Hatfield & McCoy Dinner Feud — Hotel in Pigeon Forge

The performance was good. Everything else was rotten. They don't show a seating chart, so you don't know what you are reserving. They are deceptive. They call the middle price seat the 'standard seating'. And they ask ‘do you want standard seating?’ and you say ‘yes’, and then you later find out that you paid $10 more than the ‘economical seating’. Also, you have to basically turn your seat at least 90 degrees to see the stage. There are one or more disorganized lines of folks trying to get into the theater. And you don’t know if you are in the correct line. And there is a special VIP line for $20 more per ticket. It was not clearly designated. No one knew if they were in the correct line. The lines were 80 meters long. The line slowly moves. And then you find out they are taking stupid pictures of everyone at a booth inside, one by one, so they can sell you some photos. By the way, they interrupt your meal to come by and show you the photos at your table. The first 30 minutes of the “show” is a just a little bit of performance, and a lot the emcee telling you to go to the gift shop, buy photos, etc…. Everything they can to take your money. And the food. What a disappointment. Firstly, you sit down at 7:30 pm, which is 45 minutes after you got in the line outside. Sit at your table 10 minutes before they bring you some rolls. Another 10 minutes and they bring you some soup. Another 25 minutes and they finally bring you the chicken, coleslaw, 2 half-ears of corn, and pulled pork. Food wasn’t bad, but the service was poor. They have got you crammed in their like sardines. Every time I moved I bumped the lady at the table behind me. Our table was approximately 24” x 30”. And not level. Do you know how they serve 1,000 folks efficiently before the show?? The answer is - They don’t.... You are eating during the show. And the waiters are flying up and down the aisles. Management should just give them roller skates for what they are asking them to do. The meal is a joke, although the food actually didn’t taste too bad. It was just the worst service and serving environment imaginable. I forgot to mention, when you are half way through eating, the waiter sneaks up behind you during the show and starts clearing your table and whisks your food away before you can say "excuse, I'm not finished yet." And I forgot to mention, you need to bring a knife for supper because they don't provide one with your silverware. Or, in 10 quick minutes they will bring you one. The commercialization really ruins this show. The performance was good, and the actors/performers were good. The script was well written. Acting was good. That doesn’t make up for the poor environment though. Oh, the audience apparently thinks they are funnier than the actors, and several times would shout out unfunny lines. Like you did when you were in kindergarten to make your classmates laugh at the teacher. This interrupted the flow of the show, and you had to wait to hear the funny lines the actors had. I didn’t pay to hear some bozos in the audience blurt out stuff. The performers didn’t care, because, I guess because they were getting your money anyway. Unlike some other dinner shows, the performers weren’t available after the show. So you couldn’t see them or speak to them or anything. We scanned the magicmemories QR code to see our pics. The message said 'Oh, we're sorry, we weren't expecting you so soon. Try again later.' Wait 3 or 4 days and contact customer service. No pics, of course. Par for the course. They send you an email after the show thanking you for attending. And do you think they ask your opinion about the show? Oh no, of course not. Their email is to say ‘did you see our gift shop and don’t you want to buy something?’ Oh, and they send you an email before the show, that says '"buy your gifts early". No other helpful info. I wish they spent as much time organizing the que lines.

This will be the last Dolly Parton show...

