Ooo I wish I could have tried that!
The tasting pass is definitely a good deal, if you know how to play it right!
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There is a section of the County Fair area with three mild rides that little kids can ride all alone. Pigs, ducks, and bees. My DS3 had so much fun bouncing back and forth between the pigs and the ducks. He rode 5 times between the three of them.
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I love this! 
I have found this to be true over the years too…
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I wish Dollywood would do APs that start on the date that you get them instead of just running for the calendar year.
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That would be awesome
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I’m hiding in the air conditioning at Red’s while my husband takes the boys on Rocket Roadway again. DS5 is tall enough to drive the car on his own!!
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Oh yeah, 1 PM cinnamon bread is not nearly as good as within-the-first-hour-of-opening cinnamon bread. Nothing can beat that freshness!
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This is a very low crowd day. That threat of rain probably scared off a bunch of people.
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I wanted to visit even before you typed this!
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Good intell.
I want AP’s next year.
When did you buy yours?
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They are cheapest as soon as they’re released. Price goes up the later you buy them, which is ridiculous since you get less use out of them. But it’s to incentivize buying early I guess. I bought in December.
Price then was $219 with the bonus of a “one day unlimited refills” mug. Right now the same pass is $229 without the refillable mug benefit. But I know they did a promo in March where you got one additional bring-a-friend pass to be used during the food and flower festival only (it’s going on for, like, 2 months) which is way better value and I would’ve rather had that then a refillable mug, even if it did cost an extra $10 at the time (I don’t know if it did or not)
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All that to say, they might have “better” offers down the line, and you just don’t know. Sometimes they offer something extra, sometimes nothing extra, but they always offer something extra when they are first released
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We opened and closed Dollywood today. The kids had more meltdowns than they did last time. I think it’s the effect of the heat compared to the cold.
Oh, and pretty much everything is a walk on in the last hour. That’s nice too.
Ride Tally:
Black Bear Trail
Busy Bees
Dollywood Express Steam Train
Dragonflier (using Parent Swap)
Frogs and Fireflies
Lemon Twist (Tea Cups)
Lucky Ducky x3
Piggy Parade x3
Rockin’ Roadway x2
Smoky Mountain River Rampage x2
The Amazing Flying Elephants (Dumbo) x2
The Mad Mockingbird
Treetop Tower x2
Carousel x2
Wild Eagle x2
We also caught the bird show.
We split up for part of it, when DS5 and DS3 wanted to do different things in the County Fair area, so we covered more ground with rides that way.
It was another great day. We watched DS5 blossom into a brave little ride-loving boy. He did so many brave things- riding rides alone and riding more intense rides. He was not ready to go on Dragonflier again when he first got off it, but 5 hours later, he was ready to go do it again! We did not, but he was ready to! Lol.
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I’m still planning my trip, but don’t have the details yet! The Dollywood resort prices are as high as Disneyland! I priced out all the “perks” you get to compare pricing / value. It’s really close. I’m looking at someplace nearby right now.
Plus, all the hotel packages come with two days of tickets. We can only do one day. We are planning on driving up on a Friday and seeing sights along the way. Then going to the park on Saturday and going home on Sunday…
I keep looking for better rates, but I don’t see any. Oh well!!!
Your trip looks like a hoot!! I love all the pictures!!
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This is great information!
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We’re going this summer. If you go the measurements g station first does that slow you down too much? We also need to pot our name in Aunt Granny’s and want to start with the new rise Big bear.
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I believe that all in all, Dollywood is primarily a locals park, so rope drop isn’t as big there as it is at Disney. The measuring first will slow you down less than 5 minutes and that won’t make a huge difference. Not sure about putting in your name at Aunt Granny’s. I’m not super familiar with the layout of the park as far as how out of your way that is, and we have never dined there.
If you have a season pass, it essentially serves as a fast pass for the first hour that the park is open, so you could use that for the new Bear ride if you have it! At least you should be able to use it by now. They weren’t letting us use it yet back in May
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Thanks for the tips. No season pass. We’re just going for 1 day.
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Next trip:
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