As our young children have gotten older, the topic of visiting Theme Parks has come up more and more frequently. We’ve been reluctant for many reasons: First, getting to, paying for, and properly navigating a large venue like that are not small tasks, especially with small children. Second, our youngest often still takes a midday nap (and can be … less-than-pleasant… if we miss it). And last, in the past, we parents have sometimes been overly ambitious in our planning of family trips and ended up with overstimulated kids who start losing it as our well-intentioned adventures extend beyond a few hours.
All that being said, we decided it was time to take the leap and kicked off our summer family road trip with our very first family theme park visit to... Dollywood!
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We received discounted admission to facilitate this article. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
One morning a couple weeks ago around 5 AM, we transferred our pajama-clad kids from their beds to the family car and promptly headed towards Tennessee with excitement in our hearts and a car full of snacks, leaving our everyday problems behind us. While the GPS estimates a 5-hour journey from Mebane to Dollywood, we added in a couple pit stops, most notably stopping for a full family brunch just outside Dollywood at Smokey Mountain Pancake House to fill our family fuel tanks before beginning the day’s adventures.
We rolled into the parking lot of Dollywood a little after 12PM. The entrance was easy to find and parking was plentiful. A convenient shuttle stop in each parking area meant that once we got ourselves, the mom-bag, and the dad-pack out of the car and across the parking lot, we were boarding and off to the nearby park entrance before we could say “Jolene.”
After picking up our tickets at the entrance (a less-than-15-minute affair), our first stop was to get wristbands for the kids. All of Dollywood’s rides have minimum height requirements for safety purposes, and Dollywood made it easy for us by measuring the kids and providing color-coded bands that were easy to reference across the park when planning which rides we wanted to go for.
  First Stop: Getting Wristbands for the kids to make the rest of the day easier Source: Samantha Earnhardt |
Seeing that several rides that were petite-4-year-old friendly were in the newest Wildwood Grove section of the park, it was a quick choice for our first destination. We eased into the day by squeezing into a flying acorn at Treetop Tower and gently sailed into the air, getting a birds-eye view of many nearby attractions. We spent the next couple hours riding bears, frogs, the Great Tree Swing, and, once my kids discovered the Wildwood Creek Splash area, getting extremely wet and having so much fun doing it.
  Enjoying Treetop Tower and Wildwood Creek | Source: Samantha Earnhardt |
We eventually ended up at our first full-fledged Roller Coaster, the Dragonflier, one of only 2 roller coasters at Dollywood that my 4yo met the height requirement for (the other being Big Bear Mountain, Dollywood’s newest and longest roller coaster). The ~35 minutes we were in line was probably the longest we waited all day for anything – and part of that was slight delays caused by the arrival of a large group who had pre-paid for the Time Saver Pass which allowed them to skip-the-line. Once on the ride we were seated at the very front and flying up, down, and all around for the most exhilarating 90 seconds of our day.
And while our 6yo decided after his first roller coaster ride ever that maybe he was not ready for quite so much excitement, our 4yo was totally willing to ride it again, showing that fun really is in the eye of the beholder. (If you find yourself in such a parenting position, Dollywood has a handy Parent Swap program that allows the parent waiting with a non-riding child to hop the line after the other parent returns from the ride!)
After that experience and just when we felt like the summer heat was starting to get to us, we discovered Hidden Hollow, an (air conditioned!) indoor play area that rivals any other we’ve seen and which was clearly designed with children's physical activity in mind. It was quite a scene as energetic kids climbed, jumped, slid, and frolicked in every direction while resting parents hung out on lines of padded chairs (and a few even napped on the floor!)
  Lots of reasons to smile in Wildwood Grove | Source: Samantha Earnhardt |
Our children probably would have spent hours at Hidden Hollow if we didn’t eventually coax them out so that we could continue to explore the park as the day wore on. Of course, the challenge with that is that there is SO much to see and do in Dollywood that you can barely get 10 steps before you see somewhere else you want to stop and something else you want to do...
Enter the Foam Zone, one of the bonus features of our visit coinciding with Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Summer Celebration and perhaps my children’s favorite stop of the day (although with so many great memories, who’s really to say?) Large cannons shot streams of foam in every direction as children squealed with delight, charging and twirling into foam mountains, sculpting foam masterpieces, painting on foam beards, and otherwise immersing themselves in the bubbly world of the Foam Zone. Notably, there was a separate foam pit for the littles – one that didn’t involve foam reaching higher than their heads!
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We LOVED the Foam Zone! | Source: Samantha Earnhardt
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Eventually we had to drag our kids away from the Foam Zone and clean up in the nearby restrooms. Luckily we had the foresight to pack extra outfits for the day so that they weren’t dragging their cute little wet butts around all evening.
