Pleasantly Surprised with Dollywood

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After spending a week at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, my family and I stopped for a few hours yesterday at Dollywood on our way back home to Indiana.

Needless to say, we were very impressed and pleasantly surprised with the park. We weren’t really expecting much.

IMO, Thunderhead is a top five coaster, but not as good as the Voyage. We got four rides in on Thunderhead. A big plus was the padded seats (maybe Kings Island should get some for their woodies). Also the curved drop provided some great airtime in the back.

Tennessee Tornado surprised me, it was very smooth for an Arrow and the drop into the tunnel gave some great airtime. We rode TT three times in about 30 minutes.

One complaint, however, is that the Mystery Mine was down when we got there around 4, and stayed closed the rest of the night. That’s ok, I completely understand that new rides can have some problems. What’s not ok, is that around 7 pm the ride started running with people on it. At the time, we were standing in line for Thunderhead. After we got off Thunderhead, we went over to Mystery Mine only for the lady sitting there to tell us that it would be closed for the rest of the night, and that the only people riding were workers. There were a ton of people standing at the entrance, I don’t know why they couldn’t open the ride for the last hour. IMO, that’s not cool to run the ride with people on it if you’re not going to open it to the public. Just keep it closed.

Aside from that, Dollywood was awesome, and we’ll definitely be going back sometime. Great food, great shows, great coasters, and a good family atmosphere. I know it’s out in the middle of nowhere, but if you’re in the vicinity, you should stop by. :)

I wouldn't really call Pigeon Forge the middle of nowhere.

^Na, it's just a nice little drive from the main insterstate. :)

Glad you had a great time! DW surprises me everytime I go there.

I always refuse to compare Voyage to Thunderhead as they are TWO totally different experiences. Both ROCK out, though!

-Tina

*** Edited 6/24/2007 11:19:17 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

^ Yeah, now that I think about it, I don't think Thunderhead has one straight piece of track, other than the station fly-by.

^^ And for us, it was in the middle of nowhwere. Mapquest gave us really crappy directions that had us going through back country roads. For a while, it felt like we were starring in Deliverance :) *** Edited 6/25/2007 1:13:15 AM UTC by baller24***

"You sure do have a perdy mouth."

Sorry...

I got to get there sometime soon. I relocated to WV and DW is not so far away now.

I LOVED Thunderhead! (GCI's are my favorite though) Now I see why it was voted the #1 wood coaster!

I thought the Tennessee Tornado was definitely the best Arrow that I have ever ridden! The thing is crazy smooth for an Arrow.

I was a bit disappointed with Mystery Mine. I thought besides the the 2 drops and the heartline roll, that the ride was pretty slow and boring, but I loved the theming. Overall I think it's still a pretty fun ride though. We ended up riding it like 12 times the day we went.

Overall, I was pleased with Dollywood, as well as Pigeon Forge. It seemed like a mini Las Vegas or something.

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