It’s Just Like Before

I like to think I know a lot about the theme park industry.  Sure, that sounds a little arrogant, but I think any enthusiast who’s been in and around the industry for more than a decade could probably make that claim.  Things follow expected logic and we can usually see things coming whether it be from past history or through the rumor mill.

On August 18^th, Canada’s Wonderland introduced Leviathan.  It will be the biggest and fastest coaster in Canada and brings with it the notable title of being B&Ms first coaster over 300ft.  A few years ago a giga from B&M would be unheard of—unless you had 50 million dollars and were somewhat crazy.  But now we see this hyper coaster, topping out at 306ft. with a long sweeping out and back layout with airtime hills.  At most any park this would be an incredible addition—dominating the skyline and offering the newest and biggest thrills in the park.  But this isn’t most any park.. it’s Canada’s Wonderland.

In 2008, Canada’s Wonderland made the huge announcement for Behemoth.  Canada had never seen anything like it.  230 ft., 77 mph, 5318 ft. long—it broke all the records in Canada.  The skyline of the park which had been dominated by the likes of such wonders as an SLC and an Arrow suspended coaster now had a giant B&M hyper coaster towering over the rest of the attractions.  With incredible amounts of airtime and a new stadium style setback seating, Behemoth opened to rave reviews.  And all was well in the world.

Did these two paragraphs seem similar?  Well let’s compare:

	Behemoth	Leviathan
Manufacturer	Bolliger & Mabillard	Bolliger & Mabillard
Height	230ft.	306 ft.
Speed	77 mph	92 mph
Length	5318 ft.	5486 ft.
Drop Style	Straight, 75 degrees	Straight, 80 degrees
Seating / Restraint	4 across, clamshell restraints	4 across, clamshell restraints

The stats alone show how similar these rides are, but let’s take a look at the layouts:

Behemoth has a nice out and back design—straight drop, far turnaround, midcourse brakes, twists, brakes.  And lots and lots of airtime in between.   Leviathan is like the first half of Carowind’s Intimidator took some steroids.  The layout is nearly the same in terms of overall flow.  But comparing Wonderland’s two layouts together side by side, it’s startlingly similar.  You have to imagine a bunch of guys sitting around in design meetings pointing at a picture of Behemoth and going “that, just bigger.”  Now there’s nothing wrong with that.. but usually when you do that you’re looking at another park.

All this is said not to put down these coasters—Behemoth is wonderful and I’m sure Leviathan will be as well.  The purpose of this is just to wonder where the creativity went.  Essentially to ask “what were you thinking!?”  Canada’s Wonderland spent $28 million on this coaster.  That’s easily pushing the upper end of coaster prices.  At that price we can pretty much say that they could’ve had anything they wanted.  So rather than getting another big airtime coaster focused on speed it seems to me like there’s plenty of other things 28 million could have bought:

•          B&M Dive Machine
•          Intamin Giga Coaster like I305 that does something different than Behemoth
•          Intamin or B&M wing coaster
•          Anything at all that has a launch stronger than Stunt Coaster [hint: that’s everything]
•          Any large looping coaster: floorless, sitdown, etc.
•          2 or 3 more SLCs scattered around the park

For a park with a great mix of flat rides, their coaster selection has always come off as something of a mystery considering they were all decidedly average.  Until Behemoth.  Now, it seems like there ought to be some variety for the next big purchase.  But apparently there’s something to be said about sticking with what works.  Until then, we enjoy the coaster while lamenting about all the cool, unique other rides we could have had.

Of course, we can’t just pick on Canada’s Wonderland… we can pick on Canada as a whole instead!

It seems head-scratching coaster choices aren’t limited to Toronto.  In 2010, La Ronde debuted Ednor: L’Attaque.  This coaster came via a field at the Great Escape and before that from the sadly defunct Six Flags AstroWorld.  But one has to wonder who said “Yes, we’ll take your used SLC.”  Unless you’re desperate or a small park, that’s a phrase you’ll rarely hear.  I can’t speak for desperate, but La Ronde is not a small park.  In fact, they’re big enough to already have an inverted coaster… a better inverted coaster.  La Ronde already had a B&M mirror image Batman clone.  You could possible see starting with an SLC and then later upgrading to the B&M with the SLC removed, but two at once is just strange.

But our maple syrup soaked neighbors aren’t the only ones making questionable ride additions.  Take Holiday World, home of free soda, great wooden coasters, and some of the friendliest owners you’ll ever meet.  Next year they’ll debut Mammoth, a massive up and down water coaster 6 person circular rafts.  It starts with a lift and features drops and inclines going in and out of enclosed tubes, all built into the hillside.  Oh, and it’s also the longest water coaster out there.  This is a fantastic addition… unless you look to the left and see Wildebeest.  Wildebeest opened only one year ago as the longest water coaster out there.  It does essentially the same thing—lift, hills, turns, enclosed tubes, tunnels—just with 2 person rafts rather than 6.  While it’s nice to cater to different party sizes, Mammoth essentially makes Wildebeest obsolete.

Going back to Cedar Fair parks, we can take a look at Dorney Park which likes to make a habit of repeating itself.  Rather than send Cedar Point’s old Intamin first generation drop tower to a Cedar Fair park that has no drop tower, it winds up at Dorney Park… which already has a double S&S shot and drop tower (with a 3^rd tower all set to get an air canister).  It’s like turning back the clock to get an older version of the ride when there’s already something that beats it in every category.  Of course, something can always be said for the classics—it just seems like Demon Drop could have been far better served elsewhere.  And while not necessarily the same thing, it’s worth noting their newest attraction- the Vekoma invertigo from California’s greatest adventure.  And while it is notable for being the best of the three types of boomerangs, it’s also coming to a park that has 2 inverted coasters, including a forwards/backwards impulse coaster.  Still, there’s some variety there, though it is a shame they continue to get used rides.

There’s undoubtedly more examples out there—feel free to send in some others in the comments!  In summary: we’re asking Canada’s Wonderland whhhhhyyyy????  But still.. thanks for the coaster!