coasterfreaky

Winterfest begins this week in Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Dollywood's Xmas event has started up as well. Fall foliage looks like it might be peaking this weekend too, which is always a big draw. You might want to check the Newport area, or Knoxville area hotels as well....or Townsend, Maryville are good alternatives. Have you checked into renting a cabin instead of a hotel? You may have better luck with that. Also, airbnb and VRBO might be helpful. good luck.

here's the local NBC affiliate's story... New rides & shows coming to Dollywood next year link to WBIR story

There is such a thing! zdt's switchback coaster This all sounds great. I hope they don't lose the swings in country fair. My hope is they put a lighting package on it.

I'm very sure that any company running a chain of theme parks understands why that incident occurred, which was not in any way a safety failure of the ride, but more so a failure of the employees of that park. Same with the NTEG incident. If they were worried about buying rides from manufacturers that people have died on before, then they wouldn't have purchased 2 RMC coasters. I'm speaking about Intamin's overall safety record. How many people have died on their rides through the years? I guess its just all a coincidence that more people die using Intamin rides than other manufacturers...or simply bad luck. Cedar Point and Holiday World just removed two of their water rides....just a coincidence. I would have to say that HFE's insurance companies have an opinion about this as well.

I don't think Intamin and HFE have liked Intamin since the Lost River of the Ozarks at SDC, but don't quote me on that I'll quote you on that. See, business decisions aren't made on the basis of liking a company or not. It's all about finding the right product. Intamin make a lot of different kinds of rides, but generally they're high cost, high quality rides. They push limits and make some of the biggest coasters anywhere. That's why enthusiasts love them. Business priorities are not always aligned with that type of thinking, though. High cost, high quality rides mean each guest has to pay more to ride them. That can be accomplished through a variety of factors: tickets, food, hotels, merchandise, etc. The fact is, though, that the higher you price something, the more people will opt out of it entirely. HFE as a company are really, really cheap. So that explains why they haven't gotten an Intamin coaster so far..... If Intamin is the only company that can deliver the experience, they'll get an Intamin. If someone can deliver that experience for less, they'll buy from someone else. I agree with all you're saying, but I would not hold my breath for any Intamin products to be purchased by HFE. Dollywood, SDC and Wild Adventures have ZERO Intamin rides or coasters. HFE's only experience, that I'm aware of, with Intamin was through being the management for Elitch Gardens and Darien Lake. If you'll all recall, the first year of HFE's management of Darian Lake was the year of the accident on Superman in 2011 where the man fell out and died. It's just my opinion, but all their parks have rides and coasters from just about every other manufacturer, except Intamin. I think it's a safety issue moreso than cost, but its probably a mix of both factors.

Is it even possible to sue someone because you happened to be on their property when you got stung by a wasp? If so this is country is even more f**ked than I thought. well, you know people can and will sue for anything, so yes it's possible. I think the danger lies with someone who is unaware that they're allergic to bees or wasps, then gets stung, goes into anaphylactic shock, which lowers your blood pressure, etc, during the ride and comes back into the station unresponsive. None of that can happen if the ride is closed. Just my .02 cents.

I agree with this strategy. Im sure their legal team is involved somehow, advising against doing it like that. I'm curious to see if the overhead structure they built at the top of LR that they said was for this purpose, actually works. And if it does work maybe they can do it for the other coasters as well.

Not surprising for the middle of the week in September. I'm still surprised they are open so much during the week right now. I was actually pretty puzzled by their operating schedule too. It looks like they're open every day but Tuesday and Thursday in September, then every day but Tuesday in October with the exception of Halloween which is a Monday. Then they're closed until November 5th where they switch to a Wednesday through Sunday schedule until December where they're only closed on Mondays until the 13th where they're open daily except for Christmas and Christmas Eve until New Years. What... the... f**k? it has been exactly that way since at least 2012. They close for a week leading up to the xmas season that starts on Nov. 5th this year.

Yes this would be three. The similar one, Slick Rock Racer, only has four lanes, so I'm thinking this must be an entirely new slide. Tailspin Racer, Slick Rock Racer and Mountain Twist are their three mat slides.

