Rivertown Rider

Great trip report and pix. It was nice seeing pictures of the parade as it wasn't yet open when I was there in November. Sorry you didn't get a chance to ride Lightning Rod. It really is a great ride but so unreliable. Hopefully they figure out before next season what is causing all of the issues (my thoughts are it has to do with the train itself and the launch) so that it will be open reliably. The way it is going it is pretty much what KI dealt with in Son of Beast. Obviously different situations but still black eyes for their respective parks. When people have been there multiple times and it is not open is pretty ridiculous. You said that you had been down there four different and I have been down three different trips and only found it open when I was there in November.

I would agree with starting with POVs so that your first friend can get an idea of what to expect. Once at the park, I would say start with Racer or Adventure Express and then if he enjoys it then keep building up from there. All of us started somewhere. When I first got into coasters I didn't ride the upside down rides but then fell in love with the then Outer Limits now Flight of Fear and have enjoyed going upside down ever since. If your first friend hasn't ever ridden anything they are probably not going to try everything the first time but there is plenty that they can do in the park even if they don't enjoy the coasters. For the second friend it really depends upon how big they are. I think that Banshee is the most restrictive of the coasters and I would certainly recommend they try the test seats for Banshee and Diamondback before lining up in the queue. Some of the rides like Vortex and The Bat and Adventure Express are not as restrictive whereas Racer is sometimes a tighter fit because of the way the seats are. Even if they can't ride the coasters there are a lot of other things they can do though.

When you get excited going past KI on the way to family Christmas.

I agree AE is fine as it is. A brand new RMC elsewhere in the park would be great though.

Thanks MantisMan for the stats. To rcwizard13, I think Banshee was a great addition to the park. I think that Banshee has the best ops in the park which is part of the reason for low wait times as well. I think it certainly is a popular ride. As for Wild Eagle for a park that only has 7 coasters, I would expect longer wait times than they have. Their ops do a good job with dispatches so perhaps it is a much more popular ride than it appears. I would certainly be fine with having a wing rider in the park as they are nice rides and I think the Xbase area would be a good place for one.

The thing I have noticed at Dollywood is that Wild Eagle never has a line. Part of that is ops but it is strange that the ride never even on busy days has more than a 15-20 minute wait. I think many people ride it once and don't have to ride it again. I don't know how popular Gatekeeper and Thunderbird are at their respective parks but I don't think a wing coaster would really move the needle at KI. If you are going to spend that much on a coaster you need it to move the turnstiles.

You're welcome. Yeah they have lots of good food and the prices are reasonable for a theme park.

Thanks. Christmas in the Smokies is great. They have lights and music everywhere. I would definitely recommend trying to hit some of the shows. You'll want to make sure you get in line early as they fill up quickly. "Christmas in the Smokies" is the flagship show and the best as well. "It's a Wonderful Life" is new this year. It is an ok show but not as good as "Christmas in the Smokies." "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and "O Holy Night" are both really good shows as well. "O Holy Night" is an outdoor show with limited seating available although you can stand and watch the show as well. They also have an Appalachian bluegrass band playing at a different outdoor theater which is good as well. Dollywood does a great job at Christmas. They are a great park anytime of the year, but Christmas is when they are at their best.

Thanks. Wild Eagle's restraints are basically the same as Banshee (other than the vest tightening up which I have never had it do on Banshee). I rode in row 4 all three times and didn't have any problems. If you don't have any restraint problems with Beast or Racer, you'll be fine on Thunderhead. You won't have any problems getting on Tennessee Tornado or Firechaser Express either. Blazing Fury as one bar that goes around everybody and you won't have any problems with it. Mystery Mine I have never had any problems with but if you can get on Banshee and Diamondback you should be fine with it (there is also a test seat out front for it as well). Lightning Rod has the most restrictive seats and as best I could tell it was the same size seat in every row so there are no bigger row seats like the B&Ms have. I did see a guy about 10-15 pounds larger than me (I'm 6'1" and around 258 lbs (I'm working on being smaller next time I ride it )) not get on it. But I think you should be fine though if you have no problems with Banshee.

