Shavethewhales Posted August 3, 2010 Posted August 3, 2010 This is more of a park update than a TR as I tend to forget exactly when I did what, but here's the rundown: We got in about 4 o'clock on Saturday, and I headed for Cowboy Jepp's where I meet up for a friend from the SDC fansite. Then I went down to check out the new River Blast. Wow, they really did do a great job with this thing! I have little to say about it except that it's awesome all the way around! I thought it would be something that I'd do once and pass up from now on, but after riding it I'd say it's definitely a must-do for hot days. The atmosphere surrounding this ride is astounding; it was good to hear people exclaim how nice it looked. All that having been said though, I still think the loss of Splash Harbor is a real shame... but this will make up for it I guess. After that I went over to see what was left of the Waterboggin. I can't believe how many trees are in the area - they'll really have to log the place if they're going to put something else there. They did a great job of hiding it all too - it's hard to tell there used to be something there. I didn't actually notice much KidsFest stuff going on. It seems like it has been much more muted this year due to the 50th celebration. Once you got off of main square there were no signs of it anywhere - although seeing Spongebob and Patrick show up to meet people at the wagon stage was a little surreal. The rest of the day I ran around and hit up all the coasters. PK actually does eat people with all three trains running. I waited all the way through the queue a couple of times and I'm pretty sure it took less than a half hour each time. Wildfire is still a great, smooth, reliable, crowd-eating machine. FITH's new scenes and additions are awesome and really make the ride pop again - I just wish they could smooth out the drops. It felt like the back car was trying to jump the tracks on the bridge drop. ThuNderaTion actually held some massive lines, even with two train ops. That's why it surprised me so much that they went down to one train ops for MM! The queue stretched all the way out of the tunnel underneath the first drop and was moving ever so slowly that night. Not good for people who were new to the park and expected more of a ride... The park after dark wasn't much to shout about. It was so crowded I basically just walked around for two hours and looked at everything. I didn't mind the music so much since so much was closed and it was only noticeable in the queue lines for some of the rides anyway. There were 20,500 people in the park that day, according to the bus driver on Sunday night. Sunday was much better. I got the folks to hit up the Saloon show with me first thing, which I thought was spectacular all around. Then we hit up the train, then the flooded mine, then the buffet at the mine restaurant. We did all this in a little over a couple of hours without hardly waiting for anything except the saloon show. I spent the rest of the day riding stuff, without having to wait too much for anything. Once the sun dropped down I expected the crowds to swell again, so I took advantage of some of the special MM offers - buy one get one peanut brittle and $2 root beer floats, and I picked up the free hat with t-shirt purchase deal on the way out. The crowds didn't actually swell too much that night, but PK ended up closing early, so I just rode Wildfire over and over again in the dark. It's nice to be able to do that without catching a cold. I came by myself for a few hours this morning (Monday) and was a little less entertained initially. At rope drop I headed straight for PK - closed all day. FITH wasn't opened yet either, so I walked to TGS and found it closed as well. Not wanting to ride Wildfire anymore at the time, I opted to take the cave tour, which was pretty neat as always. With PK down, some of the lines at the other rides were a bit larger, so I just rode Wildfire a few more times and then hit up TGS for one last ride. TGS is actually a pretty good people-eater when both sides are running, but with only run arm the line kind of inches along. Luckily, being a single rider pretty much lets you skip the entire last stretch of the queue. So all in all, it was one of the better trips I've had to the city in a long time. (I took over 100 photos, so I'm trying to go through them all and figure out which ones are best to post, might take a few posts) The coasters are a lot more visible from outside the park these days. And did I mention how awesome SDC's FREE parking and shuttle service is? Welcome to SDC's 50th anniversary! I'm glad they made a big deal about it. There was a theme song for the park and everything. After meeting up with a friend from the fansite, I had to make a beeline for the new Splash Battle, as I hadn't seen it in person yet. They did a great job. This ride makes up for the loss of Splash Harbor and the loss of some of the old Tom and Huck attractions at the same time. It's pretty neat how it brings everyone together to play Underneath the 'tree house' that holds a few water cannons Bleh. I miss when you stepped into the park and instantly felt like you had stepped back in time. Time to cool down with some strawberries and cream. This is very good and only cost a little over $5, if I recall. Add this view of the park's waterfall for complete success On the subject of food, this water wheel is still in actual use... ... turning this shaft and belt... ... which drives all this... ... and somehow you end up with this at some point. Back to the rides, PK was running great while it was up. It seemed to suffer from some persistent break downs on Saturday and Sunday, then it went down completely on Monday. This is where you would be launched, but it broke down again as I was taking photos, so I didn't catch one being launched More photos to come
Shavethewhales Posted August 3, 2010 Author Posted August 3, 2010 Here's another batch of photos The "lake" is a little sparser without Splash Harbor. I doesn't look like anything can fit in it's old spot, but who knows... The train ride is still great. They seemed to be doing a better job with the holdup skit, but the audio on the train still leaves much to be desired. Here's the glassblower doing his thing Definitely make sure you catch the saloon show, it's pretty great. The American Plunge is still... plunging I feel like a lot of people don't realize how massive Wildfire is It's big. The drop is 150ft though it doesn't look that high because it dogs up a hill a little ways. The park could add a hyper off of this hill so easily... The view from the top on a clear day is pretty incredible Furniture making The sign in the foreground talks about how the church was built around 1849 and was dismantled piece by piece a hundred years later and brought here I don't know if this was moved here or whether it was here all along Did I mention the MM deals? There are some pretty good ones $2 float! Even without the deals, food here isn't quite so expensive as other parks, and is much higher quality. I didn't eat at any of the big skillets this time, so I don't have any photos of that, but check out some of the other photo TR's if you don't know what I'm talking about Can't wait to see the Dollywood version! The barn facade makes this ride feel much cooler than the normal exposed versions Electro Spin... electro spinning Lots of people joining in the summer dance party. It really feels like they're trying to integrate Celebration City into this park, which I'm not terribly thrilled about Be sure to stop in here and pick up some apple butter. Once you start, you can never go back. Down in the cave Grand Expo rides - this is kind of the butt of the park, IMO. I remember the times when SDC didn't really have any out of the box rides and it felt much more special for that. Hopefully they'll work on this side of the park more someday soon Here's a water fall you pass by in the cave. Looking down hillstreet. Most of the park looks like this. Rugged, wooded, and beautiful. That's all the photos I have ready for now. I'll try to post a few more later on.
Hilltopper39 Posted August 3, 2010 Posted August 3, 2010 Silver Dollar City to me has always looked like one of the coolest parks in the world and I'm dying to go to it, but its also one of those parks you almost have to dedicate a trip to to get there. Its not really on the way to or from anywhere and Branson isn't exactly high on my list of vacation destinations. It kind of like the Silverwood of the midwest One of these days Ill get out there
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