LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
I'm posting the same **** I posted on Reddit so forgive me if you guys know some of the stuff I already put in here, should you read it.
I guess I'll start the review with a little bit of a background story to give my excitement a bit more context; my boyfriend and I met on an online dating site in November 2020, and what caught my eye about his profile was that he was also a self-proclaimed coaster enthusiast. He didn't make first contact with a basic "hey how r u," or "how was ur day," but instead proceeded to ask me what my favourite coaster was. Things escalated after our first date and we spent a decent chunk of lockdown and non-lockdown time watching El Toro Ryan coaster videos and POVs, as well as discussing all things coasters and looking forward to the day we could finally ride one together. This year, the international border separating us Canadians from America hasn't open due to obvious reasons, so we couldn't get to our home park (Cedar Point), but we were both in agreement that we would head to Wonderland after our vacation in cottage country.
We left our resort a few minutes before 6 A.M. on fairly minimal sleep and what may have been slight hangovers, but I was too excited to ride coasters to really care about my well-being! We got to Vaughan about an hour and a half before the park opened, true to character, and got a few hashbrowns at a local McDonalds before heading to the park. Seeing the coasters from the highway was such a great feeling, because even though I've been to the park a multitude of times, pregnancy and Covid have both restricted me from riding coasters since 2018. What's more is that it would be my first time riding coasters with my boyfriend after talking about it for over eight months.
After slight confusion with how different pass processing was compared to previous years, and the new location of the Fast Lane booth, we proceeded to Behemoth which had virtually no queue since the vast majority of parkgoers run to Leviathan or Yukon Striker. Our first ride was in the back row, and I can admit I had a bit of jitters from the time period that had passed since I last rode a coaster. Although u/sammymac19 thought it didn't have much airtime, I thought it was hauling pretty good for a chilly morning, possibly because I had a decent amount of space between myself and the restraint. We got back in line and waited two or three trains for the front row, which provided a stellar ride and helped to solidify Behemoth's place at the very top of my hyper coasters, still without question (yes, even above the coveted Shambhala).
I am an unabashed fan of Backlot Stunt Coaster, and Sam had never been on it on his prior trips to Wonderland, so I suggested riding it thinking he'd be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I didn't take into consideration his fatigue and predisposition to nausea so it put him out of commission for a little while. I still love Backlot, and I still think it's incredibly intense for a family coaster but I will likely be riding it solo on future visits or when we are able to visit King's Dominion or King's Island together.
Since Sam was in the throes of Backlot-induces sickness, we grabbed a water and decided it wasn't the opportune time to ride Yukon Striker, which afforded me the opportunity to ride Shockwave. I am not a fan of flat rides or things that spin, but I've always had an affinity for this one and I never miss a chance to ride it when I'm in the park. Still as fun as ever, and not overly intense.
I kind of have a murky memory in terms of what order we did things in, but I suppose it doesn't really make a difference to those who fine the time to read this, so I'll just try my best. We hopped into the Leviathan line and got assigned the second row, which we didn't whine about like other Fast Lane Plus holders who thought their wristband gave them the privilege to sit in the row of their choosing. As usual, Leviathan provides an adrenaline-filled experience in the short ride duration; however, in my opinion it doesn't hold a candle to Millennium Force or Fury 325.
Since we were in the spirit of taking our time, which is something that is actually important to me as I've become more of a seasoned veteran of an enthusiast (or maybe I'm just getting old), we headed to Planet Snoopy to see what the line for Ghoster Coaster was looking like given that we both have nostalgic ties to it and Sam wasn't quite rid of his nausea. It was a very quick no-go for us since the line was overflowing and beyond the sign that indicated an hour long wait time. I wasn't as bummed about this as I was when I noticed Boo Blasters was shut, because as he knows, I am a sucker for competition and an indoor shooting ride can definitely provide it. One of the things I really do have to praise Wonderland for (amongst many other things, too) is Planet Snoopy and Kidzville, because it seems as though there is an endless sea of things for young parkgoers to do in two separate areas that are conveniently located next to one another. I'd rate this park's variety of family-friendly areas in the upper echelon of those provided by other Cedar Fair parks, and they have certainly sold me on taking my son there once he is old enough to properly enjoy what they have to offer.
