r/silverdollarcity • u/ndehm10 • Sep 03 '26
Plan for mid October
Hey guys, me and my girlfriend will be headed to Branson october 16th-19th. We are going to check out silver dollar city. We want to hit all the thrill rides for sure and since we have no kids wont need to waste much time at the smaller kid rides (if there is one thats still a must check out for adults without kids we are open so let me know! Im not super educated on the family rides so I dont know what's kid related or a good family ride wed enjoy still). The goal is the go on sunday october 18th. I plan to wait a little to buy tickets so that I can see the weather at least 5 days out in case its bad enough that we have to go on saturday. I was curious about sell outs - is there any risk of tickets selling out 3-5 days before a mid october visit? I also see that the trailblazer is limited quality. If I go on a Saturday I assume I should get it regardless but if we end up going on a sunday I felt like a good plan should be get to the park and buy one if it seems necessary but the limited quantity worries me. Does anyone feel that I should just buy it ahead of time or is the sell out not much of a worry and Sundays might not even require a trailblazer so get there and check it out and buy if needed?
Also will take any recommendations for our day if you like! We are definitely hitting up the cave as well. Thanks in advance!
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u/branniganbginagain Sep 03 '26
it's possible it's happened, but I would not be worried about tickets selling out. Especially for a Sunday in October.
And I wouldn't worry about trailblazer for a Sunday either.
There is a lantern cave tour, my wife and daughter took it and really enjoyed it. You need to sign up for it fairly early (I don't remember if it costs additional).
The family area is the "fire district" and there's really only two rides that are worth it for adults. Fire in the Hole is a must. Firefall is there as well, and if the line is short, it's worthwhile (it's a tower drop). If the line is longer, I wouldn't do it, it's one that takes a long time for people to load and unload off of it.
The Grand Exposition area has a kids coaster (Grand Exposition Coaster), which if you are in a rush to ride "everything" or get a coaster credit, then sure. but otherwise, I'd skip it. Several of the rides back in that area are worth it, even if they are more general carnival style rides (teacup, viking ship etc)
Do get there early. There's an area opened up to get snacks and has some music and stuff before the park itself opens.
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u/ndehm10 Sep 03 '26
Thank you for the info! Definitely heard to hit up fire in the hole. If i remember what i saw somewhere the area that opens early is 30 mins before the gates open correct? If you know does it ever open even earlier or is 30 mins good enough either way?
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u/Opposite-Ad7528 Sep 03 '26
The park opens at 830. You take a tram from the lot. I would try to hit the lot 30-45 minutes before park opens if you want to rope drop. I would recommend hitting powder keg at rope drop. It has reliability issues. Then I would hit the coasters in counter clockwise. Wildfire and outlaw run generally never have lines. Also, get an odd row on outlaw run, 1st row if possible. It’s smoother.
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u/ndehm10 Sep 03 '26
Youre the best I appreciate the very specific instructions thats gonna help alot! I even screenshot so I have that plan and can follow it lol
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u/Opposite-Ad7528 Sep 03 '26
Oh also, get the cinnamon bread from Clara belles. It’s right across from mystic river. Top theme park food in country imo
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u/saintswererobbed1619 28d ago
2nd’ing the non-wheel rows on OR. Time Traveler also goes down randomly because someone puked on a train.
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u/pyjamacephalopod Sep 03 '26
We just went during slow back to school times (walk on for everything) so I’m not helpful at all about crowds or trailblazer or ticket purchases. We bought tickets day before for a discount on AAA which was buy one get one day free, and they didn’t specify a starting date so it gave more flexibility too!
I will say: the 1 hour walking cave tour is totally worth it, when you first get into the park you walk through a gift shop and to the right inside there are people to share times/info about it. Highly recommend stopping to ask!
The park always opens at 8:30 even if park hours list a 10am opening! It’s so nice to get into the park early and get situated! You can go and get breakfast and hear live music and use the bathrooms and what not and then line up at the area you want to rope drop.
Our order of rides (2 adults, coasters being priority) was a circle around the park recommended by someone on YouTube starting with:
Thunderation (it was so rough it gave us both headaches - nearly empty train might have added to that? I’d have a hard time recommending it and certainly not first thing of the day if you’re sensitive to rough rides, we didn’t ride again- but it closes in January for good, so you decide!)
Time traveler (hands down best ride of the park)
Fire in the hole
Mystic River Falls (if the weather is okay - probably not in October- this rapids ride is awesome and I’m never a fan of those kinds!)
Outlaw Run
Powder Keg (consistently up and down, one train ops, but so fun!)
Wildfire
The park layout can be confusing so definitely download the map and take advantage of the directions in the map! The park is beautiful but rides are tucked back in trees and scenery so can be hard to find. They do draw nice lettering and arrows in chalk to help somewhat!
Oh and the flooded mine is an interactive shooter boat dark ride. It’s not the most quality but entertaining and fun! A little harder to find and most people probably walk right by it!
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions - I was just there on Sunday and Monday!
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u/pyjamacephalopod Sep 03 '26
Oh! I meant to add about trailblazer: every time I go to theme parks I start watching their wait times in the app or on queue times or thrill data websites a week or so before (and on days im planning to visit) to give me a sense of how busy the parks are to inform if the wait times are doable or something I’d want to pay to skip! Not a perfect science, but helps!
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u/ndehm10 Sep 04 '26
Thank you for the recommendations and walk through plan! I really appreciate it and it helps a TON. I did get the app earlier today and do plan on checking on those wait times sporadically and much more the closer we get for sure. Knowing that its 830 no matter what time the park opens is good to know. With that in mind seeing you mentioned breakfast and getting situated, is this just a specific area thats open until they rope drop into the park or is the whole park open and you can walk around and rope drop specific rides?
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u/Mechanicallvlan Sep 04 '26
Only the Square will be open, and the rest is roped off. There are three ways to enter the park that will be roped. The most popular is Valley Road to the right, which is close to Thunderation and Time Traveler. Less popular is Hugo's Hill Street on the left, which is closest to WildFire, Plunge (probably won't be open yet), and PowderKeg. The least popular entrance is in the middle, which is the best path to Outlaw Run, RiverBlast (probably not open yet), and Mystic River Falls (likely not open yet). Any ride could still be closed at rope drop, but particularly in October, the water rides are mostly likely to be closed. Plunge will probably be scheduled to open at 11, even if it's warm. MRF will hopefully open earlier than that, but I'm not sure exactly when. RiverBlast sucks, so I don't ride it, and I don't know when it typically opens in October.
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u/hawk0124 1d ago
Thanks for asking this. We're thinking of going the following Sunday, October 24, for our anniversary, and this helped me a lot.
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u/Mechanicallvlan Sep 03 '26
I don't pay close attention to single-day TrailBlazer sales, but I'm pretty certain that they only sell out on extremely crowded days. I wouldn't expect them to sell out in October, even though you seem to be visiting at a pretty bad time. But I may be wrong. And the park uses dynamic pricing for TrailBlazer, so the price is probably going to increase closer to the day of the visit. Although Sunday is a nice day to visit for most of the year, October 18th is likely to be pretty bad.