Canada's Wonderland Discussion Thread

[leviathandude306]

Any1 got pics/vids of the ride yet ?

[linearinduction]

Interesting about the trains not tracking very well when BomBora's Trains track very well. It also appears as though the tires are made of a harder material which could also contribute to the tracking.

[PCW_Nut]

Any1 got pics/vids of the ride yet ?

 

Here are aome photos for you.

[Woodie Warrior]

The station looks nice.

[robbalvey]

Wow, I really hope the rest of the ride looks better than the station. Seeing this image, for example:

Doesn't look like there is much theming involved. I hope it's more elaborate in other places...

[CPSFMMCW]

***SPOILER ALERT***

 

So, question about the drop at the end. In the review someone mentioned the drop at the end to escape the dragons lair, is that a normal drop or the Verbolten style track free fall section that we expected?

[denning]

***SPOILER ALERT***

 

So, question about the drop at the end. In the review someone mentioned the drop at the end to escape the dragons lair, is that a normal drop or the Verbolten style track free fall section that we expected?

 

Verbolten style and twice the height actually. It is very well done.

 

 

Got one ride Very impressed that this ride is in a regional seasonal themepark. Thoughts on the ride

 

Trains are comfy and the guns are surprisingly responsive. I would not say I am a marksman by any means but was able to get a pretty high score - 7900. Around closing 9600 was the tops.

 

The first section though very short is a true coaster. I road backwards - not rough like from the earlier reviews. It's really just one drop and curve but it works well as a nice intro to set you up for the dark ride portion

 

Dark ride portion - good length - liked the use of coaster track which made for a very smooth movement through the ride with the use of the wind you felt you were motoring through. The world's "largest" screen looked to be only for guests riding forwards. The backwards side uses multiple smaller screens.

 

On the negative side - dark ride section is just a videogame. No physical props. No interaction with the enviroment other than the screen. No drops betweens scenes. You shoot at bad guys. It moves quick. Rinse and repeat. You don't really notice the story. But's fun and will have high repeat value. I can't wait to ride it again and look forward to future changes and seasonal themes. There were random coins throughout that must be "the quest for gold" subtheme.

 

The finale drop is well done. If you are on this site there will be no surprise to spoil. You figure it out right away. You can clearly see how the track and room is designed. Still they use smoke and wind and it works well. My reaction was "darn wonderland actually pulled this off" knowing that the budget was relatively small and that they didn't use a single well known supplier like vekoma or intamin.

 

From a story point of view I was sad about the finale as I was hoping since it was announced that Herman the Dragon (from 1985's Thunder Run coaster also in the mountain) would be Wonder Mountain's "Guardian" who would swoop in and save you. He wasn't. The red dragon, who no matter what marketing calls him, looks like Herman is the big bad that you are battling at the end. Hoping that they can retcon Herman as a lovable villian like Darth Vader that you root for and want to buy toys.

 

For those who are saying it can't match to Disney/Universal it depends on what you are comparing it to. A true E ticket like Spider-Man or Harry Potter or Seven Drawfs Mine Ride with elaborate animatronics it is not. But in my books it is actually superior to its closest competitor - Toy Story Mania which to me is just a lazy wii game. This is at least tries to combine multiple genres and succeeds. A truly solid addition to the park which to me is much of an improvement as adding a B&M. Happy that Cedar Fair is investing in us like this. not a cookie counter clone by any stretch of the imagination.

 

To summarize a really great family ride. Proud to have in my home park the first ride that combines a coaster, really good 4D shooting technology, and the finale technology all into a family experience that is well themed and fits in perfectly with the parks centrepiece. Now if only other people disagree so the lines can shorten up.

 

Oh and Robb the station looks much better in person that photo isn't a good representation. It's decently themed not disney caliber but a serious step above the usual Cedar Fair quality. Fits in nicely with the mountain theme.

[PCW_Nut]

^Which way were you facing going up the hill? As mentioned earlier, it is a very different ride depending on which way you are facing.

 

If you want more story you want to be facing forwards going up the lift. If you want to get a higher score you'd wanna be going backwards.

 

I love the fact of the little secrets during the ride, for example in the final scene you want to explode all the crates at the bottom to find the crown. Once you find it, simply shoot it. I believe that's what helped get me into 2nd overall for the day on the high score list. There are lots of hidden targets like that throughout the ride.