We took a stroll through the barren path that contains Thunder Canyon and the waterpark entrance, which I assume in the future will be a prime area for further expansion. This brought us back to the area that Yukon Striker is in, and I took the time to fully appreciate the extensive amount of work they've done to a previously neglected area of the park. I think the way the coaster interacts with the valley behind Wonder Mountain is more aesthetically pleasing than I ever imagined it to be, coupled with a unique colour scheme that perfectly compliments its surroundings.
Before we rode what was to be a new credit for both of us, we went on Mighty Canadian Minebuster which I still believe is a decent ride after many years of hearing complaints from other enthusiasts. It lacks the roughness that many people state it possesses, and although it doesn't have a significant amount of airtime, I've always enjoyed the pacing and the way it borders the waterpark. I'm not one of those "OMG RMC EVERYTHING" type of enthusiasts despite my love for their manufacturer and their creations, but I think this would make a good contender for something similar to Storm Chaser, including an inverted drop.
For those enthusiasts who are at a new park, or a park they've been to that has a new coaster, you'll probably understand the term "cred anxiety," which can only be described as the need to ride the new coaster before it has a mechanical breakdown and the opportunity to ride passes you by. I told Sam I was experiencing cred anxiety, so after watching the ride a couple of times, he decided he was feeling good enough to go on it. I'm not going to do a crazy long breakdown of the ride because I've already written a separate attraction review, but I quite enjoyed it especially for being a coaster model I'm not generally enamoured with. After seeing the speed at which the trains take the inversions, which is less graceful and more aggressive than some of its counterparts, I was slightly nervous that the coaster would pull positive G-forces exceeding my level of comfort. Fortunately, my fears weren't warranted, and despite ranking in the lower half of the dive machines I have ridden, I still won't be missing a ride on this during future visits.
Because I am some kind of masochist or glutton for punishment, I hopped on the SLC without Sam's company. I have always been adament that Flight Deck is one of the worst SLCs I have been on, equivalent to the one at Nasu Highland in Japan, and I know this sentiment is shared by fellow enthusiasts with double my coaster count. Something inside of me always says to ride it to solidify my opinion, but I do secretly always have a chuckle at how bad it is as my head slams on the restraints the entire way through. Another personal amusement is watching gleeful riders head out of the station, only to look dejected upon their return.
Guardian was running earlier in the day, and I figured in order to ensure that Sam avoided any further bouts of nausea, it'd be wise to hit something a little more low-key since we had just been on Yukon Striker. Sadly, it was down and was showing no signs of testing, so we made our way to Wilde Beast which had a ridiculously long wait for the plebians that didn't have Fast Lane, but was a walk-on for us (which is the only wait that it's worth). It was unenjoyable as usual, but still inflicted nowhere near the same displeasure as coasters like Shambhala or Wildcat did on me.
We treated ourselves to another lap on Leviathan, where we ended up in the second row again, granting us the same ride experience as the first time. Since we are degenerates and wanted to use our time in the park wisely, we grabbed ourselves a beer at the beer stand which took us upwards of twenty minutes to get, thanks to an incompetent staff and equally as incompetent clientele. Thankfully, the Flying Frontenacs provided us some entertainment while we waited for our overpriced pints!
Since we had nearly a four hour drive home (which is often exacerbated by Toronto traffic), we decided that one more lap of the park would be sufficient to get everything that we wanted in. We did another lap on Behemoth in the second last row, which was delighting us with even more airtime than our earlier rides, before heading to assess the queue for Ghoster Coaster. It was still a cesspool of screaming children, so we made our last ride Vortex, which oddly enough felt lightyears more intense and positive-G heavy than my prior rides on it to a degree where I got off feeling less than stellar.
Although it wasn't at our home park, it felt incredible to finally get to ride some coasters, and with my enthusiast boyfriend no less! Wonderland is still one of the better parks in the chain in terms of atmosphere, family friendliness, and ride lineup (despite needing one more coaster to properly round off their coaster selection) and I look forward to seeing more positive steps taken to make it more of a destination for enthusiasts.
