Another Leviathan Update

I made my way back to Canada's Wonderland today for my final visit of the season there.  Got a bunch of rides on my beloved Behemoth... and also took some more pictures of next year's new ride... Leviathan!

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

This was my view as I drove in today :

Before heading into the park, I took a few pictures... here is some track:

...and here are some supports!

I walked around the corner, and what did I see?  The bottom of the main drop!

I walked around for some different views......

I then walked around to the front gate.  I noticed that the footers had come along quite well.  Here is a view in the turnaround area:

I went in through the front gates and noticed this sign.  I really hope it is not a sign of things to come next year.....

I then walked over towards Leviathan......

I went up to ride Dragon Fire.  Was very interesting, as Dragon Fire is literally in the middle of Leviathan's construction.  Track pieces and supports everywhere.  Here you can see the crown of Leviathan's lift hill:

 I did not spend too much more time taking photos, as I wanted to get my rides in... but here is a couple more :

At this point, I went around riding.  The park was dead today.  Every ride was a walk-on, except Behemoth, and that was maybe a 2-3 train wait.  I did a lap of the park, hitting my favourites, and then spent my final half hour camped out on Behemoth, finishing off my coaster season.

Now that the off season is upon us, I will still attempt to document Leviathan's progress whenever I pass by.  Should make for an interesting off season!

Leviathan Progress

I took a few hours out of my day yesterday to go to Canada's Wonderland.  As I told someone.... soon enough I will be bitching about the long offseason.

Got a few rides in on some favourites like Behemoth, Windseeker, Vortex, and so on. The park actually had some decent lines (yet still manageable) for such a cool day.  Somehow I think Sundays are a lot quieter this time of year.  I remember going in previous years on October Sundays and enjoying the park to myself.

Anyways, I took some time to check out construction on Leviathan.   Here are some photos.... click for a larger view:

This was my view from my parking spot.  As you can see, with the lift hill not even half done, it is towering over Dragon Fire.

I took the time to walk around the outside of the park, and snapped a few more pictures.

You can see in this next picture how the coaster will go right outside the park towards the main gate.

Here is where the turnaround will be, right in front of the entry plaza.  I hope that they can minimize the removal of the trees, as they have been there since the park opened in 1981.

Here is the view as you approach the ride from within the park.

The ride will certainly look imposing as you approach it!

Here is a view of the station area:

And now looking up the lift hill:

In my mind, I am already dreaming of making the ascent up this hill!  Anyways, work on this coaster is progressing along, and it won't be long before the coaster below is the second tallest in the park.

ACE Event At Canada's Wonderland

I am going to go out of order here today.  I know I have been slowly catching up on my summer events, but I am going to skip ahead to an event I was at yesterday....at my home park, Canada's Wonderland.

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

 The Fly:

 The Bat:

 Above is a look down at Thunder Run.  Below, looking over the northwest area of the park

 Vortex's lift:

 Looking south:

 Vortex:

 The start of Vortex's drop:

 Windseeker in motion

 Behemoth!!

 Flight Deck:

 Above is International Street..... below is Dragon Fire

Did I see some track there... could it.... could it be........... LEVIATHAN????

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.....