Golden Ticket winners will be announced tonight at 8PM at Cedar Point.

 

Live stream begins at 8pm here

Did they already announce the best new ride and best wood/steel coasters?

I think they may be saving it for the end but I can't say for sure because I missed the beginning since it didn't start until sometime after 8:30 when the "live feed" went offline. I don't know how much I missed because of that.

Lightning Rod has won best new ride of 2016.

Fury 325 has won the golden ticket for best steel coaster! Millennium Force came in second by one vote.

Also, KI coasters have moved up the lists as Diamondback is the #9 steel coaster and Beast is the #6 wooden coaster in the GTA world rankings.

Cedar Point didn't win anything so they made up a Golden Ticket for them. I want the press to know that.

Rob looked a bit sad when he accepted the award for Fury 325.

Lightning Rod just missed the cutoff for the Top Ten Wooden Coasters. That's still impressive considering the delays. I wonder how it would've placed had more people ridden it.

^^ Those "of the year" awards are marked "Publisher's Choice" in the publication, so they're not trying to hide that fact.

They aren't new, though; they've previously used it to recognize other parks/companies that get snubbed by voters.

Perhaps an interesting result of Cedar Point focusing investments in the past decade on "spectacular", crowd-pleasing coasters & resort improvements that might not garner as many votes from coaster enthusiasts.

Or buying, or not buying, enough ads in Mr. Slade's Golden Publication...

I cant take a group of voters that claims Carowinds Intimidator is better then Diamondback seriously

I cant take a group of voters that claims Carowinds Intimidator is better then Diamondback seriously

Nor can I take voters who like the Phoenix more than the Twister.

To each their own, I guess.

^^ I'm not sure if its because it was a new experience to my wife and I or not but we thought Intimidator was a slightly more fun experience than Diamondback. Again it might have been because it was a new experience for us but we both thought the same thing. DB to us loses steam after the trim brakes after the hammerhead turn where Intimidator is solid until just before the final helix.

Edit: Every ride is unique because people experience them different ways. They was and probably still is a rather large contingent that like Intimidator over Fury 325 in the Carolina area. IMO its absurd to even put those two rides in the same category but that's why roller coasters are so much fun. They deliver unique experiences to each individual that rides them.

Sadly, I hardly remember Intimidator. But that was opening weekend for Fury, so my attention was elsewhere.

Many of these rides are subject to comparison based on other rides in the same park. So a ride being ranked higher or lower is probably related to it's neighbors.

^^ I find myself mentally ranking rides higher if I've ridden less often. A certain part of the experience is lost on a ride when you're intimately familiar with every inch of track.

^^ Those "of the year" awards are marked "Publisher's Choice" in the publication, so they're not trying to hide that fact.

They aren't new, though; they've previously used it to recognize other parks/companies that get snubbed by voters.

Perhaps an interesting result of Cedar Point focusing investments in the past decade on "spectacular", crowd-pleasing coasters & resort improvements that might not garner as many votes from coaster enthusiasts.

I didn't say they were trying to hide it.  I said they made one up for them.  It was a participation award.  Just think - the king of Golden Tickets didn't even get a single one. As I've expressed in the past, I don't put much stock in these awards, but it does show that adding coaster after coaster that you don't need doesn't improve your park at all.  

Golden ticket awards is rigged for money.

Coasters aside I find it hard to take seriously when Disneyland's Tower of Terror is ranked above Disney World's.

Coasters aside I find it hard to take seriously when Disneyland's Tower of Terror is ranked above Disney World's.

Or when the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean aren't mentioned at all.

Cedar Point didn't win anything so they made up a Golden Ticket for them. I want the press to know that.

Doesn't the host park normally get an award similar to CP's this year?

Just out of curiosity, is there any similar type of poll/awards that's more accurate to what guests want and are clamoring for more of or are all these type of things rigged in some way based off the green stuff?  Its kind of disheartening to not have something more 'honest' (for lack of a better word) available to see what's really going on. 

Mitch Hawker runs a very complicated fairly unbiased enthusiasts' poll.

Regular guests? Parks do their own proprietary research--which they ain't sharing with anybody.

Back in the day, Paramount Parks had an online feedback system that guests could fill out their thoughts on the park (I forget the exact URL that they used, but it was something like parkfeedback).  Parks use surveys and their own analytics to track what guests are doing and spending their money on.  Why do you think that they offer a discount on food with your Gold or Platinum pass?  They likely are using that to track how much you spend when you visit so that they know how to allocate everything from staffing to capital dollars.

I was disappointed to see that Great Adventure's Holiday In The Park didn't even make it in the top 5 for Best Christmas Event. 7 coasters running in a cold weather region as well as flat rides, an amazing fiber optic Christmas tree show, the park covered in lights and some good traditional shows. It really exceeded my expectations but I guess the voters didn't feel that way.

I wonder if any of the Winterfest Events will show up. Has Knott's Merry Farm ever placed in the Top 5?

Golden ticket awards is rigged for money.

Rigged? Not quite. Biased, absolutely.