Melanie's Blog: 2024

This year we went back to Gatlinburg! We really enjoyed our trip 3 years ago and figured it was time to give it a try again. We got up at 5:15am on Saturday morning and got to our cabin around 2:30pm. It was a pretty uneventful drive and we were lucky not to hit any rain or bad traffic.

We stayed at the White Oak Cabins again. We really like the cabin and the privacy of it... and Cody really enjoyed our private hot tub, but the location is kind of brutal for us. It's like 20 mins out of Gatlinburg and 30-40 mins away from Pigeon Forge.

It was a beautiful cabin though! I'm not sure if we'd stay here again just because it seems like we were in Pigeon Forge a lot, so next time we might want to stay more out that way. But we really liked the cabin we had this time. The layout was very good, and we liked having a loft this year with a pool table.

We walked around the cabins and went to the pool for a bit. The pool was heated, but the hot tub felt absolutely perfect to us! It was like 80-90 and only had 3 feet of water and was great! We had fun with diving sticks, floaties, and jumping in. Kayla's first question was "Is there a lifeguard here?" Aka can I jump in and splash around?? We finally dragged her out around 6:15pm to get ready for dinner.

We wanted to go to dinner in downtown Gatlinburg but it was Saturday night of Labor Day weekend and it was PACKED! We searched and searched for decent parking but it was $20 everywhere. We ended up getting pretty frustrated and decided to head back towards our house and go to a pizza place closer to us. We wanted to go here last time we were in town, but they weren't open the night we wanted pizza. It was called Solorzano's Pizzeria and it was pretty good.

They delivered all of our food on a robot! Kayla wasn't so sure about it, but I thought it was pretty cool.

We got an order of meatballs, pizza, and two giant garlic knots. The food was pretty good. We were going to go to a local donut/ice cream place afterwards but it was packed too! So we decided to skip it and head back to our place.

Next morning, we went to Frizzle Chicken Cafe for breakfast. At first, Kayla was REALLY nervous about the chickens coming to life and she didn't even want to eat there. I got her to just give it a chance and calm down... and once they came on she absolutely loved it and was ALL about them. She kept pointing them out and different little things that were going around us.

They have the BEST cinnamon roll pancakes! I remember they being good and they did not disappoint. The price was really good for this place too. I was a big fan of it.

Here is my little chicken watcher.

Being a silly goose eating her kiddie pancake.

Silly girl!

She had to get a picture outside with the chickens.

We were right next door to the islands shopping area. They had a lot of different rides there but it was pretty pricey for the day. They give you like two days for $40, but we were going to Dollywood the next day so I didn't want to buy it. We got Kayla a little unicorn necklace with her name on it.

We also watched the fountain show do a few different songs.

Cody and I did a moonshine samplers at the Smoky Mountain Moonshine company.

Cheers! It was fun trying the different samples but I'm not really a moonshine girl haha.

Kayla wanted a picture taken of her too.

Here we are about to take our shots.

Look at my scared/yuck face! I tried to like it haha. It was fun trying them, but some of them were strong!

Cody ended up buying a few mason jars of them so now we have a life supply of moonshine.

Here is the rows of all the different moonshines you can get. We'll see if/how often we actually drink the ones that we bought.

Afterwards, we went to an edible cookie dough cafe down the road.

All the different types!

We got a sampler of 9 different types and snacked on them throughout our trip.

Afterwards we were back to the cabins to swim and hang out for a bit. Originally it was supposed to rain the entire time we were in Gatlinburg, but the only time it really rained was on Sunday night.

So we had the whole day to enjoy getting breakfast, walking around the island, and then swimming for a while.

Here's my little swimmer and gymnastics baby! Her new thing this trip was doing front/back flips in the water and doing hand stands in the water... and of course her now usual of trying to dive for sticks.

Fun in the pool! Cody left a few minutes before we did, and then the storms started rolling in. Kayla and I ran back to the cabin and she was scared but we were ok.

