Dollywood Discussion Thread

[ernierocker]

It also says "record-breading 2016 attraction project".

 

I hate to be a whiny enthusiast but if the rumors are true I'm not a fan of this new attraction.

 

I'd hate to see record breading at Dollywood, especially at Miss Lillian's. Let the chicken speak for itself, don't load it up with a record amount of breading unless you want Knoebels to get that "Best Food" award all by themselves next year.

 

LOL! Typed that one a little too fast.

[Intimidator305]

Dollywood's growth the past 12 seasons has just been insane! It really is unmatched at any other park in the country. It has been amazing to see the park come together the way it has. It has easily doubled in size since 2004.

 

2004: $7 million Thunderhead and Thunderhead Gap excavation; Big Bear Plunge

2005: 10 new rides and Country Fair renovation; Bear Mountain Fire Tower

2006: Timber Tower (RIP) and Timber Canyon expansion

2007: $17 million Mystery Mine; The Cascades

2008: River Battle and Wilderness Pass excavation; SwiftWater Run

2009: SkyZip and 2 new huge shows

2010: Adventure Mountain; Slick Rock Racer

2011: Barnstormer and Owens Farm

2012: $20 million Wild Eagle

2013: Several new shows, Great American Summer 10 PM closings; RiverRush

2014: FireChaser Express

2015: ($200 million DreamMore Resort) new park entrance

2016: $20 + million RMC

 

That's roughly $130 million dollars of major capital expansion attractions in 13 seasons (plus many other changes around the park each season) AND a huge new resort. That's about an average of $10 million dollars of expansion each season since 2004. Absolutely insane!

[prozach626]

I know some people want the resort experience and the perks you get for staying at a park resort. Other people want to spend several days straight at the park. For my money, when my wife and I visited the area we stayed in an affordable hotel, enjoyed Dollywood and then spent a great deal of time exploring the natural features of the area of course based on the national park. Why spend time cooped up in a hotel room, even a nice one, when there is so much natural wonder in the area? Not everyone wants to hike a ton, which is what I prefer, but there are motor nature trails, tubing runs, all kinds of fun stuff. If you're gonna spend some time in the area, see the area's natural features, not just the tourist spots that popped up around it.

 

 

The Smoky Mountains National Park has more species of flowers than Europe. It's one of the centers for temperate diversity on Earth.

 

Hiking a few miles away from a road is part of the experience for seeing the area, ideally uphill toward a remnant area of big trees

 

I liked Wild Eagle a lot, a beautiful ride even if it's not Intamin level intensity. Hiking into old growth forest was even more scenic. Finding a waterfall to stand under on a hot summer day is recommended.

 

Your thoughts are very similar to mine. My trip started out as an all theme park trip. Once I started looking into things I could do in the mountains, I dropped two parks from the list and was easily as excited about hiking the Alum Cave trail or swimming in the Little River as I was about riding Wild Eagle. It saddens me to see the Parkway be such a tourist trap and know that people are coming to the area just to experience that mess instead of what brought it there in the first place.

 

I'm a Floridian and it drives me mad that people think that visiting Disney and then spending a day at Daytona or Cocoa Beach is seeing Florida. So few of them ever get out of the manufactured tourist attractions and see the verdant jungle surrounding Florida springs and the existing still unmolested beaches and rivers that initially made Florida a tourist destination in the first place. But why visit Blue Spring when you can visit Disney Springs?

 

I'm not coming on to a rollercoaster site to tell people to do nature instead of coasters, but darn, if you're gonna visit a theme park right outside the most popular national park in the nation, and one with a massive amount of things to do accessible for everyone, then do both.

 

I agree with both of your opinions, but if we all liked the same things life would be boring. There are plenty of people who are perfectly fine with going from one park/tourist trap to another and want little or nothing to do with nature.

 

Is it a lack of culture in some people? Probably... by why 'Drive yourself mad' giving a crap about how other people prioritize?

 

I'm not coming on to a rollercoaster site to tell people to do nature instead of coasters, but darn, if you're gonna visit a theme park right outside the most popular national park in the nation, and one with a massive amount of things to do accessible for everyone, then do both.

 

For our visit this next September we planned 3 days exploring the smokies first and then 2 days visiting Dollywood while staying at the Dreammore resort........nice combination i think[emoji3]

 

Paul

 

Seems like a nice combo, but I would at least consider looking into a nice (somewhat) secluded cabin 10 or so minutes out of town. I'm not saying change your plans, but just take a look at some of the awesome cabins in the area just so you can compare. It's a neat, somewhat unique experience.

