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Summer Roadtrip


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Hi y'all!

 

So this Summer, around the end of July, I'm planning to do my first "multiple park road trip." I'm sort of looking for advice, plan of attack, etc, from locals of the parks I'm going to, or honestly anyone really.

 

The order would probably be:

Canada's Wonderland

La Ronde

Great Escape

Seabreeze (maybe?)

 

I have a Six Flags Gold Plus membership (because my home park is SFDL) with a dining pass, so what should I do for Canada's Wonderland? Should I expect to buy a fast lane ahead of time? Also what parks should we go out of the park to eat for?

 

It's my dad and I (we're both roller coaster people, we'll ride anything haha), and we're trying to get on everything most likely. Wondering if any of the parks would be a two-day park, and what rides should we go to first.

Edited by DarienPoint
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The advice you get is more likely to be useful if the respondents know more about what you and your co-travelers enjoy.

 

For example, Are you traveling alone, with kids, how old, etc...? Do you like water rides? Do you want to ride every coaster or just the ones considered better or unique? Do you enjoy flat rides, spinning rides, etc...? Are you looking for food

/drink suggestions inside and/or outside of the parks?

Edited by larrygator
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Hi y'all!

 

So this Summer, around the end of July, I'm planning to do my first "multiple park road trip." I'm sort of looking for advice, plan of attack, etc, from locals of the parks I'm going to, or honestly anyone really.

 

The order would probably be:

Canada's Wonderland

La Ronde

Great Escape

Seabreeze (maybe?)

 

I have a Six Flags Gold Plus membership (because my home park is SFDL) with a dining pass, so what should I do for Canada's Wonderland? Should I expect to buy a fast lane ahead of time?

 

Honestly any advice would be awesome, as all of these parks I'm going to are a first time, thanks!

 

One thing to keep in mind when going to Canada is gas prices, gas in Canada is ridiculously expensive even compared to NYS outrageous prices thanks to Trudeau and his Carbon tax. Oil is $67 a barrel and Canadians are paying the equivalent of oil at $150!

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If you are at Canada's Wonderland from open to close you will get on all coasters and enjoy their excellent flat ride collection. However, you may not get multiple rides. The park is generally massively crowded on summer weekends. You will need Fast Lane to get on all coasters and multiple rides on the big ones. The food is not in the park but there is plenty to snack on (mini donuts and beaver tails). If you like typical park food (dogs,burgers,chicken strips) the one day dining pass or $32 is worth if you are in the park long enough to eat three meals. You can get more food after 90 minutes from your last meal.

 

La Ronde, operations are ridiculously poor and it is not uncommon for all coasters to have one hour plus waits on a typical summer weekend. Flash Pass is recommend for your own sanity. If it is clear you are American you won't encounter any bias from the French speakers, however, to do hold a slight grudge against English speaking Canadians.

 

Great Escape - The park is not an all day park unless you do the water park or have youngsters. The Comet is the only standout coaster, but Bobsled coasters are still rare, and this one rarely opens. The beer options are better than the food options.

 

Seabreeze - You won't need more than four hours if you can get on Bobsleds quickly. It is a slow moving line, but worth riding for its historical significance and it is fun.

Edited by larrygator
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I did wanna adventure around Montreal itself, I'm going into La Ronde with lower than low expectations lol, just gonna get the credits, ride my first Giant Discovery, ride Vol Ultime for the view, and leave.

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La Ronde is the Fuji-Q of North America.

Except Fuji-Q is full of rides/coasters that are actually worth risking a visit for.

 

Fixed? And agreed, totally.

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I don't hate La Ronde as much as most. Having to wait 2 hours just to enter the park royally sucked, but I enjoyed my time once I entered. I liked Goliath, Vampire, and their flat rides, but many rides were closed during my visit and that doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary.

 

As others have said, Seabreeze is a small park and crowds there aren't a big issue. The longest I've waited there is a half hour for the spinner and a half hour for Bobsleds.

 

Great Escape isn't a full day park. The park has a charm to it and the Comet is very good. I've visited the park a few times and only ridden the Comet. Alpine Bobsled is the only other notable coaster. It's a fun ride (and a rare one too), but it rarely operates (can't run in rain, can't run after 6, usually opens late if it even opens). Their water park is excellent though. Also I strongly recommend the awesome Around the World and Goony Golf mini golf courses in the village. They're better than Great Escape.

