{"id":243,"date":"2026-03-05T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandweekly.ca\/?p=243"},"modified":"2026-03-06T13:57:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:57:40","slug":"time-warp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandweekly.ca\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/time-warp\/","title":{"rendered":"“I Remember Doing the Time Warp”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost exactly a year ago, multiple news outlets reported on Canada\u2019s Wonderland officially removing one of its 18 roller coasters, only the second to be removed in the park\u2019s 44 years of operation. For this week, I thought I\u2019d take a look back on the ride\u2019s history, which unfortunately takes us back to a time when Toronto was struggling with an infectious disease\u2026 no, not that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Healthy Choice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guests<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2003 was an unfortunate year for Toronto and its tourism sector. The SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak became closely associated with Ontario\u2019s capital due to an abundance of coverage over how quickly the virus spread through the city\u2019s hospital system. While the severity of the impact on revenues for the year wouldn\u2019t be known for some time, Canada\u2019s 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: \u201cCanada\u2019s first flying coaster!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Time<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2014 The Cradle of Life. The scene features Lara and her companion leaping off a building with gliding suits to avoid antagonists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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