A panel of world wide theme park enthusiasts yesterday (Saturday Sept 8th) revealed the winners of the Golden Ticket Awards2012. The Golden Ticket Awards celebrate the "best of the best" in the theme park industry. The awards are compiled by Amusement Today.

25 awards were up for grabs, Dollywood (where the ceremony was held this year) scooped 5 awards, including the "Best New Ride for 2012" for Wild Eagle. Cedar Point won "Best Theme Park" and "Best Steel Coaster" for Millenium Force. El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure won "Best Wooden Coaster". For the full list of categories & winners, click "read more" below.

Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA, USA

Featuring the world's "tallest, fastest loop" and three launches, the recently announced Full Throttle at Six Flags Magic Mountain will be a fantastic new addition to the 2013 coaster line up

As if the loop and launch wasn't enough, they've also added in a reverse launch, a top hat that is connected to the loop and enough inversions and thrills to make your pants wet.

Full Throttle will be located near the front of the park in a newly themed area where guests will experience high-energy action through fast-paced imagery, sound and lights. With this addition, Six Flags Magic Mountain firmly holds the coveted “Coaster Capital of the World” crown — with a total of 18 roller coasters — more than any other theme park on the planet.

California's Great America, CA, USA

California's Great America has not opened a new coaster since 2012, but it looks like they may have struck gold with thier new-for-2013 wooden coaster, GoldStriker.

Billed as "the tallest and fastest wooden coaster in Northern California", GoldStriker will be 3,197ft (974mtrs) long, have a 103ft (33mtrs) first drop and travel at nearly 54mph (84kph).

The coaster will be manufactured by Great Coasters International, famed for Thunderhead at Dollywood and Troy at Toverland (amongst others) so we're expecting something special here! Even if it turns out to be bronze rather than gold, after a 12 year drought, any new coaster at CAGA is better than none!

The ride is scheduled to open in Spring 2013. The park is holding a "First Rider Auction" for the San Francisco 49ers Foundation charity; details below.

Alton Towers, Staffordshire, UK

Hersheypark, PA, USA

If you've got a spare $799,000 (£506k/€641k) stored under your mattress, you could buy your own roller coaster!

On Rides4U, a website dedicated to selling old theme park rides, Hersheypark's Roller Soaker is listed as for sale. The park has not yet confirmed that the ride is for sale or that it will be removed. There are no other roller coasters called Roller Soaker and the images on Rides4U are of Hersheypark's model.

Roller Soaker opened in 2002 and is a suspended coaster that allows riders to dump water on people below and people below to shoot water at riders.

Fårup Sommerland, Jylland, Denmark

On June 5th 2013, the Danish theme park will open their sixth rollercoaster, Orkanen.

The attraction will be a custom-made suspended coaster manufactured by Netherlands based company Vekoma. Riders feet will dangle above water and skim close to tree tops in what the park is billing as the "only one of it's kind in northern Europe". We're not sure what they mean by that, perhaps it was lost in translation, but the video animation on the right makes this family coaster look good!

Orkanen ("Hurricane" in English) will be Denmark's longest suspended coaster at 453mtrs (1,486ft) and have a top speed of75kph (46mph).

Pleasure Beach Blackpool, Lancs, UK

Pleasure Beach Blackpool has finally confirmed the new attraction replacing the old Gold Mine ride - Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic.

The £5.2m investment - £2m partially funded by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership - is a four minute family ride featuring animatronics and scenes based on the popular British animation.

Creators Aardman are working with the Pleasure Beach on the ride, scheduled to open in Spring 2013. There will also be a shop where guests can purchase an array of Wallace & Gromit merchandise.

Pleasure Beach Managing Director, Amamda Thompson OBE said, "Wallace & Gromit are national treasures and to have them here re-affirms our commitment to attracting families back to the resort for what we hope will be A Grand Day Out!"

Knott's Berry Farm, CA, USA

On Monday August 13th, Knott's Berry Farm announced that their water splash ride, Perilous Plunge, will close for good on September 3rd 2012.

"Perilous Plunge has carried thousands of visitors over its 12-year tenure at Knott's," park General Manager Raffi Kaprelyan said, "so we wanted to invite guests out to give it a proper send-off."

The ride is one of only two of it's kind in the world, the other being Drenched at Oakwood, Wales, UK. Perilous Plunge closed in 2001 - a year after opening - when a guest fell from the ride and died. The park has yet to announce what they plan to replace the ride with.

Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH, USA

Get ready to soar at Cedar Point for 2013!

Cedar Point announced today the addition of its 16th roller coaster, GateKeeper, a massive B&M Wing Coaster.  Standing ominously over a newly designed main entrance at the front of the park, GateKeeper will stand 170 ft. tall, featuring a 164 ft. Wing Over Drop - the tallest of its kind in the world.  Riders will ride on the "wings" of the coaster as they zip across the new Cedar Point skyline.

GateKeeper will travel along 4,164 ft. of track as riders experience numerous airtime hills and six inversions.  This includes a special Zero-G roll through two support towers that will be apart of the new entrance structure, creating a double "keyhole" effect.

Silver Dollar City, MO, USA

Yee-har! Silver Dollar City today announced their new record breaking ride, a wooden coaster called "Outlaw Run".

When Outlaw Run opens in Spring 2013, it will feature the steepest drop - 81° - on a wooden roller coaster, will be the second fastest (68mph/109kph) wooden roller coaster in the world and, impressively, feature 3 inversions - two barrel roll inversions and a 153 ° outside banked turn.

The 87seconds long ride has a 162ft (49mtrs) drop built alongside a natural hillside and boasts nine airtime moments throughout it's 2,937ft (895mtrs) long track. The $10m ride is being constructed by Rocky Mountain Construction Group, who also built El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Outlaw Run will have a wild west theme, so saddle up and check out the video to the right and the gallery below.