THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: And if the weather is not exciting, here is something to whet your taste.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go, Dollywood is expanding.
NELSON: We're throwing them a curve, I'm sorry.
PHILLIPS: All right, we're going to try and get this story together. That's all right. The new water park is opening right next to Dollywood Entertainment Park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and joining us live with more on this, the lady herself, Dolly Parton. Great to see you, Dolly.
DOLLY PARTON, ENTERTAINER: Well, good morning to you. And actually our water park, which is called Dolly's Splash Country, doesn't open till May the 19th. But we're here now opening the park in our 16th season and for a whole month we have what we call the festival of nations. So we have people from all over the world that are here. So we're calling it Dollyworld right now.
PHILLIPS: All right, and you're still looking for a name, right? Is there going to be a contest for this?
PARTON: Well, there was a contest on the water park and someone won that and it has now officially been called Dolly's Splash Country.
PHILLIPS: OK, I've got you. That's new news since I read the information. Dolly, tell us what gave you the idea to do this. I knew you grew up in this area, a family of 12. Is it special memories from the area that kind of wanted, made you want to do this for other kids?
PARTON: Well, actually I -- whoops, I think we got cut off.
PHILLIPS: Are you there?
PARTON: Are you there?
PHILLIPS: I hear you. Can you still hear me, Dolly?
PARTON: I'm still here but I can't hear.
PHILLIPS: Oh, all right, can you hear me yet? Oh, shoot. All right, we'll try and get Dolly back. NELSON: Oh, dear.
PHILLIPS: Definitely. We want to hear more about her new water park. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
All right, I think we've got our technical problems fixed out here. We're going to bring up Ms. Dolly Parton again. Are you with us, Ms. Dolly?
PARTON: Well, I am. I'm hearing a lot of noise in my ear, so we'll just muddle through this thing and as long as they just come on down to Dollywood.
PHILLIPS: Why don't you tell us about your new water park, OK, and how Dollywood is expanding and tell us what kind of attractions there will be and give us a little insight.
PARTON: Well, this has been a park that's been open now. This is our 16th season. We're like sweet 16. I think -- are you there?
PHILLIPS: Yes, I'm with you.
PARTON: Oh, OK. Anyway, this is our 16th year and right now with our opening this weekend, we're having the festival of nations. We've got people from all over the world. We've got Africa, we've got Russia, we've got Italy. We've got people coming from everywhere. But our water park, which is called Dolly's Splash Country, opens on the 19th of May when it gets a little bit warmer around here.
But we're, we do a lot of wonderful work here at the park. There's something for everybody. It's always exciting for me and it's always great to be able to come home and feel like you're doing your part to help things along.
PHILLIPS: Well, what kind of rides will there be, Dolly?
PARTON: Oh, well we have water rides everywhere in the water park. I'm not sure which one you're talking about. See, they're two separate things. Dollywood has been here for 16 years and this new water park is adjacent to the park, but it's a separate thing altogether. But it still kind of meshes with Dollywood and part of the Dollywood complex.
But so in the water park, we have these wonderful rides coming out of the park. We've tried to make the most of these beautiful mountains, so we have a lot of waterfalls and all the water rides and things that we've done we've tried to make them beautiful as well as being fun.
And at the park, though, we have roller coasters. We have everything for any age group here and it's really set up for families. So there is absolutely something for everybody at Dollywood and all around this area here in Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Gatlinburg.
PHILLIPS: All right, well, I'm packing up the family and heading to Tennessee to take a visit.
PARTON: You come on. You come on. We'd love to have you.
PHILLIPS: I'll be looking for you, Dolly. Thank you so much.
PARTON: Thank you. Bye-bye.
PHILLIPS: All right, take care.
NELSON: Well, Dolly Splash doesn't open till May but Dollywood is open and if you're going there this weekend and you're from the south, well, you've got some nice weather in store.
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