kunpc1

This year there really is more to fear at Halloween Haunt!

There is more to come with tunnel theming. Typically, most coasters go down to single train operation during rain. Behemoth and Leviathan are the exception and typically run 2 trains. I'm surprised to hear they kept them at full capacity. Hopefully it stays this way!

The staff in the shops at Wonderland do an awesome job. I can't wait to see these things all lit up at night

And the theming continues! I wonder what else the park has up their sleeves for Leviathan in the future... New Leviathan eyes on the tunnel. Wait 'til you see these things at night!

I know some here have mentioned the vibrations/rattle felt on Behemoth (also Diamondback and Carowinds Intimidator) and here's the issue: Behemoth's wheel/bogie assemblies are not rigid. There is a metalastic bushing between the wheel assembly and the bogie. It appears this metalastic bushing has reached the end of its lifespan and has become rigid and hard. This is what is causing the vibrations/rattle. Now, the good news... The park plans on replacing this part during the off-season this year! Hopefully Behemoth will be running as good as new next spring when the park opens for the 2013 season!

E-mail Tim Baldwin directly and request to be a voter. I e-mailed a couple years ago. I included where I live, the number of parks I've visited and coasters I've ridden. Received a ballot the next voting year. Here's the info: Tim Baldwin Golden Ticket Awards Coordinator Telephone: (817) 460-7220 E-mail: tbaldwin@amusementtoday.com I read somewhere that Behemoth was ranked 17th this year.

I would like to echo the fact that more people need to apply to vote in future years. It's easier than ever now (especially for international voters). Voting is done online. This is my second year voting and I can tell you that the results I submitted differ greatly in most of the categories. I took a good amount of time when contemplating where to put my votes. It's really a shame that such a large demographic obviously don't take this seriously. All I can do is keep voting and hope that more enthusiasts (especially internationally) join in to help balance out the results.

I visited this park for the first time on Sunday. Crowds were nice and light thanks to the poor weather (which actually turned out to be quite nice actually). We had a great day! It's a nice looking park. There are some really good coasters. Unfortunately, Mr. Freeze was down the entire weekend. A staff member mentioned that a portion of the track had "broken". While on the Ferris wheel, we noticed workers welding a portion of the track in the valley between the top hat and the overbank. We started our day with Pandemonium. I love these Gerstlauer spinners! We had 3 great rides throughout the day. Excellent operations (I don't think the continuous loading stopped once while riding), very smooth and very spinny! Next up was Boss. Going up the lift and seeing the rest of the course made me a bit nervous about how rough it may be. I was mistaken. We had excellent rides! I can't believe how FAST it is. This ride just doesn't slow down from start to finish (minus the quick breather on the mid-course). I rode the front and the back, two completely different ride experiences. We then made our way to Superman. What an interesting drop tower. Wonderland has the Intamin Giant Drop tower however, it's the 5 seat version. And ours drops all 5 seats at the same time. The worst part of Superman was hearing the other 3 operational seats drop while we stayed up top! Screamin' Eagle was a bit rough, nothing horrible though. There wasn't much airtime and I was near the back of the train. SkryScreamer was next. I found it interesting that this model goes all the way up, almost all the way back down, then up a bit, then comes to a stop. River King Mine Train was different. I was surprised with the 3 lift hills. We then made our way towards the Vekoma head banger, Ninja. It actually wan't nearly as bad as I was expecting. The front had more head banging than the back. This area of the park looked very neglected. I don't know what it was exactly, but it looked "tired". There weren't very many people here. The building facades looked great but very tired. I wish I could have seen this section of the park when it was brand new. Batman was the next coaster on our trip around the park. I was surprised to find a set of Gerstlauer trains from they Zephyr at New Orleans out in view under the station. It was another great ride. I love how great of a punch these coasters provide in such a small footprint. Would LOVE to have had one of these instead of our SLC. I must say, the entrance to this ride is WAY too long now. It's a VERY long walk through the "gardens" area with the winding path back and forth. Again, I'm sure this area was beautiful when the ride opened but is now overground and not well kept. We then made our way over to Scooby Doo, what an awesome ride! As soon as I saw it, it reminded me of Garfield's Nightmare at Kennywood. I LOVE the way this has been redone. Sally corporation did an excellent job. The guns worked VERY well. We rode this a few times. I think my high score was around 84,000. Just TOO much fun. After Scooby, we made our way to the last coaster of the day, American Thunder. We did a front row ride and I thought it was amazing. Then we did a back row ride... WOW! If we weren't twisting, we were out of our seat. Heck, there were some twists where we were still out of our seats! What a magnificent ride. I think we did this at least half a dozen times. Any chance we can swap you for Wonderland's Wild Beast? After doing a lap of the park (coasters at least) we decided to make a stop in Hurricane Harbor. It's a nice water park. The wave pool area is very nice with the "volcano". We did almost all the slides and the river in about an hour (there was NO ONE there). When the water park closed, we made our way back in to the park to lap some of our favorite coasters and do a couple other attractions. Unfortunately, Mr Freeze and Excalibur were both down the entire day. I was kind of bummed out but the rest of the park and rides made up for it. I guess this just leaves that much more to look forward to for my next visit (hopefully within the next few years).

