Ground Report: HeartSong Resort – East TN Tourism

I thought it would be good to do a short follow-up from a BIMD on the American Songbird from 2022. We recently returned from wifey’s annual birthday retreat. Each year around this time since it opened in 2015 we go to the Dollywood properties in Pigeon Forge to stay in the Dreammore Resort hotel for a couple of nights. We pretend we are tourists since they generally go home after New Year’s celebrations until the week around Valentine’s Day. It is a time for the locals to catch their breaths.

However, this year we decided to stay at the new HeartSong Resort that Dolly and the Herschend Entertainment folks built a quarter mile up the ridge from Dreammore. It opened in November to much media fanfare such that we thought we would try it and compare to the Dreammore for future birthday retreats.

When we rolled into town last Sunday, we were very concerned. Why had all these people not gone home? We had gone to the early worship service at church and thought we could have a late breakfast near the resort. Everywhere we went was packed to the gills and traffic was bizarre for this time of year. So we found a Cracker Barrel whose parking lot was only half full to find it would be a 2 hour wait. For a CB quality meal that dog simply will not hunt as far as I am concerned.

We decided as Plan B to go to the well known Apple Barn/Farmhouse/Grill/Shops facilities and eat a fried apple pie for lunch to tide us over until dinner, which was booked for the main restaurant at the HeartSong.

We had better luck there and planned our return to the property the next morning for breakfast at the famous Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant. Visiting this “attraction” is well worth your time. Locals go to the various businesses in it all of the time and have for decades.

Fortunately, the next morning we woke up to a ghost town until about noon, when the locals started getting out and about. The vast majority of tourists headed home at some point on Sunday.

HeartSong Resort

After our Apple Barn visit we headed to Tanger Factory Outlet Mall for a few stores and then on to the HeartSong to check in. There are additional photos and details in the link below.

https://www.dollywood.com/HeartSong

This is the second completed property of five planned 300 room resort hotels on the land they operated adjacent to the Dollywood facilities. The remaining three hotels on the board are on the board to be built and opened over the next ten year or so. The financing package for it all has been pre-approved.

Based on staff comments, apparently Dolly has not been back on site since the announcements of the HeartSong opening back in the fall. They stated she was fully engaged in the design and decor throughout the construction process. She wanted Dreammore to reflect who she is as a person and the HeartSong to reflect the type lodging she likes to stay in when on the road. As a result the HeartSong is less about her story and life. It is mountain style elegant like may be found in a Colorado ski resort, yet, not pretentious. It obviously targets higher room rate paying customers with a much larger conference area among other amenities. It also may be an indication of where the ownership plans to go with future park, entertainment and amusements expansion as they move Dollywood and associated ventures toward operating year round.

We were very impressed with the facilities and lodging services. However, there are problems. Not enough to sink the ship, but enough to cause some leaks that need repaired as much as possible before tourist season kicks in fully again.

The primary restaurant meal preparation and service were not good, as in the food was not good and the service somewhat unprofessional. I doubt that it is what Dolly has in mind and I do not think it was just a bad day. Our entrees were specialties. They were not prepared well and the flavors were just bad. So much so we will not be going again unless there are major changes by this time next year. Which is disappointing because the Dreammore restaurant and service are very good and have been been consistently that way for the eight years they have been open. You do not have to stay on site to dine at their restaurants, which means locals and regional residents would frequent the restaurant if it was doing things well. In the parts of the three days we were there, there were next to no diners for breakfast or dinner. As it is the HeartSong will be missing a lot of business if they continue operating in this manner.

For a swanky hotel facility it is also noisy between the rooms. At $250-$600 a night plus taxes in and out of season in east TN, that will not work so well. The rooms, decor and bathrooms are nicely done, yet, they went cheap on noise deadening it appears. Not only could you hear the footsteps above, you could hear the water/sewage pipe flows when the toilet was flushed and shower used in the room above and next door. The Dreammore has lesser noise issues except from room HVAC units, which have been addressed with quieter units in the HeartSong. The room rate you pay is substantially less at the Dreammore.

The final negative observation is that there is not a lot of “Dolly” in the theme of the HeartSong resort. One big print of her on the stone fireplace in the lobby and that is about it. All of the rooms and common areas of the Dreammore have her theme and touch. I realize she wanted this one to be different, however, the reason people come to Dollywood and its resorts is about her and the life available to all us here in the mountains. With wifey having been a childhood and school friend of her as well as the family members, we were both a bit disappointed.

