u4icmusic

Dollywood has opened reservations for season pass holder day on Friday, March 11th.

The longtime tunnel near Craftsman's Valley has now been removed. Dollywood is converting it to an area where guests can watch the train go by.

Season Pass Holders. You can make online reservations for opening day, March 12 through May 11th, 2022. They still haven't opened up reservations for a season pass holder day for March 11th yet, but hopefully will soon. They are tearing down the cave walkway, adding more booths to pay for parking and widening several walkways throughout the park. No word on retracking Lighting Rod that was supposed to be completed during the off season.

Dollywood is claiming a new section called Hoot Owl Hollow will be new for 2022 for Great Pumpkin Luminights, but I remember seeing these owls the last two years, so not sure how "new" it will be. I'd like to see a section that is a little more Halloweenie, or maybe a scare zone for the adults. Even a walk-through haunted house would be great. The harvest theme is TIRED.

No, because I don't have all day to wait on hold for a clueless rep to answer and give me bad information. This is what is shows on the Dollywood website for my Diamond Pass: Diamond Season Pass Receive access to all-new Golden Hours & Events, unlimited visits to both Dollywood theme park and Dollywood's Splash Country water park, FREE parking, and the largest discounts on food and merchandise. It say UNLIMITED visits, which is what I paid for. There's nothing on it about how often you can go. Unlimited should be unlimited.

Since when does Dollywood have a limit on the number of reservations you can make with a season pass? I realize the rest of the year has no open reservations remaining, but I've never seen a limit on the number of reservations that can be made on a diamond season pass.

You cannot carry anything onto any of the rides, but most of them have storage areas in the loading area where you or the ride operators will store your items until you get off the ride. No need to get a locker unless you plan on storing a coat or change of clothing.

Because Dollywood's pay is crap. There are so many employers in the area starting people out at higher wages, like Cedar Fair parks are. They realized quickly that they had to up their wages to keep the park staffed. Dollywood is doing nothing to entice workers to the park. The employees they have left are being worked to death. Dollywood doesn't realize or care that this is a negative for guests at the park. Nobody wants to wait 90 minutes for a hot dog, but that is what is happening at Dollywood this season.

It has not been running fine this season. It is mostly down and when it is open the lines are horrendous because they are only using one train. I was there yesterday and it was down right after it opened for the day, which was already short because the park didn't open until 2 pm. I was lucky to be walking by when it reopened at 4 pm and got in two rides. The first ride, we barely made it over the first hill, while the second time we shot over the first hill much faster. It seems to me the speed going over the first hill should be the same every time. I was asked at the parking booth if I had a reservation, but not at the gate.

The main issue with Lighting Rod now is that they are only using one train at all times and load times are extremely slow causing very long wait times. This coaster was designed to run with two trains so one can load while the other is on the track and without the second train running, the wait times are doubled. The ride is too short and not that great to wait 2 plus hours for.

It was the 10th that was really busy. The parking lot was filled to d/e and you could not more inside the park. The ride wait times were not that long because the people that visited that day were old. Very old. The shows were all filled up with lines snaking through the park to get in. I still had a great time and it was warm, in the 70's that day, so it was a perfect day to be at Dollywood, even with Lighting Rod issues.

It is a stain and an embarrassment on Dollywood to have a ride, any ride, that does not function as intended. Ask the thousands of guests that have walked up to Lightning Rod only to see a sign out in front that is is closed. This would have been understandable in its first year of operation, but there is no way this should be happening on a coaster that opened in 2016. If they cannot get it right, then Dollywood should sue RMC and remove the ride or replace it with something that works. Who cares if Dollywood or RMC has made an official statement as to what is causing the problems and down time. It doesn't matter. The fact is that Lightning Rod doesn't work as it was intended to and that is the stain. It would be like walking into a McDonald's and them telling you they are out of Big Macs. Sure, you can order a quarter pounder, but that isn't what you came in for. Many people, myself included, drive to Dollywood to ride the roller coasters. I've been there dozens of times when Lightning Rod has been down all or most of the day. For people paying full price for a ticket, which is now $95 with tax, they want all the rides to be working. Luckily, I have a season pass and drive over every week or two, but I've been disappointed at how often Lighting Rod has been closed this season, as have many others. Not everyone goes to Dollywood to see shows and and buy overpriced subpar food.

I was at Dollywood last Wednesday and again this last Sunday. Wednesday was packed and Sunday wasn't as busy, which seemed odd to me. Also, the crowd was much older on Wednesday. We saw three shows on Wednesday, which is something we rarely do and they were all rather good and better than expected for theme park shows. Lightning Rod barely ran on both days and when it did, they were only running it with one train, so the lines were excruciatingly long. I asked a ride host why they were only using one train and he replied that they didn't know if they were ever going to be able to run two trains again. How can Dollywood think this is okay. It takes so long to load the trains, so the second train really helps with ride wait times. I only got to ride it once on Wednesday, thanks to the single-rider line and on Sunday it was down most of the day. We got in line when the park opened, waited almost an hour, then were shuffled out the exit with no explanation. In the past when we've been in line and Lightning Rod went down, the ride hosts would give us a card to skip the line on any one ride in the park. That didn't happen this time, so it was just an hour wasted waiting in line for nothing. The coaster opened up and closed a few more times that day, but was mostly down. We did get to do two nighttime rides, just before the park closed, which was fun (and cold). I'm not sure what Dollywood should do with this ride now. It was a huge investment for them when it was built and another huge investment for the partial retracking last winter and the ride still isn't working like it should be. You can hear people all throughout the park complaining about Lightning Rod being down and you can see people checking the Dollywood app to see if the ride is back up and running, which it is usually not. There are rumors going around that they are going to retrack the areas that were not retracked last winter, so if that happens, maybe that will help with whatever the problem is. The ride hosts and Dollywood are very quiet about what the issues are and why they are only running one train. Dragonflier can only run one train because of the short track layout, so we know the lines will always be long on that ride, but for Lightning Rod, which is supposed to be the star attraction, the long wait times are just not acceptable for a coaster that is 5 years old now. Those kinks should have been all worked out now and it should be running smoothly with two trains at all times.

This could be what Dollywood gets in the Wildwood Grove expansion.

I just received this in an email from a friend and this is a great version of the new track layout.

I like this graphic from screamscape the best. The yellow highlights show the track better.

Lightning Rod was open yesterday, but they were only running one train and the lines were long, as you can imagine. I got in the single rider line and got on in less than 5 minutes though.

You are joking, right? The majority of the rides and attractions are for kids and families in the entire park. The entire Wildwood grove area is for children and families. Here is the list of family and kiddie rides/attracions: 1. Whistle Punk Chaser 2. Lumberjack Lifts 3. Firechaser Express 4. Firehouse Fun Yard 5. Blazing Fury 6. Wings Of America Theater 7. L'il Pilots Playground 8. Dollywood Express Train Depot 9. Village Carousel 10. Busy Bees 11. Demolition Derby 12. Dizzy Disk 13. Lemon Twist 14. Lucky Ducky 15. Piggy Parade 16. Shooting Star 17. Sky Rider 18. The Amazing Flying Elephants 19. The Scrambler 20. The Waltzing Swinger 21. Smoky Mountain River Rampage 22. Rockin' Roadway 23. Black Bear Trail 24. Dragonflier 25. Frogs & Fireflies 26. Great Tree Swing 27. Hidden Hollow 28. The Mad Mockingbird 29. Treetop Tower 30. Wildwood Creek Thrill Rides: 1. Drop Line 2. Mystery Mine 3. Thunderhead 4. Wild Eagle 5. Daredevil Falls 6. Tennessee Tornado 7. Barnstormer 8. Lightning Rod So, it is more 3 to 1 more family attractions/rides than thrill rides. Dollywood needs more thrill rides. Families aren't the only guests that visit Dollywood and Dollywood and Disney are not in the same league and cannot be compared.

A Time Traveler clone or something similar with spinning cars would be great. I do think Dollywood is putting way too much emphasis on "family" rides instead of thrill rides though and that is a mistake.

Wildwood Grove expansion plans approved. https://www.wvlt.tv/app/2021/11/04/site-plans-approved-new-attraction-dollywood/

If you are worried about ride wait times, just buy the Timesaver pass. It is worth the extra money on busy days.

You can now make reservations at Dollywood.com 60 days in advance. Still can't find out if Dollywood is going to continue the reservation system next season or not since they are not doing anything for Covid mitigation inside the park.

We went to the Fall Harvest Festival yesterday with all the tickets from my new Diamond Season Pass for 2022. We used the one free Preferred Parking pass that came with the season pass. This was the first time we've parked there and although it is somewhat closer to the entrance, we would never pay $25 extra for parking there. The hill on the way back to your car at night is steep. Parking in regular parking lots and walking or taking the trams is easy and what we will do going forward. When I went to the ticket window, the host asked me if I wanted to use the photo from my 2021 season pass, I said yes and the entire process took about 2 minutes, which was fast. You pick up your bring-a-friend key tag at the Timesaver window. Since we got there later in the day, we were the only ones at the Timesaver window and getting the key tag took less than 10 seconds. Here is the kicker though. Also included in the 2022 Diamond Pass is a drink cup with free refills from now and through 2022. Because I had this as a new perk, we left our 2021 drink mug at home. When I went to several different restaurants in the park to pick up my new 2022 refillable cup, none of them had the new cups in stock and all the hosts told me that they don't know when they are getting them in. Therefore, we had to buy drinks all day, which as we all know, is not cheap. Lightning Rod, Scrambler and Barnstormer were all still down. Barnstormer has a sign that says they are closed due to staffing issues and the Scrambler sign says the ride is closed due to routine maintenance, which nobody believes. The Scrambler rides have been around for decades and part are available for them if needed. So I call bull crap on the routine maintenance sign. Lightning Rod just said "closed for the day," with no explanation. You can hear rumblings from people in line for other rides how upset they were that Lightning Rod was still not working. Many food places were closed and the lines for the ones that were open were extremely long, longer than we would wait for food, so we ate Italian after we left the park. The line for cinnamon bread wrapped around the pond and looked like it never moved. Dogs & Taters, one of the few food options open had over an hour wait to get served. The printed show schedule that we picked up at the main gates showed a show at 3 pm at the Dreamsong Theater. We got there at 2:30 pm because shows can fill up quickly, only to find a "Theater Closed for the Day" sign posted. The host out front told me that a cast member was sick. Do you mean to tell me that the live shows don't have stand-ins in case a cast member gets sick? I'm there for the rides, but my guest likes shows, so the only show we wanted to see yesterday was canceled. Just another way Dollywood shows it doesn't care about its guests in the least bit. Other than the drink cup issue and our major disappointment in the live show being canceled, it was a fine day. Perfect mid-70's weather, All other rides were open and running when we went on them and there was excitement in the air to see the Luminights event when it got dark out. I was at Dollywood just 3 days prior with a large group of friends, so I had already seen the Luminights show and it was nearly identical to last years display. They moved a few things, but I didn't notice anything new, except for maybe the sunflower pumpkins in Wildwood Grove, as I don't recall seeing those before, but they could have been there last year, as I'm not sure. As usual, Dollywood did a good job, but they need to add new displays each year, otherwise it's not fun to see over and over again. They could also expand the Luminights to other areas of the park that are totally dark and devoid of decoration. I would also like to see one are that is more dark and devilish and maybe one area that is a scare zone for guests that want more from a Halloween attraction. Bottom line, if you've seen the Luminights displays before, then there is no need to see them again this year, unless you have a season pass. One of the ride hosts on Tennessee Tornado said most staff was opening and closing each day the park was open and that they were exhausted. That is pretty much a 12 hour shift every day and dealing with guests can sometimes be a drain, so I feel sad for the park hosts. My final thought is that Dollywood MUST up their pay to get their staffing levels up so guests don't have the poor experiences they've been having all year. Dollywood can build housing onsite, but that still won't help filling positions if they don't increase their pay like Cedar Fair parks have done. Part-time employees at Cedar Fair parks start at $20 an hour. Dollywood starts employees out at $14 an hour. You can get $14 an hour just about anywhere now. I've also noticed the quality of the people working at Dollywood has gone way down. They are not as friendly or helpful as they used to be, most likely because they are exhausted and overworked and probably not well-trained. They also have to keep problem employees because they are so short-staffed, so it is overall a really bad situation at Dollywood and at many retail and restaurant locations nationwide. People are not going to work for low wages when they can walk down the street and make more money. Even $1 an hour makes a difference in a paycheck. I think if Dollywood raised their wages from $14 to $20 an hour then most, if not all of these issues would go away. Having more staff would bring in way more revenue because many guests, myself included, won't wait in line 90 minutes for a hot dog or cinnamon bread. So, we did have a fantastic time, but there were many issues, so we tried to overlook the negatives and enjoy the positives, keeping in mind Dollywood is still so short on staff. I will use my new Diamond season pass extensively for the rest of this year and next year. One final, final thought. Dollywood is requiring all non covid vaccinated guests to wear face coverings and that is not happening. They should check for vaccine cards at the gates and issue vaccinated guests a wrist band, showing that they don't have to wear face coverings. Right now, half the guests are not vaccinated and they are NOT wearing masks. Dollywood is being negligent with the health of their hosts and guests by not following their own guidelines.

How can you tell by that blurry conceptual photo if it is going to be a launched coaster? It's still in concept phase and at this point, may or may not happen as pictured, or may not happen at all. Dollywood is also expected to rework all their parking lots, so maybe that is why so many trees are being cut down, to make room for new and closer parking. Nothing is carved in stone at this time and plans do change due to attendance and budget restraints. I'm fine with another launched coaster, as long as it works. Dollywood doesn't have a spinning coaster yet like their sister park, so it could also be that. I expect it to be a family coaster, keeping with the Wildwood Grove theme. By the way, there is a ton of Wildwood Grove merchandise on clearance for half off on the way out, but they will not add your gold card discount too, which is a shame.