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!