Dollywood
Reviews and Complaints

Dear Dollywood,
My family and I have been visiting Dollywood for several years now and have always experienced a pleasant / fun time. However, yesterday (5/18/19) we were incredibly disappointed. After purchasing 2 adult tickets and 1 child ticket (over 200 dollars) we were only able to ride 3 rides during park hours. Dollywood was busy; however, the inability was due to the majority of rides being closed (fire-chaser, daredevil falls, mountain slide winder, Tennessee tornado, mystery mind, etc.). Yesterday's experience at Dollywood was a complete waste of time and money. Please note these rides were not closed due to inclement weather. Extremely disappointed Dollywood.

I have been buying 2 season passes for years from Dollywood in Pigeon Forge Tn. and have never seen anything but good out of the employees up until my visit December 19th 2018. While standing in line with my 2 grandchildren ages 3 years and 8 months to see Santa this employee by the name of Boo Scharfschwerdt dressed as an Elf approached me and accused me of skipping line and getting in front of others. First of all this woman that I will not refer to as a lady because she was far from being a lady was very unprofessional. She was everything but a lady. Very rude, arrogant and over bearing. Secondly I was in the building 30 minutes before the line even began to see Santa so yes I was one of the first to get in line. Now my husband, son in law and daughter had gone out of the building to smoke and came back into the building and did come over to talk to me. It is a possibility that she may have thought they were jumping line but that's doubtful. I don't see any adult thinking that other grown adults were going to set on Santa's lap. Even after explaining to this employee that they weren't in line and that they had came in and was talking to me and that I was the only one in line with my grandkids she couldn't shut her mouth. She kept demanding that I go to the back of the line with my grandkids. This wasn't happening as I was one of the first in line. She kept on until her and my son in law had words and she called security. Security handled the matter very professionally and my grandkids got to see Santa. Now I had 2 other grandkids ages 10 and 8 amongst several other children waiting to see Santa that saw this whole show put on by the employee dressed as an elf. Needless to say our Dollywood trip was ruined by this employee and we left Dollywood as soon as the kids saw Santa. We spent $127.00 on two children's tickets for them to ride 1 ride each and watch a show of their parents and grandparents be humiliated in front of a crowd of other children and parents. Spread some Christmas cheer says employee Boo Scharfschwerdt! Needless to say if I hadn't already renewed my passes for 2019 I certainly wouldn't be renewing them. Needless to say it's doubtful that I will be using them in 2019. I have never been treated this way from an employee in Dollywood. Have spent Christmas in Pigeon Forge and Dollywood for the past 4 year's. I guess this ends it as far as Dollywood goes. Beware of the unprofessional rude elf if you dare to visit santa! Denise Mckinney.

Me and my family came all the way across the park to ride the train. This was the only thing my son wanted to do. Hes 11. We were told by multiple employees the train ran every hour on the hour. When we got there 20 minutes until 8 we were told it was running early because of a parade and they couldnt let us on. We watched an over half empty train sit for over 5 minutes and then take off in front of us and they were very rude. My 11 year old son was shattered. "making memories worth repeating" isnt something we felt tonight. My son is devastated and i'm local and cant even afford to bring him back. Your conductors can confirm us trying to get children on the train... You would have made a little boys day but instead you made him want to leave and never come back

I brought my family of 6 to Dollywood on Thursday, Oct 11 initially. We had been told by family and friends and even merchants in the area that paid admission after 3 got us in the following day as well. We got there to realize that that policy was no longer in place but decided to pay the extra money for a 2 day ticket. Upon arrival, we went to ridethunder head, which was temporarily closed due to technical difficulties. We went next to Mystery Mine, which was also closed and was so the entire evening. However, we were able to ride the other rides and we had a good time.

The following day, we got to the park around noon but was unable to find a parking space in the handicapped area (my husband is a disabled veteran). We were able to find a space in lot "C" and was able to get on the tram and get into the park. We bought the all day pass for pictures because we expected to get alot of pics on roller coasters.

