Anthony: Welcome back to Q and Chill, the podcast where we talk about theme parks, coasters, food, and all the little adventures in between. Today we're talking about our two day trip to Dollywood. We went during the I Will Always Love You music festival, which is Dollywood's early season event Stuffed with live music, special food, and that very specific Dolly Part and Sparkle.
Tim: ⁓ Before talk about Dollywood, I think we should talk about the first Adventure that we went on on our trip. which was Bucky's.
Anthony: Okay. ⁓ Well, let's start with which Bucky's we went to.
Tim: We went to a couple, I forget which one that we went to in Virginia. Do remember the town?
Anthony: no, I think it was a relatively new Bucky's.
Tim: I can't remember the time that we went to, but the first thing I could think of was it just smells like a lot of different things in here. Did you also feel the same?
Anthony: I didn't get so many different like smells it was more of a like There's a heavy smell of meat and a heavy smell of sweet
Tim: Okay, I feel the same. It was like a strong smell of like jerky and then I feel like I could smell like all the candy being made. It was cool though. We had to go a couple of times because there was a lot of different things to see but it was cool to experience it and I feel like we need to go back a couple of times to get ⁓ a full experience.
Anthony: Heh So I know it's not a, this isn't a gas station podcast or, you know, a Bucky's podcast, but like what were some of the positives of going to Bucky's?
Tim: how much food was. ⁓ The bathrooms were good. ⁓ There was like, yeah, there were like employees like hovering the bathroom just to make sure that anything dropped on the floor was picked up. ⁓ it was a refreshing way to stop and be able to just like take a second to chill before we kept going on the road.
Anthony: Okay. Yeah, immaculate. Plenty of stalls. Yeah, I definitely wish there was one closer for us. One thing I really liked that I got was the Beaver Nuggets that I have here. They're kind of addicting. actually just a few hours ago looked online if I could buy them and there's some places that sell them. For a slight markup, I can get for
Tim: Ha ha.
Anthony: for four bags for like $40.
Tim: haha It was a good way to stop and just chill out and be able to walk around for a little bit before we went on the road. So it was good.
Anthony: Yeah, I mean, we were on the road for a while. ⁓
Tim: Yeah, so let's talk about the road trip first, like how we got there. So we first started off in Rhode Island because we saw Wicked on the Sunday before we went to Tennessee. And then once we were done there, we drove to pretty much Allentown, Pennsylvania. And we stayed overnight, not even overnight, we stayed like six hours in a hotel. And then...
Anthony: it I don't even think it was six hours. I think we were there for like five.
Tim: Yeah. And then we left at like what? nine a.m.
Anthony: ⁓ yeah, was like, not that we were in a heavy metro area at the time, but like it was just after rush hour would typically end. Just to try to smooth our drives out a little bit. We got enough rest and.
Tim: Or at least you did.
Anthony: We didn't feel rushed.
Tim: So and then we got there at like what 7 o'clock between 7 and 8.
Anthony: Actually we got to so Dollywood's in the pigeon forage area So we got to pigeon forage I would say it was like 6 6 30 ish We had to make some stops on the way to check in the hotel Needed gas because Of course we did It's a long trip
Tim: Yep. And then we went to the island when we got there. and we went to Paula Deen's restaurant. And how'd you like the food there?
Anthony: So I thought the food was good. I got, what did I get? So we got the two entree four sides. ⁓ They have different levels of what you can get. So depending on A, how hungry you are and B, how big your family is, it'll give you some more options. the two entrees, the four sides, ⁓ we got ⁓ like, Fried chicken for one entree and the other one was the meatloaf. Fried chicken was delicious. ⁓ The meatloaf, not my favorite. I've had better from, you know, my mom making it. So if you're looking for your mom's meatloaf, it's probably not going to be the same. But ⁓ the sides were pretty good. ⁓ If I'm remembering correctly. We got the creamed corn the Sweet potato casserole, I think it was ⁓ mac and cheese and Yes, was the fourth one
Tim: must have for you. I only ate the chicken, so I forget. Yeah. Yep.
Anthony: ⁓ was the close law. I got the close law. ⁓ mac and cheese was halfway decent. ⁓ If you're looking for a really creamy, cheesy mac and cheese, I would not recommend, but it was good. Cream corn was delicious. Coast law pretty good. ⁓ I'm not huge on Coast law. Just wanted to try it. It was it was pretty ⁓ Like, not sesty, but like.
Tim: like, not sassy.
Anthony: I don't know, pungent, soury. ⁓
Tim: I don't like coleslaw, so I'm bad at it. I don't think I'd be able to explain it very well for you. ⁓
Anthony: Yeah, and then the sweet potatoes delicious
Tim: From there we went to the moonshine cross the way and that was actually pretty good. And our host, the one that did our tasting was actually really funny and really awesome. if you're hearing this out there, I forgot her name too. I wish I remembered her name, but she was so funny and very hospitable. So that was a good way to kind of start our way. at Pigeon Forge, that was cool.
Anthony: Yeah, I kind of wish we bought the moonshine too, because the two that I tried I liked, which is surprising because I don't like the moonshine. So.
Tim: Yeah. Yeah, no, that host was really cool. So hopefully if you're listening to this out there in the world, that'd be cool. ⁓ So why do we decide to do this? Why don't we decide to go ⁓ Tennessee? So.
Anthony: So this was like my first vacation for this season. It's kind of early in the season. I was hoping for us to get some better weather when we went down there. ⁓ Yeah.
Tim: We did it at the end of the week, just not when we went to the park.
Anthony: figured this would be a good opportunity for both of us to visit a new park. ⁓ It wasn't like cost wise a huge burden so I figured that'd be easy for us especially the beginning of the year after the holidays.
Tim: Yeah, it was a great way to be able to use my Marriott points and just save some money and be able to go on a quick and expensive trip. We got the season pass for you and then we were able to use the discount tickets and the one free ticket to make it pretty cheap for us to be able to go both days. And we got the discounts for our merchant food too, so that was great.
Anthony: you Yeah, definitely if you're going to go more than one day, I would suggest looking into season pass. It helps with the
Tim: If it's just two of you going and you're going to go for two days, one of you get this isn't passed and then the other person that's in your party can just use the free ticket and the discounted ticket to make it easy for you guys as well.
Anthony: Yeah, I think depending on when you buy it, what deals they're having, you get a certain different amount of free tickets. I got one free ticket. One discounted ticket, I think it was. So that worked out good. Well, and then the two not as discounted discounted tickets.
Tim: Two, we found out two. ⁓ that's right. So you get three in total, which is great.
Anthony: Yeah, and then you get free parking discounts on food and drinks and merchandise. There's also other perks you get with the season pass. Sometimes there's discounts on the lodging. If you stay at one of the Dollywood resorts, you also. They have like a golden hour, I believe, and. ⁓ for first hour the parks open you're allowed to use the fast pass lanes ⁓ you also get discounts on their fast pass although the discount is very minimal I would say it doesn't really make a dent in how much those costs it's like four dollars you know it's something but I feel like it's kind of an insult ⁓ to market it as a real discount when you're looking for a hundred dollars
Tim: Yeah. It's still something though.
Anthony: for the flashback and you're giving a four dollar discount or five dollars discount that's five percent you know like almost nothing
Tim: We gotta be grateful for the little discounts that we get. Okay. I would say that we kind of were casual about how we went about the trip. I mean, we planned what days we were gonna go and like what times we were gonna go. But what we actually did was kind of up to how the day went. And I feel like the more trips to parks that we go on, the easier that becomes because we kind of know what we wanna do.
Anthony: Yeah. Yeah.
Tim: ⁓ I feel like the more that we go on trips, the easier it is for us to be able to kind of navigate what we do as we're at the park, because we already know what we want to do. So like, Tuesday, we did more more rides and, and shows kind of here and there. And then Wednesday, we did more like exploring more food and, and things like that. ⁓
Anthony: So I mean, I feel like we did a lot of research into what the park has to offer. We also went in with a plan. The weather changed that plan, which I'm sure we'll go through. And we adapted the plan for the weather on the fly. So you definitely, feel like that's something you have to learn how to do, especially. When you're set on going a specific day, come rain or shine.
Tim: So in terms of what we were most excited for, for Roller Coasters, what was your top excitement choice?
Anthony: So I didn't really have a specific roller coaster. Yeah, I mean, I don't like ruining the surprise of what's coming up.
Tim: So I didn't really what Oh, that's right. You didn't want to look at the coasters before we went. Fair, okay, so I'll answer this question. ⁓ I love to research specifically rides before we go to a park because I wanna know what ride, I wanna have an idea of what ride to start off with first. I don't wanna just start, for me, I wanna be able to start off with an action-packed ride. So I was hoping for Lightning Rod first, but it was too cold to open the ride. So our first coaster of the day was Blazing Fury. I wasn't most excited for that one. However, I learned that this was one of the original rides from before Dollywood even existed. Like it was at Silverdell City before it was bought out and turned into Dollywood. ⁓ But that was a cool one to ride. My most anticipated coaster was Lightning Rod and I definitely made the right choice ⁓ with my favorite ride. I think that was definitely my favorite one. Bye bye,
Anthony: I mean I was looking forward to writing a lot of stuff. ⁓ I didn't know too much about the rides. I was looking forward to riding the train because...
Tim: You were very excited for the train because we learned a lot about that before we went to the park.
Anthony: Yeah, it was also they just changed the train from coal fired steam to oil which will allow them to run in different situations And not be so weather dependent which became a lifesaver during this period because It was like one of the few things that were open when we got there it was like 25 degrees out so
Tim: Yep, it was very cold.
Anthony: Because ⁓ Blazing Fury is inside, that was open, so we hit that up first. And then we hit the train up because the first departure is an hour after the park opens. So we were on the first ride out of there.
Tim: were on the first ride. Yep, it was good. And then we were able to go on the train, got off the train, we were walking around and we were able to start going on more of the rides since it was getting more warmer and things kept opening up. So it was good.
Anthony: Yeah, I mean, ⁓ I don't understand how European parks are able to open during snow and stuff and our parks can't, but it is what it is.
Tim: I would say that they probably just prepare for it better. how they're built and structured and stuff. They probably do some extra stuff to make it work, you know?
Anthony: Yeah, ⁓ as far as like my favorite ride of both days, it's tough to say. I liked the Lightning Rod. We rode it twice. I think it was the only one that we really rode twice. ⁓ Thunderhead was good. ⁓ It surprised me. Yeah. ⁓ I feel like Thunderhead felt faster than Lightning Rod.
Tim: It was very unexpected.
Anthony: And then. I really liked the... Fire chaser? Yeah.
Tim: via Tracer Express. That was awesome.
Anthony: Yeah, I shocked. thought I, because I'm on the bigger side, that I wouldn't be able to fit in that.
Tim: way that it sits is actually pretty comfy, in my opinion. It's comfier than a Toro, so. ⁓ First day we had pretty much walk-ons all day, which was great. then, I mean, later on in the day it started getting busier, so that kind of changed. But then Wednesday we were in lines pretty much all day.
Anthony: Yeah, the it was a drastic change from Tuesday to Wednesday. ⁓ What we didn't know was that a lot of the schools down there were on and even just in the south were on a spring break. ⁓ Being in the north, I'm more used to spring break being during the Easter holiday.
Tim: Yeah, it was a pretty interesting to see all the schools there But we made the best out of it either way just like we always do so it good In terms of the festival food and the tasting pass that was that was all you because For those of you who know me, I don't have the palette of an adult. So I was looking more forward to the sweets and the drinks and that kind of stuff for the tasting pass, but what was your favorite food that you had from the tasting pass?
Anthony: ⁓ So before we go over the food that I had I want to Go over like how the tasting pass works. So you buy this tasting pass it gives you five purchases of Things that are on the I will always love you menu, I guess I would call it ⁓ So it doesn't matter how much the things cost you you pay the I think it's
Tim: that I have a
Anthony: $45 if you don't have a season pass and $40 if you do You pay that and they give you a pass that you wear around your neck And you tell them what you want they scan it and then they give it to you I'm trying to look up the foods that are on it.
Tim: Okay. Do you have the pass?
Anthony: somewhere in my stuff that I haven't unpacked. But I just looked it up online. they have drinks that you can get, ⁓ like food items. And then, ⁓ then you have dessert. I didn't use it for the drink items just because the drink items were $5.99. You still get a discount with your season pass for the drinks. So with the cost of the pass and the price of the drink, I felt like it wasn't a worthwhile use of the pass. So I stuck to food and stuff for it. So ⁓ the first thing that I got was the sausage and cabbage skillet. ⁓ Portion wise, I'd say it's a pretty decent portion. ⁓ We had a little hiccup with the pass for that one. I don't know what it was. ⁓ I don't if they weren't ⁓ ready for it ⁓ at 1 in the afternoon or whatever time it was ⁓ or if they just expect anyone to want it. But it was not ready at all.
Tim: We can skip over that ⁓
Anthony: So they tried to refund me it, they couldn't refund it. And then. We finally got him just to like, I guess make it and we'll show up later for it. that's when we rode lightning rod the two times. Came back and waited a little bit longer and it was ready. But ⁓ was frustrating. ⁓
Tim: That was fast.
Anthony: What else did I get? I got the strawberry hibiscus tea. It's like an iced tea. was really good. ⁓ Sweet, full of flavor. Not typically something I'd expect from a theme park. My only complaint was the portion size for those they were pretty small. I feel like they were like kid sizes. Would you agree?
Tim: Yeah, would say so yeah, I would clear that out
Anthony: You
Tim: Yeah, it was a pretty small size for six bucks. ⁓ It was gone pretty fast. I would say, would say maybe offer a little bit more of a bigger size next year, but it was still pretty good though. Yeah, I guess.
Anthony: you Yeah, I guess they can only make so much so they want to portion it out a little better. ⁓ Some other stuff that they had there was ⁓ a barbeque chicken sandwich. Something called cheese winders, just were like fries loaded with cheese and like grilled onions and peppers. ⁓ The other thing I got was the chicken alfredo bowl. That was pretty good. ⁓ It was just chicken in Alfredo sauce in a bread bowl. Delicious portion size, not the biggest, but still filling. I don't know if that's something that I could be able to share with someone else. ⁓ Another station had fire roasted ⁓ corn strips. It had a few different baked potatoes. ⁓ One was like a cheesesteak, the other one was like a barbecue, baked potato, like barbecue pork. They had the loaded chips, which when we watched the videos about it, you wanted to try it, but I guess you changed your mind.
Tim: I'm sure. ⁓
Anthony: ⁓ Some sausage and potatoes, ⁓ pot roast and potatoes, ⁓ some corn chowder, corned beef hash, which I guess is kind of ⁓ St. Patrick's Day themed. spinach and artichoke in a potato ⁓ some wings with some sauce on it a Cobb salad and the white bean queso dip which I wanted to try but a lot of these things you can only get from one location which is Kind of annoying if you know how the park is laid out. So it's kind of laid out in a ring ⁓ Where one side of the ring is on top of a mountain And the other side of the ring is at the bottom. So you go from like one area, you're going up and then you're going back down. I feel like they should have the food in more places, but it is what it is. So we didn't try that. Um, they had like dessert too. I ended up getting the Sweet roll? Yeah, and a cupcake. ⁓ Cupcake was delicious. I'll be honest, I haven't eaten the sweet roll yet. I saved it. ⁓ I I might have it tonight. What else did we eat there? We had the cinnamon bread. That's not included in the tasting pass.
Tim: The ice cinnamon roll? Yeah. We got that twice, it was so good.
