SDCFans - The Unofficial Fan Site For Silver Dollar City
General Category => Other Parks => Dollywood Discussion => Topic started by: chittlins on December 09, 2012, 11:26:00 PM
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From Screamscape:
Interesting developments are afoot for Dollywood that will affect the park for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Screamscape has confirmed with Pete Owens at the park that two large attractions will not be return for the 2013 season. According to our exclusive letter from Pete…
“On the heels of five Golden Ticket Awards, including Best Shows and Best New Attraction, Dollywood announces an exciting new addition for 2013 and plans for a new major family attraction in 2014. Imagination Cinema will become a 500-seat venue for a new Dolly family show. Plans for 2014 are under way for a one-of-a-kind attraction on the Adventure Mountain site.
“When your business grows, it is important to evaluate and improve the experiences you provide to your guests,” Craig Ross, Dollywood President said. “For 2013, we’re excited about Dolly’s new family show and its new venue. Our guests will start to see construction activity for the new 2014 attraction as soon as the park opens next season Family are going to be thrilled and excited about the new additions. They’ll be like nothing you’ve seen before.”
"Imagination Cinema and Adventure Mountain will not reopen for the 2013 season to accommodate preparations for the new 2013 and 2014 additions. ”
So while I’m not surprised at all to see an outdated style sim-theater like the Imagination Cinema closed for good, I do have to admit I am very curious and somewhat confused about the closing of Adventure Mountain. Adventure Mountain, a huge large-scale themed multi-lane ropes course attraction, included for free to all guests by the way, is perhaps one of the most unique theme park attractions I’ve ever seen anywhere. On top of that, it also seemed to be extremely popular with the guests during my visits to the park. With a unique hillside location and custom themeing, I’m very curious how the park will follow up such a unique one-of-a-kind attraction… with a new one-of-a-kind attraction experience.
More on this as I try to dig deeper… but there has been some speculation for years about now this area of the park may evolve over the years, linked to the removal of all the trees from the upper circle of the Dollywood Express, which is located just above the hillside for Adventure Mountain. There have been a number of people waiting to see if Dollywood would expand the park to this upper section of the mountain, adding a second train station up there as well to turn the Dollywood Express more into a form of transportation instead of just a round-trip ride.
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My thinking is that they've come up with a way to fix the capacity problems on Adventure Mountain, and now they're going to rebuild it into a new and improved attraction of some sort... It just doesn't seem like they would want to tear the whole thing down after just a few years.
Unless, of course, they're being forced to by external forces such as a new insurance contract. This would be far from the first time an attraction at an HFEC park has been closed for those reasons as far as I can tell.
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Dollywood's Pete Owens talked to Robb Alvey of TPR today and apparently they are in fact completely removing Adventure Mountain.
AM opened in 2010 and cost $6 million. That's a pretty big loss for the park... I can only assume that this is another waterboggin scenario where there was a lot of background litigation over stupid little injuries. This is probably why the parks are being pushed into putting in more and more cookie cutter rides rather than unique attractions like AM, the bouncy ropes at SDC, Grandfather's Mansion, etc...
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You probably hit the nail on the head, Shave!
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I don't get the waterboggin ether. Dollywood still operates mountain sidewinder. About the only difference between the two was SDC used inflated rafts whereas Dollywood uses a hard plastic. If Dolly still has it, I don't buy the insurance bit. Why couldn't SDC use the same hard plastic boggins. I really think SDC was putting in a ride there and didn't after the fact.
Photos of Sidewinder and Waterboggin
(http://themeparkplace.com/parks/dollywood/Mountain_Slidewinder_290.jpg)
(http://www.trbimg.com/img-502025fb/turbine/la-trb-dollywood-top-10-08201222-001/600)
(http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/sdc-waterboggan017_515.jpg)
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^The waterboggin went through a huge upgrade where they basically rebuilt the entire ride to be even wilder than it was before. Not only did they make it potentially more dangerous, but they also lost whatever grandfather clause they had to protect it from insurance and other legal issues. Sidewinder is still in the original form.
A lot of the good attractions are only surviving through grandfather clauses these days. Anything where guests aren't stapled into a seat is a liability.
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Dollywood makes Mountain Slidewinder's rafts in a boat building shop behind the ride. They aren't hard they are a soft but it's hard to describe them. They are kind of like rubber or foam. lol. I am surprised Adventure Mountain is being removed. Maybe it was the maintenance for the attractions. I noticed when I first tried it in May 2010 that some of the ropes were getting rugged looking and were shredding at the bottoms. I would imagine they had to replace these. Wonder what they could be putting in it's place?
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Well on the "bright side" - you don't have to worry about one being added to SDC anymore.
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SDC had a boat building shop as well. And the boats were constructed of a hard but shock absorbent rubber foam that was shaped and layered together then covered with a thick latex coating. I wasn't even aware that they switched to the rafts shown in the picture; that must have happened in it's final year or two.
Quite frankly, I'm glad, for SDC's sake, that the water-boggin is gone. From it's beginning it resulted in injuries, some severe, on a daily basis. My own daughter suffered a nasty gash on her forehead while riding on it. Good riddance.
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We will for sure have to watch that area.
See what they build, then maybe........... SDC will finally rebuild the WB area.?
