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DOLLYWOOD & Splash Country
Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Herschend Family Entertainment
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(9/7/2026) Dollywood's Bald Eagles Find A New Permanent Home
(9/2/2026) Dollywood Announces Plans To Honor the Park's "Dreamer-In-Chief"
(8/29/2026) Announcement Coming Next Week Regarding Plans To Honor Dolly's Legacy
(8/27/2026) Dolly May Have Passed By Dollywood Will Go On Forever
(8/24/2026) So What's Next After NightFlight Expedition?
(8/16/2026) More Fun Facts about NightFlight Expedition
Dixie Stampede (2016) Review
FireChaser Express - Grand Opening & Review
Dolly’s Splash Country Waterpark - Official Screamscape Review
Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort - Official Screamscape Review
 General Park News - (9/7/2026) Dollywood has confirmed that the park will be saying goodbye to the park’s popular Eagle Mountain Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was damaged earlier this year which led to the escape of several eagles at the time. Now the Bald Eagles will be moved to a new permanent home at the American Eagle Foundation's 50-acre conservation campus in Kodak, TN located about 15 miles away from the park.
(9/2/2026) Dollywood announced a series of plans earlier today to honor the park's departed "Dreamer-In-Chief", Dolly Parton.
“Many of us had extensive conversations with Dolly through the years about how she would want us to carry her vision forward,” explained Eugene Naughton, Dollywood Parks & Resorts President. “Dollywood will always be a place where families find fun, kindness and joy—a place where they can make memories that last a lifetime, just like she would have wanted. We will carry her dreams forward by continuing to grow, welcoming even more guests, and sharing the warmth and hospitality of which she was so proud.”
Announced so far are plans to add new elements to the Robert F. Thomas Chapel inside the park, including a waterfall outside of the front steps, and new stained glass windows depicting the changing of the seasons of the mountains.
As a nod to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library a new character, the Dream Maker, will be added to Dollywood's Wildwood Grove in 2027. The Dream Maker will encourage guests to "dream big, believe in themselves and lift others up through courage and kindness." Look for the Dream Maker and her Dream Wagon to "give children an opportunity to share their own dreams, hear stories inspired by Dolly and discover that dreams can become even more meaningful when they are shared with others."
A new portal into The Dolly Parton Experience will welcome guests into the attraction's immersive collection of moments, stories and memorabilia. "The new entrance will provide a fitting gateway to the area dedicated to celebrating the life and work of Dollywood’s Dreamer-in-Chief."
Currently a memorial stands in Dollywood's welcome plaza "for those who wish to remember and celebrate Dolly. The memorial is a special place for all who would like to reflect on her life, honor her profound contributions and celebrate the joy she brought to so many people around the world."
(8/29/2026) Dollywood has confirmed that they will be making a special announcement on Wednesday, Sept. 2nd, regarding the park’s plans to honor Dolly’s remarkable legacy at the theme park and resort properties.
Stay tuned!
(8/27/2026) It’s been one heck of a week so far… both personally and professionally, but I would be remiss if I didn’t start out today’s update with our biggest story… and our saddest one. Just in case anyone has been living under a rock this week (or just outside of the country, and I expect most of you know as well) American music icon, Dolly Parton, was reported as passing away by her family on Tuesday, August 25th.
I know originally Dolly was supposed to be on hand, in person, at Dollywood, on August 14th for the media and VIP preview of the park’s new NightFlight Expedition attraction, but two days before the event the park sent word that Dolly was unable to make it, but would be sending a video message for us instead. During this message she did confide that she had been under the weather a bit and her Doctor “clipped her wings” and advised her not to make the trip from Nashville to Pigeon Forge.
As usual, even when a little under the weather, Dolly seemed like her normal good natured self in the video, so the news that she had passed on August 25th was extremely shocking to me. Over the years when visiting Dollywood for media functions, I had the pleasure to see Dolly in person many times. As a theme park fan, I can only imagine that maybe this might have been what anyone who was lucky enough to encounter Walt Disney walking the grounds of Disneyland might have felt like as well.
