Give Grandma's house a break this season

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

The countdown to the holiday season has begun, and it's time to start planning your holiday getaway. Instead of the usual get-together at Grandma's house, grab Grandma and round up family and close friends and go over the river and through the woods to an exciting destination. It will be a Christmas to remember—and no one will have to worry about decorating elaborately, cleaning the house, or cooking the meals.

• An Ozark Mountain Christmas Celebration

• Holiday Magic in Orlando

• Winterfest in the Smoky Mountains

• Eureka! It's a Victorian Christmas

Labels: Arkansas, Branson, Christmas, Eureka Springs, Florida, Gatlinburg, Holiday, Missouri, Orlando, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

Deep in the Ozarks, the Christmas season begins early at Branson, Missouri. Throughout the month of November and early December, every show in town sports a holiday-themed performance, and the area attractions transform themselves into winter wonderlands.

One of the most magical places at Christmastime is Silver Dollar City. The theme park started in 1960 as a recreated 1880s Ozarks mining town atop Marvel Cave. Since then, it has morphed into a megapark complete with thrill rides, a dozen musical shows, plenty of shopping, and one hundred resident craftspeople demonstrating their skills. For the park’s An Old Time Christmas festival, Silver Dollar City becomes a twinkling fantasyland with four million lights, hundreds of decorated trees, holiday-costumed characters, and special wintertime treats. The festival includes a Broadway-quality production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a living Nativity, a five-story special-effects Christmas tree, holiday light parade, and new this year, Christmas on Main Street, a light show incorporating all the buildings and trees around the square.

Another Branson classic, the Shepherd of the Hills Historic Homestead and Old Mill Theatre, is a nostalgic stop during the Christmas season. This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the book, The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright, the book that started the Branson tourism boom. Following its publication, visitors flocked to the Ozarks to see the places and people Wright had written about. Soon Silver Dollar City, the Baldknobbers, and the Presleys began entertaining visitors, too. The visitors kept coming, and Branson kept growing.

The Shepherd of the Hills park offers the nightly outdoor drama based on Wright’s book, the Sons of the Pioneers Chuckwagon Dinner Show, guided tours of the historic homestead, and horseback trail rides. It’s easy to spend the entire day at the homestead.

For the holidays, the Shepherd of the Hills produces the Trail of Lights, an elaborate drive-through light display, and Christmas on the Trail, a chuck wagon dinner show featuring cowboy Christmas music and singalong.

For a memorable vacation, book a cabin at Big Cedar Lodge, one of the finest resorts in the country. Located off Route 86 about fifteen minutes south of Branson, Big Cedar (bigcedarlodge.com) overlooks Table Rock Lake and offers a luxurious experience in a rustic setting. Even if you don’t stay there, at least drop by for a meal in the Devil’s Pool Restaurant. The exposed beam-and-log hunting lodge décor is typical of Bass Pro Shops, which owns Big Cedar Lodge and nearby Dogwood Canyon, a ten-thousand-acre nature park that offers special Christmas in the Canyon holiday dinners.

The flagship store of Bass Pro Shops is in Springfield, about thirty minutes north of Branson. It’s one of the top tourist destinations in the state of Missouri—and a store like no other you’ve ever visited. There’s also a Bass Pro Shops in the new Branson Landing district of downtown Branson, but it is smaller than the Springfield store. You’ll still want to stroll through Branson Landing while you’re in town and browse through the stores, dine in the restaurants, and enjoy the holiday lights and decorations. Don’t miss the elaborate water-light-sound show at the Branson Landing Fountains in the town square near the Lake Taneycomo waterfront.

The Branson Area Festival of Lights includes drive-through light displays at Branson, Kimberling City, Indian Point, Hollister, and along Route 76.

Labels: Branson, Christmas, Holiday, Missouri

The Legend Lives On At The World's Largest Museum Attraction

By Ron Marr

For the uninitiated, Branson, Missouri, is considered the “Nashville of the Ozarks.” It's a label justifiably earned, as this once-small town – barely an eye-blink on the map in the early 1960s – now attracts more than seven million visitors per year. They come for the country music, as virtually any star you can name has performed, is currently performing, or will perform here at one point or another during the course of their career. They come for the ornate theaters, fifty-seven thousand seats in total, which is almost ten thousand more than on Broadway. They come to enjoy not just country acts but also full-scale Broadway productions and massive amusement parks, such as the legendary Silver Dollar City. They come for the food, for the beauty of the surrounding Ozark hills, and for the family atmosphere that is the hallmark of this southwest Missouri entertainment Mecca.

