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[HeyWheatBread]

I'll be headed to the city with my wife, her little sister, and 3 of our friends on Monday (Labor Day).
I'm ashamed to say that this will be our first trip to the city this year...
Am I correct in expecting it to be pretty busy?
I'll try to have a review up soon after.

[Ozarks Gal]

I'll be headed to the city with my wife, her little sister, and 3 of our friends on Monday (Labor Day).
I'm ashamed to say that this will be our first trip to the city this year...
Am I correct in expecting it to be pretty busy?
I'll try to have a review up soon after.

We usually end up going on Labor Day to celebrate my birthday, and I don't remember it every being just ridiculously busy.  Crowds and lines for sure, but nothing like the unmovable masses you get around Christmas or Midnight Madness.

[biscuitcreek]

Forgot to mention in my trip review for 8/22 that Christmas lights were already up on some of the buildings.

[History Buff]

Forgot to mention in my trip review for 8/22 that Christmas lights were already up on some of the buildings.

I'd like them to wait until at least after Labor Day to do that, but perhaps they do this before a drop in fall employment - if there is such a thing.  Having Christmas lights in my fall pictures kind of messes up the pictures.

[Injun Joe]

Let alone your summer pictures.

[sanddunerider]

I don't mind the lights going up a little early... 
I know it takes lots of hours to do that job...  AND it means that Fall festival AND OTC is comin!!!

[Super]

Big crowd in Branson this weekend

[thunderationgirl]

I went yesterday. There was lightning in the area and so all of the rides were shut down for around an hour. Powderkeg was the first thing we got in line for while the lightning was moving away, and after an hour in line, the ride broke down due to the operator stopping the train to retrieve a phone. We were next in line (the second time this has happened to me this season.) Maintenance came and said that they had never seen anything like this before, and so the next groups in line got a card for a ride on any ride of their choice. I used mine on Outlaw Run. Other than the breakdown, it was a pretty good day. They were running two trains on all of the coasters that I saw and were running 3 or 4 on Fire in the Hole.
This is actually the first time I've been since Fireman's Landing was announced and I am so incredibly excited to have the balloons back. They were my favorite ride when I was younger and I'm probably going to ride them a lot next year.

[sanddunerider]

Yes,!  BIG crowd in Branson this weekend.... Was going to city today was rained out .  oh well....

Heard reports of over 16,000 people at the city on sunday...  NOT surprising though, it was Gospel weekend and being on sunday they usually have a good crowd.....   Sounded like about 10,000 today (Monday), nice finish!

went to SOTH play sunday nite very enjoyable, will be the last time I see it this year...

Had another great stay at Classic, I really am getting used to the fresh choc chip cookies  they make every evening for the quests....  LOL...  the popcorn aint bad either,,

[Gilligan]

Hubs and I were there yesterday.  Parking lots were very full, but it really didn't seem too badly crowded inside the park.  Echo Hollow had a VERY LONG line, and it looked like they had some roving characters around to entertain them.  We got there about 1:00 and stayed until 4:30.  Didn't really ride anything - we were on our way home after 3 solid days on the lake.  I thought the park looked nice.  Hubs asked me why so many employees were wearing cowboy jeans and shirts instead of the usual employee wear.  I didn't really notice, and he didn't ask until we were on the way home.  We both noticed the Christmas lights on the buildings.  Sarsaparilla was as good as always!     The blacksmith told us that he is working part time in the knife shop.  I wonder if they are trying to find another knife maker.  Hubs was sad that all the Ray Johnson knives were gone.  Me too - I was going to try to buy one on the sly for his Christmas gift.  We planned to spend a day at the park, but the lake was calling us...

We really didn't go into Branson at all.  Saw Shepherd of the Hills on Sat. night.  The pre show had to be cut out because of rain and we stood under the barn roof until it passed.  Luckily, the show continued through a light rain.  Looking forward to Veterans Weekend when we can spend a full day at the park.

[HeyWheatBread]

On our way to The City, we experienced some pretty good rain and saw a decent group of cars that looked like they could have been leaving from SDC.  Luckily we packed our awesomely ugly yellow SDC ponchos!  We parked in lot 2 at around 10:30am and got on a bus pretty much immediately.  We had a wet walk to the gate and as we walked out into the square, the rain subsided and the sun started to peek out.  To me, The City seemed a lot less busy than I was expecting.  We went straight to OR since a couple of people we were with had never ridden it before.   We got in line at about halfway down the final ramp leading to the station.  This was the first time I have ridden OR since they added the seat belts along with the lap bar.  The others seemed mortified that there used to NOT be seat belts, only the lap bar, lol!  After that we rode FITH (after a 2 train wait), PK (line started at the top of the stairs in the station), and WF (we basically walked on!).  We spent a little time in the WF Gift Shop for the other members in our crew to grab a souvenir or two.  We took a break and had lunch (Calico Potatoes!), then we decided to cool off with a water ride triple play.  On our way to the water rides, I made sure to stop by my beloved GHOST TRAP for a quick bit of classic SDC humor, only to find that it was once again NOT WORKING!!    Oh well...  First up was AP (line started at the top of the stairs leading down to the station), followed by LR (line started at the beginning of the bridge, which had me worried and not wanting to wait so long.  Luckily, once we got to the guy hocking waterproof bags, I noticed that the line didn't go up & down the stairs, around the corner, etc. like it usually did.  They were loading straight through the Trailblazer Pass gate! We were already almost halfway through the line! YAY!),  I snagged a couple pictures of the lonely GG structures in the lake and the now leveled area where GG used to sit. (Good-bye, old friend  ), then we hopped on RB with no wait!  There were a couple kids and even more adults manning the water cannons on the shore, which was a fun site to see.  I squirted one lady on the shore before realizing she was holding a close-to-newborn baby...oops!    Our entire group was on one boat, and we got DRENCHED!  Afterwards, we split off into two groups of 3 because some wanted to ride LR again and the rest of us wanted to ride more coasters!  Unfortunately, I didn't get to ride TNT, but at least we got straight on WF with no wait twice in a row!  We met up with the rest of our group afterwards and got a funnel cake for a final treat before heading back towards the trams.  We made a quick stop in the bakery for a couple of the others in our group, and it took a lot of willpower NOT to get SOMETHING from there.  The giant cinnamon rolls and cupcakes were calling my name, but I ultimately decided not to get anything.  We got on the bus at 6:00pm, got to our vehicle and left!  Overall it was a great day with our family and friends!

[sanddunerider]

we made a quick trip this last weekend,  visited on sunday..  seemed to b a lot of people by the afternoon, But in fact only had about 10,000 people there..
Park looked good, all decorated with fall colors, of course the square is covered with crafts booths..
started with the opening ceremony of course.
next, Sons of silver dollar at the gazebo..
then down toward echo hollow,, checked out a few more booths along the way, and went to see the Pinkerton Man, same as last year, they are advertising this as the last year, SDC had a 3 year contract.  hoping they extend it.. we will find out next year..Last year the Sons of silver dollar did a little preshow, but not this year.
Next, listened to some of Kent Rollins chuck wagon stories, always a little smile there.
Next, the new wild west show at red gold hall, YOU have got to see this show! SO much BETTER than last years show..Hard to describe, just go see it..!!
Listened to the Cowboy Poet a little bit..
Back to the 2nd Show of the Pinkerton Man..
My only complaint/concern/question...  Why is The pinketon man, The new wild west show,, buck taylor,kent rollins,the mustangs,cowboy poet ALL in the same area? do you think they did that on purpose? keeping show goers on that side, and the big coaster riders on the other side? sure was crowded in that area. I cant even imagine what that area would be like on a busy sat..
I did make a hot lap to GG, OR actually the Ex-GG..  Batteries ran down on camera... not much more to see, but more concrete pads have been poured and looks like more footings close to the lake.  The are looks quite large now that the GG buildings are down and out of the way. there are a couple of spots where you can easily see through the gate and see progress.  I will get pics when I get back in 2 weeks.
All in all, great visit, next week check out the other side of the park!!
Times up! time to head into Branson! got someplace to be....!!

[Preachin_Bill]

great report sanddune! thanks!

[biscuitcreek]

Made another quick visit on Friday 9/19. Long line for tram at stop 2 just before park opening. We managed to get on the third tram that came after the start of our wait.

Saw the mustang presentation, heard the cowboy poet, listened to Kent Rollins presentation and had some of his coffee and one of his sourdough biscuits baked in the dutch oven (very tasty). Saw 2 of the 4 Nothin' Fancy bluegrass shows. Was among the last 10 people let in for the 2nd show of the Wild West Show -- good show this year. Also went to the Pinkerton Man. Crammed all of that in during 5 hours. Nice crowd but not packed.

Sale going on in the toy store, some things are 50% off. At Fireman's Landing shot tower in place and balloon ride in place (framework of both).

[Hatfield McCoy]

The family and I made a quick 4 hour trip to SDC Friday 9-19.

We didn't get there until just after 2:00, and after 2:00 the preferred parking was 50% off.  The day was great and since we were there late in the afternoon the crowd was lite. 

My son got his first ride ever on "Wildfire"!  He was too short during "Moonlight madness" but cleared pretty easy this time.  They grow way too fast!  He absolutely loved it!  He is a daredevil so I knew he would.  We also were able to walk around and get right on for a second ride.  You gotta love those trips.

Then went to "Powder Keg" and got a quick ride in.  They were running two trains even though the crowd was down.  That was nice since it had been down the two previous visits.  I have to say that the gal in the microphone box has to be one of the best in the park.  She is so nice and always sweet to the guests.  This is the second time she has been there while we were there and both times she seems to genuinely enjoy what she does.  The park would be good to hire more like her.  Last time she even called over to the "Outlaw Run" for a guest just to see if it had re-opened.  Nice touch.

We also got a ride on "The Giant Barn Swing" and also took the two littlest ones on the "River Blast"  It was still warm enough to feel good to get soaked.  The guy on "The Giant Barn Swing" was also jovial and joked with my son. 

Went by the new construction and was surprised to see how big of an area it is going to be.  I don't know why, but I was expecting it to be smaller.  The "Shot Tower" looks much taller than it did at "Celebration City"!  It also has the appearance of listing to the right due to the lay of the land.  My wife said, "it looks crooked".  She was right.  It is just an optical illusion, because of the topography, but still it looked funny. 

Finished with TGE and a ride on TNT and "The flooded Mine"  Noticed an elderly man with his adult son in the mine.  You could tell they were re-living old memories as they went through this classic.  You gotta love it!

And tha'yut  is all I have to say about tha'yut.