Busch Gardens Williamsburg
vs
Silver Dollar City

Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Silver Dollar City queue about the same on a typical day - 21 minutes against 22 minutes across 10 and 28 tracked rides. Pick on travel time or on which rides you actually want.

See both right now Compare other parks

01 · On a typical day

What you would normally queue.

Averages across recent weeks, so one broken ride or one wet Tuesday cannot decide it. This is the comparison to plan a trip on; the live figures below are the one to act on today.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Silver Dollar City compared on their typical recorded queue times
Typically	Busch Gardens WilliamsburgUnited States	Silver Dollar CityUnited States
Average wait per ride	21 min (best of the two)	22 min
Rides with recorded waits	10	28 (best of the two)
Longest typical queue	Alpengeist60 min	Hugo & Mary's Carousel95 min
Shortest typical queue	The Battering Ram7 min	Fireman's Flyers9 min
Average ride uptime Share of opening hours a ride is running	91%	93% (best of the two)

Averaged across every ride at each park with recorded waits. A ride that never opened is left out, so a park is not flattered by counting a shut ride as a queue of zero.

02 · Right now

Both parks, this minute.

Live queue times at both parks. These fill in as soon as the page loads, and keep updating while you are here.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Silver Dollar City compared on live queue times
Right now	Busch Gardens WilliamsburgUnited States	Silver Dollar CityUnited States
Average wait right now	-	-
Rides open	-	-
Opening hours today	-	-
Longest queue	-	-
Shortest queue	-	-

These keep refreshing while this page is open. A closed park posts no waits, so its rows read as dashes rather than zeroes.

Verdict, on a typical day Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Silver Dollar City queue about the same on a typical day - 21 minutes against 22 minutes across 10 and 28 tracked rides. Pick on travel time or on which rides you actually want.

03 · Choosing

Which one is your day out.

Every line here is earned by one of the figures above - nothing is a generic sentence with a park name dropped into it.

Pick Busch Gardens Williamsburg if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 21 minutes a ride
Alpengeist is on your list - it is Busch Gardens Williamsburg's longest typical queue at about 60 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Busch Gardens Williamsburg's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

Pick Silver Dollar City if…

Queue length will not decide it: both parks average around 22 minutes a ride
You want more to do: 28 rides here have recorded wait data against 10 at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Hugo & Mary's Carousel is on your list - it is Silver Dollar City's longest typical queue at about 95 minutes, so it is the one to do first
You want Silver Dollar City's own character - the rides, theming and atmosphere described below

04 · The parks

What each one is.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is consistently rated one of the most beautiful theme parks in the world, winning "Most Beautiful Park" industry awards year after year. Set across European-themed villages in Virginia, it runs a top-tier coaster line-up: Alpengeist, Apollo's Chariot, Griffon (a dive coaster), Verbolten, InvadR, and the newer Pantheon - one of the world's fastest multi-launch coasters.

Virginia school holidays, the Howl-O-Scream Halloween event and the famous Christmas Town event drive Busch Gardens Williamsburg's biggest crowds. Weekdays in May, September and early October are dramatically quieter. Check live wait times for Pantheon and Alpengeist first thing on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a lower-crowd date - the park's wooded setting keeps temperatures pleasant.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg live queue times

Silver Dollar City

Silver Dollar City is a 1880s-themed park in Branson, Missouri, sitting above the famous Marvel Cave. It mixes a traditional craftsmen village with a strong modern coaster line-up: Outlaw Run (one of the world's best wooden coasters), Time Traveler (a record-breaking spinning coaster), Powder Keg, and the newer Wildfire and Mystic River Falls. Live music and period crafts are core to the park's identity.

Silver Dollar City's peak periods are the US summer break, the extremely popular Pumpkin Nights and Old Time Christmas events, and weekend visits from Branson tourists. Weekdays in May, September and early December stay calmer. Check live queue times for Time Traveler and Outlaw Run first thing, and use our crowd calendar to plan around peak event weekends.

Silver Dollar City live queue times

05 · Questions

Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Silver Dollar City?

Which is better, Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Silver Dollar City?

On queues there is nothing in it: both average about 21 minutes a ride on a typical day. Busch Gardens Williamsburg has 10 rides with recorded waits against 28 at Silver Dollar City. Silver Dollar City also runs its rides more reliably - 93% of opening hours against 91%. So pick on travel time, or on which park has the rides you actually want.

Which has shorter queues, Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Silver Dollar City?

They are level. Busch Gardens Williamsburg averages 21 minutes a ride on a typical day and Silver Dollar City averages 22 - close enough that the day you pick matters more than the park. See Busch Gardens Williamsburg best time to visit and Silver Dollar City best time to visit to pick a quiet day.

Can I visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Silver Dollar City in the same trip?

Yes - both parks are in United States, so a two-park trip is realistic over a long weekend. Split the days so you start at whichever opens earliest and drive to the other in the evening.

How many rides does each park have?

See the tables above for ride counts - or jump to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Silver Dollar City for the full ride lists.

Is Busch Gardens Williamsburg bigger than Silver Dollar City?

By rides we track waits for, Silver Dollar City is the bigger day out: 28 rides against 10. Acreage matters less than how many you can actually get on, which comes down to queues and opening hours.

Then pick
the quiet day.

Both parks have a crowd calendar with six weeks of forecast and the best day left to go.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg calendar Silver Dollar City calendar Compare other parks