Anthony: Yeah. big like enough to share with a family. It was only like what $13 ⁓ with your choice of either apple butter Or we got it with the apple butter the first time ⁓ Second time with icing Definitely a highlight of the food there. feel like, I wish they could ship it.
Tim: I know, it was really good. I would say my favorite part of the whole festival, the options for food ⁓ or drinks, were the, I had the peanut butter hot chocolate and it was actually really good. So I was happy to get that. So it was good.
Anthony: Yeah, I forgot about that. That was I tasted it. was it was good. It was I'm not
Tim: Yeah, I love hot chocolate. So if there's a hot chocolate festival that you need to invite me to, just let me know and I'll be there. So you love the food. I love the coasters. You love the coasters, too, ⁓ I can go to a theme park and just marathon coasters all day. and be happy and skip breakfast, lunch and dinner. And then I want to eat like later on in the day. ⁓ So for coasters for me, I loved the lightning rod. I think that was awesome. I was pretty excited for Wild Eagle, but I wasn't too thrilled with it after we got off just because I thought it was kind of. I felt like it was lacking. Do you think so?
Anthony: So I don't think it had anything special. I also felt like it was really short. I feel like he went up the lift tail, did some loops and then it was done. ⁓
Tim: Yeah. I think the most surprising coaster that we went on the entire trip was the... ⁓ I forget the name of it. Was it the Dragonfly Expedition?
Anthony: The inverted coaster that doesn't invert.
Tim: The non-inverted inverted coaster.
Anthony: Yeah, that was the Dragonfly. ⁓ That was a good ride. It was faster than it appears, or it feels faster than it is. ⁓ I feel like all the rides were pretty good ⁓ and surprising in their own ways. Like the Tennessee Tornado, the layout is surprising because you really can't see it from anywhere in the park until you're on it. ⁓ The speed it was at...
Tim: Yeah. Yes. ⁓ huh.
Anthony: You know, it was amazing. Lightning Rod was like... The topography, how they used the topography was great. That was surprising. I'm so glad we got on it on Tuesday and we were like, it was like no line for it on Tuesday, which I'm sure was like unheard of. Yeah. ⁓
Tim: Yep. Two walk, two walk ons back to back. It was great. My my dream come true. My dream come true.
Anthony: the big bear mountain one ⁓ it was good yeah I wish it was faster so the surprising thing about that is like
Tim: That was good too. I wish it was faster. That's it.
Anthony: how much of, well it's a kids ride, it's also like an adults ride, like it's a family coaster but it doesn't, like it feels like it fits somewhere between family coaster and thrill ride.
Tim: I like they can, I feel like if I made that roller coaster and roller coaster tycoon or planet coaster, I would change the speed of the launch depending on the age group that's on the trains.
Anthony: So I feel like I would change the speed of the initial launch especially, even without taking into account the age of the people on the ride. I feel like that's like just the, little tweak if you do it like maybe three miles per hour or more, you'll get so much more ⁓ thrill out of it.
Tim: I think the most surprising ride for us equally was the Firechaser Express though.
Anthony: Yeah, I've never, I don't think I've ever been on anything quite like it. ⁓
Tim: It reminded me like a slimmed down version of something that you might see at like Universal or something like that because of the, the theming was actually really good. I was surprised by the theming just cause they had like the show in the middle of it. ⁓ They had like the music on the ride, like a lot of things about it was just so good. ⁓
Anthony: would you call that the middle of the ride? feel like that was the end of the ride.
Tim: Either way, it was there and it was good.
Anthony: So to me it was like a hybrid boomerang coaster.
Tim: A hybrid boomerang full circuit loop coaster. It was really cool though.
Anthony: Yeah. ⁓ theming was great though, I agree with that. ⁓ The line was themed really great. The theming of the whole park was great. ⁓ stuck pretty much to one central theme ⁓ little branches out there, but still called to the theme of the whole park. The whole park is like a Tennessee, ⁓ mountain theme. ⁓ kind of a frontier kind of theme going on. for like the central theme, but things branch out from there. So you got the big bear mountain would be like the wilderness part of the theming and the dragonfly is like more of the whimsical kind of part of smoky mountains. And then you have the fire Chaser which is like smoky the bear and kind of a cross between the wilderness and the whimsical. Then like the More kiddie areas the county fair which is like, you know Southern charm kind of you know nostalgic kind of feeling. So I mean, I love a frontier kind of town. So the theming called to me so I loved it.
Tim: And it great roller coasters, so those two. And one is a perfect park for us.
Anthony: So let's circle back to Blazing Fury, so without giving too much of the right away, because I feel like that's... The riots biggest allure. ⁓ Did you expect that ride to be what it is?
Tim: ⁓ No, I thought it was going to be more intense at the end, just the ending that it was. ⁓ But it was so cool, though. think the nostalgia of it and bringing us back to a time where the park before Dollywood. You know, the technology and stuff they had, think it was pretty cool to still have that there and be able to see it. So I thought it was cool. Yeah.
Anthony: Yeah, I feel like it's one of those rides that are like... In a way, important to keep around in a park, it really connects you with another time. It was creative, in my opinion, how they decided to lay out everything and it's just not something that you see everywhere, which is great. You need stuff like that in parks. ⁓ You know, sometimes it feels like everything's like copy and paste and just throw another name on it.
Tim: ⁓ The mystery mine was closed. I wish we were able to ride that, but maybe we'll have to go there another time. ⁓
Anthony: Yeah, it was closed both days for what they called extended testing. So that one looked cool.
Tim: Yeah. So just a quick recap on the two days. ⁓ know, Tuesday, very cold, no crowds, perfect for getting on everything. ⁓ a really good despite the cold temps ⁓ and all that of stuff. But ⁓ we were able still get on everything and it was a really good day on Tuesday.
Anthony: Well, we didn't write everything on Tuesday. We wrote the majority of things.
Tim: True. I think it was still a good day to get on mostly everything. It was good. Yeah.
Anthony: So yeah, you you just gotta make the best of things. ⁓ Wednesday, we did more shows than coasters and stuff. ⁓ What'd you think of the shows? I feel like those were like the first actual shows that we went to together in a part.
Tim: This. We've been to a couple shows, like we went to the ones that Halloween. Yeah. So, you know, the show was actually really cool. I just felt like we were paying tribute to Dolly Parton as someone being passed away, which was kind of weird. ⁓ But besides that, it was cool to be able to learn about her and
Anthony: during Fright Fest? Yeah.
Tim: why she does the thing she does and what makes her such a great person. just honestly, I felt inspired to leave there trying to be a better person every day, just because that's what she kind of promotes as a person is just to be kind and be better than you were yesterday and to always, always think and be positive to people around you. So I felt inspired after seeing the shows to just always look on a brighter side of life.
Anthony: Yeah, I I agree. The shows were moving, ⁓ inspirational. ⁓ I liked how they incorporated her music. ⁓ I know basically the part is just about her, ⁓ it really like got you listening to her lyrics a little deeper than you normally would, especially someone from the North, you know, not always listening to country music.
Tim: Yeah.
Anthony: ⁓ You know, I always knew she was great, ⁓ to put her life story behind her music is interesting. ⁓ the ⁓ what you think of museum aspect of it we're going through stuff
Tim: Yeah, so I thought the immersive experience was actually really cool. Being able to step inside some of the scenes and seeing some of the videos and stuff like that was actually really cool. The tour bus was cool. ⁓ I thought being able to sit the tour bus and where she lived for many, many years was actually pretty cool. So it was nice to be able to see all the different artifacts and things like that as we walked through the park.
Anthony: Yeah, I liked how they preserved stuff like that and just gave you a look into like what her life was like while on tour, you know, early life, you know, going through the different processes of trying to get signed and trying to get recognized. It was it was nice.
Tim: was cool. So trip highlights. Let's do like a rapid fire. What was your favorite ride or best ride?
Anthony: ⁓ Probably Fire Tracer.
