I’m including the same intro and review before and after each of these three reviews.  You can read our family’s Mirror Maze Review here.

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Gatlinburg in the winter is a different sort of town than Gatlinburg in the summer.

When we took our recent adventure to the mountain town, we found it sleepy and quiet and that’s exactly the way we liked it.  Traffic was minimal (except for the weekend) and the streets were not overcrowded and the restaurants had no wait time.  Again – that’s exactly what we love – especially when we are always a party of six (at least) and generally tables for six are not as readily available at peak times.

The Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies was hands down our favorite activity of the week, but we had some great laughs and funny moments at several other stopping points along the Gatlinburg streets.

In exchange for writing honest reviews, the kind folks who run all of the Ripley’s attractions offered us tickets to a few of their other museums and amusements.  I’ll be sharing all three reviews in a three part series over the next week or so.  In addition, this post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the links, I’ll receive compensation

 

Ripley’s 5D Moving Theatre

 

For the life of us, we never could quite figure out what all the “Ds” stood for here.

Ripley’s 5D Moving Theatre is exactly what you think it is – one of those moving roller coaster-esque experiences where you are seated in one chair the entire time, but through the magic of 3D and moving chairs and giant screens, you feel exactly as if you have been on a roller coaster or a jet plane or a parachute or a log flume or a helicopter or a sinking ship or all of the above.

 

 

Our Ripley’s attendee was rather enthusiastic and very kind and quite chatty as we prepped ourselves for the “ride”.  For my kids, this was their first moving theatre experience to their recollection.  (Seems to me I have vague memories of riding one at some museum with them, but as not one of them said they could remember that and my memory is rather hazy on it, we’re calling it the first.)  The theatre was small, but more than adequate for a large number of guests.  During our ride there was only our family and two other couples.  London and Mosely decided rapidly and emphatically that they were not interested in the seats that moved a lot and anxiously sat together in the first row – a row of seats that were completely stationary.  Provided for those guests who were pregnant, suffering from heart conditions, suffering from back pain, prone to motion sickness or otherwise unable to actually enjoy the experience for which they had just forked over some cash.

I knew the girls would be missing the real gist of the ride, but I wasn’t willing to force the motion on them if they truly were not interested.  They still both received their 3D glasses and they seemed content with their choice.

During our ride – where we faced landslides and avalanches and swept through both the jungle and the tundra, also the arctic and the ocean (we were really time and space traveling) – we were jolted and raised and shaken in our seats.  The kids (the ones in moving seats with me) laughed and sighed and screamed at all the appropriate places.  I felt a lot like I was just in a car accident and suffering through some serious whiplash, but I wanted to be a team player and not an old person prone to motion sickness (which is what I actually am, in fact) so I endured the shifting and the shaking and the jolting and the jarring.  I endured.  They enjoyed.  (That seems par for the parenting course sometimes, does it not?)

 

 

We never did count all the “Ds” but there was the movement of the chairs of course and the 3D glasses and screen and another was also water that sprayed on us as we went down the waterfall and snow that fell from the “sky” as we hung out with the penguins.

London and Mosely, as one might expect, did not report their enjoyment levels to be as high as say, Otto and Piper and Bergen did.  However, Mosely also did not suffer from an upset stomach, to which she is prone, so – that’s a win.

It was fun to see the younger kids, especially Otto and Piper, really get a kick out of the moving seats and the snow coming down (I actually really liked the snow effect too).  I can’t say the movies are high quality – they are definitely more about falling coasters and moving fast than any semblance of a plot or characters.  But – hey, that’s not why we were there.  We were there for 3D glasses, falling snow inside a building and jumping off virtual waterfalls in a virtual boat!

 

In Review

 

I’d say the key to all Gatlinburg attractions is the same, keep your expectations in line.  Recognize that this is not Disney.  This is Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  These are mirror mazes and world record museums and 5D moving theaters on a street in a mountain town.  A town that sells footlong corn dogs at place called Fannie Farkle’s for the same price that you can buy two kids’ meals at Chick-fil-A.  

Be reasonable, guys.  

If you are visiting Gatlinburg for the second (or thirtieth) time, you already know this.

And you’re okay with it.

You’re making these return trips to Pigeon Forge and to Gatlinburg, to the cabins and to the go cart rides, to the outlets and to the pancake houses, because it’s nostalgic, because you first came to Gatlinburg as a kid with your Memaw and your Pepaw, because you brought your toddlers here and you remember how big their eyes grew when they first ordered their silver dollar pancakes at the Pancake Pantry and rode their first roller coaster at Dollywood and you like the idea of returning to the same quirky streets that seem like they never change, old time photo shops on every corner and a gem store and wooden guns and beanie babies.  That’s why you come to Gatlinburg.

So you stroll through the mirror maze and you let the kids buy a couple of pieces of candy and you stop in for the free fudge samples (always take the free fudge, people) and you admire the hand crafted wooden knives and you buy the funnel cake and you stack up those memories and that nostalgia for all its worth.

Expectations, friends.  Most adventures fare better when you can manage your expectations.

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