Canada's Wonderland | Wait times + smarter timing

Canada's Wonderland: Know When to Go

Track Canada's Wonderland wait times and set alerts for Alpen Fury, Leviathan, Yukon Striker, and Behemoth. Ride the headliners when lines actually dip, not when the crowd thinks they will.

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Quick park facts

LocationVaughan, Ontario (north of Toronto)
OpenedMay 23, 1981
Most time saved onBehemoth, Yukon Striker, Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Leviathan
The trickRope-drop everything except Alpen Fury. The new ride is the one that never has a good morning window.
📅 Canada's Wonderland Crowd Calendar
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Rides worth setting alerts for

Alpen Fury

Launched coaster · Alpenfest · New 2025
164 ft71 mph9 inversions

135 min at open, 90 min at 10 PM. Never sees a sub-90 hour in our data. Rope drop is the worst window because everyone tries it. Save for 9 PM and set an alert at 100 to catch the softening.

Fun fact: The first launched coaster to drill a vertical launch shaft through a mountain. Holds the world record for inversions on a launch coaster (9). The lap-bar SkyRocket Infinity trains were custom-built for airtime.

Behemoth

B&M hyper coaster · Action Zone
230 ft77 mph5,318 ft

10 min at open, 45 at 4 PM, 28 at 9 PM. Biggest single-ride savings at the park: 35 minutes between rope drop and afternoon peak. Sprint to it at gate drop.

Fun fact: Canada's biggest ride investment at the time at CAD $26M. Five camelback hills deliver 20+ seconds of sustained airtime. The hammerhead skims 15 ft above the Swan Lake fountain jets.

Leviathan

B&M giga coaster · Medieval Faire
306 ft92 mph5,486 ft

Peaks at 11 AM (60 min), plateaus 45-50 all afternoon, drops to 30 by 10 PM. Unusual second-hour peak. Catch it at gate drop or save for the closing window.

Fun fact: B&M's first ever giga coaster (300 ft+). Three 32-passenger trains move 1,650 riders per hour. Track shipped from Ohio over 175 oversize-load truck journeys.

Yukon Striker

B&M dive coaster · Frontier Canada
223 ft80 mph4 inversions

15 min at open, 45 at 4 PM, 30 at 9 PM. Classic morning-or-evening play. Three-second pre-drop hold then dives under the lake.

Fun fact: The first and only dive coaster with a full vertical loop. Thousands of fish were relocated during excavation of the underwater tunnel. Opened 2019 with class-leading height, speed, and length records.

Mighty Canadian Minebuster

Wooden coaster · Frontier Canada
90 ft55 mph3,828 ft

5 min at open, 40 mid-day, 20 at 9 PM. The third leg of the rope-drop sweep. Recently refurbished with Gravity Group precut wood.

Fun fact: Longest single-track wooden coaster in Canada. Modeled after Coney Island's 1927 Shooting Star. The Bat's spare train came from this ride's original 1981 order.

Vortex

Suspended coaster · Medieval Faire
91 ft55 mph2,361 ft

Plateau ride: 25 at open, sticks to 35-40 all afternoon, drops to 20 by 10 PM. Easy mid-day filler. Closing-hour dip is reliable.

Fun fact: The tallest operating suspended coaster in the world at 91 ft. Joint Guinness record for fastest suspended at 55 mph. Lake-skimming finale swings 6 ft above the water.

Wonder Mountain's Guardian

Interactive dark ride coaster · Alpenfest
Indoor500-ft screenShooting elements

Rain or heat pivot. 15 at open, 40 at peak, 30 at 9 PM. Weekend Halloween overlay turns it into "Zombies 4D."

Fun fact: Holds the record for the world's longest continuous interactive screen at roughly 500 feet. A surprise 30-ft vertical drop track at the finale that the queue doesn't preview.

Backlot Stunt Coaster

Launched family coaster · Action Zone
45 ft40 mphTwo LIM launches

10 at open climbs steeply to 45 by 5 PM, then drops to 20. Avoid the 4-5 PM window. Hit before 1 PM or after 8 PM.

