Fodor’s sits down with the iconic Dolly Parton to chat about her new hotel, HeartSong.
Before the rhinestones, there was the glitter of fireflies. Especially the synchronous fireflies of the Great Smoky Mountains—one of the only places in the world where you can witness this phenomenon. East Tennessee is a special place, and no one carries the torch for the magic of the Smokies like its most famous local Dolly Parton.
Decades of superstardom later, these mountains are still at the center of much of her work. Beyond the music and the movies, Dollywood, Parton’s namesake theme park in Pigeon Forge, which she co-owns with Herschend Family Entertainment, is heavily intertwined with being outside in nature—in the country. Dollywood’s brand new HeartSong Lodge & Resort shares this reverence for the land, revealing clues for the inspiration to Parton’s most iconic works for super fans patient enough to slow down, pull up a rocking chair, and listen.
“A heartsong melody plays like a symphony. The sweetest music I have ever known. A song of joy and pain the mountain angels sing. A bittersweet refrain of my Smoky Mountain home,” Parton sang and performed from her song of the same name at the opening ceremony for HeartSong on November 3, 2023. “It’s a good feeling to see ourselves grow,” she said.
This is Dollywood’s second hotel following the marquee DreamMore Resort & Spa. And where the latter is inspired by Parton (it’s a treasure trove of memorabilia), HeartSong is what inspires Parton: the Smokies. It’s her heartsong, what Dollywood marketing calls “that emotion that drives us, grounds us, sustains us and inspires us.”
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The 302-room lodge and convention center is perched in a quiet cove down the road from Dollywood with views of the surrounding Smoky Mountains. Despite its grand size, there’s a calming, humble energy with several design cues from Parton’s childhood mountain home. Sure, there’s a four-story-tall fireplace in the lobby, but the casing is designed to look like a weathered country cabin with unfinished stone that suggests a story of not having the means for enough chimney facing and improvising with patchwork plaster.
That’s not to say you’re roughing it. This is a full-service resort. “I would say that this is high-fashion rustic,” Parton explains.
HeartSong is now the premium property at Dollywood with a zero-entry pool, outdoor jacuzzi, toasty 82-degree indoor pool, six dining locations, complimentary afternoon treats, and nightly gourmet marshmallow “roasties” not to mention room service with on-demand Cinnamon Bread from Dollywood’s iconic Grist Mill.
Each room is outfitted with Gilchrist & Soames toiletries, a designer brand typically found in swanky five-star hotels. However, the room storage is open with any cabinet doors covered in chicken wire, so there’s no hiding your underwear here. This is Southern Mountain style at its best: little luxuries mixed with a casual, cozy style that doesn’t take itself seriously. Family suites feature bunk beds with built-in sleeping bags in lieu of traditional comforters and a chalkboard where you can call dibs on the top bunk.
Accessible Luxury
Theme park accommodations and resort amenities like this usually cost a lot more. A themed family suite at a premium Disney or Universal resort easily goes for twice as much compared to HeartSong. And Parton is fully aware they could be making more money.
“We cater to families,” Parton tells Fodor’s. “And we know that a lot of people that come to theme parks and bring their families are usually making a reasonable amount of money per year and don’t have just loads of money to spend on big trips all over the world or whatever. But even if they did, when they come here, we want them to feel like it is reasonable, and we’re very proud of the quality of our hotels and our park, so we really feel like it’s top of the line in every way and we want it always to stay affordable to where people really feel like they’ve gone on a special vacation, but they didn’t lose the farm.”
There are some serious perks with a stay at HeartSong or DreamMore that you don’t find at other premium theme park hotels, such as complimentary Dollywood TimeSaver Passes to shorten ride wait times and secure seats to popular shows, early entry on Saturday mornings to a select ride or experience at the parks and resort in-room delivery of purchases from the parks.
Park tickets are low, too. It’s a stark contrast to other theme parks as both Disney and Universal’s prices have increased again this year, and a recent study found that 18% of families that vacation at Disney go into debt that can’t be paid off immediately. While base ticket prices at Dollywood fair are similar to Disney World and Universal Orlando ($92 compared to $109 and $119) annual passes at Dollywood start at just $159. Yearly passes at Universal begin at $425 and, for non-Florida residents, $1,449 for Disney.
Unlike Disney or Universal, Dollywood closes for two months in the winter, but the park often slashes prices on seasonal tickets and festivals throughout the 10-month run. And there’s even a free Pre-K season pass. Disney, Universal, and other popular parks cutoff free admission at three-years-old.
“We like feeling like people feel like they’re getting a bargain and they’re getting a good deal, and it’s more about entertaining the people,” Parton says. “Of course, we want to make money. We’re in business. But we also think that we’ll do it in volume. If people are getting a good deal and they’re having a good time, they’re going to tell other people, and they’re going to continue to come back. So, it’s very important. Of course, we could ask for more, but I think we’re very reasonable for everything that we have to offer.”
Nature All Around
While other theme parks leverage an infinite catalog of characters and franchises, Dollywood riffs on the Appalachian lifestyle. Music is the main theme, but so is nature. And it’s everywhere at HeartSong, from the glowing fireflies in each bathroom mirror to the sound machine in each room that allows guests to create a custom symphony of crickets, crackling fire and more.
Seasons are celebrated here. The 256-foot-wide cinema screen behind the front desk plays footage of the Smokies, from a mama bear with fuzzy cubs to racoons snuggling in a tree to the most vibrant orange leaves floating along a trail. And that’s only Fall. Cinematographers spent 18 months in the Smokies for this installation and the screen will change throughout the year depicting scenes from each season.
The four guest floor elevator banks pay homage to a specific season with custom artwork, from a winterscape on the top floor to Toothwort on the second floor for Spring. It’s a B-side, deep-cut-track choice as vibrant azaleas and rhododendrons dominate the Smokies in Spring. But Parton’s favorite color is white for its airy, grounding energy. And it used to be common in the Smokies for people to use Toothwort leaves as salad greens.
These flourishes of local flora and fauna are baked into the architecture, too. The lobby features eight enormous stained-glass monarch butterfly trusses and 60-foot floor-to-ceiling lantern-inspired windows that look out on the most dramatic boulderscape-turned-fire-pit for two dozen people or more. And instead of a traditional playground, there’s a slide, interactive wooden instruments and reading nooks built right into the hillside.
Every room brings the outdoors in with moody evergreen walls reminiscent of giant Eastern Hemlocks and a wall mural showcasing either a day or nighttime scene from the Smokies with black bears, butterflies and other critters. There’s a nod to the American Chestnut tree—a tribute to Parton’s late uncle Bill Owens, who devoted part of his life to preserving and restoring the endangered tree to the Smoky Mountains. And the cove’s menagerie of trees can be seen from guest room balconies, something rooms at DreamMore don’t have.
“Well, I’ve always loved that I was born and raised in Tennessee and especially in the Great Smoky Mountains,” says Parton. “They tell me that we have the biggest selection and variety of trees in all of North America and that’s why our Springs and Falls are so beautiful. Now, I love the Spring. Everybody loves Spring. But I have to honestly say that Fall has always been my favorite time because the colors, just the feel in the air when the humidity’s died away, there’s just a crispness and a brightness about it and the cool weather.”
Fall at HeartSong is designed to bring families together, from sprawling outdoor seating with tabletop fireplaces and Adirondack chairs to The Back Porch with a row of wooden rocking chairs pointed to the hillside.
“I love that we opened the lodge in the Fall where we still have a lot of the colorful leaves around so it does take me back home,” adds Parton. “Although that cabin is a lot bigger than the one I grew up in!”
Conservation and Sustainability
Parton’s love of the Smokies goes beyond aesthetics. Dollywood’s commitment to conservation and sustainability is baked into nearly every part of the business, from its partnership with the American Eagle Foundation (you can always watch the park’s Eagle Mountain Sanctuary here) to a new Monarch butterfly waystation in light of the recent endangered species warning and in honor of Parton’s iconic butterfly symbol at the foundation’s headquarters in Kodak, Tennessee.
Much of the food at HeartSong’s signature restaurant, Ember & Elm, is sourced from local East Tennessee businesses, from English Mountain Trout Farms’ fresh-catch rainbow trout to Swaggerty Sausage in the sausage gravy to Jammin Jams jellies and jam. And just this Fall, Dollywood partnered with The Coca-Cola Company and Tennessee-based recycling company iSustain, to implement new sustainable practices around the resort and add more than 65 new recycling bins. Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful was also recently named “2023 Nonprofit Recycler of the Year” by the Tennessee Recycling Coalition for a program launched at Dollywood.
A Legacy of Dreams Come True
Nature, specifically the Smokies, is Dolly’s heartsong. But the new resort is also about finding your heartsong. There’s an undercurrent of equity here. The equity to dream. There’s free daily programming in partnership with Parton’s Imagination Library, a free monthly book program for children from birth to age five that Parton started in honor of her father, who never learned to read or write. HeartSong’s storytime takes place around the lobby’s giant hearth, which features a design of Parton as a child reading under a tree.
Parton didn’t have much growing up, so there’s a rags-to-riches, full-circle moment here. HeartSong, a luxury resort, is just 10 miles away from the little tin-roof home she grew up in. And when asked what she’d say to six-year-old Dolly if she could invite her to the lodge, Parton says she’s already here.
“I really think that that little girl has followed me all the days of my life, and I’ll always be that little Dolly,” muses Parton. “Although, I’ve become the big Dolly out there in the big world. But that part of me that will never outgrow my home and my roots and my mom and my dad and my brothers and sisters and all those memories I have of them–those are the things that keep me sane. And those are the things that keep me anchored. Those are the things that inspire me to continue to do more.”
HeartSong represents the peculiar enchantment of the Smokies and the people of East Tennessee who keep community alive. Many of the employees at HeartSong and Dollywood have a direct tie to Parton, by family or friend, and take pride in the resort and see it as a way to share the Smokies. If you’re not from the South, don’t be surprised when the front desk answers your question with a “yes, ma’am” or the housekeeping staff responds to your tip and thank you note with their own thank you note. Appalachian Southern hospitality is the real deal. Forbes’ Best Customer Service 2024 list found Dollywood in the top one percent of more than 3,000 brands and one of only two theme parks in the top 300. Dollywood came in at 27. Legoland landed at 179.
“We always like to do as much as we can here because this is my home,” says Parton. “The people I know and love–they’re either relatives or neighbors or people that I feel like I’ve known–and I’m just always so proud that I can do anything in this area and to help be part of that whole group of wonderful people in the area that’s provided jobs and help for people.”
There will be more reasons to come home as Dollywood has hinted that more resorts are in the works over the next decade. The dreams don’t stop for Parton even though big dreams from small hollers don’t often come true.
“Well I love that line ‘big dreams from small hollers.’ I love that. I may steal that from you,” she says. “But that’s very much true. I will continue dreaming myself. And I want to inspire other people to dream. And it’s okay to dream. Every dream don’t have to come true, but every dream you have needs to be dreamed, otherwise, it just becomes a wish or a fantasy. But I’ve always said dreams are workable things. You have to work them. You have to make them come true. But it don’t matter how little the holler is; the dream is never too big.”
I love this post! Love dolly!