Canada's Wonderland Review 2017

Canada's Wonderland: 6/7/17

1. Leviathan (B&M Giga Coaster)
2. Drop Tower (Intamin Giant Drop)
3. Wild Beast (Curtis D. Summers Wooden Coaster)
4. Bat (Vekoma Boomerang)
5. Fly (Mack Wilde Maus)
6. Vortex (Arrow Suspended Coaster)
7. WindSeeker (Mondial Wind Seeker)
8. Minebuster (Curtis D. Summers Wooden Coaster)
9. Backlot Stunt Coaster (Premier LIM Launch Coaster)
10. Behemoth (B&M Hypercoaster)
11. Time Warp (Zamperla Volare)
12. Flight Deck (Vekoma SLC)
13. Dragon Fire (Arrow Looper)
14. Riptide (Mondial Top Spin Splash)
15. Leviathan (2x) (B&M Giga Coaster)
16. Drop Tower (2nd time) (Intamin Giant Drop)
17. Shockwave (Mondial Top Scan)
18. Thunder Run (Mack Powered Coaster)
19. Guardian (Art Ent/Triotech 4D Interactive Dark Ride/coaster)
20. Behemoth (2nd time) (B&M Hypercoaster)
21. Sledge Hammer (HUSS Giant Jump 2)
22. Psyclone (Mondial Frisbee)
23. Behemoth (3rd time) (B&M Hypercoaster)
24. Leviathan (4th time) (B&M Giga Coaster)

Warning: You are going to see me have an anger fit about a certain ride here. I'll try to keep it as civil as possible, but beware younger viewers; you'll see censored swearing.

Canada's Wonderland was my 4th Cedar Fair park when I visited last year. It was a great park with an awesome balance between flat rides and coasters. To clarify when I get to the coaster I'm going to yell at, this is no attack towards the park. It's only meant towards the coaster. The park on the other hand was just amazing!! 😁

Leviathan was the first ride of the day, and I was immediately reminded of Fury 325 at Carowinds. Like Fury, Leviathan was a mind-blowing coaster (or mind-crushing/6-star... rankings anyone? 😜) and became one of my all-time favorite coasters. From the brilliant first drop into the tunnel, to the forceful curves; from the wind pounding your face, to the insane speed, this is a coaster to be reckoned with! I tried a little Rick and Morty reference at the station saying "Show me what you got! I want to see what you got!" I intended to complete the joke, but the ride's insanity made me forget to complete it. 😂 Overall, what a great coaster! With this coaster, I have now ridden every giga coaster in North America as of 2017 and as of today.

Drop Tower was the same model as the one in Carowinds as well as the one in California's Great America (Intamin Giant Drop). This was a lot taller than the one in Carowinds, but the same feeling; a very fun drop tower. We next did Wild Beast which was a really fun wooden coaster. It's another coaster that's not very popular with other enthusiasts. For the most part I have a high tolerance for coasters (we'll get to the one that broke me in a moment. Trust me, it's going to get ugly... or fun for some of you).

Bat was another Boomerang credit for me. Like the others, it's a fun coaster with a small footprint! We then rode Fly; basically your typical Wilde Maus/Wild Mouse coaster. This ride was a little heart-warming though, because a little girl couldn't ride with her father, due to him being too fat to ride. So an employee rode instead to keep the girl company, riding in the row in front of us. Now that is GREAT service!

Next came Vortex, my second Arrow Suspended Coaster at the time. I enjoyed this ride a lot more than Iron Dragon. Afterwards came Minebuster, another nice woodie. This one had a fun out-and-back layout. We then rode our second Backlot Stunt Coaster. I do think these rides could have been a little longer, but these are fun family coasters.

And then we rode the other B&M coaster in the park, Behemoth. At the time this was my second experience on a stagger-seated B&M hyper. This was the first one built though, opening in 2008 (for reference, Diamondback opened in 2009 and Intimidator opened in 2010). Behemoth was just as great as Intimidator (at the time I did not ride Diamondback), and I especially loved the double helix towards the end. As if it's a surprise, it's yet another amazing hyper coaster!! 😁

Oh god... now we're getting to the bad part... there's two coasters in this next section. One of them I thought was stupid, the other I thought was just abysmal. Shall we dive in? I'm dreading to recap these horrors. Another warning: I will try to keep it civil, but younger viewers probably shouldn't look at this.

Let's start with Time Warp... this was my first Zamperla Volare credit, and according to the design of the ride, it is a flying coaster. I say this, because... it really didn't feel like a coaster. I didn't feel any enjoyment from this thing. I'm mostly a kind critic for coasters, as you might have guessed. This ride, however, was just a waste of time. It banged your head, though at least the guards on the restraints were soft like pillows, so it wasn't the worst feeling. No, my main concern was everything else with this ride. The trains were uncanny and weird to enter into: you had to climb to get a good height. And the ride just didn't feel like a coaster; it felt more like an incredibly strange flat ride, with the train just dragging you throughout the ride. Even by flat ride standards, almost all of them would be better experiences than this. I WANTED to enjoy this, but I just couldn't. Instead of feeling accomplished of getting another coaster credit on my list, I was baffled and thought to myself as the train entered the station: "What the hell did I just ride?" I am not one to judge a ride design based on one ride, but if this is what the experience is for this kind of ride, I'll still ride the others if they're in my way. However, I would not look forward to it. And comparing this thing to ANY other flying coaster (Manta, Nighthawk, Firehawk, Tatsu, the Superman clones) would be a complete insult to these kinds of rides. Flying coasters are graceful and thrilling; this was just a mess.

