Things To Do in Excelsior Springs

Full Moon Productions sends shivers and tickles of terror up spines with four haunted attractions. Classic- and contemporary-horror flicks jump off the screen into hair-raising reality at the Macabre Cinema, a 1930s movie palace that includes sets from Hellraiser and other movies. Frightful cinematic characters dwell among the seats and scrims, waiting to elicit particularly desperate screams from hapless couples that thought they were there to see Gigli. The Chambers of Edgar Allan Poe revisits the brilliant author’s ominous imagination inside an actual supposed haunted building, as profiled on the Discovery Channel’s Ghost Lab. The most horrifying excerpts from Poe’s famous tales are re-created to saddle visitors with unsettling sensations, such as being buried alive or moving back in with your parents.

Though most pitchers clear their mounds at the slight rumor of a thunderstorm, the ones inside Kansas City Sports Club always stay dry and padded with footprints. In addition to pitching tunnels, hitting tunnels, and a turf infield that stays safe from outdoor weather conditions, the facility features a full fitness center that protects guests from the hazards of working out on treadmills in the wilderness. The fitness center features free weights and cardio machines with flat-screen televisions and free WiFi to keep guests informed and entertained during workouts.

On Tuesday nights, Crossfire Recreation Center’s range masters close things to the public and begin setting up a bowling-pin shoot. After registering for the tournament-style competition, marksmen approach the range, prepare to draw from their holsters or low ready positions, and wait for the buzzer. When it sounds, competitors get 30 seconds to flatten five bowling pins set up 25 feet away.

At all other times, Crossfire’s 10-lane, 75-foot indoor range—rated for most handgun cartridges that are shot or thrown at less than 2,000 feet per second—welcomes guests to hone their marksmanship or train for the next bowling-pin shoot. The range’s cable system positions targets that include both standard and zombie silhouettes. Four instructors uphold the training standards of the NRA, teaching classes from the NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course to private marksmanship sessions. For shooters who frequent the range twice a month or more, Crossfire’s staff offers them reduced rates through membership options. Crossfire shares a building with Arms Mart, a pro shop with an onsite gunsmith.

Boasting a combined resumé of 75 years of experience and more than 16,000 jumps, the members of Falcon Skydiving Team show off their aerial skills at exhibitions all over the states. They kicked off the US promotion of the latest Pokémon products with a whirling dive and perform as a highlight of the Richards-Gebaur air show. When not free-falling for audiences, they take up passengers with them and teach them the basics during low-altitude tandem dives.

Diamond Bowl, a refreshing fusion of bowling alley and robust restaurant, serves as a hangout for pin-battering rollers hungry for lane-thundering action and thirsty for food. Games ($5) on Diamond’s eight lanes keep hook-happy fingers limber, and shoes ($3) safeguard feet from toe-stomping sore losers. Follow up your fourth turkey with tangible foodstuffs from Diamond's full menu, such as the blackened-salmon sandwich on a kaiser roll ($7.99), the well-rounded bowling burger ($7.49), or the crispy chicken-tender salad ($8.99). Serious contenders can take a break from finger calisthenics to enroll in one of Diamond Bowl's leagues, and casual players can pair their match play with drinks from Diamond’s fully stocked bar, or they can watch a less phalange-intensive sport on one of nine crystalline HD TVs. Hourly games are also available.

Associate conductor Steven Jarvi channels the combined melodious might of the Kansas City Symphony and Symphony Chorus, KC Brass, Allegro Children’s Choir, and Rezound Handbell Ensemble through an all-new holiday celebration of sound. Mobs of merry musicians, rumored to include 12 drummers drumming and a possible 11 pipers piping, will feed hungry ossicles symphonic arrangements of Christmas traditions. Families coasting on waves of Yuletide joy will yearn to sing along with timeless carols perfected by years of door-to-door focus testing. To complete each holly-jolly evening, Santa Claus himself will make an appearance to play a 30-minute free jazz solo on his signature fur-fringed soprano saxophone.