6:50 As a local , who also worked at wonderland (or as we all call it ‘Land) in 2018 , NONE of us eat food at wonderland 😂. It’s way too expensive, and super low quality. If you’re visiting, I suggest going in the morning , going on rides from 9am -1pm , then leave the park and get a stamp for re-entry. From the Park if you walk 10 minutes east to Jane street , there are 2 MASSIVE plazas , with many food options. Standard fast food such as McDonald’s, Subway etc… and many local favourites like popular pizza (dirt cheap local pizza) Go eat , then come back around 1:30pm and visit the water Park.
havent been since pre pandemic but there was a really nice kebab place right across the street I would go to after the water park, then come back and hit a few rides then call it a day.
This is a good idea. Alternatively Hou can upgrade your pass for 15$ and eat every 90 minutes in the park from entry to exit. That's cheaper than the 20$ per person at the plaza.
Canada's Wonderland's main problem, is lack of any real theme(or varied themes), just Peanuts everywhere, and no drastic changes over the years. It's fine if you haven't been there before, but they aren't really seemingly doing much of anything to draw in business from people that are a bit tired of the park. Now I get expecting a complete overhaul is way too costly, and not exactly something that is common in parks. But I think something more could be done with general theming and non-rollercoaster rides.
I think the theme (why does an amusement park need a theme?) is it's Canada's amusement park, even though it's been owned by American companies since it opened. I mean, we do have others, but they have issues as well and Ontario's park, Ontario Place, has been slated to be turned into condos (why we need more of those in Ontario, is beyond my comprehension) because our current idiot Conservative government under Doug Ford, (also known as Trump North) wants to sell off Public properties just like any other right wing party we've had over the past 30 to 40 years in North America.
CW was well-themed by Taft with World Expo, Medieval Faire, Hanna-Barbera Land, etc. Paramount totally trashed the themed areas ("Action Zone" replacing Expo, ugh) so much that it'll take years for Cedar to undo the damage. But at least they're trying.
A long time ago the rides were themed after movies and they never really got the rights back. They just turned the ride themes into "we have ____ at home"
@@amusementscape yeah, I mean three B&Ms at $20M+ each is nothing to scoff at (unless you're TPP and wrongly predicted Intamins...) so they've been adding things but it's time to take out some of the trash to make room for better stuff. Tundra Twister makes Psyclone and Shockwave redundant, those two can go. Flight Deck, Time Warp, The Bat, and Backlot are all trash and need to go. And so on.
Yeah it’s gonna be awhile before they start taking things out. People ride them so they don’t see the issue, and a lot of the sucky rides will stay awhile
What Canada needs is another premier theme park to spread out the crowds. Heck, Wonderland is in the opposite position as Darien Lake. Both have a plethora of old, janky rides and no one willing to replace them, but one gets all the attention that the other doesn’t, and both parks suffer for it.
What Canada needs is for either Six Flags or the City of Montreal to start investing in La Ronde. It has so much potential, if someone was willing to step up.
I agree. The thing is Canada’s Wonderland will replace their rides, and they take care of the old ones. Darien Lake doesn’t, but I think that Marineland is the perfect place to mediate the two. Would love to see someone make that place great
@@amusementscapeI think Marineland is to close to Wonderland. Having a park near London would be better. It would be pretty much in the middle of southwestern Ontario, drawing people from all over.
This park was built outside of Toronto and the City grew around it. Originally you had to take a drive to get to the park, now people can walk to the park so over the years it has gotten a lot busier. I had season passes back in the l90s but gave it up because of the crowds. The last time I was there was around 2001, I was there around 8 hours and managed to get on 3 rides and spent the rest of the time in line ups.
I went there for about 7 hours in the summer on a weekday morning/afternoon. I managed to get on 8 rides, with most of the non-ride time being spent walking around looking at things. Although I did unknowingly save myself about 1-2 hours of waiting skipping lines because my friends were there first.
As a local, who can't be bothered standing in those lines, the best time to go is anytime before the end of June. Schools aren't out until then, so you don't get all the teens. Although you may get 'school trips' to the park in late May and June, they usually leave by about 4:30- 5:30, so it definitely quiets down after that time. Once summer is here and kids are out of school, all bets are off! Go at your own risk - it will be crowded! They definitely need to get rid of some of the crap rides, of which I believe Flight Deck will be going soon, and replace with some higher capacity coaster, that isn't something from B&M. They are fine, but hardly intense or exciting. Intamin, Mack, Vekoma - lets get some of their newer models here!
Agree. I usually go last week in May on a weekday which is perfect. Short waits (other than for food), no need for Fast Lane, can park close to the gate, etc.
I figured out how to solve the issue nearly immediately, a second park/gate in the region. MarineLand in its heyday used to draw people from outside of Toronto but with its effective social blackballing it means that Wonderland is the only option in a region of over 9 million people (The Greater Golden Horseshoe) that is growing at a rate unseen in the rest of North America. My suggestion would be for a company to purchase the MarineLand site (the largest in North America) and properly develop a new seasonal amusement park close to Niagara Falls (Canada's most visited natural attraction) that is midway between Wonderland & Darrien Lake. That region used to have multiple amusement parks a century ago such as Crystal Beach.
The problem with that is you already have a small family park in the Niagara Falls area - just on the US side. To differentiate themselves, a Marineland redevelopment would need to focus on cheap, thrilling attractions. Think a launched Gerstlauer Eurofighter, a Gravity Group shuttle coaster, and a Maurer spinner. Not an easy needle to thread, but it's possible...barely. And if Silver Streak gets relocated to La Ronde - a likely term of the CF/SF merger - then a modern large Vekoma SFC becomes a possibility as well. (Or if not, a Vekoma mine train.) The question is, who would redevelop Marineland for that? If Herschend wants to jump into the Niagara Falls market, leasing Niagara Falls Amusement Park is an easier option. Merlin might want to expand into Canada with a family thrill park (they've certainly had their eye on Marineland), but they really need to focus on their UK properties instead. The only other operator of small parks with thrilling coasters that comes to mind is Landry's, but that's far out of their way. None of these options seem very likely, unfortunately.
Fun fact: Boo Blasters used to be a Scooby Doo themed ride that is similar to the new Mario Kart ride in Universal Studios Hollywood. I know it was themed as that because on August 31st 2009, my family and I spent my 9th birthday there.
As a local I can say the best way to enjoy Wonderland is to come throught the day during the week in October. Halloween Haunt runs all through October which is underwhelming and overpacked, but throughout the day during this time the park is way less occupied and wait times are massively shorter.
I could remember back in Summer, 1999 the park looked like it was in the middle of farmland. Vaughan then encroached on it after that. I attended the park as our Grade 8 "Graduation" trip when I just turned 14. This was the first and last time I saw it in 25 years.
Yup....that's how I attended it way back when....nicely done up North in farmland.....I recall shock a couple years ago driving North up to Northern Ontario we were on side road and BOOM I was right beside the PARK? I didn't want to believe it but yup...a side street and a gated fence and looking into the park? Sigh..
The Mine Buster and the Wilde Beast had a more exciting ride experience in the 80s and early 90s. On both of these coasters the run (after the initial drop) track grading was structurally decreased for most likely safety reasons due to their aging design. Time Warp needed to be replaced 10 years ago, yet CWL has managed to maintain steady attendance since its opening over 40 years ago. As a former employee in the early to mid-80s, I can say its more the drastic change in the administration of the park which I find odd. I was privilege to knowing the future plans of CWL in '83. Kingswood was to eventually become a quasi-indoor amphitheater, with concerts and shows to be held there year long. The Mine Buster was the first attraction of a new themed area to be called 'Canadas Frontier Now' which would include White Water Canyon. The inside of Wonder Mountain was to have (eventually) a roller coaster on-par with Space Mountain and there were to be two hotels connected to CWL via a monorail. There was to be a 'Food Fair' section attached to International Street with dine-in restaurants, Tim Hortons and a Zellers/Sears style public cafeteria. Obviously plans changed.
@@amusementscape CWL itself is not developing a 'park specific hotel'. However, there will be a hotel built adjacent to CWL with immediate access to a major north-east intersection and subsequently #400 hwy. Perhaps a pedestrian tunnel or overpass may be built to accommodate park patrons within a walking distance of Front Gate.
Minebuster got ruined by Paramount when they took out one of its best airtime bunny hills to make room for the waterslide. Why the return trip of the layout feels flat and featureless, it used to have a nice airtime moment.
Yeah I was thinking of something like that as well; remove the animals, put them somewhere they'd be cared for, sell the giant property to some major theme park company, and turn it into some proper counterweight to Canada's Wonderland. With proper investment it could be amazing though definitely expensive.
As someone who lives within a 15 minute drive there is another issue: the area is so built up now that there is very little expansion that can be done. They can't expand west, there is a major highway there. They can only expand a bit further north before they hit a major road with a new hospital on the other side. They can't expand further east because they run into another major road with a long line of businesses on the other side. They could only expand a bit further south before they run into businesses and suburbs. So the crowds are getting bigger and there is very little room for them to expand with. When I say a little I mean they would be lucky to get an extra 100 metres (328 feet) north or south for more rides/attractions.
GTA native, wonderland is like the place to be once summer hits. friends and i would get season passes every year as teens. i dont care too much for fun themes, im a thrill rider so i enjoy the coasters. i assume over the years they will continue to replace the old coasters with newer more fun ones. one things for sure; being pretty much the only real amusement park in southern ontario it will always have tons of people.
I went out to LA this past summer and went to Magic Mountain Knotts Berry Farm and the crowds there are nowhere near as bad as Wonderland. This is an understatement for Magic Mountain to have the biggest coaster collection in the world and the lineup is pretty stacked. It is because the LA area has 5 major parks (Magic Mountain, Knotts, Disneyland, California Adventure, and Universal Hollywood) whereas Wonderland is pretty much the major theme park not just for the Toronto area not just for the province of Ontario, but it is also for all of Canada. This is because La Ronde in Montreal is trash and Galaxyland at the Edmonton Mall is now trash because Mindbender is now gone so outside of Wonderland and La Ronde are cute cookie-cutter kiddy parks.
@@eswing2153 the only reason to visit that is for the corkscrew coaster vortex which is now the one big coaster in all of Alberta now after Mindbender was torn down
I mean, we still got Centerville here, but it's a special type of dumb just going to the Island. Ontario Place was also an option, but then it just shuttered in the 10's What they did to the Megamaze there was the absolute definition of dirty.
What’s annoying is line jumpers. A person will push their way through the line, saying they have family members further up, and they keep going until someone stops them. Then, the rest of their party push up to join them. I’ve called them out, but most people don’t want to make a scene.
I've never seen that but I do see kids begging people for their fast lane passes and this is just pitiful behavior and should get you kicked out of the park
Good on ya! In some places there are so many people cutting lines that it's an unwinnable situation without staff intervention, but you can't really expect people paid around min wage to go around confronting the endless shitheads. Sigh.
As a Canadian, I love the bat and flight deck and a lot of people will agree its more of an aquired taste but without them canadas wonderland would be blande and boring its personality would be intarily gone
I whole heartedly agree with you. The bat is classic and has been there since the very early days. Flight deck is just amazing. So many tight twists and turns you feel like you're in a blender. I love it. When I went last it had short lineups. I went on it repeatedly three times. That was lovely.
i have many fond memories of this park as a kid, went tons of times for school trips and with family/friends, and after recently going back like 20 years later it's surreal that it still looks and feels pretty much the exact same and even retains the weird state the park got into after Paramount sold to Cedar Fair, where they ripped out all movie references in rides, shows, etc, and had to make everything generic. the vibes just kind of stalled out and they never tried building a new park identity. the best example of this is Italian Job/Backlot stunt coaster. I remember when it first released it had all the effects like you stopped at the helicopter and it moved around a bit and shot at you, and made fireballs so close you felt the heat on your face, etc, and was really cool. but when they yanked out the Paramount stuff they just shut off the effects and didn't even try to replace it with something just as cinematic or cool. nope they just left the dead set pieces and they are purely for decoration while the car whizzes by. what's crazy is that it's *still* like that. the whole park is stuck in some kind of limbo
I was just gonna say I think some of the old rides some of the rides he thinks aren’t worth the wait in line. I think the reason we wait in line is because it brings back memories like thunder run still one of my favourites just because I remember that as a kid so much.!
