MisterSG1

Ok, I made this up as I went along so please bear with me, but here’s the tour I promised in these three videos. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 So there you have it, thoughts? I posted this while at the park.

From articles around here, it seems that absolutely NOTHING will change for the July 21st deadline of the border closure. The feds have moved the goal posts twice on this very issue, before they spoke of the 75%/20% (first and second dose) target, it then was changed to 80%/75% and now I believe a 80%/80%. These targets are entirely political and have nothing to do with science. Now we have the Blue Jays wanting to play in Toronto again, how the feds act about this will be telling.

Not to defend Adventureland, but they sort of are caught in a vice here. Any kind of serious tragic incident, unfortunately causes people to become less human as to avoid legal troubles that the greasy lawyers will take advantage of. As for ride ops, this exact same ride had a ride op die because they fell into the conveyor system, you think anyone there after that would even risk trying to approach the dangerous machinery of the ride, even if you hit the emergency stop button who’s to say that completely works. Maybe this ride needs a total rethink regarding safety restraints, but as of yesterday, Wonderland’s version White Water Canyon is still running. Maybe another option are emergency turn off valves that guests could even reach around the ride?

To further prove my point, this article was published in Macleans magazine yesterday called "The Best Summer Ever": The Best Summer Ever "Look around. Notice the lack of Americans? Thanks to the fact our Prime Minister is worried Ontario Premier Doug Ford might continue to say mean things about him, he has opted to keep fully vaccinated Americans out of Canada. Other countries are being slightly less timid. They, understandably, realize that fully vaccinated visitors, who test negative for COVID before and after landing, present almost zero risk to public health, while also bringing in billions of badly needed tourist dollars. So, the doors to France and Mexico are wide open, while Canada remains shut. No amount of angry gesticulating from the governors of border states or diplomatic wrangling from officials in Washington will change Ottawa’s mind. This is not about the science, or even the economics. Like most other decisions taken by our political leaders during this pandemic, it is simply about poll numbers and approval ratings." So yeah, this is Canada for you. I don't know why any of you would want to come to Canada's Wonderland when the majority of people HATE YOU up here. Personally, I think most Canadians are openly retarded on the matter and need some put into them. Particularly about how geopolitics actually works. Most Canadians will then deflect and say "We burned down the White House in 1814", which is a totally incorrect statement for many reasons. The Burning of Washington was done by a unit which sailed from Britain, it has nothing to do with those that lived in Upper or Lower Canada.

I’m wondering this in light of negative events at other theme parks. At Canada’s Wonderland in 2003, there was a shooting in the parking lot on Mother’s Day over a drug deal or something. But after that incident, Wonderland introduced random wand checks after guests walked through the turnstiles. Later that summer they had introduced metal detectors that surrounded the whole front gate area. (KI had the same when I visited in 2004) Sometime later on, in 2007 or so, these metal detectors were moved to the current spot of right before the admissions associate. Wonderland also beefed up security in the parking lot by introducing emergency alarm buttons that I usually associate with university campuses. My question is, did KI introduce metal detectors around the same time, and how about CF at the time, what was their policy. As we were Paramount Parks at the time.

This is why you should never never EVER go on the rides at these carnivals/fairs. Of course the carnies are going to cut corners anyway they can. This applies to any fair, a small one all the way to something like the Ohio State Fair or CNE.

I don’t mean to be smart, but Canadians being nice is but a facade, look at how some reacted to seeing US plates around last year, cars were often keyed and drivers confronted. https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5634534 Just read the comments and you see what I mean.

