A Day in Canada’s Wonderland – My Favourite Things To Do

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I love amusement parks. The thrill of riding roller coasters definitely gets my blood pumping and the feeling of being high up in the air brings me excitement. So it’s no wonder that I happen to like visiting Canada’s largest theme park: Canada’s Wonderland.

It actually has been a while since I’ve been here. The last time I was here was maybe 1st year university with my family and before that I was a regular. No joke. I spent lots of time here when I was in high school specially during summer breaks. I remember my high school friends and I will coordinate our days off from our summer jobs and use that day to trek to Canada’s Wonderland.

My first memory of wonderland was in 2005 summer. Previously named Paramounts Canada’s Wonderland until 2006 when Cedar bought the park. The names of the rides, theatres, shops, and games were all Paramount films or related to the film company. I rode my first roller coaster ride here at 14 years old. It’s the Blacklot Stunt Coaster which had the name Italian Job: Turbo Coaster before. That feeling of adventure being on a fast vehicle made me realize I had a knack in ‘thrill-ness’ and enjoy being on roller coasters! Therefore, I developed a love for going to amusement parks and have gone to many parks around the world!

Canada’s Wonderland

Located in Vaughan, Ontario in Canada from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm during the summer. They also have a Halloween Haunt during halloween and Winter Wonderland during winter that starts in November. Even great is that there’s an app for the park which has all the good stuff like map, waiting times of each rides, washroom locations, and lockers.

They have daily admission tickets, day pass you can buy that you can use for any day, two day ticket, seniors and many more. For those who want to skip the lines, they offer Fast Pass for additional costs. They also got this good deal when you purchase a season pass later in the summer season, it is valid for the next year!

Yukon Striker

This steel dive roller coaster is the newest ride in the park. Opened this year, it has a 90 degree drop from a 68 metres ascent. It’s the most popular ride at the moment and holds the record as the tallest, fastest, and longest dive roller coaster with a vertical loop. The location of this ride was were the standing up Skyrider used to be. I actually had fun riding this one because the drop felt longer than usual coasters. Kind of like a slow motion but not really since everything happens relatively quickly. There are three rows of 8 per ride and if you can seat at the front you should do it. It’s definitely a different feeling of thrill and excitement!

Dragonfyre

This one is a personal favourite. Why? Because I like roller coasters with loops technically called in coaster terms as inversions. This ride has 2 loops in the beginning of the ride, a corkscrew, and a helix. Fun fact is that it’s one of the four original roller coasters though one of its original trains have been transferred to The Bat. It’s still a good old one that park veterans enjoy riding (like me) and even the new goers end up enjoying as well.

Behemoth

When this steel hypercoaster ride appeared in the park and started its operation back in 2008 when I was grade 11, it became my ride of the summer break. I got a season pass that year and frequented wonderland. My days off were weekdays which practically meant less people in the park aka less line-up time! There were times when there was no line-up at all so after riding, I’d just go again with my friends. It was the fastest and tallest ride in Canada until 2012 when Leviathan beat its record.

The seat is a bit insane for anyone who wants top protection because it has no sort of over-the-shoulder harness. You actually feel completely free. Scary feeling but it feels so good to be flying out of your seat at the drop. You’ll see the most amazing views of the park because of the no upper body harness that limits your vision.

Leviathan

Opened in 2012, it beat Behemoth’s record as the tallest and fastest ride in Canada and the ninth tallest in the world. This gigacoaster drops at about 91.5 metres that makes your stomach turn and heart pumping as you ascend slowly to drop. A typical estimated ride is about three and a half minutes with a speed so fast of up to about 148 kilometres per hour.

Swing of the Century

I love swings so whenever I’m at an amusement park and there’s a swing, count me in that I’ll be riding it. This ride brings back memories too as a dryer after enjoying water activities and rides at Splash Works. An easy ride to get on without you freaking out of any ascends and drops. Swing goes on a circular motion and as a person who doesn’t like spinning rides, this one’s an exception. It is one of those rides that I go whenever I visit a theme park.

Funnel Cake

A trip to Canada’s Wonderland is not complete without eating a funnel cake. A very typical North American food served in places like this one and can even be found at carnivals, fairs, and festivals. Funnel cake is a deep fried dough-kind dessert where the batter is swirled in a very hot oil to form a circle. Go get yourself a traditional one that has icing sugar, vanilla ice cream, and strawberries on top.

Though quite recently, from my trip this year, I discovered two more funnel cake flavours. They are Cookies and Cream and Canadian Smores funnel cakes! All three are available at Fightertown Funnel Cakes. I tried Canadian Smores Funnel Cake and it did not disappoint.