Canadian National Exhibition - August 20th, 2025

On August 20th, my mom and I went to Toronto for our annual visit to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto!

It was a great day to check out some exhibits, ride many rides, and have some food at the CNE as the weather was cooler, with a slight chance of rain, making the crowds rather light! It was a nice change as the last two years were quite hot and crowded when we visited.

Be sure to enjoy my photos of our day at the CNE! 🙂

Our day started off a bit drizzly and a tad foggy! The CN Tower was hiding behind some rolling fog off in the distance.

My first ride of the day was on the Sky Ride. Its a great way to view the Exhibition grounds. This year it is themed to Wednesday Addams, a series offered on Netflix.

As it wasn't 11am, the other rides were testing before opening for the day.

Here's a close up of the Crazy Mouse from the Sky Ride.

Here's another view of the midway from the Sky Ride.

There was a decent collection of rides supplied by North American Midway, with many rides that return year after year.

While the Gondola Wheel hasn't been the largest wheel on the midway for the past two years with the introduction of the Observation Wheel, it did receive a repaint as the supports were previously painted yellow.

The games and food booths on the midway were opening for the day as I got off the Sky Ride.

It was neat to see old photos of the CNE's past printed on canvases to cover up utility boxes on the midway.

At 11am, I got on the Outlaw coaster. It is fun, but was running slower than usual, with the brakes being applied rather heavily. I guess the rain earlier in the morning had a factor in that.

The wind began to pick up, so I got in line for the Swing Tower as it would eventually close due to strong winds later in the day. It is a fun ride as usual.

After a ride on the Swing Tower, I got in line for Crazy Mouse. The car I rode in didn't spin very much.

Up next was a ride on the 130 foot tall Mega Drop, followed by a ride on Orbiter.

North American Midway has moved away from paper all-day ride wrist bands to these small scannable cards attached by a tightened ribbon on a tensioner. The employees would scan the card with their phone when boarding to ride. Also, paper tickets are now more and can be loaded onto cards if you wish to use that option.

Up next was a ride on the classic Polar Express! It's an annual must ride!

Another must ride for me was X-Drive! This ride is now two years old and is still very thrilling and greatly unpredictable with its quick twists and flips!

After being thrown around on X-Drive, I rode Niagara Falls log flume. I always enjoy a ride on it, especially when the line is short!

After a morning of rides, it was time to take things a bit more slowly, by checking out the new display at the Withrow Common Gallery. This year, the gallery proudly displayed 'CNE in Colour: The Joyful Lens of Scooter Korek. Many photos fof the CNE midway from over the years taken by Greg "Scooter" Korek were on display. It was a very nice collection of photos.

After checking out the display at the Withrow Common Gallery, I decided it was time to finally get on the Dragon launched coaster in the Kiddie Midway. It was introduced in 2019, but always had quite a line in the past. It was a 'walk-on' today, so I got on!

While it has a simple oval layout, the tire propelled launch (with four cycles) was quite fun!

For lunch, we went to the Food Building. I had a burrito bowl from the Burrito Co. It was good, but I wish the serving was a bit larger for the price paid!

For dessert, I had some Gold Ribbon Ice Cream (vanilla/chocolate with caramel) from the Baskin Robbins booth. It was good and not too sweet!

After my ice cream, I took a spin on the Tilt-A-Whirl. It was fun as usual!

I eventually made my way over to the Euro Slide. For some reason, the mats didn't glide all the way down to the end of the slide. I guess the lanes haven't been greased in a while!

I've always liked the décor of the Haunted Mansion, even though the ride doesn't do much.

Up next was a ride on the Ring of Fire. I was lucky enough to get an end seat!

The Scrambler, owned by Campbell Amusements was on the midway once again. It moves quite fast for an electric powered Scrambler!

Also during my visit, I did the two fun houses on the main midway.

This year I decided to play a couple rounds of skee ball. Even through I didn't win, I came close! At only $2 per play, how could anyone pass it up?

Inside the EnerCare Centre is the 'Legacy of the CNE' display. It mostly focused on various aspects that helped form and shape the CNE over the years.

It's always neat seeing old photos and artifacts from the CNE's past.

The light fixtures within the display had photos from over the decades!

After walking through the EnerCare Centre, I got back on the Sky Ride for my second ride on it of the day.

Here's a look down on the Polar Express.

A boat on Niagara Falls was going down the second drop as I captured this photo.

