Dollywood Discussion Thread

[u4icmusic]

13 hours ago, dstephe9 said:

Another thing to point out during covid-19

1.) Festivals were limited
2.) Live shows were limited even during Christmas when they started live shows back
3.) Unless it was a weekend, a lot of restaurants were closed and so were a lot of shops
4.) Smoky Mountain Christmas seemed scaled down, even with light's.

If rides are your only reason for going, you should be happy. My wife and I visited probably 20+ times, not as much as normal but still a lot

While a lot of below sounds like complaining, it was mostly a great season with great visits. I just wanted to note some of this

Rides: On busy days, rides did back up due to lack of shows and other activities

1.) I actually saw them running double trains on rides such as TN Tornado more this year than I have previous years by a lot and wait times averaging 5 - 10 mins. (This ride is normally a walk on). Some visits they skipped seats, some they didn't

Trams: operations here sucked. Skipped rows, long waits, rude drivers. Running the small trams vs longer trams

Security Check: they changed this up a few times this year. During the final months I didn't like how they made you place your cell phone and keys on the table but made you walk through metal detectors with your backpack. They almost always make it go off and then holds up the line while they search it. Just search it while walking through.

Cost Cutting: For those that visit Dollywood a lot, this got much worse later in the season. French Fries changed from home made chips or large potato wedges to simple frozen fries. Plastic forks were so cheap the broke constantly. Even homemade cookies at places changed to packaged. A lot of our favorite foods felt, looked like, and tasted like they became more processed and less homemade. I'll note this last one BUT please note, this was the final day of the season and it was NOT like this a few weekends before. Even the cinnamon bread that last day was almost like it was premade. None of that cinnamon goop in the bottom of the container they now serve in.

Food prices did seem to go up, even with the cost cutting above. We always save our receipts curious how much money the gold pass saved us, and this was confirmed. Prices went up, some even changed mid season

Overall though not many complaints as most of the season was great but not perfect

I agree with your post. I live in south Knoxville an visited every week or two, so I went a lot last season. I also saw the changes you mentioned and I posted about it here. Prices did go up and quality did go way down. I think this is in part due to the new CEO and management team. Like I mentioned before, the fudge prices went through the roof (not a big deal for most people, but I used to bring a box home every visit), and the cinnamon bread quality was not like in previous years.

 

I usually walk from my car to the park for exercise and rarely use the trams, however, they were skipping rows because of social distancing for COVID, which is a good thing. I suppose they could put plastic between the rows like they did on the train to eliminate the skipped rows, but I think that ruined the train experience because you can't see anymore.

 

The change in recent months with placing your keys and cell phones on the security table was strange, but I guess there must have been a reason for doing it.

 

Cedar Point is my all-time favorite Park, but the only other park I went to last season was Kings Island. They had the ride operators enforcing the social distancing in the queues and I have not seen that at Dollywood. We bought the Fastlane Plus and it saved SO much time in lines that we were able to ride everything multiple times. I wouldn't go to a Cedar Fair park without it.



 

 

[tndank]

54 minutes ago, u4icmusic said:

I usually walk from my car to the park for exercise and rarely use the trams, however, they were skipping rows because of social distancing for COVID, which is a good thing. I suppose they could put plastic between the rows like they did on the train to eliminate the skipped rows, but I think that ruined the train experience because you can't see anymore.

They did eventually put plastic on at least some of the trams (maybe just the long ones).  I do the same as you;  I always walk to the park and back from my car.  Good way to get some steps and I find it relaxing at the end of the evening when the lots are mostly empty.

 

[bill_s]

Social distancing without enforcement/grouping depends on crowds. 1000 person limit BGW was very nice with little enforcement, maybe partially due to being mostly BGW-going adults not just the packing; good w/ current rule. At Great Adventure I was passed in line by a couple of kids due to not walking fast and tight enough before even getting to the temperature check tent. SFA was 2nd best due to crowd control measures and moderate crowds.  KD was safe but annoying.

