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News Tripadvisor: Travelers' Choice Awards for Best Theme Parks in the United States

parksandtravel

parksandtravel

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
"The Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best title celebrates the highest level of excellence in travel. It’s awarded to those who receive a high volume of above-and-beyond reviews and opinions from the Tripadvisor community over a 12-month period. Out of our 8 million listings, fewer than 1% achieve this milestone."

  1. Knoebels Amusement Resort (Elysburg, Pennsylvania)
  2. Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee)
  3. Magic Kingdom Park (Bay Lake, Florida)
  4. Disney's Hollywood Studios (Bay Lake, Florida)
  5. Universal Islands of Adventure (Orlando, Florida)
  6. Epcot (Bay Lake, Florida)
  7. Legoland California (Carlsbad, California)
  8. Universal Studios Florida (Orlando, Florida)
  9. Disneyland Park (Anaheim, California)
  10. Silver Dollar City (Branson, Missouri)
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
I haven't been to Knoebels in maybe 30 years, but that place was always special. It just feels like it comes out of a whole other timeline. The Haunted Mansion has a low-tech DIY charm, but actually has a few jumps scares, the Phoenix was my introduction to wooden roller coasters, the bumper cars are the best I've ever ridden, and the Grand Carousel is just an absolute work of art.

I always found it odd, though, that located less than 3 hours from Philadelphia, none of my friends growing up had ever even heard of Knoebels, much less visited. At least one insisted I was making up the place, since he couldn't believe there was an amusement park that doesn't charge admission. Looks like the word is out on Knoebels, though.
 
T

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
I’m the rare enthusiast that never liked Knoebels. Phoenix never seemed that special and I’m just beyond the “permanent county fair” vibe of the whole place. I also find it hilarious that the worst domestic Disney park snagged spot #4. This poll is extremely questionable.

Edit: I forgot Dollywood was #2. I feel DHS is the worst domestic park not MK*
 
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StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
drizgirl said:
Disneyland is number 9? Six spots below Magic Kingdom? Now I'm skeptical of everything about this.
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I'm always skeptical when they place the food so high at Das Festerhaus at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The entertainment is good. The food? Meh. I'd rather go over to the Italy area for both food AND entertainment. Both DL and WDW have wayyyy better options for food.
 
Centauri Space Station

Centauri Space Station

Well-Known Member
Touchdown said:
I’m the rare enthusiast that never liked Knoebels. Phoenix never seemed that special and I’m just beyond the “permanent county fair” vibe of the whole place. I also find it hilarious that the worst domestic Disney park snagged spot #3. This poll is extremely questionable.
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Hilarious you say that when DHS and DCA exist and it has the second most attractions in the US of Disney parks.
 
T

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
StarWarsGirl said:
Y'all insulting DHS like this (home of the original Tower of Terror) need to have your heads examined. 😝
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ToT is my favorite Disney ride, and I adore Fantasmic. What I don’t enjoy is having all the rides (other then ST) having an over hour wait a vast majority of the day with shows that are infrequent and most of which can legally drink. When I rope drop I’m ready to leave before lunch, I don’t feel that way at any other Disney Park in this country.
 
StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Touchdown said:
ToT is my favorite Disney ride, and I adore Fantasmic. What I don’t enjoy is having all the rides (other then ST) having an over hour wait a vast majority of the day with shows that are infrequent and most of which can legally drink. When I rope drop I’m ready to leave before lunch, I don’t feel that way at any other Disney Park in this country.
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I actually left Epcot last September on my last day and went to DHS because Epcot was too crowded and I couldn't even get anything done. Went over to DHS and got on a bunch of stuff, had lunch, and saw the villains show.

No more Epcot on Saturdays during F&W.

I love the entire design of Sunset Boulevard leading up to ToT and the front of the Chinese Theater. I could just hang out in those spots for hours.
 
T

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
StarWarsGirl said:
I actually left Epcot last September on my last day and went to DHS because Epcot was too crowded and I couldn't even get anything done. Went over to DHS and got on a bunch of stuff, had lunch, and saw the villains show.

No more Epcot on Saturdays during F&W.

I love the entire design of Sunset Boulevard leading up to ToT and the front of the Chinese Theater. I could just hang out in those spots for hours.
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Yeah F&W Friday and Saturday nights are no go Epcot days, although I can usually eke out nice mornings.
 
StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Touchdown said:
Yeah F&W Friday and Saturday nights are no go Epcot days, although I can usually eke out nice mornings.
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I'm not a morning person, lol. I don't do Rope Drop.

Which could actually be part of your issue with DHS. Crowds drop off there the later it gets, especially in Galaxy's Edge and for M&M's. I usually do single rider for Rise, but I've seen it drop off to like 20 minutes at night (especially when I correctly choose not to believe the wait time sign). The one at Disneyland is the same way. That one closes at 10 pm, so I usually head over at 9:45 and hit it right before it closes, and I wait like ten minutes or so. At WDW, I've waited like 20 minutes for M&Ms at like 3:30 pm.

DCA I don't like as well. I didn't understand why Californians didn't like it as well...until I went to Knott's. Then I was like, ah, they copied off Knott's and expected no one would notice. Then the entire front feels like they copied off DHS, but the detailing is nowhere near as good. Even things like the stonework on the buildings just don't look at good as DHS.

Usually, I go into DCA, hit Carsland, Avengers Campus, and Incredicoaster (which I still haven't forgiven them for changing California Screamin' to Incredicoaster) and leave. I'm going on Wednesday and will also hit Soarin' over there this trip because it's the original film. Also just don't like WOC as well as the DL evening stuff, in spite of being in it back in 2013.
 
T

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
I like DCA more than most. I especially like to stack my LL while I rope drop DL and get there around noon and via taking advantage of fast queue rides, LL and SRL essentially do that park in 4 hours.
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
1778514454070.png
;)
 
WorldExplorer

WorldExplorer

Well-Known Member
Knoebels is really proud of this kind of thing. They beat Epcot for best food in something called the Golden Ticket competition some years ago, they were really proud of that, too.

I mean, when it comes to "food I expect to find at an amusement park" Knoebels was better, but Epcot also had stuff like Le Cellier so it was pretty laughable.
 
Chi84

Chi84

Premium Member
There’s no indication who made this list or how it was done.

It does say it’s tied somehow to TripAdvisor reviews. Knoebels had a 4.7 based on 1,200 reviews and MK I think had a 4.4 based on nearly 70,000 reviews.

As far as I can tell this doesn’t mean much.
 

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