Dollywood Discussion Thread

[dstephe9]

Yeah usually the base price won't change during the season after the new pass prices are announced. but the promos will like bring a friend Tickets and promos for 4+ passes sometimes change and that's why they say price increases..

 

It's all marketing, but overall base price shouldn't change.

 

And last year the 6 month payment option was around most of the season.. mine actually wasn't paid off until August for my pass and a month ago for a friend's I had purchased later in the season... I wish they would just go to a membership instead of payment plan.. I love my six flags membership and never having to worry about renewing.

 

 

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[Dollywoodlover20]

They have lightning rod back in the testing stage. According to IG videos they are doing night runs which caused a line outside.

[coasterbill]

Now? It's 34 degrees and coasters were all closed all day for temps. That's almost mean.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

We were there on Saturday and had the most amazing day (as long as I reminded myself that LR wasn't there and was never going to be running). I did swing by once and see maintenance pushing the train back into the station. Don't know if it was a rollback.

 

When I asked dude what was up with it, he basically said it had been running fine but has never ran in weather like this...I assume cold + rain? I haven't charted every day this thing has been open vs. when it hasn't, but from what he said, it hasn't operated once since the temperatures started dropping below freezing. Can someone confirm?

 

Also, I know no one will believe me (and talking to a park employee is only slightly more believable than talking to Dippin' Dots Guy), but he said he heard through the grapevine that SDC will be getting a dive coaster in 2018.

 

I have a bunch of awesome pictures of our day, but I'll have to upload them tomorrow.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

SDC's been about to get a dive coaster ever since Busch Gardens built their two. I think you need a new Dippin' Dots guy.

[dstephe9]

That could be true, like I posted several post back, LR has been running fine until the past two weeks.. BUT the past two weeks have also been cold and wet. It wouldn't surprise me if cold and wet is causing the issue.

 

I know cold doesn't bother it, it was running fine a few Saturdays ago. When I left the park that night my thermometer in my car said 35.. it was still running right when I left so it was getting very close to the cut off temp but it was dry.. the rain might be causing issues.

 

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[bluestreak]

We were there on Saturday and had the most amazing day (as long as I reminded myself that LR wasn't there and was never going to be running). I did swing by once and see maintenance pushing the train back into the station. Don't know if it was a rollback.

 

When I asked dude what was up with it, he basically said it had been running fine but has never ran in weather like this...I assume cold + rain? I haven't charted every day this thing has been open vs. when it hasn't, but from what he said, it hasn't operated once since the temperatures started dropping below freezing. Can someone confirm?

 

Also, I know no one will believe me (and talking to a park employee is only slightly more believable than talking to Dippin' Dots Guy), but he said he heard through the grapevine that SDC will be getting a dive coaster in 2018.

 

I have a bunch of awesome pictures of our day, but I'll have to upload them tomorrow.

 

Can we just take a moment to think about the view that a dive coaster would provide both at Dollywood and at SDC?

[ohcoasterguy]

Thinking of possibly heading to Dollywood over New Years. Any suggestions, comments on rides/crowds?

[coasterbill]

Lightning Rod is open! The coasters are just now opening for the day and it's actually posting a wait time instead of the standard "TC" message.

 

I've got to admit, I'm starting to get a little nervous about our trip on Thursday. It seems like there's something about Pigeon Forge that makes meteorologists absolutely atrocious at their jobs. There have been 3 times in the last week where they were off by like 10 degrees on the daily high. I've been checking the app to see what the deal is with Lightning Rod and even though it was supposed to be 40 degrees today by park opening with a high of 49 the coasters have been closed all day for temps until a few minutes ago.

 

Get it together people. You suck.

[Ape]

When we went in August they said the high would be 89. It was almost 100 that day with high humidity. I rode LR and Mystery mine before we left and that was it.

[DoinItForTheFame]

Also, I know no one will believe me (and talking to a park employee is only slightly more believable than talking to Dippin' Dots Guy), but he said he heard through the grapevine that SDC will be getting a dive coaster in 2018.

 

Know one knows what SDC is actually getting as their next coaster, except for those in charge of new attractions, and probably marketing. It's been rumored that the new addition at SDC was going to be:

 

A B&M Dive Coaster

 

-then it was going to be-

A B&M Flyer

 

-then it was going to be-

A B&M Invert

 

-then it was going to be-

A B&M Hyper

 

-then it was going to be-

Back to a B&M Dive Coaster

 

-then it was going to be-

A RMC T-Rex Coaster

 

-then it was going to be-

A B&M Hyper. . .again.

