Dollywood Discussion Thread

in my favorite top three things to do online, probably number 3, is going through Dorneys Trip Advisor reviews and reading the negative ones. I love when people complain about having to wait in long lines, on a saturday, in the middle of june. I just dont understand why people complain about long lines when YOU'RE AT AN AMUSEMENT PARK.

That right there is a good enough reason to put no stock whatsoever in TripAdvisor reviews... because everyone knows Dorney Park never has lines, even on Saturdays in the middle of June.

 

Whoops. I meant to say July, but even if they have to wait like 5-10 minutes, they will complain.

"I'm about to show my @$$!"....for a funnel cake"

--> I think this is my new favorite quote, lol

 

Unfortunately a some of things you stated that would help may just piss people off more.

 

-- Untrained people at the ticket booths needing help and delaying the lines whereas the trained people lines would move much faster (also: as Bill said, is the $5 online convenience fee worth your time and sanity?)

 

-- Opening up preferred parking to everyone? Oh boy imagine if I paid $x.xx dollars for preferred parking and now everyone else gets to go there free?

 

Should they do those things? I don't know. The pros may outweigh the cons, but I guess the point is people are going to complain no matter what they do as others have started.

 

I'm not giving Dollywood a free pass, I'd be frustrated too, but again you were comparing holidays at other parks (where staffing and everything is running more like a well oiled machine) vs Dollywood in March. Hiccups will happen. You kept mentioning how even Six Flags does things better in certain regards, but opening weekend at Great Adventure wasn't a walk in the park for us. 2/3 of food locations were closed (leading to 1 hour waits for food at the places that were open), rides broke down frequently, etc. I knew going into it things were not going to be perfect and I had a great time. Yes there were frustrations, but if you want a "better" experience one would argue to go later in the season. SHOULD it be that way? No. But it's a seasonal park and unfortunately that's how things work. It may sound easy to fix the problems you mentioned but I'm sure there are plenty of logistics not taken into account.

 

Sorry your day didn't go better.

I don't think they should open preferred parking vs Splash first.. last year on busy days they opened splash country parking for Dollywood guest. The only reason I mentioned that was due to Dollywood remodeling their parking a few years ago resulting in less spots.. they claimed if the lot would fill up they would use preferred and splash to help with parking.

 

My opening trip to Dollywood was fine aside from my pass not working.. it was my third or fourth trip this year where things started going downhill as the crowds picked up.. Dollywood was having a lot of ride issues that day, mostly special effects weren't working on most rides but the rides were running.

 

Here's the thing, Dollywood cross trains everywhere, that's why you see lightening rod ops running shops (or other ride ops running shops).. During late summer you will see Dollywood employees working Splash Country and vice versa.. they might be cross training the wrong areas but the systems they use are the same in most areas.

 

When I applied they where using pronto pos for pretty much all transactions and pos systems by micros.. it wouldn't be hard to cross train as the systems would be the same and transactions would be very similar. policies would really be the only training involved

 

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Okay, we found out that you can bring your buddy’s in an hour early on Saturday. In considering berween going Saturday 5/5 or Sunday 5/6, obviously those extra three hours are attractive.

 

That first hour is just for Tennessee Tornado. But is it safe to assume we could hit the other coasters back there without much wait in the first hour or so?

 

Our thought is to just hit up coasters the first and last couple hours of the day and then focus on the train shows, shopping, and food the rest of the day. Anyone have experience with this kind of strategy on Saturdays?

Yep, we did that on a Saturday in May last year, and it was awesome. Minimal waits early in the morning, so that we didn't even use the TImeSaver then, just waited 5 minutes in the regular lines and saved TimeSaver for later in the afternoon. Even if you don't have TimeSaver, you should be good with that strategy.

"I'm about to show my @$$!"....for a funnel cake"

--> I think this is my new favorite quote, lol

 

Same!

No reasonable person should put any stock in Trip Advisor reviews. How about this for improvement?

 

1) Amusement parks are fun.

2) You're going to an amusement park to have fun.

3) You don't have to have everything perfect to have fun.

4) You can choose to have fun.

5) Finding things to complain about takes energy that is much better spent having fun.

 

Sure, agreed, to an extent. But where do you draw the line? Without guest feedback, bad habits will just get worse and worse. How long can a park let the guest experience deteriorate before it’s no longer fun?