Moreso in response to Shaggy’s long post initially, although I grew up in Canada’s Wonderland’s HB land, let me mention something as a millennial. The problem there as a very young kid, next to Fred Flintstone and possibly Barney Rubble, I was pretty clueless on who anyone was. My parents who are both born in the second half of the baby boomer period probably enjoyed it more than me. When they said, “Look, it’s Barney”, I thought back then they were speaking about someone who let’s just say looks more like Dino. I do recall very very long ago, being afraid of the Jabberjaws mascot as he ate the hat right off my head, you may think it’s funny but it was terrifying for me. And I agree with points such as kids would understand rides as for example, the planes, the trains, the cars, the balloons, and so on. Outside of the kids area, I’m sure most guests over the years could probably refer to a ride by its in park name, for example Shake, Rattle, and Roll is not easily describable by a noun such as “bumper cars” or “swings”. Only park enthusiasts would know what that ride is actually called. For example, Wonderland used to have an Eyerly Monster called “Shiva’s Fury”, some called it by its name, and others called it by “octopus”, but only true park enthusiasts would know that it is technically called a Monster. But I got ahead of myself, when I was a kid, it was about the rides and really HB was an afterthought. I only ever saw Scooby Doo on TV when we were introduced to Teletoon in 1997. (kind of like a Canadian version of Cartoon Network) Most importantly, even since then, look at how TV has changed over the years from this period. When I was a kid, the main networks, even canadian networks had before and after school programming blocks. Bugs and Tweety on Global TV was a 5pm staple In Canada for many years on Saturday. There were Looney Tunes shorts on every day in these morning programming blocks I’m speaking of. Nowadays none of that exists, in the US this happened because of E/I requirements, and eventually canadian networks phased out cartoons as well. Forget HB, I’d say most kids these days don’t even know who Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner are, which makes me think “Space Jam Legacy” is more intended for people who grew up with the original 25 years ago. If there’s any kind of irony in all this, it’s that Peanuts probably have the best accessibility in this day and age compared to HB or Looney Tunes. In fact, to this day, the classic Peanuts specials still air on network TV for everyone to enjoy, like The Great Pumpkin, or the Thanksgiving special, and of course the Christmas Special. It was awesome seeing Charlie Brown dressed up like he is in that special at Winterfest and his pathetic but lovable Christmas tree. As for reminiscing for Nickelodeon, let’s be honest, that entire period was simply a flash in the pan, kids may remember taking their picture with Dora and Diego but not much more. HB has been at both Wonderland and KI until the mid 2000s so there’s a different effect of nostalgia there. One final note, as for Beastie….Woodstock, whatever. In Wonderland although there has been different names over the years, that identical ride has always been known as “Ghoster Coaster” since the beginning 40 years ago.

The situation doesn’t look good with the border. https://globalnews.ca/news/8013469/unvaccinated-tourists-canada-trudeau-covid/ In that caption underneath Trudeau’s pic is something I personally find disturbing. “Trudeau also says unvaccinated foreign tourists must still follow strict COVID-19 rules and the government will first focus on a plan for what fully vaccinated visitors will be allowed to do in Canada.” So, am I to believe that there will be a special list of rules for what tourists CAN do in Canada, and if one gets caught, an immediate arrest and deportation? I’ve never in my life seen Canada behave like this and it has never done it before in history. One such rule could be and this is speculation that visitors can’t go to theme parks. I’m sure Canada’s Wonderland wouldn’t snitch and would be incredibly grateful for any kind of business, as would most likely 99% of restaurants (possibly more) out there. Global News is the only source where I can find this possible situation for rules for visitors. Also worth noting is the political situation in Canada right now, any time, a leading government can dissolve a sitting parliament and cause an election and some are saying this will happen in fall. If this does happen, as like what happens with all elections, government activity would stall and there would be no progress on the border opening for at least 3 months at best. What this pandemic really shows is the actual true nature of the laughable so called “world’s longest undefended border”, despite the extreme similarity between us, it’s amazing that practically no harmonization of rules at all exists at that border. In fact, the reason we have sports leagues which have teams in Canada is because a century ago, cross border business was probably easier to do, pro sports were thrown in as exemptions when the border thickened over the years.

I can do it as I’m going to the park next Thursday evening again if you want to see me explain it.

