Dollywood Discussion Thread

[DoinItForTheFame]

. . . DW has been on my list for a long time and became a huge priority after LR was built. Summer can't come fast enough!

 

Same. Dollywood was always one of those "OMG. I really want to go to that park!!" Parks... But I was waiting for them to install one of those "OMG. I must go now and ride that!" coasters... and well, that happened with LR, so Dollywood here we come!! Glad you are going to get to experience the park too!!

[STDog]

This is the first year in a long time I have gotten super passes..

 

I've been getting super passes since it doesn't add any more than the cost of a single ticket. So if the opportunity to spend a 2nd day at splash arises, I'm covered, and I know we'll go at least once.

 

The half price day would be great, but it's never going to be a day when I'm there. One more perk for the locals that can go practically any day they choose. It's a 4.5 hour drive so has to be more than a day or two there and that means planning.

[dstephe9]

This is the first year in a long time I have gotten super passes..

 

I've been getting super passes since it doesn't add any more than the cost of a single ticket. So if the opportunity to spend a 2nd day at splash arises, I'm covered, and I know we'll go at least once.

 

The half price day would be great, but it's never going to be a day when I'm there. One more perk for the locals that can go practically any day they choose. It's a 4.5 hour drive so has to be more than a day or two there and that means planning.

The half price days are usually during the last 2 or 3 weeks of the season so yeah, they aren't available long.. they usually kick in right after school starts back and I believe they blackout Saturday? I can't remember. Like you said, it's just a way to bring in locals on days the park will traditionally be dead haha

 

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[MindbenderManiac]

Sunday it was down a lot and I don't believe they ever got both trains running Sunday.. they tried but it always broke down when they loaded the second train.. I think one poster here mentioned they got the second train running for a little while and then a breakdown but I never saw the second train running.

 

I know personally I saw it broke "TC" about 6 times.. 3 of those where them trying to get the second train loaded.. they never made us leave the lines when it broke down though.. it did it twice while I was in line but only for about 15 mins each

 

This is why it had a long wait on such a slow day

 

And I to feel Dollywoods a good value, otherwise I wouldn't spend over $400 on two super passes but their prices are increasing quickly, at a rate higher then anything else in the area.. The average salary of workers in Knoxville is only $34,000.. Tourist have no issues buying season passes if they plan to visit several days, it's the locals who the higher prices will cause them to put that money towards something else.. I have even considered it before but then again, I have a wallet full of season passes for places now lol.. Ripley's Aquarium, Six Flags, Biltmore, Zoo Knoxville and those are just a few of my season passes. Last year with three trips to Disney, I even considered Disney passes this year but decided against it.

 

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Indeed, Sunday around 530 they reopened LR with 2 trains. They dispatched about 3 trains with people, the third of which we were on, and the ride went down for the day after that. They seem to still be tinkering around with things to get the ride fully reliable. You could hear them drilling and working on the other train below the loading dock frequently on Sunday.

 

On another note there seems to be a cooling system now at the bottom of the launch I never noticed before. You can notice a mist at the bottom of the launch now.

[dstephe9]

5:00 ish was when I was getting my pizza and I headed out shortly after which is why I never saw both trains running.. on a slow day like Sunday, I would have already given up at that point adding both trains lol

 

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[dstephe9]

I don't think we are out of LR troubles yet.. it's been down most of the day according to their app.. I have been checking on and off all day and have only seen it open once. I know the park just opened a few hours ago but Sunday they had this same issue.. it was down a lot of the day.. I wasn't watching it Monday so no idea how it was running then.

 

Of course the app might not be correct but when I was there Sunday it was updating almost instantly with in park status

 

 

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[coasterbill]

The fact that it's managed to be open for even a portion of every day is a dramatic improvement over last year (though it's a small sample size). It's still hilariously unreliable, but it's improving.

 

PS: Mystery Mine needs to get it's sh*t together this year too.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Bummer about LR. I'm so happy we got the rides we did on Saturday! It was up and down all day but I'd say more up than down. As others have said, it truly is an insane coaster and definitely the best RMC (out of 6) that I've been on, and one of the best wooden coasters (hard to decide between LR and El Toro).

 

Also, what's up with Mystery Mine? Is it down frequently too? Because it was down most of Saturday and we were lucky to get one ride in.

[STDog]

Also, what's up with Mystery Mine? Is it down frequently too?

 

Historically no. Something weird going on to start the season.

[dstephe9]

Mystery Mine has issues every year early during the season it seems.. was it last year it was down for almost a month or the year before? All kinds of rumors had been spreading to why it went down from broke arms to waiting on a part haha. That was last year or the year before, I don't remember

 

Eitherway, it does go down a lot early on for some reason

 

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Edited March 22, 2017 by dstephe9

[LukeFlynn]

Bummer about LR. I'm so happy we got the rides we did on Saturday! It was up and down all day but I'd say more up than down. As others have said, it truly is an insane coaster and definitely the best RMC (out of 6) that I've been on, and one of the best wooden coasters (hard to decide between LR and El Toro).

