The Roller Coaster Alley crew made it out to Silverwood recently, and we’re nearly certain that we set a record for ourselves. Across our many summer visits over the years, this might well have been the coldest, rainiest, and windiest of them all! Despite the weather, we managed to take solid advantage of the low crowds, and gather some photo updates from around the park.
There are several small updates around the park that have been made, some big changes to entertainment, and a little bit of a preview of changes coming to Scarywood. We will also give some perspective on how to make the best of your time on a day when weather doesn’t cooperate perfectly.
Throughout our visit, we kept one major question in the back of our minds: Does Silverwood feel different this year with its new owners? We’ll give our thoughts on that later, but for now, let’s jump in to our trip report.
We arrived early as we usually do, but this time to cold and windy conditions. Rain wasn’t supposed to hit until late afternoon/early evening, so we planned to tackle as much as possible outdoors early on. Before that though, we had to make our daily stop at the coffee shop for morning pastries.
We noticed upon entering, that the large counter area where the coffee roaster used to be, has been cleared. This gives way to a much more open and welcoming space.
To our delight, everything is still being served, including our personal favorite: Blueberry Muffin Tops!
All of these tasted every bit as good as always.
Before long, it was time to head back outside. In spite of the cold conditions, our kids insisted on spending some time at the water park to start the day. It was about 50 degrees out, and the wind was blowing at a solid 10-15mph. We know – not ideal water park conditions. Trust us, we have spent years trying to instill in these kids a keen sense of theme-park-savvy strategizing. Clearly, we have much work to do, as none of our attempts at steering them in a different direction seemed to matter at all. There was water to be swam in, and they were determined not to miss out!
When we arrived at the Boulder Beach entrance, we could tell we were in for a day of very light crowds. The above photo was taken about 10 minutes before opening. Normally there are hundreds of people lined up well past this point; but on this particular day, we were one group amongst maybe 20 other people ready to brave the conditions. As fate would have it, “My Girl” by the Temptations was playing over the airwaves, and we couldn’t help but smile at the irony of the lyrics: “I’ve got sunshine, on a cloudy day…”
Given the low crowds, there were several attractions that were closed, including Polliwog Park, the North Wave Pool, and Avalanche Mountain. Everything else was devoid of queues. We were able to ride Ricochet Rapids, Eagle Hunt, Riptide Racers, and Rumble Falls to our hearts content, with no waiting whatsoever. We mixed that with time in the wave pool and lazy river in between.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t all too uncomfortable being in the water. It was just getting out that was miserable. Indeed, there were some very chilly, breezy walks up the slide towers that day, but once we got back underwater, we felt fine. Having said that, there was only so much we could tolerate, so we threw in the towel (quite literally) after lunch!
Generally, we would not recommend any water park on a day like this. But if you’re willing to give it a go (or if you have kids like ours that can’t pass up a chance to swim no matter how cold it is!), you will be rewarded by feeling like you literally have the park all to yourself. That’s a pretty good consolation prize.
We’ll pause here briefly to note that Boulder Beach was largely unchanged from last year. All food stands, attractions, and other amenities seemed untouched. The one exception was a new food offering at Rapids Grill – the Burnt Ends Mac and Cheese. We had heard high praise from several sources about this. It looks small for $15, but we found it satisfying and VERY filling. More than enough to make a meal out of, or perfect to share with someone for a snack.
After our late lunch, we started making our way towards the theme park side of Silverwood. We noted all of the entertainment times, including the new Train Ride showtimes, as well as the magic theater offerings. For those unfamiliar, David DaVinci and his family were brought in mid-summer last year to take over the entertainment in the Theater of Illusion. There are two shows presented. One is ParrotFX, which we would characterize as primarily an “edutainment”-style bird show, with some magic acts sprinkled in. The other is Thrillusionist, which is a fully-fledged 30 minute magic show.
The time was nearing 3pm, which was the only showtime that day for ParrotFX. So we made a quick stop at the theater to check it out.
This was a great show – very different from what we’re used to seeing at Silverwood, but also an absolute blast. There was a lot of audience participation, plenty of impressive stunts with the various birds and other animals, and a few fun magic tricks to round things out.
David and his family also include a lot of interesting facts and information about each bird along the way. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you have any animal lovers in your group.
As we exited the show, we found to our dismay that the rain had decided to show up earlier than anticipated. Luckily we came prepared. Being Western Washington residents, we have a surplus of waterproof gear, which we thankfully had brought with us. We could handle a little bit of rain, in order to get some coaster rides in!
We made our way back to Coaster Alley and managed to hit up just about everything, again with little-to-no waits at all.
We noticed a few small changes around the park. One in particular that caught us off guard at first, is that Timber Terror appears to have taken on the old Tremors CCI train, complete with the blue color scheme.
Speaking of Tremors, the coaster is still running great with the new Millenium Flyer trains, and I-Box track from RMC. We’re still hopefully to see a similar upgrade occur over at Timber Terror in the near future.
Trim brakes have been added to the end of the final tunnel on Tremors, although we noticed they didn’t trigger every time a train went through. It’s understandable to see these changes made as coasters age, but it definitely takes the wind out of it’s sails if you get slowed down before that final turn.
