Photo TR: La Ronde 8/4/08

[MixedDrink]

It would be a pretty awesome park if SF would be to sell it to a new responsible owner.

[voyager43]

Hi all,

 

I am French Canadian from Laronde, for sure if you are coming at this park and trying to compare to Magic Mountain, to GADV or even to Cedar Point honestly don't come. This is a nice family park with some small coasters rides that all the other parks already have nothing to impress anyone. I love this park it is 5 minutes from my home, and if a day I feel to ride 2 or 3 coasters I go there do my ride and go. But we are stupid, we are less than 5 hours away from GADV or to SFNE if we want to ride better rides

 

Sorry for my English writing I am a French Canadian.

[MixedDrink]

^ La Ronde?

A FAMILY park?

I don't think so.

It may be your home park, but my sister went to La Ronde in 9th grade..

and apparently, people cut in line.. the park is NOT well kept at all, and the Ride ops are jerks.

And over the years, I have heard this not just from my sister, but from friends, people online, etc.

That is most definitely not the environment a family wants to be in.

La Ronde is after all,

the forgotten park of the Six Flags chain.

[voyager43]

I am not here to fight over any parks but my last comment is the following. I have been in many parks and there will always haave people cutting in line in any park and for the proprety of the park it is not worst than any other parks.

[MixedDrink]

^ That still doesn't unmake the ride ops being jerks, the park being unkept, or people cutting in line.

Sure, people cut in line elsewhere, but from what I hear, not nearly as bad as at La Ronde.

[dandaman]

I found it funny that at Behemoth Bash, only the select few Canadians knew "what the hell" poutine is.

 

Doesn't look like a spectacular park, but a good photo TR nonetheless.

[gk]

^ That still doesn't unmake the ride ops being jerks, the park being unkept, or people cutting in line.

Sure, people cut in line elsewhere, but from what I hear, not nearly as bad as at La Ronde.

 

I can't say I really saw a line cutting problem at La Ronde. I've seen worse at SFNE.

 

My biggest problem with the park is that the operations fails in a couple ways - single trains on most rides (except Goliath), and ride operators that don't seem to care.

[MixedDrink]

^^ In Quebec they think no-one has ever eaten it outside of the province.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

What it all comes down to is what has been said time and time again. "Six Flags manages too many parks". IMHO if they only had to worry about their top 4 and original park (SFoT, SFMM, SFGAm, SFGAd, and SFoG) they'd have the advantage of building the infrastructure of these parks only and would not have to worry about smaller parks getting neglected. Not every park in the chain can be Magic Mountain or Great Adventure. The problem with that is however, when a park bears the Six Flags moniker, it falls into a certain category whether it wants to or not. People know the chain for being the biggest and baddest parks around. They got that reputation from the X's, El Toro's and Mr. Freeze's. When smaller parks lack high octane edge like that, even though they're still in the thrill category, they are looked at as "under performers", "bad parks", etc. I'm by no means saying that every six flags park needs an El Toro, quite the contrary. I'm sayin parks like La Ronde, Kentucy Kingdom, Discovery Kingdom, America, and Fiesta Texas Kind of get the red-headed step child from existing in the shadows of the bigger parks in the chain.

[MixedDrink]

^ Your completely right.

La Ronde is even neglected as a Six Flags park by the GP.

Because of it's name, no-one even knows it's SF.

[voyager43]

I agree with you gk and Bolliger&Mabillard good comments. I know SF will invest 100 millions in the five years which is nothing compare to the big park. We might receive one big coaster while the big park will probablely receive 3 or 4 therefore we can't compare.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^Which sucks for the smaller parks.

For example.

 

Six Flags Great Adventure from 2000 to 2008:

Nitro-2001

Superman Ultimate Flight-2003

Kingda Ka-2005

El Toro-2006

Dark Knight-2008

 

Six Flags Magic Mountain from 2000 to 2008

Goliath-2000

Deja Vu-2001

X-2002

Scream-2003

Tatsu-2006

 

Six Flags Great Americ from 1999-2008

Raging Bull-1999

Vertical Velocity-2001

Deja Vu-2001

Superman Ultimate Flight-2003

Ragin' Cajun-2004

Dark Knight-2008

 

Six Flags America from 2000-2008

Superman Ride of Steel-2000

Batwing-2001

 

Six Flags Disovery Kingdom 2000-2008

Medusa-2000

V2-2001

Tony Hawk-2008

 

Six Flags Kentuck Kingdom 2000-2008

Road Runner Express-2000

Greesed Lightnin'-2003

 

 

Notice any trend?

[Philrad71]

^Good point, but this park seems to just lack charm and the price is high for the quality you get. I looked at a lot of things and not just the size of the coasters and ride quality when I visited. Some of the things that people have pointed out with this park, including myself:

 

* Unkempt and not very clean

* Graffiti on rides

* Rude attendants

* Poor dispatching

* Several rides closed

* High admission price vs. other SF chains

* Quality of rides/coasters

* Overall experience

* Terrible food (excluding the poutine, of course)

 

I agree with some of the other posters that if this park was sold and perhaps had an independent owner, it could be a real gem. It just seems a bit...neglected.

 

I think that La Ronde is in a beautiful location and I really do love Montreal...it's a great city! This park just needs some help!