At present, and the numbers increase almost daily, Branson boasts four hundred restaurants; two hundred hotels, motels, or resorts; five thousand camping spaces; nine golf courses; and countless shops, stores, and attractions. There are options for those on a budget; there are options for those who wish to go first-class. There are options which cover the entire spectrum of price, class, and accommodation.

People come to Branson for a host of reasons, but since last year, there's a new and unusual reason to make the jaunt to the Ozarks. And that is to see the world's largest Titanic museum attraction.

With its one-hundred-foot smokestacks easily visible from a distance, this half-scale replica of the ill-fated luxury liner towers above Branson's neon-lit Country 76 Boulevard. Families, the young, the old, and all in between snap countless photos from the parking lot before they ever enter the museum. And once they enter, they feel as if they have traveled back in time, that they are experiencing firsthand both the glamour and tragedy that has made the name Titanic a household word for nearly one hundred years.

The seventeen-thousand-square-foot Titanic Museum is historically authentic from top to bottom and bow to stern. Visitors approach the ship through a covered area lined with numerous placards describing the events that led up to the ship's doomed, maiden voyage. In the background, period music, reminiscent of the James Cameron movie of the same name, wafts through the air. After entering through an iceberg, you become a passenger and are presented with a boarding pass bearing the name and brief biography of an actual Titanic passenger. You will find out if your passenger survived in the museum's Memorial Room.

A self-guided tour features more than four hundred priceless Titanic artifacts and a seemingly endless cavalcade of historical information and interactive exhibits. You will feel the twenty-eight-degree water that was the final resting place of almost 1,500 doomed voyagers, feel the weight of a single scoop of coal, and think of the men who spent endless days feeding the 159 ravenous furnaces of the boiler room. You will see personal letters, countless photos, a perfectly re-created Marconi Wireless Room, and the life vest worn by the pregnant, eighteen-year-old bride of John Jacob Astor. Astor himself, holding true to the honorable dictates of "women and children first," gave his life so that others might survive. In total, twenty elaborate galleries located on two separate stories chronicle the Titanic in the most vivid detail imaginable.

Most visitors spend from an hour and a half to two hours touring the galleries, but it is entirely possible to spend even more time.

The museum arose from the nearly lifelong fascination with the Titanic held by television producer John Joslyn. John first encountered the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic as a boy. Growing up in Wisconsin, he chanced to read the book Sea Disasters, published by the Columbia House Book Club. From that day, he was hooked. Many years later, in 1987, John found himself co-leader of a six million dollar expedition to the site of the sinking, discovered just two years previous by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the French exploratory agency, IFEMER. The mission of the team was to explore the wreckage, retrieve artifacts, and bring back film footage of the encrusted remains, which rest twelve thousand feet below the surface of the icy North Atlantic.

The result of this expedition was the television special, Return to Titanic … Live, which John co-produced with Doug Llewelyn and which aired in October 1987. The broadcast would turn out to be the second highest rated, syndicated show of its time. And John's plan to open a Titanic museum, the likes of which the world had never seen, began to take shape.

The dream took twenty years to reach fruition. However with the invaluable assistance, advice, and organizational skills of his wife Mary Kellogg-Joslyn, the museum finally sprang to life. Mary had spent twenty years as an executive vice president with the Walt Disney Company, as a producer of Live with Regis, among other things, and John fully acknowledges that her creative talents and "coolness under fire" allowed the dream to become a reality.

The success, judging by the crowds which appear daily, was near instantaneous.

Of the more than four hundred artifacts in the museum, all were recovered either from survivors or the debris field of the Titanic, not taken from the undersea wreckage itself. Most were acquired from private collections and individuals.

As a precursor to the full tour, visitors view an eighteen foot long, 1:48 scale model of the Titanic, which required two years of painstaking craftsmanship by English artist Peter Davies-Garner. The model is so close to the original Titanic that Davies-Garner even fashioned tiny ceiling lamps, drinking fountains, and doorknobs and installed ninety-six thousand miniature rivets. Also found early on in the tour are wall-sized, glass etchings of the faces of various passengers and crew members, some of whom survived, some of whom perished.

