Branson’s Celebration City Closes
Celebration City in Branson, Missouri closed its doors for good on Saturday. The park was purchased by the owners of the nearby Silver Dollar City. Celebration City was supposed to be the companion park to Silver Dollar City as guests were to visit SDC during the day and Celebration City during the night. Park owners, Herschend decided to close the park citing a shift in strategic direction. I’m sure the economy didn’t help either.
Herschend also operates Dollywood which just canceled its 2009 attraction. The owners are exploring new ideas for the land that the park is on including an aquarium, re-theming the park, other family attractions, retail, and dinning.
The park was home to the Ozark Wildcat a GCI twister wooden coaster. There was also a S&MC Hurricane called Thunderbolt and a Miller family coaster called Jack Rabbit. No word yet on where these or the other rides from the park will end up.
What’s Your Take?
What do you think of this news? Will you miss Celebration City? Leave a comment below.
October 27, 2008 at 18:15
thats what i get for procrastinating. I've been saying i was going to here. I can only hope they'll save the Wilcat.btw: great sites, subscribed to both
October 29, 2008 at 00:05
Same here Jarredj. I was hoping to do a Branson trip where I hit both Celebration City and Silver Dollar City. And yes, hopefully another park will buy and move Wildcat, but in this economic climate, I doubt it.Thanks for reading.
October 29, 2008 at 05:35
I know there will still be a significant cost, but a much cheaper option would be to move it across town. I heard SDC was looking a GCI coaster after thunderhead got rave rave reviews.
May 5, 2009 at 16:08
It was a great park. Never very crowded. Great rides and attractions. Why have a companion park with similar hours? Only once did I go to SDC, then go over to Celebration city. Food was cheaper, parking was better. I prefered it over SDC. Hopefully they just revamp it and keep most of the attractions, if not, I may start driving to St Louis or KC for their theme parks
July 31, 2009 at 23:48
Same here… I grew up working at SDC and as an adult, when Celebration City opened, I was thrilled with the kid friendly area as well as the lack of pita lines and loved the evening hours (which SDC rarely, if ever offered).
I'll be taking my kids to SDC tomorrow as they're running a temporary evening hours period (something like a week or two only).
The roller coasters at CC may have been a bit lacking in comparison to what SCD now offers (Powder Keg…omg)… but I definitely miss the ability to get into a 0-20 minute line for a roller coaster as opposed to the SDC typical line of 30-60+ minutes.
Celebration City, as it was, will be missed by many locals. I've "heard" that many of the rides have been shipped out already, but as I live in a city about an hour away, I won't know how it actually looks until tomorrow when we drive by it on the way to Silver Dollar City.
September 17, 2009 at 18:33
My family and I always loved Celebration City. We loved to go there in the evenings and thoroughly enjoyed the family atmosphere. It was clean, well-kept and safe. We were very sad to find out it closed.
September 17, 2009 at 19:35
Okay, so that second paragraph is a bit confusing. Are they redoing Dollywood? Been to Dollywood. It's an okay place, but it sounds like it says here that they are going to add a shopping center there?