Now first, in reply to Honorarius, did Wonderland ever own the land all the way south to Rutherford, sure they own that piece that the access road sits on, but the area where the subdivision now sits, was that theirs at one point? For the record, I believe the subdivision was constructed and opened in 1999 or 2000. The way I understand Kings Dominion, as I’ve never been there, the layout there is less like that of Kings Island and Wonderland, as in Kings Dominion, what should be the area where Planet Snoopy is doesn’t exist as a public area of the park. An entire quadrant doesn’t exist at KD. Remember that KECO first built the first part of Splash Works, the bridges over the minebuster were done by Paramount later on as I stated in an earlier post. I don’t think Splash Works wouldn’t have been a problem if it was contained entirely on the opposite side of the minebuster, more space could have been opened up. As for original theming, the “Expo” section of the theme park would like to have a word with you, besides the flags and the big globe, this area has completely lost its theming, heck only two of the rides in today’s Action Zone were Expo natives. While CF has done a good job at reintroducing the theming time Medieval Faire, Expo would be a bit more tricky as it would require retheming if practically every ride in that section.

In Wonderland’s case, Frontier Canada was supposed to occupy the upper left portion of the park map, with the Mighty Canadian Minebuster being the centrepiece of this area, this area never got built, and SkyRider was added to the area in 1985 followed by the first phase of Splash Works which opened in 1992, As I understand, the construction of both the west and east bridges, first built in 1996 and 1999 respectively made alterations to the Minebuster’s track layout. Anyways, I wonder if Frontier Canada was built, how would splash works exist, would it exist? Perhaps they could have built splash works entirely on the other side of the minebuster? Or maybe just maybe, they could have built a separate water park where the hospital sits today. Honorarius knows more about this than me but I’m sure wonderland owned that land immediately north of Major Mack until recently when it was sold for the hospital. Maybe a water park could have been built up there, but this is all fantasy now. That being said, I wonder which amount of land actually belonged to wonderland over the years, did they own everything down to Rutherford at one point, or did they always own the land closer to Major Mack only?

How come?

Just a question, how long have you been going to wonderland, just wondering so I can discuss more possible things in the wish list. Moreso, how familiar are you with the history of what we now call Action Zone. Many of your points relate to it. 1. I agree with you, this place needs a replacement. 2. We may differ on this one, as I’ve said a lot, I have strong disdain for the 2004 season as this is when Time Warp was added, this replaced two great family rides, an Eyerly Monster and Mack Sea Storm. I wish we could get these two rides back as Lara Croft isn’t even a quarter of what these rides were. As for Flight Deck, my dream would be to return this to a newer log flume ride. 3. I don’t know much about this topic to make an opinion. 4. Do you want an actual toll plaza like at Kings Island? Funny we say this as toll plazas have disappeared in New York State. Do you want a different access road? The new Vaughan hospital terminal which I’ve never seen actually better serves Wonderland than the hospital, it would make sense to me if they rerouted wonderland transit into this new terminal. As it stands I think they are using both terminals. I don’t know if this new terminal exists to be honest yet because YRT doesn’t acknowledge it on their maps. But anyways, I’d like to see a nice promenade that leads from the bus terminal into the front gate so to speak. I’ve had pipe dreams of the subway being extended up there and this being an underground passageway from the station to the front gate area. 5. I’m not sure if Wonderland wants to go that route as they have somewhat rethemed KidZville into an extension of Frontier Canada for the little ones. This one section here from roughly the KidZville station train ride to the edge of KidZville has had a complicated history with theming over the years, I know, I remember walking through the Smurf Cave as a very young kid. However, they have done a good job at retheming the Bedrock and later Nick Central area into an expanded Planet Snoopy, with the addition of all the newer rides there it feels like a continuous section now. Again, I’m not sure how much you know the history of the bedrock area but it’s something I like to discuss going further. Finally, as for washrooms, in my humble opinion the main area that’s not served well by them is international festival, if it were possible to have one close to where that funnel cake shop is in that area it would help, as the nearest washrooms from that area are the ones inside the mountain.