The walk through the galleries continues, and visitors encounter areas chronicling The Shipyard, where the Belfast firm of Harland and Wolff designed and created the Titanic; The Boiler Room; and the Father Browne Gallery. The latter holds the photographs of the late Father Francis Mary Hegarty Browne, who traveled on the Titanic from Southhampton, England, to Cherbourg, France, to Queenstown (now known as Cobh), Ireland. Revered as one of the most prolific photographers of the first half of the twentieth century,
Father Browne was fortunate that he disembarked in Ireland. So was the world. The numerous images he recorded on his brief Titanic voyage comprise the only true, pictorial record of the great vessel. He shot a final photo as Titanic left Queenstown for New York, the last view that the world would ever have of the liner, until the discovery of her wreckage at the bottom of the ocean seventy years later.

Menus from the ship's various restaurants, clothing from actual passengers, personal memorabilia, and letters from survivors are only a small portion of the treasures that reside within the hull of the Titanic at Branson. Again, the insistence for historical accuracy is evident with the magnificent, full-scale replica of the Grand Staircase, popularized in the blockbuster movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, as well as in reproductions of both first-class staterooms and third-class steerage berths. Artifacts include a pair of priceless, original silk gowns designed by world-renowned couturiere Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, who was a passenger onboard. Her Lucille Ltd. brand was all the rage for the upper-crust ladies of the Edwardian era. A fully outfitted Marconi Wireless Room, from which radio operators stuck to their posts and called for help until overtaken by frigid waters, was reconstructed from photographs. Collecting the necessary equipment and rebuilding the system in its entirety was a task which required well over a decade.

A full-scale replica of Lifeboat No. 6 is found in the Interactive Gallery with voice recordings from those who rode the lifeboats to safety. One of the most poignant and eerie items in the museum is a simple pocket watch, retrieved from an unidentified body. The hands of the watch are permanently frozen in time, fifteen minutes after Titanic slipped beneath the waves.

While the Titanic Museum has become one of the most popular attractions in Branson, it is far more than that to John Joslyn.

"From the beginning I knew Titanic's story was timeless and would be told and retold for generations to come. Unfortunately, myth and mystery attached themselves to her legacy over the years, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction," John says. "I was determined – obsessed really – to get it right. After my visit to the decaying hulk of that once-magnificent ship, I felt obligated to honor the people who faced death that cold April night in 1912. I knew then that their true stories of courage, sacrifice, and survival were the real building blocks of an enduring Titanic tribute."

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Purchase tickets to the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri

Labels: Branson, Missouri, Museum, Titanic

15 summer thrills for adventurers of all ages

By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

This isn't your grandma's vacation! Push the envelope this year and try something new, something exotic. We’ve scouted five popular destinations — Branson, Missouri; Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee; Eureka Springs, Arkansas; and Orlando, Florida — for thrilling experiences that will refresh and rejuvenate.

Sleep With the Sharks

Sharks to the right of you, sharks to the left of you, sharks all around — that's how you'll feel at the shark lagoon at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg (www.ripleysaquariumofthesmokies.com). You'll come face to face with twelve-foot sharks and thousands of other fish as you walk through the underwater acrylic tunnel on a moving glide path.

Although you can pet stingrays and hold horseshoe crabs at the aquarium, you can't swim with the sharks — but you can sleep with them. Designed for a group of at least fifteen children (but not more than one hundred), the fun-filled overnight package includes a dive show, scavenger hunt, snack, late-night activity, and camping in the shark lagoon tunnel. Instead of counting sheep, you can count sharks as you drift off to sleep.

Snorkel With the Manatees

If spending the night with the sharks isn't the ocean adventure you're looking for, try swimming with the manatees. Citrus County, Florida, is the only place in the United States where you can legally swim alongside manatees. These large, gentle marine mammals like the warm waters of the spring-fed, seventy-two-degree Crystal and Homosassa rivers. The Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge provides habitat for the endangered manatees and is home to more than one-fourth of the nation's manatee population.

