Dollywood Discussion Thread

[u4icmusic]

3 hours ago, tndank said:

Mystery Mine up and running today. Reports suggest the outside was the only work and it is still just as rough as ever everywhere else. 

I just got home from a half day at Dollywood. I used one of my Time Saver cards to get on Mystery Mine quicker than the posted 90-minute wait time because I wanted to check out the new modification.

 

I think the removal of the horseshoe loop makes the ride more fun. The curved drop they added instead of the horseshoe loop in fast and fun. The ride was smooth as silk, as it has always been to me. It must be riders of a certain height have issues with roughness. I thought it was fantastic today and the modification changes very little of the ride. Personally, I liked the horseshoe loop, but a lot of people thought it was too jerky. The new track is way smoother in that one section. The rest of the ride is identical with no changes and very smooth.

 

They were supposed to be at reduced capacity today due to COVID, but it was packed. So packed, that I left at noon to head back to Knoxville. Too many people, too close together and many not wearing masks or wearing them improperly. My first ride of the morning was Lightning Rod, which I rode last Friday and thought it was rough in row 9. This morning, I got the first row and it was much smoother than row 9. Both rides were great today, but the lines were long. I got on Lightning Rod at 10:15 am and when I got off the wait time was 110 minutes at 10:18. For me, no ride is worth that wait, except for Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point. I parked in Lot B because I was so early,  but when I left, lots D/E were mostly full.

 

Lightning Rod was only running one train again. The ride operator said they were running two trains on Monday, but the second train was causing issues so they pulled it off for today, hence the long waits.

[Canobie Coaster]

Does the reprofiled drop on Mystery Mine still provide a pop of airtime like the old one?

The biggest issue with Mystery Mine in 2020 was that they loaded one party per car.  So as a single rider last year, I got an entire train. Are they still doing that?

[gardyloo!]

1 hour ago, u4icmusic said:

Lightning Rod was only running one train again. The ride operator said they were running two trains on Monday, but the second train was causing issues so they pulled it off for today, hence the long waits.

So besides the past track issues the ride also has (had) issues with the trains? Jeez Dollywood can't seem to catch a break with this one. Such a shame since it's one of the best rides in the world...

[JJLehto]

5 hours ago, coasterbill said:

The ops are always bad. That ride has 700 ride vehicles so they can make sure they stack 698 of them at all times. Bring a book to read on the brake run.

lol can't wait. 
Though I do hope they get that LRod 2nd train thing figured out. The point of an early season weekday was park would be dead (even w limited capacity) but already place is slammed....may have to still buy the Dollywood fast pass! I loathe to do so and thus avoid peak times but aint waiting 2 hours on some Tuesday in May XD

[u4icmusic]

2 hours ago, Canobie Coaster said:

Does the reprofiled drop on Mystery Mine still provide a pop of airtime like the old one?

The biggest issue with Mystery Mine in 2020 was that they loaded one party per car.  So as a single rider last year, I got an entire train. Are they still doing that?

No, they are filling most, if not all the seats. Today, I was by myself and the ride operator asked me if I minded having 2 more people in the row (of 4) with me and I said no problem. We all had masks on.

[dstephe9]

Dollywood seems to be filling most seats on all coasters. No skipping rows, at least today. Lines were pretty long most of the day

Ops weren't bad today park was just packed it was reduced capacity though, but I don't believe as reduced as last year.

[Nrthwnd]

1 hour ago, u4icmusic said:

No, they are filling most, if not all the seats. Today, I was by myself and the ride operator asked me if I minded having 2 more people in the row (of 4) with me and I said no problem. We all had masks on.

Now that's the Tokyo Disney Way they do things! Single Rider on Splash Mtn, I always had to wait if the person by themself, said yes or no (group of 3?). And every time, they were very polite and said yes! They loved having a wierd looking old hippie like me beside them, for the Onride Photo, LOL.

And Raging Spirits (?) Coaster in TDS was the same. And easy. But during these times, I understand, that's not too easy.

[TEDodd]

lol can't wait. 
The point of an early season weekday was park would be dead (even w limited capacity) but already place is slammed.

It is spring break season. I checked and Knox and Blount county this week. That's the 2 highly populated counties west of Pigeon Forge, with a combined population over 560k. Also Jefferson county but it's a small addition (50k).

May is a very different situation.

[JJLehto]

1 minute ago, TEDodd said:

 

 

It is spring break season. I checked and Knox and Blount county this week. That's the 2 highly populated counties west of Pigeon Forge, with a combined population over 560k. Also Jefferson county but it's a small addition (50k).

May is a very different situation.
 

 

OH spring break! Wow....talk about something not remotely in my mind, I never would've thought about that going on right now. Makes sense! 

[IanKgtr]

9 hours ago, TEDodd said:

It is spring break season. I checked and Knox and Blount county this week. That's the 2 highly populated counties west of Pigeon Forge, with a combined population over 560k. Also Jefferson county but it's a small addition (50k).

May is a very different situation.

Would you say May is the best time to go in general? Trying to hit the park on a day trip from Nashville, and by then I should be fully immunized against Uncle Covid.

Need to ride Lightning Rod before it's retracked as an Aquatrax.

