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Dollywood Discussion Thread

P. 796 - Ride closing 10/30 to remove launch and install chain lift!

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Interesting. I thought in 2015 Dollywood was an excellent value for the money I paid for admission. I think I would advantage of a presale buy 1 day get the second day free promo. But I can see that people could think it's expensive. People here in Ohio b*tch and moan about CP's main gate pricing all the time. $72 I think is a fair price when you look at parks in Orlando.

 

And honestly if in 2018 you're buying your tickets full price at the gate you're doing life wrong.

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Not sure if it has been brought up but I sure hope Dragonfly has 2 trains

If it's the standard 453m / Orkanen model like it appears to be, it won't have two trains. The station is the brake run.

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Not sure if it has been brought up but I sure hope Dragonfly has 2 trains

If it's the standard 453m / Orkanen model like it appears to be, it won't have two trains. The station is the brake run.

Pete said it’s their largest model, which I’m thinking is the 453. So yea, it basically operates like your typical run of the mill family coaster/kiddie coaster. Lift is powered by drive tires, and brake run is the station.

 

The problem that comes to mind for me is, capacity. Huge new area, everyone sees a new coaster in the area, you’ll have a huge wait in no time.

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There's a lot in the area competing for money and a lot of the locals avoid Dollywood due to the price. Although, I think it's a great value, it's still a regional Park and one that doesn't offer nearly as good online offers as Six Flags or Cedar Fair parks.

 

For example, three days at Dollywood (theme park only) is 99.95 (currently $86.95 with kids pricing) but I purchased three days at Cedar Point for $80 and that also included the water park.. so while not much of a price difference there are added perks. I could see Dollywood dropping their prices a little.

 

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Edited by dstephe9
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I do wish DW (or better HFE) would offer a seal like SF just had, $55 for season pass valid at all SF theme parks.

 

A deal like that for all HFE parks would be great. Or even make the current priced pass valid at all parks.

 

I don't know that much cheaper daily tickets would help much. But I don't think it'd hurt. But the season pass has crept up a lot in the last 5 years with little added benefit. They even cut the parking discount for preferred /valet.

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A big problem I see here in my area (note that I’m literally 2.5 hours or less from Pigeon Forge) is that, even though majority love the park and want to go, they simply see the price and back out. A few years ago Dollywood was like 46 dollars per person. Now it’s around 68/70 per person. I think for my family and I, with tax it’s around 215 ish dollars. Plus the 15 dollars parking fee, plus the food.

 

So most of the people where I’m from see it as, spend 70 per person on DW, go to extra hours north to KI and pay 40 per person, or beach.

For myself, I have the Gold Pass which has honestly saved so much money for us in two visits. I go more than my parents, I don’t necessarily eat in park unless it’s cinnamon bread (duh).

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I think Dollywood is very reasonably priced for what's there. It's a bit higher than some parks but the quality is absolutely there. It's not overpriced in the least.

 

And for comparison, SDC is $65 one day/$87 season pass. Dollywood being $5 more than that is absolutely appropriate.

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I think the season pass is at the right price point but they do seem to get a lot of pushback on the single day tickets. It'll be interesting to see what they do here.

 

The problem that comes to mind for me is, capacity. Huge new area, everyone sees a new coaster in the area, you’ll have a huge wait in no time.

 

Dollywood has never been one to care about capacity and so far the world hasn't ended. They don't have the insane demand for the coasters that a lot of other parks do. The only high capacity coaster in the park is Wild Eagle. Tornado would be good but it almost never runs two trains, the wood coasters are average but nothing amazing and Mystery Mine and Firechaser are atrocious.

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^ I'd argue Lightning Rod's capacity is pretty poor. Granted I have only seen it operating once, but they had one train and the dispatches were far slower than the rest of the park's rides since they refused to help people push down on the restraints. That led to a lot of issues since people were in fluffy winter coats.

