Dollywood 8/19 and 8/22

[Voicetek]

So last week I went on vacation with my family which consisted of my mom, sister, neice(9), nephew(5), and my girlfriend. We went down to Pigeon Forge and rented a cabin from August 18-25. During our week down there, one of our main plans was to visit Dollywood. I went to Dollywood back in the early 90's when I was around 12 or so, but haven't been there since. I was excited to check out the park and be able to enjoy it again as an adult.

Our first day in the park was Sunday August 19. I wasn't sure what the crowds were going to be like, but to my surprise, there were hardly any crowds at all! The weather was pleasant, not too hot, it was just right. It had rained earlier that morning and it remained slightly overcast. We arrived around noon and entered the park. Since we had my nephew with us we knew we'd spend some time riding some of the smaller rides, which was ok. We had invested in a season pass several months ago when they were running a special online. We knew we'd come at least 2 days and maybe a third if we needed more time to ride rides. I wasn't as concerned with trying to see everything in one day, so this allowed us to sort of relax and just take our time.

The first thing we rode were the little cars that you drive around the track. This was perfect for my nephew who's 5. He loves cars and he loved the fact that he could take his uncle (me) on a ride around the track. My neice, who's 9, rode with my girlfriend. I get a lot of enjoyment watching the kids have fun and experience new things, so I was perfectly content starting off the day with some smaller rides. I knew I'd eventually get to the big coasters a bit later.

After the cars we headed for the train. My nephew loves trains and it was all he talked about, he wanted to ride the train! So we headed up the walkway to the train station and wouldn't you know it, the train was just pulling away. At Dollywood the train makes a trip once every hour. We had just missed the 1 o'clock ride and the next ride would leave at 2. At this point my nephew had become interested in one of the shows so my mom decided to sit there with him so he could hear the singing and my girlfriend and I could take my neice to ride some bigger rides and then meet them back at 1:45 to ride the train.

From there we headed to the Blazing Fury. This was one of the few things I remembered about Dollywood when I was a kid. I was too afraid to ride it then because I didn't like coasters yet, but this time I couldn't wait to get on. That ride is definitely unique. It's like part dark ride, part coaster and the few drops that they do have take you by surpise! They're not big drops, just enough to be fun!

Once we got off it was time to head back to the train and we made it just in time to load up. We took a very nice ride on the Dollywood Express and got to see more areas of the park. I noticed the new Wild Eagle as well as the Texas Tornado and their wooden coaster (the name escapes me at the moment). After seeing these, I knew what I wanted to do later that day!

After the train ride we decided to split up again. My mom took my nephew down to the "Fair" area and we took my neice to ride some of the bigger coasters. Before this though, we stopped and grabbed some lunch. After lunch we headed for the Wild Eagle! The wait was practically nothing. We walked right in and up to the loading station. I think we might have waited ten minutes if that. That ride is amazing! It was my first experience on a winged coaster and it is quite an experience! It's very smooth and it's nice not having a track above or below you. You truly do feel like you're flying!

After the Wild Eagle, we headed for Mystery Mine! This ride is quite unique. I loved the 90 degree parts of the track where it takes you literally straight up and then straight down. I've never ridden anything quite like that before in my life! The only complaint though is that it was kind of rough. It really gives you a beating and after that my head hurt somewhat. It really through me for a loop!

We decided to save the 2 other coasters for the next day in the park and head back to meet up with my mom and nephew. On our way back though we noticed the Barnstormer and decided to take a ride on that. That is a very fun ride! You swing back and forth so high and you catch some serious air time! I'd like to see something like that at KI!

Since we were right there, we caught I ride on the Slidewinder which was quite fun. You get kind of wet, but not too bad. It's a fun ride on a big water slide and it's fun going into the tunnels and around the curves. Great experience!

So we then headed back to the Fair area and caught some rides on the smaller rides such as the ferris wheel, the kiddie coaster and tea cups. After that my sister took the kids on one more ride on the train and by that time it was about time to go. I enjoyed walking around quite a bit because there were no crowds and you could just take your time and appreciate the scenery and the atmosphere!