 

Also, what's up with Mystery Mine? Is it down frequently too? Because it was down most of Saturday and we were lucky to get one ride in.

 

I've never been on a day within the past 3 seasons that Mystery Mine wasn't TC until at least noon. For some reason it's never opening with the park in my experience.

[dstephe9]

The fact that it's managed to be open for even a portion of every day is a dramatic improvement over last year (though it's a small sample size). It's still hilariously unreliable, but it's improving.

 

PS: Mystery Mine needs to get it's sh*t together this year too.

Idk, mid-late September, October, and November last year it had a pretty good groove going with very limited downtime.. although it only ran one train

 

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[STDog]

I've never been on a day within the past 3 seasons that Mystery Mine wasn't TC until at least noon. For some reason it's never opening with the park in my experience.

 

Not sure I've ever tried to ride very early, but I don't recall many problems on any of my visits over the last several years.

 

That includes several spring break trips, late May/June when school is out, late summer/early fall (Aug - Sep), and late November.

[coasterbill]

A bird must have flown inside...

 

I'll show myself out.

[dstephe9]

I've never been on a day within the past 3 seasons that Mystery Mine wasn't TC until at least noon. For some reason it's never opening with the park in my experience.

 

Not sure I've ever tried to ride very early, but I don't recall many problems on any of my visits over the last several years.

 

That includes several spring break trips, late May/June when school is out, late summer/early fall (Aug - Sep), and late November.

They only had the major downtime really early for that one season but it does seem to be TC a lot early on every year.. like LR it's up and down, but it usually hits a groove very early on with very little downtime..

 

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[dstephe9]

Looks like MM has opened but LR still down

 

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[thisdougsforu]

Sucks to hear they are still having problems with it. I'll be visiting for the first time in late May and really hope I'm able to ride it at some point. Winged Eagle is pretty reliable though, correct? I'm pretty pumped about getting to ride that, so even if LR is down it won't be a total wash.

[coasterbill]

Oh god, that Coaster Studios kid is there today after visiting 5 times last year and failing to ride it all 5 times. I won't lie, I know a lot of people can't stand him but he doesn't bother me and I'm starting to feel a little bad for him with this thing. Come on Lightning Rod, throw the guy a bone.

[DirkFunk]

Oh god, that Coaster Studios kid is there today after visiting 5 times last year and failing to ride it all 5 times. I won't lie, I know a lot of people can't stand him but he doesn't bother me and I'm starting to feel a little bad for him with this thing. Come on Lightning Rod, throw the guy a bone.

 

Is he from the general geographical region around that park? Then I feel almost bad. If he's rich, I don't care.

[thisdougsforu]

Forgive me for not following the mechanical gremlins closely, but is there a specific thing that keeps causing the issue or is a just different smaller things popping up over time? I'd assume the launching system is being a PITA?

[coasterbill]

Oh god, that Coaster Studios kid is there today after visiting 5 times last year and failing to ride it all 5 times. I won't lie, I know a lot of people can't stand him but he doesn't bother me and I'm starting to feel a little bad for him with this thing. Come on Lightning Rod, throw the guy a bone.

 

Is he from the general geographical region around that park? Then I feel almost bad. If he's rich, I don't care.

 

I legitimately have no idea. I believe they were 5 days in a row though and I only remember this so vividly since it was right before our one trip of the year so we were watching his Facebook page to see if we had any reason for optimism (which of course we didn't).

[LukeFlynn]

Forgive me for not following the mechanical gremlins closely, but is there a specific thing that keeps causing the issue or is a just different smaller things popping up over time? I'd assume the launching system is being a PITA?

 

The launch system was a great deal of the problems last season, from what I can tell. It received a lot of work throughout January and February. I believe now it's just a lot of little things that are manifesting themselves now simply because it wasn't running at max capacity last year.

[coasterbill]

It's open!

[LukeFlynn]

Just opened, less than 15 minute wait.

[dstephe9]

Honestly it depends who you ask.. Pete at the coaster event this Nov said it all had to do with the trains and they planned to rewire them this off season which will fix most of the issues.. the video was posted here back in Dec.. ride ops will say launch and some say launch is beautiful. other people will say launch. The maintenance guy that posted here last year said launch was beautiful and sensors and software had been the issue.. the software folks then posted that the software was fine.. other folks say sensor..

 

Point being, you can't trust anyone and not even the park haha.. I mean the video of Pete was clearly Pete haha.. the maintenance guy that posted might have been fake but he knew a lot about the coaster and most of us felt he was real.. ride ops are the least trustworthy when it comes to issues.. the reason I say that is with most of the issue maintenance even made the ride ops leave, especially early on.

 

Last year when he video of the rollback was posted, it was clear that a safety system stopped the launch before it could fire.. with everything working together like it does, maybe the park really doesn't know or didn't know.. ultimately, all the issues where keeping it from launching which could be why the say it was a launch issue.. but that doesn't mean the launch itself was the issue

 

Looks like it's about to open Maybe.. wait time is less than 15 mins so something is happening but usually it'll give exact wait times not less than 15

 

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Edited March 22, 2017 by dstephe9