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Dollywood Discussion Thread

P. 796 - Ride closing 10/30 to remove launch and install chain lift!

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My quick thoughts about Wild Eagle-

 

 

Seats-

As is typical with B&Ms, the back seats provide the most forces, but this is a ride where the front row makes all the difference. I'd recommend trying both sides of the front row. The left side had more intense g-forces, but the right side provided MUCH better leg and head choppers. This is one of those rides where you should definitely wait for the front row.

 

Misc.

Photos of the wild eagle sculpture don't do it justice. It's an amazing thing to see in real life. The theming of the queue, station, and giftshop are pure Dollywood. It's Disney quality construction with a smoky mountains rustic feel. Bonus points for the child swap including televisions with Dollywood trivia to keep waiting parents entertained. Minus points for the child swap having a set of stairs. This won't be an issue for most people, but if you are traveling with a stroller bound baby, you won't be able to access it.

 

Rider Types-

There is a big boy row and it seemed like most people were able to fit in that.. We did see a number of larger riders able to ride other rows with a bit of help. Everything is bigger in the South and I suggest that larger riders give it a shot if they want to ride other rows... While the restraints hold you tight, this ride seems to accomodate more people than typical B&M's.

 

 

Conclusion-

Much like Cheetah Hunt was a good addition to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Wild Eagle is a great addition to Dollywood. This is just another feather in the hat (pun clearly intended) for one of America's best theme parks. It probably won't make many enthusiasts' top 5, but it as an awesome ride and a perfect fit for Dollywood. For any photographers out there, the train provides great photos of the layout and the queue for Slide Winder has great close up shots.

 

Chris " my number one head chopper/leg chopper ride" Con

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Dollywood without a doubt is an A-class theme park. One of the few left in the USA outside of Disney, Universal and Busch. The quality of the station queue and the details prove that the management is not only trying to provide great rides, they are also providing great atmposphere. This is what sets them head and shoulders about the "Wal-Mart" type parks that Cedar Fair and Six Flags are providing these days. Can't wait to go back this year.

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Tomorrow I may get a trip report up with Wild Eagle Photos.Also Veggietales Sideshow Spin is now just Sideshow Spin,and has a new paint scheme,Timber Tower is gone and has been replaced by pinic area for the new pizza place across from Timber Tower's old station,and one of the pathways to get to the County Fair has been landscaped over.

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I just got back from Dollywood this evening, and I'm giving a "thumbs up" to Wild Eagle. This ride is an excellent fit for the park (although my favorite ride there is still Thunderhead).

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I just got back from Dollywood this evening, and I'm giving a "thumbs up" to Wild Eagle. This ride is an excellent fit for the park (although my favorite ride there is still Thunderhead).

 

Though I think we all rode Tennessee Tornado more than anything else. Thunderhead is running amazingly well this season. It is my new favorite GCI.

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I just got back from Dollywood this evening, and I'm giving a "thumbs up" to Wild Eagle. This ride is an excellent fit for the park (although my favorite ride there is still Thunderhead).

 

Though I think we all rode Tennessee Tornado more than anything else. Thunderhead is running amazingly well this season. It is my new favorite GCI.

 

Now that you mention it, I think you're right about Tennessee Tornado--pretty durn impressive for an old Arrow ride.

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^I've never tried picking a favorite because of how good they all are.

 

I'm heading to Dollywood on Friday, and I have an odd question. Are adults allowed to ride the kiddie coaster without a child?

I rode last November with no child without any trouble, think it should still be the same.

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I went to Dollywood yesterday, and thanks to Q2Q, I had an amazing and relaxing time! The lines looked gigantic, but the cheap Q-bot system at Dollywood saved my day! I don't have enough pictures for a photo trip report, so I decided I'd just upload a few to this thread!

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This would be the Wild Eagle line.

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Just a shot of Thunderhead/ new picnic area

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The Cinnamon bread was simply amazing!

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More amazing food at Dollywood!

