A trip to Branson could never be complete without visiting Silver Dollar City!

Frankly, I didn’t really care that much if we made it to this theme park or not.  While it certainly looked fun, nothing can compare to Disney World in my mind.  I figured it would be a pale imitation.

We got off on kind of the wrong foot with Silver Dollar City.  We didn’t arrive as early as we wanted, and so we found ourselves in a very long line to enter.  I think we waited in line about an hour to get our tickets.  At least, it felt like an hour.  Because they closed at 6:00 p.m., we only had about seven hours once we were in.  This sounds like a lot, but trust me–it wasn’t.

As is the case with any theme park, it took a bit of studying a map to get oriented.  Once we felt confident in our bearings, we started strolling along.

We visited a taffy making shop right off the bat and got a few samples.  This was a very popular place with my daughters.  We next visited a candy making shop, which was even MORE of a hit!  After that, we made our way to a glassblower’s area.  It was very cool to watch these craftsmen.

Then something wildly unexpected occurred.  We happened across a roller coaster called Thunderation.  My wife wants no part of roller coasters, nor do either of my children.  Or at least, that’s what I thought.  My oldest, who was ten at the time, agreed to go on it with me.  She picked quite a coaster for her first go!  Though she was a little nervous, she showed incredible bravery and LOVED it.  Personally, I felt elated to finally have a roller coaster buddy!

We waited quite a while in line for Thunderation, probably about 20 minutes.  As the day wore on, these wait times got longer and longer for other rides.  There’s no fast passes at Silver Dollar City!  (At least, not that I know of.)

My wife and youngest daughter traveled to an area with tamer rides for little ones which they very much enjoyed.  There really is a ride for everyone at Silver Dollar City.

I won’t go into great detail, but my oldest and I also enjoyed a very intense roller coaster called Powder Keg.  We then convinced my youngest daughter to ride a very small roller coaster called the Grand Exposition Coaster, which she absolutely adored.  As a complete family, we enjoyed The Flooded Mine–my youngest daughter hated this one because of the escaped prisoner mannequins, but the rest of us got a kick out of it.  We did a ton more rides, most of which were aimed at a younger crowd.  Make no mistake, however, there are plenty of big rides like what you would find at Disney or Six Flags.  Some looked too extreme even for me!  You can find a complete list of all rides HERE.

Silver Dollar City had a lot more to offer than just rides, though.  There were restaurants galore, live singing, functioning craftsmen demonstrations, and plenty of gift shops.  My wife particularly enjoyed a little homestead area made to replicate life in the 1800s.

All in all, we had an absolute blast.  I would not hesitate to go back to Silver Dollar City.  In fact, we plan to go back someday soon because we didn’t have enough time to take it all in!  One day simply wasn’t enough for us.  Believe it or not, my youngest daughter said she liked it better than Disney World.  She was six when we went, so we didn’t come down too hard on her, but we did tell her to slow her roll.  That’s just crazy talk.

You can visit the Silver Dollar City website by clicking HERE.

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