 

If you went to a steakhouse and ordered/paid for a porterhouse, then after waiting an hour the server brought you a dried up chicken leg, would you just eat it with the attitude of, “Hey, I came to a restaurant and got to eat. I could be a starving child in Africa!” I don’t think so.

 

Hopefully management will take all the feedback they’ve been receiving recently and make positive changes.

Ever been to the grand opening of a restaurant? Servers often are unfamiliar with the menu, there are many inefficiencies, orders can be made incorrectly, etc. These often lead to waits for tables. Seasonal parks experience this sort of thing every year, since they're dealing with largely all new staff.

 

I do think the issues with Dollywood ticketing are legit. I also experienced issues getting my tickets and misinformation and lack of communication between the DreamMore ticket desk and the park's main ticket desk. Otherwise, everything else in that rant was just complaining.

 

I disagree with your statement that a business won't know what to do without customer feedback. I dislike greatly this culture that says everyone's opinion is equally valid. Horsesh*t. Expert opinions are very valuable; the opinions of the ill-informed are not. If someone doesn't know what they're talking about, their opinion is worthless. Now, customer engagement with a business can be quite important, depending on your business model. For this reason, a lot of Internet retailers try to solicit comments, not to base their business decisions on but rather so customers will feel more connected and ultimately buy more stuff. What they're writing doesn't matter; what matters is that they're writing. Cynical? Hell yes. Welcome to the world of e-commerce.

Actually the bottom part of your statement isn't completely true.. I work for a retailer that was probably one of the most successful in malls last year.. it's a very young retailer and we ignore most opinions aside from those of our guest.. we are doing 20 - 30% comp every year.. our stores are growing, we are profitable, we are donating millions a year but the majority of the feedback we take to heart is from our guest..

 

We feel our guest experience is why we are so successful when other mall retailers are just the norm and struggling.. we aren't cheap either, our clothes are expensive, our decor is expensive. Our stores are built around and for our guest and not the experts.

 

I'm not trying to argue that online reviews are good, I see plenty that are bad and are just folks complaining but I did want to clear up that companies don't take advice from then because we take a lot of advice from them and it's working for us, at least our leaders feel like it is.. all I know is something is working for my company while other brick and mortar retail is struggling.. we do have a huge online presence but a very small ecomm presence.

 

Do we base every business decision off those reviews.. heck no, well we may idk that's way above my pay grade but I do know they listen to everything comment and use those to better our business and how we treat our guest

 

But when the same complaints are popping up in reviews, aside from ride lines if the park is running all rides at full capacity, the park should look at those and see how they can improve.. if tram waits are long the park should look and see why if that comment keeps popping up. Cold food? I saw that in two reviews (my food was great) but that's something the park should research.. if they commented and asked where the cold food was at, maybe they have a training issue in a single restaurant that can be corrected. it's not always complaining in reviews.. it's a good way to see how your business looks to normal everyday people. Experts are great and all but they are being paid by the companies and aren't paying the companies to be there like guest are.

 

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Today though, everyone should be able to go to Dollywood with now waits! But rain/snow might be keeping some of the coasters and rides closed

 

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I went back to read the original post. If the parking lot is full at any park, you know what? It's gonna be busy. If you go to a busy day at Magic Kingdom, you'll find that Walt's magic doesn't make it so that there aren't waits for food. In fact, if you just show up without having booked your dining literally months in advance, you can forget about eating at a full service restaurant that isn't in the Morocco Pavillion. And let me know how magical it is when the monorails go down for the millionth time and you're packed into a boat to take you to the park from the TTC. So please, spare me the "This isn't like Disney." You're right, just not in the way you think.

 

I get it - they could have had more staffing. Everyone could have more staffing no matter what. Some items like the ticket sales were also things you could personally alleviate. Don't want to wait an hour to buy a ticket from a person? You have a phone, right? And unless you are 100 years old and have one of those crappy things with the giant numbers because you're blind, it has functionality, right? I did that to save an hour of time at SFOT getting a QBot while in line to buy a QBot last month. The transaction took a literal minute at most and I was getting the device in mere seconds after that. Nothing stopped you from doing that. But like, "Oh no, there was a 20 minute wait for food!" I mean, bro, really?

Actually I go to Disney World every year for New Year's Eve and they handle the crowds very very well and lines move very quickly for food. That's probably their busiest day. We even book fill service restaurants while in the park that night.. just gotta keep checking the app is all..I stay on site so no idea about the TTC.. never experienced that. I thought Dollywoods food lines were fine during my visits. Yeah, I couldn't eat aunt grannies without an hour wait but most food lines moved quickly for me when I was there. Funnel cakes at Dollywood are always slow but that's because they are made to order and can kill you with sugar but it would be a great way to die. Yeah I will admit Dollywood was out of food at a lot of places..

