Coaster101's Attraction Awards of the Decade

[coasterdude5]

Now that you've taken the time to fill out your coaster ballots for Mitch's coaster poll, it's time to nominate some rides and parks for Coaster101's less-serious Attraction Awards of the Decade! Unlike our annual Attraction Awards, this year's is all about the previous decade and what all it gave us... good or bad.

 

 

With categories like Best Epic Fail, you can tell this isn't taken very seriously. It's a simple contest. Right now we are accepting nominations until January 31st for the six categories. If you think you might be interested in nominating, you can read more here.

 

I'll post here again once it is time for voting. Feel free to ask any and all questions.

[thrillgeek]

Wow this is really cool. I'll be nominating and voting! Thanks for the link.

[testtrack321]

It'd be sweet if you expanded the list beyond just coaster, maybe included dark rides, lands, etc.

[jray21]

Just voted. I am most interested in the best epic fail category. I put X1, due to the incredible costs associated with it, related to the down time and the eventual rebuild.

[ParkTrips]

I can't think of a more "epic fail" than Hard Rock Park. Any other suggestions or can we just declare it the winner now?

[thrillgeek]

Here's what I nominated. Since I havent been on too many coasters I also based my decision on reviews from others.

 

 

Best Steel Coaster-Diamondback

 

 

Best Wood Coaster-Boulder Dash

 

 

Best Innovation- 4th Dimension coasters

 

 

Best Water Attraction- Atlantis Adventure

 

 

Best Epic Fail- Hard Rock Park

 

 

Best Park Employees- Islands Of Adventure

[Hercules]

I can't think of a more "epic fail" than Hard Rock Park. Any other suggestions or can we just declare it the winner now?

 

Son of Beast?

[ParkTrips]

^ close, but it would have to dethrone Grizzly to be a serious threat to HRP

[jray21]

I was thinking only individual coasters, but definitely, Hard Rock Park takes the cake.

[Hercules]

^ close, but it would have to dethrone Grizzly to be a serious threat to HRP

 

When was Grizzly ever seriously touted as the next best thing? Let alone a world record wood coaster, with a loop? And did Grizzly have problems during construction resulting in a partial collapse of the structure? And how many times has Grizzly injured an entire train of riders, and been down months on end? I know the rankings say something else, but I consider Grizzly dethroned.

[robbalvey]

Take this as a bit of constructive criticism but I wish I knew if I should be taking this poll seriously or not.

 

Your categories and at a "quick glance" makes this look like a pretty decent, serious poll but when I read the text and see things like " This is a light-hearted contest - it is by no means supposed to be a representation of the actual “bests” of the decade" it's a little confusing.

 

TPR gets behind the Mitch Hawker poll because it's a well thought out, well managed poll and it's goal is very clear as to what it's supposed to be.

 

I'm not sure I can get behind a poll like this because I can't tell if you really want this to be a poll that fans and industry professionals take seriously, or if it's more of a joke.

 

Your information is a little contradicting.

 

And before I participate, I would like to know how you arrive at your results. Is it a "most votes wins" meaning that do 500 people from Ohio who vote for Millennium Force but haven't ridden GeForce outweigh the 100 riders who vote Expedition GeForce over MF?

 

I'm only asking because I have no idea how to react to this poll or what to think of it. Other than you tell me the end result doesn't actually represent what this poll is supposed to highlight.

 

--Robb "I'm confused." Alvey

[ParkTrips]

When was Grizzly ever seriously touted as the next best thing? Let alone a world record wood coaster, with a loop? And did Grizzly have problems during construction resulting in a partial collapse of the structure? And how many times has Grizzly injured an entire train of riders, and been down months on end? I know the rankings say something else, but I consider Grizzly dethroned.

Don't get me wrong, SOB failed on a massive scale too. Both were hyped, I mean c'mon some were hoping for Hard Rock Park to be Universal-esque, and both have had to go through changes that haven't helped much at all.

 

Look at the financial standpoint too: $20 mil or whatever SOB cost fails in comparison to the financial failure that an investment in HRP is/was

[robbalvey]

Look at the financial standpoint too: $20 mil or whatever SOB cost fails in comparison to the financial failure that an investment in HRP is/was

Agreed. The only thing I can even think of that comes close to an epic fail of that financial magnatude in the past 10 years for a single park or project is the whole Geuaga Lake -> Six Flags Ohio -> Six Flags Worlds of Adventure -> Geauga Lake -> Empty lot blunder.

 

But I have a feeling all the parties involved did a bit better financially in raping Geuaga Lake than the people involved with Hard Rock Park did.

 

--Robb

[coasterdude5]

Take this as a bit of constructive criticism but I wish I knew if I should be taking this poll seriously or not.

 

Your categories and at a "quick glance" makes this look like a pretty decent, serious poll but when I read the text and see things like " This is a light-hearted contest - it is by no means supposed to be a representation of the actual “bests” of the decade" it's a little confusing.

 

TPR gets behind the Mitch Hawker poll because it's a well thought out, well managed poll and it's goal is very clear as to what it's supposed to be.

 

I'm not sure I can get behind a poll like this because I can't tell if you really want this to be a poll that fans and industry professionals take seriously, or if it's more of a joke.

 

Your information is a little contradicting.

