Dollywood, May 19, 2012

We had our first event at Dollywood last weekend. While I'm not happy with the number of people we had, or the time we had to promote it, the small group ended up having an extraordinary time.

The Family Puzzoni was already spending the week near Asheville, NC, so we were a quick 90-minute drive to the park. We shared a cabin with the Neus, who have a boy just a year behind Simon. It's fun to do a little trip like that with other young parents, trade stories and what not.

We rented one of the Dollywood cabins, and a week or two before, they upgraded us for some reason to a larger one. The amount of space was pretty ridiculous, but our little guys enjoyed it. Truth be told, we didn't use the hot tub or seven TV's. Our room even had two DVD players, for some reason. We did use the theater room for Simon's Pajanimals DVD. It was also his first time sleeping in a "big boy" bed, in his own room. Overall, it was fairly nice, and worth the $300/night with taxes, especially split with another couple. The only serious complaint I had was that I was sticking my toes on carpet tack strips all over the place.

Tyler and I started the day early at the park for the backstage tours while our boys and wive stayed at the cabin. First was a walk-through of Mystery Mine, starting in the maintenance shop. The ride has a neat scissor lift to bring cars down to the shop, which is under the station. The park's lead maintenance guy walked us through the technical aspects of the ride. There's a fair amount of complexity because there are so many blocks, plus stops and starts. On top of that, there's the show pieces that interact with the ride.

After the mine tour, we walked up the hill for some interesting views of Wild Eagle. Fortunately the ride was running, as they had early entry for season pass holders. It's remarkable how well the ride fits, sitting on top of the hill in the middle of the park. It's an excellent use of the topography, and they built a beautiful station for it.

Our families joined us around 10, and we made the call early on to get a Q-bot. (That reminds me, I owe Tyler $30!) At $15 per person, this was a no-brainer. This is probably the fairest of the virtual queue systems (if you care at all about fairness... I don't), because you still have to wait, just not in a line. We didn't entirely think it through. Because we had the kids, someone always had to stay behind. Either we should have got the Q-bot for three, or get two of them, for two each, so we could ride in pairs while the other pair watched the boys. Meh, it wasn't a deal breaker, but now we know if we ever do something like that again.

We didn't go to a single show, which is unfortunate, but I don't know how realistic it would have been to do so with the kids anyway.The park overall has a great deal of charm, and people are very friendly.

The emphasis on being nice really carries over to every part of the park. It probably doesn't hurt that there are a great many retirees working there.

In terms of operations, I thought they were generally pretty solid. Waits for food were a little on the long side, but my perception was that this was just because of volume, not incompetence. Ride operations were also, for the most part solid, though I think Wild Eagle needs a little work (I'll get to that).

We started with Tennessee Tornado. Wow... everything people have said about it in terms of it being the best Arrow looper is right on. It's a little short, but what a fantastic ride. That the classic simplicity of those trains works well on better designed track is interesting to me. Excellent use of the terrain.

Blazing Fury seems to get a lot of love and hate, but it was mildly interesting for what it is. My friends indicated it used to have a splash ending, but that's gone. At first I wondered how anyone could call it a coaster, but it got there eventually.

Thunderhead was the biggest surprise for me. GCI rides tend to be interesting, but other than Lightning Racer, and maybe Renegade, I haven't been that excited about them. Since we were Q-boting, we decided to ride in the front. It was hands down one of the best wood coasters I've been on. It was relatively smooth and felt expertly engineered. From the front, it seemed every direction change or hill was an airtime moment. It exceeded my expectations in every single way.

I didn't get Mystery Mine until the ERT, and unfortunately, Diana did not, as she took Simon back to the cabin. We had Q'd it earlier, but it was down a good chunk of the afternoon. ERT got pushed an hour later because they kept the park open an hour later. Overall, I really liked it, even having seen all of the spoilers on our morning tour. I found it to be fairly smooth in the way it tracked, but as was the case with Spongebob in the Mall of America, I think Gerstlauer pushes too hard on turns and dips because the platform allows it. Extend the radius of curves and hills, and the dynamics won't be so adversely affected by nuances in temperature and wheel material. In any case, conditions were right for a really nice ride, and I was into it.