Tim: Firechaser? I'm surprised about that.
Anthony: Just, yeah, just because how surprising it was.
Tim: I would say for me it's lightning rod. ⁓ Put an RMC in a park and that's gonna be my favorite. I just have to say it. ⁓ what was your favorite or best food item?
Anthony: Okay. that ⁓ sausage and cabbage skillet because I like cabbage. I'm not a huge cabbage fan, but it had a lot of taste for such few ingredients, I feel like.
Tim: Yeah, for me it was a cinnamon bread. It was better than expected and the apple butter was pretty good too. But I also really liked the peanut butter hot chocolate too.
Anthony: you
Tim: What was your best moment that you think we had?
Anthony: Mmm. It's tough to say. We had a lot of good moments. ⁓ You know, I'd say our best moment was just walking around and taking in the scenery when we first got there. ⁓ I don't, I can't think of really any park that had that kind of feel to it when you walk around like that, because it felt like you were stepping back in time almost. ⁓ It felt very authentic. didn't feel like Disney has like a feeling of like,
Tim: Mm-hmm.
Anthony: This is Otherworldly and like it's very showy. This didn't feel that way. I like It felt like we walked into a town that just happened to have roller coasters around.
Tim: That's very true. would say for me, my best moment was honestly, I thought the train ride was really cool. ⁓ Just the the course of it, the history that we learned about the park while on the train, seeing the different parts of the park while on the train was actually really cool. So. I was happy to be able to go on the train.
Anthony: Yeah, it was nice that it was like more of a tour than a ride You know if you compare it to Cedar Point railway Cedar Point's railway is more of a Transportation kind of thing whereas the the Dollywood Express is like a ride. It's an experience
Tim: Yeah. Right. That's cool. ⁓ What would you say the biggest surprise was for me? I would say just My biggest surprise was fire chaser express the end
Anthony: you ⁓ My surprise was ⁓ just the sheer volume that the park can hold because you drive into that the parking lot alone and it's like At least five different parking lots full of parking ⁓
Tim: Yeah, the parking lot was huge.
Anthony: The parking lot is huge and then you walk into the park and it looks so, I wouldn't say small, but it looks very compact. The queues are not humongous like you see at Six Flags or Universal. Yet, it's gotta be able to handle all those people. So it's very interesting to see how they just work everything out.
Tim: Yeah. For one thing you would do differently, what would that be? For me, that would just be the time of the year that we went. Even if we waited like a few more weeks, you know, maybe into like early April, mid April, I feel like that would be a little bit better of a time to go just because of the cold air that we felt.
Anthony: You I don't know if I changed anything, I feel like...
Tim: I think I would do one thing differently else besides that. I think I would get a flash pass or time saver pass.
Anthony: you Yeah, for our Wednesday day, I would definitely do that. But I feel like that had more to do with the crowd than anything else. I wish I wish. It's this isn't what I would do differently, just the park in general, I wish the park would. Enforce line cutting a little better. ⁓
Tim: Yeah.
Anthony: understand this gets there and ⁓ get antsy or whatever but like when you go into the real world you got to follow the real world rules and you can't just cut willy-nilly you know I got into a line expecting you know to wait this long and now I have a whole family walking in front of me so now I'm waiting you know even longer it's not right ⁓ I understand it might
Tim: Yeah.
Anthony: disappoint some kids but the reality of it is if you don't enforce you know these these rules at an early age they grow up expecting these things to be okay and it's not
Tim: Yeah. So, final thoughts. Do you think two days was the right amount of time?
Anthony: I think it really depends on when you go in the year. If we had two days where it was like how it was on Tuesday, as far as the crowd goes, two days, plenty of time. can ride what you want the first day or ride everything the first day. See shows the second day or vice versa, or even, you know, do the main things you want the first day. finish it off the second day and then go back on the things that you want to ⁓ with the way the crowd was on the second day, how it, it, it spiked so much. We weren't expecting it. ⁓ I think two days is a bare minimum. If you're really looking to enjoy the park and everything it has to offer three days would be way more comfortable.
Tim: despite so long. Yeah, I think for us the two days that we went was just the right amount of time though. Do agree?
Anthony: yes and no. ⁓ I feel like... feel like there was a lot more we'd want to do there, but you know, some of it costing more money. for me, at least we had a lot of food there, but there was the restaurants, the sit down restaurants that I wanted to go to, which we really didn't get a chance to. ⁓ And I feel like that would have required at least two, three days, you know?
Tim: had a lot of ⁓ Yeah. That's true. Do you think you'd want to go during this festival again or do you think you'd want to go to a new festival?
Anthony: uh... would definitely do this festival again it was it was very nice and interesting i do want to see how they do other festivals
Tim: I think because I saw this one, I wanna see the Christmas one. Because I love Christmas and I think that they would do Christmas really well.
Anthony: Yeah, the Christmas one sounds really cool. ⁓ The only thing is I feel like the Christmas one is more about like the food and stuff and not so much about the rides. I definitely, I don't know all the festivals that they have. ⁓ but yeah, I mean, that's definitely something to look into. ⁓
Tim: So with that being said, you think that you would go again during the colder months? I definitely would just because I feel like Dollywood is good any time of year. Now that we've been in the colder months and we see how it can operate in the colder months, I think that it would be fine going any time of the year.
Anthony: So I think that all depends on my expectations. If I'm expecting to ride rides, I would say I'd rather wait for spring or fall. If I'm going for the experience, any time of the year would be fine. Yeah, like the Christmas experience, the Thanksgiving experience, that's
Tim: Yeah. Thanks.
Anthony: It sounds fun in theory, but I feel like doing that in the cold and wanting to go on rides and it being limited to, you know, however many rides are able to open in 35 degree weather, that is hitting 40.
Tim: ⁓ Very true.
Anthony: would put a strain on the lines and stuff at the park.
Tim: All right. I think that's all we got for this Jollywood episode. I think we got almost an hour of recording time, which is great.
Anthony: ⁓ yeah, I mean we have breaks in between so probably going to cut it down to max 40 minutes I would say maybe less, but not bad. That's shabby.
Tim: Yeah, yeah. So I think the next episode we're going to do is going to be geared towards opening day of Great Adventure in New England coming up because we've got that on Saturday. I'm so excited for Great Adventures opening day. I cannot wait. I don't know why I'm so excited. I think I'm excited for Great Adventures opening day the most because of the hype and excitement that's coming with.
Anthony: you
Tim: ⁓ The boardwalk and the purple coaster. Yeah, I just can't wait to We went a lot last year We're gonna go again obviously a lot this year and we're gonna be able to keep up with the construction and the hype and All that good stuff a lot more easier ⁓ Now that it's actually happening, so I think our next podcast will be talking about that kind of stuff
Anthony: all the changes that they're doing. Yeah, I mean that sounds exciting. ⁓ I'm looking forward to it too. I want to see what they were able to do in the off season. ⁓ I know a lot of people harped on them for, you know, removing rides, not really adding value to the park and then interim. ⁓ I know that they've had a lot of sales. We were able to cash in on some of those sales personally with the flash pass so I'm interested to see how that pans out for us too. So I'm excited about this this coaster season making the best of it.
Tim: for us. Me too. So this is a great start though to go to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge and Tennessee, Smoky Mountains. So it was cool. So I'm excited to keep it going this year.
Anthony: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff happening around the country this year as far as thing parks go. Yeah.
Tim: Tormentas run in Texas. We got the Hollywood Drift Coaster in California ⁓ What else we're gonna hopefully go to Florida in October ⁓ Hopefully hopefully I am ⁓
Anthony: Yeah, we have a lot of aspirations on what we want to do. If they all pan out, that'd be awesome. We're to try our best.
Tim: will at least be going on Six Flags parks.
Anthony: Yeah, I ⁓ want to go to like a west coast park definitely. ⁓ Six Flags. I would love to do nuts.
Tim: for sure. I'm not for knots. Yeah, I know, can't wait for the season and all that good stuff, but we will catch y'all next time on the next episode of Q and Jill.
Tim: ⁓ Before talk about Dollywood, I think we should talk about the first Adventure that we went on on our trip. which was Bucky's.
Anthony: Okay. ⁓ Well, let's start with which Bucky's we went to.
Tim: We went to a couple, I forget which one that we went to in Virginia. Do remember the town?
Anthony: no, I think it was a relatively new Bucky's.
Tim: I can't remember the time that we went to, but the first thing I could think of was it just smells like a lot of different things in here. Did you also feel the same?
Anthony: I didn't get so many different like smells it was more of a like There's a heavy smell of meat and a heavy smell of sweet
Tim: Okay, I feel the same. It was like a strong smell of like jerky and then I feel like I could smell like all the candy being made. It was cool though. We had to go a couple of times because there was a lot of different things to see but it was cool to experience it and I feel like we need to go back a couple of times to get ⁓ a full experience.
Anthony: Heh So I know it's not a, this isn't a gas station podcast or, you know, a Bucky's podcast, but like what were some of the positives of going to Bucky's?
Tim: how much food was. ⁓ The bathrooms were good. ⁓ There was like, yeah, there were like employees like hovering the bathroom just to make sure that anything dropped on the floor was picked up. ⁓ it was a refreshing way to stop and be able to just like take a second to chill before we kept going on the road.
Anthony: Okay. Yeah, immaculate. Plenty of stalls. Yeah, I definitely wish there was one closer for us. One thing I really liked that I got was the Beaver Nuggets that I have here. They're kind of addicting. actually just a few hours ago looked online if I could buy them and there's some places that sell them. For a slight markup, I can get for
Tim: Ha ha.
Anthony: for four bags for like $40.
Tim: haha It was a good way to stop and just chill out and be able to walk around for a little bit before we went on the road. So it was good.
Anthony: Yeah, I mean, we were on the road for a while. ⁓
Tim: Yeah, so let's talk about the road trip first, like how we got there. So we first started off in Rhode Island because we saw Wicked on the Sunday before we went to Tennessee. And then once we were done there, we drove to pretty much Allentown, Pennsylvania. And we stayed overnight, not even overnight, we stayed like six hours in a hotel. And then...
Anthony: it I don't even think it was six hours. I think we were there for like five.
Tim: Yeah. And then we left at like what? nine a.m.
Anthony: ⁓ yeah, was like, not that we were in a heavy metro area at the time, but like it was just after rush hour would typically end. Just to try to smooth our drives out a little bit. We got enough rest and.
Tim: Or at least you did.
Anthony: We didn't feel rushed.
Tim: So and then we got there at like what 7 o'clock between 7 and 8.
Anthony: Actually we got to so Dollywood's in the pigeon forage area So we got to pigeon forage I would say it was like 6 6 30 ish We had to make some stops on the way to check in the hotel Needed gas because Of course we did It's a long trip
Tim: Yep. And then we went to the island when we got there. and we went to Paula Deen's restaurant. And how'd you like the food there?
Anthony: So I thought the food was good. I got, what did I get? So we got the two entree four sides. ⁓ They have different levels of what you can get. So depending on A, how hungry you are and B, how big your family is, it'll give you some more options. the two entrees, the four sides, ⁓ we got ⁓ like, Fried chicken for one entree and the other one was the meatloaf. Fried chicken was delicious. ⁓ The meatloaf, not my favorite. I've had better from, you know, my mom making it. So if you're looking for your mom's meatloaf, it's probably not going to be the same. But ⁓ the sides were pretty good. ⁓ If I'm remembering correctly. We got the creamed corn the Sweet potato casserole, I think it was ⁓ mac and cheese and Yes, was the fourth one
Tim: must have for you. I only ate the chicken, so I forget. Yeah. Yep.
Anthony: ⁓ was the close law. I got the close law. ⁓ mac and cheese was halfway decent. ⁓ If you're looking for a really creamy, cheesy mac and cheese, I would not recommend, but it was good. Cream corn was delicious. Coast law pretty good. ⁓ I'm not huge on Coast law. Just wanted to try it. It was it was pretty ⁓ Like, not sesty, but like.
Tim: like, not sassy.
Anthony: I don't know, pungent, soury. ⁓
Tim: I don't like coleslaw, so I'm bad at it. I don't think I'd be able to explain it very well for you. ⁓
Anthony: Yeah, and then the sweet potatoes delicious
Tim: From there we went to the moonshine cross the way and that was actually pretty good. And our host, the one that did our tasting was actually really funny and really awesome. if you're hearing this out there, I forgot her name too. I wish I remembered her name, but she was so funny and very hospitable. So that was a good way to kind of start our way. at Pigeon Forge, that was cool.
Anthony: Yeah, I kind of wish we bought the moonshine too, because the two that I tried I liked, which is surprising because I don't like the moonshine. So.
Tim: Yeah. Yeah, no, that host was really cool. So hopefully if you're listening to this out there in the world, that'd be cool. ⁓ So why do we decide to do this? Why don't we decide to go ⁓ Tennessee? So.
Anthony: So this was like my first vacation for this season. It's kind of early in the season. I was hoping for us to get some better weather when we went down there. ⁓ Yeah.
Tim: We did it at the end of the week, just not when we went to the park.
Anthony: figured this would be a good opportunity for both of us to visit a new park. ⁓ It wasn't like cost wise a huge burden so I figured that'd be easy for us especially the beginning of the year after the holidays.
Tim: Yeah, it was a great way to be able to use my Marriott points and just save some money and be able to go on a quick and expensive trip. We got the season pass for you and then we were able to use the discount tickets and the one free ticket to make it pretty cheap for us to be able to go both days. And we got the discounts for our merchant food too, so that was great.
Anthony: you Yeah, definitely if you're going to go more than one day, I would suggest looking into season pass. It helps with the
Tim: If it's just two of you going and you're going to go for two days, one of you get this isn't passed and then the other person that's in your party can just use the free ticket and the discounted ticket to make it easy for you guys as well.
Anthony: Yeah, I think depending on when you buy it, what deals they're having, you get a certain different amount of free tickets. I got one free ticket. One discounted ticket, I think it was. So that worked out good. Well, and then the two not as discounted discounted tickets.
Tim: Two, we found out two. ⁓ that's right. So you get three in total, which is great.
Anthony: Yeah, and then you get free parking discounts on food and drinks and merchandise. There's also other perks you get with the season pass. Sometimes there's discounts on the lodging. If you stay at one of the Dollywood resorts, you also. They have like a golden hour, I believe, and. ⁓ for first hour the parks open you're allowed to use the fast pass lanes ⁓ you also get discounts on their fast pass although the discount is very minimal I would say it doesn't really make a dent in how much those costs it's like four dollars you know it's something but I feel like it's kind of an insult ⁓ to market it as a real discount when you're looking for a hundred dollars
Tim: Yeah. It's still something though.
Anthony: for the flashback and you're giving a four dollar discount or five dollars discount that's five percent you know like almost nothing
Tim: We gotta be grateful for the little discounts that we get. Okay. I would say that we kind of were casual about how we went about the trip. I mean, we planned what days we were gonna go and like what times we were gonna go. But what we actually did was kind of up to how the day went. And I feel like the more trips to parks that we go on, the easier that becomes because we kind of know what we wanna do.
Anthony: Yeah. Yeah.
Tim: ⁓ I feel like the more that we go on trips, the easier it is for us to be able to kind of navigate what we do as we're at the park, because we already know what we want to do. So like, Tuesday, we did more more rides and, and shows kind of here and there. And then Wednesday, we did more like exploring more food and, and things like that. ⁓
Anthony: So I mean, I feel like we did a lot of research into what the park has to offer. We also went in with a plan. The weather changed that plan, which I'm sure we'll go through. And we adapted the plan for the weather on the fly. So you definitely, feel like that's something you have to learn how to do, especially. When you're set on going a specific day, come rain or shine.
