One of the things that has set Disney apart from any other parks is their dark ride collection. Besides Universal, you can’t really find anything similar unless you go international. I think Dollywood does need more dark rides in general. I don’t think that their next big coaster will be in 3 years though. It seems like with Herschend, they take more of an off year in between big additions. The improved Dollywood museum is probably a lot cheaper than Big Bear Mountain. This acts as their down year. I think a year or two after that they would look at other theme park offerings like a new water ride or revamping the county fair section. I think this would push a major new coaster back further with a bit of an in between year. It will be interesting to see when this park gets a big new thrill coaster.
The point about dark rides is especially good. I'm not sure how much the Dolly Experience will cost but it's going to be much more immersive than people are expecting. I believe Dollywood's goal was to spend 500 million on investments from 2023-2033 (or something similar) this is what I would base the 3-year number on. Besides that they have been doing subtle things to move them from "regional park" to "destination park" Everything from eliminating the turnstiles, the new resort, changing the way cinnamon bread is bought, increasing their operating calendar, and acquiring smaller attractions in the area may point to this. Maybe it is a bit of wishful thinking for a thrill coaster in 3 years, but it is reasonably plausible. As always thanks for the insightful comment!
@@TheCoasterJoshthey switched up turnstiles and cinnamon bread? I had no idea. And I’ll for sure take your word for it. You went a lot more recently than I did. I do think that they really want to push the park into the same league as Disney. Just thinking about Herschend it makes sense to me that they would make big improvements to this park over Silver Dollar City. Silver Dollar City is a fantastic park and they have been making some great additions but the park seems to be needing more investments in order to scale. I know that recently Silver Dollar City had their entire parking lot reworked and they are adding an employee housing unit pretty close by. Dollywood doesn’t seem to need these same sort of infrastructure investments in order to scale so I think Herschend can use Dollywood to test the waters in the Disney league.
The similarities are there, but Dollywood isn’t quite there yet. They need more dark rides, and rides that can’t be found anywhere else other than Disney or Universal. A flying theater like Soarin’ where you’re flying over the Smokey Mountains would be fun, and would give them another family ride and an indoor one. But I’d like to see more rock work and animatronics from Dollywood. I was disappointed with Big Bear Mountain… with the word “mountain” in the name, I’m expecting rock work like Disney- something like HKDL Grizzly Mountain Runaway Minecarts; or at the very least give us some moving figures of a bear or frightened campers or hikers… something to look at while your flying around the track.
Absolutely agree! A flying theater would be perfect. I was also expecting a bit more rock work however, as a financial decision it definitely gets the job done. More dark rides would really put this place on the map!
I was just at Dollywood last June. I would easily take this park over all the Walt Disney World parks except Magic Kingdom and the two Disneyland Resort parks, but that could change when I return to California Adventure this August.
Maybe Herschend Family Entertainment should create a subdivision dedicated to Dolly Parton attractions and Dollywood parks and resorts called “Dollywood Parks, Resorts, and Experiences” with future Dollywood theme park resorts throughout the US including a second gate family theme park for the main Pigeon Forge Dollywood resort, a Dollywood Nashville resort in Nashville, a Dollywood Poconos resort in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, a Dollywood Central Florida resort in the central Florida area, a Dollywood Texas resort somewhere in Texas, a Dollywood Georgia resort in Georgia, a Dollywood Missouri resort in Missouri, and a Dollywood Myrtle Beach resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!
@@TheCoasterJosh Yep! There’s hope that we’ll get more Dollywood parks and resorts in the future! We could’ve gotten more Dollywood parks since the opening of the main Dollywood park in Pigeon Forge!
Dollywood is a very nice park, however not on the same level as Disney. Dollywood only has one attraction that the entire family can ride together. That's the train. The park isn't focused on family dark ride experiences. It's focused on coasters which unfortunately I believe is a mistake. I've always enjoyed the Dollywood experience, but do hate that several members of my party can't ride anything because they don't like coasters. If the park won't to compete with Disney they need to step up the entire family ride experience.
I agree with all of your points! In the video I did say they could eventually become comparable, but not yet in terms of size and scale, Maybe over the next ten years. I agree that they definitely need more dark rides.
