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Dollywood Discussion Thread

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

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Below are photos of our construction tour of Dollywood's new Wildwood Grove area.

 

Dollywood has gone all out on this area to provide a new exciting, interactive area for families.

 

Some quick facts:

 

$37,000,000 project

 

$1,000,000 towards landscaping

 

5 acre expansion

 

Tentative opening = May 2019

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Entrance walk way from Timber Canyon into Wildwood Grove. Before this area opens, there will be a log feature that you will walk through that will "transport" you into the new area of Wildwood Grove.

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New quick serve restaurant on the right as you enter the new area with a giant seating area next to it. COVERED!!!

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New quick serve restaurant under construction.

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Treetop Tower ride

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Restroom facility. This is one of 2 facilities for this area. That will be fantastic in the busy season!

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Sycamore Tree Swing (Pirate Ride)

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Back view of the Dragonflier coaster

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This expansion will give you a new prospective of Thunderhead. As you can see here, Thunderhead received some love this off season.

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The giant building (Hidden Hollow) you see will be a climate controlled building featuring a big soft play structure and alot of seating.

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Dragonflier

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Patrick Brennan, art director for Dollywood's new Wildwood Grove area, talks about the giant Wildwood tree that will tower over the area. Behind him is the base of that structure. It will feature over 600 illuminated butterflies and other features.

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Black bear trail ride

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These are some very cute vehicles for the Black Bear Trail ride. Adults will be permitted to ride with children.

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Frogs & Fireflies bounce ride.

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Prototypes of the butterflies that will appear on the Wildwood Tree.

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Mad Mockingbird vehicles. We love the paint job on them.

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Edited by pinslasher
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Lastly some Dragonflier love.

 

This coaster will be about 63 foot tall and reach speeds of around 45 mph. There will only be one train on this coaster.

 

 

Thank you to Dollywood for their hospitality and time for showing us around this amazing area. We can not wait to get back and see it completed. This is something that you do not want to miss!

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One last shot of the track coming out of the tunnel

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Great to see Thunderhead getting a retrack for the next season. It really needed one.

 

Yep--it was very good ride when I last visited Dollywood, but I understand that it's gone downhill (pardon the pun) since then.

 

Wildwood Grove is coming along nicely.

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Yep--it was very good ride when I last visited Dollywood, but I understand that it's gone downhill (pardon the pun) since then.

 

Eh don't put too much stock into that until you ride it again... people have been bitching about Thunderhead getting rough since the beginning of time. I always see tons of posts about roughness between visits, go there expecting the worst and get off of the ride wishing they would put the crack pipe down. The ride is great.

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I only got one ride on Thunderhead (it was in March 2018) and the first half was fine, the second half was pretty rough (at least in the seat that I was in). It seemed like it could use some love and retracking in some of the areas, but it also was a cool ride.

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wonderful to see so many great photos and the construction update report!

 

Impressed how (seemingly) quickly they've come along. . . wow, so that's all the new rides in place already? they must be ahead of schedule, and now starting to focus on queues and landscaping.

 

this area is gonna look amazing, although it's not gonna offer a *lot* of activities for those of my age (with no kids), we certainly will stop in that area to partake in a couple of things.

 

My favorite thing, of course one I likely will never get to ride, is the "Steeplechase-ish" Bear ride. but that could just be because of how much I love the ride vehicles

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That might be one of my new favorite color schemes on a coaster! What a vibrant mix - it really fits in and I love it.

 

The new track on Thunderhead looks great too. I LOVED the ride when I visited in March 2017, glad to see it's in good hands.

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Did anyone ask or did the park mentino if they were gonna plant any tree on the buffer between dragon flyer and thunderhead?

 

They did not mention that specifically. But they did say they have tons of trees to plant before it opens. They are spending over a million dollars on landscaping for this area.

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Awesome update! I'm glad to see Thunderhead getting some track work since I love the layout, but thought it was sort of bumpy two years ago.

 

I was hoping DragonFlier would have a second train, but I sort of figured it would have just one based on the other ones out there.

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Yep--it was very good ride when I last visited Dollywood, but I understand that it's gone downhill (pardon the pun) since then.

 

Eh don't put too much stock into that until you ride it again... people have been bitching about Thunderhead getting rough since the beginning of time. I always see tons of posts about roughness between visits, go there expecting the worst and get off of the ride wishing they would put the crack pipe down. The ride is great.

 

THANK YOU.

 

I can completely understand why people think a coaster such as Voyage can be rough, when you can feel the tip of your spine f*cking the lower bit of your brain going over the bumps, but Thunderhead does not do this. It's a little bumpy and definitely feels out of control...but it's a wood coaster.

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Nice bits in the Q&A.

 

LR mentioned. Still saying the launch wasn't the issue and implies it was mostly the cars.

 

Also TH is getting multi-year track work, replacing the bed with an imported wood (iron wood variety) for better life span.

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And I asked when their next thrilling expansion would be... I was VERY surprised that Pete Owens even gave me an answer (2021)! I’ll defintely be returning for that.

Maybe something in Owen's Farm? I mean, that section already has Barnstormer, but it doesn't have any roller coasters. I would say a launched one that goes out of the barn or a wild mouse, but Dollywood already has FireChaser and Lightning Rod, plus Wild Mouses aren't major thrills, so what do you think?

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