The Rides of Dollywood

Dollywood has added many exciting rides over the years. With roller coasters, water rides, indoor rides, and kid rides, there is pretty much something for everyone. Several of these rides are award winners, so you definitely get a thrill at Dollywood. As you scroll down, you will see I have included links to YouTube videos of several Dollywood rides.

When it comes to roller coasters, Blazy Fury, The Thunderhead, Tennessee Tornado, and Mystery Mine round out the field.

Blazing Fury is one of the oldest Dollywood rides. This roller coaster is an indoor roller coaster where you go through a burning town. Its a dark ride with lots of burning buildings and people trying to escape. The darkness makes the drops a bit of a surprise. While inferior to all the other coasters (because they are all newer), Blazing Fury is still a lot of fun to go on. I truly hope they don't ever shut it down. I am concerned they might simply because its so old.



The Thunderhead, one of Dollywood's award winning rides, is quite possibly my most favorite roller coaster ever. Its a wooden roller coaster, and as such, pretty loud. You hear all the clickety-clack it has to offer. I love this coaster because it is a speedy 55 mph the whole way. The sweeping turns and changes in direction, along with the first-ever station fly-by makes this a ride you'll probably want to go on a few times. There's a really cool video of it from the front row shot by a rider on YouTube. Follow the link Thunderhead at Dollywood for a great video.




The Tennessee Tornado is a steel monstrosity and one wicked coaster. This coaster features a couple of loops that nearly make me black-out, literally. Its fast and has some crazy turns to it. Some people really prefer this coaster to Thunderhead, but I just really enjoy Thunderhead more. This ride is just past Blazing Fury, so its good to just knock them both out one after the other. Here's a video from the front row, Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood

Mystery Mine is the latest roller coaster added to Dollywood. This is a very strange roller coaster. The beginning actually launches you up vertically and the ride seems to stop and start a lot. I need to go on it again to see what other impressions I get from it, but it is a fun ride. The end part is the best part because it stays up to speed and does some twisting. It just struck me as a weird roller coaster. Its hard to describe - just go on it and see for yourself. Or watch this lengthy video both off the roller coaster and on it! Mystery Mine at Dollywood





Next up, the water rides. These rides will get you wet. The #1 Non-roller coaster in America, The Smoky Mountain Slidewinder, starts out this category. Then there is another favorite, The Smoky Mountain River Rampage, Daredevil Falls, and finally River Battle.

The Smoky Mountain Slidewinder is my favorite ride, ever. I am dying to go back to Dollywood just to ride this ride a couple of times. When I was there last October, this ride was shut down because of the cooler weather. Basically, its a water toboggan down the side of a mountain. Some people complain about the walk up to it - I welcome the walk. Its really not that bad at all, and in my opinion, WELL worth it. Once at the top, you are weighed and placed in either the left boat or right boat, with up to 5 people in each one, one person behind the other. When they let you go, it picks up speed, and fast. I guess what makes this ride so unique is that there seems to be an element of surprise, or rather, non-control. Every ride is unique because every ride there are different people of different weights sitting in different spots in the boats. The bottom line is when you hit a turn, you almost feel like you could fly out of the slide/track/whatever you call it. Then, of course, there is the drop at the end. What a rush! If this doesn't get your adrenaline flowing, nothing will. A final word of warning, when (not if) you get splashed on this ride, the water is COLD! None of the other rides have water thats particularly cold, but this ride does. Maybe they pump it straight out of the mountain! Here's a video, sadly its low quality and only 7 seconds. I will record my own video when I go next. Smoky Mountain Slidewinder at Dollywood




The River Rampage... ahhh the River Rampage... Some people miraculously walk off this ride relatively dry. Me? I walk off the ride looking like someone threw a full bucket of water at me, specifically on my shorts. I personally think this is the wettest of all Dollywood rides, but then again, I haven't actually been on River Battle yet. This is one of those rides I just have to go on, even though I don't want to slosh around Dollywood for the rest of the day in wet shorts and wet socks. Specifically, its the wet socks that drives me nuts. There are several videos on YouTube for this ride, so I thought I'd link to a few of them.
This kid gets pretty excited, not to mention soaked halfway through the ride
Teen girls on the ride (the audio is very loud)
Another family rides
This little kid Trevor wants to go again!




