Dollywood Discussion Thread

[hagwar]

Hey Dollywood Peeps, I'm down in Atlanta and my son has a rare day off from school and was thinking of heading up tomorrow to take advantage of the cooler weather and low crowds.

 

I just saw above that STDog heard that LR might be down the rest of the week and saw on the app the LR was down again today, was anybody there today or have any insider info to know if it will be will be possibly be operating tomorrow.

 

TIA

[dstephe9]

If the app says closed for the day, it's pretty accurate.. I have noticed though, LR seems to be down more during the week so you might get lucky tomorrow being Friday

 

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[MindbenderManiac]

My guess is that it will not be operating tomorrow. In fact Lightning Rod was supposed to be the early entry ride for this coming Saturday. It has now been changed to Wild Eagle. Regardless crowds will be light and I'm sure you will have fun anyway!

[hagwar]

Thank you both for your input! Think we're going to go for it.

 

H

[Furyous]

Hello, I'm new here and have a quick question: I'm planning to go to Dollywood next year. Should I immediately go to Lightning Rod immediately?

[dstephe9]

Unfortunately LR, IMO, shouldn't even be considered officially open yet.. At least during the week, I visit a lot, and it's closed more than open during the week.. I have been very lucky and had walk-ons during the week a few days but the majority of my weekday visits it's closed and I visit sometimes twice a week.. I'd say downtime is still way over 50% at least based on my multiple visits a week. (I might just choose unlucky days though lol, usually Wednesday)

 

Weekends on the other hand, it seems to be up 90% or the time but waits are long.. So IDK if they are still having major issues or if maintenance cost are so high they are closing it during the week due to low crowd's (someone mentioned several post pack that they were told this and we all said Nope Not True but who knows)

 

If they changed the early entry ride then it might be scheduled to be closed this weekend though

 

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[MindbenderManiac]

Has anyone taken a look at Dollywood's operating calendar for 2017? At this point it looks like they will have 2 Saturdays where they will be open until midnight, July 1 and July 8 !! But the biggest change from years past is that they will not be closed any day of the week during the month of October, and be operating everyday from 10AM - 9PM . That means night rides in October!!! I wonder why they have changed this? I know its a busy travel time for the area.

[dstephe9]

Fall breaks around here cover most of October maybe? I know Knox just got off theirs and that Blount had theirs the first week in October and a few schools have it this week.. Fall break is kind of new for a lot of the school districts in the area..

 

Or maybe they are just trying to fill their resort and they have noticed more guest when the park is open? I'm sure the park benefits that come with staying in the resort is a huge draw for it.. I mean, honestly, it's fairly expensive for the area so without those perks I'm sure it struggles when the park is closed. I'm sure if we had a warmer winter, they'd be open year round if they could.

 

Or another theory is a new different style festival in October? It would be nice if they had a haunted festival in the evening and kept the Gospel festival during the day but only being open until 9:00 kind of rules that out.. But they might be planning a kid friendly Halloween festival??

 

Only time will tell! Lol

 

The midnight days sound awesome, I wish they did that more often

 

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Edited October 21, 2016 by dstephe9

[VegasBaby]

Unfortunately LR, IMO, shouldn't even be considered officially open yet.. At least during the week, I visit a lot, and it's closed more than open during the week.. I have been very lucky and had walk-ons during the week a few days but the majority of my weekday visits it's closed and I visit sometimes twice a week.. I'd say downtime is still way over 50% at least based on my multiple visits a week. (I might just choose unlucky days though lol, usually Wednesday)

 

Weekends on the other hand, it seems to be up 90% or the time but waits are long.. So IDK if they are still having major issues or if maintenance cost are so high they are closing it during the week due to low crowd's (someone mentioned several post pack that they were told this and we all said Nope Not True but who knows)

 

If they changed the early entry ride then it might be scheduled to be closed this weekend though

 

I just can't believe they are still having so many issues with this coaster. I really hope they can figure it out in the offseason and get it running on a regular basis. None of the other RMCs have had this kind of downtime. I would like to make a trip out to DW next year, but I'm not going to if LR is still having major issues.

[dstephe9]

Luckily I don't go for LR, my GF and I just enjoy walking the park and we get a few rides here and there lol but yeah if I was going just for LR I wouldn't risk it personally

 

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[SFOG1991]

Has anyone taken a look at Dollywood's operating calendar for 2017? At this point it looks like they will have 2 Saturdays where they will be open until midnight, July 1 and July 8 !! But the biggest change from years past is that they will not be closed any day of the week during the month of October, and be operating everyday from 10AM - 9PM . That means night rides in October!!! I wonder why they have changed this? I know its a busy travel time for the area.

This makes me very excited! Hopefully they won't change it. I would love to be at the park until midnight during the summer. It would be great if they did that more nights.

[dstephe9]

Maybe they are testing it out over those two weekends and if it does well they will do it more often.. I have the most fun after dark at like 11 when I go to Disney during the summer..