[dstephe9]

Dollywood's growth the past 12 seasons has just been insane! It really is unmatched at any other park in the country. It has been amazing to see the park come together the way it has. It has easily doubled in size since 2004.

 

2004: $7 million Thunderhead and Thunderhead Gap excavation; Big Bear Plunge

2005: 10 new rides and Country Fair renovation; Bear Mountain Fire Tower

2006: Timber Tower (RIP) and Timber Canyon expansion

2007: $17 million Mystery Mine; The Cascades

2008: River Battle and Wilderness Pass excavation; SwiftWater Run

2009: SkyZip and 2 new huge shows

2010: Adventure Mountain; Slick Rock Racer

2011: Barnstormer and Owens Farm

2012: $20 million Wild Eagle

2013: Several new shows, Great American Summer 10 PM closings; RiverRush

2014: FireChaser Express

2015: ($200 million DreamMore Resort) new park entrance

2016: $20 + million RMC

 

That's roughly $130 million dollars of major capital expansion attractions in 13 seasons (plus many other changes around the park each season) AND a huge new resort. That's about an average of $10 million dollars of expansion each season since 2004. Absolutely insane!

Don't forget this year Dollywood is also supposed to have a new years eve party and be open the latest its ever been!! I'd assume it will do well and be here to stay as well.. If it's here to stay I'd add that to the list of growth

[dstephe9]

BTW all this talk about Dollywood made me and my gf drive up there tonight to have dinner.. We where only there from 8ish to 9:00 and the only ride we went on was Wild Eagle but it was a nice walk in the park and some mighty good food!! Actually a pretty evening for it.

 

Gotta love Gold Pass!! I love going there just for food but couldn't afford that if we had to pay parking every time

[mordecai-75]

Rocky Mountain Constuction, building a coaster in the Great Smokey Mountains, " and doing it from the ground up ". let us all be hopeful that it becomes the greatest accomplishment that the booming company has produced to date upon it's completion. we are a little over a week away from the official announcement, " i will be personally attending ". good lord!, " it's gonna be a fun day ".

[coaster-mm]

Seems like a nice combo, but I would at least consider looking into a nice (somewhat) secluded cabin 10 or so minutes out of town. I'm not saying change your plans, but just take a look at some of the awesome cabins in the area just so you can compare. It's a neat, somewhat unique experience.

 

And that's exactly what we are gonna do[emoji3].

Rented a cabin in the smokie mountains for the first 3 days, followed by 2 days Dreammore resort to fully enjoy Dollywood.

 

Isn't it September yet????

[A.J.]

If you're gonna spend some time in the area, see the area's natural features, not just the tourist spots that popped up around it.

"Culture credits" are wonderful and they can seriously help break up a park-only trip.

[ASE]

This may have been posted before, but I just came across these....pretty neat!

 

Filming Thunderhead for Insane Coaster Wars on The Travel Channel:

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/insane-coaster-wars/video/filming-dollywood-thunderhead

 

Filming the Wild Eagle

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/insane-coaster-wars/video/filming-dollywood-wild-eagle

 

Making of Insane Coaster Wars at Dollywood

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/insane-coaster-wars/video/making-of-insane-coaster-wars

[sonoma15]

On a sign outside of splash country it says an event called hot rod, does this mean the new ride is called shot rod?

[ASE]

On a sign outside of splash country it says an event called hot rod, does this mean the new ride is called shot rod?

 

That's for Shades of the Past car show in September.

[ASE]

For anyone interested, I added the text from the press invite to http://www.pigeonforgetnguide.com/things-to-do/new-dollywood-roller-coaster-in-2016/ Here's what it says:

 

Dollywood announces record-breaking 2016 attraction project

DATE: Friday, August 7

Join Dolly Parton as The Dollywood Company announces exciting details about the newest attraction racing in to Dollywood Theme Park. Set to open in 2016, the innovative project marks the largest attraction investment in the history of the award-winning park. This record-breaking attraction represents the next project in the $300 million expansion plan first announced by Parton in 2013.

 

Words of note in this:

record-breaking attraction

racing

innovative

largest attraction investment

 

Can't wait until Aug 7!

[WildEagle2014]

Our Dollywood season pass holder newsletter arrived today with plenty of info about the Southern Gospel and Harvest Festival's lineup for this season. It also contained the sad news that this will be the final season of the wildly popular Dollywood's A Christmas Carol show. So sad to see it go! We'll post details on the listing later.

