TR: Paramount Canada's Wonderland

Trip Report: Paramount Canada's Wonderland (PCW)
September 13, 2003
Absolutely the WORST Entertainment Value Around!

After you have paid the $7.50 just for parking and up to $52.42/person
for the so-called "Pay-One-Price" Passport, first-time visitors will
be horrified that many attractions have extra fees required. I
requested Guest Services for a price list of these extra-pay
attractions, but they don't know their own prices! Here is a partial
list of attractions that can end up costing you even more than the $60
you already paid for "unlimited access to all regular rides and
shows":

1) Xtreme SkyFlyer bungee flying: $53.85! One attraction is more
expensive than 200 other attractions combined!
2) Speed City Raceway go-karts.
3) Pro Putt Golf: no description in park map or website.
4) City Zoo Golf: even a 7-year old kid that already paid $52.42 for a
passport still has to pay at least another $5 just to play mini-golf.
5) Cyber Sez Virtual Reality Performance Theatre.
6) Pet care services - $5, unlike African Lion Safari, which does not
charge fees for kennels and parking.


PCW has abandoned the general public in favour of thrill-seeking
teenagers. Unlike previous years, there is hardly anything for
non-riders to do in the park. There are no more variety shows in the
Paramount Theatre. There are no more marine or entertainment shows in
the Bedrock Theatre, which has been demolished. There is no more
Scooby-Dooby or regular show in the Playhouse Theatre. PCW misled
people into thinking that they at least had the Victoria Falls High
Divers and Arthur's Baye Stunt Show, but there were no such shows
since Labour Day. I specifically saw these shows in their website,
but PCW failed to disclose that they were closed. Most senior
citizens and mothers will have nothing to do at the park, but must
still pay at least $25.67 general admission just to chaperone
children.

Even though it was a hot sunny day, the Splash Works water park has
been closed since Labour Day. Arriving visitors were disappointed
when they read the sign before the entrance. Cliffhanger was closed
for the whole day, but I saw no notice in the front of the park.
Vortex was closed in the morning when we passed by. To summarize,
there was not much to do in the expensive park, except line up for
30-60 minutes for each ride.

I hate expensive attractions that don't even offer you a map and
schedule when you enter. I had to walk to Guest Services just to pick
one up. What's even worse is they were giving out the wrong
schedule! Green-coloured schedules were at Guest Services, but we
later learned the hard way that the correct schedule for the weekend
were coloured pink. We went to the Playhouse Theatre for "Yvette &
Her Puppet Friends" just before the scheduled noon show only to find
the theatre virtually empty; the show turned out to be one hour later.


Ever since the accident at the Jimmy Neutron Brainwasher kids' ride,
PCW has been as negligent as Disneyland in informing the public of
what happened. Three kids were injured when one of the cabs in the
new ride fell down to the ground. The "death trap" was surprisingly
open, but there were no notices or assurances given that the ride was
safe. I asked the operator if the accident was caused by maintenance
problems and she said yes but that she doesn't usually work in that
ride.

The new kids' area with four rides is called Nickelodeon Central. I
suppose Paramount owns Nickelodeon, but it is inappropriate for
Canada. Unlike the US, Nickelodeon is not on Canadian TV. Except for
Dora the Explorer, most Canadian families are not familiar with Jimmy
Neutron, Rugrats, Spongebob Squarepants, Hey Arnold! or Wild
Thornberries. During the character appearances, the children didn't
know who they were posing with.

PCW's website is hard-to-read with the text having improper contrast
and being too small. There is not enough detail, so you have to go to
other unofficial websites just to find a ride's description and
picture. In addition, there is no email address provided.

Paramount's Parks are planning to offer Flex-Tickets next season, in
which your second visit will be free. Unless you are a ride addict
and will visit the park at least seven times next season, you should
not buy a 2004 season pass and wait for the Flex-Ticket instead. I
used to be a season pass holder, but have never gone more than three
times in one season.

PCW's regular admission rates are a bad value, so it is not worth
going to unless you find a substantial discount offer. In our case,
we got the tickets from a Telus special offer online for only
$21.50/ticket. My wife who is a non-rider got zero entertainment
value from PCW for the whole day, so even getting over a 55% discount
was still a waste of money for her. With the long line-ups, I only
had time for 3 adult rides (Minebuster, Psyclone & Timberwolf Falls)
and spent the rest of the time lining up at the kids' rides. Only my
adventurous two-year old got more than her money's worth since
children under three are free.

Among the major family attractions we have gone to in the Greater
Toronto Area this summer, I would rank them in the following way in
terms of value, with PCW last:

1) Canadian National Exhibition: $10 (parking from $5-$17). Enough
things to do for more than one visit, even without the midway ($23 for
an unlimited midway pass).
2) Fantasy Fair, $11.72-$14.93: 11 indoor rides for kids of all ages,
with no admission charge for non-riders. Parent(s) can go shopping
while the kids ride for a couple of hours.
3) African Lion Safari, $21.35: takes 4-6 hours to experience all the
attractions.
4) Marineland, $35.26: takes 4-7 hours for all the attractions.
Undisclosed $5 fee for feeding and touching the killer or beluga
whales.
5) Ontario Place: $28, parking around $10: few compelling attractions,
especially for children under 4 years old. Only go with the $12
Cinesphere pass, $14 discounted day pass, or $49 season pass (includes
CNE and 2 free passes).
6) PCW, $52.46, $7.50 parking: to be avoided by non-riders; rest
should wait for substantial discount before considering going.

After you have paid the $7.50 just for parking and up to $52.42/person
for the so-called "Pay-One-Price" Passport, first-time visitors will
be horrified that many attractions have extra fees required.

1) Xtreme SkyFlyer bungee flying: $53.85! One attraction is more
expensive than 200 other attractions combined!

Every Skycoaster on the planet is an up charge attraction..
..
2) Speed City Raceway go-karts.

Ditto here

3) Pro Putt Golf: no description in park map or website.
4) City Zoo Golf: even a 7-year old kid that already paid $52.42 for a
passport still has to pay at least another $5 just to play mini-golf.
5) Cyber Sez Virtual Reality Performance Theatre.
6) Pet care services - $5, unlike African Lion Safari, which does not
charge fees for kennels and parking.

Because you need to save enough $ to repair your car that just got mauled by
a Bear

You forgot to mention the food. *******s! Charging you for food....


Even though it was a hot sunny day, the Splash Works water park has
been closed since Labour Day. Arriving visitors were disappointed
when they read the sign before the entrance.

That schedule was made in March. The staff are on contracts ending on Labour
day. Do you think that the park just decides to open a whole waterpark on a
whim?

Cliffhanger was closed for the whole day, but I saw no notice in the front
of the park.

Yep it's done for the season, broke something good

Vortex was closed in the morning when we passed by. To summarize,
there was not much to do in the expensive park, except line up for
30-60 minutes for each ride.

Ever since the accident at the Jimmy Neutron Brainwasher kids' ride,
PCW has been as negligent as Disneyland in informing the public of
what happened.

Seems like you know what happened... what else would you like to know?

Three kids were injured when one of the cabs in the
new ride fell down to the ground. The "death trap" was surprisingly
open, but there were no notices or assurances given that the ride was
safe.

It was open... What else do you need? Maybe they should put safe/ not safe
signs in front of every ride.


I asked the operator if the accident was caused by maintenance
problems and she said yes but that she doesn't usually work in that
ride.

The new kids' area with four rides is called Nickelodeon Central. I
suppose Paramount owns Nickelodeon, but it is inappropriate for
Canada. Unlike the US, Nickelodeon is not on Canadian TV. Except for
Dora the Explorer, most Canadian families are not familiar with Jimmy
Neutron, Rugrats, Spongebob Squarepants, Hey Arnold! or Wild
Thornberries. During the character appearances, the children didn't
know who they were posing with.

What planet are you on? Stop watching the CBC on your antenna and get cable

I'm not trying to stand up for everything the park does but you are a
bitter, bitter person. PCW is a fine park.

I didn't really read all of that original post

but,I love your handle.



Yeah,I've been there after Labour day and some

stuff closes,not sure why considering how great the weather

usually is in September.



But,you can and I do buy tickets out by the parking area

from the local scalper for $15-20,even once you

get inside the main entrance there are always

people selling tickets just don't buy them in plain view.





Here is an inside tip,security doesn't really care about you buying
them,they are concerned however with staff

who are given x amount of free tickets,who then give them

to friends or family who in turn sell them at the park.

They don't really like that.


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Ever since the accident at the Jimmy Neutron Brainwasher kids' ride,
PCW has been as negligent as Disneyland in informing the public of
what happened.

