On Monday, March 26th, 2018, I spent the day at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge Tennessee. This park is a very charming park with excellent theming, wonderful employees, and some of the best roller coasters in the country. Perhaps the most famous part about Dollywood is that it’s named after country singer-songwriter, Dolly Parton. Dolly acts as part owner of the theme park, and is the primary spokesperson for everything associated with Dollywood.
We arrived at the park at about 9:40 for the 10:00am opening. To start our day, we headed to Lightning Rod. Lightning Rod is the world’s fastest wooden roller coaster, along with the world’s first launched wooden roller coaster. I have loved this ride ever since my first time riding it, so much to the point that it ranks as my #2 roller coaster overall (I’ll explain rankings in a later post).
From there, we took it easy for a while and leisurely made our way around the park. We hit rides such as Blazing Fury, Wild Eagle, and FireChaser Express. I enjoy Dollywood so much that I don’t have a specific ride that disappoints me, so I can honestly say I enjoy everything at the park.
Next, I was able to hit a roller coaster that opened since my last trip, Whistle Punk Chaser. It is a small kiddie roller coaster, but it was nice to add another coaster to my list.
Perhaps one of the most popular rides in the park is the train, known as the Dollywood Express. After a quick bite to eat and a visit to Chasing Rainbows, a museum filled with different items from Dolly Parton’s life and career, we headed over to the train. The total ride lasts about 25 minutes and has several moments where guests can get involved in interacting with others on the train. We also got a peek of construction for the massive new addition coming to the park in the coming years (I will make a separate post about this as well).
Following the train, we rode Tennessee Tornado and Mystery Mine. Like I said, I love all the rides at Dollywood, so there’s not much more to say beyond that.
We then hopped on another new ride, Drop Line. This was a large drop tower that was added in 2017. Quite honestly, I had a fantastic experience on it, and it may now be one of my favorite drop rides. Afterwards, we rode the other wooden roller coaster in the park, Thunderhead.
Another ride on Lightning Rod, then we were about to end our day at the park. One thing Dollywood is extremely famous for is it’s culinary options and bakery items. Perhaps the most popular is it’s cinnamon bread. So, as per usual, we had to make a stop in the Grist Mill to pick up a loaf. If you’ve never had it, I would suggest trying some if you visit the park. I have also seen recipes online, so if you want to try to make it at home, feel free to Google “Dollywood Cinnamon Bread recipe”.
We ended up leaving the park at about 7:30, which was half an hour before closing, but we had some other things in the area was wanted to do before we went back to the hotel for the night. In the end, Dollywood was fantastic as always. However, luckily this wasn’t our only day at the park, so stay tuned for a trip report for day two at Dollywood.