AmyUD06

Thanks for the report! You seem pretty well connected with this park...have you ever heard why they didn't go for the new-generation Vekoma vest-restraint trains when they bought these new trains not that long ago? I'm pretty sure they were available then, but I could be wrong.

Have you considered that perhaps the problem isn't that "theme park ppl" are paid too much, but rather that entry level "corporate jobs" (along with everyone) aren't paid enough and CEOs and other executives are paid too much?

What are you on about? Winterfest, at the parks that run it, blows HITP away in every area except ride selection.

Zimmerman staying at the top is good....but yeah I'm not feeling good about this. Just please keep CF's dedication to seasonal decorations and theatrics and skip-the-line program, please?

Or even worse, become Six Flags parks.

Boo.

My full report should hopefully posted within a few weeks, but a few bullet points: -Paying extra for a hard membership card is the biggest nickle-and-dime bullshit I've ever seen. Just increase the cost of the pass by $7 if you're that hard up for money, SEAS. -What happened to all of the food locations in this place? I remember there being more, but many were sign-less or walled off. -If you go to Halloween events for the artistry and decorations of it all, especially in the houses, you may want to divert to Kings Dominion. Seriously, a flat printed piece of cardboard for books on a bookshelf? Your entire circus theme scare zone getting some banners and like two physical props? Lame. -If you go to Halloween events for the shows, this is your park. Monster Stomp was downright incredible, and Phantoms of the Festhaus and Skeletones were both worlds beyond Cedar Fair's efforts at those themes (singing monsters and classic song review, respectively). The Jack is Back show was kinda lackluster and corny, however.

Same. Orion isn't even in my Top 5 at this park.

I swear the Dorney site (where I bought the pass) said "not valid until 2024" for a while haha. But yeah, sadly I didn't have a spare grand lying around with all of the park trips (and other Halloweeny stuff) I'm doing this month, so $115 for the daily FL had to cut it. Worth it, though, since I've been in the park not even 2 hours and already got on more than I did last night in 7.

I was about to write something about how when I first looked at the 2024 ASAP Fast Lane add-on, it said it included the rest of this year, but when I bought my pass, it said "valid in 2024 only," but when I just went to look at the park where I bought my pass through (Dorney), it says "...plus get the rest of 2023 for free!" on the ASAP FL add-on. I swear when I bought my pass a few weeks ago it said "valid in 2024 only" so I didn't buy the add on yet. Oh well.

Yeah I do. That's in the plan for tomorrow. I didn't have a CF pass this year and the all-season, all-park add on for 2024 passes doesn't kick in until next year. I totally forgot how the other half lives hahaha.

At 4:15 LOL. I guess tonight is going to be a shows night haha. Edit: and the mazes at 9:30:

LOL, I was just sayin'.

Yeah I was impressed. Note that if it's even slightly raining and you're coming for haunt stuff, the only things that will happen are indoor mazes or shows. Everything outdoors, including roving scare actors and shows, do not happen in the rain.

You renew at whatever price they're selling the renewal for when you do it. There is no "price lock" or anything like that. It should be a very slight discount from a brand new pass.

Many coasters were running multiple trains. Only one on Magnum though haha.

So I'm probably out of the loop here, only making my first trips to CF parks this year in the past few weeks, but when did CP relax their rain policy? Maverick, Valravn, Raptor, Wild Mouse, Blue Streak... even Magnum, all running in light rain.

All that, but no Vekoma vest trains? Seems like a super obvious idea.

Yeah I know this feeling. This has also happened to me at one of those small parks in New England (can't remember which) and Steel Pier in Atlantic City. Thankfully I've never been threatened with legal action. Cool, thanks for the info. It looks newer than that haha.

So, I finally got around to posting my Photo Trip Report from this park in June. Please go check it out by clicking the link!

And now, for the (not-so-)thrilling conclusion! Dollywood - Day 2, Saturday June 3rd After a relaxing night at the pool, a good nights sleep, and a delicious breakfast buffet at the HeartSong restaurant, I made it back to the park around 10:30, and immediately made my way over to Lightning Rod. With the one-time pass they issued yesterday and my Timesaver wristband from staying at the resort, I had two skip-the-queue rides waiting for me here, and I was determined to get them both. Facing no mechanical issues this morning (thankfully), I succeeded! Front row (10 minutes) and back row (6 minutes) This strange launched RMC was very good, and lived up to the hype...but did not take the crown for "Best Ride at Dollywood" from Thunderhead. This ride was a bunch of firsts for me: RMC without anything on the zero car, RMC with headrests, and the first RMC that I had ever been on that was not the better ride in the back. The back row had a ton of rattles and shakiness that weren't experienced in the front. Quality ride? Of course. but a mid-tier RMC, if you ask me. 9/10. I made my way up the main right-side path, taking in another ride on Tenn. Tornado (2-train wait for row 7). This was still very good, even in the middle of the train. Along the way I snapped some pictures of Barnstomer, and while these type of rides are not my cup of tea, the theming was once again impeccable. With all of my checklist rides at this park, accomplished, I headed back over to Thunderhead for a few more laps. 5-train-wait for front row and 3-train-wait for back row. Still awesome, and still my favorite ride at this park. I then lapped around the park again to take in the Wings of America: Birds of Prey show, but not before grabbing another picture of the historic schoolhouse.... ...and a bite to eat: I opted for the chicken tenders from Hickory House BBQ, which were absolutely spectacular. After that, it was time for birds! The show was quite cool, but came with a bit of a sad story: All of the birds housed at Dollywood are unable to be released into the wild, due to either injuries or issues they've had since birth, but Wings of America does their thing and keeps them healthy here. The show was about 25 minutes long, and featured around 4 or 5 different types of birds, but did have a decent amount of southern "puns" that no one laughed at. Enjoy some pictures of the show! Back to Thunderhead for more laps! 6-minutes for front row and 2-train-wait for back row would close out this trip for me rides-wise (I had an early morning planned for my long, long drive back to Delaware the next day), but I did wander around a bit taking some more pictures... And of course got some Cinnamon Bread from the actual Grist Mill place (and a hoodie and shot glass from the big gift shop up front, in traditional AmyUD06 fashion), and brought it back to my room. Holy crap was that incredible...normally I'm not a huge cinnamon fan, but combined with that icing dip....just wow. I'll close this report out with some videos of the incomparable Thunderhead (which, as a result of TeamFourStar's FFVII Machinabridged series on YouTube, I cannot take seriously). M4H03737 - Trim.MP4 M4H03738 - Trim.MP4 All-in-all, this turned out to be a wonderful trip, and I will definitely be back. Thanks for reading everyone, and I welcome your comments.

I think at a different park, it would've been tolerable...but at this place, it legit made me fear for my safety.