[CoasterGuy06]

I usually only take the tram back to my car at Dollywood if you walk up and there's one there loading and it has space, but that's rare unless you are leaving early. One of the most frustrating experiences I've had there was when they were re-doing the lots a few years ago and had everyone parking in the back lot. I think they even had signs up saying you had to take the trams that day because they were actually crews working in C lot I think it was. Was a terrible end dealing with that madness what was otherwise a great day.

[TEDodd]

dealing with that madness what was otherwise a great day.

I never found it bad or madness , just long waits and some random people that couldn't follow the "rules."

So I'd avoid it if it looked like more that 2 or 3 trams. Did a long wait before they redid the loading area (and moved the lot C stop) and it wasn't bad, but the new area doesn't seem to work as well.

[CoasterGuy06]

Yeah I haven't tried it since then. That day was just madness because there was no rhyme or reason where the tram driver was going to stop. If they didn't stop in front of you there wasn't going to be room for you on that tram. 

[TEDodd]

there was no rhyme or reason where the tram driver was going to stop.

Supposed to always stop at the line to the far right of the station.

They do the same at all the stops, they always pull to the line.

[coasterbill]

22 hours ago, bill_s said:

KD was safe but annoying.

"Safe but annoying" should be the official Cedar Fair slogan during covid.

[jackinbox]

On 1/11/2021 at 9:03 AM, coasterbill said:

"Safe but annoying" should be the official Cedar Fair slogan during covid.

There is such a thing as overdoing safety.  Cedar Point was to the point of being absurd with sending all of those ghost trains after sanitizing.  Thankfully, Kings Island didn't do that nonsense.  They wiped down but never sent ghost trains.  

It sounds like Carowinds was a mess.  I'm glad I didn't go this year.

I thought Dollywood, Six Flags Over Georgia, Disney and Universal did much better with ops.  

[u4icmusic]

On 1/12/2021 at 11:00 PM, jackinbox said:

There is such a thing as overdoing safety.  Cedar Point was to the point of being absurd with sending all of those ghost trains after sanitizing.  Thankfully, Kings Island didn't do that nonsense.  They wiped down but never sent ghost trains.  

It sounds like Carowinds was a mess.  I'm glad I didn't go this year.

I thought Dollywood, Six Flags Over Georgia, Disney and Universal did much better with ops.  

Dollywood did, at first. Every time I went it was more and more lax. They stopped making you use hand sanitizer before boarding the rides. They starting filling up more seats on the rides and people were too close together. They never did enforce social distancing in the queues, like other parks did. Let's see what happens when they reopen in March.

[TEDodd]

Just saw this
https://blog.dollywood.com/index.php/2021/01/14/january-2021-whats-happening-at-dollywood-this-off-season/

Wonder where they are moving the blacksmith to.

[middle_keeny]

On 1/15/2021 at 12:42 AM, TEDodd said:

Just saw this
https://blog.dollywood.com/index.php/2021/01/14/january-2021-whats-happening-at-dollywood-this-off-season/

Wonder where they are moving the blacksmith to.
 

From the picture, it looks like they are moving it to where the pottery was.

[TEDodd]

From the picture, it looks like they are moving it to where the pottery was.

Oh, the wagon shop.

Which reminds me of my earlier comments about craftsmen. Not just a different craftsman there, but one less.

Most of the craftsmen are gone now, just selling stuff made off site, and most not had made either.
Which do we loose next? Glass blower? Candle maker? The belt guy? (Didn't he do more than belts in the past?)

[BRTeller]

On 1/10/2021 at 8:38 AM, coasterbill said:

I’ll be honest, I haven’t been to a park all year where people follow the distancing markers unless there are people there actively enforcing it (at which point people are trained by the end of the day and just do it on their own).

While I’m not giving the rural Tennessee crowd a pass on that, I also don’t think they’re any worse than most other places. Six Flags Great Adventure is in a market that got hit the hardest by covid (in terms of deaths since it happened early-on) and it’s a free-for-all. American Dream... same thing. SeaWorld, Knoebels, Dorney, Hershey... all atrocious.

