you!

[swfan1988]

Looks like I'm finally going to make it to SDC this year, and I am REALLY looking forward to it. I enjoyed Dollywood, and at the very least it looks like Dollywood but better, so can't wait. Been doing some research but was wondering if I could get some advice from here!

I have a couple specific questions:

Does the front area with Marvel Cave really open an hour before the rest of the park? My thought was to hit the cave tour early during that initial hour and then go into the park when it opens.

Once the park opens, I was planning on going to Time Traveler and Thunderation first, and then working counter-clockwise from there, is that an ok plan of attack?

Most importanly...where do I find the cinnamon bread? Everyone talks about the Grist Mill at DW, but never heard where to get it at SDC...

 

Any additional advice that could be given would be really appreciated! Thanks in advance everyone!

[Rai Fox]

2 hours ago, swfan1988 said:

Looks like I'm finally going to make it to SDC this year, and I am REALLY looking forward to it. I enjoyed Dollywood, and at the very least it looks like Dollywood but better, so can't wait. Been doing some research but was wondering if I could get some advice from here!

I have a couple specific questions:

Does the front area with Marvel Cave really open an hour before the rest of the park? My thought was to hit the cave tour early during that initial hour and then go into the park when it opens.

Once the park opens, I was planning on going to Time Traveler and Thunderation first, and then working counter-clockwise from there, is that an ok plan of attack?

Most importanly...where do I find the cinnamon bread? Everyone talks about the Grist Mill at DW, but never heard where to get it at SDC...

 

Any additional advice that could be given would be really appreciated! Thanks in advance everyone!

1 - I believe that's still the case, but if you're interested in the cave tour, consider doing the lanternlight tour they offer at night.  It's an extra ticket, but not expensive; I think it was $15.  It's much more fun to see the cave that way, and you get to go into places the normal tour doesn't as well.  I absolutely loved it.

2- That's what I did last summer, and it worked  out just fine!

3- It's near the entrance to Mystic River Falls, sort of diagonally across the main path there.  Very hard to miss.  (Which is good, you should never ever miss the cinnamon bread...)

Other advice...I'm sure you're already planning on it but do NOT miss Outlaw Run at night.  It's okay during the day.  At night, though, /wow/.

[tinaalsgirl]

Warning: if you go counter-clockwise, be prepared to huff and puff up Hugo's Hill Street (aka "Cardiac Hill" as many like to call it). You can avoid the worst of the hill by going past American Plunge and next to the Knife and Leather shops.

[tndank]

I finally got to SDC last week. I've wanted to ride Fire In Hole for 35+ years. Had to do it before they rebuilt it. Also wanted to do Flooded Mine since it had been 20+ years since I rode it at Dollywood.

SDC is incredible. Top tier park. Time Traveler is crazy but the back car is nuts out of the station. Can't wait to go back. Did the regular and latern cave tours a couple hours apart. Both guides were so good. 

[prozach626]

It's a hill...

[Chiselphane]

15 hours ago, swfan1988 said:

Looks like I'm finally going to make it to SDC this year, and I am REALLY looking forward to it. I enjoyed Dollywood, and at the very least it looks like Dollywood but better, so can't wait. Been doing some research but was wondering if I could get some advice from here!

I have a couple specific questions:

Does the front area with Marvel Cave really open an hour before the rest of the park? My thought was to hit the cave tour early during that initial hour and then go into the park when it opens.

Once the park opens, I was planning on going to Time Traveler and Thunderation first, and then working counter-clockwise from there, is that an ok plan of attack?

Most importanly...where do I find the cinnamon bread? Everyone talks about the Grist Mill at DW, but never heard where to get it at SDC...

 

Any additional advice that could be given would be really appreciated! Thanks in advance everyone!

1.  The area does but keep in mind that doesn't guarantee mean the cave tour itself will be running at that point.  I dont know if you can definitively find out ahead of time;  calling the day before might work? But yes absolutely spring for the lantern tour if your schedule allows.

2.  Personally I usually hit Powder Keg first thing because A: it almost always will go down at least once during the day and B: it tends to get very long and slow moving lines, at least in part due to A because a good chunk will just sit in line til it's running again.   A big caveat though is it isn't always up and running by the time the park's open, so that approach can really backfire on busy days.     Your plan is fine though.  Hit the swinging bridge on the way to TT!

3.  If you want to ride Mystic River Falls, earlier is better.  That line gets big even in off season; during the height of summer? No thanks! 

[DJ_Sillybootz]

I'm heading to Branson with my pregnant wife, 4yr old, and 3 yr old. Is going to sdc worth it with them? Or should I just plan a day trip? Do y'all have any other Branson recommendations? TIA

[Chiselphane]

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.

 

[DJ_Sillybootz]

44 minutes ago, Chiselphane said:

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.

 

End of August... So yeah, it's gonna be hot! 

[KBrylczyk]

1 hour ago, DJ_Sillybootz said:

Do y'all have any other Branson recommendations? TIA

Not really but last time I was there they had a brand new Cici's Pizza and it was apparently THE place to be in Branson that week.  Every time we passed the place there was a line wrapped around the building.  I'm not exaggerating.

So, yeah, Branson has tons of things to do like SDC, Cici's, and your pick of the cheapest, most washed-up, has-been entertainment this country has to offer!

Edit - I mean seriously, look at this crap - https://www.branson.com/theaters/