Congratulations to Kings Island for winning its 13th consecutive Gold Ticket Award tonight for Best Kids Area from Amusement Today Magazine.

A truly international award, and well deserved, now add to the best kids park to keep this going! it was also good to watch the streaming of the awards show.

http://new.livestream.com/scbb/2013gta

Congrats to ki. Without seeing the golden tix I will congratulate cp for park of the year, holiday world as friendliest, and knobels or dollywood for best food.

Pretty good, considering the age of most of the rides in that section.

The park obviously does what it takes to keep winning this award year after year. And so long as it does, it always will. It's apparent the park and Cedar Fair find the investment to be worthwhile.

.... and the winner of best steel coaster goes to... Cedar Point for none other than Millennium Forceless.

Hey don't forget DiamondStack at Kings Island for best Steel, or WindSleeker for best flat.

Hmm...mostly it's the same old-same old, but there was a suprise: Boulder Dash @ Lake Compounce narrowly edged out El Toro @ SFGadv for best wooden coaster, which is suprising. Voyage dropped to 4th, the lowest I think it ever has been on the GTA awards. Outlaw Run debuted at #7, I was kind of expecting it to be higher, could it do better in the Mitch Hawker poll...perhaps.

Mf is still more exciting than a b&m hyper with trims and a mcbr IMO. To me and many other people floater air does not mean anything.

No shocker,; I guess this means they keep paying the advertiser's fees. I have had far better food than Dollywood at an amusement park.

When they got to best landscaping I recalled Don on many accounts talking about how Kings Island has award winning landscape, does anyone here happen to know what award that is?

Mf is still more exciting than a b&m hyper with trims and a mcbr IMO. To me and many other people floater air does not mean anything.

Dude, we get it.. You like intamin

What a surprise!

I like magnum to. I like kumba, raptor, montu, btr, chang (green lantern), goliath(SFoG opening weekend 06), tatsu. So I am not biased to onemanufacture. I have been on all three medusa clones, dominator, superman krypton coaster, etc and feel that floorless coasters are forceless gimicks.

Boulder dash better than el toro? Come on.

Don tried to claim during the Q&A this evening that the Golden Tickets were voted on by people like us and had nothing to do with advertising money.

No disrespect to Don, who probably has to say that to get the general public to believe the award, but I think that's a load of PR bull****.

Transmitted from Wild Space via my datapad's DROID brain

^ Advertising doesn't buy a Golden Ticket award. (Though it almost certainly pays to protect the status quo, in which voters generally choose the same winners each year.)

Most awards for picking the "best" of anything are rather meaningless, but they make for good marketing and PR. Much more importantly, KI's kids' area couldn't keep winning this if it wasn't highly regarded.

^ Advertising doesn't buy a Golden Ticket award.

Yes it does.

Boulder dash better than el toro? Come on.

Have you had a chance to ride Boulder Dash in the last year or two? The coaster is running fantastic right now. I thought Boulder Dash - particularly in the first car - was the best coaster I've ridden this year even factoring in rides on I305, Skyrush, El Toro, Bizarro at SFNE, Voyage and others.

Millenium Force at #1:

No surprise, it's overrated.

Maverick at #22:

Just doesn't get the respect it deserves...

Voyage descends to #4:

Doesn't surprise me. It gets rougher and rougher every year.

Boulder Dash from behind at #1:

Darn, I was hoping El Toro would repeat.

Magnum at #9:

How much longer will this coaster rest on its laurels to stay in the top 10?

Lightning Racer at #9:

Aaaaaah Yeeeeaaaah!

Millenium Force at #1:

No surprise, it's overrated.

Maverick at #22:

Just doesn't get the respect it deserves...

I could not agree more with your comments on Maverick and Millennium Force. In my first (and so far only) trip to the Point, I found Millennium was not even close to being worth all the hype it receives. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still a great ride, but it just barely makes my top 5. I even have Diamondback ahead of it. Personally, I found Millennium to be really fast and, well, that was it. I didn't really experience any other sensation. At least DB gives me airtime.

And, Maverick, what an awesome surprise! By far, the BEST coaster I have ever ridden. Granted, I've only been to KI and CP, but I figure riding what many others say is number one, I can accurately say, there is no better coaster than Maverick. I just don't understand how it consistently ranks so low. At least Mitch Hawker's has it at nine.

<End Rant>

Voyage descends to #4:

Doesn't surprise me. It gets rougher and rougher every year.

It's been smoother this year and last year than it was in 2011.

These rankings will never change. The people that vote only vote for the popular choice. Even if they think a coaster is the best they will vote for the popular decision.

It will be interesting to see where Banshee falls this next year!

Amusement Today is like what happened at the Nascar race Saturday night.

These rankings will never change. The people that vote only vote for the popular choice. Even if they think a coaster is the best they will vote for the popular decision.

If this was true, El Toro would have been ranked first again.

Enthusiasts have a thing against Six Flags in general, as a rule. The miracle was that El Toro was ever 1. That being said, based on my rides yesterday, I'd say Maverick is superior to El Toro this year. I wish I'd been to Idaho this year...

^

To ride the deja vu clone?

I want to know how CP was even in the running for best Children's Area. I mean, they are divided into four areas, none of which are spectacular.

I also want to know why Nickelodeon Universe was nominated for "Best Kids' Area" rather than "Best Children's Park".

Amusement Today is like what happened at the Nascar race Saturday night.

It was really boring and very few people watched it?

That and controversal.

Amusement Today is like what happened at the Nascar race Saturday night.

Amusement Today is like the WWE