A little after 6PM we finally made it over to Craftsman’s Valley, the part of the park that my partner remembers fondly visiting as a child where one can see all sorts of skilled artisans working in their crafts. Unfortunately for us, we realized quickly when we got to the Blacksmith’s forge that we had spent so much time on the other end of the park that most of the Artisans had wrapped up their day’s activities, although we did get watch the process for making handmade leather belts which was quite interesting. We walked by Wings of America Birds of Prey exhibit just in time to catch a glimpse of the large birds before they retired for the evening and made it to the Valley Theater during the final Forever Country group performance of the day. My son was riveted as the performers sung and danced across the stage while my daughter, having skipped her midday nap given the day’s activities, dozed off in her father’s arms.
After ~6 hours in the park my kids were complaining that their little legs were tired, making it the perfect time to hop on the Dollywood Express, an authentic 110-ton coal-fired steam engine that took us for a 20-minute, 5-mile journey around the park and gave us a glimpse of the beautiful Smokey Mountains. The kids enjoyed the break from walking and their dad reminisced about riding the same train during his childhood.
At this point I was sure we had reached the limits of my kids' energy reserves, but during the Dollywood Express ride they spied several animal-themed rides in the County Fair part of the park that we had not even gotten to yet. So after we disembarked their second (third? fourth?) wind kicked in and somehow they were off again. We pushed on, bypassing the pay-to-play carnival games in favor of making it to the kiddie rides, enjoying all sorts of fun designed especially for little ones. We also saw the numerous venues in that section of the park that had different sorts of shows and performances earlier in the day (that, alas, we missed because we were having fun at the other end of the park!)
  Dollywood's County Fair was the perfect place for littles | Source: Samantha Earnhardt |
At this point we were 8+ hours into our day at Dollywood and we parents were dragging, but we were there to let the kids get every ounce of fun out of the day. I was hoping to hold out long enough to catch the nightly Sweet Summer Nights Dance Party and Drone & Fireworks Show, but the family was just too worn out from all the fun. So we made our way towards the entrance and back to the parking area, yet, as luck would have it, the fireworks started just as we reached our car, so we were able enjoy the colorful spectacle that I like to think of as Dollywood's send off after a great day at the park.
Worried About the Summer Heat? I saw features all around the park designed with attention to guests’ comfort given the potential heat of the summer. Every line we waited in was in a covered, shaded area that had numerous fans blowing to combat the heat. We also passed numerous misting stations where fans blew a cool mist of water near the edge of the walkway so that patrons could grab a refreshing “ahh” as they walked around the park.
  Ahh, the refreshing mist... | Source: Samantha Earnhardt |
My Takeaways From This Trip
- Dollywood is HUGE and you can’t do it all in one day.
- Having never visited before, I didn't appreciate the scope of the park until we were in the midst of it. I would definitely do a little more research ahead-of-time (in all my free time (hahaha)) to make a strategic plan before we get swept up in the magic of being inside the park.
- Even if we had arrive when they open at 10am, there’s no way we could have seen and done everything. Next time we might opt for a 2-day pass!
- The (free!) Dollywood App came in really handy while we were walking around when we needed to find the nearest bathroom or food vendor, but I wish I'd made better use of it for catching shows. It has an easily searchable menu that shows you locations and times of park happenings.
- Next time I'll probably also start at the opposite end of the park to catch all the events and performances that are concentrated there before working our way around to the more ride-heavy section later in the day.
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- Dollywood has lots of ways to get WET!
- Although Dollywood operates a separate Splash Country Water Park nearby, there were still several attractions at Dollywood that included water.
- Take swimsuits, more changes of clothes, and a couple towels. We had 1 change of clothes for each kid. By the time we made it to the Daredevil Falls water ride, we had already gotten them into dry clothes (After hours at Wildwood Creek & the Foam Zone!), so, much to my son's chagrin, another water activity was off the table at that point.
- Hydration is Key! One thing we did right was bringing along a 3-liter Camelback all day that we filled with ice water that morning. All four of us were able to drink water on-demand ALL DAY LONG without lugging around 4 separate water bottles. If you're a family that doesn't scoff at sharing germs sometimes, I highly recommend a similar setup. It was a convenient and easy way to help keep us all going for endless summer fun!
- Although our focus on this visit was on small-kid friendly fun (of which there was plenty!), there were tons of older kids, teens, and childfree adults enjoying the park as well. Most of the park's activities and shows would be fun for people of all ages - and the bigger roller coasters could keep adrenaline junkie teens and adults screaming with joy all day long.
- We definitely need to plan a return trip!
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