Canada's Wonderland Discussion Thread

[A.J.]

But, new for 2015 will be a new slide and splash pad at Splashworks.

A "new" slide.

 

Poor Ontario Place...

[nicman]

^Well at least the ride will go to an awesome park.

[SilverBullet2004]

Here is a really cool model the Guardian attraction that opened this year, they even built the inside!

http://kolbykonnection.com/2014/12/21/wonder-mountains-guardian-model/

[nicman]

Looking back at this picture, it gives a good picture of were some of the layout of the new coaster could go by Wonder Mountain.

[jtstonge]

Hi Everyone,

 

I recently had the opportunity to take a walk around Canada's Wonderland with Peter Switzer (Director of Maintenance and Construction at Canada's Wonderland) and thought I would share some information regarding project contracts and new ride construction at the park.

 

Peter informed me that when CW is looking to build a new attraction, the process is identical to that of any other engineering project. First of all, the decision to build a new ride (and what type of ride will be built) is strictly that of Canada's Wonderland and not Cedar Fair. Each individual park makes its own decisions on what rides are built and when, however they must also receive approval from Cedar Fair. Below is a simplified outline of the process.

 

When the park decides that they want to build a new ride, they put out something similar to a "request for proposal (RFP)" where they state the scope of the project including the type of ride that they want to construct and the features they want it to have. They might also include other details such as budgetary constraints, site constraints, and/or required building and design codes. The RFP is made available to amusement ride consulting companies which, if desired, submit proposals for a ride that meets the park's requirements. The park then has the option to accept one of the proposals or decline all of them. If the park accepts a proposal, they award an engineering contract to the corresponding company which is then responsible for developing a detailed design and manufacturing the ride. The ride's designers communicate with representatives from the park to tweak and revise the design until both parties agree on a final design. This process can take months and can involve hundreds of revisions as I'm told was the case for Leviathan. I asked Peter if he could provide specific examples of changes that were made to Leviathan from its original design however he was unable to recall any since the process occurred 5 years ago (more than a year before construction started on Leviathan) and he was recently dealing with another large project (very interesting).

 

Another interesting note to add here is that many amusement ride consulting firms do not actually design the entire ride themselves. When Wonderland was working with B&M to build Leviathan, B&M was mainly responsible for designing the track and support structure. The design of the ride's specialized subsystems such as the electrical system and the concrete foundation piers were sub-contracted to other engineering companies that each specialize in a specific area. For example, all of the concrete foundation piers for Leviathan were designed by a geotechnical consulting firm within Ontario since this company is most familiar with the soil conditions around CW. Sub-contracting of work can also help to ensure that the rides are designed to fully comply with local building and design codes, especially when the primary consultant is located in another country. When Behemoth was constructed, the fall-arrest system that was installed on the lift hill for maintenance workers did not comply with local codes. Because of this, the park had to retrofit the ride with its own system to satisfy the codes.

 

If a major problem develops after a ride is constructed at the park, CW may contact the designer to help mitigate the problem. After Leviathan was constructed, the park received numerous noise complaints from the surrounding residential areas due the coaster's roar as it plummeted down the first drop. Canada's Wonderland contacted B&M to help resolve the problem and B&M experimented with various alternatives at their facility. The optimal solution that B&M came up with was to fill the entire lift hill (which is made up of hollow rectangular steel segments) with sand to reduce vibrations which cause excessive noise. The park proceeded with this solution by cutting holes in each of the lift hill segments and filling them all with granular. This significantly reduced the loudness of the ride and the number of noise complaints (although I personally miss that loud signature B&M roar).

 

I apologize for the long post but I hope that some of you will find this information as interesting as I do. I hope to share more information that I learned from Peter Switzer at some point, I had the opportunity to ask him a lot of questions about the park and specific rides. I even got a tour inside WMG with him and I was allowed to snap a few pictures with the house lights on (although I'm a little weary about posting them here).

 

Cheers!!

Edited January 2, 2015 by jtstonge

[Dom497]

Interesting report about the design process of a ride at Wonderland:

 

http://www.cwmania.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=62048#p62048

[nicman]

^^That is really cool, I am still super excited for the new coaster even after all this time.

[rcjp]

^^^Really cool stuff. I didn't know leviathan had been "silenced" after opening.

[canadianparkfan]

^^^^ also find this really interesting! Would explain why Leviathan sounded quieter this past year.

 

Wonder if this means we're certain to be getting a B&M as our next coaster after all. Maybe a company like intamin or Mack will have a chance to step in and do something great at the park.