We Q'd Wild Eagle twice during normal hours, both times in the front left seats. Let me start by saying that B&M has come up with their best variation on seating to date. It's better than the inverted model. The sensation of flight is really fantastic. The feel of the ride is solid, inside or outside seats. The only minor complaint I have, and I didn't notice until I had several re-rides, is that the "vest" tends to compress you a bit as the ride goes on, to the extent that it might cause some back discomfort. My taller friends (read: all of them) indicated this was a problem. Actually, Diana, who is shorter, said it bothered her as well.

Dollywood went all out on the ride. The location fits nicely on the hill, the station is once of the nicest I've seen for any ride, anywhere, and the eagle sculpture out front is something to behold. As B&M rides are often considered the nicest to own and maintain, it makes sense to build something nice around it.

For the haters who complain about B&M being "forceless" or whatever, that word does not apply to Wild Eagle. Ride in the back, and it yanks you over the top. Ride anywhere, and feel the G's at the bottom of each drop. The pullout on the first drop is compact, and it feels like it (especially if you just had a milkshake). You can feel the turns. The ride is surprisingly intense, and I didn't expect that at all.

Apparently, they're doing about 800 people per hour, which is kind of low, but there are some obvious reasons. The first is 7-row trains, which I found odd. The second is that the ride operators are almost too busy being nice to people, and not checking restraints fast enough. Also, it seems like there are an unusual number of people too large to fit in the ride. I watched one guest do the walk of shame only to be replaced by another one who did the same thing. I thought maybe the test seat should be more prominently placed at the entrance, but who wants to be embarrassed in a more obvious place? The one thing they could do is consistently get the gates open as soon as possible. It varied by operator, with some opening right when the train stopped, others when the outgoing guests were on the move. Surprisingly, despite the awkward loading to both sides, opening the gates immediately was affective.

I did the two front seat left rides before close, and I think that's the money seat. During ERT, I did 8 more laps, including two on the right front, two in the back and the rest in various places. I should have quit after four, because that milkshake was killing me on every drop, but it was hard to walk away when the front seat is open. One more lap and I might have had a second look at that milkshake. Others quit before I did, but I was on the last train. It's a really outstanding ride. It's really special in the dark, though the on-ride photo camera flashes really screw with your vision... wish they could turn those off.

We almost had a disastrous encounter with some jackass on an electric scooter. He had a little girl on his lap, and went flying into a group of people standing next to me and Simon, and hurt a little girl in the process. A few dozen inches to the left, and he would have hit Simon, who was looking through a railing at a water feature. I can feel the rage building just thinking about what I would have done if he hit him. I bring it up because the scooters are out of control at this park, and the paths are narrow.

Overall, I was really impressed with the park. There were a lot of things I would have liked to do, but that's how it goes when you have a toddler. My expectations were still exceeded overall, and I can see Dollywood becoming a place that we'll go back to in the future. It certainly helped that so many of distant friends were able to be there (we missed you, Carrie!). As nice as it is to keep up with folks via the Intertubes, it's better to see them in real life. Dollywood was an excellent place for that to happen.

Jeff said:

The park overall has a great deal of charm, and people are very friendly.

The emphasis on being nice really carries over to every part of the park. It probably doesn't hurt that there are a great many retirees working there.

We felt that of all of our visits to the Herschend "staffed by retirees" locations, that this visit was the least friendly. We ran into a lot who were fine, but not exceptional - which usually isn't the case. Used to the more mature staff offering exceptional service/friendliness and on this day we thought it was adequate-to-good.

However, I am willing to accept that some of it came from how crowded it was - although that's not an excuse as much as an explanation.

Still, the best were among the best anywhere as we've come to expect. It was just that we ran into too many who were unremarkable.

Kind of an odd complaint/comment, I know, but when you're used to 5-star service, 3 or 4-star service seems out of place - if that makes sense.

It was crowded, that's for sure. Those midways aren't wide enough for those kinds of crowds. I do wonder if I would have enjoyed myself as much without a Q-bot, but honestly, that benefit works best because I have a small child.

We didn't do Q-bot and were able to do everything we wanted (longest wait was maybe 20-25 min at Thunderhead).

