Award Season for Theme & Amusement Parks
Yep, the award scene really is getting moving again … after the post about the EMMYs it is now time to report about one of the awards with which the best of the theme and amusement park industry are honored: the Golden Ticket Award of Amusement Today. In its 10 year history the annual award has established itself as a regular event that the industry is actually concerned about and are seeing as a honor worth working for. Obviously the question here is: how did the Disney Resorts and Parks fare in the 2007 edition and in particular: how did the Disneyland Resort Paris fare?
The short answer is: Disney did fare better than last year if you look at the bottom line (two first places instead of one). But the Disneyland Resort Paris once again is a no-show in - neither did it win an award, nor did it get into the group top contenders for any of the as listed in the extensive (and free) 48 page full color documentation of this years awards available from Amusement Today.
The dominance of the US parks and rides is a logical result of the fact that Amusement Today is US-based and the majority of voters chosen for the award are US-based too. However, in light of the fact that parks in 13 countries outside the US were recognized by the voters (including European classics such as Efteling, Europa Park, Aalton Towers or Blackpool Pleasure Beach), the performance of DLRP is disappointing as it does not reflect the quality of offerings at DLRP. It can only be assumed that too many park enthusiasts visiting from the US bypass DLRP if they are no “die hard”-Disney fans assuming that a visit is not worth, having two Magic Kingdom type parks in the US already and instead prefer to visit “unique” European parks. As Amusement Today is actively encouraging international theme and amusement park enthusiasts to sign up for the 2008 edition of the awards the look-out might change for 2008 and reflect the realy position of DLRP on the international market better (at least there is hope). I wouldn’t expect DLRP to win an award, but showing up in the also-runs should clearly be possible …
Let’s be straight forward here - if the Rock’n'Roller Coaster at the Disney-MGM Studios (soon Disney Hollywood Studios) at Walt Disney World wins the category Best Indoor Roller Coaster (worldwide) with 17% of the votes, the Rock’n'Roller Coaster at the Walt Disney Studios Park at DLRP should be up there as well - afterall the track and the music is identical and the lighting (instead of the flat props from the US-version) creates a unique and exhilerating atmosphere. I don’t even start talking about the fact that Disneyland’s Space Mountain is tied for the second place with 16% of the votes with “Revenge of the Mummy” at Universal Studios Florida, followed by the Space Moutnain at WDW’s Magic Kingdom with 13% of the vote. Unfortunately the indoor coaster category is only represented every three years in the awards, so no chance for DLRP to take over next year 
But as we are talkibng about coasters: in the “2007 Top 50 Steel Roller Coaster” list of the Golden Ticket Awards the best positioned coaster for the Disney parks is … Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom! The 2006 opened ride made it to the 32nd place (in a tie with “Big Bad Wolf” at Busch Gardens Europe, Williamsburg, and “PowderKeg” at Silver Dollar City, Branson). No sign of Space Mountain or Rock’n'Roller Coaster anywhere in these top 50, but DCA’s California Screamin’ has made it in on rank 49.
But what is the second category Disney managed to win in? It’s “Best Outdoor Night Production” which went to EPCOT’s “Illuminations: Reflections of Earth” (just as last year). The unique fireworks & laser extravaganza garnered a whooping 37% of the votes. “Fantasmic!” also managed to sneak into the top 5 in the category by the way: the Anaheim version made it to the third place, the Orlando version to the fourth place with 13% respectively 11% of the votes - delivering another argument to the endless debate among fans of the two resorts which “Fantasmic!” version might be “better”. This clearly shows how difficult it will be for any new nighttime spectacular by a Disney park to live up to expectations - especially for huge projects like “Disney’s World of Color” at DCA or a new Illuminations rumored now already for several years.
