Wednesday, 29 May 2024

Six Flags Darien Lake - May 25th and 26th, 2024

 On May 25th and 26th, my Mom and I made our annual visit to Six Flags Darien Lake! During this visit, I was able to get my Mom's Six Flags pass processed for when we travel again this summer.

While the weather was quite rainy on Saturday, we still had a great time regardless! Sunday on the other hand was very sunny and warm! Over the two days, I managed to get on many rides at the park, including the roller coasters. Be sure to enjoy the photos of our time at Six Flags Darien Lake!

Saturday, May 25th:

After a short two and a half hour drive, we were the first to pull up to the parking lot at Six Flags Darien Lake on Saturday morning of the Memorial Day long weekend. Luckily for us, we were able to cross into the US at the Fort Erie/Buffalo border rather quickly!

The day started with over-cast skies and heavy periods of rain.

Just before the park opened at 11am, the rain poured down causing everyone to run into the nearby shops.

After the rain had passed, my first ride of the day was on the 25 year old Ride of Steel! I was on the first train of the day. Ride of Steel continues to ride very well, offering tons of airtime as per usual!

After a ride on the Ride of Steel, I lined up for The Predator. During this past off-season, more titan track was added to The Predator, making it even more enjoyable!

If you look closely, you can see smiles on the faces of the riders on The Predator! The continuous additions of steel titan track are greatly appreciated!

Up next was a ride on the Boomerang!

The Boomerang rode at lot better than last August thanks to the recent re-tracking of vertical loop! Improvements likes this can make a world of a difference! I couldn't believe how smooth it was! No more potholes! 😂

The Pirate still offers an abundance of airtime! I was glad to see this classic ride saved a few years ago!

The Six Flags Skyscreamer had opened briefly before being closed down due to an incoming thunderstorm that lasted for over 30 minutes.

After the thunderstorm passed, my Mom and I walked around the midway, waiting for the rides to open. A lot of rain came down during that time!

While I was having lunch, the rain started to come down hard again.

As seen from the canopy in the Boardwalk area, you can see parkgoers riding Blast Off in the pouring rain!

While I really enjoy the Six Flags Skyscreamer, I would not want to ride it in the pouring rain as it would feeling like hail hitting your face at those speeds!

While it continued to rain, I decided to take a spin on the Bear Valley Bumper Buggies bumper car ride. Once the rain stopped, I then took a ride on the Six Flags Skyscreamer. Afterwards, I was going to ride the Moto Coaster, but it was closed due to a minor technical issue, so we walked across the covered bridge and captured this photo of the Tin Lizzy's. 

Earlier in the day between the rain showers, my Mom and I took a relaxing ride on the Tin Lizzy's.

As you may have heard, the Mind Eraser will be closed for the 2024 season as it undergoes an extensive renovation. In 2025, it will reopen with two new trains, making the ride experience a comfortable one as the trains will feature vest restraints! I am really looking forward to this!


In the mid-afternoon, I took a spin on the Tantrum. Luckily this year it is operating with two trains unlike last year, causing less of a wait!
It continues to be a fun roller coaster with its twists and quick turns!

After a ride on Tantrum, I decided to redeem some of my rewards points for a small dish of Dippin' Dots. With my points, I ordered a dish of Banana Split flavoured Dippin' Dots. It was surprisingly good!

Unfortunately during my visit, I did not get a ride on the classic Corn Popper, but it is great to see this classic Huss Swing Around still operating!

Just as we were leaving to our hotel for the day, the skies started to clear!

I really like the look of the new banners on the main pathway!

Here's my Mom and I just before heading over to our hotel in Batavia.

Hopefully the work on the Mind Eraser begins soon as it desperately needs some attention!

Sunday, May 26th:

Sunday morning was slightly cool, but sunny!

I started off Sunday with a ride on the classic Viper!

It provided a decent ride through its five inversions. One thing you have to remember when riding the Viper is to not get stapled in your seat as you can feel your spine compress as you go through the batwing inversion!

The trees around the Viper hide a lot of its track.

After the Viper, I rode the Moto Coaster. One can still never truly prepare for its flywheel launch!

The Six Flags Sky Screamer was offering a thrilling ride as the winds picked up in the late morning!

My Mom and I then took another spin on the Tin Lizzy's followed by a ride on the Grand Carousel.

Here we are before the ride began!

Given how smooth the Boomerang now is, I took another ride on it after a ride on the Ride of Steel.

With the temperature warming up, many visitors took a ride on Shipwreck Falls. It was quite odd to me to see the front row on Shipwreck Falls still being blocked off, like it was last year. I wonder the reason for that.

The Corn Popper is quite vibrant under the sun!

Many were enjoying a ride on Viper in the afternoon!

I was going to take a ride on Silver Bullet, but the line was too long!

