Search

During my recent visit to SDC, I stopped by what was once one of my favorite places to eat in the entire world. I got my traditional favorite dish of a pulled pork brisket sandwich, with fries and a small drink all for a whopping $9.50 thanks to the season pass discount. I usually don't mind the high price so much, because the food is usually very good - this time, however, it tasted like a cheap church dinner. Seriously, the fries were good but the meat reminded me of a high school cafeteria dish.

I'm not saying all the food around the park was this bad, but it certainly seemed like a little less was put into everything. Maybe it was the fact that the place was so crowded that particular weekend, but it had never been like this before.

What's with the high prices though? I understand that they have more expenses with their restaurants than your average fast food joint, but $10 for a fairly small meal is pretty bad. I could get a better meal at Rib Crib for $7.

I'm not the only one who's complained about this either, but luckily SDC takes this kind of thing pretty seriously, so I'm sure things will shape back up again soon. I will say that even in its low point, the food at SDC is astounding better than what you could get at any other park.

I just got back from SDC, and I have about 120 photos to go through and get up on the site. That'll take awhile though, so I'll give you the story now.

As we drove in, I saw them clearing land for the new road re-direct, and I finally got to see for the first time the cleared-out gully where the new parking lot will be. I never thought it was that  huge, but it sure is needed - we had to park way back down the road in JD lot, which is a gravel lot past Deer Run.

Being Black Friday, the park was pretty packed, but I still managed to have a great time. As usual, crowd levels started to drop after the first parade, but it was just too cold for it to be really worth it. In fact, it was cold enough to shut down even Wildfire; I believe it got to around the mid-twenties.

I got one ride in on PK and Electro Spin, several on TGS and FiTH, and quite a few on both Wildfire and ThuNderaTion - and everything was running fantastically. The coasters were rattling just a little due to the cold, but they were still all very smooth. I would have ridden PK more, but the line was 30+ mins long, and I was sure it was going to shut down any minute.

The lights were better than ever, especially on the main square. The new tree complete with the new light syncs was awesome, though there wasn't as much light syncing on the rest of the square as I thought there would be. Still, the new tree was extremely bright and very cool looking.

I got tired of riding marathon riding Wildfire, so I started marathon riding ThuNderaTion Sat. night while the temps were at about 33 degrees. It was... cold, but definitely worth-while. 

Yeah, I can't really think of much else to report on, but here's a short list of things I noticed:
the train added an emergency-stop cord sometime since my last visit this summer (did something cause this?); Grandpa's Mansion had it's effects tuned up and fixed; the tree house looked the same as ever; and they weren't saying anything about either the parking lot or the new craft house. Oh yeah, I looked at their back lot (from atop TGS), but I didn't see anything.

In making an image for the site, I accidentally deleted one of my more widely-used photos of SDC's main signage out on Indian Point Road. I need a good photo of this sign for a logo thingamajig that will be used on a new site template.

So, if anyone has a good photo of the main SDC sign, or is planning on taking a trip to the park soon and can get one, then I'd be much appreciative if I could use it. 

Thanks.

So as JBOnline was saying in the other thread, there's definitely an array of viewpoints out there from which one determines which park is the best.
I, obviously, find SDC to be the best park out there, and that is because I value the nostalgia, the atmosphere, the charm, and the general fun all around feel of the place over the number and size of their thrill rides. Now many others, on the other hand, find that other parks (like SFStL) are better because of their thrill offerings, or for any other number of reasons.

Which park do you find to be the best, and why?

It sounds like a huge new craft workshop is being built at SDC that will be choc-full of demonstrations and workshops. It's exactly the kind of thing the park needs, so I'm happy to see it coming. I just wonder where it will be, and how much of this makes up the 2008 improvements.

Sometime in early to mid November, I'm going to roll out a new layout along with some new features. I'll be upgrading the photo galleries to run on Lightbox, fixing up the comment system (hopefully adding a log-in feature, rather than letting everyone come in and post), adding a couple of new pages, and maybe throwing in a few other special features as well.

I'm much better prepared for this round of upgrades than the last, so this time things will go much more smoothly and the outcome will be much better. I've already done a lot of it, I really just need to finish the layout/design.

Btw, this upgrade package will probably be the last before I go completely all-out and re-do the entire site in a way that will really set us apart, but that will take awhile.

According to the latest SDC blog post, Conductor Sam's daughter was born last week. -> http://silverdollarcity.blogspot.com/2007/10/girl-conductors.html

Congratulations, Sam!


On a side note, it sounds like the big 08' announcement is well on the way.

It's been reported by some that the Herschends have bought the Sidewinder from the defunct Wild West World amusement park in Wichita. The Sidewinder is the Moser version of a frisbee. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Herschends did buy it, as it would fit in at any of their parks. Hell, last year SDC almost got a frisbee, albeit it was going to be a Huss model.