Snorkeling is the best way to observe manatees at close range. It's a thrill to swim alongside a one-ton manatee and her newborn calf. Excursions should only be made with the assistance of a guide or tour company. For a list of recommended companies, visit www.visitcitrus.com/manateelist.asp. The web site also posts an up-to-date count of the number of manatees in the waterways. The numbers rise in the winter when the West Indian manatees leave the Gulf of Mexico and flock to the Crystal and Homosassa rivers to join the resident manatee population.

For the non-swimmers in the group, there's an underwater observatory at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park where you can watch manatees and other fish as well as listen to underwater manatee sounds via telephones.

Swim With the Dolphins

For more encounters of the watery kind, spend a day at Discovery Cove in Orlando (www.discoverycove.com). The main feature at this all-inclusive tropical hideaway is swimming with bottlenose dolphins, but you can also snorkel amid rays and exotic fish through coral reefs and grottos. In free-flight aviaries, you can touch and feed tropical birds. You may choose to simply relax on the beach or at the pool. All resort activities are included in the one-day price.

For a more intense experience, there's the trainer-for-a-day program. It includes expanded dolphin interaction and training, feedings at the coral reef, feeding and care of exotic birds in the aviary, behind-the-scenes small-mammal interaction, animal food preparation, and animal behavioral training class.

Scuba Dive in a Lake

Learn to scuba dive with “Diver Dick” Dalager at the State Park Marina on Table Rock Lake at Branson (www.stateparkmarina.com). Try a three-hour Discover Scuba mini-course, or go for a complete certification course. Dalager has been teaching scuba on Table Rock Lake for eighteen years. While at the marina, check out the boat rentals, wave runners, parasailing, bass fishing, and daily cruises.

Near Eureka Springs, head to C&J Sports at Beaver Lake (www.candjsports.com) for introductory or certification courses, or if you already know how to scuba, for shore diving or boat rides to select scuba spots on the lake. Carol and Jim Butler, owners of C&J Sports, also offer camping, lodging, and archery.

Ride the Ducks

If you'd prefer to stay on top of the water rather than getting wet and wild, ride the Ducks. You don't have to have any special athletic skills. Just climb aboard and start quacking on your souvenir Wacky Quacker, which comes free with every admission. The ducks are amphibious vehicles based on the famous World War II DUKW amphibious design. The company's vehicles are built to order in a factory near Branson, and are U.S. Coast Guard certified and tested. Many people think the vehicles are called ducks because they can go in and out of the water. Actually, DUKW is a military acronym that indicates the 1942 vehicle was designed (D) for utility (U) and amphibious purposes, with front wheel drive (K), and two rear driving axles (W).

The seventy-minute sightseeing tour of Branson takes you along The Strip on Highway 76, up Baird Mountain, and past Table Rock Dam. The highlight for most is the splash into Table Rock Lake for a short cruise, during which kids may get to steer. The driver offers a running commentary about the history and sights of Branson, complete with zany tour-guide humor.

Purchase Tickets Here for Ride the Ducks in Branson, Missouri. You can also board on the Branson Landing or, during the holidays, experience the new Holiday Land & Light Ride the Ducks Tour at both the Classic Highway 76 location and the Branson Landing.

Boat Through a Swamp

Experience the everglades of central Florida with an airboat ride through the wetlands. You'll see birds, turtles, and alligators, while the boat idles through the canals and flies through the swamps. Airboats can travel up to forty-five miles per hour. Boggy Creek Airboat Rides and Black Hammock Airboat Adventures let you get up close and personal with scenic outdoor Florida.

Raft the River

White-water rafting is always popular, and some great rafting is available in and near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Pigeon and Nantahala rivers, with outfitters near Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Many of the runs are suitable for family outings, while others are more difficult. To help you select an outfitter, visit Appalachian Outdoors, providing the outdoor enthusiast with recommended vendors for the southern Appalachian region. Look for tips not only on white-water rafting but also for backpacking, bird-watching, fly-fishing, skiing, orienteering, and much more.

Purchase Tickets to Appalachian Outdoors / Whitewater rafting.

