Imagine if you combined a motion simulator, roller coaster and a river rapids ride all in one attraction — where do you think you would find such a ride?

You’d probably guess the mega-parks of Disney and Universal, but you’ll actually find this innovative attraction at Dollywood in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. 

Entering the show building for NightFlight Expedition (Theme Park Tribune)

Dollywood has long favored family audiences with its live entertainment, but its actual attraction lineup is dominated by roller coasters without anything approaching a modern, indoor dark ride. NightFlight Expedition appears to be an attempt to remedy that issue while giving the park a truly must-ride attraction that is unlike anything you’ve experienced at a U.S. theme park. 

The attraction also holds the distinction of being the last Dollywood ride to debut in the lifetime of park co-owner Dolly Parton, opening just six days before her Aug. 25, 2026, death. (My own visit happened just three days before she passed.) 

The queue

NightFlight Expedition does try to expand the mythology of its home section of Wildwood Grove, which first opened in 2019 and was expanded in 2023 with the Big Bear Mountain family coaster. A lot of that story is set up in the queue.

Inside the queue of NightFlight Expedition (Theme Park Tribune)

You enter the hangar of a company called Hidden Hollow Aviation, where twin scientists Cora and Jasper Oakley have a device called a Bioluminator to detect bioluminescence, which is light emitted by living organisms. Now the Oakleys have strapped their invention to an amphibious aircraft to follow the glowing roots of the Wildwood Tree and find what they call Secret Lake, which Dollywood says is a “mysterious water source believed to give the Wildwood Tree its glowing, colorful canopy.” 

There are plenty of holes in that story — it’s never explained why the Oakleys want to find the Secret Lake — but you’ll be lucky if you can pick up on any of it in the queue. 

Inside the Oakleys’ lab (Theme Park Tribune)

The final queue room before you ascend the stairs to the load station does include a voiceover from the Oakley twins and some lighting effects meant to hammer home this bioluminescence invention. However, you can’t really absorb any of that information in a room full of switchbacks with guest chatter drowning out the narration. A proper preshow space would’ve been preferred here, but the loading station’s message of “follow the glowing roots” at least gives you a hint at what’s to come. 

The ride

NightFlight Expedition is the first U.S. installation of Mack Rides’ Rocking Boat ride system. It’s best better described to newcomers as sort of three rides in one.

Ride vehicles on NightFlight Expedition (Theme Park Tribune)

There are some ride POV videos of NightFlight Expedition, but all are done rather stealthily, so they don’t capture the experience (not that any ride POV can substitute for the real thing). So it’s worth doing a little bit of play-by-play through the attraction here.

The first section of the ride is similar to the opening scene of Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. You’re surrounded by a large screen with animation of the Oakley twins kicking off their journey and then you take to the air, zooming above and around a Smoky Mountain forest until the glowing roots appear to  

After your vehicle is supposedly struck by lightning, the ride briefly becomes a roller coaster — again similar to Universal’s Gringotts ride — before you hear the rush of water ahead and see the illuminated river rapids. 

You don’t have to worry too much about getting wet, thankfully, as you’re pulled around curves, following more glowing roots and a darkened forest. Really, it only appears to be lights and static backgrounds, but it’s still well done. 

Another small coaster section leads you to the ride’s bioluminescent finale. You’ve discovered the Secret Lake, awash in a blue and purple glow — including in the water itself — giving the setting an ethereal quality as the on-ride music swells triumphantly. 

That finish is also the best demonstration of the Rocking Boat system’s dynamic range, The boat is being pulled at a fairly rapid pace in a more open body of water, so its motion feels much more natural and exciting than a typical log flume scene ever could. 

Operational issues

As much as I enjoyed NightFlight Expedition, there’s no getting around the feeling that this ride isn’t quite ready to be open. 

New rides breaking down is nothing unusual, but even after late starts on my two days at Dollywood, NightFlight Expedition broke down multiple times while I was waiting in line. Making matters worse, the park failed to clearly communicate those interruptions had even occurred — guests like me were just left wondering why the line had stopped moving for extended periods. 

Then there are more obvious issues, like water leaks from the ceiling in the queue and an awkward glitch at the end of the ride’s first screen scene. 

Water was leaking from the ceiling in the NightFlight Expedition queue (Theme Park Tribune)

I think the park tried to gloss over these technical problems with signs saying the ride was still in “technical rehearsal,” but that only felt like a bait-and-switch when the marketing outside the park did not carry any such caveat.

It’s actually a credit to the ride system that my experience wasn’t totally soured by these issues, but Dollywood simply should not have rushed this opening, full stop.

The verdict

Tossing aside those (hopefully) temporary operating problems, NightFlight Expedition is a triumph for Dollywood.

It’s true that the story is sort of generic, thin and hard to grasp before the ride. Yet once I was on the ride, I really didn’t care. I was far too busy enjoying the ride technology seamlessly mixing together several familiar elements into something new. The highest compliment I can pay is that, outside of the queue and the story setup, this ride feels like it would be well-praised even if it was placed into a Disney or Universal park in its current form.  

There’s no doubt in my mind that Disney and Universal will do amazing things with the Rocking Boat system in the future. But you don’t need wait until their installations to enjoy it — just get yourself down to Dollywood to experience this version. 

Grade: A-

Editor’s Note: This review is based on my own opinion and perspective. I paid for my own park ticket and Dollywood did not grant me any special access to the attraction to conduct this review.