After a Year of Tracking My Season Pass Savings

• Meredith Jones

Last November, I wrote this blog about how I believed that Dollywood Season Passes were a great savings for any family! So, I thought I would provide you an update on a rough estimate of how much money we have saved as passholders! For my family of five, we have one Diamond Pass (for me) and three of the Two-Park Gold Passes (for my husband and twin 11-year-old boys. My toddler doesn't need a pass just yet!). The total was $1,186 plus tax for the 2022 season. Now, a year later, let's look at how this up-front investment can translate into big value (monetary and otherwise!). Remember, these are activities my family would do anyway. Being Dollywood Season Passholders (especially having the Diamond Pass, which offers the deepest discounts and most perks) makes these opportunities easier on the wallet.

Ticket Savings

From December 2021 until now, we visited Dollywood eight times. The value of eight visits times four people in my family is $2,848 (plus tax) just for entry. We visited Dollywood's Splash Country three times-which carries a value of $657 (plus tax). We have used three of the complimentary Bring-A-Friend Free tickets so far, and plan to use more in the next few weeks. Even if the timing doesn't work out and we only used thee of those comps to bring friends to Dollywood with us, we still saved $267 (plus tax).

You add all this up, and we saved a lot of money at the gate. To be honest, we wouldn't be able to come this often if it wasn't for our Season Passes.

Parking Savings

When you are a Diamond or Gold Season Passholder, parking in General Parking is free! Without Gold or Diamond, parking is $25. So, for our 11 visits, we saved $275. 

Food Savings

Then, I looked at what I spent inside the park. As a Diamond Passholder, I get 20% off food and merch. On a typical visit for us, we eat lunch and a snack. Twice, we splurged and dined at Aunt Granny's Restaurant for an all-you-care-to-eat meal. With my Diamond discount, I saved about $20 at Aunt Granny's! (If you're counting with me, that's $40 saved.) For other lunches, I saved $10 on average. Multiply that times nine visits and you'll see I saved about $90 throughout the season. To be conservative, let's say the savings between Aunt Granny's Restaurant and other lunch spots was $120 all season. Additionally, you can always count on my crew to ask for some ice cream or cinnamon bread as a snack. Since last December, we've bought five loaves of cinnamon bread. With the Diamond Discount, that's saved us about $10 so far this season. And you know what? That's like getting that fifth loaf free.

Thanks to the All-Season Refillable Mug that came with the Diamond Pass, we saved a lot of money on drinks, too! The All-Season Mug carries a value of about $30 (plus tax), and the other three mugs we got (with $.99 refills) are valued at $15 each. We filled up three to four times each visit. Again, we'll stay on the conservative side with our tracking: thanks to the Diamond Pass discount, we saved about $132 (plus tax) in drinks and about $75 (plus tax) on refill mugs this past year. So, drink savings equaled about $207 (plus tax).

Merch Savings

For merchandise, I'm feeling good about my discount. In looking through our receipts, we purchased a jacket, several shirts and hats, earrings, a replica roller coaster, some kitchen essentials and more. Overall, I was able to track $65 in merchandise savings over the course of our visits.

Resort Savings

We stayed at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort and Spa twice since I started tracking. The Diamond Passholder rate (20% off) is always less than the regular rate. For two nights, I saved $126 on the room! And, I used my Diamond discount on our Sunday brunch at Song & Hearth: A Southern Eatery, which saved us an additional $20. I'll take it!

Have you been tracking my math? Overall, my family of five has managed to save about $4600 this year with Dollywood Season Passes when you compare it to the regular price of tickets, and account for the largest discount on food, merchandise and resort stays. We got back more than three times what we spent! What the numbers don't show, though, are some of the other perks like being able to take advantage of Golden Hours and Golden events. Overall, being Dollywood Season Passholders has allowed my family to make lots of memories through our many visits, while also saving money. It is truly a great value!