Laughing Lindsay

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Dollywood Seasonal Events Guide

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Since Dollywood is opening for the 2024 season tomorrow (March 8th), I thought I would do a nice Dollywood Seasonal Events Guide. This post will highlight the various limited time festivals happening at the park this year. I will also link to separate, more in-depth posts on what to expect during each season of the year!

Dollywood Seasonal Events

Dollywood Seasonal Events

Over the past several years, the park has really invested in their seasonal festivals. In fact, in 2024 there’s only a few days the park is open without a festival going on. Each of these experiences is unique and fun. However, if you are wanting to see a certain festival then it’s important to plan your trip around the dates of the event and the park operating calendar.

I Will Always Love You Music Festival

The I Will Always Love You Music Festival was new for 2023. However, it’s slated to return in 2024, beginning on Saturday March 9th and going until April 14th! This is the only festival I haven’t experienced at Dollywood. It seems to focus mainly on the music and show productions around the park. They also seem to fully embrace the life and style of Dolly Parton. It looks like a neat addition to the park.

Flower & Food Festival

The Flower and Food Festival is the one most people think of when they consider a spring break trip to the park. I enjoyed my one visit to the park for this event and highlighted it in my Spring at Dollywood post. I loved looking at all of the Mosaicultures around the park. Plus, the food was pretty good! This year, the event kicks-off on April 19th and goes until June 9th.

Smoky Mountain Summer Celebration

My post Summer at Dollywood 2022 was my return to blogging. So, you know it’s must be something good to inspire me to start this blog back up. My husband and I really enjoyed trying the different foods here and the delightful drone show! They also have lots of bright decor around the park. The Summer Celebration is happening from June 15 to August 11th this year.

Harvest Festival

I think fall at Dollywood is one of my favorite times to visit! I love seeing all of the autumnal decor in the daytime and then seeing the park light up for the Great Pumpkin LumiNights. DW embraces the beauty of fall in the Smoky Mountains with their Harvest Festival. It’s not about Halloween here, but rather simple and beautiful fall! I’ve been lucky enough to attend this one several times! In 2024, it will be taking place from September 9 to October 28th!

Smoky Mountain Christmas

Last but certainly not least it’s Christmas at Dollywood! I’ve visited this one a few times as well. Pro tip: check the weather forecast if you are visiting this one as it could be really cold or a little warm, you never really know what to expect. This festival features lots of gorgeous decor and amazing lights! Smoky Mountain Christmas is a great time for all! It will be happening from November 1 to January 5, 2025!

2024 Dollywood Seasonal Events

Well, there you have the full list of special limited time events happening at Dollywood in 2024. Each festival is included with the price of admission. Plus, each event highlights the beauty of the location during that time of the year or embraces the public love for Dolly. So, which of these events have you attended or have you been eyeing?

My Favorite Fall Activities

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Now that Labor Day has come and gone, it’s time to look forward to my favorite fall activities. I thought I would share a list of my must-do’s for the season, just in case someone out there is looking for something new and fun to do!

Favorite Fall Activities

Favorite Fall Activities

I think autumn is probably my favorite season. I love that it starts to cool down without getting cold. I also adore the look of the mountains with colorful leaves. Plus, who doesn’t appreciate a good gourd or two? I realized that I could separate this into three portions, based on the location they take place: home, at local places, and traveling away from home. So, that’s how I’m going to organize this post.

Fall at Home

These are the types of things I enjoy doing at home during this season.

  • Decorate the house. For those who don’t know, we bought our first home in 2021. Since then, we’ve really enjoyed getting into decorating our home for each season/holiday. We also host the holidays and family birthdays now. So, I really like going all out for Halloween and Christmas. We decorate the outside of the house with lights for both holidays as well as put up decor inside.
  • Watch seasonal movies and shows. This usually includes “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” as well as some other supernatural shows. I also sometimes watch some classic horror movies.
  • Bake. I love to bake anytime of the year. However, baking with pumpkin (like my Pumpkin Fluff Pie Recipe – Easy and Healthier) or sweet potato is particularly fun. I also enjoy decorating any seasonal cookies or houses I find at Target.

Fall at Local Places

We are lucky enough to live in a location that has several fall happenings. We typically:

  • Visit a pumpkin patch. I love attending the pumpkin festival at a local farm and picking out pumpkins for our home.
  • Try fall foods. Truly, I’m a sucker for pumpkin flavored food and coffee drinks. I also like apples and baked goods made from them.
  • Look at leaves. We’ve been known to just drive around and look at the leaves on the mountains.

