I haven’t been since May of 2016 when DH had his 80th birthday celebration. I think we were there the first weekend but more importantly it was the Bluegrass festival. If I’m remembering correctly I looked up music times on line (thanks SDC) and was able to identify 3 groups playing consecutively in 3 different small venues. DH was happy to enjoy the music on his own, moving after each performance to the next venue. SDC is in the Ozarks - so usually lots of up and down walking. These 3 venues were at the lowest part of the park, so more lateral walking.
My sister, niece and I looked at the various crafts - glass blowing ing, candle dipping, etc. Then we got together with DH for lunch.
I suggest looking at the online info for menus. In the past we’ve liked the bbq place (outdoor seating I think) but if I’m recalling correctly we went to the pizza place. Probably my niece didn’t want bbq. Also, the pizza place is (was?) centrally located and inside. May can be hot and humid.
There’s a cave under SDC which is cool.
If you’d like an old timey photo go there early - actually I think appointments are done now - but early gives you a chance to get your photo same day.
I haven’t been on many of the rides. My sister likes most of them. To me they’re the newer rides. SDC rides were always the log ride, Fire in the Hole and the train ride. Some big barn swing is popular but I’m not going on it.
In the before times we loved to have a lunch at the Keeter Center Dining at College of the Ozarks. I’ve heard they’ve recently begun in house dining again.
Relatives who go to the music shows like the Baldknobbers a lot but they’ll go to as many as they’ve time for.
The last time I was at Mammoth we did a lantern tour which involved a bus ride to an alternate entrance. Much smaller, different experience. I kinda think we had Coleman lanterns, the kind with mantles.
Other caves we’ve had a lantern with a candle or a flashlight.
Marvel cave, on the other hand, is part of Silver Dollar City. You are correct, however…it requires a lot of stairs, so if that’s a problem, definitely skip it. Still, if you can manage it, it is really an amazing cave to see.
Guessing you mean Arlington, TX? At first I thought you meant Virginia which we can drive to but there are no SF in Virginia… BTW I tried to tell SF my feed back and they left me on hold with the chat person for too long so I just gave them a comment on their chat function saying that they shouldn’t have canceled a whole season when people had already purchased season passes. That was very anticlimactic. I don’t have a lot of confidence that anybody is going to read this feedback.
Another, Top of the Rock, is actually in Holister, just south of Branson, with a museum that’s pretty cool. And apparently now a cave tour.
When we were there we did some golf cart nature trail and the museum. Top of the Rock was in the news a few years ago for the giant sink hole at the new golf course.
It’s a resort, south of Branson proper. It always cracks me up how close it is to Arkansas - like less than 30 minutes. Probably because when we’re going south out of Missouri we don’t usually go south of Springfield.
We actually stay in a separate, time share property connected to Big Cedar called Wilderness Club. We’d go for a weekend a few times a year, or a week maybe in summer this year or Christmas another year. It was fun for awhile but maybe it got too familiar. And it’s not really very close to Branson if you’ve been to something that gets done late (like after 9 pm).
The Branson area is a bit of a pill to get around. It’s the Ozarks which claim to be mountains. Mostly narrow parallel ridges with roads mostly on the ridge tops. So windy roads, that require round-about traveling, especially going west to east.
Wilderness Club is great if you’re going to hang out at the pool most of the weekend, maybe taking in a lunch at the Keeter Center.
Or you’re a night owl with awesome night vision (and searchlights for headlights) and you don’t mind driving a little.
That treehouse guy on tv built a wilderness outreach treehouse for Johnny Morris. I’ve always forgotten to look up where it is and now my internet is taking its daily afternoon nap. Maybe I’ll remember later.
They’ve started closing Johnny Rockets in some locations and a few parks… I’m feeling like might only be a matter of time before it is gone all together.
Good news: we went to Fright Fest on a Sat and most of the eateries, including Johnny Rockets, were open. Very bad news: they released event info for 2023 and no Holiday in the Park. I am very sad about this tonight despite the large number of Christmas things to do in the DC area. And I will admit that with them raising pass prices so much I am starting to wonder if I really want to buy them again for next year with an entire season cut. But I’ll feel stupid to not buy them since it’s so close to my house. I realize that they are still a bargain even at about twice the price I used to pay. I watched a couple you tube videos about all the mistakes SF is making (mostly new CEO) and it was mind boggling. I know to take these things with a grain of salt, of course, but one of them had excerpts from a speech he gave and…just, no. They are trying the same strategy as Disney to raise prices and then decrease lines, and also raise prices for things inside the park so that the people who do show up will pay more and revenue will increase. This works if you’re Disney but definitely does not if you’re SF. Their attendance dropped massively with the price increases. Seriously, I don’t mind paying a little more if they would just mop the bathrooms and repaint the rides…
I adore the Holiday in the Park at Six Flags. I just looked and my local one does have it scheduled for 2023. I would have been very disappointed. Living in Texas, I prefer going in December than July.
One of my top 10 memories of DD’s early childhood is from Six Flags Holiday in the Park. It was 67F and we went to the ‘snow’ sledding. It was really crushed ice. The ‘hill’ was so not steep that you had to push yourself along with your hands. DD was sooooo adorable I even bought the photo. My early childhood was in Minnesnowda, and I think the hill on the side of the house that was one-story tall was more exciting. But, this was Texas and it was 67F.
Six Flags over Texas extended their spring break pass sale that gives a free upgrade to platinum when buying gold ($69.99). Platinum includes Hurricane Harbor, parking, and 15% off food and merchandise. Sale ends Sunday 3/29.
I wanted to take DS6 one day on his spring break last week, so I bought us the passes. It was actually the same price as two one-day passes and parking.
DS is 48" now and loved the rollercoasters at DL, so I was excited to let him experience Six Flags for the first time. I hadn’t been there in at least 5 years. It was fine but could be so much better. I know my view is clouded by a recent trip to DL, but Six Flags was pretty disappointing. They just don’t put much effort into maintenance or efficiency. A line for El Diablo looked fairly short but ended up being 45 minutes, because it somehow took 10 minutes to load 32 guests each time. When we finally got to the front of the line the guy said DS didn’t meet the 48" requirement. He was tall enough for two other 48" rides that day (and Incredicoaster the previous month) but not this one. Frustrating.
The good thing is it was a cooler day, so standing in slow lines wasn’t the torture it would be in the summer. I’ll try to take him again at some point to hit the rides we didn’t get to, but I’m not making it a priority. Overall I felt like the customer experience could be so much better if they hired even one person who had ever worked at any Disney park.
Thanks, I had just also seen this upgrade available for my SF too, and you pointed out that it’s a very limited offer. I’ll have to jump on that if they’re really offering it here, b/c I noticed the platinum gives access to other SF parks and we were thinking about maybe traveling to one. When I priced that one out though it was more $ for the one day than we usually spend on the yearly passes for our home SF park, so I was thinking to not go, but now iIm not sure.
