Vegas' Good Little Sibling
Written: Nov 20 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of shows to choose from, Beautiful country in the Ozarks
Cons: Show quality, Christmas starts as early as a stores shopping season
The Bottom Line: Great place to stop if you are passing through. I wouldn't recommend making this a destination.
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| tinks29's Full Review: Branson |
My wife and I took a trip to Branson from Nov 4-7 2004. Overall it was a nice place to visit. A great place to stop if passing through but I don't think we'll make it a destanation again for many years.
While we were there we stayed at the Mountain Music Inn. This hotel was wonderful. The location was great, on a side road 2blks off of Hwy76 (the strip). It was located in some trees so it was very private, but still close enough to the strip to get to everything. The room we had was a Jacuzzi suite, so that was nice to come back to every evening. Also, the room was very clean. Overall if we do go back to Branson this is where we will most definately stay.
The neon and lights are great to see at night, it really gives the feel of a smaller Vegas when you are going down the strip. If you've ever seen the movie Pleasantville, it really had the feel of a Pleasntville style Vegas. There is no gambling, everything has a very goody goody feel to it. That does make it a GREAT place for families.
One cool thing is you can drive less then 10 minutes and be in the middle of nowhere in the Ozark mountains, which is very beautiful.
We saw a few shows and attractions while in Branson. The quality is definately second rate. We went on the Showboat Branson Belle and it was a nice ride, but really had no purpose being on a boat. They get you on the boat and at first you have some time to explore it before it leaves. Once it leaves they serve lunch, in our case. Then you have only 15 minutes to go to the top deck and look out while on the lake. They follow that up with a subpar show in the main dining room (which takes up almost the whole boat) While the show is going on the curtains on the window are closed and you would never know you are on a boat. Once the show is done you are back to the dock. I would have enjoyed a shorter show and some more time relaxing on the top deck watching the country go by, that was a big part of the reason we went on the boat instead of just doing another show. As for the show itself it consisted of some big band jazz music, which was quite good. Followed by some singer dancers that had WAY too much make-up and the wigs they were wearing did not fit quite right. There was a Russian acrobatic act that was amazing as to what they could do. Then it was finished up with a comedian who was somewhat funny overall. It was an ok show, but don't go out of your way to see it.
The best show we went to while in Branson was the Waltzing Waters. If you've ever been to Vegas it is similar to the Venetian's fountains. Except this is in an overgrown movie theater, so the fountains are much smaller. That definately doesn't take away from the show. My wife and I went during a Friday afternoon and were the only two in there. The way they make the fountains dance and change colors to the music is amazing. The best part about it was because we were the only two there and the show after us had nobody we got to go to the control board after the show and run the fountains for about 15 minutes. That was a lot of fun to see what can all be done with the push of a button.
The last show we saw was Country Tonight, which has it's own theater. Avoid this show. First off it fairly expensive for Branson ($30/person). The singers ablilities are below average at best. One of the singers, an 11 y/o kid was very cute, but was impossible to understand a word he said. He had just as many songs as the rest of the singers and that got very frustrating. Also, midway through the show they have an intermission so the crowd can go buy the singers CD's. That completely interrupted the flow of the show. Overall, it was not a very good use of $60 for the two of us.
The last thing we did was ride the Ozark Zephyer dinner train. This was a great expereience and a good way to end our trip. Since we went in November it was completely dark for most of the trip which was kind of a bummer, but when we bought the tickets they warned us about that so we were ready for it. The train is an old, my guess 1940's vintage, passenger train with dining cars and passenger cars with a "bubble" on top for viewing. The dinner was very good! Even my wife, a very picky eater, really enjoyed the dinner. From what we could see we went back into the woods and it would have been a great sight during the day. After dinner they have you go back into the passenger cars specifically to explore the train. We went to one of the "bubble" top cars and sat up in the bubble. The light from other cars allowed us to see a little bit. They whole time they have classic "train" songs playing in the background. This was a wonderful experience and I would strongly recommend this attraction.
We did a few other things in Branson that can be done at pretty much any tourist location (IMax theater, go-carts etc) and they were as good as anyplace we had been to.
One other thing about going in November. November 1 is the official start of the Christmas season in Branson. That means that every show we went to was the Christmas show. I like Christmas as much as the next person, but two full months early is a little much for me.
The last thing about Branson was the clientele was not in our age bracket. We are both in our late 20's and the average age of an average Branson tourist is probably late 60's. We expected this, so it wasn't a big shock, but the shows were all geared to this age group. That is probably why we didn't enjoy them as much as many people do.
Overall, Branson is a place we will not make a destination again for many years. However, if we are passing through on the way to someplace else it is definatly worth a stop for an evening.
Recommended:
No
Best Suited For: Seniors
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov
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Epinions.com ID:
tinks29
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Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 1 member
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