ytterbiumanalyst

Nice report! If you didn't like Prowler, then you definitely wouldn't like Timber Wolf. It is much better since the GCI retrack--it now waits until halfway through the ride to murder your kidneys! Dinosaurs Alive is very popular with the kids, and I enjoy the walk through the woods. Battle Creek is actually a very good lunch place. There's better barbecue in KC, but there's not better barbecue in a theme park anywhere. KC is all about the Q, and I'm glad you got to try it. There are really two categories of people: Those who know KC style is the best, and those who are wrong. Oh, and Le Taxitour. Where do I collect my bonus points?

Whoops--wasn't paying attention to what forum this was in. My bad. I'll let an Alvey answer this.

Oh wow. That stall on Valravn's drop is already pretty freaky, it'd be that much more awesome in fog!

There are no words for this....

10/10 Lebanon

I'm reserving judgment until I actually ride one, which I'm looking forward to doing in a couple of months. That said, I really doubt Knott's would get one. Magic Mountain has a ZacSpin already, and that type of ride just doesn't fit Knott's clientele. Remember they're within the Disney Zone (do de do doo do de do doo), so I'd look for this to be exciting but not intimidating.

It's actually a pretty decent ride. My only issue with it is that I had ridden the Bat at Kings Island the previous day. The inevitable comparison left me thinking less of Iron Dragon than I otherwise would have. It's no Ninja, but I had fun on it.

Yeah, and multiply that by 5, I think? Gets really expensive.

You are correct, thanks.

Not outside the children's section. They have an S&S Screamin' Swing, Barnstormer, which is the best flat, and they have Lumberjack Lifts (a rider-powered drop tower of sorts) and Drop Line (Mack drop tower) over on the other side of the park. That's it, other than the Country Fair section, which has about a dozen flats for kids. I'll have more photos on my Day 4 update, as we didn't go to the Country Fair section until then. And yeah, with the park's focus on Dolly Parton, pretty much all the shows are country, bluegrass, or gospel--which makes perfect sense, given that Dolly herself plays that kind of music. The park is still beautiful even if you never see any shows, and there's not a single bad ride.

Oh, it was very busy, to the point that traffic was backed up on the road to get into the parking lot. One, we went very early, at opening. Two, the zoo is huge and the entrance is right in the middle, with easy access in all directions, so the crowds spread out well. It's just designed to handle the crowds. Admission is $15 adults/$10 children, and if you're a member of any AZA accredited zoo (which we are), then you get a 50% discount on admission. $5 parking. And yes, the LEGO exhibit is not permanent; it's just there for about another month.

Great report! I loved Adventureland when we visited last year. There's so much there that most parks don't offer, and I'm glad you pointed out all the little things that set it apart. It is rather isolated, but anyone who's anywhere in the area should make a point to visit. It really is that good.

Very nice! Looks like Coastermania was a great day for you.

That graphic tracks EBITDA, not number of visitors. It is possible for a business with more customers to have lower EBITDA than another with fewer customers. There are many factors involved in that calculation--in fact, all of them except interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization .

I loved it last year. It's like a smaller Screamin' Eagle. The air is real. That's really how I feel about it. Rougarou is my #2 floorless after Superman at Fiesta Texas, but there are so many good coasters at CP that it's hard for one to stick out unless it's really an elite ride. That may be the source of the disappointment over the post-recession four: They got Gatekeeper, Pipe Scream, Rougarou, and Valravn in four years. As an aside, anyone who's complaining about four coasters in four years doesn't have any real problems. But none of those were really better than what they already had, so they seemed lesser. In reality, each is arguably the best of its kind, and is unquestionably among the best. Cedar Point is great as it is, and I would go back right now with nothing new, just because of how awesome its existing rides are. It needs nothing else, but they continue to innovate. I'm really hoping to be able to get back there next year for this beautiful monstrosity rising from Mean Streak's ashes--but just as much to ride the three coasters that are already in my top 5.

Don't worry, MB will suck in a few years too. Seems like all the Gravity coasters don't hold up. Um, yeah, other than Hades (because Mt. Olympus), I don't see a single coaster on this list that isn't great (going by reputation for the ones I haven't ridden personally). I've heard that Voyage is getting pretty bad. I rode Voyage just last week, and it's as awesome as always. Holiday World takes great care of their wooden coasters, and they hold up quite well. But don't take my word for it; go and ride for yourself!

Agreed. Something like Radiator Springs Racers would be awesome.

Don't worry, MB will suck in a few years too. Seems like all the Gravity coasters don't hold up. Um, yeah, other than Hades (because Mt. Olympus), I don't see a single coaster on this list that isn't great (going by reputation for the ones I haven't ridden personally).