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First time visiting Dollywood but I didn't take enough pictures so I'll just post these here.

 

We arrived in Pigeon Forge around 5pm Wednesday Apr 4th and stopped at our hotel, Clarion Pigeon Forge. Great hotel, #1 rated hotel on trip advisor for a reason. Clea, friendly, good location. Breakfast every morning included. After checking in and dumping our stuff, we headed over to the park to buy our season passes. My wife, 4 kids (11, 9, 9, 7) and I weren't sure if we'd make it back to Dollywood later this year but the price of the season passes makes sense if you're planning on visiting for more than a day. We were planning on visiting Thur and Fri as well so season passes for us.

 

I bought 1 gold pass and the rest regular passes. Why? The gold pass gets you free parking ($8 a visit) and 20% discount on pretty much everything in the park except for the $.99 refills on the souvenir cups. We took advantage of the gold pass over 2 days and figured out we saved ~$90. The gold upgrade is only $36 so well worth it for us.

 

After purchasing and processing our passes, we had about an hour left before the park closed. Having never been to Dollywood, we asked a host how to get to Wild Eagle as fast as possible. She directed us up Timber Canyon past Thunderhead, which happened to not be running. Made our way past Mystery Mine and straight to the Wild Eagle. We waited around 25 mins to ride. Thoughts on the ride below. One more ride before park closed so we chose Mystery Mine. Headed back to hotel for swim time and sleep.

 

Up Early Thursday morning for a quick breakfast and drive to the park. We arrived around 10:15am and had to park in lot D which tells you regulars how crowded the park was. Without going into detail, we ended up riding pretty much every ride in the park. Wild Eagle was closed for maintenance from around 12pm onward. The rest of the park was closed for lightning on and off for the rest of the afternoon. We did get the rides in but otherwise was a fairly disappointing day with the frequent storms blowing through the area. Consolation was spending a bit of extra time at Lillian's eating fried chicken and fixin's. Yum! Back to hotel for more swimming and dinner.

 

Up even earlier on Friday as the park opened at 9am instead of 10am. Again, the crowds heading into the park and the great weather didn't bode well for ride availability. We happened upon a park host who recommended the Qbot system. This basically allows you to place a ghost version of yourself in 1 ride's line while you go do whatever else you want to do, including riding other rides. When your ghost person gets to the front of the line, the qbot vibrates and lets you know you that it is your turn to ride. Take your qbot up the special entrance and merge into the regular line right near the front. How near? Depends on the ride. For Mystery Mine, you essentially walk up the qbot entrance and right onto the ride. For WIld Eagle, you merge fairly far down in the queue so you're likely to spend another 20 minutes just to ride a middle row. Add on another 30 for front left and maybe another 20 on top of that for front right. Why the difference? The handicap elevator lets out on the right side and without exception, they all take the front seat. It's frustrating watching 18 year olds with a neoprene brace on their knee dancing and jumping around the handicap waiting area and walking right on the front seat. OK..enough rant. Back to qbot. We used the Qbot all day long and it saved us 1.5 hrs every time we wanted to ride Wild Eagle. It saved us at least an hour every time we rode Mystery Mine. You get the picture. How much does it cost, you ask? $15/person. The 6th person is free. Take off the 20% gold pass discount and we paid $60 for 2 3-person Qbots (we split up sometimes). WELL worth the price on what ended up being an incredibly crowded day at the park. In the end, we rode Wild Eagle front seat, back seat, middle seats, left right, etc. We rode Thunderhead (wow!) all over the place as well. Great day at the park. Sad to leave. Can't wait to go back.

 

 

Thoughts on the park:

Beautiful, small park feel. Great location, park hosts are incredibly friendly and helpful. It quickly became my favorite park.

 

Qbot system:

So worth it! I can imagine that it would be worth it even on a day with short lines. We simply LOVED not standing in lines all day. My only complaint is that Adventure Mountain wasn't on the Q2Q system. The line for this attraction was over an hour long and is frustratingly slow.

