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The pizza buffet is in the Mill Restaurant during Kidsfest.

I tend to agree with Coaster about the confusion, but when you get all the content in that may not be the case.

We're bringing some people who haven't been in 15 years.  How fun it is to look at the park through new eyes!

I hate having to park in Notch or way down on Indian Point, but I guess we'll have to do what we'll have to do.

That, my friend, will be something to look forward to!

I would like it even more if they didn't tell the public when it will happen - just let it happen seemingly at random.

I did get on the site to find the show schedule - looks pretty light, but that's what I expected.  It'll be nice to visit before a festival hits.  The festivals are nice, but I enjoy just seeing the park without all the hoopla occasionally.

They list the ride opening times on the link, too.  It looks like everything but the Waterboggan will be open.  They also say that the furniture store will feature a new style of furniture, and there is a "new" Christian store on Main Street.

The Saloon show was terrific in the late 80s.  I am too young to remember the Carrie Nation show, but would have loved it (along with a little introduction to history).  The show I remember most featured an actress, playing Tillie, who really stole the show.  There were ad libs all over the place, and we couldn't stop laughing.  It was corny and fun.  That was before Mean Murphy came onto the scene.  As I mentioned in another thread, the bartender was always afraid that his brand new St. Louis mirror would be broken in a scuffle, and sure enough, the strobe lights flashed as a panel on the mirror slid to reveal a broken version of the mirror.

They also made a point of saying this was a "family show" and something was said of the painting of a scantily-clad women above and to the right of the mirror.  Before our eyes, the woman's arm pivoted to cover herself more appropriately.  As a kid, I thought this was rich.

I don't remember a medicine show, but I do remember the Toby Show.  I'd like to more about the Rainmaker and the Undertaker, as they are some of my favorite characters.  It makes me sick every time I see the Rainmaker's wagon not being utilized these days.  People walk by and can't appreciate what it really is.  I remember the Rainmaker would bring a kid up onto the contraption, and he would ask, "How long ya been on the wagon?"  One of the jokes that only the adults laughed at.

I agree.  I've never thought they were very overpriced considering they have such a captive audience.  And they'll give you all the water you need for free (though you have to pay for bottled).

(Just don't fall for the pizza buffet thing when it's offered.  They should pay us.)

Thanks for the info about the map.  I was on at 2:00 this morning and it had not been updated.

Is there also a show schedule?

I do believe Talking Rocks is one of the best caves in the area - maybe the best.  I remember when I was a kid, and one of our family vacations was to hit all the show caves we could in the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks.  One was TR.  I never heard any of the rocks actually talk and that confused me.

TR is over 90% still "living".  It is very wet compared with caves like Marvel and Fantastic, and the formations are many and dense.  It is, of course, smaller than Marvel, but it's worth the trip if anyone gets the chance to visit it.

From the website, there are other caves on the property and people can pay extra to take more wild tours in those.  I wish the website would be updated (as it has some obsolete information) to show actual photos or the tours and things.  Maybe they could get creating and make a video of it like they have for Marvel.  They could sell both videos at both locations.

Frontier City is the perfect picture of a park that can't keep to its theming.  In fact, the best theming has always been in the ride names.  Otherwise, it's not much better than a traveling carnival.  The shows are pretty bad, too.

This, and the patrons typically are teens and preteens running amuck, or at best a corporate party.

Nightmare is so old!  The last time I went the enclosed coaster was already shut down, but on the previous visit, I noticed parts were being held together with duct tape.  The coaster was falling apart when they enclosed it (I suspect they put it in the dark so people couldn't see the bailing wire.).

The dark ride is barely better than a bumper car on tracks, whirling around in a small enclosed area with bad blacklight effects.

I seem to remember the log ride is mostly in the sun ('Guess they cut down all the trees to make the logs.).

Then, for some reason, there is a Tin Lizzy ride (drive your own cars), some cheesy water slides, and a modern, money-sucking video arcade (The big pass-through building at Celebration City is similar in ways.).

The Wildcat is a mild woodie, and the Silver Bullet was all right when it was built, but again was smack in the middle of the sun all day long, with no theming at all.

All of this and the park is practically sitting on the Interstate with no attempt to hide the outside world from guests.  It just feels substandard.  I couldn't believe SF even considered buying it in the first place.

They used to have, before Six Flags took it over, some really great gunfights on a western main street.  This was their version of street performers, and you never knew when a fight would break out.  You felt like you were in the middle of the action.  SF changed the gunfights into a stage show and took away the charm.

I know there was also a pretty elaborate flea circus set up on one street, but I think it was there just as decoration.

Their Halloween season was pretty good, the first time around, but then it was always the same thing year after year.  I think it was the first time I'd heard of a park doing a Halloween makeover.

The best thing about FC was always the cotton candy, but I can get that other places, without having to pay for parking.

As I understood things, the Herschends sold the Oklahoma City White Water to FC, and then both went to Six Flags.  White Water changed its name to White Water Bay.

Anyway, growing up in the area, I went to FC several times and always considered it to be the anti-Silver Dollar City.  I always regretted that Oklahoma didn't have a decent park to show its rich history and heritage.  I even worked with a different company that was on the cusp of creating a classy park like SDC for Oklahoma, but they went bankrupt in the 80s.

I do remember that Frontier City had something years ago that SDC still has not developed - a photo season pass.

How about a new area - the Osage village - in which Native American crafts and entertainment are presented?

New rides could be developed:

• A new floating canoe river ride through a scene of Osage children doing what Osage children did - including a catchy song playing all the way through (like It's a Small World.
• A suspended coaster - the Talon - themed around the spirit of the Eagle:  the lift hill would be the Eagle's nest, and the coaster would swoop down over a lake as if catching fish

Then, naturally, Native American flavor would be introduced to a whole new generation through a new eatery.

No casinos.

People do look at us funny.  Once, we even got a "three idiots singing" during our "12 Days" rendition (He was joking.).

Actually BEING one of the characters for a day would be fun.  A friend of mine and I once instigated an impromptu Christmas show on an empty stage behind the gazebo.  We even pulled people out of the audience to sing carols with us, and then commenced to tell them they were on Candid Camera.  OK, so we were naughty, but we didn't get caught.

We also like to start the carolling on the rides:
On Fire-in-the-Hole, we like to sing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire", and for some reason "Rudolph" is always the one we sing on ThuNderaTion.  Wildfire always hears our "12 Days of Christmas".  It's always better when we can get the whole ride to sing along!  Ocassionally we'll even circle back to ride something for a second time and catch the employees trying to get a song going.  Are we the ones who started the sing-along train rides? 

Upon arriving at the very bottom of Marvel Cave, I erupted into an uncontrollable nose-bleed.  With nothing resembling a tissue, I had no choice but to squeeze it off and breath through my mouth all the way to the top of the incline railway.  FUN times!