Dollywood's Future Plans - An Eye on 2026!

 

Hi Everyone,

Screamscape.com - a website dedicated to posting information about amusement and theme parks, has posted a video taken from the recent IAAPA Convention in Orlando, with Eugene Naughton, who is the president of Dollywood.  IAAPA is THE convention for Amusement Parks and Manufacturers to showcase new attractions.  This year, Dollywood and Vekoma revealed the train for Big Bear Mountain, Dollywood's roller coaster for 2023.

Ed Naughton said that Dollywood was on a buying spree for 2026!

Go To 2m 12s in the video above, or click here for a cued up version.

"We're working on 2026.  We're hard at work on a buying spree, and we're getting ready for some major things that will be added to our park in 2026."

"I love the show (IAAPA) and what it represents, but I love doing it at a nice pace, so you make better decisions, and better planning, and give our partners a better time to deliver an upscale experience in plenty of time to design.  So that's why it's only 2023, but we're talking 2026, so we have a lot of ideation time in our program."

He goes on to briefly mention that Dollywood is hosting Coaster Con, as well as the Golden Ticket awards next year.   

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??

I have no inside knowledge of what they're planning to do, but I am aware of the surveys that Dollywood has sent out to guests for feedback about future attractions.  That is the direction that they'll most likely go.  I think parks do make these sort of master plans, and five-year plans and so forth, but roller coaster and ride manufacturers come out with new concepts, and they kind of become the next flashy thing that every park wants to get first.  IAAPA is the best place for a manufacturer to premiere an idea because of the audience, the eyeballs are all on top of it.   That's part of what Ed is doing at IAAPA - he's looking for the best ideas and the best ride systems for these concepts that Dollywood has floated around and is looking to execute.

Let's dig into Dollywood's last survey from 2019.

IIRC, the question asked was What type of roller coaster would you like to see at Dollywood?

1.  Hyper Coaster

2. Indoor Coaster

3. Spinning Coaster.

So, those are three solid options.  The Spinning Coaster shown here is at Dollywood's sister park, Silver Dollar City.  Would they want the same concept at both parks?  Maybe, it wouldn't be the first time they've repeated concepts.  They could always change the theme and the layout to make them different enough.  This spinning coaster is made by Mack, and only a few have been made to date.  Another plausible reason for going with a spinner could be that Dollywood buys a spinner and a hyper, read on.

Dollywood can afford to work with any manufacturer they wish.  Some folks on the internet have said that B&M coasters would not put one of their hypers in Dollywood because of a "Proximity Clause".   It's an agreement that parks sign with B&M that states they won't sell another hyper-coaster (in this case) to a nearby park, so they're not competing with ride copies. I'm not aware of any such agreement, so that's an unknown variable.   King's Island, Carowinds, and Six Flags over Georgia form a triangle around Dollywood, and all three have B&M hypers.  B&M Hypers are really nice, but all very similar to one another.  Mack makes a great hyper-coaster product too, see the DC Rivals Hyper Coaster in Australia, and Vekoma would build one if asked...so when it comes to hyper-coasters, it could be from anyone.  Zamperla is one of Dollywood's go-to's for rides. Zamperla is beefing up their roller coaster manufacturing division and could even toss their hat into it.  Zamperla is CONFIRMED to be retrofitting Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point - a 420-foot coaster currently...so they have skin in the hyper game too.  Going back to my point about the spinner, would a Mack hyper and a Mack spinner make sense?  Yes.  The idea of discounts for a contract for two roller coaster purchases is also a long-rumored bargain, so, what if Dollywood buys two at once?   Not to drag this out, but Dollywood has two Gerstlauers, two Vekomas, two RMC projects when you include the partial retrack of Blazing Fury, two S&S arrow products with Tornado and Barnstormer.   

Maybe they will build all three options!!   The way Dollywood is dropping money, it might not be out of the question.   Dollywood needs more indoor attractions, given their stated desire to operate year-round.

Moving on...

The next concept they asked about was for an indoor attraction.  Let's take a look at the options presented.  

This sounds familiar.  This 'theme' was used on Big Bear Mountain instead of a dark ride.  They wanted you to shoot Benjamin Bear for a thousand points!!

Those are great and seem very Dollywood-appropriate, so I like them all.

Below are some other ideas Dollywood was floating around in 2019.  I think it was in 2020 that the Candlelight Choir began performing at the Chapel in Dollywood, a low-key nod to this concept.   A Flying Theater was built on The Island in Pigeon Forge, and opened in 2021, so that idea may be off the table perhaps.  An interactive walk-through sounds interesting and could have lots of potential.

That's a lot of information to think about.  The good news is that Dollywood is planning its growth!  We're not discussing sad scenarios here, so that's fantastic news to someone who has lost two beloved amusement parks in his life - not slightly bitter or anything about that, lol-sob.  

You can read my extensive blog post about Dollywood's Future Plans that I wrote back in early August 2022...here.

Of course I'll keep one eye on this, and report back any news I find out.

Until next time!