It has been a few years since ACE had an event at Canada's Wonderland, and I was looking forward to it. a nice ERT schedule in the morning awaited me, on the Fly, Vortex, The Bat, Thunder Run, and Windseeker. But, before that, we were to have a trip to the observation deck of the mountain, closed since 1985 when they opened Thunder Run inside the mountain.
So, I figured we would be going up the mountain via the closed-off trail system that leads up the south and west sides of the mountain. Well... I was wrong. We were going to the top via the staircase inside the mountain!
So, your shutterbug here was anxious to take photos. But our park hosts warned, no photos inside the mountain. Damn. Oh well, their park, their rules. Probably for security reasons anyways.
So, I will descirbe the inside : it is mostly hollow. The area Thunder Run is in is completely separated. There are two distinct floors in the mountain that are mostly empty, except for an area being used to store all the old Hanna Barberra themeing. There was at least one mezzanine level that led to the Thunder Run area, and to the outside. The lower level was actually below ground level, and had a tunnel leading out of it to the south end of the park, so an 18 wheeler could drive straight in.
So, we climbed up the stairs to the observation deck, and from there I walked about and was transported back in time. Here are a few pictures from up there. Click on them for a larger view.
First off... the top of Vortex's lift hill
As you can see, the first piece of track is up! I can't wait to ride this B&M giga coaster next year!
So, we went back down after a while. Instead of getting off at the mezzanine level to go out, we went to the bottom level... where we were allowed to take a few photos inside the mountain, of the themeing left inside.
Canada's Wonderland is not sure what they are doing with these items as of now.. hopefully they will find a good home....
So we finished that, and began our morning ERT, which was dominated by repeat rides on Vortex, and then it was off for breakfast, and a Q&A with park management. Lots of questions about Leviathan, and even a comment on the ever persistant rumours that the park is moving out of town (and the answer is... not ever going to happen).
We then went off to enjoy our day. I was in a group of three Americans. One had never been here, and the others had, but very long ago. So we went off on a credit run. Got lots of rides in. Also took pictures of the Leviathan construction site:
Between riding, lunch, a failed attempt at an Amazing Race game... the day flew by and it was time to meet for the evening snack at Backlot Cafe. Coffee, cake, and trivia questions for prizes. Trivia was kind of fun, with lots of questions being easy for me, as I am a local. Finally, they came up with a hard one -- how many pounds of cement did it take to make Wonder Mountain -- to which I loudly exclaimed "Jesus Christ!", which got everyone laughing.
A couple more rides in the park after that, and it was time for evening ERT. Skyrider, The Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Backlot Stunt Coaster, and Behemoth awaited us. As we did Skyrider earlier, we skipped it, and went straight to the Minebuster. Got a few rides there, got a token ride on the BSC, and then camped out for almost an hour on Behemoth before nauseatingly stumbling off of it at the end of the night....and then making our way out.
As a finale, here is a picture of me and Corey before we began our final ride.....
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