Hey all! I'm flying down this evening for a weekend in Kansas City/St. Louis for Worlds of Fun and Six Flags St. Louis. We'll be spending all day Sunday at the park. I'm just looking for suggestions or "hidden gems" that shouldn't be missed while we're there. Thanks! -Canadian Nick

Hey all! I'm flying down this evening for a weekend in Kansas City/St. Louis for Worlds of Fun and Six Flags St. Louis. I just want to confirm that the park is closed today (Friday)? And any suggestions or "hidden gems" that shouldn't be missed that locals could advise of would be greatly appreciated. We're spending tomorrow at Worlds of Fun (after doing Schlitterbahn in the morning). Thanks! -Canadian Nick

I went by the park yesterday (Tuesday) and the weather was nice (a bit windy but still warm enough). It was PACKED. The Fastlane line for Leviathan was down the stairs, under the station to the elevator. Behemoth's Fastlane line was down the stairs on to the midway beneath the station. Both regular lines were full, spilling out on to the midways. If you're planning to go this week/weekend, Fastlane is the only way to get through the park without waiting 1-1.5 hours for the major attractions. And if anyone is planning to see Cirque Ambiente before it closes for the season on Labor Day, be sure to get the the theatre about 45 minutes prior to show start. Almost every show is hitting capacity. The 7:30 show last night filled up by 7:10ish. It still had a long line of people waiting outside the theatre around that time hoping there would be some open seats (I don't think very many of them ended up getting in).

What was the point with this comment? I'm not sure what the seal hunt has to do with the horrible conditions reported at Marineland. I understand where you're going with the fact that people protest silly things when there are much larger issues going on in the world (Fastlane vs inhumanely killing animals). But take a step back and read that comment. This discussion is about a Canadian family/owner not treating animals properly in an aquarium-type setting. It comes off as though you're saying "why expect more from them when Canadians (the nation) allow seals to be clubbed to death each year?" I'm done now. I'm sorry if this came across the wrong way. I'll return to the Canada's Wonderland thread where I belong.

You're right, instead of just boycotting FastLane, boycott the Nation of Canada as well. You make it seem as though every Canadian is okay with the seal hunt and therefor is okay with the horrible way Marineland is treating their animals... I expect MUCH more from my Canadian representatives in government. Unfortunately, money often speaks louder than the words/protests spoken by small groups. Hopefully this article will lead to larger groups that will be heard.

Glad you had a great day! It never ceases to amaze me that Canada's Wonderland is so busy on a daily basis! FastLane has finally made it possible to go on a summer day and actually have a good time at the park.

