2021 Crowds/Trip Reports

[shavethewhales]

I'm interested in gauging how strongly the park/industry is bouncing back this year after the covid disaster, so here's a thread to report on crowd levels when you visit for our general interest.

I am told the park is very busy today, and it sounds like it was decently busy yesterday. The park just extended hours a SECOND TIME for tomorrow. Sounds like spring break is off to a tremendous start for the park!

They sure need the attendance this year, so I'm rooting for big crowds!

[History Buff]

I'm interested in gauging how strongly the park/industry is bouncing back this year after the covid disaster, so here's a thread to report on crowd levels when you visit for our general interest.

I am told the park is very busy today, and it sounds like it was decently busy yesterday. The park just extended hours a SECOND TIME for tomorrow. Sounds like spring break is off to a tremendous start for the park!

They sure need the attendance this year, so I'm rooting for big crowds!

All of Branson is hopping, today (3/19/21).  If nothing else happens, this may be a boom year.

[SDC#1fan]

Just left the park and it was PACKED. Sdc was also on the struggle bus. Most of the day wildfire, powder keg, outlaw run, and mystic river falls were down. Couple that with large crowds and wait times were horrible. Fire in the hole was running 80 mins most of the day. Went to get cinnamon bread and were told halfway through the line that it would be and hour and a half for more bread. I love the city and don’t get to go very often anymore so it was a bit of a let down.

[History Buff]

Just left the park and it was PACKED. Sdc was also on the struggle bus. Most of the day wildfire, powder keg, outlaw run, and mystic river falls were down. Couple that with large crowds and wait times were horrible. Fire in the hole was running 80 mins most of the day. Went to get cinnamon bread and were told halfway through the line that it would be and hour and a half for more bread. I love the city and don’t get to go very often anymore so it was a bit of a let down.

Unfortunately, this is often the case during "ride days" when there is nothing to draw crowed off the rides.  Many wish for shows, shops, and a fully-functioning park instead.

[Bigdog]

The biggest problem yesterday was the lack of equipment up and running.  1 train operating on Powder Keg is just cruel.  It’s always amazed me that SDC doesn’t seem to take the weather forecast into consideration when planning their day.  I could have told them that it would be fairly busy on Wednesday, very light on Thursday and packed on Friday, yet they had the same capacity on open attractions all 3 days.  They did finally add a 2nd train to Time Traveller yesterday which helped.

My first impression of Mystic is that it’s a very nice ride but way too slow loading.  I can’t imagine the wait for this one on a hot summer day.  It broke down repeatedly on Wednesday and Friday but we did eventually get everyone on once.

The Cinnamon Bread shop seemed to have trouble keeping up with demand even on the slow days.

All that being said, we’ll head back over there around 5 or so this evening and see if we can capture an elusive ride on Powder Keg.

[shavethewhales]

Couldn't even get into the park today. Was late leaving this morning, so didnt make it till about 1ish. The trams were parked at each stop with people on them because they weren't letting people in and we're telling people it would be an hour wait at least. I'm now at Shepard of the Hills, which is also busy.

The parking lots weren't even full at sdc... Lot 4 is currently employee parking. Lots 1 and 2 were full, but 3 was less than half full. I don't think anyone was in 5. Thats less than what was at Christmas. I guess they probably have less capacity due to shows/shops being closed, but still... I wonder if it's really a staffing issue.

[woodgrain]

We made it in this afternoon without too much of a wait. We rode a tram in from stop 2 and walked right in. However, there were people behind us in line for the turnstiles that said they waited for two hours, presumably at the walk-up health check tent. The line there was very long. Employee at the tram stop said they are limited to 9,000 on park, so it was one out, one in for a while.

[shavethewhales]

I managed to make it in today, but the park is not any less crowded, they haven't added any more capacity to the rides, and the maintenance issues are still here. TT hasn't opened that I know of, and I waited 30 mins for wildfire only to have it get stuck on the lift hill and have to be evacuated. I've never seen wildfire go down, it's supposed to be the most reliable ride in the park!

FITHs queue line has stretched around fry bread, so I think I'm just going to leave... Had a nice time walking around and got some coffee and a cinnamon biscuit from the mill at least.

These crowds are insane. SDC, Branson, and all over america it seems people were ready for spring break. Now I'm curious how the rest of the year will go. April is usually a dead period, and summer is usually weirdly unbusy. I'll bet summer will be more busy at least.

[Swoosh]

When has March/April ever been a dead period for Branson? It’s always busy during Spring Break

[Lampie]

It sure seems like there were more than 9,000 there today. We just left lots 2,3 and 5 were full. Flooded mine was a 20-30 minute wait most of the day. It felt more like days In the past that were around 18,000. I’m sure some of that is not having as many shows to siphon people away from paths, but I’d guess they were around 12,000-14,000.

[shavethewhales]

 

When has March/April ever been a dead period for Branson? It’s always busy during Spring Break

The few times I have been for opening weekend never felt crazy like this. Only time I felt it was really busy was when time traveler opened.

The park has been posting about large crowds again all weekend. People arent too happy. It definitely sucks. The crowds themselves aren't an issue, it's purely the capacity restrictions and one train operations on almost all big rides. Sometimes they'll put a second train on a couple of the coasters, but it seems like they are trying to keep it to one as much as possible? Just my perception so far this year. I think staffing levels might be affecting that. They need to at least stop half filling trains though, that was always a dumb bit of covid safety theatre.

But hey, at least the park is off to a strong start this year. They need it.

[sdcfan88]

Yeah it was crazy today. And the rides were actually running at full capacity and with two or more trains. However they really seem to have had bad luck with the rides as the day went on. Wildfire broke down with some kind of Lift Hill issue, Powderkeg actually valleyed apparently just as we were about to get on and both were down for the day as a result. TNT and Outlaw broke down for unspecified reasons too. Mystic was still having it's usual issues and closing a lot. Yeah lots of frustrated people out there today and a tough day for the maintenance crews at the park.

Oh and there had to be more than 9k in the park. It was super crowded for everything, like Christmas Crowd packed.

[shavethewhales]

Wow, that's great that they got up to multiple trains on the coasters today, but holy crap that is a lot of breakdowns. That's the second weekend in a row for Widlfire, and PK valleying? What the heck is going on? I know there was some damage from the winter storm, but c'mon...

There is not a single reliable ride in the park now. The old rides are pretty decent, but showing their age and lack of attention paid to them, and the new rides are all somehow incredible maintenance nightmares.

[sdcfan88]

Strangely enough the MVP's today were FITH and Time Traveler as I personally didn't see them break down. And of course the flats, FM, and the train were ok. FM and FITH both had lines I haven't seen in a long time with the former spilling into the train station line. Both had over an hour wait times. Granted this could be due to the others all having their issues and being closed.

[mg]

Mystic River Falls actually had a good day. It was only down for about an hour and a half total (2 temp closures) during the day before finally closing for the day due to weather around 6:45.

TT was down around 5 times, but they were really short closures and only lasted for around 45 minutes total throughout the day before closing for weather too.
FITH was down once for around 40 minutes.
PK was down twice for around 1.5 hours total.
WF was down twice for around 5.5 hours total.
FM wasn't down at all today.