Disney, FOS and Tennessee Smoky Mountains - full review with pics

[Tinkers70]

In total we reckon it took us around 6 hours to do the 11 miles and we seen some stunning things along the way.

 

It was starting to get dark now though and we hadn't eaten since lunch time so we decided to head back into Pigeon Forge for some dinner.

 

We drove around for a while trying to decide what to have. We found a Tony Roma's so stopped here and went in.

 

 

The food was really nice but my steak was a bit undercooked. I don't mind a bit of pink but I really don't like seeing blood when you cut into it so that put me off. Callum had the ribs and he said they were delishious. Scott had a kids meal and I can't remember what Ramsay had.

 

 

 

On one side of Tony Roma's there's a Wonder Works (upside down house) and to the other side is the Smoky Mountain Oprey. The whole area just reminded me of International Drive in Orlando.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also christmas tree's lit up everywhere too, it was really lovely

 

Ramsay was starting to get a sore head so I said i'd drive back to the cabin. I was a bit nervous of driving up the mountain road but i'm quite a confident driver so wasn't too fazed by it.

 

It didn't seem so bad somehow. I'd say it's worse being a passenger in the car than the driver. It was pitch black again by this time but we found our cabin first time and pulled up outside.

 

Yet again there was not a sole in sight and it was very peaceful. There was lights on all the cabins around us but you couldn't hear a sound.....bliss!

 

Once we got in Callum went to the attic area for a game of pool and me, Ramsay and Scott went into the hot tub.

 

 

It was a lovely end to a lovely day sitting high about the Smoky's, in a hot tub surrounded by nature, a black sky without a cloud and hundreds of stars.

 

Heaven!

__________________

[NeuroQueen]

I have really been enjoying your review. My family lives in Gatlinburg and we stayed in one of those cabins at Christmas. You are right, so peaceful. You have a lovely family and I am glad you had such a wonderful trip!

[BonTexasNY]

How nice you have this so soon after your wonderful cruise. The picture of you and your boys sitting on the wooden fence (or logs) looks like an oil painting. So, so beautiful, all of the pictures!

[Tinkers70]

I have really been enjoying your review. My family lives in Gatlinburg and we stayed in one of those cabins at Christmas. You are right, so peaceful. You have a lovely family and I am glad you had such a wonderful trip!

 

Gatlinburg is my new 'favourite' place! We had such a great time there :)

 

How nice you have this so soon after your wonderful cruise. The picture of you and your boys sitting on the wooden fence (or logs) looks like an oil painting. So, so beautiful, all of the pictures!

 

I've just had a look back at the photo of me and my boys sitting on the fence and you're right.....it does look like an oil painting. I hadn't noticed it before :)

 

Thank you for your kind comments xx

[IrishLassie]

Loved your review & all the pictures. We were on FOS on Oct. 21st. & your lucky you didn't choose that week as we were on the tail end of the storm "Sandy" coming back the last 2 days. Really rockin & rollin, but it was still a fun cruise.

Loved your pics from the Smokies. It's one of our favorite places to go. In fact I'm going to check out those cabins. We usually stay in Gatlinburg so we can walk around, but that cabin looks great!

Thanks for posting & glad you had a great trip. :D

[masonpips]

What a nice review! We've cruised on Freedom and you brought back many memories! And we leave next Friday for Eastern on Oasis so the St. Thomas/St. Martin parts got me EVEN more excited!!

[Coolcruise02]

Still following along and loving it! Those GPS machines are a waste of time in the country. Our GPS calls the road to our home "off road"! :)

[workathome]

Love your pics of the mountains! I love that area, even though we did almost go over the side of a mountain once! But we keep going back love that place! Thank you for your review!

[Aunu]

Loved your review, I was was waiting for your TN pics, we were there a few years ago, this time of year. Its one of my favorite places I've ever been. So beautiful!!! (And I live in Maine where its beautiful too) I was hoping you enjoyed the Smokeys. They really are so beautiful!!

[runnerandme]

Cades Cove is on my list of places to visit. We have lived in East Tennessee for five and a half years and have yet to get there. Your pictures are great. Thanks for the review and photos of your trip.

[Tinkers70]

Loved your review & all the pictures. We were on FOS on Oct. 21st. & your lucky you didn't choose that week as we were on the tail end of the storm "Sandy" coming back the last 2 days. Really rockin & rollin, but it was still a fun cruise.

Loved your pics from the Smokies. It's one of our favorite places to go. In fact I'm going to check out those cabins. We usually stay in Gatlinburg so we can walk around, but that cabin looks great!

Thanks for posting & glad you had a great trip. :D

 

I'm glad we sailed when we did, I don't think i'd have enjoyed 2 days of the ship rocking and rolling lol. I can honestly recommend the cabins, they are simply amazing. The drive into Gatlinburg isn't too long. We loved Gatlinburg!

 

What a nice review! We've cruised on Freedom and you brought back many memories! And we leave next Friday for Eastern on Oasis so the St. Thomas/St. Martin parts got me EVEN more excited!!

 

Awww i'm jealous! Would love to cruise on Oasis, she's a beauty:)

[Tinkers70]

Still following along and loving it! Those GPS machines are a waste of time in the country. Our GPS calls the road to our home "off road"! :)

 

The GPS is a nightmare over here too. I refuse to have one in my car but my husband insisted we took one over to the States with us.

 

I used to work in the parcel industry and i'm used to reading maps and stopping to ask people for directions. You get on much quicker this way:D

 

Love your pics of the mountains! I love that area, even though we did almost go over the side of a mountain once! But we keep going back love that place! Thank you for your review!

 

It's pretty scary up there eh?? Especially in the dark and it's a steep drop off the mountain if you come off:eek:

[Tinkers70]

Loved your review, I was was waiting for your TN pics, we were there a few years ago, this time of year. Its one of my favorite places I've ever been. So beautiful!!! (And I live in Maine where its beautiful too) I was hoping you enjoyed the Smokeys. They really are so beautiful!!

 

awww thank you. We had the most amazing time in the Smokys but we didn't get to do everything we wanted as we ran out of time :(. It's not so bad though as it's a good excuse to return again and finish it all off ;)

 

Cades Cove is on my list of places to visit. We have lived in East Tennessee for five and a half years and have yet to get there. Your pictures are great. Thanks for the review and photos of your trip.

 

Can highly recommend Cades Cove, even my 2 boys really enjoyed it in here and to see a black bear was an absolute bonus

[Tinkers70]

Hi all.........i'm so sorry for not finishing off this review quicker. Since i've come home i've been so busy at work and just haven't had the time. I'm also doing the same review on one of the Disney forums I go on. I've just finished it on the Disney site so i'm just going to copy and paste the rest of our days from there onto here as it's much quicker.

 

The next days will be following straight after this post :)

[Tinkers70]

Day 13 - Dollywood

 

Another day another great view! It's such a hard life waking up in the Smoky Mountains lol

 

 

 

Today we were off to Dollywood!!! So excited to be going here, it'll make a change from Disney. In fact, Disney World is the only theme parks we ever visit as we don't go to any in our country so today should be interesting.

 

Ramsay drives down the mountain road again and into Pigeon Forge where Dollywood is located. It's not very well sign posted but we know roughly where it is as we passed by it trying to find Sugar maple cabins office the day before

 

 

 

Half an hour later we pull up into the car park. The first thing I notice is it's cheaper to park here than it is at Disney. It's only $8

 

 

It's a similar set up to Disney where you are guided to your parking space by an attendant then you catch a tram cart to the main entrance.

 

[Tinkers70]

It's very straight forward and we're soon heading for the ticket office to purchase our day tickets.

 

The cost for the 4 of us was $242 for a one day pass.

 

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Callum just couldn't wait to do a coaster. He's literally a roller coaster junkie! He loves all the thrill of a theme park so he was made up to be coming here today.

 

As soon as you enter the gates of Dollywood the first thing you notice is references to Dolly Parton everywhere and her songs were being played through speakers around the park too. It was not too over powering but really nice.

 

As it was approaching lunch time we thought we'd be better off going for some food before we did any rides.

 

We went into the first restaurant we came too and it was really nicely themed with Dolly Parton pictures all over the place and again her music being played. It was all homemade cooking and very homely feeling to the place.

 

I had the pot roast and I must admit it was the nicest meal i'd had since we left the ship. The beef was soooo tender and melted in your mouth

 

 

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We left before too long and walked towards the first rides

 

The first one we came across was Barnstormer. Me and Scott aren't keen on big fast rides so we sat them all out and let Ramsay and Callum do them. I just watched and took photo's and did a bit of people watching

 

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[Tinkers70]

 

Next up was Timber Canyon, this was an old wooden looking rickerty coaster

 

 

 

 

I did one ride with Scott called Lumber Jack Lift where you sit in your sit and pull on the rope until you reach the top then you release yourself back down to the ground again.

 

I'm not very good with heights at all and I was actually petrified on this lol. Scott wasn't too happy with me because I wouldn't go right to the top. When we came off he went straight back on with Callum cause he said I was a whimp lol

 

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[Tinkers70]

 

Callum and Ramsay went off to do more roller coasters and me and Scott went to what looked like a big wooden play area.

 

 

 

 

.

 

I went in with Scott and soon we were harnessed up and given instructions on what to do. Here's me thinking it was just big play area! It was more like an obstacle thingy. You had to hook the harness to the rails above you and move it around the giant timber frame. I was really good fun.............for those that don't mind heights eeeeeek!

 

Scott went way ahead of me where I was clinging on for dear life! You have to walk on ropes with a big drop below you etc. Scott totally loved it but I came out after 10 mins. Scott asked if he could go back in again so I sat and watched for the safety of a bench!

 

 

[Tinkers70]

 

 

 

 

Soon after this we met up with Ramsay and Callum again and went for a walk around the park. We saw these beauties........

 

 

 

American Bald Eagle and a Golden Eagle. Although it doesn't look like it in the photo's but these birds are huge! Also the size of their claws was jaw dropping

[Tinkers70]

We were wandering around the park and then decided to find out what time the Dollywood Express train was leaving at so we headed to the train station. There was one due in 45 mins so we had a look in the shops and Scott had a shot of the carousel.

 

We caught the 4pm train for the half hour tour around the park on the Dolly Express steam train.

 

It was a lovely relaxing journey and we took lots of photo's on the way round.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got off the train again we noticed there was a guy carving stunning animal figures out of tree trunks by using a chain saw.

 

I noticed this all over the area's of Tennessee we visited. It seems to be a local craft and it's amazing to watch them. The finished products are stunning

 

[Tinkers70]

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We started making our way towards the exit as it was 5pm by now and the park closed at 6pm. We were hoping to get back to the cabin before sunset as i'd love to see this from our balcony.

 

Here is some more photo's taken from around dollywood.............

 

 

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[Tinkers70]

 

 

 

No one could decide what to have for dinner tonight. There was lots of places to choose from but I was craving a chinese. I had saw one when we were driving through Pigeon Forge on the night we arrived. I couldn't remember where I saw it or the name though so we drove up and down the main road that goes through Pigeon Forge looking for it. I'm not sure how long this road is but it must be at least 5 miles I think? It's just full of 'tacky' shops, restaurants and attractions like Titantic, Wonder Works and crazy golf etc.

 

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[Tinkers70]

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We drove up and down this road twice and couldn't find the chinese place i'd seen 2 night ago. Then we eventually came across another one which was a Chinese buffet restaurant so decided to go in there. It wasn't the same place as i'd remembered but we gave it a try anyway.

 

The food was actually really tasty and there was something for us all. There was a large choice of food and the place was really clean and was also quite busy too.

 

By the time we got out of here it was almost 8pm and it was dark! Grrrrrr i'd missed the sunset again

 

I drove us back up the mountain again to our cabin were we spent the rest of the night relaxing in the hot tub and playing games. Just having some nice family time. We ended the night by watching the DVD we bought on the cruise. It was really good and i'm glad we bought it. Both Callum and Scott are on the DVD towards the end. They filmed Callum on the flowrider and Scott on the crazy golf so they were quite chuffed at this.

 

Ramsay went to bed earlier than us and about an hour later the rest of us were about to head to bed too. Callum popped down stairs for something and came back up to say there was something flying around down there. He said it was buzzing at the light above where Scott sleeps but it wasn't a bee or wasp. I went down to have a look and right enough this 'thing' was flying at the light and was buzzing.

 

I hate flying buzzing things and was scared as I didn't know what it was. It was about an inch in length with a flat body and it was a pea green colour. It was too high up for me to try and swot it down and Scott said there was no way he was sleeping there tonight.

 

So Scott ended up climbing into our bed with us. It was huge anyway and could probably sleep 4 people.

 

Callum was sleeping upstairs so he was ok.

 

I didn't want to waken Ramsay up to ask him to get rid of it so I just closed the bedroom door so it couldn't get in.

 

Whatever it was it must have flown in when we were on the balcony and had the door open.

 

We were all fast asleep before midnight and were looking forward to the following day

[Tinkers70]

Day 14 - Gatlinburg

 

Sorry to bore everyone but another day another gorgeous view from our cabin

 

 

Today was another lazy morning. We all got up around 9.30 and spent most of the morning packing as we were going home tomorrow......gutted!

 

Whilst me and the boys started packing our clothes Ramsay went for a walk around the area where our cabin was. Here's some of the photo's he took......

 

Front view of our cabin from 'down the road'

 

the wee white church also just down the road from our cabin. People come here to get married

 

The tree's were changing colour when we were there....stunning

 

Where everyone can go and chill out on the rocking chairs

[Tinkers70]

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What a view!

 

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The resort swimming pool

 

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The resort office

 

We didn't leave the cabin till after 12 noon and we went into Pigeon Forge for some lunch. Since we all enjoyed our lunch at Ihop the other day we decided to go back here again.

 

I really wanted to go to Gatlinburg as i'd heard it was lovely here and that they also have a cable car that took you up into the mountains.

 

It's not too far from Pigeon Forge and we arrived around 2pm.

 

We noticed a tourist information centre just on the outskirts so decided to pop in here first for some information on the area.

 

We spent about half an hour in here picking up maps and leaflets and also talking to the staff. Everyone we've met so far in Tennessee has been very friendly! I've never came across such friendly people before in my life.

 

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A model of the smoky mountains inside the tourist office

 

Almost everyone we have spoken too so far have been very keen to know where we are from. I guess they don't get too many visitors to this area from the UK. Unlike Orlando.

 

We picked up a leaflet for Ober Gatlinburg which is where the cable car takes you too so we decided to head here as it looked really good.

 

We had to drive through the main road of Gatlinburg to get to the cable car and first impressions look fab! I really like the feel of this town, it was very laid back and not as 'tacky' looking as Pigeon Forge. I really hate using the word tacky but can't think of another word to use to describe it.

 

We parked the car just off the main street and it cost $5 for all day parking. We walked back up to the main street again to catch the cable car

 

We walk past this lovely looking hotel / motel with river views!

 

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