 

Dollywood parking lot really doesn't hold that much though, that's why previous seasons it wasn't uncommon for them to open the splash country lot for Dollywood guest. Heck, that was the whole reason they up the crossing lights up. They are for the trams

 

I have a season pass so I wasn't in the long lines.. that was posted by ASE who I'm sure also has a season pass. Us on this site aren't the common folks that visit these parks.. it seems like a lot of people still like doing the transactions in person vs online. Maybe it's because folks don't plan on visiting Dollywood and are in the area for vacation. Maybe they just pass the billboards and say hey let's stop. Maybe we are all Country Hicks and don't own internet

 

Another thing to keep in mind though, Dollywood doesn't have a season pass processing center anymore.. I'm sure that builds up the line. if you buy your season pass online, you have to wait in the ticket line to process them. They might, very rarely though, have a processing only window or two but I haven't seen that yet this year. I saw it a few times last year on busy days and that was it.

 

You can enter once without it being processed and then process it before you leave but I know a lot of people are afraid of losing their paper ticket. (I'm sure they can look it up though)

 

 

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Ok, about the whole “waiting in the ticket line” topic. Here’s why certain people HAVE to.

 

Dollywood partners with area businesses to offer employees of these businesses a “VIP Pass” which gives you about 10 visits a year for $10 each. With the pass, you can use those “visits” to get friends, family, etc in for $10. It’s a great way to let locals experience the park each year to give them incentive to share Dollywood with visitors. Think “front desk clerks”, “waiters”, etc that have interactions with guests.

 

Every year prior to this one, there was a separate Guest Services window that locals would go to in order to redeem those passes...it HAS to be done in person at the entrance ticket booth. In years past, that line was waaaaaaay shorter than the normal ticket line and it kept things flowing smoothly for everyone.

 

This year, they have done away with that separate line and now locals are mixed in with regular admissions and the process for validating and paying for those tickets is fairly longer than just paying normal admission so it is slowing the entire line down for everyone.

 

Again, locals using the VIP Pass (THOUSANDS) HAVE to wait in that line, therefore that line is longer and also taking longer at the ticket windows. They’ve created a new bottleneck that is affecting everyone that could be so easily resolved with either the separate Guest Sevices line like they’ve had since creation, an off-site ticket office, online validation and purchasing, etc.

 

Trust me, if there was ANY way to avoid that line, locals would GLADLY do so.

Also like I said they did away with the season pass processing center a few years ago. A few times last year they had windows just for processing season passes but I have yet to notice them this year (doesn't mean they haven't had them on days I wasn't there). I know the day I processed my wife's we had to wait in the regular ticket line. Hers was purchased online. Also last Saturday they were pointing people to the regular ticket line to process.

 

You can process in park at the upgrade center but it's line is just as long

 

So basically, even if you buy online, if it's a season pass you still wait. My wife's sister gets those local VIP tickets as well and I do remember her last year having her own line.

 

Overall I am sure Dollywood will get things worked out but playing Disney music isn't going to give Disney a run for their money until they figure out the crowds and how to manage them. I'm sure they can do it! Heck Dollywood is larger than the magic Kingdom anyways they just don't have the infrastructure to support those large crowds and the mountains are in the way [emoji14]

 

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I work for a retailer that was probably one of the most successful in malls last year.. it's a very young retailer and we ignore most opinions aside from those of our guest.. we are doing 20 - 30% comp every year.. our stores are growing, we are profitable, we are donating millions a year but the majority of the feedback we take to heart is from our guest..

 

We feel our guest experience is why we are so successful when other mall retailers are just the norm and struggling.. we aren't cheap either, our clothes are expensive, our decor is expensive. Our stores are built around and for our guest and not the experts.

 

I'm not trying to argue that online reviews are good, I see plenty that are bad and are just folks complaining but I did want to clear up that companies don't take advice from then because we take a lot of advice from them and it's working for us, at least our leaders feel like it is.. all I know is something is working for my company while other brick and mortar retail is struggling.. we do have a huge online presence but a very small ecomm presence.

 

Do we base every business decision off those reviews.. heck no, well we may idk that's way above my pay grade but I do know they listen to everything comment and use those to better our business and how we treat our guest

Is your name Curt? 'Cause that's a lot of schilling.

