VORTEX

Canada's Wonderland, Toronto, Canada

Paramount's Canada's Wonderland is a beautiful park located near Toronto. It is home to several coasters, most of which are just average. One, however, is awesome... and it's the last one you'd think would be all that. I mean, it's an Arrow suspended coaster. The epitome of dull, right?

It doesn't help that it's named Vortex, the same name and nearly the same logo as other coasters at other Paramount parks. Great America's "Vortex" is a stand-up coaster. Kings Island's "Vortex" is a 6-loop steel coaster. Carowinds' "Vortex" is a stand-up coaster, but different than the one at Great America. So unless you look closely at the little cars on the logo here, you woudn't expect a suspended coaster. In fact, having been on the other "Vortex" coasters, I didn't expect anything other than just being able to add another coaster to my list. Ho-hum, mark it down and move on.

Here's the first twist in the plot: 

The station sits on a steep slope below the park's signature man-made Wonder Mountain. The lift takes you up to the mountain and a slow curve at the top gives you a look at the lush greenery spread out below. Well, lush greenery and a bunch of twisted red coaster track...

Dropping off the mountain, you are suddenly faced with a nice green meadow. A nice green meadow that happens to be rushing at you quite fast! At the last possible second, the track turns sharply, the train swings WAY out to the side, and the grass that was just a second ago staring you in the face is now whizzing past your right ear. This is suspended coaster nirvana. After all, why build a coaster that swings if you don't make it SWING? Bonus: This is only the beginning.

The hillside you are working your way down is pretty steep.  That one turn near the ground allows the slope to continue dropping while you rise into a high left turn way above the amused pedestrians below. Cars that were just a second ago skimming the right-seat riders over the grass now show left-seaters lots of sky between them and the ground. No time to wonder how you got so high so fast, though. You've got to go back down there, and you've lost no speed on this trip so far.

Falling back to ground level, the train picks up even more speed. From here, it's a blur of grass and sky, grass and sky, side to side, up and down. It takes more than one ride to figure it all out.

At the bottom of the hillside, the track becomes a sick, twisted mess of spirals, turns, and near-misses with the water below. And the train barely slows down. Finally, you rise up into the brake run, cars still swinging wildly from side to side.

 Vortex is an amazing example of how good a suspended coaster can be. In fact, my only complaint is that it's too short... But I'll take short and intense over long and ho-hum any day. Canada's Wonderland has a certified world-class coaster on their hands here.