We ordered our tickets online about 1.5 hours before the show started and they had them ready for us at will call with everyone else's. Our seats were close (we upgraded to premium, I think) but all the way on the side of the stage. That did interfere with seeing some of the show that takes place a bit further back in the stage. That didn't always matter because sometimes they would show the action on the big screens they have. We got there an hour early and there was already a line to get in. The line was interesting because you can watch various goats and chickens up front to entertain you. They let us in I think 45 minutes early and parade you through the gift shop into a photo both (this one with a green screen) and then proceed to seat you. You sit at a table (either high top or low) or maybe even bar style seating depending on your ticket. Make no mistake about this - dinner is served before the show. In fact the show doesn't really start until everyone is done eating - so be forewarned to get there early - I'd say an hour early! The food was good - we had been to Dolly's Stampede recently and my wife and I both thought it was better than the food served there. It was all you can eat - and family style (they serve the food to your table in buckets). We only had three people in our party and at our table but they fed us four peoples worth of food so we didn't want anymore - and they didn't ask. The fried chicken was good, the mashed potatoes were good (my kid at most of them), the corn on the cob was on steroids with thick and long kernels, the cole slaw was what you'd expect. The pulled pork wasn't as dry as the Stampede, it was nicely sauced (but there was no extra sauce like at the Stampede). The biscuits weren't as good (or big) as the stampede but still good. The show sorta starts while you have food - with a song - then shifts into an advertisement for other stuff, then takes a break while commercials play (not annoyingly though). I think this whole charade is mostly to give people time to finish eating and the wait staff time to cleanup because you don't really see your wait staff again once the show kicks into gear. They do remind you to tip your wait staff ($4.50 per person at your table is the suggestion). The show itself was kind of all over the place for me. The lead lady, the sheriff, was kind of hard to hear because she didn't enunciate like the lead guy (the mayor). The sheriff also broke into uncontrollable laughter that wasn't part of the show when a gun sound effect didn't fire at the right time. It was kinda funny for everyone though as the whole theater laughed. The story was all over the place, the performances were pretty good but not as well rehearsed as the Stampede. The special effects were somewhat shocking - there's a pool complete with high diving and fire scenes even, that was cool. Overall in terms of food & entertainment it was on par with the Stampede for a lot less money. I suppose the Stampede is a little more elegant, a little classier - but the food & price are better at this show. The show let out 1hr and 50mn after the posted time (9:50p in our case) - but again - get there...

Enjoyed the atmosphere and the show.

Our tickets were for 5:00. We got there around 4:30 and realized that some people were already served and almost finished eating dinner. Our waitress was nice, but she had a chair moved from our table due to space issues. She told us she may accidentally hit us with her behind if we sat in the empty space. We had to use the space to get a better view of the stage. She was a great waitress although we felt rushed to finish our food before the show started. This may have been because the servers were gone during most of the show. It is recommended to leave $4.50 per person as a tip for the waitress and we left $5 per person.

There was an abundance of food and although it looked great, it wasn't well seasoned. In addition, the banana pudding was a huge disappointment. Tasted artificial and made me sick to my stomach only after a few bites. It could have been a great end to our themed meal, but sadly it left a bad taste in my mouth. Additionally, I wasn't comfortable that so much of the food we didn't eat went to waste. I asked for a to-go box, but they didn't have those so our buckets of uneaten food were eventually trashed. If I go back, I will make sure I take something myself (like some ziplock bags) because I didn't want to overindulge just to prevent waste. I would feel better knowing that at least the food was used for some other purpose other than just to be tossed.

We had a seat in the corner end of the theater about halfway up, so it was hard to see some things on stage due to props. Even though there were huge video screens, I didn't come to watch the show on a screen. Thankfully they had them though or there were things I wouldn't have seen at all.

I really enjoyed the show and although I didn't have my children with me, they would have enjoyed it so much. One of the main scenes was truly unique and nothing I have seen at a dinner show. Loved the dancing, the singing was beautiful and the jokes were cute. Overall very pleased and entertained with the performances.

At the end of the show, we were told there were two exits that only led to the outside of the theater. In order to revisit the gift shop or the restrooms you had to go back around the building to enter into the front again. I felt like this was very inconvenient especially for older people who may have difficulty walking and things like that.

Overall, I am pleased but would recommend changing a few things...

Have a "Supper Starts at _" Dinner time indicated on the ticket "Show Starts at _" time and indicate that wait service will be limited or unavailable during the show The seasoning of the food needs improvement Indicate before the show starts that you will only be able to exit the building at the end of the show in case anyone needs to visit the gift shop or the restrooms before leaving

None of these things indicate that I don't recommend this show, but be aware and prepared if you do go. Hopefully the owners will take my recommendations and see more satisfied customers with a few...