Had a wonderful trip this weekend, my first of the year. I was on the fence for a variety of reasons to visit now or just wait until December, but I bit the bullet and ultimately I'm glad I did.
One of the big reasons I was hesitant was because I slipped on the ice in January, and had to have ankle surgery. It's been a long recovery process, and for much of the last year the ankle can only take so much before it needs to rest. Furthermore, it's been very sensitive to inclines and slopes-something SDC has more of than most any other park I can think of. I'm happy to say that I may have turned a corner, because at no point did my ankle give me any grief during (or after) my two days at SDC!
In terms of unambiguous improvements, I have to say, the parking lot redesign was much needed. Granted, I only parked near the new Stop 2, but the process of getting out of the lot especially has been streamlined for the better. Overall I felt the new lot is much more functional and fixes problems I hadn't even realized were problems. The aforementioned issue with trams was not one I experienced, and in fact I'd say they were among the best staffed I have EVER seen with trams. They had plenty running and were getting people to and from the park very quickly-I was actually very impressed with how smoothly everything ran.
The park was slammed, so ultimately I didn't ride many of the coasters. At this point, I've done them all so many times that I'm just not willing to wait beyond a certain threshold, and that threshold was reached many times over during the last two days. As much as I love the original, more quaint areas of the park, on days like this weekend, pretty much everywhere was slammed, and it was quite clear that many of the older smaller structures and areas of the park (Bakery, Grist Mill, etc) were struggling to meet demand. To the park's credit, it seemed like the park was for the most part staffed appropriately to handle the crowds.
There is palpable enthusiasm for everything FITH at the moment, which is nice to see. I really hope they deliver with the new version, because it's clearly been embraced as a park signature by guests. By contrast, I am a bit concerned for the future of Flooded Mine, which also seems primed for an overhaul (basically none of the guns in my boat worked properly, in addition to the ride being visibly quite old in every respect), but pointedly has always seemed to me a distant second in the mind of the public when compared to to FITH, even before that ride's closure was announced. I must confess that while I appreciate that it's there, I don't know if I can really say I love it in the same way I love FITH, so perhaps I'm just projecting my own feelings and presuming to speak for everyone else on the topic here. But the fact that the ride on most days only gets a line around the time the train boards to me is pretty telling. They certainly could/should invest in a proper refresh and make the entrance to the ride more noticeable, but will they? I'm uncertain that they will.
It was quite cold on Saturday, and I didn't put enough thought into the weather when I packed, so it was quite chilly much of the day. Definitely my fault for failing to adequately prepare for the conditions. At least I wasn't one of the teens riding Mystic River Falls after the sun had gone down and it was 50 degrees (but it was fun to listen to them scream as they came to realize what a bad idea it was to go on that ride in those conditions).
Foodwise, new to me things I tried were the Pumpkin Whoopie Pie, the Pumpkin Chili, the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake Funnel Cake, the Sausage and Potato Skillet, and the chicken sandwich from Time Traveler's Stop. The whoopie pie was too sweet for me, but I really enjoyed everything else.
Entertainment-wise, I'm happy that I got to see the 50th Saloon Show and 'normal' train robbery (though I was a bit too far back to hear what was being said-they could stand to invest in better mics here), but the real surprise was walking by the Homestead and seeing Aunt Judy! For whatever reason, she is the one person I remember from my first visit to the park in 05, and so to me she IS Silver Dollar City in a way no one else quite matches. In my head she had retired (I'm fairly certain the last time I saw her was a few years before covid), so it was a pleasant surprise to see her there. And when she finished, I was in place for the Pickers. In my head, Danny had already retired during the summer season, so it was a shock to see him come out and perform with the group, but very much a positive one. He's going to be hard to replace-so much of the comedy and antics come from him and him alone. I also saw the new show at the Dockside, and I have mixed feelings-on one hand, it was nice to see something a bit more modern at the park, but the musicians didn't quite mesh with each other in the way they needed to for the music to really soar. I did notice at one point when I was over by the pottery store that I heard music that sounded distinctly louder and more modern than what I'm used to hearing at the City, and eventually it became clear that it was from this show. Not bad, per se, but an idea/group that could benefit from a little fine-tuning IMO.
One new-to-me happening was seeing them use the Shingle Saw on Saturday. Mostly I overheard this while watching the Pickers, and by the time I made it over, I had missed the demonstration. But I talked to the citizen over there, and she explained that it was the first time they had fired it up since 2019 (I had never seen or heard of this happening and was convinced it was just a static prop at this point). She encouraged me to come back at 3 where they would, if the machine cooperated, do the demo one last time. I didn't quite make it in time, but did get to hear some of the stories. I don't believe the Shingle Saw fired up for the 3:00 demo, and it appeared that there may have been an issue, because there were no signs of life at all yesterday. The citizen I had talked to recognized me and must have felt bad that I missed the demo, because she insisted I take a cedar shingle that had been cut from the saw for my closet, which is definitely the most unusual park souvenir I've ever received. I'm bummed that I missed seeing the shingle saw in action, but hey, I got a free shingle out of the experience at least!
I'm sure the pumpkins were expanded from last year, but it didn't really feel like it to me. Personally, I'm ready for them to change it up a little at this point.
The Pathfinder, which shrunk in 2020 but then grew back a bit last year has shrunken a bit again. I don't much care for being directed to look up the seasonal menus through a QR code. Not something that's the doing of SDC here, as more and more parks just don't offer maps or brochures at all anymore, but disappointing for me as someone who likes to collect these things.
Overall it was a great visit and I'm so happy I visited! Hopefully the OTC visit will be just as enjoyable.
