u4icmusic

I don't find anything wrong with that. Why waste an empty seat?

If you are a single rider, then yes. Dollywood doesn't want any empty seats on LR because the lines are so long and the load times are slow. That is of course when the ride is running, which is hasn't been lately.

Not sure what you are talking about. Dollywood admission does not include Splash Country. Even if it did, Splash Country is closed for the season. Dollywood also got rid of most if not all their Covid-19 protocols. There are no temperature checks or screening questions. Masks are no longer required and there is no social distancing inside the park, not that there ever was. I make reservations every time I go, but the gate hosts never ask for them. They seem to be at full capacity again too.

If you want to get on faster, just use the single rider line. It works wonders for getting on quickly.

It doesn't. The second train is held back and doesn't even enter the loading area until the other train is over the first hill. I find that post suspect and it is not showing up on any local news outlets which normally happens when there is a park accident of significance. Show us the video of the crash so we can see what happened.

I disagree. There are many people, myself included, that go to Dollywood for the rides and especially the roller coasters. Why would any park spend spend 22 millions dollars on a coaster, which is what Lightning Rod cost to build and not have it run daily from open to close. That amount doesn't include what Dollywood paid RMC for the partial retrack either. No park, theme or otherwise would spend that kind of money for a ride that only worked on occasion. How do you know it hasn't affected their attendance. The last two times I went it was DEAD, and many people were out if front of Lightning Rod complaining to ride hosts that it was down again. Nobody said it should change your opinion of the park, but it is a huge draw coaster. Lines being 2 plus hours long negates your theory that people don't go to Dollywood for the rides, because they do and if you read all the blogs, people are very upset that Lightning Rod is down as much as it is. When you are paying $90 plus $25 to park your car, then we all should expect all the rides to be in good operating condition most of the time. The downtime on Lightning Rod is a huge black eye on Dollywood. Most guests don't even know what RMC is and that they built the coaster, they just want to ride it. Most of the times I've been there it has been down. It's been down more times than running and I go about 3 times a month all year long. I know many people that have changed their plans to go to Dollywood when Lightning Rod is down for maintenance or repairs. Theme parks also have thrill rides, so your comment about it not being a thrill park is beyond ridiculous. As a matter of fact, the Dollywood website calls Lightning Rod a "Thrill Ride." Can you believe that? A thrill ride in a theme park. I'm shocked. https://www.dollywood.com/themepark/Rides/LightningRod

I've never heard of any roller coaster having a "safety chain." Anti-rollback dogs prevent the train cars from rolling back if the chain breaks. They're also responsible for that "clack-clack-clack" sound you hear as a coaster train ascends the lift hill. TEDodd is correct that Lightning Rod does not have these as they are only found on coasters with a chain lift, as far as I am aware. Typically when they have a rollback, they can brake the trains going backwards before it reaches the station. This may have been operator error.

I don't believe it is a staffing issue. The last time I was there, the ride was closed all day, even though the sign out front said "temporarily closed." You could see all the ride hosts just standing around, so I think it is a maintenance issue. Dollywood is supposed to retrack the remaining topper track to Ibox track over the winter, so maybe that will help with down time. At this point they need to do something as Lighting Rod is a huge black eye for Dollywood and such a fun coaster when it is working.

Dollywood Season Pass 2022 renewals starting on October 18th, with upgraded season pass options with up to 6 bring-a-friend passes, plus one 2021 Christmas bring-a-friend pass. They are also bringing back the discount bring-a-friend key tag. Let's see if we get a better deal than the crap one we got last year.

That's the issue for me. Why post a sign outside and have ride hosts standing there saying the ride is temporarily closed. That's why I kept checking the Dollywood app and walking by to see what "temporarily" actually meant. I think it is just a PR decision for guests and should be handled differently by Dollywood.

I spent the day at Dollywood yesterday and I have to say I've never seen it as dead as it was. There were no lines for any rides all day long. It was funny to look up at the monitors on each ride showing zero wait times for all the rides in the park. Except for Lightening Rod, which was, as usual, not running. The sign in front of the ride said temporarily closed, but I didn't see it open before I left which was a major disappointment. I think at this time Dollywood either needs to sue RMC, completely rebuild the coaster or just tear it down and start from scratch. Dollywood has to be mad about the constant down time and it is a big black eye for RMC. Does Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point have the same issue with down time? Probably not with its standard lift. Other than that. all the other rides were running well, food lines were non-existent and the parking lot was only partially filled into the C area. It was very humid, but still a great day at the park. There were also a bunch of new employees that I haven't seen before, which is typical for fall when students go back to school.

New partnership at Dollywood to improve staffing levels. https://www.facebook.com/KyleGraingerWVLT/videos/998503780983234

Unfortunately I missed the drone and fireworks show for this summer. I went several times while they were doing the show, but I could never stay until it got dark out, usually because it was so dang hot and it wore me out. I was planning on going list last Friday or Saturday night, but on Friday morning I received my second Moderna Covid vaccine and I pretty much felt pretty bad and ended up not going to Dollywood. I've seen the videos of the show on youtube and really would have liked to have seen the show live, but it wasn't in the cards for this year. Hopefully they will bring it back next summer or do another version for Halloween or Christmas.

This was the first week that the new Carnival Mardi Gras ship had paying cruise passengers on it since the Covid shutdown. The video looks fun, but the $15 fee for one time around the track is very steep, especially when the ride only last 15-20 seconds (riders control speed). What are your thoughts?

Carnival is charging $15 for one time around the track, which takes 15 to 20 seconds. That's way overpriced.

Let me tell you what is happening now at Dollywood, most likely because the pay is only $10-$12 an hour. The staff is very young, they are untrained, unfriendly and sometimes downright rude. The two new people working on Drop Line are a prime example of who should NOT be on the Dollywood staff, at least in a position that deals with the public. They are both rude, never smile and act like they don't want to be there. There should be a supervisor walking around and correcting these issues instead of letting these two "kids" make such poor examples of Dollywood employees. Chik Fil-a, right down the street, is staring people out at $15 an hour and Cedar Point is starting people off at $20 an hour without raising any prices other than typical annual price increases we see everywhere. And so what if they have to raise prices. People don't want to wait in line 30 minutes for a drink refill or an hour for a hot dog. Adding 25 cents to the price to get more staff at a restaurant would be worth it to most people. People are not taking low paying jobs anymore when they can go down the street and find one that pays more. Dollywood is raking in the cash and they surely can afford to pay their employees a living wage.

I was there Sunday. There were still several restaurants closed with signs on them that said, "closed due to the current staffing situation." They are also having job fairs over the next two weeks. Their pay is between $10 and $11 per hour. You can get more than that almost anywhere else right now. 2 upcoming job fairs: Wednesday, July 21 | 2 - 6pm at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort & Spa Monday, July 26 | 2 - 6pm at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort & Spa What's also odd is that people that I've seen working there for years are no longer there. I'm sure part of that was people not wanting to work during Covid, especially since a large part of their staff was older. The new staff is much younger now and not as friendly either. We had a blast, but it was so hot out on Sunday that we couldn't stay all day to see the fireworks and drone show, which everyone is raving about.

Dollywood needs to up their pay. Cedar Point upped their pay to $20 an hour. Dollywood needs to do the same. There's nothing worse than a theme park being understaffed. I also find it laughable that people are listening to the Dippin' Dots girl for new coaster information.

I was at Dollywood today. It was more busy than usual. Lightning Rod opened late due to technical problems, but was running with two trains at around noon. The single rider line was SO much faster than the 130 minute wait in the regular line. Wild Eagle is still down. Not sure when they will get it fixed. Lines for food and drinks were BEYOND long. So long that I refused to wait in them and just left the park. Dollywood really needs to step up with their food operations. Other than that, it was a perfect, sunny day and yes, Barnstormer was up and running today too. There was almost nobody wearing masks and I'm pretty sure all those guests were not vaccinated.

I just rode it last week and I also love the ride. It's way too short, but there's never much, if any, of a line for it. The location of the ride is awful. I always ride Barnstormer when I go. I also don't see ride operators shifted to other rides very often when I go. It seems they are trained on a ride and tend to stay working on that ride. I'm hoping they open up that area or make some changes to make it more user-friendly. The Mountain Slidewinder is still sitting there too, so that entire area could and should be reworked with a major facelift.

Don't you find that odd that a ride that can operate with 2 or 3 ride hosts gets closed down? I always thought that ride was in a crappy location. I think rides like that do better in the open where people can see them. If you don't know that ride is there and miss the sign, it is easy to pass up. School is out here, so they should not have an issue finding ride hosts. They may have to up their pay some like other parks have done though. I rode Barnstormer last week, so I was surprised to see it closed.

Dollywood cannot keep the park staffed. In addition to several restaurants being closed, now we can add rides to the list of closures due to staffing. It only takes 3 ride hosts to run this ride. Do you really think this is a staffing issue, or do you think Barnstormer will be removed or relocated? It's kind of tucked away and hard to see from Craftsman's Valley, as is Daredevil Falls. Maybe they are going to rework that area of the park. That could also be where the rumored giga coaster may be going.

It was designed with Topper Track, which is and was tubular steel. That is how the partial retracking worked put so seamlessly. Both the steel tracks were the same size. The only difference is that the Topper Track had wood underneath it while the I-Box track has steel underneath it. The part the trains ride on are identical, therefore Lightning Rod was never a wooden coaster from day one since it was always on tubular steel track. It was all a marketing gimmick by Dollywood and RMC. Lighting Rod has always been a hybrid steel coaster. It feels exactly the same now as it did before the retrack. The only difference is that it is more durable with the stronger I-Box track because the wood under the Topper Track could not take the impact.

I didn't see the sign for single riders for Lighting Rod, so I waited a long time yesterday morning. I got in line at 9:45. They were only running one train when they opened the ride at 10 am, so it was SLOW going. Then there was a rollback just as I was close to boarding. That took another 30 minutes to fix, then run test trains. The next time I went to ride Lighting Rod is when I happened to see the single rider line. After you walk up the stairs, there is another sign that tells single riders to go into the middle lane, which is also used for Parent Swap riders. It's a bit confusing, but on the third try I got it right. The first time I used the single rider line, I stayed in the Time Saver line, which was not correct and the ride host made me go to the back of the single rider line in the Parent Swap queue, which I did. So, if you go as a single rider, go into the Time Saver line, then go to the middle queue. The sign overhead still says Parent Swap, but the line is really for single riders. They never put a second train on while I was there. It appears the partial retracking didn't help the issues or reliability. The second photo shows the maintenance crew totally dumbfounded about what caused the rollback. Then a guy reached down and appeared to adjust a sensor and the ride started back up. The same thing happened when I was there two weeks ago at about the same time. It rained off and on most of the day, but the park was fairly empty and all the rides were running, most with no lines. It was a fantastic day to go.

Rumor has it that Dolly Parton will make an appearance at the park on Wednesday after her interview from the DreamMore Resort in the morning on GMA. Not sure what time her interview will air, but it is tomorrow.