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Last I heard the WB area was already slated for something on the "master plan" -- however that plan seems to change all the time so who knows if that info is even relevent anymore
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Would love to see what that working "Master Plan" looks like as of today. Outlaw Run hasn't even tested yet and I'm already itching for the speculation to begin on what 2014 and the years beyond might hold. That is if we're still all here 10 days from now. :D
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I knew those dang boats changed! I thought I just did not remember them right. Ha! Im not crazy! As for what is going in place of the WB, I pray that it is NOT a shot tower. Please if there is any decency do not put us through a dang shot tower. I find them tacky and obtrusive. And I personally dont see SDC getting anything new for a few years after OR opens. I just dont see them dumping that much money into one park over the course of two or three years in a row. I have been wrong before though.
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That is if we're still all here 10 days from now. :D
I've already survived 2 raptures. What's one more?
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Getting back to the topic at hand, in various interviews Pete Owens is apparently making it sound like they simply needed the space back again for their expansion plans. That sounds like very poor planning on their part to suddenly need a piece of land back after spending millions developing an attraction on it... Furthermore, many people have raised the issue of poor capacity, which also seems like a case of poor planning to me...
I just can't get over them losing such a big attraction so quickly, especially after the Timber Tower ordeal. That's two ~$6-7 million attractions down the drain at DW within five years.
Oh well, it sounds like the 2014 attraction will be redeeming. Here's hoping we get a better version of whatever it is in 2015.
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I have only seen pictures of AM, but from the pictures it appears that only a limited group of people could participate. Is this to be true or are the pictures lacking? Could this be another reason for its closing?
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[quote author=shavethewhales link=topic=2375.msg46594#msg46594 date=135528667
Oh well, it sounds like the 2014 attraction will be redeeming. Here's hoping we get a better version of whatever it is in 2015.
[/quote]
Your right Shave, As i said earlier I can see that happening..
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They can ship it here. Capacity issues would be less except on peak days or I'd love to see it sold to a park like Magic Springs. It would rock in a mini golf, go cart FEC if it had the right type theming and suitable area that would let it fit in without major modification and earthwork.
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I have only seen pictures of AM, but from the pictures it appears that only a limited group of people could participate. Is this to be true or are the pictures lacking? Could this be another reason for its closing?
There are 3 courses and each course has 3 paths. No, the capacity of the attraction is quite high. The litigation that has been filed against the park because of the attraction on the other hand is also quite high. I was surprised that they added it in the first place. This is more of a FEC attraction.
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I have only seen pictures of AM, but from the pictures it appears that only a limited group of people could participate. Is this to be true or are the pictures lacking? Could this be another reason for its closing?
There are 3 courses and each course has 3 paths. No, the capacity of the attraction is quite high. The litigation that has been filed against the park because of the attraction on the other hand is also quite high. I was surprised that they added it in the first place. This is more of a FEC attraction.
Americans have turned in to a bunch of female cats. And we agree on the FEC angle but it would fit into a concept that I mentioned here once with an man made river course for rafting and kayaking and rock/wall climbing type of center.
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I played on Adventure Mnt. Once, and I have to say that I was not impressed. The large scale of the attraction made it less family friendly. The size of Stone Mnt. Course is just right. Also it it's very restrictive attraction due to the required footware. You must wear fully in closed shoes, that means no flip flops or other backless shoes. This has to be a PR nightmare! Think about how many people come in those types of shoes, and the only fore warning they would have about the restriction is on the web site under that sole attraction (pun very much intended). I hate to see it go because it's a beautiful attraction, and it is always full when I walk by it, but it's just not for Dollywood, or any theme park in my opinion. Oh, and have you seen the amount of staff it takes to operate? Close to 20 employees when it is 100% open, which is another problem. On slow days, when you have to watch your staff budget, you can't just take a train off, you have to close a section, and the sections that close are the higher up,and more thrilling section.
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Screamscape reports of rumors that it will end up at Stone Mountain. But, they also report it's smaller version closed in Nov.
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Screamscape reports of rumors that it will end up at Stone Mountain. But, they also report it's smaller version closed in Nov.
That is just Screamscape talking out there rear ends. Stone Mountain's course always closes as they have limited attractions open for there Snow Mountain event. There is no way that Adventure Mountain is going to Stone Mountain. That would make close to zero, if not negative sense.
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I can't see AM going anywhere... It was built on a very specific terrain, and it seems like most of the attraction was made up of things like rockwork, roofing, waterfalls, landscaping, etc., that can't be moved. It would be easier for any other park in the chain to just start over new.
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I can't see AM going anywhere... It was built on a very specific terrain, and it seems like most of the attraction was made up of things like rockwork, roofing, waterfalls, landscaping, etc., that can't be moved. It would be easier for any other park in the chain to just start over new.
they can likely take certain segments and incoporate it with the existing structure at Stone Mountian.
Yes, it's on a terrain but it's on basically three level plateaus, A new beam here or there may be needed but it's movable.
(http://media.knoxnews.com/media/img/photos/2010/03/19/032110dollymountain1e_t607.jpg)
But I'm willing to suggest this is going to get a Rocky Mountain project, just ties back to them mentioning them earlier this year.
http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?topic=2082.0
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^RMC is coming in the near future to DW (if SDC's is a success) but that area is not where I heard it was going.
Also, I wouldn't rule out a new B&M showing up at SDC in the near future... just saying
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Looks like those who knew that Adventure Mountain was not being moved to Stone Mountain was right. I think HFEC is dropping the thought of building another one in another property as well. If you want to relocate it to your house or your neighborhood FEC here is the link to purchase it! http://www.intermarkridegroup.com/major-family-rides/rope-course-mj1387