coasterfreaky

Not if you are in Public Relations! I would expect for the next news direct from Dollywood will be that it will open...whenever that may be. They're not going to update us on the details of the issues they're working to resolve.

Dolly said no new coasters for a while - she was asked a question at one of the media events related to Lightning Rod. I would take that to mean the 10-year/300$ plan will run dry and then they will start working on whatever is next after that....so I would not hold my breath, but you never know with DW!!

Here's the concept art for Tn Tornado. I've never heard what you've explained, but I've always wondered if that was the case...that it was modified somehow from what they wanted. As you can see, it looks nothing like this as it is today. But to be fair - neither does Thunderhead vs. Thunderhead concept art....well, mostly it does not. Tornado certainly has enough power at the end to do a lot more than what it does. tornado concept

Thanks for sharing. Looks like its coming along nicely. The pictures look even better than the concept artwork, which looked good as well.

here's one of it in the station. It was a U-shaped station, so its impossible to capture the entire train in one photo. When it was going up the lift, the back of the train was directly under the front of the train (circular lift), that's how enormous it was. You sat tandem, so 80 passengers max. I hope something happens in that space, it certainly needs a total re-do. Remember, when Dolly pulled out of the Water and Snow park, Gaylord-Marriott were pretty clear they were going to pursue ''plans'' on their own. The plans that were posted on Screamscape look a little dated to me because the "Pearl Building" in the plans was razed after the flood, so there would be no need for that in those plans, also there is a warehouse that is not accounted for in those plans, that's approximately where the "town square" is, so these could be old plans - pre Dolly, pre 2010. My other concern about it is, once again, here's a design that is land locked with little room for expansion. Pretty sure there is a property line along the southern part of this plan, in between the hotel and the parking lot for the mall, around Grizzly RR, complicating expansion in that direction. I wouldn't get too excited about it until they announce it AND construction begins!! But I like this idea a lot, shortcomings and all. I think its obvious that Gaylor-Marriot should build an indoor waterpark to bridge the hotel to this entertainment complex...or whatever it will be. I guess we'll see in time. Chaos - partial train

^I think Todd is associated with Sir Putt A Lot's, so you could try and put S.P.A.L's in storage and pulling it back out again. With so many characters its hard to keep up. I've had the military-antique store guy (Herman??) go missing after big updates in the past.

Screamscape reports that the Gaylord - Denver is building an indoor/outdoor water park. http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_25078246/gaylord-rockies-hotel-feature-massive-year-round-water This is Gaylord's first water park and this looks like something that could happen at Nashville-Gaylord as well...we'll have to wait and see. The investment is about $25 million - IIRC that is what Gaylord-Nashville was going to invest in the Dollywood-Gaylord water & snow park, for a total of $50 million for phase I.

^Same here. You can use her during the rest of the event tho!

If you have Witch Marge you can speed up your rose crop by 4 hour tasks of hers.

There's a "Wheel Of Friendship" in the update...according to the description in the app store. OY!

^^ That's great, gives me hope. My biggest mystery box prize so far has been Squeeky Voice Teen. usually its hedge, parking spot, gazebo, etc.

You can turn on the 'confirm donut spend' in your settings to prevent that from happening again. http://tstoaddicts.com/tag/confirm-donut-spend/ I think there were 9 'snowmen' - Homer, Marge, Bart, Maggie, Lisa, Grandpa, santa’s little helper, snowball II, and the Ice God. The same ones (except Ice God) available for donuts in the christmas-premium-stuff menu in the game. I found some of this wheel advice helpful getting the last few prizes on the wheel... http://tstoaddicts.com/2014/01/08/from-the-mouths-of-addicts-holiday-wheel-spin-tips/

that's what i was thinking. I've not examined the underside of the boats (i'd love to though!), but it looks to me like there is a "T" shaped bar on the lift and the descent that the boat holds on to. Divertical and Pilgrims Plunge (or whatever it's called now) have the same design. I guess something didn't align correctly where the "T" shaped bar begins, at the transition from the water trough to the lift. Seems like that might be fixed by making the space tighter so it will align correctly. You can see the "T" shaped bar here in these construction pics... http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=864766#p864766 The 3/2/10 pic marked as "pretty" and more here... http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=879837#p879837 The 6th pic down, the 17th pic down, and the 20th pic down shows the entrance to lift #1.

Not sure if this has been posted here yet, but i ran across a way to lock your donuts so you don't accidentally spend them. I've done it myself and it is frustrating. Here's a tutorial on how to do it... http://tstotips.com/2013/04/11/theres-now-an-option-to-confirm-your-donut-spend/ Hope it helps someone!!

