The Golden Ticket Awards for 2025 Reaction

My experience with the Golden Ticket Awards

I have been a theme park fan ever since I was a kid. I would take most of my vacations there, and when I was old enough, I decided to move and work there. Last year was the first year I tuned into the Golden Ticket Awards by Amusement Today. This has just happened recently and I want to discuss some of my thoughts on the attractions on the list.

Best Water Park—Volcano Bay

First new winner in this category in 25 years and I haven’t been to Schlitterbahn but Volcano Bay is an incredible park. The ride lineup is strong, the theming is good, and the center volcano wave pool is great. There is a lazy river, and an action river, I think the only thing that Volcano Bay doesn’t have is a parking lot. This was one of five awards for Universal, which is strong evidence of the turnaround this company has made. Disney was not selected for any of them. I went to the Disney water parks recently, and the difference between those parks and Volcano Bay is night and day.

Best new theme of 2025—Dark Universe at Epic Universe

I have now been to Epic Universe nearly five times and had some really good time to look into all of the worlds. I am going to have to disagree here. I love Dark Universe, I love the attractions in the land, all of the buildings, it does have a great theme, but it isn’t the best world in that theme park. One of the largest gripes that I have seen the community raise are the nets on the werewolf coaster. I do have to agree that the attraction is one of the weakest in the park. If I got to vote, I would have to say the Isle of Berk is the best world in the part. Strong food offerings, strong attractions, a great show, a roller coaster that goes through the land that doesn’t bother the theming. It truly looks like you stepped into the movies.

Best Dark Ride—Monster’s Unchained

This award has been won by Spiderman and Forbidden Journey in the past. I am very happy that this attraction is getting its flowers. Easily one of the best rides I have ridden and the animatronics, the theming, the story, and the queue are all fantastic. The show building as a wonderful façade too. The best part? It’s typically a ten-minute wait.

Best New Attraction Installation in 2025—Battle at the Ministry

One of the big three attractions at Epic Universe got some love as well. I had some overblown expectations of this attraction, I am not the biggest Harry Potter fan, and my ride broke down. I have only ridden it once so I definitely need to give it a few more tries but overall, it just doesn’t reach as high as Monsters Unchained and Stardust Racers.

Speaking of Stardust Racers

Best new Roller Coaster of 2025—Stardust Racers

I wouldn’t say Orlando is the roller coaster capital of the world. They do have a few hits now and then. Stardust Racers is one of those hits. This roller coaster is fantastic, with its layout, its launches, the way it looks at nighttime, the dueling aspect, the capacity, the theming. I love this roller coaster and, in my head, it is easily the best coaster in Orlando.    

I have to mention a few coasters in the top 50 steel roller coaster list as well.

Number Two—Velocicoaster, Islands of Adventure

This was the highest rated roller coaster in Orlando and I love this attraction but I just can’t get there. I love the great theming involving Jurassic World. I love the layout providing a very long attraction with some great moments. The launch into the top hat is tremendous. At the very end of the ride, the mosasaurus roll being the best roller coaster element I have ever been on. I still prefer Stardust Racers to this one, but that could be recency bias. The name of this attraction is also world class.

Number Six—Millennium Force, Cedar Point

As a Disney fan, going to Cedar Point was a bit of a change of pace. They had countless worldclass roller coasters, and this list proves it. Steel Vengeance was at number 3 on this list, but I have never ridden that one. Millennium Force was my favorite on my trip up there, followed closely by Gatekeeper and Maverick. Maybe one will make the list later.

Number 12—Maverick, Cedar Point

You don’t have to wait long. This roller coaster had extremely fun launches and had a fun low to the ground layout, very similar to Hagrid at some portions. One of my favorite memories was eating Chickfila and watching this launch. There used to be a Chickfila in Cedar Point which was a fantastic touch.

Number 17—Stardust Racers, Epic Universe

I have already raved about this ride so much, I don’t need to go any further. Fun layout, fun launches, good looking coaster. Riding this at night is elite.

Number 18—Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, EPCOT

This was an incredible addition to the slow-moving rides of EPCOT.  Anytime I talk about this ride, one word I have to bring up is FUN. This ride is just a fun time and an exciting indoor coaster. I wish I could ride it more than I do but the line is almost always very long due to the quality of this attraction.

Number 22—Mako, Seaworld Orlando

This is a fun airtime layout with good speed, and fun hills. The worst part of this attraction is the lack of staffing. No groupers or greeters have people going in the quickqueue line.

Number 23—Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure, Islands of Adventure

This or Stardust Racers are my top roller coasters in Orlando. This isn’t a massive hyper coaster, but it makes up for it in top-notch theming. This coaster consistently has the longest line in the park, and it is worth it. Zipping through the layout on that motorbike makes this ride one of the best in Orlando. It is low to the ground but the way it zips is smooth and fun as it travels throughout different show scenes.

Number 34—Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point

The world’s first hyper coaster made in 1989 was one of my favorite rides in the park full of amazing roller coasters. I rode it back in 2012, 2013 and even at 20 years old it was still incredible. I was happy to see it on this list. I rode this and Gatekeeper the most out of the world class lineup of roller coasters at Cedar Point.

Looking through this list, it was evident that Disney has taken some step backs in the domestic parks. I hope one day soon, they will start to really come up with creative attractions,, and maybe even a new theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort.