Earlier this week, theme park magazine Amusement Today named the winners of this year’s Golden Ticket Awards, which honors the “Best of the Best” in the amusement industry as calculated from an international poll. Orlando theme parks and attractions won the top spot in five categories:

• Best Marine Life Park: SeaWorld Orlando

• Best Outdoor Night Show Production: IllumiNations: Reflections of the Earth at Epcot

• Best Water Ride: Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

• Best Dark Ride: Amazing Adventures of Spiderman at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

• Best Indoor Roller Coaster: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney-MGM Studios

Several other local theme parks and attractions took home runner-up nominations as well, including Islands of Adventure and the Magic Kingdom in the “Best Park” category; Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon in the “Best Waterpark” category; Wet’n Wild’s Brainwash attraction in the “Best New Ride for 2007 (Waterpark)” category; Magic Kingdom in the “Cleanest Park” category; Disney-MGM Studios in the “Best Shows” category; Epcot in the “Best Food” category; Magic Kingdom’s Splash Mountain attraction, Island of Adventure’s Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges attraction, and SeaWorld’s Journey to Atlantis attraction in the “Best Water Ride (Park)” category; Blizzard Beach’s Summit Plummet attraction in the “Best Waterpark Ride” category; Island of Adventure in the “Best Kids’ Area” category; Epcot in the “Best Landscaping (Park)” category (Busch Gardens in Tampa also was a runner-up in this category); Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach in the “Best Landscaping (Waterpark)” category; Disney-MGM Studios in the “Best Outdoor Night Production” category; Disney-MGM Studios’ Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction in the “Best Dark Ride” category; and Universal Orlando in the “Best Halloween Event” category.

All of these parks and attractions are worthy recipients of these award nominations and I highly encourage you to experience first-hand what makes each of these winners noteworthy. Enjoy some sushi at “Best Food” nominee Epcot, take a spin on the award-winning Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and let your eyes soak up the aquatic scenery of the top marine life park, SeaWorld, all of which are located just a hop, skip and jump apart from one another in Orlando.

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