Marineland is a theme park located in Canada less
than 2 miles from Niagara Falls. This massive park has some iconic attractions and several
animal exhibits, but it’s most defined by its weirdness. Usually I like strange parks, but not
all the quirks with Marineland are a good thing. Find out everything you need to know about
this one-of-a-kind park in this review!
This park opened back in 1961 as
Marine Wonderland and Animal Farm. The name was condensed to just Marineland just
a few years later, which it has gone by ever since. The park started mostly as an aquarium with
popular sea creatures such as dolphins and whales, and that’s what the park is still
most well-know for to this day.
But the park expanded its offerings over the
next two decades. Land animals were added in the 1970s and rides were added in the 1980s.
The park recently underwent a substantial drought for a new attraction, but 2021 finally
brought a new ride with the Star Voyager.
While this park’s diverse offerings are notable,
this park has been involved in countless lawsuits and protests over the years related to its keeping
of sea creatures. Over the park’s 60 year history, some animals have escaped and many have died.
Some were due to old age, but others were related to the poor conditions and care they received.
There’s too much to cover here, so I encourage you to do your own research on the issue. What
I can say is that the conditions I saw in 2022 were superior to what I witnessed back in 2010.
But I mainly visit this park for the rides.
As you approach the park, you’ll see the
Sky Screamer drop tower from miles away. This attraction photobombs
most pictures of Niagara Falls, and it’s the only attraction you
can see from outside the park. If you arrive by car, you’ll park in this long and
narrow parking lot. You can park on both sides of the main entrance. Since this park typically has
minimal crowds, it’s easy to park by the gate.
This park has always been a bit pricey. As of
2022, day tickets cost 51 Canadian dollars. When I purchased my ticket, I was
automatically upgraded to a season pass for free even though I only planned to visit
once, so this seems like a nice perk for locals.
Marineland opens at 10 am daily. If you’re seeking
out the credits, there are two important notes. First, the front gates close
2 hours before the park does. Second, this park is notorious for staggered
openings. The animal enclosures open with the park, but many of the rides do not.
The only rides available at park opening are the cluster of kiddie and family
rides near the front of the park.
Most of the large rides towards the back of
the park are scheduled to open at 10:30 am. However, my most recent visit saw
rides open much later than that. Maintenance was just starting their work on
the attractions at this time. Dragon Mountain didn’t open until 2.5 hours after the park.
The one major ride that opened on time was Sky Screamer, which doesn’t open until noon,
which is noted on a permanent sign by the ride.
These varied opening times are frustrating if
you want a quick visit focusing on the rides. But when attractions open, you likely won’t have
to wait long. I’ve never seen any lines for the adult attractions. And my most recent
visit took place on a holiday weekend.
The only rides I’ve seen generate modest waits are
the family rides towards the front of the park, but even still, I’ve never seen
them longer than 10-15 minutes.
Part of this is because of the efficiency of
the staff. The crews working the attractions load and check them fairly quickly. So it’s easy
to marathon rides at this park if you so choose, especially since they usually let you
stay in your seat due to the lack of crowds. All the staff members I interacted
with were very friendly as well in my most recent visit, which was a major plus.
Now let’s talk about this park’s layout because it’s one of the park’s biggest cons.
Emphasis on the big. Many parks are landlocked and struggle to find room for new additions.
Just look at Canada’s Wonderland just up north.
Marineland does not have this problem. This
park owns over 1000 acres! Much of this land isn’t developed, which makes it annoying
to navigate this park. You have these long, empty walks between attractions. It’s
surprisingly quiet with the lack of rides, food stands, and games to liven up the midway.
The most energy you get is a staff member riding by in a truck or golf cart. And get
used to this sight. It happens regularly! The paths are super wide, so I saw vehicles
riding side-by-side at points like a highway. If only the streets of Boston had this much room.
So remember to look both ways before crossing the midway at Marineland or else you could
get flattened into a piece of Canadian bacon.
The park mostly forms a long loop, but there are
two egregious dead ends that I need to point out. First, the midway past Dragon Mountain and
Star Voyager leads to some land animals. But the midway just stops and
leads to a construction site. So you have to backtrack if you head out
this way to see the buffalo and deer.
Second is Sky Screamer’s location atop the hill.
While this ride’s placement atop 150 foot hill allows it to offer some of the best views of
any attraction, you have to go on a hike to access it. The only way to reach Sky Screamer is
by this single pathway that winds around the hill. At a brisk pace, it takes 3-4 minutes to reach
the top. And there’s nothing else up there. No other rides, shops, or food stands. Just
Sky Screamer and this awkwardly big plaza.
Speaking of missing amenities, this park has a
severe lack of food and bathrooms. Most of these facilities are towards the front of the park. The
food stands I saw towards the back were shuttered up. And even some of the ones up front were closed
too. Since I only spent a half day at this park, I didn’t intend to try any food, and it’s probably
a good thing due to the limited offerings.
Worse, this park has just 3-4 bathrooms and there
isn’t one in the entire back section of the park. If you’re by Dragon Mountain and need to use the
restroom, you have to walk at least 10 minutes.
I do need to praise this park for its general
appearance though. This park looks pretty nice with the abundance of trees. While a majority
of the walking path is exposed to the sun, you can easily duck into shade on the edge of
the pathways. I also like the architecture at this park. At one point walking down the midway,
I came across a castle. Then many attractions have ornate and shaded queue buildings. The
highlight is undoubtedly that of Dragon Mountain, where you enter this giant rock cave
carved in the shape of a dragon head.
Now let’s talk about the ride lineup, which is
why I come here. Marineland has a fairly limited ride lineup, but they have some unique
attractions and tick off several boxes.
For families, you have a cluster of attractions
towards the front of the park. This includes some smaller spinning rides. Then you oddly have the
park’s new-for-2022 attraction in Eagle Tower, which is a kiddie drop tower, opening
right across the midway from Orca Screamer, which is also a kiddie drop
tower of comparable height. It’s like when Six Flags New England
placed two boomerangs next to each other.
This area also includes one of the park’s
two roller coasters in the Lady Bug Coaster. This is a small Zierer Tivoli coaster. It’s not
thrilling, but it does offer a smooth ride with 4 laps. And if you want the credit, yes
adults can ride this without a child.
The signature coaster here is Dragon Mountain.
This Arrow looper opened as the tallest coaster in the world and it still holds the record for
the largest steel coaster by acreage as it spans 30 acres. This ride has an incredible location,
as it’s built on top of, around, and through a heavily wooded hill. This conceals much of the
layout. This ride has some fun drops that build up considerable speed plus 4 forceful inversions,
most notably the back-to-back vertical loops. This ride is also reasonably smooth too
considering it’s nearly 40 years old. The ride’s biggest flaw is its pacing, as it does
a ton of meandering in between the inversions. I have a separate review on this coaster,
but this is a must for Arrow fans or those who like bizarre, one-of-a-kind coasters.
The quantity of adult flats is limited, but the quality isn’t. The park’s best attraction is
easily Sky Screamer. This trio of S&S drop towers stand 30 stories tall, making them massive on
their own. But remember, they’re located atop the hill. So when you’re at the top, you’re looking
450 feet or 137 meters down at Niagara Falls. The view is stunning. And the ride is quite good for
an S&S model as well. This one runs a combo mode. The initial launch has some power and positive
Gs. Then you get strong floater airtime at the top. You then slowly raise back up for the turbo
drop. The plunge is sudden and delivers a brief burst of airtime at the start of the descent,
before navigating a more controlled plunge than other drop towers. Still, the views and height
make this ride special as I cover in a review.
Star Voyager is the park’s newest thrill ride
and the only Zierer star shape in North America. This ride isn’t quite as crazy as it looks
since it lacks any positive Gs or laterals, but it does offer a very disorienting experience
as the pendulum arm rocks while the gondolas also spin and rock. You don’t invert as often as you
may expect, but many of the full revolutions fling you towards the ground similar to what a booster
does, which offers a scary visual plus some sustained airtime. This ride runs a long cycle,
which is a hallmark of many rides at Marineland. Look up my review on this ride if you
want more details on this rare ride.
Magic Experience is an inverted Huss breakdance.
Whenever your vehicle performs these half turns, you get some strong whip and laterals. Then when
the arms start to bounce, you start feeling a little weightlessness like a spider ride. Don’t
miss this attraction if you like spinning rides.
Sky Hawk is one of the few
Huss condors still remaining. It doesn’t offer the best views
due to the surrounding trees, but the added height of this aerial scrambler
brings some thrills to the experience.
You’re subjected to repeated positive Gs
and also thrown forwards with each pass.
Two ride types this park lacks are dark
rides and water rides, unless you count this polar themed splash pad for the kids.
Beyond the rides, you have all sorts of animal exhibits peppered throughout the park.
I like how the exhibits for the sea creatures included both upper and lower decks, offering
two distinctly different views of the animals.
My favorites were the enclosures
for the whales and penguins because of how active the animals were.
The park also offers shows similar to SeaWorld, but I have never seen any of these
so I cannot speak to their quality.
How much time you need at this park and whether
I recommend it depends on your interests. I would recommend this park for
those who like rare amusement rides. You won’t find anything like
Dragon Mountain elsewhere and there are some interesting flat rides
here. If you only come for these attractions, you likely won’t need more than 3-4 hours tops. If
you want to experience both the rides and animal attractions, there’s enough to fill an entire day,
especially with how much walking you’ll be doing.
This park is super weird. One of the oddest
in the world. Some of those eccentricities are positives. But others left me frustrated
like the empty pathways, enormous size, lack of bathrooms, and staggered openings. Then
if you’re sensitive to animals in captivity, you may want to avoid this park given its history.
But I’ll let you make that decision for yourself.
One thing that can’t be denied is how awesome
this park’s theme song is. Take a listen!
So those are my thoughts on Marineland,
the gargantuan zoo and amusement park in Niagara Falls, Canada. What are your thoughts
about this park, whether it be the rides, animals, or layout? Let me know down in the
comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you gave this video a like and
you considered subscribing since there will be a lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos
here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!
