megan

Young kids are not evaluating your product or paying for it. “Good enough for young kids” is a really odd standard since the pictures of the amazingly well done tree is from the Indianapolis KIDS Museum.

Except for one poorly executed fake tree that looks like steel pipe cleaners stuck together. Imagine THIS, but with musical instruments sculpted into it instead of sports references. And how cool would it be if you could go it it like this?

I agree. I’m not impressed with the direction the park has been heading past few years. The recent remodels (grannies, front porch, emporium) into generic “country modern” are totally off theme. That’s fine for the hotel that is not a themed environment, but in the park? I think the Emporium looks like a generic mall store now. Yes, it needed flow work, but the easiest solution would be NOT routing all exit traffic through it. It looks soulless now, and that has nothing to do with light inventory due to supply issues. Removing the tunnel and Christmas shop to “open things up” might be necessary from an operation standpoint, but then you don’t support the increased traffic flow with sufficient staffing to decrease waits for food. If they want to compete with Disney, they certainly are playing at their game, but not in a good way.

This looks… ummm wow. Like momma always said if you can’t something nice… the tunnel maybe needed work, but all that’s missing from this picture is the Walmart the sidewalk is in front of (Sorta momma,I failed)

Feelings about the Emporium? I’m not loving it. Looks a bit barren.

No. It was a restaurant. The “my people” show is in the old action theatre ride building. The museum originally opened as a restaurant that they envisioned being open year round even when the park was closed. The first iteration was Silver Screen cafe themed to different movies. The entire area was supposed to be a tribute to the movies (hence the original name “Dollywood blvd”. The restaurant only lasted one year and was returned to DJPlatters in 1997. And yes. Sorry. I was referring to the entrance of the museum.

This site needs some new energy or topics. We go weeks without any activity. Is anyone out there?

Had an odd “entrance experience” as well. Just sort of walk down a concrete block hallway and up some steps. I feel like it was because it was reusing an old restaurant space and they had to figure out a way to “route” traffic. Would be cool if it even started with something like “Heart Song” and return that theatre to more of a performance show, or I’ve always felt make a permanent “Imagination Library” show either live like they do in the summer, or Dolly taped in the slow season. Maybe “holoDolly” reads stories to the kids as the “library come to life” with hidden screens or projection mapping to bring the characters she is reading about to life.

https://www.hersheypark.com/explore-the-park/rides/jolly-rancher-remix/ this flat ride would be awesome in the entry plaza of a new spinning coaster someplace -maybe even theme the coaster and flat ride to gears or something like at a clock factory that causes time to travel backwards (hmm where has THAT been done before) but maybe actually do something cool with the ring and affects in tunnels where the launches are.

Park is usually very slow as they ramp up operations. Used to go in March a lot and had longer lines and more waits than times in June/July. An empty parking lot doesn’t mean much when there is low/ new staff.

Oh I get it. It’s being a victim of your own success, I just hope they do a balancing act of opening up areas by shaving down instead of clear cutting. Disneyland did similar as they got ready for anticipated crowds related to StarWarsGalaxy Edge opening, but it was a lot of shortening this… widening that… but putting it back VISUALLY the same in most cases.

That’s going to need a lot of work to look better than what was there. I’m overall disappointed with some of the choices DW is making these days. I feel a lot of what made it unique (staffing, atmosphere, quality of shows) is slipping into a corporate “growth” strategy.

WOW what a smart arse response.

For a park that makes suchcc be a big deal about their food, they really need to get that part figured out. At this point I’m thrilled I didn’t do passes to DW next season. Way too many negatives. Here’s to hoping next season is a rebuild and reset, or I’m a little scared for what things look like going forward. They have burned through so much season pass good will this year that they really need to find their footing fast.

After having now seen the Winterfest Wonderland Parade 3x at Kings Island (no reservations needed thank you very much) Dollywood really needs to get the parade back next year. It adds a kinetic energy that fireworks just don’t have. I guess staffing the parade is an issue since they can barely get the food places open, but it does help the overall energy of the park.

Park not opening today until 3 due to potential bad weather. Cue the entitled passholders comments already on social media.

The whole company seems a bit lost right now.

Right. There’s perception and reality in social media land, but when you have a free bring a friend incentive that ends in the 19th that was used to sell passes, they should’ve expected that weekend to “sell out”. If you wanted to go that weekend to use those incentives, then the fact that later weekends are available is pretty much moot.

That’s why we didn’t do season passes on our “every other year” plan. We live in Cincinnati and alternate with KI, but this year we are skipping Dollywood until they get their act together. And I love all these people saying “Dolly needs to know what’s going on” LOL Like she cares about the day to day running of the business venture she’s a part owner of!

I think thats the issue - Its on the website, but they've not been checking - even telling people they "suggest" but don't require, then overnight earlier this week they became "mandatory" again right as they have bee pushing season pass sales - now people that bought to "take advantage of Smokey Mtn Christmas this year".... can't because so many days are already sold out. I just think this park needs to get a handle on a lot of things as they keep growing and chasing a bigger and bigger slice of the tourism pie.

Not sure why Kings Island can run on no reservations this year and pull off a reservation-free Christmas event and Dollywood is struggling with guest experience so much.

DW is getting called out a lit right now by passholders for their seemingly “sudden” switch to making reservations required again. They really need to get their operations under control going into next “normal” year or they are going to further erode their “good guys” image. They seem like they have struggled this year to have a consistent operating message.

Interesting. I used to be, they must’ve dropped it when they added dragon flyer.

Agree with the domestic slant, but I think they are looking to convince people to come to Dollywood first (SDC not as much) with a (soon to be) slate of 4-5 hotels, cabins, campground, water park, dry park, dinner shows (why they don’t provide shuttle service to on site guests to those is beyond me). Not just coming for another reason, then stay on a DW, but making that the main focus of the trip.

I think “small gem” ship sailed a year or so ago. It’s still a unique product, but they definitely have their eyes on a bigger prize these days.