Dollywood Discussion Thread

[Jcoaster]

What days will you be in Dollywood? Im going to be there on the 13th and 14th of August.

With luck I'll be there on Monday, the 14th. I'll have my kid in tow and we'll be hightailing it over to LR as soon as we get there, knock on wood that the uptime is still remaining steady by then. *fingers crossed*

 

For sure, I'll probably see you there!

[Chasehat]

My friend is at Dollywood right now and texts me "This park sucks and is a waste of fucking time" I need new friends

[ytterbiumanalyst]

Tell your friend to go buy some cinnamon bread. It'll change their mind.

[Erik Johnson]

My friend is at Dollywood right now and texts me "This park sucks and is a waste of fucking time" I need new friends

 

It is probably because it looks like Rod is down again after the good week and a half long run it had. It went down early yesterday, it has not opened back up yet. Damn it.

[TBpony414]

With luck I'll be there on Monday, the 14th. I'll have my kid in tow and we'll be hightailing it over to LR as soon as we get there, knock on wood that the uptime is still remaining steady by then. *fingers crossed*

 

LR hadn't been opening up with the park recently but usually between 11-12. We went straight over in the morning anyway and once we saw some action we started a line. Let us know how it goes, I hope it's working for you! It's a heck of a coaster and once I started learning the forces and track layout it got better and better with each ride.

[Canobie Coaster]

Is it just me or does Lightning Rod seem to have more trouble on weekends?

[Erik Johnson]

They did manage to get it back open today.

[Physical]

I'm actually in line for Rod right now, it /appears/ to be open but I've only seen one cycle in 30 minutes.

[Erik Johnson]

Rod opened with the park today and it is running great! I ended up getting 14 laps today thanks to the Unimited Timesaver. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to beat the crowds. My nighttime rides were really spectacular. You really do drop into a super abyss of darkness. My final ride happened to be in the front row. Overall favorite row is row 11. The airtime is just unreal, especially after it warms up a bit.

It does get a bit darker than this. It is unreal at night. Tonight was the final 10:00pm closing night of the summer.

[Djwadeknox]

You can tell when school goes back in session around East Tennessee. This is the wait times right now!

[Canobie Coaster]

Wow that's truly amazing considering what type of waits Lightning Rod has been pulling.

[Djwadeknox]

Wow that's truly amazing considering what type of waits Lightning Rod has been pulling.

 

 

It’s makes me want to go when it’s like this.

[dstephe9]

I'm sure the torrential downpours we keep having, or even the threat of them aren't helping! I'd imagine the park has under 1000 guest today, probably barely into lot C

 

Last week was pretty dead to though with one day wait times bouncing between 15 - 30 mins

 

By September it will be a walk-on.. it was several times in September last year and even into October.. i go a lot during Sept and Oct ans had plenty of rides last year on it! I'd Iimagine October will be much more crowded this year with the new festival! I mean they are going to open more for it than they are in December for Christmas haha so I'm sure they hope it's busy

 

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[CedarFanboy]

I was one of the lucky people in the park today. I had something like 6 rides on Lightning Rod today, and multiple re-rides on everything else. I got my first ever ride on Lightning Rod last night, and was happy to see it open today with no issues, though only 1 train. Maybe I'll post a trip report when I get back from vacation if I remember.

[Erik Johnson]

I was at the park this morning for about 3 1/2 hours. Everything was a walk on including Rod. The combination of it being the start of the off season and the rain storm that hit around 2:00 kept people away. I was able to score 4 more rides on Rod before heading out. I finally went around to ride several of the Alpine Coasters in the area. Those are fun.

Edited August 8, 2017 by Erik Johnson

[Dollywoodlover20]

Since it's kinda the start of usual pre construction season, what does everyone think the park will do for 2018? I don't see Splash Country getting another slide next year, just because they typically skip around on splash country. We already have DreamMore so that's checked off the list. We have Drop Line which is a fantastic addition. What could be next? I was at the park last week and I didn't really see any construction, dozing, or anything of that sort. I rode the train looking for expanding areas or hidden things and I seen crates but you can't really tell right now if they are crates for the fireworks or something else. I took a picture over the fence where it says "it all began here" and it is just a black floor with your typical office style ceiling. Like it literally looks like it was a conference room or break room. As far as work behind it, it just looks like something had slid and they fixed it. I don't yet see them moving into the train loop even if they do. That's always been the typical photo op of the smokies and that field.

[Erik Johnson]

I would hope that they will invest in a Thunderhead retrack. I do not think that there has been a real one done since Wild Eagle's opening year. It is running pretty rough.

[MidwestThemeParks]

With SDC getting a major coaster, I can't see Dollywood getting much of anything. Maybe they'll get the second train going on Lightning Rod.

[Shavethewhales]

New for 2018: Lightning Rod! We Swear it'll work this time!

 

Seriously though, that's what they need to focus on again....

 

What about the concept survey from awhile back that would be similar to Fireman's Landing?

[dstephe9]

They also sent out that survey, late last season or early this season that spoke of a new themed areas and let us vote on the theme. Might be the same survey as Fireman's Landing, but it also had a snow themed area and a few others.

 

Like I said a few times on this forum, I believe a snow themed snow park might be coming to Dollywood.. an indoor one is already being built in the area by someone else.. Dolly doesn't let her dreams die and when Gaylord sold to Marriott her snow park in Nashville that was planned died.. When I saw the snow themed possibility on that survey, that's what it reminded me of.. I'm sure a lot of work had already been done by the Dollywood Company planning the snow park.. Train, being on the ridge would be a prefect area for this and if a lot of work had already been put into planning and designing the park, it would be a no brainier for a new quick themed area.

 

Thing is, if they are starting on a new area you would think they would start by now UNLESS it is going to be announced this Winter and not for 2018 but 2019 meaning we won't get anything this year.. Similar to their last very large project Dreamore. A strong possibility though if they really do plan on a new area with 10+ rides like the survey mentioned (I don't remember he exact number mentioned in the survey but it was a lot)

 

So yeah, they might spend this off season working on LR and starting their new area.. I can see a snow themed dark ride anchoring the area!

 

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Edited August 8, 2017 by dstephe9

[dstephe9]

With SDC getting a major coaster, I can't see Dollywood getting much of anything. Maybe they'll get the second train going on Lightning Rod.

This used to be the mindset but I think it has been fairly agreed upon now that Dollywood is pretty independent from SDC now..Yeah, you might see some similarities in ride vendors being the same shortly after one or the other but I'm sure this is all due to lowering the cost of rides, similar to what the big chain parks do. We will buy two rides from you at a discount! One for Dollywood and one for SDC and so on.

 

I feel Dollywood, especially with Dolly's influence, is trying to be their own park..

 

Just like HFE hasn't made Wild Adventures like Dollyood and SDC after they purchased it.. yeah, they have put some of the same rides in (Especially Flats) but other than that, it's very independent of the others..

 

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[MindbenderManiac]

We are at Dollywood today and we're taking the 3pm trip up the mountain on Klondike Katie... She seemed to have blown her top and lost all steam pressure. They are currently evacuating a full train!!!

[MindbenderManiac]

The current situation.

[dstephe9]

Positive it was Klondike Katie? I know everytime they try to put Cinderella on the tracks and get her going, she usually has issues like this. Cinderella has acted like this for years, ever since it's rebuild lol

 

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[MindbenderManiac]

Positive... KK recently went back into commission. Though I'm not sure if she will be back out running for long.