Dollywood - Thunderhead or Bust!

May 31st I'm going to Dollywood for the first time. I'm finally going after thoughts of it forever. Now it's perfect timing because of Thunderhead, their new woody built by Great Coasters International. Also I've always wanted to ride the Tennessee Tornado ever since I heard about it. It's a terrain Arrow, my favorite steel coaster designers. I'm an so pumped. I'll drive with some freinds from Cleveland so it will take about 8 hours. That's nothing compared to driving home from LA. We're going to the park on June 1st and we'll be visiting the Smokey Mountain National Park for hiking, horseback and anything we can find to keep busy the three days prior to the park. I can't wait. This will be the first vacation I've taken in about 3 yrs. I'll let you know how the new coaster is. It looks pretty kick a**.

[coolbeans326]

cool, that parks is one of the best small parks around, at least that's wat I've heard. Is it still a small family park??? (Owned by Dolley country music singer, she even got an element named after her...(can you you believe that??)
P.S. Nice songs, techno is still the best!!!

I honestly don't think Thunderhead is going to be that great of the ride. Did you see the turns on that thing!? They're banked at like 70-80 degrees [xx(]

And if you want small traditional park, Knoebels takes the cake for best park around...

[coolbeans326]

wow, that is banked really high, I think there starting to take the wooden coaster out of the wooden coaster (wat makes it fun, anyways)

IF, have you seen POVs of the thing?? It looks like it will blow any other GCI out of the water. It's really supposed to be killer, and it looks like a huge improvement over their other rides. The thing just romps through the course, even with an empty train. I mean, it could turn out to be a bust, and it probably won't stand up to anything at Knoebels, like you said, but I think GCI may have gotten the memo about making intense woodies....Maybe.

Well, everyone that said it was good has the popular views of the average enthusiast, aka CP is the best, TTD is amazing, MF is amazing, taller and faster coasters are better, the smoother the better, etc. views. The true wood fans that have ridden it said it was nothing special, and I take their word for it.

Yes, i have seen a POV of the ride. there are perfect, graceful lead ins with extremely high banking exactly like a steel coaster, and the fact that everyone likes it is because it is so fast. Fast (pacing wise) is a plus, but what does it do if theres nothing to go along with the speed? Nothing.

[coolbeans326]

Good points, have you ever been on Grizzly at Paramount's Great America??? I think you would like that ride IF. But anyways, I don't like how there building woodies today, I mean seriously, there adding loops, making turns extremely banked, they're basically taking out what makes a wooden coaster so good. Now they're just steel coasters with wooden trax & supports. The old stuff is what's good, not the new stuff. If you want smooth go on a B&M or a Intamin, but woodies should be built like what they were like in the old days.... John A. Miller style.

Grizzly @ PGA has Morgans, so I wouldn't probably like it that much, and Morgan trains are very slow...now Grizzly @ PKD, thats a different story, its a great ride when its running fast. The problem with woodies today is that there mostly all built by GCI, GCI is a steel coaster company that makes their coasters out of wood [;)], once the Gravity Group starts building some coasters there'll be a lot of excellent new wooden coasters being built. Thunderhead is just an average GCI with better pacing, which is the reason why people like it so much.

IMO the days of classic wooden coasters have gone. I admit i havnt ridden many wooden coasters, really only Grand National, Big Dipper and RollerCoaster @ Blackpool and all 3 of them coasters are awsome, and without a doubt Grand National is one of the best woodies since the Crystal Beach Cyclone It seems like with fine wines, the older they are the better they are....hmm kinda goin goff topic here.

Anyway make sure you take your camera

The camera is comin' and I'm buying extra memory sticks to make sure I have all the memory I'll need. I'm just excited to experience the first drop on Thunderhead. It looks like nothing else I've ever been on (wood-wise). Instead of a straight drop, I think it drops into an S curve. Pretty cool if you ask me. Well we'll see. The Tennessee Tornado is another big draw for me. It goes through tunnels in the mountain into a 110' loop. That's not normal for an Arrow to build huge loops like that is it? Oh well, I'll post the pics on my site when I get back. BTW, where are you guys finding the POV of the ride already?

http://www.rideworld.com/boards/index.p ... c=1099&hl=

Err, it still looks pretty sweet. I mean, I can't say better than a CCI, but you have to give some credit for trying to make a more intense ride. This thing is the most original ride GCI has done to date, and from what I've heard is that it is pretty good...but it's hard to judge from not riding it yet, so I'm not going to bash something I haven't ridden...that seems a bit stupid, IMO.