 

It was pulling a 90 minute wait when nothing else was over 30. Granted that may have been because a ton of people had yet to ride it but that's a much different issue.

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I think Dollywood is very reasonably priced for what's there. It's a bit higher than some parks but the quality is absolutely there. It's not overpriced in the least.

 

And for comparison, SDC is $65 one day/$87 season pass. Dollywood being $5 more than that is absolutely appropriate.

 

Dollywoods season pass is $120. Three day ticket at Dollywood cost more than a SDC season pass. Now one day tickets are only $5 more.. I'm sure they are seeing success with everyone pays children's pricing and that's why they are considering this

 

While they don't have the same quality rides the island is free and you can pay for what you ride or an unlimited ride pass for $40.. it has plenty of rides for younger folks making it much a less expensive option for families with young kids. A lot of time price trumps quality. There's a reason why the island ranked number 6 best "amusement park" on trip advisor this year and Dollywood wasn't on that list. The other parks on that list were all Disney, Universal, and Sea World parks. I know a lot of people on here disagree with review sites but they do give the best representation of public view. At least from the vocal public.

 

Another example of prices potentially hurting them and other activities in the area is in the announcement of Wildwood Grove. Pete mentioned several times "everything is included in one price" trying to build value.. And saying families could save money coming to Dollywood. While this is very true if you plan on doing multiple fun centers in pigeon forge, I don't think many folks actually do that. One fun center is enough.

 

Dollywood being hidden, families with young kids can stay on the strip and the kids wouldn't even know Dollywood was around and save money at one of the strip parks. I actually heard someone mention to their kids that one of the fun centers was Dollywood lol when I was in the chocolate monkey a week or so ago.

 

Personally, I feel the value is there but as prices have been creeping up, I have questioned renewing passes several times.

 

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We have a cabin and I’ve been surprised at how many people write in the guest book and say they go to the island and don’t mention Dollywood. It might be because the cabin sleeps 15 and that would be very expensive. Also I’m surprised at how many People go to the dinner shows in town. Dollywood has gotten more expensive and are bleeding a lot of the locals as they expand out to more of the region vacationer.

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I think Dollywood is very reasonably priced for what's there. It's a bit higher than some parks but the quality is absolutely there. It's not overpriced in the least.

 

And for comparison, SDC is $65 one day/$87 season pass. Dollywood being $5 more than that is absolutely appropriate.

 

Dollywoods season pass is $120. Three day ticket at Dollywood cost more than a SDC season pass. Now one day tickets are only $5 more.. I'm sure they are seeing success with everyone pays children's pricing and that's why they are considering this

 

While they don't have the same quality rides the island is free and you can pay for what you ride or an unlimited ride pass for $40.. it has plenty of rides for younger folks making it much a less expensive option for families with young kids. A lot of time price trumps quality. There's a reason why the island ranked number 6 best "amusement park" on trip advisor this year and Dollywood wasn't on that list. The other parks on that list were all Disney, Universal, and Sea World parks. I know a lot of people on here disagree with review sites but they do give the best representation of public view. At least from the vocal public.

 

Another example of prices potentially hurting them and other activities in the area is in the announcement of Wildwood Grove. Pete mentioned several times "everything is included in one price" trying to build value.. And saying families could save money coming to Dollywood. While this is very true if you plan on doing multiple fun centers in pigeon forge, I don't think many folks actually do that. One fun center is enough.

 

Dollywood being hidden, families with young kids can stay on the strip and the kids wouldn't even know Dollywood was around and save money at one of the strip parks. I actually heard someone mention to their kids that one of the fun centers was Dollywood lol when I was in the chocolate monkey a week or so ago.

 

Personally, I feel the value is there but as prices have been creeping up, I have questioned renewing passes several times.

Everything you've written is fair, but even at $120, a season pass is a very good value. I get why they're being price conscious--the Ozarks also has always been a depressed economic area that survives on tourism--but you don't want to go too low either and give the impression that what you offer isn't valuable. Dollywood is one of the best theme parks in the country, and the price should reflect that.