@@vinewoodstar it wasn’t really an opinion, they have the largest selection, including multiple one of a kinds. Not even Cedar Point can compete with them
@@watson3906 Haven't been to Europe, but from what I've heard from enthusiasts who've travelled there is that the only other parks that compete with CW's flatrides are Wiener Präter and Tivoli Gardens. If CW isn't best in the world, it's in the Top 3.
I was a season pass holder at wonderland for years, and i completely agree with everything you said here. When i go back now, i do the three B&Ms, wonder mtn guardian, and then im bored. There is NOTHING else that I really feel inclined to ride. If i had my way, id make 3 changes to the lineup: 1. Take out time warp and flight deck in favour of a maverick style launch coaster. Flight deck is borderline unridable because of how rough it is, and time warp, although it is a cool gimmick coaster, might genuinely be one of the worst rollercoasters on the planet. 2. Take out wildebeast and replace it with an RMC (or just RMC it), as its really just a boring coaster. 3. Retrack the minebuster. i LOVE that ride, but it gives me a concussion every time i ride it.
Agree with flight deck/time warp, but the real potential is in pulling out dragon fire They are putting in a launch coaster for 2025 though... So that's something
So many people forget that Cedar Fair had an exclusivity clause with B&M which prevented them from building any rollercoasters at Paramount Canadas Wonderland. CW was inteded to get a Raptor style invert, Cedar Point got it.
I read/heard comments in the past (pre pandemic) that some people who live in Toronto prefer to go to Six Flags Darien Lake because Canada's Wonderland is always too crowded for them. Now I don't know if that's the case anymore because Darien has basically been neglected for the past few years and I guess we'll see after this season since the boarder is fully open restriction free for the first time since the pandemic.
Yes. Darien Lake is a struggle bus of a park but at least you can get on the rides there. I live in the GTA and have only been to Wonderland twice... once on a Sunday in Sept and it was okay, but we went on a Tuesday last August and it was a nightmare. Yukon Striker had a 2 1/2 hr wait. It's honestly worth the drive for us to Cedar Point (~5 hrs) over CW.
Your choice of words to describe the park and its rides was excellent. Very well presented !marketing should hire you to do a video to help different types of attendees navigate the park. There are at least 4 types of attendees that would appreciate navigational help.
@@amusementscape CW is out in the suburbs of Toronto, and there's really not much to do if you're over 16 and under 60, outside of movie theatres and malls. Bored teenagers tend to go nuts from the external stimulation.
I'm Canadian and my school's dorm (i went to a boring school in London Ontario) would have our year end trip at Canada's wonderland every year. The park is very over crowded with ridiculous lines from June til October with little shading for the people standing for hours in direct sunlight. The layout wasn't thought out with the amount of people who attended every year. Parking is the same. The food is cheap, over priced and has had more than one stand in violation of sanitation and safe food handling bylaws. I will say Canada's wonderland use to be a blast for Halloween night when the park shuts the doors to anyone under the age of 18. The whole park would be turned into a haunted theme park with hired actors, costumes and makeup artists pulling out all their best techniques and the whole place went from a fun family place to dark, creepy and demonic. Unfortunately its not as amazing as it used to be, the effort is put into it like it was when I was in my 20s which really is sad.
Every time I've ever been to Wonderland it's been either raining (or chance of rain and I dodged it) or a field trip, so I've never really seen it busy. Some of this footage was crazy tho omg
Agreed that the crowds and lines are bad there, and the guests were the most ill behaved of any park I’ve been to. And I agree that the food is poor. Still, even with all that, I enjoyed this park a lot.
Pro tip: Don't eat food at CW unless you're getting the funnel cake. Across the road is a huge plaza with all sorts of restaurants and food choices. Better food and better prices, so don't buy the crap food inside the park. There's an LCBO and Beer Store in walking distance too, so if you wanna get drunk, do it outside the park, then go in and do the rides. lol
I enjoyed it back in the 90's to be honest. It was more about the family atmosphere with Hanna-Barbera Land. Also didn't they get rid of the blue soft ice cream? it use to be called Smurf ice cream back when it was centered around Smurf Village.
The crowds have truly gotten awful. Maybe it's because I'm older and I've become less willing to wait in long lines, or because the rides have gotten old for me but I went last year went on a week day in June and it was horrendously busy. I had never seen it so busy and from what I heard, the Halloween haunt event (which I normally really enjoy going to) was to busy to be enjoyable. Still love the park, but it's hard to get excited about knowing most of the rides are average and you're gunna be waiting A LONG time for all of them.
Great review! The time to go when the park is not busy weekdays during May - June. The 3 B&Ms are 15 - 30 minutes and basically everything else is a walk on.
@d_i_v_a7391 yes. Not as bad as Saturday but if you mean tomorrow then it's may 24 weekend and it will probably be busy but not as bad as later on in the summer
As having Canada’s Wonderland as my home park I do 100% agree paramount did a terrible job with Wonderland. But Cedar Fair especially over the last couple years seems to be putting a good amount of money into the park and we are hoping to get some major upgrades in the next couple years
@@coastercat112 Truth. Marineland sucks. The Ex is only around for 16 days, and Ontario Place is no more. If you've got little kids, you're probably better off taking them to the zoo or Fantasy Fair or the Science Centre. But for everyone else... well, I have been thinking of taking up climbing.
What was the unfixable issue?? The crowds are awful there....but as long as they're packing them in I'm not sure if they have much motivation to improve.
@@holysirsalad only way they would ever alleviate it is to open a second park in the province. But its already in the middle of the GTA, the only place that would be viable would be in downtown Toronto itself, or near Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls won't get as much traffic and Downtown would be impossible due to the noise of a theme park and the sheer cost of all that land. It would be in the 10s of billions to construct. I guess the next best location would be in Quebec?
Disagree. The crowds in Niagara in the summer are insane, also, nf is a boarder town. It would draw many American tourists. Marineland is a perfect location for a world class coaster park.
Canada’s wonderland is the worst park in terms of crowds. It’s simply unbearable to deal with rude people jumping lines or smoking everywhere. It’s a huge turn off.
So as person who lives around here, the thing about it is that Vaughan and by extention the York Region is also growing in a way that is exponential. The reason why is Vaughan, King City, Richmond Hill etc. is sold to many as a place to raise your kids and so more and more families are settling in the Vaughan area and that means more and more kids/teens are coming to the park as a fun summer day thing to do from a walking distance away and even for kids who live too far to walk, the transit system has improved tremendously to keep up with the city. So whereas before they would have to travel by 2-3 busses as a teen, now its a walking distance or a subway line and quick bus distance away. Its a good problem to have but still a problem. TL;DR more people live around wonderland now and transit has improved.
@@justiceman2723 It’s not that easy. Unless attendance drops, or several rides reaches the end of their service life, Cedar Fair shouldn’t feel obligated to replace them.
I remember attending a short show in one of the theatres. It was some kind of musical thing, but not much else. This was back in 1999 when I was there for a Grade 8 "grad" trip.
Decent review but I’m surprised no mention/review of Splashworks water park. Big chunk of the crowd when schools out goes there. They definitely need to replace some of the old coasters. One of my beefs over the years is the SINGLE main entrance, always wished they added a 2nd entrance close to the water park so you don’t have to walk 15 mins to get there. My trick to reduce the overall cost is to only buy a pass after Aug 1 when they offer next season pass early and come for the rest of the current season, ok you miss half the summer but it’s basically 2 seasons for the price of 1.
I went to 7 cedar fair parks this year, isited all of there water parks. Canada's Wonderland has the weakest one. Plus no where to sit. For the amount of crowd we get, they need at least triple the amount of seating.
People have to realize that coasters cost a lot of money. Granted, with Six Flags and Cedar's budgets, they could possibly replace some of the attractions but with the City of Vaughan surrounding it now, that could be easier said than done.
I love Wonderland and always have. I was there the first day it opened. But when I went to Florida and went to places like Disney/Epcot and Universal I suddenly felt that Wonderland was really lacking. With almost every new ride being another roller coaster (which are great). It felt a little monotonous to me. I wanted more experiences.
A few other things CW could do to help with crowds and wait times: - Build more single rider lines. IIRC, Yukon Striker is the only one. - Placing boards around the park showing the current queue time for each ride might help redistribute crowds and lines a little more evenly. - Building a monorail around the park would take traffic off of pathways and would eat up some guests. - Extend the Operating Season. I see no reason why Canada's Wonderland couldn't open weekends-only in Mid-April, the weather is nice enough for it. In an ideal world the park would also operate atleast 5 days a week all the way to end of September, but I know staffing might be an issue.
I definitely agree with all of this. Also there is one other ride that has a single rider line, The Bat. There may actually be others as well, but I don't usually do most rides, so I can't be totally sure. But I do know The Bat is one.
They need to raise prices, they have the cheapest passes in the chain. A pass as Mi Adv cost more than Wonderland. They are essentially the old Six Flags model of Cedar Fair parks on pricing, low cost & high volume that produces a too packed parked & a lot of unruly teens.
@@lent I remember when they had a monorail at the Zoo. Building a monorail now might not be feasible, given the amount of space available at the park and the amount of time it would take to build it. Maybe an aerial gondola would be better.
@@McQ-wk5lu They're cheaper for a reason -- at the other parks in the chain the regular and gold passes include parking. Not so at CW -- if you want parking you need platinum. So if you consider you're paying $22 per visit for parking, suddenly the CW gold pass doesn't sound like a deal anymore.
You know, it *just* occurred to me that Leviathan is actually the closest B&M giga to me, closer than Orion and much closer than Fury 325, but I never thought much of going there just because of the mental effect of that national border. But it sounds like the crowds would ruin some of the fun.
You are absolutely right. The other problems with this park are they have no transportation rides which are normally high capacity. And they’re live entertainment is awful. At least at Cedar point or Kings Island if it’s crowded you can always count on riding the train. All of the live entertainment last year was some type of stunt show. No singing or dancing. Cedar point has a huge lineup of live entertainment, which is something to do when the park is crowded. The theming of this park is also very sloppy due to previous ownership. They desecrated World Exposition and Frontier Canada is just an mess with little cohesion. I attended there last year and was lucky. It was slightly rainy on my first day. The crowd was tolerable. The second day was sunny and I left because it was so miserably crowded. I doubt if I’ll ever go back as it’s not a good experience because of the crowds
Wonderland is investing in other ways then just building rides. They are getting into providing proper food options by building more restaurants (Cedar Point model). They are building onto the kids park by providing a roller coaster which is great (families spend lots of money at CW). They are bringing a new flat ride that looks awesome and apparently another coaster is coming in 2025. It's going to take time and money to cleanup the mess Paramount made.
Cedar is adding good things but not taking out the garbage in the process. Of the original CW coasters (from the Taft and Paramount years) really only Vortex is any good.
