La Ronde Trip Report

rollerdude · August 21, 2007

The park opened at 10:30 and we walked to the back of the park. Looming in the distance was Goliath. At 10:40, we got in line.

Goliath

rides: 2

rating: 9/10

Goliath's trains are very comfortable, with bucket seats and large, clamshell restraints. You get dispatched and your train climbs the 45* lifthill. At the top, you get a brief view of the St. Lawrence river before plunging at a 70 degree angle to the ground. Up you go into three hills filled with borderline ejector airtime. You start to ascend the turn around when you change direction and get some nice floater air. Around the turn and back down. Three more hills come with more airtime. Finally, the most technical part of the ride, the s-turn. The sensation of airtime, plus the change in banking is like no other. Even the high banked turn following has floater air. After a final double up, you are slowed by magnetic brakes. The ride is very fun, and quite smooth, although the pacing is kind of slow. Goliath has taken my number 6 spot on my top 10.

Le Monstre

rides: 1 red/1 blue

rating: 7 red/6 blue

La Monstre is just your ordinary wooden coaster. The lift is kind of cool with how it speeds up. There are some cool turns and a couple nice drops on this ride. Unfortunately, they don't duel, but the ride is still unique. My favorite part of the ride is the double down on the red side. It is instant ejector airtime.

Le Boomerang

rides: 1

rating: 6/10

This is just your average boomerang. I actually thought it was smooth too. The headrests had plenty of padding just in case though.

Le Vampire

rides: 1

rating: 8.5/10

WOW! Le Vampire is a mirror image of the Batman clones, but it has one less car per train. It makes a difference. The ride seemed so much faster and much more intense. The 0-g roll was more like a 'lets make your head spin roll'. The helix was very intense, and the g's were more sustained than in the loops. Great ride, too bad the line was almost 45 minutes...

Le Cobra

rides: 1

rating: 7.5/10

Le Cobra is an intamin stand up coaster. It was shaky, and there was some headbanging, but the restraints were padded, and I enjoyed the layout. The loop had some nice hangtime and the helix was cool. It a downwards rosebowl(see SOB ) and when you got to the top, it felt like you rolled over and plummeted to the ground. The best part of the ride wasa the bunny hop though. Gotta love airtime on stand ups!

This was the time where my parents started to complain, and it was only three o'clock(come on!). We got a crepe, rode the ferris wheel, the space needle, and the monorail, and called it a day.

rollerdude · August 21, 2007

Day two at La Ronde!

I got in the park at 10:50 and headed straight for Tobaggan Nordique.

Tobaggan Nordique

rides: 1

rating: 6/10

This is a wild mouse ride, but it has more tight turns on the bottom level instead of the wide turnarounds. The cars are themed to different bobsleds. I ended getting, of course, Canada(how ironic?).

Next, I saw that Super Manege was open. When I got there, it was a walk on.

Super Manege

rides: 1

rating: 6/10

I instantly went to the front row, pulled my restraint down, and braced myself. This Vekoma corkscrew is a clone of Super Wirbel at Holiday Park, complete with the death...I mean bayerncurve. It ended up not being that bad and the bayerncurve wasn't banked as severely as I expected.

Next was Goliath. I got a quick ride in the second row and then went to the Dragon, another ride I missed.

Dragon

rides: 1

rating: 5/10

This is your typical indoor kiddie coaster. The special effects weren't brilliant or anything, but the ride had some cool lights and two great helixes. Luckily it was a walk on.

Next, I rode Goliath two more times before getting poutine for lunch. For those who don't know, its french fries with cheese and gravy. Think of it as mashed potatoes with cheese curds mixed in. After lunch, I tackled La Ronde's flat ride line up.

Manitou

rides: 1

rating: 7/10

After waiting about 20 minutes, I got on this overly decorated KMG Afterburner. In my opinion, it was a really tame ride. The arm didn't even swing completely sideways.

Tornade

rides: 1

rating: 7/10

Although top spins aren't my favorite flat rides(especially old ones), I decided to give this one a spin(pun intended). Although the ride didn't flip much, or even make more than one revolution, it did have a cool ending. The ride made the riders face the ground as it slowly lowered you towards the fountains below. Although they never tried to shoot you, it still gave you a scare.

Vertigo

rides: 1

rating: 8/10

I waited 20 minutes for this suspended hammer. The best part was when it reached the apex and held you for a couple seconds.

After my flat ride tour, I decided to ride Vampire again. Apparently, everybody's favorite ride is Vampire, cause it has the longest wait. I waited over an hour. Next was Cobra. Unfortunately, it was running one train so it took a half hour. After Cobra, I went back and rode Goliath two more times, which had a 15 minute wait all day.