Branson Shows Reviewed

This museum contains 66 1957 automobiles, of which 32 are convertibles, in a 32,000 square feet display area on the first level of the Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater. I personally think that the 1957 model year is absolutely the best year of car design since the first automobile came out over 110 years ago. The cars were restored by Glenn Schmidt of Tempe, AZ. The hall also includes many pieces of memorabilia of the era. There are models of a working garage, drive-in movie, drive-in movie concession stand, motel, and a model of a futuristic home. As you walk down the stairs to the displays, an elevator is available for the handicapped, you see two of my favorite cars of 1957, a blue Chevy Belair convertible and an 88 Oldsmobile convertible, and a white Desoto. There were approximately 14 convertibles in the first section you see. Chrysler Dual-Gia, Dodge, Chrysler Imperial, another Oldsmobile, another Desoto, a Buick Roadmaster, another Chrysler, a white Lincoln is a mock garage. The collection includes one of every model of convertible made in 1957. Most people don't know that many makes had several different models. Oldsmobile had 3 different models, and in 1957 it was the 5th highest selling car of the year. There are models of trucks also. There was a Chevy, Studebaker, GMC pulling a boat. The Corvette was beautiful. The next area was the drive-in movie. The cars were parked as they would have been at the drive-in. The station wagons were pulled with the back of the wagon toward the screen. The cars included, a Buick Century convertible, a Rambler Station Wagon, two Pontiac's, a silver Lincoln Continental Mark II, a Hudson. When I was little, I loved the Hudson's. The Hudson had fold down front seats to make a bed. Parents had to watch their sons in that one on a date. The Nash Ambassador had duel headlights, maybe the first. The next area has the Chevy El Morocco. There were less than 20 made and less than 10 are still with us. The package cost the customer $800 for the package to be installed. Allendor Company was commissioned to make the custom addition. The car was made at the factory, shipped to the customizer, shipped back to GMC, then to the dealer where it was ordered. There are quite a few cars with two or three toned paint. I remember my Dad's two toned 1954 Oldsmobile Hard-Top. I went to Cleveland to pick my Dad's car up. There were two Pontiac convertibles painted red and white but opposite areas were colored. The International truck looked very strange. The cars were sleek and the trucks looked boxy. You will see a beautiful Studebaker Golden Hawk, two Plymouth convertibles, another Buick, a Dodge Truck, styled with lines similar to the cars of the day. The Ford section had a station wagon, Thunderbird, a convertible with a Continental kit, a Sky Liner which was a hard-top convertible. The Ranchero pick-up truck took a car and made it into a truck, and a pick-up. The Police cars were Plymouth's. The Modern Day house looked similar to my house as a kid. My Dad built homes, we moved in, and then sold them. The fire truck was a Mac-Truck. Much research must have gone into the model of the house. A Little Nash Metropolitan was outside the house. The race cars were a Chevy, Ford, and Pontiac. The rotating Cadillac El Biarritz was interesting. That car was the most expensive of that year. The red Cadillac was beautiful. There is a Packard Clipper station wagon. The two Mercury's were neat. There was even a small model of one. The original 1957 Indianapolis Pace Car is displayed, a Mercury with a Continental kit. The Mercury hard-top had an interesting rear window. There was a Mercury Truck. I didn't know that Mercury made a pick-up. This museum is interesting. There are a dozen or more cars that have ceased to be manufactured. The children would get a history lesson. One area had a list of all of the music #1's, movies, books and memorabilia of the 50"s. Very interesting tour and I want to go several times a year. A must for the older group, young couples with children. It will help them understand the changes in the automobile industry and the advancement it has made. TAKE THE TOUR.