@@imageingredients8110 Paramount was terrible, if you don’t understand that I don’t know what to say. I took a 6 year hiatus from wonderland because every year was the same thing. If Cedar Fairs didn’t buy the park Vortex would have still been our best coaster. They would never have invested 25+ million dollars on coasters. Less than 2 years after Cedar Fairs bought Wonderland we had a Hyper coaster. 4 years later we had a giga coaster. Wonderland was long overdue for upgrades not only to rides but restaurants, kids section and other park amenities to make the experience better. Cedar Fairs also owns 6 large parks and has to continue investing in those parks as well, its not like they can just sink all the money into Wonderland.
@@PLUMMAxX The problem is since CF bought the Paramount parks they've focused too much on Carowinds, kept up the status quo at CP and KI, while paying lip service (relatively speaking) to CW and screwing over MA. Any Wonderland fan should feel screwed over seeing what Caro has been getting.
The queues are so poorly set up and have been since opening in the early 1980’s. On rides where you can’t take a bag some you leave the bag before you board. In others you pass through the ride, drop your bag on the ground and return to the car. The inconsistency leads to delays as people try to figure out what to do. Even adding 5 seconds to dispatch time over the course of 2000 people adds up quickly
I think the main unfixable issue with this park is the fact that the city grew around it. Its real estate is maxed out and there is zero room for expandability. So i find they have to shoehorn rides in the little space they have left. Otherwise they have to tear down existing rides and reuse space. Thats not a bad idea given some of the bad rides still there, but still, there is little working space for any meaningful expansion.
Go in early/mid may on a weekday. You miss all the school trips, people on summer break, and vacatuiners and tourists. Ride waits are usually 20mins max even for the giga coasters. The old coasters will sometimes be 5mins. So no need for a fast pass, especially if you want on the front. Park closes at 8pm instewd of 10pm in the summer, and water park is closed. But the insane lines makes it all pointless. Mid June-September has been been a an urban death maze for decades.
My home park. Blue ice cream was only available in 2021, 40th Anniversary, so that's why you can't find it on the site. We do have a couple of dud coasters. Something coming in 2025, don't know what kind of coaster it will be. Crowds were and are and will be a problem, not the park's fault, it's just busy.
But if the crowds are that crazy they need more rides. They can afford it. Cedar Fair mgmt has the data, though, that attendance continues to do great even without park improvements. I'm assuming the lack of competition in Canada is why attendance stays so high. Sorry. The only way to get them to improve the park is for people to stop going. Once attendance goes down then they'll be forced to act.
@@Asshat237 could be but Cedar Fair would have to do something very drastic for that to happen. They are investing a lot of money into Canada's Wonderland so just wait and see what happens.
This is a great video, CW is my home park, and I know everyone agrees with adding at least 1 more premium coaster. Having said that, Ontario (esp Toronto area) is huge. If there was another park built, it would definitely help manage the unbearable crowds.
Maybe someone can buy Marineland and turn it into something decent. Give people another reason to head to the Falls. I think Flight Deck, Time Warp and Kingswood will be going away soon, which would leave quite a bit of room for another large coaster.
I hear what you’re saying about ripping out old rides but as a Toronto native, I think people would be legitimately upset. Nostalgia holds a lot of power. People who live here still talk about the paramount days as the best days of the park.
I’m about 90 mins away and never made it out last season. But everyone I knew that did go last season regretted it. Way to crowded and waiting for food for an hour plus is unacceptable anywhere. Especially waiting forever just to get into the park. Everyone I know that went said they wouldn’t go back for those reasons alone.
The Minebuster was much better back in the day. It didn't have a partition dividing the seats and it used to have one solid lap bar instead of individual ones. You used to fly right out of the seat and get some serious air time. Not any more.
So true about the crowds and waiting. To go on something like the Behemoth or Leviathan you're waiting in line for at least 2 to 3 hours. Same with most of the water slides. Wait an hour for a slide that lasts maybe 30 seconds. I think the only way to remedy this problem would be to build more parks here in Canada. We only really have one major amusement park here which is this one. But now days it's so hard to start something like that because of liability and all that. No insurance company would want to insure such a business and if they did it would cost too much. Wonderland has been around for so long with little to no incident which is why they can get insured.
My high school was right across the street from wonderland and most of the kids would skip the last 2 periods just to go there and the park stays closed weekdays from when it opens for the season until I believe mid June but it was always open on the weekends
As a Torontonian who grew up attending Canada's Wonderland frequently, many of us have our own names for some rides (and maybe even some tips). Dragonflyer, for example is generally the first roller coaster people will go on as it's the closest to the entrance of the park. We referred to this particular Roller coaster as Head Ping Pong, as this ride had a tendency to bounce your head (repeatedly & constantly) from right to left off the restraints used to keep you in the ride. The tip here is to keep you head against the left (if I recall, it's been like 25 years 😅) side of the restraint to reduce or eliminate your head being used as a ping pong ball 😂. Other names we had were the Mind Buster was affectionately known as the Butt Buster due to it being a wooden coaster. Vortex (🤔) was f that due to the line being 1-2 hours long all day. The only time you should go on this one, is if you get in as soon as the park opens, and you beeline for it. But again that was 25 years ago, it may have changed since. Wild Beast was/is the other wooden coaster, and since it was in the furthest corner of the park, it usually had less riders. In fact, near closing time, there were so few people in line, that we were able to just stay on it and go for multiple runs consecutively. Now I'm wanting to go check it out again since its been so long.
They run the old rides too fast now and took 1000ft of track from The Mine Buster. Both big wooden coasters give you a bad headache now, you feel like your head will get ripped off. Flight Deck bashed your head so it also causes a headache. The best coaster is The Vortex, but if you suffer from motion sickness the way it stops makes some people throw up. When the park first opened you could climb the mountain, that was discontinued when they put Thunder Run in it.
Cedar Fair has owned this park for 17 years and has added 3 decent coasters. Sorry Cedar Fair apologists but for being the #1 attended seasonal park in North America that is pathetic, especially considering this park has needed a major facelift the whole time. I have been there once and never had any desire to go back.
Cedar Fair is taking CW's attendance and surrounding population for granted. Why spend money when they have such a (arguably) "captive" audience? (unless you're willing to cross the border and drive for hours, where else ya gonna go?) They can leave in all the Paramount garbage and still rake in the $$$. Why they spend more on improvements over at Carowinds and KI instead of CW...
Agreed, except I made the mistake of going twice. I am tempted to return for yukon, but am hesitant about having to live with the consequences of my delusional hope for improvement.
I agree. As Platinum pass holders who live near Wonderland, my wife and I drive to Cedar Point more than we visit Wonderland. IMO the lack of competition is a major factor in why the park is like it is. Due to that the majority of guests who visit don't know anything else.
its the only thing like it in the area. I can only think of one in Montreal but its about an 8th of the size. I think the attendance is ranked so high due to the waterpark as well. with there being not really any waterparks as well in the area its the "only game in town" so to speak.
I've been going to the park ever since I was a kid. Always had a season pass in those days. Haven't been for a couple years but I like to get my coaster fix every now and then.
As a teen in the 90s I absolutely loved CWL, going multiple times every summer. I was lucky to live a 20 minute drive up highway 400 to the park. The best time to go was a cloud day with chance of rain because people who had to drive far and oay full price wouldn't risk getting their day rained out. I remember it being so quiet we could just stay in the train and ride muktiple times in a row! That said, I haven't been much as an adult so it must be much, much busier now.
Got my first job at Canada’s Wonderland in 1991 and had so much fun that summer ! I remember meeting New Kids on the Block when they had a concert there and they had the best cheese burgers at the staff cafeteria. I definitely made great memories that summer !
Not mentioned here is the water park, which is sort of its own park within a park. I've found that if you want to enjoy the rollercoasters, it's best to hit the park on punishingly hot sunny weekdays, when people tend to flock to the waterpark. You have to be prepared to stand in the blazing sun without cover sometimes, though.
Best time to visit this park is right near season opening. If you don't mind a bit cooler weather and go on a weekday while school is still in session- no teens, no crowds, no lines
Seems like a park you would need at least two days to get everything in. Between the coasters and the flats I think multiple days would be ideal. Expensive probably, but more realistic. Especially for coaster credits.
The problem is many rides have only one ride vehicle. Compare to Disney's Space Mountain that simultaneously have one vehicle unloading, one vehicle loading, and multiple vehicles on the track (separated by braking zones), all multiplied by two mirrored tracks.
i feel like the park is a good place to go for a trip with your family since there are a lot of rides for kids but as a local it is a good idea to go when kids are in school.
Wonderland has been my home park for my entire life and I’ve been more times than I can count. This video pissed me off but for the reason that mainly he is right. Although I think he was a little too harsh on the quality of the Big 3 coasters, all of them a top tier coasters that “most” parks would happily welcome into their line up. What annoys me about them though is they’re ALL B&M. Don’t get me wrong, B&M makes world class coasters… but a little variety would be very nice. What I would give for a crazy intense Intimin coaster… unfortunately Cedar Fair and Intimin aren’t on very good terms so that’s likely not going to happen. Saying that though I’ve been coming here my entire life and I still have a blast everytime I go, if it’s your first time I promise you’ll have a blast at Wonderland (but but a Fastpass, it’s definitely needed to get full value if it’s you’re first time visiting.) Where the author bangs the nail on the head is the supporting cast of coasters. Tearing down Flight Deck and Time warp and adding a new flagship coaster right by the entrance would do wonders…. And RMC’ing the woodies here would make this one of the best parks in North America.
@@racingphotographer8251 Paramount hasn't been involved for almost fifteen years? The current problems are not the previous owners fault. Cedar Fair has had a lot of time to work on things.
As a local let me help. Wonderland used to be in the middle of nowhere it was a a treat a trip to get there. Now it's in the middle of extended suburbs. Here is an example I think 80% of the kids in my kids school have season passes if not more. They make the passes cheaper than 2 trips so everyone gets a pass. I remember my my daughter was smaller, we would go to kids area like other people go to local parks. I think the attendance numbers are inflated because of so many kids/teens that all have passes. Think about it bored teens in July nothing to do calls his friends on Tuesday, let go to wonderland, no problem they all have passes it's a local hang out. I ruins it for for people that make special trips for it, and I feel sorry for them. I think I this point it needs an RMC treatment that will help bring the park to a whole new level and make the park feel more modern.
as a toronto local (who isn’t exactly a thrill-seeker and therefore doesn’t enjoy the park, but has friends that do), i think the main reason why canadas wonderland is so overpopulated is because it’s literally the only thing torontonians have. there’s nothing like wonderland within an hour-and-a-half drive, as wonderland is the only cedar fair property in canada, and is pretty accessible to a large amount of people, being outside the largest city in the country and all. the next best thing is probably marineland, which is pretty far, and most people coming to wonderland are either disinterested with marineland (understandably so), or are unable to drive there. wonderland is also a good way to get rid of your 16-year-old kid and their entourage for an afternoon, which i feel explains the large population of teens acting like hooligans.
Thia could be because this is my home park, but I find that most of the rides there are pretty solid. I only really started going to Wonderland last season, so I haven't had a chance to ride the B&M's. Definetly something I am going to do this season.
There is a small selection of food. Mostly pizza and burger/chicken strips and fries. You also have to look hard for fountains, benches, and washrooms. We went to the water park and didn't find changerooms, so it seemed as if everyone was using washrooms to change in, and the lines were long. Also, a lot of rides need more shade in the lineups.
Best time to go is Monday afternoon or if you can go on an early weekday when it's overcast. It gets so quiet sometimes that certain rides you can go on twice in a row without getting off in the evening around 7-8pm. Also Halloween haunt last time I went I just rode the rides and huge rides like Leviathan had like 25 people in line so I was able to ride 3 times within an hour.
