cwcoasterboy

CONFIRMED: Wonder Mountain's Guardian will open on Saturday May 24 - As announced on their website.

Check out Rick Mercer behind the scenes at Canada's Wonderland!

If you haven't already seen it, here's an awesome video of a weather guy from the Toronto News Station CP24 riding the coaster with a camcorder taped to his hand. Pretty awesome. http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120506/120506_Roller_Coaster/20120506/?hub=CP24Home

We asked Peter Switzer about this during the Hauntmania even in October. He referred to the trims as being "articulating magnetic brakes" and will not make any noise like the trims on Behemoth.

http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/#clip577462 Discovery Channel was at Wonderland for the crowning of Leviathan. Check out this piece from Daily Planet which shows some amazing views from the lift.

From the full update that Kunpc1 posted on CWMania... this picture really shows you how incredibly huge that track is:

A hilarious video of Rick Mercer and Jann Arden, two Canadian Celebrities, doing the CN Tower Edgewalk! Rick is most known for his series called "Talking to Americans" - worth fiding on Youtube if you want a laugh.

We saw the Giga tags about a month ago, but the idea of a B&M Giga was not in anyone's minds until the track arrived.

We take a break from all this construction and coaster speculation for this amazing photo spread done by the Toronto Star: http://thestar.blogs.com/photoblog/2011/08/the-most-refreshing-4-seconds-in-the-gta.html Nice to see some love for an old Splash-Boats ride!

The columns on site are blue. So Teal coloured track with blue supports so far.

Giga really just defines the height - who's to say that this coaster won't be 300 ft tall and do something quite different than Behemoth... just saying.

Right near the main park entrance there is The Keg, a great steakhouse and Canadian tradition. Across the road on the outskirts of Vaughan Mills are several options including Montana's (Ribs), Yangs (Tappanaki) and Grazie (Italian). Inside Vaughan Mills there is Szechwan, Szechwan (chinese), Canyon Creek (steakhouse) and Pickle Barrel (Canadian). Those are your closest and best bets near the park. Just down the highway next to Colossus (the movie theatre that looks like a giant spaceship) is another cluster of good restaurants: Chilis, Jack Astors, Moxies, Earls and Alice Fazoolis. There's also great shopping there too if you care about that. Since you mentioned having been in Toronto before, you'll already know that eating out and drinking out is more expensive here than in the US. Enjoy!

CW Mania has a full gallery of high quality pics here: http://www.cwmania.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=242

I saw it opening night and I have to say Wonderland's Starlight Spectacular is really well done... nice to see them do something different than the other parks and leave out Snoopy this time. Here's a piece done on CHCH TV about the park and there's some fun shots of rides: http://www.chchnews.ca/index.php/morning-live-blog/item/4248-lori-live-canadas-wonderland

We arrived in Montreal on day 3 of our trip and explored this amazing city for a day. Old Montreal is very beautiful, with lots of great shops and restaurants. We headed to Casino Montreal and into the heart of downtown as well. We had a great time. Day 4 though brought is to a park I had visited once before, but wanted to check out again while in the city: La Ronde - A member of the Six Flags Family Ile Ste. Helene, Montreal, Canada June 7, 2011 Having been to this park before I knew the layout and the rides pretty well, but it had been a few years and I was anxious to check things out again. The park was absolutely slammed from well before opening. Although the website said the park was open 11 to 7, as we walked up towards the main gate at 10:30 it was clear that the rides were open and running and they had started letting guests into the park some time before. Seeing the massive crowds swarming the gates and the rides already running with full trains, we made the natural decision to get a Flash Pass. After waiting in line at the Flash Pass office for about 30 mins (yikes!) we were out into the park to explore. By the way, the park sold out of Flash Passes that day, so it was good to be there early even if we didn't quite make it for opening! The park has a great collection of rides as you'll see below, but it is long overdue for some love. I was really taken aback at the parks general condition - it needs a coat of paint, some gardeners and they have a very serious issue with graffiti. You'll see in the report below. Next stop... The Great Escape and Six Flags Lodge! Welcome to La Ronde For inquiring minds... La Ronde is of course named after this - The Giant Wheel We took a ride up the Pizza Pizza Tower to get some aerial shots of the park - you'll see them with each ride Ah... Goliath! A very good mini-Hyper coaster from B and M. Run's two trains that they stacked every cycle, but it was running really well and delivered some excellent air time! Here's a shot of it from above - pretty simple, but it's a great ride! Next up is Ednor - the newly placed Hang and Bang Why is such a horrible ride so photogenic? Looks like they built a cement pad in the lake, doesn't look like very deep water under the ride The track comes up into the midway pretty far. In fact the transfer track is in the shed on the midway actually. Way to aim high! They were running 1 train that day, and even with a gold Flash Pass we waited over 30 minutes to ride. I did like this though, using the safety belt to hold the flip-flops Not much to see here, Dragon is an indoor roller coaster - family style. It's a decent ride and all the lights and themeing were working Toboggan Nordique is the parks mouse - not too many trims makes for a fast a furious ride! Le Monstre is the parks dual track wooden coaster. They had both sides open, but only running one train on each. It was a pretty slow moving line... ... even though we by-passed most of it using our Gold Bot! It was running well, and we had a really good ride on it Vampire is a mirror-image clone of the other Batman coasters at Six Flags. A great, intense ride! Maybe some landscaping? Though I guess it's better than parking lines on asphalt Vampire and Cobra - Cobra was closed for the day Best-ride-name-ever! You can see the Vekoma Corkscrew, Boomerang and the Splash Boats here... Ever wonder what happens to log when they can't be used on the flume anymore? Ta Da! Never seen those before - didn't get to ride, but they looked cool! Disco-Ronde plays actual disco music while riding! I saved a few shots for the end to demonstrate how the park needs a bit of attention - I think this may have been an actual garden once Not sure what this used to be, but it doesn't look good at all The entrance to the S and S tower with a smoking area to the side of it... The 'Flash Pass' Entrance at the Boomerang (for real!) The exit from the Boomerang Just one example of the graffiti in the park - a big issue that I hope they deal with But on a happy note - we left with a chicken hat! Oh wait... sorry, Un Chapeau du Poulet!

