Thunderhead at Dollywood
Front carriders' pick, 3 of 3

Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Thunderhead

Live waitPowered by Queue-Times.com

POV
Ride it: back row POV
Back row
my daughter and I kept coming back for more
What riders love
  • Half the ride cycle is spent out of your seat.
  • It can genuinely feel like you are flying through the air if you lean into the airtime moments.
  • Probably the most reliable airtime pops on any GCI headlined by those two wonderful sustained moments on the camera hill and then diving under the structure.
  • My 4th ride on it at night was so fast it felt illegal.
  • This thing tears through its layout like it wants to fly off the track and go ride Mystery Mine.
  • This coaster is non stop the entire ride, very rapid fire and just amazing pacing overall.
  • Just an amazing mix of awesome ejector pops and lateral filled banked turns constantly changing and throwing you every direction possible.
  • The turns are surprisingly intense (my favorite part), and it keeps its speed up through the whole ride.
  • Up, down, left, right, repeat.
Thunderhead Watch Performance Should I ride it? Where to sit Specifications Reviews Planning History

Watch POVs and more

Thunderhead Front Row On Ride POV 5K 60 FPS | Intense GCI Woodie | Dollywood, Gatlinburg Tennessee

youtube.com › Coaster Habitat

Thunderhead Back Row (HD POV) Dollywood

youtube.com › coastercrutchfield

Thunderhead HD On-Ride POV Front Dollywood Summer 2016

youtube.com › PivotCoasterVideos

Thunderhead | Dollywood | 2021 4K Offride

youtube.com › zach_clarke

Thunderhead Review, Dollywood GCI Wooden Coaster | Wildest Ride in the Woods!

youtube.com › Canobie Coaster

Thunderhead Review - Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, TN) Great Coasters International

youtube.com › XscreamThrills

Thunderhead at Dollywood Review GCI Terrain Wooden Coaster

youtube.com › Wabash Coasters

Performance

Vs. other coasters at Dollywood

Just an amazing mix of awesome ejector pops and lateral filled banked turns constantly changing and throwing you every direction possible.

Cooper Zimmerman

Thunderhead is a furious beast of a ride, full of positive Gs, airtime, steep drops and tight corners, and a general out of control feeling that persists from the moment the train leaves the top of...

Theme Park James

This ride is absolutely amazing, it has relentless laterals throughout the whole layout and some decent ejector moments, it may be slightly rough however if anything it adds to the experience.

Luca Boucher

Somehow, when you drop a whole train of thoosies on it at 9:00 after a busy day, Thunderhead in the front row tops Skyrush for flojector airtime.

Maddux

The pace was definitely the best part, but honestly the airtime was weak and it just felt like another upper-half GCI.

A Wild Walter

On a seat that feels like a soft couch cushion.The layout is incredible and the millennium flyer trains were created by the Holy Spirit itself.

Owen Hunt

It is in all of the turns, ride pretty smoothly to be than what I thought it would be.

Raymond Jackson

But thunderhead tops both of those, it has a great sense of speed, it’s smooth for a wooden coaster, and the airtime never stops coming!

Sam M.

The terrain is used very well, the views of the rest of the park is great, the Millennium Flyers are incredibly comfy, and the ride is smooth, especially for its age.

Eric Esty

No, I didn’t mention it to the park employees at the time because I didn’t realize how bad I was hurt & I didn’t want to be "that guy".

@627jace627

I would describe it as a strong rattle, not a violent shake, but it was definitely enough to shake me up and negatively impact my enjoyment.

Ian Alspaugh

it’s fun, intense, full of amazing laterals followed by rapid air time pops and i soon realized this kind of ride was exactly my cup of tea!

Ky

Keeps its speed throughout and has multiple intense moments shifting you side to side and has nice moments of ejector air surprisingly.

IronChef C.

While we came to the park with our eyes set on other coasters (that also delivered), Thunderhead really brought a unique intensity and fun factor.

Sean Reardon

Seats and restraints were comfortable, and it was a lot faster, taller and more intense than I thought it would be!

Mary Douglas Hayworth

Fun family friendly layout with speed and a family friendly layout.

Sam Palermo

The first half is solid with a couple nice floater air moments and tons of speed with a couple of nice jolts of air thrown in.

Brian Sheldon

Great wooden rollercoaster that rushes you through the layout with good pacing.

Mike H.

This ride has some crazy strong and sustained ejector airtime, especially up front, and some vicious laterals all taken at a crazy fast and maintained pace.

MapleFlakes

It’s fast, filled with ejectors, and jackhammers you throughout the duration of the ride, which is its biggest downfall.

Ethan Finn

I think this is way better in the front which meant that there were a couple of dead spots in the beginning high turns where the train slowed down, other than that though this ride is absolutely...

HockeyNinja

But don’t miss this one...simply too much fun and the only coaster whose capacity and appeal enabled 4+ rides in the same day.

Sean Reardon

Station fly by is awesome, great laterals, quick operations.

