...Old MacDonald had a Mini-Golf Course

 

Static chairs, missing glasses, buffet, 

"I Will Always Love You Festival"

This morning we got to sleep in a bit.  We had a nice night last night, and this morning we had a fantastic breakfast. There's that buffet there, complete with the omelette station.  I had a spinach omelette.  Maddie had an omelette too.  Mom got some great gluten free options, some gluten-free toast and a gluten-free dessert brownie too!  We ate well, and then we were on our way, a short drive up to Dollywood, where folks were lining up quickly for the trams.  The lines moved really well though, and we were soon on our first official ride at Dollywood.

Here we are back in the Dollyverse for a quick vacation, the reason being it was spring break and also Mom and I are about to go crazy with Easter stuff for the week.  We're only here for two nights, and we got those season passes, so we thought we'd make the best of it and check out the "I Will Always Love You" Festival here, which was pretty nice.  The decorations are different, starting with the overhanging items in the walkthrough area at the beginning.  They go from umbrellas to kites to fall leaves, and now this time of year there's just a lot of pink around here!

This was one of our many destinations today, the newly refurbished Dolly museums here.  We swung by here first, but given that we had a cup full of Dr. Pepper in Maddie's hands, we opted to come back later when that was empty.  Still, it made for some nice initial pictures.

We were off at the Rocking Roadway first, this after getting our season passes all set up.  That was no big issue - we got our pictures done, and Maddie even photobombed my picture on my ID.  

Maddie got a nice car that she was really excited about.  She loves these old cars, and maybe this ride is the source of all that nostalgia and excitement.  But she loves the aesthetic of the cars of this era, and was super happy that she got a car with tail fins.

Joey was along for the ride too!

Here she is with another roadster outside the old gas station there.  You can see the sun was out and shining - it was shaping up to be a pretty warm day outside!  We were on our way to a new show to see, one that is specific to this festival, but the start time was a little later and we had some time to kill, so we stopped in a few gift shops to take a look around.  This was a fun little shirt here, one just right for Maddie:

Okay, so the show was "From the Heart," and it is in that big theater, the DP Celebrity Theater.  It was nice and cool and we had a few empty seats in front of us at dead center, so we got to enjoy the entire thing in some really nice and cool seating!

All three of us enjoyed the show quite a bit.  It was a lot of music, of course, but it basically was a biography of Dolly Parton through the years.  It really set up the visit to the museum for us afterwards, which is pretty much where we went to immediately following the show.

The museum was quite a different experience than the old version, and it there was a lot of great improvements.  We enjoyed it quite a bit, walking through the exhibits and different interactive places.  

This room was a larger area with projected movies on the wall - you could just sit down on the floor and watch as you were taken through the Smoky Mountains and a bit of Dolly's history.

So we had enough time after that to go to another small museum, this one taking the place of a high-end shop that used to be there at that location. But they did a great job with a whole building dedicated to just costuming.  As you could imagine, Mom really enjoyed this one.  Maddie and Joey did too!

Dolly wall magnets.  Not sure how long this idea will last, but it seemed like a good idea at the time!  It was fun, and we can say we made a few paper doll ideas, including an early rejected idea that features a banjo on Dolly's head with a wig on it.

Okay, we were in the area, so next we were exactly on time to see another show that was right there, one featuring Dolly's niece Heidi.  We'd seen this group perform before, but this particular production was a different set of music, and it was another nice chance for music to tell a story.

And then, it was time to eat!  We were all about heading to the Front Porch.  It was later, so it wasn't crowded at all, and we got some really big portions of food on our plates.  Maddie loves the vibe here, the three of us filling up with some good food.  

I got a butterfly-shaped pretzel sandwich with grilled chicken and more...

Maddie enjoyed the chicken she got, and all the fries she could eat too!

Okay, so next we realized that the River Rampage ride was open, and that was possibly our first tactical error of the day.  We got on line, and it was a slightly longer line than expected, but it was a pretty sunny warm day outside, so there's that.  Oh, by the way - about that weather.  We're in this little window of heat, and then things get cold and/or rainy afterwards, and of course it was like that beforehand.  What I'm saying is that we had things timed perfectly.

So, about that "tactical error."  Maddie and I knew we'd get a little wet.  But what we didn't realize was that there'd be a small technical malfunction on the ride!  Basically, the belt device that moves boats along stopped working at one point, and all the boats were stuck in the waiting line, and we got stopped... right there at the waterfall!

Yeah, we were soaked after that!  It was fun though, and although the day was winding down, we made time to hop on the train and go for a ride through the park, always a nice journey.

And now it was getting later.  But we were so close to a few more things that we wanted to squeeze those in before calling it a day.  First of all, we just had to do the Demolition Derby - the bumper cars!

We didn't have much of a line there, and we had a blast as always!  This is tradition!  Maddie got a few good hits in, but then again, so did I.  Great fun as always.  Okay, it was time to leave.  Pretty much.  But oh my, there's the carousel, right?  Why not just hop on for one... last ... ride...

It was really nice, a great way to end the day.  We didn't even make it to the other side of the park at all.  But we had such a full day, and we've got these season passes, so we know we'll be back to visit elsewhere.  We've got a few things on the "to do" list, including a visit to the church, a huge apple pie, some quality time where the craftsmen are, plus at least another roller coaster ride.  So we'll be back for sure!  We made our way back to the front entrance, snapping a few more photos along the way.

Large axolotls as prizes?  Maybe next time!

It was a fun day.  We shopped a bit in the Emporium, but of course it's always such a hugely crowded place.  We might look online for some of that stuff later on.  It was pleasant looking around.  Also, Maddie got a new Dolly sticker for her computer.  

But soon enough, it was time to head back to the hotel.  Back to the last ride of the park, the tram!

We got back to the hotel, and it's such a short drive.  But we were fairly exhausted from the day.  I packed another Christmas movie, so we watched "Rise of the Guardians" tonight, and the idea was to get to bed at a decent hour.  Unfortunately, the family right above us was a little loud - fortunately, Mom had those noise canceling headphones that I got her for Christmas, and I was able to get some sleep.  Mom and Maddie can sleep through that, but I'm apparently a light sleeper.

Anyway, we did do our reading by the way.  And we said our prayers.  After that, time to sleep from a full, fun day.