Skyscraper Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I still cannot believe how much La Ronde is getting run down every year ! The park is so dirty, operations are really bad and the staff is so rude ! The new friendly, cleaner parks wave that hit all the Six Flags parks didn't reach La Ronde yet ! Wednesday, the first day of International fireworks shows was the worst day I ever had at La Ronde ! The parking lot wasn't even full, I can't think of what will happen this summer when the big crowds will be there ! We arrived at the park at around 7pm, after the Disney Art exhibit at the Beaux-Arts museum in downtown Montreal. We have Six Flags Great Adventure season passes so we went to exchange our passes for tickets because the passes don't scan at the turnstile. We were second at the guest relations outside the park and it took 30 minutes to get our tickets because the only employee working there was working at the guest relations for guests inside and outside the parks and didn't care for the guest outside ! The park was not really crowded. 20 minutes wait for Goliath for the back row. This is the only rollercoaster where operations are great, 2 trains and almost no stacking. Something really bad happened while waiting for Goliath in the station, the ride operator cursed after a guessed that didn't put his backpack in the loose articles bins and that without any warnings ! It so rude I still can't believe it. Well at least I had a great ride on Goliath, no trim at all and the airtime was massive ! Later at night, I got the greatest ride ever... this little hyper at night is magic ! The setting in the middle of the river and the lights of the skyscrapers in the city is so beautiful ! We went to Le Monstre, the wooden coaster. They were running 2 trains on each track, something you rarely see ! Well while we were in line they took out the 2 trains and it took 40 minutes and they didn't tell the guest in the previous trains that they would do that so the guest in the trains on the brakerun were there for 40 minutes ! So unprofessional ! At least, Le Monstre was running great... a little pop of airtime happened ! The track must have been really warm ! We couldn't ride the Boomerang, it hasn't open this year ! They are still testing it... There was one train operation at Le Vampire and the line barely didn't seems to move so we didn't ride it. At 8:30, most of the rides were closed for the fireworks so the lines got really bad for Goliath, Le Monstre, Le Supermanege and everthing else ! The fireworks were really great and we went to the Toboggan Nordique 5 minutes before the end of the fireworks and there was no line ! We got a magic ride with the grande finale of the fireworks while riding, the view was spectacular ! After this ride, we ran as fast as possible to get out of the park because most of the guests takes the bus ride to the subway station and you can easily wait 30 minutes for the busses if you don't rush out. This was like a stampede for the exit... I think this is the only park where there's a running of the bulls at the end of the day ! Enough talking... let's go on with the pictures ! The observation tower got a new paint job this year (I hate the new Pizza Pizza logo on it!) but the air conditionning is still broken since 1993 and the windows are greasy and in bad condition. La Ronde main entrance and the Man and his world fountain with working water this year ! The Pirate swingging boat ride was down The slingshot, the orbite and the vampire ! The only characthers in the park... well advertising characters/tam tam players. The Galopant, the new old ride they took out 5 years ago and they renovated it. Only families and kids under 12 can ride it. Goliath entrance, really nice by Six Flags standards. Superman ? This is supposed to be a cold soft drinks booth... never seen it used it for something else than trash cans. The odor coming from these was really awful, it's like this all the time. The cleaning staff must be blind and noseless. Only at La Ronde you can bring your lunch and throw it away when you realize that there are no microwaves provided and you suddenly realize that pizza pocket are not good, warm or not. Maybe you tried to throw away you pocket pizza in the trash can but the trash can was already vomitting itself. Let's count the trash on the ground on a 60 feet range... 5 Items Countless cigarettes butts. At least another 5 items At least another 6 items There must be at least 20 items... I can't keep the count... Well, welcome to Magic "trash" mountain circa 2005. Goliath station Beaver tails are good but Rolopan crepes are better ! Cedar Fair would not be so proud of that... The Ovni flatride is not at La Ronde anymore... but cheap ass circa 1995 racing simulators (extra cost) are there... "great move Marc Tremblay, new president of La Ronde" ... This stinks. Le Monstre blue train had the surprised of it's life that day... it was actually operating ! Le Supermanege..really smooth for it's age. Le Boomerang is down and didn't open yet this year ! There's no characters in the park to take pictures with them but plenty of closed rides signs! Flash pass center is now at the old souvenir shop. The new souvenir shop is nice, complete with Ikea lamps. La Ronde has a floorless B&M? The shirt has actually a sexual content... Translation: I like him strong I like him well built ... and takes me upside down (Well with the words in french on the t-shirt..it's much more sexual). I would like to see who's gonna buy that ! The Old west, no rides but there's a lot of food. La Pitoune (the chick in french) This employee is useless...(banana and cigarettes butts on the ground and the passed right by them) Oh my god ! People are still playing this game! Le Monstre Le Maelstrom is really popular and it's probably the best flat ride in the park !