Canada’s Wonderland. What a park. The stories are absolutely true this park is BUSSSSSSY. If you travel up to this park I recommend budgeting for Fast Lane Plus unless you enjoy lines. We spent two open to close days at the park and the two days were quite different. The first day (Thursday 8/28) it was raining for the first half of the day which KILLED the crowd except for AlpenFurys line. That line was a sustained 2+ hours both days regardless. The Thursday the Fast Lane Plus line was minimal and this was very helpful. Friday the fast lane plus line for AlpenFury was an hour minimum everytime.
This park reminds me a lot of Kings Island and to an extent Kings Dominion. The mountain is a great centerpiece especially with the waterfall and four roller coasters interacting with it in AlpenFury, Vortex, Guardian, and Thunder Run. It’s very clean and well kept across the board. One key difference from the other legacy Cedar Fair parks I will acknowledge they do not incorporate themed music in each section like Kings Dominion. It was generic pop music park wide. In terms of food the go-to is absolutely Lazy Bear Lodge I ate there twice and at the Chinese restaurant next to Tim Hortons in International Street once. There are a lot of freestyle refresh stations throughout the park that are incorporated well.
So anyway in terms of the ride lineup, I accumulated 15 credits from my visit of 18 with the misses being Peanuts Ghoster Coaster (got in the train short belt womp womp), Silver Streak (never actually walked near it nor cared to ride) and Taxi Jam so very little lost there experience wise. We rode Leviathan 10 times, AlpenFury 6 times, Yukon Striker 5 times, Behemoth 4 times, Vortex 3 times and the remaining coaster lineup once we each with the exceptions noted above. One thing I like about this park visually, they seem to build a lot of rides on top of each other creating a lot of opportunities for rides to interact or just be in the background moving as you take them in.
AlpenFury:
Best ride in the park, best ride Premier Rides has ever made, absolutely bonkers and wild. The first ride was completely nuts and we had some rain coming down as well. The trains are more stripped down Sky Rocket trains, no seatbelt, no comfort colors. They are a bit easier to board than Tempesto and relatively large rider friendly. The park has incorporated the cubbies on a laundromat clothes line system they are using at WMG and Yukon on this ride. I like this system because it looks and feels cool but not when you end up waiting several minutes for your cubbies to get back when you get off.
The ride begins with the turn out of the station into the first punchy launch where you get floajector airtime on the first hill to dive into the tunnel under the mountain. I WILL say in terms of defensive riding I understand the urge to enjoy the airtime but you need to get back down with your head back or this launch might not be very fun. You hit the rolling launch in the tunnel and this thing BLASTS you out of that mountain it’s very short length wise and has to get up to 71 to clear the first element so it PUSHES you hard. There is a lot of positive G forces up into that first element. On your first ride what happens next will feel like, as I stated before, a blizzard hurricane tornado of white track and blue supports with ALL of the G forces. After our first lap my friend said to me “what just happened?” The first element is very disorienting you rotate 270 degrees into the sideways hangtime before rotating 270 degrees back to right side up into probably the least unhinged but fastest section of track on the way to the MASSIVE stall. This gave me upside down airtime and hangtime before throwing you straight into the Skyflyer loop. This element is awesome you get upside down airtime and laterals on the exit. After that is another stall where you enter by twisting 270 degrees before exiting with another 270 degree rotation. After that the ride assaults you with 3 different rolls all feeling distinctly different with an ejector airtime hill between 2nd to last and last roll. The middle roll feels somewhat like a barrel roll down drop. You get a variety of G forces throughout the entire layout as the ride tends to have a lot of upside down airtime and laterals from the fast rotations. This ride is the magnum opus of Premier Rides and I hope it earns them a lot of favor with Six Flags. It is very fun and seemed to rarely have any downtime during the two day visit. It’s VERY intense but it’s definitely a ride this park needed. If anything I’d say this ride needed an unload platform and a 3rd train as that would help with capacity. Expect to spend time in a line if you make the trek to Canada to experience this ride. It’s incredible and landed at #12 in my rankings. One of the most intense coasters I’ve ridden.
Leviathan:
I’ve already ridden Fury 325 and Orion and if you put those on a spectrum like Coaster Studios mentioned in their vlog today, I’d lean it towards Fury 325 more than Orion. One of the best B&Ms and both days ended with 3-4 lap runs on this at night. I would describe it as “Fury-lite” but also one thing of note, larger riders this ride seems to require an extra click from other B&M Hyper models. I even got walk of shamed on my first attempt to ride after I rode Apollo 6 days before I went 3 times. I went straight to the test seat and got the verify but every single ride I had to have my friend PUSH to get that extra click and this made the ride feel a bit more stapled. Just want to point this out for those of us who run into trouble sometimes with rides. I love Leviathan and this ride and AlpenFury make for a GREAT top 2 for this park.
Behemoth:
Continuing from above this ride also has a tighter verify than other B&M Hypers I rode it 4 times but got walk of shamed on one ride attempt. I personally don’t see a significant quality difference between this, Diamondback and Thunder Striker. This one might get a slight edge from those three I like the setting over the water and it’s just a pile of camelback hills with a fun helix finale.
Yukon Striker:
I completely understand why people prefer Griffon and SheiKra to the newer dives, I will still prop this ride up as it’s my favorite layout for a dive coaster by far. The view of the park is incredible and the drop into the tunnel feels massive. The zero G roll is fun and floaty then the ride smashes you with positives on the loop and small Immelmann. The section after the mid course is goofy but it’s fun I actually get a small pop of air on the bump into the helix. This park also does a great job operating this ride there was almost always a train climbing the lift when the previous train was in the finale section. I also enjoy how Yukon Striker is presented it dominates the section of the park it’s in. The Vortex helix around the first drop is a cherry on top for this ride. All in all I’m a BIG fan of Yukon Striker.
Vortex:
This was the most intense arrow suspended coaster I’ve ever ridden. My first ride was in a downpour of rain, and water tends to accumulate in those tarps, we basically got blasted with water as we began to climb the lift hill. I don’t recommend riding Arrow Suspended coasters in downpours. This ride seems to feel a bit faster than the bat at Kings Island the helix at the end gets very close to the water that Yukon drops into and you feel those forces.
Mighty Canadian Minebuster:
The gravity group retracking made the first half of this ride great. The 2nd half particularly the helix is shaky and kind of a mess. This is far and away the best wooden coaster in the park. I did not care for how narrow the seats were with the divider on this one.
Rapid fire the remaining coasters:
Backlot Stunt Coaster: the one at Kings Dominion but under Behemoth and a longer line. No effects work here at all.
Flight Deck: this ride needs new trains or to be demoed. The restraint pinched my shoulders the entire time. This space would be great for a new marquee coaster.
Wilde Beast: this ride is an abomination. The second we left the lift to the brakes you could play ElToroRyans rock music meme for the entire ride it was BRUTAL. Worse if you don’t have fast lane you may end up in a brutal line for this piece of shit. Bad, awful just a terrible ride. I wished I was on Grizzly instead so bad.
Dragon Fyre: this is a deeply deceptive arrow looper. I typically enjoy them personally. The first two loops were great, and then the ride turns left and I had multiple instances of headbanging. The rest of the ride was bad and very janky. Not an arrow looper I will be sad to see come down.
Wonder Mountains Guardian: um? It’s there? There’s no sound effects on the screens, the drop track is cool. It needs to be renovated for its theming bad. It was kind of pointless to be honest.
Snoopys Railway Express: surprisingly fun honestly very smooth great little family coaster.
Thunder Run: I actually enjoyed this ride I wish the lights around the dragon animatronic worked. Great family ride! Choo-chooooo!
The Fly: Apple Zapple with a longer line and some brutal block brakes.
The Bat: it’s a Vekoma Boomerang with a long line. We conveniently walked on because of the rain. It has an arrow train, surprisingly smoother than Dragon Fart.
Other rides:
Sledgehammer: this thing was awesome! Like a spinning ride and a S&S combo tower sensation wise. The ride ops let me come up the exit path to test for fit before waiting. Worth it! Great ride and so glad I got to experience it.
Tundra Twister: looks more intense than it is. The swings are controlled and slow you might get some weird sensations with how the gondola rocks. Ride for the views honestly.
Wild Knight Mares: it’s a giant round up idk what I expected.
Skyhawk: i did not ride the test seat lied it has a sensor it doesn’t just need the belt to fasten. My friend rode it and had a lot of difficulty getting it to flip. I did have something new to happen, when I was walked the ops told me they radioed Vortex to let me walk on up the exit ramp which has never happened from a walk of shame before I greatly appreciated it!
Boo Blasters: this installment of Boo Blasters is in a sad state honestly. No music, most of the guns don’t seem to work. Don’t waste your time on this one if you’ve been on others. Badly needs a refurb.
Overall I greatly enjoyed Canada’s Wonderland it’s a GREAT park and very worth the trip just remember it’s BUSY up there.
This park reminds me a lot of Kings Island and to an extent Kings Dominion. The mountain is a great centerpiece especially with the waterfall and four roller coasters interacting with it in AlpenFury, Vortex, Guardian, and Thunder Run. It’s very clean and well kept across the board. One key difference from the other legacy Cedar Fair parks I will acknowledge they do not incorporate themed music in each section like Kings Dominion. It was generic pop music park wide. In terms of food the go-to is absolutely Lazy Bear Lodge I ate there twice and at the Chinese restaurant next to Tim Hortons in International Street once. There are a lot of freestyle refresh stations throughout the park that are incorporated well.
So anyway in terms of the ride lineup, I accumulated 15 credits from my visit of 18 with the misses being Peanuts Ghoster Coaster (got in the train short belt womp womp), Silver Streak (never actually walked near it nor cared to ride) and Taxi Jam so very little lost there experience wise. We rode Leviathan 10 times, AlpenFury 6 times, Yukon Striker 5 times, Behemoth 4 times, Vortex 3 times and the remaining coaster lineup once we each with the exceptions noted above. One thing I like about this park visually, they seem to build a lot of rides on top of each other creating a lot of opportunities for rides to interact or just be in the background moving as you take them in.
AlpenFury:
Best ride in the park, best ride Premier Rides has ever made, absolutely bonkers and wild. The first ride was completely nuts and we had some rain coming down as well. The trains are more stripped down Sky Rocket trains, no seatbelt, no comfort colors. They are a bit easier to board than Tempesto and relatively large rider friendly. The park has incorporated the cubbies on a laundromat clothes line system they are using at WMG and Yukon on this ride. I like this system because it looks and feels cool but not when you end up waiting several minutes for your cubbies to get back when you get off.
The ride begins with the turn out of the station into the first punchy launch where you get floajector airtime on the first hill to dive into the tunnel under the mountain. I WILL say in terms of defensive riding I understand the urge to enjoy the airtime but you need to get back down with your head back or this launch might not be very fun. You hit the rolling launch in the tunnel and this thing BLASTS you out of that mountain it’s very short length wise and has to get up to 71 to clear the first element so it PUSHES you hard. There is a lot of positive G forces up into that first element. On your first ride what happens next will feel like, as I stated before, a blizzard hurricane tornado of white track and blue supports with ALL of the G forces. After our first lap my friend said to me “what just happened?” The first element is very disorienting you rotate 270 degrees into the sideways hangtime before rotating 270 degrees back to right side up into probably the least unhinged but fastest section of track on the way to the MASSIVE stall. This gave me upside down airtime and hangtime before throwing you straight into the Skyflyer loop. This element is awesome you get upside down airtime and laterals on the exit. After that is another stall where you enter by twisting 270 degrees before exiting with another 270 degree rotation. After that the ride assaults you with 3 different rolls all feeling distinctly different with an ejector airtime hill between 2nd to last and last roll. The middle roll feels somewhat like a barrel roll down drop. You get a variety of G forces throughout the entire layout as the ride tends to have a lot of upside down airtime and laterals from the fast rotations. This ride is the magnum opus of Premier Rides and I hope it earns them a lot of favor with Six Flags. It is very fun and seemed to rarely have any downtime during the two day visit. It’s VERY intense but it’s definitely a ride this park needed. If anything I’d say this ride needed an unload platform and a 3rd train as that would help with capacity. Expect to spend time in a line if you make the trek to Canada to experience this ride. It’s incredible and landed at #12 in my rankings. One of the most intense coasters I’ve ridden.
Leviathan:
I’ve already ridden Fury 325 and Orion and if you put those on a spectrum like Coaster Studios mentioned in their vlog today, I’d lean it towards Fury 325 more than Orion. One of the best B&Ms and both days ended with 3-4 lap runs on this at night. I would describe it as “Fury-lite” but also one thing of note, larger riders this ride seems to require an extra click from other B&M Hyper models. I even got walk of shamed on my first attempt to ride after I rode Apollo 6 days before I went 3 times. I went straight to the test seat and got the verify but every single ride I had to have my friend PUSH to get that extra click and this made the ride feel a bit more stapled. Just want to point this out for those of us who run into trouble sometimes with rides. I love Leviathan and this ride and AlpenFury make for a GREAT top 2 for this park.
