If you are counting, Dollywood is the third park on the Midstates Tour. It was also the first new park on the trip for me. From everything I had read previously, Dollywood is a fantastic park, with great food, outstanding service, and quality coasters. Judging by what others said, I was in for a very enjoyable trip.

We got to the park right around 12ish, because an accident had slowed us down by a few hours on our way there. Getting to Dollywood is an adventure in itself. All of the roads in cling to mountainsides, and then you come into Pigeon Forge. The area is one giant tourist trap with more go karts then I have ever seen before. It looks like they have lots of shows and other things in the area to keep you busy for weeks. After all of the fanfare we were finally at the entrance to Dollywood.

Dollywood has, what looks to be, the largest parking lot on earth. All of the different areas in the lot are pretty narrow, stretching 4 rows or so thick, but they are incredibly long. Because they are thin and long, the lot is not as big as it appears to be. The lot was completely full when we got there, but the lines in the park were 10 minutes at most. Dollywood is really a family park, and the kids area was packed.

We got into the park without much trouble and decided to head to Thunderhead first. Thunderhead is a GCI twister (as if they built anything else) that opened in 2004. When I say twister, I mean twister. There are three areas of straight track on the entire ride; the station, lift hill, and brake run. The entire ride part of the coaster is moving and twisting the entire time. It also features the first ever station “fly through,” where the train passes overhead the loading area at about 40 m.p.h. This ride is considered on of the best wooden coasters out there and I couldn’t agree more.

After a superb ride on Thunderhead we strolled up the pathway and went to the menacing looking Mystery Mine. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this ride. You can see the heartline roll into the roll over, but other then that, there isn’t much of the ride you can see. Without giving the surprises of the ride away, this is an incredible coaster. While it is small, it delivers in every way. A funny note on the ride, on the warning sticker found in the trains, it says, “no tobacco or assistance animals.” Then under it there is the typical red circle with the cross though it that had a not so typical cigarette, cane and umbrella, and the outline of a dog. Very strange, but provided me with minutes of entertainment. Out of all of the coasters I was on for this summer, this was the biggest surprise and my favorite new ride for the year. I can’t say enough about this ride.

We then went to the other side of the park and decided that lunch would be a good idea. The smell of homemade potato chips was too much to resist. What I found very cool when we were eating was that once someone was done eating at their table, there was an employee there cleaning it off. I’ve never seen that happen at a park before. It was a nice little touch that adds a great deal to the park experience.

After lunch and an immediately clean table, we strolled up to Tennessee Tornado, one of Arrows last coasters. You can’t see much of this ride either because it is buried into a hillside and trees. This is the smoothest Arrows I’ve ever been on. Everything from the drop, to the large loops was perfect. If Arrow had continued making coasters like this, they would still be in business. I enjoyed this coaster quite a bit and re-rode it several times.

The final coaster of the day was Blazing Fury, which is an indoor roller coaster and water ride. According to RCDB, “The Blazing Fury has a long electrically powered incline through several different scenes. This is then followed by a series of three drops with powered sections in between. While the powered sections are typical of a powered roller coaster and/or dark ride, it is three drops that allow this ride to be considered a roller coaster. The Blazing Fury was designed and built by the park’s maintenance and construction crew.” This ride also has a few surprises that I will not spoil.

Dollywood also has a kiddie coaster called VeggieTales Sideshow Spin, which I did not get a chance to ride. But I heard it was fun but nothing out of the ordinary. One of the last things we did at the park was catch the magic show next to the train station. The gentleman performing was entertaining and comical. The train came into the station just after the show ended and filled the entire area with a burning coal smell. Dollywood operates a real steam engine, which is a really impressive piece of equipment to see in action.

Dollywood is a great park with something for everyone. There are some great rides for all ages, and shows for those who don’t care for the rides. The food is outstanding and the employees are some of the best out there. I highly suggest going to Dollywood and I can’t wait till I get to go there again as well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 9:32 am and is filed under Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.