cwcoasterboy

Thought I'd add one more picture to this report. Here are the trains as seen very close to the Performing Arts centre. This was a couple of years ago, so I'm not certain they are still there. Darien Lake Stand Up Trains

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to take a trip up to Sauble Beach, Ontario. It's about 3 hours north of Toronto, and is a beautiful beach on Lake Huron. It's actually the second longest fresh water beach in the world! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauble_Beach,_Ontario On the main road into Sauble Beach is "Sauble Beach Fun World" a small little park with a handful of rides built around a mini golf course and two Go Kart tracks. Earlier this year I had heard that there would be 3 coasters opening here this year, and was curious to find out what was happening. Here's what I found. The first coaster is the Go Gator family powered coaster. It's a trailor mounted ride that must be from somewhere in Ontario, as it's plated and ready to move. It looks relatively new and well cared for. Next up was one of the strangest coasters I've ever seen. It's called "Roller Coaster" and looks ancient. I've included a shot of a stats card attached to the motor casing below. Has anyone seen this kind of coaster before or know where it came from? The biggest addition is the Looping Star. It's arrived here at it's new home this year, but was formerly from Beech Bend. I've included a shot of the front of the train that still shows it's old home's name. None of the three rides were open yet, which was disappointing considering it was a Saturday in July. The Looping Star was getting some new paint. And by new paint, I mean there was a guy up on one of the pillars with a can of red Tremclad Spray Paint! Pictures below! Here we are... The new Go-Gator Coaster - typical kiddie coaster from a fair or carnival Hook this up to your pickup truck and drive away! A very old and very strange coaster... it's name is very easy to remember though Does the added foam count as a refurb on the train? The Looping Star in it's new home... Loopy... Yup... I guess this came from Beech Bend... it's a long drive from Kentucky I asked around, and this is apparently going to be built soon. It's a drop tower ride. This is the info card for "Roller Coster" - anyone know anything about this type of coaster or where it came from? And last but not least... Looping Star getting it's new "Paint Job"... LOL!

A couple of points to add to this discussion: Skyrider opens at 11, so don't go there first. Everyone slams Flight Deck at flag drop. Heading to The Bat, The Fly and Wild Beast first is the best plan. Thunder Run and Vortex lines move pretty quick even when they're filled up. Flight Deck usually eases up around lunch time, and then later at night. Behemoth pounds guests through, so even when the queue is full (not the overflow ropes) you'll only wait 35-40 mins. You can pretty much hit it any time. Backlot goes really slowly as well. As for flats, Riptide and Shockwave shouldn't be a problem. Sledgehammer will move faster than Psyclone. Jet Scream is usually a walk on. Have a great day! And after you've been, let us know your thoughts.

I'm hoping these fastpasses didn't end up in your box at home because of the time stamp. Hopefully everyone knows that fastpasses don't expire as long as you use them on the day they were issued. It was a trick I learned a while back that has served us very well on our disney visits.

We had an amazing visit over this weekend, considering it was a long weekend. We headed up for Season Pass ERT on Friday morning, and got 6 rides on Behemoth, 2 laps on the newly re-programmed Backlot Coaster** and a ride on Sledgehammer before the park opened. Then we got on Minebuster, and a good 2 hours of waterpark time sans-crowds and had a total blast. There's always a way to have a great time at the busiest of parks! ** Backlot Stunt coaster no longer comes to a complete stop in the Helicopter "Scene" area anymore. It slows down, while the helicopter shoots at you and the audio plays, but the Lim's launch the train without stopping, and there are no more water or fire effects. I actually thought that not stopping there made the ride more fun, even if it does go against how the ride was created to be.

Looks like something in the works for 2011... hopefully details will be coming soon. Also, there will be a coaster event for enthusiasts, details are also coming very soon about that. It sounds great!

CW only has one launched coaster... Backlot.

There are happenings at Wonderland for 2011. CW Mania will keep you all you posted as Project 2011 takes shape. The park of course will not comment yet. Rumors point toward B and M, and most likely something with inversions (Floorless). Doubtful to see a Giga as someone mentioned.

