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Just to clarify, the ride doesn't officially open until this Saturday, May 6th. The media event is Friday, May 5th. As mentioned, the ride is in a technical rehearsal so you may get to ride it tomorrow and Friday but there is no guarantees. Just want to make that clear, since that article didn't clearly state the official opening day of the ride.

^ I went yesterday and the ride went down near park opening. After a couple of test runs, a maintenance crew member walked out to the brake run and started observing the trains as they passed through. He did this for a handful of test runs before walking back to the station and the ride was back up after the ride crew did their test run. So, this is consistent with what you described.

^

Congrats? Seriously though, I've had some good rides on it in the past, but it can be really brutal in a bad seat on a bad train. It is definitely the one ride at the park I am okay with not riding at all in a season unless I am with someone that hasn't been on it or really wants to ride it.

Please, do not post photos that violate park rules to the forum. Unless Dollywood has changed their policy this year, no photos are allowed while riding Lightning Rod. It is always best to check park policies before posting photos while on a ride to the forum. Thanks!

I hope they bring the Mac N' Cheese stand back this year. If I was there for a quick visit, I would either get that or the Chicken Sandwich in the food truck.

If Lightning Rod is like Outlaw Run, then the lights are at the back of each car so you can't see your seats, but the seat in front of you. But, you know better than I do. They are on the back of the cars but we were sitting in one of the front rows of a car and two of the sensors were for our row and the other was for the back row in front of the sensors. We could tell because Garbels (Jake) was trying to get the restraints to go down far enough and you see the light going on and off as he was getting close.

Lightning Rod has them as well but it depends on which row you are sitting at if you can see your seat.

That's the sad part that makes me want a cry.. SFOG has a BBB rating of B+ Dollywood has a B! Is this a true representation of the parks? No but it is a public representation that goes back to a better social media presence or CS presence overall. With the BBB it's more about a better complaint resolution process. Six Flags obviously does better in this department even with a lot more complaints. We all know Dollywood is a better park but publicly, for people who check stuff like the BBB, six flags looks better. Of course six flags trip advisor reviews are in the tank haha Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk Please just stop. You are obsessed and are reaching at the dumbest details to convince this website that you are right. As a moderator of the site, I am asking we move on. Consider this you getting the last word in and you won or whatever it will take to get you to stop. I am just going to delete anything else you have to post unless it is something that actually has substance and is meaningful to this thread. Exactly. Which is why I am asking we not try to further a point by using social media as an example.

Which you are only adding to. Let me set you straight. Dollywood applied their raincheck policy for visitors that weren't able to get on Lightning Rod. The park could have been open the entire day with no rain and if Lightning Rod was down for less than two hours, you could claim a free ticket for any day this year. Yes, a policy that was only meant for a day that a guest bought a ticket and a rain event kept them from enjoying the majority of their day was applied to one ride.

^Reading comprehension is your friend. You should try it.

Again with the social media. People use social media more and more just to bitch about something and Trip Advisor has always been a forum for bitching. I do understand the sharp increase in BBB complaints as we already agreed that the park's handling of Lightning Rod wasn't the best. Can you imagine the complaints if they just kept it closed the majority of the year whether than trying to get it running? They have been in a lose-lose situation; at least the majority of us got multiple rides in, right? I didn't realize that about the season passes. It has never been an issue for me to get it updated at some point on my first visit of the year so I don't have to worry about it. I didn't get a new driver's license when I turned 21 so I got hassled all the time when I got carded since it said "Under 18". I didn't file a complaint with the restaurant, I eventually just got a new one. You guys are indeed in the minority. They don't do surveys anymore?!? Yup, the park is going downhill. They don't sing as many traditional Christmas songs anymore?!? Yeah, Craig Ross is ruining everything. Seriously guys, you can complain about these little details, but don't try and convince us that the park is becoming Six Flags or old-school Paramount because things you loved in the past are taking away.

