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Canadas Wonderland September 2017

GeodieCoasterFan

Mega Poster
Have been having a read through the site recently and have been looking for some reviews of this park and haven't found anything so thought I would post a review of my visit at the end of last year. Canada's Wonderland doesn't seem to get the love other Cedar Fair Parks do and though it isn't perfect it was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days and I would recommend any body in the area to visit. ( Toronto is one of the cheaper places to fly to via Dublin from Newcastle). Hope you enjoy and any debate comments are appreciated

The Boring Stuff

Location/Appearance
- Just North of Toronto and just off a main road it was very easy to find and the height of some of the bigger rides meant it could be seen from some distance away. When you pull up its quite generic at the front but the site of all these giant rides was something spectacular to behold for a guy who's previous biggest ride was the Pepsi Max Big One

Theming/Decor- Think having the wonder mountain as a focal point when you come through the door is good and all the fountains were a nice touch and looked great on the days I was there as it was very warm and sunny ( did not expect 30C in Canada in September when I booked). On the right side there is almost a European village bit which is quite nicely themed with gates and walls and is where the crowds gathered waiting to go towards Leviathan on a morning.

Food and Drinks-I was quite boring when I was here sticking to well known places like Subway and Dairy Queen, there were some nice desserts with Funnel Cakes and Beaver Tails which were nice but a bit sickly for my tastes. Had the refillable drinks which were good early on but due to the high temperatures by the end of the day there was a shortage of the more popular drinks at the refill station

The Rollercoasters (main ones)

Backlot Stunt Coaster
- nice launch, a bit rough but generally a fun ride but wasn't too thrilling

Dragon fire- Reminded me of the Corkscrew rides of my youth where I would ignore the discomfort and headbanging as I always found them to be fun rides and this was very similar. Never going to get on anyone's top 10 list but a bit of a guilty pleasure for me

Flight Deck- Just an awful ride, probably the worst coaster I have ever been on if I'm being honest. Vekoma SLC's are bad rides generally but this one is another level, no fun at all and is physically painful and makes you feel sick, the trifecta of what you don't want from a coaster

Mighty Canadian Minebuster- Very Painful ride, got ragged left and right on this one, seemed a lot faster than I thought it would be, which on a smooth coaster is great but on this it just added to the pain

The Bat- Another guilty pleasure coaster here, I love Boomerang type coasters even if they can be rough and I think this is one of the better ones I have been on

Time Warp- not a fan of these Zamperla flyers at all and this isn't as smooth or comfortable as the others I have ridden.

Vortex- Was my first old school suspended coaster so really enjoyed it, you feel like you are going faster than you are and the interactions with the Mountain are pretty cool.

Behemoth- Brilliant ride , first drop was excellent, air time hills are brilliant , really smooth , liked the collection point of peoples bangles are hair bands next to the break run too

Leviathan- Just the god of rollercoasters, fast, breathtaking, smooth and just so much better than anything else I have been on, If Fury 325 is the improvement on this then I hope one day I can get on that

Other rides of note

Windseeker-
despite loving 300ft rollercoasters a 300ft ride like this just scares the hell out of me, even though it is slow I just don't like the feeling of just hanging in the sky. Nice views though, could see the CN tower

Skyhawk- really cool ride, where you can spin yourself round, when you get some momentum its great and you just keep spinning round

Psyclone- Standard spinning disc which are always pretty good and worth a ride

Riptide- love top spin rides and getting splashed with water on those boiling hot days was a nice touch

Shockwave- I normally find the top scan rides really uncomfortable but this was really comfortable compared to the likes of Samurai at Thorpe Park and without the pain is a fun ride

Sledgehammer- Totally unique ride, the feeling when it lifts you up is really something, you know its coming but it still gets you, best flat ride I've been on

Soaring Timbers- another relatively unique one, which feels a bit like a top scan the way it throws you around

Drop Tower- Not the best drop tower I've been on but its over 200ft so the drop is still pretty decent

NightMares-Old style UFO ride, hadn't been on one of these for years, so the member berries made this great

Wonder Mountain Guardian-Really good themed interactive dark ride with a nice twist at the end.

One big disappointment was despite the heat the water rides weren't on

Conclusion

Overall I think despite a few disappointing coasters this is a really cool park with some excellent flat rides and an awesome big 2 in Behemoth and Leviathan. I really think if they just flattened Flight Deck and Time Traveller and put something like a B&M Flyer in there and got the RMC treatment on one of the 2 woodies they would be comfortably the 3rd best Cedar fair park and maybe even challenge the big Ohio 2.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Thanks for the nice detailed review. Need to get myself on Leviathan one day and Wonder Mountain looks interesting and a bit odd. I think the park often gets a lot of negativity (Leviathan aside) - we have a few members close by who probaby have a similar feeling towards it as we do of Thorpe. Would that be fair?
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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Nice review! I'm looking forward to my visit in a few months.

How many days did you have at the park? Did you manage to get all the coasters in?
 

GeodieCoasterFan

Mega Poster
Thanks for the nice detailed review. Need to get myself on Leviathan one day and Wonder Mountain looks interesting and a bit odd. I think the park often gets a lot of negativity (Leviathan aside) - we have a few members close by who probaby have a similar feeling towards it as we do of Thorpe. Would that be fair?