Tim: So in terms of what we were most excited for, for Roller Coasters, what was your top excitement choice?
Anthony: So I didn't really have a specific roller coaster. Yeah, I mean, I don't like ruining the surprise of what's coming up.
Tim: So I didn't really what Oh, that's right. You didn't want to look at the coasters before we went. Fair, okay, so I'll answer this question. ⁓ I love to research specifically rides before we go to a park because I wanna know what ride, I wanna have an idea of what ride to start off with first. I don't wanna just start, for me, I wanna be able to start off with an action-packed ride. So I was hoping for Lightning Rod first, but it was too cold to open the ride. So our first coaster of the day was Blazing Fury. I wasn't most excited for that one. However, I learned that this was one of the original rides from before Dollywood even existed. Like it was at Silverdell City before it was bought out and turned into Dollywood. ⁓ But that was a cool one to ride. My most anticipated coaster was Lightning Rod and I definitely made the right choice ⁓ with my favorite ride. I think that was definitely my favorite one. Bye bye,
Anthony: I mean I was looking forward to writing a lot of stuff. ⁓ I didn't know too much about the rides. I was looking forward to riding the train because...
Tim: You were very excited for the train because we learned a lot about that before we went to the park.
Anthony: Yeah, it was also they just changed the train from coal fired steam to oil which will allow them to run in different situations And not be so weather dependent which became a lifesaver during this period because It was like one of the few things that were open when we got there it was like 25 degrees out so
Tim: Yep, it was very cold.
Anthony: Because ⁓ Blazing Fury is inside, that was open, so we hit that up first. And then we hit the train up because the first departure is an hour after the park opens. So we were on the first ride out of there.
Tim: were on the first ride. Yep, it was good. And then we were able to go on the train, got off the train, we were walking around and we were able to start going on more of the rides since it was getting more warmer and things kept opening up. So it was good.
Anthony: Yeah, I mean, ⁓ I don't understand how European parks are able to open during snow and stuff and our parks can't, but it is what it is.
Tim: I would say that they probably just prepare for it better. how they're built and structured and stuff. They probably do some extra stuff to make it work, you know?
Anthony: Yeah, ⁓ as far as like my favorite ride of both days, it's tough to say. I liked the Lightning Rod. We rode it twice. I think it was the only one that we really rode twice. ⁓ Thunderhead was good. ⁓ It surprised me. Yeah. ⁓ I feel like Thunderhead felt faster than Lightning Rod.
Tim: It was very unexpected.
Anthony: And then. I really liked the... Fire chaser? Yeah.
Tim: via Tracer Express. That was awesome.
Anthony: Yeah, I shocked. thought I, because I'm on the bigger side, that I wouldn't be able to fit in that.
Tim: way that it sits is actually pretty comfy, in my opinion. It's comfier than a Toro, so. ⁓ First day we had pretty much walk-ons all day, which was great. then, I mean, later on in the day it started getting busier, so that kind of changed. But then Wednesday we were in lines pretty much all day.
Anthony: Yeah, the it was a drastic change from Tuesday to Wednesday. ⁓ What we didn't know was that a lot of the schools down there were on and even just in the south were on a spring break. ⁓ Being in the north, I'm more used to spring break being during the Easter holiday.
Tim: Yeah, it was a pretty interesting to see all the schools there But we made the best out of it either way just like we always do so it good In terms of the festival food and the tasting pass that was that was all you because For those of you who know me, I don't have the palette of an adult. So I was looking more forward to the sweets and the drinks and that kind of stuff for the tasting pass, but what was your favorite food that you had from the tasting pass?
Anthony: ⁓ So before we go over the food that I had I want to Go over like how the tasting pass works. So you buy this tasting pass it gives you five purchases of Things that are on the I will always love you menu, I guess I would call it ⁓ So it doesn't matter how much the things cost you you pay the I think it's
Tim: that I have a
Anthony: $45 if you don't have a season pass and $40 if you do You pay that and they give you a pass that you wear around your neck And you tell them what you want they scan it and then they give it to you I'm trying to look up the foods that are on it.
Tim: Okay. Do you have the pass?
Anthony: somewhere in my stuff that I haven't unpacked. But I just looked it up online. they have drinks that you can get, ⁓ like food items. And then, ⁓ then you have dessert. I didn't use it for the drink items just because the drink items were $5.99. You still get a discount with your season pass for the drinks. So with the cost of the pass and the price of the drink, I felt like it wasn't a worthwhile use of the pass. So I stuck to food and stuff for it. So ⁓ the first thing that I got was the sausage and cabbage skillet. ⁓ Portion wise, I'd say it's a pretty decent portion. ⁓ We had a little hiccup with the pass for that one. I don't know what it was. ⁓ I don't if they weren't ⁓ ready for it ⁓ at 1 in the afternoon or whatever time it was ⁓ or if they just expect anyone to want it. But it was not ready at all.
Tim: We can skip over that ⁓
Anthony: So they tried to refund me it, they couldn't refund it. And then. We finally got him just to like, I guess make it and we'll show up later for it. that's when we rode lightning rod the two times. Came back and waited a little bit longer and it was ready. But ⁓ was frustrating. ⁓
Tim: That was fast.
Anthony: What else did I get? I got the strawberry hibiscus tea. It's like an iced tea. was really good. ⁓ Sweet, full of flavor. Not typically something I'd expect from a theme park. My only complaint was the portion size for those they were pretty small. I feel like they were like kid sizes. Would you agree?
Tim: Yeah, would say so yeah, I would clear that out
Anthony: You
Tim: Yeah, it was a pretty small size for six bucks. ⁓ It was gone pretty fast. I would say, would say maybe offer a little bit more of a bigger size next year, but it was still pretty good though. Yeah, I guess.
Anthony: you Yeah, I guess they can only make so much so they want to portion it out a little better. ⁓ Some other stuff that they had there was ⁓ a barbeque chicken sandwich. Something called cheese winders, just were like fries loaded with cheese and like grilled onions and peppers. ⁓ The other thing I got was the chicken alfredo bowl. That was pretty good. ⁓ It was just chicken in Alfredo sauce in a bread bowl. Delicious portion size, not the biggest, but still filling. I don't know if that's something that I could be able to share with someone else. ⁓ Another station had fire roasted ⁓ corn strips. It had a few different baked potatoes. ⁓ One was like a cheesesteak, the other one was like a barbecue, baked potato, like barbecue pork. They had the loaded chips, which when we watched the videos about it, you wanted to try it, but I guess you changed your mind.
Tim: I'm sure. ⁓
Anthony: ⁓ Some sausage and potatoes, ⁓ pot roast and potatoes, ⁓ some corn chowder, corned beef hash, which I guess is kind of ⁓ St. Patrick's Day themed. spinach and artichoke in a potato ⁓ some wings with some sauce on it a Cobb salad and the white bean queso dip which I wanted to try but a lot of these things you can only get from one location which is Kind of annoying if you know how the park is laid out. So it's kind of laid out in a ring ⁓ Where one side of the ring is on top of a mountain And the other side of the ring is at the bottom. So you go from like one area, you're going up and then you're going back down. I feel like they should have the food in more places, but it is what it is. So we didn't try that. Um, they had like dessert too. I ended up getting the Sweet roll? Yeah, and a cupcake. ⁓ Cupcake was delicious. I'll be honest, I haven't eaten the sweet roll yet. I saved it. ⁓ I I might have it tonight. What else did we eat there? We had the cinnamon bread. That's not included in the tasting pass.
Tim: The ice cinnamon roll? Yeah. We got that twice, it was so good.
Anthony: Yeah. big like enough to share with a family. It was only like what $13 ⁓ with your choice of either apple butter Or we got it with the apple butter the first time ⁓ Second time with icing Definitely a highlight of the food there. feel like, I wish they could ship it.
