Canada’s Wonderland finally confirmed rumours of a record-breaking rollercoaster planned for the park last August, and the hotly-anticipated attraction known as AlpenFury is now just months away from reality.
Canada’s longest, tallest and fastest launch coaster is set to send riders on a 1,000-metre-long track that will rocket them out of the park’s iconic Wonder Mountain, reaching top speeds of 115 km/h and hurling through nine inversions — the most of any launch coaster in North America.
Construction of the new attraction seemed off to a slow start, but park management is confident that the ride will be operational early in Wonderland’s 2025 season.
Wonderland spokesperson Grace Peacock confirms to blogTO that the park is “working to open AlpenFury early in the season,” and promises further updates on the project will be shared in the months to come.
For now, the park team is tiding over the public with some recent construction photos of Wonderland’s new star attraction.
The pace of assembly here has accelerated to levels that rival the coaster’s blistering top speeds, as sections of brown-painted supports and blue tracks are quickly being bolted into place.
While things will look a lot different come spring, Mother Nature has helped offer a preview of the ride’s future alpine village theme, leaving icicles on newly-installed tracks and capping the peaks of Wonder Mountain with snow.
Local theme park expert AmusementInsiders has been following the project closely and was initially doubtful that the ride would be operational any time soon, telling blogTO, “if you had asked me two weeks ago if Canada’s Wonderland was going to be able to open AlpenFury early in the 2025 season, I would have probably chuckled a bit.”
However, after shooting new aerial footage of the park, he has a more optimistic outlook, explaining that “based off of what I’m seeing firsthand and know from documenting other projects on the park, like Yukon Striker, I think they are on pace to have this coaster built and ready before May long weekend.”
“It’s a much lighter track design than what the park typically builds, which aids with the ease of erecting the pieces quicker. With the project taking place in such a complicated area, it had a much slower pre-construction process, which made it appear more behind schedule to those of us used to other projects.”
After doubting the timeline in the initial stages, AmusementInsiders says, “I fully trust Wonderland and their upper management when they say it will be an early 2025 opening.”
Designed by manufacturer Premier Rides, AlpenFury will be the 19th roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland, and the fourth ride to directly interact with the park’s iconic centrepiece mountain.
“The combination of being blasted out of Wonder Mountain and then racing through nine inversions one right after the other is going to be an experience guests won’t soon forget,” said Phil Liggett, the general manager at Canada’s Wonderland, back in August.