Kevin Gordon

When I went to Dollywood this ride was literally a walk on.

Lorenzo Perez

Park was packed and the line for this was ridiculous all day.

Brian Sheldon

Should I ride it?

Organize by

Where to sit

Front of trainBack of train

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Car 1, the front: 3 of 3 riders who named a row

Specifications

100 ftHeight
210 Wild Eagle 164 LightningRod 163 TennesseeTornado 100 Thunderhead 85 MysteryMine 66 Big BearMountain
100 ftFirst drop
165 LightningRod 135 Wild Eagle 128 TennesseeTornado 100 Thunderhead 85 MysteryMine
54 mphTop speed
Lightning Rod73 TennesseeTornado63 Wild Eagle61 Thunderhead54 Big BearMountain48 Mystery Mine44 073 mph
60°Drop angle
95°MysteryMine73°LightningRod60°Thunderheaddashed line: straight down, 90°
0Inversions

What riders say

Praised for

Rider favouriteStrong airtimeFeels fastSmooth rideGreat layoutEjector airtimeLong rideComfortableFloaty airtime

Criticised for

Rough or rattly

This is a really good wooden rollercoaster with nice airtime, fast pace and a lot of intensity.

Simon, Captain Coaster review

Five years ago, I left disappointed because it was a great layout but with a really rough ride.

Coaster Nut, Captain Coaster review

As it currently stands Thunderhead is the best coaster at Dollywood and has looped back around to being the best thing GCI ever made.

Bryan Bonafede, Captain Coaster review

We stood in line for over an hour to ride but it was worth it!!

noabeliv, review

This ride is absolutely amazing, it has relentless laterals throughout the whole layout and some decent ejector moments, it may be slightly rough however if anything it adds to the experience.

Luca Boucher, Captain Coaster review

If you ride it in the front row, you get floater airtime(my favorite), if you ride in the back you get ejector air time.

Ryan Hanna, Captain Coaster review

Photos

Thunderhead at Dollywood
Coasterman1234, CC BY-SA 3.0
Thunderhead at Dollywood
Coasterman1234 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Thunderhead's logo at Dollywood
Coasterman1234 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Thunderhead at Dollywood
Coasterman1234, CC BY-SA 3.0
Thunderhead at Dollywood
Roc0ast3r, CC0
Thunderhead at Dollywood
Roc0ast3r, CC0
Thunderhead's back view
Jeremy Thompson, CC BY 2.0

7 photographs. Swipe or drag sideways.

Planning your ride

History and awards

April 3, 2004Opened

Built by Great Coasters International, designed by Mike Boodley.

$7 millionTo build

Golden Ticket Awards, top wood coaster: ranked in 22 polls, 2004 to 2026

6th2004, its first poll
1st2005, its best placing
6th2026, most recent

Sources

Restraint types: Captain Coaster. History, incidents and awards: Wikipedia. Specifications and status: Coasterpedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Also read: Captain Coaster (converted to feet and mph). Rider sentiment and performance scores: rider reviews on Captain Coaster, themeparkjames.co.uk, disboards.com, read and scored by AirtimeFever.

Photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Coasterman1234 at English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0), Coasterman1234 (CC BY-SA 3.0), Coasterman1234 at en.wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0), Roc0ast3r (CC0), Jeremy Thompson (CC BY 2.0). Video thumbnails remain the property of their channels and link back to them.

Live wait times: Powered by Queue-Times.com.

What riders love, by theme (themes in the order riders pick them most on Captain Coaster): Natalie K., rider review on Captain Coaster: “Even the smallest hills and turns can send you…”; Rollertoaster, rider review on Captain Coaster: “Half the ride cycle is spent out of your…”; MapleFlakes, rider review on Captain Coaster: “It can genuinely feel like you are flying through…”; Bryan Bonafede, rider review on Captain Coaster: “Probably the most reliable airtime pops on any GCI…”; Ben Lilly, rider review on Captain Coaster: “There's basically no dead spots, and the second half…”; Nolan Tanner, rider review on Captain Coaster: “My 4th ride on it at night was so…”; Owen Hunt, rider review on Captain Coaster: “This thing tears through its layout like it wants…”; Carter Eckhart, rider review on Captain Coaster: “This coaster is non stop the entire ride, very…”; Raymond Jackson, rider review on Captain Coaster: “I felt like a downhill skier.”; Cooper Zimmerman, rider review on Captain Coaster: “Just an amazing mix of awesome ejector pops and…”; Sam Dickson, rider review on Captain Coaster: “The turns are surprisingly intense (my favorite part), and…”; Brian Sheldon, rider review on Captain Coaster: “Up, down, left, right, repeat.”; Evan Scussel, rider review on Captain Coaster: “But I rode this something like 7-8x over a…”.

The photo slider at the top and the fading stills: coastercrutchfield's back row POV, Thunderhead Back Row (HD POV) Dollywood (YouTube), and the page's Wikimedia Commons photographs.