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Date: August 1, 2003 Place: Dollywood Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Cost: $40 for adults, $30 for children Ovearll Rating: 5.0 Pictures: View the Photo Album

Favorite Part of the Day Having a staring contest with the ground hogs which eyed us humans with as much curiosity as we watched him. Seeing an elephant fill up his trunk with water and give himself a shower to cool off. Most Fun for Adults We enjoyed seeing the unusual animals such as the red pandas, white rhinos, skinks, white tiger, and English Lop-Eared rabbits. Most Fun for Kids Kids loved the water rides! What it's like Dollywood is a wonderful and charming place. We had no plans to go here because we thought it would be too gimmicky. However, the eight year old in our group wanted to go more than anything and since she was such a good trouper on all our hikes at the Smoky Mountain National Park, we took her. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found and remember our time spent at Dollywood with a smile on my face. We assumed Dollywood was just another amusement park, with lots of roller coasters and other rides. If you expect that, you may be a bit disappointed. Dollywood is a magical place where you will walk through a realistic 50's area in Jukebox Junction complete with a theater (see a show), drive through (restaurant) and gas station (small shop) surrounded by authentic cars. The Craftsman's Valley is the largest section of the park and you can see real craftsman such as blacksmiths, wood carvers, leather workers, glass makers, and even craftsmen making homemade lye soap. There is even a place where you can sign up for a class to learn about the craft yourself. The rides come second to all the other wonderful features. To make the most of Dollywood, I suggest you select some shows you would like to see and schedule the rest of your day around them. You will have a large selection including 50s and 60s reviews, children's shows like Veggie Tales or Garfield, extreme sports, dog tricks, bluegrass, fiddlin', tributes to Dolly and more. As you walk to the shows you can stop in the shops in the area, talk to the crafts people, or take in a ride. In addition to the wide variety of quality shows, I was overcome by how good all the food looked around Dollywood! I searched for coupons or discounts to Dollywood all over the internet before our trip and all through the coupon racks when we got into town and could not find any. One of the reasons we did not originally plan to visit Dollywood was the price factor, which is about $40 per adult and $30 per child. When we were in line, we noticed the people in front of us had a Coca-Cola can with $10 off the price of admission. So if you plan on going, it might be worth checking out the six-packs at the gas station in town to see if you can find the appropriate cans. You will use one can per person. Another way to make the most of the high price, is to take advantage of the park's offer to visit the park after 3:00 p.m. on one day and also get free entrance to the park for the entire following operating day. This is nice during the summer because the park stays open to about 8:00 p.m., so you can go for four hours or so on the one day and spend an entire additional day at the park. See the Slideshow!

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