Canada's Wonderland Discussion Thread

[dropzonefan]

Does anyone here think the finale may have something to do with fire effects, and possibly a drop like th13teen at Alton Towers?... Possibly during the fight with the dragon/beast, the floor falls through and you escape???... Idk, just guessing.

[B&MBoy1982]

If any Cedar Fair park can pull this off, it's going to be Wonderland.

[GO MUFC!!!]

The description sounds to me like it will be somewhat like the Gringotts Bank ride but I have no idea.

[cmullin]

If any Cedar Fair park can pull this off, it's going to be Wonderland.

Yeah Wonderland is easily the nicest and well run CF park. Not even a contest.

[KBrylczyk]

Reading that press release, this was my thought process -

 

- Soooooo, motion simulator?

- Nope, a Spider-Man style ride!

- Nope, a...coaster?

- ...maybe?

- .....wut.....

- Ummmmmmmm

- O..kayyyyyyyyyy?

- A coaster / Spider-Man / shooting gallery / wtf ride. Huh. That's new.

 

Alright, Cedar Fair, time to explain yourself.

[KBrylczyk]

If any Cedar Fair park can pull this off, it's going to be Wonderland.

Yeah Wonderland is easily the nicest and well run CF park. Not even a contest.

 

Good ol' Canadia, eh?

[jazzimm]

Reading that press release, this was my thought process -

 

- Soooooo, motion simulator?

- Nope, a Spider-Man style ride!

- Nope, a...coaster?

- ...maybe?

- .....wut.....

- Ummmmmmmm

- O..kayyyyyyyyyy?

- A coaster / Spider-Man / shooting gallery / wtf ride. Huh. That's new.

 

Alright, Cedar Fair, time to explain yourself.

 

Haha true. And in the post-announcement kerfuffle, this is my thought process that followed:

 

- No concept art or video this late in the game... from a tech-based company?

- The technology is still in development? Hope they're developing it quickly... Does this mean we are the "test dummy"?

- Potentially low capacity = potentially long, slow lines

- All this "new, innovative" stuff sounds like "experimental" to me, leaving me with Sledge Hammer in mind...

- Wonderland is doing the coaster track themselves? Huh? No coaster company involved? Hope they know what they're doing...

 

I'm hoping all of this is just things they happened to not cover during the announcement, and that none of these will actually be an issue come May. It just seems like there are a lot of loose ends and a lot of potential for issues. I'm hoping though that they do have progress made on the technology (which will hopefully soon be finished) and that they are just keeping the images and information from us (though I can't figure why). And I'm hoping they have a good company contracted for the track. That's probably what I'm most curious about.

 

Whatever doubts I may have though, I'm going to hold my final judgement until ride time in May. I'll give it a go in hopes that it is as cool, exciting, and innovative as they say it will be!

[ArgoZ]

This sounds like a cool addition to the park. I didn't realize Canada's Wonderland had a mountain like that, although it looks like a fake one. I'm glad they are making use of it. That guy in the video said that this shooting dark ride is going to be better than anything we've seen at Universal or Disney - wow, that's saying a lot! I highly doubt it but we'll see. I'd like to see more renderings or details about the project.

 

I agree on questioning the bold statements. Are they are saying that this ride has the potential to be better than Transformers, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, Test Track and etc or better than Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story, MIB shooters? If it becomes true though, we are in for a great ride and at a Cedar Fair park too! Unbelievable!

[cmullin]

This sounds like a cool addition to the park. I didn't realize Canada's Wonderland had a mountain like that, although it looks like a fake one. I'm glad they are making use of it. That guy in the video said that this shooting dark ride is going to be better than anything we've seen at Universal or Disney - wow, that's saying a lot! I highly doubt it but we'll see. I'd like to see more renderings or details about the project.

 

I agree on questioning the bold statements. Are they are saying that this ride has the potential to be better than Transformers, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, Test Track and etc or better than Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story, MIB shooters? If it becomes true though, we are in for a great ride and at a Cedar Fair park too! Unbelievable!

Well if one CF park was going to make a dark ride better than the Universal parks, it would be Wonderland. But hose are some bold statements, if they turn out to be true, that would be awesome, and maybe CF will turn over a new leaf and start adding serious details into their rides.