[WildEagle2014]

Well...just drove by the construction site and was able to get several photos. Let's take a look shall we?

Only a week and we'll find out what we can have to look forward to from RMC and Dollywood in 2016!

This is definitely starting to look like a gift shop area below with the station situated above...

Very hard to see...but if you look down the hillside you can see the prefab footers have already been installed! This view is from the upper employee parking lot!

Quick look behind the fence where a the old Dollywood sign shop was...now completely gutted!

A new access road has been constructed towards the rear of the lower employee parking lot. Wonder what's up there?

[SFOGdude25]

I still can't believe that I'm about to have an RMC in my own state. Definitely a dream come true! Only a week to go!!

[Dollywoodlover20]

Once that announcement is put up, things will start happening even faster. I will hopefully be back in September to celebrate my birthday, have a getaway, and see the construction. When we went in September of 2011, Wild Eagle had already gone vertical with the station and supports up the mountain.

[Quetzal]

What if...

 

This coaster is dueling and one side is named Shot Rod and the other is named Lightning Rod?

 

Even though this would be rather unlikely, it would be neat. Very neat.

 

[I305forever]

It's not dueling.

[Quetzal]

It's not dueling.

 

Don't kill my beautiful speculation. It's so precious now since I can still hope and dream that it will become a great reality until August 7th has cometh and killeth my speculation.

[ernierocker]

This coaster may very well be a single track coaster (and personally I'd prefer it to be) but there is more speculation/rumors that support a dual-track coaster than a single track coaster...

 

It's not dueling.

 

...which makes post like this, presented as facts completely obnoxious.

Edited July 31, 2015 by ernierocker

[bkwjjm]

I am so completely unsure of what to think. Personally, I would rather have a single track coaster with a lot of length and longer ride time, something epic. But I'm not going to complain if it is a racing/dueling coaster. If it's RMC, it will be good. I am just happy to see Dollywood continue to evolve into one of the best theme parks in America.

[DoinItForTheFame]

It's not dueling.

 

You don't know this.

 

Granted I am not saying it is, but at this point anything is possible. Whatever it is that Dollywood is getting will be amazing. There is no doubt about that.

[ASE]

Although I lean ever so slightly toward the "it won't be dueling", there is probably more evidence to support that it will be than won't be.

 

1) The amount of land they are clearing

2) The cost even though it's wooden...especially if there is no launch

3) 2 trademarked names

4) Their invitation says "racing"

 

The thing that keeps me leaning toward the single-track/wooden launch is the original teaser animation that had ONE hot rod which "launched" quickly.

 

One thing we all know, though, is that RMC loves to one-up everything they do and they love making people say "how did they do that?!?!"

 

Keep in mind 2 phrases they used in the invitation...."innovative" and "record-breaking", which basically means that whatever it is will most likely be the first of its kind (whether in the country or world, who knows) AND something about it will break an already-established record that some other coaster somewhere currently has.

 

Whatever it is, it's going to be incredible...and I can't wait to ride it!

[ElectricUncleSam]

Although I lean ever so slightly toward the "it won't be dueling", there is probably more evidence to support that it will be than won't be.

 

1) The amount of land they are clearing

2) The cost even though it's wooden...especially if there is no launch

3) 2 trademarked names

4) Their invitation says "racing"

 

The thing that keeps me leaning toward the single-track/wooden launch is the original teaser animation that had ONE hot rod which "launched" quickly.

 

One thing we all know, though, is that RMC loves to one-up everything they do and they love making people say "how did they do that?!?!"

 

Keep in mind 2 phrases they used in the invitation...."innovative" and "record-breaking", which basically means that whatever it is will most likely be the first of its kind (whether in the country or world, who knows) AND something about it will break an already-established record that some other coaster somewhere currently has.

 

Whatever it is, it's going to be incredible...and I can't wait to ride it!

Why have none of you thought "racing" to just be à figure of speech? It is a car thème after all. I hear people at CP all thé time saying TTD and MF "race" into their respective stations simply because of how fast they run going into their brake fins. Coups it simply be à speed référence?

[ASE]

Why have none of you thought "racing" to just be à figure of speech? It is a car thème after all. I hear people at CP all thé time saying TTD and MF "race" into their respective stations simply because of how fast they run going into their brake fins. Coups it simply be à speed référence?

 

Oh of course I think it could be a figure of speech...they don't use words out of context in their marketing ...like I said, I personally don't think it's dueling, but I like pointing out clues to possibilities. Besides, the speculation leading up to the reveal has been a fun ride the last few months.