After a relaxing ride on the Sky Ride, I joined my mom and headed over to the Farm Building to see what was on display. Here's a wonderful sand sculpture being made in the Farm Building.

There were many goats in the Farm Building.

After a walk through the Farm Building, I got on the Sky Ride one last time for the day. The Star Dancer was swinging around in the late-afternoon. I would get a ride on it before heading out.

The Mach 3 stands tall above the midway.

The splashdown on Niagara Falls log flume is quite the visual and not all that soaking, but slightly refreshing.

As I began to feel hungry again, we headed back to the Food Building. This time I went to Smash Burgers.

The burger and curly fries were seasoned very well, making them very delicious!

The midway began to get busier in the early evening.

I decided to have a waffle ice cream sandwich. They're very good and a CNE tradition!

I took another ride on Mega Drop. Despite its size, it is quite thrilling!

I also captured another ride on the Wave Swinger. It too is a staple of the CNE midway.

After getting on another handful of rides, including the X-Drive and Star Dancer, it was time to head out for the day. Here's my mom and I after a nine hour day at the CNE! We had a great day! 🙂

Canada's Wonderland - August 13th, 2025

On Wednesday, August 13th, I made my seventh visit of the season to Canada's Wonderland! It was quite hot and humid, so we only spent about 7 hours at the park. Regardless, it was a great time as I managed to get on 12 different rides! My brother Scott and our mom joined me today.

Be sure to enjoy the photos from my visit! 🙂

We arrived at Canada's Wonderland just after 9:30am.

Since it is now August, the promoting of Halloween Haunt is now in full swing as it begins in just over a month from now. 
New this year for Halloween is The Conjuring Beyond Fear maze, which is an upcharge attraction. Also new this year, guests attending Halloween Haunt will need to purchase a Haunted Attractions Pass to access the mazes, unlike in previous years. 
While some may disagree to make the mazes an upcharge to Halloween Haunt, I kind of agree with this move as it will possibly reduce the over crowding of the mazes and hopefully reduce the vandalism and mischief in the mazes that often occurs. 

To start our day, Scott and I made The Bat our first ride of the day. It was actually quite smooth today!

After The Bat, we headed over to Drop Tower. Drop Tower was closed during our past few visits, so it was great to freefall once again!

After freefalling at speeds up to 100 km/h, we went to Wilde Knight Mares. I don't tend to ride it very often, so it was nice to take a spin on it today.

With Leviathan's line being around 30 minutes, we took a ride on it! It provided a great ride today!

After an exhilarating ride on Leviathan, we boarded Vortex. The line was long, but moved quickly! I always enjoy the swinging on this rare suspended coaster! 

Afterwards, we went to Lazy Bear Lodge for lunch. For my first meal of the day, I ordered hickory smoked chicken with a side of chili lime corn. It was really good and not spicy, but sweet, which was great! 

After having a great meal, I walked across to Cookie Café and ordered a broken cookie ice cream sundae. It was quite good and had crispy chocolate chip cookie and ice cream cone pieces mixed into vanilla ice cream.

To cool off, Scott and I rode White Water Canyon.

To dry off, I took a spin on Tundra Twister. Today's ride featured a head dive towards the ground!

Scott and I then rode Mighty Canadian Minebuster. The line was quite long, so we used one of our one-time, single use Fast Lane passes for renewing our season pass recently to get on quickly. Our ride on Mighty Canadian Minebuster was just as great as our last with the retracking that occurred earlier this year!

While passing through Action Zone, I was surprised to see Chicken Shack open today! I am quite certain that it hadn't been open in over two years! 

Sledge Hammer was unfortunately closed today. Luckily it had been operating during all of our previous visits. 

With Sledge Hammer closed, we decided to ride Behemoth. It was filled with air-time goodness as always! 

While passing through Grande World Exposition of 1890, Scott and I took a spin on Swing of The Century. 

Afterwards, we took a ride on Antique Carousel with our mom. 

It still saddens me to see Grande World Eatery closed. I don't completely understand why they closed it down last month, but I guess it is to save money. Hopefully it opens again in the not so distant future! 

While we didn't ride AlpenFury today, I captured some photos of it, such as this one of the train passing through the skyflyer loop!

We made our way to Medieval Faire where I rode Dragon Fyre and then Scott joined me for another ride on Drop Tower. Afterwards, I headed back to Lazy Bear Lodge for my final meal of the day. The ribs and smashed potatoes were decent.

After a fun and hot day at the park, we decided to head home! 🙂