Dollywoodlover20

The whole cast of the movie is going to be there this round as well as Dolly so you have to account for that. Two other big names, Jennifer Nettles and Ricky Schroeder. I'm sure the day will consist of media events for the cast and people in the park trying to get a glimpse of the cast. Maybe Dolly will make an appearance in the Parade of Many colors that evening? Who knows. It's best to go earlier than later this time of year if you're interested in coasters though because weather in the smokies is so unpredictable. It can go from mid 60's to 20's in December in the blink of an eye. So ride what you wanna ride while you have warmth.

Someone mentioned going around thanksgiving on here and I just wanted to mention, the park may be extra crowded that day because they're having a Christmas if Many Colors Red Carpet premier, and my best guess is the cast is going to be there including Dolly.

I expect them to remove the Lil Loggers Landing and Beaver Creek Boat Float to put this coaster in that area. That's the only available space they have up in Timber Canyon.

Hmmm. Interesting

One tricky tip about December and the smokies. It's very unpredictable. Last year they had temps in the 70's and rides ran great til pretty much end of season. Year before that when I went the temperatures out of no where hit 22 degrees from 45 and literally no coaster operated besides Blazing Fury. Not even the train ran because ice was forming on the tracks.

So my friend is at the park today and just got off LR with not too bad of a wait. She said it gave her a major headache and was pretty rough though. Anyone else experienced this? I'll be there myself in a few weeks to give it a review but was just wondering if I need to pack ibuprofen lol

Aside from the many people at DW that DO complain about them, they are literally up there by the hundreds and sometimes thousands. The species of wasps that shut the rides down also is not local to the area. They are in a migration pattern from the New England area headed towards the gulf and Texas, travelling along the smokies. This is important because guests may not know if they are allergic and if they get stung we may not be able to get them off the ride quickly enough before an allergic reaction occurs. Shutting down before someone gets the chance to get stung is always the better option. Also, should a ride have an error and stop on the lift and need evacution the situation is instantly much more severe. I'm not saying you are wrong but I have never heard of a migrating wasp being I studied them in college and was taught they do not migrate. Could you please find the source and post it. I'm curious and I've been searching for the last three hours and can't find anything. Thanks... He works at the park haha. I do know from personal experience of going years and years that Dollywood usual gets them mostly around this time of year the worst. We take trips around my birthday and Thunderhead used to always go down. Wild Eagle is another one that has problems. The hotter the days the worse they are.

Aside from the many people at DW that DO complain about them, they are literally up there by the hundreds and sometimes thousands. The species of wasps that shut the rides down also is not local to the area. They are in a migration pattern from the New England area headed towards the gulf and Texas, travelling along the smokies. This is important because guests may not know if they are allergic and if they get stung we may not be able to get them off the ride quickly enough before an allergic reaction occurs. Shutting down before someone gets the chance to get stung is always the better option. Also, should a ride have an error and stop on the lift and need evacution the situation is instantly much more severe. May be seeing you this weekend Danny! Hopefully our plans work out and I can get a ride on Lightning Rod and avoid wasps.

I'm glad I decided to push my trip back to next weekend. I heard someone asked the ops and they told them the ride is operating just fine, that it's closed just because of low crowds. Is that really a logical reason?

I was just looking at this and thinking about it. I'm going next weekend and sure hope the wait times are around this. I don't want the park to feel apocalyptic but you know.

No photoshop, it's on Instagram under the Dollywood hashtag. The family was even laughing at it.

This everyone is why you do NOT bring phones on a coaster. Especially one that goes 73mph and goes out of control through the hills.

A video on IG shows it to be running yesterday around 2pm. I've not heard anything of it being closed. Following Twitter as well people seem to have ridden it pretty much everyday.

Really great video from IG of the train going over the hill from the back.

It would be a great area because all the attention is not really at the tunnel, it's at LR or the other coasters. With what the sign says, I think it could be referring to this. When Dolly opened the park, the ceremony was held around Inventors Mansion (I think that's what it was called) and Dolly stood there.

Yea does anyone know the deal with this? My cousin said she went and watched a woman get a green light on the test seat, then had problems in the actual train and had to have her husband stand up and help her. Like they help me on Wild Eagle because I have arthritis in my shoulder and you're in a weird position anyway, but it's hard to reach all the way up then get it all the way down perfectly, then get the seatbelt. So WE ops help and they're always nice about it. LR from what I've heard is like "Oh you need help, well you can either struggle and have people look at you or gtfo"

That's a great deal, we are supposed to be going around the 27th and doing two days so that's perfect.

Someone said they had to close it down today because someone had broken one of the gates. If that's true, this is why you don't lean on the entrance gates. I see kids leaning on them, swinging from them and everything. I'm talking about the ones that actually open and close.

Received word from an IG user that Lightning Rod is currently running.

Many are convinced it has to be launch related. Won't even consider other possibilities. Launch related when a train keeps having rows locking up? From videos I've seen the launch has ran perfectly 2 days straight.

Something I've noticed in the videos with the recent re opening. The backs of the trains are off yet again, and it was said in a video that one of the rows locked shut on one of the trains today. So one of the trains is fine, one is glitchy. I've just noticed each time it's went down lately the backs are off.

With Thunderhead it's usually a crowd favorite, but I've been watching it and less and less are coming to it this season. The whole season has been hurt by LR's downtime. Not sure if Thunderhead is suffering from the same or what. I usually start with Thunderhead. It's a great coaster to get the blood pumping.

I have thought of something, what if the park is waiting until schools go back in session and vacation season is over (end of August usually) then they announce LR is closed for the season? I really have a feeling that's what they're going to do. Especially if they don't have it opened by the end of this month, which is when I'll be going again. If it's not open by then they only have really 3 solid months without cold temps or snow chances/end of season.

So LR is of course closed today but I went to twitter to look for anything and I found a picture of outside the station, and on coming into the station, you can see a train just sitting there. I'm just curious as to if it's closed for the day why they have a train just out in the open on the brake run and not under the station for the day/night.

I just wonder, is this thing ever gonna move out of the staton? What's the problem? We know the launch is good and think it's the train. It's like they've just left everyone in the dark from this point. I do know a lot of the LR summer help has left back for college.