TR: Six Flags St. Louis / Worlds of Fun / Silver Dollar City - Day 3

[Delirium_Guy]

After such a bad experience at WoF, we were quick to get out of bed Tuesday morning and get the heck outta there. The drive from Kansas City to Branson wasn't bad at all, we made it in just under 3 hours. I've heard many comparisons between Branson and Pigeon Forge, so thats what I was sort of expecting on our drive in. While in Pigeon Forge you are situated down in the valleys, Branson is nestled among the mountain tops. Likewise, this becomes the major difference between Dollywood and Silver Dollar City.

I've wanted to visit Silver Dollar City for many years, but just have never been able to make the trek out to Branson. The first thing that caught our attention while pulling in was FREE PARKING. The lots were some distance away from the gate, but the Park had tons of shuttles running guests to the entrance. The view from SDC's location is just beautiful, I was really amazed by it actually. We made our way to the entrance to pick up our ticket and soon began to explore the Park. Having visited Dollywood numerous times when I lived in Cincinnati, there was a familiar feeling while strolling through the midways of SDC. The food was outstanding, no surprise there, and the midways are lined with various crafts and such. As I mentioned earlier, the big difference between the two parks is that SDC is situated high on top of a mountain and Dollywood is situated in the valleys of the Smokey's. We decided to make our way down the hill, first coming to Thunderation

Thunderation - I may possibly have a new favorite mine ride now. Definitely a close cousin to Adventure Express as it heavily utilizes the terrain it sits on. We ended up skipping due to the fact that they were running one train! Whats up with one train operations? Especially here because, like Mamba, it is a fairly lengthy ride! We eventually made our way back over later in the day. Glad we did. Thunderation is unique in that every other car is turned around backwards. I'm not really sure what prompted the park to do this, but I have to say it makes the ride hella fun! Our first ride was in the next to last car, which meant we rode the first time backwards! The ride starts out very similiar to Adventure Express as it winds its way over the hill side. You make two U-turns, of sorts, with each one dropping further over the mountain. About midway down the ride enters a pretty big double helix, with the last part of the helix diving steeply within itself through a tunnel. At this point the train is moving along at a darn quick pace when it exits the tunnel. It rises a bit but then suddenly dives once again into a swooping turn and up into the brakes. At this point, you are around 90 feet below where you started in the station, so there is a fairly large lift hill to get you back to the top. I thought the ride ended here, so I was quite surprised to find one more drop over the mountain before the train finally reached the station. GREAT ride and definitley a surprise for me! Rode 3 times.

Flooded Mine - Great little dark ride, I remember when Dollywood still had their version. I was surprised to find this one with guns installed to shoot targets through out the ride. Even though a lot of it was dated, I was still surprised by how indepth some of the ride was and how it was themed.

We continued on down and made our way to Wilson's Farm, home of The Giant Swing. Giant Swing is just a standard S&S Screamin' Swing, but has some fun theming by way of being housed within a giant barn. Theming is just wacky, but cool :-) Continued to wind our way down the hill and passed the Parks 3 water rides (water toboggan, rapids and flume) until we found ourselves at a crossroads.....Wildfire to the left and Powderkeg to the right. So we went to Wildfire.

Wildfire - This is perhaps the most beautiful coaster I've ever seen in my life. The way the the park has positioned the ride is absolutely perfect. This has to be one of my favorite views from any lift hill, even over that of Cedar Point. The lift stands about 120 feet and turns to point riders towards the mountain side below before dropping 155 feet over the side of the mountain and straight into the Immelman. Following the Immelman comes the vertical loop, a fast past highbanked turned that hugs the mountainside, an unusually large Cobra Roll, flat spin, and a ground hugging helix that leads to a nice pop of airtime as you hit the brakes. The ride was fantastic, especially in the back where you get some serious ejector air time during the first drop.....easily the best first drop on any B&M for me and yes that includes the hyper coasters.....Diamondback can't hold a candle to it. The theming, again, is wacky but such is Silver Dollar City. An inventor has created a flying machine and Wildfire is the fuel he created to propel it. As the train is dispatched, you are misted from over head with this Wildfire. Nice little touch. Great ride!

Powerkeg - Since it is conveniently located next door. I never really paid much attention to this ride. I knew its history as the Premier Liquid Coaster and knew it now had a launch, but that was about it. WOW, what another great surprise! The trains themselves are weird and feature the exact same restraints that the Screamin' Swings do. They are very roomy. Once dispatched out of the station, the train makes a slight jog to the right and comes to a stop. At this point, a transfer track slides you up the hillside and into the launch shed.