Wonderland is my home and the only really unfixable problem is the lack of space, which is not a unique problem for the park. As for the rides, some of the older attractions do need to be replaced with newer additions. Flight Deck and Time Warp are without a doubt the least popular rides in the park. These are likely the first to be replaced. Minebuster just got a retracking and is the better woodie, so I’d love to see Wilde Beast get the RMC treatment. As for the flats, Tundra Twister and Lumberjack are pretty decent but Soaring Timbers absolutely sucks and I’m sure the management regrets building this ride because it has a lot of downtime and isn’t super popular with the guests.
Bro, I got an advertisement for Lightyear on this video. LOL😂 I've been to this park once before. And yes, this issue is HIGHLY unlikely to be fixed. But I need a revisit to this park for reasons. Leviathan was closed for my ENTIRE STAY.😭😭😭Please reply something that means you feel bad for me in the reply. So was Wonder Mountain's Guardian and The Bat. And I also feel like I didn't do everything I wanted at the park. You seriously can't sleep on their flat ride collection. Fortunately, a revisit on their ACE event is on my bucket list. Hopefully I can ride every single roller coaster THAT day as well as finish off with their flat rides.
As a local I have been going to wonderland since I was a kid. I do feel with the increased rides and population around have jammed this park with people worse than it’s ever been. A seasons pass will set you back about the cost of two tickets and a meal plan is fairly reasonable. so many older kids spend a lot of time at the park during the summer it’s probably cheaper then camp. When the park was built it was in the middle of nowhere nothing but farm land surrounding the park. Now the park is land locked in a suburbia of toronto. As well as public transit runs special routes to the park from surrounding areas. Another park should be in order to ease congestion. I take my kids first thing in the morning when it opens and we can squeezes in a few ride within an hour and half. Then we leave before it gets jammed. It’s only worth doing that with a fuel efficient vehicle and season passes.
Agreed on this place. It's stressful to even think about LOL. I don't know the details of RMC and Canada...but I wonder if this merge with Larson will change any of that🤔🤔🤔
@@mattr3922 Ok but that doesn’t tell me if they’re a Canadian company. The reason Canada hasn’t gotten an RMC yet is because Canada has a law that says a Canadian company has to do the construction, and RMC likes to construct their own rides
@@jac_238 then look it up yourself. I just said in the 1st comment I didn't even know the details of the RMC contract. Good lord. Acting like I have to answer to you💀💀💀
The Boo Blasters used to be Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion, my favourite ride back in the day. I am definitely a dark ride lover, not a coaster person though lol
I haven't been to Canada's Wonderland since the Italian Job ride debuted way back when. I remember waiting in line for it, and watching the Tomb Raider ride continuously breaking down, leaving riders dangling in the air for around 1/2 hour or more each time. Needless to say, my girlfriend and I passed on the Tomb Raider ride! Edit: just researched that it was 2005, and is now the Backlot. (And that Tomb Raider is now Time Warp.) Yep, not going the in almost 20 years definitely mean you miss a lot. But, a 6+ hour trip to Wonderland plus lodging for at least a night compared to 1-1/2 hours to LaRonde and be able to drive home after means almost yearly (or if we get a season pass multiple times a year) easily.
Another factor increasing crowds/attendance is that it’s the closest good sized park for basically all of northern Ontario, pretty much every kid I knew growing up has went to wonderland regardless of financial status and the fact we live 7 hours away
Totally agree on the FLP part. It's crazy how basically none of the lower tier coasters have FLP lines. We ended up doing a weekend on our first visit so I could spend Friday afternoon/evening doing the low capacity, non-FLP rides. I ended up being able to walk on a lot of them, but still had to spend a couple hours Sat morning knocking out a few more. We did snag FLPs for Saturday tho and spent the entire afternoon/evening lapping the B&Ms.
How can you make Vortex number two to The Bat at Kings Island? Its literally the same coaster, with far better terrain hugging and the top of the lift cruising around the mountain.
They created another "unfixable" issue by selling off the surrounding lands they originally owned. Think of that long loopy road you take from the Rutherford Rd. off-ramp to the front gate. When I was a kid, there was a big empty grass field in the middle of that loop just waiting for park expansion (or the parking lot could have moved there and the park proper expand into the current parking lots). Now it's houses. A quick fix is to finally demolish the unused/defunct Kingswood Music Theatre but that's a bandaid at best. CF can keep adding flats and small coasters into what little space is available and what they'll end up with eventually is another Knotts - landlocked with nowhere to go.
They can and will add new coasters and rides via removing old ones. The park has like 5 original coasters to the park that are poor currently and will be replaced gradually. CF chain wide plan is to give the big parks a major Capex project every 4 to 5 years. So, it will take awhile but they will replace stuff. They do not need to actually expand the overall park footprint. Besides replacing old coasters on current plots, they also have the go kart spot. CF has been killing karts at their parks for a decade, Wonderland and Kings Dominion I believe are the last 2 CF parks with go karts
@@amusementscape I meant the residential area on what used to be park land, to the south (so across the access road from Behemoth and Kingswood). It was a given that the farms across the street (north and east) would eventually become urbanized.
but they needed that land so they could build another Dollerama! 🤣😭like for real... it's actually wild that section got sold off, were they low on funds or something? such a tiny sliver of land, the only area that hadn't been developed yet, is quite clearly part of CW, right beside the main entrance road, it's perfect. yet they give it up for a shitty stripmall and 4 rows of houses. don't get it.
It's amazing just how many people Canada's Wonderland can attract, despite Cedar Point being Cedar Fair's flagship park. I think it has to do with the market each of those parks are in. Canada's Wonderland is near a major city, Toronto, and is only about 20 minutes away from the downtown Toronto area with it being close to a major highway, the 400, so it attracts a huge market in that city, while Cedar Point is just in the middle of nowhere, in Sandusky, Ohio, which isn't know for anything other than Cedar Point. I mean look at Kings Island, they're in Mason, Ohio, which is just outside of Cincinnati and is near a major highway, which I believe is I-71. I agree that the crowds are abysmal, probably worse than Cedar Point. The problem is that because Canada's Wonderland doesn't have any land to expand because of the highway and residential areas, there is no way to make the park any bigger than it already is. So obviously, capacity could be worked on for people to better maneuver around the park and to spread the crowds out to different areas. That's not the park's fault, it's Cedar Fair's fault for selling the land they owned beside the park, which is now home to a hospital, so they could have used that land, and also there was a separate entrance going into the parking lot near where Leviathan is, but now their only entrances are on the other side near where Behemoth is. And trying to leave the parking lot when there are fireworks is terrible when there is a lot of crowds like that.
It's too busy now and wait times are crazy and then you have to buy another bracelet to get on the ride faster. The prime time was like 2008-2012 going on a school day.
How about just tear out all the horrible wooden coasters and that’ll free up a lot of land for a couple better coasters. As well get rid of the 2 old Vekomas and the zamperla ride. And put in a new Vekoma stc but have it be big, with around 6-7 inversions.
The park is a fun place and it’s also relatively affordable. As a close to but not close enough to be truly local it’s not bad, the rides are great overall and it spans across large age ranges. But the lines have become a major issue. Their’s also the experiences of the Halloween haunt and the winter wonderland to consider as well, but the problems will get worse (lines) as the years go or when they push for even bigger rides to draw more thrill seekers The biggest thing it needs though in my opinion are - better value and quality food - better line control - few more rides to spread out the crowds better
6:50 As a local , who also worked at wonderland (or as we all call it ‘Land) in 2018 , NONE of us eat food at wonderland 😂. It’s way too expensive, and super low quality.
If you’re visiting, I suggest going in the morning , going on rides from 9am -1pm , then leave the park and get a stamp for re-entry. From the Park if you walk 10 minutes east to Jane street , there are 2 MASSIVE plazas , with many food options. Standard fast food such as McDonald’s, Subway etc… and many local favourites like popular pizza (dirt cheap local pizza)
Go eat , then come back around 1:30pm and visit the water Park.
This is the way.
When I was a kid, we packed a cooler full of drinks and sandwiches and ate lunch in the parking lot
havent been since pre pandemic but there was a really nice kebab place right across the street I would go to after the water park, then come back and hit a few rides then call it a day.
This is a good idea. Alternatively Hou can upgrade your pass for 15$ and eat every 90 minutes in the park from entry to exit. That's cheaper than the 20$ per person at the plaza.
@@Akamaru015 Depends what you get at the plaza , me and my friends got an X-large pizza at popular pizza and split it 3 ways , $5 each lol.
Canada's Wonderland's main problem, is lack of any real theme(or varied themes), just Peanuts everywhere, and no drastic changes over the years. It's fine if you haven't been there before, but they aren't really seemingly doing much of anything to draw in business from people that are a bit tired of the park. Now I get expecting a complete overhaul is way too costly, and not exactly something that is common in parks. But I think something more could be done with general theming and non-rollercoaster rides.
I think the theme (why does an amusement park need a theme?) is it's Canada's amusement park, even though it's been owned by American companies since it opened. I mean, we do have others, but they have issues as well and Ontario's park, Ontario Place, has been slated to be turned into condos (why we need more of those in Ontario, is beyond my comprehension) because our current idiot Conservative government under Doug Ford, (also known as Trump North) wants to sell off Public properties just like any other right wing party we've had over the past 30 to 40 years in North America.
CW was well-themed by Taft with World Expo, Medieval Faire, Hanna-Barbera Land, etc. Paramount totally trashed the themed areas ("Action Zone" replacing Expo, ugh) so much that it'll take years for Cedar to undo the damage. But at least they're trying.
its decent during the christmas stuff but outside of that no real reason to go.
A long time ago the rides were themed after movies and they never really got the rights back. They just turned the ride themes into "we have ____ at home"
Hence why I miss the Paramount days. It was more fun.
the TL;DR of this video: Paramount ruined this park and Cedar Fair hasn't spent the time nor money to undo the damage
True
I think Cedar Fair has done some work, but there’s a lot more to do
@@amusementscape yeah, I mean three B&Ms at $20M+ each is nothing to scoff at (unless you're TPP and wrongly predicted Intamins...) so they've been adding things but it's time to take out some of the trash to make room for better stuff. Tundra Twister makes Psyclone and Shockwave redundant, those two can go. Flight Deck, Time Warp, The Bat, and Backlot are all trash and need to go. And so on.
Yeah it’s gonna be awhile before they start taking things out. People ride them so they don’t see the issue, and a lot of the sucky rides will stay awhile
@@racingphotographer8251Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what does TPP stand for?
What Canada needs is another premier theme park to spread out the crowds.
Heck, Wonderland is in the opposite position as Darien Lake. Both have a plethora of old, janky rides and no one willing to replace them, but one gets all the attention that the other doesn’t, and both parks suffer for it.
A great place to put that second premier park would be the Marineland property. That plot of land is huge.
What Canada needs is for either Six Flags or the City of Montreal to start investing in La Ronde. It has so much potential, if someone was willing to step up.
I agree. The thing is Canada’s Wonderland will replace their rides, and they take care of the old ones. Darien Lake doesn’t, but I think that Marineland is the perfect place to mediate the two. Would love to see someone make that place great
@@jordanberndt4157 La Ronde wouldn’t be ideal, but I do think Marineland has a good shot as the previous comment said.
@@amusementscapeI think Marineland is to close to Wonderland. Having a park near London would be better. It would be pretty much in the middle of southwestern Ontario, drawing people from all over.
This park was built outside of Toronto and the City grew around it. Originally you had to take a drive to get to the park, now people can walk to the park so over the years it has gotten a lot busier. I had season passes back in the l90s but gave it up because of the crowds. The last time I was there was around 2001, I was there around 8 hours and managed to get on 3 rides and spent the rest of the time in line ups.