Back to the Golden Ticket Awards … in which other categories did Disney at least garner a mentioning (although not the top price)? There is the “Best Amusement Park” category (won by Cedar Point, Sandusky) - Disneyland Anaheim fought its way to the 5th place in a tie with Blackpool Pleasure Beach (top ranked park from Europe in the poll) with 6% of the votes. Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World made it to the 9th place in a tie with Tokyo DisneySea, both winning 3% of the votes. Thus Tokyo DisneySea is the best performing international Disney park in the category - but is still bested not only by Blackpool Pleasure Beach but also Europa Park, Rust, Germany which is on the 8th place with 4% of the votes … really?? Well, the vote is for AMUSEMENT park not theme park as one needs to keep in mind…
In the category “Best Waterpark” WDW’s two parks made it into the top five: Blizzard Beach on the 3rd (9% of the votes) and Typhoon Lagoon on the 4th (with 3% of the votes in a tie with Noah’s Ark at Wisconsin Dells). Interestingly Typhoon Lagoon’s (and WDW’s) latest new water ride Crush’n'Gusher (a “water coaster” which is taking guests on a slide featuring uphill sections) did not make into the top five of the category “Best Waterpark Ride”. Instead the “Summit Plummet” at Blizzard Beach managed to get in (on the 4th spot though) with 7% of teh votes tied with “Bakuli” at Splashin’ Safari.
In the category “Best Food” the only Disney park in the top five is EPCOT, which earned a silver medal by getting 15% of the votes. EPCOT also represents the Disney parks in the category “Best Landscaping (Park)”, tied for fourth place (5% of the votes) with Busch Gardens Africa (Tampa). The winner in this category is Busch Gardens Europe (Williamsburg) with an overwhelming 43% of the votes. Noteworthy from a European point of view als the third place for Efteling, Netherlands (one of DLRP’s competitors) which got 10% of the votes. Disney did fare better in the category “Best Landscaping (Waterpark)”, where Typhoon Lagoon managed the second place (18% of the votes) and Blizzard Beach placed on third place (15% of the votes).
Now on to some really surprising results … Let’s start with “Best Dark Ride”. Now, wouldn’t you have expected Disney to stand a chance in this category? Maybe not, as the other big Orlando player (Universal) holds on to the crown here with its “Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man” dark ride (37% of the votes) which still awaits a reply from Walt Disney World. Nevertheless Disney managed to place three rides in the top five here, on the ranks 3, 4 and 5: Twilightzone Tower of Terror (WDW version, 7%), Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye (Disneyland, 5%) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Disneyland version, 4%). The unique position that the Tower of Terror has garnered not only among enthusiasts and regular park guests but also among the competition might best be illustrated by a statement of Pete Owens, public relations manager of Dollywood: he describes their new coaster “Mystery Mine” as “It’s our own version of Tower of Terror!” - just to point out its uniqueness as it is a classic roller caoster from a technical point of view, alas one with a detailed themeing, a story line, two vertical lifts and two 95-degree-drops. The new ride made it to the second place in the “Best New Ride” category by the way.
Surprising though is the performance in the category “Best Shows” in which Disney only managed to get one park in to the top five: Disney-MGM Studios (soon: Disney Hollywood Studios) with 6% of the votes on the 5th place. Not really something to brag about. But wait - there is some really bad news if you ask me: the categories “Friendliest Park” and “Cleanest Park”. Looking at Walt Disney’s philosophy behind the original Disneyland, today’s pricing and the quality Disney claims to deliver and the quality guests can expect therefore … well, there should be no question … all of the Disney parks should be up there fighting among each other for the first place. Alas it seems the park enthusiasts are rather disappointed with the performance of Disney parks in these fields. Disneyland managed to get into the 4th place in the category “Friendliest Park” as the sole Disney park in this category by garnering 3% of the votes (in a tie with Beech Bend, Bowling Green, Kentucky). Considering that Holiday World (Santa Claus, Ind.) got 48% of the votes the work for all Disney parks is clear cut here. Performance in the category “Cleanest Park” is only slightly better: Disneyland got to the third place with 6% of the votes in a tie with WDW’s Magic Kingdom. To make a long story short: even if I would cut the Disney Parks a slack saying that expectations might be higher here, still they must be fulfilled as cleanliness and friendliness are necessary core elements of creating the emersive magic that Disney is all about!
So to come (finally) to an end: while there are some awards and some positions to be celebrated, clearly the awards have shown that there is some work to do.