Canada's Wonderland Trip Report

Thursday, August 2

This is the biggest park in our friendly neighboring country up north. It is just northwest of Toronto Ontario putting it just under 2 hours from the border at Niagara, NY. It is owned by Cedar Fair, the company who brought us the well known parks of Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, Knott's Berry Farm, etc. I got there at around 9:30 which is 30 minutes before the whole place opens to all guests. (Annual pass holders get an hour head start on most of the "big" rides.) Parking spaces were not yet hard to find, so I got something relatively close; the entry sign was still easy to read from my spot. There was no line for tickets, so I though that crowds were going to be light for today. (Boy was I wrong - more on that later). After telling me that lines for some of the well known attractions have been at an hour or more, the very nice girl at the window talked me into getting the fast lane wristband. Even though that added around 50 dollars to the cost of getting in, I couldn't have ridden much without it. I had never gotten one of those before, but on trips to the busy and large places like Cedar Point, SFMM, SFGAV, or SFGAM they might be as necessary as sunglasses on a day without clouds. Here they get you through a special entrance on 18 of the most popular rides. Jumping the gun a little bit, I'll tell you that most of the time that made the attraction a walk on but sometimes there was still around a 20 minute wait. Ok, let's get in and go;
on to the rides !

Behemoth -- another B&M hyper, my favorite type of ride. This one was pretty good but there were some times when I felt shaking particularly on the yellow train. Like on this, it is best when they put the helix turns near the end so that doesn't interrupt the felling of airtime. With the wrist band and it being the first thing, I got two quick trips with basically no wait. Ride Count - 5

Leviathan -- B&M's first giga. Of course the first drop is awesome. The bigger airtime hills after that are also wonderful. It is good that we can feel some air even at wicked speeds. They really took up all the room that they had with this ride but it does stop when the speed suggests that it could have kept going. I am hoping that they do more with the small enclosed piece. Now it just looks like a small airplane hanger. I would like it to have been longer so it could be darker inside. Special effects like smoke or scary lights might be good too. Again as the second attraction I went to, I rode twice in very little time. Ride Count - 7

Fly -- what rcdb calls a large park wild mouse by Mack Rides. These have some nice dips and drops making them much better than those that just knock you around going back and forth. These have slow moving long lines and there is no fast lane for this. I wanted to get this out of the way before it wasn't worth it. Ride Count - 1

Bat -- another Vekoma boomerang. I keep riding these because some are much less painful than others. I could tell that this park put extra padding right were they needed it the most on all of the OTSR's because they were yellow there. This WAS one of the better rides of this type. If you really want to ride this, get to it early. With one train operations, the fast lane was still pretty long. Ride Count - 1

Dragon Fire -- an Arrow looper. This is one that is pretty hard on the body even for being kind of small. Ride Count - 1

Wild Beast -- a wooden by PTC. There was nothing special here. Ride Count - 1

Thunder Run -- a powered mine train by Mack Rides. It goes in and out of Wonder Mountain. There are little dips and dives, special effects inside the mountain, and they send you through the whole thing twice. This was a pleasant surprise for this park. Without the fast lane, it is hard to know when the line is short enough. The train is long so things move pretty fast though. My wait was shorter later in the day. Ride Count - 2

Vortex -- an Arrow suspended. It goes up, across the top, down the back of the same mountain, and into a lake. Even with this terrain and the extra padding on the harness, the transitions are just too rough to enjoy this as much as others of this type. Ride Count - 2

Sky Rider -- a stand up by Togo. This was kind of the best of the worst. Without big elements to cause lots of pain like some of the longer B&M's, it was easier to tolerate. Ride Count - 1

Time Warp -- a flyer by Zamperla. I didn't know what to make of this. I only found two others on the web operating in North America. I don't know what I would do with it, but I would like a spiral lift in my backyard. The ride was pointless, but those lifts are fun to watch. Time waiting without a fast lane went by relatively fast. Ride Count - 1

Mighty Canadian Minebuster -- another wooden by PTC. This went out-an-back underneath some of slides in the waterpark. That made it interesting but the hills, track, and train themselves were no different than many of this
company's other products. Ride Count - 1

Flight Deck -- one of many Vekoma SLC inverts. I have learned how to ride these and the help on the restraints made this more comfortable. Along with the boomerangs, I don't dislike this type as much as some of us do.
Ride Count - 1

Back Lot Stunt Coaster -- a Premier LIM. The cars look a little like real cars as the whole thing is themed after the movie Italian Job. (That was part of it's original name back when Paramont Studios was in charge so the train and ride looked better.) There are three different parks that have these same rides. All of them are fun. Ride Count - 2

Ghoster Coaster -- a family wooden by PTC. There are many of these in various parks; I guess that you could call them clones of one another. As long as you can squeeze into the kid-size seats, you will have some short fun. There are some moments of airtime but without the banging around that you get from more adult size models. Kids like to try a coaster every once in a while, so you will have to wait some. Ride Count - 1

Drop Tower -- 230 feet tall, four sided, four seats on each side, and made by Intamin. Since it is near Leviathan, it was kind of funny to look up at the coaster from the top of this. It was still thrilling to quickly drop down, keeping my legs straight out so they floated. Ride Count - 2

Psyclone -- an outward facing rotating pendulum ride by Mondial. It's always fun to catch some air as you swing 120 feet up. Ride Count - 1

Wind Seeker -- giant swings by Mondial. At 301 feet tall, this gives a great view of the park. The use of multi-colored lights at night adds to the show. This was a nice thing to finish the day with. Ride Count - 2

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* This post was modified at 8/19/12 8:07:02 AM *