brenthodge

If we must have a story, I tweaked it - along with the experience a bit: Wildwood Grove is filled with the legends and myths of the Great Smokey Mountains, and no one is more familiar with those stories than the Oakleys. Jasper and Cora Oakley are adventurers at heart, and if the adventure is rooted in a great story or legend, even better. Their uncle Ned runs the Adventure Exploration Company that treks through the Smoky Mountains in search for the elusive BigBear, a beast so legendary that the fact that no one has actually seen it makes it even more mythical. Their GrandPa Clovis Oakley was probably the first great explorer in their family. He was an inventor and tinkerer with the brain of a scientist and the heart of an adventurer. One of his greatest inventions was the SmokyMountainAdventureTracker - the SMArT86 for short. With his invention he could fly over the mountains he loved so dearly. He chartered flights for tourists and even ran NightFlights out of his hangar bay at the Hidden Hollow Aviation building out in WildWood Grove in the magical evening hours in search of the mystical Secret Lake. Cherokee lore tells of a lake with mystical healing waters that only appears at night, and is gone in the mist of the morning. No one has ever found Secret Lake, though Clovis surely tried. One day Clovis mysteriously disappeared - no one knew what ever happened to him. Many assumed he left on an adventure that was too big for even him to handle, but his family never stopped believing he was out there, and that his greatest adventure had yet to be completed. One day while exploring in their family’s barn, Jasper and Cora discovered an old book filled with beautiful paintings of the mountains at night. Notes about plants and animals that glowed as if though magic filled the pages. They soon realized that all of the paintings and notes were from Clovis. He had been searching for Secret Lake for longer than anyone realized, and was much closer to finding it that anyone knew. Jasper and Cora just KNEW that if they could finish their Great Grandpa’s work and follow his lead, then they could SURLY find Secret Lake and finish Clovis’s greatest adventure ever. They’ve invited YOU along on their adventure! Today is the day they’ve decided to sneak into the old, abandoned Hidden Hollow Aviation hangar and see if once and for all they are on the right track. Join them as they explore the dusty storage bays. Listen as their voices crackle though walkie talkies and old radios stored inside. Watch as vintage TVs come to life with old National Explorer shows about bioluminescent nature and the Secret Lake that inform our journey. Journey with them deeper through the sliding door to his storage bay where they discover his art studio and research library where he studied and painted his book. See the book begin to come to live with a magical glow that defies explanation. We see walls filled the paintings Clovis made come to life - showing the changing seasons as the magic grows stronger. Pass through a hidden door in a bookcase as they discover Clovis’s workshop. Pipes drip from overhead into old buckets and basins, and the light dims and flickers with age, or is it magic? See where he was hard at work on a new SMArT26 - with the capability to finally combine flight with light, and follow the glowing roots of the Wildwood Tree all the way to Secret Lake. Maybe that’s it peeking out from under a tarp. Is it coming back to life as the glowing roots and mushrooms begin to give off their light? Hear the sounds of something mysterious from the attic above. Hear the invitation to climb higher with Jasper and Cora Climb through the plane storage bay all the way up to the secret launch site for the SMArT26, and hop aboard. Be dazzled by a magical light as something amazing happens and we are transported INTO the paintings of the book and begin our adventure along with Jasper and Cora as they communicate to us via radio on board. We fly, we dive, we sail a rushing river. As we get closer, we see the magical creatures that come out only at night, and listen to the words of Clovis echo though the hillsides and valleys encouraging us to follow our heart and journey on. As our journey comes to a dramatic conclusion, thrill to the sight of the creatures of the night gathered at Secret Lake, and hear the parting advice of a wise, old explorer as we see his spirit rise from the lake and lift into the night sky as his greatest adventure comes to a close - thanks to you, and Jasper and Cora’s help!