I love Dollywood, and (Kentucky Kingdom neglect aside) love Herschend a lot more than Disney. However, Dollywood is no where near or even capable of becoming the next Disneyland. Dollywood attendance is like 1/3rd of California Adventure. It's not I'm the same league of destination as Disney or Universal. It may compete and beat the top SeaWorld parks. But it will struggle in coming years do to capacity issues. Dollywood really wasn't built to get the crowds it currently gets. If they can push it to 4 million guests a year (not an easy, but an achievable goal) then the park might break the park. The pathways are often small and crowded do to the terrain, the operations slow, and the park seems to hate 3 train ops with a passion. Only Mystery Mine & FireChaser run more than 2 trains. Disney gets a lot of sh$@t, for a reason, but they still build their attractions with high capacity in mind, and train staff to get that. So does Universal. SeaWorld doesn't train well for good ops, but does build it in at the ride level with high capacity B&Ms. And it's not like it's a they outgrew their old capacity. Both brand new coasters in the wild wood Grove area were built with absurdly low capacity for their demand. Dragonflyer should have had an extended break run to run 2 trains. And big Bear mountain only runs 2 small trains despite the ride length and multiple launches making 3 trains a very easy to add option.
I feel like Dollywood should offer some kind of shuttle from Knoxville Airport to the resorts in the Pigeon Forge area. I could see Dollywood’s attendance getting a big boost if they did that!
Dollywood has actually claimed that their direct target is to rival Disney by becoming a more affordable alternative. And they’re definitely undergoing aggressive expansion with 500 Million Dollars in investment by 2030 with the goal of increasing attendance to 4 million people per year.
That is an interesting question. Honestly I don’t know. I believe they were once planning a Dollywood park outside of the US (Japan) but that was awhile ago and never came into fruition.
One of the things that has set Disney apart from any other parks is their dark ride collection. Besides Universal, you can’t really find anything similar unless you go international. I think Dollywood does need more dark rides in general. I don’t think that their next big coaster will be in 3 years though. It seems like with Herschend, they take more of an off year in between big additions. The improved Dollywood museum is probably a lot cheaper than Big Bear Mountain. This acts as their down year. I think a year or two after that they would look at other theme park offerings like a new water ride or revamping the county fair section. I think this would push a major new coaster back further with a bit of an in between year. It will be interesting to see when this park gets a big new thrill coaster.
The point about dark rides is especially good. I'm not sure how much the Dolly Experience will cost but it's going to be much more immersive than people are expecting. I believe Dollywood's goal was to spend 500 million on investments from 2023-2033 (or something similar) this is what I would base the 3-year number on. Besides that they have been doing subtle things to move them from "regional park" to "destination park" Everything from eliminating the turnstiles, the new resort, changing the way cinnamon bread is bought, increasing their operating calendar, and acquiring smaller attractions in the area may point to this. Maybe it is a bit of wishful thinking for a thrill coaster in 3 years, but it is reasonably plausible. As always thanks for the insightful comment!
@@TheCoasterJoshthey switched up turnstiles and cinnamon bread? I had no idea. And I’ll for sure take your word for it. You went a lot more recently than I did. I do think that they really want to push the park into the same league as Disney. Just thinking about Herschend it makes sense to me that they would make big improvements to this park over Silver Dollar City. Silver Dollar City is a fantastic park and they have been making some great additions but the park seems to be needing more investments in order to scale. I know that recently Silver Dollar City had their entire parking lot reworked and they are adding an employee housing unit pretty close by. Dollywood doesn’t seem to need these same sort of infrastructure investments in order to scale so I think Herschend can use Dollywood to test the waters in the Disney league.
half there dark rides are overrated and out od date IOA is way way better
@@TheCoasterJosh major coaster is planned for 2026
The similarities are there, but Dollywood isn’t quite there yet. They need more dark rides, and rides that can’t be found anywhere else other than Disney or Universal.
A flying theater like Soarin’ where you’re flying over the Smokey Mountains would be fun, and would give them another family ride and an indoor one.
But I’d like to see more rock work and animatronics from Dollywood.
I was disappointed with Big Bear Mountain… with the word “mountain” in the name, I’m expecting rock work like Disney- something like HKDL Grizzly Mountain Runaway Minecarts; or at the very least give us some moving figures of a bear or frightened campers or hikers… something to look at while your flying around the track.
Absolutely agree! A flying theater would be perfect. I was also expecting a bit more rock work however, as a financial decision it definitely gets the job done. More dark rides would really put this place on the map!
dark rides are too pricy for dollywood two it arent gonna bring peolpe in
big bear mountain was never gonna be a grizzly runaway mountain not even close wasnt theamed to.a one bear
Mystery Mine has Disney level theming, it is so good.
I seriously enjoy that ride. It’s super underrated.
way way better then disney too and has good coasters
Honestly agree! Disney is too crowded lol
I was just at Dollywood last June. I would easily take this park over all the Walt Disney World parks except Magic Kingdom and the two Disneyland Resort parks, but that could change when I return to California Adventure this August.
I agree to be honest. I can definitely appreciate the quality of Disney, but it is not the same when the Disney park is slammed packed.
