Almost exactly a year ago, multiple news outlets reported on Canada’s Wonderland officially removing one of its 18 roller coasters, only the second to be removed in the park’s 44 years of operation. For this week, I thought I’d take a look back on the ride’s history, which unfortunately takes us back to a time when Toronto was struggling with an infectious disease… no, not that one.
The Healthy Choice
2003 was an unfortunate year for Toronto and its tourism sector. The SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak became closely associated with Ontario’s capital due to an abundance of coverage over how quickly the virus spread through the city’s hospital system. While the severity of the impact on revenues for the year wouldn’t be known for some time, Canada’s Wonderland and its parent company acted on a plan to get guests back to the park without breaking the bank. Thus a low-budget, highly-marketable roller coaster was commissioned for the 2004 season: “Canada’s first flying coaster!”
The compact design by Zamperla Rides cost approximately four million dollars, which even adjusting for inflation was too good a price to pass up. By the end of the 2003 season, in-park advertisements displayed the ride vehicle, featuring guests laying on their stomachs holding handlebars out in front of their heads. Similar to the common Wild Mouse coasters, the small four-person cars would navigate hairpin turns at high-speed. Unlike Wild Mouse coasters, this track layout boasted two inversions and a unique spiral lift. The cars were propelled up the spiral by a small appendage to the vehicles, pushed by a flat vertical surface on either side of a rotating blade in the centre of the upward helix.
As for the name, Paramount chose Tomb Raider: The Ride, a name used at sister parks Kings Dominion and Kings Island for heavily-themed thrill rides. The connection to the video-game-inspired Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies was made clear in the queue for the ride thanks to mounted TVs displaying a scene from the second movie in the franchise, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life. The scene features Lara and her companion leaping off a building with gliding suits to avoid antagonists.
While the scene is quite slow in the movie, with no one chasing them through the air and no high-speed turns like the ride featured, the movie allowed for some interesting theming opportunities throughout the ride’s queue. But when Cedar Fair came in, the theming went out and the ride was renamed “Time Warp.” A couple motorcycles alongside a campsite were removed as well as the thick rope railings being replaced with wooden boards and the tiki torches marking the entrance being permanently extinguished. Other theming elements such as a large wall with intricate carvings remained until (and beyond) the ride’s closure at the end of the 2024 season.
A Flying Wild Mouse
While flying coasters from other manufacturers use full-length trains and more drawn out elements, the Wild Mouse inspired layout required a stiff neck and an expectant rider to anticipate the next movement in order to prevent banging their head against the hard padding on either side. This meant guest reception was less favourable than other rides at the park, and made worse as smoother coaster experiences were added.
The ride’s hourly capacity was also extremely low at approximately 360 people per hour (pph). The amount of “block zones” (divided by a set of brakes) required for a wild mouse design such as this also caused the ride to close for moderate rain. With these factors (and possibly more unknown to general guests), Time Warp’s time had come and gone, so the ride was removed before the start of the 2025 season with no fanfare or advance notice. The ride had its fans to the end including those who believe “pain means fun” and those who are simply intimidated by the taller, high-speed coasters.
Despite all of this, the location may be the most controversial aspect of the ride’s existence. The ride seemingly expanded the footprint of Action Zone (previously consisting of just Psyclone and Sledge Hammer) by taking over more of The Grande World Exposition of 1890 themed area and replacing two opening-day rides: The Great Whale of China and Shiva’s Fury (later renamed The Fury). Now that Canada’s first flying coaster has been removed, fans are left speculating about what could fill the small footprint and possibly expand out from it. Hopefully new resident attraction(s) will have a theme aligning more closely with world expos of the 1890s than video game culture of the 1990s.
Raining on our Tirade
I remember the first time my family waited in line for Time Warp, then known as Tomb Raider: The Ride. It was in 2004, and I believe it was the Season Pass Preview Night. We held off on riding the new coaster until close to the end of the night, but got in line with several groups behind us before the associates blocked it off at park close. The line moved painfully slow and it was raining off and on, causing frequent pauses in operation. We watched the queue TVs, playing that same scene from the movie on repeat. It was quite a relief when we got under the station roof, protected from the rain and out of earshot of the queue TVs.
Then the moment came: A supervisor announced the park had already been closed for an hour (if memory serves me right) and the associates had to clock out. Anyone left in line wouldn’t get to ride and had to go home. My family wasn’t the loudest in line to complain, but we certainly made our voices heard. We didn’t wait in line for over an hour just to be told we had to leave without riding! The staff discussed it and eventually relented, allowing us and everyone else left in line to ride.
And so we did in some light rain. Up the spiral lift, down the drops, around the hairpin turns, and through the twisted layout. As we left the platform and headed out the ride’s exit, we all agreed: The ride wasn’t worth fighting the staff over. It was rough and painful, so we went home laughing about how disappointed we were in the new addition. Despite that, I’m happy to have the memory of my family’s initial experience on Canada’s first flying coaster.
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