Dollywood is a theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The park first opened in 1961 as “Rebel Railroad” and after several name changes (including 8 years as “Silver Dollar City,” for all you Generation X & Y kids) the property was jointly purchased by Dolly Parton and Herschend Family Entertainment in 1985. It’s been “Dollywood” ever since.
Joe and I have been to Dollywood about 3 or 4 times in the past 5 or so years, and y’all, it’s an adorable park. Don’t get me wrong – it has some amazing coasters and lots of stuff for little kids as well. But besides all of that, it’s a very pretty park, with a certain charm that can only be described as “southern.”
Here’s our review of Dollywood from when we went in late 2020. As you can see, their Christmas decorations are really well done. In fact, the park has consistently won the Golden Ticket Award from Amusement Today magazine for Best Christmas Event every year for over the past decade.
Dollywood serves its fair share of typical theme park food – hot dogs, burgers, soda, etc. However they also feature more “southern comfort foods,” such as chicken & biscuits, beans ‘n greens, ham, pot roast, roast turkey, cornbread, country fried steak, etc. (they’ve won the Golden Ticket Award for theme park food a few times, as well).
One of the snack foods Dollywood is most famous for is their cinnamon bread. Y’all, it is AMAZEBALLS and it’s so popular that, at least pre-COVID, they were selling about 350 loaves per hour!
Dollywood’s cinnamon bread is sold in two different places in the park. The original location is The Grist Mill (the flour for the cinnamon bread is ground right there at the Grist Mill, and it’s made and baked on-site), which is in the Craftman’s Valley section of the park. For the past season or two, they’ve also been selling in the Spotlight Bakery, which is a few hundred feet to the right, as soon as you enter the park.
Either way though, you had to enter the park to be able to buy your cinnamon bread. So if you wanted some of that cinnamon bready deliciousness, it would set you back the price of a Dollywood ticket, or about $79 per person.
Well, until a couple of years ago.
Enter Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort.
DreamMore is Dollywood’s hotel & resort, which is about 3 miles from the park itself. It opened in 2015 and has more than 300 rooms and suites, many of which were designed with families in mind (some accommodations feature bunk beds). Rooms start at around $150/night and the resort also features shopping, kids’ activities, a fitness center, pools, etc. Since COVID started, Dollywood has required visitors to make reservations to go to the park, but DreamMore guests will be welcome to the park even if its capacity limits have been reached.
Anyway, one of the best things about DreamMore? Since 2018, they’ve been selling Dollywood’s cinnamon bread there, too! It’s available at the DreamMore Pantry, which is directly to your right as you enter the resort. Their hours are 6:30 am to 11:00 pm. Oh, and guess what? Parking is free at the DreamMore! Winner winner, cinnamon bread dinner (which I may or may not have done a time or two…).
Finally, if you have no intention of going to Dollywood OR DreamMore, Dollywood has graciously made their cinnamon bread recipe available.
Bon appetite, y’all!
Feature Photo: Dollywood
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
