Dollywood impresses first-time visitor (with video)

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — On a maiden voyage to Dollywood, the theme park is impressive. Not blow-you-away, but impressive.

First off, it’s a snug little amusement park, sitting on only 150 acres. In comparison, Six Flags Over Georgia is almost 300 acres and Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C., is almost 400.

But Dollywood still manages to cram a lot into its small space with 10 separate areas centered on different themes.

Tucked in tiny valleys between small ridges, it also doesn’t feel like most amusement parks, which employ the philosophy of ripping out or knocking down every living thing in a one-mile radius so they can fit in more stuff. Dollywood is covered by a canopy of trees and it feels like strolling through a village in the Appalachian Mountains.

A village with roller coasters, log flumes, merry-go-rounds and carnival games, of course. Just like in the real world.

Music and theater performances are the heartbeat of Dollywood and there are eight different standalone theaters in the park that host everything from full-on musical productions to concerts, magic shows, dance and films. Shows run between 15 minutes to almost an hour, with most falling in the 30- to 45-minute range.

The Country Fair section is a nice touch, designed for parents and grandparents who want to see their little loved ones go round and round — slowly — on rides like Piggy Parade, Lucky Ducky and Amazing Flying Elephants. But it also has the attractions that many of us remember from our childhood, the ones that showed up in shopping center parking lots for a week — the Scrambler, Demolition Derby bumper cars (ever notice that adults are usually the main ones ramming the other cars with a cruelly gleeful smile on their face?) and carnival games, the ones the offer those huge stuffed animals as prizes.

Gasps are also heard from first-timers when they come across the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, the 30,000-square-foot aviary containing a dozen or so bald and golden eagles. The world’s largest bald eagle exhibit and breeding facility, it takes in eagles unable to live in the wild anymore and, in some cases, successfully breeds them, then releases the new eagles into the wild when they’re ready. Most folks will never get this close to the huge birds and there’s a tingle when you see a bald eagle only a few feet away.

Craftsman’s Alley, which runs through the center of the park, is a collection of woodworkers, art galleries, ironworkers, candle makers and other outfits. It’s not the usual batch of cheaply made amusement park tchotchkes (although you can get those elsewhere in Dollywood), but face it, most of the crafts come from outside suppliers and aren’t made right there in the park.

As a roller coaster nut, I’ve been on more coasters than I can count; I’ve been flipped, flung, twisted, turned, dangled upside down and shot straight up. That said, I can say that Thunderhead, Dollywood’s wooden coaster is the roughest woodies I’ve ever ridden. Not saying it like it’s a bad thing, but be prepared.

One of the attractions of woodies is, since they don’t strap you in like you’re on the Space Shuttle, you tend to get tossed back and forth, up and down. A lot. But Thunderhead takes it to a whole new level.

Because it’s on such a small footprint, Thunderhead’s turns and twists are super tight and close together, so just as you leave one, the next one is right there. There’s no chance to recover before you’re slung around again.

The ride is good for your core, though, because to keep from getting totally flung around like a rag doll, you have to anticipate the next turn and keep your stomach muscles rigid.

The Tennessee Tornado is your basic inversion coaster. It goes through a 360-degree, 110-foot-tall loop, plus a couple of smaller ones and a sidewinder, but it’s over very quickly and isn’t really anything you haven’t seen before.

The Wild Eagle, though … yeah, this is what we’re talking about.

The first wing coaster built in America, it’s an amazing 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Opening in 2012, it was voted as the best new ride of that year in the Golden Ticket Awards from Amusement Today magazine. It deserves the prize.

Sitting four abreast in a row, your feet dangle. Leaving the station, you immediately start a 210-foot climb then plunge 135 feet, hitting 61 mph before you roar into a 110-foot loop — yes, your feet are over your head. There’s a zero-gravity roll (at the top of a hill, the coaster does a complete spin to give you a sense of weightlessness) and an Immelman inversion — again, feet over head — plus assorted spins, camelbacks and curves.

Yeah, it’s as good as it sounds.

Contact Shawn Ryan at sryan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327.