Jer
Strata Poster
I just want to start of stating that if all the stars hadn't aligned perfectly as they had, this trip would never had been possible, and I'm so thankful for where my life has ended up now to make this trip, and next years trip more than just pipe dreams. Anyway, enough with that stuff, onto the report.
This was my first time to Canada and only my second time out of the country. So I had no idea what to expect for the park, and for the country on my way up. I met up with Youngster Joey at his house the night before, and we drove up the same night, meaning I was in the car for a grand total of 9hrs all day (not including work before) Which means I was in a haze the entire time, so if I miss any details of my trip, well, I'm sorry Joey!!
(I would like to apologize for my lack of photos, I was taking on my phone that I forgot to charge the night before)
We got to the park at 9:30, 30min before it opened to the public. They had opened the area of the park with Leviathan early, but we decided it best to start at the low capacity rides first, wait for the crowds to die down, and more importantly give Leviathan a chance top warm up for the day.
Naturally, our first ride of the day was the Volaire, Time Warp. Now I had never ridden one of these before, my only previous contact being total spite at Rye Playland, so I had no idea what to expect, and honestly, It wasn't all that bad. Now I can understand where these would get a negative reputation, those cars were terrible, and my chin was definitely dislodged. Yet, it really wasn't that bad, and definitely not the worst in the park.
Continuing on the theme of low capacity first, is Thunder Run, It was an unremarkable ride, just a powered mine train. I did like the themeing in the mountain and it picked up some decent speed, nothing amazing though. Across from that we grabbed the wild mouse, and then headed for Vortex.
I was pretty excited for Vortex, it was only my second arrow suspended, my first being Iron Dragon @ Cedar Point. So I was excited to see what a real suspended coaster was like. I'll tell you what, I really enjoyed it for what it was worth. It was great, fun ride. I only wish it was a little bit longer.
From Vortex, we made our way to the kid's section of the park for Ghoster Coaster and the Silver Streak the family inverted coaster. Silver Streak was nothing special, however I really enjoyed Ghoster Coaster, It was such a fun family coaster, and of the few family/kids creds I've ridden, this one is definitely one of my favorites.
From there we walked back into the real park and rode The Mighty Canadian Minebuster. And let me tell you something, I thought it was just ****. If it wasn't rattling my insides to submission it wasn't really doing anything at all. Yet even though it was mostly awful, I feel bad talking too poorly of it, because it didn't really do much in the first place. After Minebuster it was a quick walk to Backlot: Stunt Coaster. I was also curious about these rides from when they opened, and other than a decent launch, and surprisingly powerful helix, it failed to impress.
Behemoth was next, and I had high hopes, this was my 3rd B&M hyper, with the other two being great (Nitro & Chariot) I didn't think this could go wrong. But I was wrong, i'm not going to say it was bad, because technically it wasn't. But it was just boring. It was trimmed to hell, and other than a decent first drop didn't really offer too much in the way of forces.
Once lunch was over, we headed for Joeys only +1 of the day, Wonder Mountian's Guardian. While I struggle to call it a cred, it really technically is. We both seemed disappointed by a lackluster coaster section (one drop) a pretty poor shooter (couldnt really see what you were shooting and the effects were pretty dark) and a deeply disappointing vertical drop section (despite being twice as large as Verbolten's it felt shorter) Overall, nothing to write home about.
I then broke off to ride Dragon Fire on my own, it was the only walk on for the whole day and I could see why. It wasn't the worst Arrow Looper I've ridden. But no, it wasn't good. Now there was only one coaster standing between us and Leviathan, Wild Beast. I was dreading this all day, I expected the worst, and you know what... It wasn't that bad. The worst pain I suffered was ramming my shoulder into joey's razor blades he called shoulders. The ride even had 2 pretty decent pops of airtime. So...good on you
Finally, Leviathan, I was hyping this up for myself all day. After the longest wait of the day we were directed to the back row, the last place I expected to be, and yet I would have wanted to be anywhere else. I absolutely loved this thing. It was smooth, fast, had amazing airtime, and hell even though it was short, the length felt just right for what it was trying to pull off.
That was the last ride of the day, since by then the Waterpark was starting to empty out and everyone was flooding back into the park. We only got one ride on everything, but to say I'm disappointed would be a lie.
My impressions of Canada's Wonderland are like my first impressions of SFNE. Its a pretty mediocre park, with one truly excellent cred to draw me back again, and I look forward to that day.