[rollin_n_coastin]

Glad opening went really well! Looks like a fantastic ride for everyone in the family. Wish I was in town to try it out this weekend.

 

I think from the sounds of it I may be a "forward facing" kind of rider for this

[Dom497]

^Which way were you facing going up the hill? As mentioned earlier, it is a very different ride depending on which way you are facing.

 

If you want more story you want to be facing forwards going up the lift. If you want to get a higher score you'd wanna be going backwards.

 

I love the fact of the little secrets during the ride, for example in the final scene you want to explode all the crates at the bottom to find the crown. Once you find it, simply shoot it. I believe that's what helped get me into 2nd overall for the day on the high score list. There are lots of hidden targets like that throughout the ride.

 

Wait, are you saying that the the 2 sides are different from one another in terms of what is projected on the screens?

 

And Robb, I agree with you about the station. I was thinking about the station last night and I couldn't help but wonder how ironic it is that exactly half of the station is themed. It makes me wonder if they had plans to theme the other half but they just wanted to get the ride opened. Also, inside the mountain is apparently ALL screens and nothing else so there's no physical themeing in the ride anyway.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Dom497

[leviathandude306]

^Ya, aside from the lack of theming in the station, this ride looks great. It may not be exactly universal/Disney quallity, but for a regional park chain known for record breaking coasters, this ride looks awesome . So glad to have this at my home park . & who knows, maybe in the off season they'll "finish" the station.

 

As a side note, love how this combines my two favourite hobbies, coasters and gaming. Can't wait to try this!

[gerstlaueringvar]

Looks very nice for a Cedar Fair park. How much is the capacity of this ride?

[kunpc1]

Projected capacity once the ride is running smoothly is aroun 560 pph. It was just confirmed that Guardian will have a zombie theme for Halloween Haunt!

[Koasterking48]

I understand the complaints about the lack of physical theming, but you've also got to realize that they can change the scenes of the ride potentially every year, plus the above mentioned Halloween Haunt theme. I see it as an innovative way for the park to keep the ride fresh every year!

[Dom497]

I understand the complaints about the lack of physical theming, but you've also got to realize that they can change the scenes of the ride potentially every year, plus the above mentioned Halloween Haunt theme. I see it as an innovative way for the park to keep the ride fresh every year!

 

They are (or at least that's the plan).

 

Projected capacity once the ride is running smoothly is aroun 560 pph.

 

How do we go from 640, to 700, to 560pph?????

[coasterfreak101]

It's interesting that they rotate the cars when you enter the mountain but don't keep rotating them to provide an equal experience to both sides...

[Dom497]

^A user on CW Mania made an animation based on the photos the park released of the trains a while ago. The cars can only rotate 90-degrees in one direction.

[coasterfreak101]

^My confusion still stands, though now I just can't understand why the engineering group behind this ride wouldn't have designed (or why Wonderland wouldn't have wanted) a more dynamic system that would improve the rider experience for very little additional work or money.

[denning]

It's interesting that they rotate the cars when you enter the mountain but don't keep rotating them to provide an equal experience to both sides...

 

The ride system works really well. You basically have two modes - coaster mode where you face front/back or shooter mode where the car tuns so you can be side to side. There really would be no benefit to rotating more times unless you were hoping for a spinning mouse style ride experience. There are already enough different ride elements that spinning really isn't needed.

 

The difference between facing forward or rear is how the screens are laid out. On the rear/left side it is just like toy story mania you start shooting against a straight wall facing north then the track turns 90 degrees to a different screen facing west and then at the end that row you turn again. There are slight gaps when you move between screens giving you a breather to set up. It works just fine. Basically it feels like each screen is a different scene

 

On the front/right side the screen you start facing curves around and continues as you travel down the circuit. This is the "world's largest videoscreen" so it is a continuous screen. As in a few places there aren't the gap resets you get a couple of extra seconds of continuos video but we are talking seconds here. To the average guest they would never know.

 

My comments were more nerding out on theme park review about the layout and how the two experiences are slightly different. It really is a simple elegant approach.

[leviathandude306]

Anyone have pics/vids from the CWmania event at guardian?

