Messages

61

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC’s 2024 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: June 21, 2023, 10:08:34 AM »

^How so? Only two letters revealed so far and it's probably not the name. I doubt that it will use the same name though, purely for marketing reasons.

Can't believe that it's almost July already. I wonder if this tease is just to announce the announcement. They usually announce things in early August and since this is a major three-year project I'm sure they'll want to put on a similar shin-dig as what they put on for Time Traveler.

62

Construction/Rumors / Re: Future SDC Development Speculation (Long-term)

« on: June 13, 2023, 08:09:32 AM »

I prefer the flooded mine, but would take either as long as it was faithfully done. Would be easier to sink $10 million into a quality restoration though. At this point I think people would celebrate it about as much as a new ride - the response to FITH closing has been awesome! People do care about the classic rides.

63

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: SDC Logo

« on: June 13, 2023, 08:07:20 AM »

lol, well they have to make it just different enough that they can justify their fee instead of basically just using an old logo. I love the retro simplicity though - reminds me of SDC in the 90's. Good times.

64

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Disappointed in SDC website orders

« on: June 07, 2023, 10:19:20 AM »

That's very lame. Lots of new systems going on, but that's no excuse for completely dropping your daughter's pass.  I guess you really have to watch email like a hawk now for stuff like that. I have a whole folder for passes/tickets that I check neurotically before things.

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General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2023 Crowds / Trip Reports

« on: June 07, 2023, 10:16:46 AM »

It's just an advertisement for the pass, I think. They needed something in the park to be a "perk" for the pass to make it seem more valuable on paper. The discounts are really what make the higher level passes worth it, not to mention BAF passes for those who use them. I assume that when it's more busy, they actually man the bridge, but what a pain to have to check passes and turn people away if one person in the group is "lower class".

66

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Train Crash?

« on: May 25, 2023, 05:15:30 PM »

Yup, I have seen several posts about it, but they are being clamped down on. Seems to be a small derailment. Considering things... It's a real bad look. Really makes you wonder what is going on. 60 years of smooth operations, and now they can't keep it on the tracks.

67

Announcements / Back to Just Forums

« on: May 23, 2023, 10:24:48 PM »

As of today I finally went back in and forwarded everything to the forums. The "old site" hasn't been updated in years. It was mostly just a home page with SDC social feeds, but since the recent twitter updates most of it wasn't working anyway.

Going back in to the site's code made me think of the good old days when I used this site to hone my programming skills. At one point it was sort of an encyclopedia of all the niche SDC knowledge, with detailed write ups of all the rides and lots of weird little history that I and others had compiled. I'll have to dig some of it out this summer.

For the foreseeable future, I'll just keep the forums going until they aren't useful anymore. I always thought we would eventually migrate to FB, but with the way major social media sites are going lately we might outlive them!

68

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2023 Crowds / Trip Reports

« on: May 23, 2023, 08:25:22 AM »

lol, well it is an intentional change. The tack got old and ragged, and the park is indeed moving consciously to more of a "clean" rustic look. Basically just wood siding and paint. No random saws and whatever on the sides of buildings. It's different, and I preferred the old look, but if there's one thing constant at SDC it's change. They'll probably go back to more theme items in a few years when it becomes a better point of differentiation vs the other parks.

As we've noted before, in the old days they themed the park by going to local thrift stores and loading up the wagon, back in the days when antiques were actual legit antiques and people didn't think anything of old saws and horse tack in the back of a store. Don't forget that when SDC started in 1960, the 1880's were only 70 years in the past! It was a celebration of the old days by the grandchildren of the people alive in the 1880's. Some of the junk that filled flowerbeds or adorned walls at SDC throughout the years would be priceless now.

69

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2023 Crowds / Trip Reports

« on: May 22, 2023, 08:26:20 AM »

I did a quick trip on Saturday and can now definitely add my complaints about there being neither enough BBQ or bluegrass for this BBQ and bluegrass event. I think for the past couple years we were just grateful for whatever they could muster during the pandemic issues, but now I want to see things get back to where they were.

On a positive note, I did have the bbq potato chips from the stand next to the lumbercamp and they were good.

On the operations side, everything was indeed running great. FITH has a large line all the time now, going through the full queue and through the cemetery.

I do have to say that the park objectively feels more sterile now than ever. The missing signage around Wildfire/AP, cleaned out flower beds (no miscellaneous theming anymore), all the tack has been pulled off buildings, etc. We get a few new screen printed signs here and there but that's about it anymore. The massive new parking lot kind of sends it home. The biggest effort into theming now is all the Coke branded items. 

70

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Train Crash?