Okay, time to wrap this up! Before I get to the park, I need to talk about the DreamMore Resort at Dollywood. Now, this is my first time ever staying at an on-property park hotel (the shitty Super8/Travelodge/etc in the parking lot at Kings Dominion does not count), and WOW! This place blew me away. Valet parking, bellpeople for your bags, a great assortment of food options, the spectacular buffet, the incredible pool...everything about this place was stellar. Easily the best hotel I've ever stayed in outside of Las Vegas or Atlantic City. If anyone is questioning it, it is totally worth the money. Here are some pictures of my room: And the view from my room: And the awesome pool, after a biological incident caused them to have to clear it which entertainingly made all of the parents bring their screaming brats back to the room, enabling the pool to be relaxing: Alright, now that that is out of the way.... Dollywood Day 1 - Friday, June 2nd So I hopped on the awesome shuttle service from the hotel to the park, and arrived shortly after opening, and my first stop was the hotel guest Timesaver redemption booth. Did I not mention that by staying at the hotel, you get free Timesaver skip-the-line passes? Yeah, yet another bonus. As this was a new park to me, I took a ton of pictures of everything, so you get to enjoy them too! The entry/ticketing area: This park really is beautiful (this will be a recurring theme). My first stop was the problematic monster known as Lighting Rod: Nope, not waiting in that for it to maybe not open soon. So I continued my way up towards Blazing Fury, taking in the sights. Yes, I am absolutely aware of starting Pride Month in Tennessee, but it was still not a bad time. Jumping out of sequence here, but I had to represent. First ride of the day: Blazing Fury! I loved these screens they had up at the entrance to every major ride showing the wait times as well as those for other rides. Very nice touch! So what did I think of this classic? I wasn't quite sure if it was a coaster or dark ride, but RCDB counts it, so I guess I will too. Cool little ride with a few drops. Half-train wait for the back row, 7/10. Onwards towards Tennessee Tornado! From my notes video: "This is an Arrow? If only they had not gone bankrupt from building X, this would've been an incredible future." The ride was a little on the short side, but was insanely smooth, everything was properly banked/heartlined, no headbanging. This was absolutely incredible, and the fact that it's an Arrow just gets it more points. Three-train-wait for the front row. 9/10. Firechaser Express was not yet open... ...so my next ride would be.... ...yup, Wild Eagle! Admittedly, not very easy to photograph from the pathways, but this was a lot of fun. Not bad ride, through the middle portion I almost thought it would be my favorite B&M Wing, but Thunderbird at Holiday World still holds that title. I noted that this ride was very short, too, just like Tenn. Tornado, but that's not a theme that held on. Five-minute-wait for back row, right outer seat. 6/10, mostly for the length. I liked this little kiddie splash area (at least that's what I think it was) they had set up: I continued onward on the path, admiring the scenery... ...to my next destination, Mystery Mine. While I was thoroughly impressed with the theming and many of the effects in the dark-ride-parts. The ride itself was a little rough, but it's a Gerstlauer, what are you gonna do? Definitely a unique layout which was quite fun. 10-minute-wait (with Timesaver) for the back row, far left. 6/10. I did not ride their drop tower either that I was there, but it did look quite nice...rare to see one of these painted a color other than white LOL. My next ride was Dollywood's kiddie coaster, Whistlepunk Chaser. Learning is fun! Seriously, I had no idea that this was even a thing. It's a kiddie coaster, not much more to say. Got 3 laps, 8-minute-wait for the back row. Next up was.... Thunderhead, which I didn't take any other pictures of during my initial stop here. This. Was. INCREDIBLE. Easily the best coaster of this trip so far, let alone Dollywood. Super-smooth, twisty, airtime, you name it, this coaster has it. 11/10, and found itself a home as my new #2 woodie (ahead of Mystic Timbers and behind The Beast) and #5 overall. There are not enough words to describe how incredible this ride is. After that, I grabbed a personal pizza from the Lumberjack pizza place near Dropline. Sauce wasn't too tangy. $10 for an 8" round pizza (a much better value than CF or SF pizzas), not bad. I then made my way into Wildwood Grove, and took in the sights. I love it when parks have these bounce-around areas for kids...something I wish CF and SF would take the liability risk and put in. Anyway, my next ride was Dragonflier! I really wish that ever park that has one of these Vekoma family coasters would install these mildly-swinging-suspended trains, they absorb so much of the nonsense that you get on the earlier models like Flying Ace at Kings Island. Overall a fun family ride, nice and smooth. 10-minute-wait (with Timesaver) for row 8. 6/10. Big Bear Mountain would not be in the stars for me right now....yep, 90 minute wait at around 1:00 on a Friday, and not on Timesaver at this point. Grabbed another shot of the insane Thunderhead... ...and some more of the awesome scenery and theming at this park... Did I accidentally step in to 2023 Florida or Arkansas somehow? ...and made my way to Daredevil Falls, their log flume. This was a great log ride with some dark-ride-esque scenes, and didn't get too wet at all despite the substantial drop. 8/10. Not now Cinnamon Bread; I'll be back for you later. At this point in the trip, I made a note that the "Best way to describe the vibe of this park is Cedar Point's Frontier Trail, but it's the entire park" and I think that holds up. I admittedly only took in one show (the bird show, which I'll talk about later in this report) after realizing that all of them were country and/or Jesus music, but I will say that the venues were nice. Next up was a ride on the train, the Dollywood Express, the oldest ride at the park, opening in 1961. I was a sucker for steam trains when I was a kid, and still am. That said, the train ride wasn't as entertaining as some others that I've been on. 20 minutes for the ride and 30 minutes for the setup for the ride once we boarded. They literally took half an hour, explaining numerous times that "this is a real coal-fired steam train and you might get embers on you and that's okay, don't panic"...like, seriously? For a lot of the trip, it's just woods, it's just woods, and I know I'm in the south, but the spiel-er was absolutely unfunny despite his best attempts and no one laughed. Like not even a courtesy chuckle. 