The only (major) parks I’ve been to this year where people stand on those lines are Kings Island, Carowinds and Cedar Point where they had people walking through the queues constantly instructing people (though the parks are terribly run aside from that) plus Disney and Universal.

People insist on having no personal space. Why? Who knows?

Agreed, Cedar Fair had the best practices out of every park. Sea World San Antonio was pretty good, but it was also extremely dead. Cedar Point in particular was extremely annoying on their policies, to the point that a lot just didn't make sense, but they kept the park extremely well distanced and safe even though it was packed. Kings Island was very good, but not as strict as Cedar Point.

The worst park I would say was Silver Dollar City honestly, after you got through the screening process, rules weren't consistent and people crammed into lines while they overly distanced ride vehicles. This was very early on in their operations, but I'd imagine it's very similar to Dollywood in terms of clientele and everyone found every reason to not wear a mask. So I'd expect Dollywood to have a very similar experience.

Sea World and Busch parks were okay from my experience. Smaller Florida parks such as Fun Spot had zero mask or social distancing enforcement. I asked an employee about it and they weren't thrilled either, but they said they pretty much gave up trying to enforce it. It was the only park I saw employees not wearing masks as well.

[KBrylczyk]

On 1/14/2021 at 9:42 PM, TEDodd said:

Wonder where they are moving the blacksmith to.
 

The unemployment line.

[u4icmusic]

On 1/15/2021 at 12:42 AM, TEDodd said:

Just saw this
https://blog.dollywood.com/index.php/2021/01/14/january-2021-whats-happening-at-dollywood-this-off-season/

Wonder where they are moving the blacksmith to.
 

It's going here, but I'm not sure what building that is. Maybe other readers know what it used to be.

[TEDodd]

It's going here, but I'm not sure what building that is. Maybe other readers know what it used to be.

I saw the pic. My question was where is that.

Someone suggested the old wagon shop (short time pottery shop)

[jimmiemac02]

 

7 hours ago, TEDodd said:

 

 

I say the pic. My question was where is that.

Someone suggested the old wagon shop (short time pottery shop)

 

I looked back at some old pictures, and yes, that is the old wagon/pottery shop.

[Taylor Finn]

I liked the pottery shop... that's a bummer, really. I've actually grabbed a few things from there.

[anonymouscactus]

Happy birthday, Dolly!

[u4icmusic]

Some staff at Dollywood has said they are replacing approximately 2/3's of the Topper Track with I-Box Track. They said depending on the weather, the repairs may or may not be completed on time for opening day.  I'm sure they will have to do some testing on it too, before it opens to the public again. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

[DollyWould]

5 hours ago, u4icmusic said:

I was messaging back and forth with the lead ride operator for Lightning Rod. He said they are replacing approximately 2/3's of the Topper Track with I-Box Track. He said depending on the weather, the repairs may or may not be completed on time for opening day. He is still working even though the park is closed until March. I'll check back with him in another month or so for a status update. I'm sure they will have to do some testing on it too, before it opens to the public again. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Coaster Crew's Facebook page is reporting that Lighting Rod's rebuild will not be completed and operational until mid-April.  Sadly with the new I-Box track, it just will not feel the same.  But hopefully, it will still be an "off-the-chain" experience (get it, it still launches...no chain lift...BAAA HAAA HAAA).  Here's to RMC-ing the first RMC!!

[sdcfan88]

I'm betting (if the park doesn't suffer from another delayed opening to begin with) it wont be operating/reopening to the public until May.

[TEDodd]

He said depending on the weather, the repairs may or may not be completed on time for opening day.

Hoping for good weather then.
I'd like to see it open all season. It'd be nice to have a win.

[u4icmusic]

18 hours ago, DollyWould said:

Coaster Crew's Facebook page is reporting that Lighting Rod's rebuild will not be completed and operational until mid-April.  Sadly with the new I-Box track, it just will not feel the same.  But hopefully, it will still be an "off-the-chain" experience (get it, it still launches...no chain lift...BAAA HAAA HAAA).  Here's to RMC-ing the first RMC!!

Really, that's not too bad. There were rumors going around at one point that it wouldn't open until summer. I'll take April, for sure.