(how sad that is!) Le Galopant is really not popular... MMmmmmm Rolopan crepes ! It's the best treat in the park ! You can put everything you want in it ! I choose Nutelle, banana and english cream...mmmmmmmmmmmm Eggs and ham and salad ? I don't think so Mmmm Nutella, banana and english cream... I ended the day with Goliath at night, trimless, was the best ride I had on it ever ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masked_Maverick Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Great Phtot TR La Ronde is one of those parks I am morbidly curious to visit. Yet another example as to why it is good for Cedar Fair to put in 25 garbage cans within 50 feet of each other because then their parks would start looking like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airtime&Gravity Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 While not great, La Ronde looks like a decent park, but hopefully SF can fix some of the problems there. Most of the rides there look like they came from a carnival(La Ronde was the amusement section of the 76 world's fair), but the attractions added in the last few years really seem to have helped the park. Nice photos, and hopefully I'll get a chance to go up there in a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMorgan Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Wow, that really was a lot of trash! It's like no one has cleaned it the entire summer. That much trash doesn't come from one day of understaffing or something. LeMonstre has always intrigued me. That first drop looks so "not steep" and boring. Is there any airtime on the ride at all? Laterals? Does anyone have a pov video? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asr Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Man, I've been wanting to get there to ride Goliath, but that park looks FILTHY!, and parts of it practically look straight out of RCT and way too cluttered. Also, about the shirt, they had pretty much the same shirt at SFGAdv when I went in May 2006, except in english. It read "I like them tall, well built, and curvy, Six Flags Great Adventure" I believe. It must just sound weird translated into french, I didn't see anything wrong the english version... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyscraper Posted June 22, 2007 Author Share Posted June 22, 2007 Wow, that really was a lot of trash! It's like no one has cleaned it the entire summer. That much trash doesn't come from one day of understaffing or something. LeMonstre has always intrigued me. That first drop looks so "not steep" and boring. Is there any airtime on the ride at all? Laterals? Does anyone have a pov video? You can find pov videos of Le Monstre tracks there : http://s92166068.onlinehome.us/mvidpg1_en.htm Le Monstre first drop is not steep at all and it's not going down very far either. The train is really slow in the overbanked helix, you would think the train would fall on the left side or come to a complete stop in the helix. I had a little pop of airtime in the top of the third hill on the track 2, the faster side... The rollercoaster have almost no speed or airtime but it's really smooth at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Jesus, are you sure this park is owned by Shapiro? I visited SFEG last year and it was well-maintained and clean. However, La Ronde is really filthy. Filthy French-Canadians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Dirtiest park in America, hands down ! Unless you mean North America, La Ronde isn't in America The park wasn't quite that dirty last year when we visited, but it was pretty bad. I'm surprised that it's actually worse! I was also really surprised by those 'garbage buckets' in the Goliath queue. So gross. I don't think I'll ever be going back there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calvin Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Beaver tails are good but Rolopan crepes are better ! I have no idea what either of those are. Christ, that's a dirty park. I like the image of the banana and the worker, very "LIFE Magazine". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downunder Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 I went to La Ronde in 2005, it was bad, I only went because I had a SF Season pass. Do people still smoke in the lines? Do the ops still sit on chairs at Le Monstre and sleep in between the very infrequent dispatches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyscraper Posted June 23, 2007 Author Share Posted June 23, 2007 I went to La Ronde in 2005, it was bad, I only went because I had a SF Season pass. Do people still smoke in the lines? Do the ops still sit on chairs at Le Monstre and sleep in between the very infrequent dispatches? Yes they still smoke even if it's forbidden. I've never heard a warning from staff but security is non-existant... Yes they still have chairs, it's in their union contract !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USCoaster Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Dirtiest park in America, hands down ! Unless you mean North America, La Ronde isn't in America I was gonna put that, but you beat me to it so I will just say that I always thought that Canada was a big suburb of America anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizza>poop Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 "Dirtiest Park in America, Hands Down!" You just pissed all of Canada off with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wood Dragon 1988 Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Those pictures do look pretty bad. It looks concrete and subpark - even for a Six Flags park. But from what I heard, this park had a long ways to go before the Snyder takeover anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMorgan Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Wow, that really was a lot of trash! It's like no one has cleaned it the entire summer. That much trash doesn't come from one day of understaffing or something. LeMonstre has always intrigued me. That first drop looks so "not steep" and boring. Is there any airtime on the ride at all? Laterals? Does anyone have a pov video? You can find pov videos of Le Monstre tracks there : http://s92166068.onlinehome.us/mvidpg1_en.htm Le Monstre first drop is not steep at all and it's not going down very far either. The train is really slow in the overbanked helix, you would think the train would fall on the left side or come to a complete stop in the helix. I had a little pop of airtime in the top of the third hill on the track 2, the faster side... The rollercoaster have almost no speed or airtime but it's really smooth at least. It's tough to tell what a ride is like from a video, I know, but after watching those videos, I'm amazed at how different both sides are. The left side is sooooo much faster than the right side, isn't it? The right side looks like a long scenic railway, but the left side actually looks like it might be an OK backseat ride? Regardless of what it's like to ride it, it sure is visually impressive just to look at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krouvi Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 You should send a complaint along and the dirt pics you took to SF headquaters. Something is really wrong in