Messages

121

Branson Talk / Re: Classic Motor Inn - 2019 - K.D.

« on: April 16, 2019, 09:53:01 AM »

Check with Ozark Valley Inn, just a couple of doors closer to the zoo.  Still American owned, not far off of the price range already, and we really liked it the last time we stayed.

122

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2019 Daily Attendance

« on: April 15, 2019, 10:15:49 AM »

It was absolutely wonderful today from a guest's perspective.  Crowds were light. Time Traveler was about a 10 minute wait, train was running every 30 minutes with plenty of room left on each one.  Outlaw Run, Flooded Mine, and TNT were walk ons.  Looked like much of FL was as well when we walked by.  And lots of seats left in the couple of shows we attended.

Cold and wet....

3900 people..!!!

When we got there just after noon the wet was long gone and cleared out.  Turned into a beautiful day.
But what little wet there was I'm sure contributed to those numbers being low.

123

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: I am a complete moron

« on: April 14, 2019, 08:14:27 PM »

Happy to hear that you got the phone back, but sadly not surprised at the condition it's in.  yes, knowing someone out there can certainly help move things along a bit, as I learned when I was working there and my son launched his off of Powder Keg.

I was afraid in the long run the rain wouldn't have mattered much as it was likely the fall would have got it.

124

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2019 Daily Attendance

« on: April 14, 2019, 08:06:59 PM »

It was absolutely wonderful today from a guest's perspective.  Crowds were light. Time Traveler was about a 10 minute wait, train was running every 30 minutes with plenty of room left on each one.  Outlaw Run, Flooded Mine, and TNT were walk ons.  Looked like much of FL was as well when we walked by.  And lots of seats left in the couple of shows we attended.

125

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC’s 2022 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: April 10, 2019, 04:00:10 PM »

So apparently DW has released a survey talking about potential dark rides, which as we all know is a pretty darn good indicator that they will get a dark ride soon. It's also a pretty darn good indicator that SDC will follow suit with a similar ride based upon the experience of creating DW's. https://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1901997#p1901997

I'm still waiting for our SDC version of Mystery Mine, Wild Eagle, Firechaser Express and several of their other recent additions.  Until we get them, I don't hold out any hope of this being any indication of what's coming to SDC.  :-)

126

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2019 Daily Attendance

« on: April 10, 2019, 03:57:44 PM »

...I know several of the regular contributors weren't there (e.g. Kanakuk camps/ Joe White) which might have had an impact...

He was on the schedule for Sunday morning.

You're right, my mistake.  I've a good friend in town who works with Joe who is always out there with him, and who made a post that he was missing it this year, so i figured Joe wasn't there either.  I was wrong on that.

I talked to a few of my "church friends" and youth leaders, and several said that there just wasn't a lot of interest this year.  I think it really came down to it feeling, for some of them or the kids at least, like it was the same old, same old, with nothing "new" or a big name to draw them.  There wasn't an artist/ group this year that would be more than middle of the show at best with Winterjam, not like in the past when they've had Skillet, Lauren Daigle or some of the others.

So at this point that would be my best guest- an uninspiring lineup and a desire for something new.

127

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: WHAT'S NEW on The Flooded Mine Full Ride? FULL RIDE! Silver Dollar City, Branson

« on: April 10, 2019, 03:49:29 PM »

I feel so out of the loop that I completely missed this drama.  LOL  to much working my real job I guess.

Most of what I think though, I'll refrain from saying as it wouldn't add to anything.  But I very much enjoy seeing other people's stuff- videos, photos, etc.  There may be a couple I don't visit, but when I have time I love checking out what other people are doing.  And getting inspiration for my own things.

It's interesting to see the thoughts about posting links up.  I used to post mine in one thread so it wouldn't come across as spammy, and don't often post them on the board anymore as I figure most people interested in them likely are subbed to the channel already.  The couple of recent construction ones were pretty much the exceptions to that.  But seeing a couple of the comments on here I might rethink that a little bit and share the links a bit more often.

128

Other Parks / Re: Frontier City Developments

« on: April 08, 2019, 10:11:45 AM »

Theme-ing elements as in step it up to Cedar Fair Knotts Berry Farm level theme-ing, 

I'm really hoping to be able to get over there this year, but wanted to touch on this- Cedar Fair had NOTHING to do with Knott's theming, except a decline in the overall quality of it.  Back when Knott's was independent the depth and quality of their theming was much greater.  Cedar Fair also has little to nothing to do with the Ghost Town days other than allowing it to happen and facilitating it a little bit.  The vast majority of that is done by a couple of outside groups that organize and bring it together.