Branson Landing Cruises/Dinner On The Princess Branson Landing

February 7, 2009

Looking at the ship from the dock, you can see that it is an elegantly decorated ship. When you board the ship, you will be taken to your table which has been formally set for you and your party. Cloth napkins and table cloth, beautiful silverware, and crystal goblets are on the table. The cruise started exactly at 4:45 PM. The cruise proceeded south along the entire length of the Branson Landing. On your way north you will stop and be able to see the fire and water display at the center of Branson Landing. The cruise continued north toward Rockaway Beach. You get a nice look at Kanakuk Camp and the recreation facilities. The lake is 21 miles long and you will travel about 10 miles round trip. During the cruise, you will pass the author Janet Daley's house, a beautiful white mansion. You will be served a nice salad with choice of dressing. The salad is very good with real bacon bits and various vegetables. It is nice watching the shoreline pass by while eating your dinner. You don't feel crowded or rushed at all with the ability to roam around the ship at anytime. The cruise and meal are handled professionally and leisurely. During the peak season, the ship will still not be crowded and that would cause you to lose the feeling of contentment. The menu consisted of barbecued meat, chicken, string beans with bacon, scalloped potatoes, and a corn muffin. Seconds are allowed after everyone is served. The food is very tasty and you serve yourself. The ship is turned around near Rockaway Beach. You will be eating when they turn the ship around to head back to Branson. You can watch the cabin lights get brighter and the outside light get dimmer. The ship has a full service bar that can make most cocktails including some Polynesian drinks. Discovering the service and food to be impeccable will delight you. The servers will then bring you a dessert. It consisted of one of the largest strawberry cheesecake pieces you have ever seen. On the upper-deck the servers had some passengers play the Limbo Rock while playing Chubby Checker's big hit. The lighted businesses and homes will be seen as you are docking at the Landing. We docked at exactly 6:45 PM making the trip a full two hours. All in all, for the money, this is the best experience a person can have in Branson with there being enough time to see an evening show of your choice. This is an actual cruise where you can see the lake as you eat your dinner. No other attraction has this type of dinning experience. This is a must for all couples and families. Well worth the cost.

Butterfly Palace And Rain forest Adventure Butterfly Palace

February 12, 2009

The tour and adventure begins in a large lobby with gifts available for purchase. After purchasing your ticket, you will take a long ramp up to the second floor. You will be escorted into a theater room where you will see a very good 3D movie called "The World Of Bugs". The movie explains the life cycle of the butterfly and one of it's predators, the praying mantis. You see the small egg hatch and a small caterpillar emerge. The small caterpillar eats the egg shell because it contains protein needed for it's survival. The caterpillar is a voracious eater of leaves. Growing larger as he eats, the caterpillar has soft plates on his body to help with his expanding waistline. Soon the caterpillar forms a chrysalis and turns into a butterfly that will live for about 2-3 weeks. It's wings are very fragile, so do not touch a butterfly in the rain forest. As you enter the climate controlled rain forest, you see hundreds of butterflies. If you sit awhile on one of the benches, rocking chairs, or other chairs, you can watch the area and see them fly from place to place. There are numerous food containers and bowls set out so they can eat. The trays are filled with almost over-ripe bananas and strawberries. The hummingbird style bowls contain honey and water. If you stand and watch, many butterflies will land and eat. As I was taking my notes, A butterfly actually landed on my notebook. I resisted the urge to touch the beautiful specimen, because of the warning that was given at the beginning of the tour concerning harming the butterflies if you touch their wings. There is an entomologist lab where the newly delivered chrysalis are allowed to hang while they hatch. They come from all over the world including Costa Rica, Malaysia, The Philippines, Australia, Africa, Ecuador and more. The birds that live in the Branson's rain forest are the button quail and purple honey creepers. Some of the butterflies are seasonal and have to be bought, shipped, and hatched every week. Butterflies do age as we do, however, they do not get any larger. There are numerous placards around that give you interesting information about the butterfly. There are many different types of plants in the rain forest. On the first floor, there is a hall of mirrors that gave me much joy as I tried to get through the maze. The critter center has displays of live plants and animals that live in the rain forest. Each display has it's own card explaining what is in the display. I never knew that there were so many beautifully colored frogs. The display that surprised me the most was the Giant Death Head Cockroach. There were about 30-40 of them, yuk! Centipedes, scorpions, salamanders, lizards etc, are in separate displays. I would recommend this to people of all ages. The time spent here is colorful, peaceful and very serene. See it.

Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dixie Stampede Arena

February 27, 2009

Your dinner show experience begins in the Carriage Room. David Lucas appears on the center stage. I was in the balcony and had an excellent view. David balances a chair on his chin as he plays the banjo. He plays an entire song while balancing. He speaks Japanese and gets the whole audience laughing. His comedy is very entertaining. He tells very good wholesome jokes of which parents will approve. The best part of his show, to me, is the juggling of tambourines while playing to the tune of "Malaguena". He uses florescent disks in black light while telling jokes. He also uses scarves and his San Francisco joke is good. He is able to juggle 7 rings, only four jugglers have performed this on stage. Knives and tennis rackets are used, while he balances one on his chin. Then he balances a golf ball on a golf club. Then he balances another club on the golf ball while balancing the entire apparatus on another golf club that is on his head. He is a super entertainer and is a very nice way to start out the dinner experience. As you enter the arena, the servers help you find your row and you are served your beverages. From the very beginning, my excellent server, Cassie, got us involved. She was a super server and I really appreciated her enthusiasm. The show starts on time with Kim, the host, telling us of the North and South to get us riled up to enjoy the show. The menu consists of a whole rotisserie chicken, smoked barbecue pork loin, buttered corn on the cob, creamy vegetable soup, herb-basted potato, flakey apple pastry and unlimited Pepsi, diet Pepsi, tea, coffee, or water. In one scene, Dolly sings her new song, "ShaCanaHey", as an Indian scene is performed. Very beautiful and interesting segment with a flying bird. The flier, could be Kamber Sperle, and an Indian horseback rider perform an intricate routine. The longhorns come out with a group of cowboys for a nice segment. You will see dancing, singing, drumming, roping, and even a fire-eater. The meal is introduced by the cast performing "Super-time". Ana, Devon, and Larry perform as trick riders in a really neat piece of the show. Horse riding square dancers perform. Southern Belles come out of the ceiling on a pedestal dancing in dresses that are lighted. The competition is started with the audience standing and giving the other side flying raspberries. The Civil War then begins. Chicken races, barrel relay race, audience member couples racing horses, three flag horse race, a new super-horse race, audience horseshoe tossing, racing pigs at pork chop downs, a great buckboard race, and finally the audience passing the flags. Skeeter was hilarious when he came out in a riding chicken outfit. A cute change in the show. There are enough changes this year that people can see it again and not feel like they have seen the show before. This is probably the best dinner-show attraction in town.

Kirby VanBurch Cat Tour Kirby VanBurch Theater

March 31, 2009

The tour starts in the theater with a woman answering any questions that the tour customers want to ask. She gives us the rules of the tour. We have the responsibilities of making sure that we don't do anything that would frighten the cats. We were told that Bambi has been named the 2007, 2008, 2009 International Female Magician of the year. She has recently been named the International Female Magician of the decade. On stage we saw the lights and different color of tape on the stage floor that signals certain positions for the cast. The cats are in segregated cages that are large with toys supplied to entertain the cats. I noticed scratches or marks on the tires made from the cats. We were told that the cats are declawed for safety sake. Since they are declawed they can never be released in the wild, not to mention the fact of the taming that some of them experience with the human contact. When the cages are cleaned, the cat is put in a portable cage while the cage is cleaned. They have hoses and squeegees to clean the floors. They have drains that allows the water to be removed from the area. There is a lion, a black leopard, a spotted leopard, Branson-a huge 800+ pounds, striped tiger, and the triplets-Precious, Princess, and Charlie Brown. They are big but just children yet. They will grow to be about the same size as Branson. Branson paced around his large cage. The others just layed on the tables or shelves. Princess did stand up and jump on the glass. She scared the audience, but the handler said that usually the people run across the room when that happens. I was enthralled by the cats and how beautiful they are. I was also impressed with the order that the props are taken care of. There are marks on the floor that signify where each prop was to be kept. This tour is worth the $25.00 for the family. The children will love it and it will be educational as well.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not Ripley's Odditorium

