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A truly great American Icon is lost. Heard it was a very surreal experience for workers and park goers attending when they heard the news as it broke. Hopefully her wishes for the future of her theme park is respected. I am due to paying Dollywood a visit as I haven't been since before covid happened so I may do that later this year to pay my respects.

Dollywood wasn't open the day it happened. I did see posts saying that Wednesday was very surreal. People said that the parking was quite full, but the park didn't seem to feel full at all. We were there last week.

We got a few rides in on NightFlight Expedition this week.
It is a very ambitious ride and isn't something you would really expect outside of Disney or Universal. That being said, there are still quite a few kinks to be worked out.

We planned on one last ride on it, but it closed in the evening and didn't reopen before the park closed.

They have a great ride, but still have quite a bit of fine tuning to do.

I'm hoping we get a Stryker in 2029 and then a Flooded Mine dark ride replacement with the Mack "rocking boat" technology.

I rode NightFlight Expedition a few times and it is a really fun ride system. I don't really see how you could keep the shooting aspect of Flooded Mine with it. I think you could do a really cool ride based on Flooded Mine, but I also think the park would need another target shooting ride. We really miss having one at Dollywood.

The 1st in the States comment definitely raised my hopes.  This meh coaster should have been themed to a Universal or Disney level judging by the hype the SDC marketing department created.  I guess it fills a need, but they sure made it look like an exciting coaster, which it is not.  I just hope with this bland layout they will finally theme a coaster to the level of "the best theme park in America" cause so far, that is a massive joke.

Agree that marketing needs to really chill out with the hyperbole.

Disagree that this won't be an exciting coaster. Just because it's a Youngstar model doesn't mean it won't pull forces. I prefer rides that rip your face off, but these modern family coasters are just fun. Vekoma's got it down. Mack is sure to make them nervous.

Don't talk like this is a "kiddie" coaster, because it's not.

I don't believe this is a straight up Youngstar model. It's been reported as a prototype model for Mack. It looks similar to Youngstar, but could technically be a new model.

Here's our coverage of the MME announcement event from this morning

https://www.midwestinfoguide.com/2026/08/silver-dollar-city-miners-mountain.html

Here's our coverage from the construction tour

https://www.midwestinfoguide.com/2026/08/silver-dollar-city-miners-mountain_01590052611.html

I spy myself and my family in a few of the construction photos. 👀

This was by far the best produced event that SDC has put on. From the theming in the theater, to the brunch area, and all of the miners around the construction area, it was top notch.

I know our family is super excited for it. It is the perfect fit and importantly, it will attract more families that will also want to stay at the resort. Not sure there could have been a better ride choice to open along with the resort.

Anyone see anything about max speed yet? I would imagine it would be around 40-45mph but that's just a guess.

The representative from Mack said about 50 going down the hill.

Does anyone know if the Mini Miners got their invite(or if they even need one) to the announcement? Have they gotten whatever their "top-secret mission" is yet?

Invitation, yes.
Top-secret mission, not yet.

Is the invite by email? I never got it.

Yes, it was an email. Maybe check your spam. It should have gone to the email that was used when registering.

Does anyone know if the Mini Miners got their invite(or if they even need one) to the announcement? Have they gotten whatever their "top-secret mission" is yet?

Invitation, yes.
Top-secret mission, not yet.

The Wildfire queue has been updated with new lighting and motion activated effects. There is also a mannequin of Doc.
I'm guessing that they are expecting Wildfire to have longer lines next year with more foot traffic in that part of the park.

Last year tickets became available in mid-August. There were announced in some emails and a mailer, but they sold out very fast.

Photo update from Saturday
https://www.midwestinfoguide.com/2026/04/silver-dollar-city-project-2027.html

When riding the train, right after you go under Outlaw Run, far off to the left in the new gravel lot, there appeared to be a few black supports. Could also be something else, but they sure did look like round metal supports.

I'm pretty sure those two pallets are concrete forms instead of pavers

They are. The other side says forms x-feet. There are a few around the site and they say how long the forms are on the box.

You may look into adding the free tier of Cloudflare to the site. That would cache some files there so it isn't hitting the actual hosting server each time and it also has some bot protection.

Anyone know exactly what we're seeing?  Obviously PowderKeg is in testing with a modified launch.  Is this a planned change/upgrade or relates to the new 2027 ride?

That's just a rollback - its's what happens when the train doesn't make it over the first hill after a launch. I'm guessing that it is just a normal part of testing when bringing a ride out of hibernation.  PowderKeg is a compressed air launch so a swing launch isn't possible.

Looks like the construction area has expanded all the way over to the viewing area of the PowderKeg launch. There is now a fence at the close end of the track slide transfer building.

It's part way through this video: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CgSBBaiUm/?mibextid=wwXIfr