I miss the old Knott's.  But I guess at least they haven't let the theming decline as much at Knott's as they did at California's Great America.

129

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: 2019 Daily Attendance

« on: April 08, 2019, 10:06:24 AM »

Saturday, only 12,500??  pretty low number, nice enough day...

Is YCW not a big thing now?  I thought it was a big weekend.

Might be suffering the "Nobody goes any more because it's too crowded" syndrome. There were a ton of warnings of how crowded and how unruly the young crowd is......might be keeping a lot of the "locals" from attending that weekend.

I'm actually surprised the numbers are that low as well.  I pretty much won't go YCW myself, even though I'd like to see some of the acts, because I don't like dealing with the crowds.  It was a mixed bag when I worked there- there were some great people, but also a lot of pain in the necks, and it seemed most of the park employees felt about the same- the bad outweighing the good.

But I doubt that you'll see them change up.  The acts this year weren't as big a name as ones they've had the past few years, and I know several of the regular contributors weren't there (e.g. Kanakuk camps/ Joe White) which might have had an impact, as well as the weather forecasts for Saturday in particular not sounding good until Saturday itself- I'm guessing that many that would have gone made other plans instead.

Now if they run into that 3-4 years in a row without any good explanation other than public perception of the crowd, then they might start to rethink it a little bit.  But I doubt after one year that was off a bit.

130

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2019 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: April 05, 2019, 09:02:25 PM »

If it's who I think it is, yes, they're doing an awesome job.  Now I have to find out if it was actually the one I think who made that post.  Hilarious.

131

Other Parks / Re: Frontier City Developments

« on: April 03, 2019, 09:04:26 PM »

As it's turned out, we ended up with Six Flags passes after all this year.  So now I just have to figure out a way to make that 8 hour round trip out to Frontier City work.  Might make it out there after all.

132

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2019 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: April 02, 2019, 09:02:29 PM »

The 10 years I've been there, never heard the term slurry. I've worked with it, and it's always been called cosmicoat, asphault sealer.

Cosmicoat!!  That's the other name I couldn't remember for the life of me.  Don't know why I couldn't remember that one.

I just remember the letter we got (I think from M&C?) giving us details on what needed to be done calling it slurry, and it stuck with me because it was such an odd, funny sounding name, and I had to look it up as soon as I got home that day because I'd never heard of it.  Actually wrote it on one of my training guides I carried at the time since I was brand new.  Maybe it was just in that one letter.  Thinking about it now, I wouldn't be surprised if it came from someone in attractions who didn't know the difference that may have gotten stuck on the name.

133

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2019 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: April 02, 2019, 02:08:07 PM »

Think like this, instead of asphalt 

134

Construction/Rumors / Re: SDC's 2019 Project(s) and Park Developments

« on: April 02, 2019, 02:05:02 PM »

This is funny to me....that smell takes me back to my short career working on a road crew in the middle of no where KS....laying down asphalt....which is what we called it.

I didn't like that summer. 

it's not asphalt.  Technically it's a seal coat, but the people in the park all called it slurry when they issued their directives to us to prepare for when it was applied. It's a sealer/ coating that is sprayed and spread over the actual pavement- whether asphalt, concrete, whatever.  If you look carefully you can often times see where it splashes a bit on the sides of buildings, planters, or large objects that can't be easily moved out of the way.  It's poured/ sprayed and spread on the surfaces, and everything possible has to be moved out of the way.  But outside of moving benches and objects and blowing/ power washing the ground, there's nothing done to the pavement like you would if it was an actual asphalt coating.

Sometimes you could even see the leaves that had blown down right before they spread it get caught and become part of the ground coating.

135

Branson Talk / Re: New Hotel/Motel to stay in?

« on: March 31, 2019, 06:00:15 PM »

We stayed at Ozark Valley Inn on Shepherd of the Hills last weekend for one night- the Friday night of the state archery tournament- and booked a room for $42 including tax.  I don't know what their regular rate it- I booked on hotels.com, but that sounds like it's right in the ballpark.

It's right next door to the Promised Land zoo and while it's older we really enjoyed the stay.  You couldn't ask for better for that price, honestly, and they did have a small breakfast as well; almost all gluten things- waffles, cereal, muffins, etc, so I had to take my wife out elsewhere, but still it was nice.  We had no complaints.

I've stayed in a few places in Branson where we paid more that weren't as nice.  It IS a cheap motel, but it was quiet, comfortable, a little older, but A/C and heat worked well and we had no complaints.  So maybe something to look at.