La Ronde (amusement park)
La Ronde is an amusement park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, built as the entertainment complex for Expo 67, the 1967 world fair. Today, it is operated by Six Flags under an emphyteutic lease with the City of Montreal, which expires in 2065. It is the largest amusement park in Quebec and second largest in Canada.
It is on located on the Northern tip of Saint Helen's Island. This is a man-made extension to the island in the space where the small Ronde Island had been. The park hosts L'International des Feux Loto-Québec, a highly regarded international fireworks competition. La Ronde is one of three Six Flags parks not to be officially branded as a Six Flags park, Great Escape in Queensbury, New York, and Frontier City in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma being the other two.
Park
The park opens from mid-May to late October, with peak admissions in July. Toddlers aged 2 and under receive free admission. Family rides require a height of, while most intermediate rides require and high-thrill rides require.La Ronde closes its season in the last weekend of October. To celebrate Halloween, in the month of October, the park hosts its annual La Ronde's Fright Fest. The festival has four haunted houses, and many costumed performers who roam the park.
The park has 40 rides, including ten roller coasters; among them is Le Monstre, a high wooden double-tracked roller coaster which holds the record for highest double-tracked roller coaster in the world.
History
La Ronde was the entertainment complex built for Expo 67, the world fair held in Montreal from April 27 to October 29, 1967. The exposition was located on 400 hectares of man-made islands in the St Lawrence River adjacent to Montréal, and comprised six "theme" pavilions, 48 national pavilions, four provincial pavilions, 27 private-industry and institutional pavilions, and La Ronde – a 54-ha entertainment complex with theatres, midway attractions, drinking and dining. Visitors could experience the rides, restaurants and beer halls of La Ronde until 2:30 a.m. nightly. The rest of the Expo site closed down at 10:30 p.m. After Expo 67 World's Fair, the City of Montreal continued to run the amusement park for the next 34 years.The City of Montreal sold La Ronde to Six Flags, an American theme park chain, in a deal completed on May 4, 2001. It acquired all of the assets of the park for $20 million USD and has a long-term contract to lease the land from the city. Before the announcement of the Six Flags purchase, the city had considered offers from other bidders including Paramount Parks, Cedar Fair, and Parc Astérix. Since then, Six Flags has invested around $90 million in new rides and improvements, such as Le Vampire, Splash, Le Goliath and Ednör - L'Attaque as well as a new main entrance.
, from 2001–2012.
The amusement park was used as a backdrop in the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "Laughing in the Dark" and was given the fictional name "Playland". The episode featured the park's iconic giant roller coaster, haunted house with a dragon on the front and its old-fashioned carousel.
La Ronde had a Nintendo-sponsored video game centre with the latest Nintendo video games and attractions. Since 2009, the former 3D theatre has housed Nintendo DS and Wii consoles, advertisements and a Nintendo Store.
In May 2002, La Ronde announced the installation of a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted roller coaster called Le Vampire, which was the first major investment by Six Flags. It is a mirror image of the "Batman – The Ride" roller coasters found at many other Six Flags parks.
In 2003 La Ronde opened 6 new rides including Auto Tamponneuses, Tour de Ville, Manitou, Vertigo, Grand Carrousel, and Toboggan Nordique. Some rides were replaced for these new rides.
In 2004 La Ronde opened Le splash a Shoot the Chute ride with another ride Spongebob 3D
In May 2006, La Ronde opened its ninth roller coaster, Goliath, a high Bolliger & Mabillard mega coaster. It reaches speeds of, making it the third tallest and the third fastest roller coaster in Canada.
For the 2007 season, La Ronde painted its iconic observation tower bright orange to advertise Pizza Pizza, an Ontario pizza chain that, at the time, was just emerging into the Quebec market. All of the pizza stands inside the park were renamed from Pizza Ronde to Pizza Pizza.
2007 was La Ronde's 40th anniversary. The park celebrated with Expo 67 themed events commemorating the world fair.
In January 2009, La Ronde announced its intention to become a Six Flags branded park, using the rights to Warner Bros. and DC Comics trademarks under the licensing agreement with Six Flags. Le Vampire, a mirror image of constructed in 2002, carries no association to the Batman media franchise because the licence with Warner Bros. and DC Comics is not valid in unbranded Six Flags parks. It is yet unknown if Le Vampire will be re-branded to Batman: The Ride once the branding of the park commences.
, a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster at the park. This coaster was formerly located at Six Flags AstroWorld as "Serial Thriller".
The Serial Thriller, a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster that used to be located at the now defunct Six Flags AstroWorld, was shipped to La Ronde from the Great Escape, another Six Flags property where it lay in storage since 2005. The roller coaster, which opened in 1999 at Six Flags AstroWorld, has been installed over the Lac des Dauphins at the park for the 2010 season and is named Ednör - L'Attaque. It features special effects and theming from an alleged sea monster that was reported to have appeared in the Lac des Dauphins.
On March 9, 2010, La Ronde announced that , an interactive laser-tag attraction themed around the Terminator series, will also be featured in the park for the 2010 season.
On January 19, 2012, Six Flags announced Vol Ultime at La Ronde; it is similar to the SkyScreamers and it is tall.
In 2013, the park opened a water-themed attraction, Aqua Twist.
On August 29, 2013, Six Flags announced the addition of Demon, a top spin ride, for the 2014 season. As a world premiere, Goliath was the first roller coaster equipped and exploited with virtual reality headset.
On August 28, 2014, Six Flags announced Maison Rouge, a haunted house, for the 2015 season.
On September 3, 2015, Six Flags announced Avenue Aventure, a section of the park which includes Bateau Pirate, Condor and two new rides ; Phoenix, a Larson flying scooters and Gravitor, a Chance Falling Star from Six Flags St. Louis.
