Canada’s Wonderland

Anyone who grew up near Toronto probably knows about Wonderland, Canada’s first major theme park. It still holds the title as the theme park outside of the United States with the most roller coasters (15 in total, with another being built as you read this!) Garrett scored us free tickets this year (gotta love free!) and we decided to make the most of it.

The whole park is centred around a large fake mountain which has a roller coaster inside of it, diving shows on the outside and at one point you could even go behind the waterfalls.

Its a tradition to take your photo in front of the large Canadian flag made of flowers, overlooking the fountains and mountain. Every time you turn around someone is asking to have their photo taken (including us too, I guess)

Neither of us had been there since we were young teenagers, so it was really fun to revisit all our childhood memories. I completely forgot how beat up you can get by all the rides. I was quite the mess of bruises the next day, but they were worth it for the blast that we had.

We even popped into the water park area and went down the lazy river and on a few of the steeper water slides.

All day Garrett kept reminding me that we were going to go on the tallest roller coaster there, Behemoth. I love roller coasters, but I hate ones that have the really crazy high heights – which this one had in spades. It ended up being the final ride that we did and despite being so nervous getting on it, I’m really glad that he dragged me on. It was quite the thrill.

One of my favourite shops in the whole park is the retro diner with classic cars out front.

Burgers, Shakes and Fries. This place reminded me of some of the old diners I’ve been to with my Dad when we’ve gone to classic car shows. I love the retro feel of places like this.

There were even a couple of great classic cars out front – they could have been straight out of American Graffiti!

Even though we’re older now, we had to go to the children’s area and get all nostalgic from when we both came here as kids. Back when we were little this whole area was all about Hanna Barbera characters like Fred Flintstone and Scooby Doo. Now its all about Snoopy and I have to admit that I was a little sad to see how much it had changed.

Although they still have lots of the classic kiddo rides, like these cute trains that I remember “driving” around the park.

The little Kidsville area is absolutely adorable and of course its all geared to getting kids to whine at their parents for more money to buy candy.

In the kids’ area is the Ghoster Coaster, which used to be all about Scooby Doo. Its supposed to be a roller coaster for kids, but we knew we wanted to go on it.

We thought it as going to be a nice gentle ride, but we forgot how rough old wooden roller coasters can be!

The worst part was that this ride is geared for people who are much shorted than 5’8″….so my knees kept bashing into the wall in front of me. I have no idea how both Garrett and I fit into that little cart together, and survived to tell the tale.

I think the worst part of any roller coaster is that last final click when you reach the top and then you wait for the quick descent. That is when I always feel my stomach flip.

After the ride we had to wait for a good 5 minutes while the crew tried to get a pigeon off the tracks. I kid you not. For some reason this little guy just didn’t want to move.

At the top of the carousel there are these adorable cherubs who mimic the angels are the top of the big carousel in the part (more on that further down).

There are also these massive Koi fish (carp?) under all the bridges throughout the park. They must be very well fed with so many millions of people going through the park every Summer.

Just so you don’t think we stuck to all the kid stuff, I can assure you that we also went on plenty of big roller coasters too. You know the kind that make your stomach flip so much that you can’t eat. Which is probably a good thing, considering how expensive food is there.

We did share a few treats throughout the day, but the one thing that Garrett was dying to get was a funnel cake, but we had to promise each other we’d wait until the end of the day (wait until you see it at the end of this post!)

Here is the real carousel that they have in the park. There is something classic and nostalgic about these rides.

I can remember scrambling around the ride as a kid, trying to find one of the horses that actually moved up and down.

The details on this ride are amazing, including the large angels at the top of the ride (which are mimicked by those little cherubs on the kids version)

What a lovely ride to go on in the evening as the sun sets and the lights all come on.

As nice as it would have been to go on the carousel, we decided to line up for this ride instead. It used to be called “Top Gun” after the Tom Cruise movie and it feels like what I imagine a jet must feel like.

And of course there was another funnel cake shop to taunt us, but I knew there was no way I could eat one before we went on this ride.

I’m not usually a big beer person, but I do admit that it tasted great after a long hot day running around a theme park!

This is Windseeker, the new ride this year. Every one of those arms as a swing on the end of it.

As our fun day came to an end, we came across what Garrett had been dreaming about all day – his beloved Funnel Cakes.

If you’ve never seen them make a funnel cake, basically batter is drizzled into fryers to make a “nest” of fried dough.

Then they add on a big helping of vanilla soft serve ice cream.

Lastly, they add on a big scoop of strawberries in sauce and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Uh-mazing! We shared this whole monstrosity and loved every minute of it. I’d never tried one before and I now understand why he was so excited to get one.

While we ate our funnel cake, we watched the fountains light up in an amazing show. It was a perfect ending to our adventure. I’m hoping that we can get back there again this year for Halloween Haunt….even though I’m terrified of haunted houses. I just want to go on the rides in the dark 🙂