 

That's just me though lol.. I'm more curious about what they have planned for October.. being open until 9:00 is a great thing and makes me think they have something planned for the evening hours. Unless they just expect a lot of fall break people like I said earlier

 

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[MidwestThemeParks]

Hello, I'm new here and have a quick question: I'm planning to go to Dollywood next year. Should I immediately go to Lightning Rod immediately?

 

No one has any idea what LR could be like next year, but if it's working properly than it would probably be good to go there first.

[sdcfan88]

It does pose a question of speculation. It makes me wonder if RMC and the park intentionally went with the design of the launch hill versus a flat segment (as it looks like it could easily be retrofitted to be a traditional lift hill, if needed) in the event that the launch system proves to be a failure in the long run due to low reliability. However that first airtime hill prior to the main drop might need to be abbreviated to maintain the speed needed for otherwise completing the circuit.

[mckayj93]

I was at Dollywood today. Lightning Rod still closed for the week but all other rides and shows were walk ons. While I was at Mystery Mine, heard a few employees talking about getting a new B&M coaster in the back in between Tennessee Tornado and Blazing Fury, past the Eagle Foundation. I would be surprised considering Lightning Rod was this year.

[Jccoasterfan]

If the launch is the issue again, I think changing to a traditional lift would be their very last option. I'm sure that they would look to a different launch system (if possible) first or at least continue to do drastic measures on the current one. That's just my opinion.

 

Regardless, I hope they can get the coaster up and running as soon as possible.

Edited October 22, 2016 by Jccoasterfan

[DoinItForTheFame]

They could always just go with a really high speed cable lift...

[djcoastermark]

^ I have thought that to be a viable option also.

[Jccoasterfan]

I personally wouldn't mind a cable lift. However, in the LR documentary, it was mentioned that the original launch system was supposed to be developed using a "counterweight" but they said that as the design evolved, it became too complicated and realized they weren't getting something state of the art.

 

I'm sure this was discussed a while back, but just wanted to mention it in case others didn't know.

 

I do feel like the launch really adds to the ride experience. LR would still be a great ride even without it, but I found it to be a pretty fun launch. Others may disagree though.

[BigBad]

I have yet to ride, but the launch isn't what made me think this would be the best wooden coaster in the world. It's the rest of the layout, particularly the quad down. If the speed as the train crests the top could be the same with a more traditional lift, then I wouldn't think any less of the coaster.

 

A cable lift is unlikely to happen, though. Intamin would build it, agreed? Well why not have Intamin do LSM? The launched Intamin in Spain is LSM even though it looks like Dragster and Ka. That appears to be the preferred way of doing a launch.

 

(Some of us think Intamin should have built the LSM from the beginning...)

[ZeroGravity55]

^ The coaster companies like Intamin, RMC and B&M don't actually supply the launches. The launching mechanism is outsourced to another company. Dollywood went with Velocity Magnets, who developed a prototype launch for the project. Launches for Intamins are supplied by InTraSys. InTraSys also supplied the launch for B&M's only LSM coaster.

 

How did we get back to the launch being the issue again? Last TR said the ride was only operating with one train, right? In my mind, that means they're still having issues with the trains. I could be wrong though. It definitely wouldn't be the first time.

[Jccoasterfan]

I do believe the current issues are train/sensor issues. During one of my visits, while waiting in line for the coaster to open, one of the ops told me that most of the issues were sensor issues. That was when I rode the coaster for the first time back in June before the recall. It does seem like the train issues are still existent. During my two later visits, they never pulled the second train out, even when lines got super long.

 

When I found out Velocity Magnetics built the launch and the fact that it was their first ever developed launch system, I had a slight concern. I'm glad they were able to figure out most of the issues with it originally.

 

As I mentioned before, I did find the launch fun, but it definitely is the least exciting part of the ride. My personal favorite element is of course the quad down, followed by the reverse top hat.

[MindbenderManiac]

The launch is a great part of the ride. In my opinion, I wasn't overly excited about it being a launched coaster, but after having experienced it, it highly enhances the ride. Without the launch there would be no air at the top of the first hill, and possible no air at the top of the false drop. And all things considered, this is this first wood launched coaster, and the first coaster that has an inclined lift, launching the train up a 206 foot hill (that I can think of). The project was behind I think. Track was not completed until like 2 weeks before the ride was supposed to open. I think we need to give a little bit of a break to the park and to RMC. I mean they could have just closed the ride down for the entire season, but instead its sporadically open, and people are getting to ride it. Though the situation may not be optimal, the ride is still operating.

 

I think (for what it's worth) that the launch itself is not the problem. It seems to be performing beautifully. I also think that the trains and the maintenance costs to run them are the biggest part of the problem. Does anybody think we will see another company come in and build a different train, like Gerstlauer? That would make more sense to me than replacing the whole launch system.

 

On a side note, I was at the park this past Sunday and the ride ran fine all day long with one train. There were no breakdowns from what I can tell, and we spent quite a bit of time over there. We were about to ride again after the park had already closed, when the ride went down, and not for any reason that has been discussed on here. Lightning Rod closure this week I am almost certain is not related to launch/maintenance issues.

[MindbenderManiac]

Double post

[dstephe9]

At least they have already posted it's closed for the day

 

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