[HAUNT MANIAC]

Denning, I think Coasterfreak meant, why couldn't they have made the cars so that there would be a little tilting action, something like Spider-man. Triotech showed a lot more movements on some of thier other vehicles at test facilities and other theatre installations. Even Toy Story has more movement . . . I havn't been on yet, but . . . you'd think they could have made it so that you could at least shoot on both sides . . . just one 90 degree turn? . . . really? . . . and where is that president guy from Triotech? . . . is he still as excited about it as he was when he first announced it? . . . he seemed to make it more exciting . . . oh well . . .

[PCW_Nut]

Ernest Yale, President and CEO of Triotech was onsite during the opening on Saturday and dressed as a civilian getting opinions from riders. Throughout the day he was getting nothing but positive reviews from anyone that had ridden it.

 

As for the vehicles tilting/rotating more, I do not feel that it impacts the ride that much. There is no need for it to tilt. Some of the visuals that they've done really make it feel as if your car is moving downwards, like in Spiderman when you are falling off the building.

 

I personally think the idea of having each side offer a separate ride experience only heightens the reason to re-ride. Again, that's just my view on it and I totally get and respect those who think differently.

 

Cedar Fair is said to be very happy with how the ride has turned out and excited to see where the can go with this technology.

 

I love the fact that the content can be changed up and modified at the flip of a switch. It has been confirmed by Ernest and Wonderland yesterday during Guardathon that the ride will change up for Halloween Haunt into a zombie themed ride. In addition to the Haunt overlay, they will also be able to adjust any of the scenes currently in the ride and could even go as far as completely re-theming it down the road to an entirely new story should they want to go that route.

 

Remember guys, this is not Disney or Universal, this is not some major 200+ million dollar attraction. This ride was made for 12 million approximately and for that cost I feel they blew it out of the water. Is the ride perfect? No. Did the ride exceed what I was expecting? Totally. The animation is much improved over some of Triotech's previous work and the fact that it is all rendered in real time rather than pre-rendered, I was quite impressed.

 

The finale, which sucks for some that it's been spoiled on here so soon (though such is life on the internet), is really well done and none of the new riders ever expected that.

 

I love that at the end of the ride your face is up there if you make a top score of the day and it stays up there if you get into the upper echelon of high scores overall, well until someone beats you of course.

 

Good job Cedar Fair, Canada's Wonderland and Triotech!

[mightypotato]

I was able to get a couple of rides in on Saturday and I was generally pleased with what I saw.

 

Calling it a coaster is a bit of a stretch as the outside part of the ride is really the only "roller coaster" part of the ride. I count it as a credit, but your mileage may vary.

 

I was a bit disappointed in the length of the ride. It definitely feels a scene or two too short. Pretty much right as you're getting really into the ride, you're in the final room. Also, it was all screens and no practical dark ride effects. However, the ride/game/whatever itself is pretty well done and you're so occupied with shooting stuff, you don't miss the missing practical effects. It really felt like a ride version of House of the Dead or something similar.

 

I managed to ride both sides and the long screen side is far and away the better one. On that side, you see everything in an unbroken chain. On the other side, there are noticable screen gaps that kind of take away from any immersion.

 

The final surprise? That was definitely the best part of the ride....

 

*HERE BE SPOILERS, YE BE WARNED*

 

I guess it's already been spoiled, so I'll say I enjoyed the drop far more than Verbolten's drop. This one comes out of nowhere if you don't know about it and has a bit of free-fall feeling which I always welcome.

 

All in all, I enjoyed the ride and for only $10 million, Wonderland got their money's worth. It's not Men in Black or Spiderman quality, but I wasn't expecting that. I'll probably continue to enjoy the ride (especially zombies at Halloween) and I'm interested to see where the technology goes from here.

Edited May 26, 2014 by mightypotato

[leviathandude306]

Well, this may be a bit of a stretch, but I'd be willing to call it the lightning run of dark rides... It's relatively cheap, and may not be perfect, however, for the relatively low cost, this is amazing.

 

So glad to have this at my home park! Can't wait to try it out soon.

[CPSFMMCW]

I wonder (pun intended) if they would include that finale on all of the versions of the ride if they chose to put the ride at other parks. I imagine they would switch it up a bit and add a different finale with of course a different theme. They probably wouldn't since they were able to use the mountain mainly for that. But I can't help but wonder if they would use that ending on another version. I like the think yes, especially if they were to put one of these at Knotts, since that would mean that there would be that maneuver now on the west coast.