Walking through the parks very long entranceway (and we later found out the entrance is the only place in the park you can get a map).
The large Christmas tree at the end of the path that leads into the park.
We waited at the chain drop for the park to open. They give out "SDC newspapers" with the show schedule and other info when you enter the park which was pretty neat.
First coaster of the day was TNT which is a totally SICK Arrow mine train coaster.
Some of the cars on the train face forward and some face backwards, we rode backwards first. Notice the costumes the ride ops wear for the Christmas event.
TNT is definitley the surprise coaster of the park, by far the best mine coaster ive been on.
SDC is really all about the atmosphere, especially this time of season.
Remember this place is in the mountains, the park is way bigger than I thought it would be and very hilly.
Not much love for water rides in mid November.
The parks B&M coaster, Wildfire.
Remember how I said pretty much all of this parks guests are families? I wasnt kidding, there were tons of kids in line for rides that they were not even close to being tall enough to ride. There were kids in line for Wildfire in strollers that "couldnt wait to ride!"...for a B&M coaster! Needless to say this park has quite a few height check slowdowns.
Silver Dollar City wanted the seats raised like a floorless coaster but did not want to pay for the floorcoaster station technology, so the ride has floorless coater trains with a floor.
This ride certainly looks awesome. Im not a huge fan of the floorless coaster trains because in my opinion the raised seats make the ride less intense, and Wildfire is not intense at all compared to something like Kumba but still a decent ride.
It may not be intense but it certainly looks really cool.
The Wildfire entrance sign is on some random midway about 5 miles from the rides actual entrance.
The parks other major coaster is Powder Keg, which used to be a water coaster that was modified by S&S to be a launched coaster. Its a really good and unique coaster despite the short track length.
Powder Kegs station, its a complete circut coaster and runs 2 trains. However the track segment right after the station is not connected to the rest of the ride. How does that work?
A series of counterweights pushes the track up to the launch track/rest of the circut. Its extremely weird and awesome at the same time.
After the track moves up to the launch track you sit in some shed while crazy stuff goes on around you and some redneck says "Your too close to that nitro!" and you blast forward. Its the most bizarre series of events to start a coaster ive ever seen (and has to rank up there with Furious Baco). The launch is really good and you ride like a normal coaster until there is a chain lift near the end of the ride, then a drop and helix and the rides over.
More atmosphere to be redundant
You can watch the blacksmith make stuff and you can buy it if you want.
The S&S Screamin Swing was pretty meh, pretty much the same as CP and VFs.
Our first ride on the S&S swing we got stuck on it and it was closed for awhile after that. We did get on it again later in the day though.
They gave us a ride exit admission pass to compensate our time though, which we used on Wildfire.
Wildfire has a very weird observation deck/viewing area type thing thats pretty sweet because its the only place you can actually see the ride from (other than the lift/drop from the midway).
Wildfire doing its "DejaVu pre-2005" impression.
The color of the track really looks nice with all the winter trees in the background.
This is a line to see one of the shows, even after these switchbacks it extended really far down the midway.
Yes this is the line for the show. Luckily the ride lines were only around 20 minutes at the longest.
Next coaster was Fire In The Hole, a dark ride/coaster hybrid. Very interesting to say the least, worth a few rides. Yes this is an actual dalmation in the rides station! (which of course is themed to a firehouse) Now thats authentic theming.
This ride op was the fire chief.
They may have been a bit too authentic with Fire In The Holes station, it is literally themed to a firehouse....which means 4 walls no queue rails. Yes this ride has no queue railings, just a big fire station themed room which makes the wait kind of "interesting"
The State of Missouri laws in regards to amusement ride safety behavior are posted outside the rides entrances.
I did get the kiddie coaster credit, which closed right after we rode due to cold. It was probably the longest ride line in the park.
Its one of them Zamperla rides.
More rides on Powder Keg.
The launch was better than I expected.
Random logs sitting next to Powder Keg.
These are not that excieting in my opinion, been on 4 of them and are all pretty much the same. Have one really good swing then the ride ends.
Lots of thought & creativity went into naming this one (Giant Barn Swing).
Pretty much every structure in the park, including all the rides stations, had lights.
Wouldve stayed later, but this was a drive out to the park that morning, visit park that day, drive back that night type trip.
I had reset my counter after midnight that morning, so I had driven over 1,000 miles in one day which was kinda cool I guess.
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