To compare it to Knott’s, personally I think the more obvious comparison is to Kings Island. Heck it practically is Kings Island #3, after the original, Kings Dominion which is the second park they built and then Wonderland (which theoretically could have been called Kings Wonderland). Wonderland has the same “Taft” layout as both Island and Dominion, so I think it’s kind of unfair to compare it to Knott’s. Let’s not also forget the important connection to Cincy’s Coney Island, while not the exact same rides, both the Wilde Beast and Minebuster take inspiration from the two legendary wooden coasters at Coney. (Yes, inspiration, the jumps on shooting star are much higher than wonderland’s humps from videos I seen) As for Wonderland itself, to say it’s maxed out is an understatement, some areas of the park with coaster tracks now almost resemble giant bead mazes, how Leviathan’s piers are higher than Dragon Fyre, and how Yukon Striker comes into very close proximity of Vortex and Timberwolf Falls. Wonderland has only removed one roller coaster so far, the SkyRider which as the same ride as the King Cobra you once had. In my personal opinion, I personally don’t want to see the Coney coasters replaced because of the sentimental value they hold. Some quick ideas for redevelopment, maybe eliminate Speed City Raceway with a new attraction. Maybe removal of Kingswood as it’s practically used for nothing. Personally I’d like to see Flight Deck removed and a water flume be reintroduced to the space, I still say that was Paramount’s most boneheaded move.

Yes, Honorarius, the hospital is in fact operational. But remember my comment about NIMBYism, I wonder if patients at the hospital will complain from Leviathan’s noise. In downtown Toronto you see those “Hospital Quiet” signs on the streets (I wonder if that’s directed to drivers or pedestrians). As for Wonderland Pizza Pizza, I’m not sure of this but do they not use ovens but rather the conveyor belts like seen at the major US chains? I know the access road may not have seen that bad to you, but compared to the condition of roads in the GTA is very subpar. As for masks, I understand what you say is the actual policy, but I like many other guests understood at first that the rules were “Masks must be worn at all times except while eating” This was not the case thankfully. Considering the lame excuse Wonderland made regarding poor shows and merchandise I recall back in 2004, I wasn’t surprised at all to see no merchandise this year. Back then if you recall, park management basically told everyone that entertainment would be lower quality because of the lost revenue the previous year due to SARS. Another friend of mine who’s a big wonderland fanatic told me long before covid hit that 2003 was a particularly bad year for Wonderland. So that’s what I’m basing my reasoning on. As for preferred parking, I parked right next to one of the jersey barriers, let’s just be thankful those kind of jersey barriers weren’t use in lockdowns to restrict regional travel.

A friend of mine who is a ride op claims they occasionally move him to admissions, but never to areas like food or games. At wonderland, if I recall, a games associate is not allowed to ever play the games as a guest. So this creates some sort of minor headaches I believe if a food associate was assigned to games for instance. When I worked at Haunt we had the option of being in food if we wanted, but this was all well in advance, it wasn’t like “Today, you are going to be placed in Alphorn Funnel Cakes making funnel cakes” when we showed up.

Honoraius this is mostly in response to you and quoting everything on an iPhone would be a lengthy procedure. First, as I assume you used the Jane Street entrance to get into the park as you came from the North, the access road into the park from Hwy 400 and Rutherford is in bad shape, vegetation is growing and the road is cracking clearly with ruts like a washboard. Wonderland needs to fix this as soon as they can. It’s not their fault as what do you expect from a Park that’s forced to be closed. Mask enforcement will be tricky, I entered the park thinking that masks must always be worn except when eating/drinking but that wasn’t the case. They did say masks had to be worn in tight spaces like the entrance gate to Medieval Faire which I’m sure you saw. As for masks on rides, is there a definitive reason why this is compulsory. As rows and cars on all rides that are less than six feet apart are closed off if in theory should be no different than two people sitting on their balconies in condos. Is the reason for this because people may cough while on the ride possibly exposing the next rider? Staffing, remember that as I understand, I worked at Wonderland as a maze usher a few years back during Haunt and I was tied completely to the entertainment department. Wonderland workers can’t be shifted like baseball players, the games associates couldn’t simply be moved to food as I understand. Speaking of my experience of food, at the I Street Tim’s, service there was slow, but the people I assume were new. Surprisingly they willingly took my suggestion of opening the left door immediately. The KidZVille Pizza Pizza had a line that reached the outer switchback but wasn’t long, was completely served within 5 minutes. (There’s just something about Wonderland Pizza Pizza I like better than the real thing) Most of the food places looked to be open where I was, at least that was the case in the two kids areas. As for merch, I never visited stores but put yourself in their shoes. Twice in Ontario the metaphorical carpet was yanked away from restaurant owners by the so called doctors at Queen’s Park. This happened as we all thought things were getting better. Who’s to say the new thing they come up, the so called Lambda variant is vaccine resistant. It won’t take long to yank the carpet away from Wonderland. As you and I both know, eating inside has been continuously forbidden in Toronto and Peel Region (where I live) since November, Based on prior attitudes, there’s an incredible amount of risk on investing on interesting merchandise just if Doug Ford wants to lock us down again. Did they take your temperature going in?

