By Mallory Mattingly
Grammy award-winning country artist Dolly Parton doesn’t ride the rollercoasters at her theme park, Dollywood, in Tennessee, but she might make an exception.
“I don’t like to ride the rides, everybody knows that about me,” she told Peachtree TV in 2023. “I have a tendency to have motion sickness. And then I’m a little bit claustrophobic. I don’t like to be closed in. And I just think ‘Well, I just have too much to lose.'”
In a speech from this March, Parton revealed that she has dealt with motion sickness since she was a little girl.
Related: Dolly Parton Says Dollywood Inspired by ‘The Most Perfect Place’ God Created
“I used to get sick on the merry-go-round as a kid on the playground,” she said.
However, Parton might just break her own rule.
Dollywood will soon open its biggest ride yet: “a $50 million indoor roller coaster called NightFlight Expedition,” PEOPLE reported.
In a video announcement for the ride last fall, Parton said, “I usually don’t ride the rides, but this one sounds so magical. I might just check that one out.”
The thrill ride will accommodate guests of all ages, where passengers will “soar on a nighttime flight over the scenic Smokies, enjoy a thrilling whitewater rafting excursion through more than 500,000 gallons of surging water, traverse a mountain ridge on a roller coaster, and navigate a mysterious shimmering lake by boat,” a press release for NightFlight Expedition reads, per Business Wire.
“I’m just so proud that Dollywood has grown so much in its first 40 years that we’re able to add a ride like NightFlight Expedition,” Parton said in the press release regarding the new ride. “I have no doubt it’s going to be a huge part of Dollywood’s next 40 years. We’re always trying to take the natural beauty of the Smokies and make it part of everything we’re doing in the park, and they’ve definitely been able to do it with this ride.”
“A lot of people ask me about my favorite season in the Smokies, but no one ever asks me what my favorite time of day is. Our new ride sends you out into the mountains at night, which is the time that I think they really come to life! Obviously, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is known for the synchronous lightning bugs, but I also love to just sit and listen to the owls calling or the frogs croaking, and I love to see the stars sparkling like rhinestones up in the big old sky. It’s pure mountain magic,” she added.
NightFlight Expedition certainly sounds like a ride worth making an exception for!
Read Next: Dolly Parton Launches New Dollywood Resort: ‘I Ask God to Let Me Shine’
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