Dollywood Discussion Thread

[Djwadeknox]

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/2022/06/25/dolly-parton-knoxville-unveils-heartsong-lodge-and-resort-progress-do

 

Dollywood’s Dreamer In Chief was on park all day Friday and Saturday promoting new things coming to Dollywood. The article link above mentioned bigger waterpark and even an indoor waterpark. Just another step in making the Dollywood Resort a year-round destination! 

[jarmor]

Bad link. . .

[TEDodd]

3 hours ago, jarmor said:

Bad link. . .

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/2022/06/25/dolly-parton-knoxville-unveils-heartsong-lodge-and-resort-progress-dollywood/7715704001/

Seems part of it was cut off.


Suite 1986 might be fun but the price is way to steep.
Story I saw earlier said it starts at $10k.

[Djwadeknox]

Thanks for reposting the complete link. The $10.000 is for a 2 night stay. Also most of the money will go to her Charity. Still more money then I could ever spend on a room for 2 nights.

[TEDodd]

3 hours ago, Djwadeknox said:

Thanks for reposting the complete link.

No problem. Simple search on the site.

3 hours ago, Djwadeknox said:

The $10.000 is for a 2 night stay. Also most of the money will go to her Charity. Still more money then I could ever spend on a room for 2 nights.

Sure, charity. And it includes a room in the resort, and more.

But even if that was for a month that's too rich for my blood. That's a year of mortgage payments. 

[Vonni]

More than three months of my income for a two night stay?! No thank you. 

[u4icmusic]

On 6/27/2022 at 8:58 PM, Djwadeknox said:

Thanks for reposting the complete link. The $10.000 is for a 2 night stay. Also most of the money will go to her Charity. Still more money then I could ever spend on a room for 2 nights.

The press release said a portion of the $10,000 with go to charity, not most of the money.

[appel]

According to

"https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/ride.php?ride=Lightning%20Rod&day=2022-07-09"

Lightning Rod has again ongoing problems which keep the ride closed most of the day, even more so than a few weeks ago.

 

I know that it never ran reliable and you have to expect longer downtimes if you plan to visit this park. However, it seems that the coaster had been doing OK so far this season until the beginning of July.

 

Does anyone have any insight info what's going on, especially why it has more prolonged downtimes now? 

[TEDodd]

2 hours ago, appel said:

Does anyone have any insight info what's going on, especially why it has more prolonged downtimes now? 

Based on a conversation with some operators the other day, heat is an issue.

They run 2 trains until it gets hot and then pull one to slow the cycle time so stuff has more time to cool down.

Thursday it had a stop during launch (stopped at the bottom of the hill again) while was I line that I think was heat related. That was around 5:30 pm I think. It was back and fine until lighting shut everything down.

 it was also 1hr late opening Friday.

Couldn't get any indication why. After ~30 min they started test trains. Did about 5 before they let us on. It was running 2 trains then. Then the weather went to crap for most of the day.

[DollyWould]

14 hours ago, TEDodd said:

Based on a conversation with some operators the other day, heat is an issue.

They run 2 trains until it gets hot and then pull one to slow the cycle time so stuff has more time to cool down.

Thursday it had a stop during launch (stopped at the bottom of the hill again) while was I line that I think was heat related. That was around 5:30 pm I think. It was back and fine until lighting shut everything down.

 it was also 1hr late opening Friday.

Couldn't get any indication why. After ~30 min they started test trains. Did about 5 before they let us on. It was running 2 trains then. Then the weather went to crap for most of the day.

It needs to be replaced with a more reliable B&M Hyper by 2025.  Turn the train approach out of the station around & put the lift hill going out over the employee parking lot to run a longer course.  Put a fork in LROD already...it's done. 

[prozach626]

Sir... I think you've had too much cinnamon bread. You're drunk.

[redfoot12]

So I plan to make my first (and long overdue) trip to Dollywood next month on Monday, August 8. 

