Season Pass Sneak Preview Night at Canada's Wonderland- April 26th, 2019

Welcome back Amusement Views readers! It sure was a long and cold off-season! Luckily the cold weather has pretty much passed and the seasonal amusement parks across the North American landscape are beginning to open for another season of thrills and excitement!

During the Wintertime, the wonderful team at Canada's Wonderland was busy preparing for another amazing season with the construction of the World's largest Dive Coaster manufactured by Bolliger and Mabillard, Yukon Striker and many other improvements and changes around the park that are mentioned below.

The 2019 season at Canada's Wonderland has officially begun! While not my first visit of the season (as I had attended Yukon Striker's First Rider/Media Day Event two days prior), Season Pass Sneak Preview Night was my first visit with the public and fellow pass holders.  Despite being very windy and somewhat cold throughout the whole evening, my Mom and I had a great time! I was able to get on a few rides and also meet up with some fellow enthusiasts, Matt of CoasterCircuits and Tyler of  Wonderland Weekly for a couple of hours throughout the evening checking out all that was new for this year.

Be sure to check out the photos of my great time!

The crowds were growing as the opening time loomed closer. I had met up with Matt while lining up to get in for the evening.

Once the gates opened, everyone ventured off to Yukon Striker, leaving International Street quite empty.

Here is a close up view of the new for 2019 Yukon Striker as seen from the path between Wonder Mountain and Action Zone.

Matt and I waited for the opening of Yukon Striker, but decided not to ride that night due to the wind delays. Eventually Matt was able to get on it later in the evening. After deciding to not go on Yukon Striker, we met up with Tyler and rode Sledge Hammer together! I learned from Matt that he was able to get on Yukon Striker later that evening.

This is the area where Orbiter operated from 1981 through 2018. It was removed in February. A path has currently taken over its place.

A new Kingswood Event structure was built since the event tent was destroyed by an ice storm in April of last year. It looks quite nice and should be used by many school kids for musical performances for years to come.

Here is the line for Yukon Striker once it did open for the evening. It stretched over towards Antique Carousel and was reported to have upwards of a four hour wait. Luckily I had gotten 10 rides during the First Rider event on Wednesday!

Yukon Striker can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the Action Zone and Grande World Exposition of 1890 sections of the park!

The geese thought they were the stars of International Street. ;-)

After checking out the south end of the park, we ventured over to the North end. What's old is new again! A few attractions within the Medieval Faire section received their original names. Here is the Canterbury Theatre, formerly known as the Wonderland Theatre. It was known as Canterbury Theatre from 1981-1993.

One of Leviathan's trains going over the edge of its 306 foot drop!

The Rage has been renamed "Viking's Rage" like it was known as from 1981 through 1996. The new sign and matching queue line canopy look very nice!

Nightmares also received its original name of "Wilde Knight Mares" like it was from 1981 through 1996. The new sign also looks quite nice and suites this classic and rare thrill ride quite well.

Thrill Burger was renamed Kings Feast this year to better fit in with the Medieval Faire section of the park. 

While Drop Tower was closed due to the high winds, its restraints had received bright yellow covers.

Wild Beast has reverted back to its original spelling of "Wilde Beast", as seen on the new sign.

During Season Pass Sneak Preview Night Klockwerks' lights were not present. Hopefully this isn't a permanent decision.

The slap shot hockey game within International Festival has been relocated to the former Ring Toss game structure in front of Krachenwagen.

The old slap shot hockey game location will be the new location of the grab and go food market opening this season.

The Peach Basket game in International Festival has been replaced by a milk can type game.

Here's one of the two entrances to the newly transformed Frontier Canada section as seen behind Wonder Mountain.

With the introduction of Frontier Canada came a new sign for Vortex.

There are many photo opportunities for Yukon Striker!

Here's the final and fourth on Yukon Striker! It is quite impressive and huge when you walk along the nearby path! The path that goes along Splash Works was still under re-construction, so you could not get too much closer.

Here's a train full of thrill seekers exiting the second Immelmann inversion on Yukon Striker.

Vortex as seen through Yukon Striker's supports!

The new chuck wagon was on site in Frontier Canada. It'll be serving up hot dogs and sausages.

I held the shutter on my camera to get this somewhat artistic shot of one of Yukon Striker's trains entering the trench right after the vertical loop.

Jacob's Ladder was renamed Lumberjack Climb to fit in with the newly transformed Frontier Canada section.

The next few shots showcase Yukon Striker as seen from Frontier Canada, near the Kidzville entrance.

Here's the train entering the first inversion, an Immelmann.

Here's another shot of Yukon Striker with one of the trains going through the final inversion.

While taking a thrilling ride on The Bat, I happened to notice the beautiful sunset that was off in the distance. Once I got off, I tried to capture it through the willow trees next to The Bat. 

The wind had picked up while I was taking this long exposure shot of Wilde Knight Mares.

Here's my Mom and I after a great evening of fun! I had captured a night ride on Mighty Canadian Minebuster which was great as usual!

Here's one final photo of Yukon Striker in the dark! The train (and coaster track) turned into quite a blur due to the wind and the camera settings. Thanks for checking out my photos of Season Pass Sneak Preview Night! :-)

Season Pass Sneak Preview Night at Canada's Wonderland- April 27th, 2018

It was that time of year again where Scott and I, along with our Mom ventured to Canada's Wonderland to check out Season Pass Sneak Preview Night on Friday, April 27th, 2018!

