2015 Trip Reviews

[shavethewhales]

Today was crazy with the crowds. We were still able to do our fill, but man was it packed. I think I heard around 25,000 people? I'd love to hear the official figure. It may have been a record.

I'll give a few more details when I get home tomorrow.

[Coaster]

We were at the park on Friday and Saturday. Saturday's crowds were absolutely insane. I have never seen the park busier. A citizen told me there were over 21,000 in the park but it had to be more. We had to park out in the boonies (Stop 7) after waiting in traffic for around 45 minutes. Although that seems like nothing after what I'm reading on SDC's Twitter feed. SDC is apologizing to a lot of people who had to wait in traffic for 3.5 hours and then didn't get to park because SDC ran out of parking. Just crazy. There were some upset people about the crowds on the bus back to our car at the end of the day. In my opinion if they were so upset they should have just gone home earlier. They were season pass holders. They could have came on a less busy day. She was also saying how it was SDC's fault that she didn't know where she parked. 

We fought the crowds and still had a great time. The park was beautiful as always. Riding Outlaw Run is amazing in the dark. Shows were great as well. I did see some disgruntled citizens who were probably tired of fighting the crowds. My wife overheard one citizen say they sometimes go 4-6 hours without a break. On a night like this, I was definitely more understanding about citizens not being so cheery and going above and beyond. Dealing with the public is HARD and dealing with at least 21,000+ people for 8+ hours is no easy feat. Every citizen earned their money today and any guest who complains about poor service is really just not being realistic.

This will be my last visit to SDC this season but we bought our season passes for '16. Can't wait!

[History Buff]

Friday was a Goldilocks crowd - not too big, not to little - just right.  I wish they would revisit their show schedule as it is difficult to see the three indoor shows in one day.

[Swoosh]

Um. No it's not.

[shavethewhales]

So it was around 23,500 or so for Saturday. The crowds really didn't seem to show up from where we were until later in the day, like after 5 when it was just starting to get dark. I was busy taking my 4-year old nephew through all the rides in GE. We did the train a couple of times, did the flooded mine a few times, and I slipped off to do Outlaw Run and see Dickens. I feel like the crowds didn't really impact us too much since we weren't trying to do the "typical pattern" of getting food at 7pm, lining up for the parade, seeing the 4-6pm shows etc. Just getting around started to be a real pain though, and it was a crush to get out of the park at the end of the day because just about everyone stayed till close. I seem to remember in past years the park would empty out at least a bit after the first parade, but not this weekend. Major props to the parking crews - the line to get out of the park never stopped moving and what looked like over 10,000 people walked through the exit and onto trams in around half and hour. At least it was a controlled madness.

We've been doing the family Christmas trip here pretty much as long as the festival has been around, and at this point it really feels like we need a full three days to do everything in the park. This is the first time in forever that I've been to SDC and not ridden any of the coasters other than OR, FitH, and the kiddie coaster. I was just too busy getting a few things in with the family, and the nephew didn't even hardly get to Fireman's Landing after we spent most of our time in GE and doing a few other things. The park is certainly ready to add on that hotel and become a full resort.

Highlights of the weekend included the mine restaurant, riding the train as a family, and seeing Santa as he was leaving the park on Friday night. I love how he stopped to talk to all the kids even though he was on his way out. We also love Flooded Mine since our entire group can simply hop on together - everyone from the baby through grandma. Which brings us to the low point...

I usually tell people that you have to live with a few broken targets on Flooded Mine due to the nature of the ride, but at this point it's clear that the rumors are probably true about the ride being taken for a slow and silent exit from the park. There's a noticeable increase in things not working and additional wear and tear, as if things are purposefully being left broken. Hardly anyone seems to realize it's there or what it is since the entrance is practically hidden at this point and the park hasn't drawn any publicity to it in ages. We've seen this strategy before in other parks where they know tearing something out will cause backlash from fans, so they let it get run down until everyone says they need to do something with it. They want to distract from the obvious solution of just re-investing into the attraction and giving it a proper refurbishment. It would be expensive, and perhaps not as easily marketable as a brand new ride, but I think it would be worth it in the long run for a multitude of reasons that we'll talk about in future posts elsewhere. Point being for now is that it's time to really start kicking up a fuss over this thing.

PS: I was kind of shocked how many lights weren't working. It's obviously typical to see a few strands out, but it seemed like they are really struggling with it this year. They need a sturdier light system rather than using the cheapo lights that everyone uses on their house.

