Behemoth is the Bolliger & Mabillard hyper coaster at Canada’s Wonderland.
This ride opened as the tallest and fastest coaster in all of Canada and it’s still
one of the park’s most popular attractions.
But is it a top tier B&M hyper?
Find out in this review of Behemoth.
Cedar Fair acquired Paramount’s Canada’s Wonderland in 2006.
Ontario’s largest theme park had 14 different roller coasters, but it had a disturbing lack
of quality.
Vortex, which was an old Arrow suspended coaster, was widely considered to be the park’s best
coaster.
That was ludicrous for a park of this scale.
I could not name another park with a coaster lineup with as many subpar coasters.
Cedar Fair immediately began investing in their recently acquired Paramount properties.
The company purchased a trio of B&M hyper coasters in the late 2000s.
Canada’s Wonderland received Behemoth first in 2008.
Kings Island received Diamondback in 2009.
And Carowinds received Intimidator in 2010.
All three rides have similar stats and feature a sea of camelbacks.
Behemoth was placed in the back of the Action Zone.
The coaster’s giant hills run along the road entering the park, which gets guests
hyped for their day.
The coaster’s bright orange track also makes its mark on the park’s skyline.
You can see this coaster from miles away and it looms over much of the park, especially
if you’re in the Splash Works water park.
That section of the park offers some of the best views of the attraction, showcasing its
scale since it towers over the wave pool and water slides.
Like many Cedar Fair coasters, Behemoth as a great entry plaza.
The coaster’s name is spelled out with large letters above the queue line and final turn.
This stylistic decision just adds to the sense of scale for a coaster themed to a large biblical
monster.
The coaster itself doesn’t have any theming, but that’s fine for this type of attraction.
Behemoth is one of the park’s premier attractions, regularly boasting one of the longest waits
in the park.
On average, the ride has a 30-60 minute wait most days.
Most people head to Leviathan or Yukon Striker first, so you can usually experience this
ride with a low wait early in the day.
Behemoth thankfully has good capacity.
The lines are almost entirely due to demand.
Behemoth regularly runs three trains, each seating up to 32 riders per train.
The crew does a pretty good job keeping the trains in motion to minimize double stacking.
And that’s even with guests being allowed to store their belongings in bins on the ride
platform.
Behemoth has assigned seating.
More often than not, they load the train front to back, but the groupers are usually willing
to honor seating requests for vacant rows.
There is a dedicated queue for the very front row, but they don’t always let you wait
for the other seats.
So if you want to try the back and you see it open, I’d advise requesting it.
I think the back row has the better airtime by a bit, but you’re going to get oodles
of floater airtime in any row.
The one downside with the back row is that it has a very noticeable rattle in every single
valley in the first half.
This is the biggest downside with Behemoth in my opinion.
After a few rides, it’s enough to cause a headache.
Fortunately, this is much less of an issue towards the front of the train.
The only valley that’s rough through the entire train is the pullout from the first
drop.
So I like to alternate my rides between the front and back rows for this reason.
Now let’s talk about the trains.
Behemoth was the first B&M hyper to feature staggered seating, a feature that was also
given to the other 2 B&M hypers Cedar Fair added after Behemoth.
Behemoth has 8 cars per train, but rather than seating riders 4 across, each car has
2 rows of 2.
The first front row of a car seats riders side-by-side.
The back row of a car seats riders on the edge.
This results in a better view since you have more space between the car ahead of you.
It does lengthen the train, but the hills are designed with this in mind.
The clamshell restraints are typical for a B&M.
They are extremely comfortable and allow for plenty of floater airtime.
Like the other Cedar Fair B&M hypers and gigas, there are seatbelts as well, but they have
no impact on the ride in my opinion.
They just impact load times slightly.
Once dispatched, you turn out of the station and ascend the 230 foot or 70 meter tall lift
hill.
This hill offers a great view of the entire park and the Toronto skyline in the distance.
Once at the top, you are thrown over the 75 degree first drop.
And this is a well above average drop for a B&M hyper.
The longer trains cause more whip in the back, so you get forcefully lifted out of your seat
and treated to some very strong and sustained floater airtime.
Even those up front get some weightlessness, but this element needs to be experienced in
the back.
It’s the main reason I prefer that row.
The pullout is the rattliest part of the ride, but it also is the most forceful.
This is where the ride hits its max G-force of 4.5 Gs and you’ll feel it.
Next is a large camelback.
This hill delivers great and very sustained floater airtime throughout the train.
It’s the best camelback on the ride without a doubt.
You then navigate a hammerhead turnaround.
The long trains result in some good pull on the second half of the element, as you’re
yanked back down to the ground when you rebuild your speed.
Behemoth then navigates 3 consecutive camelbacks, each with a trim brake.
I forgot this ride had so many trims since the Carowinds Intimidator is usually the one
that gets criticized as the trim-heavy one.
But I think this one goes under the radar since they don’t really impact the airtime.
Sure you’ll likely feel one of them hit, but I still got good sustained floater airtime
on all three hills.
These trims help this ride run equally as well on a hot and cold day.
Or in my most recent visit, a windy day.
I can think of a few B&Ms prone to closing in winds, but Behemoth was cruising over its
hills in 20 mph gusts.
The other nice feature about this trio of hills is their location next to and above
the water.
This sequence ends by jumping into a mid-course brake run.
If you’re up front, you’ll get some decent floater airtime here.
The resultant brake does slow the train a considerable amount, but the ride still has
a fun finale.
It starts with a 540 degree downward spiral.
You get some ok Gs by the end of this element when you rebuild some speed.
You then twist upwards and drop back down to the ground.
And this dip gives some nice floater airtime in the back rows.
Rather than going right into the final brake run, you have one last bunny hill I always
forget about.
You get some decent floater airtime throughout the train.
You then hop into the final brake run, giving one last weak bit of airtime up front.
You then slowly navigate through the brake run, ending the 5318 foot or 1621 meter long
coaster.
While this ride has similar track length to Leviathan, this coaster has 25-30 seconds
more of prime ride time.
That suggests Behemoth has worse pacing, but I think this is one of the best paced B&M
hypers.
The ride has strong floater airtime on every hill in the first half.
Then Behemoth has a solid finale too with the helixes and extra airtime hills.
For me, pacing is about how engaging a layout is and I like almost all the elements on this
coaster.
So what would I rate Behemoth?
I would give this B&M hyper an 8.5 out of 10.
I love this coaster’s layout and all the airtime it provides.
B&M hypers are notorious for their sustained floater airtime, but the airtime on this one
seems a bit stronger and more plentiful.
The lone con with this coaster are those shaky valleys, which can impact the ride’s reridability
if you experience it further back in the train.
I ultimately prefer Leviathan in the same park for that coaster’s speed and superior
airtime hills, but Behemoth is an above-average B&M hyper.
It’s not in the top tier, but it’s in that next grouping.
It’s the best of the trio that Cedar Fair installed because of the ride’s consistency
start to finish.
So those are my thoughts on Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland.
Do you prefer Leviathan or Behemoth?
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!