There are some tips to making it a better value. Instead of paying the $12 fee to park our car at the theme park, we paid 50 cents each to ride the Dollywood Trolley from Pigeon Forge.
Also, if you enter the park after 3 p.m., you can come again the next day for free. So we got there after 3 on our first day, and used it as a chance to get acquainted to this new-to-us park. Dollywood is known for its rides, as well as its shows. Our first stop was to see the magic show. Even sitting on one of the front rows, we couldn't explain his amazing tricks. After putting one of his lovely assistants into this little box, he plunged these burning sticks of fire all the way through the box. He doesn't seem like a very nice boss to us.
So we were a little confused when just moments later not just one, but two assistants get out of the burning box. The real magical mystery is that they are both smiling after the traumatic experience they have just endured.
It started sprinkling when we went to our second show, and it was a full deluge by the time we came out. It looked like all of the park visitors were heading to the exits.
But we made it through the rain to the Dolly Parton museum, where we were greeted by Dolly's hologram. She talked about her life of poverty and luxury, surrounded by many of her prized possessions.
There was a sizable display of her large collection of dresses. There were also displays of her childhood, growing up in a tiny cabin with her parents and 11 siblings. It was a fascinating museum!
Just outside of the museum was the motor home Dolly used for making concert tours. We appreciated its title, "Home on Wheels." Been there--doing that.
By this time it was dark outside, and it looked like the entire theme park was deserted. It was a little eerie walking down streets with absolutely no one else around.
But we kept walking to the back of Dollywood where the best roller coaster rides can be found. We were delighted to see that once the rain had stopped, they re-opened four of the big coasters. Since we had the park to ourselves, we could walk straight through the maze of lines and jump on the front row seat! It was great!
We didn't take pictures of the coaster tracks that night because it was too dark to even see them. Plunging through the darkness through twists and turns and dips made our first rides on these coasters even more frightening than usual. We got to ride the FireChaser Express, shown here with the red coaster going sideways around the curve.
Our favorite ride was the Wild Eagle, with its smooth soaring over the tall peaks of the coaster track we pictured the next day in the daylight. You can see the riders on the Wild Eagle as it enters the loop-to-loop in the far right hand side of the picture. This was the only ride we did twice, because we liked it so much. On our second trip up that crazy steep incline, the Dollywood fireworks had just started. We got a close-up view as the fireworks exploded right in the sky in front of us. It was one of the coolest roller coaster experiences ever.
The Wild Eagle was so fun sitting in the front seat, that we ran back up to ride it again from the last seat. We must say the drops were even scarier from the back! We made it to our third coaster--Tennessee Tornado, again with no line. In fact we had the entire roller coaster to ourselves. As we strapped into the front cart, the hostess whisked us away with wishes for a romantic ride on our private date night.
We just finished the Tennessee Tornado roller coaster, and heard that the newest Dollywood ride was also open this evening. The Lightning Rod features the fastest wood launch coaster in the world, with a twenty story drop and a wooden track that allows for speeds of 73 mph. It doesn't look too scary in the picture we took the next day, but our best description of this ride is "frantic." It was a ridiculous ride in the dark!
We got off that coaster at 10:00 p.m., just as Dollywood was officially closing for the day. In the last 45 minutes we had taken 5 roller coaster rides on 4 different coasters! On a normal day, it is usual to wait more than twice that long to just ride one. It was an awesome evening!
And we still had tickets for the next day for free! So we had to get to bed in order to wake up bright and early and catch that trolley to Dollywood again. Our cardinal rule of visiting a theme park was to be there when it opened. We were there at 9:30 a.m. (even though it didn't open until 10:00) and we were the first ones to make our way to the back when they dropped the rope.
We were also the first ones in line at the Mystery Mine--one of the few coasters that wasn't open last night. You can see Mark at the front of the ever-growing line behind us.
That was right before the Mystery Mine employee came to tell us they were having technical difficulties and didn't know when they would open the ride. That can be a little unsettling when you are first in line, but we were assured this German-made ride is the safest in the park because it has so many safety checks. We were also told they had to order replacement parts all the way from Germany, so we hoped that didn't have to happen before it reopened. We visited with the employee and still got that coveted front row roller coaster seat when they opened a few minutes later. We started our day with a coaster, and then began Denisa's rigorous schedule of shows. She did her homework and had it worked out so we could see every show in the park today. Some of the shows were outdoors, and required creative seating options as the day got warmer.
Some were roving comedic singers like the Gem Tones, that were trying to teach Denisa how to do the twist.
Some had their own theaters with elaborate stage sets and costuming. This was our favorite, with costumes and music that ranged from the 1950's to the 1970's. Is it a problem that we knew most of the words to most of the songs?
We needed a little exercise after sitting through all this music, so we took a walk around Dollywood to see the sections we had only experienced in the dark. Is it crazy that Denisa realized her fore arms were sore from hanging on so tightly on the roller coasters last night? Mark must be tougher, because he wasn't sore at all. Today he found the River Battle ride, where spectators can shoot water guns at the passengers on the passing boats. The only problem with this scenario is that they can shoot back.
We also found the Robert F. Thomas Chapel, where church services are held on the weekends. Denisa cannot avoid an open piano, especially when there is a hymnal available. She sat down at the piano, but found that the dim light and those old-fashioned triangular notes made sight-reading those hymns a little rusty.
Back to Denisa's rigorous show schedule, we went to an interesting show called, "My People." It featured a recorded Dolly Parton on the big screen singing and talking with her friends and family that were on the stage. In the middle of the stage are four of Dolly's family members--two cousins, a brother, and a niece.
A surprising show to find at Dollywood was "Wings of America." Featuring six different birds of prey, including this golden eagle, it was both educational and entertaining.
The golden eagle was beautiful, but the award for cuteness was this little screech owl
We were also surprised to find out that the wooded area around Dollywood is home to 8 different bald eagles. Here because they have injuries that don't allow them to be able to be released into the wild, they are still used for breeding purposes. Their young are then released through the National Eagle Foundation that partners with Dollywood.
We also saw the Country Crossroads show, watched the Heartsong movie, and experienced Miss Lillian's chicken show. We were in our chairs ready for the Back Porch show when they cancelled because of lightning in the area. This sounds like a repeat of yesterday's weather. Denisa did get to ride the carousel, but it would be the last ride of the day.
We wanted to ride the Dollywood Express, the coal-fired steam engine train that take a five-mile journey through the Great Smokey Mountains foothills. We were just minutes away from leaving the train station when the same storm cancelled our trip.
Just as yesterday's storm sent much of the crowd home, by the time the clouds opened up we were in the majority that was scurrying to the exits today. We had already enjoyed Dollywood for 9 hours by that time, and the radar looked like the storms would continue for the rest of the evening. True to the radar, we did have heavy winds in the area. The town just 18 miles north of us made the national news when a store's roof was peeled off by the wind and landed on the Dollar General next door. We were lucky to be spared the worst of the storm. We were also lucky to have a great two days at Dollywood, and we would recommend it to others!
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