 

Canada's Wonderland has very efficient operations, but they can get slammed. Be prepared to buy FastLane if you want to ride all the coasters and/or reride the B&Ms. The merge points are in the station, so you usually can board in 5 minutes with FastLane. Just make sure to ride Guardian early since it isn't on the FastLane and has a dreadfully slow moving line.

 

If you haven't been to Fantasy Island, I think you'll pass it and Silver Comet is a nice wooden coaster.

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^ Noted, thanks!

 

I am planning to get FastLane/Flash Pass for both CW and LR, but we're going during the weekdays, so would it be slammed at CW, probably gonna play it by ear (or sight haha).

 

Yeah, I've lived here my whole life and never have been to Fantasy Island, I always was a Darien Lake kid (and still am).

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So in other words spent 3-4 hours just riding those two rides? :-P

 

I actually, somehow, some way, did get on Mind Warp, and you are right, it's pretty nuts. The cycle was just long enough as to not make me cry like a baby to get off because I started to get sick, but I'll tell you, the ride is awesome.

 

Did you at least ride the canoes? I used to work at the park and it was always fun "rescuing" people who didn't understand the concept of paddling properly. I wasn't sure if the water is still radioactive in the summer too.

 

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I'll probably try to hit up the park next weekend with a bring a friend free... I still don't think I could convince my wife to go there (unfortunately I told too many horror stories from when I worked there) but maybe your review of those two rides at least will help, lol.

 

As far as food goes at Wonderland, I'm not sure why it gets such a bad rap on here, they have some of the most unique food at the Backlot cafe that you wouldn't find at any other theme park.(http://cpfoodblog.com/park-food-guides/canadas-wonderland-food/backlot-cafe/) and then the hidden Muskoka Grill has a really good burger that they prepare on the grill right in front of you (http://cpfoodblog.com/park-food-guides/canadas-wonderland-food/muskoka-craft-burger-beer/) though they scaled back the options this year and the regular Burger is no longer on the dining plan I wouldn't be surprised if that got a bunch of backlash on that, though. Even in my 10 minutes of waiting there were a lot of people bitching about it.

 

The new peach hard cider in the park really good and refreshing. I'm not normally a fan of peach flavored things but it was awesome.

 

If you have any specific questions about Wonderland, let me know.

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As far as food goes at Wonderland, I'm not sure why it gets such a bad rap on here, they have some of the most unique food at the Backlot cafe that you wouldn't find at any other theme park.(http://cpfoodblog.com/park-food-guides/canadas-wonderland-food/backlot-cafe/) and then the hidden Muskoka Grill has a really good burger that they prepare on the grill right in front of you (http://cpfoodblog.com/park-food-guides/canadas-wonderland-food/muskoka-craft-burger-beer/) though they scaled back the options this year and the regular Burger is no longer on the dining plan I wouldn't be surprised if that got a bunch of backlash on that, though. Even in my 10 minutes of waiting there were a lot of people bitching about it.

 

 

Because aside from the aforementioned Backlot, it's an overwhelming abundance of the theme park standards: mediocre pizza, low-effort burgers and off the shelf chicken fingers... And I'm hoping they've changed it since early in the year, but they had removed the fountains from Backlot, so even if you had a drink plan/cup you either had to go elsewhere to get a drink, or purchase bottled... 9 times last year I wanted to try the buffet (I've heard it's good), 9 times they were closed for private event... Alpen Cheesery always closed, La Cantina I tried once, and the quality was worse than Taco Bell left in the trunk of a car for a weekend...

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I found out we could get a military discount ticket for $24 each at Fantasy Island a while ago, and today we decided to go!

 

The park is really nice! It looks very well kept, the buildings look pretty nice (I loved western town), and the rides are very nice! The kids area is a great addition for this park, it’s themed pretty well!

 

Silver Comet: A pretty good CCI! The back was better than the front, you get pops of airtime in the back rows without getting slammed to the side whenever it turns. I enjoyed it very much!

 

Crazy Mouse: Your typical Zamperla spinning mouse coaster, I got a pretty good amount of spinning lol. Was a little rough though.

