If you're there for the weekend you need to check out Grand Illumination Grand Illumination. We set up our chairs early in the day and bring a cooler of wine and snacks for the show. I'd spend the day at CW since they have a lot of activities going on. Skip the food at the park and try Casa Pearl for oysters and tacos.
No Longer "World's Most Beautiful Park"
- Thread starter RollyCoaster
- Start date
"Six Flags & The Endangered Amusement Park" - Very interesting YouTube from a business perspective. Especially timely now with the merger of SF & CF.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Not many choices for BGW other than to step up to Dollywood's lead of becoming a "minor Disney", sell out to Six Flags, or keep putzing along as the cuts pile on and the experience quality declines.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Not many choices for BGW other than to step up to Dollywood's lead of becoming a "minor Disney", sell out to Six Flags, or keep putzing along as the cuts pile on and the experience quality declines.
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Dollywood has once again beaten out BGW for most beautiful theme park in the Golden Ticket awards.
www.coaster101.com
Golden Ticket Awards 2024 List of Winners - Coaster101
Amusement industry professionals from across the nation and beyond gathered at Kennywood today to learn for the 26th annual Golden Ticket Awards to le. Started in 1998, the Golden Ticket Awards were established by Amusement Today to shine a spotlight...
www.coaster101.com
I don’t see how Dollywood gets this award. They have bulldozed so many trees for expansion. They also cut down any tree near a coaster and left the trunks on the ground. The railroad used to be through the woods but it’s now through bulldozed terrain.
I like Dollywood but BGW definitely is more scenic even if BGW has went downhill.
I like Dollywood but BGW definitely is more scenic even if BGW has went downhill.
I think it's easier to win consecutively than it is to take it back from someone else.
This. It's a travesty that this park doesn't win the award every year.
Does Dollywood smell better than BGW? Between the trash and smell in certain areas during my one and only visit this summer, the beauty is lost at bgw.
Apollo at #23 - I believe the lowest its ever been...
BGW is gorgeous, but they could reclaim this if the same level of attention to Nessie's retheme was given to curating the park as a whole with just a bit more finesse. Small enhancements, nothing too big IMO.
Interesting if the Festhaus area project could improve 2025 standings...
BGW is gorgeous, but they could reclaim this if the same level of attention to Nessie's retheme was given to curating the park as a whole with just a bit more finesse. Small enhancements, nothing too big IMO.
Interesting if the Festhaus area project could improve 2025 standings...
This cannot be overstated. I could not believe how gorgeous Gilroy Gardens was, and so charming. At points it feels like you're just walking through a really well curated arboretum.
I really like Dollywood, and some of the park's spaces bring you so incredibly close to the natural beauty of the area. One main pathway uses the steep and beautiful rising rocky topology itself as a pedestrian barrier. No fence, just a sheer wall of nature. And there's a mini-mountain right in the middle of the park with Wild Eagle perched on top of it. Fantastic.
But I can't quite see "world's most beautiful" applying there. Without being too nitpicky with more minor notes, it's fair to say the entire sprawling dead-end leg of Wildwood Grove leaves room for significant pause with that title. There is ample grade-A competition around the world that hasn't done that to itself.
I have never been to Gilroy Gardens, and clearly I am missing out!
Back to BGW: the Colonial Pipeline clearcutting was a blow to the park's beauty, but it has been successfully visually mitigated in some areas. And it didn't cause as much aesthetic damage as the combined effects of the past decade's ride additions. Even along the still-wide-open sightlines between Scotland and France, the biggest blemish is the oddly out of scale Finnegan's Flyer for which the park destroyed the best castle-bridge approach this side of Disneyland.
But I can't quite see "world's most beautiful" applying there. Without being too nitpicky with more minor notes, it's fair to say the entire sprawling dead-end leg of Wildwood Grove leaves room for significant pause with that title. There is ample grade-A competition around the world that hasn't done that to itself.
I have never been to Gilroy Gardens, and clearly I am missing out!
Back to BGW: the Colonial Pipeline clearcutting was a blow to the park's beauty, but it has been successfully visually mitigated in some areas. And it didn't cause as much aesthetic damage as the combined effects of the past decade's ride additions. Even along the still-wide-open sightlines between Scotland and France, the biggest blemish is the oddly out of scale Finnegan's Flyer for which the park destroyed the best castle-bridge approach this side of Disneyland.
Random but a friend of mine had an Idea for it - that BGW would never do - and it was to build a wall around the base, put up an extended wall on there. Around where the swing out is make it look like the wall was blown out to some degree. Curve the ball around the corner and build it up high. Extend the wall to the right as you approach too. That way it makes the entrance look very castle and fortress like, and even through the ride still ‘ruins’ it at least you tried to integrate is some and made the area make up for the lack of trees with something visual. Add in some ivy to grow on all of it and it would look nice.
They don't even have to go really crazy here. Fake rock work would fit in nicely to hide the base. Hide a door for whatever access they need.
BGW may not be the world’s most purdy park no more but I’d still ask it to go on a date.
I have always thought Dollywood to be a very picturesque (not necessarily the "most" beautiful) park.
However this summer I got the chance to visit Dollywood's fellow (Herschend) sister park, Silver Dollar City. And ever since that visit, my view of Dollywood has dropped substantially; as in terms of full cohesive theming, beauty, charm, raw majestic mountain views, and even the incredible Marvel Cave running under the park, Dollywood can't even come close to competing with its sibling.
And in terms of just US-based parks, I certainly agree with the others here on how Gilroy Gardens should be considered as well.
So though both BGW and Dollywood are still great parks in their own right. But boy... there are some many other great parks out there that should be considered for this award instead.
However this summer I got the chance to visit Dollywood's fellow (Herschend) sister park, Silver Dollar City. And ever since that visit, my view of Dollywood has dropped substantially; as in terms of full cohesive theming, beauty, charm, raw majestic mountain views, and even the incredible Marvel Cave running under the park, Dollywood can't even come close to competing with its sibling.
And in terms of just US-based parks, I certainly agree with the others here on how Gilroy Gardens should be considered as well.
So though both BGW and Dollywood are still great parks in their own right. But boy... there are some many other great parks out there that should be considered for this award instead.
Appreciate the SDC shout out! Original Fire In the Hole was my first coaster back in the early 90s. Now to the Most Beautiful award...if BGW were to build a second bridge across the Rhine River from Festa Italia to a new hamlet in Festhaus Park area, then we'd be looking at Most Beautiful Park for another 30 years
Would give them ample views, space for new theming, and so many opportunities for landscaping. Integrate it with the new Wolf coaster theming additions and you can't go wrong
And to do that the guest pathway would literally be cutting through the Pantheon field which would open up a world of theming possibilities in itself.
Would give them ample views, space for new theming, and so many opportunities for landscaping. Integrate it with the new Wolf coaster theming additions and you can't go wrong
And to do that the guest pathway would literally be cutting through the Pantheon field which would open up a world of theming possibilities in itself.
Make it look like it's broken through a wall of some kind... yeah, sounds like something the world's most beautiful park would do to a Screamin Swing.