« on: May 22, 2023, 08:07:33 AM »

There's a lot of vagueness here, and media loves to exploit vagueness so people can project whatever they are subtly led to project on the situation. It's probably as simple as SDC wanting to have enough time to assess the situation, discuss with their lawyers, see how all the lawsuits are shaping up, etc. It's usually not advisable to run to the lawyers on the other side and dump all your info to be used against you. It might look "bad" to be "withholding" info, and that's the leverage they'll use against you, but it's always better to come prepared.

It's notable that the main guy in the article is someone who wasn't in a car that tipped, but found out that he injured his wrist the day after, "catching" people from the car. Smells like a cash grab... By the time he ends up in court he'll have a neck guard on too. 

71

Random Talk / Re: I got this in e mail today...... white wing lodge goes condo??? ( yeah right!!)

« on: May 22, 2023, 07:56:44 AM »

What a scam. That hotel is old and basic. The best part about it was the location - everything else is as basic as a Branson hotel could be. I can't believe they shoved a kitchenette in there and called it a condo. Total ripoff. The fact that they are selling it as an "investment opportunity" is a major tell. We'll probably see some lawsuits in the future if someone is gullible enough to buy one.

Entrepreneurs are so lazy now. Guarantee there is a "passive income" personality behind this ownership. Someone wants to make a buck quick and offload it onto someone else so they can continue "building their empire".

72

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2023 Crowds / Trip Reports

« on: May 16, 2023, 01:52:05 PM »

Always tough to pick a good weekend in spring to go. Those school trips are a pain to get around.

Bluegrass in this region is basically married with religion, so that's just part of it I guess. It can make it hard to get into if you aren't used to it. That new show on the riverfront is supposed to be "modern" though, and remember: it replaced the Cajun Connection which never really "fit" SDC either, lol. I'm not personally a fan of "karaoke" style shows myself though, but some people like it and there's plenty of other great music around the park this time of year.

That food during this fest has been on a downhill since they started it. Back when the fest was new, they brought in local BBQ shops from around SW MO and it was pretty neat. Later they scaled it back to just SDC setting up a few stands with different "styles" in Red Gold Hall. Now it sounds like it's more BBQ themed foods than BBQ, lol. Looks like there's a bit of BBQ around the park, but mostly at the normal BBQ places. I miss the Red Gold Hall setup as well - what are they doing in there instead? Just music?

Always good to hear how the city is doing, thanks for sharing.

73

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC’s 2024 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: May 15, 2023, 08:23:15 AM »

^That's exactly what I expect too. We refer to it as FITH 2.0, but the new ride will almost definitely have a different name, a new story, and a theme that's only tangential to FITH. It'll be something about a fire crew since it's part of the Fireman's Landing area, but I very much doubt baldknobbers will be mentioned or shown expect in passing. It'll be much more generic and they'll definitely try to "honor first responders" somehow.

Who knows though. SDC knows what they've got. They do a very good job at theming and storytelling when they are allowed to, and they've had several years to work on this. One would hope that an entire extra year will make it even more elaborate and themed to the nines inside. Could be a much faster roller coaster experience though, so maybe the theming would matter less.

74

Other Parks / Re: Bell's Developments

« on: May 15, 2023, 08:13:30 AM »

Yeah it was a real opportunity this time, but talk about bad luck/timing with a global pandemic hitting and then the economic turmoil that is still going on. With interest rates rising, it's becoming incredibly hard to get major projects off the ground. I have a feeling this was a financial decision on the California group's side. They obviously just didn't see the ROI at this point.

Robby didn't help things. He is such a bad communicator, and doesn't appear to know much about running a modern business. Wish he had the wherewithal to hop on FB or something and let people know more about the process and their intentions. All people have heard the past 10 years is repeated promises to bring the park back with zero results. People keep calling it a "scam" even though there's literally nothing that has been taken from anyone. I guess people are conditioned to look for a bad guy.

75

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2023 Crowds / Trip Reports

« on: May 10, 2023, 01:07:00 PM »

Ugh, that sucks about the train monologue. I guess I can understand them removing the "wreckage" lol, but that kinda sucks too since that was an actual train that was cannibalized for that visual. Hobo junction met it's demise during the 2008-09 crash when it wasn't funny to joke about people experiencing homeless, however satirical.

The jokes have been disappearing everywhere. SDC used to be such a tongue in cheek hillbilly town with nods to actual history. Now it's just coke logos and "clean" appearances on everything. Remember when every building and flowerbed had all the old antique crap thrown everywhere? Oh well, at least we'll hit this week's quota for complaining about change.