La Ronde Discussion Thread

^ Cobra no longer exists.

^Wait since when?

^Read back a few pages

^ It is no longer on the website, and also look back, as they said. Or look on Wikipedia, I think it says it there.

This park.... is a disaster. Ive been to many parks, and this one has got to be the most ridiculous, poorly managed place. Moved to Montreal last year, had a season pass, went well over 40 times to the park, decided to get one this year too... Already went 4 times to the park and they are just getting worse every year.

To start off, more rides are closed then open at this park. The Monstre has been closed pretty much every day since they opened in May. And if it is open, you better be prepared to wait 2+ hours to get on the ride. They only ever run one train on each track. Every other ride looks like its about to fall apart because of the lack of paint, and the huge amount of rust. Also, the Cobra and Pitoune just sitting around not being touched really makes the park look dead. And then dont even get me started about the Titan. It looks beautiful and fits well in the location they put it, but damn.... The people who run this ride have no clue what they are doing. The person who lets people into the ride cant count, the ride is always half full because they just cant be bothered. Today I seen the ride loaded well over 10 times with half capacity when the lineup was full and at least an hour or longer wait (like the photo i posted) While waiting in the lineup today for the titan, near the end of the day when the park was dying down, the ride broke down twice, had to get mechanics called as people were trapped on it, and the breaks didnt work. So it just kept swinging until it came to a stop itself. And then on top of that, on two seperate runs of the ride, while i was STILL waiting, people had vommited causing them to shut down the ride, clean EVERY damn seat and then run the ride with no one on it, to dry it off.....

The only good thing this year is that they no longer have the VR glasses on Goliath, so you can get on and off the coaster within 10 minutes. Also, the vampire seems to now always have the two trains running, so its quite quick to get on and off... Unlike last year when they ALWAYS had just one train running.

I think this may have been discussed before, but I don't remember the answer. Was Goliath originally supposed to be themed to Superman, or was intended for a different park at some point? I'm curious because of the color scheme.

The person who lets people into the ride cant count, the ride is always half full because they just cant be bothered

Apparently then the management there haven't heard of these:

(or it's too expensive for their budget)

I think this may have been discussed before, but I don't remember the answer. Was Goliath originally supposed to be themed to Superman, or was intended for a different park at some point? I'm curious because of the color scheme.

Based on the paint scheme, it sure seems like it. Same with how Vampire seems like it was supposed to be Batman based on the paint scheme and bat theming.

I think this may have been discussed before, but I don't remember the answer. Was Goliath originally supposed to be themed to Superman, or was intended for a different park at some point? I'm curious because of the color scheme.

 

Based on the paint scheme, it sure seems like it. Same with how Vampire seems like it was supposed to be Batman based on the paint scheme and bat theming.

None of these rides were intended to be DC themed b/c they can't use DC themes in how the licensing deal works. SF must not think it's worth paying more to change the deal.

But with their paint schemes it definitely seems like it would be easy to swap out if they ever did decide to go that route.

I think this may have been discussed before, but I don't remember the answer. Was Goliath originally supposed to be themed to Superman, or was intended for a different park at some point? I'm curious because of the color scheme.

 

Based on the paint scheme, it sure seems like it. Same with how Vampire seems like it was supposed to be Batman based on the paint scheme and bat theming.

 

None of these rides were intended to be DC themed b/c they can't use DC themes in how the licensing deal works. SF must not think it's worth paying more to change the deal.

How come the DC licensing deal doesn't extend to La Ronde?

I think this may have been discussed before, but I don't remember the answer. Was Goliath originally supposed to be themed to Superman, or was intended for a different park at some point? I'm curious because of the color scheme.

 

Based on the paint scheme, it sure seems like it. Same with how Vampire seems like it was supposed to be Batman based on the paint scheme and bat theming.

 

None of these rides were intended to be DC themed b/c they can't use DC themes in how the licensing deal works. SF must not think it's worth paying more to change the deal.

 

How come the DC licensing deal doesn't extend to La Ronde?

The license with Warner Bros. and DC Comics is not valid in unbranded Six Flags parks, this applies to the Great Escape too. La Ronde was bought by SF at a dirt cheap price 20M, with a land lease from the city. Even though patrons complain, the park surely has been a money maker b/c the low purchase price. SF seems not to want to make it a branded park as it may not be a good ROI, just like Escape wouldn't be. Both parks are deemed as the bottom parks in the chain. DC themes will not likely change that much, but cost SF more in licensing.

If you read some of the old annual reports from the early 2000's Burke/Story years it says verbatum that the plan was to eventually flag La Ronde, but I guess when Shapiro came in there were more pressing issues to deal with in the company so that one got swept under the rug and never surfaced again.

See page 8 of this document for direct confirmation that "Out La Ronde park in Montreal, our first park in Canada, will be branded a Six Flags park for the 2004 season." http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/61/616/61629/items/143246/2002Letter.pdf

 

SF seems not to want to make it a branded park as it may not be a good ROI, just like Escape wouldn't be. Both parks are deemed as the bottom parks in the chain.

It can be for great escape. But the ronde (if I do not remember badly) makes almost 2 million visitors a year

^ I do not know the exact number but I'm sure you are right, especially in the few last years I think attendance really increased. As coaster enthusiasts, we see them as bottom parks in the chain b/c Six Flags doesn't invest a lot of $ in them for new rides or roller coasters, but the unfortunate truth is that it would be a waste of money for 6F. People will continue to go to these two parks no matter how much money they invest in them ; unlike, say, Magic Mountain that has to compete with several other parks, La Ronde is the only large park in the province, the closest being CW which isn't a threat b/c it's really far away. Great Escape is in a touristic area so people continue to visit it year after year even if it almost never receives any significant addition.

I'm sure that if these two parks were independently operated once again, they wouldn't receive a new coaster every 2 years like Cedar Point, but they would probably see better additions every once in a while.

I think this may have been discussed before, but I don't remember the answer. Was Goliath originally supposed to be themed to Superman, or was intended for a different park at some point? I'm curious because of the color scheme.

They might have intended to give it a Superman theme (I don't know to be honest), but it wasn't intended for another park and headed to La Ronde at the last minute. The coaster isn't built on flat land, so the supports had to be custom designed to fit the topology of its location, it fits in a very narrow space in-between two sections of the parking lot, and it is the exact length of the island (could be a coincidence, but that would be surprising).

Hey guys. I'm planning a visit to La Ronde for the last Thursday in June 2018. Should I budget for a Flash Pass?

Hey guys. I'm planning a visit to La Ronde for the last Thursday in June 2018. Should I budget for a Flash Pass?

I'm planning a visit to La Ronde

Why?

Should I budget for a Flash Pass?

Probably. The park doesn't have to be crowded for them to turn station waits into hour long, hellish experiences with their miserable operations.

I'm planning a visit to La Ronde

 

Why?

Because it exists and I've never been to it. One of the things on my bucket list is to ride every non-shuttle, non-kiddie coaster in North America.

People overlooked it but Screamscape also is reporting today a rumor of La Ronde getting a superloop from their source. SF is adding a Raptor at SFFT,but they also may still be adding their clones like superloops, skyscreamers, etc..

One big thing to watch out for with La Ronde is how long it takes to get in the park. It took me a half hour to navigate from the bridge to the island with the park and then 1.5 hours (yes you read that right) waiting in line to get in.

If the back entrance is open, I highly recommend that if the front one is a total madhouse.

My hotel is a couple blocks away from a Metro station, so I plan on taking the Metro to the island and using the shuttle from the Metro station to the entrance. I also plan on getting to the park before it opens.

I hope you have a good time at La Ronde.

My only trip there was a couple years ago, and despite the place being a ... sad dump of a park (sorry, have to be honest), there were a few things that were AWESOME:

1 - Le Monstre. With the PTC trains (I assume it was sluggish with the Morgans, per the standard), this thing really is a monster. It's got that Bill Cobb kick-you-when-you-least-expect-it feel to it. Loved it. My favorite woodie in the SF chain.

2 - That silly little portable Vekmoma corkscrew. Man, does it look to be in bad shape. The single train was ripped apart and full of graffitti. It would have been at home at Coney Island around 1992. But the ride was surprisingly good! Maybe my 2 rides were a fluke. It was no pleasure trip, but still enjoyable. I attribute the strange feel of it to all the movable points in the structure; it's not welded together like the standard Arrow/Vekoma, so much of the shock and vibration was absorbed before it came through the seat. Don't get me wrong, there is a still a running vibration due to the old wheels and chipped paint, but the micro-accelerations that usually hurt are mostly gone. Subtle stuff, but think about it.

3 - The mini-monorail. A great view of the park. Made me think how much potential the park has. I dream Cedar Fair would buy this place one day (along with Magic Mountain and a few other SF parks).

4 - The condor ride. Holy cow, is this running on a German fair program? It was fast as hell. I've never experienced a condor that fast, so it really took me by surprise.

They have a dilapidated old sky tower. It was orange, and a trainwreck. Hot inside, just a mess. Such a shame. So many great rides, a great location, and a reasonably great set-up. So much potential! I thought there should be a walkway connecting the area from Dragon to the other side of the park. Oh well, do your best!

I'm only going to say this once...

Tomorrow is "Six Flags Announcements" day. We will be posting the announcement as soon as the materials are available to us.

PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY LINKS OR IMAGES TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT BEFORE TPR DOES!

Anyone who does this will be banned forever from Theme Park Review.

Let me explain...

Posting the new ride information before we can do it actually creates MORE WORK for us as most of the time people who come on our forum and post info about a new ride will do a crappy job of it and then we have to not only do the work we are going to do to make a proper post about the new ride, but also clean up the garbage posts that people make.

No one here will get any extra points or look any "cooler" for being "first" to post the information. We aren't about being first we are about having good quality content. Please respect that. Thank you.