Centreville Amusement Park is one of the trickiest amusement parks to visit. While the
park is located in a major city, it’s literally located on an island only accessible by a ferry.
So is the journey to reach this park worth it? Find out in this review!
The Toronto Islands are 15 small islands roughly 1.5-2 miles off the coast of downtown Toronto.
These islands were home to Hanlan’s Point Amusement Park until the 1930s and Sunnyside
Amusement Park until 1955, but you still have one amusement park left in Centreville
Amusement Park. This park opened in 1967 and it’s now a solid destination for families.
Now let’s talk about the arrival experience. This is the worst part about this park by far. It is a
major time commitment. First, you must find a parking spot in downtown Toronto. This has two
obstacles. First, it can be pricey. Especially if the nearby Rogers Centre or Scotiabank Arenas
have sports games or concerts. Two, traffic is nightmarish. Navigating the city streets
is frustrating between the abundance of cars and because pedestrians get the walk sign while cars
get green lights to turn, which stops motion. Once parked, you need to head to the Jack
Layton Ferry Terminal and purchase a roundtrip ticket to Centre Island.
This costs roughly 9 Canadian dollars as of 2022. You don’t need to reserve a spot. It’s first come,
first-served. Ferries depart every 40 minutes. Once on-board the ferry, you have a 15 minute
journey across the water to Centre Island. The voyage offers a spectacular view of Toronto’s
skyline, including the CN Tower. The return journey is the inverse and runs just as often.
Once you reach Centre Island, Centreville Amusement Park is roughly a 5 minute walk.
But it’s a relaxing stroll between the abundance of trees and water.
Centreville is a free admission park with multiple entrances. Once inside, you need to
find one of the three ticket booths to purchase either a wristband or tickets. Adult wristbands
cost roughly 38 Canadian dollars as of 2022. Alternatively, you can purchase individual tickets
for roughly 1.3 Canadian dollars. Each ride costs 3-6 tickets. So if you want to ride several
attractions, go with the all-day wristband. You have a ticket booth by the Bumble Bee ride,
which tends to get busier. I would recommend using the quieter ones by the Town Hall or
Haunted Barrel Works dark ride further in the park. Centreville isn’t a particularly big park,
so it’s just an extra minute or two walk. In peak summer months, the park is open
from 10:30 am until 7 or 8 pm most days. But check the weather before visiting. This park
tends to shorten its hours if storms are in the forecast, which is understandable given
how everyone needs to take a ferry to get back home. I would avoid this park on a stormy day.
This park’s appearance and atmosphere is its biggest strength. This is a very charming park.
As with the rest of Centre Island, you have a very well-shaded park set along
the water. Then the park’s buildings have a 1900s turn-of-the-century aesthetic.
This creates a fun atmosphere, especially when paired with the energy of the cycling rides.
I visited on a holiday weekend and while there was a healthy crowd on both the island and park,
lines were minimal. Almost every ride was a walk-on. The one exception was the roller coaster,
which sported a 15-20 minute wait. That lines up with the reports I heard prior to my visit.
Operations were pretty good. Most rides were loaded quickly and some of the rides like
the flume and dark ride had more vehicles on the course than I expected for a park of this scale.
The one ride that wasn’t an efficient loader was the coaster. The operator was only allowing one
row on the platform at a time since he said he had seen teenagers and adults push children out
of the way for the front or back rows. Now let’s talk about the ride lineup.
This park caters primarily to kids and families. So understandably,
there’s a large collection of rides that appeal to them. Rides have low height limits and many can be
experienced by kids and parents alike. I love when family parks are set-up in this manner.
You have several small spinning rides and a splash pad that were popular with the young guests.
Adults won’t find many thrill rides, but there are some notable flat rides. The best of the bunch is
easily the Scrambler. This model is placed indoors with lights and music. I have an entire video on
this style of attraction, but I love when parks plus an average flat ride by placing it inside
with effects. This one has a short cycle for a scrambler, but it has a high max speed, loud
music, and lights reflecting off a disco ball. This was easily my favorite ride at the park.
Theme park historians will love the Antique Carousel. This 1907 Dentzel carousel is a
beauty with hand-carved horses. After a 2017 flood, this ride was almost sold to Carmel,
Indiana to cover Centreville’s debts, but the sale was cancelled after Carmel removed
it from the town’s budget and Toronto helped Centreville out with their rent.
Then there’s a cool Eli Bridge Ferris Wheel themed to look like a windmill.
This ride offers nice views of both the island and Toronto skyline similar to the ferry.
This isn’t the only observation ride. You also have some tracked car rides- both big and small.
There are Swan Boats that go out on the water. Then the Sky
Ride travels over the midway and outside the park’s boundaries.
The lone roller coaster is the Toronto Island Mine Coaster, which is a Miler kiddie coaster. This
one isn’t as wild as others, but it’s still an above average kiddie coaster. There’s no airtime,
but some of the turns offer moderate laterals. And the ride is smooth and offers 2 laps.
There’s also a dark ride in Haunted Barrel Works. The station looks beautiful with all the physical
props and it got me excited the main ride would have a similar look. However, the main ride
was relatively short and filled primarily with carnival quality gags. I did like this guillotine
effect towards the end though. This is on par with a lot of the older Pretzel rides still remaining.
For water rides, the big one is the Log Flume. This is one of the shortest Arrow
flumes out there. You just have a few turns and a modest plunge,
but it’s the perfect size for this type of park. One thing that surprised me was that this park
didn’t have too many games. They chose to popular what little space they have almost
entirely with rides and food stands. As for the latter, I didn’t get any meals
due to my limited time here, but they had some popular chains like Subway and Pizza Pizza.
So do I recommend Centreville Amusement Park? It depends. I think this park is a must for kids.
There is plenty for them to do and this park has a lot of charm to it. They could easily spend a day
here and it’s nice how lines are minimal. Roller coaster enthusiasts may not find this park worth
their time. While I really like the overall feel of this park, it is a pretty big time commitment
for just one credit since you have to navigate Toronto traffic and then use a ferry both ways.
But if you’re an amusement park fan who places an emphasis on atmosphere,
you could have a fun few hours here. I know I did, but I probably wouldn’t come back myself
unless they added a notable new attraction because of this park’s location and since
it’s so close to Canada’s Wonderland. So those are my thoughts on Centreville
Amusement Park? What are your thoughts on this Toronto family park? Do you like this park’s
looks and lineup? Let me know 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!