Dollywoodlover20

Going down again today for 3 days. Doing the after 3 deal to get 2 days in. It's at TC right now so I'm nervous. Rode it 2 weeks ago 5 times now I want to get my cousin and uncle on for their first times. Plus my first ever night ride.

and with that heat I have a strong feeling Lightning Rod is not going to take well to that. It does well in the winter or colder months and not as well in the hotter months. That's what I've noticed.

When I was there and the wait was 85mins, it wasn't a long wait because of dispatches themselves they were doing great with those and they have to time theirselves if you watch. Anyway the cause of the hold up was the fast passes which was actually pissing a lot of people off. They would take like 2-3 rounds of fast pass before the actual line. Like use the fast pass riders, especially single riders as seat fillers.

TC = Test Cycle . . . . How many test cycles does LR go through on a daily basis before opening? According. Tuesday when I arrived at the park I watched it make a launch up the hill while I was arriving at the gates. Heard it make another as I was approaching then I watched it make 2-3 more before it made the final one with a ride op onboard. Usually when the ride op is on board it's opening unless something else is wrong. Or that's been my sign. It was a bit funny though, when the launch failed I heard one of the ops say "no no no....sh*t!" Haha I glanced and he looked so frustrated. Told us on hot busy days like it had been it wants to act up.

Almost first rider I KNEW YOU WERE AN ENTHUSIAST!!!! YES! Thank you for posting this man! Was that your first time riding? It made my 11th total. I was almost the rider stuck in row 5 when the launch failed. But we had reservations at Dixie Stampede and I couldn't wait for it to open back up if it did. Ah, I'll wait to go back in a few weeks again if all is well. OH and Drop Line, GREAT ADDITION to the park! Much needed!!! The views are beautiful and it catches you off guard because you get caught in the views of the smokies right as it drops. And I can understand the long distance drivers. Same as me not driving to Cedar Point 6-7hrs if Mean Streak has problems. I probably won't get that direction for a while anyway. Not in OH much. Anyway, yes the focus of the park at the moment is LR. The other coasters were almost walk ons Tuesday with WE being a 10 min wait with two trains, TT 30 mins one train, MM 10-15 (varied), Drop Line was 10, Thunderhead was 20, and LR went from my first ride being 0, second ride at 10, and from there on I watched it pack up. I checked the app after rampage it was at 45 and by the time I got up to TT it was at 85 and stayed there pretty much the remainder.

You must've been in line when I was then. I was gonna get one more ride in for the evening being I was tired and had been there since 12:30. It had been around 92-93 the entire day. Lightning Rod did not open until 1:03 on the dot, I was the first rider of the day (one of), second row. It was of course one train operation all day. I heard things going on below in the maintenance bay. After my two back to back rides on LR I went to cool down on rampage then to TT. Waited around 35 mins, then after I got off it went down. Fire Chaser was down and running empty trains a majority of the day. Wild Eagle went down twice. Heat seemed to effect them or something of some sort because it was left and right TC each way you looked. Daredevil Falls went down for a bit as well again. Mystery Mine was working great actually. Music was loud and on, lights were working, crusher spinning, screen was bright/clear and on. Fire is still one instead of 3 but that's fine. Now, onto Lightning Rod. As I said you wouldn't have noticed the slowing down at the crest unless you were waiting on it to happen. At first I waited and was like "ok but I'm still out of my seat so I'm fine" then I just stopped paying attention. When it cooled down before it closed and I got my last ride I didn't feel the pop at the bottom so maybe that had to due with the heat and the track, or maybe it was the train coming back down from the airtime haha. So as far as the failed launch this is what I noticed/saw. The train before the failed one, a guys sunglasses flew off on the drop into the brake run. He kept looking back like he seen them laying on the track. Now did the sensors pick the glasses on the break run? Another thing I noticed was this, my last ride Dad also noticed that under the launch LR was either leaking a coolant (understandable) or Hydraulic fluid. When hydraulic fluid gets too hot (system over heats) it will turn to water. Running down from the base and into road was nothing but that. I have pictures and video of it all.

Just got 3 rides in on LR within 30 mins. Was there when it opened. Park isn't too bad but at the bottom of the drop I felt the pot whole jolt back again. As far as the launch, the thing is absolutely flying. It does slow down maybe a tad but only noticeable if you're trying to spot it. Other than that it's balls to the wall

We were questioned at our check in at the hotel last night with a survey asking questions like where do we normally vacation which is a normal hotel thing but then the survey asked about 10-15 questions about if the impact of the wildfire had impacted our visits any? Of course it hasn't. We live 2.5 hours away and have been down around 3-4 times since November.

With the music selection I think is what he's referring to is, during Great American Summer they play strictly pop music and pop country to appeal to the younger crowds. Some have said and I do agree that Dolly's music has been drowned out of the park. When I was younger you could walk up through Timber Canyon and hear Applejack usually playing. I know that the park is trying to become more along the lines of Cedar Point and Kings Island coaster wise, but stay true to the name sake at least. I've been going since I was 2, I'm 22 now and I've seen a shift.

I'll be at the park this week. Going down to Pigeon Forge for a few days. I see LR has been TC for pretty much the whole day which worries me (ugh). With 9 rides on it last season I'm hoping to add to that this week.

Anyone there that can give us an updated video/new opened ride report? One that we can trust besides these teenage enthusiasts lmao

I seen the post from the account. Claims the launch was slowed down, and the train slows down at the top and barely makes it over the top. Comments under were saying they were at the park and the the pre drop and drop's air were pretty much gone now. I hope this isn't true at all because that's what kicks your entire ride off is being ejected out at the start.

Pffft, that rumor again!? That' so 2016. LSMs require such ridiculous precision and control that there is quite literally no way that would be able to happen. Also, the company that designed and programmed the ride control system (Irvine Ondrey Engineering) confirmed this rumor to be false when it was first circulating in June of 2016. Hahahaha I know I was just saying what the ride op said on Facebook. Doesn't DW have some kind of rumor/confidentiality policy with its employees?

So on Facebook in the Dollywood comments, a Dollywood ride op said LR was pulling 90 and they couldn't figure out why? As much as I doubt that a bit of me thinks...could this thing do 90 and that would be kick ass. But still.

I thought this was funny/ironic. May be a hint to opening though

Well if they were walking the track yesterday and fixing/checking bolts on the base of the non inverted half loop (banked turn) today looks like opening should be nearing soon.

For those of you who haven't ridden LR before, when it does open which will hopefully be soon because I'm going in July sometime, if you hit up Lightning Rod first just a heads up. If you go straight to TT after it's going to feel like something on the WE level. Because I done just that back in November and I always thought TT was the most wild ride in the park, no I was wrong. Lightning Rod is the most definite IMO.

Here is a video on YouTube that includes a "rollback"

How's the testing going? Still happening? If the trains are doing one with dummies and one without it's the same as last year. Something about too much weight, someone did tell me when I was riding back in November that LR trains were heavier trains due to the added things on the bottoms. They also just seem to be built different, or it just may be me.

The second time this week I've heard of it having a rollback and having to be closed. There's a video on YouTube of them being evacuated and here's a station view of an after rollback from IG

So far Lightning Rod has been open all day. Started off with a 75 min wait now it's down to 45. Daredevil Falls was the only thing closed on the app, and is still closed.

Rumor has it that a lot of the downtime last year was due to a sensor on the gate shutting the ride down when folks pushed on it.. again, only a rumor that was mentioned several times last year.. nothing was every confirmed but your experience does help back that up.. Now this didn't lead to day long downtime but some of the 30 minutes or other short downtime was rumored to be caused by the gates Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk Yes exactly when I went back in November and got my eight runs in each time they would tell guests to not lean or push on the gates that if they did the ride would automatically shut down. I had never seen so many people jump 5ft from a gate before in my life.

Travel channel/Dollywood just posted a video/segment of Lightning Rod.

I do know that a tree fell near Lightning Rod (not sure exactly where at) I'm thinking near one of the access gates whether that be on the park end or the end towards the actual mid course. They were trying to get that moved and cleaned up and the fence repaired. Also one day this week a small fire broke out apparently causing them to have to evacuate people from the park just for a bit.

This may be too early to ask this but, it was on my mind. Being SDC is obviously getting something big for 2018 could we see Dollywood do the same where 2017 was a small year? They've had a pattern going. I don't see 2018 being a flat again or a splash country addition, being they are getting Tailspin Racer.