Messages

1

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: August 13, 2019, 01:39:25 PM »

Watching the initial reactions from the public roll in... Very reminiscent of the Time Traveler announcement in some ways. Lots of people freaking out about the drop, saying it makes it too scary to be a family ride. SDC stepping in and downplaying it so people aren't worried...

Well, with Time Traveler we know how that went. People got over their fears pretty darn quick and it's been incredibly popular. I predict the same will happen here. Only difference is that this is a replacement of a previous ride, so I can understand the people who are scared of heights being upset about it.

I just think it's hilarious how SDC will try to push the envelope a little, then have to down play it every time when people freak out, lol.

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: August 13, 2019, 12:00:43 PM »

Very cool. The area looks really nice. We already know they've gone to great lengths to place a ton of rockwork and other landscaping that will surpass what was there before. The whole area already looks better and is easier to get around, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

I love that this will be a longer ride than the old Lost River. Definitely will be worth the long waits that it will get in the summer.

Wish there were more indoor sections like the old ride (not that they ever utilized the old indoor section very well), but at least there will be some kind of little cave/tunnel.

Hope the vertical lift doesn't give them fits.

The theme is awesome. I really really love the emphasis on Marvel Cave and the origins of the park. Really excellent work sticking to the central theme of the park instead of doing something generic.

Overall it's a fantastic addition. Gives me even more hope for future "redevelopments" of old areas of the park.

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: August 10, 2019, 12:03:52 PM »

lol, fashion police. 

I can't believe announcement season is finally here. Summer has gone by too quickly.

We've kind of slept on this ride since it's a replacement and we already can see or guess at most of the obvious details, but there's still a lot to look forward to on Tuesday. The details of the cave theming should be really interesting.

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC’s 2021 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: August 02, 2019, 09:28:13 AM »

I finally got to ride FITH today and based on that, I'd say they need to accelerate their timetable. The condition of the ride was truly deplorable, and felt like a marked comedown even from last season. Still a lot of missing audio, new train whistle and "FITH!" for some reason (why?), and a ton of visible deterioration.

Lol, what? There are a couple things deteriorating on FITH, but mainly on the outside building. The ride is about the same as ever. Some of the audio comes and goes with the seasons. Some years they blast the soundtrack, other years they have had cricket sounds or other music. This year I thought I heard the theme song in one of the tunnels, but not as pronounced as it used to be. The train sound is indeed new - not sure what happened to the old one. As for the "FITH!", that is a signature part of the ride! That's the only audio I get upset about if it's missing.

I feel like sometimes people forget that FITH is an old ride, and it hasn't changed that much. What people think is "falling apart" was normal back when it was new. The scenes have always been campy, the track has always been bumpy, and it's always going to be musty inside. The real problem with the ride is that they are maintaining the building itself. There's a huge hole near the start of the ride that has been growing for the past several seasons. I'm sure when the lights are on you can see all the water damage...

sdcfan88, there's no way Thunderation goes on the chopping block anytime soon considering FM and FITH are apparently on the chopping block. I'm not sure what special parts they are fabricating, since there are plenty of mine trains left around and S&S still makes all the parts for Arrow. They do need to fix the bump in the tunnel for sure though.

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General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Attendance Question

« on: July 26, 2019, 08:01:09 AM »

Keep in mind that this park is pretty efficient and has high capacity rides. It takes a lot of people for there to be much of a line build-up anywhere. Plus, the crowds haven't been very big this summer.

During the moonlight madness event, there tends to be an early crowd and a late crowd that switches out, so the total visitor count for the day is pretty high, but during most of the day the park feels pretty light.

I'd say around 6-8pm is probably peak crowds. If you stay till midnight you'll probably get to marathon Time Traveler in the dark.

The really huge crowds won't start showing up until the pumpkin festival starts. I'm curious to see if our pumpkin event will rival Christmas like it does at DW.

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Other Parks / Re: Frontier City Developments

« on: July 25, 2019, 09:26:56 PM »

I'm curious how they even heard about it. Do people just ring up the news stations now whenever a ride stops? It sounds like it was sorted out very quickly without incident. Hope SF starts putting some pressure on the news stations to stop this nonsense. I can almost understand having a news story if a ride is stopped way up on a lift for any great period of time, but even that was pushing it.

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General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2019 Trip Reports

« on: July 24, 2019, 04:36:53 PM »

Saw the play for myself and was pretty amused. I'm all for nitpicking since this is a fan site and that's part of what fans do, but this play definitely wasn't something to take seriously.

