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2017 Golden Ticket Award Winners Announced!

Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
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Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
So, the 2017 Golden Ticket Awards were hosted last night at Lake Compounce, and these parks were the award winners:
  • Best New Ride (Amusement Park): Mystic Timbers (Kings Island)
  • Best New Ride (Water Park): Thunder Rapids (Six Flags Fiesta Texas)
  • Best Park: Europa Park
  • Best Waterpark: Schlitterbahn (New Braunfels)
  • Best Children's Park: Idlewild & SoakZone
  • Best Marine Life Park: SeaWorld Orlando
  • Best Seaside Park: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
  • Best Kids' Area: Planet Snoopy (Kings Island)
  • Cleanest Park: Holiday World & Splashin' Safari
  • Friendliest Park: Dollywood
  • Best Shows: Dollywood
  • Best Landscaping: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
  • Best Food: Dollywood
  • Best Carousel: Grand Carousel (Knoebels)
  • Best Water Ride: Valhalla (Blackpool Pleasure Beach)
  • Best Water Park Ride: Wildebeest (Holiday World & Splashin' Safari)
  • Best Dark Ride: Tower of Terror (Walt Disney World)
  • Best Indoor Roller Coaster: Revenge of the Mummy (Universal Studios Florida)
  • Best Funhouse: Noah's Ark (Kennywood)
  • Best Halloween Event: Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Orlando Resort)
  • Best Christmas Event: Smoky Mountain Christmas (Dollywood)
  • Best Steel Roller Coaster: Fury 325 (Carowinds)
  • Best Wooden Roller Coaster: El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)
Top 25 Steel Roller Coasters
1) Fury 325 (Carowinds)
2) Millennium Force (Cedar Point)
3) Superman the Ride (Six Flags New England)
4) Iron Rattler (Six Flags Fiesta Texas)
5) Expedition GeForce (Holiday Park)
6) Leviathan (Canada's Wonderland)
7) Nitro (Six Flags Great Adventure)
8) Diamondback (Kings Island)
9) New Texas Giant (Six Flags Over Texas)
10) Maverick (Cedar Point)
11) Apollo's Chariot (Busch Gardens Williamsburg)
12) Phantom's Revenge (Kennywood)
13) Intimidator 305 (Kings Dominion)
14) Goliath (Six Flags Over Georgia) and Wicked Cyclone (Six Flags New England)
16) Twisted Colossus (Six Flags Magic Mountain)
17) Top Thrill Dragster (Cedar Point)
18) Blue Fire (Europa Park)
19) Intimidator (Carowinds)
20) Nemesis (Alton Towers)
21) Taron (Phantasialand)
22) Banshee (Kings Island)
23) Magnum XL-200 (Cedar Point)
24) Skyrush (Hersheypark)
25) X2 (Six Flags Magic Mountain)
Top 25 Wooden Roller Coasters
1) El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)
2) Phoenix (Knoebels)
3) Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce)
4) The Voyage (Holiday World)
5) Lightning Rod (Dollywood)
6) The Beast (Kings Island)
7) Ravine Flyer II (Waldameer)
8) Thunderhead (Dollywood)
9) Outlaw Run (Silver Dollar City)
10) Gold Striker (California's Grea America)
11) Mystic Timbers (Kings Island)
12) Lightning Racer (Hersheypark)
13) Goliath (Six Flags Great America)
14) Boardwalk Bullet (Kemah Boardwalk)
15) Wodan (Europa Park)
16) Balder (Liseberg)
17) Thunderbolt (Kennywood)
18) GhostRider (Knott's Berry Farm), Troy (Toverland) and White Lightning (Fun Spot Orlando)
21) Rampage (Alabama Splash Adventure)
22) Coney Island Cyclone (Luna Park)
23) The Raven (Holiday World)
24) The Legend (Holiday World)
25) Shivering Timbers (Michigan's Adventure)

I don't know the nominees for each category because I didn't actually watch the Awards. So, what do you guys think of the winners?

Also, on a side note, my Dad was asking me why rides that he loves, like SheiKra and Smiler never feature. Do you guys know?
 
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I'm still amazed that Valhalla regularly wins the best water ride given the inconsistent reliability of the effects. Personally Chiapas would nip ahead of Valhalla for me.

Niether are poor coasters. Sheikra I guess dive coasters have the one trick pony label attached to them which probably taints people view of them compared to coasters with lots of elements. Smiler is a great coaster but the ride was compromised for gimmicks and poor construction.
Simply put though there is at least 20 coasters better than either Sheikra or Smiler according to the poll, if you think either was in your personal 20 I wouldn't disagree with you. :)
 
Glad to see the Macks have got 4 in a row, but these awards have always been a load of bull otherwise. Too centred on America and I always found the old Mitch Hawker poll to be more reliable when it came to coasters.
 
