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Season Pass for Clunkers://Dollywood Thanksgiving Trip November 2018

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
Final weekend of Haunt at Kings Island. My buddy Andrew and I have just gotten the last ride of the fall season on Mystic Timbers, the infamous Grandpa's brass knuckles incident had just gone down so we're laughing about that, and we're heading back to the parking lot to drive back to Dayton. So we're chatting and he mentions wanting to go to Dollywood, and I remember that Lightning Rod was recently reopened and had been running more reliably. Plus I needed to build a bigger stock of RMC photos to make posts in the RMC group during the offseason. Before we knew it, Drew's picking a date (deciding on his birthday because why the hell not?) and requesting it off his work and I'm booking stuff, electing to take the trip as an overnighter as usual for Dollywood.

The final night before the trip, Drew and I ended up doing both the guy thing and procrastinating like nobody's business. I headed home from work, got the laundry started as a tight industrial operation, and just generally hit the trip prep as hard as I could. Well I had a bit of downtime, thought I'd go look for a geocache around my neighborhood (I like JUST found out that geocaching is a thing, still haven't gotten around to looking but the app says there are a few near my place). Then Mom's like, "Jarrett, when are you getting the car?" So we work that out, she drives me to the airport, and once again I'm at war with Hertz.

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So I get to the Hertz counter as late as we could work it in so I had extra time to get it back on Sunday night, and I'm given a nice Nissan Sentra. Well they give me the vehicle inspection form and tell me to make sure it's good, noting no marks on the sheet. I let them know about an incident I had last season that involved my black car in the dark parking garage at 7 am that was full of scuffs and dings around the bumper that I couldn't see until it was out in the daylight. I'm told, "don't worry, there's plenty of light out there you'll be able to see the car." So I get out there, go full balancing tech on it, inspecting it as if it's a customer's part...and come back to the counter with six photos of damage on my phone. If you could "see the car," then you'd be able to see whole chips of paint nicked away by the headlights as seen here. Second time Hertz has stuck me with a Lemon Rod!

The next morning I woke up pretty early and texted Andrew...who hand't packed a thing. :p So he packs, walks his dogs, and I head on over to grab him and get on the road. We made very good time down to Cincinnati, swung by a Chick Fil A for breakfast on the go, and kept motoring down to Dollywood. About an hour out we stop at a Walmart to grab some motion sickness meds for Drew...and then I get word that once again, Lightning Rod is down. :(

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When we got there and rode the tram in, the first thing I noticed was Dragon Flier going vertical! I was planning to go back next year for Wildwood Grove but with this trip I wasn't so sure about it anymore, but if I end up here I'm excited to ride this. It looks like a fun little coaster.

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We head in and hang a right to Lightning Rod to meet up with Kenneth, a member of my RMC group.

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Me, Drew, and Kenneth!

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Before we went off to grab Timesaver, I stuck around a bit and got photos of Lightning Rod for the RMC group.

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This and Twisted Cyclone might be the hardest RMCs to photograph, I can't imagine how much harder this would have been with leaves on the trees.

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Also wanted a more serious photo with an RMC so I got this photo.

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Armed with our Timesavers to handle the Saturday crowds, we hit the park's other Schilke-designed ride first, Tennessee Tornado! I'm not so much into loopers with traditional above the track seating but I do find this one fun, it's easily the best Arrow looper. Sure it's at an advantage having a higher tech level but they made it this way for a reason, and it works.

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Next up was FireChaser Express, which our Timesaver helped us dodge a 55 minute wait to ride. I always thought it was funny how Gerstlauer took a ride system usually used on junior coasters and made a full-sized coaster with it. Keeping in the industry trope of high dollar family coasters, it features heavy theming, a show building, and a sort of fun little gimmick. It currently sits at my #3 family coaster behind Verbolten and Whizzer.

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I loved it as always, but we were assigned a middle seat so it didn't have as much pep to it as it normally does. Drew loved it though, we were both a bit worried about his motion sickness with the backwards portion but he was just fine.