 

Food:

Yes, the cinnamon bread is all that and then some. We got a couple warm loaves and some cookies and sat out near the mill and gobbled them up. Interesting fact - all the flour used in the making of the treats is actually milled right there at the Grist Mill. We also ate at Lillian's and Aunt Granny's. BTW, its a great joke about only in Tennessee could your Aunt be your Granny. However, the origin of the name is sweet and makes sense. Dolly apparently took in some of her younger siblings once she had a home of her own, thus becoming something of an Aunt and a Granny to her sibling's children. Anyway, the food was delicious.

 

Wild Eagle:

I must admit that my expectations for this ride were not really met. If I had never heard of the ride and didn't spend all winter anticipating the first ride, I probably would have liked it a bit more. Yes, the theming is beautiful, the station is amazing, the view is outstanding, the ride is smooth as silk. However, I didn't get off the ride and say "Damn! Did that just happen?" like I did when I rode Thunderhead (or Intimidator 305 or Diamondback, etc.) It is fairly forceless. I liken it to Millenium Force. Nice coaster but doesn't make you FEEL any intensity, and that is what I look for in a ride. Would I visit Dollywood just to ride Wild Eagle again? No.

 

Thunderhead:

I admit I really knew nothing about this coaster before planning this trip. I looked up this ride and was surprised to see it currently holding #5 spot on the Golden Ticket awards for wooden coasters. My experience on wooden coasters, while lengthy, really doesn't involve more recent woodies. My favorite woodie (until now) was The Beast at Kings Island, or at least how it used to run, mostly for nostalgic reasons. This was my first ride on a GCI woodie and first on what I think of as a new "type" of woodie where up and down, out and back is replaced with a much more quick, active ride. Let me just say I got off and did say "Did that just happen?!" I LOVED it. So many pops of floater air in the back seat, ejector-type air in the front. The whole ride feels out of control. The fly-by through the station is icing on top. Fantastic. My new favorite woodie. I plan on visiting Holiday World this summer to ride The Voyage. Even without the new trains this summer, I'm hoping for more of this kind of woodie and less of the Mean Streak kind. Would I visit Dollywood just to ride Thunderhead again? Absolutely.

 

OK...enough writing. Here are a few pictures I took:

 

Beautiful arch on Thunderhead's curve heading into the station fly-by

 

 

 

Wild Eagle's loading platform

 

 

Sure kids, stick your faces through here. No, no one will squirt you!

 

 

Yours truly on Mystery Mine. Crappy pic.

 

 

Kids LOVE Dollywood!

Edited by Jwalther420
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^ I don't know what happened to your pictures but that was a great trip report! I love to hear about how people felt about the different coasters and little details like what to eat, where to stay, and how the lines worked. It's helpful information for if/when I visit the park someday.

 

Edit: As soon as I posted my comment, your pictures showed up. Great pics!

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Yesterday I went to Dollywood.When I went to get cinnamon bread,they were out,and so we left for a while.When we came back there was a big line.For lunch I ate at the new Lumberjack's Pizza,home of the 12-pound pizza.(Maybe Bert the Conquer and Adam Richman could do a special episode of there shows there now.)I had a delicious 1-pound piece of pizza .Next time your there you should check it out.About the park yesterday,it was pretty crowded.Also I should have some photos up of the junior coaster.

Edited by RCBoilermaker14
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Veggietales Sideshow Spin has been changed to Sideshow Spin.The Veggietales theming has been removed,has got a new paint job,and a new theme.Also those gian vegetables have been moved to the ride's queue.

Sideshow Spin Off-Ride:

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The new sign for Sideshow Spin

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The former giant path vegetables

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Photo #1 of layout

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Backside of ride

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Photo #2 of layout

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Thanks for sharing the photos of the retheme! I was really wondering what exactly they did, and overall I like it much better! The color scheme fits in with the park more and there randomly isn't a VeggieTales ride now in the "fair" section of the park. The sign/logo is quite cool looking for a kiddie coaster too!

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