medford

My family spent last week in Pigeon Forge including a day at Dollywood (our 2nd trip, prior one was in 2019). First the weather sucked, but was by no means a washout, actually aside from arrival and our first 30 min or so inside the park, rain was pretty much a non issue, I was hoping that would help keep crowds down a bit (we had similar weather on our prior visit and once the rain/thunder cleared the park was fairly empty) but the crowds were strong for a Wednesday. It was the last day of the ACE event (I'm not in ACE so this wasn't a planned thing, just a coincidence) and with a lot of ACE name badges around that might have been part of the reason for the larger crowds despite the wetish day (it was also wet all week, so Wednesday was the best of the bunch and might have brought in people that wanted to attend one day and that was the best of the pick). Anyhoo, we got into the park shortly after opening. Several rides were still not running yet, but Big Bear Mountain was one of them and it was only listed as a 10 min wait. We headed back to Wildwood Grove and got in line. Probably took about 20 min to get thru the line, a nicely themed entry line, to get on. Sat towards the back, and for 39" height requirement it was an awesome experience/ride. Great theming, felt like pretty good speed and just a lot of fun. If KI has any designs of taking back the best themed kids area from Dolly, well good luck cause they will have to "earn it". Firefly was still not open yet, we had ridden it on our prior visit (I believe that is win Wildwood Grove was still new. Kinda like Flying Ace Arial Chase, but better cars/restraints and a better ride. Definitely feels more "kiddie coaster" than Big Bear Mountain or Fire chase express but a fun ride when we went 4 years ago. When it did open up, it was listed as 40-50 min waits most of the day, so we never jumped on. Anyhoo, my youngest wanted to desperately ride Wild Eagle so we headed in that direction, however on our way Fire Chaser Express had just opened up, and knowing the lines for Wild Eagle would be shorter all day, we jumped on that while there was only a min wait. The Ride, at least my car has gotten noticably rougher than when we rode it 4 years ago, not painful by any means, but a definite rattle; perhaps it just needs new wheels. Anyhoo, for those that have never been, its a great ride, awesome theming, I'd love to see something like this in Planet Snoopy at KI. Best family/kiddie coaster I've been on (39" requirement). From there we jumped on Wild Eagle, maybe a 10 min wait, my youngest son loved it. I rode it last time with my oldest son and it is as smooth as ever. Not super forceful but a fun ride. Lightening Rod opened up at the same time as fire chaser express and what started out as a 10 min wait turned into a 115 min wait by the time we rode FCE and WE and got over there. Rather than wait in line, figuring it was a bit of a "just opened up rush" we grabbed lunch at the restaurant near the entrance. Burger themed diner and I've got to say, not the best food experience, Dolly is known for great food and this was sub par (though better than some other parks food that I've had). By the time we were done, the listed wait was 45 min so we jumped in line, however things we moving very slowly then we saw a car shoot up the lift only to fail to make it over and come back down. I assumed perhaps they could relaunch it from the bottom, however it went down for maintenance with an evac at the bottom of the lift hill. So from there we jumped up to Blazing Fury. We somehow failed to ride that on our prior visit. Fun little indoor family coaster, not great and a little painful in parts but a quirky coaster/dark ride. From there it was Tennessee Tornado, which I'm told is still very smooth but I refuse to ride arrow loopers early in the day so I still can't verify that then over to Thunderhead, their GCI. I'd say I still like Mystic Timbers better, but Thunderhead is still fun like every GCI I've been on (which actually only extends to Renegade at Valley Fair). By that point, Lightening Rod had reopened and the line was down to 60 min so we headed over and got in line. For whatever reason they were only running 1 train, which certainly made the wait longer, but it moved at a slightly steady pace. My daughter waited in line for 60 min then decided to bail, however my 7 year old loved it. Wife and the oldest had ridden it before along with me on our last trip, still forceful, yet smooth. Launch up the hill is fun. At that point, we had cleared all the coasters so it was time for repeats and some flats mixed in. Had diner over by the pizza place at Drop Line, pretty good pizza for a theme park. Since my oldest is Gluten Free, I still haven't had the cinnamon bread which I'm told is out of this world and a must try, but don't want to watch him drooling while I enjoy it so we haven't tried it yet. With the exception of Drop Line, the 7 year old was able to get on everything else that he wanted (WE is a 50" height, he is 52"). I love the park, they had a fun little foam pit set up that the 2 youngest did for awhile during the middle of the day and their summer themeing "road trip" displays were pretty cool, something KI should copy/imitate some day.