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Next up was, without Lightning Rod in play, either my favorite or the next best in the park behind Thunderhead, Wild Eagle! This B&M wing coaster on a mountaintop plays the inversion game right with the winged seats and incredible visuals of both the park and the Smokies. Not to mention the beautiful way they executed the theming, going for more of a softer modern aesthetic and presenting the ride as more an inspirational challenge than a death-defying experience. Add in the fact that eagles are one of the many animals Andrew really likes and he was hooked before we even got on. As always it rode great, fully delivering on the sensation of exposure and flight. My only minor issue is the restraint locking into place and that doesn't even bother me enough to ruin the incredible ride. With how badly GateKeeper rode this year, I think I might actually move my wing coasters around and put this up at #2 behind Thunderbird.

Andrew and I then continued to Timber Canyon for Mystery Mine, which I so stupidly forgot to photograph. I thought it had gotten smoother when I rode it last in 2016, but as of this trip I take that back. The outdoor portion beat me to hell and back. The second lift to end was great though, always my favorite part of that ride.

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Good news, new cred for both of us next. Bad news, it was this horrid thing. Whistle Punk Chaser, Dollywood's newest coaster, is a Zamperla death machine and Andrew's first one at that. For the 2017 season they removed Sideshow Spin, their other kiddie coaster, and added this across the park in Timber Canyon. And to be honest, I'm not sure why they didn't just move Sideshow. They're about the same footprint, they sold it so it's not like its service life is over, and they ride almost exactly the same. The only thing I can think of to justify buying a new coaster is that they wanted the same thing as sister park Silver Dollar City's Grand Expo Coaster for maintenance reasons, but with the parks ten hours apart and only two of them I can't see it doing much for part sharing.

Oh yeah, and this one goes around three times. Subjected us to that awful experience one more time for good measure. One and done, never riding this flaming dumpster fire ever again.

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Wanting to ride anything that wasn't Whistle Punk next, we decided it was GCI time! Mystic Timbers is a favorite of Drew's so needless to say, he was pretty pumped.

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Hot Take: This is now rougher than Hades 360. That doesn't mean it's unrideable, Hades is in my top ten wood and I think you'd have to be a serious roughness wuss to have a problem with how it rides. But it has certainly gotten rough, and lost a lot of its character. Back in 2014 it was my favorite ride at the park, I loved how it threw you around as mercilessly as it did every which way. I barely left my seat on this ride, just sitting there expecting it to toss me around only for it to roll right through the kink and not do anything. I got a few pops of air but it wasn't nearly as good as it normally is, even though it was a little better than it was in 2016. I can definitely tell it needs retracked, not sure if this would help the dull ride at all but it definitely needs it. I expect to get some hate for this with my reputation of hating wooden coasters (which is a false statement), Thunderhead's kind of one of those coasters you aren't allowed to say anything bad about, but this isn't the Thunderhead I know and love.

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With the loop done, we headed back to check on Lightning Rod but she was sadly still down. And event he Dippin' Dots guy didn't know when it would reopen.

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With the lighting a bit better, I took a few more dirty Lightning Rod photos.

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If only Lightning Rod were as operational as she is pretty against the sunset...

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Drew was about ready to buy and eat anything and everything edible he saw at a park with that kind of food, so I decided it was time to try it out. Took him to Market Square Skillets, my go to for food in the park.

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It didn't disappoint! Usually I get the sausage but I opted for the cheesesteak sandwich this time and I'm glad I did. The potatoes that go with it are good too.

After this we went to Blazing Fury and waited it out without our Timesavers, only about ten minutes luckily. Great ride, nice and campy, but I stand by what I've said about the control system needing a serious overhaul. They added a gunshot at the end that really startled me too.

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The addition to Smokey Mountain Christmas they made this year was Glacier Ridge, taking up the loop from upper Craftsman's Valley through Wilderness Pass and Timber Canyon. Glacier Ridge is more of an "arctic" take on Christmas, and also fairly high tech. They used a lot of blue LEDs and cool colors in this area, giving a nice contrast to the brightly colored incandescent lights found on Showstreet and the lower half of Craftsman's Valley. We kind of breezed through the loop rides-wise just to see the lights, but our first ride was FireChaser which was awesome at night as always. Also did one Wild Eagle because you kinda have to when there's lights out. :p

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This is the Glacier Ridge take on the Northern Lights. Programmed strands of Christmas lights cascading from the trees up above, it looks really nice in person but doesn't translate well to photograph.

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The spot where River Battle was has been concreted in and is now a plaza with artificial green space for families to just kind of relax. In the center of it there's a high tech LED Christmas tree that acts as a cone-shaped screen with the changing lights, similar to Kings Island's Eiffel Tower tree. This is what the park dubbed the "tree of many colors," modeled after Dolly's coat in the song.

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Alongside Whistle Punk Chaser, 2017 saw a drop tower called Drop Line added to Dollywood. Walking around Timber Canyon I initially hated it. It's a tall metal truss structure painted brown with some LED crown thing at the top, it looks like cheap carnival hardware that's totally out of place at a high quality park like Dollywood. But we decided to do it for the views of Glacier Ridge and because Drew had never ridden a drop tower before. Well Hot Take Henry's back to say it's actually great! Seats are nice and comfy, restraints are just lap bars, the rotation on the way up works great with Dollywood's setting, and the view was gorgeous. I think it might be my new favorite drop tower! I wouldn't have expected Dollywood to get a cheaper tower like that but having one that didn't rotate on the way up would be unfortunate with that view, and when the other options from a reliability standpoint are Intamin and Moser, this was the best business decision. Right up there with Mach Tower, Power Tower, and Giant Drop for good drop towers.

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With another run up front to see Lightning Rod's check engine light still on, we opted for a spin on Dollywood Express.

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It's a beautiful ride at night through the park and up around Glacier Ridge's lights.

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Thunderhead and Drop Line look beautiful lit up like that! Won't be able to get this view next year, folks. The one photo I got was too blurry to make anything out but there is green Vekoma track laid out up there.

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After our little train ride, we headed to grab some cinnamon bread and grab a last ride of the night. Drew had never had their cinnamon bread but once he took a bite of his...it was all I heard about the rest of the day. He'd talked about wanting to swing by The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge to get a piece of pecan pie, never heard that again after he took a bite of this bread! I've learned to make it myself but I wanted the real thing to see if there was anything different from mine.

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I wonder if that grindstone is balanced... :p

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Drew and I wanted to do last ride of the night on Tennessee Tornado since it was also a Schilke creation...but it was down. And FireChaser had already chained off their line. But Wild Eagle hadn't, so we opted for our second favorite in the park for last ride of the night, and managed to get a ride in the back right wing! The ride op also joked with us about leaving our cinnamon bread on the platform while she was starving at work having to smell it. :p

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Afterwards we headed out of the park, upgraded to season passes to get back in tomorrow and maybe get on Lightning Rod, and headed to the hotel and had our cinnamon bread back at the hotel. Drew was a great roommate but he was out like a light, I think he fell asleep at like ten whereas I was up until midnight.

Day 2

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Andrew planned to get a jumpstart on homework but opted to sleep in, so no breakfast for us. But we were able to use our brand new season passes for the first time!

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Very unfortunately for us, even though we got up early and gate crashed Lightning Rod she was still down. And my rental was due back at 7:30. So in order to make that, we had until about 1 or 2 to get it.

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At the front of the line for Lightning Rod's late opening formed a small nerd herd of coaster enthusiasts. So we sat around and talked coasters when this guy's teenage son comes running back to us, huge smile on his face, and yells, "IT'S TESTING!!! IT'S TESTING!!!!" In that timespan, they sent six test trains and rotated ride ops about four times.

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Around 12:30, Kenneth and someone else was at entrance with the crowd. He and I were talking when another crew member came and got them. "We'll see what happens," Kenneth told me as he slipped into those two doors and headed up the stairs as the nerd herd sat quietly, waiting to see what might come of this...

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A seventh test train was sent with two ride ops in the front seat. A different ride op came down the stairs, propped both of those doors open, and let us in. After being down since noon yesterday, Lightning Rod was back in action!

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Andrew and I very civilly walked through the queue, quickly but making sure to set a safe pace being up front. We had a slight mixup in the station that kept us out of the very back row, but we got second to back which is good enough. It was time to ride Lightning Rod!

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And OH MY GOD it was amazing as always! Launch seemed just as fast as it was in 2016, but there was less airtime than I remembered over the top two humps. The wave turn had about average level RMC air, and the following outward banked top hat was nice, snappy, and aggressive. Up next was my second favorite part of the ride, the twist & shout, which rocked full airtime magnitude. Up next was the double up, which has a lot more bite to it than one would expect. And then one of RMC's most notorious elements they've crafted: Lightning Rod's iconic quad down. It was delivering full magnitude airtime on each dip, delivered as more an abrupt yank than a sustained pull that you'd find on Steel Vengeance or Twisted Timbers. That little bonus hop and the final dip into the brakes also pulled standard RMC level airtime. All in all, it's an incredible machine that mixes high to extreme airtime magnitudes with abrupt movement and terrain to create a very special experience, and possibly the most unique RMC product in operation at the moment.

However, when I first rode it in 2016 it went to my #1 overall, joining my coaster count as my fourth RMC ridden. As of August, I've added my next newest RMC in Twisted Timbers as my 11th one, ranked at #2 just behind Steel Vengeance. Currently, Lightning Rod sits at #4 in my RMC rankings below Steel Vengeance, Twisted Timbers, and Iron Rattler. I almost always see it as second in anybody's rankings, right behind Steel Vengeance. So while I think it's a top tier coaster, I do think it's fair to say it's slightly overrated. It's incredible, but it's a clear step down from Twisted Timbers and Steel Vengeance in terms of airtime magnitude and tightness of elements. But all in all, #4 RMC and #4 out of 350 coasters is an impressive statistic in my eyes, and it's fair to say I love this coaster.

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Not wanting to ride and run, we opted for one more ride while the line was still short before heading back to Ohio.

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Close up look at the weight reduction done on the zero car. It's a shame considering the other one was so beautiful (and my 3D printed model is now inaccurate...grrr! :p ), but I'll take this if it means this incredible coaster can be open. If I'm correct they've already removed the headlights that were on this one. Wonder how much they'll play chop shop with this one in the long run...

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Drew and I opted for second to front on this ride, seeing as I remembered it being better in the front.

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Overall, it was better in this seat. The airtime over the first two humps was still just floater but the rest of the ride was still much better. And the quad down...man! It defies the laws of physics but I found it much better in the front. However, the biggest difference was in regards to the infamous "pothole" at the bottom of the drop. I'm not sure if it's the same thing because I felt it after the drop valleyed out as the coaster headed into the wave turn, but I felt a very clear tick. Nothing skull-shattering, just a tick like you'd expect on a hand cut wooden coaster. It feels very out of place on a coaster with polymer wheels and factory fabricated rails so you don't expect it, but in that wheel seat I did feel it. There were a few other smaller ticks around the ride, but that was by far the most noticeable.

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We got it! Just in the nick of time before we had to get going we got it! Exact same situation as Wonder Woman back on the Texas trip!

After Lightning Rod we went to the gift shop and shopped around. I forget what Drew got but I got a bottle opener and a Yeti bottle to take to work.

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Noticed a Chance badge on the parking trams on the way back to the parking lot to motor home.

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Stopped at Krystal on the drive home since we don't have it back up north and Drew was nice enough to get this photo of me stuffing a hot dog in my mouth while driving. He was even kind enough to put it in the RMC group, asking the members to caption it.

On the drive, we managed to drive right through Cincinnati (I almost always take the bypass but I went through the city) and saved enough time to drop Andrew off at his place before running the rental car back to the airport. I think this is the most economical we've been with rental car gas, I bought the tank at the counter and returned it running on fumes with no fuel range displayed.

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Man oh man, where to start on how awesome these two days were and how much I love that park. Last time I went here was kind of an eye-opening experience for me between the kindness we were shown and the tragic fires that hit just a week after we went. And this trip confirmed to me just how special this place is. The level of care they put into this park, from the fat cats in the office to the front line employee selling cinnamon bread, might be second to none. Andrew has a hospitality management degree and has done two Disney college programs and he was absolutely blown away with how well done the place was, from the visuals walking around to how nice the people are. As I said with Fiesta Texas, it was an amazing day even without Lightning Rod but getting to ride it the next day anyway was the perfect grand finale to an awesome experience. I'm so glad to hold a season pass to be able to come back next year for Wildwood Grove and possibly some alpine coasters we had looked at getting. Getting to travel with Andrew was great too, I've known the guy for seven years so it was nice to finally be able to hit the road and go on a full blown coaster trip with him. All in all an incredible experience and a great way to kick off the winter season, a truly awesome beginning of the end.
 
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