You were not kidding about Disney taking ALL of your money !!!!! It's now at ridiculous stage.
They have gone insane at this point with cost cutting and price hikes.
3:04 There's also alot of similarities between Orlando and the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Sevierville area.
Absolutely!!! There are quite a few. Thanks for watching.
Maybe Herschend Family Entertainment should create a subdivision dedicated to Dolly Parton attractions and Dollywood parks and resorts called “Dollywood Parks, Resorts, and Experiences” with future Dollywood theme park resorts throughout the US including a second gate family theme park for the main Pigeon Forge Dollywood resort, a Dollywood Nashville resort in Nashville, a Dollywood Poconos resort in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, a Dollywood Central Florida resort in the central Florida area, a Dollywood Texas resort somewhere in Texas, a Dollywood Georgia resort in Georgia, a Dollywood Missouri resort in Missouri, and a Dollywood Myrtle Beach resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!
That is a fantastic idea! I seriously think that is possible in the future if they keep growing.
@@TheCoasterJosh Exactly! I wanna see a new Dollywood resort come to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina!
@@carminecdinoproductions I believe the Pirates Voyage dinner theater attraction Owned by Herschend is already there, so there is hope.
I can live with this!
@@TheCoasterJosh Yep! There’s hope that we’ll get more Dollywood parks and resorts in the future! We could’ve gotten more Dollywood parks since the opening of the main Dollywood park in Pigeon Forge!
Dollywood is a very nice park, however not on the same level as Disney. Dollywood only has one attraction that the entire family can ride together. That's the train. The park isn't focused on family dark ride experiences. It's focused on coasters which unfortunately I believe is a mistake. I've always enjoyed the Dollywood experience, but do hate that several members of my party can't ride anything because they don't like coasters. If the park won't to compete with Disney they need to step up the entire family ride experience.
I agree with all of your points! In the video I did say they could eventually become comparable, but not yet in terms of size and scale, Maybe over the next ten years. I agree that they definitely need more dark rides.
I’m definitely routing for the, though. The service and friendliness of Guest and host are what Disney use to be like.@@TheCoasterJosh
I love Dollywood, and (Kentucky Kingdom neglect aside) love Herschend a lot more than Disney. However, Dollywood is no where near or even capable of becoming the next Disneyland.
Dollywood attendance is like 1/3rd of California Adventure. It's not I'm the same league of destination as Disney or Universal.
It may compete and beat the top SeaWorld parks. But it will struggle in coming years do to capacity issues.
Dollywood really wasn't built to get the crowds it currently gets. If they can push it to 4 million guests a year (not an easy, but an achievable goal) then the park might break the park.
The pathways are often small and crowded do to the terrain, the operations slow, and the park seems to hate 3 train ops with a passion. Only Mystery Mine & FireChaser run more than 2 trains.
Disney gets a lot of sh$@t, for a reason, but they still build their attractions with high capacity in mind, and train staff to get that. So does Universal. SeaWorld doesn't train well for good ops, but does build it in at the ride level with high capacity B&Ms.
And it's not like it's a they outgrew their old capacity. Both brand new coasters in the wild wood Grove area were built with absurdly low capacity for their demand. Dragonflyer should have had an extended break run to run 2 trains. And big Bear mountain only runs 2 small trains despite the ride length and multiple launches making 3 trains a very easy to add option.
Will herschend family entertainment build more theme parks around North America if Dollywood becomes successful and popular?
I could indeed see them acquire more properties. As for a new ground-up park... anything is possible!
I feel like Dollywood should offer some kind of shuttle from Knoxville Airport to the resorts in the Pigeon Forge area. I could see Dollywood’s attendance getting a big boost if they did that!
That is a great idea!
how far is that from dollywood?
@@NickyD According to Google Dollywood is currently a 57 minute drive from McGhee Tyson Airport.
They dont need more attendance, they are packed.
@@carlyandfriends1547 They will need it for expansions.
Dollywood has actually claimed that their direct target is to rival Disney by becoming a more affordable alternative.
And they’re definitely undergoing aggressive expansion with 500 Million Dollars in investment by 2030 with the goal of increasing attendance to 4 million people per year.
I had no idea!!!! That is awesome.
They announced at opening earlier this month that they expect to break the 4 million visitor per year this season.
Eh I still prefer silver dollar city better theming operations and park appearance imo
Silver dollar city looks better, But I don't know if they would try to grow the park as much as Dollywood.
Will Herschend ever acquire any parks outside of North America?
That is an interesting question. Honestly I don’t know. I believe they were once planning a Dollywood park outside of the US (Japan) but that was awhile ago and never came into fruition.