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Dollywood Discussion Thread

P. 796 - Ride closing 10/30 to remove launch and install chain lift!

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At Dollywood today.. been praising their ops recently but off to a bad start today. Over 20 mins so far in line for a tram. Might as well walk, the issue is they are running more short trams than long it looks like.. this is their inconsistency. If they don't have the drivers, at least run the long trams

 

Edit: so we walked in from c and a total of 0 inbound trams passed aside from the one short one that picked up before we started walking but hey it's a pretty day. Tram line was probably 5 full trams long.

 

Edit 2: gonna be headed out soon.. LR is down, firechaser is down.. lines are super long (not Dollywoods fault aside from the inbound tram lines, it's just busy today)

 

My wife and I mainly came for lunch anyways so Aunt Granny's hit the spot

 

 

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Exactly and this year the new improvements at Aunt Granny's are wonderful!! Food is back to it's original quality, if not better, price remained unchanged ($33ish for two with gold pass).. no more wait because of additional seating.. and my personal favorite, if you pay with a card, you aren't billed until you leave now meaning I can actually wait to give a tip if I don't have cash! I hated tipping up front before I ate if I didn't have cash lol

 

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Always so nice when Pete pops in! I can't wait until I can make another trip to Dollywood. It will be so cool having a new "land." I really enjoy Splash Country too and I look forward to it continuing to expand. Maybe Dollywood can get to be a year round park at some point. I know the weather won't permit that for Splash Country but with Dollywood being known for such great entertainment the theaters could go year round right? Maybe just a new festival to cover when Dollywood is closed currently. Oh well I'll hush now and continue trolling youtube, screamscape, and this board for all the inside scoop lol.

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I see them going year round as well. With them now only really getting a month and a half off or so, from early Jan-mid March they are practically open that already. The off time now is just really to clean up and get things done faster without guests there essentially.

I wonder what Dolly meant by giving Disney a run for their money next year? Theming? Size?

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Isn't there a bridged section of supports at bottom of the drop for some type of maintenance road? If you only feel the "pothole" in the last 2 or 3 cars, I would almost bet that it really isn't a pothole, but more of the track flexing on that bridged section when the train starts to go over it. That's the fastest part of ride with probably some of the stronger positive forces on that ride. So that section probably isn't as strong as it would be if it was supported all the way to the ground.

 

 

I found this photo on coaster 101. It shows a steel supported section at the bottom for an maintenance road. I'm no engineer but the bump could be from the steel being stiffer than wood and not flexing as much.

On a side note: I have always thought that a cool theme element would be to put an old fashioned police car with a radar gun displaying your speed at the bottom of that drop.

lightning-rod-dollywood-testing-video.thumb.jpg.578f266472fc6566941b39a36fb9909a.jpg

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I see them going year round as well. With them now only really getting a month and a half off or so, from early Jan-mid March they are practically open that already. The off time now is just really to clean up and get things done faster without guests there essentially.

I wonder what Dolly meant by giving Disney a run for their money next year? Theming? Size?

My world has always been Opryland, Holiday World, Dollywood, and a few Six Flags parks (St Louis, Ky Kingdom) due to them being closest. Dollywood is furthest so always stay two or three nights when I can go. Dollywood is my very favorite of all of those. I have never been to Disney but know many (including my best friend) who have been at least one time. I have recently started looking at all the Disney youtube ride videos and their park maps and I have to say I am impressed. I mean they spend 100 million on some single rides! I have to say my favorite I would love to ride the most is Splash Mountain. If Dollywood can give us a taste of Disney that would be awesome. I think they have started with the fireworks show they have added. I have to say Mystery Mine was awesome when it came out I love the themeing on it.At any rate, I know Dollywood can't spend the bucks Disney can but I think they are doing so well. I love when I get to go and can't wait to get back in 2019 or 2020 for the new land.

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I see them going year round as well. With them now only really getting a month and a half off or so, from early Jan-mid March they are practically open that already. The off time now is just really to clean up and get things done faster without guests there essentially.

I wonder what Dolly meant by giving Disney a run for their money next year? Theming? Size?

I think it might all have to do with how well luminights goes this year.. for example, October was one of their slowest months in the past.. I mean, some visits parking was barely out of b! Especially in early October.. but with luminights, it was possibly their busiest time of the year last year.. it proves, with a knockout festival, they can bring the guest.. if luminights does as well this year, they might start looking into a winter festival of sorts.

