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[Tmboote]

^It would've been about 8 when I was on Time Traveler yesterday and the back two rows were empty then.

[sirwillow]

^It would've been about 8 when I was on Time Traveler yesterday and the back two rows were empty then.

That would have been a couple of hours after we had been watching it.  It's possible in that case that it might have been due to staffing levels- that they didn't have enough workers to man all of the loading spots on the train to check restraints and so forth, and if lines weren't bad then they would have kept it at just loading the front half rather than try to find enough workers from somewhere to open up the rest of the train.  That would be my guess, but it's only a guess.

[Tmboote]

Today was surprisingly not crazy busy and was a great day to be in the park!

Notes:
1. It was fun to see Fire in the Hole have a longer wait than Outlaw Run and Thunderation for most of the day even with four trains running.  Also Fire in the Hole seems to be running better this year than I remember from the last time I was at the park in 2015.

2. Outlaw Run in the dark is great, especially because it provides views of all the lights in the park.

3. I mentioned yesterday that Wildfire was only running one train while other rides were all running multiple trains.  Today the lights were on in the maintenance garage when I rode Wildfire at night, and I noticed all the restraints on the other train have been removed so they must already be doing maintenance on that train.

Rides:
1x Time Traveler, Barn Swing, Wildfire, Fire in the Hole, Thunderation, Train
2x Outlaw Run
At night- 1x Electro-Spin, Outlaw Run, Powder Keg, Wildfire

[History Buff]

It seems a few of us were in the City, this weekend.  Our family enjoyed Sunday.  Even with high numbers, we avoided the crowds with some spectacular timing and finesse.

We especially enjoyed looking at the Sunday sunset through WF's loop, and I discovered a person can indeed sing the words to Rudolf set to the FM tune (Try it for yourself.).

I don't remember anybody mentioning the wagon sitting between Hillcreek Pottery (front entrance) and the railroad crossing.  The wagon has wooden boxes loaded on it, and one of the boxes has a person's leg protruding through a hole in the box.  Every few seconds, a different audio plays from the box as if a real person is attached to the leg (lots of leg jokes here - classic SDC stuff).  The leg even swings around and extends as the audio is played.

[milhouse]

What's the weather looking like tomorrow? We're considering making the drive from northeast Arkansas. This would be our first visit during Christmas week. How are crowds?

[Okiebenz]

Just watching the news it looks like it may be raining, so a good day to avoid the crowds.  I was planning on staying in the area for work Thursday and making a trip to the city but may end up going tomorrow.

[sanddunerider]

mid 50's... chance of rain...  Go for it!!    Get some pics..!

[theymitbgi]

Guys same trip report as I posted on another site, just wanted to share with you, delete if not allowed.

Made a quick day trip to the park on Wednesday. It was my first time there in 20 years. Was so amazed and impressed after only going to SFSL in recent that I didn't keep too much track of stuff for a detailed trip report, but I will post some highlights and a few pictures.

Our family had purchased season passes this year planning on attending several times throughout the year, but my wife has had major back problems and wouldn't be able to go. So she finally convinced me and my oldest son (19yo) to make the trip down there. We brought along his girlfriend as I'm a non-rider. We were going to drive there and back in one day from Alton, IL(approximately 4 hours drive time).

Woke up at 6:30 AM hit the road, quick stop in St. James for some breakfast and arrived to the park just before 11. It had start drizzling the last 20-30 minutes of our drive in and we waited near Tram Stop #2 to be picked up. Seemed like they only had one tram and one small shuttle bus running at the time, so we decided to walk to the entrance.

As we hadn't used our season passes at all, I stopped by guest relations to see if we could switch my wife's pass over to my son's gf and save us $60 to get in. The lady at guest relations looked up the account, saw it hadn't been used and got it taken care of very easily. Score!

The drizzle begin to let off and my son wanted to head to Outlaw Run, one train wait for a front seat ride. Powder Keg and Wildfire were not open yet due to the rain so they re-rode OR and jumped on the Barn Swing. Also a quick ride on FITH. Just a few minutes Later Wildfire opened followed by Powder Keg. They got front seat rides on both then decided to head Time Traveler and Thunderation. Time Traveler had about 30-40 minute wait most the day when it was open. It closed intermittently due to weather. Thunderation seemed to be going down due to protein spills. We wanted to do the cave tour so they had to put those rides off for a bit.