Fun fact: Originally The Italian Job: Stunt Track (2005) with custom MINI Cooper trains. Cars were physically stripped in 2010 when Cedar Fair lost the BMW license. The propane fireball finale still hits 25 ft.

Want live alerts for all of this?

Ride Ready pings you when Behemoth dips below 25 and Alpen Fury finally softens after 9 PM.

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Good default alert presets

Alpen Fury
Alert when <= 100 min
Bottoms out at 90 in our data; an alert at 100 catches the 6-10 PM softening window.
Leviathan
Alert when <= 35 min
Catches the 10 AM open window and the 9-10 PM closing collapse.
Yukon Striker
Alert when <= 25 min
Triggers at gate drop and again after 8 PM. Both are real windows.
Behemoth
Alert when <= 25 min
Morning sweep + evening dip. Set this and you'll get two rides without a 45-min wait.
Mighty Canadian Minebuster
Alert when <= 20 min
Closing-hour walk-on if you want one more wood coaster.
Wonder Mountain's Guardian
Alert when <= 25 min
Rain pivot. Indoor dark ride; alerts trigger when weather flips.

Tip: start conservative. Once you see how your day flows, tighten thresholds so you're only getting pings worth moving for.

If you only have one day

  1. Sprint to Behemoth at gate drop. 10-min wait at open versus 45 by 4 PM. Walk briskly through International Street into Action Zone.
  2. Cross to Frontier Canada for Yukon Striker, then Mighty Canadian Minebuster. Both adjacent. Sub-20 waits at this point. Three majors banked in 90 minutes.
  3. Mid-day: second-tier coasters and food. Vortex, Wonder Mountain's Guardian, The Bat, Tundra Twister. Skip Backlot Stunt Coaster between 4-5 PM (its peak), hit it before 1 PM or after 8 PM.
  4. ~8 PM: Leviathan. Drops from 60 mid-day to 45 by 8 PM and 30 by 10 PM. Most reliable evening collapse at the park.
  5. 9 PM: Alpen Fury. 100-min wait at 9 PM is the best window you'll see. Commit and stay on phones, you'd have spent 135 min for the same ride at gate drop.

Set your Behemoth and Alpen Fury alerts before you walk in.

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More planning help

FAQ

When does Canada's Wonderland open for the 2026 season?

The 2026 season opens Sunday, May 3, 2026. Weekends only through mid-June, then daily operation through Labor Day. Halloween Haunt runs weekend nights in late September and October. Winterfest typically runs mid-November through early January.

Is Fast Lane Plus worth it at Canada's Wonderland?

It's worth it for one reason: Alpen Fury. The ride opens at a 135-min median and only drops to 90 at park close. Fast Lane Plus on Alpen Fury alone saves 90+ minutes. For the rest of the park, rope-drop and timing get you Behemoth, Yukon Striker, and Mighty Canadian Minebuster at sub-20 waits without any add-on. If Alpen Fury isn't your priority, skip Fast Lane Plus.

What is Canada's Wonderland's biggest coaster?

Leviathan, at 306 feet tall and 92 mph. It was B&M's first ever giga coaster (300 ft+). It's also one of three B&M gigas in the combined Cedar Fair / Six Flags portfolio along with Fury 325 (Carowinds) and Orion (Kings Island), plus Cedar Point's Intamin-built Millennium Force. Alpen Fury is the newest and most-demanded ride at the park, but Leviathan is the tallest and fastest.

How is Canada's Wonderland different from Cedar Point?

Cedar Point is a coaster destination, 18 coasters, headliner-dense, everything is a marquee ride. Canada's Wonderland is a more balanced regional park with seven major coasters (Leviathan, Behemoth, Yukon Striker, Alpen Fury, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Wilde Beast) plus a strong supporting roster. Both parks share Cedar Fair operational DNA. The big quirk at Canada's Wonderland is Alpen Fury: at every other park, you rope-drop the new coaster. At Canada's Wonderland, that's the one ride you don't.

Is this affiliated with Canada's Wonderland?

No. Ride Ready is an independent app. Canada's Wonderland is owned and operated by Six Flags Entertainment Corporation.

Sources

Ride stats and park facts come from a mix of official attraction pages, public ride databases, and our own wait-time dataset.