There are so many issues with Marineland, that I'm not sure where to start. My last visit to this place was probably around 12-14 years ago. This is absolutely horrible. But as things like this receive more attention, visitors to Marineland decline. Lower attendance means lower revenue. Lower revenue means less staff and worse conditions for the poor suffering animals there. It's a nasty downward spiral. If the financials of this place continue to get worse, I really think the only option is to close it down. I can't imagine another company wanting to come in and purchase this site. Let's look at the most likely of groups, SeaWorld. Marineland would basically need to be completely flattened and re-built from scratch. The current buildings are so out-dated and in some cases, dilapidated that I doubt SeaWorld would salvage them. If you've ever been to a SeaWorld park, they're absolutely beautiful. Can you imagine the cost in building new buildings and the extensive landscaping that would be required? Aside from some gardens near the entrance and around attractions, I remember the entire place being mostly overgrown (definitely NOT SeaWorld's style). Of all the animal exibits, the only area that may be up to SeaWorld standards is Arctic/Friendship cove. The main stadium at Marineland is small when considering some of the massive tanks/stadiums that SeaWorld keeps its animals in. Never mind the other tiny tanks Marineland uses (or has used in the past). And by the sounds of things, there are no holding areas that are acceptable (humane) to use. I doubt SeaWorld would be keeping animals in a large building with a single skylight as the only source of natural light... And of course, on top of all this the PR nightmare of trying to convince everyone that the old, horrible Marineland conditions no longer exist. I really don't know what lies ahead for Marineland but whatever it is, I hope the animals there are able to hold on until it happens.

The 200 Nautical Mile rule was implemented ONLY for B&M Inverts back when Raptor was built. That was when Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland were owned by chains other than Cedar Fair. Now that Cedar Fair owns Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland, I can't see why they wouldn't be able to build a B&M invert within the same company. My guess would be it was "no other company" can build one, not "no other park". This clause is the reason Kings Island received a Vekoma Inverted Boomerang and Canada's Wonderland received a Vekoma SLC. Leviathan being a B&M vs. Intamin has nothing to do with one of these types of clauses.

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing these pictures. I never made a trip to this park while it was still operating. I did visit Wildwater Kingdom this past summer. It's a nice water park. You can definitely tell it was a Sea World park with the entrance, buildings and landscaping. After the visit in June, I've been checking out the history of this park. These pictures are fantastic! It's so sad the park ended the way it did. It looked as though it was beautiful. And I can't believe the picture from the roadway. It's somewhat depressing driving along that same stretch of road now seeing the parking lot all grown over along with the old park entrance and no rides to greet you.

I LOVED Bizarro's layout when I rode it last summer on the TPR Northeast trip HOWEVER, the trains were/are horrible (and appear to have gotten worse). I just don't understand why a better restraint design can't be rigged up on those trains. I rode El Toro the other day thinking, even with the EJECTOR airtime on it, the restraints were MUCH more comfortable than Bizarro's. It seems as though Bizarro's restrains have an edge/corner on them that dig in to your thighs. I had 2 or 3 amazing rides where I was positioned where the lapbar was in a somewhat comfortable spot. It's a shame that most of my rides were very uncomfortable, especially on the airtime hills. I know there have been "issues" with this ride, but there has to be a better restraint that is safe and comfortable. I really wish I could have had the chance to ride this back when it first opened...

NEW FOR 2012: CIRQUE AMBIENTE! Have you seen the awesome new show yet? Check it out here:

I'm probably approaching 100 Leviathan rides and I think I had the best rides yet last night. Simply amazing! Behemoth was running VERY well with LOTS of airtime to be had. Thanks for an amazing event TPR! I hope all the first time visitors enjoyed the entire park as much as we locals do.

My understanding is that useful pieces/parts (trains) were split between Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland. The rest was scrapped.

Any chance I'll be able to defend my 2-time Quest championship in my home town???

Yes it does. If anything, it moves faster. They're able to get people off the ride faster as it's a shorter train and the exit is located in the middle of the platform. So even a full queue is typically around a 45 minute wait (if that).

If you're there on a crazy hot day, you'll probably do alright without FastLane. We had some VERY hot, sunny days a week or so ago and the park was not overly busy. Basically if it's a day where most won't want to be outside (TOO hot, rainy, etc), the park won't be too busy. I'm told that day the lines for Leviathan were as short as 10-15 minutes by the evening. If you have the extra cash though, I would highly recommend FastLane. Even if the park is moderately busy, it will make a HUGE difference as most coasters have poor capacity. Other than Behemoth and Leviathan, lines don't move very quickly. If you enjoy water parks, I would recommend purchasing FastLane, get a couple laps in on rides during the first hour the park is open. Get to Splash Works as soon as it opens. Lap the water park then head back into the park and take full advantage of cutting the lines.

You can add some sort of addition to the kids area at Canada's Wonderland to the 2013 list