It wasn't their best effort, especially considering what they spent on the production, but it wasn't terrible. It felt in-line with the Saloon show. Very corny, and lots of borrowed songs and jokes. Decently amusing to pass some time in the air conditioning, but not something I would plan my day around or wait in line for.

I'll bet they fiddle with the script and next year it will be better. It's a pretty short play, so if there's definitely room to flesh it out some more.

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: July 24, 2019, 04:26:05 PM »

Great angles Swoosh. Pretty wild how fast they are working now. The roof of the ribhouse looks different now with the facade framework up around it. Makes sense to have a flat spot for HVAC, it just looked odd this weekend when you looked at it from the side.

The painted channel looks good. There's so much stone stacked up in the maintenance area that you can see while riding Outlaw Run. I wonder where they got it all.

This is all getting very interesting now. I'm excited to see if there's going to be a major indoor section with scenes and such. Looks like it will turn left out of the station, go across that bridge, through the channel that's been built, and then back under the bridge... and presumably this is where it would go through some kind of lift for a splashdown. There's a lot of currently empty ground between the built channels and the large concrete structures...

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Branson Talk / Re: Ozark Valley Inn - 2019 - 417-336-4666 !!!!!

« on: July 23, 2019, 07:58:52 AM »

I tried the place out this weekend and enjoyed it. Everything up to expectations. Quick and easy stay. Thanks again for coordinating a deal for us Dan.

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: July 23, 2019, 07:56:55 AM »

The scale of this thing is intense. The amount of expense they are going through to place all this concrete must be insane. The ride channel is already pretty long, and the middle section of the ride is just beginning to take shape. It's going to be a much bigger ride than Lost River ever was.

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General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Fat Guy Needs Some Advice Please on SDC from peeps that know the place well

« on: July 23, 2019, 07:54:41 AM »

You definitely won't be the only person getting around on a scooter. They are pretty prevalent.

The big issues I see are the crowds and the hills. Old Time Christmas is actually SDC's main season, and some times it gets so packed out that they close the gates early and don't let anyone else in. Inside the park it can get difficult in times to walk through, let alone ride through on a scooter. You just have to go slow and be patient.

The park is built on a ridge-line, and the West side of the park is the most hilly. Depending on the brand of your scooter, you may not be able to get up the hill on that side. The ADA-route follows the East side of the park. To get  to the West side you either have to go all the way around by Fireman's Landing, or jog back past the train station to get to the circular ramp in the center of the park. It's a bit of a maze, so familiarize yourself with the park map.

The main "fat friendly" ride will be the train. I'm sure you can probably get on Flooded Mine as well, but you will have to go around to the back exit and send someone in to let them know you are coming. It's not setup well for ADA access.

Bathrooms are fairly prevalent, and they do have handicapped stalls. Again though, it will be very busy and some of the restrooms are hard to get around in a scooter even if they aren't packed. I think the ones near Crossroads Pizza and the ones at the back of Fireman's Landing are probably the easiest?

All-in-all, don't sweat it. SDC is magical at Christmas, and there's plenty to see and enjoy with your family.

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General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2019 Daily Attendance

« on: July 20, 2019, 11:24:22 PM »

Branson is popping tonight. Almost every hotel showing no vacancy signs... SDC didn't even fill up lot 3 when I was there (left about 7ish)...

I guess people really like lights. I hope the pumpkin nights are a smash hit, because it feels like a sluggish year for the park so far. Rain hasn't helped, but you can only blame so much on the weather.

The strip is really lively tonight. As others have said, Track 4 is basically Celebration City 2.0

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: July 20, 2019, 03:42:39 PM »

Lots of progress out here. I posted some new photos on the FB page. The new rib house looks interesting... The roof is oddly shaped. I'm curious what they are doing with it. It almost looks like there will be some kind of channel on the roof.

Announcement day is the 13th.

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: July 12, 2019, 02:38:37 PM »

Just noticed that google earth has been updated to March 2019. Seeing an overhead of the area really shows how huge it is.

Even more interesting is the massive new parking lot to the north. New employee parking lot? Definitely a lot of land work going on around the area with the new pumpkin area, lot 3 expansion, expansion of the maintenance area, and now that.

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Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2020 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: June 29, 2019, 06:34:41 PM »

Another fun teaser on the official FB page today. Showing a historical map of Marvel Cave...

So didn't the original Lost River have a reference to the Spring of Youth? I'm sure we talked about it before and I completely forgot. The heartbeat at the end had something to do with it, right?