The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[mickEblu]

I never would have guessed that Dollywood would be the first park to debut the Mack Rides rocking-boat coaster system l—and in a fully-themed indoor dark ride adventure at that!

I love Dollywood, and this is EXACTLY the type of ride they needed to add. Apparently they started talking with Mack Rides about this right after Big Bear Mtn. opened.

Definitely planning a 2026 trip!

I know practically nothing about Dollywood and I kind of want to keep it that way. I saw one little video where a guy was trying some popular foods there and it looked very charming. Definitely on my list.

 

[Rich T]

I know practically nothing about Dollywood and I kind of want to keep it that way. I saw one little video where a guy was trying some popular foods there and it looked very charming. Definitely on my list.

It is a wonderful place— A huge mega theme park that feels like a cozy, lovingly-managed family-owned park. And Big Bear Mtn. is one of the most fun rides ever. I can’t wait to go back.

 

[waltography]

I just rewatched the Ant-man pov, and it is just as awful as I remember.

It's a much better experience in person. The haptic response is much more interesting than what we have in DL, and it was much easier to aim at theirs than ours.

 

[mickEblu]

It is a wonderful place— A huge mega theme park that feels like a cozy, lovingly-managed family-owned park. And Big Bear Mtn. is one of the most fun rides ever. I can’t wait to go back.

Thing is we don’t travel all that much and I’m not sure how you tack on Tennessee as part of a bigger trip. As much as I’d love to see it, hard to see Tennessee being the main destination of a yearly (or every other year) family vacation. So not sure it’ll happen anytime soon unless we really make it a priority. Seems like the kind of trip that might make more sense when the kids are a bit older.

 

[waltography]

I never would have guessed that Dollywood would be the first park to debut the Mack Rides rocking-boat coaster system l—and in a fully-themed indoor dark ride adventure at that!
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I love Dollywood, and this is EXACTLY the type of ride they needed to add. Apparently they started talking with Mack Rides about this right after Big Bear Mtn. opened.

Definitely planning a 2026 trip!

This looks so, so charming. A bit like backwoods Avatar. Here's to hoping they pull it off.

I've heard great things about the cinnamon bread at Dollywood, I might have to figure out a way to visit just for that!

 

[Disney Irish]

Thing is we don’t travel all that much and I’m not sure how you tack on Tennessee as part of a bigger trip. As much as I’d love to see it, hard to see Tennessee being the main destination of a yearly (or every other year) family vacation. So not sure it’ll happen anytime soon unless we really make it a priority. Seems like the kind of trip that might make more sense when the kids are a bit older.

I've never been myself, but this seems like a day that you can tack onto a WDW trip either with a long drive or a day layover before or after WDW.

Or you could use it as a way to visit historical sites along the East Coast, with just a stop there for a "fun" day.

 

[mickEblu]

I've never been myself, but this seems like a day that you can tack onto a WDW trip either with a long drive or a day layover before or after WDW.

Or you could use it as a way to visit historical sites along the East Coast, with just a stop there for a "fun" day.

That sounds fun but not maybe not quite the move with the youngsters after a long trip. I’d would like to do a trip one day and visit places like Dollywood/ Nashville Tennessee, Charleston and Savannah. New Orleans too but they might be its own trip.

 

[mickEblu]

Can we talk about Smugglers Run? I don’t think it can be overstated how underwhelming that attraction is. It had a 10 minute wait for the better part of last Sunday while Star Tours hovered over 30 minutes. While some of that can be attributed to location and Star Tours recently coming off a refurb that’s crazy. Hoping those new missions bring this attraction back from the dead.

 

[Touchdown]

Can something really die if it was never alive? SR has been horrible since day 1.

 

[mickEblu]

Can something really die if it was never alive? SR has been horrible since day 1.

True. Such a huge miss. Perhaps that should have been the sign that things were trending in the wrong direction. I do wonder if the perception would be a little different had it opened with 3 different missions or at least added a new one by now.

 

[waltography]

Can we talk about Smugglers Run? I don’t think it can be overstated how underwhelming that attraction is. It had a 10 minute wait for the better part of last Sunday while Star Tours hovered over 30 minutes. While some of that can be attributed to location and Star Tours recently coming off a refurb that’s crazy. Hoping those new missions bring this attraction back from the dead.

