Dollywood prepares to open its longest season ever
While Dollywood is revving up to kick off its 39th season on March 8, 2024, it’s been putting in the work all year long – and the projects all have one key focus: enhancing the guest experience.
By Carly Caramanna
In the midst of an unprecedented $500 million expansion rolling out over a decade, it’s an exciting time for the Eastern Tennessee theme park. After a momentous 2023, which saw the opening of Big Bear Mountain and the expansion of its on-site accommodations with Dollywood’s HeartSong Lodge & Resort, the theme park destination shows little signs of slowing down.
Attractions Magazine was invited to the theme park for a behind-the-scenes look at what guests can expect in 2024.
A Brand-New Theme Park Entrance
Regular visitors may remember a recent update to Dollywood’s parking, moving the flow from 3200 to 6900 cars an hour. To manage that influx of guests, Dollywood will be forgoing its familiar turnstile entrance for a brand new system, which strives to have a faster entrance time for guests — about one second — as attendants quickly scan a QR code (not the previous barcode) directly from phones.
Dollywood Company President Eugene Naughton shared that this and other changes all go back to the “voice of the visitor.”
Ushering in the modern age, season pass holders can soon easily link their tickets to their phones. Eventually, Dollywood plans to introduce mobile ordering at select locations later this year. The non-tech savvy need not worry. All the previous technologies, including the ability to print paper tickets on-site, will still be available.
Dollywood will also add a restroom to the front ticketing area (before the park entrance), which can be helpful to those with younger guests or park visitors coming in from long car rides.
A New & Improved Lightning Rod
Dollywood’s crown jewel, Lightning Rod, has had a short-lived history that could best be described as a bit of a roller coaster (pun very much intended). At the forefront of its issues has been the ride’s launch system, with its operation times hovering around 63%.
Expected to re-open mid-March, Dollywood has invested an additional $4 million (there was an initial cost of about $20 million to build) for what will hopefully greatly improve the roller coaster itself and the guest experience. Rocky Mountain Coaster, who built the original attraction, is at the helm of its update, which replaced the launch system with a traditional high-speed chain lift at 13mph.
The ride experience will be largely the same but without the initial launch out of the station. The good news? Operations should increase to well over 90%, equating to welcoming one million rides per season.
“It took some soul searching,” admitted Pete Owens, vice president of marketing & public relations for Dollywood (and a coaster enthusiast). Owens also teased that the team’s visit to 2023 IAAPA was to buy a new roller coaster for 2026.
The Dolly Parton Experience
Perhaps Dollywood’s most anticipated opening for the year is The Dolly Parton Experience, a multi-sensory, multi-media deep dive into the life of the park’s iconic Dreamer-In-Chief. If the park has learned anything in almost 40 years, it’s that fans want more of one thing: Dolly Parton. And this new state-of-the-art exhibit seeks to do just that.
The immersive attraction includes a complete rebuild of the previous Chasing Rainbows Museum and surrounding land, seeking to bring the nearly untouched, 20+-year-old area up to par with the rest of the theme park. While the walls may be bare now, they’ll soon be exploding with color (and butterflies), showcasing the career of the global treasure through interactive fun and pioneering technology.
With an anticipated late May opening, The Dolly Parton Experience will be housed across several buildings with its centerpiece, Songteller, replacing the former Chasing Rainbows Museum. This exhibit will chronicle the many chapters of Dolly’s life through several rooms of interactive exhibits, which are expected to be vibrant —much like Parton herself— and tell the story of her humble beginnings in the mountains, her early days in Nashville, thriving movie career, philanthropic work, and much more.
On our construction tour, the most striking room is set to be 360 degrees of projection mapping in an over 200-foot-tall, expansive space that the team teased will be reminiscent of the Van Gogh Exhibition.
Behind The Seams will offer a glimpse into the creative process of Parton’s signature style and honor those who continually make the icon look iconic. Frequent park visitors can expect the wardrobe to be rotated in and out, as the entire exhibit will be everchanging, reflecting the overall Dollywood experience today. Dollywood has also upgraded how they preserve and maintain Dolly’s iconic wardrobe and other key pieces, and the park will now be using environmentally sealed, museum-quality cases.
The newly reimagined area will also house new retail opportunities, including a Dolly Parton fan shop, “Dolly-ized” bathrooms, tour bus, and more. Technology will also play a role, and interactive features are planned – like a scavenger hunt that syncs with smartphones – with more anticipated in the future.
New Shows in 2024
Entertainment – and specifically live music – is a brand pillar of Dollywood, and the park is making significant investments this year with a focus on both season-long offerings and festival limited-time engagements.
The Sight & Sound Theater will receive a $1 million investment in upgrading its theater technologies. New shows in 2024 include “From The Heart,” “The Life & Music of Dolly Parton” (a stage production telling Dolly’s story), and a new sing-along show featuring the music icon’s most beloved songs.
More Park Time Than Ever
The 2024 operating season will be the longest ever in terms of both days and park hours. Hours will be longer (from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.), offering a full-day experience to the many guests traveling in from out of town. There are also a whopping 23 additional days, bringing the operating calendar up to 281. This will help balance out the crowds, resulting in a more fluid guest experience. The team shared that they anticipate their annual park attendance to approach four million visitors in 2025.
Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort & Spa Refurbishment
After opening in 2015, Dollywood’s on-site Dreammore Resort & Spa marked a key expansion as the resort moved from a regional to a national destination. The first of now two on-site hotels is receiving a refresher, with all rooms expected to be completed by the busy summer season. The biggest change guests will see will be a new in-room accent wall, carpet treatment, bed skipping, and a totally revamped, modernized bathroom.
Dollywood executives also teased the possibility of a new camping-style resort (home to glamping possibilities) with the hopes of the 3rd property opening in 2028.
Robust Culinary Offerings
Our Dollywood visit concluded with a taste of what’s to come from the culinary department in 2024, including plenty of new additions to both season-long locations and festival offerings.
Highlights included a smoky corn chowder, cranberry white chocolate bread pudding, and a Goo Goo Cluster cheesecake. The culinary team shared that they look to trends in the region and nationally for festivals but give them distinctly southern twists; the base menus are meant to represent the region’s bounty of fresh ingredients and favorites.
Dollywood kicks off its 2024 season on March 8, 2024, with a host of award-winning festivals taking place year-long, including the I Will Always Love You Festival (March 9-April 14, 2024), Flower and Food Festival (April 19-June 9, 2024), and Smoky Mountain Celebration (June 15-Aug. 11, 2024).
Click here for more information and to plan a visit to Dollywood for the 2024 season.