Tim: I know, it was really good. I would say my favorite part of the whole festival, the options for food ⁓ or drinks, were the, I had the peanut butter hot chocolate and it was actually really good. So I was happy to get that. So it was good.
Anthony: Yeah, I forgot about that. That was I tasted it. was it was good. It was I'm not
Tim: Yeah, I love hot chocolate. So if there's a hot chocolate festival that you need to invite me to, just let me know and I'll be there. So you love the food. I love the coasters. You love the coasters, too, ⁓ I can go to a theme park and just marathon coasters all day. and be happy and skip breakfast, lunch and dinner. And then I want to eat like later on in the day. ⁓ So for coasters for me, I loved the lightning rod. I think that was awesome. I was pretty excited for Wild Eagle, but I wasn't too thrilled with it after we got off just because I thought it was kind of. I felt like it was lacking. Do you think so?
Anthony: So I don't think it had anything special. I also felt like it was really short. I feel like he went up the lift tail, did some loops and then it was done. ⁓
Tim: Yeah. I think the most surprising coaster that we went on the entire trip was the... ⁓ I forget the name of it. Was it the Dragonfly Expedition?
Anthony: The inverted coaster that doesn't invert.
Tim: The non-inverted inverted coaster.
Anthony: Yeah, that was the Dragonfly. ⁓ That was a good ride. It was faster than it appears, or it feels faster than it is. ⁓ I feel like all the rides were pretty good ⁓ and surprising in their own ways. Like the Tennessee Tornado, the layout is surprising because you really can't see it from anywhere in the park until you're on it. ⁓ The speed it was at...
Tim: Yeah. Yes. ⁓ huh.
Anthony: You know, it was amazing. Lightning Rod was like... The topography, how they used the topography was great. That was surprising. I'm so glad we got on it on Tuesday and we were like, it was like no line for it on Tuesday, which I'm sure was like unheard of. Yeah. ⁓
Tim: Yep. Two walk, two walk ons back to back. It was great. My my dream come true. My dream come true.
Anthony: the big bear mountain one ⁓ it was good yeah I wish it was faster so the surprising thing about that is like
Tim: That was good too. I wish it was faster. That's it.
Anthony: how much of, well it's a kids ride, it's also like an adults ride, like it's a family coaster but it doesn't, like it feels like it fits somewhere between family coaster and thrill ride.
Tim: I like they can, I feel like if I made that roller coaster and roller coaster tycoon or planet coaster, I would change the speed of the launch depending on the age group that's on the trains.
Anthony: So I feel like I would change the speed of the initial launch especially, even without taking into account the age of the people on the ride. I feel like that's like just the, little tweak if you do it like maybe three miles per hour or more, you'll get so much more ⁓ thrill out of it.
Tim: I think the most surprising ride for us equally was the Firechaser Express though.
Anthony: Yeah, I've never, I don't think I've ever been on anything quite like it. ⁓
Tim: It reminded me like a slimmed down version of something that you might see at like Universal or something like that because of the, the theming was actually really good. I was surprised by the theming just cause they had like the show in the middle of it. ⁓ They had like the music on the ride, like a lot of things about it was just so good. ⁓
Anthony: would you call that the middle of the ride? feel like that was the end of the ride.
Tim: Either way, it was there and it was good.
Anthony: So to me it was like a hybrid boomerang coaster.
Tim: A hybrid boomerang full circuit loop coaster. It was really cool though.
Anthony: Yeah. ⁓ theming was great though, I agree with that. ⁓ The line was themed really great. The theming of the whole park was great. ⁓ stuck pretty much to one central theme ⁓ little branches out there, but still called to the theme of the whole park. The whole park is like a Tennessee, ⁓ mountain theme. ⁓ kind of a frontier kind of theme going on. for like the central theme, but things branch out from there. So you got the big bear mountain would be like the wilderness part of the theming and the dragonfly is like more of the whimsical kind of part of smoky mountains. And then you have the fire Chaser which is like smoky the bear and kind of a cross between the wilderness and the whimsical. Then like the More kiddie areas the county fair which is like, you know Southern charm kind of you know nostalgic kind of feeling. So I mean, I love a frontier kind of town. So the theming called to me so I loved it.
Tim: And it great roller coasters, so those two. And one is a perfect park for us.
Anthony: So let's circle back to Blazing Fury, so without giving too much of the right away, because I feel like that's... The riots biggest allure. ⁓ Did you expect that ride to be what it is?
Tim: ⁓ No, I thought it was going to be more intense at the end, just the ending that it was. ⁓ But it was so cool, though. think the nostalgia of it and bringing us back to a time where the park before Dollywood. You know, the technology and stuff they had, think it was pretty cool to still have that there and be able to see it. So I thought it was cool. Yeah.
Anthony: Yeah, I feel like it's one of those rides that are like... In a way, important to keep around in a park, it really connects you with another time. It was creative, in my opinion, how they decided to lay out everything and it's just not something that you see everywhere, which is great. You need stuff like that in parks. ⁓ You know, sometimes it feels like everything's like copy and paste and just throw another name on it.
Tim: ⁓ The mystery mine was closed. I wish we were able to ride that, but maybe we'll have to go there another time. ⁓
Anthony: Yeah, it was closed both days for what they called extended testing. So that one looked cool.
Tim: Yeah. So just a quick recap on the two days. ⁓ know, Tuesday, very cold, no crowds, perfect for getting on everything. ⁓ a really good despite the cold temps ⁓ and all that of stuff. But ⁓ we were able still get on everything and it was a really good day on Tuesday.
Anthony: Well, we didn't write everything on Tuesday. We wrote the majority of things.
Tim: True. I think it was still a good day to get on mostly everything. It was good. Yeah.
Anthony: So yeah, you you just gotta make the best of things. ⁓ Wednesday, we did more shows than coasters and stuff. ⁓ What'd you think of the shows? I feel like those were like the first actual shows that we went to together in a part.
Tim: This. We've been to a couple shows, like we went to the ones that Halloween. Yeah. So, you know, the show was actually really cool. I just felt like we were paying tribute to Dolly Parton as someone being passed away, which was kind of weird. ⁓ But besides that, it was cool to be able to learn about her and
Anthony: during Fright Fest? Yeah.
Tim: why she does the thing she does and what makes her such a great person. just honestly, I felt inspired to leave there trying to be a better person every day, just because that's what she kind of promotes as a person is just to be kind and be better than you were yesterday and to always, always think and be positive to people around you. So I felt inspired after seeing the shows to just always look on a brighter side of life.
Anthony: Yeah, I I agree. The shows were moving, ⁓ inspirational. ⁓ I liked how they incorporated her music. ⁓ I know basically the part is just about her, ⁓ it really like got you listening to her lyrics a little deeper than you normally would, especially someone from the North, you know, not always listening to country music.
Tim: Yeah.
Anthony: ⁓ You know, I always knew she was great, ⁓ to put her life story behind her music is interesting. ⁓ the ⁓ what you think of museum aspect of it we're going through stuff
Tim: Yeah, so I thought the immersive experience was actually really cool. Being able to step inside some of the scenes and seeing some of the videos and stuff like that was actually really cool. The tour bus was cool. ⁓ I thought being able to sit the tour bus and where she lived for many, many years was actually pretty cool. So it was nice to be able to see all the different artifacts and things like that as we walked through the park.
Anthony: Yeah, I liked how they preserved stuff like that and just gave you a look into like what her life was like while on tour, you know, early life, you know, going through the different processes of trying to get signed and trying to get recognized. It was it was nice.
Tim: was cool. So trip highlights. Let's do like a rapid fire. What was your favorite ride or best ride?
Anthony: ⁓ Probably Fire Tracer.
Tim: Firechaser? I'm surprised about that.
Anthony: Just, yeah, just because how surprising it was.