Wonder Mountain is really fun and it is really nicely themed, If you like interactive rides then you will love it.

Have you been on any of the other Gigas?

I think its very underappreciated as Thorpe* can be as overall it has a lot there, some of the decision making from the park owners such having a zamperla flyer and Vekoma SLC when in their place you could have something decent will always lead to quite a lot of negativity and lead to people , especially if the rumour is true that owners at the time turned B&M down for an invert as there was on with 200 miles ( raptor at cedar point) and went with Vekoma instead.

*I mean in the way it always seems to be in Alton towers shadow

Nice review! I'm looking forward to my visit in a few months.

How many days did you have at the park? Did you manage to get all the coasters in?

We did 2 days, on a saturday and sunday in September. The only adult coaster we didn't go on was wild beast and that was due to some tech issues when we queued and just not being that keen in going back to it when it was boiling hot on the sunday and Leviathan had next to no queue so we could ride over and over.

It was busy on the saturday but the sunday was pretty dead, it doesn't seem as big as the other parks and it didn't really take too long to get around it. The new flat ride looks pretty cool like the one at Dorney Park
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Wonder Mountain is really fun and it is really nicely themed, If you like interactive rides then you will love it.

Have you been on any of the other Gigas?

I love dark rides with lots of theming and just general kookie things.

As for Gigas (assuming you mean anything over 300) - I've done I305, Millennium Force, Steel Dragon 2000, TTD, and Kingda Ka. Need Fury and Leviathan now.
 

Will

Strata Poster
If I lived in the Vaughan area, I suspect I'd like Canada's Wonderland about as much as I do Thorpe (although Leviathan and Behemoth are worlds ahead of any non-Nemesis ride currently operating in the UK). However, as it's one of only two major north-American parks I've been to, it all seemed very big and exciting and I very much viewed it with rose-tinted glasses. I won't deny most of the coasters are poor, but I did enjoy Wonder Mountain's Guardian and Back Lot Stunt Coaster as well as the big two - nothing else was really worth a re-ride, though there was an impressive selection of flats, the park looked great in the dark and I did enjoy the theming of the mountain area and the rides that interacted with it.
 

GeodieCoasterFan

Mega Poster
I love dark rides with lots of theming and just general kookie things.

As for Gigas (assuming you mean anything over 300) - I've done I305, Millennium Force, Steel Dragon 2000, TTD, and Kingda Ka. Need Fury and Leviathan now.

which one is your favourite? ( dark type ride)

Im quite lazy with the Giga references even though it is anything over 300ft. I tend to refer to it as there are 5 gigas I305, Fury 325, Leviathan, Millennium Force and Steel Dragon. Even though red force, superman and tower or terror are also in the 300-400ft bracket I tend not to refer to them as Gigas ( even though they are)

I've only been on 2 of the 5 ( Leviathan and Millenium Force) as Virginia/Carolina/Japan are below another north east USA run and California in my travel plans. Thought Leviathan was comfortably better than Millenium ( even though I think the hype for Millenium had me expecting perfection

How does I 305 and steel dragon compare to Millenium?

If I lived in the Vaughan area, I suspect I'd like Canada's Wonderland about as much as I do Thorpe (although Leviathan and Behemoth are worlds ahead of any non-Nemesis ride currently operating in the UK). However, as it's one of only two major north-American parks I've been to, it all seemed very big and exciting and I very much viewed it with rose-tinted glasses. I won't deny most of the coasters are poor, but I did enjoy Wonder Mountain's Guardian and Back Lot Stunt Coaster as well as the big two - nothing else was really worth a re-ride, though there was an impressive selection of flats, the park looked great in the dark and I did enjoy the theming of the mountain area and the rides that interacted with it.

which is the other one you have been to and how does it compare?
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
I honestly thought I305 was boring and over too quickly. It was way below my expectations. Bonus points for being the only coaster that's gone anywhere near to making me grey-out but that's all its got. I'm an airtime lover first and foremost.

Bearing that in mind, I wasn't expecting much from Millennium Force either. I thought it would be a bit dull. But, having set the bar low, I actually ended up loving it. Ok so I got two night rides with no queue which sweetened the deal, but still, I love the sheer sense of speed and the rush of air in your face.

For Steel Dragon 2000 I hadn't seen many reviews before riding it and actually expected it to be poor with little airtime. I'd previously ridden Superman at SF America (the one with the endless helices) and thought that was very dull and I don't know why, but I had it in my head that an older-style giga would be just as dull. Happy to say I was very, very wrong. SD2K has buckets and buckets of airtime. It rushed into my top 10 at the time.

Honestly, I'm more about airtime and layout than height so prefer the smaller B&M hypers to these big gigas (with the exception of SD2K). If I want to appreciate speed and ferocity then MF is there and has its place.
 

GeodieCoasterFan

Mega Poster
I think the 4 North American Gigas get paired off on manufacturer, so I would probably have the reverse feelings of what you said where if I ever went to Kings Dominion I wouldnt be expecting much so I would enjoy I305 more

Steel Dragon sounds great, how smooth a ride is it?

I love a bit airtime so I like the B&M hypers such as diamondback and Behemoth more than Millennium Force but compared to Leviathan they were both poorer even though Leviathan didn't have that much air time ( though what it does have is great) comparatively. Suppose for all our tastes there are a lot of factors balancing out
 
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