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5 reviews for La Ronde
All Reviews
La Ronde
6/17/2010
A pretty cool amusement park, even if it's small. There's pretty cool coaster like the Goliath and Le Monstre, a wooden coaster giving a nice vintage touch to the park.
The food is expensive over there, 7$+ for a pizza slice and a pop... better bring your own food.
The park is clean too, which is always nice and it's pretty safe to leave your stuff next to the ride or even on the grass, which surprised me honestly.
La Ronde
1/2/2009
I guess I should first explain how I got to La Ronde. I was on tour with a Senegalese band, traveling around the Great Lakes. I had a day free in Montreal so I asked the concierge what I absolutely could not miss seeing while in town. She tells me that there's an church in "Old Montreal" that I have to see.
I got up early and went out for cereal. Cereal in Canada is not as sweet as cereal in the US, in case you were wondering. After breakfast I start to walk down toward Old Montreal, which has a bunch of docks. I cannot find this church. I ask a family about to get on a boat "ou est la cathedral de (whatever the name of the church was)?" They ask if I'm American, tell me the church is just a few docks away and suggest I get on the boat and they'll take me there.
Now normally I wouldn't get on a stranger's boat but I think, they're not going to murder me with their kids there so I get on. They give me half a sandwich. I explain why I'm there, etc. I start to realize that Montreal is bigger than I thought. They drop me off, explain how to get to the church and invite me to their house for dinner. I thank them.
They dropped me off at the wrong place. I somehow ended up at the Molson factory, no church in sight. This is not the fault of my French. I'm not sure how this occurred. I ask some men standing outside in Molson jackets if they know where the church is. They say they don't. That's fine. Now I want a tour of the Molson factory, even though it is offensively stinky outside. I ask for a tour and they told me either they don't have tours on Sundays or they didn't do tours at all. I say please. They say "non." I say pleeeease. They say "non."
So then I'm getting a tour of the Molson factory. It is even stinkier than I expected; blah blah blah fermentation. Because they're not supposed to let anyone in, I didn't get to see much. Maybe the official tour is more interesting. I ask the guys where I can find poutine, an item that everyone told me I should try and they tell me about a little cafe up the road about a mile. I don't remember its name.
I walk to the cafe and order some poutine and a beer. At this point, my roommate Omar (who I was traveling with) calls and asks where I am because he wants to go out for lunch. I pause. I say "actually, I'm not even sure I'm in Montreal anymore. But don't worry, I'll find my way back." He does not let this go. I suppose it would look bad if he came with me and 15 Senegalese men to Quebec and came back without me. I ask the waiter where I am and he says "pres de le parc d'attractions!"
"Quel parc d'attractions!?" j'ai demande.
Turns out the waiter got off in another hour. I drink two more beers. He has a monthly pass and we walk across a really beautiful bridge to the amusement park. We get halfway across the bridge and he starts to reconsider. It looks like it's going to rain. In the story I tell my friends, I went the amusement park with the guy because they would think it's crazy that I went by myself, but I did.
What is this a review for again?
Oh, right.
So La Ronde. Well, when it rains you slip all over the place if you're in flip flops. I had to walk barefoot all day. I couldn't believe it was a Six Flags because everything there seemed very pared down. The roller coasters that I've been on a Six Flags parks in the US are much bigger. Lots of annoying American kids, but I guess you find that at any amusement park near America. Nothing amazing, but if you're in Montreal and regular site seeing isn't doing it for you it's not a bad idea. Tickets ran around $45.
My hotel ended up being about 9 km away. I wish I could review the cab service because it was only $10 or so to get me all the way back there.
By the way, does anyone know where that church is?
La Ronde
3/27/2009
An amusement park on an island! Cool!
This is a semi- small park, which is fine by me. The bigger parks can be too crowded and overwhelming. This is more community oriented and feels intimate.
Now owned by Six-Flags, not much has changed I am glad they kept the La Ronde name.
I love the fireworks competition in the summer months. Every Saturday night in summer, they offer free outstanding fireworks (every week a new country sponsors the show) and they are hosted the La Ronde and the City.
The park is clean, and close to downtown. I have walked there myself from the gay village and take almost 1 hour.
La Ronde
10/16/2008
A Six Flags amusement park in Montreal, Canada. It's Eastern Canada's largest park. Coaster enthusiasts would have an amazing time with Bateau Pirate and Boomerang as they're thrill rides.
Disappointedly the park does not offer bouillabaisse to patrons but does have French crepes for a taste of Paris, France making it authentic.
La Ronde
3/25/2009
A few days into our vacation, my family was doing what it does best: bicker. So, we thought, let's do something that will make everyone happy and go to a damn amusement park. Cue the big "wa whaaa" sad trombone noise here.
Goliath gets the stars here. If you are a coaster enthusiast, then definitely check it out, though I warn that it is definitely not worth the $35+ entry fee alone. The wooden Monstre is pretty cool as well; too bad I didn't get to ride it a second time because it broke down shortly after.
Little did I know that this would be an ongoing theme.
I've been to plenty of amusement parks before and know that this is the name of the game. Shit breaks down, operators don't know anything about it so they have to call and wait for the mechanic, and you have to move on to something else for a while and come back later. But really, we barely got to go on most of the thrill rides here that we wanted to because they were all broken down at various points in the day or appeared to be completely closed (including the other coasters, Vampire and Cobra). Thus, the other more lame rides had longer lines that didn't feel worth it since we barely wanted to go on them in the first place.
Also, the operators didn't seem to know how to run the lines fairly. They often offered a single-rider line, with the incentive that you will be able to load more quickly than you would while waiting to fit your entire group. However, the employee would often ignore the single line entirely and just pick people out of the other line, so we would be stuck there without the line moving at all. My family and I eventually just gave up. So much for a carefree day.
Listed in: Bummers