The launch itself uses compressed air, just like Hypersonic, so its a quick burst of speed. It launches straight into a large camelback hill which provides some fantastic airtime and the same gorgeous view that Wildfire does. From here the ride drops over the mountain and curves up into another air filled camelback, an overbanked turn, another camelback which twists over the top of it and crosses through the lift hill. After this particular hill, the ride is so interesting to me. Its where the S&S track ends and the old Premier track begins. The transition is pretty seamless and this final turn before the lift is fast and furious with quite a bit of lateral kick. The train is moving at a good pace as it glides into the mag brakes and friction brakes leading up into the lift hill. Again, great views to be had before the train crests and drops into the the final hill and helix before hitting the brakes.

Powderkeg was a blast, certainly one of the biggest surprises of the trips for me and I actually do prefer it to Wildfire. Lots of remains from Buzzsaw Falls exists. Many portions of the trough are still there, in which the park still fills with water and and rapids. The station for Powderkeg is new, however I believe its maintanance shed is the former station for Buzzsaw. The Park did a great job with this one, I could see Dollywood getting something along this lines in the future. It was extremely popular with the guests when we were there.

Having ridden the major coasters, we set out to explore the rest of the park. Of course, it was mandatory that we ride Fire In The Hole. Just a tad different than Dollywood's Blazing Fury, especially the trains as they were 2 car trains and not 3 like at Dollywood. Good times. Next up was perhaps the highlight of SDC...the tours of Marvel Cave. Free of charge, its an hour or more tour of the caves the exists under Silver Dollar City. The Cathedral Room, which is the first room you climb down into, is big enough to house 2 football fields they say. It was quite amazing to see how deep you climb down into this room and even further to get to the rest of the caves. The tour ends by riding a cable car back up to the top of the mountain and into the Park. Certainly unique to Silver Dollar City and is just something else that makes the park stand out for me.

With just about 2 hours left, we decided to check out all 3 water rides. We began with American Plunge, the parks log flume. This is one of my favorite flumes I've been on! In addition to being pretty darn soaking on the final drop, the ride has a fantastic tunnel that is very long....much longer than the one found on the flume at Holiday World. There are lanterns scattered through out it, very dimly lit. The rest of the ride features a ton of theming actually, probably one of the most heavily themed flumes I've encountered outside of Disney. Lost River of the Ozarks was OK for a rapids ride. Ride itself wasn't that thrilling, but the setting was nice and the tunnel at the end was pretty cool. We ended by riding the Whitewater Toboggan, which is essentially the same as the Mountain Slidewinder at Dollywood. God. Soaking Wet. Awesome! :-)

We only had an hour or so left, so it was time for some power riding between Powderkeg and Wildfire. Ended up with a final front seat ride on Wildfire, terrific way to end a great day!

Final thoughts on SDC: Park absolutely lived up to the expectations I had built up in my mind over the past few years. Very similiar to Dollywood, which of course I adore. Great collection of coasters and a very well rounded assortment of flat rides and water rides also. The Marvel Cave tour is NOT to be missed, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Like Dollywood, food is outstanding!!! Employees were very friendly and VERY efficient. I will make a better effort to get back to SDC, I fell in love with the place. Herschends never fails to disappoint me with Park visits. Now I'm just wanting to get to Dollywood ASAP.

Final thoughts on Branson: Branson SUCKS :-) In no way is it anywhere near to being similiar to Pigeon Forge to me. I know in Pigeon Forge when I leave Dollywood at 9PM, there are still many other forms of entertainment to keep me busy until the late hours in the night. SDC closed at 7PM and by 8PM the entire town was almost shut down, including many restaurants. Now I understand why Celebration City was an epic fail. Sad, Ozark Wildcat looks like a tremendous ride! I hope they find a way to save it.

- Todd

[corn4ahead]

Ozark Wildcat is a FANTASTIC ride. my first GCI.

[RailRider]

Will be visiting Branson over 4th of July weekend and your trip report answered a few questions about SDC I had. Especillay Marvel cave. Looking even more forward to my visit coming up shortly.

Thanks for sharing

[KIfan1980]

Final thoughts on SDC: Park absolutely lived up to the expectations I had built up in my mind over the past few years. Very similiar to Dollywood, which of course I adore. Great collection of coasters and a very well rounded assortment of flat rides and water rides also. The Marvel Cave tour is NOT to be missed, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Like Dollywood, food is outstanding!!! Employees were very friendly and VERY efficient. I will make a better effort to get back to SDC, I fell in love with the place. Herschends never fails to disappoint me with Park visits. Now I'm just wanting to get to Dollywood ASAP.

- Todd

Thanks for posting this great TR for Silver Dollar City. I also totally enjoyed the trip I took back in April and think that SDC is a park worth going out of your way to visit. Wildfire is an awesome ride - my favorite looper - and think the drop into the Immelman is awesome, but I do prefer the Diamondback first drop force. Powderkeg has some great airtime and lateral forces and Thunderation is a unique and wonderful mine train ride. Glad you enjoyed yourself - I'll have to go back to try the swing (closed during my visit) and mine (didn't think the kiddies would enjoy).