Cedar Point does not make 2022 Best Parks list

Editor's note: Justin Dietz is a Register correspondent representing CPFoodBlog.com and @CPFoodBlog on Twitter. Each year, the amusement and theme park community comes out with a list of Golden Ticket Awards, presented by the Amusement Today publication, for everything from best new roller coaster to best park food. Cedar Point has historically been a high-ranking park, making the list in a variety of categories over the years since the Golden Ticket Awards were first started in 1998. Millennium Force took home the Top Steel Roller Coaster award 10 times from 2001 through 2015 and in the top two from 2000 through 2021, dipping to third place for the first time this year. Still, remaining in the top three best steel roller coasters in the community for 22 consecutive years is a major milestone. Four of Cedar Point's attractions made the top 25 list of Best Steel Roller Coaster this year including Steel Vengeance (No. 2), Maverick (No. 10) and Magnum XL-200 (No. 25). Cedar Point has taken home first place as the Best Park award from 1998 through 2013. Thereafter, the park has been losing ground. And, for the first time in the awards' history, it did not make the top five list for Best Park. While there are a large variety of factors that go into a guest's experience of visiting an amusement park, there is no doubt other parks around the world have slowly been chipping away at gaining the public's attention and their dollars. This year's top five Best Park awards go to: 1. Europa-Park in Germany 2. Dollywood in Tennessee 3. Phantasialand in Germany 4. Universal Island of Adventure in Florida 5. Silver Dollar City in Missouri So, what have these other parks done to garner the affection of the amusement park community and push Cedar Point off the list? "These five parks are each more experience-focused while I would argue Cedar Point has always been more ride-focused," says Taylor Bybee of Coaster Studios. "Now, I will say they've been starting to change that the past couple years, but each of these parks provides very well-rounded experiences where there's tons to do for everyone, not just roller coasters. Rides are important in creating a great park experience, but they're not everything." Cedar Point has been slowly transforming areas of the park into full-themed areas. Where we first started to see the transformation is with Frontier Town, which brought on Steel Vengeance to pair with Maverick. The new Farmhouse restaurant that opened in 2022 helped anchor the area with a high-capacity facility with great menu options. The next big transformation will be along the Boardwalk when a new roller coaster and Grand Pavilion open in 2023. Look for changes coming to the entire area, including those outside of what has been announced, as select areas start to get consolidated and updated to bring the entire front of the park together into a common theme. In the near future, it will also be interesting to see how the whole former Top Thrill Dragster area is transformed, as well as how the park moves the entire area into an experience-focused environment.