Dolly fell into the extremely rare category of someone who had their own self-named theme parks and for years we were lucky enough to see her influence did affect how the park grew and evolved over those years… even if she didn’t ride the roller coasters.
Dollywood, the park, will continue to exist and remain as a place of enjoyment for people of all ages, and I know this is just what she would have wanted. Fortunately, through either the efforts of her partners at Herschend or the personal opinions of Dolly herself, the park is in fantastic hands, and will continue to grow and evolve just as she would have envisioned, and it will continue to be a little piece of heaven on earth hidden right in the middle of the Tennessee Smoky Mountains. As the people at Dollywood have taught me over the years, Dollywood is all about “family”, and will continue to be a place where families can gather together to have a great day out together.
(8/9/2026) With NightFlight Expedition almost ready to open (watch for Screamscape coverage on social media this Friday), Dollywood is upping their Fall season game with a new resort special that includes park tickets.
They are offering two different NightFlight Expedition packages if you book a stay at a Dollywood Resort for stays between Aug. 21 and Oct. 31st. There is the NightFlight Expedition Experience package that includes a special NightFlight merchandise bundle and 2 one-day tickets to Dollywood, and there is the NightFlight Expedition VIP Experience that offers a special room decked out in NightFlight Expedition decor, the merchandise bundle, two Dollywood tickets, a VIP Tour of Dollywood for 2 and a Ride of Nightflight Expedition itself.
There is also another non NightFlight branded special that is 15% off per night during select fall dates, Sept. 14 through Oct. 31st, that also includes two free tickets to Dollywood.
(7/9/2026) Dollywood Parks & Resorts continues to earn remarkable accolades this summer with another announced this morning. TIME has named the Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, destination to its inaugural list of the top 500 privately held companies in the United States. Dollywood was the only theme park on the list.
According to TIME, “The America’s Best Private Companies 2026 ranking is a comprehensive analysis aimed at identifying the best private companies in the United States. The ranking focuses on two key dimensions: Employee Satisfaction and Company Impact. The analysis highlights 500 privately owned companies ranked high on both employee satisfaction surveys and positive net impact on society, global knowledge and health, and the environment.
Dollywood Parks & Resorts ranked #49 on the overall list and was ranked fourth in the category “Hospitality, Travel & Leisure,” a grouping which also included restaurants. Other companies in the Hospitality, Travel & Leisure category included, Great Clips (#38), P.F. Chang’s (#110), Chick-fil-A (#125), Drury Hotels (#183), Panda Express (#232) and In-N-Out Burger (#325).
“Being included among these esteemed companies on TIME’s inaugural Best Private Companies list is a truly humbling yet proud moment for us,” said Dollywood Parks & Resorts President, Eugene Naughton. “Every day, our aim is to make our guests feel like family. We deeply value their feedback and ideas, and we use those insights to guide our decisions. I believe that dedication is a big part of why we were honored with inclusion on this prestigious list.”
 2026 - NightFlight Expedition - (8/16/2026) I’ve made a couple of quick factoid corrections, based on the press release issued from Dollywood, about the new $60 million NightFlight Expedition, as my original report was based on my own thoughts or immediate memories from just getting off the actual ride and made a few guesses.
For example, by my best guess I said the experience was at least 4+ minutes in length, but Dollywood has now confirmed that a ride through the 44,000 sqft attraction actually takes nearly 5 and a half minutes. So I was close… LOL…
While I said this was a fantastic ride for the whole family, I forgot to report that the height requirement is only 39” as well, making this a perfect attraction that can accommodate most small children in your family groups. For comparison's sake… another very popular ride with families at the park is Blazing Fury, and you have to be 42 inches to that ride.
One other thing I noticed about the loading / unloading of the ride. While during main operations the ride vehicles are intended to continuously move through the station, for those who need extra time or assistance with getting in and out, I did notice that there was a separate stationary loading station in the last room you travel through before exiting the vehicle. So it does appear that guests who need this extra assistance will be able to load and unload at this alternate station, and then have their vehicle switched to load into the main track, and then return here for unloading when their ride is finished. This extra station is also equipped with an elevator to get up and down from the main queue floor below.
