Next up on the list of our most-anticipated new attractions for 2020 is Silver Dollar City's Mystic River Falls.
Silver Dollar City is promoting this $23 million attraction from RES as the tallest drop on a rapids ride in North America, beating out SeaWorld Orlando's Infinity Falls. The ride also will feature an 82-foot, four-platform rotating elevator lift tower and an elevated river channel on a nearly half-mile, five-and-a-half-minute adventure. The stats impress, sure, but it's not the prospect of going on another river rapids ride - no matter how upsized - that has us intrigued about this new adventure.
No, it's the story that Silver Dollar City has created to frame a narrative around this new attraction that has caught our attention. Seriously, not even Disney produces hype videos like this one:
Grounded in the park's history - Silver Dollar City will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year - Mystic River Falls tells a story about the early exploration of the park's very real Marvel Cave. But the designers take that nonfiction premise and spin from it a much more fantastic tale... one that allows us a wild ride through the Missouri Ozarks wilderness as a result.
This is the added touch that elevates great theme park attractions above carnival fare. And it's nice to see a park that, frankly, doesn't have Disney's or Universal's resources at its disposal making that extra effort. That's why Mystic River Falls earned this spot on our 2020 Hype Train list.
Previously on "All aboard the 2020 Hype Train":
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