[tndank]

In May you have schools starting to let out and lots of end of school trips, traditionally.  I think every park is going to be slammed most days this year.  I think you'll need to get lucky or battle with rain to have a quiet day at DW this year.  Timesaver can help out here, but buying in advance is a gamble since you can't be sure everything is running.  And they sell out at the park on busy days, quickly.

Just like any park in the world, Sun - Thurs is a better chance at lower crowds.  Show up before gates open.  Still, DW has been nuts crowd wise this year and the last month or two of 2020.

 

[A.J.]

I went on the Tuesday after Labor Day a few years ago and it was walk-ons or station waits everywhere, all day.

[dstephe9]

It is spring break season. I checked and Knox and Blount county this week. That's the 2 highly populated counties west of Pigeon Forge, with a combined population over 560k. Also Jefferson county but it's a small addition (50k).

May is a very different situation.

Not only that but people also travel to the area for Spring Break from other locations. So not only locals, but most folks we ran into yesterday that my wife and I talked to were actually visiting from other states. Also lots of college students

[VegasBaby]

45 minutes ago, IanKgtr said:

Would you say May is the best time to go in general? Trying to hit the park on a day trip from Nashville, and by then I should be fully immunized against Uncle Covid.

Need to ride Lightning Rod before it's retracked as an Aquatrax.

Looks like DW will be open Mon-Wed-Fri-Sat-Sun throughout April, so I would go on a Monday or Wednesday in mid to late April.  Spring breaks should be over by then and no schools will be out yet.

[u4icmusic]

48 minutes ago, tndank said:

In May you have schools starting to let out and lots of end of school trips, traditionally.  I think every park is going to be slammed most days this year.  I think you'll need to get lucky or battle with rain to have a quiet day at DW this year.  Timesaver can help out here, but buying in advance is a gamble since you can't be sure everything is running.  And they sell out at the park on busy days, quickly.

Just like any park in the world, Sun - Thurs is a better chance at lower crowds.  Show up before gates open.  Still, DW has been nuts crowd wise this year and the last month or two of 2020.

 

You are correct. I was surprised how packed it was yesterday. There's no way they had any capacity limits yesterday with the crowds and parking lots that full. If they did, then they raised their capacity and are either at normal or close to normal capacity, because it is way more crowded than last year. It was loaded with kids too.

[JJLehto]

Yeah I totally didn't even think of spring break. I'm not too worried, I mean I'm planning on May only bc I asked in the past how DW generally is that time, for a weekday, and people were pretty strongly in agreement it should be slow, and if its not slow enough to ones liking that timesaver should be all you need. But yeah between what others have said and my own experiences, that sweet spot of between SB and school finishing should be fine. 

Perhaps parks will be more crowded than last year, I imagine those who would've gone last year would have 2021 anyway...so not sure it'll be a big difference/surely some will still be wary. That said, I do avoid weekends and summer like the plague anyway haha 

And I always arrive at gate before opening! What type of enthusiast would do otherwise??

[TEDodd]

Not only that but people also travel to the area for Spring Break from other locations.

No doubt, but having Knox on spring break really adds to the week day crowds. Same at SFOG when Atlanta area schools are out. Almost as bad as summer crowds.

Other schools don't contribute nearly as much normally. I've been once when Knox was out and many other times late March-early April and it never compared to when Knox was out.

Same with early/mid May. The end of year school trips weren't bad. Sure, there's always outliers, like a big competition in the area (band, cheer, etc.) But generally not bad.

[coasterbill]

I just saw that you can now buy Timesaver online and just scan your phone at rides rather than having to go to the Timesaver building if you don’t want to.

Is that new? It’s awesome and I don’t think I’ve seen another park offer that (though they probably do and I just don’t know about it).

[anonymouscactus]

That seems like an easy way to abuse the system / share with others, assuming that its not using near field communication like Disney is going to and just using a barcode to scan. Screenshots / etc. That does sound great though.

I think at one time SeaWorld did something similar with their one time QQ for individual rides and just pay on your phone no need to pick anything up (Antarctica comes to mind) but I haven't seen that anywhere else. I don't think it lasted long, though. The idea was you saw the line was long do right then and there you purchase your pass, skip the line once, and go on with your day.

[AmyUD06]

SWO and BGT were still doing that (scan the barcode) thing for QQ when I was there in the middle of February.  I used a printed piece of paper but if I had it on my phone that would've been good too.

[tndank]

Yeah, I have to wonder what the timing of the scans are.  My first guess would be at least a 5 minute cooldown.

I like this system. No wasted time picking it up.  Did it at SWSA in Feb like Mike and it worked great there, too.  

[Garet]

On 3/19/2021 at 8:26 AM, anonymouscactus said:

That seems like an easy way to abuse the system / share with others, assuming that its not using near field communication like Disney is going to and just using a barcode to scan. Screenshots / etc. That does sound great though.

Everland's being using codes for it's lottery/points based fast pass which is only available if you use the official Everland App for years, and this year, due to corona, for its virtual lines, and I don't recall there ever being a case of it being abused.

[Pseybert]

When we went last September, the ride ops could barely be bother to mark off our plastic TimeSaver from Dreammore. We stayed 4 nights, and never filled up the pass given to us on our 1st day, as only 3 attractions actually marked it as used.

[SharkTums]

Has Lightning Rod been operating better since dying on opening day?

[dstephe9]

It ran almost all day Wednesday when I was there