|
 
DOLLYWOOD & Splash Country
Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Herschend Family Entertainment
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(5/10/12) Dollywood would like to remind everyone that Dolly’s Splash County will open for the 2012 season starting May 19th. Dolly’s Splash Country has got to be (MORE...)
(4/25/12) While Dollywood has just opened their latest coaster, I’m hearing rumors that Dollywood management will be keeping a close eye on the new (MORE...)
(4/3/12) Our friends at The Resort at Governor’s Crossing have let us know about a special discount offer for Dollywood Season Passholders. Click here to find out all the details on how you can take advantage of the special offer.
(3/29/12) Screamscape sources report that Mystery Mine has since reopened (with all effects working) and has not shown any sign of stall problems (MORE...)
 General Park News - (5/10/12) Dollywood would like to remind everyone that Dolly’s Splash County will open for the 2012 season starting May 19th. Dolly’s Splash Country has got to be one of my favorite waterparks out there, with a great collection of slides and beautiful scenery. It’s not to be missed when your in the area on a hot day. Also worth mentioning is that this weekend is Dolly’s Homecoming at Dollywood. Dolly will be at the park on May 11 and May 12th where she will make several surprise appearances throughout the park on both days. Dolly will also be the grand marshal of the Dolly Parade at 6pm on Friday night on the Pigeon Forge Parkway.
(4/3/12) Our friends at The Resort at Governor’s Crossing have let us know about a special discount offer for Dollywood Season Passholders. Click here to find out all the details on how you can take advantage of the special offer.
(3/29/12) Screamscape sources report that Mystery Mine has since reopened (with all effects working) and has not shown any sign of stall problems since the weekend. Oh… and for anyone wondering the former site of the Timber Tower has now been transformed into a nice little picnic table pier where you can watch the nearby Mystery Mine and Thunderhead coasters.
(3/28/12) An interesting side note from the opening weekend of Dollywood. While the focus was really all on Wild Eagle, as it should be, one of the park’s other star attractions was suffering a little early-season jitters it seems. Passholder and Media Guests walking past Mystery Mine on their way to Wild Eagle on Friday were surprised to see something a little odd… one of the empty cars had somehow stalled out upsidedown on the final inversion before the brake run. This apparently took place before the park opened during morning test runs, and kept the ride closed for the remainder of the day. Mystery Mine was open for riders on Saturday morning for a time, until another car stalled out somewhere just beyond the first lift hill. From the reports I’ve heard, Mystery Mine remained shut down for the remainder of Saturday and on Sunday as well.
(3/2/12) Just in case anyone was wondering, SkyZip will reopen at Dollywood this season… and will now be owned and operated by Dollywood itself following what seems to be a private settlement the park had with the former attraction operator.
(2/9/12) Theme Park Tourist reports that Dollywood has reached a settlement with Huss over the defective Timber Tower ride, and that Pete Owens confirmed to them that Timber Tower, “is likely not to reopen.” Terms of the settlement are confidential, but do not include a requirement to restore the ride to a functional state. Such a shame it all came down to this, because when Timber Tower did work, it was quite incredible to watch all the various special effects Dollywood added come to life all around the themed environment.
2012 - Wild Eagle - (3/29/12) For those who can’t get enough of Wild Eagle, check out the latest video posted to YouTube by our friends at CoasterFusion which features on and off ride footage from the Media event.
(3/28/12) Rex & The Beast have posted their own video and trip report from the opening of Wild Eagle at Dollywood. Read the review and check out the video as well. Meanwhile you can also find a review posted to Coaster101 this week.
(3/26/12) Wild Eagle opened at Dollywood this past weekend and a great collection of pictures from the media event can be seen over at TPR. They also uploaded a great POV ride video which you can see below. As for the ride itself… so far the word has been very positive, so I’m looking forward to giving it a try myself this summer.
(3/22/12) The local news has posted a nice video showing off someone taking a test ride on Wild Eagle. Check it out.
(1/30/12) As when any major new coaster design opens, I know there are larger thrill seeking fans out there who always have to wonder if they will fit on the latest restraint system or not, which has led to a few e-mails sent in about Wild Eagle at Dollywood.
From what I’ve heard about the prototype (Raptor) that opened in Italy last year, there were some size issues with people not being able to ride, though not from the normal problem area, but instead due to a reported narrow spacing between the seat and restraint where it clamps down on the upper thighs.
