Get ready for an onslaught of trip reports over the next couple of weeks because there are a lot coming your way. From Friday, October 18 – Monday, October 21, 2024, Sam, Jen, and I were down in Tennessee riding just about every coaster we could find throughout Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville. While Dollywood was the main draw of our trip, the chance to finally rack up most of the mountain coasters in the region was all too appealing. We did leave a few on the table, however. Time restraints, ride closures, and value for cost stopped us from doing a few coasters, sadly. I will touch upon all those throughout the various trip reports coming your way.
Arriving Friday afternoon, our first stop had us at the Ripley’s Mountain Coaster. Formerly known as Rowdy Bear Mountain Coaster, this would be a new credit for all of us. My only mountain coaster credits from the region until this trip were the Rocky Top Mountain Coaster and the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster from a 2019 trip. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this ride.
Before Our Rides
When purchasing our tickets online, I thought it was weird that you couldn’t buy a single ride. Their cheapest ticket option came with two rides at a $24.99 price tag. That makes this the most expensive ticket purchase of all the stand-alone mountain coasters we rode. When you take into account you get two rides, however, that breaks down to $12.50 per ride and it becomes one of the cheapest.
With all that being said, the tickets being for two rides turned out to be a huge plus. According to a ride operator, we had up to one year to return to re-ride the coaster from the date of our first ride. With plans to visit the nearby Anakeesta afterward, this let us return again afterward to experience the coaster at night. And you best bet I recorded a POV during both rides.
Our Afternoon Rides
After arriving and signing our waivers, something many mountain coasters require, we were in the station and eager to get in our first rides of our trip. This was my first time riding a mountain coaster since Sam, Greg, Renee, and I visited Camelback Mountain Adventures back on August 13, 2020. This was long overdue because I have come to love mountain coasters. That trip was also Sam’s last ride on a mountain coaster. For Jen, however, this would be her first-ever. She didn’t know what to expect going in, but now that this trip has concluded, she’s definitely a fan!
Although I have seen POV videos of all the mountain coasters in the region over the last few years, I didn’t remember a thing about any of their layouts. I made sure not to rewatch any of those videos before this trip either. I wanted to experience all of them for myself.
The first thing I will say about Ripley’s Mountain Coaster is that it has a lot to look at visually. Between the zipline passing overhead, the countless trees, and seeing peeks of Gatlinburg popping in and out of your view during the decent, there is so much to see. I really enjoyed this ride in this regard.
When it comes to ride duration, this one feels on the shorter side. It wasn’t easy to find track lengths for all the region’s mountain coasters, and I don’t know how accurate what I did find is, but this one is listed on Coaster 101 at 3,100 feet. While not the shortest, it feels that way. And that is due to the speed.
With a mountain coaster, the speed is variable. There is a max speed but depending on how far and for how long you push those handlebars down, you will have a faster, or slower ride experience. I, of course, had them down the entire time. And I must say, this coaster feels faster than the others we did on this trip. Combine that with track length and this is why the ride feels like it’s over quicker than it’s neighbors throughout the area.
Our Nighttime Rides
The idea for our night ride wasn’t part of our original plans. When we finished up our first ride we returned to the line to do our second. That’s when I had the idea to come back after Anakeesta. We already planned to ride the nearby Moonshine Mountain Coaster for their haunted night ride. Why not stop back at Ripley’s too, time permitting?
Although we took a good long while to get down the mountain after our evening at Anakeesta, we had more than enough time to revisit Ripley’s before heading over to Moonshine.
As we drove closer to Ripley’s we could see the light package from the Parkway. It looked great! We were excited to ride again and see the differences. None of us had experienced a mountain coaster in the dark before.
We also weren’t sure how much Ripley’s was doing in regard to Halloween and/or scares for night rides. Other mountain coasters in the area were advertising scares and haunts, but we didn’t see any mention of it at Ripley’s. We did see several Halloween props throughout the course during the day, though.
Ultimately the light package was the highlight of our night rides. There was a spot or two providing some scares to unsuspecting riders, though. It was totally worth the return before our stop at Moonshine Mountain Coaster and I’m glad we made that decision. I only wish we did a daytime stop at Moonshine now in hindsight.
Final Ride Counts
Ripley’s Mountain Coaster (2)
So Much More to Come on This Trip
After spending 8 hours driving from Baltimore to Tennessee, Ripley’s Mountain Coaster was a great way to get this trip underway. Well, unless you count our stop at Buc-ee’s first. Why they don’t have a mountain coaster is beyond me. That would be so awesome!
All kidding aside, if you’re a fan of mountain coasters, especially ones that let you fly from top to bottom at what feels like insane speeds, then Ripley’s is a must! I also suggest doing what we did and returning at night for your second ride, if your schedules allows. Many mountain coasters are open late, so you can even toss them in after leaving Dollywood or some of the other nearby attractions.
I hope you all get a chance to visit Ripley’s Mountain Coaster if/when you visit the Gatlinburg region. Until then, I hope you get a chance to watch both of my POV’s above. Please give those videos a like, share, or comment. I’d also appreciate it if you give the We Were Inverted YouTube channel a follow. I’ll be posting a lot more mountain coaster POV’s there as well as a few other videos from our trip soon.
Ripley's Mountain Coaster Photo Gallery - October 18, 2024
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): Ripley's Mountain Coaster
Sam
Admiral
New Credit(s): Ripley's Mountain Coaster
Jen
Lieutenant
New Credit(s): Ripley's Mountain Coaster
