Below I’m going to share our week in the Smoky Mountains via
Pigeon Forge, TN. The pros, cons and gimmicks
we participated and what I would do again.
Activities
Something to note is there are several activities that are
the same but different. In different
places or with different owners. First, I
would note that we stayed in Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountain Vacation could
mean anything from Sevierville – Cherokee.
I would suggest a longer vacation than 3 nights if you want to see the
mountains, Pigeon Forge AND Gatlinburg. Our activities probably could have been
configured differently if we wanted to make the most of each daily experience. I probably would have planned to eat in
Gatlinburg for example, on the day we went to the aquarium or visited a coaster
in Gatlinburg but we just did activities.
The mountain coaster was recommended for us. We didn’t know which one so we picked
one. Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster
cost $13 per person with a coupon. Coupons
can be found just about anywhere. If you
purchase your tickets from the Blue-Green vacations tax is factored in so there
is not additional tax so that’s nice. Our
group was ages 13 – 39 and we all enjoyed the coaster. This activity was in
Pigeon Forge.
Ripley’s
Aquarium – was a nice indoor activity.
We took our time and was in the aquarium for about 2.5 – 3 hours. There were
a lot of unique aquatic life but I’m not sure it fits with the Ripley name so
much. They were not abnormal as much as
fish we wouldn’t see in our lakes and streams. They were mostly ocean fish and
then some penguins and I don’t know how they fit.The hands on activities are limited. It’s an aquarium!
This activity was in
Gatlinburg.
Cade’s
Cove – this was recommended by several.
I personally felt that I could see the same view of the Smoky Mountains
from anywhere. Since we were visiting on a Wednesday we choose to bike. We rented bikes from the camp store.
The road is closed to vehicles from 7 AM – 10
AM. It was a difficult bike ride and
biking the 11 miles and trying to see stuff was difficult. I was an awesome experience and the only
place we saw real live black bears.
But…it
was a challenge to see anything off the road and get the bikes back before
vehicle traffic started to flow. There were
a lot of places we walked our bikes and sometimes we had to walk the bike because
we agreed to walk down certain hills in our rental agreement. We were too
exhausted to see anything when we finished but the camp store had ice cream so
that was awesome!
Overall, I will
probably hike or see a different part of the Smoky Mountains next time I visit
but this was an EXPERIENCE.
We toured The Island. It was also recommended and a good place to
shop but they were mall stores and had mall and tourist prices. They were not the souvenir shops so it was a
bit more expensive. There was an arcade
and Ferris wheel that we chose not to do, nice to shop around but very touristy
and expensive.
Something not recommended for us and I wish I would not have
found on accident was The Old Mill
Historic Site. It was like a little town
hidden behind $9.99 or less and As Seen on TV stores. It was Tennesee and I liked
it.
There was scenery, a mill, a
distillery, shops, art galleries, and restaurants. Totally an attraction, not on a brochure,
didn’t require tickets and some place I’d like to spend more time at.
Finally, we visited MagiQuest. Somethings I wish I knew about
MagiQuest. You can go back and the
adventure is different. There was golf,
a mirror maze and laser maze inside. The
$19.99 loaner wand package included 4 activities that came out to $5 each. Instead of doing it all at once, we could
have gone each of the days we were there and did an activity because they give
you tickets that are good for a year, although I would pair the laser maze with
the mirror maze. We all enjoyed it and
thought with the dragon on the outside it was for little kids but that 13 – 39 crowd
enjoyed all the activities.
Definitely a
great value!
Lodging
While visiting our state fair in 2014 we happened upon a
booth and “won” a Smoky Mountain Vacation.
Just to be clear, we won
nothing. What we did was pay for a
4-day, 3-night vacation at a reduced rate.
For $199 we “upgraded” to a cabin and agreed to visit a time-share
presentation. This particular presentation was with Blue-Green vacations, yet
the cabin was managed by a different group.
The cabin titled Absolutely Fabulous
was just that! See my pictures for the current furnishings. 
We were happy to stay in a place that was
nestled in the hills, the view was questionable as there were trees blocking a
lot of the mountain-view but being able to sit on the deck or sit in the hot
tub, play pool, air hockey and even arcade games from the cabin on the rainy
days was nice. The negatives included
the proximity to “things to do” the on-site pool was cloudy, but it had rained
a lot, the indoor pool furnishings i.e. tables were broken and the putt-putt
was flooded so staying on-site for the duration of our vacation would be fine
for a couple but the family needed to get out and the 4-5 mile drive through
winding roads was nothing short of 20 minutes to and from anything in Pigeon
Forge. So staying in the hills was nice and relaxing, but engaging with either
the National park or the activities of Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg was still a
trek. Recall we stayed at this cabin for $199 +taxes. Then we spent 3 hours at a presentation to
get additional gifts*. Note: We could
have stayed in this same cabin for $600 without the hassle.
Dining
Dixie Stampede
- We arrived on a Monday and decided our first Tennessee adventure would be the
Dixie Stampede. We attended the 8:30 PM
show which was smart for us so we could hang at the cabin and freshen up. Additionally, a pre-show begins around 7:45
(45 – 50 minutes before the dinner show).
The only problem with that was we were told to be there at 7:15. They took family photos and we sat. We had good seats but sat and they offered
family friendly beverages in their souvenir cups for $4.50 and up.
The preshow was good Tennessee entertainment and
the dinner show was good, theatrical and humorous, and most importantly they
served the BEST chicken any of us had ever had, but note, we had no choice in
dinner. It was chicken…and a few other
things.
So on Day 2 we went to the Woodfire Grill Mega Buffet. This was an awful idea! The food was not good, the place was not clean, and we got a burger off the
hot plate and it was partially raw.
When we notified the manager her statement included “sometimes they don’t
fully cook the burgers since they continue to cook on the hot plate and would
become rubber like your shoe.” Ummm! Shouldn’t
that be a statement on the burgers then before you bite into it? Then she said, “if that ever happens again
take it back up to the grill and they can cook it some more for you.” What?!
Happens again?! EWWW! @GordonRamsey needs to visit this place.
On day 3 we visited Dick’s
Last Resort on The Island. The food here was really good. We had alligator bites and mozzarella sticks
for appetizers. The seafood platter and crab legs were good. The fried chicken didn’t seem to be a hit
with the 13-year-old girls. This place
provides “rude” service as part of the experience. We understood that but they still provided
service. Ya know? So here was our problem.
The drinks were overpriced! Every drink came with a souvenir cup, not a
choice therefore the drinks were 2 or 3 times what you would normally pay. And specialty drinks were WAY over priced and
prices weren’t listed so I’d ask how much that smoothie is before you actually
order it because it was a bit more than $4 or even $8. I mean like more than your meal. Additionally, the “hats” they put on you were
questionable specifically for the 13-year-olds.
I think it was still too adult of a place for our gang and the ages of
our party weren’t really put into consideration.
Denny’s
at Christmas Village was one of the best meals we had. We had brunch, it was Denny’s so the Grand
Slam prices were reasonable. Everyone was
satisfied the smoothie prices were reasonable, the wait staff was friendly!
On our way home we chose Pizza Hut. We wanted to sit down and eat relatively
fast. The Pizza
Hut on 66 in Sevierville, TN was not fast!
After waiting an entire hour, the pizza was OK, even for the pizza hut
lovers it wasn’t great, but the salad bar was better than the Woodfire
buffet. Overall it took too long to get
a pizza and get on our way. The
restrooms were dirty. :-(
*Dining Dough - At our time-share presentation we
were awarded a “gift” of $100 dining bucks.
This was in fact a card to purchase gift cards via restaurant.com. The Restaurant.com service was done well, the
customer service was excellent but the offerings were not applicable to where
we were located and one place we tried to visit was a bar for 21 and over and
didn’t open until 4 PM. Not adequate for
a traveling family at all!
*Blue-Green Vacations preview – if you consider the 3
hours (not 90-120 minutes) = $400 saved on our cabin it wasn’t bad but the
addition gifts i.e. the Dining Dough and the 7-night vacation we earned was a
joke. The vacation requires us to
register it within 30 days, then in 14 days we get a confirmation of registration,
then we need to pay $100 for taxes, then when we actually schedule our vacation
at least 45 days out we have to give two dates, they will confirm which date we
get and tell us where. Then they will
pay the taxes from the $100 but if it’s more than $100 we have to pay the
rest. Then we have to take this vacation
within 18 months. It’s a lot of
hoops. We don’t have to go on another
preview but it’s a lot of work and hoping you dotted all your i’s correctly for
a “gift.”
