Category: VR

Silver Dollar City’s Showboat … in VR

In 2024, we took a dinner (and show) cruise on the Showboat Branson Belle. We had just begun visiting Silver Dollar City and had no idea — initially — that this paddleboat was owned and operated by Herschend Family Entertainment, owners of Silver Dollar City. In addition to the paddleboat, they also owned and operated the Pink Jeep Tours. We did to know that either, but since there was a pink jeep promoting the tours parked near the dock for the paddleboat, we looked it up.

Pink Jeep on display at the Showboat.

…and that led me down a rabbit hole looking up what all HFE opened and operated – such as the Harlem Globetrotters, which were an iconic part of growing up as a kid in the 1970s.

But I digress. You can find photos of that visit here:

https://www.disneyfans.com/photos/misc/OtherPlaces/Missouri/Branson/Branson2024/Shows/ShowboatBransonBelle/index.html

For 2026, Silver Dollar City renamed it to Silver Dollar City’s Showboat, and completely changed the entertainment lineup. They took the in-park group, Rivertown Ramblers, and expanded it into a much longer show for the new experience.

Photos of a 2026 visit can be found here:

https://www.disneyfans.com/photos/misc/OtherPlaces/Missouri/Branson/Branson2026/Shows/Showboat/index.html

I also have some VR videos (stationary scenes, and walk around movies) taken in 2024 and 2025 shared over at Branson in VR on YouTube:

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

Since this is the first year under the new name and show format (even the food experience changed), here are a few quick comparisons:

Entrance Sign

2024 Sign
2026 Sign
2024 Garden Sign
2026 Garden Sign
2024 Warning Sign
2026 Warning Sign

But, there were still plenty of references to the old name:

Showboat Branson Belle Life Preserver

At first we assumed they just had not gotten around to updating them, but later we were told it was “bad luck” to rename a ship, and thus, while the attraction is now known as “Silver Dollar City’s Showboat”, the boat itself is still the Showboat Branson Belle.

Any nautical folks out there want to confirm this tradition?

To see some VR photos (in case you get motion sick watching VR video), those can be found in the Branson in VR Facebook Group:

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

…but now I have a dilemma.. Obviously, I put photos I take at Silver Dollar City into my Theme Parks gallery, where you can currently find over 8500 photos from that park:

https://www.disneyfans.com/photos/themeparks

…and anything else in the area that was not part of Silver Dollar City would go into my “Other Places” gallery for that state/city:

https://www.disneyfans.com/photos/misc/OtherPlaces/Missouri/Branson/index.html

…but with the attraction now having the Silver Dollar City name, should I move it? After all, I’d put all the Walt Disney World waterparks in my Disney World gallery, and I’d certainly group CityWalk into the Universal Studios galleries.

I am not sure that just “owning” something would qualify, since Pink Jeep Tours has no Silver Dollar City branding, but if the attraction says “Silver Dollar City” right on its official name, it kinda feels like it belongs in the Silver Dollar City gallery as part of the resort. Likewise, when the new hotel/resort opens net year, that probably would go there as well, rather than in a Branson Lodging area in the other gallery.

Comments if you have them — mostly, where would YOU expect to find it if you ended up in my galleries looking for photos from there?

Cheers…

VR360 Ye Olde English Inn- Hollister, MO

Testing a 360 photo here on this blog… You should be able to click and look all around in this image. To see it full screen, click the “VR” logo on the bottom right of the image.

Discovery Cove photos added…and more.

A batch of photos from Discovery Cove have been sorted and added to the Universal/SeaWorld gallery:

https://us-sw.disneyfans.com

While I was there, I found some Disney Skyliner photos I never added to the Walt Disney World gallery:

https://wdw.disneyfans.com

I had completely forgot that while we were in town last year, we took a ride share over to one of the resorts and then explored the Skyliner routes. (Probably the “cheapest” day to spend in Orlando, if you don’t stop and buy food and drink while visiting them šŸ˜‰

I am still going through the VR360 footage and uploading it to my Park Hopping in VR YouTube Channel as time permits:

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

There are a few nighttime ones taken at Universal Epic Universe in the Dark Universe area of the park. They are pretty cool to watch, even if the low-light quality is pretty poor. It is a much more accurate way to “see” what it is like in that immersive area compared to photos.

I also have a similar on walking through the portal (green pipe) to Super Nintendo World all the way to the entrance to Donkey Kong Country. These, and more, will be showing up soon-ish.

Meanwhile, my submission to Google Street View of the walking path from Stella Nova Resort to the entrance of Universal Epic Universe has been processing for 11 days so far. While it is promising that it did not get rejected the first day, as often is the case (gaps in the GPS signal being the usual suspect), it is bothersome that it is taking this long. I am now bracing for some new error telling me to try again.