Daredevil Falls is a log flume ride. Years ago, Dollywood had a much smaller ride called The Log Flume, which was actually from the New York World Fair. Daredevil Falls is a fun ride and you can get wet - not absolutely soaked like the Rampage, but pretty wet. The only thing that irks me to this day about Daredevil Falls is that it was built on the site of one of my other favorite rides, The Flooded Mine, a slow-moving boat ride through a mine with prisoners and bandits. We miss you Flooded Mine! Here's the video of the drop at the end of the ride, Daredevil Falls at Dollywood

River Battle is one of the newest rides at Dollywood. At first, I thought I wouldn't really care for this ride very much. Actually, I have yet to go on it. BUT, I can't wait to because this is a really cool ride after all. You ride in boats and shoot at targets along the way, including other boats (ship to ship battles) and better yet, people walking by the ride (ship to shore) that wander into the shooting zones. Of course, they have water canons mounted that can shoot back at you. This was actually my own experience with the ride. As we walked by, I saw a kid standing manning one of the water canons on the walkway, shooting at riders in one of the boats. After they targeted him from the boat, he ran off. So I naturally took up the call to action, ran over to the water canon, and started blasting some mom in one of the boats! She finally realized where all the water was coming from and started firing back at me! Of course, I was able to retreat and stay dry! What a cool ride, whether you actually ride it or just walk by it! Here's a video of all the action, ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore, River Battle at Dollywood




There are several other rides, but I am just going to mention a few of the other big ones.

The Dollywood Express is more than a ride, its an experience. You can't go to Dollywood without riding this. Pulled by either Cinderella or Klondike Katie, the Dollywood Express takes you on a 5-mile ride through Dollywood and its backwoods. This is a steam-powered, coal-fired locomotive that is so much fun to ride. Just hearing that train whistle blow brings a tear to me eye! Sometimes midway through the ride, the train will stop and a short show is put on, sometimes taking people from the train. I recommend sitting near the back so you get a good view of the train as the track turns to the left or right. And don't forget to wave to everyone waiting at the train crossing guards as you roll by them! When the train ride is over, the people in the back get off first as you walk around the back of the caboose. And when you do make it around the caboose, you'll notice a magic show starting at the stage to the left of the train! Sit down and check it out! One of my favorites is the magic coloring book! Next to the stage is a magic shop with tons and tons of cool stuff. My nephews were like kids in a candy store when they went in there, except they were kids in a magic shop... Ok, back to the train, There are a ton of Dollywood Express videos on YouTube, so here's a few videos.
Dollywood Express
Better quality video on the train
Dollywood Express leaves the station on the last day of the 2008 season, Jan 3rd, 2009. Notice the Christmas trees and lights!




The last ride I will mention is the Sky Zip, a brand new attraction for 2009, so I haven't done it yet. Its a zip line operated by a company from Hawaii. There are 5 stations, so you get 5 legs of the zip line tour you go on. The whole experience lasts 1 hour and it is the only thing in Dollywood that is a premier attraction which means you have to pay extra if you want to do it. I believe its $40 per person. I am definitely looking forward to trying this out when I get up there next summer.

There are more rides at Dollywood, including a whole section called Country Fair with fair rides for little kids. Just check out Dollywood's web site http://www.dollywood.com/ for more Dollywood rides! All in all, I am no ride aficionado, but Dollywood has some very fun rides for everyone. The other thing I forgot to mention is the ride operators are very cool - some of them are hilarious and entertain you while you are waiting.

Check out my other Dollywood posts:
Dollywood Introduction
Blazing Fury IS a roller coaster, mom!
Dining At Dollywood
The Shows of Dollywood
The Crafts of Dollywood