Holtskee

Beautiful photos. It looks so great, I'm surprised Disney didn't start doing this years ago.

Don't know if it has been posted here yet, but apparently Splashwater Falls is also leaving SFOG, the ride is up for sale: www.irmpri.com/Ride%20Info%20Sheet%20ShootTheChute.pdf

I choose the latter. Like said earlier, why would the park want to emphasize that a major ride is being removed?

Stealth to Borg Assimilator at Carowinds. If Paramount was going to rip out the riverboat and fill in the lagoons they could have at least gave us a decent ride that didn't breakdown all the time.

Historical and regional themes are unimaginative? Granted I understand why people don't want that from Disney, but dissing that entire "genre" of parks as a whole simply boils down to personal tastes.

Why it's almost as crazy as building a Texas themed park in Texas, a Georgia themed park in Georgia, a North Carolina themed park in North Carolina, and a Tennessee themed park in Tennessee. Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags Over Georgia, Carowinds, and Dollywood anyone? Anyway, I suppose this is the closest Disney will ever get to flat out admitting that they screwed up big time there. Hopefully a major overhaul will help California Adventure (or whatever it will be called in the future) to work better. I always thought that building a second park in Anaheim was a bad idea to begin with, even before CA opened and flopped...they should have just left Disneyland as it was. I wonder if the Westcot idea or an American version of DisneySea would have been more successful...

I like the Big Thunder Mountain trains with the mock locomotives hooked to the front. I also like Arrow's old Hypercoaster trains on Magnum...just like the old school futuristic look they have.

I doubt the park wants to emphasize the fact that a major ride is being removed.

It makes me sad to see all the trees gone along the train track. I remember years ago it use to feel like you were really out in the wilderness on the train. Great photos though!

I've always thought the one at Carowinds sucked...you didn't even get wet until they extended the waterfall out a few seasons ago. It is very long, I'll give them that though. I understand it was better back when they had the custom built rafts in the 80s. I also read that there use to be a bunch of fountains and geysers out along course.

I have to agree about Popeye's Bilge Rat Barges at IoA. It gets me soaked everytime. I love all the spinning. I recall that Grizzly River Rampage at Opryland was pretty good too. I've always thought Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom was too tame...it has the big drop but the rest of the ride is boring.

I always thought HFE would have been a nice buyer for Cypress Gardens. Unfortunately with the competition down there that’s just wishful thinking. Years ago I imagined a “what if” scenario where the Herschends redeveloped CG into a Silver Dollar City/Dollywood type park using the Southern theme they’ve already got in place, keeping all the gardens intact while building some nice themed rides and areas in the unused space. I guess that idea could only come to life within RCT, lol. Anyway if HFE does get Wild Adventures it will be interesting to see what they do with the park.

That Southern Adventures place looks like it belongs in Pigeon Forge or Myrtle Beach, lol! Nice little selection of classic rides. I enjoy seeing photos of small attractions like that, as they tend to disappear without much notice due to their size. Also like the vintage McDonald's sign. Thanks for sharing.

To be honest, I personally hope they don't build anything up there...it would ruin the train ride. There are other places around the property that could be utilized before heading up in that direction. Thanks for taking all these pics kraken613!

So it was actually in 1980? That was much later than when I had placed it.

If you ride the train take some pictures of whatever they are doing along the track. Someone said they they are filling in the top turnaround loop with dirt.

[From what I have gathered elsewhere] The removed section was apparently considerable. It featured some additional scenes and an optical illusion that made the track look as if it was broken. I read there was recorded dialog piped over the track of a man yelling with a country twang "YOUR GONNA CRASH!" To my knowledge, Blazing Fury at SDCTN/Dollywood wasn't built with this section, so I assume the accident and the track modifications occurred before 1978. That said, in another thread someone stated that this section never existed, so perhaps you should e-mail Silver Dollar City and ask them directly. I'm sure they would be happy to clear it up. The reason I believe it is because I've read stories of it from three different people over the years. At any rate the accident did occur in the 70s.

Yes, however it was in the late 70s. Fire in the Hole opened in 1972. Years ago this message was posted on the rec.roller-coaster Google group describing what happened. I'm not sure how accurate it is: "A train full of passengers had just come down the final hill was headed towards the boarding platform. Somehow (if I remember correctly, this part was due to operator error) the train veered off onto the service track and headed into the service and storage area. At the section of the track where the trains are placed when the park is closed there apparently was an enclosure that only allowed enough room for the trains to enter. (i.e., no head room) Most people in the train ducked in their seats and missed the overhang. . . except for one unfortunate man who was was killed when his head hit it. There was lots of rumors going around about this after it happened. The most popular was that people in the front of the train were trapped for hours as workers had trouble unlodging the dead person and the other was that the man was decapitated. I doubt either were true. A truly unfortunate accident." Not long after this a large section of the track was removed, shortening the ride by about 40 seconds. Don't know if that was a direct result of the accident or not.

Dollywood Best: Thunderhead Worst: Motion Theater ("Smoky Mountain Wilderness Adventure" or whatever film they are playing. I hate the ride in general)

I believe that both Disney/MGM and USF abandoned the idea of being actual working studios long ago...now they are just theme parks. For a while Orlando was going to be the east coast Hollywood.

The issue with the new name is that it sounds misleading as to where the park is located. Just shortening the name to "Disney Studios" would have been fine, or perhaps "Disney Studios Florida" taking note of USF across town. I don't see a problem with recycling the "Walt Disney Studios" name myself - the Paris park actually has very little dealing with the man other than the name, though no one has any complaints about it there. (Pixar attractions are scheduled for that park too)

From what I've read the new boats on the Waterboggan actually "neutered" the ride, because the new boats don't bank that high on the curves or get up as much speed. Anyway, I'm glad Dollywood is still using the custom ones on Slidewinder. They look better by having a flimsy feel, adding to the thrill factor. The fact that they were built in-house adds to the uniqueness of the park.

Wonderful photo report. Thanks for sharing. Makes me sad though...hard to believe 2007 marks ten years since Opryland closed.

This is a tough one...all the Herschend parks are AMAZING! IMO the two main Herschend parks (SDC and DW) are about on par with each other. Oddly enough Celebration City has never really built up a following here or elsewhere...it just doesn't seem to fit with the other two. Going by just ride selection Dollywood is the winner. As for food, live entertainment, employees, etc as far as I can tell the two parks are on the same level. That said, I have to give the overall edge to Silver Dollar City because it supposedly retains some of the little atmospheric things that Dollywood has lost over the years.

I'm sorry but this is completely untrue. The Flooded Mine was demolished in the fall of 1997 to make room for Daredevil Falls, which of course opened on the exact same spot in 1998. This has already been mentioned several times in this thread... Dollywood closed the ride because it was the least popular attraction based on annual ridership. The park wanted to move in a different direction with new thrill rides in order to better compete with Opryland and Six Flags Over Georgia (turns out the former closed after '97) and unfortunately the Flooded Mine was the most obvious choice to go. Like said, every amusement park has an urban legend involving snakes. We’ve discussed this before as well…Dollywood use to be more like a real town from the 1880s (i.e. Silver Dollar City) as opposed to now, where it is just about the history of Tennessee/Southern Culture in general. When they introduced the 50s area in 1995 they abandoned the “working town” concept in favor of a more Opryland-like atmosphere. Both Silver Dollar City and Dollywood have became more ride oriented, in the vein of a typical theme park. Ironically I have an Amusement Business magazine interview with Pete Herschend from around 1990 where he bashes parks that use large thrill rides to draw guests in, then goes on to say that SDC and Dollywood will never be “ride parks”. Unfortunately they’ve both began to shift towards that over the last decade. (That said, HFE still themes out the wahzoo, which I applaud them for) Not that I'm complaining about Thunderhead and Mystery Mine, mind you.