7 Tips For Visiting Canada's Wonderland That Will Help You Avoid Crowds & Save Money

Buy your tickets online

Instead of spending time lining up at the gate, you can purchase your tickets online ahead of time.

Doing this rather than buying at the gate can even save you some money — according to Canada's Wonderland , you can save up to $30 off the gate price by purchasing your tickets online.

You can also find deals on bundles and save on the park's After 4pm tickets by booking online.

If you're a CAA member , you can get further discounts on tickets and score them for even cheaper than the online price.

Optimize your arrival time

As for when to visit, Canada's Wonderland Director of Communications Grace Peacock tells Narcity that visiting mid-day on a sunny summer weekend means you'll be going to the park at the busiest time.

If you have some flexibility, she recommends trying to visit on a weekday. You can also plan to get there early — as Peacock tells us, while the park opens at 10 a.m., the gates actually open at 9:30 a.m., meaning you can get in and be ready once the rope to the rest of the park drops.

If you're not a morning person, you can also plan to stay late — Canada's Wonderland is open until 10 p.m. daily until September 4, and going a bit later in the day and staying later can be a great way to get faster access to rides when most of the crowds leave.

Do the less busy rides first

Another way to optimize your visit is to plan out which rides to hit first. According to Peacock, visitors flock to certain rides first when Wonderland opens, with most people heading to the bigger coasters like Leviathan and Yukon Striker.

For a less-busy coaster to start with, she recommends heading to the Action Zone and hopping on Behemoth first thing.

"Our new thrill ride, Tundra Twister is a great choice because it's tucked in an area in Frontier Canada that doesn't typically see high traffic. Plus it loads 40 guests at a time, so the line there moves quicker!" she says.

Plan ahead

To maximize your time at the park, it would be a good idea to have a plan of what rides you want to go on, any shows you want to see, where you want to eat and anything else you want to do during your visit.

Check out the Canada's Wonderland park map to get an idea of where you want to go. You can scope out rides, locate the bathrooms, check out nearby dining options and see what special events will be happening and where.

This will help to save time you might have otherwise spent wandering around the park looking for things.

For instance, if you're looking to ride Behemoth first during your visit, it may be helpful to note that several other popular rides are located in the vicinity, so if you also wanted to ride Flight Deck or the Backlot Stuntcoaster that day, you could do it at the same time.

There are also a lot of food options located near the coaster, including Beavertails, Subway, Pizza Pizza, and restaurants like the retro '50s diner Coasters that you may want to stop at while you're in the area.

Consider a Fast Lane pass

For the best way to make sure you'll have the chance to experience all the rides you want in a single visit, you might consider upgrading your admission to include the Fast Lane pass .

The Fast Lane Plus pass allows you to bypass the regular lines on 21 attractions, including Behemoth, Leviathan, Yukon Striker and Tundra Twister.

Lots of other classic coasters and rides are also included, like the Backlot Stunt Coaster, Flight Deck and the 301-foot swing ride Windseeker.

The Fast Lane Plus pass starts at $85 on top of admission. However, you can also get the slightly cheaper Fast Lane pass, which starts at $75 and gets you access to the same rides minus Behemoth, Leviathan, Tundra Twister and Yukon Striker.

According to parkgoers , it's worth it if you want to hit tons of rides in a single day.

Download the park's app

A very handy tool to have during your visit is the Canada's Wonderland app .

You can use it to store your e-tickets or Season Pass, and also get a digital map of the park. But possibly the best feature is that you can use the app to get details on live wait times at all of the park's rides and attractions.

If you're planning to take in a show, you can also use the app to check showtimes and what's on for that day.

You can also use it to upgrade your park admission right from your phone. So if you get to the park and decide you do want to splurge on a Fast Lane pass, there's no need to head all the way back to the gate.

Get the FunPix pass

The FunPix Pass is a great way to remember your day! While purchasing a photo on each ride will add up, the park offers the FunPix Pass for $19.99, which gets you unlimited digital downloads of all the photos you take at the park.

This includes on-ride photos at attractions like Behemoth, Yukon Striker and The Fly, professional pictures captured by the park's roaming photographers, and any photos taken with the park's Peanuts characters.

While not everyone will want photos, the pass could be a great way to remember your day — especially if it's your first visit!