For generations of Tennesseans, Dollywood has been the kind of place where a roller coaster, a plate of Southern food and a little mountain music can all fit into the same afternoon.
Now the Pigeon Forge park has another national honor to add to the trophy case.
The National Amusement Park Historical Association named Dollywood its Favorite Theme Park in the organization’s 40th annual survey, marking another win for the East Tennessee attraction. Dollywood says it has held the top spot in the NAPHA survey since 2022. Disneyland in Anaheim, California, finished second in the latest survey.
That distinction is a little more specific than simply declaring Dollywood the undisputed “best theme park in America.” NAPHA’s results come from its members, a group of amusement-park enthusiasts with considerable travel experience. Dollywood says the average member has visited more than 110 parks, while members visited an average of 12 parks during 2025.
Still, for a Tennessee park competing for attention with some of the biggest names in entertainment, another No. 1 finish is not exactly small news.
This Is Becoming a Pattern for Dollywood
One award could be written off as a particularly good year.
Dollywood has a much longer streak going.
NAPHA’s published results for the previous survey also placed Dollywood ahead of Disneyland in its Favorite Theme Park category. The organization named Dollywood its favorite in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before the latest result continued that run.
Other groups have noticed the park, too.
Tripadvisor named Dollywood the No. 1 theme park in the United States in its 2025 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Awards. That was the third time in four years that Dollywood took the top U.S. spot, after wins in 2022 and 2024 and a second-place finish in 2023. Tripadvisor bases those awards on the quantity and quality of traveler reviews and ratings over a 12-month period.
That matters because the two honors measure different things. One reflects the preferences of dedicated amusement-park enthusiasts. The other comes from a much broader pool of traveler reviews.
Both have repeatedly landed on the same East Tennessee park.
Dollywood Has Changed a Lot Since the Early Days
Dollywood is deeply tied to Dolly Parton, but the park’s appeal goes well beyond having one of Tennessee’s most famous names on the entrance sign.
The park has spent years building a mix that is difficult to copy elsewhere.
There are major roller coasters, family rides and live entertainment. There are also crafts, music and design choices rooted in Appalachian culture. The Dolly Parton Experience tells the story of Parton’s life and career through several exhibits, including displays devoted to her clothing, family and music.
That regional identity gives Dollywood a different feel from parks largely organized around movie characters or entertainment franchises.
It is still very much a modern theme park. But the Smoky Mountains are not simply scenery outside the gates. The region keeps finding its way into the attractions themselves.
And in 2026, Dollywood made its biggest bet yet on that idea.
The Park’s Biggest Ride Investment Ever Arrived This Year
Dollywood opened NightFlight Expedition to the public on Aug. 19.
The indoor attraction in Wildwood Grove is the park’s 11th roller coaster and its largest single attraction investment to date. Dollywood describes the approximately 5½-minute ride as a combination of coaster movement, water, climbing and immersive effects inside a 44,000-square-foot climate-controlled building.
The attraction sends riders on a fictional search through the Smokies for a mysterious lake connected to Wildwood Grove’s glowing tree. It incorporates more than 500,000 gallons of water and was designed with a minimum height requirement of 39 inches, allowing many younger children to ride with adults.
When the project was first announced in 2025, Dollywood said the investment would exceed $50 million. At an August 2026 dedication event, the park described the completed project as an investment of more than $60 million.
For Tennessee travelers, there is another practical benefit: it is indoors.
Anyone who has spent a summer afternoon watching a Smoky Mountain forecast bounce between sunshine and thunderstorms can understand why that matters.
The Awards Kept Coming After the NAPHA Win
Dollywood’s spring honor was not the end of its 2026 awards season.
In September, Amusement Today presented Dollywood with four Golden Ticket Awards. The park again won Best Guest Experience, an award it has received every year the category has existed since 2019, excluding 2020 when the awards were not held. The category considers factors such as employee friendliness, cleanliness, operations and value.
Dollywood also finished second in Amusement Today’s worldwide Best Park category, behind Europa-Park in Germany.
So there is an important bit of context behind all those “best theme park” headlines: different organizations use different voters, categories and methods.
What is hard to miss is Dollywood’s consistency across several of them.
For Tennessee, This Is Bigger Than a Theme-Park Trophy
The park’s location matters almost as much as the rides.
Dollywood sits in Pigeon Forge, right beside one of Tennessee’s largest tourism regions and near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A Dollywood trip can easily become part of a longer East Tennessee vacation involving Gatlinburg, the national park and the rest of the Pigeon Forge strip.
That means national attention for Dollywood also shines another light on the Smokies.
And unlike an attraction that could theoretically be dropped into almost any city, Dollywood has spent much of its modern growth leaning harder into its Tennessee setting.
Its newest multimillion-dollar ride tells a Smoky Mountain story. Its live entertainment and exhibits draw from Appalachian traditions. Dolly Parton’s own East Tennessee story remains woven throughout the place.
The park is growing, but it does not seem particularly interested in pretending it is in Orlando.
That may be the most interesting part of Dollywood’s run of awards.
A Tennessee theme park has found national success not by hiding where it comes from, but by making where it comes from part of the attraction.
Sources
The original TravelMag article supplied by the user was used as research material for this independently reported Tennessee feature.
Dollywood Parks & Resorts, May 20, 2026: NAPHA Favorite Theme Park announcement.
WVLT/WSMV, May 20, 2026: coverage of the NAPHA survey results.
National Amusement Park Historical Association: prior survey results documenting Dollywood’s earlier finishes.
Dollywood Parks & Resorts: 2025 Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice results.
Dollywood Parks & Resorts: NightFlight Expedition information and 2026 opening details.
Dollywood Parks & Resorts: 2026 Golden Ticket Awards.
