La Ronde (amusement park)

La Ronde (Round) is an amusement park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, built as the entertainment complex for Expo 67, the 1967 world fair. Today, it is owned and operated by Six Flags. The park is under an emphyteutic lease with the City of Montreal, which expires in 2065. It is the largest amusement park in Quebec, and second largest in Canada.

It is on 146 acre located on the Northern tip of Saint Helen's Island. This is a man-made extension to the island in the space where the small Ronde Island had been. The park hosts L'International des Feux Loto-Québec, a highly regarded international fireworks competition. La Ronde is one of two Six Flags parks not to be officially branded as a Six Flags park (the other being Great Escape in Queensbury, New York).

Park
The park opens from mid-May to late October, with peak admissions in July. Toddlers aged 2 and under receive free admission. Family rides require a height of 36 in, while most intermediate rides require 44 in and high-thrill rides require 52 or.

La Ronde closes its season in the last weekend of October. To celebrate Halloween, in the month of October, the park hosts its annual La Ronde's Fright Fest. The festival has four haunted houses, and many costumed performers who roam the park.

The park has 40 rides, including ten roller coasters; among them is Le Monstre, a 40 m high wooden double-tracked roller coaster which holds the record for highest double-tracked roller coaster in the world.

History
La Ronde was the entertainment complex built for Expo 67, the world fair held in Montreal from April 27 to October 29, 1967. The exposition was located on 400 hectares (ha) of man-made islands in the St Lawrence River adjacent to Montréal, and comprised six “theme” pavilions, 48 national pavilions, four provincial pavilions, 27 private-industry and institutional pavilions, and La Ronde – a 54-ha entertainment complex with theatres, midway attractions, drinking and dining. Visitors could experience the rides, restaurants and beer halls of La Ronde until 2:30 a.m. nightly. The rest of the Expo site closed down at 10:30 p.m.

After Expo 67 World's Fair, the City of Montreal continued to run the amusement park for the next 34 years. The City of Montreal sold La Ronde to Six Flags, an American theme park chain, in a deal completed on May 4, 2001. It acquired all of the assets of the park for $20 million USD and has a long-term contract to lease the land from the city. Before the announcement of the Six Flags purchase, the city had considered offers from other bidders including Paramount Parks, Cedar Fair, and Parc Astérix. Since then, Six Flags has invested around $90 million in new rides and improvements, such as Le Vampire, Splash, Le Goliath and Ednör - L'Attaque as well as a new main entrance.

The amusement park was used as a backdrop in the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "Laughing in the Dark" (season 1, episode 2) and was given the fictional name "Playland". The episode featured the park's iconic giant roller coaster, haunted house with a dragon on the front and its old-fashioned carousel.

La Ronde had a Nintendo-sponsored video game centre with the latest Nintendo video games and attractions. Since 2009, the former 3D theatre has housed Nintendo DS and Wii consoles, advertisements and a Nintendo Store.

In May 2002, La Ronde announced the installation of a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted roller coaster called Le Vampire, which was the first major investment by Six Flags. It is a mirror image of the "Batman – The Ride" roller coasters found at many other Six Flags parks.

In May 2006, La Ronde opened its ninth roller coaster, Goliath (La Ronde), a 53 m high Bolliger & Mabillard mega coaster. It reaches speeds of 110 km/h, making it the third tallest and the third fastest roller coaster in Canada. For the 2007 season, La Ronde painted its iconic observation tower bright orange to advertise Pizza Pizza, an Ontario pizza chain that, at the time, was just emerging into the Quebec market. All of the pizza stands inside the park were renamed from Pizza Ronde to Pizza Pizza.

2007 was La Ronde's 40th anniversary. The park celebrated with Expo 67 themed events commemorating the world fair.

In January 2009, La Ronde announced its intention to become a Six Flags branded park, using the rights to Warner Bros. and DC Comics trademarks under the licensing agreement with Six Flags. Le Vampire, a mirror image of Batman: The Ride constructed in 2002, carries no association to the Batman media franchise because the licence with Warner Bros. and DC Comics is not valid in unbranded Six Flags parks. It is yet unknown if Le Vampire will be re-branded to Batman: The Ride once the branding of the park commences.

The Serial Thriller, a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster that used to be located at the now defunct Six Flags AstroWorld, has been shipped to La Ronde from the Great Escape, another Six Flags property where it lay in storage since 2005. The roller coaster, which opened in 1999 at Six Flags AstroWorld, has been installed over the Lac des Dauphins at the park for the 2010 season and is named Ednör - L'Attaque. It features special effects and theming from an alleged sea monster that was reported to have appeared in the Lac des Dauphins.

On March 9, 2010, La Ronde announced that Terminator X: A Laser Battle for Salvation, an interactive laser-tag attraction themed around the Terminator series, will also be featured in the park for the 2010 season.

On January 19, 2012, Six Flags announced Vol Ultime at La Ronde; it is similar to the SkyScreamers and it is 45 m tall.

In 2013, the park opened a water-themed attraction, Aqua Twist.

On August 29, 2013, Six Flags announced the addition of Demon, a top spin ride, for the 2014 season. As a world premiere, Goliath was the first roller coaster equipped and exploited with virtual reality headset.

On August 28, 2014, Six Flags announced Maison Rouge, a haunted house, for the 2015 season.

On September 3, 2015, Six Flags announced Avenue Aventure, a section of the park which includes Bateau Pirate, Condor and two new rides ; Phoenix, a Larson flying scooters and Gravitor, a Chance Falling Star from Six Flags St. Louis.

On September 1, 2016 Six Flags announced Titan, a Zamperla Giant Discovery. It is the park's second pendulum ride. It is identical to the Riddler Revenge at Six Flags Over Texas.