OK - Sorry its long but it is ALL my thoughts after experiencing this personally this past Monday. For context I waited about 45 min Friday only to have a shut down in the last queue room. It was 7:45 so I'm not sure if it came back on-line as I left to go get dinner. We then waiting about 90 minutes on Monday, so this is with a "this better be worth it for this wait 2x and 60 million" review. It was not sadly. First, I REALY wanted to LOVE this attraction - I’m so disappointed that I don’t. Dollywood has so much riding on it. This is their first REAL entry into the “big leagues” of fully immersive dark ride. This is how they compete with Disney and Universal. The whole of WildWood grove in 2019 was about $36Mil, this was about $60Mil for one attraction. This is also the one that was Dolly’s finale - her last ride announcement, her last ride opening. I know there were issues with the timeline and the whole project was clearly WAY behind schedule, then there was sadly a major push to get it open regardless of being fully complete when it was clear that Dolly was leaving soon. Regardless, there are fundamental design challenges that hold it back from being GREAT. Why does this ride exist in this form? Dollywood needed a great indoor dark ride that everyone can ride together, yet they chose to go down a “mild thrill” road that still has a 39” height requirement and is advertised on billboards as an indoor immersive rollercoaster - which will instantly turn some off, even BEFORE the water aspect kicks in with some older folks refusing to ride it even if you (incorrectly) convince them “you wont really get wet”. I don’t see the metrics they are using to make growth and expansion decisions, so I can’t speak with any authority, but I don’t see why they went this route. The only other fully indoor ride is the aging Blazing Fury which also mixes coaster elements with a dark ride, so based on that, they still haven’t really filled that niche that an “its a small world”, Navi River Journey, Haunted Mansion or any other true dark ride. They have so much rich lore and history to draw on, and even their own characters of Flit and Flutter as well as Benjamin Bear, so I’m not clear why we needed to add additional characters of Jasper and Cora who, for some reason unexplained, are on a mission to Secret Lake. Secret Lake itself is based on the Cherokee legend of Lake Atagahi - An enchanted lake believed to be at the heart of the Smoky Mountains, it is said to play host to those worthy enough to find it…if they can, that is. The legend surrounding Lake Atagahi paints a picture of tranquility and nirvana. It provided an oasis and healing waters for wildlife. However, for those who dared to disrespect this pinnacle of natural beauty, only death awaited. The legend of Lake Atagahi remains an integral ancient lesson that applies even today. But while some believe it’s just that, others think it’s still somewhere in the Smoky Mountains, hidden away by the animals and rumors of ghosts that roam its lush greenery. Now THAT is the foundation for a dark ride. It doesn’t need to have external conflict that gets resolved - that just hurt re-ridability. Even at BigBearMountain we never find the bear, leading us to go on future missions to try again. As it stands in Nightflight, we find the lake… ok…now what? We go up a dark hill to the load platform and we’re done. What is this place? Is Hidden Hollow Aviation a new place, old place, mix of the two? The building is “surface aged”, which doesn’t give it any authenticity. It’s an aviation hangar. Yet there isn’t a single airplane parked outside. The inside is too perfect, too clean - which makes the wear and vandalism that the queue is already seeing only a few weeks into being open even more obvious. Why do the lights in the first room get dim and bright for no apparent reason? Why is there no way of modifying the switchbacks to accommodate shorter wait? Just this past week I saw waits of less that 10 minutes, but no way of altering the path. Why do we not walk through the open BAY 1 door into Jasper and Cora’s bay? Doing that would make the other bay doors seem legit, but instead we walk through a standard door beside the bay door, so the other bay doors are obviously tacked on set dressing. The theming is static room sets that look too perfect. where nothing happens. There seems to be a show scene in the second room that maybe isn’t working yet. The lamp randomly dims on and off and there is a blacklight above, but the other lights never dim to take advantage of any glow. There’s a gecko painted on the table leg, but it never glows. The third room “sets up” the story, yet the TimeSaver line totally bypasses it - yet it could easily have been routed