Toronto Travel Diary Part Three: Canada’s Wonderland

This was to be my girl’s first time on this massive coaster (believe me, it lives up to its name!) and I think you can see a slight grimace of fear behind the gleam of excitement. Here’s what the Behemoth has to offer as Canada’s biggest, fastest and tallest roller coaster ever:

I must admit, I found the g-forces a little overwhelming, and when the kids talked me into riding it a second time later on in the afternoon, I wasn’t keen to follow them through on their third ride.

But Behemoth wasn’t the only big ride we conquered that day; we were super lucky that, despite the super weather, the park was absolutely uncrowded. We never waited longer than 20-30 minutes for any ride, and in fact we essentially walked straight on to almost every ride that we cared to tackle in the park.

My younger daughter, at 7, was wearing a purple wristband, which enabled her to get on many of the big coasters for the first time. Here she is preparing to board the Mighty Canadian Minebuster (a real, old-fashioned wooden coaster) for the first time:

And here’s the ride itself (beware, it’s a bit bumpy…)

Probably my biggest thrill for the day was the Drop Tower, a 230 foot drop straight down from the top of the 23-storey tower! Free falling at more than 100km/h, this ride is literally breathtaking! Here we are just boarding, before the heart-stopping 16-second trip to the top (it only takes 3 seconds to get back down!):

Luckily I clued in and shook off my sandals before we headed up…

To be honest, I have only a single complaint about our experience at Wonderland – we packed sandwiches for everyone to eat, but were forced to return them to our car as you are not allowed to bring any food or drink into the park. They do assert that all the food concessions in the park are peanut-free (although there were several Dairy Queen’s in the park, and normally they are not nut-free), but this doesn’t address all food allergies, sensitivities or preferences. In fact, it felt a lot like a money grab…we did end up buying some food in the park, but a 500ml drink that would cost $1.75 anywhere else was $3.75 and a single apple was $1.75! So we ended up eating homemade chips from The Chippery (which, I must admit, were delicious) as our only meal, and the kids were literally fainting with hunger by the time we left around 5:00 p.m.