I don't see how its anymore intense, just better pacing than other GCIs.

Ok, faster+more speed+some actual airtime

=

More intense

Wow, I think it looks pretty crazy. From the POV it seems like there are at least 4-5 times where you'd be pulled right out the train, sent flying through the air. There are tons of high speed turns and direction changes that are usually over the top of hill, so they're out of sight until it actually happens. Well now I really can't wait until June 1st. Thanks for the link. It does seem a little short though. Oh well, still awesome.

Sent flying into the air? No way, thats something that you get on Phoenix's last 4 hills, not on GCIs with Millennium Flyer trains. Millennium Flyers don't provide room to come up in your seat [xx(]

McFly, "faster+more speed+some actual airtime = more intense"? Faster nor More speed don't have any affect on the intensity. And the ride doesn't have any actual airtime, airtime is coming off your seat, even from not riding Thunderhead I know that you dont do that because of the MF trains, they simply don't allow you to.

IF, I'm not going to argue with you, because nobody can change your linear and single-minded thoughts about coasters, but it's no way to have fun. The ride is so quick and the pacing is absolutely amazing, which would make for a more intense ride...duh. And you can get airtime without coming 10 inches off your seat...you still get a good feeling of air being lifted up and floating into the restraints...just not as amazing as your CCIs or beloved Phoenix.

So your accusing me of having single-minded thoughts about coasters just because speed and height isn't anything intense to me? I like a lot of different types of coasters, just the ones people talk about most of the time are the ones that I find nothing special at all in.

Thunderhead's pacing is a good thing IMO, I already said that, but thats not enough for me to think its a good ride. The combination of force AND pacing is what makes a good ride to me.

It just seems like you only like wooden coasters, and nothing else...I apologize if those aren't your views, but it sure seems like that. And I usually agree with you about many things wooden coaster related, but I just wouldn't speculate about how bad something is until I've experienced it first-hand, that's all.

IntaminFan397 - When I say "flying through the air", I ment being thrown around lateraly. With those crazy quick turns, I can probably guarantee I'll be holding on for dear life. It doesn't seem like there isn't going to be any point of the ride that would give air time. Judging from the video anyway. But that's ok. By the way IntaminFan - Have you been on Thunderhead yet?

No, I havn't been on Thunderhead yet. But there are things that I can know pretty much for sure about it from the video and what I know about the Millennium Flyer trains. As you can see, there are definitely lead ins throughout the whole ride, there can't be any lateral slam with them. Another thing is the turns are banked extremely high, its very easy to tell that the turns can't have much laterals from that vid because of the banking. I'm not saying theres going to be completely none at all, probably some ok lateral moments entering and exiting a couple of turns, but theres nothing that really just banks over and then BANG! slams you with laterals. Thats something that I look for in coasters. Theres some light floats also, but nothing more...and with those restraints on the MF trains it won't be felt that much. So basicly I don't think this ride would do much for me, I would still have fun riding it, but I just look for more in a coaster than what Thunderhead has to offer. Most people that ride it like it -- and they have different views on coasters than me. I'm just simply stating that IMO this ride wouldnt be much. A lot of people have problems with my views on coasters, but mostly everyone that does hasn't ridden anything that I would consider a great coaster [;)]

Hey IF397, you ever been on Gaza at BGT, seems like a woody that you'd like.

You mean Gwazi? From what I've heard from it, its pretty bad, Thunderhead looks much better.

Yeah I meant Gwazi, personally I think it's a great ride, its got some good lats and airtime in spots, maybe not to your standards though.

Wow, thank you IF! You said you think you'd still have fun...that's what I was looking for. Anyway, Gwazi isn't too bad, either. If it's got both sides going, it's pretty good. Plus, it doesn't have the stapler trains that most GCIs have. Not half bad, but nothing great or special.