 I was able to visit Dollywood and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for the very first time in late December of 2019 during the annual Christmas and Smokey's holiday event. I spent three days at this amazing park and I am going to be reviewing all the park has to offer, including rides, shows, food, and more. As you are approaching Dollywood from the main road leading to the entrance, you really can't tell there is even an amusement park here. You can't see any of the major rides until you get well into the parking lot and this is due to the terrain in the area, as the park is of course located right in the Smokey Mountains. Be aware that because of how the park is situated in the mountains, even if you park in the main parking lot like we did, you may still have quite a walk to get to the entrance. For example, I believe we were in Section B, which is one of the sections closer to the entrance, but we still had to walk quite a ways because the main parking lot is so long and narrow. Anyways, once getting into the front gate, you are greeted by a very nice plaza with lots of shops and buildings. It is all around very welcoming, which leads me to the atmosphere of this park. Dollywood truly possesses a lot of charm and you can tell they take great care of the various aspects of this park to deliver a good experience. It is for sure very well maintained and kept very clean. The restrooms here, for example, are the most well kept restrooms I've seen at an amusement park. The park just overall has a very nice atmosphere and welcoming vibe as well that isn't rivaled by very many parks I've visited. This is really exemplified in certain areas, such as the newest section of the park, Wildwood Grove, which consists of five acres, and there are just so many things to do in that area alone. The kids area is also huge, and this is an area of the park that I didn't even have any idea was there, until near the end of our second day, which just tells you there is such a large selection of things to do here. The staff we encountered over our time here certainly helped to add a lot to that experience. Dollywood seems to have some of the friendliest staff out of the many parks I've visited. They're very helpful and considerate, whether it be food, entertainment, ride-ops, and so forth. I don't think I experienced any real issues here with the staff. Dollywood also has many different shows and live entertainment offerings available. As mentioned, I visited during the spectacular Christmas and the Smokies, and there were many different shows to choose from. I saw it towards the night before Christmas in a theater near the front of the park, which was a very well done show. I attempted to see it's a wonderful life on my last day at the park, but it was the last showing for the day and it ended up being canceled for some reason, I'm not sure of. So I unfortunately didn't get to experience that, but my parents who did catch it said it was awesome. I also happened to catch a few live entertainment offerings going on outside throughout the park, such as Appalachian Christmas, which was a band playing old-fashioned bluegrass Christmas music, and also the Parade of Many Colors, a spectacular holiday parade at the end of the night. Make sure you get to the front of the park ahead of time for the parade if you go during Christmas, because I waited until last minute and could not really see any of it because it was so crowded when I visited and I didn't end up getting a good place to stand and watch it. If you don't care about the parade, then the lines for the rides will likely be short, at least during the parade, since everyone is up at the front of the park. It also seemed that many of those people just left the park after the parade was done though, and we still had about another hour before park closing. One other thing I want to point out quickly before moving on is this awesome tree lighting ceremony I got to experience, which I believe they did about every half hour. This was so cool. There is this giant Christmas tree and they do all sorts of projections onto it and have holiday songs going, and at the very end, the snow falls and it is just so awesome, so definitely check that out if you go during Christmas. When it comes to operations at the park, they did a pretty good job for the most part. Dispatches on the major rides were typically pretty quick. This is one area though, where I do have to note that there were some hiccups, but nothing really major, and generally the ride ops did do their best to try to keep the lines moving and trains dispatching. There was one awkward sort of situation on one of my many rides on Lightning Rod though, where the ride ops were kind of going back and forth about something to do with reporting an occurrence from earlier in the day to the maintenance team, and as this was happening, all of us were just sitting in the train loaded and completely ready to be dispatched, just listening to these ride ops kind of bickering back and forth about whether they should dispatch the train, and eventually they did, but it probably took a good couple of minutes or so, so that was a little irritating. All in all, the operations were mostly pretty good besides that weird situation where the ride ops were kind of arguing, but pretty good otherwise. There is definitely some room for improvement in this area, but I wouldn't be concerned about it if you are planning to visit. It was extremely busy when I visited, and the longest I waited was about 50 minutes for a ride on Lightning Rod, Wild Eagle, Fire Chaser Express, and Mystery Mine, but I rode all of these rides more than once, and the lines typically were even shorter, at least later in the day, which is when I tried to get on a lot of these rides. Also, note that Dragonflyer can only operate with one train, so lines can get extremely long on a busy day. I waited about 45 minutes for