Fly Like a Bird

If you prefer the birds of the air to the fish in the sea, take the Gatlinburg Skylift (www.gatlinburgskylift.com) over Gatlinburg and the Little Pigeon River to the top of Crockett Mountain for a panoramic view of the town and the surrounding Smoky Mountains. Enjoy the scenery during the five-hundred-foot ascent in the open chairlift, and take time to hike or soak in the views at the top.

Or climb aboard the 120-passenger Ober Gatlinburg Aerial Tramway, one of the country's largest aerial cable cars. It departs every twenty minutes from downtown Gatlinburg to the Ober Gatlinburg All Seasons Amusement Park on Mt. Harrison. The park offers skiing in the winter and outdoor fun year-round.

Soar Above It All

Escalate your air adventure by taking either a tethered or a free-flight hot-air balloon ride. Floating above the earth in the quiet atmosphere of the balloon basket, you're able to hear dogs barking down on the ground. The bird's-eye views are inspiring. You might even snap a photo capturing the shadow of your balloon below you. Most flights leave early in the morning and provide a sunrise vista. Once back on land, many air excursion companies offer a champagne toast, celebration picnic, and commemorative photos with the pilot.

There are plenty of ballooning options in and around Orlando, including established vendors such as Blue Water Balloons, Bob's Balloons, Magic Sunrise Ballooning, or Orange Blossom Balloons (www.orlandoinfo.com).

If you'd like to fly but stay a little grounded, too, check out Branson Balloon (www.bransonballoon.com), the largest tethered helium balloon in the country. Unlike the free-flight balloon rides, this balloon goes straight up and down, reaching an altitude of five hundred feet in a scenic ascension. The balloon is huge — more than ten stories tall — and the basket can carry thirty
passengers.

Daytime rides offer a panoramic view of Branson, Table Rock Lake, and the surrounding Ozark hills. At night, the sparkling city lights provide a magical vista, and the balloon offers a perfect bird's-eye vantage point for viewing the closing ceremony fireworks at nearby Celebration City.

Glide Like an Eagle

For an over-the-top experience, try aerotow hang gliding at Wallaby Ranch Hang Gliding Flight Park near Orlando (www.wallaby.com). Aerotowing is where a hang glider is towed aloft with a specially designed, ultra-light tow plane. Wallaby Ranch offers aerotow tandem instruction as an easy, safe, and quick way to learn how to hang glide. Although foot launching and mountain flying are important aspects of traditional hang gliding, aerotowing makes the sport accessible to almost anyone, year-round.

Fall Like a Rock

For sheer excitement, nothing compares to sky diving.

But you can break the bonds of gravity without having to jump out of an airplane — just let yourself be lifted up and away by the wind flow in a tunnel. Consider a company like Flyaway (www.flyawayindoorskydiving.com) in Pigeon Forge or SkyVenture (www.skyventureorlando.com) in Orlando, both of which offer an indoor sky-diving experience through a supercharged wind tunnel. It is designed to give beginners the sensation of free fall and body flight in a safe environment. The experience is so realistic that it is used by sport sky divers, competition teams, and military units for training.

If you want to try the real high-flying adrenaline sport, most sky diving schools can have visitors airborne in just one day. To find a U.S Parachute Association-affiliated sky-diving center, click the online Drop Zone Directory at www.uspa.org/dz/index.htm. There are sky-diving schools near such popular vacation destinations as Branson, Eureka Springs, Gatlinburg, Orlando, and Pigeon Forge.

Hop On a Bike

More of a landlubber? The hilly Ozarks surrounding Branson offer cycling opportunities for riders of different ability levels. Although there are no mountains tall enough for extended downhill coasting rides, there are plenty of scenic, hilly rides. Craig Erickson, owner of Downhill Bikes (www.downhillbikes.biz), a retail and rental outlet, offers directions for area rides on his web site and in person. He's also knowledgeable about hiking and kayaking in the area.

A great ride for any age or skill level starts at Table Rock State Park near the marina and runs alongside the lake past the Branson Belle showboat and on to the Dewey Short Visitors Center next to Table Rock Dam. The paved path is about eight feet wide and about two-and-a-half miles long and offers great views of the lake.

City officials are working on a trail system that would incorporate roads and trails into an eighty-nine-mile system, but no completion date is set.

Crawl Through a Cave

Caving is available at three caves close to Eureka Springs: Cosmic, War Eagle, and Onyx.

