I was talking with some other posters yesterday at the park and while don't read too much into this - this is "our take" on what is happening with the park.
When the park originally opened it was a craft demonstration park. The 1880's theme was just a by product of what they were trying to accomplish - demonstrating lost craft skills of a bygone era.
Eventually, the park started adding rides to "plus" the original mission. The original mission still existed but the rides were just icing.
The park realized after awhile, that in order for it to remain relevant, a mission change would have to occur. The focus shifted from craft demonstrations to activities and rides that the whole family could do together. The two existed in harmony during this golden era.
Now we are in the next evolution of the park. The park is no longer having craft demonstrations as the main focus. We have moved from a park that had an 1880's theme as a happy coincidence due to the time frame they were wanting to show with the crafts to a theme park that has an 1880s theme. There is nothing wrong with this, but I do feel that some posters need to come to terms with this.
Now the good part about this, is that the park is leaving the square are areas up to Midtown Road/Bridges practically untouched to the main mission. I refer to this area as the "Legacy area" -- we still have numerous craft demonstrations in this area and honestly I would love for their presence to be beefed up a little more. As in all of the boutiques be required to have a resident artist in them (even if for show). The homestead is still there, Shad's shack is still there and honestly the area still looks very nice.
Now to the whole "it don't fit" argument about the new areas. I think the park has started to realize that while the 1880s theme is a fun theme, at times it can prove to be shackles when expanding. I personally find all of the new sections to work with the 1880s theme, Grand Expo excluded (and I'll get to that here in a bit). There were farms in the 1880s and I think the Wilson's Farm area is well done. The Outlaw Run area is also well done. I find its placement a little weird by the farm, but in order to fit a large coaster in the area they had to do what they had to do. I just find the transition from the farm to the depot very jarring. Fireman's Landing fits in just fine. All of those areas I mentioned are well done.
Now let's get to Grand Expo. Believe it or not, that area is quickly coming up on 10 years. Now I am not sure how many of you have noticed things, I have mainly because I have been well acquainted with the area since the beginning. But the theme to the area has slowly but surely started to disappear. You'll notice that the main marquee for the area is gone. A lot of the signs for the different sections have disappeared (shoot a whole section that used to be by the RGHH is gone now). I have a theory on this -- I think this is our next area to get made over... just going off the signs that I am seeing.
Now the next part is complete speculation, but this is what I would do. I would remove the elephants completely (send them to Wild Adventures). I would move Ladybugs, Flight of Fantasy and Happy Frogs to Half Dollar Holler. -- let's touch on that now before I go into other details on Grand Expo. I would put Flight where Lil Swings was and then the other two rides where the story time and sand place is currently in HDH. That area could become the half pint ride area of the park and I think would really benefit from that move.
Now back to GE. Remove the elephants, move the kiddie rides, now retheme the remaining rides to the new theme of the area that goes with this redo. Oh and all carny games go away with this retheme. I want actual food stands and not the ODV carts that are currently in there. Probably need a shop as there is (surprisingly) not one in this area.
Ok so you are probably wondering what will go where the kiddie rides were.... this is where the station for the next coaster will go. I will just leave it at that. You can choose your own breed of coaster, but I think that's what will happen.
Wow, long post, but yeah....
Oh and don't look for anything major in 2016 at SDC... and maybe not even 2017
I had to drag Swoosh's post back up because I really like it. I agree that the park is on the backside of the inevitable transition into being a theme park instead of the wildly unique Ozarkan attraction of it's own making, and that's something I keep having to remind people that we have to simply deal with or move on. On the same note though, I think it's fair to critique, ask for more than the bare minimum, and to keep pushing them to be ahead of the rest in more than just rides, rides, rides - but that's a discussion for another thread.
I really, really hope you are right about the GE make-over. That's also been growing at the back of my mind over the past couple of seasons. It's hard to tell if they simply don't care about that section of the park at this point or if they really are just planning on completely re-inventing it soon. Without the meager signage it's gotten incredibly bland, but most of us have ignored it because it's simply never felt like a real part of the park anyway. It's just an improved employee parking lot.
Chittlins, I get what you're saying about how SDC's coaster collection has evolved vs. DW's, but of course that's very much an enthusiast perspective. What it really comes down to is $$$ and the potential the head honcho's see for making more $$$ in the future. If SDC's attendance wasn't so flat, we'd definitely have had another coaster or two at this point. It's not really misfortune, it's just how the market is responding.
Same thing with White Water. If they felt like it, it wouldn't be hard to completely re-do White Water as it stands - even with the relatively small land area - and make it ten times the park that it is now. I'm sure we both know of water parks with less land area that have so much more stuff. There's just not enough trust in the Branson market, but maybe we'll see another good continuation of the gradual redevelopment of the park this year.
What we really need to watch is whether or not HFEC scoops up that theatre behind WW that is going up for sale.