Here are two updates to the mountain coasters in this area... Goats on the roof suffered an accident as well and is now shut down by the state while they remedy the situation. And the Gatlinburg Mountain coaster has re-opened. Goats coaster update from WATE-knoxville G'burg coaster update from WBIR-knoxville

^^Knoxville has or had a Poutine food truck.

For those of you looking for additional things to do in the area then you should check out this comprehensive report from Erik and Smisty from a few years back. They did a great job covering a lot of the area's offerings. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50372&p=738176&hilit=golf#p738176

Yes it's open under a different name now. The Outdoor Gravity Park Outdoor Gravity Park (formerly known as Zorb)

^^lol...not if you prefer north Carolina style as opposed to Memphis or KC style.

They're all good! Sweet P's might edge out the other two, slightly, for me personally. I like the food as well as the atmosphere. They have beef, brisket and chicken and bbq burrito's, a smoked meatloaf was the special the other day...several creative items. They have a tomato based sauce, a vinegar based sauce and a hot tomato based sauce...they serve beer and you can park across the street for free after 6p and all weekend. Sweet P's is closed on Mondays. Chandler's has their own parking lot. Archer's - there's two parking garages behind it's row of buildings- The State Street garage is the bigger one of the two garages.. Free after 6p during the week and on weekends.

A friend is at the park today and he said LR did not open with the park, but did open a few hours later.

^That could possibly be RMC folks riding it...it's difficult to know. When the employees start riding it is probably the biggest sign that it will soon open.

And that map is not quite all of their property as they have property listed under different entities. So, there's more!

^they don't own the land behind miss lillians, the eagle reserve, or tn tornado. Basically, all the land in between the park and the parking lots is theirs, that's hundreds of acres available for future use. All up beyond the upper train loop is theirs as well. They have several hundred acres to expand when they need to. There is a map on page 487 that shows most of their property in yellow.

No one suggested that, unless I missed it.

^^I agree. I've been riding Blazing Fury since 1992 and I love how they tinker with it and make subtle adjustments each year. Sometimes they're things I like, sometimes not, but its always good to see them working on it in some way....versus letting it fall apart. And to suggest that DW can do massive improvements b/c Disney is able to do so is comparing apples and oranges. Disney is a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate with numerous parks and enormous creative workforce, etc. Dollywood is one park/resort complex, with a humble music icon as its spokesperson and fundraiser. That's hardly a fair comparison. I do agree with, and like the idea of making the Blazing Fury story more cohesive. The story really gets lost along the way and that's something relatively easy to fix and wouldn't cost very much.

Looks like they miss quoted him. The other 2 news station say testing started back up last Friday. yeah, they either miss quoted or misunderstood what he said. Bottom line is that this is encouraging news. edit - they revised the story to fix that sentence.

new news is that testing has come to end. WATE tv update 4/26/16 edit - they revised the story to fix the sentence about testing.

Yeah, this seems odd to be testing at all period. Maybe the Velocity LSM's are being given another opportunity?? By the sounds of RMC's announcement it made it seem as though the Velocity LSM's were not up to par. To me, that means they need to be replaced altogether. So...wondering if DW is giving it some more time to work out before making the call to replace them, or keep them if they work?? edit: this makes financial sense...no doubt LSM's are expensive, as well as uninstall and replace and install new ones...might as well test & adjust the heck out of them before making a final decision. "Later this year'' is open for interpretation, but it sounds like they are planning for this to take awhile. It is what it is.

Dolly's Update from thursday March 24, 2016 In the video - She reviews just about everything going on in her career and Dollywood / Pigeon Forge. Highlights if you can't watch...Lightning Rod is not ready yet, and she is as disappointed as everyone else Dolly Concert in Pigeon Forge on November 15th at the LaConte Center in PF. Sounds like this is the same concert she performed last year at Dollywood...which was fantastic of course. Q&A included in the video. There will be more press articles coming out today...i'll keep an eye out and update.