Burritos wrote:
Seems like you know what happened... what else would you like to know?

Just like the Disneyland cover-ups, PCW does not want to disclose what
caused the accident. The public has the right to know what happened,
and what steps have been taken to ensure it will never happen again.


What planet are you on? Stop watching the CBC on your antenna and get cable

Having a pre-schooler myself, I am forced to watch shows on Treehouse,
YTV, PBS, TVO, Toon, and other kid-friendly channels on my digital
cable. What channel is Nickelodeon on?? Even the kids in Wonderland
were clueless on who these Nickelodeon characters are.


I'm not trying to stand up for everything the park does but you are a
bitter, bitter person. PCW is a fine park.

I am not a bitter person. I love going to theme parks, and I have
gone to all the major theme parks in Florida, California and Hawaii.
I used to be a PCW season pass holder who loved going with friends or
family. Non-riders had a whole bunch of shows to go to, while the
thrill-seekers (like me) in our group could go on the rides. But over
the years, PCW kept increasing their prices much more than competing
attractions in the GTA while reducing shows. We can all remember when
season passes cost less than the current price of admission, while no
other GTA attraction inflated their price as much.

It was this past season that the cumulative effect became really
obvious that there is no point for non-riders to go to the park. I
was desperately looking for things my non-riding wife could do at PCW,
but all she could do all day long was push the stroller to the next
ride to wait for me and/or my child. Each year, I ask friends and
relatives if they want to go to PCW, but almost all of them complain
that since they don't love rides like you and me, paying PCW's
sky-high regular prices is a waste of money. I personally always have
fun at PCW, but I have to concede that they are better off spending
much less at other GTA attractions where there are more things for
non-riders to do.

The new kids' area with four rides is called Nickelodeon Central. I
suppose Paramount owns Nickelodeon, but it is inappropriate for
Canada. Unlike the US, Nickelodeon is not on Canadian TV. Except for
Dora the Explorer, most Canadian families are not familiar with Jimmy
Neutron, Rugrats, Spongebob Squarepants, Hey Arnold! or Wild
Thornberries. During the character appearances, the children didn't
know who they were posing with.


What planet are you on? Stop watching the CBC on your antenna and get cable

In June I took my friends, who were visiting from Bolivia, to
Paramount's Great America, which also has Nickelodeon Central. The kids
loved all of the characters and already knew all of them, from having
seen them in Bolivia. The only adjustment was that they quickly adapted
to the English names such as "Sponge Bob" rather than the Spanish "Bob
Esponja" that they were familiar with in South America. You can find
the official online home of "Bob Esponja" at http://www.mundonick.com/
after selecting a country (e.g. Bolivia) from the pull-down list on the
home page.

Back to Canada, Sponge Bob is on YTV:
http://www.ytv.com/programming/shows...x.asp?showID=5

Wild Thornberries, Jimmy Neutron, and Rugrats are on YTV, too.

Steven GREAT AMERICA parks.
http://www.greatamericaparks.com/

Bush the War Criminal wrote:

Trip Report: Paramount Canada's Wonderland (PCW)
September 13, 2003
Absolutely the WORST Entertainment Value Around!

You're crazy. Paramount Canada's Wonderland is one of the top-5 parks
in North America. It's gorgeous, the rides are wonderful, the park is
clean, the operations are efficient, and the food is good.

If you're complaining about prices and upcharge attractions then you
obviously haven't made it past the border to see that most American
parks are much more expensive and have just as many/if not more
upcharge attractions.

-Chris K-

"Bush the War Criminal" wrote in message
...
What planet are you on? Stop watching the CBC on your antenna and get
cable

Having a pre-schooler myself, I am forced to watch shows on Treehouse,
YTV, PBS, TVO, Toon, and other kid-friendly channels on my digital
cable. What channel is Nickelodeon on?? Even the kids in Wonderland
were clueless on who these Nickelodeon characters are.

We don't need Nickelodeon when we've got YTV.

Sponge Bob is on at 6 pm EST Monday to Friday and has become somewhat of a
cult favourite with some adults. He's one of the most popular cartoon
characters going at the moment.

I can't believe the kids didn't know the Pickles family from Rugrats --
they've been around for several years now. They even have a few movies out.
And they're on YTV at 7 am EST Monday-Friday. Angelica -- the kid you love
to hate.

Those are just the ones I've watched from start to finish. I have no kids
around anymore so I'm not watching YTV on a regular basis but looking at the
YTV website I find that I'm also familiar with the Wild Thornberries and
Jimmy Neutron (he seems to be everywhere I look).

Gabby

In article gers.com,
Burritos wrote:

Even though it was a hot sunny day, the Splash Works water park has
been closed since Labour Day. Arriving visitors were disappointed
when they read the sign before the entrance.

That schedule was made in March. The staff are on contracts ending on Labour
day. Do you think that the park just decides to open a whole waterpark on a
whim?

I was there on September 7th, and there seemed to be enough people
wandering around wet in bathing suits ... perhaps it was just
some of the rides that were open though ....

Vortex was closed in the morning when we passed by. To summarize,
there was not much to do in the expensive park, except line up for
30-60 minutes for each ride.

Probably a good thing ... I was on it on the 7th. It was fine around
mid-day ... but on a second trip later in the day, the vibrations
seemed quite extreme ... something seemed wrong.

I found my visit on the 7th quite enjoyable. My only complaints
were the food (not the quality ... which is to expected, but
the service/availability .... justed seemed very disorganized). The
staff were great though! Having lost a child's hat on the bumper
cars (the staff there were super in helping me find it), and then
at the end of the day leaving my sunglasses at the 3D theatre at the
far end of the park (security was incredible, even walking all the
way over there themselves to get them, and bring them back around
9 pm).

Nick

Bush the War Criminal wrote in message ...
Trip Report: Paramount Canada's Wonderland (PCW)
September 13, 2003
Absolutely the WORST Entertainment Value Around!

PCW has abandoned the general public in favour of thrill-seeking
teenagers. Unlike previous years, there is hardly anything for
non-riders to do in the park. There are no more variety shows in the
Paramount Theatre. There are no more marine or entertainment shows in
the Bedrock Theatre, which has been demolished. There is no more
Scooby-Dooby or regular show in the Playhouse Theatre. PCW misled
people into thinking that they at least had the Victoria Falls High
Divers and Arthur's Baye Stunt Show, but there were no such shows
since Labour Day. I specifically saw these shows in their website,
but PCW failed to disclose that they were closed. Most senior
citizens and mothers will have nothing to do at the park, but must
still pay at least $25.67 general admission just to chaperone
children.

Aren't most theme park employees students? Wouldn't most of them be in
school after Labour Day? Might that not explain why the shows weren't
operating?



The new kids' area with four rides is called Nickelodeon Central. I
suppose Paramount owns Nickelodeon, but it is inappropriate for
Canada. Unlike the US, Nickelodeon is not on Canadian TV. Except for
Dora the Explorer, most Canadian families are not familiar with Jimmy
Neutron, Rugrats, Spongebob Squarepants, Hey Arnold! or Wild
Thornberries. During the character appearances, the children didn't
know who they were posing with.

Maybe you should lose the rabbit-ears and get cable. Here in Montreal,
my kids watch Sponge Bob every afternoon on YTV, and all the other
shows you mentioned are on the schedule somewhere on basic cable. Just
'cause you've never heard of them doesn't mean that the rest of us
haven't.




PCW's regular admission rates are a bad value, so it is not worth
going to unless you find a substantial discount offer. In our case,
we got the tickets from a Telus special offer online for only
$21.50/ticket. My wife who is a non-rider got zero entertainment
value from PCW for the whole day, so even getting over a 55% discount
was still a waste of money for her. With the long line-ups, I only
had time for 3 adult rides (Minebuster, Psyclone & Timberwolf Falls)
and spent the rest of the time lining up at the kids' rides. Only my
adventurous two-year old got more than her money's worth since
children under three are free.

When I go to a park with my kids, I rarely get the chance to go on
adult rides. I'm there so my kids can have fun. Isn't that the whole
point?



Among the major family attractions we have gone to in the Greater
Toronto Area this summer, I would rank them in the following way in
terms of value, with PCW last:


When I visited PCW in July, all the rides were running, the park was
clean, and the staff were polite and helpful. The only negative we
experienced was the food. It was awful. Especially "Pizza Pizza".
Yeccch!

Bush the War Criminal wrote in message ...
Trip Report: Paramount Canada's Wonderland (PCW)
September 13, 2003
Absolutely the WORST Entertainment Value Around!

[blah, blah, blah...]

You think that's bad? Wait till you see Six Flags Darien Lake!