You’ve Got a Great Past Ahead of You – Silver Dollar City Trip Report

Sean: Alright y’all, we here! Finally I got the chance to visit one of the country’s best reviewed theme parks: Silver Dollar City! As a proud Dollywood season pass holder we rolled up and were given 50% off admission. Join us as we check out some of the country’s best coasters, food and scenery!


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Here’s the park’s beautiful entrance that turned out to be quite a bottleneck! Luckily we arrived well ahead of opening so we could take our time and enjoy the quaintness of the park’s entryways.

Does anyone recognize this beautiful water clock from anywhere else? Hint… Dollywood has one in the middle of the park, where their entrance used to be once upon a time. Silver Dollar City, though larger than ever before, hasn’t quite seen the growth spurts like sister park Dollywood has and thus the classic clock is still part of the SDC entrance.

Now I’m officially ready for a great past ahead of me! Time to travel back in time to the 1880s.

Crowds have started to form well ahead of opening, much like Dollywood guests are invited into the park prior to opening. For a second it seemed so busy we were concerned about the park’s operations for the day.

Luckily that was a false alarm as only the first hour of the day featured lines for rides such as Time Traveler. Shortly after the lines were 2 train waits at most!

You’re probably curious as to what we think of that crazy-looking Mack Rides spinning coaster this park has… we are too. Let’s talk about it!

See those beautiful emotions? – Time Traveler is a very unique ride with some amazing elements that would do very well on forward facing coasters too. Luckily on Time Traveler you get to experience all of this while spinning!

The ride features several great inversions and some lovely airtime moments. However, the ride is not as intense as it looks. Pacing wise there are some slow moments and breaks throughout the ride. I believe this pacing is in the ride’s favor as spinning already adds a ton of sensory to the ride! Overall, very satisfied! We’ll talk about the ride some more in a little bit!

Next up: ThuNderaTion! The classic Arrow mine train that is considered one of their very best products. Thanks to the park’s mountainous terrain ThuNderaTion leaves the station and immediately dives some down turns towards a massive helix that then continues underground and further into the woods. You get a great view of Time Traveler. Unlike the similar coaster at Kings Island, Adventure Express, ThuNderaTion‘s lengthy lift-hill back up the mountain features a large drop as well, one of the largest seen on an Arrow mine train. Overall spectacular ride!

After riding ThuNderaTion it was time to make our way over to Outlaw Run, a coaster I had very much looked forward to riding. On the way over we noticed that the park’s rapids ride and lagoon had disappeared. New concrete flumes seem to be poured for the rumored new-age rapids ride the park may be building.

By the time we got to Outlaw Run it turned out not to be a busy day at all! The infamously wild Rocky Mountain Construction wooden coaster was a walk on and we couldn’t be happier.

Outlaw Run is best known for its crazy airtime and impressive inversions. The terrain on which the ride is located creates for one heck of an airtime machine with a spectacular finale. I appreciated this coaster much more than I thought I would. The fast-paced wooden coaster was running particularly smooth and violently and secured a place in my top 3 wooden coasters.

Hilarious how RMC Iron Horse coasters don’t usually excite me too much but this work of art was simply the best. Another great thing about Outlaw Run, and most coasters at this park, is that they go out into nature and the entire ride takes place far away from the park’s midways.

The park’s train allows for some gorgeous views of this wooden airtime machine, as it goes outside of the park as well.

Though Outlaw run’s finale is spectacular. The hang-time in the second barrel-roll eventually starts hurting your thighs after a few rides.

The park’s signature lake is no more, for now. Hopefully they bring it back when the potential new ride opens. The park also has a big of a bottle-neck and dead-end issue, so a bridge from Fireman’s Landing to Outlaw Run wouldn’t be a terrible idea.

During construction the Giant Barn Swing remains open!

One of our favorite Dollywood things is cinnamon bread luckily Silver Dollar City’s Sullivan’s Mill is home to their own spectacular cinnamon bread, and several varieties thereof! Let’s head in!

You see all this goodness?! We decided to get exotic and go with the Cinnamon Peach Bread!

Ad a classic soda and you got yourself all Silver Dollar’ed up!

We love food, so shortly after we decided to make this a foodie day. We checked out Silver Dollar City’s Foods of Wonder: A Culinary Adventure food festival, who’s food hall is located not far from Time Traveler.

More food!! Oyster Po’Boy shrimp sandwich and a 5-cheese sourdough grilled cheese!

Of course we stepped by the Grand Exposition to get another credit.  I definitely like this part of the park/ family area much more than I like Dollywood’s County Fair.

Next up is the Fireman’s Landing area, one of the better kiddie/family areas out there. 12 attractions with a great theme, very fitting of the Silver Dollar City aesthetic of course.

From Fireman’s Landing we get another great look at the massive construction area. Now getting around this to the Giant Barn Swing and Outlaw Run really feels like an unnecessary hike that needs to be shortened.

Either way… WORTH IT! Because Outlaw Run is one of the very best woodies out there. Still can’t get over how much I liked that ride. Out of control.

Join us on Page 2 for other major coasters like Powder Keg and Wildfire!

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