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Dollywood | Lightning Rod | Launched RMC

One of my old coaster friends, Devin (formerly of C-net), rode it and said it was the best wooden coaster he's been on. Hopefully it'll open in the next week or two.
 
ECG said:
A friend of mine rode it today. He's not with RMC nor is he a Dollywood employee, so the opening shouldn't be too far off.

let me know when you go and I'll try to meet you there!
 
I won't be going anytime soon, as the park has asked me to hold off until things have settled down and they can better accommodate all my filming needs.
 
Bachirs said:
No updates on Lightning Rod?
Someone on themeparkreview posted that there is still work going on the lift hill, not much testing to report, the whole ride area seems very quiet which is not a good sign. So if you ask me, I am not very confident that they open the ride in the coming weeks. Maybe sometime in July?
 
I just think its interesting that a rep from Dollywood said it would be open in a few weeks, this was back on April 26. According to that timeline, it would have opened last week.

I know situations like these are extremely fluid, but I find it strange that the director of PR would come out with such a statement when Dollywood has kept any info about the ride under wraps. This tells me they were pretty confident that the ride would have opened last week. It also tells me that they must have had a significant setback over the last ten days. There has been no info since the Pete Owens statement.

I just hope the latest setback isn't a showstopper.
 
Was there on Friday with the kids.

There was nothing going on with LR that day. No testing or workers on the track. Just crickets. I am assuming they try not to do too much on crowded days so all the high schoolers on field trips won't blow up social media.

In terms of construction progress, I did notice a lot more pneumatic brakes on the lift hill than my previous visit. Not sure if this is for rollbacks or to trim down the speed (which is the original rumor). I will say I peeked in the window and the queue looks fab.

Here's to hoping for a memorial day weekend opening.
 
It's now testing with trains full of water dummies. Not sure how long employee training takes, but I imagine I'm still going to miss this one by a few weeks.
 
Love the sound effects at the start! It's quicker than I expected!
[youtubevid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmhvA6Sy_K4[/youtubevid]
Lifthill launch vid

Alert! Alert! Real riders!
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