Silver Dollar City PTR - Aug 6, 2011

Shavethewhales · August 11, 2011

Had a great time at SDC this past weekend. It was dreadfully hot with periodic heavy thunderstorms. The park could do a lot to improve their bad weather operations, but overall everything was run fantastically.

Got to Deer Run Hotel on Friday night so I could get up in the morning and catch the first shuttle of the day directly to the park. This may be one of the last times we stay at this hotel though. Nothing was too terrible about it, but for the price, it doesn't seem like the place is as up to snuff as it used to be. It was noisy, a bit dingy, and the rooms still look like they haven't been updated since the late seventies. It's not like being close to SDC helps that much anymore anyway since you can no longer really walk to the park from the hotel.

Anyway, onto the park: Saturday started out fantastic. Waited around in the main square for the hour before opening and headed down to PK at the gate drop. Got in a few rides before the crowds got there, then headed over to FITH for a ride there. I noticed that the Fireman's Cemetery is open again, and the graves look like they've been repainted. One of the old theming pieces nearby, a stagecoach, has also obviously been fixed up. Noticed more new props in FITH, but they might have been from last year's renovations that I didn't catch. The ride looks better than ever, but it is definitely very bumpy still. Hope they can work on that next somehow.

After that I wandered over to Half Dollar Holler to see it for the first time. Man, I'm impressed as usual. I know we all miss the quite hollow that used to be there, but you've got to admit the tree houses are really well done and fit the area cozily without making it too crowded. The architecture is playful, but not so much that it jars with the surrounding buildings and scenery like GG. I really appreciated the wood-shingle roofing. It's also a heck of a lot bigger than I expected. Looks like the kids really enjoy it. Headed over to the Grand Expo next. The place keeps looking better every year as the trees continue to grow out and make a new canopy.

Rode TNT. Still ticked about them doing away with the backwards cars, and I'm also disappointed at how rough its gotten again. At this rate I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they took it out for the new GCII. It holds a ton of nostalgia value for me, but it's quickly becoming less "special" in the park's line up of rides. I noticed they gave it it's own theme song though.

Spent a lot of time around the old homestead, watching the new log cabin craftsman, petting animals, and talking to the guy at the steam-powered lathe who told me all about how it worked. They had a really sweet old blood hound stationed there as well who just loved to be pet.

The train ride has gotten better than ever IMO. Seems like they're putting more effort into the skit, and the new sound system sure works a lot better. Had great performances both times I rode.

Don't have too many other notes that I can think of at the moment as far as specific rides are concerned. However, I do have a major bone to pick with the park concerning severe weather. The first storm of the day started at about 6pm when the clouds suddenly moved in and a massive storm developed out of nowhere with torrential rain and a short burst of hail. I rode it out in the second story of the lumbercamp eatery. My mother, however, was taking a bus back into the park at the time. The driver stopped at the entrance and everyone stayed on of course, as the hail was just getting started. He waited there a few minutes, then he simply started driving off again. My mom had to stand up and shout, "excuse me, but aren't you going to let us off?", apparently he was kind of rude and clueless and acted like he couldn't see why a bus load of people with little kids didn't want to step out in a hail storm. When it turned 7 and the shops started to close, there was apparently some confusion a bit of anger as shop-keepers had to boot hundreds of people out of the shops and into the rain. Luckily it tapered off pretty quick, but it took the park over an hour to open the rides and attractions back up.

Once the sun dropped, people POURED into the park to ride rides. Wildfire's queue stretched all the way to the entrance of the American Plunge. I don't know how much of the station they had open, but either way, that's a heck of a queue for that ride. Somehow the other rides weren't near as bad though. I got in a couple rides on PK in the dark which were amazing, especially with the backdrop of a huge line of lightning and thunder that was rolling in. Some of the best rides I've ever had on it.

About 9:45, the rides shut down again as a second line of storms moved in, this time much larger. This is where it really struck me how odd it is that SDC still has little more than dingy queue fences at the front tram-drop off and not much shelter at all. Hundreds of people had to stand there in line for the trams and buses in torrential rain and very close lightning strikes. I ended up waiting under the little employee awning with a few other guests - that's the only shelter in the entire area after you exit the marketplace! In 50 years, have they not thought to put in a little shelter at the main tram waiting areas? I would have hated to see what would have happened if it started hailing again right then, with all the little kids around. There was a whole lot of cursing directed toward the park that night...

Sunday was a lot less crowded. Not much else to say about it. Both days were crazily hot though, probably my hottest visit to SDC. I was grateful for Tom and Huck's Riverblast, and once again sorely missed Splash Harbor.

Finally, the food quality is definitely continuing to drop each year. I ordered spaghetti at the Springhouse. It was soggy, cheap and didn't come in a breadbowl as advertised, though there was a lot of it. I saw other people complaining about the pickles being too hard to bite into. The prices have risen again on everything too. It's still at "applebees" prices, and the food definitely isn't as bad as most other parks, but they're definitely loosing their edge. There's still good food if you know where to look though. Try the mine restaurant for a good full meal.

As for Celebration City, there's not a whole lot left on the property. Ozark Wildcat remains, and is being taken care of to some extent (as is the rest of the park), but there's little hope that it will reopen again, and there's pretty much no chance it will be moved. Accelerator (S&S Double Shot), the Thunderbolt, and Roaring Falls (Mack Supersplash) also remain, along with the Revecheron (sp?) log flume and a couple of kiddie rides that remain up for sale.

Oh yeah, I noticed someone in a TPR shirt on the train, but I didn't get a chance to introduce myself before I lost track of them. Anyone else at the park that day?

Starting things off with what's new at the park, here's the new kid's play area.

The area includes this refurbished carousel from the old kid's area.

There's also this kiddie swing ride, rescued from Celebration City.

The back side of the treehouses have these awesome net mazes. Too bad they're for little kids. The park has a tradition of these kids of play areas, but this one is designed specifically for ages 2-7 or so.

This is a new craftsman display. It's log hewing. At this point it looks like he was making a small storage building, similar to a few others around the park.

The steam powered lathe, complete with an awesome blood hound.

One of the steam trains.

From the train skit. They did a great job both times I rode. Seems like they're really putting effort into it this year. A lot of parks half-ass these kinds of things, but when they're done right they make the park 1000x more special.

This is from a little skit on the main square. These actors did a terrific job as well.

Glassblowing. SDC has tons of crafts to watch, but I didn't spend too much time watching on this trip.

Onto the rides, the water rides were a sweet relief today. I'm usually not up for getting soaked, but I rode every one on this occasion.

SDC's smallish rapids ride.

The splash battle. I love these things, I just wish they had kept splash harbor as well.

SDC's tree canopy really helps with the heat and sunburns. Most of the park looks like this.

Trees everywhere.

Looking up hill street, the park's "big" hill.

It was so hot even the squirrels couldn't take it.

Most of the animals were just lolling around.

I've gotta say, these S&S swings never get old.

Unfortunately a lot of the evening looked like this. It took them ages to open the rides up afterwards, because they were concerned over lightning in the area. Apparently if there's lightning within ten miles everything gets shut down - even the kids areas.

When things did re-open, the lines swelled for the last night of the Moonlight Madness event. For some reason, everyone wanted to ride Wildfire. This is a crazy long line for it, if you've never been to the park. I stuck with Powderkeg and had some AMAZING night rides on it.

I just love the scale of this ride. It's bigger than most people give it credit for, though it does have a short layout. I'll put the rest of my ride photos in a second post.