My wife and I made our fourth 2015 trip to SDC yesterday, Sunday, May 3.
We always arrive at park opening and in all three of our previous trips (one Saturday trip and two Sunday) we were out of the park by 1:00 because of the unusually heavy crowds for the World Fest this year. It always seemed to me that World Fest was one of the lighter attended festivals. The SDC marketing folks must be doing a great job of getting people through the gates in 2015. I've noticed heavy attendance from our neighbors to the south coming in from Arkansas. Maybe there's recently been a heavy marketing campaign down there by SDC or something; maybe with a lot of discounts in areas around Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. On the Saturday we went, there was school bus after school bus of kiddos pulling into the place, so obviously the folks at SDC are swinging deals with school districts around the four sate area to schedule as many spring trips as possible to get the kiddos in the park.
The upcoming Bluegrass Festival is gonna be real interesting on Saturdays with the legions of screaming teeny's swarming off the buses and mixing it up with the old-timers trying to get to the theaters to see the fine Bluegrass shows. The Bluegrass Fest is our favorite time of the year at SDC and I'm sure we'll be right in the middle of it all, trying to catch a few rides early on and then hopefully several shows throughout the day when we visit. I really wish SDC wouldn't cater to the schools on the weekends of the Bluegrass, as those buses full of kids couldn't care less about the music and sometimes it appears things get real crazy for the folks trying to get from show to show. Anyhow, it's gonna be interesting just how crowded the park could be in upcoming weekends.
And back to our trip yesterday. The park opened at 10 and it was obvious that another day of heavy attendance from the four state area was in store for all of us in the park. It was another beautiful spring morning in the park and everyone filing in was all smiles. Springtime at SDC, and in the Ozarks, is a magical time for my wife and I, there's no better time of the year for us. Except for all the sneezing and coughing so many of us were doing yesterday with all pollen and allergens floating around the hills and hollers! Allergy sufferers can have a tough go of it around here this time of year.
We were able to catch a small bit of the always well attended morning Pickers show and then headed off to catch a few rides on the awesome SDC coasters. We made our usual swing through the Powder Keg, then Fire in the Hole, and over to Wilson's Farm for Outlaw Run and the Barn Swing. All of the rides were up and running at park opening and we were able to finish off the opening hour without a hitch. I think one good thing about the current heavy attendance in the park is the apparent effort by SDC to have their rides ready to board at park opening on the weekends. We feel that effort has not always been a priority with the folks at SDC, and that probably remains the case on weekdays, but on weekends things have been really good with early thrill riding.
We hopped of the Barn Swing at just a few minutes before 11 and then hustled over the the Playhouse in the hopes of catching the Island Fire show at 11. The shows for the World Fest have been somewhat difficult to attend if your not arriving early, especially the Zuma Zuma show. We were lucky enough last week to just squeeze into the 11:30 Zuma show and enjoy the performers. Amazingly, over the years, we had never took the time to see the Island Fire performance. We hoped maybe we could sneak into the show at the last second and grab a seat. But as we walked up the doors were closed and from outside we could hear the show beginning. We decided to walk past the restrooms and up the hill to the actual exit of the theater and peak into the doors of the little vestibule at the exit. There was an attendant standing in the doorway into the theater and she smiled and pointed to several open seats on the left side of the room. The place wasn't full and we got to sit in on the 35 minute performance. Decent show, a little dull at times, and some bad jokes, but the fire knife twirling at the end was really good and we were glad to have finally seen Island Fire.
Upon leaving and walking past the Dockside Theater I noticed that the Slovenia group was only 5 minutes or so from beginning their set. We hadn't planned on seeing that show, but what the heck, let's give it a try. We zipped up to the little refreshment stand outside the Carousel Barn, got us a couple of refills for our handy dandy $1 refill mugs (yes they're still honoring the $1 mug for now) and slipped into the right side of the theater as the show began. We really liked the gals from Slovenia. They all played some type of instrument and they were very energetic. Those girls do a great job of entertaining with their overall liveliness with the Polka stuff and we'd definitely take time to see them again were they to return.
Time for a stroll around the park, just to look at everything. The main walkways were getting pretty busy now, though not quite as busy as we had imagined earlier. We stopped for a ride in the back seat of Wildfire, love the drop in the back on that ride. Then we worked our way back up to main street, down to the candy factory for a little fudge and eventually to the train depot for a look around at the station and the Flooded Mine. Things were pretty busy down there as a train had just pulled into the station and let of its passengers. We swung on around over by the Heritage hall and walked through the tastes of the world building looking at the food offerings and how much they cost. Then we strolled though the Fireman's Landing for a look and eventually back to the Wilson's Farm for possibly another ride on Outlaw Run. When OR has two trains and is operating without glitches they seem to be able to keep the waiting times fairly short over there. I have been surprised that is the case a lot of times. We were on the coaster in a bout 10 minutes. I like riding in the middle section of that coaster as that area doesn't seem to beat us up as bad. We don't consider OR a rough coaster, compared to others around the USA, but the middle section is a bit calmer than the front or back.
As I mentioned before, on our previous three trips we left by 1:00, but the crowds really didn't seem to be getting as huge yesterday so we decided to stick around for awhile and catch the Ecuador Manta show at the Gazebo and then the Pickers down at the pickin shed. My wife has always enjoyed hearing the soothing sounds coming from these Andes musicians. It was getting very warm outside and I decided to splurge a little a grab a couple of ice creams from the parlor a short walk away. One great thing about yesterday and the days before was that the temps got pleasingly warm without any humidity at all. If you got a lil warm you could step into or sit in the shade and be perfectly comfortable. Beautiful weather. Great time to sit at the Gazebo and down at the Pickin Shed and comfortably enjoy two great shows. We walked out the gate at 2:50, headed to Tanger for a little shopping, and to Branson Landing for a late lunch, and on home to Nixa to relax on the back porch and watch the sun go down on a splendid Ozarks day.
See ya'll next weekend for the Bluegrass and BBQ and Rhonda Vincent and the Rage!