Yes... the others were only re-branding and re-naming of existing rides.

Formerly part of Smurf Forest, the Balloon Ride is still there as part of Kidzville. Pics here: http://www.cwmania.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=42 Not sure what you mean on the Enterprise. Perhaps that's the one that is now Snoopy's Space Race? http://www.cwmania.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=44

Saturday May 1 was Media Day at Canada's Wonderland, and I was lucky enough to be invited. The park sells out it's first operating days of the year to 3 of Canada's largest banks. We shared our Media Day this year with RBC Royal Bank. The weather was pretty dodgy, with rain off and on during the day. We got in some rides between showers, had lunch with the media guests and shmoozed with the park management and PR people. Thanks Russ and Dineen for having us. New for 2010 is a complete overhaul of the former Hanna-Barberra Land and Nick Central areas of the park. The Kidzville and Zoom Zone sections of the kids area have been kept the same. The park received capital to add three new rides this season while updating the area to Planet Snoopy. The areas look amazing! A fresh coat of paint on everything, new food stands and merch locations and re-named and re-themed rides. Here's a full update in pictures of the excellent job they did in the new area. Rumors abound about the 2011 project at Wonderland... we'll keep our eyes open and keep you all updated as we learn more. The newly updated entrance to Planet Snoopy This looks like the other Planet Snoopy's I've seen... kids seemed to really like it I know, I know... but I couldn't resist! New posters and signs replace the old... no more Spongebob or Dora! Boo Blasters on Boo Hill... one of the worst capacity rides in theme park history. At best it can hit 150 riders per hour! It's a fun ride though if you can get on it. NEW for 2010... Snoopy's Revolution. A 40' Zamperla Ferris Wheel. Wonderland's first and only Ferris Wheel. Also NEW for 2010... Peanuts 500. A kids sized whip ride that's the same as the others in Planet Snoopy. Seemed to be very popular with the kids! A renovated and slightly moved Birthday Pavilion. Have your kids birthday party right inside Planet Snoopy. Apparantly this was very successful for the park as Nick Birthday and now the set up is more permanent. The kids bumper cars now on it's 3rd re-theme. They opened at Boulder Bumpers when this area was Bedrock (Flinstones) then was re-named the Toonpike when this area became Nick Central, and now Snoopy watches over Joe Cool's Dodgem School. Formerly the Wild Thornberry's Tree Top Lookout, they did a great job converting this to the Pumpkin Patch. Dora is gone, but Sally's Love Buggies looks pretty good The Lov Buggies will have a nice heart-shaped garden in the coming weeks NEW for 2010... the third new ride to complete the back half of Planet Snoopy is Lucy's Tugboat I thought they did a nice job on the theming around this one. We didn't have a kid to take on the ride with us (a requirement at Wonderland) so we got a media escort to tell the ride op to let us on! Thanks Russ! The original plane ride from 1981 is now The Red Baron... looks good! Jetson's Rocketport becomes Snoopy's Space Race... look how busy the park was and it's not even open to the public yet! This one was sad for me... the Hanna-Barberry Go Round was stripped of it's characters and replaced with standard carosel horses. The Ghoster Coaster got to keep it's name... thank god! And it even kept it's original sign... minus the Scooby Also NEW for 2010... Wonderland's very first Dippin'Dots stand! The parks exclusive deal with Nestle ice cream is over. The old Nestle Scoops on International Street is now an Italian Gelato stand! Nice! All right... enough of all that... COASTERS! The best ride at Wonderland... Behemoth! Amazing operations... three trains that I never saw stacking... makes that line fly! Loopy Goodness at Dragon Fire! (Still my favorite Arrow looper) Vortex was running great today... The Fly... slow ops and too many trims... still had fun though! The Bat... one of the longest lines in the park everyday! All the parks I've been too, I've never seen a Boomerang so popular! While Sledgehammer is back up and running... it opened late due to some crew issues today. We never made it back to get a ride. Got a great ride on Shockwave... such a unique ride! Media Swag... nice gifts from the park for thier media Guests... not quite a TPR bag-o-crap, but still good! Ahhh... Snoopy is a puppet! Nice! Thanks for a great day Wonderland!

While CW does quite well with Season Passes, the bulk is still paid tickets. On mornings that the park offers ERT for passholders, there are huge crowds of people waiting at flag drop, meaning they don't have passes. The park has shared with me that this report is usually not accurate for other parks in the chain, but for CW they are pretty close. That's as close as we'll ever get to a confirmation on this report.

My one and only trip to Holiday World had one-train operation on all three coasters. The park was packed, and it took over an hour each to get our credits for the day. I was not impressed.

http://www.splashdarienlake.com/Uploaded_Files/75/downloads/pdf/parkmap.pdf A planning map of the new water park area. The wave pool they are adding is really small, it's the beached entry to the lazy river. The slide complex looks amazing! This is taking over the parking lot, and is no small expansion at all. Tickets prices are set at $29.99 for the waterpark, and $39.99 for a combo-ticket. $10 for the ride park? I know I'd pay that! ADMIN EDIT: I have added an attached version of the park map for people to see. Thanks for sharing this with us!

Flashpoint filmed almost an entire episode in Season 2 at Canada's Wonderland. It's a CTV produced show that CBS also airs in the US. In it a crazy bilogical father kidnaps his baby who he previously abandoned and takes it to the theme park where he has memories of being with his father. Wackiness ensues and the SWAT team chases him up the lift of the "Coaster" (it's Flight Deck/Top Gun). Here's the IMDB Page with pics: http://watch.ctv.ca/flashpoint/season-1/flashpoint-ep-101-scorpio/#clip250767 Here's the entire episode and clips posted on CTV's website (not sure if these play in the US or not). http://watch.ctv.ca/flashpoint/season-1/flashpoint-ep-101-scorpio/#clip250767 Enjoy!

It all depends what the "refurbishment" includes. New braking would make this a much smoother ride. Who know's maybe Intamin has something up thier sleeves for this one.

Thought I'd provide a quick update on CW's Planet Snoopy for 2010. As previously mentioned CW is getting capital with the changeover to Planet Snoopy and had previously announced 3 new kids rides and a new Snoopy Ice Show to go with the re-theming of the old Nick and HB rides. The three new rides are: Peanuts 500 - Zamperla Kids Whip, same as the one at Cedar Point Snoopy's Revolution - A Kids sized Ferris Wheel Lucy's Tugboat - A Zamperla Rockin' Tug The re-theming details are online as well. Happy to see Ghoster Coaster retain it's name! http://www.canadaswonderland.com/attractions/category.cfm?ac_id=21 I'm working on a construction tour for CWMania.com and will keep you posted.

The Topsy-Turvy slides are clearly Proslide Tantrums, but I don't know anything about the launched tornado walls. Sounds very cool. Would love to see some pics of that. For a park that was entirely supplied by White Water West, it's interesting to see ProSlide doing the expansion.

I've never heard of Splashtacular until now. I had always thought Canada had the lock on the waterpark market with both ProSlide and White Water West being Canadian companies. With bigger slides like this, there's a new competitor on the scene for sure.

When you're walking up the stairs to the top level where the four tube slides are currently, you pass by a completed level underneath. It has a poured cement floor and everything. When looking down towards the park from that floor, there is a clearing to the left of the current splash pool for the tube slides. Could be a splash down for new slides. When we were there a couple of weeks ago, we were already speculating. Our discussion was if something else was supposed to have gone there during initial construction and it was cancelled, or if it was built in to allow for a future addition. I think it's a great park, but it could use a few more attractions to help spread out the crowds. Dolphin Plunge slide did not open during our visit due to "mechanical reasons"... strange.

Hey all... definetely interested in this one! Please mark down two spots for me, and keep me in the loop. Will watch for updates. Thanks for putting this together!