Stay tuned for day 2 of my trip to Darien Lake, where we find out if it's really that bad.
This was my first time to Canada and only my second time out of the country. So I had no idea what to expect for the park, and for the country on my way up. I met up with Youngster Joey at his house the night before, and we drove up the same night, meaning I was in the car for a grand total of 9hrs all day (not including work before) Which means I was in a haze the entire time, so if I miss any details of my trip, well, I'm sorry Joey!!
(I would like to apologize for my lack of photos, I was taking on my phone that I forgot to charge the night before)
We got to the park at 9:30, 30min before it opened to the public. They had opened the area of the park with Leviathan early, but we decided it best to start at the low capacity rides first, wait for the crowds to die down, and more importantly give Leviathan a chance top warm up for the day.
Naturally, our first ride of the day was the Volaire, Time Warp. Now I had never ridden one of these before, my only previous contact being total spite at Rye Playland, so I had no idea what to expect, and honestly, It wasn't all that bad. Now I can understand where these would get a negative reputation, those cars were terrible, and my chin was definitely dislodged. Yet, it really wasn't that bad, and definitely not the worst in the park.
Continuing on the theme of low capacity first, is Thunder Run, It was an unremarkable ride, just a powered mine train. I did like the themeing in the mountain and it picked up some decent speed, nothing amazing though. Across from that we grabbed the wild mouse, and then headed for Vortex.
I was pretty excited for Vortex, it was only my second arrow suspended, my first being Iron Dragon @ Cedar Point. So I was excited to see what a real suspended coaster was like. I'll tell you what, I really enjoyed it for what it was worth. It was great, fun ride. I only wish it was a little bit longer.
From Vortex, we made our way to the kid's section of the park for Ghoster Coaster and the Silver Streak the family inverted coaster. Silver Streak was nothing special, however I really enjoyed Ghoster Coaster, It was such a fun family coaster, and of the few family/kids creds I've ridden, this one is definitely one of my favorites.
From there we walked back into the real park and rode The Mighty Canadian Minebuster. And let me tell you something, I thought it was just ****. If it wasn't rattling my insides to submission it wasn't really doing anything at all. Yet even though it was mostly awful, I feel bad talking too poorly of it, because it didn't really do much in the first place. After Minebuster it was a quick walk to Backlot: Stunt Coaster. I was also curious about these rides from when they opened, and other than a decent launch, and surprisingly powerful helix, it failed to impress.
Behemoth was next, and I had high hopes, this was my 3rd B&M hyper, with the other two being great (Nitro & Chariot) I didn't think this could go wrong. But I was wrong, i'm not going to say it was bad, because technically it wasn't. But it was just boring. It was trimmed to hell, and other than a decent first drop didn't really offer too much in the way of forces.
Once lunch was over, we headed for Joeys only +1 of the day, Wonder Mountian's Guardian. While I struggle to call it a cred, it really technically is. We both seemed disappointed by a lackluster coaster section (one drop) a pretty poor shooter (couldnt really see what you were shooting and the effects were pretty dark) and a deeply disappointing vertical drop section (despite being twice as large as Verbolten's it felt shorter) Overall, nothing to write home about.
I then broke off to ride Dragon Fire on my own, it was the only walk on for the whole day and I could see why. It wasn't the worst Arrow Looper I've ridden. But no, it wasn't good. Now there was only one coaster standing between us and Leviathan, Wild Beast. I was dreading this all day, I expected the worst, and you know what... It wasn't that bad. The worst pain I suffered was ramming my shoulder into joey's razor blades he called shoulders. The ride even had 2 pretty decent pops of airtime. So...good on you
Finally, Leviathan, I was hyping this up for myself all day. After the longest wait of the day we were directed to the back row, the last place I expected to be, and yet I would have wanted to be anywhere else. I absolutely loved this thing. It was smooth, fast, had amazing airtime, and hell even though it was short, the length felt just right for what it was trying to pull off.
That was the last ride of the day, since by then the Waterpark was starting to empty out and everyone was flooding back into the park. We only got one ride on everything, but to say I'm disappointed would be a lie.
My impressions of Canada's Wonderland are like my first impressions of SFNE. Its a pretty mediocre park, with one truly excellent cred to draw me back again, and I look forward to that day.
Stay tuned for day 2 of my trip to Darien Lake, where we find out if it's really that bad.
