Amusement Today Announces 2001 Golden Ticket Awards

Arlington, TX -- Amusement Today, an amusement industry trade journal announced the results of its prestigious annual Golden Ticket Awards. The awards are given to the "best of the best" in the amusement, theme and water park industry according to Gary Slade, publisher of Amusement Today.

The Golden Ticket Awards are given out based on survey results gathered from well-traveled park enthusiasts around the world. The enthusiasts are asked to rate the top parks and rides in fifteen categories.

For the fourth year in a row Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio) was selected as the best park. Schilitterbahn (New Braunfels, Texas) was selected as the best water park.

For roller coasters Amusement Today rates the top 25 wood and steel coasters. This year's number one wooden coaster was The Raven (Custom Coasters) at Holiday World and top honors in the steel category went to Millennium Force (Intamin) at Cedar Point.

Holiday World (Santa Claus, Indiana) was the only park in the wooden coaster category to have more than one coaster in the top five. The park's other wooden coaster The Legend (Custom Coasters) was ranked number five.

Cedar Point was honored with three steel coasters in the top ten. Millennium Force took top honors, Magnum XL-200 (Arrow) fell in the number three spot and the Raptor (B&M) was ranked eighth in the survey.

The remaining eleven categories included: Friendliest Park - Holiday World; Best Capacity - Cedar Point; Cleanest Park - Holiday World; Best Landscaping - Busch Gardens Williamsburg; Best Shows - Six Flags Fiesta Texas; Best Food - Knoebels Grove; Best Dark Ride - Amazing Adventures of Spiderman at Universal's Islands of Adventure; Best Water Ride - Dudley Do-Right's Ripswa Falls at Universal's Islands of Adventure; Best Carousel - Knoebels Grove; Best Kid's Area - Paramount's Kings Island; and Best Waterpark Ride - Master Blaster at Schlitterbahn;