First ride of the day was TN tornado. We got in line and waited about 45 min. As we were about 15 minutes from being able to ride, it was announced that it was closed due to technical difficulties and made us leave the ride line. About an hour later, we tried to ride the mystery mine again. We waited in line for well over hour when an announcement was made that they were going to add a cart to the ride to speed up the process. About 20 min later a second announcement was made that the ride was closing. After waiting for multiple rides and then being turned away, we were only able to ride very few rides in the park.

We have a large family and have to budget our resources. On this vacation, the kids wanted to go to Dollywood. We spend about $450 for these tickets and dont feel like we enjoyed this nearly to the level we paid for it. I'm glad that safety is important at this park, but it seems like the maintenance of the rides should have been performed to make every family's experience a positive one. We have been here many times before and even thought about trying to get season passes next year, but this experience has changed our minds. The five females in our party even had to wait for more than 20 minutes to go to the restroom. Then, we waited for 45 minutes to get into Aunt Grandy's, and were dumbfounded to find half the tables empty when we finally came in? What has happened to you, Dollywood? Every single facet of this experience has just showed us a lack of respect for us, our TIME, and our hard-earned money.

We've always enjoyed our many visits before, but this one has really soured us on Dollywood and Pigeon Forge.

The Sharpe Family

We ordered tickets 7/14 7 one day tickets- 7 adult and 1 child and we were rained out.
We got rain checks for 3, season passes for 2 and paid extra for transferring the child to adult. Our grandson couldn't come. We ordered one more adult ticket on Sept 11 and brought relatives down again to use Sept 25. Spent the night the 24th in a $150 room and headed out to Dollywood on the 25th and the booths were empty and we spoke to men working there that said they were closed! So all together we spent $ 704.83 on the 24th not to mention meals for 4 for breakfast and dinner on the 24th and breakfast on the 25th. Plus gas etc . Plus gas and meals for 7 of us in July. Expensive trips for a retired couple trying to let their families have a good time together. We are extremely upset. I called Dollywood this morning (9-27) to talk to a representative who was quite rude and more or less said too bad. You are definitely not available for complaints. Why don, t you call Dolly and register our complaint!
Sherri Collius 186 Green Valley Road Bristol Virginia 24202. [protected]

I purchased 3 passes a couple weeks ago with the understanding they were good for a year after purchase. I Would not of spent almost $500 if I thought they were only good for 5 more months. I recently got an email from your park and then realized they were not good after the first week of January. Bad customer service on your end and not good communication. I recently moved here with my 3 sons and I would of saved that amount and purchased them next January so they would of been good a full year. I've had passes at many other theme parks and Dollywood by far is the worst deal with even getting "late" season passes since I guess that's what I got but was not told. I could of saved this $500 and used it at another park for a full year and had money left over. Very disappointed with this park/company.

I visited Dollywood with my two 10-year-old grandchildren on Wed-Thu, July 26-27. I had paid for valet parking and parked in the designated area and waited for a shuttle to take us to the Dollywood gate. We were picked up and were the only passengers on the shuttle. During our drive to the gate, the driver of a car apparently did something that angered our shuttle driver. I was shocked and actually maddened when our driver shouted an obscene phrase that included the 'f***' word.

The driver had no right to expose my grandchildren to the vile language. He obviously has an anger management problem. I was totally amazed that you allow such people to drive your vans which obviously should be family-oriented.

I consider the driver's action extremely serious, and I personally feel that he should be fired from his job. When we left the bus I had a serious talk with him and told him of my shock and displeasure. I considered asking for his name so that I could report him personally but decided against doing that.

I am writing to point out the appalling experience I had in your park. At the minimum, I strongly feel you should require all of your employees to go through a class in anger management, and to make it clear to them the seriousness of actions such as we experienced.

incident- 7.4.18

The first ride we went on was the Mountain Slidewinder. I was in the font of the ride with two friends behind. This is a long water ride that doesn't have a belt or someway to stay in the ride, you have to hold on.

