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Went to the first day/night of Harvest Festival/Crafts and Pumpkins in the City. There were people in the park on Wednesday but it was not crowded. Staffing levels seemed higher than my last visit during Bluegrass and BBQ. Enjoyed Eastern Heights, the Branson band that is providing the 6 pm show throughout the festival. Was about 50 minutes of music, no intermission. Was a variety of country and pop music from 80s - current. It was a little loud.

The fog from Foggy Hollow really carried into other areas of the park. It filled the front of the Boatworks Theater during the 7:30 show of Lindley Creek.  The band was calling it their spooky set due to the fog. The bluegrass group will be playing the late afternoon and evening shows throughout the festival at the Boatworks.

There were no shows in the Opera House, Riverside Playhouse or Red/Gold.

We have decided to give up on Chester's Chips which used to be our favorite place. No matter what time of the day we have made a purchase last year or this year, the chips have been cold. Within the basket we got Wednesday at 5 pm, we had crispy chips and raw chips but all cold.

Didn't see any promotional signs for the new Fire in the Hole.

SDC ended up in 7th place.

SDC has been nominated for the USA Today 10Best Halloween Event. Voting lasts until 9/12. You may vote once per day per device.

https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-theme-park-halloween-event-2022/

I'm still curious what they are doing with the CC property since they held that auction all the sudden and are obviously clearing it out after over a decade of mostly letting it sit.

It's going to be leveled.  Everything. 

If they do build a new water park, I wonder if it would be worth while for someone, HFE or somebody else, to keep the current WW operating?  I would think there would be enough traffic to keep 2 water parks open.

I've heard trumps that BPOA wants that land to expand.  I imagine the theater next door will go too since he passed

Does that mean the church is also relocating so that the entire property can be cleared?

SeaWorld Orlando came in #1, SDC #2.

Time for the annual USA Today 10Best Theme Park contest. Here's the link if you would like to vote for SDC:

https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-theme-park-2022/silver-dollar-city-branson-mo/

There are 15 days left to vote. You may vote once a day per device. Currently Sea World Orlando is in first place. SDC is number 2.

Palallin, even if you download the app, it is not updated to announce show cancellations. When we were there one day in December all of the morning gazebo shows were cancelled but were still listed on the app. The first 2 Dickens shows were cancelled but that wasn't on the app. No signs up either.

SDC won for the 3rd year at a row. Kings Island in Ohio came in 2nd, and Dollywood came in 3rd. The top 10 is listed here:

https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-theme-park-holiday/

Last day to vote -- winner announced on December 17th.

We stay at the Barrington Hotel, just off Shepherd of the Hills Expressway, near the Mansion Theater. Reasonable rates, large breakfast selection, desserts at night (soft serve ice cream and cake or pie or cobbler or cookies).

We were there Wednesday 12/1, and it didn't seem that crowded. We parked in lot 3. We were able to see the last Dickens and the Living Nativity. (I don't remember if anyone mentioned it but the Living Nativity is also a new production this year). Got Chesters Chips before getting into the Dickens line. Don't know when the chips were cooked but the chips and toppings were cold.

Thursday the 2nd was insane. We parked in lot 5. Wall to wall people, long lines everywhere. Most food/drink stands were closed. The 1st and 2nd performances of Dickens were canceled due to lack of staff (don't know if that means performers or front of house staff). We saw the saloon show and got into the last performance of Home for Christmas. We waited in line for over an hour to get in.

We thought the new Dickens production was good. The new songs have some similarities to the old.

Didn't care for Home for Christmas. The musical aspect was good (singers and live band) but there needs to be a story instead of unrelated Christmas song after unrelated Christmas song with a patriotic song in the middle.  The last song should come across as a finale. It didn't. We didn't know it was the end until the cast paused and then started taking their bows.  The costumes were terrible in that they didn't go with the songs. Costumes were what you would see in Dickens or were costumes you would see on a riverboat show or a Carrie Nation show. No costumes you would associate with a 50s/60s style Christmas song. The choreography needs help too. Honestly I have seen better productions at various large churches.

On Thursday we waited over 30 minutes to get ornaments, decided to skip getting season passes. At 3:30 the line for the first train at 4 pm was backed up into Midtown. At 7:30 pm the line for the train was backed up into Midtown. Every bathroom we used during the day was trashed. There was poop smeared on the walls of one stall in the hospitality house. Why don't the bathrooms have hot water anymore for handwashing?

After 20 plus years of season passes not sure we are going to do it for 2022. We have loved SDC over the years but I just don't know if it's worth it anymore.

7 days left to vote -- currently SDC in first place and Dollywood in second.

I was there. Walked out of hospitality house bathroom behind the taffy shop at 12:45. Was walking toward the homestead cabin when the smoke just shot up and started billowing toward the square. At first we were all asked to move to the blacksmith side of the park and it was jammed packed people to the footbridge waiting for the chain drop. We stood over there for over 10 minutes and watched the smoke get worse. My husband who has been a volunteer firefighter in our rural area for many years was getting concerned.

Then we were asked to go to the square to make way for emergency equipment.  When we got up to the square SDC employees told us to keep on walking toward the entrance and evacuate the park. Fortunately people were calm but it was crowded in the hospitality house. Some folks were trying to stop and shop in both the hospitality house and the Ozarks Marketplace. Employees kept saying to leave the building.

We were able to get on the 2nd tram out. The employee on the back of the tram kept apologizing and repeating to call guest relations at a later time about refunds or handling the grocery store tickets.

But there was no plan to get vehicles out of the parking lots. No one was directing traffic out of the lots. We were parked 2 rows from the stop 2 gazebo and had parked facing the exit and able to pull forward to get out. Took us over 25 minutes to get to 76. When we got to the light there were 3 deputies but traffic was still still turning in on Indian Point Road. The least amount of traffic was in the left lane to turn toward Branson West so we got in that lane to leave and get out of the area.

If something like this happens again, there needs to be a plan to get vehicles out of the lots. SDC employees need to direct traffic or sheriff's deputies need to do so.

People were trying to be courteous and let other vehicles in line but it just kept slowing down plus some folks just plowed their way into the line.  Wouldn't be surprised if there were some fender benders.

SDC employees did a great job of evacuating the park but it could have been terrible if the fire had spread across the parking lots because people would have been trapped.

If you would like to vote (and you may vote daily), here's the link to the annual USA Today 10Best Holiday Theme Park contest. SDC has won several times and is currently in 1st place.

https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-theme-park-holiday/an-old-time-christmas-at-silver-dollar-city-branson-mo/

It was just announced that it will become Marble Falls Nature Park, similar to Dogwood Canyon but smaller scale.

https://www.ktlo.com/2021/09/30/abandoned-dogpatch-to-become-nature-center/

Here's a video from KY3 with some footage about the park's past.

https://www.ky3.com/2020/08/04/bass-pros-johnny-morris-announces-purchase-of-old-dogpatch-usa-reveals-plans/