 

Also like I said they did away with the season pass processing center a few years ago. A few times last year they had windows just for processing season passes but I have yet to notice them this year (doesn't mean they haven't had them on days I wasn't there). I know the day I processed my wife's we had to wait in the regular ticket line. Hers was purchased online. Also last Saturday they were pointing people to the regular ticket line to process.

 

You can process in park at the upgrade center but it's line is just as long

 

So basically, even if you buy online, if it's a season pass you still wait. My wife's sister gets those local VIP tickets as well and I do remember her last year having her own line.

 

Overall I am sure Dollywood will get things worked out but playing Disney music isn't going to give Disney a run for their money until they figure out the crowds and how to manage them. I'm sure they can do it! Heck Dollywood is larger than the magic Kingdom anyways they just don't have the infrastructure to support those large crowds and the mountains are in the way [emoji14]

 

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On Thursday, the season pass upgrade desks within the park were closed. So everyone was directed to the front entrance booths to purchase or upgrade to a season pass, which again takes longer to process than just buying tickets, so it slowed the main line down as well.

 

And yes, when “Remember Me” started blaring on the speakers, everyone had an odd look on their faces. haha

BTW, is Dollywood now paying news stations in major cities to do stories on them? Just noticed this one in Atlanta, which threw in Dolly’s shows and Splash Country as well at the end. I got about halfway through the article and thought, “good grief this sound like PR” and sure enough there it was at the bottom. Sure, I’ve seen paid ads and commercials before, but never entire news segments. https://www.wsbtv.com/entertainment/things-2-do/trip-to-dollywood-includes-thrilling-rides-great-shows-amazing-food/724238775

 

For the record, they’ve never paid me a penny or given me anything free...so I can remain unbiased. haha

They had a song from Moana (one of Dwayne Johnson's songs) when I was there and yes Coco's remember me.. they also had a song that was very similar to a song from Indiana Jones. Not sure if it was a real Indiana Jones song or not but I'm sure that's what they were going for. my wife was making fun of it.. Kids loved it.. My wife thought she heard frozen as well but I didn't.. I heard Moana and Coco very loud and clear though

 

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Sounds like Dollywood is having a hard time getting started this season, but unfortunately that is the reality of a seasonal theme park. New staff learning things, limited returning staff to do the training. If moving trams somewhere else would really make your day that much better, they could have probably done that. But then they'd have a tram driver (or two) not actually helping anything. Ticket lines are long, but many people can buy online. Ticket sales (and season pass processing) and hawking soda bottles are vastly different tasks, even if both use the same POS system. I can pretty much guarantee there are members of management who saw those inefficiencies and wanted to do something about it, but that doesn't mean they had anything that they could do.

 

And simply starting the season sooner so spring break isn't the first major operating week is likely not an option. If the park found it financially viable to be open earlier (or even all year) they would. But realistically that doesn't work given the enormous cost of staffing an empty park. Plus the added strain on maintenance and upkeep schedules being shortened even more. For now, an unfortunate reality of running a season park is the first few weeks sucks.

BTW, is Dollywood now paying news stations in major cities to do stories on them? Just noticed this one in Atlanta, which threw in Dolly’s shows and Splash Country as well at the end. I got about halfway through the article and thought, “good grief this sound like PR” and sure enough there it was at the bottom. Sure, I’ve seen paid ads and commercials before, but never entire news segments.

 

They're called advertorials and they've been popular for years. People are far more likely to read them than normal ads so companies pay a premium for them.

BTW, is Dollywood now paying news stations in major cities to do stories on them? Just noticed this one in Atlanta, which threw in Dolly’s shows and Splash Country as well at the end. I got about halfway through the article and thought, “good grief this sound like PR” and sure enough there it was at the bottom. Sure, I’ve seen paid ads and commercials before, but never entire news segments.

 

They're called advertorials and they've been popular for years. People are far more likely to read them than normal ads so companies pay a premium for them.

 

This is closer to what we call “native advertising” but it surprised me that it was an actual video news segment and not disclosed within the video. It was only disclosed in the written article on the station’s website.

 

Just caught me off guard...I’ve seen a LOT more “sponsored by Dollywood” posts from bloggers this year, but this was the first full “news story” I’ve seen.