For some reason my earlier message isn’t showing up as posted.

So, I came back today with the little one and his parents. And I was surprised how smoothly most things went. I was expecting the toll plaza to resemble a border crossing and to be questioned right there about the visit and reservation information. But it wasn’t the case, simply showed my Gold Pass and we got in like any other day in 2019. I was expecting to have temperature taken but only after crossing security, did we have to prove our reservation. Afterwards, while they get photos in front of the Royal fountains and bridge, I stepped into the international Street Tim Hortons. This was the first of many “growing pains” I noticed there. The entrance to Tim’s is a double door and the left door leads into the queue complete with two switch backs. Yet they had the right door open only, I made a suggestion that they should just open the left door as it leads directly into queue. While I thought we needed masks on at all times, around this time I was told guests only need to wear masks while in ride queues, on rides, and inside shops. In Planet Snoopy, I noticed that ride lineups weren’t exactly abnormal considering that guests had to social distance, but the ride ops appeared to be having growing pains, as in “traffic jams” happening on Wonderland’s swan ride where four or more swans were stuck at the end waiting to be cleared. I noticed this was happening on many rides, with incredible long times between some cycles to sanitize. I understand this is the first day so people are getting it together so I assume they’ll have a better plan as the summer rolls on. As for food lineups there wasn’t really any problems whatsoever with that. As he was a little one and it was a really hot day, air temperature alone was around 34C or just over 90F we never lasted long. Honoraius will most likely have a better story of how events transpired as I was confined to Planet Snoopy and KidZville. My only real complaint was of the music played. I know this is a contentious issue at Kings Island, but I found the music especially on I Street to be loud. On top of that, they had an over the top CANCON (Canadian Content) list of songs to the effect that I heard two songs completely in French. So yeah, when you hear Glass Tiger, Corey Hart, and Sarah McLachlan songs at the park, it seems more of an obligation to play these songs by someone. I know Wonderland has been wanting to embrace the “Canada” in its name in recent years which I kind of see as somewhat pointless. For the record I was never a fan of shoehorning Frontier Canada into the park.

For starters, the position of the freeway to the park is opposite to what it is at Kings Island. While both parks are east of Hwy 400 and I-71, Wonderland has its “back” facing the highway while Kings Island has the parking lot next to the highway. Coming from a distance the WindSeeker is close to the road.

Would be one friggin tall wall if that were the case….

I will be going to the park next Monday with a relative (they have a young one) and thus I will see how the park will run. So how will it work, will the park be silent? As in no music at all. I know masks are required at all times in the park but knowing Wonderland Security, they might turn a blind eye. My fear of that is not the virus but the angry health enforcers taking matters and shutting the park down. Also cue the NIMBYs who will be back complaining about the roar of Leviathan despite knowing they bought a house/condo next to a theme park/ (which leads to my only complaint, in my opinion, WindSeeker should have only steady lights as it runs at nighttime, that thing is a huge distraction for motorists on Hwy 400.)

Watch what you say or you will be called something that starts with the eighteenth letter of the alphabet. But nevertheless I see your point.

There is a border update today (but nothing really substantial) On July 5, fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents can skip the 14 day quarantine provided they are fully vaccinated. However, proof of a covid test before entering Canada as well as a covid test administered at the border crossing will still be in effect. (I assume this means there still is a quarantine in a way, in that you must quarantine until a negative result comes back) As it stands, this does not change the situation for tourists. I do however think this decision is mostly political, as the Liberal Party since the 1960s has been staunchly anti-American. Elsewhere in Canada, Saskatchewan will join Alberta in eliminating restrictions on July 11 I believe.