Category: Photos

Silver Dollar City “An Old Time Christmas”

The Disney/MGM Studios was epic at Christmas time when it had the “Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights”, but that has been gone for years. If you want a Christmas light fix, check out Silver Dollar City in Missouri. They basically said “hold my (root) beer” (no alcohol in the park, you see) and put up 6.5 million lights — more than what the Disney display had.

Photos from this event have been added to the Theme Parks gallery:

http://themeparks.disneyfans.com/SilverDollarCity/index.html

I have also been posting VR/360 photos to my Park Hopping in VR Facebook page and VR/360 videos to my Park Hopping in VR YouTube channel.

Explore!

World’s Largest Toy Museum?

In Branson, Missouri is a building claiming to be the World’s Largest Toy Museum. I do not know if this is truly accurate, but after visiting, I can say this place certainly is the largest collection of toys I am aware of 😉

https://worldslargesttoymuseum.com

The facility opened around 2001 (it is unclear on the website when the actual year was, only that they moved to Branson that year). It was initially one building, then in 2015, they expanded in to the building next door. That building also has a lower floor accessible from the outside, so I refer to it as the third building.

As I go to write this, I now see there is the original building – World’s Largest Toy Musem – and the second building is called The Memory Barn. This explains the charge on my credit card I was trying to figure out.

My gallery now has aver 500 photos taken in the museum — and that barely (BARELY) scratches the surface of what all is in these three buildings. While I was there, I also took over 100 VR360 photos, which I will eventually get posted to a gallery on the Branson in VR Facebook group.

You can check out my photos here:

http://misc.disneyfans.com/OtherPlaces/Missouri/Branson/Branson2024/ToyMuseum/index.html

There are other things new to the Branson section, so explore a bit if you are Branson-curious.

Until next time…

Silver Dollar City Harvest Festival photos

My Theme Parks gallery now has over 2500 photos taken at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. The most recent batch features their Harvest Festival, featuring thousands of pumpkins, special lighting, and more.

You can find these photos here:

http://themeparks.disneyfans.com

I did a bit more sorting to the photos as I learn the layout of this park. I still have virtually no understanding of where one “area” ends and another begins, beyond the obvious areas like “Grand Exposition” (which has a big sign as you enter it), “Fire District” (also a sign) and now “Wilson Farms” (another sign).

Eventually, I’d like to group all the photos by the area they are in. According to the map…

…it looks like I have much to learn:

  1. Fire District
  2. Grand Exposition
  3. Homestead Ridge
  4. Hugo’s Hill Street
  5. Main Street
  6. Midtown
  7. Rivertown
  8. Valley Road
  9. Wilson’s Farm

Nine areas shouldn’t be too difficult to learn, should it? But at Silver Dollar City, most of the areas look like Frontierland to me, and I have yet to “learn” the subtle differences so I can recognize one western building selling corn dogs form another western building selling corn dogs.

Everybody needs a hobby…

Universal-SeaWorld gallery updated – over 49,000 photos.

New photos added to the Universal Studios/SeaWorld gallery. This includes Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld, SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream event, and photos from my first-ever visit to the amazing Discovery Cove.

http://us-sw.disneyfans.com

This brings the total to over 49,000 images, going back to 1996.

Walt Disney World gallery updated – over 43,000 images.

New photos added to the WDW gallery (no theme parks, just some resorts and Disney Springs stuff):

http://wdw.disneyfans.com

This brings the total to over 43,000 images, going back to 1996.

New Lost Island photos in the Theme Parks gallery

My Theme Parks photo gallery has been updated with new photos from Lost Island Themepark in Iowa. Check them out here:

http://themeparks.disneyfans.com/

I also have nearly 100 VR360 photos/videos to process and get posted. The photos will end up at my Park Hopping in VR Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/parkhoppinginvr/

…and the videos will be shared to my Park Hopping in VR YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@ParkHoppingInVR

I will post an announcement here or on my DisneyFans/Park Hopping Facebook Page when these are posted.

https://www.facebook.com/@disneyfanscom

More to come…

More Branson photos…

More photos have been added to the Misc (“Other Places”) photo gallery:

There are now over 26,000 photos in this gallery. New additions include:

  • Branson Treehouse Adventure – tour the “Captain’s Quarters” treehouse.
  • Branson Landing – including the water and fire show designed by W.E.T. (former Walt Disney Imagineer, if I recall).
  • Showboat Branson Belle – Built in 1995 (?), this large paddle boat cruises Table Rock Lake while visitors dine and watch a live music/dancing stage show.
  • Retromania – revisiting their New Wave Cafe.
  • Flaming Margarita’s – both the original Mexican food location, and the American Kitchen restaurant. These are hidden gems in the area, with top notch service and food offerings — a very surprising find.
  • Downtown Branson – check out Farmhouse Restaurant, establishedin the 1970s.
  • Billy Gail’s – a phenomenal “Southern cooking” eatery. Sweet tea, fried okra, and 14″ pancakes!
  • …and more.

Over 200000 photos?

It looks like the most recent batch of photos increases to total on this site to over 200,000 images. Or, at least, close to it. There are still a number of galleries that have yet to be sorted and posted.

Over 44,000 Universal Studios/SeaWorld Orlando photos…

As of today, March 6th 2024, my Universal Studios-SeaWorld photo gallery now has over 44,000 photos. The most recent ones include SeaWorld’s Seven Seas Food Festival and Universal Studios Florida’s Mardi Gras.

http://us-sw.disneyfans.com

New to the gallery are photos from Universal’s Endless Summer Surfside hotel – one of the two “value” hotels over there. The gallery now includes photos from many of the resorts – Dockside, Surfside, Cabana Bay, Aventura, Sapphire Falls, Hard Rock Hotel.

I did visit Jake’s at Royal Pacific (the first time I ever explored the Water Taxi’s) but I do not know where I would have sorted those photos. I also remember having a drink on a rainy day at some outside bar at Hard Rock Hotel, and walking around Portofino Bay one morning, but I cannot find any photos to back that up.

Needless to say, sorting and organizing these galleries is an ongoing project here.

More to come…

3500 more Orlando photos to be added…

Including Universal’s Holiday with the Holiday Tour and Breakfast with The Grinch, and some from SeaWorld’s Christmas.