CC already has a frisbee, but it wouldn't technically look that bad if SDC got one... then again, SDC would do better with a full Huss model. This'll probably go to WA if the Herschends have indeed bought it.

Anyone know more?

Coasterdom has started up a nifty little poll over the top coaster websites of 2007. We've been nominated for the best new site of 2007 award, and though we probably won't win against the incredible Coaster Capture site (that guy is good) it would still be nice to have a few votes in our favor so the site gets at least a little love.

The poll is here -> http://www.coasterdom.com/coaster-web-awards/2007-coaster-web-awards-voting/

The position we have been nominated for is on the second page, near the bottom.

We all know the bonds that Herschend parks share. When GCII did such a good job at CC, they became to wooden coaster manufacturer of choice for the whole chain, almost every SDC ride that was a success was implemented at DW, and Stone Mountain, DW, and SDC all share the same ball fort contraptions. What works well in one park eventually shows up in some shape or form at other parks in the chain.

Thus, with this noted, is it possible that we'll see animal exhibits at CC soon, as WA features them successfully? Or all-winter-long snow areas at SDC, as Stone Mountain has big plans for such a thing when the drought ends?

I don't know about the snow thing for sure, but I think it's a real possibility that we'll at least see some sort of animal exhibit come to CC - that's just the kind of thing that park looks for.

Are there any other things at other Herschend parks that may make their way over to SDC/CC soon? Other than the obvious G-Fighter and Topple tower, of course.

So in the Wild Adventures thread, we were discussing how it may be likely for CC to get one of WA's coasters, possibly either one of the kiddie coasters or even the Boomerang, seeing as the Herschends would probably not buy a coaster of much magnitude for the park outright at this point. However, Geauga Lake also has some rides that will probably be thrown up for sale, including another Boomerang and several good flats.

By all accounts, the park deserves to get a little more love than usual next year. SDC is pretty much confirmed to get that big new woodie in 09', so the soonest CC could get anything noteworthy would be 2-3 years from now if not this year. Besides, since it's initiation in 2003, CC has received only a set of Flyers and a Wisdom Tornado besides the Chance Chaos that only stayed for a summer (or was it longer?).

Anyway, CC's latest attraction was a very run-down Wisdom Tornado that had to be completely re-built. It was apparently an advertising success for the park, but as a ride it lacks severely.

This year, I'm really hoping CC steps it up a notch and goes after a mid-sized thrill ride, even though I know the park really needs new shops, shows, and things to attract families. There's a certain point where the best family magnet is a massive new thrill ride. Maybe a brand new Huss is out of the question, but Geauga Lake has quite a few rides up for grabs. If they were able to turn that hunk of junk they got this year around, imagine what they could do with something even bigger. 

So, any thoughts?

The next site version, set to come out early next month, will feature user-written articles. If you have a story, an opinion, or a bit of news about something pertaining to the parks, don't hesitate to send it in. They can be as long or as short as you wish, and present your opinion whole-heartedly; I'll only edit for major grammar mistakes and spelling.

Hopefully, other users will be able to rate and comment on your story, but we'll see how that turns out.

I could use a couple of articles to kick it off, so if anyone wants to throw one in, I'd be much appreciative. I'm writing one myself on FiTH's 35 birthday.

So several things have popped up about White Water on these forums. Firstly, they've bought the massive 90 outlet mall just up from the park, and may eventually expand over there or even move the entire park. It's also been a consideration for WW to move to CC and the two entities to intertwine. As it is, WW doesn't even own the land they operate on, and space is limited even if they have land up the street.

So what will happen to White Water? I'll assume that for now, the park will stay put and any aggressive plans won't even be really considered for several years or maybe even past a decade, seeing as they seem to be doing well, and have just added new slides. Still though, if they have truly bought the 90 outlet mall, destroying the old park and building a massive new one may not be completely out of the question. 90 Outlets isn't far from the current spot, so not only will guests not be lost, but it shouldn't be too much of a pain relatively to hook up the needed infrastructure. The deal breaker is cost. It'll take many, many millions just to clear out the old park and the outlet mall, and building a new park worthy of the move would be quite costly. Seeing as the park is doing alright where it is, it'll be ages before the idea seems profitable.

What about the idea of WW moving in with CC? Again, tearing down the old park and much of CC would be quite costly, and adding in the new park would be hugely expensive, especially seeing as more infrastructure would have to be moved and built for a water park to function. Still, it would solve CC's issue of cannibalizing SDC's gates, would create an overall fulfilling attraction, and both CC and WW would really benefit from one another. Again though, unless CC unstabalizes again, this won't be looked at as a possibility.

Any thoughts?