So, what do you think my pick is for what's worse? You would think it's a ride that I have not ridden any other design of like the Volare. No... there's a coaster here much worse than this. I guess because I rode a similar version in another location and I didn't find it that awful. But here we are and it's about to get ugly.

Flight Deck, my 2nd Vekoma SLC credit... as I mentioned, I have a high tolerance for coasters and as I just stated, I am a kind critic. I usually never outright hate coasters. The other SLC I rode in Heide-Park wasn't that bad. Boomerangs are fun. I have enjoyed many woodies that have been despised by most, like Gwazi, both Hurlers, and Mean Streak. I even enjoyed my one TOGO Stand-Up credit, the now removed Shockwave at Kings Dominion, and a huge majority of enthusiasts hated that ride. I enjoyed old B&M Stand-Ups like Vortex at Carowinds even though my brother hated it. Mantis was hated on by coaster enthusiasts, but I loved it. The old version of Revolution at SFMM was rough, but tolerable (I still have to ride the new version). Even Time Warp was at least not painful. So with this you can see that I have a high tolerance.

(it's coming)

But Flight Deck... This thing is one of the most ******* awful pieces of **** I have ever had the misfortune of riding.

Okay, I'm done swearing... but, I was prepared for this thing to be like Limit at Heide-Park... BOY was I wrong! This thing was just AWFUL! The roughness was absolutely painful! My head was whacking all over the place and the guards in the restraints were harder, so my ears were getting banged HARD. I also had to grind my teeth. *sighs* Guess I finally experienced a "Vekoma Headbanger," and I can confirm; it is as bad as everyone claims it is. If a guy like me who can tolerate practically anything on a coasters says this is an unbearable, painful experience, it's probably a sign that you should only ride Flight Deck if you are desperate for a new coaster credit. If you are not into credits, I would avoid this contraption like the plague! I'm definitely never riding this piece of trash again (unless they change the restraints into the softer ones. But I would just prefer if they simply give Flight Deck a painful death and scrap it along with Time Warp to build a B&M Inverted/Flying/Wing Coaster in that location). I'd watch Fear Factor Live 10x before ever even considering riding Flight Deck again. This is the first coaster ever that I outright LOATHE with a passion.

*breathes in and out* I'm sorry you had to see that dark side of me. Those two coasters were just very unpleasant experiences. That said, there's one good thing that comes from this: as a coaster/park enthusiast, riding new types of rides really benefits me. That way I can see what to do with theme park design, and what not to do. Some types of coasters I like; some types I don't. I'll never know unless I try; and that helps my experience. Thankfully, Flight Deck and Time Warp to me are the only two awful rides in the park, so now let's move on to better things.

We then had lunch, recovering from the two contraptions of doom, and then rode Dragon Fire, an Arrow looper that travels under Leviathan. It's definitely dwarfed by Leviathan's massive lift hill going above it, while the lift of this ride is about as big as Leviathan's final brake run. Otherwise, pretty fun coaster. We then rode Riptide, a Mondial version of the Top Spin. I've ridden two other Top Spins, both made by HUSS: Crypt at Kings Dominion and Talocan at Phantasialand. Riptide was another solid ride like those. The other two are better simply because they have more theming.

We then rode Leviathan two more times as well as a second ride on Drop Tower. Shockwave was next, as it was my first Top Scan. It was a pretty thrilling flat ride. We next did Thunder Run, a MACK Powered Coaster in Wonder Mountain. It reminded me of Alpenexpress at Europe-Park; a pretty fun family coaster.

We next rode Wonder Mountain's Guardian, a dark ride/roller coaster hybrid. It was mostly a shooter, but it did have roller coaster elements like a lift hill. It also had a drop track like Verbolten, so I found that pretty cool. I wasn't sure if I was targeting right, though, since the guns were a little weird (I couldn't lift them. Unless I'm mistaken...), but apparently I ended up with around 41,000 points so I guess I got it right lol. I would've liked a better indication of where I was targeting. Otherwise, this was a cool ride. It's nice to see Cedar Fair going with different ideas for their rides.

We then rode Behemoth a second time, and then Sledge Hammer, my first Giant Jump. It was actually really fun! Afterwards was Psyclone, a Mondial Frisbee. I enjoyed it, just the HUSS versions like MaxAir at Cedar Point (and eventually Delirium at Kings Island). I wrapped up the day with solo rides on Behemoth and Leviathan.

Despite the two terrible coasters, like I stated before, Canada's Wonderland was a great Cedar Fair park! Certainly up there as one of my favorite theme parks. What I liked the most was the balance with fun flat rides and great coasters. I definitely want to go back soon (especially since they're building a Dive Machine for 2019)!