Branson (Cave: appointed, purchase, live)

[stargazer]

Just wanted to tell all I just got back from vacation there. We loved Silver Dollar City and believe it to be the most friendly theme park we have ever been too and this is coming from someone who lived in the shadow of the Worlds and Universal Resorts. We also loved going to the shows in town. We will go back next year for sure! It was that good!

[2beamissourian]

Did you go to Dolly's place? Dixie Stampede- My kids just loved this show ..they are still talking about it now ..and lets see it has been about 10 years ago! They are still asking about going back ...

I personally am not a theme park person .. Silver Dollar city was a life time dream to go to ..and once I was there I was sort of disappointed I felt I had paid to enter the mall! I did however enjoy shows / and craftsmen!

[firebll31]

Silver Dollar City has definitely changed in the 20 years I've been going. Since the addition of Nickelodean and the Children's festival, it is much more geared toward mass-merchandise items and consumerism. In the "old days" almost all the souvenirs, procucts etc. were made locally. There were a lot more demonstrations of old-fashioned ways to do things. I find the emphasis now is on rides (which I love, especially the Powder Keg rollercoaster) and items to purchase. The shows are good, especially the Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol. I love SDC at Christmas, at night the lights are amazing and the food is changed a bit. And the singing Christmas Tree is incredible- my favorite Christmas song is "Christmas Eve in Sarajevo" and it just fills the air.
Even if you don't purchase anything, it's still expensive to eat there. We refer to it as "Steal your dollar City" (lovingly, of course!)

Did you do the Marvel Cave tour?

[2beamissourian]

We ate at a miners cave or something ... cant remember what it was called ..
our table was the one that lifted up ..and my poor son ohh geeze my husband was ready to walk him outside he thought my son had done something to make the table go up ... and my son was saying dad i didn't do anything .. and everyone was looking at us - how embarrassing but funny at the same time.
we had to do some ghost dance thing to get the table back down ... my kids still talk about this and how dad over reacted! haha

our food at Dixie Stampede was great!

[stargazer]

Yes it has certainly changed. I went 20 years ago myself and since then they have added many more rides. I did not get a chance to go to Marvel Cave this time. We were told they didn't have the train on the bottom. I have small kids and did not think we could make it back up top. We opted for the circus on ice show which was lots of fun.
2beamissourian we honestly tried to go to Dixie Stampede. We actually drove to the place and my husband went inside to get the tickets while we waited in the rv we were in. He came back empty handed , so we ate left over pizza and then drove over to see The Preseley's which was really good. The comic Cecil stole the show. We were laughing really hard.