Canada’s Wonderland thrills the kid in you

When’s the last time you went to Canada’s Wonderland?

I mean really went. Without your young children who prevent you from really doing the park’s biggest rides?

For me, it had been a couple of years since we’d been to Wonderland with kids, but about 10 years since I’d gone with grownups and was able to take in the fastest, scariest and most awesomest rides the park has to offer.

I was nervous, however, that in all that time away from adrenaline-pumping thrill rides, I might’ve lost my edge. Would being a mom make me take stock in my own delicate mortality the way it did with the bucket list items I didn’t complete before having kids, like jumping out of a plane?

So as we took the steps up, up, up to Leviathan, I was one part nervous, one part excited. The last time I heard the click-click-click of a roller coaster as it crept toward the top of its first hill, I was fearless and childless. And Leviathan’s climb is nearly vertical. And it just keeps going…

Click. Click. Click.

Higher. Higher. Higher.

To be precise: 306 feet higher.

At 5,486 feet long and speeds reaching of 148 kmph, Leviathan is the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the country. And it doesn’t disappoint. It left me feeling exhilarated and relieved that I hadn’t lost my taste for adventure. Perhaps what I loved the most about Leviathan is that it doesn’t shake your head from side to side violently as it whizzes around the track, leaving you with RCH — a.k.a. roller coaster headache.

We spent the rest of our day running like giddy teenagers from one ride to the next, even taking in some of the old-school rides — like Dragon Fire and the Pirate Ship! — for nostalgia’s sake.

Despite my eagerness to try Behemoth and Wonderland’s newest thrill ride, Sky Hawk (where you actually control your own “airplane”), Mother Nature wasn’t co-operating. Sadly, the high winds and disastrous spring rain meant neither ride was operational the day we were there.

But the weather did have its benefits: easy parking and no lineups. I mean, truly, not one line for any ride — that was a first for me. (But if it’s a nice day, do yourself a favour and get the Fast Lane or Fast Lane PLUS bracelets that let you skip lines like a boss.)

Of course, no trip to Canada’s Wonderland is complete without stopping for a funnel cake. It’s like going to Wimbledon and missing out on strawberries and cream, or San Francisco’s Pier 39 and leaving a bread bowl full of fresh clam chowder behind. Criminal. And that funnel cake lived up to memory perfectly, with the ultimate mix of hot-meets-cold and sweet-meets-crunchy. (I can confirm that I just salivated writing that last sentence.)

There was only one thing left to do before we said goodbye to Wonderland: take another spin on Leviathan. This time, we braved the first row and got a front-seat view of the terrifyingly good ride, which twists and turns over more of the park, it seems, than any other. It’s certainly the best coaster on which I’ve ever been, and it brought me closer to my youth than I’ve been in a long time.

DISCLAIMER: While I was not compensated for this post, I did receive free tickets and parking for Canada’s Wonderland.