Canada’s Wonderland
Ontario, Canada
Cedar Fair Entertainment
Park News - (3/13/19) A couple of notes for Canada’s Wonderland… the teased new name for Vortex will apparently not be happening after all, as the new park guide still lists it as keeping the Vortex name. That said, a few other attractions have changed names, many reverting back to original names they once had.
The Wonderland Theatre is going back to being named Canterbury Theatre, Dragon Fire is going back to Dragon Fyre and The Rage is changing back to Viking’s Rage.
(2/21/19) While Obiter may be leaving Canada’s Wonderland, it looks like the ride could live on elsewhere, as a listing to sell the ride has appeared on ItalIntl, a used ride broker site.
(2/10/19) Canada’s Wonderland has confirmed to their insiders that The Orbiter is indeed leaving the park. The increasing cost of upkeep on the aging ride, which had been seeing low guest satisfaction numbers for years, made a pretty clean case for retirement.
(2/1/19) I’m told that something odd is going on with the Orbiter at Canada’s Wonderland. I’m told that the rare Huss Giant Enterprise ride hasn’t been opening until about 11am or noon each day in recent times. Now Amusement Insiders reports that sections of the ride are being taken apart and being taken away, along with part of the fence around the attraction itself. This makes many wonder if Orbiter could be leaving the park for good, or perhaps it is just being taken away for an extensive rehab.
I’m told that Orbited may be one of only three remaining Huss Giant Enterprise rides left in the world, and the only one left in North America. As of right now Orbiter is still listed on the park’s website however.
 2019 - Yukon Striker / Frontier Canada - (4/28/19) I was sent an interesting report from the Yukon Striker preview ride sessions. According to this source B&M has redesigned the ‘vest restraint’ system used on the trains to be looser on the riders now, and was not felt to tightening in the riders in mid-ride at all, unlike the previous vest-restraint design. According to the report this is the new restraint design B&M is planning on using going forward with future ride projects.
The station is also a bit unique, and features a new rider item storage bin system unlike anything we have seen elsewhere before. The bins are attached to an overhead conveyor system that moves the bins from the load side of the station over to the exit side for pick up. I’m hearing that this unique system works amazingly well and could set a new standard going forward, and you can see the bins in action in the Twitter post below.
(4/26/19) Canada’s Wonderland reports that Yukon Striker thrilled its first batch of riders the other day, as the winners of the charity first-ride auction took the park’s newest coaster for a test ride! The park has also posted a nice POV video of the new coaster in action while you wait for Yukon Striker to open to the public on May 3rd.
(2/17/19) Remember when Yukon Striker construction was delayed before installing the loop, and then a few pieces were actually removed to get work done and reinstalled? Apparently now we know why, as a photo was posted to Reddit from the construction site where it appears there was a mishap where a crane lifting track pieces toppled over. It’s all good now as the track installation is now complete, but this is a great reminder about the difficulty and danger involved in assembling these giant steel beasts we love so much. Thankfully I’m told that no one was seriously hurt during the incident.
(2/3/19) Good news for Yukon Striker, as Screamscape sources tell me that the removed pieces from the coaster had some work done to them and were shipped back to the park and reinstalled, which means that essentially track-installation work on Yukon may now be complete. Now they get to focus on the station, landscaping and get the ride’s systems wired up and operational.
(1/17/19) A new video from Canada’s Wonderland checks in on Yukon Striker this week via DroneCam. Thus far there hasn’t been much progress on Yukon Striker, as construction came to a stop without finishing the track layout… including the ride’s vertical loop inversion. We’re not sure why, but the latest video (below) reports that some of the pieces that were put in place for the vertical loop have now been removed, so perhaps there is some kind of alignment issue, or perhaps one of the footers needs to be redone.
(1/1/19) Coaster Nation has posted some footage from a special construction tour they were invited to take of the Yukon Striker project site. Follow the link to check it out.
(12/17/18) Footage from a behind the scenes tour of Yukon Striker at Canada’s Wonderland has been posted by Amusement Insiders late last week. You can check it out below.
(10/20/18) Looks like Yukon Striker was officially topped out yesterday as the tallest point on the ride (The top of the lift hill) was raised up into place.
(10/19/18) While I have no photos to share, a local sources tell Screamscape that Yukon Striker was almost topped off on Thursday afternoon, with the top piece of the drop (with the holding brakes) installed. There are just a few more track sections for the top of the lift and turn left to still be installed up there.
(10/13/18) The latest construction pictures of Yukon Striker posted to the official website show that the lower sections of the lift hill and vertical dive are already in place. The park shares a picture of this along with some construction pictures from the past as they prepare to start going full-tilt on this thing to get it up before the harsh-winter months arrive.
(9/21/18) According to a Screamscape source, Canada's Wonderland confirmed during an ACE event at the park on Saturday that the park's Vortex coaster (Arrow Suspended) will be renamed in time for next season in order to better fit into the Frontier Canada theme.
