Dollywood Discussion Thread

While heavy crowds can be an annoyance, it is great to see that Luminights has increased the attendance numbers that seemed to be lagging earlier in the season! The high crowd levels will hopefully lead to even more unique festivals...

This is probably the closest thing we will ever get to it but I would love to see a haunt event at dollywood

You never know, they might do a haunt event in the evenings maybe two nights a week or something for those who want it, but I doubt it.. Dollywood would be so good at doing a haunt event though

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I don't see this park ever doing a Haunt event. Their bread and butter is their ultra conservative and christian base and they're experts at pandering to them. If they did a scary Halloween event those people would lose their sh*t.

Also It sounds like this event is already doing amazing business and everyone's complaining about crowds. It's a great problem to have, but I don't see why they'd bother to do a Halloween event when the park is already rumored to be doing 30,000 people on weekends for an event that's likely much less expensive to put on than a haunt event where you need to pay to staff houses.

I don't see this park ever doing a Haunt event. Their bread and butter is their ultra conservative and christian base and they're experts at pandering to them. If they did a scary Halloween event those people would lose their sh*t. [emoji38]

 

Also It sounds like this event is already doing amazing business and everyone's complaining about crowds. It's a great problem to have, but I don't see why they'd bother to do a Halloween event when the park is already rumored to be doing 30,000 people on weekends for an event that's likely much less expensive to put on than a haunt event where you need to pay to staff houses.

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Does anyone know if the park has ever reached Capacity

No I don't believe so.. they always report record days but have never reported turning people away.. someone posted a few post back that the parks capacity is 27k but not really sure I believe it. We have had several reports of record days hitting 30k plus

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Does anyone know if the park has ever reached Capacity

I was told their capacity (officially permitted for) is 28,000. The last two Saturdays have hit those numbers . 28,300 was what I was told for Oct 7. The only thing is that DW does not count you when you leave, so there really is no way to get a true number of how many inside the park. I was told their record was 40K.

I don't see this park ever doing a Haunt event. Their bread and butter is their ultra conservative and christian base and they're experts at pandering to them. If they did a scary Halloween event those people would lose their sh*t.

Sadly accurate. The park doesn't want to anger their locals by partaking in the devils holiday. Same reason I doubt we will ever see a scary Halloween event at SDC.

I wonder when we’ll hear anything about the river battle spot? When did we hear about drop line?

It could be a similar situation like we saw with Adventure mountain, where it was removed and then sat vacant a year until they announced Firechaser.

I wonder when we’ll hear anything about the river battle spot? When did we hear about drop line?

Luminights has been doing very well, it wouldn't surprise me if it has more visitors than the Christmas festival.. they don't really need to build excitement right now. I'd imagine towards the end of luminights or sometime in November they might announce something so that it might cause enough excitement for folks to take advantage of the season pass deal in December (buy it then and it's good for Christmas and the following year)

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I don't see this park ever doing a Haunt event. Their bread and butter is their ultra conservative and christian base and they're experts at pandering to them. If they did a scary Halloween event those people would lose their sh*t.

 

Sadly accurate. The park doesn't want to anger their locals by partaking in the devils holiday. Same reason I doubt we will ever see a scary Halloween event at SDC.

Uh-oh...guess I wouldn't be "Dollywood worthy." Am not at all religious, but took my black & White Shih Tzu to a local Blessing of the Animals today and dressed her in a 'scary' Black & White Skeleton costume, complete with matching Skull cap. It's a very 'modern,' friendly little church (Collegiate), and the Pastor actually got a good laugh when we came up for the 'personal blessings.' Yes, in NYC even little Jewish Shih Tzu are welcome to the Blessing of the Animals. (Tho guess that costume might be a tad sacrilegious in a Dollywood sanctuary??)

Alice

^ Just curious, but is that Blessing of the Animals usually mid-October?

Nation-wide? Or International-Wide? Or just where you are?

I wouldn't mind getting Stella our cat, blessed since she's

one of The Most Challenging Cats we've ever had, LOL.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled Dollywood programing...