March 11, 2009

The first area has a boa constrictor skin covered drum from China. There is a Marimba and a one stringed phonofiddle from East Africa. There is a magnificent hand carved model of the Cathedral Of Milan. It was carved int the 1890's by Mr. Mudano who lived in Florida. It took 10 years to carve. You can see a stone head of Robert Ripley with several ceremonial artifacts. There are some slavery and Civil War artifacts that was extremely interesting. There is a slave coin that would have gotten you into a slave auction/sale in Southern United States in the 17th and 18th centuries, a carpet bag that gave the famous "Carpetbaggers" their name, Civil War buttons and bullets. In a case, you have a house, barn made out of matchsticks. There are other buildings built out of matchsticks throughout the museum. The Jesse James mail pouch is displayed with other artifacts. A beautiful carved children's sled made to be pulled by a St. Bernard was carved out of a solid piece of wood. The stamp map and paintings are very interesting. The next area is an area for interaction and eye puzzles. See how many you can answer correctly. The "Penny a Day Doubled a day for 31 days, or $1,000,000.00 now" question I used in my 7th and 8th grade Math classes. There are "Believe It Or Not" poster throughout the museum. Take the time to read them. They are interesting. The country room had thousands of tool belts from all over the USA on the walls. Can you find one from your area? There are numerous newspaper articles of Jesse James. Did he really die in that hold-up or not? The first business hour hold-up occurred at Liberty, MO in 1866. There were interesting things displayed in the country room, a three axle, six wheel white limousine with a heart shaped swimming pool, some items from a dozen or so entertainers in Branson, the largest trunk of petrified wood I have ever seen. There is an area with several bottles that have items, other than ships, in them. The slanted room is an interactive area and is fun. Watch a ball roll up. The next area includes, the carpet sweeper from the movie "Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang". A short, but informative, movie is shown in the theater. Take the time it is worth it. The next area have a large portrait of Mary Poppins painted with Jelly Beans, 22,500 to be exact. The nail picture and the Pterodactyl made of macerated money is odd. I really enjoyed the huge aircraft carrier made from matchsticks. This is the sea room with, shark jaws, puffer fish, canons, shells, and other memorabilia. The oddity room with the tallest, fattest, double eyed man, human unicorn, a large pair of coveralls that was presented to Box Car Willie by Chaisi Childs is extremely interesting. Probably the prettiest items were the Chinese Dragon Ship carved from a solid piece of jade and came bone carving from china. The area also has a wishbone collection, a bed-pan guitar, the stadium built of playing cards. The bridge that makes you feel like you are rolling is very neat, don't take the bypass, the chicken's way out. After viewing my son, Benton's, favorite museum, I can see why he went there so often. This museum is educational and interesting. Take your time.