Behemoth:
Continuing from above this ride also has a tighter verify than other B&M Hypers I rode it 4 times but got walk of shamed on one ride attempt. I personally don’t see a significant quality difference between this, Diamondback and Thunder Striker. This one might get a slight edge from those three I like the setting over the water and it’s just a pile of camelback hills with a fun helix finale.
Yukon Striker:
I completely understand why people prefer Griffon and SheiKra to the newer dives, I will still prop this ride up as it’s my favorite layout for a dive coaster by far. The view of the park is incredible and the drop into the tunnel feels massive. The zero G roll is fun and floaty then the ride smashes you with positives on the loop and small Immelmann. The section after the mid course is goofy but it’s fun I actually get a small pop of air on the bump into the helix. This park also does a great job operating this ride there was almost always a train climbing the lift when the previous train was in the finale section. I also enjoy how Yukon Striker is presented it dominates the section of the park it’s in. The Vortex helix around the first drop is a cherry on top for this ride. All in all I’m a BIG fan of Yukon Striker.
Vortex:
This was the most intense arrow suspended coaster I’ve ever ridden. My first ride was in a downpour of rain, and water tends to accumulate in those tarps, we basically got blasted with water as we began to climb the lift hill. I don’t recommend riding Arrow Suspended coasters in downpours. This ride seems to feel a bit faster than the bat at Kings Island the helix at the end gets very close to the water that Yukon drops into and you feel those forces.
Mighty Canadian Minebuster:
The gravity group retracking made the first half of this ride great. The 2nd half particularly the helix is shaky and kind of a mess. This is far and away the best wooden coaster in the park. I did not care for how narrow the seats were with the divider on this one.
Rapid fire the remaining coasters:
Backlot Stunt Coaster: the one at Kings Dominion but under Behemoth and a longer line. No effects work here at all.
Flight Deck: this ride needs new trains or to be demoed. The restraint pinched my shoulders the entire time. This space would be great for a new marquee coaster.
Wilde Beast: this ride is an abomination. The second we left the lift to the brakes you could play ElToroRyans rock music meme for the entire ride it was BRUTAL. Worse if you don’t have fast lane you may end up in a brutal line for this piece of shit. Bad, awful just a terrible ride. I wished I was on Grizzly instead so bad.
Dragon Fyre: this is a deeply deceptive arrow looper. I typically enjoy them personally. The first two loops were great, and then the ride turns left and I had multiple instances of headbanging. The rest of the ride was bad and very janky. Not an arrow looper I will be sad to see come down.
Wonder Mountains Guardian: um? It’s there? There’s no sound effects on the screens, the drop track is cool. It needs to be renovated for its theming bad. It was kind of pointless to be honest.
Snoopys Railway Express: surprisingly fun honestly very smooth great little family coaster.
Thunder Run: I actually enjoyed this ride I wish the lights around the dragon animatronic worked. Great family ride! Choo-chooooo!
The Fly: Apple Zapple with a longer line and some brutal block brakes.
The Bat: it’s a Vekoma Boomerang with a long line. We conveniently walked on because of the rain. It has an arrow train, surprisingly smoother than Dragon Fart.
Other rides:
Sledgehammer: this thing was awesome! Like a spinning ride and a S&S combo tower sensation wise. The ride ops let me come up the exit path to test for fit before waiting. Worth it! Great ride and so glad I got to experience it.
Tundra Twister: looks more intense than it is. The swings are controlled and slow you might get some weird sensations with how the gondola rocks. Ride for the views honestly.
Wild Knight Mares: it’s a giant round up idk what I expected.
Skyhawk: i did not ride the test seat lied it has a sensor it doesn’t just need the belt to fasten. My friend rode it and had a lot of difficulty getting it to flip. I did have something new to happen, when I was walked the ops told me they radioed Vortex to let me walk on up the exit ramp which has never happened from a walk of shame before I greatly appreciated it!
Boo Blasters: this installment of Boo Blasters is in a sad state honestly. No music, most of the guns don’t seem to work. Don’t waste your time on this one if you’ve been on others. Badly needs a refurb.
Overall I greatly enjoyed Canada’s Wonderland it’s a GREAT park and very worth the trip just remember it’s BUSY up there.
