As you may have heard, weather in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area is super unpredictable! When we went to bed the night before Dollywood we thought we might not get to go because there was a 90% chance of rain. When we woke up at 3 am by Mr. B getting stung by a wasp, we checked and it was down to 40%. We we got up at 6 am to decide it was down to 20%, so we decided to go and risk it. It NEVER rained that day, it was great! The park wasn’t overcrowded either so I think it may have helped keep the masses at bay. We took ponchos in a backpack and then just rented a $4 locker at the main entrance to keep them in, instead of carrying them all over, but we never needed them. So I’d say even if weather isn’t looking favorable I’d go ahead and go anyways, you never know what’s going to happen with the weather there!
We arrived at Dollywood at 9:30 am on a Thursday in July, it was $10 to park the car, and we were easily able to get parking in the closest area to the first Tram, lot B. I took a pic with my phone so we’d remember where we parked…not that it was hard since it wasn’t full that day, but you never know, LOL!
The tram person on the back, was super friendly! As soon as we got on the tram (we were only ones on) they took off and took us to the entrance…that’s where things turned from friendly to unfriendly…fast! We went to the window to buy tickets and we got the one with the mean ole sourpuss working, when we asked for the military tickets she demanded the ID’s of all of us, even the kids! We had only brought ours (kids were in car) because every other park we’ve been to using military discounts (Disney, Sea World, Busch Gardens, act) you only need the adult ones AND they are much more friendly giving you the military discount as well! The lady was super rude and said we had to have the kids ones, OK I get it if it’s the park policy but I don’t think the park policy includes being rude to military families who don’t have them! They she proceeded to ‘lecture’ us that the military gives all kids who are 12 an ID so if they are 12 and up (Bub & Boo) they have to show and ID. I wanted to laugh in her face and correct her telling her that it’s actually 10 years old when they get ID’s issued, but I refrained. Mr. B goes to hop back on the tram to go back out to the parking lot to get the ID’s. A few minutes later he calls me and says he’s heading back…I was thinking that was sure fast…um no…I had the keys in the backpack, sigh. He gets them and is off again. By the time he’s back and we go through a different line and get tickets from a friendly lady who thanks us for our service, it’s now 10 am…the whole ordeal took 30 minutes! They really need to do a better job of letting the military know that kids need to bring ID’s too, I’m glad we had them in the car, but I know lots of people may not have had them at all!
Next issue was that as soon as we parked Bub declared that he needed to use the bathroom, so in the midst of all this ticket hubaloo I’m running around trying to find a bathroom OUTSIDE the park entrance. I finally get help at the info booth and found that if you go over the bridge like your going to enter the park gates and take an immediate right there are bathrooms just outside, whew!
Also I thought ticket prices were a bit high, for our family of 5 it cost $214 WITH the military discount, ouch if your paying full price! I will say that at then end of the trip when polling everyone in the car on the ride home, everyone chose Dollywood as their favorite place we visited the whole trip. So with that being said I guess that $$$ for spending a whole day together as a family having fun wasn’t too bad, I just wouldn’t do it everyday, LOL!
We headed straight to the Thunderhead roller coaster because I’d read tips online that said to hit all the big roller coasters first before the crowds got bad. Bea doesn’t like roller coasters so we checked out the misters (which were great later that day when it was HOT, but are lacking in other areas of the park!) and then the playground right next to the coaster.
Bea & I tried a little lumberjack ride where you pull yourself up and then let yourself drop down, she’s not a fan of heights but it goes down slow so she was ok with it. She had Mr. B ride it with her after they got of they coaster. Then we hit the mine coaster, Mr. B & the boys rode, and then I went on it with the boys while he stayed with Bea.
The guys headed over to ride the Eagle, Bea & I stopped to refresh in misters, took some pics and checked out the air conditioned gift shop while we waited.
After another coaster ride everyone decided they were starving so we went to find food. Guess we were so hungry I forgot to take any pics…oops! We decided on Grandma’s Buffet, which was pretty spendy, a hefty $72 for our family of 5! It was an all you can eat & drink restaurant and it had air conditioning which was great because despite the previous forecast it was starting to heat up outside! We knew we wouldn’t be eating in the park again that day and would be having dinner later somewhere else so figured this was the best deal to keep us full, it was around 11 am when we ate. The food was good, nothing extraordinary, but good and there were some great dessert choices including banana pudding.
After we ate we went to ride Blazing Fury, an indoor ride with to small dips, just the right amount of thrill for Bea, LOL! We’d rode it while we were waiting on the guys at one of the coasters but she wanted us all to go ride it. Mr. B and I took Bea to the kiddie ride area while the boys headed off to ride the coasters, this was around 1 pm. The boys texted me that there ware NO lines at the Eagle, the biggest coaster there, and they rode it 7 times in a row! They headed to the mine one but it was too crowded so they road Thunderhead and met back up with us at 3 pm. In the meantime we’d gone on a crazy spinning ride with Bea, which made Mr. B have to sit out. So I rode the tea cups with her, which made me have to sit out, LOL! I’ve never felt like that after riding on tea cups before! Guess I’m getting old!
Then it was time to hit the water rides as a family, we had decided to wait and hit those right before leaving the park. I was surprised that at 3 pm, and it was now hot out, the rides for the water rides were not bad at all. The worst one was the big round raft ride, we had to wait for about 10-15 minutes, the others were 2-3 minute waits. We got soaked, cooled off and headed to let the kids play a few games before we left for the day. The one that was a raft with all 5 of us in was a bit scary, we did it twice and almost flipped the raft both times…that was enough of that!
We then headed to let the kids play some games before we left. The best fair game was the one where you throw wiffle balls and try to get them to land on the colored jars. It was $5 for a bucket of balls, the family beside us had won 8 or so times! Bub did great at this game and once twice, once a monkey for him and then a giraffe for Bea. Boo & Mr. B didn’t have the same luck and didn’t win. Bea won a red dolphin with fangs (so she says) for Boo since he didn’t win at the wiffle ball game and he won a yellow ball at a football game.
We had a great time hanging out as a family! The park was clean and seemed well maintained. Also you are able to get free ice water from any vendor for free, you just have to ask, and we used that to help keep us hydrated and cool! We were exhausted when we left the park at 5:30 pm, we played hard! They had fireworks at 9:30 pm but we just weren’t going to make it until that late. We didn’t watch any of the shows either, we literally were riding rides from 10 am to 5:00 pm except for when we stopped for lunch. Now we can cross this place off our ‘to-visit’ list!
Boo made this hilarious video, I crack up every time I watch it!!
I hadn’t thought about Dollywood in years, but this weekend I was telling my man about a middle school trip there! I used to live in Morristown right near by. I remember having a lot of fun there. It’s smaller but, like you said, feels really friendly.
I’m saying hey through Jo, My Gosh – I’m also in this month’s giveaway!
Hey there! Glad you stopped by! I agree it was smaller with less rides but it was the perfect amount for a day for us, we were able to do them all and the boys could re-ride the coasters as they wanted 🙂