[gk]

^^

 

La Ronde

2002 Vampire

2003 Toboggan Nordique

2006 Goliath

 

I can't say that's too bad in terms of investment, actually. Sure it's not SFMM or SFGAdv, but that's ok.

 

Compare to Great Escape, who's only new coaster so far this millennium is the pre-owned Canyon Blaster.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^Don't feel bad. The park is saving up for a 550 ft. Intamin woodie with teired seating and a hydraulic launch after the mid course...It'll definately be worth the wait.

[voyager43]

I wish....this park is located on small island and there is no more place. They did some magic to add Goliath. It is one of the big reason why it is not 200ft it is because of the missing place. Next thing will be more a Superman Ultimate Flight or a floorless like Medusa and this if we get lucky.

[larrygator]

Notice any trend?

 

Yes, I see a trend. SF spent money on the parks that sold the most season passes and had the largest gate reciepts.

 

Their thinking was why invest heavily in a park that will never generate customers to recoup the expenditure.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^Good and true point. And as much as the old SFI CEO got nailed for letting that happen, I don't see Mark Shapiro doing anythinkg different.

 

^^A floorless coaster, maybe, it's a stretch but very possible. I'm convinced however that Six Flags is done with B&M flyers. The'yre really expensive and aren't reliabe as one would think.

[IlyRc]

La Ronde could still have ;

 

Itamin AG:

 

Giant Drop

Gyro Drop

Gyro Swing

Halfpipe

LIM Coaster: Twisted Impulse

LSM: Ball Coaster

LSM Coaster: Surf Rider

Mega-Lite Coaster

ZacSpin Coaster

 

Vekoma:

 

Big Air

Stingray

LSM Coaster (996)

 

Bolliger & Mabillard:

 

Compact floorless coaster like Insane Speed at Janfusun Fancyworld or Dæmonen at Tivoli Gardens

[billyb67]

I was thinking of going there in August but from this review and all the comments, it doesn't seem to be even worth going ...

[Medusa1861]

I just went this year. It really isn't so bad. I spent the entire day there and got on all the rides (Goliath twice and Monstre twice). It helps to just get a flash pass. I bought mine later in the day after i got nervous i wouldn't get on everything. But it was good for getting on the rides you really don't want to wait for (Tobbagan Nordique) when i saw that line, I knew... just have the darn thing wait in line for you. I actually really enjoyed the park. Goliath was running through trains really well. Monstre could've been better, but at least it was running two trains. But those two alone were worth the trip.

 

Here's one review you probably will never hear again. but hopefully they're still doing it if you go. Le Cobra, operating one train, went REALLY fast. It was as fast as if any other park was operating it with two trains. Keep in mind that it is a stand-up and the time it took for people to get off and on at least felt like less than 30 seconds. Later in the day they even added 2 trains. But at that point I was just too focused on getting on the rest of the rides.

[Franc]

La Ronde is my homepark and it's one of the worst parks I've been to...

 

Goliath is good. Vampire also ( batman mirror clone).

And Monstre (to me) is underrated.

 

But the lines during the summer are BAD. And the crowds are young (12-20) because the park is really easy to get to using the public transit. Lots of line cutting and smoking in the lines (which is prohibited).

If La Ronde is the only park you were planning on visiting; don't go. But if it's part of a whole trip with multiple parks; then go.

[HHN916]

I'm planning to be at La Ronde on Friday, July 24th and could use some help. I'm getting a gold FlashPass and will be staying at the Sandman Hotel.

 

1. Where should we eat in the park?

2. Where is the Mummy attraction located? Is it an upcharge? Is it on FlashPass?

3. Do they usually run both sides of Le Monstre?

4. Can adults ride the kiddie coaster without a child?

5. How far is the metro stop from the park entrance?

6. Any tips, tricks, recommendations?

 

Any information is greatly appreciated.

[Franc]

1. You should either eat at Vanellis (Italian), Cultures (Healthy Option) and absolutely try one one the Rolopan Crepes. Yes, the food is extremely overpriced. It's part of the overall enjoyment of a day at a Theme Park i guess...

 

2. The Mummy will be on your right when you get into the park, on your way to Vampire. It is included into your One Day ticket. I do not think that you can use you Flash Pass. (I haven't done it yet).

 

3. Sometimes. But they RARELY make them race.

 

4. No.

 

5. There's a free shuttle that will bring you to the entrance of the park. it take around I'd say 7 minutes (I never really paid attention but it's less than 10 minutes). If you decide to walk, it will take you about 15.

 

6. Have Fun!

 

If you have any more question, I'll do my best to answer them.

[larrygator]

On my two trips to LaRonde (last trip being in May 2008):

1 - I have not had a good meal in the park and ended up snacking on their fried dough snack (Beaver Tails) most of the time

2 - I'm not familiar with the Mummy attraction

3 - On neither occasion were both sides of Le Monstre running?

4 - Adults must have a child to ride the kiddie coaster, this is enforced.

5 - The bus stop is right at the entrance to the park (50 - 100 feet)

6 - Take in the coasters first. Many of the coasters get long lines, but you will have Flash Pass which is good. If the Wild Mouse is not on the Flash Pass system, get it out of the way early, it is LOW capacity. Although this is common sense, to avoid spending too much time walking ride Le Vampire and Goliath a couple of times in a row.

 

EDIT: I would not even have posted if i knew a local would respond so quickly.