One other item… Dollywood has extended their hours from August 16 through to Sept. 13 from 9am to 8pm, just in time for everyone to come and experience NightFlight Expedition when it opens to the public on August 19th and the current Passholder Previews. Following this, look for the Harvest Festival to officially begin from Sept. 14 through October 31st, along with the premier of Harvey’s Boo Bash on Oct. 16, 23 and 30th, a special limited-capacity nighttime celebration from 9pm to Midnight.
(8/15/2026) I had the pleasure to be invited out to Dollywood yesterday to be one of the first riders on their new NightFlight Expedition attraction, the opening of which was delayed from their initial expectations of May 2026. If you’ve been following along on Screamscape about the progress on this unique attraction, then you also know that I wasn’t surprised by the delays due to the extreme complexity of this new attraction concept from Mack Rides that simply does things that we’ve never seen before.
For the record, this is the first Mack Rides “Rocking Boat” attraction in North America, and to date only one other exists in the entire world, which just opened one year ago at the Futuroscope park in France that served as the prototype. And yet… NightFlight Expedition was still able to push the envelope even further, adding new features that had not been done before, and unlike the Mission Bermudes attraction in France that was built entirely outdoors, Dollywood managed to pack their entire adventure into a huge indoor building and pack it full of special effects and storytelling technology to create a hidden world within the Smoky Mountains full of bioluminescence and the search for The Secret Lake.
For the record, we were only allowed to take pictures of the outside of the attraction and the themed indoor queue… which you are going to appreciate because it’s nice and air-conditioned inside. Once we got to the stairs all digital devices and cameras were taken and locked up in a pouch because Dollywood really wants to keep the experience you see inside a secret until you can get a chance to ride it. So that said… hopefully that will explain the photo slideshow you can see below and why you don’t see any pictures of the actual ride.
While keeping the overall experience still a secret… I will tell you that this attraction is not only a game-changer for Dollywood, but serves to elevate the entire park experience by creating an attraction on the level of something you would see at a Disney or Universal theme park. The technology of the ride system is just mind blowing at times, highlighted by the fact that it is able to effortlessly transition from being a dark ride to a roller coaster to a simulator to a flume ride and back again. The unique vehicle and track system created allows for the vehicles to rock and sway while on the water… while unseen below, you are still 100% connected to the steel track, which allows for the smoothness in which the vehicles are able to slip in and out of the water like a Sea Lion… they were simply designed, re-profiled and created by Mack Rides exactly for this purpose over years of development and it shows.
As for the NightFlight Expedition experience itself… to be brief and highlight mainly what is publicly known, you are invited to go on the quest for The Secret Lake by the main characters of the attraction’s story, Jasper and Cora, the niece and nephew of Ned Oakley from the Big Bear Mountain ride next door. Jasper has been hard at work creating a device called the Bioluminator which is mounted to your ride vehicle, and able to detect and amplify sources of natural bioluminescence (nature’s own bio-chemical way of allowing select organisms to have a natural way of glowing in the dark). They believe there is a link to the widespread numerous forms of bioluminescence found across the Smoky Mountains and a long rumored Secret Lake, and the secret link between them all might be found through Wildwood Grove’s own glowing Wildwood Tree.
So for a quick spoiler free ride breakdown… you move through the queue that takes up most of the first floor of the attraction building, and go upstairs right into the loading station. Here the cars are going to keep moving continuously through the station, unloading and loading at the same time. Note, there is no moving walkway moving in sync with the vehicle, and something that I think would help with any awkwardness of jumping in and out, so I’d bet money we may see something added here in the future. Also we noticed a nice little nod to the University of Tennessee Vols in the station with large prominent orange and white checkerboard banners on both sides of the station, sort of like the end zones in the football stadium. My son just graduated from UT in May, so he was quick to notice this, so Go Vols!
Your vehicle has a simple shaped lap bar system you just pull down and you are good to go, easy-peasy! The dark ride experience begins with a roll through the forest and eventually comes to a stop inside of a chamber for the flight simulator portion of the ride. Flying out across the Smoky Mountains, looking for signs of bioluminescent white lightning flashes in the sky, causing many of the tree roots below to begin to glow.
Jumping ahead you exit via a short coaster track section and the roar of water begins to fill your ears, you feel the air begin to get humid and the next thing you know you're dropping down into a fast moving river rapids sequence. This is an incredibly well done area, because there is a LOT of water moving through here, and the boat rocks and kicks as you might expect as you are swiftly swept down the raging river. According to Dollywood stats, there are about 500,000 gallons of water cycling through this river at any moment, out of a total of 1,000,000 gallons of water held within the totality of the attraction space and water tank behind the building. It’s a very impressive effect and a great fun ride moment that comes to an end when your vehicle just seamlessly hits the shore and climbs up and out of the water effortlessly and begins climbing up a hillside into the forest.
There are a few more secret little things that happen between here and the end, but obviously the finale is you finally splash-back down into the waters of the hidden Secret Lake. Now, I didn’t time the whole ride, but if I had to guess, it felt like the experience took about 4 minutes or so, give or take, so it’s a good length ride experience, and not too thrilling for anyone. So this is a perfect multi-generational ride experience good for the kids, the teens, the parents and grandparents, all of which can ride together in the 10-passenger vehicles.
I will tell you that if you ride NightFlight Expedition now, there are some scenes and effects currently missing, and some that may only work sporadically, because they are very much still in the process of adding and improving the attraction. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ride by any means… the experience is fantastic right now and will only improve over the next 6 months as new things are added and new ride programming brought in to reflect these new changes that will bring along even a few more surprises along the way, both visually and in terms of the movement of the ride vehicle.
(8/1/2026) Dollywood has released another chapter in the creation of NightFlight Expedition this week on their YouTube channel, which also gives us a look at the ride vehicles sitting in the station, all ready to go! They also give details about an important piece of equipment on the ride vehicles called the BioLuminator, designed to detect a specific source of bioluminescence light only found within Wildwood Grove that can help you locate “Secret Lake”.
(9/17/2025) Dollywood revealed that their big $50 million attraction coming in 2026 will be called NightFlight Expedition. “The first attraction experience of its kind in the world, NightFlight Expedition combines four unique features into one groundbreaking thrill ride sure to delight guests of all ages. During the 5 1/2-minute experience, guests soar on a nighttime flight over the scenic Smokies, enjoy a thrilling whitewater rafting excursion through more than 500,000 gallons of surging water, traverse a mountain ridge on a roller coaster, and navigate a mysterious shimmering lake by boat.”
NightFlight Expedition will be the largest attraction investment in the park’s history as Herschend Creative Studios works with Mack Rides to bring this new ‘custom-designed amphibious ride vehicle” to life. The attraction will feature “vivid multimedia projections, dynamic onboard and offboard audio, as well as special lighting effects, to immerse guests in an extraordinary Smoky Mountain adventure.”
The ride system itself will be North America’s first Mack Rides “Rocking Boat” attraction, following the successful launch the first version at France’s Futuroscope park as Mission Bermudes just a couple of months ago, which shows off of all the interesting things that this new ride system can accomplish. It’s also worth mentioning Mack Rides was just awarded a Golden Ticket Award for Best New Innovation for the opening of this new ride system concept at Futuroscope. Dollywood has also confirmed that NightFlight Expedition will be family friendly, featuring only a 39” height requirement to ride, with the adventure set within a 44,000 sqft temperature controlled structure, which means it can run at all times, no matter the weather conditions outside.
“Guests set out on their expedition to find Secret Lake with the help of twin scientists, Cora and Jasper Oakley, who just happen to be the niece and nephew of Wildwood Grove’s resident wilderness explorer, Ned Oakley. The twins, who work out of a hangar at Hidden Hollow Aviation, have invented the Bioluminator, a device designed to detect and amplify bioluminescence, the biochemical emission of light by living organisms. Cora and Jasper mount the device onto their family’s one-of-a-kind amphibious aircraft to illuminate the Wildwood Tree’s glowing roots and follow them to Secret Lake.”
