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Future developments at Dollywood

SilverArrow

SilverArrow

Certified Ride Geek
ACE have had an online event today which featured a range of industry speakers, thanks to twitter I've picked up a few notable bits of news from it, mostly from @seanbm1976 who has been reporting on it. (https://twitter.com/seanbm1976?s=20).

Some items of note:
  • Working title for Quimera is "America's Dreier Looping"
  • Six Flags Great America have confirmed that they aren't removing any rides (so none of the 15 rides mentioned earlier for removal by the chain)
  • Racer at KI getting lots of track work by Gravity Group
  • Raven at Holiday World getting work done by Gravity Group
  • Zamperla's has sold quite a few of their Nebulaz rides
  • Aquaman at Six Flags over Texas confirmed for 2022 due to addition of turntable
  • Zamperla Spinning mouse for Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for 2021
  • Suggestion that RMC is not "flipping the bill" for Lightning Rod retrack
  • New ride at Dollywood coming from a manufacturer they haven't worked with before
  • RMC working on Blazing Fury
You can see more news at the link but those were the main ones that seemed interesting. I think the event is still ongoing so there may be more information to come.

EDIT: Additional things
  • Thunderhead retracking
  • Mystery Mine reprofilling
  • New tap house at Six Flags Great America with over 20 beers on tap
 
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Mystery mine re-profiling? I thought it was just a 1:1 re-track? Anyway, it's cool to see three of Dollywood's coasters receiving track work this off-season.

I too am really hoping for a Mack Hyper, but it's honestly probably the dark ride the park has plans for. Has the park worked with Intamin before? I can't think of any rides at any Herschend park that's made by Intamin off the top of my head.
 
CrashCoaster said:
Mystery mine re-profiling? I thought it was just a 1:1 re-track? Anyway, it's cool to see three of Dollywood's coasters receiving track work this off-season.

I too am really hoping for a Mack Hyper, but it's honestly probably the dark ride the park has plans for. Has the park worked with Intamin before? I can't think of any rides at any Herschend park that's made by Intamin off the top of my head.
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Do the rapids rides count? I'm assuming Smoky Mountain River is by Intamin but I'm not totally sure about that.

I agree it's probably the dark ride, but man would I love to have a Mack hyper somewhere in the states.
 
Doesn't Dollywood have a new hotel resort in the works too? Or was that cancelled?

I feel like this should have its own thread because there's a lot of discussion value to this ACE event, not exactly small news.
 
I think the new Dollywood attraction will probably be some sort of Sally dark ride in Wildwood Grove, based on the recent survey and the fact that land clearing has been taking place in that area.

After that, I’d love to see a B&M hyper coaster go to Dollywood. It’s been said that Pete Owens really wants one, and that was also on the coaster survey a bit back. As far as I’m aware, they also have a lot of space for one, especially since they removed Mountain Slidewinder a little while back.
 
UP87 said:
It'd be cool if they were able to get rid of the over the shoulder restraints... But there are several limits to that and CS says the vehicles won't be changing.
Click to expand...
As much as I'm for lapbars only for 99% of creds, Gerst Eurofighters and the ilk are not ones I would feel comfortable with.
I'd give it a go of course, but imagine the smiler without smelly headrests, not the same.
 
SilverArrow said:
ACE have had an online event today which featured a range of industry speakers, thanks to twitter I've picked up a few notable bits of news from it, mostly from @seanbm1976 who has been reporting on it. (https://twitter.com/seanbm1976?s=20).

Some items of note:
  • Working title for Quimera is "America's Dreier Looping"
  • Six Flags Great America have confirmed that they aren't removing any rides (so none of the 15 rides mentioned earlier for removal by the chain)
  • Racer at KI getting lots of track work by Gravity Group
  • Raven at Holiday World getting work done by Gravity Group
  • Zamperla's has sold quite a few of their Nebulaz rides
  • Aquaman at Six Flags over Texas confirmed for 2022 due to addition of turntable
  • Zamperla Spinning mouse for Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for 2021
  • Suggestion that RMC is not "flipping the bill" for Lightning Rod retrack
  • New ride at Dollywood coming from a manufacturer they haven't worked with before
  • RMC working on Blazing Fury
You can see more news at the link but those were the main ones that seemed interesting. I think the event is still ongoing so there may be more information to come.

EDIT: Additional things
  • Thunderhead retracking
  • Mystery Mine reprofilling
  • New tap house at Six Flags Great America with over 20 beers on tap
Click to expand...
I notice that a new ride is coming to Dollywood from a manufacturer they haven't worked with before, i know people are saying a Sally Dark Ride but what if it's Intamin to build a new coaster
 
CrashCoaster said:
Doesn't Dollywood have a new hotel resort in the works too? Or was that cancelled?

I feel like this should have its own thread because there's a lot of discussion value to this ACE event, not exactly small news.
Click to expand...
When I visited Dollywood last September, one of the employees at Splash Country mentioned that they were going to announce a new hotel back in March as part of the investment plan. It might not have been the Dippin' Dots guy, but this sounded pretty plausible.

Along with the rest of you, I'm very positive that the "new ride from a manufacturer we've never worked with before" is a shooter dark ride for Wildwood Grove Phase 2. For reference, here are the dark ride proposals from those surveys a few years back:
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Any of these concepts would definitely be a smash hit at Dollywood, as in my opinion, the park is really lacking a modern dark ride, as well as a family-friendly indoor attraction on the left side of the park.

As for a new coaster, I'm betting on a hyper coaster, partially occupying Mountain Slidewinder's footprint and running alongside Thunderhead to Wildwood Grove. My dream manufacturer for this ride would be Mack, as DC Rivals looks absolutely incredible, but I wouldn't complain if it was a B&M or Intamin instead. After doing some measuring, a hypercoaster layout could easily start in the Mountain Slidewinder splashdown area, climbing up the hill towards Wildwood Grove, with a first drop and airtime hill going over and beside the path connecting Timber Canyon to Dollywood's main street; there's a fairly large, empty plot of land in between Thunderhead, Dollywood's employee parking lot and Dragonflier that could house another airtime hill and the turnaround. The rest of the ride's layout could run alongside the first half, with plenty of space on the hill (assuming they'd be willing to deforest part of it) for a twisty finale, ala Candymonium or Mako's endings, into the brake run. I drew up a mock-up layout for this concept, but unfortunately the file size was too large to upload.
 
So Mystery Mine hasn't just been re-tracked, part of the layout has been re-routed. The horseshoe turn has been removed, and there is now a flat 90° turn after the first MCBR into a shallower drop than the original 85° drop, before the second mid-course:-

image0.png


NGL I think they've actually made the layout worse, they've shortened it. I'm all for making it smoother but to nerf it? Sorry, not cool.
 
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