Autumn Away From Home

I also enjoy traveling away from home to visit other fall events. This includes:

Fall Festivities

So, that’s a good idea of my favorite fall activities. What are some of yours?

You can view a list of my favorite winter, spring, and summer activities here.

Fall in Orlando Theme Parks

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While it may seem a little early for this post, the theme parks are beginning to celebrate the autumn season later this week! So, I thought I would do a fall in Orlando theme parks post to kick-off the fall season. If you are wondering about summer in the theme parks, here is my post on it from two months ago.

Fall in Orlando

Fall in Orlando

Personally, fall is one of my favorite times to visit the theme parks! You can typically expect a bit cooler temperatures, which I consider a huge win. However, I would encourage you to keep an eye on the extended weather forecast if you plan a fall trip as it’s prime hurricane season. I’ve been lucky in that only one trip has been impacted by a hurricane. It is something to keep in mind though. On another note, I love fall and all of the theme parks have some fun/Halloween events to look forward to! So, I think it’s worth planning a trip during the fall months as long as you pay attention to the weather.

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

If you are visiting Walt Disney World in the fall, you can expect to experience the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival! Taking place from August 29th to November 23rd in 2024, it’s a fabulous festival with lots to enjoy for fellow foodies! I don’t drink much, but I love eating! I enjoy walking around this festival and trying different dishes. They also have some cool concerts planned as part of their Eat to the Beat series. If you are visiting during these months, I highly recommend a visit.

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

If you are visiting Walt Disney World from August 9th to October 31, 2024, then on select nights you can attend the separately ticketed event Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. I was supposed to attend last year, but the hurricane cut-off my WDW portion of the trip. Unfortunately, I haven’t attended this party since 2019. However, prior to that I attended it several times. It’s one of my favorite things to do at Walt Disney World! I love the special parade as well as fireworks! I’m hoping to attend this year’s bash. FYI: it’s not a scary event. It’s a family-friendly event including trick-or-treating for kids of all ages!

SeaWorld Orlando Halloween Spooktacular

Last year, I was lucky enough to visit SeaWorld Orlando and enjoy their Halloween Spooktacular event. In fact, you can read my SeaWorld Orlando Spooktacular Halloween post from last year to get a better idea of what to expect at this event, including my review of the Count von Count Spooktacular Breakfast. This seasonal event takes place on weekends from August 31 to November 3rd. This is one of the few Halloween events included with regular park admission. It also takes place during the day, which has its pros and cons. It’s a family friendly event with mermaids and dancing scarecrows. You can also trick-or-treat around the park for an additional cost.

SeaWorld Orlando Howl-O-Scream

Now, we are moving on to the scarier, more adult Halloween events in Orlando. While SeaWorld is child friendly during the day, it takes a turn for the scary on select nights from September 6th to November 2nd with their Howl-O-Scream event. A separately ticketed event meant for adults, it features several haunted houses, scare zones, shows, roaming haunts, and themed bars. It is cheaper than the OG scary event at Universal, but seems to be in the same vain. I haven’t ever attended this one, but I’ve heard good things about it.

Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights

Lastly, we have the premiere Halloween theme park event, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando. This is the top tier scare event. It features 10 highly themed haunted houses, including popular IPs. It will take place on select nights from August 30th to November 3rd.

As of May 2024, Universal hasn’t officially announced any IPs for this year’s event. If you are on the fence, I recommend reading my Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando: Tips for Anxious Folks post. I attended in 2023 by myself and did a post Halloween Horror Nights Solo Tips for anyone considering doing the same. I also booked a 2023 HHN Daytime Houses Tour and reviewed it. Lastly, I posted a separate Halloween 2023 at Universal Orlando Resort Guide to give you an idea of what to expect.

Orlando Theme Parks in Fall

As you can see, there are several fun events taking place in fall in Orlando theme parks. From the haunts to the scary good food, there’s something for everyone! So, which of these events are you planning on visiting this year? Or, which of these is your favorite to visit each year?

