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I believe every brand new coaster out of Cedar Fair recently does so [emoji14] Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

I am really curious to see what the ride sign and entrance plaza will look like. Given that Diamondback and Banshee both exit into gift shops I would say that the MT exit gift shop is a safe bet.

I don't usually write trip reports but figured I would with this one. This trip to Dollywood was kind of a spur of the moment for me. I was invited my NoChickens/MrsNoChickens and Momma NoChickens. With me working two jobs and one being in retail I was unsure if I was going to be able to go. I found out the previous Thursday that I was able to go. So this past Wednesday, MrsNoChickens and I made our way to visit Magenta Lizard and her man before heading to the NoChickens homestead. We had a great visit and enjoyed the chats we had. Thursday morning we met up with some of the NoChicken's family, including Momma NoChickens. We made our way down to Tennessee. With a few stops we arrived into Pigeon Forge roughly around 3:40. We got checked into the DreamMore Resort and I was blown away just by what I saw walking in and heading up to our suite. NoChickens and I had to hop on the trolley to the park quickly to have some business taken care of and then we went back to the resort to get the group all together (Two ladies I believe that are in their 80s, 2 in their 60s and then the NoChickens duo plus me). We got the group loaded up onto the Trolley and headed to the park. NoChickens/MrsNoChickens and I were the only ones who had been to the park before. We gathered in front of the Dollywood sign in park to get a picture. Once pictures were underway we ended up walking the area and taking in the lights and other sights. We walked the lower area of the park, we then grabbed dinner at Reds and then decided to ride Rockin' Roadway. Afterwards I showed the new visitors the recreation of Dolly's childhood home. They all were blown away by that and the lights in the area. We then headed up toward the Village to get a ride on the train at night (something I had not even done myself). While we waited for the train to board, we took in more sights which included the new Parade of Many Colors. (Pictures later). We boarded the train and headed toward the top of the mountain. I had to take a picture (all though it's a bit blurry) of the light coming out of the train when they'd throw more coal into it. The conductor at the top of the mountain played Jingle Bells on the 3 Whistle Chime. It was so cool! Once we got off the train, the park was about to close so we headed toward the shuttle back to DreamMore. NoChickens, MrsNoChickens and I decided to explore the resort after we got back. We ventured outside to watch the light show! After exploring for a bit, we headed back to the suite to settle down for the evening so we could be well rested for the next day. After we woke up and got ready, we headed to the park. NoChickens and I guided the ladies to Chasing Rainbows while we went to get our shows reserved for the TimeSavers and pick up our breakfast aka Cinnamon Bread from the Grist Mill. We went back to meet the ladies and ended up having to wait for them because our time that we thought would take us to do both things took shorter than planned. When we finally got together we enjoyed the bread and the gals ended up shopping at Dolly's Closet. The NoChickens duo and I pointed decided to go ride Barnstormer. That was MrsNoChicken's first ride on a screamin' swing and I think she enjoyed it overall. We then headed over to Blazing Fury. We entered through the TimeSaver line even though there wasn't a normal wait, but hey we had a TimeSaver so why not use it?!?! While we were in line, we were waiting for the next train and struck up conversation with the ride host closest to us. We had mentioned we were baffled that we had been to the park 4 times this year and each time Lightning Rod was down. He had asked us some questions, we told him we were coaster enthusiasts as well as Season Passholders from Indiana and Ohio, we love coasters, etc. The train finally arrived for us to board and we went on our way. When we pulled back into the station, the same host we were talking to looked directly at us and said "hey Lightning Rod just opened." So we grabbed our stuff from the bins and "ran" over to Lightning Rod (not an exactly easy route, but not terrible either). When we got up to Lightning Rod we were greeted by 4 hosts in front of the doors saying that Lightning Rod was down for the day and noted the digital sign on the queue building verifying that. I immediately became livid. Why in the world would a ride host, especially at Dollywood purposely lie/mess with guests (forget that we're coaster enthusiast, but to really do that to Season Passholders)? I called my friend who works in the rides office as I walked toward guest services. She agreed with me that the interaction we had coming back into the station should not have happened. I got off the phone as I got to the front gate. I talked with an admissions employee and stated that I needed to go to Guest Services and asked where to go. She pointed me to the exact window I needed to go. As I went up there, I waited a few minutes to then be told by the employee there that I needed to get in line, even after coming out of the park behind 30 or so folks that were already queued and more coming. I was not too happy about that, but I got in line anyway. Both issues were honestly, the worst customer service I have ever had at an amusement park. I was even more blown away that it was at Dollywood. When it was finally my turn, I met with a really awesome employee in Guest Services. She listened, told me to fill out a form and that there was one woman who responds to each and every complaint, said that I would be hearing from her within a week. While I was filling out the form, she told me she was going to call a manager of high regard in the park structure to speak with me. He listened, agreed that the host interaction at Blazing Fury should not have happened and he would make it right. He stepped away for a minute while I finished filling out my form, when he came back he made me feel a lot less angry and made the situation turn around. He told me that he would be working with the rides office to ensure that proper response would be taken care of involving this. I met back up with the party and we headed back toward Craftsman Valley. NoChickens/MrsNoChickens and I guided the others where to shop as we went to ride some coasters. We hit up Tennessee Tornado, Wild Eagle (left side in the back) and then Thunderhead. All three rides gave great rides....still hard to believe we were riding coasters on December 23rd! After our ride on Thunderhead we called the others and asked if they were hungry. So we met up and proceeded to Miss Lillian's Chicken House. After a wonderful lunch, we ended up heading back over to the Village to get a daytime ride on the train! It seriously is my absolute favorite train ride anywhere. We then headed back toward the front of the park to do some shopping (I had to buy some Christmas gifts). We all sent our purchases back to the room (great benefit of staying in resort). We then headed over to Dolly Parton's Celebrity Theater for Christmas in the Smokies. ^^One of the many reasons I love this area, the Smoky Mountains! What a beauty! This was my first show to experience at Dollywood. I'm quite happy it was. It blew me away. If you can't make it down there, I suggest watching it on Youtube (look for the 2016 edition). The vocal ability of this cast was on fire, so great! There was one song that I absolutely cried on, "The Lord Is With You," which featured an Angel, Mary and Joseph. Once that show was over the group went to "My People Christmas Edition." I decided to skip that because I needed more coasters in my life! I of course checked out the lights and sights on the way to and from coasters. I ended up going to ride Tennessee Tornado, Firechaser Express and Mystery Mine. I headed back to meet up with the group, but the Parade of Many Colors started where I needed to meet up with them. After I met up with them, NoChickens/MrsNoChickens and I went to go finish the night out with a couple more coaster rides while the others went to grab snacks at the various shops. We grabbed a ride on Mystery Mine and ended the trip with a ride on Thunderhead in the back two rows. Holy cow, I love that coaster in any seat but especially in the back. ^^^^These are our post Thunderhead ride faces ^^^ These are our faces when we realized that the 2016 coaster season is officially is over. And like that, the 2016 coaster season was over. We headed back to the resort for our final night, had pizza and played a game before we packed up and left the next morning. I had an absolute blast with the NoChickens family as well as the other members of our group. I have to give them massive thank yous for inviting me. I look forward to making it back to Smoky Mountain Christmas in the future.

Great PTR Chris. I am glad you guys had a great time!

^ Most on this board should have a Microcenter close by and they use processors as a loss leader. The i7-5820K 6 core is still a beast and a bargain $319, though the x99 motherboard is a bit more than Z170 for a Skylake CPU. If you can put together a Lego helicopter you can build your own PC. I think Microcenter will assemble it for free if you buy all your parts there, hell bring me lunch and I will put it together. Here is an example of a PC I built last fall and kind of went nuts on. It can be done for a lot less now. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $319.00) CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $119.00) Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (Purchased For $179.00) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (Purchased For $99.99) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $70.00) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $135.00) Storage: Western Digital RE4 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $35.00) Storage: Western Digital RE4 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $35.00) Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $84.00) Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Video Card (Purchased For $395.00) Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $90.00) Power Supply: XFX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $39.99) Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (Purchased For $30.00) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 OEM 64-bit (Purchased For $60.00) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140mm Fan (Purchased For $20.95) Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140mm Fan (Purchased For $20.95) Monitor: BenQ XL2420Z 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor (Purchased For $187.00) Keyboard: Func KB-460 Wired Gaming Keyboard (Purchased For $70.00) Mouse: SteelSeries Rival Wired Optical Mouse (Purchased For $30.00) Other: Gearhead Webcam (Purchased For $15.00) Total: $2034.88 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-27 06:14 EST-0500

Haven't played RCT World myself but I gather its a buggy mess that is poorly designed and simply isn't much fun when it is working. By contrast Planet Coaster runs pretty well and has superior features in almost every aspect. Terrain creation in particular is amazing with lighting and prop placement as other highlights. Downsides are pathing (though still much better than RCTW) and the current selection of flat rides along with a few missing features, syncing stations and some coasters not having launch options when they should come to mind. About the only thing I've heard RCTW has that Planet Coaster should is the ability to adjust track by dragging the pointer around. When you look at a desktop for Planet Coaster look into a very good processor. They are one of the harder parts to upgrade and very important for simulation games. Stay away from expensive brands like Alienware. Get an I7 if possible, if not get an I5. PC makes good use of multiple cores so getting a cpu with more cores/threads and a lower clock may be better than higher clocks with less cores/threads. And keep in mind that many laptop processors have fewer cores/threads when compared to their very similarly named desktop counterparts. A laptop I7 is usually not as good as a desktop one.

When I was there in November, the first night they were running two trains and later that week on a much busier day they were only at one train operation so I would say that is accurate about the faults. Hopefully they get it figured out.

Nope it was down the entire week from what I have been told by my friend at the park. They tested 6 times after I went to guest services to talk to them about being lied to. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^ They certainly deserve any reputation they've earned from safety violations; it's not a park I plan to visit. This is obviously a very tragic situation, but the negligence would seem to be solely with the teens if the initial police report is correct. See also the fatal incident at Raptor last year; fences & locked gates aren't there to make it impossible for a determined person to break in.

^ How so? The kids jumped a fence. is the park supposed to dismantle the slides in the off season? Maybe I missed something but I don't see it.

Excellent story: http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/tennessee/2016/12/18/questions-linger-wildfire-alerts/95144318/ Much of the carnage of the Firestorm could have been moderated if effective Fire-Wise building codes had been in place along with Woodland Urban Interface Landscaping Rules. The Sevier County area has been very resistant to updating building codes to reflect modern safety concerns. We now see the costly results of such inaction and the effects of this Firestorm will linger for years.

If convicted, the teenagers accused of starting the fire could face 60 years to life in prison. http://www.wdrb.com/story/34065996/teens-charged-in-deadly-tenn-wildfires-could-get-life-in-prison

Visited this weekend, happy to confirm HillBilly Golf looked okay but was closed. Parts of town by the mountains were flattened, looked like a war zone. Some hotels and structures on RiverRoad are gone. I heard the building at the top of The Sky Lift is gone. The putt putt golf course in the middle of town had noticeable damage at the top. On a positive note the town was packed, it was great to see the commitment from tourist and the resolve of the locals.