Dollywood

Visited: June 23, 2017

Attending: Brian, Carole, and Alex

Dollywood was a park I added to our trip as an indulgence to me. Of course, we ended up taking an unexpected detour to Memphis, which makes Dollywood look more reasonable, but it was still pretty much my idea. I wanted to ride Lightning Rod and Wild Eagle, and didn’t have much thought for the rest of the coasters. Fortunately, Carole and Alex put up with my desire even though they were kind of tired of coasters by that point.

The odds were against me from before the trip, with respect to this park. Lightning Rod was closed for repairs for most of May, but then was open for two weeks in June, so I thought it would be worth going. Unfortunately, a tropical storm came through the area while we were on vacation, so large chunks of our driving time were done in the rain. Even on the day we were in Pigeon Forge, rain was expected in the afternoon, but we thought we’d have a few clear hours right after opening. We didn’t even buy our tickets until we were nearly at the park. However, the day was sunny and hot, much more than anybody expected. And when we got inside, Lightning Rod wasn’t running. More on that later.

The park itself is heavily themed, mostly to the Smoky Mountains, which means lots of stuff about mining and blacksmithing...and fire-fighting, for some reason. There are tons of craftsmen, to the point where sometimes you wonder where the rides are. The 50’s section by Lightning Rod is also heavily themed, even though it only has the one ride. The themes extend to the ride queues, almost on a Disney level. However, if you’re not fond of the theme, it can be disconcerting. It’s also heavily wooded, so usually you can’t see the rides from anywhere else in the park other than right in front of them. There was much less country music than I expected, which was a relief.

Wild Eagle

After failing to ride Lightning Rod, Wild Eagle was my highest priority. It’s the first B&M wing coaster in the U.S., and for a while, it was the only one. Apparently, though, it’s not a very good example of the species. The signs out front required emptying everything from our pockets, even things you’re usually allowed to keep, like wallets and keys. I’d heard of such restrictions on the most extreme rides at Great Adventure, so we dutifully bought a locker and put everything in it. We learned later that Dollywood is pretty extreme with their safety precautions, because it wasn’t even close to necessary to get the locker.

The ride itself looks great, in a big wooden lodge, and the train with its eagle decorations looks awesome, even given that B&M coasters usually look impressive. The ride itself was just “pretty good,” though. We all rode from the left side of the train first, and then re-rode from the right. The initial drop is pretty good, although it doesn’t feel 200 feet tall because of the mountain it’s built on. There’s a couple of banked turns that feel pretty slow, and produce an interesting sensation if you’re out on the wing. There’s some head-chopper moments as the ride dodges its own supports, but there’s no keyhole element that most wing coasters have now, and no corkscrew, so that was disappointing. It also doesn’t seem particularly fast, especially after the hypers we’d ridden. On the whole, it was fun, but not amazing. I thought about riding again from the front or the back, but we were just getting started, so I left it alone.

Firechaser Express

This ride is a fairly odd custom Gerstlauer with a strong fire-fighting theme. It has a launch, and some fun elements, then it stops in a shed supposedly full of fireworks, there’s some flame elements, and the train launches backwards onto a different section of the track, and back to the station. It’s certainly unique, and we all liked it, even though Carole has no fondness for coasters that go backwards. Special mention goes to the little girl who rode with Carole, who was utterly fearless and had her hands up the entire ride.

Tennessee Tornado

Since we were at the back of the park now, we decided to head back down to the 50’s area and get some food. On the way, we passed this, so we stopped and rode it. This is one of the oldest coasters in the park, probably the first real thrill ride here. It was also one of the last Arrow loopers made, in 1999. We’d ridden an Arrow looper at Carowinds, so we thought we knew what we were getting here, but it’s quite a different ride. It’s almost entirely hidden by the trees, so it’s not until the lift hill that you can see the giant vertical loops -- the first one is 110 feet tall. There’s also a tunnel during the first drop that you can’t see until it happens, so that’s a surprise. It’s not as smooth as a modern coaster, and a little on the short side, but very impressive for an Arrow.

Blazing Fury

After lunch, still disappointed that Lightning Rod wasn’t open, I set out to knock off the rest of the credits. Carole and I headed for this one first, but Alex passed, because he doesn’t like dark rides. And this is mostly a dark ride. It’s the oldest ride in the park, almost entirely underground, and the “coaster” portion doesn’t happen until nearly two-thirds of the ride time. I can barely justify calling it a credit. However, it does have a section of drops that’s mildly scary in the dark. Definitely a “rode it for the credit” ride, and there was far too much line for what we got.

Mystery Mine

Continuing my quest to get the available credits, I did this one next. It has substantial indoor portions we couldn’t see, so Carole and Alex passed, which I think was the right call. It’s like this is the ride that Blazing Fury really wanted to be. It’s half dark ride, half Eurofighter. It’s got two vertical lift hills, both inside, one with video screens and effects. The first half isn’t too exciting, but the second half has the vertical drop, and a section of track where you’re just upside-down for several seconds. It’s like nothing I’ve ridden before. Unfortunately, the ride operations are such that you spend several minutes waiting to unload, which isn’t much fun.

Thunderhead

Thunderhead is located in the corner of the park, and compared to everything else here, it’s pretty normal. It’s a nice wooden, twisting, Great Coasters production, of which I’d already ridden several on this trip. Amusingly, there was so little line that I was the only rider on my train. The ride attendants had a good bit of fun with that. It’s a strange sensation to ride a coaster completely by yourself. The ride experience was pretty good, a little rough, but about what you’d expect from a GCI.

Lightning Rod

By this point, it was around 2:15, and Lightning Rod still wasn’t open. There was still plenty of time in the day, but given that nobody else was really enjoying the park, I decided to assume it wasn’t going to open, and we left. We got hand-stamps, just in case, but I figured that was really it for the day. We went to visit Goats on the Roof, because it’s funny, and then to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a pin. It was around 3:45 at this point, and we were about to leave town, but I looked at the Dollywood app one more time and saw that the ride was indeed open. I was going to give up anyway, but Carole thought we should go back. I didn’t think they’d allow us to park again without paying, but they did, and with our hand-stamps from earlier, we were able to re-enter the park. I went straight to Lightning Rod and got in a one-hour line (after using a locker, which was still good from earlier in the day); the others bummed around.

The queue for Lightning Rod is quite thematic, and indoors, although not air-conditioned. It does have several vantage points that allow you to see the launch and the end of the ride. I heard that the launch had been slowed down after the difficulties it had in May, and compared to the launch for Kingda Ka, it didn’t look terribly fast. I was wrong about that. The train had the same kinds of restraints as the Ride of Steel at America, which seem to fold up around your knees. They’re not my favorite, but this version had some nice grab-handles at knee level, which I appreciated. The ride is quite awesome, mostly very smooth, and very fast. It has several 90-degree banked turns, and you can definitely feel the pull of gravity as you go through them. The airtime hills, especially the quadruple-down, are excellent. I wish I’d had time to do it more than once, as I’d like to have tried different spots in the train, or throwing my hands up. I’m really glad I was able to get that ride in.