The 2006 Golden Ticket Awards were held August 27th at Holiday World. Hosted by Amusement Today, it’s basically the Academy Awards of the amusement industry. With all of the great new coasters opening this year and last year I was curious to see what changes might have taken place. The winners are based on surveys sent to well-traveled enthusiasts around the world. The interesting thing about the awards is that it may take a few years for a coaster to climb to number 1. Enough voters need to visit a park or ride a coaster for it move up in the rankings. Sometimes Internet buzz and word-of-mouth can send travelers to out-of-the-way, smaller parks for their top-knotch attractions (ie. Holiday World, Dollywood).
Best Park Award
Golden Ticket’s top ten parks is quite a mixed bag. It has smaller parks like Knoebels and Kennywood as well as larger parks that attract attendees from all over the world like Islands of Adventure, Disneyland, and Magic Kingdom. Again this year Cedar Point is the winner for Best Park by a large margin.
Cedar Point – Sandusky, OH
Pleasure Beach Blackpool – Blackpool, England
Knoebels Amusement Resort – Elysburg, PA
Islands of Adventure – Orlando, FL
Disneyland – Anaheim, CA
Kennywood – West Mifflin, PA
Europa Park – Rust, Germany
Holiday World – Santa Claus, IN
Busch Gardens Europe – Williamsburg, VA
Magic Kingdom – Orlando, FL