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Silver Dollar City has been on our “Theme Park Bucket List” for years and this year – we finally made a visit happen – and for Derrick’s birthday!
Silver Dollar City is located in Branson, Missouri. From where we live, it’s about a 14-hour drive to get there (roughly the same distance as it is for us to drive down to Orlando, Florida). Needless to say: Silver Dollar City is quite the distance away from us and not a park we can just visit over a weekend.
It’s tough because: if you were to present us with the option to drive 14 hours to Orlando or 14 hours to Branson – there is just so much more to do in Orlando (roller coaster wise), as well as multiple parks we could break up the drive by stopping at. Driving out to Branson from south western Pennsylvania is a bit on the more boring side, and there’s really only one park we could hit up on the way (Six Flags St. Louis) – so, you can figure out why we opt to drive to Orlando on an annual basis and we’ve only been to Branson once.
So yes, we would LOVE to return to Silver Dollar City because we truly LOVED it there – it’ll most likely be a few more years before we make the trek back.
Taking all of this into consideration, we did a lot of research in planning our time at the park. We wanted to squeeze the absolute MOST out of our days! We are roller coaster enthusiasts (meaning, we want to ride all the thrill rides – and probably more than once), we’re also content creators (so we do a ton of filming and photography in parks), AND we’re ALSO a FAMILY, so to say going to theme parks is an insane balancing act (especially parks we’ve never been to before) is an understatement.
Additionally, we brought my Mom and sister, Ruby with us. This was a BIG trip going somewhere we’d never been before. My parents LOVE Dollywood, so Silver Dollar City has always been on my Mom’s bucket list as well. Having the two of them along with us made our trip so much more memorable.
So, as with every amusement park, Silver Dollar City has it’s little quirks – even though we did our research, we still did learn a few things after spending a few days there.
Here are the FIVE things we wish we’d known before going to Silver Dollar City:
1. PARKING: it’s FREE!
There aren’t many amusement parks with free parking anymore – in fact, I can literally count on one hand the parks I know of that offer a free parking option. And parking prices have gone through the roof lately, so Silver Dollar City offering FREE parking is a MASSIVE benefit and selling point to this park!
Just be aware: you cannot see the park entrance from the parking lot. Depending on how busy the park is when you visit, Silver Dollar City has several parking lots that are very untraditionally situated. This is simply due to the terrain that the park sits on, so if you are expecting a big, flat, “Kings Island” or “Cedar Point” style parking lot – you will not find it here!
Of course, there is a section of paid “premium” parking that you can take advantage of if you want to park as close as possible, but we opted to utilize the free parking for our visit.
So, after parking, you can take a tram, a bus, or walk to the park entrance from MOST of the parking lots – there were a few that were only accessible via tram or bus. From where we parked every day we were there, it was about 10 minute walk from our car to the front gate. Now, I specify that that was FROM our CAR, TO the park entrance – because it was almost all downhill to walk that direction. Which means – it’s almost all uphill to get back to your car (so we’d HIGHLY suggest riding the tram back!) Speaking of which..
2. HILLY TERRAIN: Bring your hiking boots!
Silver Dollar City is the most challenging amusement park to walk out of all of the parks we’ve ever been to (and we’ve been to quite a few).
If you’ve ever been to Hersheypark and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, you know that these parks have their challenging hilly sections. But those are just small sections of those parks and most of the rest of the walking is level and easy to traverse.
ALL of Silver Dollar City is either walking downhill or walking uphill – there is very little level ground.
And it’s not just a slight grade – these are STEEP, sometimes super challenging grades to traverse!
We have two kids and when we visited Silver Dollar City, we were in the “double-stroller” phase of our lives (we’ve since grown out of that) but WHEW – let’s just say: we (but mostly Derrick) definitely got our work-out in from pushing that stroller up and down Silver Dollar City’s hilly terrain!
So, take that into consideration when planning your trip to Silver Dollar City. Wearing comfortable shoes is always a must at amusement parks, but you’re definitely going to want something with some solid support behind them. And if you’re bringing a stroller – bring the lightest one you have!
