This page needs to start with its own uncertainty, because the record genuinely conflicts. The Gatlinburg Pinball Museum opened on the Parkway by traffic light #8, next to the Space Needle, as a room of classic pinball machines (and a few arcade cabinets) all on free play for a flat $15 all-day wristband with come-and-go privileges. The walkthroughs on this page — a home-arcade collector's praised visit in 2019, a retro gamer's play-through, a full day-wristband review from a Florida pinball podcaster — document a well-run room of well-kept machines. Then a tour filmed in March 2020 reports the museum closed permanently. Walkthroughs keep appearing after that — 2021 and August 2022, the newest footage anywhere on this page.
Watch: first looks
3 videos · summaries from the actual guidesWhat we can and cannot say
No film on this page is newer than August 2022, and nothing in the record available to us settles the museum's current status either way. It may have closed during the pandemic era and the later walkthroughs may predate their upload dates; it may be operating still. We publish these films as the record of what the museum was — a beloved room by every account — and we state the dispute here rather than picking a side the evidence does not support. Check its current listing before building an evening around it.
The room, as filmed
Rows of electromechanical and solid-state classics — the films linger on the machines pinball people travel for — plus the wristband economics that made it the Parkway's best retro value: $15, all day, leave for lunch, come back. The collector films judge machine condition the way sommeliers judge cellars, and their verdicts were strong.
Watch: more views
3 videos · summaries from the actual guidesWhy it stays in the directory
Because eight solid films of a real Gatlinburg attraction exist, because its status is honestly uncertain rather than settled, and because a directory that only carries open-and-certain places is less useful than one that labels its doubts. This label is the doubt.
Sources: the 8 videos on this page, filmed at the Gatlinburg Pinball Museum between 2019 and August 2022; closure reported in a March 2020 tour, contradicted by walkthroughs through 2022.
Watch: the full set
2 videos · summaries from the actual guidesMore Gatlinburg essentials
Start from the Gatlinburg hub for the full directory, or keep exploring: