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[runner1960]

List 5 improvements you think the park could make over the winter to enhance guest experience. Here are the rules.

1. No new attractions. this has its own thread area.
2. No bashing of others ideas.

[runner1960]

I will go first.

1. Parking. Seems like SDC has never got parking right. The entire loading and unloading area is unorganized and has the potential for a accident. Overflow on busy days is also unorganized. They gave it a good try a few years back, but it still could use improvement.

2. Eliminate the bottle neck at the Hospitality house. Maybe a tear down and complete rebuild of the area. Peak days and around Christmas this is a terrible place to be.

3. Make sure you can provide the experience you advertise. Especially around christmas. Show capacity is so limited that only a small percentage of the park goers are able to enjoy them. Increase the capacity or add additional showtimes on peak days. This improvement area also includes ride reliability. Things have gotten better, but OR and PK still have major reliability issues.

4. Give me a nice Coffee shop in midtown somewhere. Maybe combine the mill breads with a good coffee area where Jacks used to be.

5. Get rid of the university logo, Nascar, Duck dynasty , Swamp people merchandise in some of the shops and give me some unique merchandise to look at.

6. How about a nice sit down restaurant with wait service.

Ok that was six so I violated my first point in the thread.

[Duelist]

We've beat these to death but...

1. restore American Plunge to the Ozarkian Daredevil theme complete with something in the cave.  i have to think they are going to replace this if they don't do something to restore it soon.

2. repaint/repair Fire in the Hole.

3. bring back some of the older shows like the courthouse show, time machine show, hatfield haint, etc

4. GET RID OF THE BASKETBALLS!

5. offer more books about the ozarks, frontier, etc.  i actually got an email from corporate a few years ago when i asked about bringing the book shop back.  they said they just couldn't compete with larger scale bookstores, amazon, etc.  i understand that but would still like to see books offered in the general store, cowboy jepps, etc.

[warp9p65]

1.  The exit route out of parking lot 5, when it's crowded, can be difficult to discern unless you know what to do.  It is not very well marked, and if I remember correctly you have to drive going against the painted arrows on at least one aisle to get out to the exit.  It's particularly confusing at night.

2.  Would like to see a connecting passageway from the back side of the country fair-carnival ride area to the area around the new fireman's landing instead of having to walk all the way back out and then circle around down the hill.

3.  Some of the water blaster cannons around Lost River of the Ozarks take your quarters but consistently don't work.

4.  Have sufficient staffing to enable operation of all cars/trains for the rides when it's busy.  Few things more aggravating than waiting in long lines for a ride when only one train is operating (such as Thunderation several times last season) and being informed they don't have enough help to run both trains.

Those are just some minor things I've noted that need to be improved, in my opinion.  Overall I love the park though and visit many times each season.

[DianaGail]

1.  A redo of the ticket entrance/stroller rental area.  That area is a hot mess on any busy day.  It's way to crowded. 

2.  Fix up the rides in the Expo.  They enamel (?) on most is in terrible shape. 

3.  Move the Measuring station to the TOP of the hill.  Seriously.  Why do we have to go all the way down and through the expo to get to it?  It's so annoying and when the kiddie rollercoaster has a long line, it is terribly hard to get to.

4.  Connect fireman's landing and the expo. 

That's all I can think of right now.  I'll come up with another later. 

[Swoosh]

Duelist, the basketballs will never leave and with the purchase of the Harlem Globetrotters, you will more than likely see even more.

[Super]

1. Parking Lots.  Dangerous.
2. Ticket Area to congested.
3. Cave tour.  New areas need to be open.
4. More rides using the natural hills/trees.
5. New shows/more shows.
I'm not buying a season ticket this year because SDC is always the same....nothing new.

[Duelist]

1. Parking Lots.  Dangerous.
2. Ticket Area to congested.
3. Cave tour.  New areas need to be open.
4. More rides using the natural hills/trees.
5. New shows/more shows.
I'm not buying a season ticket this year because SDC is always the same....nothing new.

"Fireman's Landing" is new.  May not be what you wanted to see at the City but it is new. i do agree with all your ideas though.  Good ones

[Duelist]

Duelist, the basketballs will never leave and with the purchase of the Harlem Globetrotters, you will more than likely see even more.

At least they could automatically send them to Package Pick Up like they did with the bullwhips.  they are too annoying and dangerous to bounce around in a crowd of people.

[Gilligan]

1.  I hate the basketballs, too.  Someone is going to get hurt - they are a danger in a crowd.
2.  PLEASE bring back American Plunge to what it used to be.
3.  Yeah, the parking and connecting roads tend to be a bit scary at times!
4.  Entertain us when standing in long lines like they used to do.
5.  I miss Jacks, but I love the coffee shop idea.
6.  I'd rather see asphalt than concrete.  It's more pleasing to the eye and fits into the natural setting so much better.

[qwed94]

Gilligan.
I agree on the blacktop as far as appearance. However (having worked at a blacktop laced SFSL) and now outdoors most of everyday working 2 parking lots (1 all blacktop, and 1 all concrete).
I will take concrete on a hot humid sunny summer day any day of the week.  Blacktop is much hotter and gets sticky on the shoe bottoms.  Lets keep the concrete and maybe add more. I know concrete is a bit out of theme (maybe), but from a safety/health veiwpoint. I think concrete is better

I believe health/safety/wellfare of people is the most important at the end of the day.

[Swoosh]

Except you get into a sticky situation with ADA when you retrofit stuff like that.  If they redid some areas with concrete they'd have to make them compliant with today's ADA standards.  As of now they are grandfathered in.

Your choice though.

[mhguy77]

Except you get into a sticky situation with ADA when you retrofit stuff like that.  If they redid some areas with concrete they'd have to make them compliant with today's ADA standards.  As of now they are grandfathered in.

Good point Swoosh.
I hadn't considered this yet.  I cant imagine what they would do to keep compliant with the grades of the land and the switchback ramps that would show up with the change to concrete. 
Selfishly I would miss the familiar smell of the asphalt I associate with a trip to the city.

[sanddunerider]

MH, I think there would be a lot of us miss the asphalt "smell", if it were gone..