Experience a little Hollywood in Branson

• By: Allison Griffin
• Posted: Jul 6th, 2015
• Blog:Healthy Housewife Files

After 2 days at Silver Dollar City, we wanted to find something low key (and cool) to do in Branson.  My husband and I had been to the Hollywood Wax Museum on our last visit to Branson a couple of years ago...before the girls came along.  It was pretty neat, so we headed to the "Hollywood complex" which houses a wax museum, maze of mirrors, 5D ride, and mini golf course.

While it was still fairly cool in the morning hours, we played a round at Shoot for the Stars Mini Golf.  At each hole there was a character that "talked" and told us various trivia about Hollywood.  Jillian loved pushing the buttons to make the figures talk.

Daddy helped her hit the ball, but she quickly lost interest in playing and just watched everyone else and looked at the scenery.

With the sun beating down on us and the scenic palm trees, we felt like we were in Hollywood.

After getting good and sweaty, it was a good time to visit the wax museum (with air conditioning) to get out of the sun.  I was afraid Matthew and I wouldn't enjoy it since we'd been there before, but we were surprised to see that many of the exhibits were different from the last time.

As soon as you reach the entrance, you feel like you are among the stars.

We loved all the photo ops!

We all got a little silly and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Since I had the stroller for Savannah, I was glad to see an elevator as an alternative to the stairs leading to the 2nd level.  I also appreciated the "bypass" of the scary monster section.  Both girls would've had a melt down if I'd made them walk through that part!!!!  When you get upstairs, there's a nice little shooting gallery area.  Of course Jilli wanted Daddy to help her shoot.

And this is one of my favorites.  I told her to stand by him and do her arms like he was doing with his.  This is what resulted!

By the time we had played golf and been through the museum, it was time for lunch and the girls needed a nap.  So Matthew and I came back later that evening to visit the mirror maze and 5D ride.  We left the girls at the campground with my parents and were excited about our "date."

I'd never been in a mirror maze before so I wasn't sure what to expect from Hannah's Maze of Mirrors.  The story is that Hannah of Savannah is cursed in a modern day fairy tale and you have to see if you're the "chosen one" to find and free her.  You wind through 288 potential turns among hundreds of mirrored archways and reflections in every direction.

I'm glad of 2 things:

1.  That we didn't bring the girls.  Jilli would be running around in there and I would be TERRIFIED of losing her!!!!  There was another family who came in after and their little boy took off running toward his mom (or so he thought) and smacked right into one of the mirrors!

2.  That I brought Matthew!  He was able to quickly navigate through all the mirrors.  I got so turned around in that maze and might've been stuck until closing time without him.  I even tried looking up at the ceiling beams to figure out where I was in the building, but I still didn't have a clue!

The story is nice, but once you get into the main part of the maze, it just mirrors.  I would've liked to see more immersion in to the story.

Once we (Matthew) made our way out of the maze, we were a little bummed to see that Castle of Chaos was closed for maintenance.  I had even taken my motion sickness medicine.  We opted not to wait since the girls were with my parents and the lady at the desk said it could be as long as 2 hours before the ride was operational again.

Even without the Castle of Chaos experience, we enjoyed our time at the Hollywood complex.  It was a nice way to spend the day out of the sun.  There's something for all ages here.  The wax museum will definitely remain on our list of places to visit when we come back on future vacation.  I don't know that the mirror maze is something that I'd want to do again...it's one of those been there, done that things.

If you're going to be in Branson, it's worth your time to check out an All Access pass to the Hollywood Entertainment Complex.