[JRice92]

^x5 That's some great information I enjoyed reading. I've never made it out to Canada's Wonderland but maybe in the next few years I'll plan a visit.

[chrispat]

nevermind, already posted

Edited January 5, 2015 by chrispat

[nicman]

^That picture was already posted on page 648.

[Password121]

I haven't been up to date on rumors for the supposed 2016 coaster, but with Cedar Point's rumored Dive coaster for 2016, as well as potential projects at Kings Dominion or Valleyfair, what's the current opinion on the 2016 project? Could the CF coaster budget be split among two, or even three parks next year?

[rcjp]

^I don't know but given that dive coasters are "cheaper" than most other rides of their size maybe that's possible.

[mightypotato]

Woodies are also remarkably cheaper than a steel coaster. Outlaw Run and Goliath were in the $10 million range and a GCI will come in under that. So, anything's possible.

[nicman]

I haven't been up to date on rumors for the supposed 2016 coaster, but with Cedar Point's rumored Dive coaster for 2016, as well as potential projects at Kings Dominion or Valleyfair, what's the current opinion on the 2016 project? Could the CF coaster budget be split among two, or even three parks next year?

 

There is a big rumor for Canada's Wonderland with several hints that we have got over the past few months. Anyway most of us think it will be called Ziz and will be a wing coaster.

[grsupercity]

I haven't been up to date on rumors for the supposed 2016 coaster, but with Cedar Point's rumored Dive coaster for 2016, as well as potential projects at Kings Dominion or Valleyfair, what's the current opinion on the 2016 project? Could the CF coaster budget be split among two, or even three parks next year?

 

There is a big rumor for Canada's Wonderland with several hints that we have got over the past few months. Anyway most of us think it will be called Ziz and will be a wing coaster.

 

U mean zzz and a wing coaster

[canadianparkfan]

^lol

[VF15]

I think a GCI or RMC woodie would be a good fit for Canada's Wonderland because even though they have two wooden coasters already, from what I've heard, they're both rough pieces of trash, which basically means that Canada's Wonderland lacks a decent wooden coaster. Also, maybe once Cedar Fair starts doing business with RMC, maybe they could turn one of the bad woodies into an amazing RMC hybrid coaster. Even though some sort of B&M is probably what their next coaster will be, I think the park deserves an upgrade in the wooden coaster department sometime.

[tututiara]

^ Hopefully Cedar Fair will do business with RMC soon. I'd love to see a new woodie at Canada's Wonderland, though. It's a great park with not very great woodies in my opinion.

[John Peck]

Yes, my trip to Wonderland back in october found me very much disliking the wood coasters this time (I loved them back in 2001 and 2004, and not so much in 2006). Both rides had significant problems, that could be simple fixes.

[nicman]

I think a GCI or RMC woodie would be a good fit for Canada's Wonderland because even though they have two wooden coasters already, from what I've heard, they're both rough pieces of trash, which basically means that Canada's Wonderland lacks a decent wooden coaster. Also, maybe once Cedar Fair starts doing business with RMC, maybe they could turn one of the bad woodies into an amazing RMC hybrid coaster. Even though some sort of B&M is probably what their next coaster will be, I think the park deserves an upgrade in the wooden coaster department sometime.

 

Mighty Canadian Minebuster is ok and Wild Best is also getting re-tracked. But I do agree that it would be a good fit. The only problem with turning one of those two coasters in to a hybrid, is that they are both pretty small, so it would be better if they could just take out one of those woodies, still keep the wood, but then build an amazing RMC.

[nicman]

oops, accidental double post.

[Lareson]

I do wonder if GCI and Cedar Fair will continue working on their wooden coasters. They worked on Shivering Timbers, Hurler (at Carowinds,) and Grizzly (at CA Great America) last year so I do wonder if the other parks in the chain will also be requesting them to come out and do some track work on them since they did a great job. Minebuster and Wild Beast would be great candidates for re-tracking and possibly some re-profiling. I do know the work they did on Shivering Timbers with the turn-around was great. They even corrected the banking coming out of the turn to a more heartline-like banking. You can check it out in the TPR POV of Timbers.

 

I do hope that will lead to another GCI coaster being built somewhere in the chain. Canada's Wonderland would be an excellent candidate for one since their current wooden coasters are a bit lackluster and dated.

[nicman]

^Wild beast was getting retracked a few months ago, I do not think it was getting retracked by GCI. I think Canada's Wonderland will probably retrack mighty Canadian Minbuster eventually, but it would probably be the same company that retracked Wild Beast.