I guess I'll start the review with a little bit of a background story to give my excitement a bit more context; my boyfriend and I met on an online dating site in November 2020, and what caught my eye about his profile was that he was also a self-proclaimed coaster enthusiast. He didn't make first contact with a basic "hey how r u," or "how was ur day," but instead proceeded to ask me what my favourite coaster was. Things escalated after our first date and we spent a decent chunk of lockdown and non-lockdown time watching El Toro Ryan coaster videos and POVs, as well as discussing all things coasters and looking forward to the day we could finally ride one together. This year, the international border separating us Canadians from America hasn't open due to obvious reasons, so we couldn't get to our home park (Cedar Point), but we were both in agreement that we would head to Wonderland after our vacation in cottage country.
We left our resort a few minutes before 6 A.M. on fairly minimal sleep and what may have been slight hangovers, but I was too excited to ride coasters to really care about my well-being! We got to Vaughan about an hour and a half before the park opened, true to character, and got a few hashbrowns at a local McDonalds before heading to the park. Seeing the coasters from the highway was such a great feeling, because even though I've been to the park a multitude of times, pregnancy and Covid have both restricted me from riding coasters since 2018. What's more is that it would be my first time riding coasters with my boyfriend after talking about it for over eight months.
After slight confusion with how different pass processing was compared to previous years, and the new location of the Fast Lane booth, we proceeded to Behemoth which had virtually no queue since the vast majority of parkgoers run to Leviathan or Yukon Striker. Our first ride was in the back row, and I can admit I had a bit of jitters from the time period that had passed since I last rode a coaster. Although u/sammymac19 thought it didn't have much airtime, I thought it was hauling pretty good for a chilly morning, possibly because I had a decent amount of space between myself and the restraint. We got back in line and waited two or three trains for the front row, which provided a stellar ride and helped to solidify Behemoth's place at the very top of my hyper coasters, still without question (yes, even above the coveted Shambhala).
I am an unabashed fan of Backlot Stunt Coaster, and Sam had never been on it on his prior trips to Wonderland, so I suggested riding it thinking he'd be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I didn't take into consideration his fatigue and predisposition to nausea so it put him out of commission for a little while. I still love Backlot, and I still think it's incredibly intense for a family coaster but I will likely be riding it solo on future visits or when we are able to visit King's Dominion or King's Island together.
Since Sam was in the throes of Backlot-induces sickness, we grabbed a water and decided it wasn't the opportune time to ride Yukon Striker, which afforded me the opportunity to ride Shockwave. I am not a fan of flat rides or things that spin, but I've always had an affinity for this one and I never miss a chance to ride it when I'm in the park. Still as fun as ever, and not overly intense.
I kind of have a murky memory in terms of what order we did things in, but I suppose it doesn't really make a difference to those who fine the time to read this, so I'll just try my best. We hopped into the Leviathan line and got assigned the second row, which we didn't whine about like other Fast Lane Plus holders who thought their wristband gave them the privilege to sit in the row of their choosing. As usual, Leviathan provides an adrenaline-filled experience in the short ride duration; however, in my opinion it doesn't hold a candle to Millennium Force or Fury 325.
Since we were in the spirit of taking our time, which is something that is actually important to me as I've become more of a seasoned veteran of an enthusiast (or maybe I'm just getting old), we headed to Planet Snoopy to see what the line for Ghoster Coaster was looking like given that we both have nostalgic ties to it and Sam wasn't quite rid of his nausea. It was a very quick no-go for us since the line was overflowing and beyond the sign that indicated an hour long wait time. I wasn't as bummed about this as I was when I noticed Boo Blasters was shut, because as he knows, I am a sucker for competition and an indoor shooting ride can definitely provide it. One of the things I really do have to praise Wonderland for (amongst many other things, too) is Planet Snoopy and Kidzville, because it seems as though there is an endless sea of things for young parkgoers to do in two separate areas that are conveniently located next to one another. I'd rate this park's variety of family-friendly areas in the upper echelon of those provided by other Cedar Fair parks, and they have certainly sold me on taking my son there once he is old enough to properly enjoy what they have to offer.
