Wonder Mountain's Guardian

Wonder Mountain's Guardian
Wonder Mountain's Guardian's lift hill outside Wonder Mountain
Canada's Wonderland
Park section	International Festival
Coordinates	43°50′33″N 79°32′32″W / 43.842385°N 79.542245°W / 43.842385; -79.542245Coordinates: 43°50′33″N 79°32′32″W / 43.842385°N 79.542245°W / 43.842385; -79.542245
Status	Operating
Opening date	May 24, 2014 (2014-05-24)
Cost	$10,000,000
General statistics
Type	Steel
Manufacturer	Art Engineering
Designer	Triotech Amusement
Model	4D Interactive Dark Ride
Lift/launch system	Chain lift hill
Height	60 ft (18 m)
Length	1,000 ft (300 m)
Inversions	0
Duration	3 minutes and 30 seconds
Capacity	650 riders per hour
Height restriction	42 in (107 cm)
Trains	5 trains with 2 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 8 riders per train.
Must transfer from wheelchair
Wonder Mountain's Guardian at RCDB Pictures of Wonder Mountain's Guardian at RCDB

Wonder Mountain's Guardian (also known as Guardian or WMG; during Halloween Haunt known as Zombies 4D) is a 4D interactive dark ride roller coaster at the Canada's Wonderland amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. The concept of a dark ride located inside Wonder Mountain was first proposed by park management around 2004. Due to technology and budget limitations at the time, the project did not enter the planning and design stages until 2011. Manufactured by Art Engineering, the steel track is approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) long and reaches a maximum height of about 60 feet (18 m). It also features one of the largest drop tracks in the world. The interactive 3D animations were designed by Triotech Amusement. These animations are accompanied by other special effects such as wind, adding the 4th dimension. During the park's Halloween Haunt event in October, the animations are replaced with a zombie theme. Due to delays during construction, the ride opened on May 24, 2014; three weeks after the 2014 season began. Guardian was inspired by the dragon present in Thunder Run (another roller coaster located in the mountain) and Starlight Spectacular, a nightly light and sound show focused on Wonder Mountain.^[1]

History

Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion (renamed Boo Blasters on Boo Hill after Cedar Fair's purchase of the park) was Wonderland's first interactive dark ride which opened in 2000. Designed by Sally Corporation, the ride relies entirely on physical sets and theming, rather than projected animations, and uses basic moving props.^[2][3][4] About four years later, discussions within park management regarding the addition of a new attraction inside Wonder Mountain began. With the technology available at the time, the cost to build a more advanced dark ride was too expensive for a regional amusement park. As technology improved in the following years and the costs decreased, in 2011, the park started planning to add a second interactive dark ride. Several companies were contacted to design the audiovisual portion of the future ride and Triotech Amusement was ultimately chosen to do so.^[1][5]

Speculation that Canada's Wonderland would be building a new attraction for the 2014 season began at the end of July 2013 when maintenance work was discovered on the west side of Wonder Mountain.^[6][7] On August 8, Cedar Fair confirmed that an interactive dark ride would be built at one of the company's parks.^[8] Wonderland officially announced Wonder Mountain's Guardian, a ten million dollar attraction, on August 30, 2013 on Breakfast Television, a morning news show for the Toronto area.^{[9][10][11][12]} During the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2013, the characters of the ride were revealed during Matt Ouimet's (president and CEO of Cedar Fair) keynote address.^[13][14] The first pieces of track as well as other parts from Germany arrived at the park in mid-January 2014.^[15] A month later, track began to be installed inside the mountain.^[15] By the end of February, framing for the 3D screens began to be erected.^[15] By the beginning of March, support columns were installed for the outside portion of the ride.^[15] The lift hill was completed at the beginning of April.^[15] Though the park opened to the public on May 4, Guardian's opening was delayed.^[16] It was not until May 23, when the park announced the ride would open the next day.^[17] The entire project involved 10 contractors and at least 47 workers.^[18]

On November 7, 2013, Cedar Fair announced that during Halloween Haunt, Guardian would be altered to a zombie theme.^[19] The name for this version of the attraction was later revealed to be Zombies 4D.^[20]

Ride experience

Wonder Mountains Guardians station inside the mountain

When Guardian first opened Fast Lane was available to guests, however, within the first week of operation the Fast Lane option was removed.^[21][22] Riders must be at least 42 inches (107 cm) tall to ride with an adult or 48 inches (122 cm) to ride alone.^[21]

Depending on where the rider is seated, some will have different experiences. There are screens on both sides of the track but only the screen on the right side of the track is continuous. Throughout the ride, the train makes several tight turns. As a result, riders sitting forward experience all the animations while riders sitting backwards have some scenes removed due to the lack of screen space (the cars rotate 90 degrees to the right to face the screens; forward sitting riders rotate toward the continuous screen).^[23][24]

Quest for Gold

Prior to the events that take place during the ride, King Adelsten entered the mountain to fight Ormaar (a dragon). During the battle, the king lost his crown. Stansein, one of the kings servants, is to guide riders throughout the mountain to find and retrieve it.^[25][26]

