I’ve been to Dollywood approximately one million times. I’ve been to the Harvest Festival three times. How have I missed out on so much? I suppose it’s because I always assumed theme park food was trash; over priced hot dogs and crappy pizza. I didn’t realize theme park food is an experience within itself until I was deep diving youtube videos to prepare for my Disney trip (which I still need to post by the way, it’s been a rough year). So was the Harvest Festival Tasting Pass worth it? Yes! Yes! One million times YES!

Fall Flavors

With the tasting pass priced at $35 you got to choose five foods. The Fall Festival offered pumpkin, maple, apple, and cranberry twists on theme park novelties. If your thinking “That sounds disgusting”, don’t worry. The flavors were subtle enough to where the pumpkin fanatics will pick up that ever so slight hint of fall. To someone who hates all things pumpkin you may not even detect it if you didn’t know it was there. I think that’s great! Our Queen, Dolly Parton, is there to make us ALL happy!

To check out ALL the food the Harvest Festival has to offer click here.

The Game Plan

My Mom and I each bought a pass for a total of $70. Sometimes we shared things and sometimes we liked something so much we each got our own. If your going with a friend I would suggest sharing that way you get to try 10 things instead of 5. The servings on some items were HUGE while some were more of a single serving. Even if you end up sharing a few single serving items you will not leave hungry!

The Savory – Favorite to Least Favorite

Loaded Sweet Potato

Yall. This was SO FREAKING GOOD, oh my God, it brought a tear to my eye! The MOST perfect sweet potato topped with smoked chicken and pork belly in a BBQ sauce smothered with cheddar cheese. That meat was the best smoked/bbq meat I’ve ever had in my life. When I tried it my eyes got round as a full moon and I said a silent prayer thanking the Lord for bringing me to this point in my life.

It’s a massive serving! I would have had trouble eating this by myself and having room to try more. I’m going to try to replicate this recipe at home. I will likely never get it just right, but maybe I’ll get it close enough to bring me back to that point in time.

Pulled Pork Sandwich with Pumpkin BBQ Sauce

It was a hard decision making this my second savory choice. It was the first thing I tried and that’s when I realized the pumpkin flavor was going to be more like dipping your toe in the water rather than balls to the wall jumping in head first. It kind of hits you on the back end, like “Huh. There’s a little sumthin sumthin there”. The bun was toasted just right and the slaw was like something your mamaw would make.

The BBQ is another HUGE serving. It was plenty big enough to share, but my Mom liked it so much she went and got her own.

Pumpkin Bisque

This was eerily similar to Panera Bread’s butternut squash soup, and I’m not mad about it. I LOVE that soup and would eat it year round. There may have been more a pumpkin kick to this one, but I would need to try them side by side to know for sure.

How to describe this? A slurp of fall 😂? It’s creamy, savory, spicy, sweet and topped with pumpkin seeds. You will love it or hate it. You know who you are! Let your spirit guide lead you to or away from the soup line.

Bush’s Three Bean Pumpkin Chili

Here’s another one that was just flirting with being pumpkin. It was good, but I’m so weird when it comes to chili. I actually don’t like beans in chili. I know, beans are what makes the chili, I’m a weirdo. I can usually eat around the beans and be just fine, but this has A LOT of beans.

Me to me: Read the title, dumb ass.

Another random quirk is I like a thinner more soupy like consistency for my chili. This is THICK. The bottom line is the flavor is amazing. It’s not the chili, it’s me and my texture issues.

Sweet Potato Poutine

The poutine came in last place for the savory foods. I was the most excited and the most disappointed with this dish. I missed out on all the crazy poutines at Disney and thought this was going to be my moment. This is described as sweet potato fries topped with applewood smoked bacon, white cheddar cheese sauce, and crispy onion straws.

When I went to order I was told it would be four minutes until the cheese was ready, to come back and order then. OK, fair I suppose. It struck me as odd they didn’t just take my order and have me wait on the cheese.

These were just dry. There wasn’t nearly enough cheese sauce for the amount of fries served. They were also missing crispy onion straws. Those are green onions right? Would those count as crispy onion straws?

It could have been awesome! The bacon, cheese, and fries all tasted amazing. If a bigger drizzle of cheese and the onion straws were added it would have been there, and possibly my number one pick for savory!

There seemed to be a cheese issue and the employees were kind of flustered. I know working in an amusement park must be a hard job. I’m so happy there are people that do so that my family and I get to have fun and make memories. I think I just had a off run of the poutine. That’s bound to happen. No worries.

The Sweet – Favorite to Least Favorite

Maple, Bacon, and Walnut Funnel Cake

Mother F. I can’t even. CAN’T EVEN! Funnel cake is funnel cake, right? We’ve all had one. They’re a cult classic, a fan favorite! You can’t go wrong, but you can elevate it.

That sauce is to die for! I need that shit in my life canned up and back stocked. It’s sweet, savory, salty, crunchy liquified fall. Throw that on top of some deep fried dough and add a dollop of whipped cream, lawd lawd, you will never be the same!

DO NOT skip this one! It’s a smaller single sized serving so you may want to get one all to yourself. You may want to get two all to yourself. I couldn’t blame you.

Apple Dumpling with Ice Cream

The apple dumpling is like the best apple pie you’ve ever had all tied up in a neat little package. The pastry is flaky, buttery, and perfectly browned. The filling is slap your mama good! The ice cream and caramel drizzle tie any and all loose ends together.

This. Is. Fall.

Pumpkin Pie Punch

Pumpkin pie punch is kind of out there. It was definitely a unique experience. A cocktail of apple cider, pumpkin puree, cream soda, and pumpkin pie spice left me wishing it was a real cocktail. Dolly doesn’t roll like that though.

It was good. It was rich though, and I couldn’t have finished it by myself. However, if there were a shot or two of fireball in there, I could have finished it by myself and ordered a second. You feel me.

We ordered this in a rush wanting to use all of our credits before the night ended. I’m not mad about it, but I wouldn’t order it again.

Should You Go?

If you’re doing Tennessee in the fall definitely make Dollywood a priority on your list. The tasting pass was SO MUCH FUN! It made the day so exciting and I felt like a little pumpkin spice celebrity sporting my tasting pass lanyard. I wish I could go again and try more!

Between the food, rides, performances, artisans, and the Great Pumpkin Luminates it was worth every penny. Any West Virginia fall and Halloween lover will not be disappointed making a weekend trip out of it.

I NEED to go at Christmas. I’ve done Gatlinburg at Christmas time, and it’s magical AF. I’ve never done Dollywood though. If there’s a new tasting pass with Christmas foods I am IN! The small town of that past theming with a Christmas lights overlay might actually kill me. Sign me up!