We took a stroll through the barren path that contains Thunder Canyon and the waterpark entrance, which I assume in the future will be a prime area for further expansion. This brought us back to the area that Yukon Striker is in, and I took the time to fully appreciate the extensive amount of work they've done to a previously neglected area of the park. I think the way the coaster interacts with the valley behind Wonder Mountain is more aesthetically pleasing than I ever imagined it to be, coupled with a unique colour scheme that perfectly compliments its surroundings.
Before we rode what was to be a new credit for both of us, we went on Mighty Canadian Minebuster which I still believe is a decent ride after many years of hearing complaints from other enthusiasts. It lacks the roughness that many people state it possesses, and although it doesn't have a significant amount of airtime, I've always enjoyed the pacing and the way it borders the waterpark. I'm not one of those "OMG RMC EVERYTHING" type of enthusiasts despite my love for their manufacturer and their creations, but I think this would make a good contender for something similar to Storm Chaser, including an inverted drop.
For those enthusiasts who are at a new park, or a park they've been to that has a new coaster, you'll probably understand the term "cred anxiety," which can only be described as the need to ride the new coaster before it has a mechanical breakdown and the opportunity to ride passes you by. I told Sam I was experiencing cred anxiety, so after watching the ride a couple of times, he decided he was feeling good enough to go on it. I'm not going to do a crazy long breakdown of the ride because I've already written a separate attraction review, but I quite enjoyed it especially for being a coaster model I'm not generally enamoured with. After seeing the speed at which the trains take the inversions, which is less graceful and more aggressive than some of its counterparts, I was slightly nervous that the coaster would pull positive G-forces exceeding my level of comfort. Fortunately, my fears weren't warranted, and despite ranking in the lower half of the dive machines I have ridden, I still won't be missing a ride on this during future visits.
Because I am some kind of masochist or glutton for punishment, I hopped on the SLC without Sam's company. I have always been adament that Flight Deck is one of the worst SLCs I have been on, equivalent to the one at Nasu Highland in Japan, and I know this sentiment is shared by fellow enthusiasts with double my coaster count. Something inside of me always says to ride it to solidify my opinion, but I do secretly always have a chuckle at how bad it is as my head slams on the restraints the entire way through. Another personal amusement is watching gleeful riders head out of the station, only to look dejected upon their return.
Guardian was running earlier in the day, and I figured in order to ensure that Sam avoided any further bouts of nausea, it'd be wise to hit something a little more low-key since we had just been on Yukon Striker. Sadly, it was down and was showing no signs of testing, so we made our way to Wilde Beast which had a ridiculously long wait for the plebians that didn't have Fast Lane, but was a walk-on for us (which is the only wait that it's worth). It was unenjoyable as usual, but still inflicted nowhere near the same displeasure as coasters like Shambhala or Wildcat did on me.
We treated ourselves to another lap on Leviathan, where we ended up in the second row again, granting us the same ride experience as the first time. Since we are degenerates and wanted to use our time in the park wisely, we grabbed ourselves a beer at the beer stand which took us upwards of twenty minutes to get, thanks to an incompetent staff and equally as incompetent clientele. Thankfully, the Flying Frontenacs provided us some entertainment while we waited for our overpriced pints!
Since we had nearly a four hour drive home (which is often exacerbated by Toronto traffic), we decided that one more lap of the park would be sufficient to get everything that we wanted in. We did another lap on Behemoth in the second last row, which was delighting us with even more airtime than our earlier rides, before heading to assess the queue for Ghoster Coaster. It was still a cesspool of screaming children, so we made our last ride Vortex, which oddly enough felt lightyears more intense and positive-G heavy than my prior rides on it to a degree where I got off feeling less than stellar.
Although it wasn't at our home park, it felt incredible to finally get to ride some coasters, and with my enthusiast boyfriend no less! Wonderland is still one of the better parks in the chain in terms of atmosphere, family friendliness, and ride lineup (despite needing one more coaster to properly round off their coaster selection) and I look forward to seeing more positive steps taken to make it more of a destination for enthusiasts.
