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Dollywood: Thrills in the Hills Event June 6-8 2008


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This past weekend, Rob (coasterbear30) and I both attended the Dollywood: Thrills in the Hills event which took place June 6th, 7th and 8th. Included in the event was ERT on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday evening on Dollywood's coaster collection. Sunday included ERT at Splash Country next door but Rob and I decided to skip this extended portion of the event.

 

Because pictures are better than long texts (and that's what we're all here for), we've decided to post all the pictures with brief descriptions instead of giving a play-by-play of the entire event.

 

In short, the coasters at Dollywood were great. Thunderhead became both of our number one for wood coasters. Mystery Mine was impressive, with great effects and an amazing ride experience. Tennessee Tornado was by far the smoothest Arrow looping coaster we've been on. Blazing Fury was lackluster at best (and I know this is such a classic but, dang were we bored)! The Veggie Tales kiddie coaster had a sick helix. Just kidding! But at least they let us ride it without a child like most parks we've visited.

 

In conclusion, we were most impressed with the most friendly and professional park staff we have ever encountered. Special kudos go out to Zayne (from the Tennessee Tornado), Charlene (from Thunderhead), Ashley (from Customer Service) and Pete Owens, Public Relations Manager who put the event together and answered all our "coaster dork" questions!

 

On to the pictures!

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Good night, Dolly! Thanks for a GREAT weekend!

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Friday Night Lights...

is that an ORB on Rob's face? Hmmmmm.

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Lumber Jack Lifts.

Scott says "Lumber Jacks are HOT!"

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River Battle pre-operation.

The line for this ride never slowed down so we never rode it. We just used the water cannons to shoot people in the face while they tried to shoot us back...unfortunately, they couldn't see well enough! LOL

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One of the several water wheels throughout the park.

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TPR-approved donkeys!

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Tornado onride photos.

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Second loop, through the trees.

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Tornado gets two thumbs WAY up from Scott!

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Tennessee Tornado through the trees.

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Lift hill porn again.

This was probably the hardest coaster to photograph!

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Morning ERT on the Tornado was awesome. We actually were able to ride this four times in a row without leaving the station.

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During Mystery Mine ERT, we were literally the only two people on this train. Too bad that a Tennessee ruling has forced the staff to require guests to leave the trains and go back to the entrance for another ride.

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Signage at night.

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Mystery Mine through the trees!

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Small drop out of the loop.

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The hangtime on this loop was crazy stupid!

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Dip right before tiny bunny hop under the tressle.

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Final helix following brake run, heading back into the Mine. This helix...much smoother.

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Head-banger!

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The first vertical drop into this turn was insane!

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This damn annoying bird! He wouldn't shut up.

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Pete Owens, Public Relations Manager leading the tour for us.

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Heartline roll goodness.

Look how low this ride is to the ground right here!

Surprisingly, this was a completely smooth transition into this element.

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Under the drop after the second vertical lift.

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Vertical lifts are insane!

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This is the motor for the first vertical lift.

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Lift hill porn!

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Under the first vertical lift.

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This is beside the drop under the rock crusher into the painful brake run.

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This is under the drop right out of the station into a short brake.

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Phhhhft! Dummies!

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GRRRRRR! Hold up that train, girl!

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A Mine wheel assembly.

More wheel porn!

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A Mine train being held under the station on the transfer track.

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Scissor lift from underneath the station. This is the Mine's "transfer track" to a holding area directly beneath the station. The trains are literally lowered and pushed forward.

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Onward to our walk-back tour of Mystery Mine!

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ERT nighttime rides are amazing!

After the first drop, the ride doesn't seem to slow down until the brake run. The experience is completely out-of-control.

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And the tour is over. Simply an amazing experience. Much more complicated than we ever imagined.

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More coaster dork shots.

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Another coaster dork shot of Thunderhead wheel assembly OR

wheel porn for some of ya'll.

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Tie dye much?

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"Sorry River Battle boat; you are not allowed to be a Thunderhead train!"

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Support structure shot.

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"I AM the train coming, Rob"

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View from the first brake run to the transfer track.

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"I hope there isn't a train coming!"

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Lift hill from the brake run. Does anyone else have this shot?

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Harry was telling us about the braking system and the process of tightening the over 600,000 bolts on Thunderhead. Amazing!

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Two words:

airtime galore!

This section near the end of the ride had intense ejector airtime.

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View of Mystery Mine from across the Canyon.

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View of the first overbanked turn from the brake run.

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First and second brake runs.

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Final brake run prior to transfer track.

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Sunrise through Thunderhead...

a new spin on "through the trees" shots. Beat this, biotches!

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Coaster dork shot!

This control operates the transfer track only, Lee says.

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Lee and Harry were maintenance workers explaining how the transfer track works.

Don't tell him we said this but it looks like Lee is doing "Thriller"!

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Glamour Shots!

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"Millenium Flyers rule my face!"

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Rob says "This is freakin' amazing! What a great first enthusiast event!"

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A Thunderhead train being held on the transfer track.

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A look back at the station.

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Walking from the station house to the transfer track.

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Ditto.

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Running a Thunderhead test train.

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Arrival at Thunderhead for walk-back tour.

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Entrance to Timber Canyon.

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Saturday morning, 7 AM, bright and early. We are on our way to Thunderhead for our walk-back tour.

Can anyone spot the ACErs? LOL

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Friday night, waiting for ERT on Thunderhead. Unfortunately, it had just rained and there was still lightning in the area. Ultimately, we weren't able to get ERT on Thunderhead but the park called the maintenance workers back to Blazing Fury to allow us ERT on it instead. That's what we call "Customer Service"!

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Our gifts included a Thrills in the Hills T-shirt, Dollywood backpack (not pictured), lanyard, schedule of events and button (also not pictured).

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Also...what is going on with Timber Tower? From the photos, it looks as if the top of the tower was off/gone...

 

The top of the tower was definitely there. However, the actual ride vehicle was grounded. Apparently, the ride had been closed since Tuesday prior and had only operated two hours that particular day. Even the park staff that we talked to had nothing nice to say about the HUSS ride; the consensus was that it's always broken down.

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Hey guys Great PTR...

We meet you this past weekend and sat beside ya at the Shows...

Glad you had a great time... Make sure and try to make the ACE event in Nov.

I will try to get some shots of Blazing Fury up on here from the walking tour...

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Hey Matt, it was nice meeting you guys as well. We had so much fun this weekend and consider Dollywood one of the best parks that we have visited. I would love to come back for the November event. Now I want to ride Thunderhead as much as possible. I found it to be amazing. Thanks for being so nice and talking to us. We will definitely be back!

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Also...what is going on with Timber Tower? From the photos, it looks as if the top of the tower was off/gone...

 

The top of the tower was definitely there.

 

...

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Not normal...

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Normal...

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Wow, DBru...obsess much?

I have been proven wrong by a child. Forgive me!

The Tower looked completely normal to me as I have never seen it before.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound harsh about it...I just wanted to to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

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^I didn't notice that the top was missing till I saw the pic. You know what was strange is that I remembered the top being on it the day before, so I guess they may have been working on it or something. Regardless, it was still broken down and we didn't get to ride it and someone told us that the ride program was extremely slowed down from the one that is in Germany. They said it was too "intense" for a family park. LAME!

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