Leaderboard

La Ronde is the main park in Montreal, located on an island in the middle of the river on the Old Expo grounds. https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/CA/Montreal/La_Ronde A full carousel of photos with captions can be viewed if you start here https://www.parkz.com.au/photo/20197-La_Ronde/gallery/sort/newest/location/park-287-La_Ronde/offset/0 A highly accessible location via a bus or metro, but I decided to set off from a metro station on a different line so I could walk across the bridge and look over the park. A bit of a crowd at opening which looked worse than it is, but the park did fill up as the afternoon drew on. Yeah this is Canada now I think the park certainly does deserve its reputation for being run down, it’s worse than Six Flags St Louis. See these pics to get a sense of how the grounds as a whole looked. Many damaged buildings, faded paintjobs, weedy pavements, unkempt gardens, closed rides. A lot of the buildings are carryovers from the Expo days when the park first opened, making parts feel dated. The ride line up isn’t bad at all, with a good selection of flat rides, a couple of good coasters, and a few okay ones. The park seems to have a large number of show venues. Super Manege This ride will be retired at the end of this season. F. It is an off the shelf portable Vekoma corkscrew, like the one at Alton or Playland Vancouver. I was expecting to get belted but it was fine. Goliath This seemed to handle the crowds well, so I got heaps of rides. It’s the purest B&M “Hyper”, a bunch of airtime hills, turnaround, then some more airtime hills. The turnaround was a bit lame, it’s like they were trying to include something resembling a helix, but instead its just like a slow elevated turn like you get on a wooden coaster. Would have been better as a hammerhead turn or a treble clef. The hills deliver good floater, and I really enjoyed this one. Ednor, L’Attaque Ednor is Ronde spelled backwards. It's an SLC, not great, not terrible against the others. They had a bit of a themed queue themed around a sea monster seeminly surfacing at La ronde. It's an odd choice for the park. They had a pre-exsiting B&M invert, and then got this 2nd hand despite being a worse ride. Toboggan Nordique Single Rider queue, score! Was ok, a Zamperla mouse rather than a Mack one. The drops at the end are much smaller than what you get on the Mack ones. Monstre A dumpster fire, a rough ride and a very shaky structure, very slow operations and no racing. It opened late and was the last thing I did so it turned out to be a wait of over an hour. Basically it does a halfsized first drop, turnaround, some big drop, a helix, some more big drops, then the ride is over. I ended up popping into the park for an hour before closing on another day to ride the 2nd track. Phoenix Ended up on this one without really planning it because it had no queue and I like flying scooters. Dragon An indoor family coaster with a surprisingly lengthy layout. Normally these indoor coasters can have crappy papier mache looking theming, but this one felt somewhat arty, with these metal scupture dragons with lights all over them that would progressively illuminate (Imagine a coaster weaving around the sorts of things you see in parade floats) ...It was fine, but it wouldnt take much to jazz it up with a bit more colour and music, because it felt a bit muted. Le Boomerang A regular boomerang, and bearable. The queue had all the charm of a vandalised public park. Grande Roue The observation tower was closed, so this was a good spot for getting unobstructed photos of the park. Vampire A batman B&M coaster that is totally not based on the batman theming at all The ride was good, but again the area around the ride looked shocking and I don't know how management could walk past. Easily the most intense coaster at la ronde, and a walk on to boot! Minirail A small monorail that does a lap of the park. Half the track was closed due to set up of the fireworks, so you'd get on at the front station and get kicked off at the back one. Overall, i think the park is worth a look if you are in Montreal already (The city itself is much more engaging). I've heard the place can have huge waits, but I managed to avoid that, but can def see how it could get bad if you went in the afternoon or evening. Canadas Wonderland is lightyears ahead of this place though.

Your theme parks. The fuck does that even mean? Why is having the same nothing slogan on each parks website a good thing? Why is there such a crappy cheap ugle fence around the chopper? Also why not a branded helicopter? And in the current climate of OH&S overreach, why is the fire hydrant now in a fenced off area?

SW have decided they’ll sell more heli tours if they actually plonk a helicopter in the park behind a barrier and have a “pilot” stand next to it and convince people to buy tours (I didn’t ask to see his licence so he may just be a staff member in uniform)

Here is a look at said posters There were some park officials working in and out of the exhibit this morning, so I would say it is pretty much finished

It’s not animatronic.

I love it when Daddy arrives to put an end to the argument

Not too much change. Only 3 people on site doing some hole drilling

Nah, they are still getting refurbished at the Dreamworld workshop.. Won't be long before it's sent down to the Spit.

Also, today I went on WWF for the first time in over a year... and it was a bit disappointing in regards to the working effects. I really wish they brought back or incorporated new effects at the start of the ride. But for the rest, the screen in the first room wasn’t on (and I don’t think it has for years) the whole. None of the fountain/spray effects were working in the first area. The water was drained and leaves and dirt was heavily gathering on the area. The train sound effect wasn’t on. No smoke coming from the tents area. The population sign didn’t change. And some of the swinging doors in the town weren’t moving either. And since they’ve added in the additional concrete to the bottom of the flume, the ride has become very bumpy/rough and at times, uncomfortable. Such a shame. That is now two of the parks best rides (Scooby being the other) have lost there charm and key elements that made the rides so great

Nearmap construction update from late September'

The water tower has indeed returned And some refurbishment works are happening out the front of the park, with the concrete being replaced. Good to see they've invested in some new graphics to put on the fence

"your" theme parks "my" fun They're really reaching, aren't they?

Each of the Village Roadshow websites have been updated to show the "your theme parks" thing

Fun fact - when you carve a pumpkin they rot within a few days, whereas if you leave them whole they’ll last for a few good weeks at least.

Wow, that looks great...

A wooden structure with a water fall feature has returned to the Wet N Wild lazy river. Not the same as what they had but it's better than nothing.

Credit to ausdreamworldfan on Instagram

If I didn’t know any better and looked at that photo I would have thought it was taken at an abandoned amusement park.

Thanks for the great report as always Gazza! Seeing pictures like this one makes me feel grateful for what we have here in Australia. At least we have to maintain our older gems such as the one's at the Luna Parks if our Parks wish to keep them operational. This err 'Monorail' looks like an accident waiting to happen.

That shade is due for a good pressure washing. 🍻

A new storage shed is being constructed at the studios

At least they are making good use of the screen during the day Themed treats are available during the day And here is a look at the theming for the Dead West precinct

Its an inflatable, The fan is controlled to add more or less air to make it move.

I really like the idea of this but the execution needs work. While the lights look pretty cool the head of the thing (NOT AN ANIMATRONIC BTW LOL) just sits there motionless in the dark off to the left.

Yeah kinda don’t get the hate around the pumpkins. You can’t expect them to hand carve thousands of them. They are carved and themed in select areas..

No, they shouldn’t, as it’s a family event. Focus on one thing and get it right - and it appears largely they have. Teens go to Fright Nights. Simple.

Well it does move and it is an animatronic. Don’t appreciate that sarcasm.