Part of it too is that they overbuilt Smuggler's Run for ultimately unfounded capacity concerns (which we should be thankful for, to be honest). We'd probably see closer to 30-45 minute waits if they only had 2 turntables running. 10 minutes for a Smuggler's Run level experience is quite nice all things considered.

 

[mickEblu]

Part of it too is that they overbuilt Smuggler's Run for ultimately unfounded capacity concerns (which we should be thankful for, to be honest). We'd probably see closer to 30-45 minute waits if they only had 2 turntables running. 10 minutes for a Smuggler's Run level experience is quite nice all things considered.

True. If only I had the urge to ride it. lol

 

[mickEblu]

Part of it too is that they overbuilt Smuggler's Run for ultimately unfounded capacity concerns (which we should be thankful for, to be honest). We'd probably see closer to 30-45 minute waits if they only had 2 turntables running. 10 minutes for a Smuggler's Run level experience is quite nice all things considered.

Not but I’ll be honest at 10 minutes it was sounding enticing but ultimately still never felt compelled enough to make it over there. Nobody in my family really cares for it. Like shouldn’t my 10 year old son who likes Star Wars and plays Nintendo Switch all the time absolutely love it?

 

[Disney Irish]

Can we talk about Smugglers Run? I don’t think it can be overstated how underwhelming that attraction is. It had a 10 minute wait for the better part of last Sunday while Star Tours hovered over 30 minutes. While some of that can be attributed to location and Star Tours recently coming off a refurb that’s crazy. Hoping those new missions bring this attraction back from the dead.

Question, can some of it be attributed to MF being more efficient when all PODs are running? I mean MF has a theoretical 1800/hr versus ST which is more like 1400/hr capacity

 

[mickEblu]

Question, can some of it be attributed to MF being more efficient when all PODs are running? I mean MF has a theoretical 1800/hr versus ST which is more like 1400/hr capacity

Sure but let’s take Star Tours out of the equation. Smugglers Run, only a 6 year old attraction, based on the Millenium Falcon/ Star Wars at one of the busiest theme parks on earth during its busiest season of the year had an average wait time of 10 minutes on a Sunday.

 

[Disney Irish]

Sure but let’s take Star Tours out of the equation. Smugglers Run, only a 6 year old attraction, based on the Millenium Falcon/ Star Wars at one of the busiest theme parks on earth during its busiest season of the year had an average wait time of 10 minutes on a Sunday.

Was Sunday especially busy though?

I'm checking right now on a Wednesday afternoon, and MF is 60 mins and ST is 30 mins. So I think it ebbs and flows based on the time/day and many other factors.

I understand the point you're making, but I don't think its really as clear cut as just "people have lost interest".

 

[mickEblu]

Was Sunday especially busy though?

I'm checking right now on a Wednesday afternoon, and MF is 60 mins and ST is 30 mins. So I think it ebbs and flows based on the time/day and many other factors.

I understand the point you're making, but I don't think its really as clear cut as just "people have lost interest".

I don’t think there was ever a huge amount of interest to begin with after the first couple rides but yes I think people have definitely lost interest.

Sunday was slightly to moderately busy. Busier than Sundays have been for the majority of the year but that’s to be expected I guess during Halloween.

 

[Disney Irish]

I don’t think there was ever a huge amount of interest to begin with after the first couple rides but yes I think people have definitely lost interest.

Sunday was slightly to moderately busy. Busier than Sundays have been for the majority of the year but that’s to be expected I guess during Halloween.

I mean sure, once you do the mission the first time you're probably going to lose some interest since it doesn't change. But overall I'm still leaning more toward it was just being efficient with all pods are running. Because I think a 10 min wait time is really unusual and not the norm. As I think the average is more 20-30 mins. So Sunday was probably just a low day for it.

 

[mickEblu]

I mean sure, once you do the mission the first time you're probably going to lose some interest since it doesn't change. But overall I'm still leaning more toward it was just being efficient with all pods are running. Because I think a 10 min wait time is really unusual and not the norm. As I think the average is more 20-30 mins. So Sunday was probably just a low day for it.

Perhaps but no matter you slice it the attraction has fallen short of expectations. When they were building the land nobody would have predicted avg 20-30 min waits for a brand new Star Wars attraction where you fly the Millenium Falcon.

 

[mickEblu]

The Millenium Falcon and Spider-Man deserve better than what they got. Sure they are both secondary attractions in their respective lands but maybe the point is you don’t choose those IP’s for secondary attractions.