Yeah, Google's wrong about that.... But you can check out my TR to see how the fireworks look at park closing. I mean, you can see them, but just barely. That's Dollywood at 9PM just a couple of weeks ago, and since sunset gets later as we go toward summer solstice, it's going to be about that dark for you next weekend.

Day 2: Song and Hearth for Breakfast, Song and Dance for Tickets, and Songs from the Heart for Family Sunday morning the first item on the agenda was to get Dollywood tickets. I had been told when I checked in that tickets would be available at 8AM, so I went down to the concierge desk at that time. No one was there. I waited just a minute or so, then one bewildered concierge asked what I needed, and I replied that I wanted to buy tickets. She said they wouldn’t open until 9, and that they don’t have any computers up yet. Turns out what I was told the night before was ticket misinformation #1 (ominous foreshadowing…). Okay, so we’ll head to breakfast instead, then buy tickets afterward. Song and Hearth was incredibly awesome! It’s a buffet breakfast with an omelet chef and a pancake chef. Yes, you tell these men what you want them to make, and they do, and it’s delicious! I got a Denver omelet variant with extra veggies and my daughter got a birthday cake pancake! They also have the best bacon ever, lots of pastries, it’s great. After breakfast, I went to get the tickets. We have Silver Dollar City season passes, so we get a 50% discount on undiscounted tickets. The way I read the policy online, that wouldn’t apply to the three-day tickets we wanted, but just to be sure, I asked the concierge. In hindsight, it would have been better to have just kept my mouth shut and gotten the resort discount, which was more than the advance purchase online discount. What actually happened is that she told me, “Don’t you get free tickets?” Misinformation #2, but I knew we didn’t; I was just asking if the discount applied to the three-day tickets. To be clear, those are considered to be already discounted, so they aren’t undiscounted tickets and you don’t get an SDC passholder discount. To be super, super clear, I wasn’t trying to get a discount I didn’t deserve; I was only asking because I wasn’t certain if the three-day tickets qualified as undiscounted, which I now know they do not. So she called over to Dollywood guest services to ask them, and after she got off the phone, told me, yes you get 50% off those tickets. Misinformation #3. Fantastic, I thought, 50% off! I picked up our TimeSaver passes from the concierge, and we boarded the shuttle bus to Dollywood. I then went to the ticket booth there and showed my SDC season passes we had brought with us just in case, and asked for my 50% off three-day passes (which, I remind you, I was under the impression was a discount we were entitled to, having just been told that by the DreamMore concierge). The ticket agent looked puzzled, which was not at all a good sign. She called over to guest services, and they said no such thing exists. Awesome. I could get three-day tickets at full price, or three one-day tickets at 50% off for SDC season passholders. After running the math, we figured out it would be more even with our discount to get three individual day tickets than it would for the three-day tickets—and to get the resort discount, I would have to go back to DreamMore. We were already at Dollywood, and I really was tired of this run-around, but on the plus side, I finally had accurate information! Fine, whatever, we’ll just buy the tickets here and finally start our day. That snafu aside, Dollywood was a fantastic place, and that ended up being the only snag in our entire trip. Could have been much worse. I probably could have called ahead and gotten the right information straight from Dollywood, but I really did expect DreamMore’s concierge to know, and she just didn’t. I get that they probably don’t get a whole lot of SDC passholders at DreamMore, but it really should be a thing that they at least have a QRG for. Water under the bridge, and it didn’t ruin my trip or even my day, but it was a genuine frustration, and I think that is worthy of criticism. We started off our day with the water rides, since everyone can ride those together. We went on Smoky Mountain River Rampage first, then Daredevil Falls, then Mountain Slidewinder. The last was my oldest’s favourite ride. She never got to ride SDC’s Wilderness Waterboggan, since it closed in 2008, and she was born in 2007. For me, it was a nice blast of nostalgia, and probably my second favourite ride after Mystery Mine (spoilers!). I tried Barnstormer after that, but no one else wanted to ride. I looked in the queue, and it was *gasp* 10 minutes! F*ck that—I have TimeSaver Pass! Got on immediately, back hanging out with family after that. I love these things. Granted, we never really needed it, and never saw a line longer than 20 minutes the whole time. But we have it, and we’re going to use it! We headed down Craftsman’s Valley next. This is the very SDC area of the park. There were storms in the forecast, so we skipped Blazing Fury, planning to come back to it later once the rain started. Spoilers (wow, I’m just ruining everything for you)—it never rained, but I totally forgot to come back to this area later, so we missed Blazing Fury that first day. All right, I’ve spoiled so much for you now, I might as well say I did get to ride it on Tuesday, but I swear that’s the last spoiler until the next one. Honest. Tennessee Tornado was the first coaster of the day, and it was highly anticipated. Though to be honest, I was highly anticipating all the coasters here (well, except Whistle Punk Chaser, but my daughter was anticipating that one for me). No Time Saver needed on this one; it was a walkon in the regular queue. This thing is great! It’s super smooth, and I didn’t expect the third inversion. I had seen POVs, but I guess it didn’t register that what I thought was a second loop was in fact a batwing. Next up was Firechaser Express, and one of two coasters that really benefited from Time Saver. You go straight up to the station and get to pick your row if you ask nicely. Brilliant little ride; not big or fast, but great fun. The show element really added a lot. Wild Eagle was my son’s first wing coaster. He is just over 50 inches now, and he loved this ride. We continued up the loop to River Battle, which was fun, but I think SDC’s River Blast has better interaction between boats, due to being a bit more compact. This was the only ride that is duplicated at both SDC and Dollywood, that I thought SDC’s version was better. Dollywood really is the “2.0” and has major improvements over SDC in almost every area. Mystery Mine time! OMG, this is the best coaster here (except maybe Lightning Rod, but with it being down during my entire visit, couldn’t say). I loved just how f*cked up this thing is. It banks right and turns left. It drops beyond 90 degrees. It actually gets more intense as the ride goes on. It tells a story. There is so much to love about Mystery Mine. Time Saver Pass made it very easy to ride over and over. It was the only one other than Firechaser that really benefitted from the pass, as the line was consistently around 20 minutes. Drop Line is a great tower. The rotation on the way up gives some great views of the Smokies, and the drop is fantastic! Whistle Punk Chaser is elongated just a bit compared to Grand Expo Coaster, so the final turn isn’t as tight, and it doesn’t slam into the brakes as hard. Thunderhead was really fun, maybe a bit rough but nothing too uncomfortable. My son loves wooden coasters, and had a good time on Dollywood’s only operating one. Across the front of the park now for dinner at Red’s, then the Dollywood Express and the Heartsong show. Red’s was not great; I do not recommend, but it did make kids less hungry at least. The train was awesome; they told the story of the locomotive, but also stayed quiet a good deal as well so you could enjoy the scenery. SDC’s train used to be just like this, but lately it’s just a long advertisement with puns. Dollywood’s was much, much better. The Heartsong show was really cheesy, but the kids liked it. We didn’t realize there would be weather effects, and I had my phone on the seat next to me. I scrambled to cover it when the rain started. We finished off the day with fireworks, even though it really wasn’t quite dark enough to see them properly, and headed back to the resort. It was a great first day! Time Saver passes! The long sought after tickets These little tables are such a great idea! What's around this bend? Ooh, pretty. And closed. We are staying in a fancy resort. We are fancy people. I loved the props in this section. Ah, now that looks familiar. This was the first of many SDC references around the park. We went chasing waterfalls. The water clock is identical to the one at SDC, only this one didn't have the date align with today's date. Not sure why. Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky? I think I am, Brain. Let's run past this sign and go for rides! I loved the Craftsman's Valley area. Very SDC-ish, but felt different at the same time. One of the eponymous craftsmen. This was a Sunday morning, so there was a church service, er, servicin', er, in the, er, church. Daredevil Falls was awesome! Not really a log flume, but not really not a log flume either. It's just a beautiful bastard. Storms a-comin' in this here barn! The kids loved this playground, as well as the splash pad on the other side. We actually hung out here for quite a while both of our Dollywood days. Ermahgerd! Ergles! There were more eagles to be seen just beyond the stage. And also this raven. Ooh, this raven lives north of here (ominous foreshadowing). This looks to be a leftover from something else. Is this where Flooded Mine used to be? Ah, the signs. I am at a Herschend park. This is a great photo of Blazing Fury. I did not ride it this day, even though I intended to. Whoops. I loved all these little standing tables for snacks. Takes up less space, encourages people to finish and move on so more people can enjoy them. Great idea! Ducklings! This was not staged. My son jut got up on that rock and sat there just like that. Nice! This is just on a random path. Train time! Train shed! (Yes, I'm a nerd.) Feet tired, we headed for a show. More rain in here than there was outside. Sigh. On to Market Square to see... ...fireworks in the not-exactly-dark. Thus ends a great first day at Dollywood!

This is the best plan yet. Everything's basically in a straight line, and you've drastically cut down on drive time. This looks like it could be fun!

That's because the park had high growth potential. The kid who got the "most improved" award is always the one who was underperforming the most to begin with.

Probably to prove you didn't lie to them to get a friend in for free.