We tried to go out for dinner downtown again even though it was raining. But the rain REALLY came down, and with all of the run off from the mountains we started seeing all the roads around us flooding and we saw cars getting trapped in the water. And it was calling for rain for the rest of the night, so we decided to just stop at the grocery store real quick and grab some burgers/fries to make instead of going out. Kayla had fallen asleep too! By the time Cody got out of the store, the rain had stopped and the roads had all drained by the time we went back to our cabin. We were shocked it cleared up so fast, but we had to make the best decision we could at the time. We didn't know how good the drains were in the area or when it was going to stop raining. We didn't want to get trapped in town and unable to get to our cabin, so better safe than sorry.

While dinner was cooking, Kayla woke up. She was in the stairs up above me in her "spy" spot.

After dinner we enjoyed some time in our hot tub.

Kayla was obsessed with trying to see a bear. Every time we were out walking she was looking for one. This is her pretending to be a bear.

As much as she wanted to see one... she also didn't want to see one. She was very nervous about coming up onto a bear. I told her that I'd never let a bear get her. I told her that you don't have to be faster than the bear... you just have to be faster than the person next to you. And I told her that I'd never let her be the slowest person and that I'd let the bear get me before I let it get her... This was clearly not as comforting as I hoped it to be, because then she started crying that a bear was going to get mommy haha.

Playing with her baby.

Daddy chilling in the hot tub. He loved this hot tub and was in there almost every night having a drink and relaxing.

On Monday, my Dollywood dreams came true! I have been wanting to go to Dollywood for quite some time. I'm glad that we waited until we did though, because Kayla was a great age for it this year.

The main entrance area. We came here the week between their summer and fall harvest festivals. So we were just seeing the park getting decorated for Halloween.

We got in and made our way right to the Wild Grove area. This is a newer section of the parks that is incredible for families. Right now they have finished phase 2/4 in this year. In 2026 they are adding another $50 million to this area! I can't wait to see what it'll be. Once we got there, we went straight to Dragonflier and Kayla absolutely loved it! We ended up riding it twice. She was nervous at first, and once it started going I was scared that she wasn't going to like it because it had some giddy up and go to it... but those fears were quickly dissolved because once we went down the first hill she was hooting and hollering and cheering and clapping going "Yaaaay!!! Yaaaay!! Yaaaay!!" It was the cutest thing you ever saw!

Next we headed to Big Bear Mountain which was a fun family rollercoaster. It is a nice and long and super smooth ride. It was very easy to ride and there were no big hills. Kayla liked this coaster too, but her heart belonged to Dragonflier.

Big Bear is Dollywood's newest addition. So glad we came here after Wild Grove was added. It was our favorite part of the park, and is regularly rated as the best family area of any park in the country.

Kayla rode some of the other rides in the Wildgrove area.

We got to meet the characters while we were in the area. Kayla liked the butterfly, but she was nervous about meeting Benjamin Bear.

After a half an hour both the blue butterfly and benjamin came out. She told Kayla that he was a super nice bear so she decided to go by him.

She was so nervous! But he was super friendly and she was super proud of herself afterwards for meeting him.

Picture!

Got our bear paws up.

Afterwards she played in the hidden hollow playground area, which is basically like a smaller version of Jurassic Mountain. It's an indoors play area in the air conditioning. It's kind of dark inside so it makes the parents kinda sleepy! It's a great area to take a break in though! While Kayla was playing in here, I ran across the way to Mystery Mine. It was probably my favorite coaster at Dollywood. It was very much themed and very much dramatic!

Afterwards, we had to go to the Grist Mill and get some of the famous cinnamon bread. It was like $16 for the loaf! It was pretty tasty though and luckily I hit it at a time where the line wasn't too long. They have frosting and apple butter that you can try on it... I tried both, and I'd say that I'm team frosting. I didn't really love the apple butter. We were going to go to the bird show, but Kayla wasn't too interested and was nervous to have the birds flying above her so we left it.

