Dollywood and Wild Eagle Fun

On November 5, 2012

No trip to Pigeon Forge is complete without a trip to Dollywood! There is always something new to check out and for us, we had to check out the new Wild Eagle ride on our trip this summer.

We like to arrive at the park as soon as it opens and typically stay until it closes. Since Jellybean and Dad wanted to ride a lot of the roller coasters, we decided to give Dollywood’s Qbot a try. The Qbot reserves your spot in line at the rides and shows so you can enjoy the fun at your own pace. When it was time for us to head to the ride we had reserved, the Qbot buzzed us. It saved us a lot of time with the shows. Our spot was held till 5 minutes prior to show time and even reserved closer seats. Unfortunately, we only made it to one show during the day because the little divas were having so much fun playing. However, the smiles on their faces were worth more to me than missing a show!

Another time saving tip for us was having both of the girls measured at the front of the park as we arrived and getting arm bracelets that showed which rides they were able to ride. This kept us from being stopped at the rides to verify height on Peanut especially.

Wild Eagle was our first stop for the day. Dad was super excited but us girls were not feeling too brave yet and Peanut didn’t meet the height restriction. Jellybean wanted to watch it a few times before she agreed to go and I can’t handle being turned upside down. So dad went ahead and we waited for him. He texted us when he was about to get on so we watched for him as they slowly climbed the first slope and then were off to “flying.”  When he got off, we all asked him how it was and his response was, “It was super awesome, especially from the front seat!” 

As we continued on with our day, Dad and Jellybean rode several of the other roller coasters that they had done in the past, like Blazing Fury and Thunderhead. Peanut was content riding almost every ride in the County Fair area. We enjoyed a nice buffet lunch at Aunt Granny’s which is always more than we can eat but oh so good.  The most memorable part of the day for me and Peanut was our family fun at Adventure Mountain. I think we were all more adventurous with our paths and which obstacles that we chose on this trip. At one point Peanut and I had to make our way around a boulder on a balance beam that was quite far from the ground. There was no turning back because multiple people were already behind us. So, I toughened up and faced my fear of heights. We both got around with big smiles and a sense of accomplishment afterwards.

Periodically throughout the day Dad would tease Jellybean about whether she was ready or not to be his partner for Wild Eagle again. She finally and very hesitantly agreed to as we were heading out of the park. She was so glad she did afterwards. She got off the ride with a smile from ear and ear and was so happy that she had bragging rights for riding it. Peanut and I got to witness the excitement and be the photographers.  The Wild Eagle succeeded in matching all the hype we had heard about it. It was definitely another fun day of playing in Pigeon Forge, down in the books!