[ColetD]

That 'don't worry, Dollywood won't get any bad publicity.. they' ll just blame the subcontractor' line..

[Jonathan]

http://wate.com/2016/04/26/dollywood-sa ... few-weeks/

Pete Owens with Dollywood says the Lightning Rod will open in the next few weeks. According to Owens, crews finished testing of the roller coaster on Friday.

[Axel]

woohoo!!

[tarheel1231]

http://wate.com/2016/04/26/dollywood-says-lightning-rod-will-open-in-next-few-weeks/

Pete Owens with Dollywood says the Lightning Rod will open in the next few weeks. According to Owens, crews finished testing of the roller coaster on Friday.

Kill me. I can only sit and watch people enjoy this monster all summer long and the summer after that because everyone in my family except me hated Dollywood.

#MiddleClassProblems

[Gerstlauerguy]

I really hope there's a Passholder day. I will skip school for if

[ColetD]

While it is great and respectable that they are making every effort to be sure Lightning Rod is completely safe and not malfunctioning whatsoever before opening.. How depressing for Dollywood.
Obviously there should still be plenty of season left once it does open, but to have it delayed this long. What a bummer.

[Gerstlauerguy]

While it is great and respectable that they are making every effort to be sure Lightning Rod is completely safe and not malfunctioning whatsoever before opening.. How depressing for Dollywood.
Obviously there should still be plenty of season left once it does open, but to have it delayed this long. What a bummer.

lets be honest here tho, its finally oepning and im EXCITED

[coasterbruh]

While it is great and respectable that they are making every effort to be sure Lightning Rod is completely safe and not malfunctioning whatsoever before opening.. How depressing for Dollywood.

Well . . . the park has only been open for a month . The "real" crowd has yet to make it there. To us, a month may be eternity but to the park . . . it's only 17% of their operating calendar.

[Jarsh]

http://wate.com/2016/04/26/dollywood-says-lightning-rod-will-open-in-next-few-weeks/

Pete Owens with Dollywood says the Lightning Rod will open in the next few weeks. According to Owens, crews finished testing of the roller coaster on Friday.

I asked Pete about this quote and he said that RMC was finished with their part of the ride, not that the park was completely through with testing. They still have to have all of the testing for state approval done and finished before it can open, which should be a few more weeks as he stated.

Well . . . the park has only been open for a month . The "real" crowd has yet to make it there. To us, a month may be eternity but to the park . . . it's only 17% of their operating calendar.

And if this was Six Flags, it wouldn't even be this close to opening. We all know how they shoot for Memorial Day weekend for everything.

[arby]

I don't think this delay impacted Dollywood at all. Anytime you have a true first-of-its-kind ride like this, most people understand sometimes you hit some snags. I have not doubt it will be opened by Memorial Day. Dollywood handled the situation well.

From a coaster geek perspective, I am curious as to what their final solution was to get the launch fixed. I can't wait for some ERT on it at Smoky Mountain Costerfest.

[Edwardo]

I heard that they replaced the launch. I dunno how true that is tho.

[Gerstlauerguy]

I heard that they replaced the launch. I dunno how true that is tho.

they did. talked to a guy that works in the park and he said he saw them replacing them, and they look slightly different too.

[arby]

Do you know if it was the same company that did the launch the first time or did they get a different company? I'm just curious.

[Edwardo]

Not sure. I'd heard they modified the trains so that would make sense. LIMs/LSMs go bad and have to be replaced anywho after a while, So if they did it with a separate company it would've been that hard to pull all that off and put new stuff on after the fabrication.

[arby]

Great, thank you!