Well I went to Dollywood for about 5 hours Saturday and all day today. I got a Q-Bot today, which really helped since the park was at least twice as crowded as Saturday (odd…) For only $10something it was a very good deal. IMO, The park looks like its on the road to being “thrill rider friendly” but they still have some work to do before it can reach that point. The park has some serious path issues, most of the paths are too small and need to be expanded. They also need to widen their entrance road. I noticed that food prices were fairly reasonable for a park, as were drink prices. The staff is awesome, one of the few parks where the employees appear to enjoy their job and are friendly. Dollywood is also very clean.


Mystery Mine: omg… Gerstlauer is taking after Vekoma... For as small as the ride is, it was quite a headbanger and jerky. There are even several places that you can see the car snap due to bad trackworking. The theming is alright, the actual building looks awesome, but inside it’s just alright (the best part in terms of theming is just before the final drop). The best part of the entire ride is the final drop. It’s also extremely short. I was quite disappointed in Mystery Mine, it wasn’t nearly worth $17 million. They should’ve gotten a B&M dive machine… 4/10

Tennessee Tornado: Not too bad for an Arrow custom looper. A bit jerky at the tops of the strangely shaped loops, but overall it is fairly smooth. The ride needs to be longer, but it’s alright for Dollywood. 6/10

Blazing Fury: uh.. neither Blazing nor Furious… An alright family coaster I guess, but it did nothing for me… 0/10

Thunderhead: OMG! Finally a ride that is awesome! Thunderhead is Dollywood’s only perfect ride IMO. It’s extremely well designed and gets great airtime. Remarkably smooth for a wooden coaster as well. I like how it was designed to feel as if it never loses any speed (with lower speeds the turns become tighter giving the illusion of never losing speed). The trains were very comfortable, unlike the normal wooden coaster trains. This is the only (at this time) wooden coaster that I absolutely love. 10/10

Smokey Mountain River Rampage: EXTREMELY tame for a river rapids ride. It has very few rapids and is mostly slow moving. I literally did not get wet at all, the others in the boat only got splashed a few times. 0/10

Mountain Slidewinder: this was a really cool ride. I thought it was great. 8/10

Timber Tower: Pretty decent ride. A couple more effects would’ve helped (maybe fire or some more water) but the ride itself was pretty fun. 7/10

Dizzy Disk: I was surprised by this. It really doesn’t look like much, but the actual ride is much better. I really liked it. 8/10

Sky Ride: Pretty nice calm ride. It gives a pretty good view but isn’t worth too much of a wait. 7/10

Here’s how I rate a park:
Quality of rides (up to 8 points): 4
Overall Staff (up to 1 point): 1
Park Operations (usual reliably, cleanliness, efficiency of staff, etc – up to 1 point): 1
Dollywood's Score: 6/10

Here’s how I rate an independent visit:
Number of rides running efficiently (up to 4 points): 3

Cleanliness (up to .75 point): .75
Staff (up to .25 point): .25
Dollywood's Score: 4/5

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Overall: DW is obviously geared towards a younger (0-8) and older crowd (50+), with a couple rides for the teen/younger adults mixed in. It’s not a bad park, but if you’re looking for thrill rides, don’t expect too much.

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Like you said, dollywood's target age group is kids and seniors, there-fore the rides will be tamer. River Rampage was build a long time ago when that was the wildest a rapid ride would be i guess...

^Yeah, it is old... Most of the river rapids rides I've ridden have been very tame. The only one that hasn't been was Hydro Surge at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion (RIP ).

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^lol...you need to go to Dollywood's Splash Country..

I forgot to add in my trip report that we found a little independent park with a mini Screamin' Swing, a Skyscraper and a bungee tower. I wasn't able to ride the bungee tower , but I was able to the other two. I loved the Screamin' Swing, even if it was just a mini one, I can't wait to ride Skyhawk at Cedar Point since its a much larger model. I also LOVED Skyscraper, it was one of the best pay-per-ride I've ridden, even if it was probably a smaller model. But, the Funtime Slingshots beat all!

an off-ride video my aunt made of me and my cousin on Skyscraper. I'm the one with my hands up and my cousin in the one periodically screaming.

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The video is great...you were probably the one screaming and don't want to admit it. Haha just kidding.

That ride looks really similar to a Fabbri Booster! I want to ride a booster so badly! Where exactly was this park in terms near Dollywood. I want to ride that Skyscraper!

Skyhawk is a pretty fun ride. The cycle of the ride is VERY short, which makes the ride disappointing. Unless the cycle got longer from last season. Last year the ride only reached the top point twice then slowed down rapidly. In terms of flats, maXair is so much more fun!

I don't see why the Rampage always gets such poor reviews. I get soaked everytime I go on it...must be luck or something. It may be small, but it is one of my favorite rapids rides - I'd actually place it above the bigger Intamin ones that some of the Six Flags parks have.

Coasterman, Those skyscrapers are really fun but expensive which is why I didnt do it when I went back in the beginning of May. They have like 2 or 3 of them right there in Pigeon Forge. How much was it this year? BTW we rode the one that had a big box for tips, so we left a 2$ tip and it seemed like we rode forever, so next time if you can, leave a tip, you'll definalty get a longer ride. lol Glad you had fun

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I agree. I rode it a couple years ago, and maybe I just got really lucky both times I rode it, but I really enjoyed it. It was actually at near the top if not at the top of my favorite rapids ride list.

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If you turn right on the main road (I forget the name of it, its the one thats always crowded with a ton of stuff) after leaving Dollywood Lane, its about a mile or so down. Its in a park called, I think, Smokey Mountain Speedpark. But if you miss it, as Coasterholic said, there's atleast two more down the road.

It was $30 for me and my cousin, which included a free ride. By the time I saw the tip box I had already given my wallet for my aunt to hold , but we still got a pretty long ride (the video doesn't include the 2nd free ride).

I've been on one other large Intamin river rapids (Thunder River at SFOG) and IMO it was extremely tame as well, I barely got wet at all on it. The only O.D. Hopkins river rapids I've ridden (Hydro-Surge at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion) easily beats all the Intamin ones I've ridden.

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Does this River Ramage have the smaller diameter boats or the larger ones?

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^Dollywood has smaller, 6 seater versions:



These (along with the ones at Silver Dollar City) were actually built in-house by Herschend Family Entertainment. Infact, a while back I read that O.D. Hopkins filed a lawsuit against the Herschends for patent violation when the ride opened in 1986.

I'm guessing the smaller ones, there were only 6 seats in each. They seemed smaller than most.

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I agree, it is by far better then the one at Six Flags St. Louis.

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