that, and only rode it once because of this. I would suggest trying to get on that as one of your first rides at opening time or right before closing. Obviously, we all know Dollywood for their awesome lineup of roller coasters, such as Lightning Rod, Thunderhead, Tennessee Tornado, Wild Eagle, and many family coasters such as Fire Chaser Express and Dragonflyer. All of the coasters here in my opinion were very good. There are a couple elite rides along with some other very good high-thrill coasters and an awesome collection of family coasters to sport that. The quantity isn't huge, but the quality is definitely there. There is a decent selection of flat rides as well, such as Barnstormer, an SNS Screamin' Swing, Dropline Drop Tower, and Great Tree Swing, along with many great family rides and a really big kids area. I must also recommend that you check out the Dollywood Express train ride while you are here. The thing with this that you need to be aware of though is the loading process from getting everybody on to departing the train station is quite lengthy, so if you are pressed for time, you will need to plan for this strategically if you don't want to miss it. But the train ride is very long and it takes you way up into the mountains and you'll get a spectacular view looking down at the park. It was especially really pretty at Christmas with all of the lights. Definitely do not skip out on this train ride if you have enough time. Overall, Dollywood has an awesome, diverse collection of rides for everyone to enjoy that will surely only improve in the coming years. Food. Let me tell you about the food at Dollywood. Oh man, Dollywood has really good food. By far, hands down, the best food I've ever had at any amusement park, no question, and it's not even close. I ate at a home style buffet called Aunt Lily and Smoke House where they cook everything fresh and this buffet was absolutely incredible. No food at a theme park has any right to be this good. It is pretty pricey, but you are going to get great quality southern style home cooked food and I really can't say enough about how good this restaurant was. To be honest, this is some of the best food I've ever eaten at a restaurant period. In 2019, this particular buffet cost $16.99 for adults and $8.99 for children and that does include a drink. There are many different food options available as well. Obviously, everybody thinks of the cinnamon bread when it comes to Dollywood. I had some cinnamon bread here and it is fantastic for sure. To be completely transparent though, I didn't find it as amazing as I've heard so many people make it out to be. Don't get me wrong though, it is fantastic and I definitely suggest trying it out for yourself whenever you go to Dollywood. I also had pork rinds here which they actually cook fresh and you can even watch as it's made. I enjoy pork rinds, but in all honesty, I wasn't really a big fan of these. I had the barbecue ones here and honestly I think I prefer the ones I find in the store so I would say those definitely weren't worth the price. I also had some hot chocolate and coffee here which were both surprisingly pretty darn good. Overall, fantastic food that is definitely much much higher quality than any other park I've visited. It can be pretty expensive but I'd say it's definitely worth it. Overall, Dollywood offers a great value in terms of price and the kind of experience you will get here with all of the great live entertainment, rides, and attractions. If you plan on going here, I strongly recommend getting a ticket for more than one day. If you even think there's a possibility, you'll need more than one day here. A one-day ticket for the park for one adult will run you $79, while for only $20 more you can get a two-day ticket at $99, or you could also do like my family and I did where we bought the three-day ticket which costs $109, only $30 more than the one-day ticket or $10 more than the two-day ticket. So the value here is definitely pretty great for what you are getting, especially if you are going for more than one day. You may not need three days but I am definitely very glad we were able to do three days because there is just so much to do here and I was discovering new things in this park even well into the final day. It was also very busy those days though, because the weather was so beautiful for December. If you think it won't be very busy when you go and you mainly just want to focus on the rides, then one or two days should be fine though. I honestly could have done more things as well, though three days was definitely nice to really do all the main stuff I wanted to experience and soak a lot of things in. You will also have to pay for a parking pass which is just under $14, actually quite a bit cheaper than pretty much any other major park and I believe if you get the three day parking pass it only costs you $9.99 per day if I am not mistaken. Of course you can buy group tickets as well which will likely save you a few bucks and there are also additional add-ons you can purchase for meals and other things. Dollywood is truly an exceptional theme park that offers a high quality experience whether you're a family or a thrill seeker. This park really does everything nearly perfectly in my opinion and that's not something I would say for any other park I've been to. When I visited this place I realized that it really gives some of my other favorite parks a big run for their money and when it comes to many aspects this place does a lot of things better than any other amusement park I've been to hands down. It really did exceed my expectations which were set pretty high. I hope this review could help you a bit if you're thinking about visiting Dollywood. Let me know what your thoughts are about Dollywood if you've had the opportunity to visit. Do you think it is one of the best theme parks out there? 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