Tim: I would say for me it's lightning rod. ⁓ Put an RMC in a park and that's gonna be my favorite. I just have to say it. ⁓ what was your favorite or best food item?
Anthony: Okay. that ⁓ sausage and cabbage skillet because I like cabbage. I'm not a huge cabbage fan, but it had a lot of taste for such few ingredients, I feel like.
Tim: Yeah, for me it was a cinnamon bread. It was better than expected and the apple butter was pretty good too. But I also really liked the peanut butter hot chocolate too.
Anthony: you
Tim: What was your best moment that you think we had?
Anthony: Mmm. It's tough to say. We had a lot of good moments. ⁓ You know, I'd say our best moment was just walking around and taking in the scenery when we first got there. ⁓ I don't, I can't think of really any park that had that kind of feel to it when you walk around like that, because it felt like you were stepping back in time almost. ⁓ It felt very authentic. didn't feel like Disney has like a feeling of like,
Tim: Mm-hmm.
Anthony: This is Otherworldly and like it's very showy. This didn't feel that way. I like It felt like we walked into a town that just happened to have roller coasters around.
Tim: That's very true. would say for me, my best moment was honestly, I thought the train ride was really cool. ⁓ Just the the course of it, the history that we learned about the park while on the train, seeing the different parts of the park while on the train was actually really cool. So. I was happy to be able to go on the train.
Anthony: Yeah, it was nice that it was like more of a tour than a ride You know if you compare it to Cedar Point railway Cedar Point's railway is more of a Transportation kind of thing whereas the the Dollywood Express is like a ride. It's an experience
Tim: Yeah. Right. That's cool. ⁓ What would you say the biggest surprise was for me? I would say just My biggest surprise was fire chaser express the end
Anthony: you ⁓ My surprise was ⁓ just the sheer volume that the park can hold because you drive into that the parking lot alone and it's like At least five different parking lots full of parking ⁓
Tim: Yeah, the parking lot was huge.
Anthony: The parking lot is huge and then you walk into the park and it looks so, I wouldn't say small, but it looks very compact. The queues are not humongous like you see at Six Flags or Universal. Yet, it's gotta be able to handle all those people. So it's very interesting to see how they just work everything out.
Tim: Yeah. For one thing you would do differently, what would that be? For me, that would just be the time of the year that we went. Even if we waited like a few more weeks, you know, maybe into like early April, mid April, I feel like that would be a little bit better of a time to go just because of the cold air that we felt.
Anthony: You I don't know if I changed anything, I feel like...
Tim: I think I would do one thing differently else besides that. I think I would get a flash pass or time saver pass.
Anthony: you Yeah, for our Wednesday day, I would definitely do that. But I feel like that had more to do with the crowd than anything else. I wish I wish. It's this isn't what I would do differently, just the park in general, I wish the park would. Enforce line cutting a little better. ⁓
Tim: Yeah.
Anthony: understand this gets there and ⁓ get antsy or whatever but like when you go into the real world you got to follow the real world rules and you can't just cut willy-nilly you know I got into a line expecting you know to wait this long and now I have a whole family walking in front of me so now I'm waiting you know even longer it's not right ⁓ I understand it might
Tim: Yeah.
Anthony: disappoint some kids but the reality of it is if you don't enforce you know these these rules at an early age they grow up expecting these things to be okay and it's not
Tim: Yeah. So, final thoughts. Do you think two days was the right amount of time?
Anthony: I think it really depends on when you go in the year. If we had two days where it was like how it was on Tuesday, as far as the crowd goes, two days, plenty of time. can ride what you want the first day or ride everything the first day. See shows the second day or vice versa, or even, you know, do the main things you want the first day. finish it off the second day and then go back on the things that you want to ⁓ with the way the crowd was on the second day, how it, it, it spiked so much. We weren't expecting it. ⁓ I think two days is a bare minimum. If you're really looking to enjoy the park and everything it has to offer three days would be way more comfortable.
Tim: despite so long. Yeah, I think for us the two days that we went was just the right amount of time though. Do agree?
Anthony: yes and no. ⁓ I feel like... feel like there was a lot more we'd want to do there, but you know, some of it costing more money. for me, at least we had a lot of food there, but there was the restaurants, the sit down restaurants that I wanted to go to, which we really didn't get a chance to. ⁓ And I feel like that would have required at least two, three days, you know?
Tim: had a lot of ⁓ Yeah. That's true. Do you think you'd want to go during this festival again or do you think you'd want to go to a new festival?
Anthony: uh... would definitely do this festival again it was it was very nice and interesting i do want to see how they do other festivals
Tim: I think because I saw this one, I wanna see the Christmas one. Because I love Christmas and I think that they would do Christmas really well.
Anthony: Yeah, the Christmas one sounds really cool. ⁓ The only thing is I feel like the Christmas one is more about like the food and stuff and not so much about the rides. I definitely, I don't know all the festivals that they have. ⁓ but yeah, I mean, that's definitely something to look into. ⁓
Tim: So with that being said, you think that you would go again during the colder months? I definitely would just because I feel like Dollywood is good any time of year. Now that we've been in the colder months and we see how it can operate in the colder months, I think that it would be fine going any time of the year.
Anthony: So I think that all depends on my expectations. If I'm expecting to ride rides, I would say I'd rather wait for spring or fall. If I'm going for the experience, any time of the year would be fine. Yeah, like the Christmas experience, the Thanksgiving experience, that's
Tim: Yeah. Thanks.
Anthony: It sounds fun in theory, but I feel like doing that in the cold and wanting to go on rides and it being limited to, you know, however many rides are able to open in 35 degree weather, that is hitting 40.
Tim: ⁓ Very true.
Anthony: would put a strain on the lines and stuff at the park.
Tim: All right. I think that's all we got for this Jollywood episode. I think we got almost an hour of recording time, which is great.
Anthony: ⁓ yeah, I mean we have breaks in between so probably going to cut it down to max 40 minutes I would say maybe less, but not bad. That's shabby.
Tim: Yeah, yeah. So I think the next episode we're going to do is going to be geared towards opening day of Great Adventure in New England coming up because we've got that on Saturday. I'm so excited for Great Adventures opening day. I cannot wait. I don't know why I'm so excited. I think I'm excited for Great Adventures opening day the most because of the hype and excitement that's coming with.
Anthony: you
Tim: ⁓ The boardwalk and the purple coaster. Yeah, I just can't wait to We went a lot last year We're gonna go again obviously a lot this year and we're gonna be able to keep up with the construction and the hype and All that good stuff a lot more easier ⁓ Now that it's actually happening, so I think our next podcast will be talking about that kind of stuff
Anthony: all the changes that they're doing. Yeah, I mean that sounds exciting. ⁓ I'm looking forward to it too. I want to see what they were able to do in the off season. ⁓ I know a lot of people harped on them for, you know, removing rides, not really adding value to the park and then interim. ⁓ I know that they've had a lot of sales. We were able to cash in on some of those sales personally with the flash pass so I'm interested to see how that pans out for us too. So I'm excited about this this coaster season making the best of it.
Tim: for us. Me too. So this is a great start though to go to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge and Tennessee, Smoky Mountains. So it was cool. So I'm excited to keep it going this year.
Anthony: Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff happening around the country this year as far as thing parks go. Yeah.
Tim: Tormentas run in Texas. We got the Hollywood Drift Coaster in California ⁓ What else we're gonna hopefully go to Florida in October ⁓ Hopefully hopefully I am ⁓
Anthony: Yeah, we have a lot of aspirations on what we want to do. If they all pan out, that'd be awesome. We're to try our best.
Tim: will at least be going on Six Flags parks.
Anthony: Yeah, I ⁓ want to go to like a west coast park definitely. ⁓ Six Flags. I would love to do nuts.
Tim: for sure. I'm not for knots. Yeah, I know, can't wait for the season and all that good stuff, but we will catch y'all next time on the next episode of Q and Jill.