EDIT: I already looked it up, October 4th, every year. Canada, too.

^ Just curious, but is that Blessing of the Animals usually mid-October?

Nation-wide? Or International-Wide? Or just where you are?

 

I wouldn't mind getting Stella our cat, blessed since she's

one of The Most Challenging Cats we've ever had, LOL.

 

 

Now, back to our regularly scheduled Dollywood programing...

 

EDIT: I already looked it up, October 4th, every year. Canada, too.

Hi Nrthwnd! For some reason, NYC's Upper West Side Collegiate Church always holds its Blessings of the Animals in mid-Oct. If you go to:

https://westendchurch.org/blessing-animals-2014 , you can see a little pic of my Shih Tzu Violet, her face (black & White with red topknot bow) leaning on my shoulder. (My back's to the camera with a black cap on.) There are rows of pix and we're about 4th row down or so. I'm sure they'd welcome Stella your cat! There are always plenty of meowing cats trying to get out of their owners laps.

Okay...back to Dollywood...lol.

Alice

Sorry - my post repeated!

I wonder when we’ll hear anything about the river battle spot? When did we hear about drop line?

Does DW start pushing season passes in early November like SDC does? Because that's usually the latest that announcements for next year are made. The trend seems to be to announce big rides in August and everything else in early November.

I agree though, we could be looking at a construction site for a year. They like to do that.

Speaking of new things, my cousin took her visit to the park today and seen something on her train ride that caught her eye. As normal we always look over into the hollers etc and enjoy the experience and look for any back work going on. Well this round she found some. Clearing and land work is being done. She said as the train passed multiple dozers were working away moving dirt and tearing away. She also noticed markers on the bank and along tree lines. Yes I have pictures that she took. She also explained to me where it was located so I guessed at a map drawing. It’s in the first curve the train makes after Thunderhead. Kind of in that area.

I think the Wilderness Pass path will be rerouted to go up the mountain

They have always had dozers hid up there and open areas but if they were actually clearing an area, that's a good sign.. that's the exact location they spoke of about 5 years ago when they announced their 10 year plan

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That's very interesting indeed. Thank your cousin for the pictures! Can anyone tell me what the end of the year season passes for DW usually go on sale for? We bought passes for this year earlier this summer and are going back down for Christmas, so that works out well. However we are planning to visit again next summer for a couple days but depending on the cost of the passes it may not be worth it to purchase them for 2018. Just trying to plan ahead here!

Usually same price but they are good for the Christmas season AND next year so you basically get an extra month out of them

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That's very interesting indeed. Thank your cousin for the pictures! Can anyone tell me what the end of the year season passes for DW usually go on sale for? We bought passes for this year earlier this summer and are going back down for Christmas, so that works out well. However we are planning to visit again next summer for a couple days but depending on the cost of the passes it may not be worth it to purchase them for 2018. Just trying to plan ahead here!

Usually the first weekend in November. The earlier you buy them, the cheaper they are.

Usually same price but they are good for the Christmas season AND next year so you basically get an extra month out of them

Since we have 2017 passes it doesn't matter to us if we get Christmas out of them this year, but it's a nice perk for others! Thanks for chiming in, you too middle_keeny - I'll look out for them the first weekend in November.

I'm suddenly planning on taking my older kids down to Dollywood sometime before they close this year, and was actually targeting doing so the day after Thanksgiving. However, I was wondering, from those who may have done this before, what kind of crowds the park sees that day, or around the Thanksgiving Holiday in general? I went in November last year, on a Friday, and it was not crowded at all, but it also wasn't the day after Thanksgiving. If there are other days in November you recommend I go, let me know that as well!

Also, I noticed the "get in free after 3 the day before" promotion states that it ends in October. Does that mean they don't run it at all again in November? If not, that's a shame I'll miss out on that!

Lastly, am I correct in assuming that since I haven't heard much talk to the contrary, that LR is running pretty consistently these days? That would sure be great if that keeps up through November!