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I think the biggest problem with the Branson shows is the price. I mean, when I can buy a ticket for $20 to see Marshall Crenshaw and The Bottlerockets play original music that they recorded or pay $38 for glorified karaoke with comedy, there is a problem. When I can spend money to see Cheap Trick and it is only slightly more than shows at Branson, there is a problem.

I am lucky in that I am not really hurting for income. But an average family cannot afford to see the shows even if they wanted to. Price them more reasonable and people will come.

See, I was thinking the opposite. Wicked was just in town here and the tickets were $75/person for balcony seats. Even though I'd love to see it, I couldn't make myself pay that much for tickets. It's significantly more than I've ever paid to see a show in Branson. I can find much more reasonable tickets in Branson, especially if the theater uses Half Price Tickets. When my kids were younger, we used family passes to get our family of 5 in to see a show for about the same as one ticket to Wicked would have been.

Olathe used to have a kiddie center in the big outlet mall with a small indoor worm coaster.....I'm guessing it is gone since the mall was pretty much dead the last time I saw it.

They actually tore the Olathe mall down: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/cityscape/article88884837.html

My daughter was at Schlitterbahn just a week before the accident but it was just her and her boyfriend and they didn't meet the weight limit or want to ride with a stranger, so they didn't go on the big slide. So tragic for that boy's family, and happy to hear the slide will be closed the rest of the season.

We took the kids out of school for an "educational field trip today".  If anyone asks, they heard music from Ireland, steel drums, and whoever was playing at the gazebo when we left.  We started at the expo to get measured.  Rose almost every ride.  Down to the landing...rode almost every ride.  Up to the hi lo silos.  Cut through to go to half dollar holler.  I wasn't impressed with the cinnamon bread this time.  It wasn't warm and it didn't seem as fresh.  However, the loaves were huge!!!  Per the goats then we were on our way home.  We didn't wait for any ride, outside of the time we had to wait for the previous riders to stop and unload.  We love days we can walk on!

They'll warm up the cinnamon bread if you ask.

If you had to pick a week to go, that week will be less busy than the week after.  I've noticed most schools in the area on on break the next week to coincide with Easter.
Go Wednesday or Thursday.  They will be the least busy.  If the weather is nice on the weekend, it can get crazy.

What's "the area"? Branson is on Spring Break that week March 14-18. Springfield is the week before. Most KS schools are the 14-18. It's really unusual for TX/OK/KS/MO to be any later than mid-March. I expect that week to be busy, but I'm guessing Wednesday and Thursday will be the slowest days. We'll be there all week, planning to go most mornings as long as the weather cooperates. We did a cold Spring Break morning a few years ago and never, ever again.

They check my bags every time I go to a concert/basketball game. At Disney parks. I'm OK with it. I'd rather slow down a little on my way into the park so they can check things out than worry about my safety.

We were in Branson last year during this time and there just wasn't a whole lot to do in town. A lot of places are closed or only open limited hours. Many of them are open right up until Christmas day so they give employees time off after Christmas. So yes, if it's warm, SDC will probably be busy because the choices are limited.

We'll get WW/SDC season passes and the BAF with those cover more time. We haven't had season passes in a few years so this will be fun.

Our stay was fine but we most likely won't be back. Our rooms were dark and my family found the breakfast laughable. I don't eat breakfast so I didn't go but my family of teens went down and came back joking about how awful it was. I don't know if it was a bad morning, but they literally had 3 doughnuts and some cold gravy. We ended up going to McDonalds. It's OK for the price and the staff was super nice but we'd rather pay a little more and get a little more light, a little better breakfast, etc. I understand that many of you are vocal supporters, but there are other opinions. Not everyone is going to agree.

I guess technically it said it was from Branson, but it's the polling company Herschend uses and they're the only ones that have ever sent me surveys about Branson, so I assumed it was a survey paid for by Herschend.

Basically they wanted to know how many shows I've seen in Branson, which shows, etc. and then asked some questions about the Steve Wyrick magic show and whether I'd go see it. Then they wanted to know if I'd go see the Duck Dynasty musical and what I thought about suggested ticket prices. I know Duck Dynasty tried to have a musical and it did poorly so maybe they're thinking they could bring it to Branson fairly inexpensively (since it's already written, produced and has a cast). Plus Korrie (Willy's wife) grew up going to Branson every year, so she's already familiar with the area.

They put up Christmas lights with visitors in the park. They could take them down. And during that short break, the employees have to file for unemployment to get through. I'd hope they would rather work than "make do" with unemployment. (Just FYI -- almost the entire town of Branson goes on unemployment in Jan and Feb during that "break" most shows/attractions take.)

And if you think an indoor water park would cheapen the experience, you haven't been to Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at The Wilderness last year and there were 3 indoor water parks. They were amazing and made Great Wolf Lodge in KC and certainly Grand Country look tiny and cheap. Indoor water parks can be done well and keep interest going. Great Wolf in KC seems to do well year round. I'm sure they're slower in Jan/Feb but it probably all balances out.

There's a Residence Inn in Branson. Never stayed there but that's the only "true" suite type hotel there. No Courtyard or Embassy Suites or anything.

You'd probably be better off looking for a condo on VRBO.

We almost always go to SDC for Spring Break. I've been on days so cold the roller coasters didn't even open and I've been on days so warm my kids rode Lost River. There's just no predicting. Sometimes we had both in the same week.

Not going this year. Just not excited about the new offerings and decided to go elsewhere this year. We're headed South where hopefully we'll find some warm weather.

The cost to run a website should be part of a company's budget -- advertising, etc. A convenience fee is generally tacked on to cover credit card fees, the cost of printing the pass, and paying someone to put them in an envelope and cover postage to send the passes. It's stupid and they should just be happy people are buying season passes and if anything, build that convenience fee into the cost of the pass rather than tacking on an extra fee. Or tack on the extra fee and use it to update their site. The stories here are ridiculous for a company that wants people to buy season passes but then has a website that doesn't work consistently.

You can see in the screenshot that Firefox has being used, and the OP called the number listed several times.

It really irritates me when I want to buy something and keep getting error messages. I shouldn't have to use a different browser, or clear my cookies, or jump through any other hoops to get a website to work when I'm wanting to buy something from a business. They should make sure their website is compatible with all browsers, etc. I'm guessing that SDC's ticket office is probably on a skeleton staff at this time of year, which is why the number isn't working after hours. At the least, they should make sure they have voice mail set up so they can return calls when they do have someone working. I totally understand the OPs frustration.