(9/10/18) A construction update on Yukon Striker has been posted by ParkJourney this week, where they get up close and personal with the track and construction site as part of an official tour and interview from the park. As part of the tour, they actually go down into the bottom of the tunnel under the lake as well, showing off how deep it does and what it looks like inside.
Special thanks to Park Journey for sending Screamscape some of the on-site pictures to share with everyone as well. Great work guys.
(9/4/18) The latest construction update on Yukon Striker can be seen below, posted by J-Forces, showing off where a lot of the brake run has been installed and looks like the turn out of the station heading towards where the lift hill will go.
(8/17/18) To finish up with the rest of the Canada's Wonderland 2019 news, I've added the official full animated videos from the park for Yukon Striker that confirm all the stats previously mentioned. Oh, and for anyone wondering, this will have the same new vest style restraints Cedar Fair used on Valravn instead of the standard B&M restraints.
The park has also confirmed that Yukon Striker will be part of a new land being added to Canada's Wonderland called Frontier Canada. The gold rush themed area was actually originally conceived the intended to be built way back when the park first opened in 1981, but was cut at the time. Now Frontier Canada will be fully realized and include several existing attractions within the new boundaries: Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Lumberjack, Soaring Timbers, Flying Canoes, Timberwolf Falls and White Water Canyon. You can even see some original concept art drawn up back then for buildings and signs intended to go into Frontier Canada.
(8/15/18) For whatever reason Canada's CBC broadcasting company posted all the details about the new coaster coming to Canada's Wonderland in 2019, saving us all from having to wake up at 5:30am to catch the details at the official announcement. They were even kind enough to post the full animation video to MSN.
The new B&M Dive Machine will be called Yukon Striker and feature a 75 meter / 246 foot vertical drop down into an underground tunnel before hitting a series of four inversions (including a vertical loop) before hitting a mid-course brake run, a little dip and into a final helix spin before hitting the brakes. Top speed will be 130 kph / 80.7 mph.
2019/2020/2021 - New Park Entrance / Parking Plaza - Rumor - (12/26/17) According to the latest rumors we may see some renewed focus on the expansion and infrastructure of Canada's Wonderland start in late 2018. If the rumors are true, at the end of the 2018 you may see park begin work on building a new modern Front Gate and a new Parking Plaza entry facility that will open as early as 2019.
I'm guessing this will be similar to what we've seen Cedar Fair build at Carowinds and Cedar Point itself in the past couple years. These projects add vital new infrastructure to park's ticketing and admissions systems, as well as create a new modern sense of arrival. Thing kind of upgrade has sort of been in a slow rollout to many of the old Paramount parks anyway as Kings Island also got a new parking entry plaza and smaller upgrades to the entrance and I believe a major upgrade for the entrance to California's Great America is also being planned for a future roll-out.
2020 - Hyatt Place/Hyatt House - (8/29/18) As we had been hearing for some time now, Cedar Fair will open a new hotel at their Canada’s Wonderland theme park property. Now we have a few more details as posted by BlooLoop. This will be a dual-branded Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotel with 203 rooms that is set to open in late 2020. Construction is expected to begin sometime in the first half of 2019.
(4/29/18) Remember those rumored hotel plans for Canada's Wonderland? They aren't a rumor anymore, as the plans for the new hotel were confirmed in a planning meeting. The new hotel will be 8-stories with 603 rooms and built under the Hyatt Place brand name, to be built on park property on Wonderland Drive near Rutherford Rd and Highway 400. Construction should begin soon actually, but I’m not sure if it will be ready for 2019 or 2020.
(12/26/17) The rumors for building an on-site resort project keep rolling in, along with similar rumors for sister park, Carowinds. The latest rumor claims that Canada's Wonderland is looking to open this project as early as 2020 and are in talks with design experts regarding the design and construction of the hotel, but Cedar Fair will operate it themselves, just as they do their own resorts at Cedar Point. Location wise, they seemed to have locked into using the back section of the parking lot closest to the Kingswood Theater near the helix on Behemoth, which is the same location we had heard about previously. No word on if they are still hoping to offer a small indoor waterpark section or not, though a small parking structure for the hotel was also mentioned.
(7/30/17) Remember that story about a possible hotel being considered for Canada's Wonderland? According to a Screamscape source one plan being considered would see a 150-room hotel built in the parking lot area near the Kingswood Music Theater that is expected to also include a small indoor waterpark that would keep the resort active as an attraction throughout the winter months.
(7/15/17) An interesting development just came up that would affect Canada's Wonderland and Carowinds and the two biggest up and coming parks in the Cedar Fair chain. According to a new article posted to BNN, an analyst at Wells Fargo sent a report to his clients on what they should expect to hear from Cedar Fair very soon. "Management expects to announce details on branded flagged hotel properties in Toronto and Charlotte by year-end 2017".
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