 

I never got to Max’s Doggy Dog coaster or Dragon’s Flight for the credits as we got there a little late and it closed at 7pm. BUT we ended up upgrading to a season pass cause it was only $10 to do so! So that means we can come back of course, or go to Indiana Beach! Pretty cool!

 

Mind Warp was UNREAL. Watching it I was thinking “is this gonna be the first ride I’ll ever get sick on?” but thankfully I didn’t haha. Once it started to swing oh my gosh it was so crazy, yet amazingly fun! Absolutely loved it.

 

The antique cars are pretty cool! The bridge was nice, and I honestly prefer these over Darien Lake’s.

 

I didn’t eat here, as we ate beforehand and weren’t here for long, but I did get dippin’ dots lol.

 

Onto the photos! (:

036C8B16-4485-48AE-893F-9D0C26D0C406.thumb.jpeg.8b7fae9f569742c331c820dd4c5f4082.jpeg

Really cool that they have I Got It! here.

21AE2303-8EAC-49E9-A268-3DF7754BAEA5.thumb.jpeg.ecfc1b90e757031862436b3a64102c09.jpeg

Thanks for a great first time Fantasy Island!

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The Golden Nugget, nice theming for a restaurant.

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The park’s setting is so nice! Very naturesque.

614512EF-22E7-428E-A649-DFF9496A7CE1.thumb.jpeg.555225e428b4fb75808b189eb950e45c.jpeg

Crazy Mouse + the Ferris wheel, which was down for some reason, the motors for it were on the ground.

923A4EE2-5D3E-42D0-97A9-E6ADEE2C79F4.thumb.jpeg.20973eb96a83144f3d1db8414b13f3d2.jpeg

I love a good Zamperla Disk’o!

AC64E72B-9E90-4E41-A759-40A63814F90C.thumb.jpeg.e3ce6f7d964a72f641151188bb26f258.jpeg

Happy anniversary!!!

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My dad got this AWESOME shot! Mind Warp + Silver Comet at their peak and the Disk’o (I literally don’t know the name of) starting to run.

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This was a “next time because we just ate.” Lol

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Very photogenic!

D746D346-E89E-446E-9DEC-CE3055014C10.thumb.jpeg.82907c1b2bef906986d99f165cee990a.jpeg

I’ll say it again, UNREAL.

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Awesome woodie.

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Hello Western Town!

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UNREAL.

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It was a very nice afternoon here, hot + sunny.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Will do! Is there any sort of plan I should do for La Ronde or Wonderland? I know those two parks will be the busiest, so should I start from the back of the park, hit a certain ride, or...?

My home park is La Ronde, so I can try to help you! First, I would look if Monstre is open or not. If it’s open, run to it! It’s not a great coaster, but it always has the longest line in the park. Generally because it only runs one train of 20 people and the fact that it’s rarely running certainly doesn’t help! Toboggan Nordique, their wild mouse, attracts a lot of guests so I would get that credit right after Monstre. It’s right in the middle of the park, not too far from le Monstre. After that, hit Titan, their Giant Discovery. Monstre and Titan are not that close but they literally always have huge lines. Since Vampire (Batman clone) and Vol Ultime are next to Titan, I would do them right after. Then, I would get the Super Manège and Boomerang credits.

 

Oh and if you have time, try Demon. It’s a weird Mondial topspin and it’s awesome! It’ll be right in between the Monstre/Super Manège/Boomerang section and the back of the park. I would end your visit by doing Goliath (in the back of the park) as it has good capacity, Ednor, the SLC, not that popular as anyone could guess and Dragon.

 

I sincerely hope you have a fun time. I must say it’s far from being a great amusement park, but some of my visits are fine. It really depends on the crowds. When this place is packed, it gets frustrating because there’s no efficiency. If you want some help with your visit in Montréal, I can make some suggestions to you. Anyways, I hope I helped you and have fun in Canada! (happy Canada Day by the way ^^)

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^ Thank you! I'm most likely buying a Flash Pass so I hope that'll help me, I know Toboggan doesn't work with Flash Pass so I gotta do that first.

 

Also, how will crowds be?

 

Canada's Wonderland - Monday (July 15th)

La Ronde - Wednesday (July 17th)

Great Escape - Friday (July 19th)

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