Golden Ticket Awards: How Cedar Point can improve

After Cedar Point lost Best Park to Europa Park in 2015, and again this year, it got me thinking. What should Cedar Point do, and what do they need to do, to get the award back?

I'm not completely sure, but I think Europa Park won because there are more things for the family, as well as theming. We know Cedar Point doesn't do much theming, but what can they do to improve the park and beat Europa Park?

*I have made this as a separate thread from the GTA 2016 thread because this is just about the best park award, and ideas for how Cedar Point can win that category in future years.

If you think that Europa Won because of theming and family friendliness, I find it impossible to explain how they would beat Disney ever. Or for that matter Universal Studios

Let's be honest here........Cedar Point lost because of the new water tower and the security check points.

They lost because they cut back the amount of advertising they do in "Amusement Today"

A 210 foot tall RMC with gold track.

A) What Dutchman said.

B) I get the PR value of having a Golden Ticket award, and I get the PR value of hosting the awards. I just find it hard to imagine anyone with any park spends time worrying about winning or "getting back" an award. Because it's just, well, PR puffery.

If these awards are in fact rigged, I wouldn't think the park that hosted the event would be shut out in the "voting" categories. Of course if Quassy or Compounce Lake wins the Publisher's Pick for Park of the Year in 2017, I'll be convinced otherwise.

Cedar Fair should cut ties with this organization as soon as possible, and focus on what guests and potential guests want instead of what this rag wants them to add for a .jpg they can add to their website that means nothing.

Amusement Today's Golden Ticket Awards are obviously biased. Phantasialand's Taron? Hello...

Cedar Point adding what a magazine wants them to add is one of the most ridiculous comments ever posted here.

Personally, I think it's a nice event that lets people in the industry get together and socialize for a bit while having fun. Watched the recording from the event and was entertained. Also met and talked to some nice people at the bar.

In light of the recent financial reports from CF and CP I'd say the Gokden Ticket awards are more irrelevant than ever.

I couldcare less what any enthusiast organization has to say and thankfully, CF/CP management makes decisions based upon business needs as opposed to what ACE or Golden Ticket folks think...

Amusement Today and the Golden Tickets are the polar opposite of any "enthusiast organization". This is an industry-only event (and technically, publication)

Not polar opposites at all, actually the definition of Enthusiast Group. As the awards are tabulated though polling the Amusement Today readers which are well traveled enthusiasts.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusement_Today#Golden_Ticket_Awards

And most anybody can became a subscriber to Amusmenet Today magazine as well.

I really think at the end of the day the industry just enjoys getting together and celebrating the year. All of the parks work hard day in and day out. It's like the Tony or Oscar awards. Its not just about who gets what, but rather celebrating the milestones and accomplishments of the industry.

Cedar Point needs to keep being Cedar Point. They aren't going to adjust because they suddenly don't come in first. I'm sure the pendulum will swing back to them in a few years. If anything it still shows that Cedar Point is considered the number one park in North America-- which is pretty cool.

I don't pay attention to the Golden Ticket Awards anymore. Europa over CP is a joke IMO. If it is theming that wins it then as others have said, how does Disney not compete? I guess all CP has to do to win Best New Ride is build an RMC that runs for 1/3 of a season with one train opperation and a few of the rows taped off. The only awards that are generally accurate are Cleanest Park and Best Landscaping.

I agree. Cedar Point needs to keep doing what it has been doing. They seem to be doing just fine. Should they happen to win an award then that's a bonus.

I don't know about the cleanest park award. Most parks I've been to have been generally very clean and tidy. CP is generally spotless, I wouldn't be able to rank parks on cleanliness in any meaningful way.

Pete said:

Personally, I think it's a nice event that lets people in the industry get together and socialize for a bit while having fun.

So is IAAPA, only the party lasts a week. :) Speaking of IAAPA, FunWorld > AT. It's not even close. The Golden Tickets are a nice marketing opportunity, but it's like all of the Best Picture nominees openly sponsoring the Oscars.

I worked for a trade rag (a group of them actually) that covered a particular B2B vertical, and they all give awards that they swear aren't influenced by advertising. While it's generally plausible that this is true, the fact is that the winners all buy ads in the magazine anyway, so it's a pretty strange unspoken arrangement that feels pretty gross to me.

Also, magazines. I haven't had a print magazine in my hands in years.

I'll be at Europa next week. I'll let you know.

And any discussion over the actual relevance of the Golden Ticket awards is ridiculous.

Be sure to wear your Millennium Force shirt and tell them how much they suck compared to Cedar Point. Tell them America's Roller Coast is going to take back the award any year now.

I'm sure you'll get lots of harsh reaction like "Cedar What?" and "Lake Where?".

Europa Park looks like a beautiful park going by pictures I've seen and is definitely on my to-do list the next time I'm in Germany. I'm sure they are very deserving of the award regardless of the level of worth the award has. Plus the representatives were very humble, mentioning CP's string of awards and saying CP is just as excellent as they are.