^^So, their social media presence is lacking? You didn't give any examples other than that. Not sure you are effectively making your point when you aren't even citing actual park experiences. Just got back from the park today and customer service was as good as it always has been. I've also been going to the park for years and I can count the number of negative experiences at the park on one hand and that was mainly due to other guests not park employees. If you look through the history of the thread, the only consistent negative posts are from members like you and dtephe9 who have also been going to the park for years. Perhaps, both of you have set the bar too high based on past memories and every little thing that goes wrong on your visit is magnified more than it should be. Look, I am not saying the park is the best customer service on the planet, I agree that Disney is better. The situation with Lightning Rod could of been handled better for sure. I think the majority of people on here have agreed with that, but also understand that a prototype ride was likely to have issues and that there was a risk with basing a vacation solely on one ride. Other than that, the complaints I have read from these "long-time" park visitors is nothing but nit-picky complaints that most people wouldn't break a sweat over. No one is saying he was literally comparing a roller coaster to a hurricane. He was comparing Dollywood's raincheck policy with Disney's hurricane policy which is beyond ridiculous. Dollywood didn't have to do anything because of Lightning Rod's issue but they offered a free ticket which I call great customer service. He brought up Disney for whatever reason other than other posters were speaking positively of this policy. If you had done this to begin with (like you are actually suppose to do when renewing passes online) than you wouldn't have had to wait 30 minutes for a manager to stop whatever he was doing to make an exception for you. Maybe they waited 12 days, because they were busy responding to legitimate complaints.

Like I said you compared a hurricane policy to what Dollywood did because a real roller coaster wasn't open. Also Dollywood isn't a world-wide destiny like Disney so of course their policy is different. People are trying to compliment a really cool policy that Dollywood didn't have to do, yet you find a way to turn into one of your numerous complaints about a park you claim is your favorite.

^You just compared a natural disaster event to a roller coaster not being opened....

Mysterious Mansion posted a video of the owner (or another employee) taking video yesterday of the property. They had installed a makeshift sprinkler system that probably saved the building. Visible fire damage to the woods can be seen just a few feet from the building. https://www.facebook.com/Mysterious.Mansion

^You are being way too aggressive in the tone of your posts. You are defending a ride that has not been sold yet which is the reason you are being ridiculed. I would like to ask that we move on and not continue down this road. The fact is Kentucky Kingdom didn't go with a Skywarp. Once one is sold, we can determine how it compares to other rides.

^That's the problem. "Actual news outlets and reporters" aren't taking the time to research the info and just reporting it.

From my co-workers: No significant damages to tourist attractions in the area. It sounds like Hillbilly Golf has some damage and the buildings on top of the mountain where the Gatlinburg Ski Lift goes to. The fires basically shot up on both sides of the Gatlinburg strip on the ridges and eventually went all the way through the spur and onto the ridges around Dollywood. There was 80 plus mph winds going from south to north which made this the perfect storm. The majority of the major damage is cabins, chalets and homes. A lot of the hotels that were damaged are off of US 321 to the north and south towards Airport Road. The Park Vista hotel was in this area but it is a concrete building and looks like it lost windows but the main building didn't catch on fire. The fire got close to Ober Gatlinburg but never made it all the way up. Ski Mountain Road which leads to the top of the property has a majority of the lost cabins and chalets. The area has not seen significant rains in weeks and there is no telling what would of been the result if that line of rain hadn't come through. The aquarium and Dollywood were on the verge of having major damage if it wasn't for the rain.

Mysterious Mansion still stands. It was the building next to it that was destroyed. River Terrace also received damage which is on the other side of the Edgewater hotel which Mysterious Mansion is directly adjacent to. Sounds like the fire jumped over both and the rain put out the fire before any significant damage occurred.

That is not the Mysterious Mansion. Plenty of photos being posted that are not even from the area and from other wildfires around the country. I believe that is a hotel off of US 321. This photo is looking directly towards Mysterious Mansion. The building closest is the Gatlinburg Ski Lift and Mysterious Mansion is roughly behind the sign on the road to the right of the ski lift building. A lot of damage along River Road on the other side of creek, but it is possible the fire jumped over the Mysterious Mansion building.

There are a lot of resources on hand and more rain is on the way. Like I said, no significant damage has been reported yet. Let's hope we can say the same in the morning.

^^No damage to Dollywood as of now. The rain couldn't have come at a better time. People were reporting and posting videos of fires to the hills all around the park before the rain came.

We haven't had significant rain in weeks/months and a huge line of rain has moved through and appears to have saved the area around Dollywood for now. Everyone has been evacuated from the Park Vista hotel as reported so that is good news. There are still active fires on the spur/highway between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. National Guard has been called to the area, so I wouldn't recommend making a trip here until this situation has cleared.

Local news finally broke in to regular programming to cover it. The rain should be there in an hour but this will be a very tense night. This video should show how intense it is getting. This is the main road between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg that many of you have been on.