Into the Dollyverse

Okay, we ate the gag gift:  Pringles Roasted Turkey flavor.  We did that on our way up to Pigeon Forge this afternoon, a pretty nice drive north the day after Christmas.  Traffic wasn't too bad further up, although in our immediate area things were a bit thick.  We packed and left, not in too much of a hurry as our only plan was really to check into our hotel and then head over to Dollywood by nightfall.  We accomplished that goal easily.  Our hotel isn't the best place, but it was open on the day after Christmas when we made these last-minute reservations.  Next time, we'll be planning ahead a little more so.  But no matter, what we came for was Dollywood and the Christmas lights there, and they did not disappoint!

Our only thought was to just walk around and see the lights, and there was so much to see.  We used our season passes for the first time, got our free parking and walked into a winter wonderland!

Lights and butterflies were everywhere, and as much as there is to see each October with pumpkins and so forth, there are a just as many other things to see with the place completely decked out for Christmas.  There were so many Christmas lights all over the place, and so many things to see, just walking around.

At the middle of one area, a large LED Christmas tree glowed, and actually had a bit of a light show on the half-hour, several times each night.

As you can see above and below, it changed colors and actually became animated, at one point even looking like the coat of many colors that Dolly herself wore once upon a time.

At the conclusion of the show, snow actually began falling all around us - or at least something that looked like snow.  The crowd was thrilled, including Mommy and Madison.

It was a nice touch.  It was actually pretty chilly too, which was fine as it added to the overall atmosphere of the place.  Here's Madison now, wearing her new Atlanta Braves hat amongst the falling snow.

Afterwards, we were in an area called Glacier Gulch, which had this beautiful blue light display that is impossible to just show in one picture.  This one below sort of sets it up.

These strings of light surround you completely, and it's a quiet area with a soundtrack of tinkling ice and forest sounds, one that everyone quietly goes through, completely reverent in a way.  It was beautiful.

Just below that, there was a meet-and-greet, and we had an opportunity to take a photo with Clarice, the reindeer from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."  This area was so nice, with Sam the Snowman and other decorations from the famous television special there.  It just added to the magic!

We dropped by the chapel after this, and it too was decked out with Christmas lights, looking quite nice as always.  There are church services here each Sunday, and we were sorely tempted to attend one this weekend, if only for the fact that we have our own church responsibilities this upcoming Sunday.

Nevertheless, Madison sat down at the church's old piano and played a tune.  She needs to catch up on her practice a bit - and also the piano needs a little tuning!

Just outside the church was a nativity scene, which reminds us of the reason for the season.  But you'll see a lot of that throughout the entire park, as Dolly reminds us that Christmas is all about Jesus' birth.  This is so obvious, and yet sometimes forgotten by others, and therefore pleasant to be reminded of.

The interior of the church was decorated, and in fact the whole place was decked out.  Even the music tracks on certain rides were tied to Christmas - the carousel played Christmas music and the little cars on the roadway were playing 50's Christmas music.  Everything looked just lovely for Christmas.

In the older areas, all the buildings were lined with Christmas lights of differing colors, illuminating the entire park.  You can see here below, we're surrounded by lights on trees and buildings.

In this photo above, we're seated somewhere special.  We got there early enough - because we're trained by our experiences at Disney - to get prime seating for the Christmas parade there at Dollywood.  It's called "The Parade of Many Colors," and the place where we were standing/leaning was actually a place that is usually reserved because you can see so much all at once - it was a prime viewing area.  But being a weekday, we were able to get there and sit there.  Daddy held the spot as Mommy and Madison toured the old Dolly home - we were on the front porch of that as the parade would go by.  And soon enough, it did start coming.

It takes a lot to compete with a Magic Kingdom parade, but this did do the job.  It was a beautiful parade, with lively Christmas music and excited participants.  The costumes and lights were colorful and fantastic!

Sure enough, a train went by, along with gingerbread men and candy canes and elves and all sorts of Christmas magic.  Everything else was so lit up as well, you didn't need a flash for cameras and you didn't have a hard time seeing anything around you.

As you can see here, from our vantage point, we could see all the way down to the market area and watch the parade as it approached and passed by.

And then we could get a nice look at each float or costume as it got closer.  It was all very exciting, and just a perfect thing for the Christmas season.

These snow globe costumes were a big hit.  And this parade, it just kept on going by with more and more and more.  Eventually towards the end, there again was that reminder of the reason for the season, which made this parade even more meaningful, fun, and a wonderful celebration.

The music was familiar, from Michael W. Smith and other Christian recording artists, and this float above celebrating peace on earth was gorgeous - only outdone by this float below showing the Nativity scene itself.

If there was one thing we came here for tonight, it was the parade, and it did not disappoint us in the least.  We still had a bit of time and energy (we slept in this morning very much!). So we explored the park some more after this, including a swing by the iconic water wheel area, looking so beautiful at Christmas time.

And we walked up through Glacier Gulch again, this time to go explore a new area that opened just this year.  Everything was decorated, even the old mining building there.

We passed by all this, and we then found the entrance we were looking for, the entrance to a new area of the park called Wildwood Grove.  It was later, but the park extended their hours for us, and we were able to explore this freshly opened area of the park, now decorated for the first time for Christmas.

There weren't as many people over here in this area, so we could move around without worry of long lines or bumping into so many others.  The decorations were amazing - take a look at this water feature.

It looks like a stringed instrument, but that's water coming from the stem of this branch.  The whole area had the look of something you'd see in the world of Tinkerbell, but minus all the fairies.  And there were plenty of new rides, some of which too tempting for Mommy and Madison to pass up on!

Look at them hopping along on these little frogs!  There was no line at all for this, so why not?  They "hopped" on, and had a good time riding along.  Madison had her hand in the air at one time like she was riding in a rodeo!

There were all sorts of photo opportunities along the way, including this nice cut-out area we spotted nearby the frog and the bear ride.  Oh, I forgot about the bear ride.  Want to see the bear ride?

This was super cute.  Mommy couldn't pass up on this one either.  You rode these little bears through a forest area, a long path of into a wooded area.  It's a very pleasant ride, and you can tell above that Mommy was loving it.

Oh, and I almost forgot the acorn ride.  That was crazy.  We all three fit into this spinning acorn that whirled up and up and up - we spun and went upward into the night.  I think the funny part was the three of us actually fitting into this enclosed acorn, but we did it, and it was pretty fun too.

We didn't expect to do any rides tonight, but the lines were short and it was fun.  And also, it was close to the exit too.  That part of the park is near the entrance/exit.  So once we were done exploring this new section, it was time to find our way back to the parking tram again.  It was busy there, but things moved along.  We parked a long way off, as there were some pretty big crowds.  But it was a fun night, and again a complete surprise to Madison we were even going until she got that Christmas gift yesterday.

The neat thing is we'll be going to Dollywood tomorrow.  And the next day too.  That's the great thing about season passes.  Hopefully we'll catch some shows, but the season pass allows you to relax somewhat in your planning, and that's what we'll be doing a lot of this weekend:  enjoying a relaxing time at Dollywood.