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We have a cabin and I’ve been surprised at how many people write in the guest book and say they go to the island and don’t mention Dollywood. It might be because the cabin sleeps 15 and that would be very expensive. Also I’m surprised at how many People go to the dinner shows in town. Dollywood has gotten more expensive and are bleeding a lot of the locals as they expand out to more of the region vacationer.
This is kind of why Pete pitched the expansion as an all in one price. By the time you pay for a dinner show or two and a fun zone you are getting close to Dollywood prices of not higher, but some people probably view it that way. If we don't go to Dollywood we can do more in the area. Do more dinner shows and so on. That's why Disney wanted lock in Disney World, that way the money stays inside Disney.

 

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Another thing that was asked in the survey was “How likely would you be to purchase a pass for 184 dollars”.

Then the next portion gave you two options. You were to choose answers based on having the option of paying for a Single day admission, 2 day ticket, or Super Pass (with of course boosted prices).

 

There were also options such as; one day admission Mon-Friday, Seasonal, 2 or 3 day Friday-Sun Jun-August.

Like some confusing options and they all had varying prices. For me, I never know when exactly I can go. I just get a free weekend or day and I’m like “Dollywood sound good?” And we go down. So for me the Gold Pass has been the best.

 

I don’t see myself purchasing a Super Pass simply because I don’t intend on going to Splash Country.

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I'd love a dining plan! Either per day or per year, I'd be interested. I live 3 hours away, and I'm always shocked at how people shell out more at the shows and tacky places on the strip- and never touch Dollywood or the National Park. Dollywood's one day ticket I think is too much, but not bad with the 2 or 3 day deals they do in the summer. I think value dropped a bit when they got rid of the free after 3pm / 6pm deal. Season Pass I feel is very reasonable though. I always get Gold, I never have enough time to justify getting Super. I'd only be able go like once in the summer.

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Take this however you want but this post is from someone who toured RMC (might be a poster here, I'm not sure) and spoke with engineers working on LR

 

 

However, I don't see any reason not to trust this post plus it lines up with Pete mentioning it's closed for track work

 

It also mentions no ETA on the fix date

 

For those that don't want to read the entire AMA, here are the bullet points. As proof, the guy has a photo of him laying on test track

 

"Another engineer was working on Lightning Rod stuff. It's not actually currently down because of the launch! He said that they have that working pretty reliably now. A piece of track has to be reprofiled because of unintended forces present. The clamps for the magnetic fins on the bottom of the trains were also causing some issues (they work fine but don't last nearly long enough). The company who made the LSMs were very secretive about their design, so RMC has had trouble knowing exactly what forces are present, and there are a lot and they are powerful. At least you know that they share our pain of not knowing secrets He had one of the clamps in his office, which I got to look at and examine"

 

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^ The launch not being the issue seems to line up with what Pete said. I’m assuming the “piece of track” the engineer was referring to is the pot hole section, though I could be wrong but it seems to point towards that.

 

Also, Screamscape reached out to Dollywood the other day about the status on Lightning Rod and Mountain Slidewindwer. Full quote:

 

some of you may have noticed that the Mountain Slidewinders attraction is no longer listed on the park's website. As confirmed with the park, this is normal, as the park closes the Slidewinder each season after Labor Day weekend.

Next up we checked on the status of Lightning Rod and the park confirmed that they 'have been working with the manufacture to deal with some performance issues. We are optimistic it will reopen this season."

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I just updated the Dollywood app, and I noticed that its no longer showing ride wait times. Anyone else notice this? Not only is it no longer showing on the app, but the link/button to it just says “rides” now, instead of saying “ride wait times” like before. Starting to wonder if they’re going to a similar system like Six Flags and Cedar Fair where the wait times only show up while in the park. Not that its a huge deal, but I liked its similarity to the Disney apps where you could check anytime, regardless of where you’re at. Guess its time to rely on the third-pary website.

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