Our Dollywood Year Begins

Travel dates: January, 2025

I could take you through the twisted path of thoughts, plans, and questionable math that ended with us sitting at a computer in our Airbnb in New Hampshire over Thanksgiving buying Dollywood season passes. But it would not be that interesting. So instead I will just tell you that Dave, Abe, and I have Dollywood passes for 2025, so we’re hoping to make a few trips there (and to the Smokies in general) this year to make them worthwhile.

A lot of the questionable math boiled down to the fact the Dollywood gold season passes come with 2 guest passes each, so that we could bring the whole family, college kids included, twice. BUT those passes don’t activate until the opening of the 2025 season in March, even though we could go ahead and use our season passes for the remainder of the 2024 season. So we did bring all the kids on this trip, but we paid for three tickets (with a $10 discount as passholders). Make sense? A little? Anyway, NEXT Christmas or New Year’s we can all go again, and everyone’s tickets will be covered. And we’re planning a trip for spring break with just the three of us who have season passes.

So by the end of this year, I should be able to do an amazing, comprehensive post about visiting Dollywood, stuffed full of expert-level tips and tricks. For now, you get a quick recap of our visit there on January 2, just a couple of days before they closed down until March.

We went to Dollywood during their Smoky Mountain Christmas festival one other time, many years ago, pre-Abe, and we had fond memories of it. They do a great job decorating, there are tons of lights and special shows, and, in my memory, super short lines for all the rides! Ari and Abby went to Dollywood last year, on the exact same date we went this year, and they, too, reported blissfully short wait times.

We did not have the same experience this time around.

I poured a lot of time and energy into trying to pick the perfect day for our Dollywood visit. I kept changing the date because of weather or crowd predictions. Everyone calls the week between Christmas and New Year’s “hell week,” so it seemed like a no brainer to avoid that, even though it would have been very convenient timing with all the kids’ school breaks and travel plans. Ultimately, we decided that January 2 should be great! Not a holiday, cold enough temps in the forecast to keep crowds low, but not so cold that we’d be miserable…perfect! Ari even pushed his flight back to Denver back a couple of days so we could make it happen!

But you can see in the picture up there how it turned out. Based on reports online I read, New Year’s Day actually would have been much better, crowd-wise! Who knew?! Judging again from groups online, we were not the only ones caught off guard by higher than expected January 2 crowds, though, so I guess there wasn’t much we could have done. Obsessive planning can only get you so far in life. Like sometimes it takes you right to the back of an enormous roller coaster line at Dollywood. For example.

Word is the Christmas festival is the most crowded time of year at Dollywood these days. Which is a little surprising given that the other big thing to consider when planning a visit this time of year is the weather. Dollywood’s in the mountains, and cold weather as well as ice and snow are not at all uncommon in winter. Now, YOU might be perfectly fine bundling up and braving the cold, but, sadly, roller coasters cannot bundle up. And they can’t run when the temperature is too low.

Here’s a handy chart about weather and all the rides at Dollywood. I knew all about this. I had, as always, done my research! A lot of people are caught off guard about the whole temperature thing because they don’t really do a great job of letting you know about it (there are no signs at the entrance or anything like that about specific rides that will be closed; I knew because I’d read up online beforehand). But I stuck with my plan to go right to Big Bear Mountain, Dollywood’s newest coaster, because it was supposed to open when the temperature hit 36 degrees, and the temperature at park opening was…36 degrees. But. Apparently the thermometer they use is located in an underground ice cave or something (or, according to a park employee, down the hill at a place in the park that gets less sun and heats up later). So we got into line thinking it would open up at any minute, only to stand there for 50 minutes while the line behind us got longer and longer and there was no sign the ride would ever open up.

Staying in this line was definitely a misstep. But it was one of those sunk cost fallacy kind of situations, where we were close to the front of the line, and we’d already spent so much time waiting! Also, again, communication not Dollywood’s strong suit. There was no one there telling people that the ride was closed or when it might open. And no one seemed to leaving the line, which made us wonder if they knew something we didn’t. Occasionally we caught a glimpse of a park employee and someone would go ask (and find out about the mysterious and poorly located official thermometer). At Disney World, they would have had like 14 cast members stationed to tell you what was going on.

Anyway, we finally decided to ditch the line and head to Wild Eagle, which opens at a lower temperature and had been open as soon as the park opened. My app told me the wait time was 20 minutes when we started to head over; it was more like 50 by the time we entered the line. Oh well. Wild Eagle was Abe’s first upside down roller coaster, and he found it fun and terrifying.

Ultimately, Dave and I would only manage to ride 2 rides the whole day, even though we were there open to nearly close. The kids got a few more in.

Big Bear Mountain did finally open and we got to ride it…after waiting in line for an hour:

Big Bear Mountain was my very favorite of the….two roller coasters we tried. It’s a pretty tame, family friendly sort of coaster–long, fast track with gentle hills. Although the theming is a little lackluster.

Okay, so to sum up rides on a busy day at Dollywood: lots of waiting in line. You can get express pass type things for a steep fee, or you can get them free if you’re staying at one of the two resorts. Or you get express access for the first hour the park is open with your season pass. We weren’t able to take advantage of that since we had three non-passholders with us, but we’re looking forward to it when we visit again in April. The weather came back to bite us again toward park closing. We had just gotten into line for Dragonflier when they shut it down because the temperature dipped too low.

The main reason the kids got to ride more things than Dave and I did is because we had to go back and forth to visit our dog, Fergus, at the perfectly named….Doggywood! (they could also have gone with Dollywoof). This is a kennel just outside the park entrance, where you can board your dog while you visit Dollywood for $25/day (it’s open while the park is open only; no overnight boarding).

A bit about our Doggywood experience: back when we were playing around with dates, we found out that Doggywood does book up on busy days, so book in advance if you’re interested in having your dog stay there. We only had Fergus with us on this trip, but you can add a second dog in the same run for a small additional fee. I read that dogs are allowed to ride the shuttle from the parking lot if they’re staying at Doggywood, but we were parked relatively close and just walked. Doggywood opens 30 minutes before the published park opening time, and we got there maybe 40 minutes pre-opening and were first in line. The line did build up behind us a bit while we were waiting, so it’s probably worth getting there a bit early.

The kids said goodbye to Fergus while we were waiting:

Dogs have to be up to date on rabies and bordatella (you upload proof of vaccines when you book; they didn’t check again when we got there). We checked him in and then the woman working there took us back to the room of dog runs and let us pick whichever one we wanted (they have another area with “cottages,” i.e. fancy crates for dogs up to 19 pounds. The dogs here actually have less space, but the room seemed like it would probably be quieter and more chill. But Fergus weighs 27 pounds, so it wasn’t an option for him.

The space here is nice enough–clean and comfortable (the bed you see there is provided), and all the staff we encountered were friendly and helpful, but it’s not a fancy experience. They provide water for the dogs, but for everything else you have to come back–i.e. you’ll have to return to walk and feed them throughout the day. It’s also very, very loud…or at least it was the day we we were there when I think every run was occupied. Fergus was a Very Good Boy, but he clearly didn’t love his time at Doggywood. Next time we’re there we’ll have the trailer with us, and we’ll likely opt to leave the dogs at the campground and just come back mid-day to take care of them instead of doing Doggywood again. But we didn’t want to leave him in a strange hotel room (although he probably would have been fine there, too), so we were glad Doggywood was available so we could have him close by. But don’t underestimate the time you’ll spend going back and forth to check on and walk your dog. It’s very close to the entrance, but just the whole process of getting out of the park from wherever you happen to be, taking care of the dog, and then going back through the gates takes some time.

Okay, what else?! (this is not actually a quick recap) Food! People love to talk about how great the food is at Dollywood. Ari and Abby brought cinnamon bread back with them last year, and it was, indeed, pretty great. For this trip we’d decided to check out Aunt Granny’s, a family style restaurant touted as “one of the top 10 best theme park restaurants in the country.” But when we went over to check it out, we found the line to get in just as long as all the lines for rides. According to the woman at the information kiosk nearby, the wait would likely be at least an hour. I feel like I’m spending a lot of this post complaining about Dollywood, and that is not my intention, but…they really could handle this better! Why don’t they take reservations for a sit down restaurant that regularly has hour + waits? Or at least some kind of system where they take your name and you can shop or wander around nearby and come back when it’s your turn? Standing outside in the cold for over an hour was not at all appealing, so we didn’t do it. Maybe next time Aunt Granny’s! Instead we headed over to the seasonal buffet they had set up in Celebration Hall, where there was zero wait. The buffet had a good variety, with stuff like turkey and ham and a bunch of sides. There were enough vegetarian options for August. It was a little cheaper than Aunt Granny’s. The food was…buffet food. It was fine. So I’m glad they had this available as an alternative, but it was still kind of disappointing.

The shows are a big part of the Christmas festival, but, what with all the waiting in line for rides, we didn’t make it to any of them. Two days would really be better if you want to hit most of the rides and see some shows. At least if it’s crowded!

We did successfully and with only a short wait check out the new Dolly Parton Experience, though! Abe is grumpy in this picture for reasons I can no longer recall:

It appears that I spent a lot of the day making my kids stand in front of Dollywood stuff for pictures.

So this is basically a big Dolly museum, with the main exhibit about her life in this building and then another building with an exhibit about her clothes. And you can also tour one of her old buses. There was another Dolly museum here before; this is the new version, with more multimedia-type excitement (Ari refers to it as “Dolly Meow Wolf”). Just like old times, though, you can see the Coat of Many Colors!

Okay, except! I’m trying to get to the bottom of this, but this is not the same Coat of Many Colors that was in the old museum! So, apparently, they’re both replicas of the original (no longer in existence) coat, but the old replica was made my Dolly’s mother. Thus, I’m guessing that that one was more authentic. Oh well.

Anyway, also you can sit in this swing!

And pretend to be in 9 to 5!

We finished off the night by doing a full circuit of the park to gawk at all the pretty lights:

So survey of the kids after the day reveals they all had fun, despite the crowds. We look forward to going back and again with our newfound knowledge and riding more than two things!