Dollywood Opening Weekend 2012 Featuring Wild Eagle

[Luxornv]

Wall of text ensues; skip to the 3rd paragraph if you want to read about the park.
The addition of Wild Eagle, plus their small but respectable coaster collection, finally got me to go down to Dollywood. I had finalized my plans for this trip back in mid-February. I had booked one of the condos that was a part of Dollywood Vacations for a reasonable price of $109 a night. They were also offering length of stay passes to the Dollywood Vacations guests. For the duration of my stay in the condo, I could purchase a pass for the price of one day at the park and return any day with no additional fees. Free parking at the park in one of the closer lots was also a part of the deal. I didn’t know what kinds of deals any of the area hotels had going with admission, but the cost was already comparable to area hotels and the other stuff just seemed like a bonus. A few days after submitting my reservation, I got a call from them. They told me the web reservation system was messed up when I booked, and the condo I booked was actually already booked. They offered me either a full refund (something they don’t normally do as outlined in their cancellation policy), or would upgrade me to a cabin and still charge me rate I had originally agreed to. I went with Option B.

I planned to take the Friday and Monday surrounding the weekend off of work to use as travel days. Come March 23rd, I was ready to make the 10 hour ride from Chicago to Pigeon Forge, TN. I had a rather uneventful ride there through the wasteland of Indiana. The scenery got better once I got to Kentucky, but I was blown away by the scenery once I reached Tennessee. The mountains were so beautiful and not something I get to witness every day living in the flat land of the Chicago area. However, once in TN, there was a massive backup on I-75. Turns out part of the highway collapsed on the southbound side. Traffic was diverted over to the northbound side and reduced to one lane. This eventually made what I thought was a 10 hour ride a 12 hour ride. After dealing with that and speeding through Knoxville, I arrived at the cabin at 11pm local time. I looked over the cabin and realized it was huge and way more than enough for just myself. This one in particular had a kitchen, three bedrooms, a game room, and 2 hot tubs. I turned on the outdoor one to unwind after my long drive and eventually went to sleep after exiting the hot tub.
The park opened at 9am Saturday morning. After I parked, I immediately went for Wild Eagle. It was a relatively short wait when I got there (about 9:30 by now) and was able to get on in about 20 minutes. This was the ride I had been most anxious to ride, but I found it rather underwhelming. I’m not saying this wasn’t a good ride, but it seemed like some relatively standard elements that didn’t make use of the unique design of the trains. It was a good ride, very smooth and felt fast. There was a slight difference in the feel depending on which side of the train you’re on, but not a significant difference. I liked it, but it failed to crack my top 10 in my rather short ride list. After I got off, I decided to ride something else and headed toward Thunderhead. This ride absolutely blew me away with the seemingly constant speed, characteristic wooden coaster shake, overbanked turns and massive amount of airtime. This is easily my new #2. After this I decided to get a Q-bot for the Q2Q option offered on most rides. It was only $15 at Dollywood, and I found this to be a great deal compared to my home park’s (SFGAm) price of $45. While waiting to pick one up, I heard Mystery Mine wasn’t operating due to some mechanical issues, but might open later in the day. Once I got the Q-bot, I put in a reservation for Wild Eagle and rode the other side. After they cleared me on Wild Eagle, I saw Mystery Mine was available on the Q-bot. I put in the reservation and headed over there as soon as I got off of Wild Eagle. The queue was rather full, but the Q2Q line had no wait, so I was able to get right on. I liked Mystery Mine, but didn’t really get to savor it that first time to make a good judgment. Unfortunately I would not get another chance to ride it as it went down soon after that and wouldn’t reopen that weekend. Didn’t really have a plan after this, just walked around, took pictures, ate lunch, and made my way back to those rides. I also got in on Blazing Fury and Tennessee Tornado. Blazing Fury was a rather odd mine ride with what seemed like some broken effects and an incomplete plot line. This just left me thinking, “WTF?” Tennessee Tornado though left a better taste in my mouth. I liked how the first drop was not visible from anywhere else around the ride and wasn’t even immediately evident from on the ride. This also had what seemed like one of the tallest loops I’ve been on. With the exception of the Veggie Tales kiddie coaster, this rounds out the small but respectable coaster collection at Dollywood. The rest of the day didn’t have a plan as I continued taking pictures where I pleased and riding rides at random. I began to rain around 4:30 and I decided to head back to my cabin for a while seeing that it would probably be like this for a while. I returned and then rode out the night on Wild Eagle.

