Two days at Dollywood...

Dollywood has always been a must-visit park for me for the last 10 years or so. When a good friend of mine found out about this, he bought me a season ticket (cheaper than a two-day pass) that came with two bring-a-friend passes and a parking voucher. Armed with that, my partner and I made the 6-hour drive down to Pigeon Forge after work to get the Dollywood experience.

Overall, Dollywood is a beautiful park. My home parks are Cedar Point and Kings Island, which are beautiful in their own right. But Dollywood being situated in the Smoky Mountains and paying extreme attention to details around the park…I had just never experienced anything like it. The staff is extremely nice and helpful and the food was top notch. Our first day was the first day of the fall festival and the park really came together to offer and unique experience. We will likely head down there once a year because we had so much fun.

Oh, we did consider buying the Time Saver passes to skip the lines, but decided to wait until we got a good idea of wait times. My god, I am glad we didn’t do that. Despite it being the first day of their autumn celebration, crowds were pretty tame. The longest we waited for a ride was about 40 minutes.

Alrighty, let’s get to the coasters.

Day 1:

• Lightning Rod x2 (20 min | walk on): Throughout the trip, I was surprised at how little we waited for Lightning Rod despite it being the marquee attraction for the park. The longest we waited was about 30 minutes and 99% of that wait was due to the ride breaking down. My buds back at home speculate its because Dollywood is more of a family park. But their loss! While I loved Lightning Rod, it does seem as though the launch has been tamed quite a bit. Early POVs of the ride make it look like you were absolutely launched over the first hill, but on all of our rides, the train barely crawled over it. Maverick at Cedar Point exerted more force after its launched lift than Lightning Rod. While still fun, it felt more like a way to get the train up the lift faster rather than its intended purpose. Even still, Lightning Rod is such a fun ride. It’s smooth, maintains its speed throughout, and you absolutely leave wanting more (no seriously, I wish it were slightly longer). Ride ops were great about getting the trains dispatched and somehow the park didn’t fall into the sea by letting guests fasten their seatbelts and lower their own lap bars (yes, this is a dig at Steel Vengeance). Because of the launch being tamed a bit, I’d recommend riding in the front instead of the back, if you can snag it. The coaster absolutely benefits from you being thrown into elements instead of being pulled into them.
• Tennessee Tornado 2x (walk on): Being a child of Arrow Dynamics, Tennessee Tornado and X2 are both bucket list coasters for me. Tennessee Tornado displayed what Arrow could become, but instead was one of the last gasps of the company. And honestly, that’s sad because the coaster is so damn good. It doesn’t suffer the bumpiness or awkward transitions that Arrows have become infamous for. The elements are big, modern, and fun. This was another coaster that was too short, but given that this was to be a new era of Arrow Dynamics, I understand them wanting to take a cautious step. I wish we could have seen more of this.
  Wild Eagle x2 (10 min | walk on): B&M wing coasters are not my favorite. They are enjoyable enough, but I never find insanely exciting because of how broad their elements have to be given the car/train design. Wild Eagle was fun. The view of the park is spectacular for the small bit of time you’re on the lift. And I have to say going through those elements on top of a hill is a lot of fun. But Wild Eagle lacks the near-miss elements that make other wing coasters slightly more exciting. Still, it was fun.
• Blazing Fury (walk on): I do love an old fashion dark ride, so I loved Blazing Fury. I didn’t know what to expect out of it, but what I got were old school animatronics with 2 surprising elements along the way. This is definitely a coaster you should ride in the back because you don’t see those surprises coming and they give a bit of force to the ride. It’s a family coaster, but I absolutely loved it.
• Mystery Mine (walk on): It’s a mystery! Another really well themed ride with a lot of surprises if you don’t watch the POV. It’s a bit like VelociCoaster where you think the first half is a pretty exciting ride and then you hit the second half…and it’s just insanity. Beautifully themed and super thrilling. I wish I could have ridden it at night because I think that’s when the ride really shines. Oh, I did find far more head-banging in the front seat than the back, which is weird because it’s just one car. Still, it was uncomfortable!
• Thunderhead x2 (walk on): I loved this thing. I think I loved it more than Lightning Rod. I didn’t grow up with good woodies (thanks Mean Streak…) so in my adult life, I’m trying to ride as many as possible. Thunderhead doesn’t have the smoothness of an RMC and that’s exactly what I love about it. It’s a woodie through and through. Fast, forceful, and exhilarating. Going through the structure so many times was exciting. And while it tossed you around, I never felt like I needed to brace myself entering into a new element. We ended up riding it twice in a row, but it did give my partner a bit of a headache the second time around. GCI absolutely nailed it with this coaster and it makes me wish Cedar Point would get one of their woodies.
• Drop Line (walk on): This was my partner’s pick. I don’t like drop towers all that much because I don’t like being surprised by a drop. But he was excited about it so we rode. It’s your basic drop tower. It was fun and gave a good view of the park.
• FireChaser Express (40 min): This was the longest wait we experienced over the two days we hung out at Dollywood. It was a lot of fun. The first launch doesn’t seem like much, but it’s more forceful than you expect. The backwards launch was equally a lot of fun. Theming was on point. The ride it self seemed to be pretty low capacity, so that explains the longer wait times. Still, would recommend at least one go at it.

