2011 Trip Reviews

Ozark Outlaw · November 25, 2011, 11:07:30 PM

Quote from: shavethewhales on November 25, 2011, 10:52:24 PMThe new train car looks a lot better than I was expecting based on the first reviews. It sticks out a little, and it seems a little less quaint than the old style, but it's not bad at all.

Pictures! We need pictures!

Injun Joe · November 26, 2011, 01:37:13 AM

Yeah jmc75, that sounded like a pretty cool trip. Thanks for the review. I hope HDH and GG weren't too awful crowded for you and yours. The Gulch and the Holler are 2 of my favorites.

Joe

sanddunerider · November 26, 2011, 06:29:10 AM

sounds like a typical black friday crowd, glad you 2 were able to get around,

anxious to here from shave about the flags and hios thoughts on that topic,

Good luck today, !

shavethewhales · November 27, 2011, 12:22:11 AM

Had an AWESOME day today. Great food, great shows, and the rides were all running great and with short lines. It was wet, cold, and windy all day so the crowds were a fraction of what they were yesterday.

I've got a ton of photos, but it'll take a while to process them and get them up here, so it might be Tuesday night until I get around to it. Until then, here's some notes:

Riding Wildfire today made me realize how awesome Wild Eagle is going to be. The ride is so solid and provides a great all-around experience with the views, awesome drop, and oversized inversions. I was a little let down when I saw that WE wasn't utilizing some of the newer elements, but now I see that they are sticking to the Wildfire formula that has proven itself so well.

The Mine restaurant below the mill is still probably the best place to eat on park. It was like a second thanksgiving meal tonight. Only slight complaint is that they could probably do more to help out people with food allergies. My father has developed a severe gluten allergy, and it's always a pill trying to figure out what he can eat. If they would just put allergen labels on their labels it would help everyone out a lot.

I rode the train twice today and spotted a couple more markers, but I wasn't able to grab any photos in time. The markers are located on the side of the cabin facing away from TGS and they are pretty far back there in the woods and hard to spot until the train is already rounding the next bend. I saw one purple marker and one stake in addition to the stake from yesterday, and who knows what else is back up in there. I'll post more on that in the 2013 thread.

Ozark Outlaw · November 27, 2011, 09:23:27 AM

Sounds like you really did have an awesome time shave!

I prefer going to the city during beautiful weather, but you really can't beat the fun of going on a really cold, windy, or rainy day. It's like a kid getting a park playground all to themselves.

Wildfire truly is a great ride! Powderkeg, and Thunderation both serve their unique roles, but Wildfire is the roller coaster at Silver Dollar City. B&M truly make world class roller coasters!

In all of my years of going to Silver Dollar City, I have never once ate at the Mine restrurant. It is now officially on my to do list!

I can't wait to see all of the pictures you took! Thanks for the review!

mhguy77 · November 27, 2011, 09:31:16 AM

I arrived last ngiht at 7 to a easy parking lot and a crowd of 6000. ( trusted citizen info) They said the weather was keeping the large crowds away but yesterday they had 5000 more than they expected at 21000. GLad I skipped Friday!!.
Because of the cold weather I did a quick walk through had an apple dumpling and the mills cinamon bread . It was a nice quick trip. I recomend a cold evening walk through every once in a while.!!!

sanddunerider · November 27, 2011, 09:50:33 AM

MH, we will be there next sunday afternoon/evening,, going to dress warm!!

betamike · November 27, 2011, 08:48:53 PM

My family just got back from OTC on Friday and had a great time! They visited Aunt June in the candy basement and on the way down, they passed the Herschend's who were apparently there on Friday as well. Black Friday must have been a great day to be in the park!

Ozark Outlaw · November 27, 2011, 09:33:24 PM

Wow, talk about the "Hollywood" of Silver Dollar City! Aunt Jude, and the Herschends all in the same spot, and in the same evening

Gilligan · November 27, 2011, 10:19:54 PM

Here's my take: Arrived at the park about 3:00 Thanksgiving afternoon prepared to enjoy the Thanksgiving buffet at Mollys. There was absolutely no line at all for the prime rib/turkey buffet so we skipped over there instead. It was just a few dollars more. The buffet was great (the prime rib was a bit overdone), but that isn't what I really wanted so I didn't care too much. The park was not crowded at all, and the weather was beautiful. We had about a 15 min. wait in line to see the Christmas Carol - it was good as always. We did have a slight glitch here - I was told that if I wanted to sit w/my husband I had to leave my wheelchair. Otherwise, I could sit in front, and he could sit behind me. So weird!! I elected to walk to a seat, and as I did so, husband took my wheelchair out and parked it where he was directed. After the show, he left to get my chair and it was missing. It took him awhile to find it as it had been moved and was buried in amongst the strollers. In the meantime, I was told that I must leave so they could start letting in guests for the next show. I explained that I was waiting for my wheelchair. Husband couldn't get back in because the doors were locked. They let guests in and he was finally able to get back to me. Then, the employees were not happy because they had to let us out. It was CRAZY!! In spite of all that, the weather was beautiful and it was not crowded at all. Perfect night for walking around and enjoying the park. It was so perfect, we skipped rides and shows. We were going to ride the train, but it happened to be the only ride that had quite a wait so we skipped it. We hated leaving since it was such a nice night.

We returned the next morning for Black Friday shopping expecting a crowd. Very few people were there at 7:30 a.m. We had E&D's bakery to ourselves. After rolls and coffee, we started shopping to avoid the crowd that we expected any moment. Still, no crowd! We bought a few gifts and walked around the park feeling like we owned the place. Real bargains were few and far between, but we did purchase a good supply of taffy to last thru the winter!

We left by 10:30. It's amazing what you notice when it isn't crowded. It was a fun morning!! I have no complaints whatsoever, but I heard some families grumbling about having to walk all the back to Main Street to purchase refreshments. I think it would have been a good idea to have a food vendor or two open near the back of the park. I think the only restaurants opened were E&D and Molly's. Sullivans was selling bread. Wagon Works was firing up their grill as we left. All in all, I wouldn't return for the sale, but I would go back just to walk thru the park with very few people around.

Oh, and Sasparilla is $2.50 in some areas of the park, but it's $2.60 at Hospitality House.

Injun Joe · November 29, 2011, 03:56:00 AM

Sometimes just walking around and soaking in the ambience is good enough. I can only imagine SDC at night with thin crowds. I toured the House on the Rock a few years back on a cool rainy day at the very tail end of their season and had a similar experience. Very cool indeed.

shavethewhales · November 30, 2011, 05:16:58 PM

My photos are now live on the site! Check em out: http://sdcfans.com/photos/feat/21

Included are some shots of the new train car and some glorious food shots.

So many photos, and I was being selective since I took over 200.

sanddunerider · November 30, 2011, 06:32:50 PM

those are some great pictures shave,

even though i have been to OTC twice already, the pics bring it back to life!

Injun Joe · December 01, 2011, 03:02:52 AM

Those photos are great shavethewhatles. Thank you kindly. I kind of wish you didn't remind me of the impending closure of Grandfather's Mansion. But it does remind me of something I meant to do.

The Christmas lights look fantastic. One of these seasons I'm gonna find myself at an OTC, if for no other reason than to ride some rides in the dark and gaze at the lights.

MissinTheGreenTrams · December 01, 2011, 12:15:00 PM

why would they do something silly like close grandfathers mansion?? that place is a staple.