Dollywood Discussion Thread

This could be useful

www.smokymountainherald.com/story.php?s=9149

^ Hmmm, four to a car, huh? Perhaps Vekoma Fan Boy really was onto something.

how the hell did we/I miss that article!

120 feet is really tall for a bobsled ride, and the old cocept art picture that came out before the mystery mine site shows a very steep drop. I still think this will be a eurofighter.

On the website, it said it will be a four-person mine car, which matches the description of a bobsled ride, but the vertical drop and height doesn't match the type. Maybe it will be some type of new euro-fighter.

---Brent

a company can change the seating style, car type, or anything to accomodate what the park wants. Its just that we have never seen a euro fighter w/ only 4 cars...also this is the media so it can be 4 people per row which makes 8 per car but 4 people per car is more scarier!

Jarvis "wonders what is the difference between a bobsled coaster and an eurofighter coaster " Morant

It's Heeeerrrreee!!

http://www.dollywood.com/mmine/default.htm

INVERSIONS!!! YEESSS!!

The ride has officially been announced: http://www.mysterymine.com

From the press release:

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn.—Dollywood’s new ride for the 2007 season is a mystery no more with the theme park’s announcement of the $17.5 million Mystery Mine steel roller coaster.

 

Marking the largest capital investment in the company’s history, Mystery Mine brings a one-acre expansion of Dollywood’s Timber Canyon area, also home to Thunderhead™, the world’s No. 1 wooden coaster. In a continuation of the area’s lumber camp theme, Mystery Mine is set in an abandoned coal mine where eight-passenger mine carts immediately plunge riders into darkness before continuing along a 1,811-foot track through the ruins of an early 1900’s mine.

 

“I’ve had to keep my big mouth shut about the Mystery Mine, but I can tell you now, it’s the most exciting thing to come out of these hills in a long, long time,” Dolly Parton said. “And I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve that I’m still not telling you about until it opens at Dollywood next year, but I can guarantee you it’s well worth the wait!”

 

During Mystery Mine’s 2.5-minute journey, passengers encounter a 95-degree, 85-foot vertical drop in addition to a weightless inversion known as a

“heart-line roll” and a “rollover loop” or double inversion which consists of an upward half-loop and a half-roll. Mystery Mine also features an Immelmann maneuver. Named for German World War I pilot Max Immelmann, the maneuver begins much like the first half of a traditional vertical loop. As the coaster car approaches the loop's apex, it is inverted and travels back in the direction in which the car first entered the loop. Rather than completing the loop, the coaster car rolls on its axis, becoming right-side-up while simultaneously turning away from the loop. The coaster car exits the Immelmann maneuver almost in the same direction in which it initially approached the loop.

 

Passengers will encounter several high-speed twists as the miner cars maneuver their way through a series of uncertain encounters including a fall from a collapsed trestle and a plunge into an abandoned tunnel. Mystery Mine, the first ride of its kind in the U.S., also incorporates state-of-the-art special effects.

 

Artist renderings and ride simulation video of Mystery Mine may be viewed at www.mysterymine.com.

Here are the statistics:

Layout Steel, sit-down

Vertical lifts 2

Track length 1,811 feet

Ride duration 2 minutes, 30 seconds

Maximum speed 46 miles per hour

Tallest vertical drop 85 feet at 95 degrees

Inversions 1 Heart-line Roll; 1 Rollover Loop

Vehicles 7 cars that carry 8 passengers; 4 passengers per row

Capacity 1,000 passengers per hour

Area 1.1 acres

Minimum Height Requirement 48 inches

Facility Construction Dollywood Maintenance & Construction

Ride Manufacturer Gerstlauer Elektro GmbH - Munsterhausen, Germany

Project Producer B Dudash & Associates, Inc.

Scenic Fabrication Adirondack Scenic - Saratoga Springs, NY

Special Effects Entech Creative - Orlando, FL

Audio/Video Systems Edwards Technologies - Los Angeles, CA

Attraction Design Forrec Ltd. - Toronto, Canada

Project Producer B Dudash & Associates, Inc.

Here's some of the concept art from the site.

Inversion!

The logo

Me likey.

Looks like they are putting a lot of work into this. The Eurofighter itself is pretty cheap, and this is a $17.5 million project, so a ton of money is being spent on special effects. The people involved in the audio and theming aspects of this have worked with Universal and Disney, so they really are going for top quality. Now they just need to get that animation up.

Looks really sweet. I enjoyed Speed at Oakwood, and with the darkride aspects of it and the overall charm of Dollywood, I'm sure I'll really enjoy this one too. I know one place I'll be going next year, and not just for Thunderhead and the skillet potatoes.

Awesome stuff! Looks like the ride will in fact seat 8 in typical eurofighter style. It'll be realy cool if the cars actually have headlights on them.

I hope the theming really enhances the ride. But, I am sure it will be a hit for the park.

In reference to the "Canada" term in the theming design, Forrec has a pretty good track record in coming up with some good theming qualities and designs. In fact, they are involved with a project we are doing here in Hawaii.

Link: http://forrec.com/tp.html

Wow, the fact they worked with IOA caught my attention.

Looking Good

So the report I found was incorrect about the cars

Damn

No... but the good news is the US will get the eurofighter style I've always wanted to ride. I'll try this one and BGW's (dive machine?) on a road trip next year (2007 is already looking pretty good, eh?)

OMG Canada is involved in this!!!

Considering IMAX is a Canadian invention, along with tons of other stuff the Yanks use and take for granted....

....what's the joke?

^ That's okay.

But truth be told, Canada has been involved thru design and technical manufacturing, a good number of attractions and theme park stuff in the last few decades.

Mostly with film. But still important to the theme park industry.

Exactly...road trip for the BGE and Dollywood '07 projects. Wee!

Nice. Probably $10M of that is for theming alone... I love Dollywood!!

- Joe

this Ride will RULE!!!

This ride looks really awesome! I kind of see this as a "Tower of Terror meeting Roller Coaster" in a way.

I'm really glad more attention has been drawn to Dollywood and Silver Dollar City in the past few years. I really think these are some of the best parks in the US and for the longest time they have been overlooked.

IMO, they are right up there with the Busch & Universal parks as some of the top theme parks in the country! Well run, very clean, great attractions!

--Robb

I'm looking forward to this more after riding Speed at Oakwood. I'm defiantly going to Dollywood next year!

Exactly, where is Dollywood? Near which other theme park?

I always thought something like this would be a great addition for Big Thunder Ranch in Frontierland at Disneyland. Alas...

Congrats, Dollywood!! It looks awesome. A highly themed-rollercoaster with vertical hotness...what more could you ask for? Seriously.

^^

http://www.rcdb.com/pd65.htm

I always thought something like this would be a great addition for Big Thunder Ranch in Frontierland at Disneyland. Alas...

 

Congrats, Dollywood!! It looks awesome. A highly themed-rollercoaster with vertical hotness...what more could you ask for? Seriously.

Another all you can eat resturant (aunt granny's) in the park!