Disney captures four Thea Awards for Avatar, Frozen and Guardians rides

November 14, 2017, 5:07 PM · ORLANDO — Disney Parks and Resorts led the winners of the Themed Entertainment Association's Thea Awards, announced today at the IAAPA Attractions Expo. Disney won a total of four Thea Awards for its Avatar-themed land in Orlando and its Frozen and Guardians of the Galaxy rides.

Cedar Point won the group's Thea Classic Award this year, while Phil Hettema of The Hettema Group won the Buzz Price Award for lifetime achievement. A former executive with what is now Universal Creative, Hettema helped design Back to the Future: The Ride, The Cat in the Hat, and Men in Black: Alien Attack for Universal before starting his own firm in 2002.

This year's Thea Awards for Outstanding Achievement among theme parks include:

Other Thea Award winners included:

The Thea Awards will be presented on April 7, 2018 during a ceremony at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. Please take a look at our in-depth coverage of several of the attractions that now have won this year's Thea Award winners — these include some of our strongest posts from the past year or so:

Replies (3)

November 14, 2017 at 5:24 PM · Robert, why are there two awards each for Attraction Reimagining and Attraction and just one award for most of the other awards?
November 14, 2017 at 5:28 PM · The Thea Awards are not category-specific. Basically, TEA decides what among the various nominees are worthy of an achievement award, and they win. So there can be multiple winners in some categories and none in others that had winners in the past.
November 16, 2017 at 12:43 PM · Are themed water parks included? If so, it's a kick in the teeth for Universal.

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