1st time visit July 6-7: best strategies needed

[lsbryant]

We'll be visiting the week of July 4th & plan to do Silverwood 1 day and Boulder Beach the next. I've reserved a cabana for Boulder Beach.
What can we expect in terms of wait times; any strategies or suggestions on what order we should do the rides; when/where to take a break, etc.?
There are 6 of us: 3 adults + 2 teenage & 1 pre-teen daughters.

Our past Disneyworld trips have taught us there is a real advantage to having a structured plan (significantly reduced wait times); is there anything similar for Silverwood?
Thanks so much!

[Bud Parsley]

Welcome to the boards! So here is my $.02...

If the weather is good, spend the first part of each day at Boulder Beach. Because it can get CRAZY crowded by, say, mid-afternoon. I usually like to get my family out of there by that time because lines are too long and pools are just too crowded. Again, that's if the weather is good for swimming.

Spend the afternoons/evenings at the theme park. Generally, the lines are reasonable. They do have a ridiculous problem of only having one train on each coaster, so that can make the line move annoyingly slow for those particular rides.

Two days should give you your fill...you should probably be able to get on every (worthwhile) ride and every slide at least once in a 2 day window, even with peak summer crowds.

One last thing...DO NOT miss NIck Norton's magic show at the PIzzeria. You can get a decent (by theme park standards) pizza in a nice air-conditioned building and watch a family-friendly magic show that is literally Las Vegas-calliber.

Have fun and let us know how your trip went!

[voodoobones]

I second the magic show! Nick is fantastic! We are lucky to have his show in our area.

[lsbryant]

Thank you for your advice. It sounds like you suggest visiting both parks 1/2-day for both days (we had thought to do the roller coaster park the first day and the waterpark the second day...we reserved a cabana our second day). Is this a bad idea?

For the amusement park, what is a typical coaster wait time (in July during a holiday)? Is there a particular order we should consider to reduce wait times (ie, are there rides that typically get REALLY long waits that we should get to first thing in the morning?) Are there certain rides that tend to become less crowded in the mid afternoon?

Any strategy idea will help. We look forward to seeing the magician. About how long is the show?
What about restaurants? Are there particular ones you recommend or are they all pretty much the same? About how much should we budget for food (lunch, drinks, snacks) for 2 adults, 3 teen girls and 1 grandmother?

[skinnyguy]

^I'll chime in this time. I agree that sticking with the water park for the earlier part of the day both days usually works out well, as it tends to get way more crowded in the later afternoon. I don't think your plan is a 'bad' idea, but you might just be frustrated with the crowds at times. Also keep in mind the water park closes before the dry park does, so crowds can get pretty bad right around the time Boulder Beach closes its gates.

As far as coaster wait times, you will come to be frustrated with the rest of us that all the coasters only have one train running at all times. Typically, on a busy summer day, give yourself at least 45 minutes for the three big coasters (probably an hour if you're going to wait for the front). Granted, first thing in the morning the lines may be slightly less. And the wait times are often not that bad, it just goes so painfully slow with only one train running all day.

Magic show is (correct me if I'm wrong everyone) about 20-30 minutes.

As for food - Lindy's is the best place to eat in the park, and it's actually a pretty dang good restaurant. It's right at the front of the park. The high moon saloon on main street isn't bad, too. Pretty much everything else is standard theme park food - burgers, hot dogs, and pizza. My wife and I usually budget about an average of $50 per day for food, especially if we're going to do Lindy's for dinner (which we usually do), and that ends up being plenty for two adults. I just love that place (get their garlic fries - they are awesome!)

I don't have any suggestions for a particular order for coasters - you're going to have enough time to do everything, so I wouldn't stress too much about it. The water park is a different story - hit up all the slides you possibly can as early as you can. Especially Avalanche Mountain and Ricochet Rapids - those lines can get really long after the first couple hours.

Sadly, at this point, there is no queue app for your Iphone for Silverwood that I'm aware of. But even if there was, I don't think you'd need it.

[voodoobones]

I have a Droid and I use Ride Hopper. It was pretty good at Disneyland but Silverwood was a no go. It is user updated and data connection in the park is spotty around the coasters. Half the time I went to update Ride Hopper I had no data connection.