To improve things the restaurant needs better performing staff and chefs to go with some changes in the menu selection. As an example, four of the five desserts have some type of cream cheese in them. Many people do not care for cream cheese. Problems like that were present throughout the menu as they appeared to miss many targeted customers. An hour wait for my wife’s overcooked sweet tea prepped pork chop that could not be cut with a knife to go with the veggies she did not order is unacceptable. My shrimp, scallops, andouille and grits dish tasted like tomato paste gruel with only three shrimp and two scallops added. The shrimp had not even been peeled in the bowl with the rest of it. Each entree cost $35. People are not going to do that around here with a hundred other very good restaurants from which to choose. There were only three tables being served including ours that evening, so it was not because they were covered up with diners that it went so poorly.

The additional Dolly theming would be easy to remedy. The noise deadening is probably a SOL situation now that the construction phase is over. It always amazes me how architects and engineers miss that as well as contractors not strongly suggesting it to owners. Having financed hundreds of hotels and lodging facilities around the country through the years, my construction loan officers were instructed to always ask questions about it during the loan review process. It can make or break a lodging facility going for higher room rates. Management drilling down on guests to observe quiet time after midnight would help the HeartSong situation, but, human behavior is what it is and when you gotta go, you gotta go.

It has not been open long, but we now know for sure we will be staying at the Dreammore going forward. Will see what happens when #3 is built and comes on line. The road bed and utility infrastructure has already been completed for two of the three future facilities.

Jobs/Tourists

Here we are in the middle of winter and help wanted signs are everywhere when ten years ago many tourism related employers would lay off staff for a few months. The Cracker Barrel wait time was because they were severely short staffed, they could only seat half of the tables with only a couple servers working. It is the same everywhere with short staffs except at the established businesses that have taken care of their employees well in the past like the Dreammore and the Apple Barn related businesses. Excellent, friendly service and quality food prep by them from staff that have worked there for many years.

We noticed many more hispanics employed around the area than in years past. Some are recent arrivals based on obvious language barriers. Brandon is getting it done for the NWO.

There are four new large suite hotel properties under construction near the convention center and Cal Ripkin ballfields. That is about 750 more rooms coming online this spring in that one square mile area. When you add in the Cherokee nation’s burgeoning development at the primary Interstate 40 entrance/exit, the Wilderness Lodge Resort and waterparks growth in Sevierville, and continued expansion of many Gatlinburg resorts/businesses; well, things are changing rapidly around here. They all steal employees from each other. Newcomers moving here are generally employed within 48 hours of arrival if they want a job. The problem they have are finding reasonably priced housing or apartments within acceptable commutes.

However, I see very little thought going into what happens if the tourists stop coming, or if the economy tanks totally, or if there is nationwide civil unrest. Like many desirable places to live in the south, our paradise is in danger of being no more. It has already changed dramatically from continuing to chase the dollar.

But a country boy and gal will survive as we know.

Random Observations/Dolly Tidbits

I saw one young male woke employee of the Disney Store wearing a stylish cloth mask as he exited the store. Even with all of flu, COVID, RSV and colds raging everywhere. That was it. Saw probably more than a thousand people over the three days and two nights. One idgit wearing a mask was it. Coincidently, there were zero customers in the Disney store and it was fully stocked with their woke Chinese crap. Things must not be going so well for them.

In general, workers in the retail stores and restaurants were outgoing and friendly. People seemed happy in general. We visited with many visitors for a few moments everywhere we went. It was pleasant experience. Which is 180 degrees the opposite of our recent trips to Costco in the urban Knoxville area. Some of the rudest people we have ever encountered were there who would just as soon run over you than look at you with their cars in the parking lot or carts in the store.

The Trump Stores and Trump merchandise sections in other stores are doing really well.

The inventories in most of the more popular retail stores including factory outlets we visited were generally very low. It is not because of Christmas purchases per workers. It is a clear indication that supply chains are still messed up combined with management expecting an economic downturn in consumer buying so they are keeping stocks lower. With it being so tourist oriented, this area is usually hot for retail year round with half the nation’s population located within a day’s drive. We have not seen stores stocked so low this time of year in recent memory. Going to keep an eye on it.

Our server at the Dreammore’s main restaurant told a funny thing on Dolly. All Dollywood employees are instructed by management during company meetings to not try to strike up conversations with her when she visits because Dolly will lose all sense of time and stop to talk to anybody who wants to talk. 🤣 Sounds about right to us. Management then gets frustrated because her schedule is usually tight and the “visiting” messes it up. Oh well.

Guests can now rent her retired tour bus to stay in overnight that is parked in a fenced area on site at the Dreammore. So with the right amount of cash, you can sleep in Dolly’s bed. Just sayin’…

Dolly is spending more time at home with hubby, Karl. He turned 80 recently, does not get out anymore and has difficulty communicating. Turns out she told everybody he never liked country music, he has always been a classic rock guy. Stairway to Heaven is his favorite song. However, when Dolly did her recent rock album, he gave her his approval. That seemed to please her more than anything.