Jonathan said:
No matter what, the Golden Ticket Awards are ALWAYS ridiculously centred on America.
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I was kind of thinking that as well. For example, when I looked at the top 25 steel and wooden roller coasters, I kind of facepalmed when I saw that Magnum XL-200, an Arrow hyper which has been getting OK reviews, is featured and Shambhala, which has been getting utterly rave reviews, isn't. Also, I'm not sure that Mystic Timbers should be the Best New Ride of 2017. Have they seen Symbolica? Or DC Rivals? Or the rides in Pandora? On a side note, how does the ranking system work in the Golden Ticket Awards? Do enthusiasts vote for the rides or are they voted for by the people who run the Awards?
 
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DiogoJ42 said:
I think it's mostly what Robb Alvey orders his minions to vote for.
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And what we order out minions to vote for in terms of best park... ;)

In all seriousness, although these awards are always somewhat of a joke in terms of how USA centred they are, it remains a brilliant achievement for Europa-Park to win yet again. Yes there are a larger number of Europeans who now vote in the awards but to win there has to be a large number of Americans who agree.

:)
 
Rob said:
In all seriousness, although these awards are always somewhat of a joke in terms of how USA centred they are, it remains a brilliant achievement for Europa-Park to win yet again. Yes there are a larger number of Europeans who now vote in the awards but to win there has to be a large number of Americans who agree.
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You don't think it's a bit odd that it can win Best Park and not win anything else? (perhaps its second in all categories and that makes it the best?)

Valhalla and Europa are the lines that really stand out on there for me, almost as if there was an editorial team meeting (that'd be two people...) who decided that there should be more of a European flavour to the list and shoehorned them in.

I feel like I am always hating on Europa here, I'm not - it's a great park, but I do think it has entered to some kind of enthusiast folklore.
 
Rick said:
You don't think it's a bit odd that it can win Best Park and not win anything else? (perhaps its second in all categories and that makes it the best?)

Valhalla and Europa are the lines that really stand out on there for me, almost as if there was an editorial team meeting (that'd be two people...) who decided that there should be more of a European flavour to the list and shoehorned them in.

I feel like I am always hating on Europa here, I'm not - it's a great park, but I do think it has entered to some kind of enthusiast folklore.
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Funny you say that. I was having a conversation with someone the other week about Europa-Park and how we both thought it was the best park in the world. We came to the conclusion that although other parks have say better theming, or better rides, or better shows; EP is just very good at everything. Maybe not the best at anything but one of the few parks around the world that is just consitently very good. And that is what overall makes it the best.

If you want thrills then maybe Cedar Point is the best. If you want theming then it goes to DisneySea. But as an all round package it is hard to better EP.

I certainly do not think that EP and Valhalla have been shoehorned in. If you are going to do that why not just give EP a token best food award (would be perfectly acceptable) rather than the flagship award? So I don't buy that theory.

:)
 
@Rob To confirm, you think Valhalla on any metric (pick any*!) could be considered the best dark ride in the world?

*not wettest
 
Rick said:
@Rob To confirm, you think Valhalla on any metric (pick any*!) could be considered the best dark ride in the world?

*not wettest
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No, because Tower of Terror won best dark ride! ;)

But as I say, these awards are seriously flawed. That doesn't meant to say that I think they are fixed in any way. I'm personally unsure how Halloween Horror Nights continues to win best Halloween event becuase in my experience it is poor.

:)
 
Do these work like productoftheyear.co.uk, where the winners have to nominate themselves (at a cost), then pay more if they win from the "nominees" for the right to use "product of the year" on theiir adverts and branding?
 
Just out of curiosity, has anyone applied to be a voter for the Golden Ticket Awards? They have been actively trying to get non US enthusiasts to take part for quite a while now

How can I become a voter?

Amusement Today is always looking for new voters, particularly those who live overseas. We prefer that our voters make numerous visits to amusement parks and water parks each year and have visited at least 40 different parks in their lifetime. A strong qualification is if voters have travelled and visited amusement parks overseas. If you think you qualify, feel free to contact us for consideration.
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I applied and have been voting for the last two years, so they do accept non US voters.

Unless you have limitless amounts of money you are never going to get to all parks or ride all new rides, but what they encourage you to do, is to research all the parks and rides before voting.

For each category (apart from best steel and wood coasters) you are given numerous options to choose from, so its like the Oscars in that respect. For example for best children's park, Paultons had been nominated, so there are non US entries in the categories.

For the best coasters, you have a list of all the major wood and steel coasters around the World and you pick your best 10 steel and best 10 wood. BUT, its not just on the ride itself, they ask you to take operations, capacity, re-rideability and reliability into account. So for example, my number 10 steel coaster would have been Tatsu at Magic Mountain (Don't ask why, but I love that ride), but when taking in the awful operations I have experienced which resulted in low capacity it didn't make my top 10.

Now I am not saying that every voter takes everything like that into consideration, but I do. :)

But yeah, apply to become a voter and have an impact on future votes !! :)

PS, by the way, I didn't vote for Valhalla !!! lol
 
I have been voting for the past four years I think it is and know that a fair number of others on here also vote!

But yes, if you don't vote in them it is worth registering to do so. If you've been to a decent number of parks across Europe then you'll almost certainly be accepted.

:)
 
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