Grew and is now overpopulated by indians. Unreal
I went last year and I can confirm that in 6 hours I went on two rides 💀
Thats weird whenever I go for less then 8 hours we get to do more then that but I guess depends when you go
I went there for about 7 hours in the summer on a weekday morning/afternoon. I managed to get on 8 rides, with most of the non-ride time being spent walking around looking at things. Although I did unknowingly save myself about 1-2 hours of waiting skipping lines because my friends were there first.
This is why you get Fast Lane
As a local, who can't be bothered standing in those lines, the best time to go is anytime before the end of June. Schools aren't out until then, so you don't get all the teens. Although you may get 'school trips' to the park in late May and June, they usually leave by about 4:30- 5:30, so it definitely quiets down after that time. Once summer is here and kids are out of school, all bets are off! Go at your own risk - it will be crowded! They definitely need to get rid of some of the crap rides, of which I believe Flight Deck will be going soon, and replace with some higher capacity coaster, that isn't something from B&M. They are fine, but hardly intense or exciting. Intamin, Mack, Vekoma - lets get some of their newer models here!
Agree. I usually go last week in May on a weekday which is perfect. Short waits (other than for food), no need for Fast Lane, can park close to the gate, etc.
The only launch coaster in the lineup is backlot - a next-gen intamin would be crazy
Going on may 20th, id that’s a good time to go
@@ErenJaeger.Tatakae That's a long weekend in Ontario, so could be busier than other weekends in May or early June🤞
@@markmcg.5641 Hoping it’s not to busy 🙌
I figured out how to solve the issue nearly immediately, a second park/gate in the region. MarineLand in its heyday used to draw people from outside of Toronto but with its effective social blackballing it means that Wonderland is the only option in a region of over 9 million people (The Greater Golden Horseshoe) that is growing at a rate unseen in the rest of North America.
My suggestion would be for a company to purchase the MarineLand site (the largest in North America) and properly develop a new seasonal amusement park close to Niagara Falls (Canada's most visited natural attraction) that is midway between Wonderland & Darrien Lake. That region used to have multiple amusement parks a century ago such as Crystal Beach.
The problem with that is you already have a small family park in the Niagara Falls area - just on the US side. To differentiate themselves, a Marineland redevelopment would need to focus on cheap, thrilling attractions. Think a launched Gerstlauer Eurofighter, a Gravity Group shuttle coaster, and a Maurer spinner. Not an easy needle to thread, but it's possible...barely. And if Silver Streak gets relocated to La Ronde - a likely term of the CF/SF merger - then a modern large Vekoma SFC becomes a possibility as well. (Or if not, a Vekoma mine train.)
The question is, who would redevelop Marineland for that? If Herschend wants to jump into the Niagara Falls market, leasing Niagara Falls Amusement Park is an easier option. Merlin might want to expand into Canada with a family thrill park (they've certainly had their eye on Marineland), but they really need to focus on their UK properties instead. The only other operator of small parks with thrilling coasters that comes to mind is Landry's, but that's far out of their way. None of these options seem very likely, unfortunately.
Python was my first coaster. Scared the living shit out of me, lol.
Fun fact: Boo Blasters used to be a Scooby Doo themed ride that is similar to the new Mario Kart ride in Universal Studios Hollywood. I know it was themed as that because on August 31st 2009, my family and I spent my 9th birthday there.
That and the SpongeBob movie were my favorite lol
I loved this ride as a kid! I have rlly fond memories of “the fly” which I think is called time warp now?
The Scooby Doo theme was great until Peanuts took it over and ruined it.
Omg it's no longer Scooby-Doo doo themed!?
@@smileyghostkat3068 The last time I was at Wonderland (around 3 years ago) it was Peanuts themed. Unless they changed it back to Scooby Doo themed.
As a local I can say the best way to enjoy Wonderland is to come throught the day during the week in October. Halloween Haunt runs all through October which is underwhelming and overpacked, but throughout the day during this time the park is way less occupied and wait times are massively shorter.
This. Show up in a hoodie and ride behemoth 3 times in a row lol
I could remember back in Summer, 1999 the park looked like it was in the middle of farmland. Vaughan then encroached on it after that. I attended the park as our Grade 8 "Graduation" trip when I just turned 14. This was the first and last time I saw it in 25 years.
Yup....that's how I attended it way back when....nicely done up North in farmland.....I recall shock a couple years ago driving North up to Northern Ontario we were on side road and BOOM I was right beside the PARK? I didn't want to believe it but yup...a side street and a gated fence and looking into the park? Sigh..
How dare you .......... Not mention Funnel Cakes
True and real, an outrage to be sure.
Yeah the funnel cakes are top notch aswell as the tiny Tim’s donuts
the fact that they’re $22 now 😢
@Glamkittyxo that's crazy 🤯
The Mine Buster and the Wilde Beast had a more exciting ride experience in the 80s and early 90s. On both of these coasters the run (after the initial drop) track grading was structurally decreased for most likely safety reasons due to their aging design. Time Warp needed to be replaced 10 years ago, yet CWL has managed to maintain steady attendance since its opening over 40 years ago. As a former employee in the early to mid-80s, I can say its more the drastic change in the administration of the park which I find odd. I was privilege to knowing the future plans of CWL in '83. Kingswood was to eventually become a quasi-indoor amphitheater, with concerts and shows to be held there year long. The Mine Buster was the first attraction of a new themed area to be called 'Canadas Frontier Now' which would include White Water Canyon. The inside of Wonder Mountain was to have (eventually) a roller coaster on-par with Space Mountain and there were to be two hotels connected to CWL via a monorail. There was to be a 'Food Fair' section attached to International Street with dine-in restaurants, Tim Hortons and a Zellers/Sears style public cafeteria. Obviously plans changed.
The hotels would’ve been nice, I’ve heard rumors they are trying to build accommodations
@@amusementscape CWL itself is not developing a 'park specific hotel'. However, there will be a hotel built adjacent to CWL with immediate access to a major north-east intersection and subsequently #400 hwy. Perhaps a pedestrian tunnel or overpass may be built to accommodate park patrons within a walking distance of Front Gate.
Minebuster got ruined by Paramount when they took out one of its best airtime bunny hills to make room for the waterslide. Why the return trip of the layout feels flat and featureless, it used to have a nice airtime moment.
With the history of all three of all the woodys is they contracted ptc to make the coasters then ptc bailed out and left the in house team to do it
I miss the log ride.
How to Fix Attendance: Have a company buy Marineland and add rides
That place is still open?
I was saying this to my gf the other day. Marineland is horrid, but the paths are large and would be perfect for a coaster park.
Great idea. That place is on the wrong side of history and new ownership could build something great
@@thebob01it is... Someone just visited and posted a video about it, it's pretty wild that it's even open, there's basically nothing left
Yeah I was thinking of something like that as well; remove the animals, put them somewhere they'd be cared for, sell the giant property to some major theme park company, and turn it into some proper counterweight to Canada's Wonderland. With proper investment it could be amazing though definitely expensive.
As someone who lives within a 15 minute drive there is another issue: the area is so built up now that there is very little expansion that can be done. They can't expand west, there is a major highway there. They can only expand a bit further north before they hit a major road with a new hospital on the other side. They can't expand further east because they run into another major road with a long line of businesses on the other side. They could only expand a bit further south before they run into businesses and suburbs. So the crowds are getting bigger and there is very little room for them to expand with. When I say a little I mean they would be lucky to get an extra 100 metres (328 feet) north or south for more rides/attractions.
GTA native, wonderland is like the place to be once summer hits. friends and i would get season passes every year as teens. i dont care too much for fun themes, im a thrill rider so i enjoy the coasters. i assume over the years they will continue to replace the old coasters with newer more fun ones. one things for sure; being pretty much the only real amusement park in southern ontario it will always have tons of people.
I went out to LA this past summer and went to Magic Mountain Knotts Berry Farm and the crowds there are nowhere near as bad as Wonderland. This is an understatement for Magic Mountain to have the biggest coaster collection in the world and the lineup is pretty stacked. It is because the LA area has 5 major parks (Magic Mountain, Knotts, Disneyland, California Adventure, and Universal Hollywood) whereas Wonderland is pretty much the major theme park not just for the Toronto area not just for the province of Ontario, but it is also for all of Canada. This is because La Ronde in Montreal is trash and Galaxyland at the Edmonton Mall is now trash because Mindbender is now gone so outside of Wonderland and La Ronde are cute cookie-cutter kiddy parks.
Yeah it’s pretty nuts. Toronto is also the premier city, probably the closest thing to New York in Canada
Calaway park in Calgary too.
@@eswing2153 the only reason to visit that is for the corkscrew coaster vortex which is now the one big coaster in all of Alberta now after Mindbender was torn down
I mean, we still got Centerville here, but it's a special type of dumb just going to the Island.
Ontario Place was also an option, but then it just shuttered in the 10's
What they did to the Megamaze there was the absolute definition of dirty.
Darien lake is only 2.5hrs away. Cedar point is the same driving distance as Montreal... So the enthusiasts definitely have options!
What’s annoying is line jumpers. A person will push their way through the line, saying they have family members further up, and they keep going until someone stops them. Then, the rest of their party push up to join them. I’ve called them out, but most people don’t want to make a scene.
Most people don't want to get stabbed by some hoodrats
I've never seen that but I do see kids begging people for their fast lane passes and this is just pitiful behavior and should get you kicked out of the park
@@caldera11Ew people do that? I’d tell them to shove it and go buy their own. What makes them entitled to someone else’s ticket?? 🤦♀️
Good on ya! In some places there are so many people cutting lines that it's an unwinnable situation without staff intervention, but you can't really expect people paid around min wage to go around confronting the endless shitheads. Sigh.
As a Canadian, I love the bat and flight deck and a lot of people will agree its more of an aquired taste but without them canadas wonderland would be blande and boring its personality would be intarily gone
I whole heartedly agree with you. The bat is classic and has been there since the very early days. Flight deck is just amazing. So many tight twists and turns you feel like you're in a blender. I love it. When I went last it had short lineups. I went on it repeatedly three times. That was lovely.
The personality left with Paramount. I still call it Top Gun. "Flight Deck" sounds so generic.
@@DoomRulz I agree 100%. I call it top gun also. I also miss the Days of Thunder ride.
i have many fond memories of this park as a kid, went tons of times for school trips and with family/friends, and after recently going back like 20 years later it's surreal that it still looks and feels pretty much the exact same and even retains the weird state the park got into after Paramount sold to Cedar Fair, where they ripped out all movie references in rides, shows, etc, and had to make everything generic. the vibes just kind of stalled out and they never tried building a new park identity. the best example of this is Italian Job/Backlot stunt coaster. I remember when it first released it had all the effects like you stopped at the helicopter and it moved around a bit and shot at you, and made fireballs so close you felt the heat on your face, etc, and was really cool. but when they yanked out the Paramount stuff they just shut off the effects and didn't even try to replace it with something just as cinematic or cool. nope they just left the dead set pieces and they are purely for decoration while the car whizzes by. what's crazy is that it's *still* like that. the whole park is stuck in some kind of limbo
I was just gonna say I think some of the old rides some of the rides he thinks aren’t worth the wait in line. I think the reason we wait in line is because it brings back memories like thunder run still one of my favourites just because I remember that as a kid so much.!
Their flat rides look incredible. Some of the best overall for CF.
Wonderland has the best flat ride collection in North America… maybe even the world
Eh... They're alright.
@@vinewoodstar it wasn’t really an opinion, they have the largest selection, including multiple one of a kinds. Not even Cedar Point can compete with them
@@watson3906 L😅L
@@watson3906 Haven't been to Europe, but from what I've heard from enthusiasts who've travelled there is that the only other parks that compete with CW's flatrides are Wiener Präter and Tivoli Gardens. If CW isn't best in the world, it's in the Top 3.