We did view the eagle sanctuary which is the largest display in the country of hurt bald eagles that can't be released into the wild. I guess they have them mate every year and release the healthy offspring into the wild to build up the populations.

We walked around the shops/crafts area which reminded me of Frontierland at Cedar Point. They had a build a bear section and Kayla wanted to get something special. In honor of Benajmin Bear and her new found appreciation for bears being in the smoky mountains, she decided to make a rainbow build a bear.

Here she is with the finished product. She had a rainbow unicorn outfit that she picked out for her bear. This bear was her baby for the whole trip and she adored her.

Afterwards, we hustled to the other end of the park and went on the train ride. I was surprised that it was an actual coal train that uses coal... I thought that I knew what that'd be like because I thought the one at Cedar Point was the same, but it's definitely not. This train had small cinders and soot falling down on you from the coal. They warned you what to do if it got in your eyes before the train ride, so I was honestly very paranoid about it and worried during the train ride. I forgot mine and Kayla's sunglasses and I was pretty worried most of the ride. They did have a commentator that talked and made it a fun ride. He pointed to a cabin way up on a hill, and said do you know who's cabin that is... that likes to sit up there and watch the train go by?? And of course everyone thought of Dolly... and he goes... no way... no one knows who's cabin that is. It's too small to be Dolly's... it's just a cabin that people can rent. It was kind of funny. And that reminds me that while Kayla was obsessed with seeing a bear... she was also all about seeing Dolly too!

Next we went to the Country Fair area and rode some "fair" like rides. Here is Cody and Kayla in the Scrambler.

Family fun on the swing ride. Kayla was happy to be tall enough to ride the one at Dollywood. You have to be 48" to ride the one at Cedar Point.

Then she rode some of the baby rides. The pig ride made a pig nose noise and she thought it was so funny.

The amazing flying elephant ride! It was a really good day to be in the park, because we got on most rides in a cycle or two. It was kind of busy but not too bad.

For dinner we ate at Aunt Granny's. I had heard RAVE reviews about this place and it sounded like it was THE place to eat at Dollywood. Cody wanted to skip it because it was an all you can eat buffet but it was kinda pricey compared to other options, but I had heard such good things that I wanted to try it. Well... I can say, that it was decent food, but it was not THAT great. It was pretty good, but nothing spectacular. Kayla really didn't eat a lot there either... so I don't think that we'd go back to it.

Here is the house that Dolly grew up in! So crazy that 12 people lived in this tiny little house.

Here is the kitchen and dinner table.

Such humble beginnings!

Here is the Grist Mill where they sell the cinnamon bread.

Family picture! As we were walking back around we caught the end of the country show and I really liked it, so I put it on our list of things to do on Wednesday when we came back. Afterwards we went on blazing fury which was a big NOPE for Kayla. She didn't like it at all. It was an inside ride that was barely a rollercoaster and she really didn't like it. It actually scared her off of going on another rollercoaster that we were going to try out.

We ended our day riding Big Bear Mountain, but mostly Dragonflier. Here is Kayla's big smile while we were walking off of the ride. There wasn't any wait so we kept getting back in line and riding it. Everyone around us thought she was so cute! She was so happy and loved the ride so much! My little ride warrior! She was cheering and clapping with such a big smile say "YAY!!!" it might have been the best thing I have ever seen! It was waaaay too cute!! Kayla kept wanting to ride it with Cody, so I was paired up with a stranger most times and usually paired with a guy. So she kept saying mommy's riding with a BOOOOY. Mommy's riding with a boy. And I said well you're riding with a boy too, and she yeah but I'm with a pretty boy. Haha!

High fives at the end.

Two million hundred thumbs up for Dragonflier!

Kayla playing in the mister by Big Bear.

Thumbs up for big bear!

Eagle photo op! We got in sooo many cool pictures and rides on this day. The weather was perfect and it was just a really really good day in the park. Kayla was so cute and so sweet the whole day. It really couldn't have gone any better. Wait times in the mid afternoon were a bit longer for the coasters, but by the end of night we were walking on everything.

I LOVE Dollywood's Halloween decorations! This is how I'd decorate my park for Halloween.

Love this butterfly picture!

All of us on our way out. I loved Dollywood so much! We had such a great time.

Kayla wanted to pose on her own.

Leaving you walk through a giant giftshop and this was on the wall on the way out. Overall, it was a really good day and we enjoyed ourselves a lot!

The next day was a bit depressing. We met with Global for a sales pitch. They told us that they got a new platform which was a lot higher priced than what we pay now, and wasn't nearly as good of a deal as our current program. It also made us feel like all the good inventory isn't going to be around for us when we need it from Global anymore. It was very demoralizing and we were not happy at all. I was honestly pretty bummed out by it the whole day. Afterwards, we went to a place called Applewood which was a huge place with all kinds of shops and restaurants.

Their food was dynamite! They had these little apple fritters with apple butter that was unbelievable! So good! The rest of the food was pretty good too. We both got their sampler with fried chicken, chicken and dumplings and chicken pot pie. They also gave us a cup of soup, and two sides. It was really good priced and really good food.

We walked around their facilities for a while and went to their Christmas and candy shop. We bought their apple bread and some apple butter and boy was it GOOD! Afterwards, we went back to the cabins to go swimming and we ate some leftovers for dinner that night. We were gearing up to go to Dollywood again the next day.

We made the trek back up to Pigeon Forge... which was about every day of our trip... and I'll tell you some of those windy rodes definitely made me feel a little car sick. But I digress, on Wednesday we went to Dollywood again.

I looooved all of the different pumpkins at Dollywood!!

I took sooo many pictures of them! Dollywood is decorated for Halloween how I would decorate if I had a theme park.

I loved the cute and not spooky atmosphere.

The pumpkin details were so great!

Fish on the river.

Owls!

Cats!

I loved the bathroom decorations too!

Every ride was themed with pumpkins that matched the ride too. These were saws in front of their lumberjack ride.

Bats by Mystery Mine!

They also had large pumpkins for each ride too.

Butterflies!

I felt so lucky that we were able to see some of it, because the harvest festival didn't actually start until the next week.

Sunflower pumpkins

Frog ride themed pumpkins

This was a person actually carving real pumpkins!

Her details were incredible!

There she is making more. I really appreciated it!

In the morning, Kayla wasn't feeling going on the rollercoasters. She was scared after that last indoor rollercoaster we went on the day before... so I said that was fine... she wanted take her bear on some of the little kid rides in the area, so we did that... and then we went the Dolly Parton museum area. And Kayla was really enthusiastic about that.

The coat of many colors!! Loved getting to see it! You pressed a button near it and it sang the song too.

This was the museum part. I would have liked to have been able to read things more and spend more time there, but both Kayla and Cody seemed a bit antsy.

Kayla loved seeing the different outfits.

She looks so little in this picture.

More costumes.

Some of her various guitars.

The guitar of many colors.

This one had a video on it and it changed different scenes on the guitar. It was pretty cool! It showed different Dolly performances.

All of her awards.

This was an interactive room that changed with different pictures from her life.

It was a neat room and told more of her story.

I would have liked staying in this room a bit longer too. It was at the end and was pretty cool.

One of the screens.

I thought that this was really cool! Kayla stood in front of the Imagination Library sign... she's gotten a few of those books from that count down. Amazing how many books Dolly has given out. She's truly an inspiration.

Here is the outside of the building. It's so pretty and stands out. I really enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we came out at just the right time to catch Dolly's niece, Heidi Parton's show. She has a band and a group with her and they do all kinds of legends/icon songs then Dolly's songs, and then a family song.