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Topics - shavethewhales

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16
General Silver Dollar City Talk / Silver Dollar City Purchased Land
« on: April 02, 2021, 02:14:46 PM »
Indian Ridge, the abandoned mega development next door to SDC, got profiled by a tick tock user and went viral. https://nypost.com/2021/04/01/abandoned-1-6-billion-missouri-resort-community-goes-viral/

It's surprising that this prime real estate is still vacant, but now you have to add the legal issues and the costs of demolition to the challenges of developing it. It's certainly prime real estate though, and the original plans would have been a game changer. Nothing big seems to make it in Branson except the landing, which nearly tanked as well.

17
Branson Talk / New Shepard of the Hills attractions
« on: March 20, 2021, 02:53:56 PM »
Shepard of the hills recently announced a new mountain coaster that will be the longest out of the three in Branson. There also appears to be a set of new train tracks around the property. Seems like they are just going to keep adding and adding stuff here. Makes you wonder what it will be like in 20 years. SDC could have a serious competitor on their doorstep again, lol. They do have a good bit of property.

18
General Silver Dollar City Talk / 2021 Crowds/Trip Reports
« on: March 19, 2021, 02:52:32 PM »
I'm interested in gauging how strongly the park/industry is bouncing back this year after the covid disaster, so here's a thread to report on crowd levels when you visit for our general interest.

I am told the park is very busy today, and it sounds like it was decently busy yesterday. The park just extended hours a SECOND TIME for tomorrow. Sounds like spring break is off to a tremendous start for the park!

They sure need the attendance this year, so I'm rooting for big crowds!

19
General Silver Dollar City Talk / 2021 Meetups
« on: February 26, 2021, 12:25:15 PM »
Use this thread to tell us when you are visiting next in case you want to bump into anyone from this site!


The 2021 season is less than 3 weeks away! Who is going to be there for opening week/weekend?

I am planning on being there the first Saturday my self.

20
Other Parks / Kentucky Kingdom/WA/FC Rumor
« on: February 19, 2021, 11:29:17 AM »
So Lance just posted a whopper of a rumor on screamscape.com about the possibility of HFEC buying up Kentucky Kingdom and possibly FC as well, while disposing of Wild Adventures. http://screamscape.com/html/kentucky_kingdom.htm

The idea of them buying KK at least seems absolutely plausible, but I'm not sure I could see SF parting with Frontier City (even though they don't technically own it). Who knows though, it's a very tantalizing rumor.

Perhaps enthusiasts are just making too much out of a simple teaser image again, but after the craziness of the past year and Ed Hart's advancing age, it would make sense for some consolidation in the industry and for this park specifically to get bought out.

21
General Silver Dollar City Talk / New Rube Dugan's Diving Bell Book
« on: February 27, 2020, 08:16:30 AM »
Our very own Mark Kumming has finally produced a formally published book about Rube Dugan's Diving Bell and his time spent working on the attractions team. It is available here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851MLYC1/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1582812490&refinements=p_27%3AMark+Kumming&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Mark+Kumming

Mark is an experienced author and is full of great memories about the park, so I am looking forward to reading this one.

22
Other Parks / SFOT Purchase Offer From HFEC?
« on: April 25, 2019, 09:02:31 PM »
Apparently Texas Thrillseekers is spreading a rumor that HFEC has put in a bid for SFOT and a couple other SF properties (presumably the adjacent water park in Dallas and maybe FC or DL?)

SFOT supposedly has an odd ownership setup that dates back to the original setup of the park. It's kind of like Dollywood, but somewhat dysfunctional with disputes about how the park should be developed. Supposedly that is one reason why investments have been fairly small despite the massive growth potential of the park. This is one reason why SF may be pressured or coerced into selling the park.

I don't know that the rumor has any weight, but I do know that HFEC has tried to purchase SF properties before. When SF sold off Elitch, Darien, FC and several other properties during their 2006 bankruptcy, HFEC put in a bid but was beat out by CNL. For some reason I believe SFMM was part of the deal at the time, but HFEC didn't want it, and that soured the deal.   

23
Announcements / Spam Attack
« on: December 27, 2018, 08:07:40 PM »
Just noticed and deleted a huge spam wave attack. Just a bunch of bot accounts trying to get through the filter to spread spam. Looks like a couple of them got through while I wasn't looking. Security settings have been tweaked.

24
General Silver Dollar City Talk / 2018 USA Today Holiday Event Poll
« on: November 21, 2018, 10:28:32 AM »
SDC is once again vying for the top spot on USA Today's Holiday park event poll. SilverDollarCity.com/Vote

This is a big marketing thing for them, so they really appreciate any votes you can send their way. You can vote once each day from any device.


25
Wild Adventures Discussion / Wild Adventures 2019 Alligator/Kids Area
« on: September 13, 2018, 01:19:00 PM »
https://www.wildadventures.com/Explore-the-Park/Other-Attractions/Adventure-Area

Wild Adventures is getting a true HFE treatment again. This time they are taking an existing section of the park, adding a huge alligator exhibit, and retheming half a dozen smaller kids rides to make a cohesive gator-themed area.

It looks like such a brilliant move. They are saving money on new rides by giving live to some older ones, which makes a lot of sense considering how WA is already pretty stacked with rides. The alligator thing sounds awesome, and it adds to the uniqueness of the park as a whole. It feels like a big upgrade to the park without them necessarily doing that much.

I'm certainly OK with them continuing to develop as BGT North.  ;D

26
Other Parks / HFEC Starts Herschend Live
« on: August 17, 2018, 03:05:49 PM »
After a few years of owning the Globetrotters, it seems HFEC has elected to create a new company under the HFEC umbrella specifically focused on live entertainment. The Globetrotters seem to be the main focus of this at the moment, but obviously they seem to be looking at adding more. Hopefully this could spur some interesting new shows that may make the rounds at the parks.

https://blooloop.com/news/herschend-live/

27
Dollywood Discussion / Future DW Speculation
« on: July 17, 2018, 05:29:30 PM »
In a recent article featuring the President of HFEC, she mentioned that lodging has been very successful at DW and they want to keep expanding it. Makes you wonder if another resort is in the works, or just an eventual expansion of Dreammore.

https://blooloop.com/features/jane-cooper-herschend-family-entertainment/

Of course I also am still curious about SDC's hotel, but I'll try to keep that in the SDC speculation threads.

It sounds like they don't plan to slow down much with the DW expansions just because the big ten year push is coming to a close. The park is so far ahead of where they were back in the 00's, but it still feels like they are one or two big attractions away from being a true destination for most people who. They need something large and reliable, like a B&M hyper. Probably don't want to copy Carowinds though, but at least Vekoma, Intamin, and Mack are all competing in that space as well now...

28
Other Parks / HFEC Acquires Pink Adventure Tours
« on: July 05, 2018, 01:22:22 PM »
https://blooloop.com/news/herschend-acquires-pink-adventure-tours/?source=newsletter

Interesting acquisition. They sold off Ride the Ducks last year, but now they picked up this similar business with a more niche business model. Curious what the numbers look like here. Pink seems to be a much better brand at the moment, in any case. Ride the Ducks is a fun concept, but apparently only the Branson location has ever done that great.

Interesting to see them continue to diversify, but personally I'm wondering when they'll go back to expanding their park portfolio.

29
Dollywood Discussion / Dollywood 2019
« on: March 06, 2018, 09:17:47 AM »
http://www.wbir.com/mobile/article/news/local/dollywood-developing-5-acre-expansion/51-526144541

Continuing the discussion over the MASSIVE clearing taking place at DW right now, it has now been leaked that an indoor play area (Fireman's Landing for DW), a Frisbee pendulum ride, and an indoor roller coaster are in the works, among other things. It's not clear whether they are all coming next year, or if it's being built in stages, but my assumption is that a few rides and the play area are coming next year with the new roller coaster following.

The news of a new indoor roller coaster is HUGE to me. Every indoor attraction HFE has built has been amazing. Plus, if DW is getting one, that means SDC will get one soon as well! Hopefully for both parks' sake, it's not at the cost of FITH and Blazing Fury.

30
White Water Discussion / White Water Development
« on: March 03, 2018, 12:04:23 PM »
It's been a long time since we've had much to discuss about White Water. We've pretty much all been in agreement for a long time that the park has fallen behind the competition, and now with a new $400+ million water and adventure park coming to town it looks like it will need to somehow put up or shut up.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much control HFEC has over the current property. It's been a long time since I looked into it, but I thought it was a lease or partial ownership situation. In any case, it's not a big property, though they could pack a lot more in.

They showed signs of life a few years ago when they added the new drop slides and replaced the lazy river. It seemed like they were slowly moving through the park revitalizing everything, but it's dropped off since then.

Think there's any hope for this property long term?

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