I was a season pass holder at wonderland for years, and i completely agree with everything you said here. When i go back now, i do the three B&Ms, wonder mtn guardian, and then im bored. There is NOTHING else that I really feel inclined to ride. If i had my way, id make 3 changes to the lineup: 1. Take out time warp and flight deck in favour of a maverick style launch coaster. Flight deck is borderline unridable because of how rough it is, and time warp, although it is a cool gimmick coaster, might genuinely be one of the worst rollercoasters on the planet. 2. Take out wildebeast and replace it with an RMC (or just RMC it), as its really just a boring coaster. 3. Retrack the minebuster. i LOVE that ride, but it gives me a concussion every time i ride it.
Agree with flight deck/time warp, but the real potential is in pulling out dragon fire
They are putting in a launch coaster for 2025 though... So that's something
So many people forget that Cedar Fair had an exclusivity clause with B&M which prevented them from building any rollercoasters at Paramount Canadas Wonderland. CW was inteded to get a Raptor style invert, Cedar Point got it.
I read/heard comments in the past (pre pandemic) that some people who live in Toronto prefer to go to Six Flags Darien Lake because Canada's Wonderland is always too crowded for them. Now I don't know if that's the case anymore because Darien has basically been neglected for the past few years and I guess we'll see after this season since the boarder is fully open restriction free for the first time since the pandemic.
You're literally correct!
It’s unfortunate. I wish the parks near the border were a bit better
@@amusementscape Marineland is just wasted space. Fantasy Island AND Darien Lake could both fit it there with room to spare.
Yes. Darien Lake is a struggle bus of a park but at least you can get on the rides there. I live in the GTA and have only been to Wonderland twice... once on a Sunday in Sept and it was okay, but we went on a Tuesday last August and it was a nightmare. Yukon Striker had a 2 1/2 hr wait. It's honestly worth the drive for us to Cedar Point (~5 hrs) over CW.
Does anyone go to Seabreeze? I remember seeing adverts for it back in the day.
the lack of shaded areas is really bad too. you really need a lot of sunblock there...
YES. Thank you. Especially in the water slide park. It was too sunny and not enough shady spots to rest
Your choice of words to describe the park and its rides was excellent. Very well presented !marketing should hire you to do a video to help different types of attendees navigate the park. There are at least 4 types of attendees that would appreciate navigational help.
Thanks so much!!!
It’s so interesting that La Ronde and CW seem to have the most rude and terrible guests of all the North American parks
Maybe it’s because a lot of them have never been to a park before
@@amusementscapeidk 😂us Toronto and Surrounding areas grew up going their
@@amusementscape CW is out in the suburbs of Toronto, and there's really not much to do if you're over 16 and under 60, outside of movie theatres and malls. Bored teenagers tend to go nuts from the external stimulation.
time warp never has a long line, and backlots lines may be long but they are extremely fast.
I'm Canadian and my school's dorm (i went to a boring school in London Ontario) would have our year end trip at Canada's wonderland every year. The park is very over crowded with ridiculous lines from June til October with little shading for the people standing for hours in direct sunlight. The layout wasn't thought out with the amount of people who attended every year. Parking is the same. The food is cheap, over priced and has had more than one stand in violation of sanitation and safe food handling bylaws. I will say Canada's wonderland use to be a blast for Halloween night when the park shuts the doors to anyone under the age of 18. The whole park would be turned into a haunted theme park with hired actors, costumes and makeup artists pulling out all their best techniques and the whole place went from a fun family place to dark, creepy and demonic. Unfortunately its not as amazing as it used to be, the effort is put into it like it was when I was in my 20s which really is sad.
Every time I've ever been to Wonderland it's been either raining (or chance of rain and I dodged it) or a field trip, so I've never really seen it busy. Some of this footage was crazy tho omg
Agreed that the crowds and lines are bad there, and the guests were the most ill behaved of any park I’ve been to. And I agree that the food is poor. Still, even with all that, I enjoyed this park a lot.
It’s a good park, just needs some work, and maybe even more staff for crowd control
Pro tip:
Don't eat food at CW unless you're getting the funnel cake.
Across the road is a huge plaza with all sorts of restaurants and food choices.
Better food and better prices, so don't buy the crap food inside the park.
There's an LCBO and Beer Store in walking distance too, so if you wanna get drunk, do it outside the park, then go in and do the rides. lol
I enjoyed it back in the 90's to be honest. It was more about the family atmosphere with Hanna-Barbera Land. Also didn't they get rid of the blue soft ice cream? it use to be called Smurf ice cream back when it was centered around Smurf Village.
Thanks for the great review! I think upgrades to the parking tolls and entrance would go a long way to help with crowd management.
That would help!
The crowds have truly gotten awful. Maybe it's because I'm older and I've become less willing to wait in long lines, or because the rides have gotten old for me but I went last year went on a week day in June and it was horrendously busy. I had never seen it so busy and from what I heard, the Halloween haunt event (which I normally really enjoy going to) was to busy to be enjoyable. Still love the park, but it's hard to get excited about knowing most of the rides are average and you're gunna be waiting A LONG time for all of them.
Great review! The time to go when the park is not busy weekdays during May - June. The 3 B&Ms are 15 - 30 minutes and basically everything else is a walk on.
Shhhhh. Don't tell people lol. It's the only time to go. After school is out you have to rope drop to have half a good day.
@@illbyno1 btw is it busy in Sunday?
@d_i_v_a7391 yes. Not as bad as Saturday but if you mean tomorrow then it's may 24 weekend and it will probably be busy but not as bad as later on in the summer
As having Canada’s Wonderland as my home park I do 100% agree paramount did a terrible job with Wonderland. But Cedar Fair especially over the last couple years seems to be putting a good amount of money into the park and we are hoping to get some major upgrades in the next couple years
Besides the upgrades, I really think CW needs some competition. There's too many people to service for 1 park. Ontario is huge with no other option
@@coastercat112 Completely agree!!
@@coastercat112 Truth. Marineland sucks. The Ex is only around for 16 days, and Ontario Place is no more. If you've got little kids, you're probably better off taking them to the zoo or Fantasy Fair or the Science Centre.
But for everyone else... well, I have been thinking of taking up climbing.
@kevwwong so true! I keep hearing rumors about Marineland or even building a "New Ontario Place" but I will believe it when I see it lol
@@coastercat112 Unless Sea World/Busch takes over Marineland that isn't happening.
What was the unfixable issue??
The crowds are awful there....but as long as they're packing them in I'm not sure if they have much motivation to improve.
Doesn't actually say it other than "it's busy"... the issue is that it's basically the only one. Entire province flocks there
@@holysirsalad only way they would ever alleviate it is to open a second park in the province. But its already in the middle of the GTA, the only place that would be viable would be in downtown Toronto itself, or near Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls won't get as much traffic and Downtown would be impossible due to the noise of a theme park and the sheer cost of all that land. It would be in the 10s of billions to construct. I guess the next best location would be in Quebec?
Disagree. The crowds in Niagara in the summer are insane, also, nf is a boarder town. It would draw many American tourists. Marineland is a perfect location for a world class coaster park.
Canada’s wonderland is the worst park in terms of crowds. It’s simply unbearable to deal with rude people jumping lines or smoking everywhere. It’s a huge turn off.
So as person who lives around here, the thing about it is that Vaughan and by extention the York Region is also growing in a way that is exponential. The reason why is Vaughan, King City, Richmond Hill etc. is sold to many as a place to raise your kids and so more and more families are settling in the Vaughan area and that means more and more kids/teens are coming to the park as a fun summer day thing to do from a walking distance away and even for kids who live too far to walk, the transit system has improved tremendously to keep up with the city. So whereas before they would have to travel by 2-3 busses as a teen, now its a walking distance or a subway line and quick bus distance away. Its a good problem to have but still a problem.
TL;DR more people live around wonderland now and transit has improved.
So basically, your "unsolvable problem" is fixed by more top tier coasters, more restaurants and rethemed areas + ride removals
It’s still not going to fix the issue. It would help it, but it’s like a 20 year turnaround
@@amusementscape 20 years? No way maybe 10
@@justiceman2723 depends if CF will stop being stupid and give CW the rides it deserves/needs
@@lent well don’t ya think they will after seeing the numbers they’re pullin?
@@justiceman2723 It’s not that easy. Unless attendance drops, or several rides reaches the end of their service life, Cedar Fair shouldn’t feel obligated to replace them.
Was nice when it was first opened and they had a lot of different shows. They had actors , kids that were talented, and got the crowd involved.
I remember attending a short show in one of the theatres. It was some kind of musical thing, but not much else. This was back in 1999 when I was there for a Grade 8 "grad" trip.
Decent review but I’m surprised no mention/review of Splashworks water park. Big chunk of the crowd when schools out goes there. They definitely need to replace some of the old coasters. One of my beefs over the years is the SINGLE main entrance, always wished they added a 2nd entrance close to the water park so you don’t have to walk 15 mins to get there. My trick to reduce the overall cost is to only buy a pass after Aug 1 when they offer next season pass early and come for the rest of the current season, ok you miss half the summer but it’s basically 2 seasons for the price of 1.
I went to 7 cedar fair parks this year, isited all of there water parks. Canada's Wonderland has the weakest one. Plus no where to sit. For the amount of crowd we get, they need at least triple the amount of seating.
People have to realize that coasters cost a lot of money. Granted, with Six Flags and Cedar's budgets, they could possibly replace some of the attractions but with the City of Vaughan surrounding it now, that could be easier said than done.
Great review ! I remember when Canada's Wonderland opened way back in the 80s ( 80/81 ) time frame now it's become a world class amusement park. 😊
I love Wonderland and always have. I was there the first day it opened. But when I went to Florida and went to places like Disney/Epcot and Universal I suddenly felt that Wonderland was really lacking. With almost every new ride being another roller coaster (which are great). It felt a little monotonous to me. I wanted more experiences.
A few other things CW could do to help with crowds and wait times:
- Build more single rider lines. IIRC, Yukon Striker is the only one.
- Placing boards around the park showing the current queue time for each ride might help redistribute crowds and lines a little more evenly.
- Building a monorail around the park would take traffic off of pathways and would eat up some guests.
- Extend the Operating Season. I see no reason why Canada's Wonderland couldn't open weekends-only in Mid-April, the weather is nice enough for it. In an ideal world the park would also operate atleast 5 days a week all the way to end of September, but I know staffing might be an issue.
agreed, monorail seems cool wonder if it would ever be implimented
I definitely agree with all of this. Also there is one other ride that has a single rider line, The Bat. There may actually be others as well, but I don't usually do most rides, so I can't be totally sure. But I do know The Bat is one.
They need to raise prices, they have the cheapest passes in the chain. A pass as Mi Adv cost more than Wonderland. They are essentially the old Six Flags model of Cedar Fair parks on pricing, low cost & high volume that produces a too packed parked & a lot of unruly teens.
@@lent I remember when they had a monorail at the Zoo.
Building a monorail now might not be feasible, given the amount of space available at the park and the amount of time it would take to build it. Maybe an aerial gondola would be better.
@@McQ-wk5lu They're cheaper for a reason -- at the other parks in the chain the regular and gold passes include parking. Not so at CW -- if you want parking you need platinum. So if you consider you're paying $22 per visit for parking, suddenly the CW gold pass doesn't sound like a deal anymore.
You know, it *just* occurred to me that Leviathan is actually the closest B&M giga to me, closer than Orion and much closer than Fury 325, but I never thought much of going there just because of the mental effect of that national border. But it sounds like the crowds would ruin some of the fun.
You are absolutely right. The other problems with this park are they have no transportation rides which are normally high capacity. And they’re live entertainment is awful.
At least at Cedar point or Kings Island if it’s crowded you can always count on riding the train.