Where are the parks with the super short season pass processing lines? Man, I wish, I wish that on the occasions that Cedar Point screwed up my season pass renewal I didn't have to wait an hour to get inside and have them fix it (it's been two of the last 3 years and I kinda expect it to happen again). It's a really busy park.

 

I feel for the people who might want to redeem a VIP Pass on a day when the parking lot is entirely full, but they're also trying to redeem when the parking lot is entirely full and are locals. They can go almost any day.

Where are the parks with the super short season pass processing lines? Man, I wish, I wish that on the occasions that Cedar Point screwed up my season pass renewal I didn't have to wait an hour to get inside and have them fix it (it's been two of the last 3 years and I kinda expect it to happen again). It's a really busy park.

 

I feel for the people who might want to redeem a VIP Pass on a day when the parking lot is entirely full, but they're also trying to redeem when the parking lot is entirely full and are locals. They can go almost any day.

When dollywood had a season pass processing center, the lines were fairly short. Now that building sits closed.. This is it's second or third year closed now? I guess what it comes down to is Dollywood is trying to do more with fewer windows and staff.. I don't think it's a staffing issue but a cost cutting issue. Even when the park is fully staffed they no longer have a processing center for season passes and keep that building closed.. if it is opened, it's just selling tickets and the other ticket building is closed. Same with guest services (which is now just another ticket line with a fancy name) and VIP window is gone. And when I was there the upgrade center was open but it sounds like they didn't keep it open all week.

 

With that being said, Disney processes season passes at regular ticket windows (but they normally have all open, even in their slower parks on slower days). Plus if you don't want the yellow card, the magic bands, at least mine were, already activated when they arrived at my home. I didn't get my card for 2 days, and only got it for my discounts. Six flags no longer has season pass windows but their passes don't require processing unless you need to add a feature to them and a lot of those features can be added online. Blank card with a barcode and they use biometric.

 

Maybe that's a solution. Go away from photo cards and go to NFC with biometric. Or just a blank card with barcode and you activate it yourself using an app. Then have the upgrade center available for those who can't activate it. Seems to be working fine for six flags now plus it pushes people to your app. Even if Dollywood wants to activate it at the ticket window at least you save 2 - 3 minutes per person not needing your photo or the card to print.. I'm sure there are reasons Disney never went to photo cards.

 

I wonder how many folks gave up on Thursday and just decided not to upgrade their passes because the upgrade center inside the park was closed?

 

There are simple solutions, other parks use these solutions.. If they simply can't get the staff or if it's cost cutting, there are solutions out there. Dollywood at times just seems stuck in their ways and as the park gets more crowded they need to learn how to handle those crowds or change some of their policies and ways.

 

We can clearly see that their ways currently aren't working very well and if they continue to grow it's just going to get worse.

 

A pro tip though, you can also process your season pass in the old yellow information building on the parkway! I have never done it but do have a friend who did that for their family. Not sure when it's open. And your results might be different

 

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Dollywood is running a Thrills in the Hills Logo contest

 

https://basicfront.easypromosapp.com/p/922051

Also like I said they did away with the season pass processing center a few years ago. A few times last year they had windows just for processing season passes but I have yet to notice them this year (doesn't mean they haven't had them on days I wasn't there). I know the day I processed my wife's we had to wait in the regular ticket line. Hers was purchased online. Also last Saturday they were pointing people to the regular ticket line to process.

 

You can process in park at the upgrade center but it's line is just as long

 

So basically, even if you buy online, if it's a season pass you still wait. My wife's sister gets those local VIP tickets as well and I do remember her last year having her own line.

 

 

Six Flags Fiesta Texas did away w/ the Season Pass processing center years ago too (not sure if that's true of all Six Flags parks).

 

what they do now, is they give you your pass when you enter the park the 1st time (you scan your index finger, the gate attendant pulls out a card, scans it to tie it to your fingerprint, and then writes your name on it with Sharpie).

 

We did not wait in any ticket booth lines, just walked up to the entrance gates, with the printout from online showing we bought the passes.

 

tacky? yep. . but took seconds. (and if you want to link it to an online app, you don't even need to bring the card each time).

the only wait we had was to activate the season dining pass, that was a line in a separate location.

 

but to get the pass? took seconds during initial entry.

 

maybe Dollywood would move to something like this?

 

 

but as others said, at the end of the day, you're at a theme park. So I don't get the complaining, and tend not to.

Well. In other news the Buzzard is back

Well. In other news the Buzzard is back

 

Thank god. That buzzard is my dude.