 

With a lot of schools going year round, breaks are all different now.. Spring breaks are starting much earlier now, as early as March 1st.

 

I don't see them open all week during the winter, but maybe Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The tourism's is still fairly busy on weekends during winter... I know a lot of folks love getting winter cabins. We have fairly mild Februarys in the area. January isn't any worse than late December. Coasters might be closed but if they still have activities and shows going on, the park will still draw a crowd.

 

It may never happen, but I won't say it won't ever happen. The park president even said a couple years ago they would probably be able to draw a year round crowd because of the park being unique and it's show following.. it was just a comment but comments are a lot of times derived from discussions.

 

Six Flags in GA keeps extending their season, even if it's weekends only. It's now longer than Dollywood by several weeks. There might be a 5 degree temp difference at times but their Winters are still very similar to ours. They can do it with mostly rides.. Dollywood has the festivals that can drive even more visitors.

 

Leverage dreamore and offer steep discounts on tickets/rooms, and offer even "off season" ticket pricing for non dreamore guest.

 

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It may end up being like Disney World, where they have worked so hard on closing their traditional slow times that they really don’t have a slow period anymore. Used to be The park was almost empty the first week of December, but now you go there during that time and there’s a ton of groups such as cheerleaders and dancers etc.

 

That being said, the pigeon Forge area is not very crowded in January and February. I agree that if they would offer a massive discounts a dream more then they might could and start building your business in those two months it may take a few years

 

I hope it happens Dollywood is our family’s favorite park and we prefer to go when it’s less crowded

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I have yet to see two trains run this year, as far as I remember, and have been on some fairly busy days.. I think maybe they attempted two trains early in the season.. I was there yesterday and it was down most of the morning (I arrived at 11 and left around 2). It's possible I missed it being open while I was there and i do know it opened at some point yesterday

 

It's probably been 50% on most days this year.. there was about a week it was down but it is running most days, at least half the day

 

 

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It may end up being like Disney World, where they have worked so hard on closing their traditional slow times that they really don’t have a slow period anymore. Used to be The park was almost empty the first week of December, but now you go there during that time and there’s a ton of groups such as cheerleaders and dancers etc.

 

That being said, the pigeon Forge area is not very crowded in January and February. I agree that if they would offer a massive discounts a dream more then they might could and start building your business in those two months it may take a few years

 

I hope it happens Dollywood is our family’s favorite park and we prefer to go when it’s less crowded

Yeah, Disney does a good job with conferences during their slow season (my work booked one).. Dollywood has been doing the same and it really helps build up the park. That area in general is full of conferences during the winter, that's why the weekends are still so busy.. Church conferences pretty much every weekend during the winter, plus other types of band conferences and what not.. usually the conference goers have the afternoon free (I have been to several personally) and they go out and enjoy attractions.. Dollywood would be fairly popular if their price was low enough I'd imagine.

 

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I have yet to see two trains run this year, as far as I remember, and have been on some fairly busy days.. I think maybe they attempted two trains early in the season.. I was there yesterday and it was down most of the morning (I arrived at 11 and left around 2). It's possible I missed it being open while I was there and i do know it opened at some point yesterday

 

It's probably been 50% on most days this year.. there was about a week it was down but it is running most days, at least half the day

 

 

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I visited the park a few hours ago and can definitely confirm that the park was running two trains on Lightning Rod for at least this morning. Not so sure about the evening since the had some maintenance issues, but was nonetheless a fantastic ride.

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I have yet to see two trains run this year, as far as I remember, and have been on some fairly busy days.. I think maybe they attempted two trains early in the season.. I was there yesterday and it was down most of the morning (I arrived at 11 and left around 2). It's possible I missed it being open while I was there and i do know it opened at some point yesterday

 

It's probably been 50% on most days this year.. there was about a week it was down but it is running most days, at least half the day

 

 

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They’ve been running 2 very consistently. Almost every day now

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Wonder when we’ll see the cosmetic changes made to the trains? It’s like the hoods/trunks appeared then disappeared haha. I’ll be at the park tomorrow if all goes well. First time of the season (a bit late for my usual but life happens) and I’m so ready. Season pass is ready to go! Question, my parents have the McDonalds 10 dollars off cups for each ticket. So you just enter that code on the cup online when you order your ticket and print it out? I know we used to do the cup deal when it was just 5 dollars off for one ticket if you brought the cup there. I go more than my parents do they didn’t get a pass. I go with friends like 5+ times.