More to come, I am sure.

Upcoming Epic Universe VR videos

I have a few VR photos and videos taken at Universal Orlando Resort’s Universal Epic Universe. (Yeah, that full description is a mouthful full, innit?)

Many of the photos have already been shared in the Park Hopping in VR Facebook Group in albums:

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

The videos are being uploaded to the Park Hopping in VR YouTube channel:

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

These videos always take a long time to process, with some reports saying it can take about a week for an “8K” 360 video to be completed. We shall see how it goes this time. Right now, I am just seeing “Video processing is taking longer…” and “Checks still running” messages.

While we wait, here is a boring 30 second reel looking out the Helios Grand Hotel top floor where Bar Helios is located. At least during our visit, anyone was allowed to enter the hotel and go to the lobby level bar as well as the rooftop bar. This view is away from the theme park. Turning around is a short hallway where the elevators are, then it opens into the hosts are to sit you at a table (if you choose) or just let you go sit at the bar or patio.

That video is posted to my non-VR Park Hopping YouTube channel:

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

And if you think that one is boring, wait until you see my extended video looking around the top floor of Bar 17 Bistro at Aventura hotel šŸ˜‰ Michael Bay has nothing to worry about!

More to come…

Branson and Silver Dollar City photos added

Two of my galleries have been updated with new photos:

Branson Missouri photos, including A Tribute to the King, Retromania, Branson Landing water show, Masters of Escape, and much more:

https://misc.disneyfans.com/OtherPlaces/Missouri/index.html

And new Silver Dollar City photos:

https://themeparks.disneyfans.com/SilverDollarCity/SilverDollarCity2025/index.html

Also, new VR photos have been posted to Branson in VR and Park Hopping in VR on Facebook, and new VR videos are showing up on the YouTube channels for each one. Here’s a VR walk from the entrance of Silver Dollar City to the old Fire in the Hole, then over to the new Fire in the Hole.

…with many more scheduled to post.

Area 15 does not exist.

Area 15 in Las Vegas (not to be confused with Area 51) is an entertainment complex that houses various food, drink, and entertainment offerings. You can ride an indoor zip-line, throw axes, play retro video games, experience Virtual Reality and spend hours exploring Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart.

Here is a VR walk around some of the art displays outside the building:

And here is a VR walk around the inside of the Area 15 building:

Admission to the building itself is free, so you can just go there and look around. Individual attractions and experiences all charge their own fees.

You can buy combo passes to save some money, as well, though I did not check to see how much of a saving this actually is.

Disneyland VR360 photos from 2017

When I bought my first digital camera in 1996, I was the only person I knew that had a digital camera. I had to explain it as a “computer camera” when folks asked what it was. No one knew the term “digital camera” yet.

Even when I’d visit Disneyland, no one had them. You’d see the occasional camcorder or film camera, but no one was snapping away digital … yet. That changed quickly.

Later, I took a 3-D camcorder attachment on a trip, recording interlaced 3-D to Digital8 video tapes.

Around 2005, I took a “one shot panorama” camera gadget to the parks. You would point the camera up, where it would take a photo of the bottom of a half mirror ball. Software would later turn that in to a panorama with limited up/down viewing. This was the predecessor to the 360 cameras we have today.

When I “returned” to Disneyland in 2017, I took my RICOH Theta VR360 camera with me. I have never shared any of these photos before (there really wasn’t an easy way to share them back then), but I have started uploading them to my “Park Hopping in VR” YouTube group:

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

Stop by and see opening year of Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout in VR.

Experience A Bug’s Land in VR.

Be amazed at the incredible quality of a 2017 VR camera šŸ˜‰

Or not. But they are still fun to look at.

Drop by and if you also do VR photography, feel free to share some of your theme park VR photos.

More to come. So much more…

In VRā€¦

As I began sorting nearly 200 VR video and photo files from a recent trip, I decided maybe I should find a place to upload them. Soā€¦

For other VR photographers and videographers, I have also set up some similar Facebook Groups so we can all share our work:

Logos by Tanjalin.

Butterfly Palace and Rainforest Adventure in VR

Here is 10 minutes of VR 360 video from Butterfly Palace and Rainforest Adventure in Branson, MO. You can look left, right, up, down and even behind you from various locations.

4/28/2024

This video was recorded using an Insta360 X4. It was set to 8K mode using all automatic settings. This should give folks an idea of what the quality is like “out of the box” without making any adjustments.

NOTE: YouTube appears to downsize the video to 4K šŸ™