3. SOUVENIR CUPS: Skip them.
We almost always buy souvenir cups, especially when we’re going to be at a park for multiple days – it’s simply the best bang for your buck when it comes to keeping hydrated. However, we did NOT buy them at Silver Dollar City.
Part of the reason for this was the initial price (which was higher than most parks we go to), plus then you still had to pay a small fee for each fill up afterwards. (Normally, souvenir cups are a one-time fee and then free to fill up – at least for the first day/week of purchase.)
Another reason we decided to skip the souvenir cups was that they were an awkward design: they did not have handles (like traditional souvenir cups)! They were shaped more like a mug with a handle on the side, instead of a handle on the top. Every other souvenir cup we’ve ever bought has had a handle we could use to hang off of our stroller – but not these ones! I honestly don’t even know how we would have carried these around.
For those reasons, we just opted to stick with bringing our own water bottles with us.
And on this front – the staff at Silver Dollar City wins the award for being AMAZING! Not only because the staff at the food stands would give us cups of water for free, but they would happily offer to fill our entire water bottles for us! PLUS, we found PLENTY of water bottle filling stations around the park (you know, the ones that are specifically made for water bottles so you don’t have to stand at a water fountain for a year filling up a large water bottle).
Bringing our own re-fillable water bottles into the park saved us money while still keeping us hydrated – plus, we brought lemonade packets and Liquid IV to add to our water to keep things from getting boring.
In other words: even though their souvenir cups were kinda on the meh side, their water policy was one of the best we’ve ever encountered!!
4. BIRTHDAY DISCOUNTS: Happy Birthday!
If you (or anyone in your party) is celebrating their birthday while you are at Silver Dollar City, in the 7 days prior to your visit, or the 7 days after, you can stop at the General Store for a birthday button!
If you’ve ever been to any of the Disney parks, you know that you can get free buttons celebrating quite a lot of things – and this is very similar.
Here’s the thing though: this isn’t just a fun little (free) souvenir to wear so people will wish you a ‘happy birthday’ around the park – this button actually has VALUE!
Your birthday button gives you a free small bag of kettle popcorn, plus discounts on food and merchandise at select locations (and not just any discount, but a 20% off discount!)
Derrick’s birthday was the day before we visited Silver Dollar City and my sister Ruby’s birthday was 4 days before. We did not know about the “birthday button” until we were leaving the park after our first day. Needless to say: picking those buttons up was our first stop on our second day! What an incredible, fun way to celebrate birthdays!
5. PARENT SWAP POLICY: A big heads up!
Do you know what “parent swapping” is? Pretty much every amusement park has some rendition of the same policy: if a family has a child who is too small to ride a ride, one parent can wait through the regular line, and after riding, the other parent can “swap” spots and ride the ride, skipping the regular line by either walking up the exit lane or the “fast pass” queue.
We have been to over 50 different amusement parks across the United States and every single park puts a different spin on this concept. Silver Dollar City is no different: their policy is strange and a bit challenging to navigate, so let me explain so you’re more prepared than we were:
Silver Dollar City’s policy is clearly designed for a set of parents with ONE child and it follows Silver Dollar City’s strict “no second rides” policy.
Let’s use Outlaw Run as an example. Following Silver Dollar City’s parent swap policy, Dad will get in the regular line and ride the ride. Mom and the too-short-to-ride child will walk up the exit ramp and wait for Dad to get off the ride. When Dad gets off, Mom will immediately take his vacated seat on the ride and be able to ride the coaster while Dad waits with the too-short-to-ride child.
This sounds normal, right?
Where Silver Dollar City splits from the “norm” though is – they will not allow anyone to ride the ride twice.
Our experience at most other parks has been: Dad can walk through the regular line with a partner (in our case, our daughter Braelynn – because she is tall enough to ride Outlaw Run), while Mom waits in the exit with with the too-short-to-ride-child – our son, Leander. When Dad gets off the coaster, most parks allow the partner (in our case, our daughter) to ride the roller coaster AGAIN with Mom (because, there will be an empty seat beside her anyway – why not fill it?)