???? - Future Resort & Attraction Survey - (7/23/2023) Dollywood has been sending out guest surveys online again and thanks to a few readers we’ve got the gist of what they are asking about. While much of the survey is about vacation planning and what other parks, attractions or destination types you might be interested in, the end of the survey drops a few hints about some concepts for Dollywood they may be thinking of.
Keep in mind that Dollywood has conducted a lot of surveys over the years, many of which I’ve personally seen with my own eyes. Unfortunately, a lot of what I’ve seen pitched in surveys has never leapt off the page into the real world, so we’ll have to take some of these with a grain of salt where needed.
On the resort side of things, a couple of ideas were mentioned that fall right in line with projects we first reported on back in 2021 and 2022, starting off with the “Songteller Resort” being mentioned by name as a possible upcoming resort property after they finish the Heartsong Resort. Back in 2022 when some future resort master planning for Dollywood leaked out, we also discovered that they had also chosen to trademark the Songteller Resort name not long after filing the trademark paperwork for the HeartSong resort name. The survey described the Songteller Resort as being themed around various aspects of Dolly’s creativity. Another section mentions a proposed “Locust Ridge Outdoor Resort” that will offer Glamping, small cabins, tent camping and even RV hookups. Back in 2021, the masterplan resort plan that leaked did have areas labeled as “Outdoor Resort”, “Glamping’ and “Cabins”.
On the attraction side, the survey seems to expand upon what we may see coming to the park in 2024 as part of the previously announced “Dolly Parton Experience”. The survey describes a new experience that will allow guest to experience Dolly’s music in a “360-degree, multi-sensory format” that would involve elements to treat guest’s ears, eyes and even their nose.
Elsewhere it hints that Wildwood Grove isn’t finished yet, as another ‘new coaster’ will invite guests to “explore the greater mysteries of this hidden land, no matter the weather.” That last bit seems to indicate that Dollywood could be planning some kind of new indoor roller coaster experience.
Finally, they also mention upcoming possible improvements to Dollywood Splash Country that will see more waterslides added to the water park, a new kid’s pool area, an activity pool and a bigger and better wave-pool, aligned with improvements and updates to many of the park’s other non-water based amenities. This part was all very vague, but is probably more indicative of a multi-year improvement plan being established to keep the already awesome Splash Country waterpark at the top of their game.
Oh… one final thing was mentioned, and this one took me by surprise. The survey was trying to gauge interest in the building a new smaller scale theme park. This would be a separate gate and require separate admission to get in, but they called it the “Imagination Library Theme Park”. The idea is to borrow ideas and themes from various children’s books to use as theming for rides, shows and attractions. While this all sounds great as a theme for a possible new kiddie-land they could just add on to Dollywood itself, I’m going to chalk this up to what I’m calling “The Peppa Pig Effect”. This is in reference to where Legoland Florida opened a mini Peppa Pig themed park right next door, targeting the park’s smallest guests, that only offers about half a dozen attractions. It worked at Legoland Florida so far, and now their parent company is seeking to build a stand-alone successor park in Texas to see how well the concept will hold up. With all this in mind, while the survey about the Imagination Library Theme Park concept does pitch the concept as something new for Dollywood guests to consider, this doesn’t mean that they might not be considering the concept for other locations outside of the Pigeon Forge area. For example, I could see this concept doing well in the Nashville area which currently has no theme park of its own, and would likely embrace this idea.
 2029/2030 - Next New Projects - (8/24/2026) So with NightFlight Expedition now open to the public (and be patient, this ride is far more complex than anything Dollywood has ever built before, so break-downs and bouts of extended downtime are bound to happen) you may be wondering what is next for Dollywood.
