Volume 2, No. 16. August 23, 2002
Eric's
Turn
& Turn Again
Gold
rush
About a month ago on the Frommer’s web site’s bulletin board, a woman
posted a query. She was interested in visiting amusement parks; which one was
the best? Within a couple of hours, 17 people had posted suggestions. One said
Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure, one suggested Disney World, and
a couple nominated Busch Gardens. The rest told her to visit Cedar Point.
Most focused on Cedar Point's variety of rides and collection of coasters. Many
also praised the park for the way it treats customers, from friendly staff to
clean grounds and efficient operations. The overriding theme to these comments:
value. Cedar Point not only was worth the money these people spent there, but
worth the time they spent there.
This
being an Internet bulletin board, we can’t be sure all those respondents
were not somehow employed by Cedar Fair, though they did give their names and
cities. However, Cedar Point regularly tops a much more legitimate poll, Amusement
Today’s annual Golden Ticket Awards.
Based on hundreds of surveys turned in by amusement park enthusiasts and weighted
so that more populated geographic areas cannot skewer the results, the Golden
Ticket has in its four-year history gained such stature that one park publicist
calls it the amusement industry’s version of the Academy Awards.
Parks
proudly post their status as a Golden Ticket winner at their front gates, and
other park operators gnash their teeth when they learn their own coaster slipped
a notch from the previous year. Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari even
engaged in a capital expenditure over the past off-season—changing trains
on the Legend roller coaster—in part to try to rise up in the Golden
Ticket’s wood coaster standings. That's money well spent because Holiday
World uses its Golden Ticket ratings—topping last year's wood coaster poll
with The Raven—in its marketing campaigns (THE
LOOP, October 19, 2001).
This year’s Golden Ticket awards will be announced on Monday, August 26,
in a ceremony at Paramount’s Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio. Why there?
You’ll have to tune in to find out. As the ceremony unfolds at 1 p.m. (13,00)
Eastern time, we will post all the results on www.amusementtoday.com
at the same time. That’s noon for you folks in Dallas, 10 a.m. in California,
6 p.m. in London, 8 p.m. in Mecca and 2 a.m. Tuesday in Sydney. Log on and find
out how Cedar Point and all the other great parks around the world measure up
among the people who love parks most.
Go
West, young LOOP
Twice this month I have traced the path of U.S. Highway 66, the United States’
most famous highway. America’s first transcontinental road, it enabled
the Okies to escape the Dust Bowl of the ’30s, assisted a nation mobilizing
for war in the ’40s, and provided an avenue for vacationers in the ’50s
and ’60s. It has since almost disappeared with the advent of the interstate
highway system.
Route 66 played an integral part in the development of our industry, too. The
opening of Disneyland in 1955 made Southern California the family vacation destination
of choice. Over the subsequent 10 years, regarded as 66's heyday, millions of
moms, dads and kids packed into their cars with luggage peaked high on rooftop
racks to traverse the fable highway. One entrepreneur sought to get a little
of the theme park action himself by enticing Disney-bound and homeward-bound
vacationers to stop at his park in Oklahoma City. That theme park, Frontier
City, eventually launched Premier Parks which is now the Six Flags chain.
The purposes of my successive journeys West is due to a change of residency.
Sarah’s full-time job has required her to transfer to Tuscon, Arizona,
and we are moving THE LOOP's operations there from Dayton, Ohio. This LOOP is
coming to you from Albuquerque, New Mexico, my penultimate stop on my way to
our new home.
True
to the tradition of the now-lost highway—and true to my job—on this
trip I've stopped in at some modern pieces of Americana: Holiday World &
Splashin Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana; The Tracks and Silver Dollar City in
Branson, Missouri; the Oklahoma City Zoo in Oklahoma; Wonderland Amusement Park
in Amarillo, Texas; and Cliff’s Amusement Park here in Albuquerque. My
thanks to all my gracious hosts who not only let me enjoy their facilities but
allowed me to park my fully loaded car in secure areas.
Yes, we now need to send all you park operators and suppliers a change of address;
or, you can go ahead and E-mail me at eric@gettheloop.com
and we will send you our new contact information immediately. Our toll-free
phone number, 888-902-5667, will remain the same. And, though we will be coming
to you from a new location, the product stays the same. If not better.
©2002, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved