Hello, Theme Parks and Travels readers! This is a very overdue Trip Report from Dollywood! We were at Dollywood in late November on Black Friday. It was very cold so we started off the day with limited rides operating. We came into the park and ran towards the #6 Wooden Coaster in the world (Golden Ticket Awards), Thunderhead. Thunderhead is just an awesome ride. It’s smooth, fast, and has a very unique layout.

Thunderhead boasts a whopping 32 crossovers and 22 turns. Its twisty layout makes for a great and unique ride!

Thunderhead is one of my favorite wooden coasters. It has the elements of crossovers, speed, turns, airtime, and a smooth ride experience.

The turns on Thunderhead are well banked and provide for a great ride!

Thunderhead navigates its way through the woods on the hillside of Dollywood.
After riding the amazing Thunderhead GCI Woodie, we decided to check out if Mystery Mine was open. It was closed so we continued down the path to find FireChaser Express and Wild Eagle closed. After running past those new editions, we reached a classic Arrow looper, Tennessee Tornado. The Tennessee Tornado is probably the best arrow looper I’ve ever been on. It is another ride built into the hillside and has a great drop into some fun, but a tiny bit rough loops.
The drop of the Tennessee Tornado was pure airtime, I wasn’t in my seat! The ride was relatively smooth with a few bangs of the head. Compared to other Arrows like Anaconda, it was golden!
After Tennessee Tornado, we were hungry. We ate at one of the few indoor restaurants that a year-round mountain park had to offer, Miss Lillian’s Chicken House. The food was okay, but not (in my opinion) as good as average theme park food. It was fried chicken and a few other options in an “all you care to eat” buffet. You can’t expect too much from that, except for the fact that Dollywood was voted “Best Food” of any amusement park by Amusement Today. We were completely disagreeing with Amusement Today, then we tried this yummy food…
The Cinnamon Bread from The Grist Mill made me realize why they won “Best Food.” It was so amazing! The Cinnamon Bread was one of the best things I’ve ever had, and definitely the best food I’ve found in an amusement park.
After lunch, it was time for Blazing Fury. I wasn’t sure what the ride was, but it pretty much was a slow moving ride about fire raging a village. Suddenly, the bridge catches on fire, and you go into the first drop. After two or three more drops you come into the station. It is a nice little ride to do quickly during your day and also a great ride for families. Next was FireChaser Express, which had developed a long line as more people crowded into the park on the frigid Smoky Mountain Day. Wild Eagle still wasn’t open, but it would open as we rode FireChaser Express. Be sure to watch my POV of FireChaser Express. Footage provided by Dollywood.
FireChaser Express is a new addition to Dollywood in 2014 and is the first family coaster to have a forward and a reverse launch. It has multiple track switches with one of the most unique layouts at Dollywood.

FireChaser is the type of ride that everyone can enjoy. It’s not too big, but it’s not too small. It’s a thrilling unique ride built (again) onto the hillside. It races through a curvy layout featuring a forwards launch, a lift hill, and a reverse launch.

The theming on FireChaser is very well done and beautiful. The queue line has several pieces of fire related knick knacks.

Finally, after lunch the ride opened up for us to ride! Of course, the queue had reached a length of at least 45 minutes, most likely an hour.

Everyone loved this ride. I only saw smiling faces coming off of the ride.
Next on the lineup was Wild Eagle. It’s a fantastic B&M WingRider that in my opinion is better than GateKeeper, the other WingRider I’ve been on. Another Dollywood hillside coaster with smooth loops and airtime galore on the drops and hills! All of the elements of Wild Eagle felt perfected. B&M never lets me down! Be sure to watch the awesome Wild Eagle POV. Footage provided by Dollywood.
Wild Eagle has an awesome Eagle Statue Outside!

One of the few B&M Coasters without a pre-drop! The drop doesn’t look like too much, but you get going fast!

Wild Eagle’s amazing inversions look great above Mystery Mine.

Wild Eagle being built onto the hill adds a whole new element to the ride.

The speedy lift hill makes the drop even faster than normal.
Next up was Mystery Mine. Mystery Mine was a fun roller coaster. Another popular ride with us. Only a few warnings for Mystery Mine:
1) The signs in the queue for how long the wait are very wrong. 30 minutes means 1 hour.
2) If you are too tall or large, they kick you out very soon. We saw at least 5 people being turned down from riding.
Mystery Mine was pretty smooth, with a few bangs of the head as expected. I love the ending 95 degree drop into a heartline roll and an immleman loop.
I love the exterior facade of Mystery Mine. The theming on this ride was very good, especially for a non-Disney/Universal park. The inversions at the end were my favorite part!

The ride has two vertical lift hills and a 90 degree drop. It has this crazy 90 degree banked turn, which I for some reason loved, and much more!

Mystery Mine had the best theme song of any ride ever!
We had a great coaster-crazed day at Dollywood. We only rode roller coasters. We would have spent much longer at Dollywood if we didn’t have to drive two hours to get there. Dollywood has a great lineup of roller coasters. I liked each and every ride and each one is very impressive. Another thing I took from my day at Dollywood was their obsession with fire. Blazing Fury is a ride about a burning village, FireChaser Express is about fire, and Mystery Mine has a fiery gas explosion. Thank you for reading our Trip Report from Dollywood! Special thanks to Dollywood for providing the amazing video footage! Be sure to check us out on other social media sites and keep reading this blog!

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