After the train is dispatched from the station, the train makes a 180-degree right turn exiting the mountain, leading into a 60-foot (18 m) chain lift hill.^[9] Once at the top, the train enters a shallow right hand drop and runs along the side of the mountain. After the train makes a banked right turn back into the mountain, a tarp drops down blocking the entrance to avoid light from entering. After the train slows down and the cars rotate 90 degrees to face the screens, Stansein tells riders to prepare to battle against the enemies. The first scene takes place in forest-like environment where riders are fighting against the Sneaky Spiders and Beasty Bats. For riders that began in the forward position, at the end of the scene, Stansein makes his first appearance pointing in the direction riders should go next. For riders that were seated backwards, this transition is absent. In the next scene, riders battle against the Wet Ones and Crazy Crabs, surrounded by a lake inside the mountain. The scene starts above the surface of the water but later transitions downwards. As the scene ends, the train passes two waterfalls. Again, this transition is absent for backwards seated riders. Riders then arrive in an underground city named Draconian City. Here, the battle continues against the Draconians and Archers. Nearing the finale, Stansein makes his final appearance, following the train. For the third time, this scene is removed for backwards seated riders. Riders are then confronted by more Draconians and Archers before entering an area covered in gold. This is also the area where King Adelsten's crown is found. Soon after, Ormaar arrives and breaths fire towards the ground. After a few seconds, the drop track releases the train into a 30-foot (9.1 m) free fall, escaping Ormaar. As the train exits the drop track, the trains are rotated back to their original position and all of the riders scores are displayed on both sides of the track. After making a left turn into the station, riders disembark and the next riders board. One cycle of the ride lasts approximately three minutes and thirty seconds.^{[5][12][26][23][24][27][28]}

Throughout the ride, riders are able to score points by hitting certain objects on the screen with their light guns. At the end, the highest scores get placed in the 'Wonder Mountain's Guardian Hall of Fame'.^[17]

Zombies 4D

After the train is dispatched and enters Wonder Mountain, riders fight against zombies throughout the mountain. Riders score points for shooting zombies and police badges (found throughout the ride) but lose points if they shoot civilians.^[29][30]

Similar to the day-time attraction, the highest scorers get placed in a leader-board showcasing the top scorers for this version of the attraction.^[30]

Characteristics

Trains

Guardian operates with five trains, each containing two cars which were manufactured by Art Engineering. Each car seats four riders in back-to-back seated rows for a total of eight riders per train. Every seat has its own lap bar restraint, light gun, and speaker that provides audio throughout the ride. This configuration allows the ride to achieve a theoretical hourly capacity of 650 riders per hour.^[9][28] Each gun is programmed to display a unique colour on the screen during the ride to distinguish where each rider is shooting.^[24] In addition, all the cars have the ability to rotate 90 degrees.

Track

The steel track of Guardian is approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) long and the lift is about 60 feet (18 m) high; it was manufactured by Kubes Steel located in Stoney Creek, Ontario.^[28][31] The track for the outside portion of the ride is coloured grey with beige supports while the everything is painted black for the indoor portions.^[15] Also, when the train is inside the mountain, drive tires (manufactured by Art Engineering, along with any other moving parts within the track system^[9][32]) move the trains along the track.^[15]

At the end of the interactive part of the ride, there is a 30-foot (9.1 m) free-fall drop track. A drop track, a roller coaster element which has only been used on five coasters around the world, is a movable piece that has the ability to be released into free fall. Once the train exits the drop track, the track returns to its starting position for the next train.^[33][34] Also, with both Polar X-plorer at Legoland Billund Resort and Thirteen at Alton Towers featuring vertical drop tracks that release riders into a 16.4-foot (5.0 m) drop, and Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg having a drop track measuring 18 feet (5.5 m), the drop track used on Guardian is one of the largest drop tracks in the world (the length of the drop track used on Darkmare at Cinecittà World is unknown).^[33]

Screens

Guardian uses 64 720p projectors to display the interactive content on the screens.^[1] As the train enters the mountain, the cars rotate to face the screens. Because riders are seated both forwards and backwards, there is the need for two sets of screens (one for each side), however, due to the tight turns Guardian makes, only one the screen on the right side of the track is continuous until the end. This screen holds the record for the longest continuous interactive screen in the world, with a length of approximately 500 feet (150 m) and a height of 13 feet (4.0 m).^[9][17][23] The other screen is set-up so that as one scene comes to an end, the transition scene (that is used on the continuous screen) is skipped and the next scene begins soon after; still keeping both screens in sync.^[23]

Because there are no physical sets used in the attraction, the park has the ability to change the film/theme of Guardian at any time. For Guardian's inaugural year, the attraction tagline is Quest for Gold.^[1][35]

Characters

The Quest for Gold version of the attraction features eight characters. Stansien is the riders guide for the duration of the ride as he leads riders throughout the mountain. Crazy Crabs are characterized as being attractive but dangerous. Beasty Bats are recognizable by their over sized fangs compared to regular bats. Sneaky Spiders have the ability to ambush riders and their bites contain venom. Archers fight with a bow and arrows and can move around quickly. Wet Ones are similar to fish, with the extra ability to walk on land. These reptiles are more dangerous when they are in the water. Draconians protect Draconian City and carry a sword and shield. Ormaar is the dragon that lives inside the mountain and confronts riders at the end of the ride.^[26]

Reception

Brady MacDonald from the Los Angeles Times ranked Guardian as the ninth most anticipated new ride for 2014; Sarah Sekula from Fox News ranked the ride in the top nine.^[36][37] Also, Jody Robbins from MSN ranked Guardian in the top 11 best new attractions in Canada.^[38] According to Triotech and Cedar Fair, the response from the public during the ride's opening weekend was positive.^[39][40] Both children and parents interviewed by Adam Martin-Robbins from Yorkregion.com enjoyed the ride.^[41] Jeremy Schoolfiiled from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) said, "Yes, Cedar Fair seems to have figured out how to create a lavish dark ride on a regional theme park budget."^[5]

See also

• Voyage to the Iron Reef, a similar ride being installed at Knott's Berry Farm in 2015

References