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Even in person you can't really trust looking at it. I thought while on it the lift was surprisingly fast, we all did. I came down to my husband who was with my son and pointed up and said the lift was pretty fast for a chain and yet looking at it from the ground it looked super slow lol

The first time I rode this ride was 2019 and I have been lucky that every time I have gone it has been open and I have been able to ride it. I normally go in March and/or June and I guess I am lucky. But I have ridden it a lot. We were there last week and I have to agree with the people riding and seeing no difference. I told my kids to warn them it was chain, but after hill it is not supposed to be different. They were disappointed when I told them, but I told them to give it a shot. We had the last 2 rows of the coaster. It whipped us over that lift hill which shocked me honestly. But my kids and I all agreed it is still super fun and FAST. My one daughter said she thought it was better than last year. The lift hill was also faster than I expected and my oldest said the same. She expected Eagle and it was much faster than Eagle. My one said "I hate when you are right mom, but you were it was the same after the lift and really a lot of fun, can we go again?" Iron Gwazi is a chain lift and a very similar coaster and super insane and fun also. I agree with others, other coasters have come out that are better. I used to have this at the top with Iron Gwazi and now I have ridden coasters like Velocicoaster and now that is my top. Memories are an interesting thing and play tricks on us. I think this is a win for the park. I can't comment on up time vs down time since this vacation was no different than any others as I said we were always lucky and had a lot of up time on the days we went.

School is out June 1st in TN, so not sure why it would be dead. Wristbands is all they have now. I think they learned with the lanyards that it was way too easy to game the system

I am really hoping this was miscommunication by some new employees. My oldest would pass for 14 easily, but not my middle. We send them off together while my youngest is at firechaser with one of us. My oldest (now 12) has been riding eagle by herself since she was 8 and my 8 year old rode the drop ride by herself when she was 6. Heck my 5 year old can ride the small coaster by himself. Not sure why they would not allow kids to ride by themselves anymore. We were there first week of the season and no one said anything to any of my kids who were riding by themselves for any coasters and height charts were all the same. I would have thought a change like this would have been done at beginning of the season. It really effects families with multiple kids.

I asked the ride operator about this and they said it is complex and not completely going away. So not sure if they changed it and it is going away for good or if they are doing something else.

So after going 3 days this week I have to say they don't seem to have the staffing issues they had the past 2 years. More restaurants are open, all rides were running except ones down for maintenance. Even the kiddie areas the rides were all up where in the past some were down due to low staff. Even barnstormer was running both sides which I haven't seen in awhile. Lots of trams running all day long. Overall the staffing levels seemed pre-pandemic. Also, Lightning Rod was up all day today.

Lightning Rod was open for part of the day on Passholder preview and same with Sunday. Got to rid it twice on Sunday as it was a walk on. Everything was a walk on on Sunday. We weren't planning to go but when I saw waits of 5 minutes for Firechaser we decided to head out. It was 0 by the time we got there and twice firechaser went out with just my family on it. It was a great day. Doubt any other day will be that empty this week. Passholder wasn't bad either. The parking lot was FULL when we arrived at 3 PM, but lines were fine.

I agree as a family that has kids who can ride WE and others who can ride FCE. My daughter can sometimes get 4+ rides on WE before we get one on FCE. Other times she only gets 2, but the norm is more than 2. She hates FCE, but she does like DF and so she goes on that with us, but that is always another longer line. So I am very much looking forward to this new coaster so that it hopefully lowers all lines for the 39" crowd. Honestly, while that sounds great, it would scare the crap out of my 4 year old and then defeats the purpose of the 39". Theming is great, but in the end it can't be too scary at 39". My kids and family will love it with or without theming. They love wildgrove.

Funny enough Hershey has the exact kid coaster as Dollywood, but their ride alone height was way higher than Dollywood which meant I had to ride with my son (I was not amused). Also Eagle height at 50" is less than most big steel coasters at other parks. Heck Sea World can't build a proper coaster with a restriction below 54" which is very annoying. I agree they typically have the same, but there is some exceptions that always make me wonder why. But Dollywood height restrictions run lower than most parks, I don't know any other park with 39" coasters. They are 38" or 40"

I will say most kids that age won't do huge coasters. Some are not tall enough and others more scared. My daughter does Sea World camps and her friend was saying that the prior year when it was 4th and 5th graders that only 4 would do all the coasters. So her group of 4 went on their own with a camp councilor. They specifically signed up for the Thrill camp this year so that they would be with like minded kids. Many of their sessions have an A and a B but Thrill does not. My oldest is a roller coaster junky and always has been. At age 2 she wanted to go on Hulk and never let off the gas. My middle child loves coasters, but hates big drops. So she will do Tennessee tornado, but not eagle. She is also going thru a "scared" phase where stuff she would ride now she won't. She is 8. My 4 year old loves coasters, but isn't tall enough for the big coasters, so who knows what he will do then. But he does like Scorpion at Busch that goes upside down. When I am at Dollywood I wait the longest for Dragonflier and Firechaser because the most people can ride them. So they are trying to appeal to the widest audience with family coasters.

I am excited for a new family coaster at Dollywood. Any guesses on height restrictions? They tend to be on the lower end of other parks, so maybe 44"? That would be nice. I like the Bear theme and fits nicely into that area. I know many on here complain about that new area, but honestly someone with kids ranging from 4 to 11 that area has added a lot to our experience. I just wish that the coaster had higher capacity, so I am hoping the new coaster can run 2 to 3 trains. Because the new one only running one train causes way too long of lines. Having a higher capacity lower height near it would really help reduce lines. My family is target demo for Dollywood and their new expansions have hit the mark for us. If they can keep this coaster at or below 44" I think it would be amazing. That would give 3 family and 1 kiddie coaster.

If you haven't renewed yet the Silver pass today only comes with a one day unlimited refill mug.

I have been pretty lucky myself. Almost all of my visits it is open and each vacation it has always been open at least one day. I actually have less luck with Mine Train. I think what helps us is a lot of our visits are in the first week of the park being open in March or June during Covid. But we went this year in June and it was open.

I have a family of 5 and a season pass. So paying $250 every time we go is too expensive. I was looking at the gold first hour timesaver, but not sure that is worth it either. The lines aren't as long that first hour and then i have to commit to going that first hour.

Ironically using the wait time website pre-covid memorial day was even slow, I was shocked how low waits on actual memorial day there was. Post-covid it looked about what we deal with during Spring Break week which is the first week the park is open in March.