It's about 98% the same, but they did make it more compact to fit the new footprint. Specifically, the helix goes under a new support, whereas at opryland all the supports in the helix were on the exterior. You can compare the two helixes from RCDB pics. Anywhere in the RCDB pics where you see the cross-ties transition from the very square 90-degree angles to a more curved angle cross-tie, that is all new track that was needed to make it more compact. Also, the old skid brakes were removed, as were three sets of rotating-tire brakes. The rotating tires were prior to lift #1, prior to lift#2 and on the uphill section going in to the station. There was a third train at Opryland, but it must have been used for parts or sent to another Six Flags. Also, at the top of lift #2 there was a block brake that is no longer there either. You can see how the spine dips down to make room for the hardware, but i rarely saw it used at Opryland. There was more spare train storage on the left which didn't make it to Great Escape either. And the station at GE is set up opposite of Opryland. You boarded the train from the left side of the train (as it exits the station) and the operator was in the back on the unload side. I think it's completely reversed at GE. At first glance it looks exactly the same, but there were some minor changes.

Yeah, that was a problem for me too. I put the Itchy & Scratchy store in my storage after it was built, pulled it back out and it triggered Bart and Millhouse to shop at the store for 4 hours. A weird glitch i think.

The clicking when it leaves the station? I think B&M's have started adding busbars for the landing position in the station, so the computer can pull in diagnostics from the train, see which restraints are locked and maybe to charge up the LED lights on the trains...i'm not entirely sure what all info they're getting from it. I first noticed those on Wild Eagle, but i noticed too on video from Steel Dragon's new B&M trains... that they are there as well. So the clicking is the connection to each busbar as the train rolls over them. Great videos and pics!! The trains are gorgeous!! LOVE!! I actually meant the clicking you hear during the whole ride. Did you mean that as well? Not sure what that sound is...i've never noticed it on Wild Eagle. Probably cool kids snapping, as CFC said

The clicking when it leaves the station? I think B&M's have started adding busbars for the landing position in the station, so the computer can pull in diagnostics from the train, see which restraints are locked and maybe to charge up the LED lights on the trains...i'm not entirely sure what all info they're getting from it. I first noticed those on Wild Eagle, but i noticed too on video from Steel Dragon's new B&M trains... that they are there as well. So the clicking is the connection to each busbar as the train rolls over them. Great videos and pics!! The trains are gorgeous!! LOVE!!

I did a little more "research" (i read the wikipedia article )...and here's where the balloon ride ended up. A few hundred feet away, or so, from its original location, the balloon ride parts were re-worked in to a ski lift for the Oz Run at Beech Mountain, which is the back side of the resort and it's not open very often. I think that was a genius move. The owners biggest investment in Oz could be reworked in to something else useful in their other ventures!, very clever. And it is not a Von Roll as i first thought. It was built by the Goforth Brothers, a North Carolina-based ski lift manufacturer, which is now out of business. AND, Land of Oz was built by the Robbins brothers, who built the Tweetsie RR, which is still operational and not far from Oz. Some of you may know that the Tweetsie folks (Robbins Brothers) were the ones who started Dollywood way back in the day when it was called Rebel Railroad. ALSO, Train #192 at Dollywood and #190 at Tweetsie are twins, both built at the same time and eventually both were used in Alaska on the Yukon & White Pass, and are identical in appearance. So, Land Of Oz, Tweetsie RR and (eventually) Dollywood are all connected in their histories. If you want to map Land of Oz and Beech Mtn, search for "Yellow Brick Road, Beech, NC" and you can see the yellow brick road on the map. Here's the old "Land of Oz" balloon ride today...reworked in to a ski lift at Beech Mtn, NC.

^Wow, never heard of this, or seen any mention of this place ever, and i've ski'd there several times over the years. Apparently it's still a thing...and opened for tours and stuff. http://www.beechmtn.com/things-to-do/the-land-of-oz Awesome, thanks! Looks like they had a Balloon Ride, that looks to me like a Von Roll (maybe?) that goes in a circular route...definitely never seen anything like that before...and it's different than the triangular Von Roll at Busch-Williamsburg.

The only update i noticed was a bunny topiary for $1300...i don't rememeber seeing it before.

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^Exactly correct.

The wrench in all of this is that Gaylord/Marriott has stated that they are in the process of moving forward with those same water/snow park plans. They are seeking an operating partner to make it happen (Marriott may be the right people to do this given that they have some water park resorts in the North East, right?). So they are well ahead of Dolly in terms of “building a water park”. They own the land and the plans are ready to go. I don’t think Nashville, or many cities really, could support four water parks. Wave Country is owned by the city, so I would think that it would be the first one to go – b/c eventually it will happen to one or two of them, just being realistic about it. It would literally be an oversaturation of water parks, pun intended. We'll see how it all plays out though. Things can change quickly.