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Theme Park Insider - Staff Columns - Entry

On March 28, the winners of the European Theme Park Critics Awards will be announced. The eleven categories have been voted on by six of the continent’s top theme park critics, who you can find out more about here.

Five parks have been nominated for ‘Best Theme Park’ by our panel of experts. It’s no surprise to see the Disneyland Park, Paris or Universal’s Port Aventura up for the award, but enthusiasts will be interested to observe that Germany’s Europa Park - about the closest thing the theme park industry has to an ‘indie’ hit – has also been nominated. Also up in this category are Warner Bros Movie World Madrid and the Tussauds family park, Chessington World of Adventures.

On the other side of the park spectrum, the ‘Best Amusement Park’ category sees four parks stand to take an award. British favourites Alton Towers and Blackpool Pleasure Beach are to stand the test against Italian Miribilandia and Walibi World, the park formerly known as Six Flags Holland.

‘Best Roller Coaster’ shows few surprises, with Warner Bros Movie World Madrid’s Superman: Ride of Steel bidding for the glory alongside the Alton Towers combo of Nemesis and Oblivion.

Also with only three nominees is the ‘Best Dark Ride’ category. Port Aventura’s Templo Del Fuego, Disneyland Paris’ Pirates of the Caribbean and the Alton Towers Madhouse ride, Hex: Legend of the Towers are renowned across the world for delivering exciting themed experiences.

Disney stand a good chance of taking the prize home in the ‘Best Restaurant’ category, with four of the five nominees being part of the Disneyland Resort Paris: The Manhattan Restaurant at Hotel New York, Billy Bob’s Country and Western Saloon in Disney Village, the California Grill at the Disneyland Hotel, and the in-park restaurant Blue Lagoon, which looks out onto a fellow nominee attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean. Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s Coasters is also in the running for the award.

‘Best Water Park’ is mostly dominated by water parks that form part of a larger resort, as has been the trend for theme park companies in recent years. Caribe Creek at Alton Towers, Costa Caribe at Universal’s Mediterranea and Miribilandia Beach are accompanied by the independent Spanish favourite Aqualandia, one of the few water parks to draw foreign visitors on its own merits.

‘Best Hotel’ was another category to split the panellists votes across the continent. Both Alton Towers hotels, Splash Landings and the inventively named Alton Towers Hotel were nominated, alongside the Gardaland Hotel, Hotel Phantasialand and Europa Park’s Hotel Castillo Alcazar.

While everyone has had a variety of good and bad experiences in parks, the board have nominated four that they feel satisfy the criteria for ‘Best Customer Service’. The Disneyland Park in Paris, Thorpe Park near London, Legoland Windsor - also in the south of England – and Europa Park stand to take the award.

The board have nominated five parks that they feel deserve a chance in the spotlight for the ‘Hidden Gem’ award, dedicated to great parks that are underrated or simply ignored by the general public. It may come as a surprise to see Universal’s Port Aventura chosen for this award, but how many people could honestly say that they’ve even heard of Düsseldorf Kermis or the French motion science park, Futuroscope? The English family park Drayton Manor or Danish Tivoli Gardens could also take the award.

For the ‘One To Watch’ category, we take a look at the parks that could have a very bright future. Oakwood in Wales gets a chance to be the only representation from its home country in the ETPCA, and Thorpe Park appears to have impressed the board with its much-publicised development plan. Gardaland in Italy is also looking to flaunt its new owners in the future, but the advice from many fans to Phantasialand in Germany is simply to “keep up the good work”.

All awards festivals must finish somewhere, and ours ends up on the ‘Road To Nowhere’ – for the park that has done “everything but improve”. While many may well be expecting the nominations of American Adventure in England and Disney’s Walt Disney Studios Park, the panel also intend to express their concern towards the recent track records of Chessington World of Adventures and the Disneyland Park in Paris.

In the coming weeks, the board members will be writing articles to express some of the logic behind their decisions. To keep in step with these, sign up to the email news feed on Theme Park Insider’s ETPCA home. And enjoy the show!