Dollywood

I went up to Pigeon Forge with my mother and grandma for the day. Arrived at opening time, left after closing. Bought Q2Q, wonderful utility.

The area is beautiful, especially Gatlinburg, nearby. It is a ski town, made evident by the ski lift passing through the center of town. There's a Hard Rock Cafe and a place called 'The Hemp Store'.

Thunderhead is a fantastic ride, the smoothest woodie I've ever ridden (Though I've only ridden three). I certainly know now why people like GCI's so much, it was perfect. Even slight dips in the track before turns gave wonderful air. The forces were priceless, and the roar of the trains kicked ass. My mother said she thought it was rough, but she's been spoiled by many B&M's lately.

Mystery Mine was interesting, I loved the greater than vertical drop, and the almost vertical one. It seemed very rough and painful to me for some odd reason. Not the track itself, but I found myself being banged around quite a lot. My mother loved that one. The outside banked turn near the beginnning is ingenious. That's what I've noticed about Eurofighters, they use very unique elements in their designs.

Tennessee Tornado was very smooth, compared to Magnum and Corkscrew, and had a great drop. My only gripe with it was that it was very short, it could have been a bit longer. It was built in 1999, right? You'd think that Arrow would update their trains after thirty years. They felt the same as Corkscrew's trains. Great coaster with interesting elements, nonetheless. I liked how close the trees were.

Blazing Fury doesn't count as a coaster in my opinion, because it's lame. I won't elaborate.

I was going to ride Timber Tower, but when I realized you'd get soaked, I skipped it, since it was only half-way through the nine hour day, and walking around in wet, heavy blue jeans for five hours wasn't very appealing.

The shows were entertaining, especially Dreamland Drive-in. Food was as expected very costly. Fried peanuts (you can eat the shell) and glass-bottled coca-cola were high points. Most of the food was sub-par, like any amusement park these days. I rode the River Rampage water ride, got soaked, and used the big family dryer system. You can guess how well that worked. Security seemed to be itching to get us out of the park just ten minutes after closing time. Leaving took a while, because the only exit is through a cramped gift shop.

The park wasn't too busy, especially for a Friday, the queues were never more than fifteen minutes long. Although the ride operators didn't seem to know very much about what they were doing, which I didn't like. I remember there being a very knowledgeable staff at Cedar Point, and they were more efficient ride operators. Of course, it may have just been a bad day, but I'll never know. It was a one day thing.

That makes my coaster count 26.