Skip to main content
Park Queue TimesPQT

Dollywood cheat sheet

worked out from 56 days of our own wait data32 rides

Arrive for 09:00 and ride NightFlight Expedition, FireChaser Express ® and Smoky Mountain River Rampage first. Leave Tennessee Tornado until after 9pm, when its queue drops to about 8 minutes. The park's queues peak around 11:00 at 20 minutes and are lowest around 09:00.

Before you go

When to go

The days and months this park's rides run quietest

Quietest weekday
Wednesday
Busiest weekday
Friday
Quietest month
August
Busiest month
October

Each ride's own quietest and busiest day, tallied and weighted by how long its queue runs. For a dated answer use the crowd calendar, which scores every day of the year.

The shape of the day

Average queue across the park, hour by hour

  1. 09:0013mquietest
  2. 10:0016m
  3. 11:0020mpeak
  4. 12:0020m
  5. 13:0020m
  6. 14:0020m
  7. 15:0019m
  8. 16:0018m
  9. 17:0018m
  10. 18:0016m
  11. 19:0014m
  12. 20:0014m

Arrive for 09:00. Queues climb to their peak around 11:00 and fall back through the afternoon; the last hour or two is the quietest the headliners get all day.

Ride these first

The headliners: longest queues, worst by late morning

  1. 1NightFlight Expedition ~59 min typical · up to 72 at peak · worst around 3pm59m
  2. 2FireChaser Express ® ~52 min typical · up to 75 at peak · worst around 1pm52m
  3. 3Smoky Mountain River Rampage ~42 min typical · up to 52 at peak · worst around 3pm42m

Straight to these from the gate, in this order. Every minute before the park fills is worth three later.

Leave these until later

Rides whose queues collapse late in the day

  1. 1Tennessee Tornado~37 min typical · about 8 min after 9pm8m
  2. 2Thunderhead ®~27 min typical · about 9 min after 9pm9m
  3. 3Mystery Mine ®~33 min typical · about 18 min after 9pm18m
  4. 4Lightning Rod ®~27 min typical · about 12 min after 9pm12m
  5. 5Rockin' Roadway~26 min typical · about 11 min after 9pm11m

Save them for the last two hours, when the coach parties have gone and the queue is a fraction of the afternoon's.

Fill the gaps with

Walk-ons at any hour, and the single-rider lines

Usually under 10 minutesLucky Ducky7mBusy Bees7mVillage Carousel8mDrop Line®8mSingle-rider lineWild Eagle ®

Watch-outs

Rides that spend the most of the day not running

  1. 1Frogs & Firefliesrunning 7% of the park's open hours7%
  2. 2Daredevil Fallsrunning 52% of the park's open hours52%
  3. 3Smoky Mountain River Rampagerunning 56% of the park's open hours56%
  4. 4NightFlight Expeditionrunning 60% of the park's open hours60%
  5. 5Mystery Mine ®running 83% of the park's open hours83%

If one of these is the reason you came, ride it the first time you see it running rather than saving it. The full picture is on the reliability page.

On the day

Your day-of sheet

The same park, for one date: the forecast, the hours, and your ride order

Plus members get this sheet for a date: the crowd forecast for the day, its published hours, a ride order worked out against that day's wait curve, and a printable version to take in.

PlusThe day-of sheet is part of Plus

Here, that is a ride order for your date, the forecast and the hours, printable.

  • Your rides, in order

    Sequenced against the wait curve, so the headliners land in their quiet windows.

  • quiet till 111pm · 66m

    Your date, hour by hour

    How the wait climbs on the day you picked, and the window it stays low.

£4.99for a park dayor £24.99 a year for every park day, cancel any time.

Get Plus

Everything above is each ride's own recorded queue over recent weeks, sampled every few minutes through the park's opening hours - not an opinion. A ride with too little history is left out.