Golden Ticket Awards!

As you all know, Amusement Today Magazine honors the golden ticket awards every year. The awards will be announced tomorrow and Dollywood is hosting the event. I'm starting this thread because I think it would be fun to see what you guys and ladies think which parks and roller coasters will win this year. I'll go first:

-Best New Ride (Amusement Park): Leviathan
-Best New Ride (Waterpark): I don't know of any besides Dragster H20.
-Best Park: Cedar Point (of course)
-Best Waterpark: Sclitterbahn
-Best Children's Park: Idlewild
-Best Marine Life Park: my guess is any SeaWorld park
-Best Seaside Park: I don't know of too many so I'll go with Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (same as last years)
-Best Indoor Waterpark: Kalahari
-Friendliest Park: Holiday World
-Cleanest Park: Holiday World
-Best Shows: Magic Kingdom
-Best Food: Epcot
-Best Water Ride: Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw
-Best Waterpark Ride: Master Blaster
-Best Kids Area: Kings Island Planet Snoopy
-Best Darkride: Harry Potter and the forbidden Journey (heard a lot of good things about it)
-Best Outdoor Show Production: Epcot
-Best Landscaping: Gilroy Gardens
-Best Halloween Event: Universal Orlando
-Best Christmas Event: Dollywood (of course)
-Best Carousel: Great America
-Best Indoor Coaster: Now that DT is gone, I've never been on any
-Best Funhouse/Walktrhough Attraction: Noahs Ark Kennywood

I listed some repeats from last year, but I travelled to a lot of parks this year and I think I have a pretty solid list. I know some of you think its a rigged competition, but it would still be fun to see what parks and rides you think should win the awards.

TwistedWicker77 said:
-Best New Ride (Waterpark): I don't know of any besides Dragster H20.

That award will certainly be won by Mammoth at Holiday World. It will probably win Best Waterpark Ride too.

I doubt Leviathan will win best new ride. I think Skyrush will easily win.

^Skyrush will take the cake for best new ride.

With the reputation it has? I doubt it. And by the way, you can tell who won by who is going. If Hershey didn't send anyone, they probably didn't win.

The only real winner is Amusement Today, who gets a rag filled with ads that no one would have ever bought if it weren't for this poll.

Cedar Point has once again been voted Best Amusement Park in the World!

Complete list of winners,
http://www.goldenticketawards.com/and-the-winner-is

Anyone else able to get on there website??

It seems that it's down right now. I was able to get on it, they had all the awards except the coaster rankings. Leviathan was the 3rd best new ride.

In case anyone wants a working link to the live stream of the ceremony, http://www.amusementtoday.com/watchlive/

The company that supplied Luminosity won the Publishers Pick for Supplier of the Year. Great article on the new Luminsoity too.

Here's the link,
http://www.goldenticketawards.com/winners/2012-09-08-20-11-23/publishers-picks

Jeff said:
With the reputation it has? I doubt it. And by the way, you can tell who won by who is going. If Hershey didn't send anyone, they probably didn't win.

The only real winner is Amusement Today, who gets a rag filled with ads that no one would have ever bought if it weren't for this poll.

You aren't suggesting there is payola going on here, are you? That's pretty libelous stuff...

Since, I have only went to the point twice this year and never stayed late enough for Luminosity, I have to say I am surprised by the whole idea of them putting a mention in. Is it really as good as the billing for an article and an award for something mentioned in the Golden Tickets?

If this is true, then bravo to Cedar Point for garnering attention for one of their productions. That is a serious step for them. We all know that they do have their fair share of productions and the only one that has really impressed me over the years is the All Wheels Extreme show.

Kudos to the creative heads for taking a gamble on this and hopefully adding new things like this to the fold in Live E. BTW no disrespect to other live e performers, but maybe change is a good thing in that department.

My favorite roller coaster won best Steel Roller Coaster for the 3rd straight year in a row! Millennium Force - The future is riding on it!

Your Beast was ranked 7th too.

That's awesome as well! I was rooting for Voyage to get top honors for 6 years running, but every streak has to come to an end. :(

Jeff said:

The only real winner is Amusement Today, who gets a rag filled with ads that no one would have ever bought if it weren't for this poll.

Jeff, I'd like to honor the above statement in my once-a-year magazine, World's Best Truth Tellers. If you could just tell me what size an advertisement you would like to purchase, that would be great! We have a wide readership that includes pretty much all of the other Truth Tellers featured in the magazine!

Ohh....... ahh....... The Golden Ticket Awards. Meh!

It's not payola... I'm sure their poll is legit (if not a total popularity contest). What I'm saying is that it's ethically dubious to take money from "advertisers" who otherwise would not buy ad space just because they won something. It's like saying, "This award means enough that I'll buy an ad so you'll do the same awards next year." A lot of trade rags do it, but it devalues any shred of journalistic integrity they might have had.

Mark my words... AT will go the way of Amusement Business eventually. The industry isn't big enough to merit print advertising budgets when there's more value in networking and building relationships. If everyone for the most part knows everyone else, why bother?