Canada Wonderland (Canada)

Canada's Wonderland is a 330-acre (130 ha) amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, a suburb directly north of Toronto. The park is open seasonally from May to October and contains more than 200 attractions (including side stall and redemption games and video arcades) in eight differently themed areas. It opened in 1981 and was Canada's first major theme park and is still today the largest and most popular theme park in Canada. Under the ownership of Paramount Parks from 1994 to 2006, it was known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland. When sold to Cedar Fair in 2007, the park reverted to its original name.

The park has been the most attended seasonal theme park in North America for several years in the 2000s. With 16 roller coasters, Wonderland also has more roller coasters in a park anywhere outside of the United States, and tied with Cedar Point for the second most roller coasters in the world. Today, Canada's Wonderland has over 200 attractions, with over 60 thrill rides. The park encompasses eight themed areas on 330 acres of land, with an artificial mountain as the central feature. In the southwestern quadrant, a 20 acres waterpark called Splash Works has over 2 million US gallons of heated water, Canada's largest outdoor wave pool, measuring 36,000 square feet , a lazy river, and 16 water slides.

The park has several themed areas. The four original sections are: International Street, Medieval Faire, Grande World Exposition of 1890 (now Action Zone), and the Happyland of Hanna-Barbera (divided into 2 kids areas now). The current areas include the original sections and White Water Canyon (1984), Splash Works (1992), and children's areas including Kidzville (1998), Zoom Zone (2001) and Planet Snoopy (2010).

International Street is the park's entry area, similar to the Main Street, U.S.A. sections of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Using a format borrowed from Kings Island and Kings Dominion, both sides of the street are lined with shops, including souvenir shops, clothing stores, restaurants, and candy stores. Wonder Mountain, the park's centrepiece, appears at the end of the street. In early decades, stores sold high-quality imported goods, themed to the buildings, and restaurants sold unlikely foods for a theme park, such as shrimp, paella, and smoked sausage. The buildings are named the Latin, Scandinavian, Mediterranean, and Alpine Buildings. International Festival is located in the northeast section of the park and is home to fourteen games and six rides. International Festival is most notable for its midway games.

Action Zone was originally The Grande World Exposition of 1890 and is one of the original four themed areas at Wonderland. It was made to resemble an old world's fair, with expositions from different countries, focusing on African and Asian themes. The restaurants and bathrooms were formerly true to the exposition theme. One of the restaurants was called Ginza Gardens (now The Backlot Cafe) and had a Japanese theme and a Japanese façade. There is also an arcade area within this section of the park. The Mighty Canadian Minebuster, one of the original four roller coasters, is on the outskirts of the Action Zone and was intended to be the centrepiece of the never-built Frontier Canada. In 2002, Action Zone was created as a new themed area within the Grande World Exposition of 1890. However, the entire area was later renamed Action Zone.

The Medieval Faire section of the park has a medieval European theme in both the setting and the rides.The stores and restaurants follow the medieval theme, as does the castle theatre (Wonderland Theatre, originally Canterbury Theatre) and a pirate show in the middle of the lake. Wonderland Theatre hosted ice shows from 2006 to 2011, and will host Cirque Ambiente.

Currently, KidZville and Planet Snoopy are the only children's areas. The official website is http://www.canadaswonderland.com/