Both Cosmic Cavern in nearby Berryville and War Eagle Cavern (www.wareaglecavern.com) between Eureka Springs and Rogers offer an off-trail wild cave tour in addition to the usual guided tours. At Cosmic, the off-trail tour includes a one-thousand-foot passage and lots of climbing. At War Eagle, the wild cave tour goes straight back into the mountain through a horizontal cavern so there's not much climbing, but there are many side passages and the opportunity for plenty of crawling. In either case, you'll get really dirty, so bring a change of clothes for the ride home.

A highlight of the regular tour at Cosmic is the pristine and delicate Silent Splendor section discovered in 1993. The cave has several underground lakes, one of which is stocked with rainbow trout. The rare Ozarks Blind Cave Salamander lives in the cave.

At War Eagle, you enter the cavern through the natural entrance on the shores of Beaver Lake. You can also arrive by boat, if you wish. The cave is home to more than one hundred thousand bats, one of North America's largest colonies. The cave was used for a scene in the movie, “Frank and Jesse,” and there's a display of props from the movie set. Aboveground, you can hike the nature trails or stay overnight in the secluded lodge.

At both caves, you can try your hand at panning for gemstones; you get to keep what you find. Cosmic Cavern also offers fossil digging. Authentic fossils are cemented in the ground and covered with sand. Diggers are supplied with brushes and shovels, plus an identification sheet to help them identify the fossils they discover.

Onyx Cave (479-253-9321), just outside Eureka Springs, was discovered in 1891 and is the oldest show cave in Arkansas. The living cave offers easy access on a non-strenuous trail with self-guided headphone tours.

In Branson, Silver Dollar City presents a new yet old way to visit its original attraction, Marvel Cave — by lantern light. Visitors step back in time as they explore the cave with only the light from lanterns showing the way. For decades, guests have explored the cavern with the help of electric lighting, and most tours are still done that way.

The theme park began offering special lantern tours last year to reenact the early days. Guides dressed in period costumes tell the history of Marvel Cave and some of its legends. Marvel Cave first opened for visitors in 1894. In 1950, the Herschend family took over the cave operation, and it became the foundation upon which Silver Dollar City, the amusement park, is built.

Zorb Down a Hill

Be the first on your block to try Zorbing! Created in New Zealand, Zorb opens its first North America location in Pigeon Forge this spring (www.zorb.com/smoky/index.html). Called Zorb Smoky Mountains, it's a new type of action ride. Zorb is eleven feet high and eleven feet wide; it's round and bouncy. You jump inside and roll down a hill. The wildness of the ride is up to the Zorbonaut — that's the term coined to describe riders of this crazy attraction.

There are two types of Zorb rides, hydro (wet) or harnessed (dry). The hydro Zorb has a single small door and no harness. The rider slides in through a tunnel, then about two gallons of water (cool in summer, warm in winter) are added to the outer sphere. The Zorbonaut is loose inside the Zorb and is free to slip and slide around inside as it rolls downhill, making the ride as easy or as wild as desired. The hydro Zorb is described as a slippery ride that's a cross between a waterfall and a car crash.

Hydro-Zorbing can be done with one, two, or three people at a time. Because the weight inside the hydro Zorb remains at the bottom, the Zorb can achieve high speeds without bouncing and can be done safely down steep or gentle slopes and with downhill or uphill winds.

Dry-Zorbing is a completely different experience than hydro-Zorbing, and you may want to try both. The Zorbonaut is strapped into a harness attached to the wall of the inner sphere. The rider revolves with the Zorb as it rolls downhill, giving a unique sensation of alternating G-forces as the rider tumbles head over heels and the sky and the ground go spinning past.

Ride a Hurricane

In the Disaster Zone at WonderWorks in Pigeon Forge (www.wonderworksonline.com), you can experience the fury of a hurricane or what the 1989 San Francisco earthquake felt like. You can try rock climbing in the Challenge Zone or design your own roller coaster and experience it on a virtual ride on the WonderCoaster. Billed as an amusement park for the mind, WonderWorks offers 150 interactive exhibits. There's also a WonderWorks in Orlando with slightly different exhibits.

Labels: Arkansas, Branson, Eureka Springs, Florida, Gatlinburg, Missouri, Orlando, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee