USRoadTripper

What about "Geeks dig coaster chicks"? I personally don't want to end up with every chick in the park following me home! haha The new shirts rock, btw. Will definitely end up with one soon. -Julie

Wow, the new entry way look very nice. Much nicer than the last time I was there in 2003, when it was pretty much just two little ticket booths with a banner over them! I've already promised myself a trip to Lake Winnie this year, and this TR makes me think that it may be sooner than later! -Julie

OMG! I almost posted the Brian Peppers picture!!! I opted for the only man in the world uglier than him though! hahaha -Julie

Wow, that does seem really excessive, especially since they are on such tame rides. And I agree that a couple of inches wouldn't be a huge deal...but raising a height limit by 10-12 inches...that's years worth of growth! That's not like a "Oh well, you'll be tall enough next season" kind of thing. You're talking about excluding some kids as old as 8-10 from stuff. Think about all the pissed off parents who will pull the "Well he rode it last year, he should be able to ride it this year!" defense, and rightfully so. -Julie

Steven Tyler. That is one fugly, fugly man. -Julie Horrifying.

Yup.

I'm fond of watching water rides to see people's reactions when they get wet. Popeye at IOA is particularly good for this! I also enjoy taking photos, eating and people watching. -Julie

I'm totally digging all the shout outs. Thanks for thinking of me! Looks like you had a better day than I did! At least you had a close encounter of the Dolly kind! -Julie

No way! The chicken crossed the street to get away from Mrs. Knotts! -Julie

My favorite fast food theme park meal would have to be the stacked sandwich that they used to serve at Cosmic Rays in the Magic Kingdom. It had really thick herb focaccia, turkey, turkey based ham and salami, and provolone cheese. Then you could load it up with topping from the topping bar. It was heavenly, and HUGE. There were plenty of times when I was living there that I would go to the Magic Kingdom just so I could have that sandwich for dinner. Other places I've liked, in no particular order, are Boma, Ohana and Teppanyaki Dining Room at WDW, International Market or whatever it's called at Cedar Point, PCH Grill at DLR, and that heavenly potato soup in a bread bowl at Knotts. -Julie

Ok, the thread's back on track now! -Julie

The best I can explain it is that you have to look "through" the picture before you can see the hidden image. Think about looking through a window. You can look at the window itself, or you can through it and look at something outside the window. Since they are at different depths away from you, you have to focus your eyes differently. So when you look at a Magic Eye picture, you don't look at the paper it's printed on. You have to look through it, as though it is transparent. If you focus your eyes as though you are looking at something far away, you will eventually see the image. You might even try looking at something off in the distance, then moving the Magic Eye image in front of your eyes to block what you were looking at. But don't refocus your eyes onto the surface of the paper you're holding. If you're able to move your eyes around while keeping them focussed on the distance behind the image, you should see it. I can see Magic Eye Images almost immediately, and even have two big ones hanging in my living room to stump my visitors

^ Oh dear...this TR has gone horribly, horribly wrong!!! -Julie

I have a Nano and I LOVE it. I would have never guessed that I would use it as much as I do. Since I got my FM transmitter for Christmas last year, that pretty much guarantees that I'll use my iPod every day! It's a fantastic device. I'm not a Mac fan, but I've gotta give them kudos for the iPod. -Julie

After giving it quite a bit of thought, I think I have figured out one of the things that makes me dislike Dollywood a bit. In most parks...dare I say every other park I've been to, there always seem to be a bunch of rides that you can ride without waiting very long. Like at SFoG, you can always manage to ride the Sky Buckets, the Enterprise, the Rockin Tug and some others without having to wait forever. Most parks have quite a few rides that are the go-to rides when the park is busy. This at least makes it feel like you're getting your money's worth when you're in the park. You're riding stuff...even if it's not the E-tickets, you're at least riding. Dollywood has been the complete opposite experience both times I've been there. The only rides I saw that didn't have half hour waits (that were adult rides) were the Carousel and the train. The chairswings, the Scrambler, the Disk-o, the bumper cars...all enormous waits! Mom even waited 45 minutes for the show we went to see! So when the park is like that, all you're doing is waiting in line. It would have been great if we could have just taken a while and jumped from small ride to small ride instead of spending such huge chunks of time in the lines. I know, I know..."But Julie, it's a theme park. There are gonna be lines." I've just really never been to a park with so few rides that you can just walk up to and not wait too long to ride. I think the fact that so many of the flats are all crammed into Country Fair doesn't help matters either. So I think that is some of it. I'm sure that if I visited on a slow day, I'd enjoy myself much more. -Julie

One time, someone on the internet told me that the word gullible isn't in the dictionary. I didn't check to see for myself, but I'm sure it must be true. -Julie

I really like Spaceship Earth as is, but I'm sure a redo of the finale will be nice too, and make it much more modern. I'm sure that right after the last redo, the thought of having a teacher in one place, teaching three classes around the world was unheard of. Now, not so much! I love the music in the finale, but I have the MP3 of it, so if it goes, I will survive. I also really hope that this involves taking down the wand! I shudder to think of how many people on Disney forums are typing "Walt would be spinning in his grave!" right now! hahaha -Julie

^ Only you can decide if it's best for you, but I personally didn't know anyone who regretted their decision to do their Disney internship. A lot of people didn't like their jobs (my deep water lifeguard roommate for one!) but everyone universally said that the rest of the experience more than made up for the crappy job location. Sure you will be leaving your friends and family for a little bit, but you will meet HUNDREDS of people while you're there, and they will all be in the same boat as you (everyone will be away from home, everyone will miss their families and significant others, eveyone will be tired from working so much, etc). And if you miss your family, they are always just a phone call away. Honestly, when I moved, I was having so much fun that I didn't even notice that my family and college friends weren't around! And about the car...I didn't have a car, and I did just fine just using the Disney transportation to get around. Occasionally, we'd all jump in my friend John's Jeep and head for Walmart, but that was kind of rare. I also had tons of friends who lived in the area, so little trips to the mall or to a friends house were no big deal. When my friend Nick did his second program, he took his car and said that he wished he hadn't. He said that he felt like everyone's taxi because everyone was constantly asking him to take them somewhere. And of course, no one ever pitched in for gas heh. So keep that in mind too...you *will* be used to shuttle people around town, that's a guarantee. Good luck with whatever yo decide! -Julie

^ Dave, all I saw was this group of three or four guys standing there, then this one took off springting towards that building. But instead of getting all the way onto the roof, his stomach slammed into the edge of it! Luckily I already had my camera on! But yeah, I have no idea why he was doing that. And he wasn't a kid! He was at least in his early 20s or older! It very well could be that the crowds are what is tainting my view of the park. But the last time I went, it was just some random week day in June and it was still packed! At least that time, I was able to do a few more rides (I remember skipping Slidewinder because the line was posted at over an hour long! I didn't even go to that area of the park this time.) But then you've got to figure that when you live four hours away, spend $47 for that day plus the cost of a hotel room for the night...I really don't feel compelled to visit very often when the quality of my visit is up in the air. It's probably a nice place to pop over to for a few hours if you're local though. And yeah Joe, I really wish I could have ridden TN Tornado again because th last time I rode it, it bashed me around pretty well. Not as bad as some, but bad enough! I wasn't going to pass up a ride on Thunderhead for it though. Well thanks for all the comments so far!! -Julie

My mom and I decided to head off for Dollywood right after the park opened this year...I really wanted to ride Mystery Mine, and mom just likes any excuse to hang out in the parks as well, eventhough she doesn't do any coaster riding. We settled on Monday the 2nd since (we hoped) it wouldn't be nearly as crowded as going on that Saturday or Sunday, just after opening. We left Nashville on Sunday afternoon and drove straight towards Pigeon Forge. We stopped for dinner at a Mr. Gattis in Knoxville when I spotted a carnival from the highway. No credits But the buffet was great, and I even got three Family Guy bobble heads out of one of the gum ball machines! When we got to Pigeon Forge, we stopped at the Nascar Speedpark to see about getting the credit there, but they had closed about 20 minutes prior. So we started searching for a hotel. After a while, we settled on the Briarstone Inn, which was just before the light where you turn to go to Dollywood. It was just over $36 for the night, including tax, and while it wasn't fancy, it was more than adequately nice. The beds and pillows were clean and soft, it had an incredibly comfy blanket, and the air conditioning made it almost arctic in there! I definitely wouldn't hesitate to stay there again! On Sunday morning, we got up and headed for breakfast at the Great American Steak and Buffet Company for breakfast. It was only $6 and we ate more than enough to last us all day. They even had chicken strips on the buffet...awesome! When we left breakfast, it took us forever...like literally it took us over an hour...to get from the restaurant to the gate of Dollywood. The traffic was backed up for probably a mile waiting to turn, then once you got turned, it was bumper to bumper all the way into the parking lot (which anyone who has been to Dollywood knows is quite a way!) The Dollywood parking lot is abysmal. I mean, it seems to stretch forever, and trams are never that frequent. Next time we have decided to leave the car at the hotel and take the cheap Pigeon Forge trolly to the park so we don't have to deal with their parking lot. We hadn't bought tickets in advance because last time, everything we picked up had $10 off Dollywood tickets in it. Not so this year. So we had to wait in a really enormous line at the ticket windows, which went surprisingly fast, actually. Once inside, I headed straight for Mystery Mine. I was pleasantly surprised to see that, when I arrived, the wait was only posted at about 20 minutes or so. So I hopped in line while my mom wandered around, and soon I was at the loading station. I thought the queue was pretty nice...it's outdoor queue, so there is only so much you can do with it, but I thought they did a good job. Almost as soon as I reached the station, they announced that they were putting on another train and that the ride would be down for about 20 minutes. I was in the next train load of people waiting, so I certainly didn't want to leave my spot in line. Being so close, I got a great view of how their transfer track works, and it was quite impressive (it sinks down below the station then lifts another train back into place). Soon I was on the ride, which I thought was a pretty decent ride. I wish I could say that I loved it...I wish I could tell people to run out and get a plane ticket to Knoxville to ride this coaster, but I really can't. It was good...but it wasn't great in my opinion. The first thing I noticed was how some parts of the ride were extremely elaborately themed, while others had almost no theming at all. Like, the dark ride part is very well done, but when the ride spits you outside after the first vertical lift, that whole coastery section is unthemed. Then you go back in, see some more elaborate theming, then again you get spit outside into the final inversions which are completely unthemed. The ride really only felt half done to me. I really think it would be great if they would enclose the "finale" of the ride. It would keep the station dark and really make it feel like an underground mine. Plus after the whole "What if there is no light at the end of the tunnel?" part, it would keep you in the dark. I really didn't get why that whole dramatic scene was almost immediately followed by...uh...light at the end of the tunnel! Did I miss something?!?! Enclosing those last inversions would take away a great photo op, but it would make the ending of the ride feel much more cohesive to me. After my 45 minutes in line, I met back up with mom, and we decided to meet up for the 2:30 Rhythm of the Dance show. She went on her way for a while, and I decided to ride Timber Tower since I'd never ridden a Topple Tower before. So I waited and waited and waited...eventually ending up waiting 45 minutes to ride what turned out to be a really lame ride!! It gave a great view of the area, but the ride itself wasn't thrilling at all. I'm glad to be able to say that I've ridden one, but I definitely don't feel the need to wait that long for one again! When my ride was over, it was time to head for the show and meet up with mom. I took some photos on the way out, and