Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life As ...

is a

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

located in

Vaughan Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, a suburb directly north of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and owned by

Cedar Fair Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine included-w ...

. When Canada's Wonderland first opened in 1981 under

Kings Entertainment Company Kings Entertainment Company (KECO) owned and/or operated six theme parks around the world. The company was originally owned by Taft Broadcasting and in 1984 was purchased for $167.5 million by senior executives and general managers of Taft's Amuse ...

ownership, there were 26 attractions. Today, there are 69, including the attractions inside

Splash Works Splash Works is a water park located within the park boundaries of Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Entry is free with park admission. Splash Works is home to "Whitewater Bay", the largest outdoor wave pool in Canada, and is tod ...

, a

water park A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...

adjacent to the main theme park. Since the opening of the amusement park, at least one attraction has been added every year except 2009 and 2013. In addition, SkyRider closed permanently in 2014; it was the only roller coaster to close in the park's history and was relocated to Italy. SkyHawk, a Sky Roller by Gerstlauer Rides, and Flying Eagles from Larson International opened in 2016. The 2017 additions include Soaring Timbers and Muskoka Plunge and the 2018 additions include Lumberjack and Flying Canoes; Soaring Timbers, Lumberjack, and Flying Canoes are flat rides, while Muskoka Plunge is a water ride. Up until 1992, Canada's Wonderland did not have a water park. Eleven years after the park opened, Splash Works was constructed in the area surrounding the

Mighty Canadian Minebuster The Mighty Canadian Minebuster (often shortened to Minebuster) is a wooden roller coaster located at Canada's Wonderland amusement park in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. History Mighty Canadian Minebuster was one of five roller coasters to debut at ...

. Original plans and park maps during construction of the park show that the area that is now Splash Works and formerly White Water Canyon was originally planned to be a themed area called "Frontier Canada", a section of the park devoted to the Canadian wilderness. Although this section became realized in 2019, albeit under Cedar Fair management, several of the elements that were to be included are scattered across the park before then.

Yukon Striker Yukon Striker is a steel roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Vaughan, Ontario. Designed as a dive coaster from manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, the ride opened to the general public on 3 May 2019 in place of Freestyle (roller coast ...

, a dive coaster from

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabil ...

, was added in 2019 in the Frontier Canada section to replace SkyRider. For safety, Canada's Wonderland uses a ride rating system that classifies the attractions based on the intensity of the ride. The ratings vary from 1, for rides that are calm and gentle, to 5, for rides that have high speeds, aggressive forces, and rapid elevation changes. A separate set of ride ratings criteria is used for attractions inside Splash Works, though the rides are still rated on a scale from 1 to 5.

Main theme park

Splash Works

Splash Works opened in 1992, eleven years after Canada's Wonderland opened. Four years later, Canada's Wonderland expanded the water park by adding Whitewater Bay (a wave pool), The Pump House (an interactive children's playground), and The Black Hole (an enclosed water slide). There were two more expansions in 1999 and 2002, introducing new slides and attractions to the water park. 12 years later, the park announced that Splash Works would receive a new water slide, Typhoon, and an interactive aquatic playground, Splash Station. In 2017, Muskoka Plunge opened, replacing the former Body Blast. 2018 saw the addition of two new children's slides & the renovation of the Splash Island Kiddie Pool, transforming the area into Lakeside Lagoon. The 2020 season introduced Mountain Bay Cliffs, a cliff-jumping attraction featuring platforms of various heights that guests can jump off of into a large pool. The opening of the attraction was delayed to the 2021 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Some attractions require a

personal flotation device A personal flotation device (PFD; also referred to as a life jacket, life preserver, life belt, Mae West, life vest, life saver, cork jacket, buoyancy aid or flotation suit) is a flotation device in the form of a vest or suite that is worn by a ...

(PFD; "lifejacket") in order to ride.

Notes

# Denotes the requirement that guests pay an additional fee for the ride or attraction. # Denotes that the ride is similar to another manufacturer's model name.

References

External links

Thrill rides at Canada's Wonderland

Family rides at Canada's Wonderland

Kid rides at Canada's Wonderland

Splash Works at Canada's Wonderland
{{featured list

List of attractions

Main theme park

Splash Works

Notes

See also

References

External links