Question about Lightning Rod. Coming from a larger rider, do ride ops still make you pull down your own restraint without any assistance? If they do, would the restraints on Twisted Timbers be a good test before trying Lightning Rod?

Thanks! 

[tndank]

Twisted Timbers and LR use the same trains.  They are friendly folks for the most part and will try to help get you verified.  

[DollyWould]

19 hours ago, prozach626 said:

Sir... I think you've had too much cinnamon bread. You're drunk.

Yes, I suppose suggesting that replacing Lighting Rod with a more reliable coaster (eventually) is a completely drunken & insane idea.

*confused*

 

[redfoot12]

7 hours ago, tndank said:

Twisted Timbers and LR use the same trains.  They are friendly folks for the most part and will try to help get you verified.  

Cool. I fit on TT a few weeks ago but it was tight. 

[TEDodd]

5 hours ago, DollyWould said:

Yes, I suppose suggesting that replacing Lighting Rod with a more reliable coaster (eventually) is a completely drunken & insane idea.

*confused*

 

You said a B&M Hyprer by 2025. That would mean starting now, probably start clearing next year.

They need to fix Lightning Rod to better handle the heat.
I can't get https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/ to load very fast, but I recall March - May was pretty good, then things started getting hot.
 

[megan]

That is the stupidest excuse-valid or not- that a coaster can’t run when it’s hot. Kings Island has a LIM launched outdoor coaster that pretty much run all day, every day, 3 trains. I know. It’s not wood, it’s not up a hill (it’s a launch straight into a climbing helix) but seriously? “We can effectively run this because it’s hot…in the South… in the summer”? Dollywood got screwed by RMC on this deal. 

[KBrylczyk]

^  RMC didn't design the launch motors IIRC.  Meanwhile SFOT is closing Mr Freeze every day from 2p to 8p due to Texas' godawful electric grid.  Long story short, maybe electromagnetic launches are a bad idea these days?  Let's go back to flywheels.

[jarmor]

Weight drop. . . and lap bars only.

[prozach626]

I would have thought all of that new track would have fixed everything.

[TEDodd]

3 hours ago, prozach626 said:

I would have thought all of that new track would have fixed everything.

Fixed a different issue. Track not handling the forces and excessive wear/maintenance on the trains.

[TEDodd]

19 hours ago, KBrylczyk said:

^  RMC didn't design the launch motors IIRC. 

As I recall it was Velocity Magnetics, and their first coaster launch system.
https://www.velocitymagnetics.com/no-brakes-on-growth-at-velocity-magnetics/

Their Projects page list 4 coasters. 3 of them are braking systems. LR is the only launch.
https://projects.velocitymagnetics.com/

There was something else about the system too.  I think it was using a storage system because getting enough power to directly drive the launch in to the park was problematic.

The description for their LR video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FDJBWQnrfs mentions it.

[quote]This launch draws approximately 2.5 megawatts over a 5 second period of time from our ION-Vault system which re-charges every 100 seconds, and does this approximately 40,000 times per year with no maintenance to the ION-Vault system over the past four (4) years of operation.[/quote]

Interestingly (or is it telling?) there is no link to info on the ION-Vault or the Ion Energy™ Launch System on their site.
The ION Energy site https://www.ionenergyinc.com/ doesn't mention it either.

 

[jarmor]

So a poorly engineered coaster with a faulty launch system. . .

[mikeykaise]

Do it like the Navy.... steam catapult!

 

[TEDodd]

1 hour ago, jarmor said:

So a poorly engineered coaster with a faulty launch system. . .

Seems the forces in some areas were higher than modeling showed. 
Don't think anyone has ever called RMC a company with poor engineering.
This was new territory, and lots of lessons learned.


I wouldn't call the system faulty, just not reliable in the environment.
Like a sports car. Again, new territory. Pushing a system well beyond previous limits. This was the first, and so far only VM launched coaster.

LR's issues are minor compared to some military projects I've been involved with.