Silver Dollar City will NOT allow this to happen. And, this was not clearly explained to us when we asked about their parent swap policy, which caused a bit of a (let’s call it a) “discussion” on the ride platform with a ride op who was (unfortunately) not-so-nice to us.
In other words: Derrick, my Mom, my sister, and Braelynn waited through the regular queue to ride a roller coaster. When they got off, I was going to “parent swap” and ride with whoever wanted to ride again.
No.
I had to ride the ride alone. Even though there was an empty seat next to me.
Silver Dollar City’s policy is that no one can ride twice in a row. (We connected these dots later when we rode Time Traveler: the coaster came back into a COMPLETELY EMPTY station. We asked if we could simply ride again, and the ride op said, “No, no one can ride twice. You have to exit the ride and go back through the entire queue.”)
Riding roller coasters is fun and if my husband is a die-hard roller coaster enthusiast, I’d consider myself an enthusiast “lite” (in other words: I’m not one of those people who has to ride every single coaster so I can rack up my coaster count – if Derrick rides a ride and says it’s super rough don’t ride – I am 100% okay with skipping it.)
But I’m also prone to skipping roller coaster rides simply because I don’t like riding them alone – I’d MUCH rather ride with a partner.
And so, Silver Dollar City’s parent swap policy was a huge bummer for me. I always send Derrick through as the first rider, to wait the longest through the line, while I entertain the kids who cannot ride – leaving me to always be a single-rider as the swap at Silver Dollar City.
After running through this scenario a few times, we then learned we could “cheat” that system – we discovered that the second parent (the one waiting at the exit) can have a partner wait with them to ride with.
So, in our case, Derrick, my Mom, and Braelynn would go ride a roller coaster. My sister Ruby and I would wait at the exit with Leander (who is too short to ride any major attractions). When Derrick, my Mom, and Braelynn got off the ride, Ruby and I would swap with them and get on – meaning I would have a partner to ride with (which beats riding alone!)
Unfortunately, our experience with this policy at Silver Dollar City is a bit tainted, mostly because we had such a poor first experience using this policy and the ride op who was not-too-happy that we didn’t thoroughly understand how the policy precisely worked and was quite rude about the whole thing. It was hot, maybe he was having a bad day, but his attitude in explaining things to us was not the best (in fact, he was downright hostile).
After we figured it out, we had no problem at all, but we wish we had known the logistics of their parent swap policy before going to the park.
So, to re-cap:
If you are parent-swapping at Silver Dollar City – their policy is similar to other parks.
One parent will wait through the regular line with your party to ride the roller coaster.
The parent waiting with the too-small-children will walk up the exit and meet the first parent as they are getting off the ride and immediately take their empty seat.
Anyone who rode the ride with the first parent cannot ride a second time – however, the second (waiting) parent can bring a partner up the exit and they can ride with them.
Since we had my Mom and sister with us – we split our party so that the second parent would always have a partner to ride with.
After all, riding roller coasters is MOST FUN when experienced with a partner.
And there you have it – five things we wish we’d known before going to Silver Dollar City!
This truly is a beautiful, lovely park. The atmosphere is filled with mid-west charm, the attractions are top-notch, the shows were INCREDIBLE (seriously, do not miss the shows) – we truly had a wonderful, super fun time!
Time-Traveler is CLEARLY the star attraction of the park – I could ride that roller coaster a million times in a row and it will never get old – it’s just so unique and fun! If you’re not into super-thrill rides though, there are still SO many fun things to do for the whole family at Silver Dollar City: the shows, the different family attractions, the atmosphere, the food, the train ride – this park is so beautiful and we truly do wish it wasn’t so far away from us!
Like I said: we’ve been to over 50 amusement parks within the United States – so which park would you like me to gives tips and tricks on visiting next?
