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Dollywood Discussion Thread

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

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I will have no idea why some people think Thunderhead is rough. I rode it for the first time this past December, and it was butter-smooth in the front, and in the back there was a little bit of shaking at worst. And even if it was rough, it would still be worth the pain since the layout and elements are so great!

 

I rode the front..."butter" is not an adjective I'd give this ride. My home park has The Boss, and I'd rather ride it than TH.

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Sorry, but I agree with the others. TH has gotten rough, it's a great ride with a great layout... but I would not consider it smooth. That wasn't always the case though, it's well over a decade old now, and I don't think it's every had a full retrack.

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I've seen a number of reports recently about Thunderhead being pretty rough. I'm making my first visit to the park in 4 weeks, and probably won't be coming back for a long time. How rough is Thunderhead? For anyone who has also been on Apocalypse in the last year or so, is it as bad as that was before it got worked on? I don't mind some roughness but Apocalypse was getting to be too much for me to ride more than once or twice last year.

 

Thunderhead in the back is as rough as Apocalypse is in the front. In the front, Thunderhead is mostly smooth. I wouldn't say butter smooth but it's comfortable and you can enjoy the airtime and great layout.

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Thunderhead is awesome and people are p*ssies. We rode it last year for Christmas when everyone was complaining about it and it was awesome, we rode it on opening day this year after some track work and it was still awesome. We've never had a ride on Thunderhead that was anything less than awesome.

 

Pro Tip: Sit near the front, there's way more airtime up there and according to a lot of the feedback that may be why we've never had a rough ride on it since it's apparently smoother up there also.

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Thunderhead is awesome and people are p*ssies. We rode it last year for Christmas when everyone was complaining about it and it was awesome, we rode it on opening day this year after some track work and it was still awesome. We've never had a ride on Thunderhead that was anything less than awesome.

 

 

Thunderhead was one of the most pleasant surprises of our visits to Dollywood last year. We made sure to grab multiple rides each visit because of how good a ride it is. I'm willing to bet the people who think TH is rough are the same people who think B&M hypers can have OMFG ejector air.

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For the guy who was posting about a discount for Dollywood tickets, this current offer is better than what you will find on soda cans

 

http://www.dollywood.com/Deals/Special-Offers/SpringSaver

 

Just keep an eye on the TOS, it seems this ticket is only valid during this time period as well.. at least according to the TOS meaning this ticket might only be good until May 21st.. I'd call to confirm

 

Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk

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I will agree to some extent that Thunderhead is a little rough, but it's nothing that really takes away from the ride experience, in my opinion. I rode in the very front last December and it ended up being one of the best rides I've ever had on it all last season. I believe the front feels more "out of control" compared to the other rows. After getting one lap in on the coaster back on passholder preview day, I did notice a bit more of a "rattle" compared to last season. Then again, it may have been because I sat towards the middle. But for those saying the coaster is very rough, I wouldn't necessarily agree as of now. It remains my second favorite coaster in the park, right behind Lightning Rod.

 

In speaking of LR, it looks like its having another bad day. The app has showed "temporarily closed" all morning so far.

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Thanks for all the Thunderhead feedback! I typically sit near the back I'll make sure to get most rides near the front on that. We'll be there for a few days so I'm sure I'll have plenty to chances to ride all over the train. I'll be there four weeks from today... can't wait!

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Thunderhead is awesome and people are p*ssies. We rode it last year for Christmas when everyone was complaining about it and it was awesome, we rode it on opening day this year after some track work and it was still awesome. We've never had a ride on Thunderhead that was anything less than awesome.

 

Pro Tip: Sit near the front, there's way more airtime up there and according to a lot of the feedback that may be why we've never had a rough ride on it since it's apparently smoother up there also.

 

I disagree, I'm not what you would describe and I don't think it was the worst ever (I mean Bandit makes anything seem smooth) but it shuffles like crazy (though better this year than last). When was the first time you rode Thunderhead? I think that is where you are hearing some different opinions. It certainly isn't as smooth as opening year or the first few years. When I compare it to my rides in 2005 or even 2009 or 2011, I can't call it awesome anymore. But some of my friends who rode it for first time last year enjoyed it because they never knew when it was running great for so many years.

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^I rode it for the first time in 2016, and it was running fine for a wooden coaster in any row, and very smooth near the front. Even if it ran better in the past, it's still smoother than your average wooden coaster. But I guess I could see why people who aren't really into wooden coasters still wouldn't be obsessed with Thunderhead.

