Pork Rinds - Pigeon Forge

Who doesn't love Dolly Parton? Not me. Who doesn't love Dollywood? I guess me. I liked it but didn't love it.My visit this week was at the start of the Christmas season so the Park was decorated appropriately especially at night by holiday lights and Christmas music being played in their sound system. I'll talk about the negatives first. If you are a roller coaster fanatic you will love this place. I think it would rival any Disney park with the coasters and extreme thrill rides it has. Bring smaller than Disneyland and The Magic Kingdom it's thrill ride density is greater. The other negative is cost. For being in East Tennessee the prices are California high. $90 for an adult admission, $25 parking, buckets of popcorn for $12, they have old timely arcades in the Park to play the games in and the tokens are expensive. Their ultra popular loaves of cinnamon bread are $12 each and sold in two locations in the Park. So you come to a theme park and then stand in line for 30 minutes to buy a loaf of bread?The positives are two that come to mind. First, ride the train. It is an excellent 20+ minute ride on a genuine coal fired locomotive pulling several open air cars behind it. You will smell and see the soot from the engine and they even tell you what to do if you get an ember in your eye during the ride and that train whistle is awesome. If you walk up and there are many people waiting for the next ride don't worry. The train holds a lot of people. Get in the line.The second positive are the musical shows. I attended 3 with 2 of them in indoor theaters. They lasted 30-45 minutes each and were well done. Plus it gives you a chance to rest your legs. They are all first come first served.Other than that there are many shops to walk in and buy things along with activities for kids to do. I found all of the staff to be very friendly. Order your tickets online to save time at the entrance ticket window.

Our first visit to Dollywood. To kick off...Easy parking and tram system. Short walk to the security gate. I did notice and respect that Dollywood hires real armed security. In the world we live we hope for the best but glad they are prepared for anything. Through the gates is a simple yet clean park. It is hilly so those with disabilities may get tired quicker. Speaking of disabilities, check into the accessibility booth and they can help you with easier ride access. Park is a big circle through the hills. Some great coasters and shows. Food and drinks are crazy; in a good way. Single refillable soda is $17 and it gets cheaper the more you purchase. (3 or more are $11 each). That's all day as much soda or water as you want. On top of that you can bring in your own water bottle and drink water for free. Don't know if another park allowing this!Food is similar. Good selection and fair pricing. We ate at Ham and Beans. I had the chicken pot pie and wife had the pit ham dinner. Followed that up with fresh banana pudding. All under $40Shows were well done. Christmas decorations colorful and bright. Bathrooms at every turn. Good mix of shows, food, adult and kid rides.

4.5 starsA good amusement park, especially if you really love roller coasters. If not, there's shows to check out daily, along with seasonal events like the Great Pumpkin LumiNights and shopping. We did the Harvest Tasting pass (5 items for $40), but a few of the items like the pumpkin pie funnel cake were quite small and not worth getting from the pass, but the brats with the pretzel buns and fried potatoes certainly were. The park is clean and staff members are friendly and respectful. For the military discount, we did two day passes for the both of us for $199, which was a great deal. We went during the week (week before Halloween), so most rides had little wait time and you could stay on the same ride several times (rode 13-15 rides each day, but wished the train had been working). The weather was great and the view of the fall colors from the tall rides were spectacular. Big Bear and the Barnstormer were some of the favorites. One of the weird things was that there was no real customer service desk, as we had issues with our tasting pass giving us one less swipe on it than we had used (others were having the same issue and were directed to the ice cream shop at the front and waited in line with everyone else). Park was easy to navigate and we did see a few medical episodes occur that were attended to promptly. It would be fun to see Dollywood all decked out for Christmas2023 #80

Seriously my new favorite theme park!! The gift shop is tasteful and the towns are so cute! There are different sections for the big kids and little kids and they make parent swap easy! They even have a couple of little kid things mixed in with the big kid rides! We had minimal wait times and parking was fairly easy! The trams in the parking area were easy to use and we didn 't have to wait on them nor were they too full! The big kid rides had plenty of big rollercoasters! We were there for the pumpkins and they truly do such a great job! Totally worth coming on a Friday to avoid the huge crowds! There was even plenty of food options to choose from! We got tacos from the food trucks and they were delish!

Pretty good, need warmer tho...spicy is spicy...bbq is