Instead I took one final ride on the Six Flags Sky Screamer before we headed home!

Here we are before heading out! Thanks for taking a look at our photos of our weekend getaway to Six Flags Darien Lake! 🙂




Thursday, 23 May 2024

Canada's Wonderland - May 23rd, 2024

 What a lovely day it was to be at Canada's Wonderland for my second visit of the season! The weather was perfect and the park was not busy. Today I managed to get on a total of 21 different rides, with Scott joining me on many of them!

Be sure to enjoy the photos of my day at Canada's Wonderland!🙂


It was a beautiful morning as my brother Scott, our Mom, and I approached the park. The temperature was a very comfortable 18°C!

On our visit today, the landscaping team at the park was putting together the iconic floral Canadian flag on International Street as you enter the park. A fun fact is that the park opened on May 23rd, 1981, making the park officially 43 years old as of today!

My first ride of the day was The Bat! I always enjoy going backwards through the loop on the return trip!

After getting on The Bat and Vortex, it was time for Wonder mountain's Guardian, which is celebrating it's 10th year of operation this year! Where has the time gone?!?
From 2014 through 2023, loose articles could not be taken into the queue. Well, for 2024 the park has installed a bin system in the station, similar to that of Yukon Striker's bin system! It is a great improvement and works very well for Wonder Mountain's Guardian! 

A little while after we headed over to Action Zone to get rides on Sledge Hammer, Behemoth, and Backlot Stunt Coaster.

For this season, it appears that White Water Canyon has returned to opening at 11am daily instead of at 12pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends as introduced last season. Keeping the opening time consistent to what it has been for many years causes less confusion for guests. 

White Water Canyon has been operating at the park for the last 40 years now! It appears the park has done some adjustments to the ride including an improvement of the rapids (making them larger), adding water geysers before the tunnel, making the waterfalls shoot out farther than in pervious years, and adding replacing the buckle seatbelts with Velcro seatbelts. All of the improvements mentioned are greatly appreciated!

Since my last visit to the park, Viking's Rage reopened after its refurbishment. 

As mentioned in my last trip report, I noted that the refurbishment for Viking's Rage consisted of a new paint job and a new electric drive motor. The old hydraulic two wheel drive system was replaced with a single wheel electric drive motor system. The new motor system starts swinging the boat in an interesting way, but on a positive note, the boat starts to swing higher much faster than before!

After a dew more rides, I headed over to Flight Deck and Time Warp in Grande World Exposition of 1890 for my first rides of the season as I did not ride them last time. Flight Deck was tolerable today, while Time Warp was painful as usual. 🤣

The 2024 season marks 20 years since Time Warp (formerly Tomb Raider - The Ride from 2004 through 2007) debuted at Canada's Wonderland. I tend to ride it about 1-2 times per season despite how rough it is! Before riding it, I shared a photo of it on my Instagram story recognizing its 20th anniversary, tagging some amusement park enthusiast friends to come ride it 20 times in a row for its 20th anniversary. It definitely caused some laughter amongst those who I tagged in the story as none of us would ever partake in such a celebration given how awful Time Warp rides!🤣 A screenshot of the story is below!



After getting bashed on Time Warp, I took a spin on the Antique Carousel with my brother Scott and our Mom. While the Antique Carousel is beautiful, the floor definitely needs a good cleaning!

While in line for Swing of the Century, I noticed many small lilac shrubs had been planted around the ride where the trees were removed last year. The area will be very beautiful once they grow big!

Later in the day I took a spin on Tundra Twister. Today's ride was not very thrilling, but offered a nice view!

While waiting to ride Tundra Twister, I got a good view of the loading platform for the all-new for 2024 Moosehorn Falls water slide in Splash Works. They now have a good portion of the boomerang wall built as seen while riding Behemoth earlier in the day.

Behemoth was riding extremely well in the warm weather!

After a ride on Tundra Twister and another ride on White Water Canyon, I went to go fill my water bottle at the washroom nearby. I was disappointed to see that the water bottle tap installed last year (and was there up to two weeks ago) was removed and replaced with a basic drinking fountain tap, making it difficult to fill up water bottles. Hopefully this isn't permanent as the other tap was very useful!

As the park wasn't too busy and was mostly filled with school groups, we headed over to Kidzville to get our annual ride on Silver Streak. It is a nice family inverted coaster that I enjoy riding every so often.

One of my final rides of the day was on Wilde Knight Mares in Medieval Faire. While waiting to board, I noticed a goose resting on the roof on a building next to Wilde Knight Mares. I wouldn't call it a relaxing place to sit, but the roof is definitely away from everyone else! 😂

After another great day filled with fun and thills, we decided it was time to head out! Somehow the sunlight added a natural filter to our photo, which turned out rather well, making it kind of magical! 🙂