Yukon Striker at Canada’s Wonderland is the world’s tallest and fastest dive coaster.
This ride certainly has impressive stats, but it also has great elements. This is why
I think it’s the best B&M dive machine, which I’ll cover in full detail in this review.
Skyrider was an old Togo stand-up coaster that ran at Canada’s Wonderland from 1985 to 2014.
Shortly after this coaster was removed, this Cedar Fair park started planning their next
roller coaster. The chain’s flagship park in Cedar Point added a Bolliger & Mabillard dive
machine in Valravn for the 2016. This opened as the world’s tallest and fastest dive coaster.
Presumably based on the success of this ride,
Canada’s Wonderland decided to add an even bigger dive coaster to their park for the 2019 season.
Yukon Striker would stand 223 feet or 68 meters tall just like Valravn, but this coaster would
feature a larger 245 foot or 75 meter drop that dove underwater. This allowed it to become the
fastest dive coaster at 81 mph or 130 kph. That tunnel posed some construction challenges.
Not only did the park need to erect a diversionary channel for the waterway, but they also had to
remove some track pieces and supports on Vortex to complete this work prior to the 2018 season.
This allowed the coaster to be built swiftly and smoothly the following winter.
Yukon Striker would be part of an all-new Frontier Canada section of the park.
This area was previously known as White Water Canyon from 1984 to 2018,
but the area was given a native boom town theme for 2019. And Yukon Striker would be the area’s
signature attraction. The ride would have a themed entry sign and station to tie into the land.
Canada’s Wonderland has had an impressive skyline ever since Cedar Fair took over with
the installation of Leviathan and Behemoth, but it got even better with Yukon Striker.
You can see the ride’s orange track popping above Wonder Mountain from many places within the park.
And that drop looks extremely intimidating up close, especially since it disappears underwater.
When you go to ride Yukon Striker, you have 3 lines to choose from: standby,
single rider, and Fast Lane. Most people will use standby. This is one
of the park’s most popular attractions and it frequently has the longest line in the park,
regularly reaching an hour on busy days. And that’s even with this ride having good capacity.
It has always run 3 trains, each seating up to 24 riders. Dispatches are pretty swift
too. Yukon Striker is just that popular. Making this ride your first or last stop makes sense.
Alternatively, you can save time using the paid Fast Lane skip-the-line pass or you can utilize
the single rider line. Since this coaster seats 8 riders per row, there frequently
are empty seats that need to be filled. If you’re in the standby or Fast Lane queue,
you can choose to wait extra for the front or join the shorter line for the other two rows.
Most people prefer the front for the view, but I think the back offers slightly better drops,
so I typically select that row. When it’s your turn to ride, you can
store your belongings in the complimentary loose article bins. And this is a really neat system.
The bins are attached to a track that runs over the station. So your bags and phones get to go for
a ride while you’re on Yukon Striker. It seems like an overly complex system, but it’s really
cool to see. The one downside with this set-up is that you cannot place drinks in the bins.
However, someone did that the first time I rode Yukon Striker and my fiancee was doused in soda.
We could see it happening, but we were locked in the train and couldn’t avoid it.
Unlike the older dive coasters that have the hard over-the-shoulder restraints,
Yukon Striker has vest restraints. While these do hug your body more snugly,
they eliminate the possibility of all headbanging enhancing rider comfort.
Granted this ride is extremely smooth anyway so you wouldn’t get headbanging with any restraint.
More importantly, these restraints lower the height requirement from 54” to 52”, allowing
smaller guests to ride this attraction sooner. But have no fear, this ride’s forces are strong
enough that you still get airtime and hangtime even with the vests.
Once dispatched, you turn out of the station and ascend the towering lift hill.
Like many B&M dive coasters, you don’t go straight into the drop. You have this slow turn high in the
air, which grants riders a stunning panoramic view of Canada’s Wonderland and the surrounding area.
It’s especially surreal looking down on Wonder Mountain.
This leads into the holding brake atop the drop. This is an incredible visual up front staring at
the underwater tunnel with nothing in front of you. I especially like it on the edge of
the train when the track isn’t beneath you. You then suddenly release and plummet down the
90 degree plunge. This drop gives good sustained floater airtime like many of the dive coasters,
but it lasts longer due to the drop’s extra size. The airtime had a bit more power at the start
of the drop in the back, but everyone levitated out of their seat for the entirety of the drop.
You then shoot through the tunnel and get blasted with positive Gs. This is one department
Yukon Striker really excels at. This is the most intense dive coaster without a doubt.
Those positive forces are carried through the start of the giant Immelmann.
The flip over the top is pretty mild. This element is all about that powerful ascent.
Next is my favorite inversion on the ride, a zero-G winder. This element starts like
a large zero-G roll offering some glorious hangtime. But the descent twists sideways.
It’s a disorienting maneuver after hovering out of your seat while inverted. And that
drop rebuilds a ton of speed in short order. You then rip through a vertical loop- the first on
a dive coaster. I remember how the dive coasters on Roller Coaster Tycoon had vertical loops and it
always surprised me why B&M had never put one on their dive machines. Prior to riding, I expected
this element to be large and graceful. But boy was I wrong. You take this element with some serious
speed and the forces are strong too. The loop itself has good positives and the valleys before
and after the element amplify them even further. The exit to the loop dives into a subterranean
trench that’s angled downwards, so you gain even more speed. This ride feels fast!
Those strong positives are maintained through the 4th and final inversion, an Immelmann. This
one is more compact than the first and the train zips through it, which is why it’s so forceful.
You then hop into the mid-course, unfortunately getting no airtime. And then without fail,
you’re train will be slowed to basically a crawl. This is the one part that really disrupts the
ride’s pacing, which is otherwise near perfect. The drop off the mid-course is short but steep, so
it offers decent floater airtime in the back row. Towards the front, you only get minimal airtime.
The train then coasts over this bunny hill. It looks pretty slow,
but it does manage to give some ok floater airtime throughout the train, so I’ll take it.
Yukon Striker then traverses a 360 degree helix above the midway.
This is a really cool visual both on and off-ride.
You’ll undoubtedly see guests staring up at the train. From a force perspective, you only get a
little bit of force, but the visuals make the element much like the helix on Candymonium.
You then snap into the brake run and if you’re on the left side of the train,
you’ll get a bit of weightlessness from this maneuver as you pop upright. This ends the 3625
foot or 1105 meter long journey for you, and the much shorter journey for your loose articles.
So what would I rate Yukon Striker? I would give this dive coaster a 9 out of 10.
This ride goes above and beyond for a dive machine. You have that incredible first drop that
is every bit as good as it looks. But the elements that follow is what really elevates Yukon Striker.
You have four forceful inversions, many of which offer superb positive Gs.
Rarely do I describe a dive coaster as intense, but it’s warranted with Yukon Striker.
This coaster doesn’t feel like a one trick pony and it offers a full ride experience that fits
in perfectly at Canada’s Wonderland. This is easily the park’s best inverting coaster.
I believe I previously called Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Griffon the best dive coaster
in an older review. While I don’t like Griffon any less, I do need to give Yukon Striker an apology.
This ride is considerably better. You have a drop that’s nearly as good plus a far more intense and
complete layout. I really hope B&M can continue to make dive coasters that offer a complete ride
experience beyond that signature drop. So those are my thoughts on Yukon
Striker at Canada’s Wonderland. What are your thoughts on the tallest and fastest dive coaster?
Do you agree it’s the best of the genre? Let me know your thoughts down below.
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!