Silver Dollar City Announces Fire In The Hole 2.0 - Dollywood's Sister Park

Hi Everyone, 

This is a follow-up to my original post about the retirement of Fire In The Hole, found HERE.

On August 14, 2023, Dollywood's Sister Park in Branson, Missouri - Silver Dollar City - announced the replacement for the soon to be retired Fire In The Hole indoor roller coaster and dark ride.  Dollywood fans will recognize this as a mirror attraction to Blazing Fury.  SDC's original ride has reached the end of its working lifespan, and so a very impressive new version is set to open in 2024!

Let's check out the renderings and information provided by Silver Dollar City's Press Releases...

Source:  SDC Press Release | Burning Bridge Scene reimagined.

Source:  SDC Press Release | Overview of Ride in its new neighborhood.

Source:  SDC Press Release | Mural in the station

The wagon wheels will not be on the actual ride, but you can see these new trains are pretty faithful to the original, but these have a sort of bucket-seat and individual restraints rather than the shared bench with a safety bar found on the original.  Also new - on-board audio!

Source:  SDC Press Release | new logos

Source:  SDC Press Release | new logos

Source:  SDC Press Release

Source:  SDC Press Release

Source:  SDC Press Release

MidWest Info Guide has a great trip report from the construction tour that followed this announcement.  Tons of pictures!

Check that Trip Report out Here

Here are a few of the pictures that they shared, in random order.

Source:  midwestinfoguide.com | the burning bridge dip in the track

Source:  midwestinfoguide.com | new sets under construction

Source:  midwestinfoguide.com | Close Up the nearly identical to the original Splashdown

Source:  midwestinfoguide.com | Splashdown with maintenance switch track - just like the original.

Source:  midwestinfoguide.com | new station area

FITH has it's own unique soundtrack!

This looks fantastic to me because I was concerned that this might somehow be a ''lesser'' version of the original, but NO, this is a very faithful recreation of the original using new technology for the scenes, and all new ride components, new every single thing.  They have chosen to keep the water splashdown finale.  It's even about the same length, so I am impressed.  

Will Dollywood Be Getting This Too?  NO, not likely anytime soon.  As I wrote in my first post about FITH, Dollywood's version was upgraded in many ways in 2014, which is sure to expand its lifespan by several years.  As I explained, SDC's version is in a different state of being - it's deteriorating, basically, and so this more drastic solution was required.   $30 Million Dollars is obviously a lot of money and given that this isn't a priority at Dollywood, a replacement is far from happening.  At the moment Dollywood is hard at work on its next two or three (or more!) attractions.  One of which is rumored to be an all-new indoor roller coaster for the next phase of Wildwood Grove.  I look forward to finding more out about that!

That wraps this up.  Of course I'll keep an eye out for new details as they come up and share them here on my WhatsupatDollywood Blog.