Titanic Museum Attraction Titanic Ship

March 4, 2009

Your tour begins in the lobby where you can touch an iceberg. You are given a boarding pass and you become an actual passenger of the Titanic. Check along the tour to see if anything is written about you. Look at the height comparison chart on the south wall. You might want to add the audio tour. They are on sale for 2 for $5.00. They are worth the extra expense. However most of the information is contained on the walls and placards of the museum. The first room has a 1:48 ratio of model to ship. See if you can find the glass domes of the Grand Staircases on the model of the ship. The next room is a small area devoted to the construction of the Titanic and it's sister ships. The two outside propellers rotate toward each other so the ship can stay on a straight course. Ask an attendant about the first departure of the Titanic and the ship "New York". The boiler room contained 325 men of which 177 men shoveled coal. There were 5892 tons of coal stored in coal bunkers. Trimmers brought the coal from the bunkers to the fireman to shovel into the ovens. It was a very dirty job and they were called the black gang. The next room contains all of the pictures taken by Father Browne. The camera "Brownie" was named after Father Browne. In 1913, the White Star Line asked him to stop talking about the Titanic in reverence of the fallen victims. You enter a to scale 3rd class corridor and see a to scale 3rd class cabin. The Sage family of 11 had two of these cabins for all eleven people, Mom, Dad, and 9 children. Find out what happened to the Sage family in the Memorial room. You can see a picture of the 3rd class dining room. The Grand Staircase is in full scale and shows only one flight, however there were more than that in the real Titanic. The movie room is interesting and shows many items used in the ship as well as telling you ways it was filmed. You see models of the Oscars that the movie won. The next room shows the time-line of the sinking of the Titanic after striking the iceberg. You enter the room that has the sloping decks that went from 12% to 45% angle in 28 minutes. In this room you can interact. Touch the water, sit in a lifeboat, try to stand on the angled deck, and send a message with Morse Code. You can also see a different view of the center propeller hanging over the lobby. The Memorial room contains the suitcase of the last remaining survivor of the Titanic, Millvina Dean. First class china is shown along with a deck chair that was fished out of the sea with the floating debris. This is where you find out if you are a survivor or if you perished. The discovery room contains actual pictures of the real Titanic that is lying on the bottom of the ocean. There is a 26 foot model of what the ship looks like today.

Questions to ask as you tour the Titanic. This may help make your experience more enjoyable.

1. How many functional smoke stacks were on the Titanic?

2. How many Grand Staircases where there on the Titanic?

3. Why was the flooring changed at the last minute to a more expensive flooring? What was taken out and What was the replacement?

4. How many sister ships did Titanic have? How much longer was Titanic, making her the largest passenger ship?

5. Did the Titanic have real working elevators similar to the ones in the museum?

6. What material was Molly Brown's bed made of on the Titanic?

7. How did the kitchen get fresh air and ventilate the area?

8. Who greeted and checked the 3rd Class Passengers onto the ship? Why?

9. How many Academy Awards, Oscars, did the movie win?

10. What movie tied with the same number of Oscars won?

11. How cold was the air outside on the decks?

12. How cold was the water that the passengers were thrown in?

13. How many female crew member were there? How many survived?

14. How much did the smallest of the propellers weigh?

15. How many people could one lifeboat hold?

16. How deep is the wreckage?

17. Were there any native Missourians on the Titanic? If yes, Who?

18. Is the story of Jack and Rose true?

19. Who was the richest person on the ship at the time of the iceberg striking?

20. There was, at least, one child born after the sinking? Who?

21. What happened to the Sage family?

22. How many floors did the Grand Staircase have on the Titanic?

23. All films have showed the locked gates between the 3rd class areas and the rest of the ship. Why were the 3rd class separated from 1st and 2nd class?

I want to thank the crew and management for all of the information that was fed into this old man's brain. I hope I got all of it correct and if I didn't, I want to be notified as soon as possible. I want to thank the three gentlemen crew members that helped me the most, Troy, John, and Rod. I also want to say I missed the English accented young lady, First Class Jaynee, that makes the tour so special. THIS IS A FANTASTIC ADVENTURE.

All museums and attractions are reviewed by Gary R. Wackerly of www.BransonShowsReviewed.com. All nominations and commentaries are decided and awarded by Gary R. Wackerly. The final decision on the nominated winners will be decided by a three-five member committee chaired by Gary R. Wackerly. www.BransonShowsReviewed.com has no affiliation with any show, company, City of Branson, or any Chamber of Commerce.