Dollywood Details Future Resort Plans + A New Coaster in 2023

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Dollywood recently announced a new 10 year, $500 million expansion plan for their property that kicks off with a brand new hotel resort - HeartSong Lodge - set to open in 2023.  The announcement made it clear that Dollywood will be heavily expanding their resort facilities, adding several more hotels in the future.  It also stated that the park would get new rides and attractions, but no details were given at the time.

Thankfully this news story from Pigeon Forge News gives us some great new details that came from a meeting that Dollywood officials had with local planners and government.  

The story includes a photo of the park's "master plan" for resorts, which encompasses developing the entire area in blue in the photo up top.  To give an idea of scale, on the left of the blue on the bottom is the water park, and above it the existing DreamMore Resort.  So that's a huge area, and the master plan shows 5 different resorts, including an outdoor resort, more cabins, an area for Glamping (that'd be me!) and more.  Park officials are dreaming big, no doubt.

As for timing, officials are already designing resort number three, with construction to start as soon as they open HeartSong Lodge in 2023.

The park will breakdown that $500 million with spending $250 million on resort expansions, $150 million for Dollywood and Splash Country, and $100 million on infrastructure improvements.  Speaking of that last item, the park knows it needs to address its parking situation and will be adding to it in the future and making it easier to get around the property.

The theme park will be renovating three restaurants before 2022, to a tune of $15 million.  A brand new restaurant is slated to open in Dollywood in 2023.

Finally, the park will be adding another new roller coaster in 2023, described by them as "multigenerational" which to me sounds like a family coaster.  One that all ages can ride together, which will fit in nicely with some of the more thrilling rides that have been added in the past decade.