[The49er]

I think this is how parks need to work. You don't need to break records to make a ride able to be marketed; you just need something that looks really freakin' cool, and that's what they've done here. It just sounds really awesome.

[dropzonefan]

Knowing how CF's been treating wonderland for the past 5 years or so, we've gotten it pretty good, and they seem to know what they're doing. Knowing they have boo blasters, I really think this will be a step up, and as many people said, just plain cool! The worst it can get is if it's as much a letdown as windseeker, which IMO, although not the best ride invented (enjoyed the star flyers a bit more), was a decent ride.

[Canobie Coaster]

When I read the press release, I immediately pictured a 4-D Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge type dark ride. While I have my doubts this will be better than Men in Black or Toy Story Mania, I definitely won't complain if it is because that means Canada's Wonderland truly has a spectacular dark ride.

[dropzonefan]

When I read the press release, I immediately pictured a 4-D Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge type dark ride. While I have my doubts this will be better than Men in Black or Toy Story Mania, I definitely won't complain if it is because that means Canada's Wonderland truly has a spectacular dark ride.

Even if the special effects aren't on parvwith the rides you mentioned, I have a feeling the "coaster" portion will make up for it... It's a good 6 stories high according to the announcement, so it must have some decent stuff in there.

[mhuffva]

The only other dark ride I have ridden is "Curse of Dark Kastle" at BGW. What stats I have been able to find on this ride states the length of this attraction is 1000 feet and that they have 15 - 8 person vehicles; with a projected capacity of over 1400 per hour.

 

Having only 5 cars on CW's dark ride would drastically impact capacity on this attraction. Course, this media event did seem to be vague in the details about the whole ride experience. Is it a coaster/dark ride hybrid? Experiencing a dark ride, going at 1-2 miles per hour, covering a 1000 ft in 4-5 minutes is one thing and experiencing something on the order of a small mouse coaster at 20-30 mph is another. Seems they are still trying to nail the details on this one as we speak.

 

This annoucement sort of reminds me of when Kings Dominion did their media presentation for Planet Snoopy last fall. We knew we were getting the makeover; but, the park did not have the details as to what the final layout and ride line-up would be at the time of the presentation.

 

In any case, it is a big step for the Cedar Fair park chain to be installing a major dark ride in one of its parks. (I wonder, after all the Windseeker hoopla, if Cedar Fair decided to install this dark ride at ONE park first to see how it works out before attempting to push a similar dark ride into any other park in the chain?)

[CedarFair1]

Did anyone else notice that the cost of this investment was not disclosed I think this is a very expensive addition and Cedar Fair doesn't want to disclose just how much this dark ride/ mine coaster costs.

[Dom497]

TrioTech's CEO said the ride cost's about 10 million. Also, Wonderland has confirmed to CW Mania that the capacity will be about 640pph....very concerning.

 

Some other stats that have been confirmed to CW Mania include:

 

- 4D interactive dark ride with the core thrill being heavily based on graphics

- uses 3D projection (riders will wear 3D glasses)

- uses wind, movement and other special effects to add the 4th dimension

- riders will board inside of the mountain near ground level

- the ride will exit the mountain and climb the lift on the mountain exterior

- at the 60' level the ride will plunge back into the mountain

- there will be multiple drops throughout the ride

- 1000 feet of coaster track

- the ride is gravity-driven

- longest interactive wall in the world

- highly sensitive targeting guns that will "interact" with the environment

- content of the ride can be easily changed to vary the experience

- there will be 5 trains, each with 8 riders

- approximately 640 pph

- the engineering department at Wonderland is currently working on designing the track

 

(Credit goes to DantheMan from CW Mania for asking the park for this info)

[TPDave]

^ 640?!? That's horrendous. My enduring memory of CW was huge lines for everything, I don't want to be waiting for that next Summer!

[jazzimm]

^^ Thanks for sharing. So how many pairs of 3D glasses do you think will be tossed off the side of the mountain/lost on the ride? lol.

 

I'm still most concerned about the capacity at 640. Guess I'll only be riding this once haha.

