307 Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 307 goes to the Ex! Featuring a few guys who don't post on this site! The Canadian National Exhibition [aka the CNE, the Ex] is an annual three-week carnival/faire/showcase to end the summer. It runs from mid-August until Labour Day, and features a midway with about 20 to 30 rides, numerous buildings such as the International Building, where you can buy a bunch of crap from different countries, the Sports Zone, the Arts and Crafts Building, and of course the agricultural building which always features a horrible animal abusing petting zoo. The final three days of the Ex also bring with them the Canadian International Airshow, or, my main reason for going. One of my favourite things about the Ex is always the food, and despite looking forward to it every year, once I get immersed in it, I always wonder why I cared. It's mostly overpriced food made with the lowest quality by the least attentive people in the world. But nonetheless, I was pumped for food! Little did I know that by the end of the day, I would conquer one of my biggest fears! Starring in the show would be me, Jer [307], as well as Paresh, Bundy, and Real. You will be seeing Paresh a lot more in the coming weeks, as I will be going to Valleyfair, Timber Falls and the Park at Mall of America with him in a few weeks. Another note: the pictures were all taken by Paresh, and he's far from a good photographer, so excuse the crappy quality of the majority of them. You've been warned! On with the pictures. After that, we went and ate a ton more food, and then went home! But instead of that, you get the camwhore picture of the crew. See you guys in a couple weeks, when Nikki and I post our Photo TR of Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, and other shenanigans! The lighting was awful, and the show wasn't much better. It was basically an old guy talking for 35 minutes, and then a bunch of dogs jumping over things. Yawn. We then walked over and watched some of the Eukaneuba SuperDogs! show, which was celebrating it's 31st year at the Ex. That's a long damn time. I suppose the dogs aren't the same as they were in the first year... Ah, the Snowbirds... a tribute to Canada's "air force", featuring planes that are more than 40 years old and are LITERALLY falling apart. I truly salute you, boys! They had a big section dedicated to the Canadian Armed Forces, and Paresh decided to enlist, go through training, and head to Afghanistan all within five minutes. Here he is preparing to board his flight! I SURVIVED. But I was more angry at how much of a waste the tour was more than I was about how terrified I was of the thing. Once I got in the air it wasn't too bad at all. Next step in conquering my fear: go to Europe! And here's an aerial shot of the Ex - it's pretty big. There are tons of "WE STEAL YOUR MONEY" carny games, too, and the kids running them are mostly washout burnout high school kids with very little going for them in life. Here's a shot of Ontario Place... you can see how tiny and stupid it is. The log flume takes up almost half of the damn island. Here's what Toronto looks like from a helicopter. To be honest, the tour sucked... it was $35 per person, and basically all it did was bring you up 1500ft, fly to the other end of the CNE, spin around a couple times, then bring you back. Bah! Here's BMO Field, the place where the awful Toronto FC soccer team plays. This thing was a gigantic waste of money, and not just because I hate soccer. For all you coaster fanboys, here's the CNE's coaster for the year: a crappily run spinning mouse. Seriously, I didn't understand how one of the cars could make it through the circuit, they had the brakes on so damn hard. Well I'm a bit chilled and I'm trembling a little, but I can still put on a brave face! So they have helicopter tours of Toronto. I'm terrified of flying. But after some persuasion from the other three [and them paying for me], I decided to brave my fears and get onto the helicopter. I guess the outcome isn't in doubt, since I'm posting now... and not from a fiery burning wreckage. Bundy talked us into riding the Orbiter, which is an awesome out of control ride. Unfortunately I'm not sure of the actual manufacturers name or what it's really called, but trust me, it was AWESOME. I just really like this picture. Paresh tried his luck at the strength hammer thing... what the hell is it called? Well anyway, he only managed a 94, and we all laughed at him. We went on this horrible haunted house ride... not only were the lights on, but it was about 30 seconds long, and there were only four "scary" sections of the entire ride! And it cost five damn dollars! Talk about a rip off. This picture is probably scarier than the actual ride. I'm very unimpressed with my 50mph, though I did end up besting it a few minutes later. Then we went over to the speed pitch area - Bundy schooled us all, throwing a whopping 13MPH faster than second place Paresh... he managed to hit 66 on the gun, which is impressive, considering how weak and girly Bundy is. They had a bunch of horrible "challenges" in the Sports Zone... here's me failing horribly at "hit the targets"! To be fair, if I was ten feet closer, I probably could've hit one of them! There was a pretty lame BMX/skateboarding/rollerblading "extreme" show going on, and we stuck around long enough to get this crappy picture. The only cool thing was the nine year old kid pulling out bigger stunts than the 20-something guys. Oh look, it's a crappy picture of me! Bundy and I are duking it out at MLB 07, which is a pretty good game - although I got my ass handed to me today. After eating food, then walking to the lego tower [right next to the food building], we were hungry again and had to go back and get more food. Here, Real demonstrates how to get white stuff all over your mouth. And this is when he was CLEAN. During the first three days of the Ex, Lego encouraged people to come out and build a huge lego tower - it ended up being 30 metres tall! That's a big ass tower of lego. Bundy's quite happy with this, as he was the one who got to eat said hot dog. Paresh neglected to take a picture of the grand CNE entrance, so instead you get a picture of a hot dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastrfreak2000 Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 Wow it looks like the Ex has really gone downhill in terms of ride selection the past couple of years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesaidboom Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 Starring in the show would be me, Jer [307], as well as Paresh, Bundy, and Real. You will be seeing Paresh a lot more in the coming weeks, as I will be going to Valleyfair, Timber Falls and the Park at Mall of America with him in a few weeks. All without me! So sad. The EX was much better when the Dopple Loop(er?) was there. Wildcat was fun too..so was that G-Force ride that broke and hurt all those people a couple years ago. Now we just have a crappy spinning mouse. The EX gets worse and worse, and more expensive every year. WOOFY!