Silver Dollar City for
@Rich T:
-Fall and Christmas are the busiest times of the year (more than a quarter of their annual attendance comes during Christmas).
-My personal event rankings: 1. Old Time Christmas 2. Harvest Festival 3. Bluegrass and BBQ 4. Whatever they're currently calling their summer festival 5. Southern Gospel Picnic.
-The park is best appreciated over two days. It benefits from a relaxing pace and soaking everything in. Currently, the park sells two-day tickets, decently priced if I recall. Parking is free.
-I recommend arriving around 1 hour before official opening time. This will give you time to park, wait for the tram, take the tram to the entrance, and get in before the crowd. Silver Dollar City's entrance is quaint but tiny and doesn't handle crowds well (the entrance path is wedged tightly between the natural entrance to Marvel Cave and the cable car that returns you to the surface). You can then walk around the square, eat breakfast or stop at the bakery, and often times watch a pre-opening show at the Gazebo before the official grand opening ceremony.
-During non-Pumpkin/Christmas times, going on Saturday can be beneficial if you care about the coasters as you can be sure that all of them will be running multiple trains on Saturdays. Time Traveler always runs multiple trains but the others are hit or miss. Time Traveler and Powder Keg are consistently popular and busy, but the others can be walk-ons if you time it right.
-I'd recommend riding Powder Keg first, then heading to Mystic River Falls if interested before heading up the hill to Time Traveler.
-Avoid March or any other time of the year before the first advertised festival. During the early season, the rides will be running but a lot of the other things that make the park special don't debut until Festival # 1 hits.
-Navigating the park is very tricky for first-timers, but one key tip is that if you're going downhill, you're going further into the park; uphill, towards the exit. The park's lowest point is near the entrance to Mystic River Falls.
-Elevation changes and hills are constant, but there's one particular hill if you head down to the left from the entrance (they even call it "Hill Street") that's especially brutal. This particular hill is best avoided unless you absolutely must traverse it-there are almost always alternatives.
-Entertainment changes constantly, and even the established acts will change their repertoire at each performance. There's nearly always a visiting group or two. Music-based events will have even more variety.
-Of the resident entertainers, the Homestead Pickers are my favorite. If they're doing a show at the gazebo (typically pre-park opening), that may be the best place to see them as they're older gentlemen with quiet voices, and the gazebo is the only place where they have microphones. The sign on the Homestead will tell you where they'll be performing if it's absent from the map as it sometimes is.
-Flooded Mine typically has short waits, but it's right next to the train station, so it sees influxes of crowds every 30 minutes or so.
-Grandfather's Mansion is a walkthrough funhouse that's easy to miss. At the main entrance square, take the path between the general store and the ice cream parlor, and just before you go down the stairs is the entrance.
-All the crafters and demonstrations are great, but the glassblowers are my personal favorite. And unlike some parks, where they only make little trinket sort of things, they make full size glassware.
-Definitely do the cave tour! You can spring for the upcharge lantern tour if you like, which takes you into some rooms you don't see on the regular tour and in darkness, but the free regular tour hits all the highlights. Note the timing of the last cave tour on your way in. The cave tour is inside the Hospitality House, which you must walk through to reach the park proper.
-I wouldn't say there's any restaurants to avoid except the handful of burger and hot dog places. If you're looking at menus and see something appealing, get it at lunch when you can be sure the restaurant will be open. The app also lists menus for all permanent restaurants if you want to peruse what they sell before you arrive or in line. The new BBQ restaurant is still quite popular, so get there early if that's where you're headed. The nearby woodfired pizza restaurant (prob not my top recommendation either, but not bad) also gets quite slammed at mealtimes.
-Sweet tooth recommendations: the Cinnamon Bread; (NOT to be confused with the cinnamon rolls in the bakery at the entrance-it's only sold at the Cinnamon Bread building near Mystic River Falls); Apple Dumplings with cinnamon ice cream (typically the seasonal stalls; easy to find from Sept-December and sporadic otherwise), Peanut Butter Fudge from Brown's Candy, mint fudge at Christmas; Wassail at Christmas; the molasses cookies at the bakery are just like the ones my grandmother used to make; endless taffy varieties at the taffy factory.
Hopefully this is coherent! I hope you're able to get to the park soon!