 

Also, I'm still most curious to see how the track turns out. I know the Director of Maintenance & Construction quite well so I might try to pick his brain about it if he has time. Though more often than not when I try to ask him for insider info I get the expected "you'll hear when everyone else does" because he knows I have a big mouth.

[Canobie Coaster]

TrioTech's CEO said the ride cost's about 10 million. Also, Wonderland has confirmed to CW Mania that the capacity will be about 640pph....very concerning.

 

Some other stats that have been confirmed to CW Mania include:

 

- 4D interactive dark ride with the core thrill being heavily based on graphics

- uses 3D projection (riders will wear 3D glasses)

- uses wind, movement and other special effects to add the 4th dimension

- riders will board inside of the mountain near ground level

- the ride will exit the mountain and climb the lift on the mountain exterior

- at the 60' level the ride will plunge back into the mountain

- there will be multiple drops throughout the ride

- 1000 feet of coaster track

- the ride is gravity-driven

- longest interactive wall in the world

- highly sensitive targeting guns that will "interact" with the environment

- content of the ride can be easily changed to vary the experience

- there will be 5 trains, each with 8 riders

- approximately 640 pph

- the engineering department at Wonderland is currently working on designing the track

 

(Credit goes to DantheMan from CW Mania for asking the park for this info)

 

Especially considering how many people Canada's Wonderland gets annually, this could have some of the longest lines in the park. Hopefully the ride is done right so it's worth waiting for.

[Taylor Finn]

The ride sounds really neat, but the capacity is very disconcerting. In a normal 12 hour day, this ride can only handle about 7500 people, probably like 25% of the total park attendance on a busy weekend. Everyone is going to want to ride it, though since it's new. Hopefully they are at least considering a singe rider line/a separate unload and load station.

[stellaclose]

Or you could just skip the lines with the all new for 2014 "FAST LANE WONDER PLUS"

 

TrioTech's CEO said the ride cost's about 10 million. Also, Wonderland has confirmed to CW Mania that the capacity will be about 640pph....very concerning.

 

Some other stats that have been confirmed to CW Mania include:

 

- 4D interactive dark ride with the core thrill being heavily based on graphics

- uses 3D projection (riders will wear 3D glasses)

- uses wind, movement and other special effects to add the 4th dimension

- riders will board inside of the mountain near ground level

- the ride will exit the mountain and climb the lift on the mountain exterior

- at the 60' level the ride will plunge back into the mountain

- there will be multiple drops throughout the ride

- 1000 feet of coaster track

- the ride is gravity-driven

- longest interactive wall in the world

- highly sensitive targeting guns that will "interact" with the environment

- content of the ride can be easily changed to vary the experience

- there will be 5 trains, each with 8 riders

- approximately 640 pph

- the engineering department at Wonderland is currently working on designing the track

 

(Credit goes to DantheMan from CW Mania for asking the park for this info)

 

Especially considering how many people Canada's Wonderland gets annually, this could have some of the longest lines in the park. Hopefully the ride is done right so it's worth waiting for.

[wildcatroc]

The ride sounds really neat, but the capacity is very disconcerting. In a normal 12 hour day, this ride can only handle about 7500 people, probably like 25% of the total park attendance on a busy weekend. Everyone is going to want to ride it, though since it's new. Hopefully they are at least considering a singe rider line/a separate unload and load station.

 

It sounds like a neat concept! My chief concern would be capacity. Not only is 7500 a ridiculously low number for a park of this size, the reality is that the park seems to struggle with throughput in general. I wonder how close to that number they would actually come.

[jokey]

The capacity issues that the park currently has is mostly due to low capacity coasters (ie. Time Warp/Tomb Raider, SkyRider, Flight Deck, etc.). Leviathan and Behemoth are really the only constant high capacity (1400+/hour) coasters in the park.

[B&MBoy1982]

Agreed.

 

Leviathan's queue when full is only 30 minutes.

 

They controlled the crowds in both B&M stations, so there was little waiting in the stations themselves.

[chemical_echo]

I wonder if they're going to use the old paths up the side of the mountain as the path the cars travel up the mountain. They'd most likely need some widening, but the basic path is still there and won't require that much modification to the mountain itself.