 

And before I participate, I would like to know how you arrive at your results. Is it a "most votes wins" meaning that do 500 people from Ohio who vote for Millennium Force but haven't ridden GeForce outweigh the 100 riders who vote Expedition GeForce over MF?

 

I'm only asking because I have no idea how to react to this poll or what to think of it. Other than you tell me the end result doesn't actually represent what this poll is supposed to highlight.

 

--Robb "I'm confused." Alvey

I'll do my best to clear up your confusion. The Attraction Awards are meant, as described, to be a light-hearted vote conducted in order to get a basic idea of what a general group of people thought of each category at hand. It is in no way meant to compete with Mitch's poll, and I apologize if I seemed to be trying to do that. It is not a scientific poll, it really boils down to six simple polls representing six categories.

 

I post at sites such as TPR to try to get the largest representation so that it's not "500 people from Ohio voting for Millenium Force". The reason why I placed the disclaimer "This is a light-hearted contest - it is by no means supposed to be a representation of the actual “bests” of the decade" is so that I am not emailed demands for answers as to why Coaster X won Category Y (it's happened before). I did not see it as contradicting statement, just a reminder that this award is not going to be installed in the park as a plaque or anything grand like that.

 

As I stated, this will boil down to six simple polls. There will be measures set in place to try to prevent multiple votes from one person, but there's no way from preventing coasterboi2984 from logging onto his friend's computer and re-voting. We'll be able to see what country the votes came from, but we won't be making changes based on how many votes came from which country - it's not that serious of a poll.

 

So to answer your question, no, do not take this that seriously. Just have fun with it. I'd love to see your choices, but do realize that the end results might not be as scientific as a poll like Mitch's.

 

Hope this cleared things up a bit.

 

- John

[PKI Jizzman]

I can't think of a more "epic fail" than Hard Rock Park. Any other suggestions or can we just declare it the winner now?

 

Son of Beast?

 

Nothing is worse than SOB.

-Wasting space

-Wasting an initial 25 million

-Wasting a reputation

-Wasting an oppurtunity to turn the park around and install a nice coaster

-Rider's concern about safety at Kings Island

-Financial/Money losses due to major repairs, trains, and problems. 5M.

[downunder]

I interpreted that the nominations are based on what you think is the best irrespective of whether you have ridden it or not. Mine were:

 

Best Steel Coaster - Expedition GeForce

Best Wood Coaster - T-Express

Best Innovation - Intamin Pre-fabricated track (such a smooth voyage on pre-fabs)

Best Water Attraction - Atlantis Adventure (aquatrax!)

Best Epic Fail - Hard Rock Park

Best Park Employees - Dollywood (this was a hard one because so many parks have been wonderful)

 

Honourable mentions go to GCI's work on Boulder Dash; Balder; and many other things Intamin did in the noughties.

[kidcoaster 2]

Best Steel Coaster -

 

Bizarro (SFNE)

 

Best Wood Coaster -

 

Blue Streak (CLP)

 

Best Innovation -

 

Q Bots

 

Best Water Attraction -

 

Wave Pool

 

Best Epic Fail -

 

Wild West World You all say Hard Rock Park but atleast they lasted the whole summer and is still going as Freestyle. But Wild West World didn't even last two months....

 

Best Park Employees -

 

Hands down Silver Dollar City

[PriestofSyrinx]

Best Steel Coaster-

 

Maverick (My favorite of the decade, Magnum is my favorite of all time though)

 

Best Wood Coaster-

The Voyage

 

Best Innovation-

Intamin Accelerators- Though some may disagree with this being an innovation and more of an evolution, think of the impact this has left on the industry, weather they put an intamin in or other accelerator. Very similar to the Invert boom caused by B&M

 

Best Water Ride:

 

All of my favorites are pre- 2000, so i put down the most memorable, Zoombabwe at Spashin' Safari!

 

Best Epic Fail- I choose HRP over SOB, because of the larger investment and how it failed miserably with no attractions. SOB was close though with a hyper wood coaster with a loop built by RCCA. That just sounds fail.

 

Close runner ups for me were: California Adventure and Deja Vu

 

Best Employees:

 

Tie between Disney's Animal Kingdom and Dollywood

[JEAPUgrad]

Shouldn't the "Epic Fail" category be called the WORST Epic Fail?

 

By saying it's the best epic fail, to me, it sounds like you're happy it happened despite it's less than favorable results...

[dr.gumbo]

Wording it as Worst Epic Fail kind of means that its the weakest epic fail, which isn't really right.

[testtrack321]

Wording it as Worst Epic Fail kind of means that its the weakest epic fail, which isn't really right.

 

Biggest Epic Fail perhaps?

[montezooma]

For the Epic Fail (Epic Blunder) one would have to seriously consider the closing of Opryland or AstroWorld. Would those same decisions be made today???

[themeparkologist]

 

Best Wood Coaster -

 

Blue Streak (CLP)

 

Best Water Attraction -

 

Wave Pool

 

I'm not doubting your intentions but Blue Streak was built before the begining of the last decade (well duh) and wave pools are a 1970s-80s creation.

[coasterdude5]

The polls are now open. Click here to vote!

[BaMiTsPaT]

I love polls!

Best Steel Coaster: Bizarro (SFNE)

Best Innovation : Flying coaster

Best Epic Fail : Hard Rock Park

Best employees; Disney