VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

AMY: Hi everyone, this is Amy with TPF, Trips Places and Fun! And I'm here with John and today we would like to talk about Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Silver Dollar City is an awesome theme park. It is themed after the late 1800s or so. There are staff members who are walking around in period costumes, you can see crafters who are making things from that era, just a really really unique park. It also has a lot of great rides. You can see and ride coasters and water rides. You can see shows, lots of different attractions. We were there recently and it was raining so we thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about things to do at Silver Dollar City when it is raining, when the weather's bad, when a lot of the rides are shut down. So if it's raining and there's no lightning the rides may still be open you may still be able to get to ride the coasters and the train and the water rides. But in the event of lightning, they're going to shut down a lot of things. However this doesn't mean you have to leave the park. There are still a lot of fun things to do, so we're going to get into talking about some of those things.

JOHN: Probably the most obvious attraction to enjoy at Silver Dollar City when it's raining or when it's very hot or very cold is Marvel Cave. Marvel Cave is one of America's largest caves. It's an absolute must see, must do. You're gonna have the time of your life there underneath the ground. The temperature stays, I think it's right around 62 degrees year around, and you're going to experience a lot of twists and turns, a lot of stairs, I think there's around 600 stairs ,so that's something to keep in mind when you're considering whether you want to head out on that venture or not. But if you do, you're going to hear some awesome stories from the cave guides and they're gonna tell you things. For example, one interesting thing is they once flew five hot-air balloons there in the main chamber there in Marvel Cave. And so it's huge, its massive, and one thing to keep in mind also is when it rains a lot the cave will flood and there are times that they will either re-divert the the tours, take you a little bit higher, or sometimes the flooding is so extreme that they actually do have to close the cave until the water leaves the cave system. So you have a couple different options. You have a traditional tour, which is what most people take. It's free by the way. There's no extra cost and that those tours run throughout the day at Silver Dollar City. Or they also have some lantern tours that you can check out. So all in all definitely check out Marvel Cave. Marvel Cave came first and Silver Dollar City was built around it. And it's quite an adventure.

AMY: So another great attraction that you can participate in when the weather's bad is Grandfather's Mansion. Grandfather's Mansion is a quirky, late-1800s fun house. So as you go through the mansion you may see twisted passageways, narrow staircases, you can peer into some secret rooms, see some funhouse mirrors. It just takes a few minutes to go through but sometimes my kids will go through it over and over and over. It really is kind of a traditional classic attraction there at Silver Dollar City, and the bonus is that you can do it in any kind of weather.

JOHN: So when the skies open up and the rain starts coming, one place that people flock to are the shows. I personally love all of the shows there at Silver Dollar City, specifically the Saloon Show. We saw that yesterday and it's a brand-new show this year. It had me just busting up. It's hilarious. It's fast paced, loads of fun, and it's it's it's about 27 minutes long or so, so it's something that doesn't take a huge chunk out of your day. But it's definitely worth it get in line early if you can, and head on over to the saloon. Inside they're gonna serve you, I believe, root beer floats and popcorn. And so you're gonna really have a great time there in the saloon. That's one of my all-time favorites at Silver Dollar City. Then you can head on over to Heritage Hall. They have a variety of different shows there depending on what the season is. Right now they have a cowboy show that's extremely well done, very, very entertaining with horses and and gunfire and tricks and rope tricks and whip tricks and all sorts of different things like that. There's dogs and dog shows and all, this this feels like a, I don't know, maybe a Buffalo Bill type attraction back in the day. There are all sorts of different things that you can see there so I would recommend that if you can get into that show before the season changes. We're getting close to Christmas time so we're gonna have some amazing Christmas shows coming up. In fact, that's the very best time of the year to visit Silver Dollar City, in my opinion. Those shows are phenomenal. One more show that I'll highlight is the Cajun Connection. These guys have been around for a long time and you can head on down to the Dockside Theater and it's right there by the Lost River of the Ozarks. It's an outdoor theater, but it's covered, and so when it's raining just head on in there and listen to some good old Cajun music. So there are a lot of shows depending on the season, the time of the year at Silver Dollar City, and you are going to enjoy all of them.

AMY: Of course something else you can do when it's raining is head inside to one of the many stores at Silver Dollar City and do some shopping. Silver Dollar City is known for the amazing crafters that are there. You can see things like glassblowing, blacksmiths. You can shop in an amazing candy store and get some incredible chocolate. Just all different kinds of crafts, paintings, sculptures, soap making, so many unique things there to see and buy. You can also eat so if you are stuck in the rain and you need to get out of it for a little bit find something to eat in one of the amazing restaurants there. You could have pizza, you could go to a couple of different buffets. You could eat barbecue, salads lots of different things, great treats there, and so a lot of different things there to grab to eat. And you can get out of the rain because it's covered, a lot of its inside, so if you need to take shelter for an hour going shopping and dining are great options.

JOHN: So when it's lightning, thundering, most of the rides are gonna close there at Silver Dollar City. But there are some that will remain open. We'll talk about a couple of those starting with The Mine Ride. It's The Flooded Mine. It's a classic Silver Dollar City attraction, been there for years and years and years and it's something that I like to do just to get out of the weather, again whether it's hot or cold or raining. You just ride this ride, it's all indoors and you are going to be in a boat floating very slowly through various scenes with prisoners and water everywhere. It’s flooded, and you have guns in your hands and there's targets everywhere so you get to shoot as you float by all of these different scenes with the prisoners with the guards with, you know, the bars and the rocks that's are blowing up with dynamite. And it's all animated and there's explosions and really, really awesome, really cool, and the kids love it. It's great for the whole family, any age. So The Flooded Mine is a definite must do, a classic ride here at Silver Dollar City.

AMY: Whether it is sunny, hot or cold, no matter what, we always want to take time to ride Fire in the Hole. It is one of our favorite rides here at Silver Dollar City. And it is a dark ride, so you are riding through the dark on a little coaster, mini-coaster, and you are going to see scenes of the Baldknobbers and just some Ozark history there, and you'll be riding through and seeing some different things happen. You'll see buildings catch on fire, you'll see a train coming, all sorts of interesting things. And then you will hear someone yell “Fire in the hole,” just like that, as you descend some some little hills. So it is just really, really fun, something that you want to do in any weather, but definitely if it's raining.

JOHN: One of the newer areas of the park at Silver Dollar City is Firemen's Landing. And this is something the kids love. There's several different kids rides there, and you know, of course, if there's no thunder and lightning those rides are gonna be running. But if you do need to retreat indoors or if the rain is just too hard, they do have an indoor area. It is a, what would you call it, I guess, not a ball pit necessarily, but it has ball cannons where you are shooting these these soft balls. There's hundreds and hundreds of them and there's many different levels. And there's little vacuum hoses that you can suck these balls up and they go into something, pop out at the top. and that’s a great way to put it, a ball factory. And so there it is, a ball factory right there in Fireman's Landing, and it's great for kids of all ages. Any time my kids have any sense that they're anywhere near Fireman's Landing they've gotta go and they've got to go play in the, what did you call it again, the ball factory.

Amy: Those are some things that we could think of to do at Silver Dollar City in the rain, but if you have some additional ideas please come comment below and let us know. Now if your only day to go to Silver Dollar City is in the rain, during bad weather, you might want to hold off for a sunny day because there are a lot more things to do when it's nice weather. But one benefit to going on a rainy day is that the park is pretty empty, so if you would rather give up some of the coasters in order to have fewer people on the park then that's just something to consider.

JOHN: Now definitely hit that subscribe button and then click the bell so you can be notified every time a new video is released.

AMY: Safe travels!