4/10 just because it's a real steam engine. That said, here are some pictures of the most interesting parts of the train ride. After the train ride, which drops you off where it picked you up, I took some pictures of this section of the park, aptly titled Country Fair, containing some typical carnival-style rides. And fish, And fountains. While riding the train, I saw that Lightning Rod was running, and once I got off I checked the app which confirmed it, so I made my way over, snapping plenty of pictures of the well-themed queue. Which I had plenty of time to do, during my 54-minute wait to not reach the front of the line at the level below the station...when, what do you know, there was a rollback, which for some ridiculous reason requires the train to be evacuated before they can try to launch it again. So they clear the train, wheel it back in to the station, send a few test cycles...and the very next train with people, and it rolls back again. "We're sorry, but Lighting Rod is experiencing extended downtime...." Ugh. So, it was back around to Thunderhead for another ride, but not before snapping this picture of cool old-timey stuff: This time I had a half-train wait for the back row. As expected, it did not disappoint. As I said in my notes "It's Mystic Timbers but longer!" Tons of air, speed, twisties, and laterals...it is awesome in every single way. I then made my way back into the (unfortunately unshaded) Wildwood Grove for Big Bear Mountain, whose wait had substantially decreased. As is typical for this park, awesome theming in the queue. But did I say Big Bear Mountain earlier? Perhaps I should've said Big Bear Desert or Big Bear Deforestation, because this is what you see 90% of the time that you're on the ride: Like seriously, if they built such complex rides in the 1960s to today with the construction technology of the time, they did not need to remove this many trees to build this ride. But how did it ride? Pretty good, a great family coaster! The on-board audio is a little corny, which I guess is to be expected, but the barren wasteland that is the terrain around everything but the station is very out of place for this park, and this ride. 34 minute wait for row 9. 7/10. From my notes: "The Wildwood grove section is as long as the entire rest of the park is, but only has one way in and out. Why did they not do something to make it an additional loop so you don't have to backtrack through the completely unshaded area?" OMG is this day one trip report not over yet? Nope! Onward to another coaster that I had skipped earlier in the day, Firechaser Express! Another incredibly well themed queue and station, including ride-specific uniforms for most of the ride operators. I don't know if it was an intentional design choice, but I loved how the train backs into the station the same way an actual fire engine would. As for the ride itself, it was quite fun, but I was not a huge fan of the backwards-running part. The ride operators also actually helped load bags into the cubbies, which was awesome and something that I haven't seen since my trip to Holiday World last year. Three-train wait for back row. 7/10. I saw that LR was operating again, so I made my way back over to try my luck once again. After 20 minutes of wait (with Timesaver), I was literally standing in the station, at the gate, ready to board the next train on the front row. I hear the entire crowd in the station groan, and see them turn around. I do the same, and see, once again, the train rolling back down the lift hill. After another 15 minutes, there came the announcement: "Extended Downtime." *sigh* So, they were handing out some one-time Timesaver passes, so I grabbed one, confirmed it would be valid the next day, and went back to my favorite ride at the park.... Thunderhead! Which was of course awesome. Three-train-wait for back row. After that, it was around 6:30 and super-hot, so I decided to just hop the shuttle back to the hotel, changed into swimwear, and relaxed down by the pool for a while before hitting the hay. And that, finally, wraps up my Day One report from Dollywood.Stay tuned for the epic conclusion!

I was there this past Friday (TR incoming). The new haunted maze, Ghost in the Shell, was absolutely incredible. The others were not so much, but that's probably because I go to this park every year for their Halloween stuff and not much has changed in the other haunts. The main theatrical show, Conjure the Night, was awesome. Make sure you catch at least one showing of it. I can say that you probably won't need a day and a half at this park, unless you intent to hit every adult flat too, but Friday only will definitely not be enough time to do all of the coasters and Haunt mazes and shows. Note that the Haunt stuff doesn't start until 7 on Friday (not sure what time on Saturday), so if you get there right at opening you will have time to hit Talon, Hydra, and the flats in the main entry midway prior to the Haunt stuff starting. EDIT: Oh, and if you have any bag-carrying-people in your group, note that the bag policy stated on the website (5"x8"x2" if non-clear, 12"x12"x6" if clear) was not what they were actually doing at the park, which was 6.5"x4.5"x2" no matter what.

Thanks for the report! $149 sounds nuts for a Fright/Fast Lane (which does include rides too), that $199 all-inclusive ticket is a pretty good deal for non-passholders.