I went to Canada's Wonderland a couple days ago - the first time I'd been in about seven years. Last time I went was on a high school jazz band trip, and I distinctly remember it for a few reasons: 1) after having previously been terrified of rollercoasters, I discovered a new love for them and spent the whole day riding every one CW had to offer, 2) in keeping with tradition, I spent every second of every rollercoaster ride screaming and to this day I believe that my falsetto vocal range permanently lost fairly significant range, and 3) a guy in our group got caught sneaking pot into the park.
Seven years later, I was looking forward to rollercoastering it up once again, since not only had I never been back to CW after discovering this aforementioned affinity, I had barely been to any theme park in that time - the only other instance being our family's outing to Disneyworld earlier this summer. Disneyworld, though, only has a couple of rollercoasters, neither of which are really all that intense, so it barely satiated my thirst.
So I guess I'll try to remember the order in which we went on the rides to give you a feel for the day (because you're so heavily invested in my life) and give a quick review of each one.
- Behemoth - this is the newest rollercoaster, apparently, and also the one with the highest Terrifying Factor or whatever it's called. It certainly is pretty terrifying, especially that first drop. I couldn't go no-hands the first time, but after we got into the gentler parts of the ride I was able to let go and start air-guitarring and air-drumming for the mid-coaster photo (aside: my friend Ian related a story about a friend who had been on some sort of river-rafting ride somewhere, grabbed the canoe paddle, and air-guitarred at exactly the right place. Obviously he bought the photo, despite its over-pricedness. This story inspired me throughout the day.) Unfortunately, I didn't know where the photo was to be taken and didn't time it right.
- The Italian Job - Another one that's new since I was last at the park. It's actually called something else now because Paramount dissociated itself with CW, but I can't remember the name. Anyway, the calling card of this rollercoaster is that it goes 0 to 60 in some crazily short amount of time. Otherwise it's a fairly short and unimpressive-looking ride, but near the end it goes into a seemingly small building only to spend a much longer-than-expected amount of time hurtling through darkness. I enjoyed this one a lot.
- The Great Canadian Minebuster - an old standby, one of the two wooden coasters in the park. Not really a great ride, very slow line, but a must-do just to say you've done it, I guess.
- Skyrider - gave us a couple of firsts - first stand-up rollercoaster of the day, and first upside-down of the day as well. Short but a fun ride.
- Dropzone (now my memory is getting hazy about the order of things) - this was at CW the last time I was, but I didn't attend. It's gotta be the shortest ride in the park, but it's pretty fun. Also, the "Drop Zone Penny Trick" - whereupon a penny placed on one's hand/knee/other body part falls at the same rate as the Drop Zone because gravity - was explained (though unfortunately not demonstrated - they make you show your hands before you go up, not that that prevents you from getting into your pockets at the top) to me. Here's a crappy video of the trick which was at least better than a couple others I looked at.
- Dragonfire - I barely remember this one, I think I always get it mixed up with Skyrider... average rollercoaster, probably a loop or two, had been on it before.
- Wild Beast - the other wooden coaster in the park, nothing to write home about.
- Spongebob Moving Chair Movie - the last time I went in a moving chair movie was also at CW, and I think it was about dinosaurs. I'd also previously been on a couple when I was a kid at Disneyworld, and even though I was six or seven at the time, those were two of the few things I still remember fairly clearly. This was the first moving chair movie I've ever been on, however, that was also in 3-D. It was great! Possibly my favourite ride of the day (and certainly can be classified a "ride" - it was more intense than I was expecting). My favourite part was when Spongebob was trying to make the hamburger and then he lost the pickle! So the pickle flew out and it was like right in front of me! I tried to grab it but it didn't work.
- The River Rafting One - I distinctly remember this being my favourite ride before I got into rollercoasters, and it's definitely still up there. It's very relaxing in a couple of ways: it provides some stomach relief from all the violent rollercoaster action, and the various waterfalls and random watersplosions provide some much-needed heat relief. Ironically, though it seemed like I was the only member of our group of six who didn't mind getting wet, I was the only one who didn't.
- Behemoth - yeah yeah, I already talked about Behemoth, but we went on it again after dinner, and I really warmed to it. The first time was fun but dizzying, but the second time I loved it, especially since the sun had set while we were in line, the rollercoaster track was lit up, and we got a great view of the surrounding area (woooooo suburbs!)
Conclusions
- Were it not for the second ride, I wouldn't have loved Behemoth, but in the end it was up there with Spongebob and River Rafting for my favourite rides.
- I tried many variations on the Air Guitar in an effort to get a sweet rollercoaster photo, including Air Harp, Air Clarinet, Air Violin and lots of funny faces, but as it turned out, most rides didn't have the photo thing going on, and I guess I messed it up on the ones that did. Oh well.
- I was disappointed we didn't make it to Top Gun, which was my favourite one the last time, but that opportunity was exchanged for the second Behemothing, so it was worth it.
- We also didn't make it to Vortex or the Bat, both of which I'd been on before, so no big deal.