into the room, in front of the set, then out along with the standby line and both routed up the stairs the same way. Even the steps up looses the build of the attraction. We’ve just seen this amazing narrative, then we walk into what looks to be outside- join with another line in an airplane hangar that again, has NO AIRPLANE or aviation propping hanging from above. We move to load and the vehicles keep moving, which should be great for capacity, but it makes loading challenging from a non-moving platform. It also makes the hosts frustrated because people keep trying to cross the boat to put things in the bins that are there. Which causes the hosts to keep literally yelling “do not put ANYTHING in the bin” so why are they there? Why have we established the operational standard of “put your stuff in a bin” only to yelled at to not. I see older people and kids tripping like crazy trying to hold everything and step into a moving, and wet, boat/car while you are standing still. It ruins any “magic” that has built to this moment. Then we're off! Wait - when did we become paintings? Yep, we board the ride and enter an illustrated world - on full view from the load platform. Only in some of the last promo materials did they hint at the art direction for the ride being more flat and presentational. In the queue we saw the Legend of Secret Lake book, but not the inside. We don’t know we are about to enter it… maybe.. did Cora paint these paintings? They whole thing is a muddled mess. Why don’t we leave load and see a realistic nighttime scene, so it seems like we are simply off on a flight through the actual mountains, then as we turn the corner and head to the projection room, something happens with light… a portal… smoke… lightning SOMETHING magical that explains why we just became painted. Then we meet a CGI Cora and Jasper, who seem way older than the set-up implies. Why do we need to see them at all in their weird, CGI way? We’ve only heard them randomly in the queue (never from crackling radio like in the teaser video) from unseen places, so why now, when they can communicate to us through the radio on the tracker vehicle, do we need to see them at all. Why for a ride all about bioluminescence does nothing seem to really glow? The whole ride feels way over-lit (giving the ability to see too much of the infrastructure and wrinkled backdrops. Why no blacklight painted sets? It feels more like Sunset Expedition as its never really dark unless its jusy pitch back nothing. It never seems truly magical. I did smile as we rode along, but wondered why am I not seeing flashes of these magical glowing animals? Where is the wonder and why are we even doing this? What’s the payoff. Finally we shine out bioluminator on a root and “Here it is!” Drop down to another CGI Jasper and Cora who made it first, we sail along through the first really magical moment and “YEA! We discover hidden lake - which again could be magical if it was so over-lit that you can see all the wires for the magical fireflies and in the center of the lake is what looks like a turned off fountain, that suddenly starts billowing smoke. Is something about to rise up from it? No… Nothing? Lights swirl underwater - it looks pretty - it goes black - we climb a dark lift hill with ALL OF THE WATER IN THE BOAT pouring to the back to soak your shoes - so much for not getting wet. I now have wetter feet that I did on River Rampage. We dock. It’s over - we get out. WHY? Why did we go through all of this to find this lake? Just to say we did? For a park that prides itself of telling authentic stories, this one seems manufactured to hit a demographic. The setting feels like it needed to have more story development, or no story at all. We need to meet Jasper and Cora out in the real world so the transition to painted world along with us makes sense - are these people who only live in a painting? Or, just take us on an amazing adventure to secret lake to see the glowing animals and plants come to life. I agree with others that it is an “only at Dollywood” story and attraction, but it misses the mark in so many places, and none of those misses are major revisions, just things that I can't believe they didn’t concept through more during development. This ride cost A LOT and it's getting fairly lackluster reviews. It was rushed because it was so far off schedule and they cared so much to have Dolly see it open, but that doesn’t address the design flaws that happened long before they got behind. Yesterday I saw wait times at 5 minutes, granted the rest of the park was dead as well, but 5 minutes for a 60 MILLION dollar investment? I guess I should be jealous as that wait might have made it feel more worth it than my 2 hour wait did.

By that logic though, Atlanta, which is landlocked and has way more density than Cincinnati and access to more markets driving as well as flights into the busiest airport in the country, has some of the lowest pass prices. I totally get what you are saying, but as long as they keep pushing the "One big happy company" idea, but then charging less for certain parks, you will have people price shopping. When a decent park has Prestige for 189 vs 279 for a "better"? park, and I can still get into all the parks, why wouldn't I go that route? I'm just saying all of their verbiage makes no sense. If I upgrade to Prestige in 2026 for a 2027 pass can I use it now without going to GEORGIA and their answer is, "yes sort of probably maybe but you still might want to come toGeorgia first just to make sure because we aren't quite sure"

Which again bears to question WHY? Why charge different prices for anything other than one park silver? Now that they are touting this whole “visit all parks” idea, then charge way less for other parks, they are just asking for people to do this.

To me, only the silver - one park should vary from park to park based on the value of that park. That would eliminate all this “price shopping” and they’re trying to stop it by “monitoring pass usage to see where you really go”. Just Gold for a region is one price- same for each region. Prestige (please go back to platinum since it makes more sense) is one price for all parks regardless of the park you purchase at. Then the “go to your home park” actually makes sense, since if you have silver, that’s the only place you can go. Silver should be the ENTIRE season, then have a SUMMER PASS that’s just Memorial to Labor days. Then have all three dining plans either one park, region (only available with gold), or all park (only available with Prestige) you can always buy the lower tier, but can only go up to align with the pass park availability.

Make it make sense!!! There is so much conflicting info around all this. I have GOLD through Georgia because it was $49 last year with all park access. From email communication with customer service, I Have been told if I upgrade to PRESTIGE at GA for $189, my benefits are effective immediately at all parks, but my dining plan for 26 is still in effect, but I have to visit GA first (even for an upgrade) to activate a pass that’s already active, but I have the all park pass from 26, so I can still go to KI, but my prestige benefits start right away even at KI, where my 27 pass is not active but my 26 pass can be used. Also my dining plan continues at all parks because I’m not using my 27 pass even though I now get prestige benefits. If I only renew as GOLD, then I can still use my all park pass at KI and other parks till 27 even though my 27 pass doesn’t have all park access, only EAST parks, then I have to activate an already active (just renewed) gold pass at GA before I can use it at an EAST region park in 2027. “Thanks for contacting guest services, hope that clears up your confusion”. Oh my GOD. JUST STOP!!!!

Relentless Decent should be their new corporate slogan. “Don’t aspire to be amazing, just be relentlessly decent and barely meet some expectations”

Dollywood is definitely a destination park. I’d say at this point KI is WAY more regional than Dollywood. They’ve made it very clear they are intent on being even more of a national destination (Dollywood) in the coming decades.

Flying fox was operationally complete. A lot of the cosmetic work/landscaping and decor still needed to be installed. I think they knew they needed to get it open when Hollywood nights was happening in HolidayWorld since there would be people in the area checking out both parks. Being open incomplete didn’t affect the running of the ride like NFE opening early seems to have.

I fully agree. This past week has thrust this park back into the narrative more than ANY ride opening or new addition ever will. Now more than ever it is SUPER important for the culture, family and experience piece to be exactly as it was /should be. Dolly, in her passing, has given her passion project a renewed spotlight. They’d better be ready (and I think they know that, and will be)

I think we have gotten hints from Eugene this week that, no, it was not ready but there was a deeper push to get this open for Dollys biggest and last new ride opening. Sadly she was not fully able to participate, but now some of the decisions made in the last few days before and right after the opening make more sense. Just shows decisions are made with different filters at Dollywood/Herschend.

Is Dollywood really still a regional Park though?

Color me (not at all) shocked- nothing new and no additions. That game show thing is a fine pre-show for a real show at the bandstand. As it is, why even bother with building a set? This is pathetic.

They said yes last year , but that was never the case in actuality. Not sure this year.

You can state something as a fact when it is based on years of proven market data. Plus have these people never heard of hyperbole? LOL