You can view my other seasonal theme park guides here:

Pumpkin Fluff Pie Recipe – Easy and Healthier

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When we started hosting the holidays back in 2019, I became responsible for the desserts. One of the non-negotiable Thanksgiving treats I have to make is this pumpkin fluff pie. It’s stupid easy to make and tastes great! Plus, it’s easy to adapt for a variety of diets.

Pumpkin Fluff Pie

Pumpkin Fluff Pie

Years ago, on my first visit to Dollywood at Fall, I tried some pumpkin fluff. I had never heard of it before, but I was instantly in love! So, I looked into what exactly it was and decided to make it into a pie! So, here’s my super easy and quick recipe for pumpkin fluff pie.

Diet Friendly

Since this recipe uses a graham cracker crust, it’s healthier than a regular pie. Traditional pie crust has lots of butter and/or shortening in it to make it flaky. Using graham cracker cuts out lots of fat and calories! I took this to a family gathering last year and someone trying to watch their sugar/fat intake was pleased to have an option on the dessert table. If you use sugar free Cool Whip, this dessert has very little sugar in it. It’s also just a great way to have a seasonal treat without the guilt, even if you aren’t on a diet.

Allergy Friendly

Another great thing about this recipe is you can easily modify this pumpkin fluff pie to make it allergy friendly. I used a gluten free graham style crust (NOT a sponsored link or post) from my local Walmart for this picture because I was taking it to a Halloween party where the host has a gluten allergy. You could also use a nut based crust, which I almost used until I found this gluten free graham cracker crust.

Pumpkin Fluff Pie

Pumpkin Fluff Pie

An easy and healthier pumpkin fluff pie.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Refrigeration Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 5 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust
  • 1 15 Oz Can Pumpkin
  • 1 Box Fat Free/Sugar Free Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
  • 1 8 Oz Container Cool Whip
  • 1 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
  • ½ Tsp Vanilla

Instructions
 

  • Pour the pumpkin, pudding, Cool Whip, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla into a bowl. Mix until combined.
  • Pour the mixture into a pie crust.
  • Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Keyword Easy, Pumpkin

So, have you ever had a pumpkin fluff pie? Will you be trying my recipe for it?

Fall at Dollywood

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From September 20th until October 30, 2023, you can experience fall at Dollywood with their Harvest Festival and Great Pumpkin LumiNights! I have visited during this time of the year twice before and currently have plans to attend later this season! Here’s a look at what you can expect when you visit.

Fall at Dollywood

Fall at Dollywood

I recently told you all about my favorite things to do at Dollywood, no matter the time of the year. However, today, it’s all about fall! Fall at Dollywood is one of my favorite times to visit the park. You have the Harvest Festival to enjoy the during the day and Great Pumpkin LumiNights to view at night! I will go into more detail as to what that means below. Suffice it to say, Dollywood serves as the perfect backdrop for your autumn visit to the Great Smoky Mountains during the day and lights up at night for more fun!

Harvest Festival

Now technically a lot of the fake pumpkin decor is set up for the Great Pumpkin LumiNights. However, you can still view these amazing sights during the day. Plus, it ‘s fun to see things both during the day and then light up at night. Additionally, in recent years Dollywood has started to bring in huge real pumpkins to display. They lovingly refer to them as Colossal Pumpkins and make for great pictures since they really are as big as humans!

No festival is complete without food and entertainment. You can once again buy a tasting pass and experience several items from this year’s festival. Last year, I enjoyed their sweet corn hushpuppies with aioli and apple dumpling with ice cream. Both of those items have returned for 2022, so you can try them too. I also highly recommend checking out some live entertainment during your visit as they tend to rotate out groups from season to season.

Great Pumpkin LumiNights

Once the sun goes down, it’s fun to wander around the park again and see everything come to life! This is NOT a scary event, rather it’s a fun light-hearted event complete with lights. They have added a new section this year called Hoot Owl Hollow, which I am looking forward to seeing. It’s supposed to be a big owl surrounded by smaller ones, all made out of (fake) pumpkins! It really is amazing how many things they can make out of pumpkins! Don’t miss their pumpkin frogs!

Fall at Dollywood is filled with fun, day and night! I typically do a lap or two around the park during the day to enjoy all of the sights, sounds, and tastes of the Harvest Festival. Then, I usually take a mid-day break and return around sundown to do a final lap to experience Great Pumpkin LumiNights. So, what’s your favorite thing about fall at Dollywood?

If you are planning a trip to the park during a different season, here are my posts on those events: