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2018 Golden Ticket Award winners announced!

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
It's that time of year again, guys! The GTAs are back, and the event was hosted at Silver Dollar City this year! Here is the list of winners, taken from Behind The Thrills:

Best Theme Park: Europa Park-Rust Germany (5th year in a row)

Best Waterpark: Schlitterbahn-New Braunfels, Texas (21st year in a row)

Best Wooden Coaster: Phoenix at Knoebels, Elysburg, Pennsylvania

Best Steel Coaster: Fury 325 at Carowinds, Charlotte, North Carolina

Best Indoor Coaster: Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios Florida

Best New Ride: Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio

Best New Waterpark Ride: Ray Rush at SeaWorld Orlando

Best Shows: Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Best Dark Ride: Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World Florida

Best Walkthrough Funhouse: Kennywood Mifflin, Pennsylvania

Best Carousel: Grand Carousel at Knoebels, Elysburg, Pennsylvania

Best Landscaping: Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia

Friendliest Park: Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Best Waterpark Ride: Wildebeest at Holiday World, Santa Claus, Indiana

Best Water ride: Valhalla at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Blackpool, England

Best Kids Area: Planet Snoopy at Kings Island, Mason, Ohio

Best Marine Life Park: SeaWorld Orlando

Best Food: Knoebels, Elysburg Pennsylvania

Cleanest Park: Holiday World, Santa Claus, Indiana

Best Christmas Event: Smoky Mountain Christmas at Dollywood, Pigeon Forge Tennessee

Best Halloween Event: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida

Best Children’s Park: Idlewild Ligonier, Pennyslvania

Best Seaside Park: Santa Cruz Boardwalk, California

Seems like a good, albeit slightly unsurprising, year for the GTAs! I look forward to next year's event!

Even though I don't necessarily agree with every award, I do enjoy the Golden Tickets each year! A few overall thoughts of mine include:
  • I'm not remotely surprised to see Steel Vengeance win Best New Ride of 2018 considering how everyone raves about it! I'm also not at all surprised to see Europa Park win Best Park, so well done to both parks in this regard!
  • I'm not too surprised to see Fury 325 win Best Steel Coaster, but I must admit that I'm a little surprised to see Phoenix win Best Wooden Coaster.
  • I'm not sure if anyone else agrees with me, but I am surprised that Blackpool Pleasure Beach never wins the award for Best Seaside Park, as I personally think that the operations are brilliant, that the whole atmosphere of the place is wonderful and that the park has gone where no other seaside park has gone before with regards to additions in the past! Also, I feel that BPB has an extremely wide variety on offer!
​
And finally; congratulations to all the parks that won awards!
P.S. Here's the Behind The Thrills link: https://behindthethrills.com/2018/09/top-theme-parks-honored-with-annual-2018-golden-ticket-awards/​
 
You guys must be new.. the Golden Tickets have been like this since they began in the late 90's. They're biased and.. just kinda there to be there? Amusement parks eat them up but as far as the actual reality, that's not the case for most people.

So..

hmc.gif
 
b&mfanboy123 said:
I want to really see what the top 50 are, should be interesting.
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I'm interested to see if anything I've ridden makes the top 50! When should this be released, out of interest?
EDIT: Wikipedia now has the top 10 for each category listed. They are as follows:
Top 10 Steel
  1. Fury 325 (Carowinds)
  2. Millennium Force (Cedar Point)
  3. Steel Vengeance (Cedar Point)
  4. Expedition GeForce (Holiday Park)
  5. Superman the Ride (Six Flags New England)
  6. Apollo's Chariot (Busch Gardens Williamsburg)
  7. Iron Rattler (Six Flags Fiesta Texas)
  8. Leviathan (Canada's Wonderland)
  9. Maverick (Cedar Point)
  10. Diamondback (Kings Island)
Top 10 Wood
  1. Phoenix (Knoebels)
  2. El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)
  3. The Voyage (Holiday World)
  4. Boulder Dash (Lake Compounce)
  5. The Beast (Kings Island)
  6. Lightning Rod (Dollywood)
  7. Outlaw Run (Silver Dollar City)
  8. Ravine Flyer II (Waldameer)
  9. Gold Striker (California's Great America)
  10. Thunderhead (Dollywood)
 
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Snoo said:
You guys must be new.. the Golden Tickets have been like this since they began in the late 90's. They're biased and.. just kinda there to be there? Amusement parks eat them up but as far as the actual reality, that's not the case for most people.

So..
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Yeah tbf I knew there's always been a bias (even for Mitch Hawker right?) but with the quality of rides in Europe now at an all-time high, it's just crazy they can pass this sh*t off as as a reliable vote.
 
vaugc002 said:
Yeah tbf I knew there's always been a bias (even for Mitch Hawker right?) but with the quality of rides in Europe now at an all-time high, it's just crazy they can pass this sh*t off as as a reliable vote.
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No poll is perfect but Mitch Hawker was as close to unbiased as you can have as it can help eliminate more stupid. But the GT's have had the same issue for two decades. They don't know how to eliminate that bias and just pass it off because "WE'RE THE GOLDEN TICKETS!"
 
Out of interest, what are people's predictions for Best New Ride of 2019? Part of me would really love to see it be Nagashima's RMC, but I personally predict it'll either be Copperhead Strike, IOA's Potter coaster or possibly Maxx Force or Steel Curtain.
 
Agree with MF being above Steve. :cool:

Most are unsurprising, not sure i'd rate Ravine Flyer II so highly after riding it the first time this year (and obviously beast is the best but hey ho). I'd also put El toro above Phoenix but the general collection of rides in the lists is relatively sensible/predictable. I really want to go to Holiday world and see how clean it is now!
 
I know every poll has its biases, but Golden Tickets take it to a whole new level.
Say, for instance, that a group of 100 voters ride a coaster at The America Park and all declare it to be a 2/10. That gives that coaster 200 points.
Then a group of 20 voters ride a coaster at Restofthefrickingworld Park. All but one declare it a 10/10, the last one says it's a 9 because the ride op didn't let him bring his camera on board. With 199 points, that coaster ends up behind the former coaster, and The America Park gets to brand itself as "Best X in the world" one more year in a row.

Okay, maybe it isn't literally that bad, but the reasons why American parks tend to win 13 Golden Tickets out of every dozen all have to do with a crappy methodology they've been called out for ad nauseam but refuse to fix.
 
OK, I hope we have gotten out of the way the obligatory “why the GTAs are biased” statements and can now take them for what they are, warts and all, and comment on what we see.

1. I was surprised to see Phoenix rise back to the top. I adore that ride, but I can’t see why it should overtake Toro.

2. The GTAs are notoriously slow for acknowledging new coasters and letting go of old favorites, but I thought this year juuuust might be the exception — the one year when a brand new entry has been so overwhelmingly sensational in its reception that it just might shoot straight to number one. Instead, SV debuts at third ... below Millennium Force. Oh well, I guess it is amazing enough for it to debut that high in the rankings.
 
Matt N said:
What's the matter with a good B&M hyper or two being in the top 10, out of interest?
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Nothing in principle, but Apollo's Chariot isn't even the best steel coaster in the park, let alone in the Top 10 GLOBALLY.

It's very good (I love B&M hypers), but it's not that good.
 
Hixee said:
Nothing in principle, but Apollo's Chariot isn't even the best steel coaster in the park, let alone in the Top 10 GLOBALLY.

It's very good (I love B&M hypers), but it's not that good.
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This guy. I know I have my bias but I put cash MONEY down those two aren't in the top 30 at a MINIMUM if Mitch Hawker continued his poll.
 
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