I Like Theme Parks.

A few weeks ago during winter break we took a trip to Pigeon Forge. I finally got around to doing a review/tr on Dollywood. This should be no surprise, but it's one of the best parks I've ever been to! We went on the 28th and 29th, and went around Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg on the 27th and 30th. The weather was pretty good, and I got on all the rides I wanted to get to multiple times. (I already figured that Lighting Rod would be closed months ago). The park was beautifully themed and it had a great atmosphere. It's able to be a well-themed, modern park while still having a classic small park-type feel at the same time. And of course, the lights and decorations for Christmas made that even better. We stayed at the Dream More Resort, and it's an excellent place to stay. It looks great, the restaurant inside it has awesome breakfasts, the rooms are good, and it's actually not as expensive as you'd expect. It was about $240 a night, which is an awesome deal for what you get. There's also the trolley to and from the park, as well as complimentary Time-Saver q-bots, which were absolutely life-saving because of how crowded it was. The operations in the park were outstanding. The workers were nice, and the dispatches for Firechaser Express were almost all under 1 minute each! The other crews sent out trains in well under 2 minutes most of the time. The food was also amazing. We had the cinnamon bread, which was outstanding as expected, the skillet sausage sandwiches were great, and Miss Lillian's had really good chicken, different kinds of pork, and I enjoyed their loaded mashed potatoes, and that's coming from someone who is against extensive potato mutilation. I still think Knoebels and Epcot have better food, but Dollywood is up there for sure. Now onto the important part: the rides! Thunderhead: This was my favorite coaster in the park by far. The pace is incredible and quick all the way through, the twistiness was great, the turns had lots of lateral forces, and there were plenty moments of strong airtime. It's also really smooth, and the setting is also pretty. Thunderhead crushes the other GCIs I've been on, and now I know why they get praised so much, and how they can be on the same level as a Gravity Group coaster, or some of the top CCI and PTC coasters. It's my number 6 wood now. Fantastic coaster! I liked the front the best because a lot of the airtime hills mainly go upwards, but not really back down. Tennessee Tornado: I got on it 4 times. It's an awesome ride, and my second-favorite in the park. It's incredibly forceful the whole way through, and the pacing is relentless. I love how the loops are shaped so awkwardly and it's kind of sketchy-feeling, even by Arrow standards, but it's still actually very smooth. The drop is also wonderful since it has some nice sustained floater air in the back, and the tunnel is fun. It's a short ride, but it really uses every second to crush you with forces. The terrain interaction also makes it feel even faster. Dizzy Disk: Disk-O ride. I rode it twice. Barnstormer: This is my new favorite Screamin' Swing, and those are some of my favorite flat rides! It's short like the others, but the airtime and acceleration is awesome. The excellent theming is what makes this one stand out, and it's great how much attention to detail Dollywood puts into the theming of the park! I rode it 5 times. Firechaser Express: This was a huge hit for everyone in my family. The theme is excellent, especially the fireworks building! The layout is tame, but it's a lot of fun. There's even a little bit of light floaty air on some of the drops, as well as unexpected laterals. I always thought the custom Gerstlauer bobsled mouse coasters in Europe looked cool, and this like a bigger version of what I'd imagine those are like. The launches are also a nice touch. I rode it 4 times, and I think I like the coaster better in the front than the back, but here it doesn't make much of a difference. Blazing Fury: Most people consider this a roller coaster, but I do not count it as a credit. This is because it's almost completely powered, not just because it's more like a dark ride. But I consider it a pure dark ride, despite the small drops. But anyway, this is a really nice weird old-style dark ride! It also had the Christmas lights still inside it. The first drop actually has a little airtime near the front of the train, and the scenes seemed to all be working well. I rode it 3 times. Mystery Mine: I loved this one! The dark ride sections really make the ride what it is, and the fire is awesome of course. Lots of people say this ride is rough, but it's fine if you hold your head forwards or to one side. The drops are good, and the finale is thrilling. I tricked my brother and sister who haven't been on a vertical lift or vertical drop coaster ever into going on it, and they actually liked it! My dad also went on even though he doesn't like vertical lifts, and he enjoyed it as well. This is easily my third-favorite ride here. I got to it 3 times. Wild Eagle: This is a pretty tame coaster, but the terrain and how close you go to the trees makes it more thrilling. It's a beautiful and graceful ride, so that's why I really liked it. I think I like the left side more, and of course you have to be in the back. It's not as good as Gatekeeper, but it's close. Again, the great views and location makes this an important ride for the park. The vests also lock much tighter than Gatekeeper's or the ones on the S&S 4D coasters for example, but it's still comfortable enough. The summarized version of this is basically that you have to go to Dollywood!

Totally agree. Brother and I rode it the same day, and it just felt incomplete. They also need the lights! And I also saw that there was an exposed emergency or staff exit or something visible, especially during the dark half of the lift hill. Either it wasn't covered before, or I just never noticed it before because of all the crazy stuff going on.

These don't go upside-down or anything. It's supposed to be a tame family ride. I still think it seems fun though, since it's like an upgraded version of those moby dick rides.

Surprisingly, my final coaster of 2016 (and for the season) wasn't at Great Adventure. It was Gatlinburg Mountain Coaster! It's my least favorite alpine coaster I've ridden, but still much better than most coasters in general.

SooperDooperLooper is one of the best names ever! It's so ridiculous that it's surprising that a coaster would be named that.

It looks kind of weird to me. There would either be tons of brakes or a lot of friction to only go 415 feet high after that drop without anything else to the layout.

I was at the park today, and I'm also going tomorrow. I already got on every open ride that I wanted to do. This is already one of my favorite parks ever! We're staying at the Dream More resort, so time savers were included, and they made the day really amazing. I had cinnamon bread, which is worth the hype, and Miss Lillian's Chicken House had some nice food. The operations were very good, and the staff is nice. And of course, the theming and lights are beautiful. I'll go into more details with the rides and probably post some pictures later on. Ride count in alphabetical order: Barnstormer x 2 Blazing Fury Dizzy Disc Firechaser Express x 3 Mystery Mine x 2 Tennessee Tornado x 3 Thunderhead x 5 Wild Eagle x 2

Rebel Yell was really smooth when I rode it. It still had some bumpy spots, but now it will be even better. I don't understand people who hate it. It's a really nice, simple, fun ride that keeps its speed well and has a few good airtimies!

^Curved drops on B&M inverts are amazing though, since in the back they're really forceful and they have a great whip to them! In fact, if Raptor had a more curvy drop, Then it would probably beat Afterburn in my rankings. With the floorless and sit-downs I agree though. They're pretty weak, except for Dominator's, for example, which is steep and has a bit of the B&M invert whip.

You need to go to Knoebels, especially if you're coming from a different country. It's the ultimate classic American park!

Guys, the Corkscrew is staying. The one getting removed is the COCKSCREW! Seriously, he actually wrote cockscrew.

Surf coaster actually seems kind of cool. I haven't heard much about it. It's like a Mega-Lite version of Fujiyama!

^The seats and OTSRs are pretty minimal so you actually float a little, there's a bit of a hood on the top of the vehicle so you can't see the tower when you're sitting on the ride, you don't stop at the top so the drop has some extra surprise factor, and the lack of a pause also gives you a little bit of extra air. The best part is how it doesn't brake until you're at the bottom of the tower, so it feels like you jumped off a building and slammed into the ground and broke your spine and died.

I´m pretty curious to see how this tower compares to the other types. I agree that the Larson/ARM towers are some of the best. Even the small portable ones are better than your average Intamin 2nd-gen and S&S towers. Intamin 1st-gens are insane as well. Larsons and Intamin 1st-gens are easily the best towers aside from Zumanjaro in my opinion. Tower of Terror would also rank above them, but I consider it as more of a dark ride. But yeah, I never tried a Funtime drop ride.

Skycoasters are just extremely fun, but not that scary to me. I can't wait to get more free ERT on it during the next Coastin' by the Ocean!

When I went near the front of the park a few hours before the park closed, it was amazing. I had most of the rides to myself, and it was actually a busy day earlier on.

After the Morey's Piers presentation at Winter Adventure, I'm a little bit less worried about the new Nor'Easter. As we have inferred, it's using the same exact type of track as the other SLCs. But what makes it better is that Vekoma has better "track-bending methods" as they called it (I'm pretty sure that just means smoother track fabrication). Apparently, the new SLC in Energylandia is actually smooth, (this exact ride was mentioned in the presentation) and this is what the new Great Nor'Easter is expected to be like. I'm still a tiny bit concerned, but this is good news.

Even though I haven't been to Grona Lund, (it looks awesome, though) I'd go with Twister! The compact Gravity Group coasters rule. Busch Gardens Tampa?

I was at the park for the ACE winter adventure event. There were presentations from Diggerland, Morey's Piers, Casino Pier, and of course, Great Adventure. They actually talked about some interesting things, including some important things about Casino Pier's expansion and why Morey's is expecting the new Great Nor'Easter to be so much better. I'll share those in the relevant threads. Unfortunately, today was probably the first day in Holiday in the Park history where the cold affected the rides. The Joker had its trains in storage all day, but it seems like that wasn't because of the temperature. However, Batman was closed the whole time I was there despite the park giving their best effort to get it running. Nitro was closed for the beginning of the day, and the employees said that it was closed because the temperature was affecting it too much. Nitro was able to open eventually, so once again Six Flags rose above the weather! Rides: Skull Mountain x 5 - Back and second-to-last rows without leaving the station. It was running really well today for some reason! The turns felt like they had some more power, and I even felt a brief little floaty moment halfway through the ride. Sky Screamer - EXTREMELY COLD!!!!! Swashbuckler - Also incredibly cold. Twix: The Ride - We got a program with 6 flips! It's still a pussy ride though, since Kings Dominion's does 8. Superman: Ultimate Flight - Back row. This coaster is always more fun than I remember. Except the coaster aged really badly this season appearance-wise. It's really rusty, the paint on the gates are horribly peeled, the tent building is becoming even more horrendous and gross, and the dying winter grass and cloudy day really made the coaster look like a sketchy Chinese coaster in an abandoned park. It's a shame, since it's a really good ride. Nitro x 5 - In the back and second-to-last row, didn't leave the station. It was so freezing and amazing. It was the star of Holiday in the Park as always.

I don't remember if I saw it on my last visit, but there was a pine tree branch near the Knoebels Flyers to the right of the ride entrance that the bottom of the tubs would hit.

^It wouldn't just be attempted murder if they got charged with that. They succeeded 14 times.

Lightning Racer definitely. It's a coaster I've been consistently riding for at least 7 years, way before I was even a coaster fan. I grew up going to Hershey all the time, and it was one of my first big coasters. I don't keep count how many times I've been on rides over time, but it has to be in the hundreds. Nitro is probably comes in second for my most-ridden coasters.

That picture doesn't do it justice. When you walk under the heartline roll and flying snake dive, it really towers over you.

It could be better if somehow Knoebels was involved!

Dorney Park is great to go to for two or three hours. They have a really good flat ride collection, Possessed, Stinger, Steel Force, Thunderhawk and Hydra are really fun, they have a good log flume, and the only main reason why you should go is to marathon Talon.