I was one of the "no" votes, but since nobody gave their reasoning why they voted no, I'll throw mine out there. I'll start by saying I've never ridden Sling Shot, nor anything like it and never intend to. But that isn't my reasoning for voting no. I will never ride the new rides they just put into Adventure port either (spinny things dont serve me well) either but I much prefer those. Sling Shot was often a no line just kind of sitting there ride. I'm sure the upcharge nature of the ride played a roll in it, but it kind of just took up space. Meanwhile, I believe the new rides at KI will have a consistent line and will serve to please those that are willing and able to ride them. While I may not be able to ride them, the joy and experience they bring to those that do (like the rest of my family) will pull those potential riders away from other rides in the park that I do enjoy, shortening the lines up ever so slightly. Slingshot never shortened up any lines by more than a handful of people spread across the park at any given moment.

If I'm following, you are asking what occupied the space that is currently tower gardens? If so, I'm sorry that I can't answer that, its been some form of tower gardens for a long while (and much of that form was very shoddy as well as on of the designated smoking spots). What I'd love to be seen done is a KI hall of fame kind of display. Get the people at Entertrainment Junction involved who did the Coney Island Mock up (is that sill there on the upper level) and put in a working mock up of the The Beast and and maybe something like Diamondback as part of the history section. They could sell vintage KI clothing apparel there to bring people into the area. It appears like some refreshing of the area has been done of late, but I haven't checked it out yet.

I'm of the opinion that KI needs another tweener coaster. Especially if they have any desire to reclaim "worlds best kids themed area" back from Dollywood. I've proposed this before, and my kids have graduated out of Planet Snoopy, but if I was in charge I'd look hard at removing Snoopy Junction and whatever small circular ride is back there (or maybe relocate it along with some other small kiddie rides for a small kid section out near Action Zone similar to how CP has that small area by Johnny Rockets). I'd relocate the Beattle Bugs for sure, and get ride of the theater/animal farm as well as Snoopy's snack shack. I'd also look into doing something with the pathway near linus launchers, which seems like the forgotten part of Planet Snoopy. Maybe the could relocate Sally's Sea Plane along with that circular ride mentioned earlier and open up a pathway there to allow for some small flats. Anyhoo, with all that space cleared out, I'd look at putting something in on par with Fire Chaser Express (39" height requirement IIRC). That ride is amazing for a family/kiddie coaster. While I'm in that area, I'd give Boo Blasters a big old refresh. I know some want a return to what it was prior, but I'm not sure that would have the repeatability with the small kid target audience. I think the shoot 'em up design is a solid attraction however they need laser guns that actual work (2 weeks ago, only 1 of the 3 on our car worked) and better, fresher targets and props. Some of the props have improved since I last rode on it a couple of years ago (Don't think I was on it last year at all) but a lot need refreshed. Mainly the guns need to actually work. I'd also look into doing something with the other half of the Boo Blaster's building. Is it big enough for an indoor play area like Dollywood and Valleyfair have? I think that would work well.

I thought, perhaps 1937 was a play on the loose ties to Indiana Jones that AE has and Adventure Port expands upon. 1937 would fit in that time line, right between Raiders (1936) and The Last Crusade (1938). What really blew my mind, at least according to this https://screenrant.com/indiana-jones-movie-timeline/ Is that Temple was set in 1935, so its actually a prequel to Raiders. Maybe that should have been obvious, but I've never picked up on that before.

My son and I were on The Beast about 7-8 years ago. I believe we were in row 4. We were coming out of the double helix and down the last little hill right before the brake run. Just as were were hitting the bottom of that hill and about to start back up and into the brake run, a bird flew onto the track (I assume there was a mouse or some type of animal it spotted that it was going after). Train hit is square. Must have been low enough to not get any remnants over the people in the front. as soon as we pulled in, the first handful of rows who saw it all popped toward the front to see the damage.

It did not when I was there last year.

The easiest way to do that would be to install a handful of cameras in each ride (or at least the major ones) with security watching on TV. They wouldn't have to monitor all rides at once, but if you monitored say Orion for a spell, then The Beast, then Diamdonback, etc... on days that you most suspect line jumping will occur, then you have a smaller group of mobile security that will be in the area of the ride/s that are being actively monitored. Boot the few that you do catch and word will spread quick enough that they are watching and will act. Enforce it hard core for a season and it will die down significantly moving forward.