Since it's inception, Celebration City has been kind of a slight failure for the Herschends. The park itself is fantastic, but on the business side of things, the park failed to pull in much of a profit from 2003-2006, and during the first two years SDC's own gate was cannibalized by CC as some visitors decided they had to chose between the two parks rather than accept the two-park deal SDC had envisioned as being a success.

Even now that SDC's attendance is back on the rise again, CC hasn't apparently been doing much better. Last I heard during last season, the park was running a low, flat profit, not making much more than it's operating costs.

Several attempts to 'fix' the park have been made, but only a few bare any promise of helping CC become much of a success. CC has long abandoned it's original purpose of truly being a nighttime theme park in favor of attraction younger families which are prolific in Branson, but may not have deep enough pockets for SDC. Indeed, CC has almost become a poor man's SDC. They even tried an experiment last summer, where they lowered the price for a day pass to about $20, but that has since changed back.


So has the park gotten better yet? Did their profits go up this season? Unfortunately, they haven't participated in any of the online attendance-releases, so one can't really know how well they are doing except by word of mouth.


Hope remains though, as the park is steadily working to improve itself. Starting out is tough, especially when the situation is as picky as this one. General improvements and atmospheric additions have been a major thing so far, with the addition of new shows, the Circus Gardens, and a new marketing strategy. I expect to see the park focus almost entirely on young families for the next several season, possibly taking out some larger rides to do so. It won't stay like that forever though, as general progress in Branson is bringing exponential increases in visitors, so much so that eventually CC won't have to worry so much about competing with SDC anymore and can go back to it's original purpose.

Screamscape seems to think that SFStL is confirmed for a new GCII woodie in 2008. Naturally, there are no sources, no clues, or any info to give us incite onto why this is so, seeing as they just got a new coaster last year, among other things.

Screamscape does have a few good sources here and there though, so at this point, who knows. I'm hoping for another Renegade, but this time with more filling.

Has anyone been having any problems signing up for the forums? It appears that several people have tried and failed or backed out for some reason. They could just be spam bots though, who knows.

If anyone has any trouble registering, just e-mail me at steve@sdcfans.com and I'll sort it out.

So I've been considering adding a page to the site of all the random and pointless SDC facts out there that are little known and easily forgotten.

Here's a few examples -

The Grand Exposition was originally slated to be take the place of Tom Sawyer's Landing
A Wild Mouse coaster was proposed to take the place of the Waterboggin (Thanks, Copper)
Grandfather's Mansion once had a ladder that lead up to a hole in the ceiling where visitors could chat with Grandpa.

Anyone know any others?

So by now, You should all know that I like to make lots of promises, but unfortunately I can never keep many of them.
I'm still trying frantically to sort out the rating system, and then I still want to tackle the comment boxes/ add a review stuff, and once all that's finished, I want to start all over again and make a massive site revision.

The thing is, not only do I not have much time these days, but I'm new to much of this programming. I've never built interactive web aps before, so I'm still struggling to learn a lot of what I need to.

I want you all to know that when I say I'm going to do something, I mean it, it's just that sometimes it takes longer than I think at first.

I'm going to make an effort to get that rating system done by the end of this week, but we'll see what happens. Once I do get that done, the comment boxes and review uploads won't be half as difficult, and once those are done the new site version won't be such a massive task.

Screamscape is reporting that the Herschends may be looking at buying two florida theme parks: Cypress Gardens and Wild Adventures. However, sources are scarce and this is a very unlikely situation as both parks are a far cry away from what the other Herschend parks are like, but then again, the Herschends are always trying to branch out more and do different things, so who knows what will happen.

If the Herschends did buy the parks... Well, I dunno, I guess the corporation would feel yet more spread out and the fears of the parks loosing their individualized charms may be realized. Who knows though, maybe CG and WA could turn into great parks that would benefit the chain, but with CG's financial troubles that are pretty much unsolvable without massive downgrades, it might be a waste of money.

We'll see what happens on the 25th. Hopefully some park chain will come to the aid of these two parks, as they are really nice places, just not Herschend quality.

Ever notice how all those massive, pointless strip malls in Branson just ruin the natural beauty of that area? I mean, look at this photo ->http://bp2.blogger.com/_zOhheIvaFOA/Rty2rUKvWqI/AAAAAAAABDI/A8MpKq_JHmg/s1600-h/100_6063.JPG

They just blast huge chunks out of the hills, then make massive square plots that jut out haphazardly across what once were beautiful valleys. I'm not really a naturalist or a tree-hugger here, but it seems to me that they could at least try a bit harder not to completely destroy the environment with their buildings that will most likely be abandoned in 5 years. I mean, really, it's like everyone thinks they can just plop a giant, bloated strip mall somewhere in Branson and people will just flock to it because of the fact that it's Branson. They could at least diversify a little, most strip malls have basically the same stores.