[Jemmicat]

We went Friday and Sunday... I try not to touch Saturdays there any more as the crowds have been just too much every time I have done it this year. Perhaps I am just picking bad weekends for us to go. Friday was more crowded than I expected as was Sunday. We usually pick those days specifically for them being quieter. But the weather this weekend was just too nice and everyone was out.

I am pretty sure I saw the Christmas parade last year, but maybe not. It used to be so long. We were in the General Store and went out at 6:12PM and it had nearly all passed the Gazebo. It used to be much larger and longer. I couldn't believe how different it was.

Also, at least on Friday's show of It's a wonderful life that we saw, the "George" character was not the same as last year. The whole cast seemed understaffed. WHile the person playing George was fine enough, he seemed to be sleepwalking through the lines. No emphasis where there should be. Lines that had the place laughing last year were flat because they were just spoken and not punctuated. We had actually made my girlfriend's 9 and 11 year old daughters watch the movie after Thanksgiving. Both do not like black and white movies... but said the movie was way better than the production. I was kind of disappointed.

Also there was a huge police presence on Friday and then Sunday too. By huge I mean 4+ county officers. I have never seen that at SDC. Unsure if it had to do with the shootings last week or if it was because of crowd size. It was a little disconcerting and sad though.

[Preachin_Bill]

We avoided on Saturday and did some things in Branson instead but stayed on Indian point. Could not believe the line of cars trying to get to sdc around 6. Unbelievable.  Had to take a 14 mile detour and still saved time. Will elaborate more on our trip after our return home tomorrow. Saturday wasn't a record but only because people left their hotels too late to actually get to the park, I'll tell ya that.

[Coaster]

^^I noticed the increased police presence as well. I also thought it was extremely sad, but honestly I was relieved to see it. It is terrible that I always second guess whether I am safe in a public place anymore but that is honestly how I think these days. Even at SDC where I have never felt unsafe, security needs to be a high priority.

[sanddunerider]

Shave is right about sat count,  Number I was told was 23,600 and change.....  sunday was 13,600,  couple of good days with perfect weather..

I heard that traffic was backed up on 465 2 miles!   WOW!!

[DollarCityBoy]

Man, after hearing all this I am SOOO glad we went Thanksgiving weekend as normal. Yeah it rained some, but the crowds were almost non-existent. I'd much rather have to deal with some rain than all those crowds, made for several peaceful evenings for us (and that's including our 13 month old). 

[mhguy77]

2 years ago we were at SDC on Saturday December 5th because it was the Coaster Christmas date and it became insanely busy by the
time night fell.  Last year I was in SDC on the first Saturday in December and again it was a zoo.  I think that this first weekend is the killer of the Christmas season.  I have great luck in November like DOllarCity  boy said.  Beginning of December not so much.

[Dewayne]

I went on Sunday. We took our space at 11:00 next to the giant electricity pole in lot 2 as usual. They had 1 tram and 1 bus going at this time. Waited 10 minutes for 1 to come. As I got to the drop off, I saw a long line outside going thru the season pass archway. Ive never seen the line this long, then I noticed e had 30 minutes until the turnstiles open. I never been there so early. At noon, the line was going pretty fast around the Water Clock. I got to the Valley road chain at about 12:20. I was at the front of the line and I was planning on being the first in line for Its A Wonderful Life. I never seen it before and earlier this year I made a promise to myself that I would see it the first time I go out there for the Holiday Season this year because I dont want the show to leave without me seeing it. I saw many employees going under the chain before 1:00 and 1 of them was my friend Hannah. I was the first at the doors. I heard them rehearsing at 12:15 and they opened at 12:27. I got on the left side because I dont know why I never went over to that side. The stage never looked better. It had the houses on both sides like in Dicken's but these didnt turn. The show was great. It was better than I expected, with a few minor things I would have changed. I didnt like that a guy was drunk but I guess thats in the script, the banker sang a song about money but after a few minutes he started sounding like a rich man who was greedy for more money.
I loved the joke about the Dickens show, but I think Dickens is a little bit better of a show.

After the show it was 3:00. I rode PK, fith, WF the line was backed up thru the long way but not upstairs with only 1 train running, looked at Santa lane, saw terry sanders, and looked at rudolph town. Rudolph town was less than I expected but Santa lane looks awesome. Rode TGS, OR, Tech Genius appeared at 5:30 with his lights, rode Accelerator and saw the parade was ready from the top, FL lights look great, rode the swings, went up to Main Street at 6:00. The lost river guy was by the candy factory saying traffic is only up hill from here because of the parade. Didnt see the parade behind me. Stopped at the pop up light shop for 5 minutes, Tech genius bought 2 more light up things for him, still no parade behind me so I went thru midtown to the train at 6:30, rode PK a second time, saw Larry, Garth, and Ben, rode fith a second time and saw Gary and chief, tried going to WF but it closed because the chain stopped and a train got stuck, rode the train a second time on the last train at 8:30, rode FL on the last ride, saw charles and Hannah again, and left because it was 9:07 by now. There was about 12,000 on Sunday most left by 7:00 when it was about 2,000 people left. If anybody was out there that day, you probably saw me. I went everywhere. Left Monday morning to go to Eureka Springs then Springdale for the 1:00 Holiday train to Johnson and back.

