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« on: December 05, 2012, 02:43:28 PM »
We arrived in Branson about 9:30pm Friday Night (11/30). After a quick stop at Branson Towers to pick-up our Coaster Christmas registration, we headed down the road to Homestay Inn where Paige was waiting to greet us. After visiting for a while we checked into our hotel rooms and went to bed. After eating breakfast at Homestay (love the waffles) we arrived at SDC around 9:00am. Around 9:30am we took a group picture and made our way to the Riverfront Playhouse for even more breakfast and park presentations. SDC had a wonderful spread of giant cinnamon rolls, apple turnovers, cupcakes, coffee and wassail. Yummy! We heard presentations from SDC (got to see the full Outlaw Run pov for the first time), Six Flags, Schlitterbahn, and Worlds of Fun. Received a gift bag of Outlaw Run themed merchandise from SDC, and a souvenir cup with free tickets from Schlitterbahn. Worlds of Fun and Six Flags also had give-aways. But since there were not enough for everyone (This years Coaster Christmas had a record registration of about 160) they had a drawing for those items.
After park presentations it was on to ERT the kids rode Powderkeg 3 times and Wildfire twice. This ERT was a life-saver given the crowds that would hit the park later that day. After ERT we met by FITH and exited the park to Outlaw Run. It was lunch time. They had two little buffets set up—one in what will probably become a retail area and the other in the loading zone. The buffet consisted of two different types of “skillets”, potato soup, and a new tomato soup. They had hot chocolate, coffee, tea, and bottled water for drinks. Apple dumplings were for dessert!!!! They told us to eat as much as we wanted....and we did! After we finished eating we got to walk to various places around the roller coaster. Down near the base of the lift hill we got to “make our mark” under an ACE Outlaw Run sign. We were allowed to sign the wood beams of the coaster with a sharpie marker. Though this area will never be visible by the general public, at least we know that our names are there.
After Outlaw Run we used the rest room and then went to wait for our special seating for Dickens.
The Christmas Carol was excellent as usual. After Dickens we were free to enjoy the park at our own leisure. (Originally we were supposed to watch It's a Wonderful Life next, but this was postponed to Sunday due to the size of our group).
While the kids headed over to Thunderation with grandma. Mom and Dad made a quick trip to the parking lot to deposit our free stuff in the van and pick up the stroller. Next we headed back to the Grand Exposition, so the kids could ride some rides and I could people watch, and enjoy the lights and music. While in the Expo my daughter pointed out that I was sitting across from Jim Duggar the father of the “19 Kids and Counting Family”. My wife is a big fan of the show and she got her picture taken with Jim and Michelle along with some of the kids. I sat across from them for quite a while. (When you find an open bench, you take it!). And it was nice to see how gracious all of the Duggars where when it came to taking pictures and signing autographs. They seemed to be very friendly, down to earth people. After the Grand Expo we went over to visit the one and only Terry Sanders portraying Santa's assistant “Clarence Peabody”. He was the first to tell us of how massive the crowds were that day. Next we went to ride the Flooded Mine (while the parade was going on). There was very little wait. After the flooded mine we went to see Frosty. Next back to Thunderation. After the first parade, the park slowly begins to empty out. So the kids were able to ride a few more rides. I made a stop at the candy store and bought some Pecan Brittle (Yum) and at the Taffy store for some Wildfire Taffy. Stopped at the stand on the square for some Hot Chocolate with the works, found a bench and enjoyed the lights and music while the kids finished riding rides and the women went shopping. As has already been reported, crowds exceeded 23,000 that day. But other than the crowded streets, the crowds didn't really impact us very much. Thanks in a large part to the ERT earlier that day.
Sunday we arrived at SDC around 11:00am for the Coaster Christmas behind the scenes tour of the Frisco steam train. This was really neat. We got to see the original SDC train that was once owned by Henry Ford. Found out that the “train wreck” that you see on the train ride was originally just spare parts that came with another SDC train. The highlight of this tour was the kids (both young and old) being allowed to climb up into the cab of one of the trains and ring the bell and sound the whistle. Another interesting tidbit about the train: their trains continue to burn oil instead of propane because the propane doesn't burn hot enough to generate enough steam to get the train up the steep grade in the back.
After the train we were allowed to hang around Outlaw Run a little more until they led us up to the square to await rope drop. At rope drop our family attended services at the Wilderness Church. The service was really nice. We were unable to make it to the Coaster Christmas showing of It's a Wonderful Life. So we didn't get to see that show. Hopefully next year. After service we went over and ate Dinner at the Mill (for free courtesy of Coaster Christmas). Then we split up and did our own thing. We met up to watch the parade (In addition to the Grand Expo, another good place to watch the parade is by the exit of the Flooded Mine. There is a very small strip of space between the wall and the road. There is usually no one there, and there is no way for anyone to stand in front of you, because there's barely enough room for you to stand there) I ended the day sitting on a bench on the square drinking hot chocolate with the works and watching the Christmas lights while the women shopped (sound familiar). As we were getting ready to leave the park, we saw Santa Claus walking toward the hospitality house. He looked exhausted. We wished him Merry Christmas. And to our surprise he walked over to where we were and stood and talked to us for a while (If it were me, I would have just said “Merry Christmas” and kept walking). He commented on size of the crowds and said “That's a lot of children!” Can you imagine dealing with that many children (not to mention their parents!). Anyway, it meant a lot that he came over and talked to us, even though you could tell he was very tired. All in all it was a great trip and a great visit. Thanks so much to SDC and ACE for giving us such a great discount and treating us so well. Our family has visited SDC for Christmas every year for the last 10 year. I don't know if a visit this year would have been if it weren't for Coaster Christmas and the discount at Homestay.
“And the Parson exclaimed as he left the city in sight, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”
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Looks like our family will be there the first weekend in May as well.