I was going to try to focus a little more on photography on Sunday, but that didn’t seem to happen as I just rotated between Wild Eagle, Tennessee Tornado, and Thunderhead. I got to a point where I had ridden Thunderhead about a dozen times in a half hour and thought I was no longer capable of riding that without a break. That ride just takes so much out of you, but it’s amazing every time. I rounded out the day with some more pictures and a ride on the train, hoping to get some different angles of the rides. Unfortunately, the tracks are behind a lot of trees, so most views were obstructed. I again rode out the night on Wild Eagle and that concluded my Dollywood trip.

My ride home wasn’t quite as bad as the ride there. Didn’t hit as much traffic; I-75 was still being diverted, but there wasn’t enough traffic to cause problems. I was able to make it home in about 10 hours.
For pictures, go here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 8307b30389
I’ll do some inline pictures later, I don’t have time to get the links right now

[Luxornv]

Cabin I stayed in.

[FParker185]

Very Cool, especially the cabin.

One question I have though... How was the capacity situation on Wild Eagle? Was it pretty efficient or was it as bad as it seems?

[Luxornv]

The capacity seemed decent; there was never longer than a half hour line with both trains running, and the crowd was fairly large in the park both days. I timed them once, and I think they were sending a train every 2 minutes, so 28 per train every 2 min would be 840 per hour. I have a feeling X-Flight will be less than that though. The line seemed like it was slow moving once I got to the split in line though. Most lines are that way though when there's no grouper in the station and order is lost.

[Galvan317]

A huge part of Dollywood's attendance doesn't go for the rides they go for the shows and atmosphere, even if the park is busy the lines for the coasters normally aren't that long. When I went to Dollywood Thunderhead was a 30 minute wait with 1 train, and the line for the Polar Express was 1 1/2 hours.

[icantwaittilxflight]

How was the split like? Or can you just explain the queue? Did they have somebody working the split and making sure each side was balanced? and I'm guessing you're allowed to choose what row you want right? or how do they keep it maintained? I have a feeling that it might be difficult to take a group of 4, split them, and try to get on the same train in the same row..

[Luxornv]

How was the split like? Or can you just explain the queue? Did they have somebody working the split and making sure each side was balanced? and I'm guessing you're allowed to choose what row you want right? or how do they keep it maintained? I have a feeling that it might be difficult to take a group of 4, split them, and try to get on the same train in the same row..

You have the regular queue line, and at the split there is an employee there making sure the sides are even. Depending on who it is, he or she may let you pick the side you want. After that it was some stairs and then the station. The station is set up the same way most coasters are set up. I don't think you'll be able to get everyone in the same row. It's loaded on both sides, and you cannot cross the track. It's like a 2 wide coaster basically. You could probably do it if you can communicate with people on the other side of the station, but it really won't make a difference when you ride anyway. There's a shield and track in the way, so you won't see them or be able to talk to someone on the other side.

[icantwaittilxflight]

You have the regular queue line, and at the split there is an employee there making sure the sides are even. Depending on who it is, he or she may let you pick the side you want. After that it was some stairs and then the station. The station is set up the same way most coasters are set up. I don't think you'll be able to get everyone in the same row. It's loaded on both sides, and you cannot cross the track. It's like a 2 wide coaster basically. You could probably do it if you can communicate with people on the other side of the station, but it really won't make a difference when you ride anyway. There's a shield and track in the way, so you won't see them or be able to talk to someone on the other side.

Thanks! And yeah I guess you're right. It might be helpful if you're in a group and you don't want to wait afterwards for the rest of your party to finish. Thanks though! I can picture it well in my head now

[Luxornv]

Your best bet if you want 4 of the same group on a train is to load 2 rows and synchronize in the line.