I hadn't been to Silver Dollar City in a few years (even though I live about 2-3 hours away), so the park was pretty much new to me, and I was very pleasantly surprised.
We intended on arriving early, but we took a LONG way (not on purpose :)), so we arrived about 11 am. When we got in, we immediately went to Wildfire. The wait was only about 10 minutes, and we got on somewhere in the middle (3, I believe). The ride was short, but good. The first drop (of course) provided good air. Then you enter a diving loop, which is surprisingly intense if you're in the front. You also get pretty good air coming out of the dive loop. From there it's the typical B&M fare - loop, cobra roll, corkscrew, heavily banked corner, then you're back. It's all very smooth, of course (I heard a woman say after riding that it was very rough - that's right, she said a non-Iron Wolf B&M is rough. I guess she needs to try an SLC :)) One nice thing about the ride is that it is short enough to not have a mid-course break run. Wildfire delivers a ride similar to the Kumba, except of course much shorter, so if you're expecting it to be as good, then you might be disappointed. However, I thought it was great, and it does quite a bit in its relatively short length. The observation deck immediately outside the exit was pretty cool, too. Even without the coaster, it offers a good view, and you do get a good view of the coaster (at least the second half - the deck is VERY close to the cobra roll, so you get a great view of that). After our first ride, we rode 8 more times, then left to see the rest of the park. One interesting note - there was a photographer from Park World snapping pics from the ground. He took some pics of the train coming down the drop, out of the loop, and out of the cobra roll while we were there.
The only other coaster we rode was Thunderation. This coaster surprised me. I think it's easily the best mine train I've been on, and it's even fairly decent compared to other coasters as well.
We rode once facing forward and once facing backward, and for some reason I thought it was much better facing forward. There is a massive lift hill (the only one on the ride) right before the end, that seemed to me kind of a waste. They could have put the lift hill earlier in the ride and made the ride much faster and more intense, but I guess that's probably why they didn't place it earlier (it is supposed to be a family ride, right?).
Another thing that surprised me about the park was the kiddie area (at least I'm guessing it was supposed to be a kiddie area), Geyser Gulch. It has water guns, nerf guns, and other fun stuff in it. I couldn't help but think that such things would cost money at a bigger park, but it was all free. Splash Harbor, which is technically separate from Geyser Gulch (but it's right next to it) was much of the same, except you shoot other people with water I can't wait to go back with rain ponchos - heh, heh), not just targets and stuff. Overall, it was fun (we spent about an hour and a half there :)) even though the area might not have been designed with our age group in mind, if you know what I mean...
We only caught two of the Worldfest shows (Russian band and Russian national theater), both of which were very good. I plan on seeing all of the other Worldfest shows (there are 10 more) before it ends. It was also interesting seeing people in Worldfest attire riding rides between shows. :)
After we rode Thunderation the second time, we walked over to Wildfire again, but the line was not as short (probably about a 30-40 minute wait), so we decided to leave (about 5:00).
SDC is a small park, and it does have the perks that most small parks seem to have. The parking is free (!!), food and refreshments are not terribly overpriced, souvenirs are comparatively cheap, and the staff is very friendly. If you're planning on passing through the area, I would definitely recommend it (and if you're not planning on passing through, then I recommend that you pass through ;)).
*** This post was edited by Lothar on 4/8/2001. ***
*** This post was edited by Lothar on 4/8/2001. ***
