Jon Sabo Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 A recent news article has stated that Busch Gardens Europe was voted the best themepark in the world. Past winners of this honor includes-Tokyo's Disney Sea, and Universal's Islands of Adventure (2004). Members of the website Themepark Insider voted over a year from its 12,000+ members were from across the globe in over 80 countries. More on the article(s) below: Credit Link 1: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149188985600 Credit Link 2: http://www.themeparkinsider.com/ I am a fan of BGE and a (proud) past employee of the park and the fact that the most-beautiful landscape awards has been handed down for roughly 16 yrs. in a row. I am not sold on this award being voted as "best themepark in the world" based on several issues regarding: a. friendliness of staff (lack of). b. ride capacity issues (stacking of coasters and low-loading times). c. overall quality of park cleanliness (areas in need of improvement). There are several other issues that I believe that could be addressed also, but I would be curious on what criteria the results came from. So, let the debate begin....What qualities do YOU believe make a thempark the best in the world? And, should a park receive this award more than once? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 I honestly don't understand Theme Park Insider. I've vistied this site several times over the years and really tried to figure out how to navigate it and try to understand what it really offers. It appears to be more of a "Florida/California" based site with most of it's information leaning towards Disney/Universal/Busch parks. If you go to browse parks, there is very little information, and most of it is years old, and unless you click on a Disney/Universal/Busch park, there are very few reviews or photos. Yet this site seems to get a lot of exposure in the news. I don't get it! --Robb "Am I missing something?" Alvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterFanatic Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 I don't think you are missing anything, Robb. They obviously, however, know how to market themselves well. Getting nominated for web awards and always making it to the mainstream media. Oh well. We all know where the REAL scoop is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doitdumont1128 Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 Yeah! The Amazing Adventures of Spider-man at IOA! lol. But, yeah the site is very confusing, i've tried, believe me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Sabo Posted July 8, 2006 Author Share Posted July 8, 2006 Yes. I agree. I really think the article(s) are really biased (as is the Amusement Today awards). The criteria to which I believe a park should be awarded has to be based on a "national or international" set of criteria that is somewhat standardized (similar to how the ASTM/DIN/TUV standards exist). And if we think about it, the polls/voting is based on OUR opinions. As we all know from this site and the MANY threads opened and such, all of us have a wide variety of tastes when it comes to what is best/worst/indifferent and so on. We, as enthusiasts, have our own criteria based on what we (as inviduals) like or dislike. In order for awards to be posted, there needs to be a list of standardized criteria that must be met in order to get a more accurate reading on the results. Heck, look at the polls on what we think/believe are the best steel/wooden coasters. Some of the members have real classic rides and others (generally the younger-crowd) tend to vote towards the newer high-tech machines. Which actually make sense, because some of them weren't even born when us old-farts were riding the older-classic rides in which some don't even exist now. That is why I didn't believe the award could have been justified (I can hear the shooting at my door now from past/present employees at BGE and my former bosses hiring hit-men to track me down now). I really believe that some of the 'standardized' criteria would not benefit the park and there are at least 3 other candidates that could or should have won. There are a couple of organizations out there that acutally do have a set of (strict) criteria in awarding parks for specific titles, but they really don't get the publicity that these "fly-by-nite" operators and voting polls provide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpengeist04 Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 I'm a big fan of BGE, but I don't think it's the #1 amusement park. I would put IOA ahead of it in a heartbeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob O Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 I find the site interesting to look at and read some of the comments, but dont find find the site itself to be useful in doing research for a park that i have never visited before. If i remember correctly the guy who runs the site was a reporter for the LA Times which may be why they get alot of media attention. As for the question, I really like BGE and it is one of my favorite parks, but i wouldnt vote it as the best park. I would have voted for one of the disney parks as being the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekRx Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 Who knows, maybe the creators of ThemePark Insider are planning an upcoming trip to BGE (maybe they just want to get invited to media day for the dive machine next year) and they wanted to suck up. I bet if TPR had an awards ceremony every year, that'd get some major press. Balsamic Chicken at Mythos- voted best food in an amusement park McDonald's- voted best fast food chain anywhere Best of all, lots of us are extremely well traveled, and Robb and Elissa are very unbiased, so you wouldn't see SFMM getting Best New Ride for Tatsu or Hurricane Harbor getting best waterpark just because they live down the street from the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 I used to post fairly often to TPI, but migrated to TPR (the forum here is much better and much more fun). Their best feature is their "1 to 10" rating system for attractions (I posted comments and rated UK attractions there after returning from the trip.) I've uploaded some photos there, too (mostly of PKD and BGE, naturally). Robert Niles used to cover the "theme-park beat" for the LA Times, so he's pretty savvy when it comes to getting coverage. (The Times dropped that beat, though.) As pleased as I was to see my home park win this "award," I tend to take it (and other such awards) with a rather large grain of salt. TPI doesn't formally "poll" its members; rather, I think the results come from gauging comments people have made about the parks and looking at what sort of ratings numbers the attractions receive. (In fact, I really don't understand how it works at all, because they don't come out and ask members "Which park is the best?") So, there are some useful features to TPI; I just don't think the awards are one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgwfreak Posted July 10, 2006 Share Posted July 10, 2006 I guess I'll be the odd man out. I actually think CP and BGE are my favorite parks. Sure BGE doesn't have tons of coasters, but what they have are so rerideable. Holiday World would probably come in a close second or third in my book followed by IOA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbuzz36763 Posted July 10, 2006 Share Posted July 10, 2006 What about SFMM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Posted July 10, 2006 Share Posted July 10, 2006 ^ The poll was for the BEST park, not the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgwfreak Posted July 10, 2006 Share Posted July 10, 2006 ^ Agreed. Your sig is so cool. I just can't get that awesome ad out of my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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