DansDeals Forum > Trip Reports

saw50st8 TR to Tennessee

(1/4) > >>

saw50st8:
My 9 year old had been bugging me to fly somewhere for our summer vacation. We usually drive because there are so many places to see near NJ and my kids are all really close in age, so the thought of dragging 4 really little kids on a plane was really not appealing. But at this point, my youngest would already be 4 so I agreed that if we could find cheap flights somewhere, then we could fly. I was playing around on google flights one day and found non stop flights from EWR to TYS for $120/pp. I've been to Tennessee a few times and always wanted to go back to the Smoky Mountains. I logged onto Chase and those flights were slightly more expensive, but I booked them anyway. We got all 6 flights for under 60,000 UR.  My son was so excited when I told him!

Next up was looking for a hotel. I wanted a hotel that was convenient for all the activities and also big enough to have the 6 of us in one room. We chose the Holiday Inn Express in Downtown Gatlinburg. It had a spacious room and when the couch bed was open, there was still plenty of room to walk around.  The room came equipped with a decent size fridge, microwave and my absolute favorite feature - a second sink outside the bathroom! The hotel has a wonderful waterpark with 3 water slides, a heated indoor pool and two bathrooms in the waterpark/pool area. The hotel is also connected to a Holiday Inn Vacation club resort so you can use the facilities there including the other two pools and two hot tubs. In addition, the resort has daily activities that you can join. It's about a block off the main road in downtown Gatlinburg and really convenient to most things you would want to get to. I will say that Gatlinburg itself is everything I think it wrong with touristy places (like Ripleys Believe it or Not and all the other tourist traps) but being even a block off the main, road, we didn't see much of that, except to drive by.

Outside of the Hotel:



Hotel Water Park:



After a short flight, we drove from Knoxville to Gatlinburg. The views are incredible right away. I'm not exactly sure where our GPS took us (or why because the route didn't make much sense), but we ended up driving through the Smoky Mountains and stopped for lunch at a creek where went wading.

Drive to Gatlinburg:



Creek:


We found a snake in the water:



We drove to our hotel, checked in and then went grocery shopping at Food City, a few miles from the hotel. They had plenty of kosher bread, frozen food (including cheese pierogies!), canned goods and of course junk food. Prices were pretty good too.

After our food run, we had a blast at the water park. My kids could have stayed there for hours, but we put them to bed early to get ready for a long day.

saw50st8:
Day 2: Dollywood

I had such fond memories of Dollywood from when I was a kid, that this was a must see item on my list. As it was the last week of August, schools are already back in session in the south, Dollywood and Splash Country alternate days that they are open. It also means that the park is basically empty and there are almost no lines. We didn't say at the Dollymore Resort so we couldn't get access to early hours, but once we got there, they let us in early anyway. We opted to go through the park clockwise by traversing a sort of back/side route to the park (the regular route is more of a counterclockwise).

The park is great. It has a balance of really big roller coaster, medium sized rides, kids rides, local crafts and even a museum about Dolly Parton. There's a whole section of local crafts including glassblowing, iron smithing, candles, woodworking. Their official rule is no food, but you can bring in whatever you want. They also give out free water all over the place.  One neat thing they had was a photopass - you pay one price (I don't remember, maybe $29?) and you get all the photos they take of you in digital format. It's even better if you go on all the big roller coasters because then you get a ton of pictures of you screaming.

We stayed all day - we were there before it officially opened and stayed until closing. We rode every ride in the park that we wanted to and many of them multiple times.









Glassblowing:



Magic Show:

saw50st8:
Day 3:

The Holiday Inn had Parrot Mountain come for a presentation in the morning. We got to see a few types of birds and the kids got to hold and play with them. It was a nice bonus feature of the hotel!



The week before we left, I got an email for a flash sale at Dollywood Splash Country - $24/person. My kids have never been to a pure water park (we've been to Hershey and places like that but it's very different IMO). We rearranged our schedule and added Splash Country in and we were not sorry! Once again, the park was totally deserted. The longest line we waited on was 5 minutes. We rode every water slide multiple times.

Splash Country is really strict about food. You can bring in one snack per person and nothing with a bread product. Since the park was so empty, the walk back and forth to the car was no big deal but during busy season, parked further away, it would be annoying. They search through everything and count. They do give out plenty of free water in the park and you can only bring in one water bottle per person. They also have a height measuring station and give out wristbands. Get them! The signs are very confusing and the wristbands make it easier to remember.





The coolest ride in the park was this water roller coaster (picture doesn't do it justice). You ride up and down multiple drops.



70 foot drop - this pride proved that my 9 and 7 year olds are braver than I am!



We again stayed from the moment they opened until closing. My kids passed out from a long, exhausting and wonderful day.

Denverite:
What a great TR! I went to Dollywood and love those kind of sweet places for my kids and now you've put it back on my radar!

How much were regular daily tickets? How was the weather in August?  Also did you look into staying at the timeshare side of your resort where you could have had a bigger apartment with a full kitchen? I love to book into timeshare properties for that reason.

saw50st8:

--- Quote from: Denverite on October 10, 2017, 04:53:35 AM ---What a great TR! I went to Dollywood and love those kind of sweet places for my kids and now you've put it back on my radar!

How much were regular daily tickets? How was the weather in August?  Also did you look into staying at the timeshare side of your resort where you could have had a bigger apartment with a full kitchen? I love to book into timeshare properties for that reason.

--- End quote ---

Regular tickets are $78 I think. They also had a 2 park $99 ticket. We ended up paying $55 for Dollywood and $24 for the water park (normally $48) so we didn't get those tickets.

Weather was absolutely beautiful! It was in the 80s and not humid.

The price was something like $180 for the family suite and $280 for a 2 bedroom with kitchen.  But you don't get free breakfast. In theory you could eat at the hotel anyway

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page