Had to look up Action Park. Good Lord.@Action Park
Had to look up Action Park. Good Lord.@Action Park
I have a DisneyWorld AP and frequent the parks throughout the year. That specific day I went to MK I park hopped all their theme parks. The others were well kept and clean and none had any noticeable overflowing trash cans throughout the parks or any piles of food spilled on the pathways. Now I'm not saying that MK is always like this but over recent years the care in keeping the park immaculate has gone down drastically.
Now if you want some really clean parks, you need to visit the ones in Japan. They make the cleanest parks here and in Europe look like landfills.
0% disagreement on the Asian parks. It bothers me that there is 0 representation from them in the awards.
Best Children’s Park
I assume Idlewild wins this because it's a nestalgic, historic park. As much as I love the vibe of the place, I don't think it is deserving of the title. Legoland Florida is better in quite literally every way sans, maybe, "park most lacking in Legos." Honestly, I'm pretty sure I think Dutch Wonderland is a better children's park as well, but the margin is a lot smaller than Idlewild vs. Legoland FL.
Best Marine Life Park
Assuming it qualifies (don't see why it wouldn't), Discovery Cove deserves this. It's arguably the greatest park in the world. If for some reason Discovery Cove doesn't count, the current title holder, SeaWorld Orlando, is the right pick.
Best Wooden Coaster
Foolish, even embarrassing levels of a very nestalgic bias seem glaringly obvious with Phoenix winning this award. I love Phoenix but frankly, making people believe it is one of the best (let alone the best) wooden coaster in the world is a massive disservice to the coaster. It doesn't hold a candle to the likes of El Toro, The Voyage, or Lightning Rod and, frankly, it shouldn't be expected to. It isn't in the same league. Phoenix is like a great neighborhood baseball team being ranked above the top teams in the MLB. It's just silly.
Best Steel Coaster
Fury 325 isn't my favorite steel coaster, but I do believe it's a perfectly valid choice. Won't complain about this one.
Best Kids’ Area
I prefer KD's children's area, but KI's is a perfectly valid pick.
Friendliest Park
Sorry Dollywood, it's Magic Kingdom.
Cleanest Park
Sorry Holiday World, it's Magic Kingdom.
Best Landscaping
Ok. Here is one that really fucking bothers me. 20 years ago, BGW may have deserved this award. They don't anymore and haven't for a long time. There's a case to be made for Islands of Adventure, Epcot, and Legoland FL, sure, but honestly there is one park that stands vastly above all the rest: Gilroy-motherfuckin'-Gardens.
Best Christmas Event
Dollywood's event is good. I prefer Busch Gardens Williamsburg's and Carowinds', but I can accept that Dollywood's is a reasonable contender.
Best Food
This one I really don't get. Knoebels has good snacks. Cool. So does Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Neither of then are remotely deserving of this award though. Clearly this belongs to Epcot for both variety and quality.
Meh. Both look fine in their own ways.
Gilroy Gardens has great landscaping but it's not really much of a theme park.
Sorry but Epcot food isn't that great. There are some great options in the world showcase but elsewhere is basically Olive Garden/generic amusement quality stuff. Knoebels has a ton of variety and the quality is actually way beyond the price point, which btw is a huge factor in deciding what is the best food. If you have slightly better tasting food that's way more expensive that means it's inferior. Sorry.
Epcot is kind of overrated as a whole. The world pavilion and garden is awesome but the big elephant in the room is that tacky outdated Future World section. It doesn’t feel as immersive as Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom.
Also as great as the World Showcase is I never felt it flowed as well as Busch Gardens does (either park). Each part is nice but they feel kind of tacked on.
All park food is somewhat bland.
On average, yes, mass-market theme park food is largely designed to appeal to bland, boring, mass-market palettes. "All" is a massive overstatement though in my opinion.
Food-focused events at regional parks and the sit-downs in the larger parks typically offer an abundance of options for truely great food inside the gates. Tiffin's, Skipper's, Spice Road, Mythos, and special food events at Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, Epcot, and even Kings Dominion all instantly come to mind as clear exceptions to the "bland" rule.
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