The Marvel Cave Tour was nice and my son had never been in a cave before really liked it. It is not for the claustrophobic or those in poor shape. After cave tour the we headed to the far right corner of the park and rode the teacup ride. We spun the heck out of those things. We were approaching dark at this point and I wanted a train ride, so the kids went their own way and finally got a ride in on TT, they then headed to OR, PK, and WF for more rides. Caught back up with them at WF after I stumbled into the Flooded mine entrance, very interesting ride. We then all rode FITH together.

We watched the Christmas parade right near the main entrance and then headed back to Thunderation and TT. They finally got a ride on Thunderation and another ride on TT. Headed back to the tram around 8:30 as the rain had started up again. Arrive back home at 2:15 AM.

Rides:
Kids:
OR 4x
Barn Swing 1x
Powder Keg 2x
Wildfire 2x
FITH 2x
TT 2x
Thunderation 2x
Teacups 1x

Me:
Teacups 1x
Flooded Mine 1x
FITH 1x

Foods Purchased/Consumed
Sausage skillet 1x
Chicken skillet 1x
Southwest Chicken 1x
Pretzel Brat 1x
Cinnamon Bread 2x
Cinnamon Roll 1x
Giant Chocolate Chip cookie 1x

[KBCraig]

As we hadn't used our season passes at all, I stopped by guest relations to see if we could switch my wife's pass over to my son's gf and save us $60 to get in. The lady at guest relations looked up the account, saw it hadn't been used and got it taken care of very easily. Score!

Wow, that's a great report, especially about the ticket swap!

[Pudgy Jones]

History Buff - I noticed the wagon by the pottery shop this fall. I thought it was a new feature, but wasn't sure. I never noticed it before.

It looks like it could have been there for 50 years! It's classic SDC. It makes me happy that it's there!

[palallin]

We went for a brief last fling on Sunday.  We drove down after church and got to the city about 3:30.  We were surprised but gratified to see spots available in Lot 2 (though we parked in 3 to avoid the crowding).  The temps hovered in the lower '40s and we got a few sprinkles but no real rain to speak of.

We saw a handful of middle-aged ladies go through the baggage check and have 7 small bottles of booze confiscated.  They took it in good enough humor that I suspect they had already been imbibing.   

We were sorry to see that the stores were essentially sold out of lye soap.  We stood in line a long time of Dickens and rode the train.  The younger son was disappointed to see that the figures were lit throughout Grandma's Christmas story (and that it wasn't grandpa).  I can only guess them timer was not working right, and they didn't bother to fix it so late in the season.

We left about 8:30 to avoid the late rush. 

The city was not really crowded, especially after the second parade.

I suppose the employees are forbidden to say "Merry Christmas" after the 25th?  Everyone said "Happy New Year," even in response to "Merry Christmas."  But, gosh! Sunday was only the 6th Day of Christmas!

[JustGoHogs]

Lovely bride and I were there New Year's Eve for a last blast!  Got to the park a little after Noon and grabbed some Walking Tacos (one of our favorites), caught The Cleverly's show, the magic show, and the saloon show and enjoyed all 3. Best of all for me I rode Outlaw Run (twice), Powder Keg, Wildfire, and Time Traveler.  Nothing like riding roller coasters when it's cooler, the wind whistling through (or past) my scalp!

[Gilligan]

Lovely bride and I were there New Year's Eve for a last blast!  Got to the park a little after Noon and grabbed some Walking Tacos (one of our favorites), caught The Cleverly's show, the magic show, and the saloon show and enjoyed all 3. Best of all for me I rode Outlaw Run (twice), Powder Keg, Wildfire, and Time Traveler.  Nothing like riding roller coasters when it's cooler, the wind whistling through (or past) my scalp!

What did you think of New Year's Eve overall?  Was it worth it? Would you do it again? I haven't heard anything about it until now. We almost went, but our out of town guests weren't really into it, so we skipped it.

[JustGoHogs]

Yes, we would go again.  I had hoped the Christmas shows would continue but we enjoyed the entertainment.  We especially enjoyed seeing The Cleverlys.  If you like bluegrass and you're looking for an opportunity to laugh, outstanding group!  It was a cooler day so the crowd wasn't huge and, consequently, ride lines were shorter.

[Swoosh]

I just posted my PTR from the New Years Celebration in the 2019 Trips thread (since technically we went on the 1st of Jan)