arrived at the show at about 2:15. The show was really good...definitely a step up from what is normally performed in theme parks, but admittedly it was a step down from the Lord of the Dance that played at Epcot a while ago. Still, it was quite enjoyable. When the show was over, we were both wanting a bite for lunch. We poked out heads in a couple of places, but when we spotted the "mega enormous skillet full of meat, peppers and hot fiery death" we decided to eat there. My "flatbread" (read: very overstuffed taco) was great but was really messy! Definietly not made for polite eating! But we both managed to inhale them, so it's all good. So by this time, it was already four o'clock! We had no clue where the time had gone, but only had three more hours left there. The traffic cut more than an hour off our day, making us not arrive until around 11:30 or so. The ticket line ate another almost half hour. Mystery Mine and Timber Tower both took 45 minutes, as did the Celtic dance show. Given walking time to get from one place to another and the time it took to get and eat our lunch, our day was almost gone! I decided to ride the Veggie Tales Side Show Spin next, which is almost the worst case of "Will Whore for Credit" that I've done. I'd say it's the worst, but I'm also the proud owner of the Lil Renegade credit in Alabama, so Side Show Spin will have to come in second place! The line was posted at half an hour...ugh. Luckily, it was only about 15 minutes. And double lucky for me, the mom in front of me had an extra kid I could borrow! Yay! This coaster lasts, literally, 10 seconds. But no worries...I don't have to worry about riding it again After I was done, mom and I got in line for the Aviators or whatever they're called. This was another line that was agonizingly slow, and took more than a half hour. When we were done, I told mom that I still wanted to ride the coasters, and that we'd need to split up again. She said that was fine, so she went on to other rides in Country Fair while I headed into Craftsman's Valley. When I arrived at Blazing Fury, the light for "30+ minute wait" was lit, but I didn't assume it would take that long. But with the shoddy operations I saw, it took well over 30! Whenever a family would come up the exit in a wheelchair, the ride op would unload a train, load that family into the train and send it with just those people in the train! She did this THREE TIMES! Why on earth would you waste so much capacity like that, especially when you have more than a half hour wait. We were all yelling "No! Let us on! Let us on!" yet the ride op ignored us and kept sending them through empty. Along with the three folks in wheelchairs, she also sent a maintenance person through alone, presumably on a show check. When I left there, it was 6:15, so I only had 45 minutes until the park closed. I went to Tennessee Tornado, but was posted at a 45 minute wait, and I didn't even like it the first time I rode it, so I decided that I'd definitely rather ride Thunderhead. I did manage to hang around long enough to get some photos though. When I was done, I booked it back to Thunderhead, arriving with about 20 minutes to spare. The line moved well thanks to the Thunderhead crew not sending every other train out empty!! Y'know, I went into my ride on Thunderhead really wanting to be blown away by it, with the hope that it was just having a bad day the last time I rode it. But I still have to say that I think this is the most overrated coaster I have ever ridden!! It's good, no doubt about it. It's a solid layout, rides fast and intense...but it just doesn't have that *something* that makes it a great coaster in my opinion. Both times, I've walked away thinking that it was nice but was just missing something, but I can't put my finger on what. It's quite disappointing really, as I WANT to love this coaster. I just can't. When I was done, I quickly went back to Mystery Mine to see if I could catch one last ride on it. It was broken down at the moment, and they appeared to be manually resetting (advancing?) all the brakes an were going to bring the ride back up. I waited for probably 10 minutes, but then decided to go ahead and leave so we could get back to Nashville at a reasonable time. I called mom, and we met up near the front gate, then headed out. I hate...HATE...how Dollywood herds you through the giftshop before they let you exit. It was shoulder to shoulder, with everyone fighting to find the ends of the lines, and to figure out which way was out. It was a madhouse. Once outside, the line for the tram was posted at a half hour wait!!! WTF!!! So of course we walked. We headed off, and on our way out of Pigeon Forge, we stopped at the Nascar Speedpark again. I asked if the coaster was open, but was told that all but two of the amusement rides were under refurb at the moment and would be reopening in a few weeks. Bummer, but oh well. While we were there, we played some arcade games, which made me win four little car racing themed rubber ducks! So cute! When we were done, we grabbed some Wendy's near the highway, then headed straight back to