Hard Rock Park Blog.com

VS.

So where have we been for the past week?  Beginning a new segment of posts for you - and darn was it hard!  We have committed ourselves to travelling near and far to try out (and compare) other theme parks to our beloved Hard Rock Park.  I know, its hard work - but someone has to do it!  Our first post - if you haven’t guessed it - is the comparison of the South’s beloved Dollywood of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  Of the two articles we are writing on this trip, each tries to compare different things from each of our points of views with each of us conducting our own background research into each park.  Chris’ review is below this article.  Also note, I do not give much explaination when describing HRP as this entire Blog does that - so no need to repeat what has been said in previous posts - both good, bad and indifferent.  I give more information about DW as some of you may not have visited there before or don’t mind a refresher of the park.

Here are the simple, (almost) no opinion details of each park - Basic Demographic/Geographic Information:

• Park Sizes - HRP is currently using 55 acres of land for what the park is currently occupying, with another 85 acres left to develop.  DW is situated on 130 acres of developed park.
• Park Ages - HRP is obviously less than a year old while DW began operating in 1986.  Before it became Dollywood it was known as Goldrush Junction and it was owned by the Cleveland Brown’s football team. 
• Park Costs - HRP boasts a $400 million dollar price tag while DW has invested $162 million dollars since its first operating season.  Initial dollar amount is unavailable at this time.
• Park Employees - HRP employs over 3,000 employees while DW employs over 2,000 during its peak season (it is also Sevier County’s largest employer).
• Park Visitors - HRP can hold up to 30,000 visitors a day (and I know this is not an accurate comparison so shush) while DW boasts 2.5 million annual visitors.
• Park Rides - HRP states it has 50 rides/attractions while DW has a similar amount that changes seasonally.
• Park Rollercoasters - because thats what most of you want to know about anyway - HRP has two major rollercoaster: Led Zeppelin The Ride and Eagles Life In The Fast Lane.  DW has three major rollercoasters: Mystery Mine (check out its fun website here, also only one of two coasters like it in the world - can we say 95° drop and completely vertical lifts?), Thunderhead (a multiple time winner of the Golden Ticket award by Amusement Today and multiple other awards), and Tenessee Tornado.  I refuse to count Blazing Fury as anything but a sad attempt at an indoor, dark rollercoaster (Chris has lost his damn mind for his opinion of that ride if you ask me…).  So DW has two metalies and one woodie.

And here is where it gets a bit more nitty-gritty - Pros and Cons Comparison:

Park Layouts - HRP has a nice, flowing, circular traffic pattern in its layout whereas DW’s layout can be very confusing.  If you look at the park map links below you can see an obvious progression of additions to the park.  As seen in both maps the entire south half of the park is clumped together, then in this 1998 map you can see that they added the north-eastern portion in a long strip above the clump, then in a current map, seen here, you can see that they added the north-western portion.  So the south is clumped, the north is spread out in a more typical theme park style.  I can see that as being an issue with just building over time a larger theme park but that doesn’t make it any easier to navigate or get through.  Also, the lack of signage and directions throughout the park (especially in the southern areas) makes carrying a wet, creased map around everywhere very much necessary.  Winner - Hard Rock Park.

Park Tunes - HRP has music on rides and throughout the park everywhere you go.  Nothing obtrusive or too distracting but its amazing how you get used to the aviance so quickly and you miss it when it is not there!  DW, while obviously the namesake of a famous country singer, has like NO music anywhere!  Yes, there are a few music shows you can go see during certain times of the day, and one strip of long walk towards Timber Canyon that plays the same Dolly Parton song over and over again - but there is no music in the background or on rides.  This stuck out to me a lot in just walking around (cause there sure was a lot of that!).  Winner - Hard Rock Park.

Park Shows - HRP has three main shows, one main fireworks show, and multiple smaller entertaining “street” shows throughout the day.  All very much entertaining and worth repeat watches.  DW has (the week we went) up to thirteen shows, see here, which, while impressive, does absolutely no good when half of them are scheduled at the same bloody time!  Its a large park, the shows are not close together, and most of the shows we wanted to watch were scheduled either too close together, too far apart (distance-wise), or were just not very appealing to our party.  In the defense of DW we did get to watch one show, Wings of America, which was a live birds of prey show with a very patriotic theme - very nice and enjoyable.  It was the only show we caught and we had to plan our lunch around it and back track to catch it in time.  So in the end, no number of shows will make a park better if you can’t catch them or you are completely disinterested in the topics.  I know I’m harsh - but I’m trying to be honest here and explain why, yet again, I give the Winner - Hard Rock Park.

Park Greenness - this may be completely random for some of you but this is something I take very seriously and noted right away - how eco-friendly a park is.  HRP, while not overly green (to my knowledge) and I understand it can be hard for a theme park to try to go green, does do little things, or has taken steps, to lower its footprint on our planet.  A good example of this is finally moving to reusable 3-D glasses for Nights in White Satin instead of the throw away kind they had to use in the beginning - not only less expensive in the long run but also less waste for riders (especially us that ride multiple times throughout a visit).  DW had a big plus that I noticed they were using energy efficient light bulbs in some areas of the park, I did not see them everywhere.  Kudos for doing that!  BUT, and I understand there is something neat about having one of your own of these, Dollywood Express is a huge negative.  Neat 5-mile ride but not worth the damage it is placing on the environment for sure!  Of the two coal-fired, steam engines they have (my understanding is that one works and the other is for show, someone correct me if I’m wrong) DW states “In one day, the train burns five tons of coal and drinks about 5,000 gallons of water.”  ACK!  Just for the sake of proving my point of how this is not eco-friendly, for those of you interested, click here to see an article on the environmental impact of coal and pollution.  Winner - Hard Rock Park for sheer miniscule impact compared to this monster running every 45 minutes come rain or shine at Dollywood.

Park Coasters - while I love HRP’s Zeppelin it can’t beat both Mystery Mine and Thunderhead of DW.  Those rides are flat out awesome!  If you have to decide whether DW is worth a trip - these two rides should make up your mind quick!  I’ve never been a fan of wooden rollercoasters but Thunderhead is loud and proud all over the place!  Crossing over itself in like 32 places and with drops and curves enough to make you leave your seat (thats why they have a lap bar AND a seat belt!) it is one hellofa ride.  Mystery Mine is also very cool with its vertical lifts (not Slippery When Wet lifts, no, like lying on your back climbing towards the sky lifts) and near straight drops.  The theming is interesting, while slightly on the cheesy side, your party will be walking around the rest of the park going “Its a mysteerrrryyyyy…” like mine was doing ALL DAY.  Does anyone know yet why the miners took off their boots?  We couldn’t figure it out!  Winner - Dollywood.

Park Prices - HRP is still trying to work out their pricing scheme and is playing with the monthly sales now but DW seems to have it down pretty well.  DW has regular tickets for about $50 (ages 12-59), children for $39, and seniors for about $47.  Its the Season Passes that are the deal though - regular and senior season pass $83, children for $70, and Gold Pass for $113 (special discounts and other benefits for Gold Passes).  Just FYI though, they did have a car charge for parking of $8 and it increased if you had a larger vehicle.  Winner - Dollywood. 

Miscellaneous - these were smaller things that I wasn’t crazy about while going through DW or that I liked that I hoped HRP would consider emulating: Parking Lot - freaking HUGE.  You need a trolley to get to and from your vehicle if you park past section C.  Leaving at the end of the day with that trolley line though will make anyone want to pop one of Dolly’s… oh wait, sorry.  The greenery and flowers were nice, I think HRP does a good job with their landscaping too though, but maybe DW should try to utilize more of that space better with other things too (not sure what yet but something is better than grass and lawn ornaments).  The food was not that impressive, typical theme park food - decent prices though and the refillable drink deal is a MUST ($9.99 for huge muge and $2.00 for refills).  I’d have to say though that for theme park food I do find HRP’s very good and the prices reasonable.  DW’s employee attires were specific to the ride and area of the park they were in but overall had a very country bumkin sort of feel to them - not hating, just saying I think HRP’s is much cooler.  And funny little note, over 70% of the employees we saw at DW had to be 50+ in age, again, not hating, but interesting to see such an older employee age. 

And I know I am forgetting something big that I wanted to mention and for the life of me I cannot remember it… Ugh!  But overall, please do not let my critisism deter you from visiting this park.  It really is a lot of fun and has more than enough to do for one day.  We truly had a good time but I do tend to be over-critical when comparing it to HRP because I really don’t think people realize how good we have it.  HRP is a terrific park for its size and age.  And we have more than enough to look forward to if the park continues to grow and glean what it can from successful older parks such as Dollywood.  With a good amount of innovation and taking what is good and leaving what is not from other parks - its how HRP will grow and continue in its success.  But we also have to give it the time and patience afforded to other parks and realize that we have an amazing opportunity and entertaining park in our backyards.  Just wait none of us will be sorry!  Oh and thank you to Dollywood for taking both my critisisms and praises of its park.