Dollywood Discussion Thread

[dstephe9I love donkeys more than me.]

At Dollywood today.. been praising their ops recently but off to a bad start today. Over 20 mins so far in line for a tram. Might as well walk, the issue is they are running more short trams than long it looks like.. this is their inconsistency. If they don't have the drivers, at least run the long trams

Edit: so we walked in from c and a total of 0 inbound trams passed aside from the one short one that picked up before we started walking but hey it's a pretty day. Tram line was probably 5 full trams long.

Edit 2: gonna be headed out soon.. LR is down, firechaser is down.. lines are super long (not Dollywoods fault aside from the inbound tram lines, it's just busy today)

My wife and I mainly came for lunch anyways so Aunt Granny's hit the spot


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[VonniWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

^ Aunt Granny's is awesomely delicious!

[dstephe9I love donkeys more than me.]

Exactly and this year the new improvements at Aunt Granny's are wonderful!! Food is back to it's original quality, if not better, price remained unchanged ($33ish for two with gold pass).. no more wait because of additional seating.. and my personal favorite, if you pay with a card, you aren't billed until you leave now meaning I can actually wait to give a tip if I don't have cash! I hated tipping up front before I ate if I didn't have cash lol

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[neilnkyWhat's with the donkeys anyway?]

Always so nice when Pete pops in! I can't wait until I can make another trip to Dollywood. It will be so cool having a new "land." I really enjoy Splash Country too and I look forward to it continuing to expand. Maybe Dollywood can get to be a year round park at some point. I know the weather won't permit that for Splash Country but with Dollywood being known for such great entertainment the theaters could go year round right? Maybe just a new festival to cover when Dollywood is closed currently. Oh well I'll hush now and continue trolling youtube, screamscape, and this board for all the inside scoop lol.

[dstephe9I love donkeys more than me.]

I see them in the future being year round, at least on weekends..

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[Dollywoodlover20Donkeys are my way of life!]

I see them going year round as well. With them now only really getting a month and a half off or so, from early Jan-mid March they are practically open that already. The off time now is just really to clean up and get things done faster without guests there essentially.
I wonder what Dolly meant by giving Disney a run for their money next year? Theming? Size?

[middle_keenyFull Fledged Donkey Enthusiast!]

Isn't there a bridged section of supports at bottom of the drop for some type of maintenance road? If you only feel the "pothole" in the last 2 or 3 cars, I would almost bet that it really isn't a pothole, but more of the track flexing on that bridged section when the train starts to go over it. That's the fastest part of ride with probably some of the stronger positive forces on that ride. So that section probably isn't as strong as it would be if it was supported all the way to the ground.

I found this photo on coaster 101. It shows a steel supported section at the bottom for an maintenance road. I'm no engineer but the bump could be from the steel being stiffer than wood and not flexing as much.
On a side note: I have always thought that a cool theme element would be to put an old fashioned police car with a radar gun displaying your speed at the bottom of that drop.

[neilnkyWhat's with the donkeys anyway?]

I see them going year round as well. With them now only really getting a month and a half off or so, from early Jan-mid March they are practically open that already. The off time now is just really to clean up and get things done faster without guests there essentially.
I wonder what Dolly meant by giving Disney a run for their money next year? Theming? Size?

My world has always been Opryland, Holiday World, Dollywood, and a few Six Flags parks (St Louis, Ky Kingdom) due to them being closest. Dollywood is furthest so always stay two or three nights when I can go. Dollywood is my very favorite of all of those. I have never been to Disney but know many (including my best friend) who have been at least one time. I have recently started looking at all the Disney youtube ride videos and their park maps and I have to say I am impressed. I mean they spend 100 million on some single rides! I have to say my favorite I would love to ride the most is Splash Mountain. If Dollywood can give us a taste of Disney that would be awesome. I think they have started with the fireworks show they have added. I have to say Mystery Mine was awesome when it came out I love the themeing on it.At any rate, I know Dollywood can't spend the bucks Disney can but I think they are doing so well. I love when I get to go and can't wait to get back in 2019 or 2020 for the new land.

[dstephe9I love donkeys more than me.]

I see them going year round as well. With them now only really getting a month and a half off or so, from early Jan-mid March they are practically open that already. The off time now is just really to clean up and get things done faster without guests there essentially.
I wonder what Dolly meant by giving Disney a run for their money next year? Theming? Size?

I think it might all have to do with how well luminights goes this year.. for example, October was one of their slowest months in the past.. I mean, some visits parking was barely out of b! Especially in early October.. but with luminights, it was possibly their busiest time of the year last year.. it proves, with a knockout festival, they can bring the guest.. if luminights does as well this year, they might start looking into a winter festival of sorts.

With a lot of schools going year round, breaks are all different now.. Spring breaks are starting much earlier now, as early as March 1st.

I don't see them open all week during the winter, but maybe Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The tourism's is still fairly busy on weekends during winter... I know a lot of folks love getting winter cabins. We have fairly mild Februarys in the area. January isn't any worse than late December. Coasters might be closed but if they still have activities and shows going on, the park will still draw a crowd.

It may never happen, but I won't say it won't ever happen. The park president even said a couple years ago they would probably be able to draw a year round crowd because of the park being unique and it's show following.. it was just a comment but comments are a lot of times derived from discussions.

Six Flags in GA keeps extending their season, even if it's weekends only. It's now longer than Dollywood by several weeks. There might be a 5 degree temp difference at times but their Winters are still very similar to ours. They can do it with mostly rides.. Dollywood has the festivals that can drive even more visitors.

Leverage dreamore and offer steep discounts on tickets/rooms, and offer even "off season" ticket pricing for non dreamore guest.

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[Jdprince45I Guess Donkeys Are Okay]

It may end up being like Disney World, where they have worked so hard on closing their traditional slow times that they really don’t have a slow period anymore. Used to be The park was almost empty the first week of December, but now you go there during that time and there’s a ton of groups such as cheerleaders and dancers etc.

That being said, the pigeon Forge area is not very crowded in January and February. I agree that if they would offer a massive discounts a dream more then they might could and start building your business in those two months it may take a few years

I hope it happens Dollywood is our family’s favorite park and we prefer to go when it’s less crowded