This was the first visit of the season, so we really looked forward to being there. The weather was decent with a few light showers here and there, but it was nothing to dampen our spirits. Also, a few rides, including the new for 2018 Lumberjack and Flying Canoes were closed, but we still had a very good time regardless as the crowds were light in comparison to a mid-summer day at the park. During the four hours, I had managed to get on 12 rides, which wasn't bad at all. We greatly look forward to going back very soon, which by then all the rides will be operational once again!

Be sure to check out my photos below of the great time we had at Season Pass Sneak Preview Night!

We arrived at the park for Season Pass Sneak Preview Night shortly after 5pm. We were greeted by a freshly painted front entrance. The bright teal which matches Leviathan was a nice touch!

Speaking of Leviathan, here it is testing before the park had opened for the evening! 

Once inside, we made our way over to International Festival where we would wait for another 10 minutes for the rides to open.

Once the rope drop occurred, we had made our way over to see the all-new for 2018 Lumberjack. Unfortunately, Lumberjack was not open as it was still testing. But, the park sure did a wonderful job with the landscaping of this ride!

Here is a slightly closer view of Lumberjack. As you can see, it is very detailed with the two arms looking like axes which a lumberjack would use. Lumberjack was manufactured by the Italian manufacturer, Zamperla. Lumberjack comes from the model line of the Hawk 48.After looking at Vortex, Scott and I took our first ride of the year on Vortex, the park's classic Arrow suspended coaster! Vortex's trains had received a new mine train type paint job, which looked quite nice!

After taking a thrilling ride on Vortex, I wandered over to the White Water Canyon section of the park to check out the other new addition, Flying Canoes. But before I saw it, I happened to notice the newly expanded and redone "Canyon Trader" shop. This revamp definitely made the White Water Canyon section feel more like an old logging town than ever before!

Here is a look at the all-new for 2018 family ride, Flying Canoes. As you can see, Flying Canoes was still being worked on due to the delay caused by the ice storm which happened a couple weekends ago. But when Flying Canoes is operational, it will allow children and adults to rise and lower together as the ride spins. The Flying Canoes was manufactured by Preston and Barbieri, also of Italy. Flying Canoes had replaced the Launch Pad trampoline up-charge attraction which operated at the park from 2003-2017.

Beside Flying Canoes, the park had closed off the entrance to Action Theatre and placed more outdoor dining tables for visitors to enjoy. It looks like Action Theatre's time at the park is over. It had operated from 1994-2017.

After riding Vortex, we made our way over to Action Zone. Along the way, I had rode Skyhawk ( which had temporarily broke down while I was on it at the top of the tower), and Mighty Canadian Minebuster which we rode twice as the park had done some more re-tracking along some of the drops in addition to the re-tracking of the helix which was done last year. A ride on the Mighty Canadian Minebuster is quite smooth compared to a couple of years ago. 

In this photo you can see SledgeHammer was one of the few rides which were unfortunately down that night. We had rode the awesome airtime-filled Behemoth while in Action Zone!

Psyclone was also surprisingly closed that night as well! 

Riptide was down too that evening. But, it appears that during the off-season, yellow covers were added to the bottom of the shoulder restraints to keep them clean.

Here is a timeless classic, Spinovator with a freshly painted teal center piece. Previous seasons it had operated with a red painted center. Before this photo was taken, Scott and I had took in a ride on Dragon Fire, which was very good.

Drop Tower was also another ride that was unfortunately down that night...

But for obvious reasons!

Here is a train whizzing along the fan curve on Wild Beast!

Here is a somewhat eerie view of Nightmares operating as light rain was soon approaching.

A View of The Bat with its train going through the loop.

Here is a somewhat blurry look at the closed Shockwave. It too was unfortunately down during Season Pass Sneak Preview Night.

Here is a view (or a blur) of Thunder Run's train making its first round into Wonder Mountain, delighting all those who ride.

Here is Thunder Run's train again winding along the track as it makes its second round.

As the sun began to set, the lights on the rides came on. Here is a view of the all-new Lumberjack with its lights on. Throughout the evening, Lumberjack was testing, in hopes of opening on opening day (Sunday, April 29th, 2018). Lumberjack will send passengers head-over-heels many times as the two arms loop in opposite directions of each other. Below is a video of Lumberjack testing.

Here is Windseeker swirling high above the ground, 301 feet high to be exact.

Here is a view of Skyhawk operating into the darkness of the night.

Now here is the moment you all have been waiting for! ;-);-) What you are looking at is the entrance of the tunnel for the park's next roller coaster, which is believed to be a Dive Coaster. The tunnel exit is located on the other side of Vortex, ultimately meaning that this tunnel goes under water! It will be the first of its kind in Canada when it opens in 2019.

Here is a fancy shot of the classic Orbiter operating in the darkness of the night!

Here is another view of Windseeker operating way up high!

Here is a peaceful view of the Antique Carousel.

Here is the iconic Wonder Mountain standing mighty against the night sky.

International Festival was buzzing with activity as people were taking in the final hour of the night.

Here is a somewhat eerie shot of The Bat with its train passing back through the cobra roll inversion as seen from the queue line.

Here is The Rage swinging high, delighting passengers of all ages.

As usual, Leviathan draws quite the crowd, so much so we didn't get a chance to ride it this time around. But we'll catch it next time.

Nightmares looks much like a golden ring when operating with its light on at night.

Here is the Wonderland Theatre and the moon.

After a great night of fun, we decided it was time to head home. Here is Scott, our Mom, and I standing in front of the Royal Fountains.

Before we left the park for the night, I had captured this final shot of the Royal Fountains with Wonder Mountain in the background. For some unknown reason, the Royal Fountains were non-operational that night. Thanks for looking at my photos of Season Pass Sneak Preview Night 2018 at Canada's Wonderland! :-)