Dollywood - 5/26-27

A trip to Pigeon Forge over Memorial Day weekend has now become an annual trip for my family. Since my coaster plans over Spring Break got rained out I just had to make it over to Dollywood to finally get on a coaster. Besides that I love this park anyway. It has an atmosphere that just makes me feel completely at ease and relaxed, regardless of the amount of crowds at the park.

I won't go into details about everything since much was the same as last year, therefore for more info either read last years trip report or my park review.

The park was very busy on Sunday, but like usual most patrons weren't in the thrill ride age range. Therefore waits for rides were very reasonable. The park wasn't busy at all on Monday which made for virtual walk-ons on almost all the rides.

Ate lunch both days at the BBQ place right near the large waterfall at the center of the park, my mouth still waters thinking of the BBQ, potatoes, and beans from that place. Dollywood will definantly get my nomination for best food in this years Coaster's Choice Awards.

Got to catch the 50's show in the 50's section of the park which was great. Every performer could sing very well and the show was very entertaining.

On to the new stuff...
Dollywood "added" a new attraction this year in the form of a simulator ride. Basically they rethemed and replaced the Thunder Road simulator with the Smokey Mountain Wilderness Adventure. This simulator ranks right up there with the Disney and USF simulators IMHO (save Spiderman, which I haven't ridden but will soon!). The pre-show was funny and starred park namesake Dolly Parton. The ride itself was very fun, with even better effects than Thunder Road had.

All in all another great trip to Dollywood. Well worth the money in my opinion. ;)

Drove by Thunder Eagle at Race World. Its obvious that there hasn't been any activity around the coaster recently. There was a Coldwell Banker sign out front, so the place is probably still up for sale. Anyone with a few million or so lying around?

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"Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work." - Peter Gibbons

I'm glad to hear you had a good time at Dollywood. Did you visit the new Dolly Parton museum? It looks to be quite a bit larger and more elaborate than the old museum was.

Thunder Eagle...how many people have actually ridden that? IMO, that coaster looks like it was made with parts from Home Depot.

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My two favorite coasters are named Superman.

gardener14: No, I didn't make it over to the Dolly Parton museum, I'll have to get to that next time.

astrosgp: I've heard it was a very smooth coaster, but almost forceless. It was built by Coaster Works, which also built the Daria Beach Hurricane in Florida, which I've heard good things about. Hopefully someone will purchase this area and open the coaster back up, its a shame to see any coaster sitting there like that.

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Syntax Error
Two legs good, four legs bad.

Good TR, I havent been to Dollywood in 11 years. I remember some of the rides, wonder if they are still there.

One being a inside mine roller coaster, you went through this town and there was a fire going on, I believe the big finish of the ride was riding through a tunnel and on the other end was a train that was coming straight for you, but instead of hitting it you drop down a hill splashing into water.

The other ride I'm sure was a boat ride, you went through these various caves and there was anamatronics ( spelling?? ) that was dressed up as inmates in black and white stripes.

Are either one of these rides still there?

Last July, I rode Thunder Eagle 40 times in a single evening - alone.

If that's not evidence of how hurting that place was, I don't know what is. All in all, though, their employees seemed nice enough, especially given my own uniqueness.

The coaster itself, though, was not rough at all. It was largely forceless, though, like SyntaxError said. A teensy bit of airtime could be felt on one hill, but the rest was very, very placid. It made riding 40 times nice and easy :)

Tek2000: The first coaster you speak of is still operating and its called Blazing Fury. It is a really cool and unique ride and I think you'll still enjoy it for what its worth. I personally love it.

The second ride you asked about was completely removed for an outstanding water ride, but the name escapes me right now. It's extremely fun and reminds me a lot of a flume like Splash Mountain at Disney. The theming it does have is pretty neat to look at and I think you would like that a lot as well. The park is still very unique and a nice escape.

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Danny
PKI:UNCOVERED!
http://xpp.coasterbuzz.com/pki/uncovered.asp

Syntax, you did ride Tennessee Tornado didn't you? Any comments? Gee I'll miss Thunder Road. That was awesome!
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Brad Sherman
Soon park benches will have seatbelts!
Model coasters and rides

Arrow Guy: Tennessee Tornado, what's that? j/k ;)

Yeah, it was running awesome. The crew was outstanding, like usual. The reason I didn't make any comments on the TT was because I already had 'reviewed' it in my last TR for Dollywood and in my park review and nothing has changed since then.

Here's my last TR:
http://club.coasterbuzz.com/forums/thread.asp?ForumID=13&TopicID=7975

And my park review:
http://club.coasterbuzz.com/parks/review.asp?ReviewID=165

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I can see your house from here.