One last small update we noticed while walking around the park is that the Barnstormer kiddie ride has been removed. This was always one of our least favorite rides in the park. We appreciated the homage to the parks’ aviation history, but even our kids found it too slow and boring. Hopefully the area is filled in with a better kids attraction in the near future.
At this point, we knew the weather was only going to be worsening as the evening wore on, so we decided to alter course and spent as much time indoors or under cover, as possible. We first hit up the train ride, which we were very excited to try out.
Silverwood announced earlier this year that they were doing away with the long-running robbery show at the Silverwood Mine, in favor of a shorter ride with a single actor as a ranger guide for your “Train Trek” journey. The park rotates through a couple of different actors throughout the day, which adds some variety to each journey.
We’ve secretly been wanting to see a change like this for a while now. The robbery show had been around for as long as we can remember, and although we have some good memories of it over the years, it seemed like the show was just getting to be too long. Between the ride around the park, the two stops for the show itself, and the need to arrive early to ensure good seating all together, the experience was often taking over an hour out of the day. That was getting to the point where it was difficult to fit into our schedule.
As such, we’re happy to report that the new train ride is a fantastic improvement. The train makes no stops, and the dialogue consists of a simpler and more condensed storyline. We’d heard it described as more of a “Jungle Cruise” style approach to the attraction, and we felt that was an apt comparison.
It’s a major change from previous years – easily the biggest change for 2026 that we noticed – but we’re very happy with the result!
Towards the end of the train ride, we got a small glimpse of some upcoming changes to Scarywood. First of all, the large building that was partially constructed two years ago (and then sat unused), seems to have been finished off. The Swine is still in place right next door (dark buildings on the left side of the above image), so our bet is that the other building is no longer planned for a new haunt at this time.
But that’s not the biggest bit of news for Scarywood; that comes a little further down the train tracks, at the former site of Planet Zombie. The entire facade and haunt have been removed, and construction on a brand new haunt looks to be well underway.
Planet Zombie was great, but it had been around for 10 years. Aside from its first year, the stage area was never used, so it has always felt like it wasn’t quite living up to its full potential. And the “lights out” theme that was used the previous two years was a fun twist, but left us wishing we could still see all of the theming. All that’s to say, we’re sad to see it go, but excited for something new to take its place.
After the train ride, we headed back to the magic theater to catch the Thrillusionist magic show, which we enjoyed a lot. David DaVinci’s tricks and stunts were all new-to-us, and it was nice getting to see something different.
Overall, we were impressed with both of the new shows in the Theater of Illusion, and would recommend either one. But between the two, it was a surprise to us that all of our kids agreed that ParrotFX was their favorite. That’s high praise coming from them – the magic show is usually their favorite thing of all at Silverwood! We noted that it didn’t seem like it that feeling was isolated to our group alone. Between both shows, ParrotFX was a noticeably more packed house. That could have been due to the time of day, or the weather situation, but we found it interesting nonetheless.
The end of the magic show signaled the end of the day for us. We had braved the sour weather long enough, and as we exited the theater, the storm was nearing a full-on downpour. We decided to close out the day at Lindy’s.
Our meal did not disappoint, as usual. And we of course had to try out some new items on the menu. The crispy chicken sandwich was a nice addition, for those looking for something other than a burger.
The surprise highlight for us was the new Sweet and Spicy Cheese Curds appetizer, which could very well be our favorite snack in the entire park. These were the “sleeper hit” of the trip for us – they were excellent. Just spicy enough for a mild kick, with the right amount of sweet to offset. Lindy’s is slowly earning our forgiveness for getting rid of the Tandem Jump, and these cheese curds go a long way for us. We HIGHLY recommend!
We hope this trip report has given you some ideas for if and when you end up at the park on a day when weather doesn’t quite cooperate. As with most situations like this, if you come prepared and have a plan, you can still have a decent day, and enjoy things you might otherwise overlook. There may be a few attractions closed, but you’ll have ample time to hit everything else with low crowds and nonexistent queues. And it offers a great chance to slow down and enjoy the parks at a different pace.
As promised earlier, we’ll end with a few comments about our perspective on Silverwood under new management this year. We can confidently say that for 2026, it’s the same park we’ve come to know and love. There were some small changes around the park – mostly to entertainment – and virtually all of them were net positives from our perspective. We don’t know how much of that was a result of the new owners. But to whatever extent any of those changes were pushed or encouraged by Herschend, that just affirms to us that they were the right choice for taking the reigns. By and large though, Silverwood is still Silverwood.
To be sure, we wouldn’t have expected much else, especially when Herschend have only been the official owners for a few months. Bigger changes will no doubt come down the line, but those are likely 2-3 years away, at the earliest. When they do happen, there’s little cause for concern from our perspective. The positive changes this year give us good reason to be optimistic. Silverwood’s future is in good hands, and we look forward to watching it continue to unfold.
Planning a trip to Silverwood? Be sure to check out our Silverwood Trip Planning Guide to get some great ideas on how to plan your trip. Also, our Silverwood Rides and Attractions Guide and Boulder Beach Attractions Guide have even more details on which rides, slides, and shows to hit up while you're there!
Have you been to Silverwood yet this year? What are your thoughts on the changes you've seen? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of 2026? What other "rainy day" tips do you have that we left out? Let us know in the comments - we love to hear from you!
The official Silverwood Theme Park website can be found at: www.silverwoodthemepark.com. All business-related questions should be directed to this site.
