Talking Fury, Hidden Hollow Aviation (NightFlight Expedition) and Working With Dolly

Inside our exclusive with Dollywood President Eugene Naughton

After 13 years as Vice President of In Park Services and Worldwide Strategy for Six Flags, Eugene Naughton joined the Dollywood team in November of 2019 as VP of Dollywood Parks Operations. A year and a month later, he was named President of the Dollywood Company. In that role the affable Naughton leads the theme park, water park and hospitality areas. This includes direct oversight of finance, marketing, operations, maintenance, revenue, human resources and product development.

What does that mean? I don’t know but it sounds important.

But we know it means that occasionally Naughton is called to be the public facing voice of the company. Sometimes it’s in partnership with Dolly Parton herself like last March when the park opened for its 40th anniversary season. But also as a solo act as he was last week when Blazing Fury reopened after a months-long refurbishment.

After cutting the ribbon, Naughton was available for interviews both in groups and in one-on-one exclusives. TheSmokies.com got the first of these exclusives for a friendly conversation that covered multiple topics, including best guesses on what the massive new ride in Wildwood Grove – Hidden Hollow Aviation – will be.

On Blazing Fury

Thesmokies.com asked Naughton about the balance of preserving tradition while meeting guest requirements in a modern theme park:

Obviously, you can tell by how passionate the guests are when they come to Dollywood. It’s a family tradition,” Naughton said. “We always say we’re a multi-generational experience from 2 to 92. And people have ridden Blazing Fury as their first roller coaster as a kid with their parents. Now, they’re coming back with their grandkids. So, I feel really passionate about making sure that those experiences and those family memories can live on for a long time which is why we didn’t tear this experience down. Which is why we put a lot of time, money, and effort into rebuilding it to make sure it could live on for the next 50 years.

On working with Dolly

In March, shortly after Dolly Parton’s husband Carl Dean passed away following a long illness, Parton appeared on stage with Naughton to celebrate the park’s opening. There were some emotional moments. She thanked her fans for their support after she lost her husband of nearly 59 years. But there was also a lot of Dolly’s trademark wit. She frequently went off script and kept the president on his toes throughout the presentation. We asked Naughton about that day and what it’s like to work with someone whose goal seems to be to catch him off guard:

She’s so funny because we have a really fun working relationship. I was obviously very sad when Carl Dean passed and really tough getting through that whole time, I told her maybe she shouldn’t come. Maybe we should just do an experience later in the year and come back and celebrate. She was certain she wanted to come back to her happy place. A place where she calls home and where she says that you help me remember how to smile and laugh so I do want to come be with you.

You know she’s never going to follow any teleprompter although the team always tries to get us on target. But we’re off script in about 10 seconds. We just let it go wherever it’s going to take us and the most important thing for me, and for her, is to just have fun and speak from the heart, to be authentic to each other and the guests that are here. You won’t ever lose if you do that.

Wildwood Grove expansion

Dollywood officials have discussed the ongoing growth of the parks’ Wildwood Grove section as almost the equivalent of second gate. Or second park in theme park parlance.

With the announced plans to keep adding hotel and resort inventory, continued growth and park capacity seems to be necessary to support the additional onsite guests. We asked Naughton about the growth of Wildwood Grove specifically:

One of the most important things that I do as the leader of this company is to plan for the future. It’s a real fine balance between how many people you invite to your home and can you offer the right experience when they’re there. You have to be really sure about where you’re going in the ride selection process. For instance, the ride that’s getting ready to open here in Spring of 2026, the attraction we’ve been sort of seeding on, up in Wildwood Grove.

I went to Germany three weeks after Big Bear Mountain opened and started to research the prototype ride for the attraction that’s going to be opening here in the Spring of 2026. So it takes a real long view. I’ll go before the Board of Directors this year and talk about everything that we’re going to do from now until 2034. We keep that ball flowing, you know. It’s always good to provide a bit of inspiration to our team on where we’re headed. It allows us to make better decisions because we’re more long term.

On Hidden Hollow Aviation (NightFlight Expedition)

For months – maybe longer – Dollywood has been teasing the arrival of a first of its kind attraction. VP of Marketing and Public Relations Pete Owens was among the first to reveal some info about the mysterious ride. A massive, first of its kind ride and not a roller coaster he said in an interview that piqued interest across the theme park universe.

At the time, we were told that as part of the ongoing Wildwood Grove expansion, the ride will be a $50 million indoor attraction. It will be housed in a five-story, 44,000-square foot building in between the northernmost bend in the Big Bear Mountain coaster and the Dollywood Express track. At that season-opening event with Dolly, Naughton shared a video that teased flying over the mountains at night.

“It’s going to be the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” she said.

“The most ambitious,” Naughton said.

After the video, Naughton asked Parton if she had any special memories of nighttime in the Smokies.

“Yeah, but I can’t say it here,” she said. “Several, as a matter of fact.”

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Naughton said, “that wasn’t on the teleprompter.”

NightFlight Expedition update

In September of 2025, however, the mystery was solved with news of the new ride, NightFlight Expedition. Simply put, it is the world’s first hybrid coaster and whitewater raft ride. It’s a little bit Guardians of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT, a little bit Navi River Journey in Animal Kingdom and a little bit of Dolly’s own Smoky Mountain River Rampage and it sounds like it’s going to be a whole lot of fun. 

The ride – which will be 5 and a half minutes long will utilize a custom-designed amphibious ride vehicle interacts with vivid multimedia projections, dynamic onboard and offboard audio, as well as special lighting effects, to immerse guests in the four-pronged adventure. 

According to Dollywood, guests soar on a nighttime flight over the scenic Smokies, enjoy a thrilling whitewater rafting excursion through more than 500,000 gallons of surging water, traverse a mountain ridge on a roller coaster, and navigate a mysterious shimmering lake by boat.

Guests set out on their expedition to find Secret Lake with the help of twin scientists, Cora, and Jasper Oakley, who just happen to be the niece and nephew of Wildwood Grove’s resident wilderness explorer, Ned Oakley. The twins, who work out of a hangar at Hidden Hollow Aviation, have invented the Bioluminator, a device designed to detect and amplify bioluminescence, the biochemical emission of light by living organisms. Cora and Jasper mount the device onto their family’s one-of-a-kind amphibious aircraft to illuminate the Wildwood Tree’s glowing roots and follow them to Secret Lake.

Along the way guests will soar, plunge, climb and navigate.

A family friendly ride

Dollywood officials say it’s built with families in mind. It has as relatively low 39-inch height requirement, just over 3 feet, meaning many of Dollywood’s young guests will be able to ride. The ride vehicles appear to have individual restraint systems, but we’ll know more on that later as we get closer to the Spring 2026 opening. 

The average five-year-old can get on that ride. It will be a really good multi-generational experience. But it’s going to be centered on Dolly’s love of the Smokies. And guests will experience it in a way that you’ve never experienced before.

The park is one of the most biodiverse National Parks in the country. 1,800 new species were just discovered over the last five years by Discover Life In America and that’s the science arm of the National Park that we often help out. So, coming to see the Smoky Mountains at night like you’ve never seen before.

Are you excited about the changes at Dollywood? Let us know in the comments!