The very best factor about theme parks is that there’s at all times one thing new to get pleasure from. Whereas new rides and reveals typically require that basic sights at parks shut, it’s onerous to not get excited by the potential future. There are many new issues coming to Disney World, Disneyland, and Common theme parks within the subsequent couple of years, too. Nonetheless, I am most enthusiastic about one thing else.
When you had requested me final week what theme park attraction set to open subsequent 12 months I used to be most trying ahead to, I most likely would have mentioned the brand new Quick & Livid: Hollywood Drift curler coaster opening at Common Studios Hollywood, or presumably the brand new Mandalorian & Grogu replace to Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. Nonetheless, a brand new trip has jumped to the highest of the record, and it’s not from both of the 2 large theme park corporations.
Dollywood’s NightFlight Expedition Seems Wonderful
One thing new has been underneath building at Pigeon Forge’s Dollywood theme park for the final a number of months, and whereas just a few rumors of what it might be slipped out, none of them fairly did justice to what it really is. The attraction is named NightFlight Expedition, and it’s being referred to as the “first indoor household hybrid coaster and whitewater river raft trip.” That’s actually so much.
In a promotional video for the attraction, we see components which have friends flying over the Smoky Mountains by way of projection results, in addition to floating down a whitewater river in an exciting raft trip. There are additionally curler coaster components and a lazy boat trip part.
To translate into Disneyland parlance, NightFlight Expedition seems like if Soarin’ Across the World, Grizzly River Run, Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Pirates of the Caribbean had been all a single attraction, and all occurred over the course of 5 and a half minutes. Whereas there will likely be loads of thrills, the phrase “household” is necessary within the description because it means practically all friends will have the ability to expertise it. Dollywood is among the greatest theme parks for households I’ve ever been to.
The video is all theoretical, in fact. We’ve got to have the ability to expertise the brand new attraction for ourselves subsequent 12 months when it opens to know if it’s all the pieces that it may very well be, however Dollywood’s sights are already an unbelievable assortment of experiences. Massive Bear Mountain, the park’s latest curler coaster, has received the Golden Ticket Award for greatest household curler coaster yearly because it opened, and NightFlight already seems like a contender for awards of its personal.
Dollywood Is Persevering with To Develop Within the Theme Park Area
Dollywood touts NightFlight Expedition as the most important attraction funding within the park’s historical past, at $50 million. Clearly, Dollywood would not be making that kind of funding if it did not count on to see that translate to gross sales contained in the park. Dollywood has seen unbelievable progress in simply the previous couple of years. Its sister park, Branson, Missouri’s Silver Greenback Metropolis, is in the course of a large enlargement of its personal.
Dolly Parton will likely be inducted into the IAAPA Corridor of Fame subsequent month. Maybe it is a becoming time contemplating that the park that bears her title is about to make a serious leap ahead within the trade.
I’m trying ahead to all the nice theme park sights subsequent 12 months and within the years to come back. Disney and Common nonetheless have nice stuff on the best way, however after I’m planning my theme park schedule in 2026, I received’t be skipping Dollywood, that a lot is for certain.