Canada's Wonderland - May 4, 2007

Canada's Wonderland - Season Pass Sneak Preview Night

The park looks incredible. It's always been very clean and well kept, but last night it was apparant that a lot of time and money has gone into the park over the off-season.

NEW PAINT

3 coasters have or are recieving new coats of paint. Dragon Fire with it's new colour scheme (Yellow Rails on Green Track with Purple Supports), SkyRider staying the same Green and Orange, and a long over-due paint job for Top Gun. It's only just begun with about half of the supports showing thier fresh grey paint, but it makes the ride look new again.

There were also signs of new paint all over the park. Every major ride we went on had freshly painted silver queue rails. All the out buildings and ride stations were cleaned and painted. Older rides (like the Rage) all freshly painted as well. It looks great!

NEW FOR 2007

Coasters Drive-In is complete and looks great. I was surprised that this was not a full service restaurant however. It's cafeteria style, with a walk up counter. Prices were high, like a cheeseburger and fries for $10.49 (no drink in the combo).

The Marketplace Buffet looks nice, but was not completed inside and was not open yet.

The Twistin to the 60's show was set up at International Showplace, but the Ice Show doesn't open until June 28.

PRICES

Gate has gone down to $47.95 from over $50 last year. However, the over $50 price in 2006 included a free-return visit, and the new $47.95 does not. You can look at this as a decrease technically, but being a one-day ticket instead of a two-day ticket, to me is actually an increase. Also a new Jr/Sr ticket and Starlight ticket added at $24.95.

In park prices are way up. Soft Drinks go for $3.59/$3.79/$3.99 plus tax. A 600ml Coke from a machine is $4. Food prices are higher, most obvious being the famous Wonderland funnell cakes at $9.99!!! It certainly didn't seem to stop the crowds though, as the line up for Funnell Cakes was huge at the end of the night.

PARAMOUNT REMAINS

I would say that more than half the references to Paramount are still in the park. I know that there is a grace period to remove the old logo's and Paramount references, but it was strange to me which things had been changed and which ones hadn't.

For example, all signage outside the park is still Paramount, but the information boards inside the park have all beeen changed. Ride Op's are still wearing Paramount Parks uniforms, but the logo on the trains has been re-painted. Obviously there's still work to be done on the change-over.

OVERALL

Staff were super friendly, operations were generally good (lot's of new ride ops being trained slowed things a bit) and the park looks amazing.

Wild Beast and Minebuster were rougher than I've ever experienced in past seasons. Italian Job had some down time, and Thunder Run did not open, otherwise everything else in the park was running great.

Lot's of "Suits" walking the park, and everyone saying hi to you (very Disney-like).

Extremely busy for Sneak Preview night which means that with the drastic reduction in marketing for the park this year, season pass sales must still be strong.

With nothing new to offer essentially for the 2nd year in a row (that stunt show was nice... but was just a 1-year show, and claimed to be so that year), I'm surprised it was so busy, but it was definately a nice day to hit it up. I guess when you're the only player in town, you kind of got a monopoly on the place.

The park is great, but I don't like the look on food prices being jacked so high. I enjoy springing for food in the park because it's more convient & has that "park taste"... but that park taste will feel very bitter if you're spending 20 dollars for a meal... and it only includes yourself!

Its ashame they dont take care of their wooden coasters as good as they should/could... they're classics as they've been with the park since day-1.

I was there Friday night as well. Park looks great, employees were still not really in stride yet but we had fun.

The Bad:

The food issue was bit disturbing. I was starving so we stopped at You Go Grill. The menu is a bit different with Gyros and Suvlakis on it this year. I asked the employee if the Gyro was made of beef or lamb. The employee looked dumbfounded and asked what a Gyro was...(I pronounced it both Jai roh and Yir oo...but didn't work) So she got someone to help and they told me they don't have the gyros yet even though they're on the menu.

So I ordered a chicken suvlaki, onion rings and a pop..and it's cost about $18 after tax. They didn't have any combo offerings. Wasn't expecting a whole lot but the food was pretty bad. Chicken was super spongy, and the onion rings were so greasy that there was about a 1/4 inch of grease in the bottom of the they were serve in sloshing around.

Also Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion ghost blaster ride has a new policy this year. You must have a child or technically one rider under 5' tall with you or you can't ride. Me and a friend learned this after waiting about 45 minutes to ride. There's some new fine print in the sineage at the ride entrance explaining this, which we missed on the way in.

The Good:

Minebuster was super rough last year, now it's just kinda rough. The nasty pot hole in the dip before the turn around has been smoothed out. But thehe helix at the end is still pretty nasty. I found it almost unbearable last season so this is an improvement!

Wild Beast seemed more intense than usual. It was rough but still was a very fun ride. Had the out of control feeling that I really like with wood and lots of airtime towards the front.

Dragon Fyre seemed better. Not sure if they did some work on it besides the new paint but it seemed smoother and less head bang. They have added a seatbelt that buckles to the bottom of the horse collar for some reason. I've never had a big problem with Arrows but this seemed super smooth compared to before!

We had a lot of fun overall, just will probably be eating before getting to the park next time!

What a horrible policy on the ghost blaster ride! Why in the world would they do that, people of all ages enjoy being put into the middle of a video game.

I agree with pretty much everything that was mentioned so far. Coasters looks great but the fries were undercooked and 2 small orders of fries and 2 small drinks came to over $16. While I expect things to be a little expensive, that is extreme and the food was not even adequate to compensate for the rediculous price.

Wild Beast is going to have a great season I hope. The ride that I had was absolutely awesome.

There are pictures of the new additions and changes for 2007 posted at http://www.cwmania.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=100

Hmm...

Coasters Drive-In looks exactly like the one at Cedar Point, except they have two different vehicles on the outside...

What's showing at the 4D theaters this year? Is it still Spongebob or do they have two new shows this year?

I still say food is unbelievably priced a little too high. Is there not ONE food item that's somewhat reasonable?

I'm guessing that their cotton candy isn't going to be $.25!!

WAs at Wonderland today, May 6th. The Minebuster got some retracking and it was less rough than last year which is good. Wildbeast seemed to be rougher than last year.

Went on the Haunted House. I don't know why they cant add a few more cars and upgrade the controlls to increase the capacity. The ride always seems to have a huge line. Even when the line is short, it still takes forever to move.

Don't like their new "No Outside Food" policy, especially since the cost of food at the park has gone up. If you wan't to save on the pop prices, by the cup for $10 and pay just $2 for a refill (up from $1 last year).

Overall, had a good time, but as usual this is a very busy park and the crowds seem to get bigger every year.

^^ Dawgbyte,

The 4d Theatres are both showing Spongebob this year. A bag of Cotton Candy was $4.25 and I didn't see any food items that were reasonably priced. We didn't get into the Backlot cafe, and the new Marketplace Buffet wasn't open yet, so I suppose things could be better in there.

Every price I could remember from last year, has gone up this year!

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_10718.aspx

A good little video clip of opening day at Wonderland.