By all accounts the park has done extremely well. Probably most evident in the fact that in year two they are adding that much capital. Here are some pictures from trip advisor showing how long the lines were in the summer:

Each year I try to make sure to visit at least a couple of parks I've never been to before. Last year TPR helped me out with Intimidatour and I also went to the Los Angeles area on my own to visit Knotts and Magic Mountain. This year I opted for a road trip of my own. Mostly because we have friends who live in Lake George NY that we wanted to visit, we crafted a road trip that basically made a complete circle around Lake Ontario. We started out from Toronto and drove to Ottawa, Canada's Capital city and a place I had yet to see. We toured the Royal Canadian Mint and took a tour of Parliament Hill, which were both amazing. With no parks on day one of our trip, it was time to head on towards Montreal and make a stop along the way... Here's Calypso Waterpark! CALYPSO WATERPARK On Hwy 417 between Ottawa and Montreal June 5, 2011 Calypso is a brand new park, in that it opened just last year. I had seen some pictures of this place and thought it looked great and was well worth the stop along our way. A great selection of slides, two kids areas, a river and wave pool all opened with the park in year one. For this season, the park is adding 10 additional slides in what they claim is the tallest slide tower complex in North America. A beautiful park, great attractions and zero crowds the day we visited made this a really excellent experience. Since the crowds were so light (dodgy weather in the morning that soon cleared) they park ran their slides in rotation. Half the slides open for 30 minutes, and then switch. This was a great solution to low attendance, and we ended up being able to do the whole park in an hour in two circles. Here's the pics... enjoy! Next stop... La Ronde! The parks entrance and main street Really? There are dryers with the lockers... that's a new one for me... Yup... full size dryers! Not a bad idea - pay $2 to dry your stuff, and maybe you'll stick around the park for a meal or a souvenir while you wait Yeah... if you want to sit, there is no waiting First slide complex - two standard inner tube slides and a Boomerango - all 3 were excellent Ok... so according to the park brochure, there are a series of "Characters" at the park, and the attractions are loosely based on them. Pretty cool that they walk around in costume though. This is Capitaine LaPlank who has staked his claim on the pirate themed play structure Said Pirate themed play structure Next is Zoo Lagoon, which I thought was cool... ... and home to the most kick ass snake-slide ever! Next is the speedy-river attraction. No tubes, so swim away. This and the Zoo Lagoon are watched over by Wildman Jack - Calypso's own wildlife expert can tame any beast Now... I get that we're going for mystery and intrigue with the dark tunnel and mist on the river, but if I can't see into it, can the lifeguard? Just sayin... Ok... next character: Sara Max, world renowned daredevil recommends the Fast Track Said Fast Track slides Next up, two excellent family raft slides... ... one of which is a Boomerango as well Waterparks take note: This conveyor dispatch system is the only way to go! Speeds up the process and makes it easier for people to get in. Please install them. Thanks. Dr. Dunk is our next character, a water-crazed mad scientist who invented the Turbo Lab Each of the four bowl-slides on this tower is themed to a science experience. This is the Acid Test Phew... I was worried there wouldn't be enough picnic tables Yay for new Construction! Here's a shot of the new slide complex (not yet completed on our visit, sad face) The lower levels of the tower include 4 family-style body slides and two Aqua Loops The top of the tower, at 90ft tall, holds 4 tobaggon slides. These are huge speed slides with a VERY long run off that carry 4 riders in tobaggon style in-line tubes Our last character for today is Calypso herself - the Queen of the Waves. Greg is holding her Shell-Phone (she actually said that!) She resides in Calypso Palace and controls this acre of warm ocean waters.

In the Media Day trip report thread, I posted this map shot. Thought it might be helpful here with the conversation about what the project might end up being. Area in question as of May 9th.

Map of the area as of may 9

Saturday May 7 was Media Day at Canada's Wonderland, just a day before the public opening of the park. Kunpc1 and I got a chance to check things out and bring you this update with tons of pictures of the new stuff happening around the park. - New food, new shows, and new coats of paint - Windseeker Testing - Sledgehammer being worked on still - Retro Wonderland - Project 2012 appears to have begun Here's a couple videos to go with the report: When you first enter the park, this is the amazing view Work begins covering the buildings on International Street with LED's for this years Starlight Spectacular The fountains have been re-fitted with a new LED package as well Lights being added to all the trees as well Corndogs and Turkey Legs have a new home near the main entrance One of my favorite spots in the whole park, the Cookie Cafe, got a bit of love. Mmmmm... Cookiewich! New Gourmet Popcorn spot on International Street, it's right beside the Italian Gelato stand that was added last year All the flavours in one spot... Honey Mustard? Really? I see you Windseeker! Looking good, all the parts are put together at least They were hard at work on Windseeker all day and Night. It looks they should be able to begin full testing soon. Water Dummies aren't just for coasters... What can you see inside? Not much of anything... While we were there today, the ride began some early testing. The gondola rose up off the ground and spun around at varying speeds. See the video at the top of this post for a short clip. Not too much queue space... will probably need an overflow area at least for this year We'll leave the workers at Windseeker so than keep working hard to get it up and running On to another area of the park that is surrounded by workers - Sledgehammer! Looks like this ride won't be up and running anytime soon Yikes... jacks to hold up the arms... interesting On to some other stuff around the park - almost all the food stands have new screens installed showing off their menus - looks great! Backlot Cafe got new signs too And some new menu items... We ate here... and it was excellent! A new game has appeared on the Thunder Run midway - and man was it popular! The Three Point game has it's home in American parks, but wasn't ever all that busy here. I'm guessing this Hockey version is exactly what will get Canadian's attention! See the video above Some new paint... Some more new paint... And now what you've been really waiting for... The area between Drop Zone and Dragon fire has been blocked off by this fence... ... and behind it the land is being prepped Markers on the grass heading towards Dragon Fire Markers under Dragon Fire itself... From the midway... Drop Zone's queue was significantly shortened as well, making more room in this area. Wonderlands original logo has made an appearance this year as the park celebrates 30 years Lots of merch with the old logo All thee wooden coasters, original to the park from 1981 - are sporting the retro-logo. A nice touch in my opinion.

^ I will have lots more to add to that after today's Media Preview. For now, enjoy this short video of Windseeker doing some early testing today:

Windseeker is moving right on up! Well ahead of Cedar Point, and seemingly on par with Kings Island. 4 pieces went up in the last three days alone taking it up to 6. Here's a shot from the Wonderland Facebook page 6 Pieces up on Windseeker at CW as of Mar 30, 2011 From earlier in the week, looking through Skyriders loop The cap piece has arrived

I can't wait to see what this actually turns out to be. Wonderland used to run an incredible nightly show called the Eruption, which used pyro to simulate Wonder Mountain erupting like a volcano. Not sure this will be on that level, but sounds like an upgraded light package being installed with the fountains and some projections on Wonder Mountain. There was a video on here of the new show at Magic Kingdom projecting on the castle and it looked pretty cool. This will be a great addition to the park which is so crowded and could use an interactive way to cap off the day. Nice addition.

I wonder if Jet Scream from Wonderland will be located here. It was dismantled very carefully and moved to the bone yard behind Minebuster just last week. The timing would be perfect for them to announce now. Wonderland was trying to sell it, but we had heard that there were no bites. It would make sense to keep it and use it, since it's still in very good shape. In a smaller regional park it would be a perfect ride and would be highly marketable. Plus not all that expensive to move and install.

To take last weekends post to it's logical conclusion, here is the site where Jet Scream stood just 7 short days ago: No more Jet Scream