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[U Smell Smoke]

Thanks Gilligan. I appreciate your thoughts and again thanks for the warning about the tickets.  I'm glad we got in as I really enjoyed the taping (and the chance to sit down and cool off).  I look forward to seeing the shows and what gets left in and what hits the cutting room floor! Mr. Huckabee is very at ease in front of the cameras and does a nice job.  He seems very personable.

[Swoosh]

From Wednesday 6/20/18

STAR-SPANGLED SUMMER
https://www.midwestinfoguide.com/2018/06/star-spangled-summer-sdc.html

[missouripapa]

I took two granddaughters, 3 & 8, to SDC yesterday (Sunday).  What a great day to go!  On the way down from Springfield there was a solid line of traffic leaving Branson and headed north in the rain.
When we got to the parking lot at about 9:15, we used my season pass parking and joined about 20 cars in the preferred parking.  We had to go through ticketing because the 8 year old had lost her military ID and couldn't get the complimentary ticket.
Upon going into the park, the rain continued for a short while, and then quit.  All the rides that appealed to a 3 and 8 were walk-ons.  The train was about 1/3 full, and Thunderation, while running one train, could be ridden as fast as we could walk back around the entrance.  The only disappointment was the Flooded Mine, which was in a sad state.  The gags didn't work when shot, and it was quiet all the way through.  Sad when children could stay on to ride again, and choose not to.
Aside from the FM, the park was in really good shape.  Everything was clean, and without exception the workers were welcoming and friendly.  As someone who has gone to SDC for 55 years, it's just a pleasure to visit.

[kbosch1]

Went for a short day trip to the park on Saturday.  Got there around 12:30 and was actually worried as we turned to go down Indian Point and up to the first parking lot, if the park was even open due to not seeing one car going towards the park!  Thankfully, it was open    We were with some friends who are season pass holders and their older son who hasn't been to the park in 10+ years.  We only had a few hours so we wanted to take him on TT and OR.  We got in line on TT and it looked to be about a 45 minute wait.  Got settled in line and the announcement came...."ride suspended".  We figured we would come back since we were at the end of the line anyway.  We walked around the entire park and went to OR.  Advertised wait time was 20 minutes.  After almost an HOUR, we were next in line and.......you guess it, "ride suspended".  They had one car that had an issue as we noticed they weren't allowing riders in those 2 seats.  Guess they decided to fix it at that point in time.  We decided to wait and see if it would be fixed in 15-20 minutes and they came back over the speaker and announced it was going to take along while to fix.  My question is (and I also asked one of the workers when I was in line), why are they only running one set of cars on a Saturday in June?!?!?   The worker only said, "that's what we've been pretty much doing every day".  So, we walked around some more, caught a Pickers show and headed out.  The day was nice, but the two rides we wanted to ride weren't running.  Very disappointing.

[sdcfan88]

Anyone get any additional pictures or videos of the new Train engine operating? I've still been meaning to head up there to check it out sometime soon.

[Okiebenz]

Yes, the wait times on the app are just about worthless.  I watched it either Saturday or Sunday, can't remember, which, and it said 0 wait time on a bunch of rides that I knew darn well would not have a 0 wait time on a weekend.

[History Buff]

I took the eight-year-old to SDC, today, for a little daddy/son time.  He was exactly 52" tall, so I was able to get him onto WF and TT for the first time (my first ride on TT, as well).  It was hot and sticky, today, but the crowds were manageable.  We waited in line for AP (perhaps the hottest queue in the park) for about 15 minutes, but walked onto WF.  He hated it.

PK's line wasn't moving so we left it.

FitH was temporarily closed, so we had to return to it.  Many effects were not working (as was previously reported).  The same was true for FM (also previously reported).

I enjoyed the layout of the new "food court" area, and I don't see any problem with any parades they may have in the future.

We didn't wait for TT for long before getting our first ride there.  I appreciated it, but wasn't sure the boy did.

We circled back to OR, which was also closed earlier for maintenance.  They had announced over the PAs at TT and TnT when it reopened.  I noticed a few of the heavier guys cringing in pain at the restraints.  I know I've felt it more myself in our latest visits.

My son decided he wanted to hit TT for a second time and then WF, as well (which you may remember, he hated on his first try).  I was willing to go for it, but that's when lightning entered the 10-mile radius and rides shut down.  It was late enough in the day that we knew they would not reopen.  My original thought was we should leave the park.  It was also in the thoughts of the majority of the other guests.