All of the live entertainment last year was some type of stunt show. No singing or dancing. Cedar point has a huge lineup of live entertainment, which is something to do when the park is crowded.
The theming of this park is also very sloppy due to previous ownership. They desecrated World Exposition and Frontier Canada is just an mess with little cohesion.
I attended there last year and was lucky. It was slightly rainy on my first day. The crowd was tolerable. The second day was sunny and I left because it was so miserably crowded. I doubt if I’ll ever go back as it’s not a good experience because of the crowds
Yeah there’s no coherent theming here either. Different areas of the park feel old or outdated while the newer areas are just lightly themed
@@amusementscape That's just it- it feels too themed to be an amusement park, and not themed enough to be a theme park.
Wonderland is investing in other ways then just building rides. They are getting into providing proper food options by building more restaurants (Cedar Point model). They are building onto the kids park by providing a roller coaster which is great (families spend lots of money at CW). They are bringing a new flat ride that looks awesome and apparently another coaster is coming in 2025. It's going to take time and money to cleanup the mess Paramount made.
Cedar is adding good things but not taking out the garbage in the process. Of the original CW coasters (from the Taft and Paramount years) really only Vortex is any good.
Yeah I agree. I hope they keep it up, but there’s a lot of work to do. The park should keep improving
Cedar Fair has owned the park now for as long as paramount did. It's time to stop blaming CF's mistakes on someone else.
@@imageingredients8110 Paramount was terrible, if you don’t understand that I don’t know what to say. I took a 6 year hiatus from wonderland because every year was the same thing. If Cedar Fairs didn’t buy the park Vortex would have still been our best coaster. They would never have invested 25+ million dollars on coasters. Less than 2 years after Cedar Fairs bought Wonderland we had a Hyper coaster. 4 years later we had a giga coaster.
Wonderland was long overdue for upgrades not only to rides but restaurants, kids section and other park amenities to make the experience better.
Cedar Fairs also owns 6 large parks and has to continue investing in those parks as well, its not like they can just sink all the money into Wonderland.
@@PLUMMAxX The problem is since CF bought the Paramount parks they've focused too much on Carowinds, kept up the status quo at CP and KI, while paying lip service (relatively speaking) to CW and screwing over MA. Any Wonderland fan should feel screwed over seeing what Caro has been getting.
The queues are so poorly set up and have been since opening in the early 1980’s. On rides where you can’t take a bag some you leave the bag before you board. In others you pass through the ride, drop your bag on the ground and return to the car. The inconsistency leads to delays as people try to figure out what to do. Even adding 5 seconds to dispatch time over the course of 2000 people adds up quickly
I think the main unfixable issue with this park is the fact that the city grew around it. Its real estate is maxed out and there is zero room for expandability. So i find they have to shoehorn rides in the little space they have left. Otherwise they have to tear down existing rides and reuse space. Thats not a bad idea given some of the bad rides still there, but still, there is little working space for any meaningful expansion.
Go in early/mid may on a weekday. You miss all the school trips, people on summer break, and vacatuiners and tourists. Ride waits are usually 20mins max even for the giga coasters. The old coasters will sometimes be 5mins. So no need for a fast pass, especially if you want on the front. Park closes at 8pm instewd of 10pm in the summer, and water park is closed. But the insane lines makes it all pointless. Mid June-September has been been a an urban death maze for decades.
My home park. Blue ice cream was only available in 2021, 40th Anniversary, so that's why you can't find it on the site. We do have a couple of dud coasters. Something coming in 2025, don't know what kind of coaster it will be. Crowds were and are and will be a problem, not the park's fault, it's just busy.
But if the crowds are that crazy they need more rides. They can afford it. Cedar Fair mgmt has the data, though, that attendance continues to do great even without park improvements. I'm assuming the lack of competition in Canada is why attendance stays so high. Sorry. The only way to get them to improve the park is for people to stop going. Once attendance goes down then they'll be forced to act.
@@Asshat237 could be but Cedar Fair would have to do something very drastic for that to happen. They are investing a lot of money into Canada's Wonderland so just wait and see what happens.
Gotcha, thanks for the clarification
@@clairefunnell8481 ohhh really? I assumed they weren't investing that much since no new major rides.
It is absolutely the parks fault that they over sell the attraction.
This is a great video, CW is my home park, and I know everyone agrees with adding at least 1 more premium coaster.
Having said that, Ontario (esp Toronto area) is huge. If there was another park built, it would definitely help manage the unbearable crowds.
Maybe someone can buy Marineland and turn it into something decent. Give people another reason to head to the Falls.
I think Flight Deck, Time Warp and Kingswood will be going away soon, which would leave quite a bit of room for another large coaster.
@kevwwong yes it would be awesome if a reputable park bought marine land. Niagara falls is always busy, so there are so many options for that area
This is my home park and, you literally get it, spot on! Couldn't have said it better.
I hear what you’re saying about ripping out old rides but as a Toronto native, I think people would be legitimately upset. Nostalgia holds a lot of power. People who live here still talk about the paramount days as the best days of the park.
Thank you. As a kid/teen I never watched Top Gun. But you better believe I felt like a pilot action hero on the ride
I’m about 90 mins away and never made it out last season. But everyone I knew that did go last season regretted it. Way to crowded and waiting for food for an hour plus is unacceptable anywhere. Especially waiting forever just to get into the park. Everyone I know that went said they wouldn’t go back for those reasons alone.
Theees been like 10 people areested and its only been open for like 4 weeks
Waiting in line is where you get to socialize with The opposite sex , Or Fastlane plus That bypasses the line …. Flight Deck is my Favourite ride
They should delete Time Warp and put anything in its place.
Amen, get a cool wing coaster like gatekeeper at cedar point, or maybe even a 4-D coaster like X2 would be sick, very costly but awesome
Basically mine buster works best with a titan track because its more of an out n back but wild beast has a better layout which could be an amazing rmc
Also sledgehammer is super fun lol it always gets me when that thing drops
The Minebuster was much better back in the day. It didn't have a partition dividing the seats and it used to have one solid lap bar instead of individual ones. You used to fly right out of the seat and get some serious air time. Not any more.
So true about the crowds and waiting. To go on something like the Behemoth or Leviathan you're waiting in line for at least 2 to 3 hours. Same with most of the water slides. Wait an hour for a slide that lasts maybe 30 seconds. I think the only way to remedy this problem would be to build more parks here in Canada. We only really have one major amusement park here which is this one. But now days it's so hard to start something like that because of liability and all that. No insurance company would want to insure such a business and if they did it would cost too much. Wonderland has been around for so long with little to no incident which is why they can get insured.
My high school was right across the street from wonderland and most of the kids would skip the last 2 periods just to go there and the park stays closed weekdays from when it opens for the season until I believe mid June but it was always open on the weekends
As a Torontonian who grew up attending Canada's Wonderland frequently, many of us have our own names for some rides (and maybe even some tips). Dragonflyer, for example is generally the first roller coaster people will go on as it's the closest to the entrance of the park. We referred to this particular Roller coaster as Head Ping Pong, as this ride had a tendency to bounce your head (repeatedly & constantly) from right to left off the restraints used to keep you in the ride. The tip here is to keep you head against the left (if I recall, it's been like 25 years 😅) side of the restraint to reduce or eliminate your head being used as a ping pong ball 😂.
Other names we had were the Mind Buster was affectionately known as the Butt Buster due to it being a wooden coaster.
Vortex (🤔) was f that due to the line being 1-2 hours long all day. The only time you should go on this one, is if you get in as soon as the park opens, and you beeline for it. But again that was 25 years ago, it may have changed since.
Wild Beast was/is the other wooden coaster, and since it was in the furthest corner of the park, it usually had less riders. In fact, near closing time, there were so few people in line, that we were able to just stay on it and go for multiple runs consecutively.
Now I'm wanting to go check it out again since its been so long.
They run the old rides too fast now and took 1000ft of track from The Mine Buster. Both big wooden coasters give you a bad headache now, you feel like your head will get ripped off. Flight Deck bashed your head so it also causes a headache. The best coaster is The Vortex, but if you suffer from motion sickness the way it stops makes some people throw up.
When the park first opened you could climb the mountain, that was discontinued when they put Thunder Run in it.
You completely skipped over fear fest/Halloween haunt
Cedar Fair has owned this park for 17 years and has added 3 decent coasters. Sorry Cedar Fair apologists but for being the #1 attended seasonal park in North America that is pathetic, especially considering this park has needed a major facelift the whole time. I have been there once and never had any desire to go back.
Cedar Fair is taking CW's attendance and surrounding population for granted. Why spend money when they have such a (arguably) "captive" audience? (unless you're willing to cross the border and drive for hours, where else ya gonna go?) They can leave in all the Paramount garbage and still rake in the $$$. Why they spend more on improvements over at Carowinds and KI instead of CW...
Agreed, except I made the mistake of going twice. I am tempted to return for yukon, but am hesitant about having to live with the consequences of my delusional hope for improvement.
Finally someone not blaming the problems on Paramount - cedar fair has had a long time to improve things.
I agree. As Platinum pass holders who live near Wonderland, my wife and I drive to Cedar Point more than we visit Wonderland. IMO the lack of competition is a major factor in why the park is like it is. Due to that the majority of guests who visit don't know anything else.
its the only thing like it in the area. I can only think of one in Montreal but its about an 8th of the size. I think the attendance is ranked so high due to the waterpark as well. with there being not really any waterparks as well in the area its the "only game in town" so to speak.
I’ve been to Canada Wonderland a few times and the atmosphere itself is really nice to see
I've been going to the park ever since I was a kid. Always had a season pass in those days. Haven't been for a couple years but I like to get my coaster fix every now and then.
As a teen in the 90s I absolutely loved CWL, going multiple times every summer. I was lucky to live a 20 minute drive up highway 400 to the park. The best time to go was a cloud day with chance of rain because people who had to drive far and oay full price wouldn't risk getting their day rained out. I remember it being so quiet we could just stay in the train and ride muktiple times in a row!
That said, I haven't been much as an adult so it must be much, much busier now.
Got my first job at Canada’s Wonderland in 1991 and had so much fun that summer ! I remember meeting New Kids on the Block when they had a concert there and they had the best cheese burgers at the staff cafeteria. I definitely made great memories that summer !
Not mentioned here is the water park, which is sort of its own park within a park. I've found that if you want to enjoy the rollercoasters, it's best to hit the park on punishingly hot sunny weekdays, when people tend to flock to the waterpark. You have to be prepared to stand in the blazing sun without cover sometimes, though.
Best time to visit this park is right near season opening. If you don't mind a bit cooler weather and go on a weekday while school is still in session- no teens, no crowds, no lines
Seems like a park you would need at least two days to get everything in. Between the coasters and the flats I think multiple days would be ideal. Expensive probably, but more realistic. Especially for coaster credits.
You can spend a complete day just doing all the flats, I do it every 3 day visit.
Yeah depends on what you’re looking for, but I recommend two days
It’s in CDN dollars so very cheap for Americans
The problem is many rides have only one ride vehicle. Compare to Disney's Space Mountain that simultaneously have one vehicle unloading, one vehicle loading, and multiple vehicles on the track (separated by braking zones), all multiplied by two mirrored tracks.
I've never been to Canada's Wonderland but I can imagine all those are great valid points. Nice video as always. Keep it up. 👍👍👍
Thank you!!!
i feel like the park is a good place to go for a trip with your family since there are a lot of rides for kids but as a local it is a good idea to go when kids are in school.
Wonderland has been my home park for my entire life and I’ve been more times than I can count. This video pissed me off but for the reason that mainly he is right. Although I think he was a little too harsh on the quality of the Big 3 coasters, all of them a top tier coasters that “most” parks would happily welcome into their line up. What annoys me about them though is they’re ALL B&M. Don’t get me wrong, B&M makes world class coasters… but a little variety would be very nice. What I would give for a crazy intense Intimin coaster… unfortunately Cedar Fair and Intimin aren’t on very good terms so that’s likely not going to happen.
