160705 Dollywood (1)

Review: Dollywood for Families

Millions of guests visit the Smoky Mountain region every year. Most take in some iconic hikes to see waterfalls and nature. Others spend time taking in the various tourists activities from mini-golf to Jurassic boat rides. However, somewhere between the creation of the mountains and the proliferation of tourism came an amusement park that was fitting to the region in theme and atmosphere.

In 1986, that small amusement park called Silver Dollar City was purchased and rebranded as Dollywood after the iconic singer Dolly Parton.

During our family’s summer venture to the Smoky Mountain region, we took in plenty of nature packed hikes, some tourist activities, and made it a point to spend some time at Dollywood to see how it compares to the many other amusement parks we have visited from Cedar Fair to Disney.

The very first thing we did was take advantage of the offer to buy a ticket after 3:00 PM and get in free the next day. We arrived promptly at 3:00, entered the park, and headed straight for their new ride, Lightning Rod. However, after an hour plus of the ride running, then going down for repairs, we opted to go out and enjoy the rest of the park. Lightning Rod would have to wait for another time.

Fortunately, there were tons of rides the whole family could enjoy in the rest of the park.

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We LOVED the theme to all the rides. None of them were just plain roller coasters. All had an incredibly detailed theme and character that made them memorable.

Our boys loved Blazing Fury, a dark ride depicting a fireman theme. Firechaser Express also held a special place for us since it was the first big kid coaster that are youngest son (3 years old) was able to ride, and he loved!

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Our family also managed to take advantage of the Parent Swap, which is great for those with young kids who may not be able to ride certain attractions. Each ride is different in how it operates with Parent Swap, but the general gist is that one parent rides the attraction, while the other watches the kids. Then, when the first parent completes their ride, they switch with the other parent, who then gets to ride without waiting. Parent Swap is a wonderful program that helps alleviate double waiting in line to ride attractions.

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Since our family visits a lot of the Cedar Fair parks from Kings Island to Knott’s Berry Farm to Cedar Point, those parks are heavily operated by a younger, college age crowd. While a minor detail, I love when visiting parks like Knoebles and Dollywood, where the staff are the majority of an older aged crowd. We find them more pleasant, helpful, and give the park a sense of authority with an experienced, older staff. We also assume it means the park pay their employees a decent wage.

When visiting Dollywood, guests also know they can eat some really good food! In partnership with the CPFoodBlog, we had to try the iconic cinnamon bread from the Gristmill. Following we also took in a great all-you-can eat buffet at Miss Lillian’s Fried Chicken restaurant.

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After walking around the entire park, you really get a sense of how absolutely gorgeous the grounds are maintained. From the beautiful landscaping, water features, and historic period buildings, Dollywood is well worth the investment.

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PS We did eventually get to ride Lightning Rod on the day of our full day visit, first thing in the morning. Lightning Rod is the world’s first launch wooden coaster with some fantastic elements that were a real surprise. The verdict: Lightning Rod was fantastically fun and a great new experience!

Our family was partially sponsored by Dollywood with two free tickets to visit the park.

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Review: Park Vista DoubleTree (Gatlinburg, Tennessee)

PARK VISTA GATLINBURG – On a recent road trip, our family elected to spend some of our Hilton HHonors points to spend a night in the Smokey Mountain region of Tennessee at the Park View DoubleTree. This hotel was rather a surprise I had planned for our family since we had just spent a long day in the car traveling towards home. While they knew we were spending the night in the Gatlinburg area, they had no idea of the great “waterpark” that was features in the hotel.

The hotel is a giant structure off the main drag of downtown Gatlinburg and up in the mountains. It took us a while to locate the hotel since it was located back in more of a residential area and up a very steep and hidden incline.

Once there, we were greeted with a very large, 300 room hotel with views looking down onto the city.

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Smokey Mountains

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Park Vista Exterior

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Circular Rotunda

Our room was a standard double queen bedroom, featuring updated furnishings, and a nice separate sink area from the bathroom.

We were also given chocolate chip cookies upon our arrival, which is always a nice touch.

The room did feature an outdoor balcony, though we were there late at night and left early the next morning, so there was no chance of us actually getting to use it. Further, we were on a lower floor overlooking the roof, so there was nothing to see anyways.

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Double Queen Beds

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Entertainment Area

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Bathroom

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Bathroom Sink Room

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Toiletries

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Cookies

After quickly getting settled in, as is normal for our family, we were headed down to the pool. Our boys had no idea what to expect, and they were thoroughly impressed with my surprise upon entry to the pool house. Inside was a lower zero entry kid pool with fountains, a small, shallow pool, and a kids slide through a tree. On the upper level was a large tree featuring a big water slide into a separate big pool.

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Treehouse Slide

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Pool House

This was one of the best standard rate hotel pools our family had experienced, and was a great value at 30,000 points for a category 5 hotel.

One of the other unique features of the hotel, which we did not get to experience, was in the hotel lobby was an ice cream cart. Taking an ice cream was on the honor system with donations all going to charity. It was an excellent touch.

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Ice Cream for Donations

140621 Park Vista Doubletree Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Our status with HHonors also got us a free appetizer at the bar. However, by the time we got checked in and went to the pool, they no longer were accepting the voucher. Instead we went to get fresh popcorn from the bar, which we were shocked they charged to get. So they took our voucher instead for a free serving of popcorn.

Our family really wished we had more time to spend in the Gatlinburg area, as we did not get to spend anytime out in the city, as it was simply just a quick stopover before heading home the next morning. The good thing is we are happy to know the Park Plaza is an excellent choice for future visits.

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Source: InACents