June 2014 NewsPlusNotes Poll Results

This past month we gave our readers the ability to choose up to three different statements about Canada's Wonderland's new hybrid roller coaster / interactive 4-D ride, Wonder Mountain's Guardian (WMG).  I tried to write a bunch of statements that would cover the spectrum of feelings on the new ride, my interest is not-so-secretly because of the possibility of the ride type being built in other Cedar Fair parks.

Let's take a look at the highlights of the results:

#1 Response, 22% "As a prototype there's a bright future for the ride system."

It has taken a change in top management and an embracing of technology to even get a dark ride of any style into modern Cedar Fair parks.  From this answer it seems fans feel the decision to pursue something new was a good one.  The combo roller coaster and 4-D ride was the first designed by the company and Triotech, and it would appear there's a lot of faith in the future of the system.

#2 Response, 16% "A great concept - fun but needs some tweaking."

I'm no professional survey writer, and this is just for fun.  So by putting a "positive" and a small "negative" in one statement, it probably made this a rather 'comfortable' choice.  Still, not everyone thinks WMG is a home run as is, but there's certainly a majority of folks who like it.

#3 Response, 11% "Theming could be stronger for the story."

Going off of the information released beforehand, many expected a fairly cohesive story to unfold while on the ride.  I have not been on WMG, but the 'talk' and one on-ride video seem to show that once the video game portion starts, all heck breaks loose and there's really not much of a story to follow, though there is indeed a big dragon at the end.

© Cedar Fair

 #4 Response, 10.5% "Great theming for a Cedar Fair park."

And on the other hand, WMG is considerably more themed than anything Cedar Fair has done in a long time (obviously ignoring any currently operating Paramount era rides).  This also ties into the change in management at Cedar Fair, and when you look at the big rides of the former leadership, well, any theming at all is minimal at best.  In that sense, WMG is quite well done.

# 5 Response, 10% "Too much video game, not enough coaster."
# 7 Response, 9% "I'd ride it once, then hit the bigger rides."

NewsPlusNotes admittedly is a bit tailored to roller coaster enthusiasts, so both of these comments finished right around where I would have expected.  WMG is something different than coaster fans would usually line up for, but to some degree (large or small I'm not sure), the general park population might feel the same.

© Canada's Wonderland

# 6 Response, 9% "I'd love a clone at my home park."
# 8 Response, 8% "Awesome! Perfect as is, bring it to the other parks!"

A fair amount of our readers were ready to have WMG cloned at their local park, showing a definite nod of approval.   Cedar Fair has not been shy in saying that the attraction was a bit of a test for the technology, and if it worked out there was an extremely good chance that other rides, though perhaps not in a mountain, would follow.

# 9 Response, 3% "Probably going to skip it when I visit."

You can't please everyone, simple as that.  I didn't include a way for those who weren't a fan of WMG to express exactly why, so I can't comment much more.

This month's poll is now live - we're doing a 15 year throwback vote - check it out on the left!