Although, we did bank on ERT for Mystery Mine and Wild Eagle which gave us an edge. First thing in the morning lines were fine and the last couple hours they thinned out again. The afternoon took a little creativity, but we managed to hang, ride a little a see a lot. Typical theme park strategy.

And no, on a crowded Saturday at the park I never once felt like the Q-bot users were in the way of my having an enjoyable day.

The Herschend parks have some of the nicest employees of any park we've visited, Disney included. I would imagine a busy day would cut into how well then can deliver the usual hospitality though.

Jeff said:
I bring it up because the scooters are out of control at this park, and the paths are narrow.

Indeed. I feel like they should limit their speed to walking pace. It turns into a situation where the scooter people think everyone should move out of their way. At times (last summer) it felt like a highway in that regard.

Yeah, the guy who hit the little girl was on a rental, and it was flying. Can't imagine they wouldn't have a governor in place considering the crowded environment they operate in.

I'm glad you liked it Jeff. I know I always enjoy it when I go there, which isn't enough. We were there last in '08 for our honeymoon and also stayed in a cabin.

I agree with Thunderhead, it lives up to its reputation. I do like GCIs. I don't think I've been on one that I haven't liked. I haven't been on Lightning Racer yet. But have done Wildcat, Renagade, Gwazi, and Prowler. TH gives a great ride no matter where you sit.

We are looking forward to Wild Eagle. Hoping they might be able to run it during Christmas event when we plan on going. I would be surprised since it is new and untested in cold weather.

The one thing I was surprised we enjoyed was panning for gems. We spent a couple hours doing it. It was really fun!

So what was the official attendence of your group?

25. The ERT was very "E."

Reminds me of the Dorney event in '05.

Loved the ERT at night, it was great getting to ride Wild Eagle and Mystery Mine at night. The biggest problem I found with Wild Eagle was all the photos that it took during the ride. During the night hours you were blinded by flashes during each element.

Yeah, there are two cameras for each side, four total, and when it's that dark, it borders on seizure-inducing.

Great trip report. Thank you again for hosting it. I had a wonderful time. I was solo because my girlfriend had total knee replacement on May 1. The hills there would have done her in even more than she already is. She should be ready for the "new" Coastermania (I hope). Anyway, yes it was over crowded, but I made due. Morning was good. Wandered around durning the afternoon, the buffet was great (once I figured out how to get to the enterance). Nice touch with the Wild Eagle wrist bans, but I wish I would have had the glo-bans because they were really cool on the night ERT. I did the Disko ride, which was really cool, and 2 of the 3 water rides. The one where you walked up the mountain and rode down in a rubber raft was really a nice surprise. There were some nice views of Wild Eagle from the path. The water ride with the Barnie Rubble boats was really cool too. It appeared that you got drenched, but not really. They fired water cannons next to the boat coming down the chute but the water didn't land until the boat was past. I thought that boat ride where you shot water at the boats was really cool. I got into shooting kids while waitng for the ERT to start. The train ride was a little boring but nice to sit down. The train I was on was way overcrowded too, but it made it back to the station. Thunderhead was a great coaster, but not much straight track on it. Blazing Fury was cute. Tennessee Tornado was a pleasant surprise. The tour of Mystery Mine was really neat and a nice set up for riding. I got 3 rides total on it. Probably would have done more, but during ERT they made us go all the way down alllll the stairs and back up again if we wanted to re-ride and it was down most of the late afternoon. 9 Wild Eagle rides (7 in a row at ERT including 2 fronts and the last ride of the night). I second or third that they should have turned off the flash on the cameras since we were mostly re-riding anyway. Wild Eagle is a great coaster and Dolly should be proud. Thank you everyone at Dollywood for a great day. Thank you Coasterbuzz people and hope to see everyone at other events this year and beyond.

I'd like to thank Dollywood and Jeff for setting this event up.I really love the charm and hospitality of the park.We got some really good pictures of both MMR and Wild Eagle. All of the food on the buffet was really great,the ribs we're my favorite.Wild Eagle is really a awesome ride, way better than what I had heard about it.I can't wait for Holiwood nights and Coastermania.