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^ I think that's the debate - everyone has a different opinion of smooth for wooden coasters. I love wooden coasters, just don't think Thunderhead is a top tier coaster anymore. But then again what makes the debate even harder is you have new wooden coasters, heck like LR or the newer GCIs with the Iron Wood track, that are butter smooth. You ride those then walk over to Thunderhead and "smooth" becomes even more relative.

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The last 5 times i've been to the park [ 2 last September, once last October Opening Weekend and Good Friday] LR has been open every time, now it's has breakdowns throughout each visit, but between those 5 visits I've managed to score about 25 rides all together. There's no doubt LR has had it's fair share of issues, but it's reliability isn't as bad as I think some people have made it out to be.

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The last 5 times i've been to the park [ 2 last September, once last October Opening Weekend and Good Friday] LR has been open every time, now it's has breakdowns throughout each visit, but between those 5 visits I've managed to score about 25 rides all together. There's no doubt LR has had it's fair share of issues, but it's reliability isn't as bad as I think some people have made it out to be.

 

GP don't really hate on it as bad as some of us can, I know it's a massive PITA, but I think it more than makes up for it.

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^ Yet, I feel that a lot of the general public are still talking down on the coaster more so than we may think. A good example is found in the facebook comments on a latest WBIR article talking about the coaster being down more than open. The article interviewed Pete Owens, which he stated that the coaster is running more consistently than last year, which we pretty much knew already. At the same time, I do feel like a lot of others are making the ride's issues sound worse than they really are, and this was mentioned earlier in a previous post.

 

I just hope that the park can get these issues worked out sooner than later. Lightning Rod is an incredible coaster, and it will just be even better once its reliability is up.

 

After all, this is Dollywood. Having Lightning Rod closed on any visit of mine won't stop me from having a blast at the park!

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I know for a fact Dollywood is pouring a lot of money in to getting LR up to the 98% mark they strive for with all of their rides. I am Not sure though how much longer they can continue to do this with out someone getting a notice to court. It cost them money and man hours everyday it not open. I pray and hope they get this worked out sooner then later. It is a awesome ride!

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I know for a fact Dollywood is pouring a lot of money in to getting LR up to the 98% mark they strive for with all of their rides. I am Not sure though how much longer they can continue to do this with out someone getting a notice to court. It cost them money and man hours everyday it not open. I pray and hope they get this worked out sooner then later. It is a awesome ride!

I'm sure they really are. Let's just hope that Dollywood doesn't end up in a lawsuit with RMC (like what happened to Timber Tower with HUSS) but I highly doubt it, unless something major happens. With so many pissed off people from the GP, who knows what could happen, but it will be stupid to speculate on that part. Both rides were completely different from each other and each had their own set of issues. In reality, we shouldn't even compare Lightning Rod to Timber Tower.

Edited by Jccoasterfan
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If you get a chance go to the WBIR-TV Facebook page and check out the factcheck story they did on LR never being open. The story says it's only been closed 6 out of 47 days and people on Facebook are not buying it. The post below from the comments section was kinda funny! Enjoy

IMG_1241.thumb.PNG.3fbc288cb4000a7868760f8d2cb91e55.PNG

IMG_1242.thumb.PNG.51df5f4fd9ca0b4384d81cdc10e00e55.PNG

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That's an interesting post in regards to the issues plaguing the ride.

 

I've been curious on who fits the bill for all this continued maintenance as I work for a custom industrial machine engineering/manufacturing firm that, while completely unrelated to coasters, uses a similar work flow. For example, we recently had a customer that contracted us to build a machine that presses railroad wheels onto railroad axles. After plans were approved and everything put together and tested, we moved it to their plant for final assembly and experienced problems. This has been going on now for several months where when the line goes down, we have to send techs to get it back up. After a certain amount of downtime, we are the ones that have to eat the cost. It's all due to some engineering oversights and unexpected real world conditions. Sounds like that's the deal with LR.

 

Because of all the issues with the ride our visit in two weeks has been changed to Holiday World, with the plans to go to Dollywood after it's stabilized, hopefully next summer. I know that Dollywood is an amazing park and LR isn't the only thing there, but it's the main attraction we wanted to do and with having only a 4-5 hour window to be at the park, we'd rather just not risk frustration.

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