On September 1, 2016 Six Flags announced Titan, a Zamperla Giant Discovery. It is the park's second pendulum ride. It is identical to the Riddler Revenge at Six Flags Over Texas.
In 2017 Le Monstre had only one track open for mainly the whole season while the other track was retracked
In May 2017, on its 50th anniversary, La Ronde announced the permanent closure of one of its original rides, La Pitoune. The water log ride dated back to the days of Expo 67, and had its final season in operation in 2016. It has since been dismantled.
On Saturday, May 19, 2018, Six Flags La Ronde has opened its newest ride—a spinning, rising-then-dipping platform thrill ride called Le Tourbillon, a Larson International GX5 model Tilt-A-Whirl, residing along L'Avenue across from the Phoenix. This thrill ride addition was supposed to have been amongst the proposed featured rides for a new family section, called Carnaval En Folie.
On Saturday, May 18, 2019, Six Flags La Ronde opened its new ride Chaos, a Fire Ball ride by Larson International, which previously was in Six Flags Great Adventure from 2015 to 2018 and was named El Diablo. By the end of 2018, the ride was relocated to La Ronde and has been re-painted from red to black on the top of the ride. The ride also has new trains. Chaos is located in the former place of the ride Le Moulin de la Sorcière, which is located between the rides Manitou and Boomerang.
On Sunday, August 25, 2019, Super Manège closed. It was scheduled to close at the end of the day, but was abruptly closed when a rider's restraint failed. On August 29, 2019. Six Flags announced its new ride for La Ronde, Vipère, formerly Green Lantern: First Flight.
On Monday, March 30, 2020, Six Flags announced it was indefinitely postponing the start of La Ronde's 54th operating season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 25 a limited access opening began, with August 3, 2020 as the general public opening date. This marked the first time in La Ronde's 53 year history that the park operated less than half a season, and with several attractions and rides temporarily closed. Rides closed for 2020 include: Monster rollercoaster, Vipere rollercoaster, Gravitor, Catapult, Aqua Twist, Ourson Fripon, Pirate Boat, Galopant Carousel, Minirail and Spirale.
Features
Roller coasters
| Ride Name | Opened | Manufacturer | Model/Type | Notes |
| Boomerang | 1984 | Vekoma Rides | Boomerang | Repainted to dark blue |
| Dragon | 1994 | INTAMIN Worldwide | Indoor/Family Roller Coaster | |
| Ednör – L'Attaque | 2010 | Vekoma Rides | SLC | relocated from Six Flags Astroworld |
| Goliath | 2006 | Bolliger & Mabillard | Hyper Coaster | |
| Marche du Mille-pattes | 1967 | Arrow Dynamics | Mini Mine Train | |
| Le Monstre | 1985 | William Cobb & Associates | Wooden Roller Coaster | In 2017 track 2 was closed for mainly the whole season |
| Toboggan Nordique | 2003 | Zamperla | Wild Mouse Coaster | |
| Le Vampire | 2002 | Bolliger & Mabillard | Inverted Coaster | |
| Vipère | TBA | Intamin | Zac-Spin | Formerly at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Set to open: 2021 |
Thrill rides
| Name | Installation Year | Manufacturer | Ride Type |
| Bateau pirate | 1988 | HUSS Maschinenfabrik | Pirate ship |
| Condor | 1990 | HUSS Maschinenfabrik | Condor |
| Orbite | 1999 | S&S Power | Space Shot |
| Vertigo | 2003 | Zamperla | Hawk 24 |
| Manitou | 2003 | Zamperla | Nitro |
| Vol Ultime | 2012 | Funtime | Star Flyer |
| Demon | 2014 | Mondial | Roll Over |
| Maison Rouge | 2015 | ACMÉ Immersif | Haunted House |
| Gravitor | 2016 | Chance | Falling Star |
| Titan | 2017 | Zamperla | Giant Discovery |
| Chaos | 2019 | Larson | Fire Ball |
Family and children
| Name | Installation Year | Manufacturer | Model/Ride Type |
| :fr:Le Galopant|Le Galopant | 1967 | Bairolle | Carousel |
| Joyeux moussaillons | 1967 | Arrow Dynamics | Boat ride |
| Tchou Tchou | 1967 | Arrow Dynamics | Train ride |
| La grande envolée | 1990 | Zamperla | |
| Grand carrousel | 2003 | Chance Morgan | Carousel |
| Air papillon | 2005 | Zamperla | |
| La danse des bestioles | 2005 | Zamperla | |
| Monsieur l'arbre | 2005 | Zamperla | |
| Marais enchanté | 2005 | Zamperla | |
| Ourson Fripon | 2005 | Zamperla | |
| Pommes d'Api | 2005 | Zamperla | |
| Aqua Twist | 2013 | Mack Rides | Twist & Splash/Teacup ride |
| Phoenix | 2016 | Larson International | Flying Scooters |
| Tourbillon | 2018 | Larson International | Tilt-A-Whirl G5 |
Intermediates
| Name | Installation Year | Manufacturer | Note |
| Disco Ronde | 1986 | HUSS Maschinenfabrik | Placed In Splash before moving near Vol Ultime |
| Dragon | 1995 | Intamin | - |
| Autos tamponneuses | 2003 | RDC Bumper Cars | - |
| Tour de Ville | 2003 | Zamperla | - |
| Splash | 2004 | Intamin | - |
Panoramic
| Name | Installation Year | Manufacturer | Notes |
| Minirail | 1967 | Von Roll Habegger | - |
| Spirale | 1967 | Von Roll | In 2019 this ride closed down for the season. |
| Grande Roue | 1984 | Vekoma | - |