When Sam and I made our way back to Silver Dollar City (SDC) for Day 2 our plan was jump on our favorite rides as much as we could. With it being a Saturday, however, and the crowds heavier than the previous day, Sam decided to buy us both Trailblazer passes to skip the lines. My birthday was only a couple of days away and she wished me a happy birthday as she showed me the Trailblazer purchase she made on her phone. What an awesome gift! Now we could hit up Time Traveler a ton of times and we most certainly did.
But first, we had to make it to ground level to get on any of the rides. Confused? Read on…
Starting the Day Off Below Ground
For those who don’t know, SDC also features a cave tour of the Marvel Cave. Both Sam and I have come to love cave tours and have been doing a bunch of them in recent years. We have gone to a bunch in our region and have done a few others during our journeys. With this one being included with park admission, we figured, “Why not?”
The day before we spoke to a staff member about the tours. She recommended coming straight to the cave entrance first thing and waiting. The tours can only take so many people in at a time because it ends with a train ride out of the cave. The train only holds so many people, which limits group size. We took this advice, unlike the advice Steven gave us before our trip (see Day 1), and made our way into the cave, getting the first one of the day.
When I tell you that this tour starts off with the most impressive aspect of the cave, I’m not lying. You enter a massive sinkhole, going down a tall staircase, followed by a long winding pathway to the bottom. At that point you are already 300 feet below the surface and feeling ever so tiny. It was a breathtaking sight looking back from where we just came. And you still have 200 feet more to descend throughout the tour.
Other highlights of this tour include countless rooms, with a few drop offs that will leave you breathless, a 40-foot tall waterfall, and the +1,000 feet long train ride back to the gift shop. The story behind how the cave was found, the town surrounding it, and how the park came to run tours in later years was also interesting to hear. Our tour guide mentioned being an actor at a few nearby places in Branson and was a bit of a comedian too. He definitely made a top tier tour even better. Sam and I both recommend this tour if you can fit it in.
Back Above Ground
With our Trailblazer passes ready to go, we got straight to the rides after leaving Marvel Cave. We were looking to re-ride our favorites like Time Traveler, Outlaw Run, and Powder Keg a few times each, but being able to skip the hour-plus waits for both Fire in the Hole and Mystic River Falls worked out nicely. You could only skip each of them once, but that was all we needed for those.
Time Traveler
We were able to get seven rides on Time Traveler on Day 2. The line was so long for this two floors of switchbacks mostly full. Our passes came with a time restraint for immediate re-rides, but where the merge point was for Trailblazers, it was never a problem. The time we waited being assigned a row, walking up the stairs, riding, exiting the station, and walking back around never fell under that time. So yes, we were those people going back on over and over again.
With seven more rides on this coaster, it allowed me to get a better feel for its tricks. Sure, I loved my one ride the day before, but now I was getting to see its nuisances. Some rides were better than others, for sure, but none of them were unenjoyable. Some rides we’d drop out of the station backwards, which was my preference. Other times we’d hit the mid-course launch sideways, which Sam really liked. Whenever we had backwards airtime pops, I was so giddy. You just never knew what you’d get until it was happening.
Talk about re-rideability! This is a ride I could lap all day, even though it’s a spinning coaster. Mack is doing great things and I only hope to see more of them moving forward. I just wish I had some of their coasters a little closer to home. Both Time Traveler and Copperhead Strike at Carowinds have me wanting a top tier Mack coaster within a driving distance of my house. Do you hear that Hersheypark? Pleeeeeeeease?
Mystic River Falls
Watching this ride during our first visit had me wanting to ride it so bad. I am glad we waited though. The Trailblazer passes let us skip what looked to be over an hour worth of line. I’m also pretty sure the ride went for a bit after we rode too.
Being smack dab in the middle of the park, and in an area where you can see a lot of its layout, this ride gets your attention. It certainly got mine. I couldn’t walk away from it when I was in photographer mode either. Check out all the awesome photos I managed to get of this ride. They are some of my favorite shots I took at SDC.
Although we did get paired with a bunch of middle school aged boys on our raft, this ride was amazing, juvenile jokes aside. Both Sam and I loved the terrain and theming. Everywhere you looked, you had an awesome view of rapids, waterfalls, rockwork, etc. All that, however, was leading up to one thing – the elevator lift and slide. I have never been on a rapids ride that wasn’t 100 percent focused on the rapids and I couldn’t wait to experience the finale.
Once our raft made it to the lift, I was surprised by rotation involved getting to the top. Somehow I didn’t notice this motion from the walkways while observing the ride. Goes to show you how distracted by everything else I was. But while on the topic of the lift, this thing feels so much taller once your up there. From what I can find online, the lift portion of this ride stands 82 feet tall, but it feels like 100 plus.
After leaving the lift, the boat swirls down the slide, which feels rather strange. I’ve been on water slides, log flumes, and shoot the chute rides, but doing this in a rapids style raft feels like none of those. The rotation and how close you feel to the edge was wild.
Before I knew it though, we did the final drop into the splashdown. We did get quite wet, but I wouldn’t say we were drenched. I’ve gotten wetter on a lot of other water rides. To be honest, I think on our rides on American Plunge had us wetter both days. That one was surprising and also a great ride.
Fire in the Hole
Originally I was going to talk about Flooded Mine here because I adore dark rides, especially ones with old school appeal. Add in the fact that the ride is also done in a boat and Flooded Mine made me remember some of the rides I rode as kid. That being said, however, I felt the need to mention the park’s second RMC since I mentioned Outlaw Run in the Day 1 report.
By far, this ride draws some of the longest lines. I never had the pleasure of riding the original Fire in the Hole, but from the merchandise, stories of park goers, and videos I’ve watched online, it was clearly was loved. The closest thing I’ve ridden would be Dollywood’s Blazing Fury. While it was closed during our 2024 trip, I did ride it with James and Mindy on two other visits to Dollywood prior. Like Flooded Mine, I loved the old school dark ride appeal of Blazing Fury and that it was still a coaster only made it better.
My experience with this all-new rendition of Fire in the Hole was a positive one. I think all the effects and scenes look great. My only complaint would be that I feel like you move too fast through them. I don’t know if that was true of the original, or if the speed of this RMC successor is different. I felt like I barely had time to take in some of the scenes and listen to the audio before getting moving onto the next one.
Luckily for us, our ride on Day 2 had us in the front seat. We rode in the back on Day 1 and the splash down seemed like a gimmick that didn’t get the train wet at all. Well, when we sat down in the front row and saw how wet the seats, floor, and restraints were, we realized we were wrong. Still, to have only a row or two get wet seems wrong. Maybe there should be some kind of misting or something for the rest of the train to plow through during that element? Am I alone in thinking this?
Final Ride Counts
American Plunge (1)
Fire Fall (1)
Fire in the Hole (1)
Frisco Silver Dollar Line Steam Train (1)
Flooded Mine (1)
Giant Barn Swing (1)
Grandfather’s Mansion (1)
Marvel Cave Tour (1)
Mystic River Falls (1)
Outlaw Run (1)
Powder Keg (2)
Thunderation (1)
Time Traveler (7)
Wildfire (1)
The Highlight of Our 9-Day Trip
Going into this trip both Sam and I expected SDC to be the highlight of our nine day journey. While we did love a lot of the parks we visited and found some coasters throughout all of them to be stellar, SDC was a complete package. The rides, the atmosphere, the food, and all the extras like the Marvel Cave tour confirmed what we expected all along. SDC, like its sister park, Dollywood, is a must visit for anyone who loves theme parks and coasters. And if you go, do like we did and go for a couple of days. If crowds are heavy, the Trailblazer pass was a wise upgrade.
I truly cannot wait to go back to this park. I would love for Jen to experience SDC as well, especially since she loved Dollywood so much. I know she’ll fall in love with SDC and all of its rides. How can you not?
Silver Dollar City Photo Gallery - May 31, 2025
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
Sam
Admiral
New Credit(s): n/a