We used the cumulative ratings submitted over the past year by Theme Park Insider readers to determine the winners in four categories: Best Theme Park, Best Hotel, Best Restaurant and Best New Attraction.
We determined the Best Theme Park award by determining which parks had the largest number of highly-rated attractions that received more than a minimum number of ratings. In the other three categories, the eligible location with the highest average reader rating, given at least a minimum number of ratings, was declared the winner. We considered only table-service restaurants in the Best Restaurant category, "official" on-site hotels for Best Hotel, and attractions that opened officially since July 1, 2012 in the Best New Attraction category.
With those techie details aside, let's get to this year's winners!
Best Theme Park:
Tokyo DisneySea
This is the third overall Theme Park Insider Award for Best Theme Park for Tokyo DisneySea, and second in a row.
Runners-up:
Disney California Adventure
Disneyland
Best Hotel:
Universal's Portofino Bay Hotel
This is the third overall Theme Park Insider Award for Best Hotel for the Portofino Bay, which last won in 2009.
Runners-up:
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel
Disney's Yacht Club Resort
Best Restaurant:
S.S. Columbia Dining Room, Tokyo DisneySea
This is the first Theme Park Insider Award for the S.S. Columbia Dining Room, which is the first restaurant outside the United States to win our Best Restaurant award.
Runners-up:
Carthay Circle Restaurant, Disney California Adventure
Lombard's Seafood Grille, Universal Studios Florida
Best New Attraction:
Mystic Manor, Hong Kong Disneyland
This is the second year in a row that an attraction outside the United States has won the Best New Attraction award, following Universal Studios Singapore's Transformers: The Ride (which shared the award with its sister attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood).
Runners-up:
Outlaw Run, Silver Dollar City
Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, Hong Kong Disneyland
For the first time, a majority of our winners represent parks outside the United States, with the Tokyo Disney Resort claiming two of the four awards, and Hong Kong Disneyland claiming the third honor. Universal Orlando kept the American theme parks from being shut out, as Universal Orlando returned to winning after a one-year absence last year, which followed an 11-year streak of winning at least one Theme Park Insider Award every year.
Including the runners-up honors, here is how this year's top theme park resorts fared:
Congratulations to all of these parks, and to all the people who help make them award-winning destinations!
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But buy those DVCs, folks!
Magic Kingdom just saw it's largest expansion since the park debuted 40+ years ago, with meticulous theming on par with TDS. Once The Dwarves Mine Train Coaster is completed, it will be the culmination of a very beautifully themed, highly immersive expansion. Mind you, I enjoy bigger high end thrills like Tower of Terror, and Revenge of the Mummy, but for what it is, New Fantasyland is a fantastic addition to that park.
Work has started in AK for Avatar, with the construction of a new venue for the Lion King in Africa where the show rightly belongs, clearing the way for that $500 million project to begin. Which, despite what all the cry babies and haters say, I'm sure is going to be another highly immersive environment created by the good folks at WDI in conjunction with James Cameron and his attention to detail and desire to push the limits of storytelling technology no matter what medium he happens to find himself working in.
Over at DHS, they seem to be working up steam to giving this park a California Adventure like re-imagining. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that Star Wars land is coming, as well as either an East Coast version of Carsland or the possibility of another Pixar themed expansion to that park such as Monsters Inc., which I would imagine the plans for that door coaster are being revisited and kicked around with the recent success of the sequel.
That leaves only Epcot, which seems to be the red headed step child park. Nothing in the way of new Future World projects has stirred up in the rumor mill, aside from lay overs, updates and re-imaginings. There's been no talk of capital investments for any type of major expansion in the imminent future. In World Showcase, a Brazilian pavilion has been the hottest rumor going, but no apparent traction ever seems to take place. So I will concede Epcot as a Turkey, where showing love to the WDW parks is concerned.
Lest we not forget the Disney Springs project, which is another undertaking of themeing by WDI, in the hopes of taking an outside shopping district and encompassing it all into a cohesive story, with design elements to help further immerse you in the idea of the story they are trying to tell. Mind you, I'd trade all that nonsense in for a return to a proper, working Pleasure Island complete with the triumphant return of the Adventurers Club.
So as you can see, although not perfect, and in some cases quite flawed, the WDW resort seems to slowly be emerging from it's "investment in expansion and new attractions" slumber. I'm not a big fan of all the DVC expansion, but plenty of people buy into the program, so the demand is there, otherwise no more DVC's would be built. As this decade roars to a close, the landscape of the WDW resort stands to look much improved upon by the time the 50th anniversary rolls around in 2021.
What should also be noted in the best park award are the runner-ups, Disneyland and California Adventure. Although Disney World as a whole is larger, the two best Disney parks in America are in Anaheim.
As for DCA coming in second...that's the effect of Cars Land and the overall expansion. Disneyland is still and easily the best theme park in the U.S.
So counter service (Pecos Bills or Fast Food Blvd), bars(Rose & Crown or Finnegan's) and sit down restaurants (Mythos or Be our Guest)
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