this park and I guess they don't know about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyscraper Posted June 23, 2007 Author Share Posted June 23, 2007 Dirtiest park in America, hands down ! Unless you mean North America, La Ronde isn't in America I was gonna put that, but you beat me to it so I will just say that I always thought that Canada was a big suburb of America anyway. Well, isn't Canada, United States, Argentina, Mexico(north and south america in america...) What we are being taught at school : North and South America = America North America = United states and Canada MrMorgan : The track 2 is much better and faster than track 1, you are right. .Of course Le Monstre is a back seat ride... if you seat in the first row, you'll have no drop at all lol ! Krouvi : I sent pictures to public relations of La Ronde but they don't care to answer ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDG Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 North America = continent Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Navassa Island, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States of America, U.S. Virgin Islands Northern America = UN region Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, United States of America Anyway, La Ronde looks so chaotic too. The wild west village looks so cartoony, Scooby-Doo colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absimilliard Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 La Ronde is a very sad park... Before Six Flags bought it, it was owned by the City of Montreal and mismanaged into the ground! Le Monstre was left to rot and turned into an unrideable mess. The park was dirty and paint was flaking everywhere. Graffitis were the norm, the bathrooms were still straight out of the 70's and the Boomerang had turned to "rust color". The park main entrance looked like a bad highway toll plaza. In 1993, they bought a multimedia show... but the thing was so bad, no one went to see it a week after it opened! They even sued the company who provided the show and won... They also installed a motion simulator that year. In 1994, the park turned the little "village" into the Medieval village. You had some horrible shows, plus, they got an Intamin indoor coaster. Sorry, but we got the budget in half for it, so the "Dragon" turned into a 25 seconds, no speed, no airtime, only little kids get excited, ride. Effects were ok for the first few years with some nice rotting bodies hanging from the ceiling and a great smelly cloud when you passed through the belly of the dragon! But, the bodies and cloud got removed and the music is half gone. In 1995, they bought the Cobra, which was already in poor shape when it arrived in Montreal and when they installed it, they tried to connect a power line to it and... oops! Sorry, we forgot to notice it came from Europe, so it doesn't work! So, they had to install a huge power generator next to the lift motor to provide power to it! They got 3 trains for it, but the poor employees complained it was "useless" and "too hard to run", so the third train was disassembled and used for spare parts. 1996. No new rides, but they spent 5 millions (canadian) on a new fireworks, laser, live actors and water screen show! Called "Mirage", the show was a costly flop, since those guys decided to charge people an additional 20-40$ to have a seat with a view! They even boarded up the sides of the lake, so people would have to pay. 1997, Mirage is free now in its final season and they installed "La Tornade", a Huss Top Spin. The ride is a lemon through... It barely works and when it does, it has a short and lame program. 1998, they changed the movie in the motion simulator. Its now "Super Volcanozor 3-D". Its the french version of "Escape from Dino Island 3-D". Fine movie... except the geniuses in management forced maintenance to remove the seat belts and add OVER THE SHOULDER RESTRAINTS to the seats! So now, La Ronde has the world's roughest motion simulator! 1999, Orbite is added, its a used S&S Space Shot bought from the infamous Action Park in NJ (home of the looping water slide). They decided to install it over the lake, so it ended up costing more than a brand new one! They also opened a new section of the park, which had trees, flowers and grass. They even moved the Huss breakdance there and they ran it on psycho mode! The park received new paint, got cleaned and operation was... great. Boomerang was hitting interval (the train was ready to dispatch before the catch car grabbed the train!), Supermanege, Monstre and Cobra were also hitting interval. Great season, with record crowds. So good that they decided to install a new wooden coaster in 2000. Sadly, the union, which is part of the Montreal Blue Collar Mafia, decided to strike and used the anti scab laws to actually close the park for 10 days. Sadly, that made the city of Montreal figure that they don't want to deal with that mess again. They cancelled the wooden coaster. 2000: The City of Montreal put the park on sale. They don't invest a single penny in the park that year. Six Flags and Parc Asterix signified their intention of buying the park. 2001: Six Flags buys the park... Sorry for the long post... but this is what leaded to Six Flags buying the park and how good it was.... for a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbilly Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 it's a shame because this park looks like it has decent rides to offer, but the dirtyness really takes away from experiences at parks, cool TR though dude thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMorgan Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Absimilliard, thank you for writing all that! I never knew so much about the history of such a badly managed park. Do they seriously have OTR's on a simulator? WTF is that about? Do the seats go upside down or are there at least stereo headphones built in to enhance the sound or something? Boarding up the lake to make people pay for the fireworks show is also very classy. Unbeleivable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyscraper Posted June 26, 2007 Author Share Posted June 26, 2007 Yes there is over the shoulder harness on the simulators and they are very heavy, like if there was sand in them ! You must pay attention while riding because there's some headbanging too ! No, there's not even on-board audio and they don't go upside down... the restraints are totaly useless ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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