Golden Ticket Awards 2012

[Sam]

Voting commences for the Golden Ticket Awards 2012

Ballots have been posted globally to industry experts and enthusiasts contributing to this year’s Golden Ticket Awards.

The annual event consists with a majority of voters coming from the United States, however an international panel will help contribute to proceedings this year.

Notable British nominees include Thorpe Park’s The Swarm for best new ride, Blackpool’s Valhalla and Spongebob’s Splash Bash for best water ride, and Alton Towers for ‘Best Landscaping’ and ‘Best Indoor Waterpark’.

Votes will be taken digitally online for the first time, with each participant receiving a unique code by post to use online. Whilst the majority of categories feature a set selection of entrants, both the ‘Top 10 Wood Coasters’ and ‘Top 10 Steel Coasters’ categories are open to each voters’ preferences.

The Golden Ticket Awards is a recognised award scheme within the theme park industry promoted by attractions magazine Amusement Today. Results are set to be announced at an event in Dollywood in the United States on 7-8 September this year.

Towers are clearly not going to win the waterpark, but good luck for the landscaping, the gardens are pretty damn beautiful!

Let's hope it's not the American-only joke of a poll it's been in previous years.

 

[Adam James]

I know that a few TSTers applied to vote after seeing last years results, so hopefully more European locations are represented as winners and runner ups this year. US coasters in particular seem to have favoured well in the past due to the distribution of voters and certain sites skewing the votes.

 

[Martin]

This should be good for a laugh.

 

[AstroDan]

I hope that through increased European voters, the rewards this year may be a little more balanced.

I am still not 100% convinced on the transparancy of this poll, however.

 

[Alastair]

I always get the impression that this is skewed in favour of American parks due to its American origins. The fact that they manage to spell Europa Park wrong on their 2011 winners page also adds credence to these doubts.

 

[Sam]

Here are the top three parks (out of 11) for the 'Best Park' award in 2011:

Cedar Point Sandusky, Ohio 23%
Knoebels Amusement Resort Elysburg, Pa. 13%
Europa-Park Rust, Germany 12%

That Knoebels, with its two major rollercoasters and zero hotels came ahead of Europa Park is patently absurd.

 

[Tim]

Here are the top three parks (out of 11) for the 'Best Park' award in 2011:

Cedar Point Sandusky, Ohio 23%
Knoebels Amusement Resort Elysburg, Pa. 13%
Europa-Park Rust, Germany 12%

That Knoebels, with its two major rollercoasters and zero hotels came ahead of Europa Park is patently absurd.

To be fair I've never heard anything but good things being said about Knoebels. Just read Jeremy's opening paragraph over at this page on RCP and it gives you a good explanation of why people fall in love with the place. Admittedly it is because it plays towards the classic American amusement park feel and so it might not be as popular with guests from outside the states but it still sounds like a great place to be.

That said I do completely agree that the Golden Ticket Awards are absurdly biased. I'm glad that Americans like Blackpool but the fact it keeps out performing most other European parks is absurd. Also although I haven’t been on Spongebob’s Splash Bash I can't even begin to believe it's in the same league as Valhalla and some of the worlds other great water rides.

Still it’s nice to see Alton's Waterpark get some attention. I was in there the last two days and as indoor Waterparks go it is really good. Although saying that the outside section is the best part (which spends far too long closed) and if you visit regularly I can imagine the lack of investment being an issue.

 

[Sam]

The Golden Ticket winners were announced over this weekend at Dollywood.

The winners:

Best Amusement Park: Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
Best Waterpark: Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, New Braunfels, Texas
Best Children’s Park: Idlewild and SoakZone, Ligonier, Pa.
Best Marine Life Park: SeaWorld Orlando, Orlando, Fla.
Best Seaside Park: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Santa Cruz, Calif.
Best Wooden Coaster: El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, N.J.
Best Steel Coaster: Millennium Force at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio
Best Kids’ Area: Kings Island, Kings Mills, Ohio
Friendliest Park: Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Cleanest Park: Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, Ind.
Best Halloween Event: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando, Orlando, Fla.
Best Landscaping: Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Va.
Best Christmas Event: Smoky Mountain Christmas at Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Best Food : Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Best Shows: Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Best Outdoor Night Show Production: IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth at Walt Disney World’s Epcot, Orlando, Fla.
Best Water Ride: Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Orlando, Fla.
Best Waterpark Ride: Wildebeest at Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, Ind.
Best Dark Ride: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Orlando, Fla.
Best New Ride of 2012 – Amusement Park: Wild Eagle at Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Best New Ride of 2012 – Waterpark: Mammoth at Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, Ind.
Best Carousel: Grand Carousel at Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg, Pa.
Best Indoor Roller Coaster: Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios Orlando, Orlando, Fla.
Best Indoor Waterpark: Schlitterbahn Galveston Island, Galveston, Texas
Best Funhouse/Walk-Through Attraction: Noah’s Ark at Kennywood, West Mifflin, Pa.



Literally not a SINGLE winner from outside the United States. (and only two of the top ten wood and top ten steel coasters are non-US, Balder and EGF). Pathetic.

I mean, Santa Cruz beating Blackpool for Best Seaside Park is utterly laughable.

I guess the only thing worth noting is that Europa Park moved up from 3rd to 2nd in the 'Best Park' category. But it looks like people just blindly vote for Cedar Point whatever, I can't ever see a non-American park winning that award.

You can see all the runners up on their website, if you can be bothered.

 

[Tim]

Does anyone else find it suspicious that Dollywood (the park which hosted the event) have won so many awards?
Friendliest Park, Best Christmas, Best Food, Best Shows, Best New Ride
That must be one amazing park... although last year they only won the two highlighted above (New Ride obviously not being applicable).

And on the subject of best new ride Wild Eagle beat Radiator Springs Racer by twice the number of votes (and Oz’Iris by more than 3 times that but it’s a European ride and therefore vastly inferior). Now I haven’t been on either of these rides but I’ve heard nothing but praise for RSR.

Also what happened to Alton for best landscaping? They don't even appear on the results.

---

It's fun to joke about these awards but unfortunately the American bias does reinforce the impression that only Americans make good rides... despite most the big manufactures being European companies.

 

[Tom]

I'm not sure why anyone would be concerned about the results of a commercially-biased poll from a country where only 30% of the population have passports anyway?

 

[Adam James]

...and to think that if I didn't vote Wild Mouse it literally wouldn't have made the Top 50 is laughable.

Here is a summary of where the UK fell into this American awards scheme that i've copied from Airgates.

Best Park – (10th – 4% of the vote) Pleasure Beach, Blackpool
Best Seaside Park – (2nd – 20% of the vote) Pleasure Beach, Blackpool
Best Indoor Waterpark – (5th – 8% of the vote) Splash Landings
Best Water Ride – (2nd – 17% of the vote) Valhalla at Pleasure Beach, Blackpool

Top 50 Steel Coasters - 16th Nemesis, Alton Towers
Top 50 Wooden Coasters - 27th Megafobia, Oakwood
30th Grand National, Pleasure Beach, Blackpool
49th Wild Mouse, Pleasure Beach, Blackpool​

Judging off the list, I really must ride Megafobia if it's rated higher than the Blackpool woodies.
Glad to see the vastly overrated Big One didn't make the cut, however for those interested Blue Fire came 32nd and Euro-Mir 50th in the Steel rankings. The highest European coaster was Expedition GeForce at 6th.