We came back for a second day on Wednesday August 22. This day though it was quite a bit hotter and there were more people. I won't go into as much detail about this day, but I will recap some of the rides we rode. We did manage to catch the other two coasters. The Texas Tornado was very fun. It was short, but effective! The wooden coaster was really crazy! Very fast and very twisty! I've never ridden anything quite like that. It sure beat the heck out of me though! We also caught a ride on the Smoky Mountain Adventure simulator ride. Those are always fun and it was something that the whole family could ride including my mom and my nephew. We did catch a ride or two on the Dollywood Express and had a nice lunch. All in all it was a pretty good day again.

So now I've gotten to experience Dollywood again and it was quite fun. I enjoyed the atmosphere, the scenery and the mix of rides they have at the park. I think the whole family found something they could enjoy there. Since we have the season passes, we might try to go down again around Christmas time and see it all lit up. If not though, I feel like we saw everything we wanted to see and had a great time!

[The Interpreter]

I highly recommend Smokey Mountain Christmas. You won't be disappointed.

Getting beat up on Thunderhead is rather unusual! Where did you sit?

And did you see any of the park's inside shows? What did you eat and what did you think of it?

Thanks for sharing!

[TheCrypt]

Truly a spectacular park you have visited. I have visited twice in my life, one when I was a wee young lad, and one just before New Year's. Both were experiences I will never forget. In fact, the first roller coaster experience I remember is Blazing Fury. What a spectacular ride with 3 great airtime drops! Fire in the hole!

The wooden roller coaster you refer to is a GCI (or is it CCI?) coaster called Thunderhead. I love that ride very much, and it sits up there as number 1 in my wooden coaster rankings.

Mystery Mine is great, albeit a bit short. The fire is fun and the theming is spot on for a family park like Dollywood.

Where did you eat? Dollywood's food is by far the best I have ever experienced at a park. Did you visit any of the birds in the aviary?

I also echo Interpreter when saying you won't be dissappointed by the Smokey Mountain Christmas. It is wonderful--but be warned, many rides will be shut down if it is chilly.

Thank you for sharing and letting me view the park through another's eyes!

[CoasterGeek101]

Nice trip report! There is actually a small chance that I will make it down there in 2013. Wild Eagle and Thunderhead look like incredible rides.

[Voicetek]

We sat near the back on Thunderhead (thanks for reminding me of the name!). Maybe "beat up" was too strong of a term to use. It did throw me around quite a bit though.

I, personally, didn't catch any of the shows. However, my mom and nephew watched part of one. We were thinking about going back a third day to watch shows, but our schedule ended up not allowing for that.

I can't remember the name of the place that we ate, but I got a chicken fingers meal and my girfriend got the pulled pork sandwhich. We both really enjoyed our food. My mom, sister and nephew ate at the 50's diner and they said the food was good there too. Some of the places sold these cookies that were wrapped up 2 for $1. Those cookies were fabulous lol! We bought quite a few of those to snack on throughout the day.

As far as going back down around Christmas, that's kind of up in the air right now. First we have to consider budget, if we have the money to go or not and then we have to figure out what our schedule will be around that time. We've all talked about it, but we'll just have to see. We'd all like to go, but you know how that is...it all kind of revolves around money and time unfortunately.

[Voicetek]

Just to comment on what TheCrypt said, I did forget to mention the theming! The theming on some of the rides were great, especially Mystery Mine! I also loved the animitronic vulture that sat outside the ride queue and told the story of Mystery Mine. That really added to the feel of the ride! And yes, Blazing Fury was a great ride....Fire in the hole!

[The Interpreter]

Thunderhead's a GCI, with Millennium Flyer trains, also from GCI.

Blazing Fury was built in house.

[luff]

Getting beat up on Thunderhead is rather unusual! Where did you sit?

You actually can get beat up on Thunderhead. I was at dollywood for the last day of dollywood nights. The second ride of the day was when it was pitch black out. Since you can't see the layout, my raised arms were flying back and forth hitting the sides of the car and my wife. She got a nice bruise from her elbow hitting the right side of the seat. For the next ride, we kept the hands down