At the beginning of November I spent a few days in Branson, MO enjoying an Ozark Mountain Christmas. I paid my way out there but once I arrived the rest of my trip was compensated for me. I detailed the entire trip in a previous post and this time I want to focus on two of the things that we did on the trip. That was visiting Silver Dollar City and taking a ride on the Showboat Branson Belle. Both are attractions run by Silver Dollar Attractions. We had the VIP treatment in both locations and it was so much fun.
Our first stop at Silver Dollar City was Eva and Delilah’s Bake shop that makes so many delicious treats. Here you can get huge, and I mean huge cinnamon rolls and sticky buns among other things. I took a look at the prices expecting them to be outrageous but they were not. In fact everywhere around the part I was impressed by what I saw as far as prices on things to eat and souvenirs. You get a lot for our dollar here. I did a livestream from the bakery and we even got to try a bunch of their treats.
Further into the park we took a look at a traditional cabin. What is interesting about this one is that it was actually moved, board by board from another location to preserve it. This was a very well put together cabin that has a stone fireplace in the middle so that it can heat the entire thing. There were even automatic door closers built into the design. This was a rope and pulley system that made sure that the doors were always automatically closed. There were singers in one side of the cabin but we weren’t able to see them before we headed to our next spot. We did, however see some Christmas Carolers. We enjoyed them while we alos enjoyed some authentic Wassail.
The Silver Dollar City park is not just a theme park with rides and attractions, although they do have some wicked coasters. This is a place where local artisans can sell their creations and also where they can showcase their talents. I toured the Glass Blowing shop and the Candy Factory. The head candy maker has been making candy at Silver Dollar City for almost 50 years!! That and 95% of the candy sold in the factory is made on site in their four kitchens underneath the main store. I met a lovely couple who told me all about it in my livestream from the store.
Again, looking at the prices I was shocked by how inexpensive the bags of candy were. We were all lucky enough to take home a bag of the peanut brittle and it was to die for!! I had never tried it before but Allison busted into it and I tried a piece. I kept going back to the cabinet over and over. It was so good.
I noticed that there were many, many snowmen around the park. The Glass Blowing location had some very intricate and delicate glass snowmen that were beautiful. The artisans at Silver Dollar City really know their trade. As I went through the park I thought more and more about my grandfather, Rick. He spun pewter for many years in the basement of his home and his work was of the highest quality. I inquired as to whether there were any pewter spinners on location but there were not. I wonder if there are many people who actually still do this work.
After touring those two crafting locations Niccole asked me if I wanted to take a trip on the Time Traveler. Here’s the thing. I had no desire to go on this roller coaster. It looked crazy! Also, sometimes roller coasters bang me around too much and my back and shoulders get out of whack. I was assured that the coaster would not bang me around because the ride is very smooth. So, I agreed. And to their credit, everyone was true to their word on this point. It was not at all a ride that banged you around. It was totally smooth and you were so securely locked into the coaster that you weren’t going anywhere.. Which was a good thing.
Why? This: The Time Traveler is the World’s Fastest, Steepest & Tallest Spinning Coaster.
Here’s some stats on the coaster.
INVESTMENT: $26 Million
TRACK LENGTH: More than half a mile – 3,020 feet
INVERSIONS: THREE – Most Inversions EVER on a Spinning Coaster
- Dive Loop
- Zero-G Roll
- Vertical Loop — first and only in the world
LAUNCH ELEMENTS: Two Linear Synchronous Motor (LSM) Launches
One horizontal and one inclined
RIDE DURATION: 1 minute 57 seconds (Dispatch to stop & unload)
VEHICLES/TRAINS: 360° Spinning Vehicles with adjustable magnetic spin control.
Total of 3 trains carrying 16 passengers (2 per row; 2 rows per vehicle; 4 per train)
It was a wild and amazing ride!!!
After the Time Traveler I had to relax a bit so we headed further down into the park, and when I say down I mean down. This park puts other ones to shame on the topography. Rather than fight the landscape of the Ozark Mountains Silver Dollar City embraces it and celebrates the uniqueness of the location. Even the Time Traveler is built so compliment the hilly aspect of the location. As we walked to our next event I noticed this Nativity scene. Yes, in a theme park. Silver Dollar City, along with all of Branson never miss the opportunity to remind you unequivocally about the reason for the season. That includes scripture on signage or in performances and also the living nativity within a performance or Nativity scenes around the park. This Nativity Scene is the same statues that we have at La Salette Shrine here in Attleboro, a place where the family goes every year to see the lights.
Speaking of Lights! Silver Dollar City has 6.5 million lights and that includes over 30 miles of new lights. I took a walk through the Midtown lights right after dinner. However, I am getting ahead of myself. You can see that video below, though.
Before seeing the lights we saw an hour long stage production of A Christmas Carol. here are actually two original musical productions in the park. They are A Dickens’ Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. These are fantastic stage productions in large theaters that are part of your price of admission. I enjoyed this performance very much.
After the performance we went back up to the top of the park and had dinner. I really would have liked to have tried some of the more regional items that I saw all around the park. So many tasty looking treats like a skewer of spiral potato chips. They also had succotash stations all around. So many different recipes, too. I’d say that we saw maybe a quarter of the park at lightning speed. We only had 6 hours or so to take everything in and I know this is a place that I’d love to return to with the family and spend an entire day or even two. I did learn that the price of admission is inexpensive and for less than the price of two tickets you can get a season pass and go back for an unlimited number of times the whole season. By the way, if you were to buy a family of four season passes you would spend less than one annual pass at another major theme park. another way our dollar goes further.
The last thing we did that night was to see Rudolph’s Holly Jolly™ Christmas Light Parade. I captured it in this livestream.
Silver Dollar City was quite a place. We had a spectacular experience. Did you know that Silver Dollar City Attractions has other attractions. They also own the Showboat Branson Belle and we went on a cruise on our second night of our Ozark Mountain Christmas.
The Showboat Branson Belle is themed after the majestic showboats of the 1800s. We took a two hour cruise around Table Rock Lake. It was beautiful scenery and there was even a sunset that was glorious. I had a great time waking the decks to capture some panoramas. You see some great views of the lush Ozark Mountains. The Fall foliage was spectacular but I am assured that the scenery around table Rock Lake is beautiful at any time of the year.
The showboat itself is a working paddlewheel with two twin paddlewheels. The boat was christened in 1995 and in order to launch it onto Table Rock Lake they had to find an organic method. They used 2 tons of bananas as grease to slide the boat into the water. The slide was 95 seconds at 14 miles per hour which is the fastest that the boat will ever travel.
Aboard the boat there is a large theater with seating all around and on several levels. We were on the port side on the second level where we were served our meal as we watched a fresh and fun rock and roll show that had a comedy magician warm up the crowd. The second half of the show was Christmas themed, too. I really enjoyed it when the performers did 29 songs in a few minutes. I loved that part.
I was free to walk all around the boat so I took advantage of that and made a livestream out there on the water. You can see that below.
When you go to Branson these are two attractions that you must not miss.