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Wonder when we’ll see the cosmetic changes made to the trains? It’s like the hoods/trunks appeared then disappeared haha. I’ll be at the park tomorrow if all goes well. First time of the season (a bit late for my usual but life happens) and I’m so ready. Season pass is ready to go! Question, my parents have the McDonalds 10 dollars off cups for each ticket. So you just enter that code on the cup online when you order your ticket and print it out? I know we used to do the cup deal when it was just 5 dollars off for one ticket if you brought the cup there. I go more than my parents do they didn’t get a pass. I go with friends like 5+ times.

 

The hoods are nowhere to be seen, but the trunks are under the transfer track still. They look like atrocious flat plastic humps with painted on tires. They should stay off, I would be completely fine if they just did something similar to what Outlaw Run has at this point.

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Luke are they really still under the transfer? I was looking everywhere and couldn’t see. Or do you mean in the maintenance bay?

Went to the park today. Was there from 11:30-8ish. Then my family wanted to eat Cheddars and we were absolutely killed out. So, let’s see. Started the day off with of course, LR. What better way. They were running two trains and running great. Crowds weren’t all that bad, I think the heat kept a lot of people away. Still LR’s crew was prepared because I only waited 5 mins and got 3 rides in back to back.

Before I go any further let me say this, at the bottom of the drop right as you crest flat something is up. The first ride I was like “Oop well there it is, ok”. The next rides it really felt like damage was done haha that’s how rough this was. On I think my 6th round of the day I heard the entire train say “UHMP OWW WHAT WAS THAT” followed by screams into the wave turn. I’ve ridden it 40+ times now though so on my way to 100 lol.

So around like 2 everything shut down for lightning for 2.5 hours. Everything was working in Mystery Mine, I was impressed. Although you could get high while sitting at the top of lift 2. Fumes were strong today.

New land? Same ole thing. No movement. Best view is MM’s que. All you can really see are placement for footers literally everywhere. They’re starting to do something towards the end of the clearing as well.

Fireworks are now being shot up at the train loop and I assume that’s where they’ll stay for a while.

Helped so many first time guests that traveled 8+ hours away. They said they were enjoying the park/loved it so much but just needed help finding things like Barnstormer, Mountain Slidewinder, Daredevil Falls etc. One guest didn’t know Lightning Rod existed until we were on Drop Like together and he asked what coaster that was. Told him I was going there next so I took his family there. They said hands down best wooden coaster. Pete, where’s my job? I’ll start ASAP.

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I was there last half of the day Sunday. Everything was a walk on, it was great! Some rides including LR started shutting down around 8pm though. Something new this visit from my last one 2 weeks ago was Mystery Mine and Wild Eagle ride ops asked about my glasses. I showed them my glasses strap and that satisfied them. Never had a ride op mention glasses before, maybe it was coincidence.

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Thanks to every one on this forum for all of the info. We are from Texas and My family visited Dollywood last summer for the first time and fell in love with the park. So we are going again next week on a last minute trip.

I booked us at the Dollywood DreamMore because it advertised the TimeSaver. For a family of 4 this seemed to be a nobrainer vs staying in a chain hotel.

I now see that this timesaver is limited based on reading this message board. Now i am wondering if we should just stay at a chain and pay for the unlimited time saver oit of pocket. Or is there a way to upgrade with DreamMore or Dollywood?

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I was there last half of the day Sunday. Everything was a walk on, it was great! Some rides including LR started shutting down around 8pm though. Something new this visit from my last one 2 weeks ago was Mystery Mine and Wild Eagle ride ops asked about my glasses. I showed them my glasses strap and that satisfied them. Never had a ride op mention glasses before, maybe it was coincidence.

 

I always ride with my glasses, they used to be much looser and I never had a problem. I've since had them adjusted and now they are a perfect fit, they don't move at all on any coasters thus far. I'd be pretty disgruntled if they started making people take off their glasses, It would kill the experience on rides like Lightning Rod for me if I wasn't able to see.

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I'd be pretty disgruntled if they started making people take off their glasses

 

Just get a strap.

 

I've been surprised at how lax DW is about sunglasses (most aren't properly adjusted).

 

I won't wear mine on ride because I'd gate to have to replace them.

 

Plus they'd smart if they came off and hit someone on a fast coaster (glass lenses)

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