^Well at least we have them beat on the quality of our wooden coasters.

I got to head down to Dollywood last month. This was the third trip I've been to Dollywood this year but the first time I found Lightning Rod open. Without further ado here goes my trip report. We ended up going to the park on a Wednesday night and there was hardly anybody in the park. The only ride that had more than a 10 minute wait was Lightning Rod and it only averaged about a 10-15 minute wait throughout the night. Everything else was a walk-on with no wait. I immediately headed right toward Lightning Rod and climbed the steps thru the queue and got to ride Lightning Rod for the first time. The crew sit me with another guy and I asked him if he had ever ridden it before. He had not. His wife and son were in the row behind us. We dispatched and took off. We shot up the lift hill and I had probably the most intense coaster ride I have ever had. It was a great ride and it was completely dark outside which made it even better. We got back to the station and the man asked his wife how the son had liked it. The wife replied that it was too much for him. I said to the man that it was almost too much for me. After riding it once, I decided to head over to the other part of the park and rode Thunderhead, Mystery Mine, Firechaser Express, Tennessee Tornado, and Blazing Fury multiple times. I ended up heading back over and doing Lightning Rod again and it was not as intense when I knew what was coming. That night was the first time I have also ever been on a coaster as the only rider on the whole train on both Mystery Mine and Firechaser Express. It was a great coaster night. We ended up going again on Thursday. I ended up getting the chance to ride all of the above coasters again and got the chance to ride Lightning Rod during the day and again at night. We went back on Saturday and Sunday, and I rode Wild Eagle for the first time. I ended up getting several rides on it Saturday and Sunday with minimal wait. I didn't end up riding Lightning Rod again during the weekend as the wait times were over 50 minutes most of the time. Overall it was a great visit. Now that I have ridden all of the coasters at Dollywood I wanted to go ahead and rank them: 7. Blazing Fury- Really more of a dark ride than a pure coaster, it is a fun ride. It is always a good place to either get out of the heat or cold depending on the time of year that you are there. 6. Firechaser Express- The ride has great theming both in the queue and also on the ride. While I really enjoy both the forward and backward launch, other than that there is a not a lot to the coaster which why I rank it lower than some will. 5. Mystery Mine- It is one of those rides that if you get stuck in the wrong seat it will beat you to death. Overall though I enjoy Mystery Mine. The theming is really good and I love those beyond 90-degree drops plus the very end to the coaster. It is not a ride that is worth a long wait but if it is under 15-20 minutes you should ride it. 4. Wild Eagle- I know some people will probably have this higher but I was expecting more from it. It is a better ride if you ride on the left hand side (the side on the mountain side as opposed to the midway side). In three times riding it, the vest tightened up twice which made for an uncomfortable ride. This was my first B&M wing rider. The first drop into the loop is great and then everything else is just uneventful. I can certainly see why people say they are forceless rides after riding Wild Eagle. 3. Tennessee Tornado-The first time I ever rode this ride back in the early 2000s, I was disappointed in it. The park had hyped it quite a bit and I was expecting it to be better than Vortex. It wasn't. 15 years later though and I think that it is a better ride now than Vortex is. This was certainly the smoothest Arrow I was on this year. The first drop into the tunnel/shaft and the butterfly loop are great. I rated it higher than Wild Eagle because it is a more complete ride than Wild Eagle is. 2. Thunderhead-The hardest debate I had was deciding whether to rank Thunderhead or Lightning Rod higher on this list. As a pure wooden coaster, Thunderhead is an exceptional ride. If this ride were at KI, I would probably rank it the third best ride in the park after Beast and Banshee. The station flyover is a great element and it is a super ride. It never ceases to amaze me that the ride hardly ever has a wait. I don't think that the people realize what a gem this coaster is. In talking with Don Helbig this summer after the Mystic Timbers announcement he said that Mystic Timbers will be better than Thunderhead. If that is the case, I am even more excited. It has an ideal length and is one of the best wooden coasters I have ridden. 1. Lightning Rod-I ended up giving this the nod more because of some of the elements. The launched lift hill, the fakeout first drop, and the quadruple double down are all great elements. The queue has great theming and is the best theming in the park. All of the rides that I had were all super smooth. The big thing that this coaster has to prove is if it can stay open. They were only running one train most of the time so the capacity is horrible. I think that this coaster will be too intense for many people and the seats are very restrictive. Make sure to try the test seat before you go in. The coaster is really good during the day but it is great at night. The Beast is a better night ride, but this gives it a run for its money. The only negative as far as the ride goes is that it is too short. This was my first RMC and I can see why they are so popular. Because of the capacity problems and proving if it can stay open over a long period, I am happy we are getting a GCI. We don't need another Son of Beast that is never running. Overall, Dollywood is a great park and well worth going to if you have never been. Dolly and the Herschends have done a great job continually adding to the park and I look for this to continue in the future as well. As someone with a wife who doesn't ride rides it is the ideal park. I can ride while she does the shows, which are better than at Kings Island. They also do a great job with the Christmas lights if you have never been. Thanks for reading.

Regardless of whatever is in the shed, I'm still excited about the coaster.

I agree that the quality of the cups has gone down continually. I found a Diamondback cup from several years ago in my basement recently and the quality difference was crazy how much better they were just a few years ago.

Good: Flight of Fear, Days of Thunder, the idea of Son of Beast, Tomb Raider, the movie prop area walk thru behind Eiffel Tower, movie music around the park Bad: the execution and design flaws of Son of Beast, taking out the Antiques/Eagles when Italian Job could of went elsewhere in the park, getting rid of Phantom Theater

I like the idea of having the option of doing both. Either you can do the refillable bottle or if you don't have the bottle with you then you can do the disposable cup. This would give the person the option of what they want to do.

I got the chance to check out the lights tonight with my wife and my parents and it is well worth checking out. I was amazed at how many cars were there on a weeknight. The traffic moved continuously so we didn't get stuck out on the highway. Great job all around though on the show and synchronization.

No I don't think they need to expand. I agree that they should take care of the parks they already own. They would strip the charm away from places like Dollywood. An owner like Herschend understands what to do with Dollywood. Dollywood does theme first, coasters second and Cedar Fair would do coasters first, with theme a distant second. CF does alright with the bigger parks in the chain but the smaller ones suffer and that would get worse with more parks.

It is good to see some updated pictures behind what we can see from the camera.

This ride looks it should be sponsored by Lysol for all of the "spills" that it is going to cause.

I also don't think they will ever build something like Son of Beast again. There are a multitude of reasons why rides like The Beast and Racer are still going strong and Son of Beast is no more. I'm glad that they went with somebody this time around like GCI that understands all of the intricacies of building a wooden coaster.

Banshee gets my vote. A great ride from start to finish.

Having ridden both, I would give The Beast the edge. Most won't but I give The Beast the slight edge due to being more of a traditional wooden coaster and being four times as long (time-wise) as Lightning Rod. Other than both using a wooden frame that is where the similarities end. The closest comparison at Kings Island I can give to Lightning Rod is probably Diamondback. Lightning Rod has a crazy amount of airtime like Diamondback, although Lightning Rod's air time is more ejector air than DB's floater air. I liked Lightning Rod more than Diamondback though. If LR was at KI I would probably rank it third behind Beast and Banshee. LR has air time like DB and intensity/smoothness like Banshee. Overall it is a great coaster. I can certainly see where many enthusiasts rank it so high but it being so short time-wise keeps it from being at the top in my opinion. It is still in my personal top five though.

I would classify it as a thrill ride fun for the whole family (over 48 inches tall).

I kept having a dream the other night that I was on Mystic Timbers continuously.

I agree. That's the most responsible thing they could have done.