[Preachin_Bill]

Went Friday and Sunday, but first let me tell you about Saturday.  We were at the Landing and went to go back to Indian Point and we hit bumper to bumper traffic on 76 right after the conoco station coming out of Branson and I'm not kidding.  I thought maybe a wreck, then I thought maybe that many people were actually going to the trail of lights at shepherd of the hills, and thought no way could this be for SDC.  I was wrong.  Once we got past SOTH it became apparent all these cars were going to SDC.  It was nuts.  A bunch turned around and we ended up taking the Ozark Mountain Highroad (took an hour to get there) to 248 then to 13 and through Branson West back to indian point and there was still traffic as far as the eye could see, and this was about at 7.  On Sunday a lady said they sat in traffic for three hours...three!  My wife also heard some people complaining about traffic exiting and that many people were going the wrong way.  I think the extra hour made everyone think they could leave later and just be there for the dark hours...problem is EVERYONE was thinking the same thing.

As Shave said there were many strands out.  Again as he said, Flooded Mine was sad.  What a shame they are letting this happen.  I don't know why they don't try...we were heading in and a kid was saying "whats this?" to his brothers and parents and it was obvious they had never heard of it before; they were hesitant to even enter until we did.  It had a good line once that I saw, but even then it probably would have only filled three boats.  If you ask me SDC is screwing up BIG time here.  I hope they haven't adopted the mentality of "we will always have our regulars no matter what we do, so let's go after the yearly coaster chasers" but we shall see.
Friday saw the Saloon show.  Good as always.  Watched Cajun Connection and thought it was better than when we saw them a couple years ago.
Train was good...rode it twice on Sunday.  Got in line early and rode the first train of the day and then again later at night when there was no line.  That line was usually very, very long.
It was crowded during the day Sunday but not horrible. We saw Dickens and it was excellent then we walked around, rode FITH and the FM and decided to leave and come back later when it thinned out.  Ate elsewhere, came back at 7, and wow what a difference.  We walked around and around the park and were alone a lot.  It was wonderful.
I decided I had better ride Outlaw Run in the dark and as you all probably know that is a whole different experience.  Simply amazing.
All in all it was a good trip and a good weekend for the park..  Two years ago we went the week after Thanksgiving and it was empty, Last year we went over Thanksgiving and it was super busy, this year week after and it was pretty busy....I think it's just all dependent on the weather and you just never know until you see the forecast.

[Duelist]

Twas the day of our visit
The 12th started warm
And we began to wonder
If we'd be dodging storms.

We got to Branson at noon
And I said "Sakes Alive!
The traffic's all backed up
on 265!"

We thought with the line
we were in a big fix
but in just 30 minutes
we were parked in lot 6.

The Security People were efficient and fast
so we went into the City
to celebrate Christmas in the past.

As our custom we headed
and then got in line
to ride one of our favorites
the old Flooded Mine.

We then wanted more of a thrilling sensation
so we all headed over to ride Thunderation.

Jinglebell Junction was next so with money in hand
my wife went in searching and found a new snowman.

Fireman's Landing was next- we all had a ball.
Riding one of our favorites- the brand new Firefall.

We know that the classics are good for the soul
so we fought the Baldknobbers at Fire in the Hole.

We started to hunger and so very quick
we ate Apple Dumplings- that sure did the trick.

With our hungers now sated and our bellies near popping
we took a break from the rides  and did some more shopping.

When the hunger returned we went right to the Mill
to feast on their buffet- we sure got our fill.

Darkness had fallen and the rain stayed away
so we got in line for Dickens- that great Christmas play.

Then the ride lines were short so we all had some fun
riding the Giant Swing and then Outlaw Run.

The rain then started falling half and hour before park close
so we caught the last Train ride and then we arose
to the top of the park to watch the great Tree
it played the song "Sleigh Ride" and we shouted with glee!

Then we went to the exit to leave with the masses
knowing that we would buy
2016 Season Passes!

Merry Christmas from Duelist and family

[Coaster]

Wow, love it!