I get a few giggles, snickers and funny looks when I tell people we spent our vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and went to Dollywood five times in two weeks. 🙂 YES, I am a Dollywood fan. And YES, it’s named after that famous Dolly, you know… the one and only Dolly Parton. This year Dollywood celebrates its 25th year.

My kids had a choice between two weeks on a beach like we did last year or two weeks in Pigeon Forge going to Dollywood, they picked Dollywood again. We were just there in 2008 and in 2007.

So why do we like it so much?

Because the whole family enjoys it and each other while we’re there. There’s something for each of us to enjoy and do. My husband is a HUGE Southern Gospel music fan and that’s putting it mildly. They have a group called, “The Kingdom Heirs” who play in one of the many theatres that are inside the park. He must have seen them perform half a dozen times during our 5 visits there this year alone. 

They have rides for all ages. My oldest three are now all tall enough to go on the big rides and Jake, our youngest, was tall enough to go on the intermediate rides, he can’t wait until he can ride with the rest of us! The older kid’s favourite ride and mine too, was the “Mystery Mine” – with a 95 degree, 85 foot vertical drop – it’s extremely thrilling!!

Of course… the park is all done with a peaceful, old country – back woods kinda flair! There are shops (I did a lot of shopping!), restaurants, water rides, a County Fair, and old Coal Train to ride and show-time theatres – with shows like the amazing Sha-Kon-O-Hey, and more and of course Dolly’s museum, full to the brim, with her very own memorabilia. Dollywood is unique. It’s not uber-commercialized! It’s down-home… my kind of fun! 🙂
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea (we paid for a family to stay here for 4 days last year and they didn’t like it – GASP! Oh well…) but all I know is that it is my cup of “Sweet Tea”. The Southern charm is oozing here. 
We took 4 other families with us this year. Three families, totaling 19 people including us, the first week were from our church and then the second week my parents and one of my nieces flew in from Vancouver, BC to be with us. They all enjoyed themselves very much. It’s good to travel with those who have similar taste as you – and who aren’t hard to please! lol 

It’s only a 12 hour drive from our home in Ontario, Canada and to us… it’s well worth it! We pick the last two weeks in August because it’s back-to-school time for their kids and the parks are not busy at all. We didn’t have any long waits and large crowds to make our way through. I’m not a fan of crowds…

I haven’t even begun to tell you about Dollywood’s Splash Country Water Park across the street from the amusement / entertainment park!!

We’d do Dollywood again in a heart beat, but maybe not next year… touring around over 20 people is hard work!! 🙂 Next year, I think we’ll rent a beach house to ourselves and we spend two weeks doing absolutely nothing but soaking up the sun and watching the kids make sandcastles on the beach.

Shash

I'm the Cool Mom of 4, Married to the Preacher Man, but at times I'm a little more Sass than Saint!

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1 Comment

  1. Looks like you guys had a blast!
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    http://shining2save.com

    Have a great day!
    Kari

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