I brought this issue to the attention of Pete Owens who reported back that, “the seats on the trains we received are larger than those on the original trains at Gardaland”. However, larger riders may want to keep in mind that currently B&M does not offer “Big Boy seats” (aka: double-belt seats) on their Wing train design. According to Pete, “These seats slope backward to lift the legs up higher and are a different configuration than any I had been on previously.”
(12/15/11) A reader sent in some great new pictur
es of Wild Eagle, sitting all pretty up on it’s mountain location. I can’t wait to try this one out.
(9/5/11) Dollywood has confirmed all the details about Wild Eagle, North America’s first B&M Wing Coaster that will open in March 2012 at the Dollywood2012.com website. Soaring at 61mph on this new coaster style, hanging on the edge on the wingtips of this giant eagle, you will soar over Dollywood on 3127 feet of track and through 4 inversions. The lift hill will climb 190 feet from the station up and over the hillside, peaking out at the top with a view 210 feet above the grade before dropping down 135 feet into a series of inversions and unique elements that will include a Giant Loop, Zero-G Roll, Incline Immelmann, Giant Flat Spin, Camel Back, a Spiral and something called the Eight Curve. Looks like a blast and a huge new addition to Dollywood that is sure to be a hit.
???? - The Next Coaster - Rumor - (4/25/12) While Dollywood has just opened their latest coaster, I’m hearing rumors that Dollywood management will be keeping a close eye on the new Rocky Mountain Coaster project going up at sister park, Silver Dollar City for 2013. Seems they have an idea of their own they would like to see RMC work on in a couple of years.
The Future - Resort Hotel - In Development - (4/5/10) Dollywood opened up this past week for their 2010 season with a special appearance by Dolly Parton. Dolly herself mentioned once again that in the future, when the economy recovers more, they are indeed planning on building “a couple of world class resorts.”
(5/15/09) While things are always subject to change, we’ve heard that Dollywood may make a decision about building a possible resort hotel before the end of the summer. You can read more about the possible resort project here.
(4/23/08) We’ve got another update about that Dollywood resort hotel survey. It seems they are asking questions about three different resort concepts called Chasing Rainbows, International and Southern Style. Unfortunately you need a valid e-mail address to take the actual survey having the link will get you no-where.
(4/22/08) While I don’t have a link, a reader tell us that Dollywood was taking another guest survey not long ago asking opinions about various lodging features and what people look for in choosing a hotel in the Pigeon Forge area. Sounds like they’re doing some research for that official Dollywood Resort project Dolly mentioned was in development.
(4/14/08) During the opening of River Battle, Dolly mentioned to the local news that she wants an on-site resort hotel to be added in the next two or three years. She said that they are working on it now, but not ready to announce anything yet.
???? - Future Concepts for Dollywood - (7/4/08) Dollywood has issued a new survey about possible future attraction concepts they are thinking of. The ideas mentioned in this survey include a new festival concept called the International Lantern Festival which would be Dollywood’s take on Chinese New Year Festival of Lanterns. Three new ride ideas were also thrown out there, including Barnstormer (S&S Screamin’ Swing themed in a giant barn with old fashioned barnstormer planes), Calamity Canyon (a Mondial Super Nova with themed disaster effects going off all around you) and Lost Treasure, an Interactive Sally Dark Ride experience through a dark mine ride. They all sound good to me… why not build all three?
(9/15/06) One month after the last guest survey about possible new attractions Dollywood launches a new one it seems that focuses more on three different thrill rides this time. Choice 1 sounds like the same highly themed Master Blaster style water-coaster ride/slide up and down hills through a scenic mountain setting that was in the last survey. Choice 2 was described as an “Alpine Mountain Coaster”, but Choice 3 is the one that may get people talking... a new Rock ‘n Roll themed wooden coaster in the 50’s area of the park.
(8/15/06) Dollywood is currently taking a survey pitching several different ideas under consideration for future attractions. The six ideas include: Henhouse Scramble (an comical interactive dark ride on the back of a tractor pulled cart through a henhouse), Smoky Mountain Wilderness Adventure: The Ride (kind of an aerial tramway over the rooftops and through the trees where you have to pedal to reach top speed), A unique highly themed Master Blaster style watercoaster slide up and down hills through a scenic mountain setting, an addition to Dolly’s Imagination Library where stories come to life in front of you, Dollywood’s Starmaker Studios (where kids are brought on stage to perform in front of a real TV studio full of cameras and production equipment), World Puppy Stadium (home to the Purina Puppy Challenge where dogs can show off their talents).
|
