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Best of the Best Amusement Parks and Rides

Last week the Golden Ticket awards were released announcing the "Best of the Best" for the year throughout the amusement industry.  The awards are now in their tenth year.  Below are some of the highlights from this year's contest-

• Best Amusement Park - Cedar Point, Ohio
• Best Waterpark - Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, Texas
• Best Children's Park - Legoland California, California
• Best Marine Life Park - SeaWorld Orlando, Florida
• Best Seaside Park - Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California

• Best Wooden Coaster - The Voyage at Holiday World, Indiana
• Best Steel Coaster - Superman Ride of Steel - Six Flags New England, Massachusetts
• Best Kids' Area - King Island, Ohio
• Friendliest Staff - Holiday World, Indiana
• Cleanest Park - Holiday World, Indiana

Holiday World rocked it this year and Disney just managed to scrounge up a single award for best night show.

Top 10 Amusement Parks (Outside of Orlando)

Here's another top 10 list we missed while we were away on vacation.  TripAdvisor asked their 15 billion users for their favorite amusement park outside the confines of Orlando and they came up with the following list-

1. Hersheypark - Hershey, Pennsylvania
2. Busch Gardens - Tampa, Florida
3. Cedar Point - Sandusky, Ohio
4. Six Flags Fiesta Texas - San Antonio, Texas
5. Family Kingdom Amusement Park - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
6. Six Flags Great Adventure - Jackson, New Jersey
7. Kings Island - Kings Mills, Ohio
8. Ober Gaitlinburg Ski Resort and Amusement Park - Gaitlinburg, Tennessee
9. Coney Island Park - Coney Island, New York
10. Carowinds - Charlotte, North Carolina

It seems to us that Tampa is basically Orlando so it's kind of cheating that Busch Gardens made the cut.  Also, where the hell is Disneyland?

(thanks thrillnetwork)

Girl Loses Legs at Six Flags

In a grisly, freak accident on Thursday, a 13 year-old girl lost her legs when the Superman: Tower of Power ride she was on had a cable snap, whipping in the air and severing the child's legs.  According to WLKY-

“As the ride came down, the wire swung left, struck the young lady on the back side of my children,” Williams said. Williams’ daughter Amber said she gave up her seat to the 13-year-old and was sitting on the other side of the ride. Williams rushed toward the ride to find his daughter. As Smith raced to find members of her group, she said she made a gruesome discovery. “When I got up there, the lady, she was just sitting there and she didn’t have no legs,” Smith said. “She didn’t have no legs at all. She was just calm, probably in shock from everything.”

So far there is no word on the girl's condition.  The ride has been shutdown pending a full investigation and has also been removed from the Six Flags website.

(thanks reddit )

Related posts: Top 10 Amusement Parks (Outside of Orlando) • Best of the Best Amusement Parks and Rides • Stairway to Heaven Leads to Myrtle Beach? • Superman - Ride of Steel • Cedar Point's Millenium Force • Say Goodbye to Flipflop Tanlines

Related travel guides: • Texas family vacation ideas • Virginia Beach Tours • Washington, DC places to visit • Boston, MA family vacation • fun things to do in salt lake city, Utah • fun things to do in San Diego & LA

Cedar Point's Millenium Force

The video above is a POV from the Millenium Force in Cedar Point, Ohio.  This bad boy is over a mile long, over 30-stories high, and hits speeds of over 90 miles per hour.  It opened in 2000 and has since had over 12 million butts in its seats.  If you like riding the best and you're going to be in the Midwest between May and October, this is definitely worth a stop.  For now, you can ride vicariously through Eddie and Sarah.

Stairway to Heaven Leads to Myrtle Beach?

Led Zeppelin may already be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but we're sure they were jealous when Disney decided to build an Aerosmith roller coaster in Orlando in 1999.  Finally, the fates have smiled on Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and by 2008 Myrtle Beach will be graced with a 15-story looping steel roller coaster that promises to get the Led out.  It will be one of the signature rides at the newly constructed 140-acre Hard Rock theme park.  The park's CEO is thrilled with the cross-generational marketing opportunities: "Led Zeppelin are the icons of hard-rock music, parents and kids alike can relate to the band's music."

(thanks usatoday)

Superman - Ride of Steel

We're not sure how fast bullets go but this ride at the Largo, MD, Six Flags hits 73 miles per hour. Following on the footsteps of two other Superman rides, the Superman - Ride of Steel for this Six Flags park was their fastest and tallest to date and the third megacoaster to be produced by roller coaster manufacturing giant Intamin AG. The Ride of Steel first give you a bird's eye view of the park as you get hauled to 200 feet above the ground where on a clear day it's possible to see the Washington Monument. The 205-foot plunge over the precipice is at more than 70 degrees and is followed by five more hills and two helixes, but what's the point of us describing it? Check it out for yourself-

 

related travel guide: washington d.c.