Park President, Eugene Naughton mentioned that they’re already deep into the designs for new projects coming in 2029 and 2030. To be honest, I don’t know if this means projects in the works for the overall Dollywood Resort like a new hotel or an expansion of the waterpark, or if these days were mentioned as major new attractions planned for the theme park itself.
Of a mixture of them all…
So stay tuned, and as always keep your eyes open when visiting, but the hard part is that Dollywood has spent several years building and expanding Wildwood Grove, with NightFlight Expedition now seeming to be the final phase of this new land, so I guess the real question is, where will the next project go?
???? - Dollywood Future Resorts Plan - In Development -
(6/19/21) Last week we mentioned that Dollywood briefly mentioned they had plans for several more resorts down the line, and today we’ve learned a bit more. Prior to the announcement a Screamscape source reported in that they had seen a graphic map showing off a future resort plan that would include camping and possible RV park opportunities, but the announcement of Dollywood’s HeartSong Lodge was for a more traditional style resort.
Jump ahead to this week and a picture was sent my way of a new Master Plan resort layout for Dollywood that will feature five planned resorts and an area marked as “Outdoor Resort” which I’m assuming may be for RVs. I took a part of the masterplan drawing and overlaid it on top of a Google Map aerial image of the area, with Dollywood’s Splash Country in the lower left and the existing DreamMore resort just above it, half blocked from view behind a gentleman’s arm.
There are a number of interesting items we can make out from the rest of the map, including the location of the announced HeartSong Lodge labeled as “Resort 2”. The gentleman’s finger is pointing at an unknown Resort 3 concept that appears to include a horse-shoe shaped resort building. Resort 4 however is very different and shows a main building surrounded by numerous large buildings placed along a winding circular road. Before you suggest those could be cabins, I’d say no as there are already two other new roads listed on the map labeled as “Cabins” and those buildings are much smaller. With that in mind, the larger structures scattered around Resort 4 may be more the size of Houses or perhaps some kind of luxury style home resorts. Along the right side of the image is REsort 5, which once again looks like a more typical resort building, but a little smaller than the building drawn up for the HeartSong Lodge. Along the top edge of their property is a purple area outlined and simply labeled as Outdoor Resort, which could be for a possible RV or camping park. Speaking of camping however, not far from one of the groups of new Cabins is another street marked off for “Glamping”, with a cluster of about 22-24 of the luxury-oridentel camping structures. A second similar sized Glamping area can also be see between Resort 4 & 5.
Between Resort 4 and 5 is an interesting green space with a yellow star labeled as “ICON HUB EAST”. I’m not quite sure what is intended to go here, but it is worth noting that two pathways depart from here, one represented by a series of yellow dots listed as a Vehicular Tour Trail that runs around the southern side of the resort property, and a similar trail marked by green dots that mostly runs around the northern side of the resort property. I can only assume these will be used as off-road pathways for the local Pink Jeep Tours attraction.
It’s also fun to note that just south of Resort 2 (HeartSong) they also show plans to build a road labeled as “Park Connection” that will run back the Resort 2 parking lot and down the hill and into the Dollywood’s Splash Country parking lot. This is important as currently the DreamMore runs shuttle busses of guests from the hotel to the theme park and back, but has to travel on public roads to do so. Providing this new private access road will allow these same resort trams to travel directly from the resorts into the Splash Country parking lot, which is then connected by an underpass to the main Dollywood parking lot, moving all internal resort traffic off public roads entirely.
(5/16/21) According to a Screamscape source, Dollywood may be working on new plans for their next resort. From the sound of things, this is not the anticipated big-hotel sequel to the popular DreamMore Resort we were expecting them to announce in March 2020 before the pandemic shut down most of the world for a time. Instead our source tells us that the park may be planning a different kind of resort expansion first that will come in the form of an official Dollywood RV Resort. From what I’m told they may be taking some inspiration from Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort campground at Walt Disney World for this one, so expect it to feature some themed smoky mountain themed amenities.
I am curious about the location of this, if it comes to pass, and if Dollywood is building this from scratch or if there was an opportunity to purchase an existing campground nearby and upgrade it with new theming and amenities.
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