At some point in the ride I lost my handling on the ride and the side of my face and head hit the side of the ride. I don't remember what happened but my friends say I was like a rag doll and they had to pull me into the ride and hold on to me. I don't have memory of this. I have memory of being afraid and feeling unsafe in the ride because I couldn't seem to hold on tight enough. I remember the ride ending and realizing I had lost my new sunglasses.

My friends were in disbelief at how much my face has swelled.

The person helping people out of the ride saw me and asked if I was okay.

A friend of mine ran to get ice.

I was embarrassed and didn't want my friends to miss out so I refused to go to the medical tent.

I have attached photos. One is of right after I got off the ride, one is from the next day, and then some following days later.

At this point I no longer have bruising however, my cheek bone is still swollen and my face isn't symmetrical. That eye waters more than the other, I believe due to the swelling. I also feel an aching sensation behind that eye.

I was going to just let this go, but now I'm concerned that there are more serious issues than a black eye.

I missed two days of work because of the accident and suffered from a concussion.

Dollywood did reimburse our tickets, but honestly I'm afraid to return.

I am concerned that a small child could get seriously injured on this ride.

I am 5'8 135 pounds and athletic and was struggling to remain on the ride.

Thank you for your time.

I have always visited Dollywood once every year since I was a kid. However this year is the first year I was disappointed with the experience. First off let me note that I drive 3 hours to get here, and when we got to the lightning rod, (the main thing I wanted to ride this year since it's relatively new and I my girlfriend was pregnant last year so we skipped) it was closed for the day, very disappointing. We decided to go to the river rampage and enjoy a cool ride, we waited for nearly half an hour if not more and right before we got on a raft got stuck so we were informed that the ride would be closed so maintenance could figure out what caused it. That was disappointing also😖. The kids wanted to ride the fire chaser, however, it was closed for the day! We waited a while hoping they would reopen, considering we didn't get there until 2 or 3 and it was about 5pm. Sadly the time we stayed the never reopened. I hope the next visit is better and would love to speak to someone about this experience. I hate to complain but this was our family vacation. Thank you.

I waited in line for 2 hours for the lightening rod the ride shut down about 1 hour and 40 minutes in line to add a second car and never as of 5 pm reopened. They did give a fast pass to come back but never reopened. I went to ride the skylft I think it was called and it was closed all day and so was fire chaser. 79 and parking is expense for rides to be closed and to spend 2 hours in line for a ride that never happened

Thursday, June 14, SplahCountry Taco food service stand was ridiculously slow, inefficient and poorly informed about their products. The stand was staffed by Kendra, Callie, Ajay, and Samantha On a peak season beautiful summer day, these staff members should have been operating smoothly; but there was no organization, poor communication between the staffers, and the line was growing. Then they announced they were out of chicken ... FOR AN HOUR! No planning for lunch service? My niece got pork instead and as we paid, Samantha wiped her nose with the back of her ungloved hand. No. Just no.

On May 27th thru June 1st may family made our first visit to Dollywood. We did a two (2) day pass through our hotel. The young lady made a mistake by booking two (2) parks for one (1) day instead of one (1) park two (2) days. The mistake was noticed by her and she corrected thru your services. I received an email from the Hotel stating what had transpired and how it was resolved, this would be addressed at the gate when we arrived. Unfortunately all this was missed since I did not bring my phone with me. I was not informed of an issue when we arrived on day one. When arrived at the hotel after day one the young lady informed me of the mistake and the corrected additional cost that was quoted by your services.On the second day I thought this was going to be easy but to my discontent we were held up at the Guest Services window by a young man that was less then helpful, ( no smile, no I am sorry, no let me see how I can help, No emotion at all. Maybe this was just a bad day for both employees) The additional cost was different then quoted. I explained that the amount was not what was discussed. I was told that the amount was the cost and he was not sure how the hotel arrived at the different amount, he proceeded to tell me all the cost and how it works when you do tow (2) parks. I asked for a supervisor and got the answer that this is the cost! I am not sure how this was arrived at by the supervisor since she did not even review the paper work. To avoid any hold up in the line I decide it was quicker to just pay and deal with the issue at the hotel. To make the story short, I was reimbursed the overage Dollywood charge. Like Dollywood, New Orleans is also a tourist town. My wife, family and I have been in the food service business for fifty (75) plus years. One thing we learn is be happy no matter what. Go one step behind to make the customer remember you and your business. On the positive side I thought Dollywood was very well organized, clean and most of all fun form my family.

My daughter received a grey wristband to ride the rides. She is 37 inches tall and a older man that was at the scramblers refused to let her ride after she had rode the ride 2 times before! He let her on the ride both times and the last time he said she was too short even though she had the grey wristband. It ruined my daughter's day. I'm really upset about the issue. They would not have given her a grey wristband if she was too short!

At 4:18 Thursday, on june 7th, an elderly worker named Floyd was very rude, disrespectful, and short with ALL of the children from the time we walked up to the busy bee's ride. He barked orders at our children because he was frustrated that a 3 year old with a learning disability didn't understand his directions because he refused to buckle them in himself and demanded that HE do it and didn't even check it before he walked off. Once the ride was over, I got my children off of the ride where he felt that he needed to walk up to me and tell me how terrible my children behaved and that he was about to "Kick them off of the ride." I watched the whole time and they behaved perfectly. This man was clearly very incompetent and SHOULD NOT be working with children. He took his frustration out on them and it was entirely uncalled for.

I have visited Dollywood with my family since I was a child. It is a tradition to visit when we come to Pigeon Forge. We always have a good time and enjoy. This time, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. We got to the park a little after 3 pm under the impression that we would attend the next day for free. The lady at the ticket booth said no. We stopped doing that in a December and if you want to attend tomorrow you will have to pay for a 2 day pass. Because we don't have enough time left on our vacation, we wouldn't be able to come back another day and we had already paid for parking. Also, we will have to pay again for parking the next day when we attend. When we entered the park and throughout the day, every staff member that we encountered was extremely rude and unhelpful aside from the one photography member we spoke with. The staff members all seemed like they did not want to be there and none were polite or even tactful. I understand there are bad apples sometimes and everyone has bad days, but from the members running the kid rides to the caboose on the tram, the bad attitudes were unacceptable when the amount of money we spent today was spent in the park from tickets to games, snacks, and parking. I am very disappointed!

Me and my family came on 6/3/18 during bbq and bluegrass festival and decided to eat at front porch.We waited 45 then when where seated waited another 30 mins before being greeted and the table we were sat at was open for 30 min before seating us at it this was such poor services especially for the prices we paid ill never be back to eat there if you gona charge such high prices you need tk have better service and i will let others know

Tram delivered us to Splash Country parking lot around 9 PM on 6/2/18. THERE WERE NO LIGHTS! The street lights were all off and the lot was pitch black! We were parked up the hill and at the back of the lot. Very unsafe especially for us older folks who are not so sure footed any more and need to see where we are walking in order not to take a fall

I have been coming to Dollywood for years bringing my child, then grandchildren and have always had an amazing time. Yesterday on Monday 05/14/2018 I brought my great grandchildren for their first time. I have been promising my 4 year old a train ride for weeks and the train wasn't running, then the attendant for the little pig ride in Country Fair was very very rude to my 23 year old granddaughter. I was very disappointed in my trip.

We paid $200 to not even get to ride the first roller coaster. Threw the time we was there their was 4 rides down for maintenance (2 of which we stood in line for for 2 hours to not even get to ride). Then went to eat and waited for another 45 minutes to buy smoked food and it was do dried out we threw half of the $45 meal away. The quality of park has went downhill so badly in the past few years and the prices are going up.

When we purchased our Gold season pass, we gave the receipt for the $15 parking charge to be refunded as has been the case since offering the Gold pass, but apparently "the higher ups" have decided we no longer should have the $15 after paying almost $200 for a pass. It's ridiculous to charge for parking anyway, but to continue to dig into our pockets for just a little more money is ridiculous, especially for Dollywood where they're making millions from ticket sales and food sales already. We've been coming for over 30 years, things like this make loyal people like us never come back.