The line for the trams backed up into OzMark.  Once through the exit doors, we saw the windstorm begin.  The trees across the tram lanes were bending in pain from the the 70mph wind.  After imagining a tram being turned over in the wind, and not wanting to be in the agonizing traffic during the storm, I decided to circle back, reenter the park, and wait things out somewhere inside.





I thought the Christmas store would be a pretty good place to stay.  The storm wasn't super dangerous, and we weren't scared, but we then had the option of a room that was somewhat underground.

When the winds died, there was a very light sprinkle.  We then watched the glassblowers for a little while before making our way back to the front.  The line was still stretched to inside the Marketplace.  As we weren't in a hurry, we reversed and went to the leather shop and knife shop to kill some more time.

Finally, we had killed enough of it, so we left, deciding to walk in the cooler weather and light sprinkle - all the way to the far end of the "quarry".  This was in the preferred parking area:





I'm not sure why two wheelchairs sat in the parking lot with nothing around them (rentals, I assume).  Do they keep them in the area for some reason?

Anyway, we enjoyed our visit, and we're always up for some adventure.  Thankfully all of the weather disruption was at the end of our day.  We would have liked to have ridden TT and WF once more before they were shut down, but all in all, the kid behaved, and we made it home safely.

[sanddunerider]

@ Buff,   sounds like a good overall visit.   Glad the bad weather wasnt worse, and you were still able to enjoy yourselves...

[ThemeParkFan]

Just wrapped up a two day visit.

Loved the new signage that has popped up around the park!

Time Traveler got better each time I rode it. Going upside down sideways was a surreal experience. Great air on the first drop in the back of the train!

The reconfigured path from Time Traveler to the Frisco barn worked well. I was pleased to see a number of new food items in those booths too. However, yesterday around the time they made the call to shut the rides for the storm, I was dismayed to find almost no food stands open from Time Traveler to the Toy Store. I settled on Nachos from Elmer's minutes before they closed too. Has this become normal procedure? It didn't make any sense to me that they would introduce new menu items near a new ride and then shut them down at prime time for dinner. I've never noticed this before.

No lines for Outlaw Run the few times I was over there. I can't tell if I was lucky, its popularity has diminished, or if the location is too remote. I really think the park should try to connect the farm area to FITH or the Opera House if there isn't some issue with the terrain.

Train was most notable for a woman robber (!), and the fact that the script seemed better than the last time I did the train during the regular season, which must have been 2015 or so.

As noted, FITH and FM were a mess. FITH had working music and dialogue, but no sound effects; FM was just sad with no music and maybe half the targets working. Both are due for major TLC.

Took the cave tour to beat the heat in the afternoon today. It was a bit backed up because they apparently had been having problems with the train. When we were at the lowest point we were encouraged to go slowly because more problems had been reported, and we might have to climb back up. Luckily, whatever problems existed were resolved and we were able to take the train out. I wonder if they'll limit the cave tours to slightly less than 60 in the near future- sitting four to a bench was basically not happening in our car and where it did happen, it was often a struggle.

Now that I've ordered it several times over the years, and tried an "upgraded" version today, I must conclude that SDC's Cinnamon Bread just isn't for me. I'll stick to Dollywood's bread in the future.

Overall a great visit, and maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be able to make it down for one of the other festivals before the year is out.

[Tmboote]

I've been at the park the past four days and we've been having a great time. The crowds haven't been bad-we've never had to wait more than 15 minutes except when we got to PK and Time Traveler before they opened for the day. I've gotten five rides on Time Traveler and think it is a great addition to the park. I love how every ride is different, and the drop is great (especially from rows 7 & . Also, I've had 2 rides on FITH and all the sounds seemed to be working for me (at least what I remember). My sister was in the train behind me, however, and she said the train sound effect didn't work for her ride even though it had for mine. I've also ridden FM once, and while I don't really remember what music or sounds were playing on it the last time I rode it in 2015, something seemed different about it so the music must not have been working.

We've also gone to White Water twice and it has been pretty busy, which makes sense considering it's been about 95° every day I've been here. The park is still a good time.

Probably not the right place for this, but we also attended yesterday's showing of Samson at the Sight and Sound Theater and the show was amazing.

I'm excited to go back to SDC and WW the next two days, and I'm also looking forward to seeing the Showboat show for the first time tomorrow evening.

[Tmboote]

Got back home from our trip to SDC yesterday afternoon and it was an amazing trip. I felt all the rides were running pretty well the whole trip. Time Traveler seemed to be open with two trains nearly the entire trip. It was also a pleasant surprise to see TNT and PK running two trains Sunday-Wednesday and PK running three trains and WF and TNT running two trains on Thursday and Friday. The Barn Swing also had both sides going every day except for one (I don't remember if it was Tuesday or Wednesday).

I was also impressed with FITH. I hadn't been on it since 2015 and with how people talked about it on this site, I expected it to have some issues, but every time I rode it all the scenes and sounds seemed to be working. I also thought the drops seemed smoother than they did when I rode it in 2015.

Waking around the City, it seems to me that the Grand Exposition area is hidden with how they redid the area around TT. The path to get back to it is very narrow and with the queue for Echo Hollow being on that narrow path, it doesn't seem like there would be a big kids area on the path. If I didn't know about GE, I don't think I would've found it very easily, and when I was back there it didn't seem very busy.

[sirwillow]

We had a great time last Tuesday.  Crowds were light so little to no wait for most things. No music still on Flooded Mine or Fire in the Hole, but most of the other sounds were working at least.  it was a lot of fun to bring the whole family from California and Maryland to experience the park.

biggest beef- one man robber show because of how they do breaks now.

You can see the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL9h7OOZYtg

[Gilligan]

Hubs and I went to hear Firefall tonight at Echo Hollow. The rain held off, Echo was about 1/3 full, and the band was better than I even expected. Had a great time!  Couple things we noticed - on the way down to Echo Hollow, on the opposite side of the walkway where the lantern lights are, there are big, round led lights that shine up into the trees.  We saw them at a couple other places walking out.  They are pretty, BUT they totally ruin the ambiance, and they are clashing with the soft lantern light.  Now, the best part of all, was Brad Thomas and a couple of suits were walking ahead of us as we were discussing this.  I couldn't get the hubs to move faster - I wanted to talk loud enough that he would overhear our conversation about the new lights that are shining a cold blue and green up into the trees and how they are too contemporary for their setting. 

I know the Fall Festival doesn't start until the 12th, but the vendors on Main St. were set up.  Very little fall decoration going on - a few stores had a wreath on the door.  I hope they aren't finished setting up as it looks very unremarkable right now.

One thing was a little weird.  Hubs went off to get drinks for us, and carried them back without lids. One was collapsing a bit, but I had something to pour it into. Now, the vendor told him that the park is no longer providing lids for any drinks.  Not even hot coffee!  The reason given was that kids flip them into vats of hot oil, so they decided to do away with them.  With cooler weather coming soon and more hot drinks being sold, I see this as an enormous problem that they should be concerned about.  Very difficult to hold onto an open drink if your in a wheelchair, walking thru a crowd, trying to push a stroller, getting bumped standing in line. A few years ago, I was handed a cup of wassail w/o a lid at the 5K and it flipped in the process.  That was wickedly hot and steaming.  I got a "sorry about that" and another drink which I turned down. No more hot drinks in a crowd!

[How-doFolks]

Went to the park this past Sat, the 15th. Had 10 people with us all total!! Most had never been there before and loved the place within 10 minutes of being there. Anyways..
Friday, my wife & I & my brother went to park after 3 so we could get in free the next day. The park was not busy at all. Rode AP 1st off, have not ridden it in probably 4-5 years. Tried PK again & it did not make us dizzy this time. And then of course rode FITH. After that we just walked around the park & looked at some of the craftsmen.
Saturday all 10 of us ate City breakfast. The park was open by the time we were done. They wanted to do the cave first, but we thought the park night get busy like always on a Sat. So we talked them into hitting most of the rides first. The newbies loved every ride & being in the park. We started on the left side of the park & they rode everything. By the time we got to TT & TNT, it was about 2-3pm & the wife & I were getting hungry. So we left.
It was also car show weekend, but it did not seem to be too busy, did see a lot of hot rods. We had lots of laughs & good times. Talked to a lady at the slushy machine place right by the RR bridge, she was a nice lady, had some good stories about meeting & hanging out the Herchends. She was from Texas, they come up here for the summer. Talked to Betty at Mollies Mill, she had just celebrated her 30 years at SDC, that was great, they let us keep our food ticket to add to our SDC collection.
We paln on doing this again next year. My brother works for Waffle House, & 3/4 of the folks that went with us, work for WH. I made a FB page for our Moonlight Madness trip, but since we didnt go, we have changed it to The Waffle House SDC Trip. We are up to 30 members. Anyways.. It was a great trip as always. Talked to KD & told her if she needed anythig, she knew what room i was in. Saw Mrs. CheeseHead too at Classic. As always, a great time at SDC & Branson!!

[sanddunerider]

sounds like a good visit..  lots of fun..

Glad to hear Cheeseheads made it, hadnt seen any post form her lately...  I hope to see her this weekend..