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnage Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 ^ I agree. The Ex just isn't the same without Doppel Lopping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 here's me failing horribly at "hit the targets"! What? You couldn't go topshelf, gloveside from there? And you call yourself Canabian? Cool report, as always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shockwave Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 Holy shit! Jer in aviation shocker!!! You are now coming over this side of the pond in 2 years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 Never been to the Ex... I'd probably only go for the food, by the sound of things. Isn't the CNE right next to the Medieval Times place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnage Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 here's me failing horribly at "hit the targets"! What? You couldn't go topshelf, gloveside from there? And you call yourself Canabian? Last time I checked Jer was not Andrew Raycroft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
307 Posted August 27, 2007 Author Share Posted August 27, 2007 here's me failing horribly at "hit the targets"! What? You couldn't go topshelf, gloveside from there? And you call yourself Canabian? Last time I checked Jer was not Andrew Raycroft. No, then I'd be allowing soft gloveside goals, not scoring them And I'm a pretty poor hockey player, it's quite sad. Hopefully Europe is not far off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
307 Posted August 27, 2007 Author Share Posted August 27, 2007 Never been to the Ex... I'd probably only go for the food, by the sound of things. Isn't the CNE right next to the Medieval Times place? It's pretty close, yeah. If you're taking the subway, Bathurst station offers direct streetcar service to it, which is what we used. That's probably the easiest way to get there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnage Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 Last time I checked Jer was not Andrew Raycroft. No, then I'd be allowing soft gloveside goals, not scoring them Very true. I realized my error right after I posted it. Never been to the Ex... I'd probably only go for the food, by the sound of things. Said in jest I realize, but to anyone considering going I'd suggest this thursday as the last day to even attempt to go. Labour Day weekend at the CNE is total hell. Unless you want to deal with shoulder to shoulder crowds, avoid the closing weekend at all costs. I worked as a drink monkey one year at the Harveys during Labour Day weekend back when I was 16 or 17. Nothing but 8 hour shifts pouring soft drinks as quickly as I could to keep up with demand. What a crappy job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoltan_Kodaly Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 I work on the grounds, and have to walk through the midway and by the Crazy Mouse every morning to get to work, and in all honesty, the Ex is just not worth the money in the slightest. There's not very many rides, but seriously a mile of $4 midway games. The food tastes alright, but is the quality of something that I would pay HALF the price for in any normal place outside the grounds. Toronto is a city PACKED with such awesome food everywhere, don't waste money on junk food at the Ex! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaway Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 No question the ride selection has gone way downhill since the 80s, when it was named the "Mile and a Half Midway" and lived up to the billing. To think that we (at one time) have had two Schwarzkopf's (Doppel Looping and a Jet Star), the famous Flyer, and a bunch of decent wild mice. This year, just one non-kiddie coaster and it's that spinning mouse. Future years should be better though. The Ex is tendering the midway contract this year, and from what I hear, the current op (North American Midway) is on the way out. Hopefully whoever comes in can bring some big stuff with them to justify the high prices. I still love the Ex for the 'fair' atmosphere, but certainly not the rides. Great TR, OP, by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niiicolaaah Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 Ontario Place's log flume owns, and you know it. You are just jealous, because CW doesn't have a log flume any more. I miss the Ex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
307 Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Ontario Place's log flume owns, and you know it. You are just jealous, because CW doesn't have a log flume any more. I miss the Ex. I am kinda jealous about that. And I completely forgot that Ex admission got me into Ontario Place for free, or else we would've gone over that way! Bummer. Maybe Nikki and I will get on that when we go to the airshow next week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnage Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 ^ Keep an eye out for my watch. I lost it in the cow punching bag maze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 ^Oh, God... that's one thing I remember about Ontario Place. I was 7 at the time, and it was pretty frightening at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vistaway Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 Shame they got rid of all that cool stuff (punching bags, rope climb, zip lines, etc.) in the old 'kids world' tent years ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadmos Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 This report kind of makes me glad that I didn't make any effort to go this year. The Ex seemed so much more impressive as a kid than it does now.. Just a little off topic, but what the hell is this that I have been reading about the Ontario Place maze being butchered?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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