Nashville. So yeah...I was REALLY hoping that my "meh" trip to Dollywood in 2005 was just a fluke, and that I would love it this time since SO many people talk SO highly of the park. I *want* to love this park...it reminds me of Opryland in so many ways, and it even feels like Opryland in some spots. But there's just something about it that doesn't do it for me. Both times I have felt like I got next to nothing accomplished in the park because it was so crowded. I mean...I rode three major rides, three minor rides, saw one show and ate one taco, and that took my entire day!! It felt like as soon as I got there, I had to leave! I also think that they just don't have as great a coaster collection as everyone else thinks they do. Tennessee Tornado was REALLY rough when I rode it two years ago, so I didn't feel the need to ride it again. Blazing Fury is definitely "WTF" but is by no means a great coaster! And Thunderhead and Mystery Mine...well they are both very nice coasters, but both of them just lack that extra little something that makes me want to go back and ride them over and over. This trip marked the second trip where I left the park feeling no need to visit again any time soon. I wish I felt differently...I hate that I don't like it...but I just don't like it. :-/ Anyways, on to the photos. After heading out, we stopped at Nascar Speedpark for a while. I didn't get the credit, but I did manage to win enough tickets to get four racing themed rubber ducks! Thanks for reading! See ya later, Dolly! I'll probably see you the next time you add another coaster! Not the greatest coaster shot ever, but this was taken right at sunset, and I think the lighting is just perfect! The Thunderhead "Signature Shot" To end out the day, I headed back to Timber Canyon for a ride on Thunderhead. Um...WTF is going on here??? The Tennessee Tornado. I love this photo! Yep, still wearing my love of pickles on my sleeve! This has got to be one of the lower points of my coaster whoring career. After the Rhythm of the Dance show, we headed into Country Fair for a while. Ahh...the beautiful, serene scenery at Dollywood, punctuated by the random, unescorted kid climbing all over it. Speaking of more food than any normal human should eat...we ate at this place for lunch and it was awesome. "But hon, I *had* to buy that buffet before they would let me in..." The Timber Tower. Not a bad ride, but certainly not worth the 45 minute wait! This was also as close as the water got to the riders, despite being relatively warm. The Mystery Mine maintenance crew adds a sixth train to the track. The Mystery Mine queue also gives a great view of the rest of Timber Canyon! Mmmm...this was definitely my favorite part of the ride. It gives a great sensation of hang time, and since it takes it slowly, you really get to think about that you're upside down! First stop, Mystery Mine for my first new credit of 2007! Awww. not even in the park three minutes and I am already reminded of Kevin! Hey random lady...I'll give you $7 if you let me park here. That's less than half of what Six Flags charges it's guests. *insert your own ACE joke here* Mmmm...the Great American Heart Attack at 9:00am, er...I mean...buffet... And the inside of the hotel room. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done. The Briarstone Inn, our home for the night. And for $36 a night, I thought it was a steal. Since TPR loves food, I shall commence with this photo of my salad from Mr. Gattis. I love salads where there are so many toppings that you can't even see the lettuce! Please note the Family Guy bobbleheads. Also note the pickle.

Just because you don't have Photoshop doesn't mean that you can't participate in these contests. The only program I use to make mine is MS Paint (except for when I need to rotate an image by less than 90 degrees...I use Photoshop for that). So "sorry mine sucks, I had to make it using Paint" isn't really a good excuse! There are also tons of freeware and shareware image editors out there. A simple search for "freeware image editor" should turn up tons. -Julie

That would make for some GREAT TV! hahahaha -Julie

This ride once tore out a huge chunk of my hair when it got caught between the back of the vehicle and the seat cushion. Must have looked pretty disgusting to the next person who was supposed to sit in that seat. And yeah, the preshows were abysmal...enough to keep me away from the ride right there! Good riddance. -Julie

I really LOVE the idea of a Simpsons land in an existing park, but I agree with everyone who's saying that a full pakr would be overkill. I'd definitely go there if I ws in the area, but I can't see it having tons of repeat value. But even within one themed land, you could have different areas...I'd love to see a Praiseland section! And a Little World of Duff ride! And I really love the idea of having Moe's as an actual bar you could go have a drink in. I think there are so many posibilities of stuff you could put in it, that it would definitely work! Here's hoping that they raze Back to the Future and put in a Simpsons land! -Julie

I love you. -Julie