Dollywood 2021 - What has Reopened? What has Changed?

[Music] hey you all carpetbagger here coming to you live from the south more specifically we are in pigeon forge tennessee and we're gonna go check out dollywood i've not been to dollywood yet in this year of our lord 2021. so uh one thing i do i guess this is a travel tip i park over here at this little little area known as patriot park it's a a park here in pigeon forge that's a fairly sizable parking lot that way you do not have to pay for the dollywood parking because it could be a little much what you do you go into let me show you over here there is the trolley office here behind me you go in there and you can buy one of these you buy wristband and this will allow you to ride the trolley all day this is three dollars just make sure make sure you bring cash because they do not take cards so you go in there in the building behind me you go in there ask for a pass i think it is uh you can pay the the trolley driver cash if you'd like but i believe it's way more expensive you go in there take a few minutes bring some cash pay three dollars and you've got a wristband that'll get you to dollywood and back for three dollars i think parking over there is a lot more than three dollars however i didn't notice um they're doing some construction over here at patriot park there used to actually be a trolley stop it had like a roof over here as you can see but they have plowed it down they've demolished the the structure we've replaced it with this orange these orange plastic the blocks they pin you in here so i guess this is where you wait for the trolley to arrive dude they still have the sign through dollywood or splash dollywood splash country i think is their their their their water park i've never been to the water park do you guys want to see me do water parks because i've kind of stayed away from water parks i could technically i could get a waterproof case for my gopro and film some water parks let me know if you're interested but not today we're not going to waterpark today we are going to go to dollywood so i'm going to wait here uh for a few moments and hopefully the trolley will show up before too long it does appear the parking lot has been completely re-asphalted and they're building something over there looks like there is a big structure being erected i don't know if this is the new trolley center now you do have to register online and get a reservation ahead of time and i was able to get one today it wasn't a problem have a season pass right now this season pass is a uh this is a uh 2020 season pass that they extended it until i think june 15th of this year because of uh the park not being open the entire year last year so they gave a little extra time on the season pass but yeah i was able to put my information in and get a reservation um it's actually near the nearing the end of the day now uh it's about uh about about uh six o'clock i think so um it didn't fill up for today which i don't know what their capacity is if they're allowing people to fully come in now or not but uh we'll see how crowded it is when we get there and here comes the trolley and when the trolley emptied out there was a standing room holding day there's a lot of people in here but as i head over to dollywood i am the only one on the trolley it's a nice relaxing ride and a trolley all to myself all right stopped off here at the trolley stop and points us to the uh park this way it's just a very short walk it's no longer any temperature screening they do still have these metal detectors all right so the lady at the front actually told me i didn't need a reservation because it's later in the day when people start leaving the park um you can just i guess start showing up all right we enter and see the grand palace theater right here when you enter dollywood but over here something is missing the southern gospel music hall of fame is no more they uh removed this uh closed down because of the pandemic and it never reopened um i don't know if they've removed if they've actually moved the southern gospel hall of fame somewhere else but now it's just an empty building here in dollywood a lot of people were not even aware this was part of dollywood even though the entrance is just right there it's literally one of the first things you see coming in but a lot of people just walk right past it they've covered the window with a black tarp so we can't see if the animatronic gospel singers are still in there or not this is really cool during their spring celebration they hang up this uh covering of umbrellas over this section here real cool looking effect see all those beautiful umbrellas floating above our skulls and there's a topiary of an umbrella as well covered in butterflies you'll see a lot of butterflies here at dollywood kind of one of dolly parton's personal motifs i may have forgot to mention this but uh you're not required to wear a mask as you enter the park i'm not sure about inside areas yet we'll check on that but no masks no one's wearing a mask all right this is one of the main things i was wondering about the inside attractions were closed all year last year including dolly parton's personal rv here it i think it was actually not even parked here uh last year but it is now back open and they are giving tours of the inside looks like they're allowing one group at a time to go into the rv and check it out and see that butterflies adorning the inside of the door there signed dolly all right heading into dolly's rv now look at the pink interior there oh wow it's a very luxurious this would be the sleeping quarters this would probably not be where dolly slept i mean imagine this is where other people traveling with her okay that says done don is the the bus driver dolly's bus driver don warden and his wife ann there is dolly's toilet where she would make her uh her poops and whatnot you can see a little makeup makeup brushes there pretty little soap and the towel adorned with the d for dolly let's see oh so there's two two toilets so two people can be using the toilet at the same time that's pretty awesome when it comes to rvs well i guess that would not dolly wouldn't be doing her makeup back there dolly would be doing her makeup right here in the more glamorous makeup chair you can see me in the mirror there hey dolly dolly's vision has been reflected in this mirror as well so i share something with her at this point oh she's even got her little pink tweezers nail clippers there's some of her dresses very tiny her shirts are very tiny a very very tiny person actually saw her once here at dollywood it's her little slippers and i guess would be this is dolly's room the big room back here with uh see the guitar on the bed looks like she has some photos of family members and a tv to watch look at that they have the time set uh to dollywood and nashville which is usually one hour apart let's see there was where don wharton would sit and drive dolly to our various destinations this is the other traction that was closed last year this is the chasing rainbows the dolly parton story essentially the dolly parton museum these pictures here you can see of dolly with all her friends it's just amazing all the different friends she had siegfried and roy olivia newton john frank sinatra yeah dolly has pictures with everyone because everyone loves dolly and dolly loves everyone all right headed into dolly's attic see a lot of different things here in the attic there's a dress making doll with dolly's very familiar figure different posters lots of different cutouts of dolly look at that crazy crazy guitar there is that even a guitar what is what sort of instrument is that here we have a dolly want and we'll let you hologram i will dolly but i do want you to remember this one thing what's happening yeah i'll always love i'll always love you dolly oh she vanished oh she turned into a butterfly down here they have uh interesting they would have a poster for this movie i don't know in the name ah it's okay it says here when dolly was actually being born her family was too poor to pay money to a doctor so dr robert f thomas came down and delivered dolly and they paid him with a sack of cornmeal we walked through some of these scenes of dolly's life you can see the wallpaper there is old newspapers and catalogs oh looks like they got some some biscuits ready some farm fresh eggs a big pile of potatoes ready on the dinner table of course one of dolly's most famous song the coat of many colors you can see the original song lyrics there written about the the code that dolly would wear of course her parents were poor made her a coat out of various fabrics that they had so it had all this different colors to it and uh you know of course kids would make fun of her but uh you know she was proud of who she was and where she came from these are from a movie called code of many colors based on uh basically i guess based on the song and i guess that would have been the code of code of many colors used in the film you can see uh dolly's trademark outfits very uh very decorative very outlandish now apparently this is this is this i believe this is actually true if you notice all her clothes have long sleeves and apparently she does have tattoos hidden on her arms that no one's ever actually seen because she always wears the long sleeves old classroom here see that really cool map i love that i guess this would have been the teacher's desk and i guess they would have had bart simpson writing as you say from the simpsons uh intro bart simpson always writing what he will not do on the chalkboard but here these are things that apparently dolly will do i will dream more i will learn more i will care more and i will be more it's a great sentiment here's one of the very flamboyant outfits of porter wagner who hosted a country music variety show called the porter wagner show which dolly originally was part of and and achieved quite a bit of fame and uh she actually wrote the song i will always love you to uh porter wagner because he did not want to let her out of her contract to pursue her dreams but she wrote the song to assure him that he would always be important to her and after hearing that beautiful song he let her out of her contract and let her chase her dreams these are dolly dolls these are fashion dolls designed to look like dolly parton we have all these amazing outfits worn by dolly so many different uh outfits for for dolly oh there's dolly's graduation cap and gown here's some uh props and outfits from dolly's first film nine to in five the governor of tennessee was partnered with the dollywood foundation now i'm not normally one to gush over celebrities but i really love how dolly parton has become like this unifying figure almost doesn't matter where you are politically where you are culturally it seems like everyone loves and appreciates dolly it's almost like the one one of the few celebrities that people can actually agree on and she's done you know she's done wonderful things you know she's spoken out when it was time to spoken at to speak out and she's backed up her words you know when they had the devastating fires here in gatlinburg and pigeon forge years ago she gave a substantial amount of money to help the locals uh keep working she is the largest employer here in sevierville um with with this park here she employs the most people in the entire county and she also was one of the the few celebrities that gave money directly to fund vaccine research so dolly if you're out there you're you're you're number one okay in my book and i think you're number one okay in most people's books do you know anyone who hates dolly if you know someone that hates dolly leave a comment in the comment section because i have never met someone that hated dolly this little section here in dollywood is kind of like a 50s themed section it's a five and dime here you can see those store mannequins in the window the optometrist here at dollywood of course dr kane you see good this is the lightning rod roller coaster here i'm not the hugest fan of the lightning rod it uh it is a little a little rough for me i know the park has had a lot of trouble with it over the years just having it refurbished and having to constantly repair it for some reason just having a lot of trouble keeping it running but it looks like it is up and running today oh there it comes yeah no thank you with that curve oh my gosh here's the rockin roadway this is a ride a little more my speed um maybe the only ride themed after a used car dealership though yeah you can see here next to the phone booth you can see quality used cars at discount prices let's hop aboard all right heading through the queue here the cars pull up people get in with all those hubcaps on the walls as well as these old muffler tubes all right look at this sweet ride right here so we have launched hey i'm not sure if the steering actually does anything hello if you stop moving while you're still grooving remain seated all right so where are we where are we going oh look there's the used car lot you can see all the fancy cars for sale oh heading into a very very dark and spooky tunnel okay it's dark maybe not as much spooky but definitely dark so yeah you're not you don't have to wear your masks um walking around the park or on the ride so i can actually talk to you while i'm on the ride i could talk to you with the mask on before but i always felt it was a little awkward trying to talk uh you know you read lips and it looks a little weird but you know here i am on a little toy car talking to all my wonderful viewers out there what's this button here hi [Music] it does nothing i guess oh that's just the horn i guess it honks here we have some burma shave signs don't lose your head to gain a minute minute you need your head your brain is in it i don't know if i said that correctly or not all right little girl pulls up next to me in her car she's like hey you doing a vlog look at these miserable soggy souls right here oh i'm so happy that i'm not on this ride right now i think of all amusement park rides my least favorite are these splashy circular boats that you end up getting completely drenched on i've had at least a few bad experiences you can see some happy turtle topiaries here frolicking in the pond you can see a mama bear and baby bear topiary and over there you can see there's actually another baby bear hiding in the tree and look at this crafty frog he's slurping up a fly [Music] my absolute favorite attraction in the entire park something i must ride every time i'm here blazing fury oh boy oh boy oh boy doesn't look like there's gonna be that long of a line take a second to check out this vintage fire truck so we head down the ramp oh yeah hardly any line at all [Music] very spooky see the moonshine still come on paw there on the porch [Music] marvel from this side oh it's the bandit shooting at us luther here i come train oh here we go uh oh got a trainer coming fire in the hole very few things in this world warm my heart as much as a ride on blazing fury this roller coaster here is known as the tennessee tornado oh looks like i only had a couple people on it but they're they're they're in for some fun and straight around the loop past the smashed up milk card looks like the only people still wearing masks at dollywood are these two baby owls it's looking at the mystery mine roller coaster and it looks like there has been some uh changes done to the layout of the track this has been changed looks like there's a fresh track here see they go down the loop go across there and resume going down that way yeah you can see an old piece of track back there like a kind of a sideways loop that's not used anymore uh this is very shiny and fresh looking so yeah at some point uh must be this year because i don't remember last year they have taken out this loop right here and added i'm not sure i'll have to look at my old videos and see what has changed there but uh yeah it looks like they've definitely cut out that loop there rerouted the coaster a little bit interesting okay so i was just talking to another guest and they were explaining to me what has changed here this entire section here is new so you should go down and you go down a very steep drop back up over there apparently the it was getting too rough it was getting too sneaky too steep it was snapping people's heads back well that that sounds a bit graphic it was making people's heads uncomfortable so they've added a much smoother loop right here a much more gradual and less jarring loop right here the old one was very sharp right there it's also interesting because they actually removed a lot of the theming last year this used to have a wooden theming on it it looked like it was broken and and falling apart but actually a piece i think it was a decorative chain had fallen off and landed on somebody so they got rid of all of the uh of the theming on these girders so yeah not allowed to film on the ride itself it is a really cool ride it has some dark ride elements in it but um i was assured that all the effects in the ride are not removed so it's the same same ride they just made it a little smoother in that one part that part that one that part still looks a little rough [Music] oh [Music] old steam engine just went off there oh here they come again oh i got to do one more revolution oh it's getting very very very smoggy here oh smells like smells like halloween all right we gotta hurry back and get to the trolley before it turns into a pumpkin i just noticed that that one bird house is actually a fiddle but no time to look at bird houses we seriously gotta get back to the trolley all right we gotta exit through the gift shop and no time to buy anything because seriously we're gonna miss the trolley oh man don't even remind me all right let's hope the trolley didn't leave without us looks like we made it back to the trolley station there's other people waiting here so charlie should be here momentarily and our chariot awaits so we have landed safely back at patriot park and uh it was nice to check out dollywood see what dollywood looks like in the year 20 21 things have been changing and and adapting so rapidly over the past year that you know it is good to just kind of get a feeling of what uh of what is going on now of course the biggest change probably is guests are no longer required to wear masks either indoors or outdoors um and you know i wore a mask for over a year going to theme parks and i think it's very doable you know if there was an event like this again in the near future i'd be more than happy to put the mask back on and and if that's what's needed that being said it is nice it is nice to not have to wear a mask in an amusement park especially when it's really hot and it was very warm today um you know sometimes that mask when you get your own breath on your face it feels a little warm you know it it doesn't stop you from breathing it doesn't make things unmanageable but it can be a little uncomfortable sometimes so it is nice to be able to go mask-less in an amusement park um thank you thank you guys for for watching this channel if you like these videos uh check out some other videos on my channel i've been to all 48 continental united states filming roadside attractions amusement parks haunted houses say theme parks roadside attractions haunted houses museums and other fun random stuff sorry sorry i had a moment there uh if you'd like to help support the channel consider donating to patreon three dollars or more we'll get you a postcard once a month also selling some enamel pins in the etsy shop all that just helps keep this train on the track this boat on the water and this dirigible in the air until next time my friends this once in the bag

Channel: The Carpetbagger

Views: 105,944

Keywords: the, carpetbagger, dollywood, chasing rainbows, rv, tour, dolly, dollyparton, pigeon forge, tn, tennessee, blazing fury, rollercoaster, mystery mine

Id: ja1Gmf_z-fU

Length: 28min 36sec (1716 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021