Saying that though I’ve been coming here my entire life and I still have a blast everytime I go, if it’s your first time I promise you’ll have a blast at Wonderland (but but a Fastpass, it’s definitely needed to get full value if it’s you’re first time visiting.)
Where the author bangs the nail on the head is the supporting cast of coasters. Tearing down Flight Deck and Time warp and adding a new flagship coaster right by the entrance would do wonders…. And RMC’ing the woodies here would make this one of the best parks in North America.
Wonderland's problem is one word: Paramount
Paramount Paramount Paramount thats all need to be Said Disastrous
I think if they add one or two more bangers, plus if they clean up the theming you got a world class park!
@@amusementscape I 100% agree
@@racingphotographer8251 Paramount hasn't been involved for almost fifteen years? The current problems are not the previous owners fault. Cedar Fair has had a lot of time to work on things.
I heard Lazy Bear Lodge's quality quickly fell off after the training period
That's what I heard as well
That sucks
As a local let me help. Wonderland used to be in the middle of nowhere it was a a treat a trip to get there. Now it's in the middle of extended suburbs. Here is an example I think 80% of the kids in my kids school have season passes if not more. They make the passes cheaper than 2 trips so everyone gets a pass. I remember my my daughter was smaller, we would go to kids area like other people go to local parks. I think the attendance numbers are inflated because of so many kids/teens that all have passes. Think about it bored teens in July nothing to do calls his friends on Tuesday, let go to wonderland, no problem they all have passes it's a local hang out. I ruins it for for people that make special trips for it, and I feel sorry for them. I think I this point it needs an RMC treatment that will help bring the park to a whole new level and make the park feel more modern.
as a toronto local (who isn’t exactly a thrill-seeker and therefore doesn’t enjoy the park, but has friends that do), i think the main reason why canadas wonderland is so overpopulated is because it’s literally the only thing torontonians have. there’s nothing like wonderland within an hour-and-a-half drive, as wonderland is the only cedar fair property in canada, and is pretty accessible to a large amount of people, being outside the largest city in the country and all. the next best thing is probably marineland, which is pretty far, and most people coming to wonderland are either disinterested with marineland (understandably so), or are unable to drive there. wonderland is also a good way to get rid of your 16-year-old kid and their entourage for an afternoon, which i feel explains the large population of teens acting like hooligans.
Thia could be because this is my home park, but I find that most of the rides there are pretty solid. I only really started going to Wonderland last season, so I haven't had a chance to ride the B&M's. Definetly something I am going to do this season.
It depends, how many coasters have you been on?
@@amusementscape Almost all of them (Except the B&Ms) and several of the flat rides
There is a small selection of food. Mostly pizza and burger/chicken strips and fries. You also have to look hard for fountains, benches, and washrooms. We went to the water park and didn't find changerooms, so it seemed as if everyone was using washrooms to change in, and the lines were long. Also, a lot of rides need more shade in the lineups.
Best time to go is Monday afternoon or if you can go on an early weekday when it's overcast. It gets so quiet sometimes that certain rides you can go on twice in a row without getting off in the evening around 7-8pm. Also Halloween haunt last time I went I just rode the rides and huge rides like Leviathan had like 25 people in line so I was able to ride 3 times within an hour.
Wonderland is my home and the only really unfixable problem is the lack of space, which is not a unique problem for the park.
As for the rides, some of the older attractions do need to be replaced with newer additions. Flight Deck and Time Warp are without a doubt the least popular rides in the park. These are likely the first to be replaced. Minebuster just got a retracking and is the better woodie, so I’d love to see Wilde Beast get the RMC treatment. As for the flats, Tundra Twister and Lumberjack are pretty decent but Soaring Timbers absolutely sucks and I’m sure the management regrets building this ride because it has a lot of downtime and isn’t super popular with the guests.
Bro, I got an advertisement for Lightyear on this video. LOL😂
I've been to this park once before. And yes, this issue is HIGHLY unlikely to be fixed. But I need a revisit to this park for reasons. Leviathan was closed for my ENTIRE STAY.😭😭😭Please reply something that means you feel bad for me in the reply. So was Wonder Mountain's Guardian and The Bat. And I also feel like I didn't do everything I wanted at the park. You seriously can't sleep on their flat ride collection. Fortunately, a revisit on their ACE event is on my bucket list. Hopefully I can ride every single roller coaster THAT day as well as finish off with their flat rides.
Need better coaster lineup especially a solid launch coaster would be awesome. Get rid of slc and volaire and add a premium coaster.
As a local I have been going to wonderland since I was a kid. I do feel with the increased rides and population around have jammed this park with people worse than it’s ever been. A seasons pass will set you back about the cost of two tickets and a meal plan is fairly reasonable. so many older kids spend a lot of time at the park during the summer it’s probably cheaper then camp. When the park was built it was in the middle of nowhere nothing but farm land surrounding the park. Now the park is land locked in a suburbia of toronto. As well as public transit runs special routes to the park from surrounding areas. Another park should be in order to ease congestion. I take my kids first thing in the morning when it opens and we can squeezes in a few ride within an hour and half. Then we leave before it gets jammed. It’s only worth doing that with a fuel efficient vehicle and season passes.
Agreed on this place. It's stressful to even think about LOL.
I don't know the details of RMC and Canada...but I wonder if this merge with Larson will change any of that🤔🤔🤔
Is Larson a Canadian company? If not, than it changes nothing
@@jac_238 they are listed as Larson International
@@mattr3922 Ok but that doesn’t tell me if they’re a Canadian company. The reason Canada hasn’t gotten an RMC yet is because Canada has a law that says a Canadian company has to do the construction, and RMC likes to construct their own rides
@@jac_238 then look it up yourself. I just said in the 1st comment I didn't even know the details of the RMC contract. Good lord. Acting like I have to answer to you💀💀💀
@@mattr3922 their address is listed as being in Texas. This changes nothing in regards to RMC working in Canada
The Boo Blasters used to be Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion, my favourite ride back in the day. I am definitely a dark ride lover, not a coaster person though lol
Way too expensive. Entry fees, rides, food.
I haven't been to Canada's Wonderland since the Italian Job ride debuted way back when. I remember waiting in line for it, and watching the Tomb Raider ride continuously breaking down, leaving riders dangling in the air for around 1/2 hour or more each time. Needless to say, my girlfriend and I passed on the Tomb Raider ride!
Edit: just researched that it was 2005, and is now the Backlot. (And that Tomb Raider is now Time Warp.)
Yep, not going the in almost 20 years definitely mean you miss a lot. But, a 6+ hour trip to Wonderland plus lodging for at least a night compared to 1-1/2 hours to LaRonde and be able to drive home after means almost yearly (or if we get a season pass multiple times a year) easily.
I just want more medium coasters to replace flight deck and time warp
They need more giga-coasters
@@thebob01 both 🤣
Another factor increasing crowds/attendance is that it’s the closest good sized park for basically all of northern Ontario, pretty much every kid I knew growing up has went to wonderland regardless of financial status and the fact we live 7 hours away
Totally agree on the FLP part. It's crazy how basically none of the lower tier coasters have FLP lines. We ended up doing a weekend on our first visit so I could spend Friday afternoon/evening doing the low capacity, non-FLP rides. I ended up being able to walk on a lot of them, but still had to spend a couple hours Sat morning knocking out a few more. We did snag FLPs for Saturday tho and spent the entire afternoon/evening lapping the B&Ms.
How can you make Vortex number two to The Bat at Kings Island? Its literally the same coaster, with far better terrain hugging and the top of the lift cruising around the mountain.
They created another "unfixable" issue by selling off the surrounding lands they originally owned. Think of that long loopy road you take from the Rutherford Rd. off-ramp to the front gate. When I was a kid, there was a big empty grass field in the middle of that loop just waiting for park expansion (or the parking lot could have moved there and the park proper expand into the current parking lots). Now it's houses. A quick fix is to finally demolish the unused/defunct Kingswood Music Theatre but that's a bandaid at best. CF can keep adding flats and small coasters into what little space is available and what they'll end up with eventually is another Knotts - landlocked with nowhere to go.
They can and will add new coasters and rides via removing old ones. The park has like 5 original coasters to the park that are poor currently and will be replaced gradually. CF chain wide plan is to give the big parks a major Capex project every 4 to 5 years. So, it will take awhile but they will replace stuff. They do not need to actually expand the overall park footprint. Besides replacing old coasters on current plots, they also have the go kart spot. CF has been killing karts at their parks for a decade, Wonderland and Kings Dominion I believe are the last 2 CF parks with go karts
Yeah that’s a big issue. Residential areas make it harder to build
@@amusementscape I meant the residential area on what used to be park land, to the south (so across the access road from Behemoth and Kingswood). It was a given that the farms across the street (north and east) would eventually become urbanized.
but they needed that land so they could build another Dollerama! 🤣😭like for real... it's actually wild that section got sold off, were they low on funds or something? such a tiny sliver of land, the only area that hadn't been developed yet, is quite clearly part of CW, right beside the main entrance road, it's perfect. yet they give it up for a shitty stripmall and 4 rows of houses. don't get it.
@@logprb5048 who sold that land off, Taft, Paramount, or Cedar Fair? I bet Paramount... they ruined everything else, that's the icing on the cake.
It's amazing just how many people Canada's Wonderland can attract, despite Cedar Point being Cedar Fair's flagship park. I think it has to do with the market each of those parks are in. Canada's Wonderland is near a major city, Toronto, and is only about 20 minutes away from the downtown Toronto area with it being close to a major highway, the 400, so it attracts a huge market in that city, while Cedar Point is just in the middle of nowhere, in Sandusky, Ohio, which isn't know for anything other than Cedar Point. I mean look at Kings Island, they're in Mason, Ohio, which is just outside of Cincinnati and is near a major highway, which I believe is I-71. I agree that the crowds are abysmal, probably worse than Cedar Point. The problem is that because Canada's Wonderland doesn't have any land to expand because of the highway and residential areas, there is no way to make the park any bigger than it already is. So obviously, capacity could be worked on for people to better maneuver around the park and to spread the crowds out to different areas. That's not the park's fault, it's Cedar Fair's fault for selling the land they owned beside the park, which is now home to a hospital, so they could have used that land, and also there was a separate entrance going into the parking lot near where Leviathan is, but now their only entrances are on the other side near where Behemoth is. And trying to leave the parking lot when there are fireworks is terrible when there is a lot of crowds like that.
Yeah selling the land was not a good move
Top gun i mean flight deck is a great coaster and was always a go-to before all the new coasters came in.
It's too busy now and wait times are crazy and then you have to buy another bracelet to get on the ride faster. The prime time was like 2008-2012 going on a school day.
How about just tear out all the horrible wooden coasters and that’ll free up a lot of land for a couple better coasters. As well get rid of the 2 old Vekomas and the zamperla ride. And put in a new Vekoma stc but have it be big, with around 6-7 inversions.
Sure, either redo them or remove them
The park is a fun place and it’s also relatively affordable.
As a close to but not close enough to be truly local it’s not bad, the rides are great overall and it spans across large age ranges.
But the lines have become a major issue.
Their’s also the experiences of the Halloween haunt and the winter wonderland to consider as well, but the problems will get worse (lines) as the years go or when they push for even bigger rides to draw more thrill seekers
The biggest thing it needs though in my opinion are
- better value and quality food
- better line control
- few more rides to spread out the crowds better
I'm from Richmond Hill but I haven't been there since a field trip in 2002. Is it super crowded now?