I wonder how much of the problem is the rise of social me and young people finding it acceptable to document their rude behavior on social media for all to see.

I think its more of a policy that gives them a leg to stand on should they need to removed anyone from the park before they actually do something full on worthy of getting the boot. Ie, there are a group of 14 year olds walking around shoving each other, and cursing lowdly. Maybe they haven't done anything yet that would warrant removal from the park, but now KI has a policy that they can be proactive when needed. The 12 year old that is walking around with some friends, being respectable and polite wont get bothered by this policy is my guess.

I was in line for Banshee along with my 2 sons when the evac call came out. You could tell it wasn't a mechanical failure by the nature of the evac, they cleared out the entire que (90 min wait according to the app), I figured someone had been seriously injured or perhaps there was some sort of fire incident. Never once was it explained there was a gun threat (though I'm not sure how much of a threat it was since it was contained outside the park, but I'm ok with being overly cautious). I think this was probably a good thing, it reduced any sort of panic amongst the patrons while they still managed to get everyone out pretty quickly Beyond that, the park was crazy busy. My son had a baseball game that afternoon, so we shot down afterwords as we downgraded from platinum passes to gold passes and figured getting our new cards would take a few minutes and save us time the next time. The way they process new cards is super easy, though i do recommend they have pens available to sign the cards so that you know who's pass is who. We got dinner but the lines were so long, we decided to bail after dinner and try again in a few weeks. Adventure port is starting to take shape and looks like it will be a nice addition. Not sure why Grain and Grail was not open yet, I would have thought they could have that operational from the get go. Firs time I have had the sausage from the BBQ place, it was pretty good. I'd still prefer the chicken, but that was all out atm and I didn't feel like waiting, so went with something different.

Looks like people are riding it now; so what get it was is good to go

That would make sense. If one thing is acting up in the morning, it would then affect them from getting to and checking everything else down the line.

FWIW, we went last summer for 3+ days right after Juneteenth (just a coincidence that we picked those dates, but I posted them to give you our time frame). I didn't actually hit me that we were going there on the day after a day many (some?) companies are giving their employees a day off work. Anyhoo, I remember thinking....Hmm I wonder if this will be more crowded than usual as we drove up. We had planned on getting fast passes for a day, so I wasn't super worried about it. We arrived mid morning on that Tuesday and found crowds to be very light. Steel vengance was like a 15 min wait, maybe 25. Milly was like 10 min. Maverick was up and down, so I actually waited about 45 min for that, but everything was fairly short. On that Wednesday we went to the water park, where the lines were fairly long as a couple of the complexes were shut down. Went back to the dry side for dinner and some rides and again everything was short. Thursday we had planned on getting passes, but looking at the lines the first 2 days we were thinking maybe we could save the money and not do them. Rides were a little longer on Thursday, but not insane by any means. Milly was still a 10 min wait, steel vengance was about 25, Maverick not too bad, etc... Weather was perfect all 3 days, mid 80s, fairly sunny, no rain, etc.... Maybe we just happened to hit the right week (there was even an ACE event going on as we ran into some ACE members and learned a bit about that) As far as ops go, many of the rides didn't open up on time. I think day 1 we got there right after the 10:00 normal open time and several rides were still down. My daughter wanted to ride gemini and I don't think that opened up until around 11:00. On that thursday we in the park sometime shortly after 9:00 and again many of the rides didn't open up until well after 10:00. On the plus side, there version of surf dog wasn't technically open yet since it was still about 9:45, but the ride was ready and workers were stationed. My sons decided to get in line and make that their first ride, the workers decided to open up the ride around 9:50, which was kind of cool.

I haven't read the whole thing, and I'll assume this has been stated, but the simple answer is NO! What is your own personal POV going to show you or anyone else that can't already be seen by the parks official POVs that they put out? So why should the park allow something that could potentially bring about injury and litigation if the operator didn't follow strict guidelines? Literally the park would have nothing to gain and very much to lose. Individually, I'm not sure why anyone cares what their own personal POV even looks like. Odds are it looks bouncy and like crap if strapped to your body.

And with the fresh paint, The Racers look as good as every (well except the tunnel at the end, I still don't get why they did that, though I'm sure #reasons)

Spring is around the corner (despite the snow) and its time to bumpity, bump, bump, bump my favorite thread on this site. Just in case anyone hasn't seen these yet, or likes to look back on them like I do.

I could see that horse theme working, pay tribute to the horse industry in neighboring Kentucky. Or perhaps with The Vortex replacement coaster, you turn the re-imagined Stunt Coaster into part of rivertown and with the horse theme, turn it into a western horse chase theme with a chase down the mine shaft to get the "bad guys" after the mid course stop. At any rate, I 'd hate to see the ride go, I think its an important "tween" coaster for the kids who have reached 48" but are not too keen on heights or inversions (though with Vortex gone I don' think there are any 48" inversions left in the park)

Random thought. If, (I said IF) there is a new coaster install for 2024, or whenever the next large coaster install happens, the park should do more "mini" type announcements. Seems like when Orion was built there was a decent amount of teasers, which I wouldn't change, but maybe have a partial reveal on a couple of different dates with fun games, etc... to help drive attendance. When Orion was going up, it was pretty obvious early on that a large coaster was going into that space they were clearing, maybe in mid June after schools are out you have a "reveal the manufacturer" announcement, then in late July you have a "reveal the type of coaster announcement" the finally in August you get the POVs, stats and name of the ride. Seems like with a little creativity you could really ramp up the hype with some fun events around the construction.

If a B&M is coming to KI, and would most likely be a replacement for Vortex then something with a lot of inversions would seem to make sense. A wing coaster in that spot would also make sense. I seem to recall there being some sort of agreement b/w Holiday World and B&M about the limits of building another winged coaster in their area, I'm not sure how long that agreement was for and what it excluded, but a launched wing coaster would be cool. Thunderbird has an awesome launch. No launch, how about a 200' tall winged coaster (I believe 197 ft is the tallest winged coaster that B&M has built to date). Launch or no launch, 7 inversions would not only be a +1 gain to what was lost with Vortex but would also be a new record for most inversions on a winged coaster which would add to its marketability. I always loved how The Bat wing at Vortex interacted with the walkway in that area, so having a coaster do that again in some fashion would be pretty cool. at any rate, I'm sure there will be a rush to to the top of Eiffel Tower next spring (not to mention drone footage) to see what/if anything is going on in The Vortex plot.

I have a feeling that the 2023 improvement/change that will be discussed most is what will be happening on a certain plot of land behind a fence.

solid reasoning. At any rate, I suspect were are many years away from that building being torn down for a large coaster. I think it will either sit idle for awhile, or they will find a way to repurpose some sort of flat. Honestly, the que itself is reason enough to keep that portion of the building intact

Thanks, that was my suspicion. I'd say using that building plus the woods behind it could lead to a pretty cool family multi launch coast. Que thru the existing area which remains awesome, embarque on the ride vehicle, launch from inside of the building out into the woods and around, back into the building with some twists and turns, back into the woods and one more time back into the building to get off the ride. The height of the building could be beneficial in that circumstance as it would give more room to operate up high in the building with some slight dives to add to that feature.

I think most of the thought process behind removing timberwolf was that it was a big, largely unused plot of land. At least that was my thinking, until it was used this season. While I didn't attend any of the concerts there, if they could semi-regularly fill timberwolf with acts that people would want to come see, then I'm all for keeping it and upgrading it. Congo falls, I love and my kids love. I'd be sad to see it go, but realize it is much closer to the end of its service life than the start. While I don't love Invertigo, I'd imagine the same could be said for that coaster as well. I'm not sure what the level of ridership is for those things, Congo falls never seems to have lines. When people start speculating where the next major investments in the park can/will be, there are 2 very logical spots, the first is the old Vortex plot of land, the 2nd is/was the Timberwolf/Congo Falls/Invertigo plot of land. And a park should never remove anything until it has a plan for its replacement. Unless the structure is a physical hazard to the safety of patrons and/or employees, you never know when all or parts of it can be reimagined to something new.

How much physical space would this take up? Could something similar be done with the Big Brown building? If not in full, then in parts where the coaster zooms in/out of the building or added buildings around it? Seems like the existing building would be way to small, but have it zip in and out while using the surrounding trees in the back and you could have one heck of a solid family style ride and make use of the awesome que area.