Day 2:

• Lightning Rod 3x (walk on)
• Blazing Fury (station wait)
• Tennessee Tornado (walk on)
• Mystery Mine (20 min)
• Wild Eagle (10 min)

Other notes: Get the cinnamon bread because HOLY ****!

Did you go through Wildwood Grove? It’s a nice area that debuted in 2019. It features a great Vekoma family suspended coaster that packs a bit of a punch and is so much fun. The entire themed area is super cute and is filled with flats the entire family should enjoy. It’s also the site of the new launch coaster set to debut in ‘23.
And I could name a lot of things that I don’t see on your list, reasons to go back. The train, Dolly’s museum, Barnstormer, and excellent water rides and flats.
I’ll agree it’s an excellent park, and Lighting Rod is one of the most thrilling rides I’ve taken.
I hope someday you can get to Silver Dollar City, it’s the OG. It’s even more beautiful and is fun to compare to Dollywood.

One of my bucket list parks for sure. Thanks for the report!

I was hoping to ride Dragonflier, but it was closed every time we approached it on both days. But we did go into the area to get churros and to look around a bit. But we do plan to return next year for a slightly longer trip focusing on more than just coasters. Although Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg was pretty much set up for tourism, some of the touristy things seem like a lot of fun. I got to go zip lining for the first time, which was exciting.

I cannot wait to visit Silver Dollar City. It's a 10 hour drive from Columbus though. I think it would need to be part of a larger trip to visit a few parks, but I know I could string a few parks together.

Nice TR and your observations of Dollywood's rides pretty much align with mine. I LOVE Thunderhead. It seems like it keeps getting faster as it goes and by the time the train hits the brakes, I thought to myself "what just happened?" Along with Mystic Timbers and Renegade at VF, GCI knows how to make an incredible wood coaster!

If you do return to the area, make sure to try out Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride in Pigeon Forge and Earthquake The Ride in Gatlinburg. Both are overpriced, ridiculously cheesy, and have horrendous TripAdvisor reviews, but they are both just so much fun you'll be laughing long after you have exited. Well, at least I did. Some people don't appreciate the "campiness" of roadside attractions as much as I do... but seriously, they are good silly fun!

I love campy rides. I think it’s why I enjoy the old dark rides so much. When I went to Universal, we saw that The Fast & The Furious ride got super low scores so we rode it. Absolutely loved how cheesy it was. We rode it multiple times. I’ll definitely take you up on the recommendation!

Jephry:

given that this was to be a new era of Arrow Dynamics, I understand them wanting to take a cautious step

Love Tennessee Tornado, and having ridden it first in 2002 and then again this year, it doesn't show its age. It's still a fantastic coaster. However, and this is purely speculation, but I doubt Arrow was taking cautious steps but rather catering to what Dollywood wanted and could afford at the time. This was their first big coaster, and I'd bet a lot of the cost that might have bought a longer layout went to tunneling out the mountain for that first drop.

The shining stars of this park are Lightning Rod, Mystery Mine, Thunderhead and Tennessee Tornado. Wild Eagle looks great, but was didn't really wow me...which is odd considering it's my only wing coaster to date. I'll throw in an honorable mention to Blazing Fury, which is just fun and unique.