 

-then it was going to be-

A Intamin mega-lite.

 

-then it was going to be-

A launched, reversing, MACK spinning coaster (and that's where we are currently at on rumors.)

 

So, no one knows what's actually going into SDC except those on the planning team, and obviously the aren't talking!! I've just given up on guessing, and the "rumors" now I'm waiting for the announcement.

[coasterbill]

... and it's broken

[Jccoasterfan]

^ Yup. I saw on instagram that the train got stuck on the track in front of the launch hill. Someone else said they got evacuated off of it as well.

[CantGetEnoughThrills]

^ Yup. I saw on instagram that the train got stuck on the track in front of the launch hill. Someone else said they got evacuated off of it as well.

 

Do you have a link to this?

[dstephe9]

So obviously something is keeping it from launching which explains why maintenance keeps pushing it back in the station.. it doesn't sound like rollbacks then, it's almost like something is keeping it from launching all together. Power issues? Sensors? I know the guys on YouTube said it was a rollback but no one has seen it rollback during this round of downtime

 

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[DoinItForTheFame]

This off season they just need to go ahead and replace the launch with a high speed cable lift IE: MF, Skyrush, i305...

[Jccoasterfan]

It almost sounds like sensors to me. I did however read through the comments on one post and someone said a rollback occured before shutting down earlier. Honestly who knows?!

[dstephe9]

The rollback has been rumored for a few days but the guys who said it was a rollback didn't have videos of it.. the video was just of the coaster at the bottom of the hill.. could be rollbacks, I was there once this summer and it had a rollback but opened back up 15 mins later. It had riders when it rolled back but didn't keep it shut down long

 

I actually sew that rollback

 

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[coasterbill]

It sounds like an odd day at the park. The temperature hit 40 degrees exactly (despite a forecast of 47) and then dropped back down so Mystery Mine and Firechaser never opened since they all have different weather stations and from what I gather that was the first attempted Lightning Rod launch of the day and it failed miserably in true Lightning Rod fashion so that essentially never opened either (and it probably won't open because temperatures are about to drop like a rock).

 

So Around 2:45, Thunderhead, Wind Eagle and Tennessee Tornado opened but they should be closing soon for temps. Lightning Rod never actually completed a circuit with riders and 2 coasters stayed closed for temperature even though other coasters in the same park with the same temperature limits were open. Holy sh*t just open those coasters. Is there really that big a difference between 39.9 degrees and 40.0 degrees? I can't believe this sentence is actually coming out of my mouth right now but Dollywood is kind of making me appreciate Great Adventure.

[MindbenderManiac]

Just FYI, I think it needs to be a bit warmer for FCE and MM to open. This is likely why you saw everything else open today besides them. I have seen FCE closed due to cold weather before everything else also. Wild Eagle will continue to run once opened until the ride gets "underspeeds." I have seen it operate well below the 36 degree mark. This is just standard cold temperature operating procedure at Dollywood.

[coasterbill]

Are those relatively new policies? In the past I'd have sworn they all opened at 40 degrees and Wild Eagle would close when the other coasters did. Right now though it's 30 degrees and according the app it's still running. That's Great Adventure territory.

 

If that's the case then they should take it down to 1 train when it gets cold. A full train probably wouldn't ever get underspeed if it's been running all day but it's awesome capacity could shoot it in the foot if they start sending out empty ones.

[dstephe9]

Actually I have seen Wild Eagle run well below 36 as well, I posted several post back that it's always the last to close or seems like it is.. I actually rode it once last year and it was the only coaster still open.. This was in response to someone saying B&Ms are the first to close so they assumed wild eagle would close first haha

 

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[Dollywoodlover20]

Well a group of coaster enthusiasts came to ride yesterday, got on the first train and the train pulled out and started to launch up the hill only for the train to barely start up then roll back down. Now that's coming straight from one of the guys vlogs on YouTube, plus there's an IG photo of them getting taken off. You can see the looks of shock on their faces or that may be disappointment.

[ImNotOneOfYou]

That won't look good on their patch jackets.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

I'm sure we can all agree this only counts as a credit for the first 8 rows.