Comments on: My Family’s Visit to Canada’s (Food) Blunderland

By: Leticia Prospero

Leticia Prospero — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 01:17:00 +0000

I love this article. True reflection of my thoughts. The food is gross and non healthy at all, let alone the line you usually have to stand before taking your order. Not many parks these days still have ” no outside food policy”, I guess due to allergies and special diets. I am surprised that CW still going strong about this and not following the bigger parks trend. It is horrible that we are limited to their choice of foods, and also their prices. I didnt know about the water, so I’ll be bringing bottles myself. What I cannot believe is how some people actually got offended or made rude comments about you, it is more upsetting than CW food policy, to see there is still some very rude people in this world that hide behind a screen to throw an insult at you with no reason at all, just for the pleasure of being rude. It is obvious this policy is WRONG in all ways, no matter how many signs they have, no matter if they let me go out to eat, what if I come with TTC?. I dont understand this people defending this policy…. whats their gain? Thank you for your wonderful article. We are heading tomorrow with my nine year old and pizza will be for lunch…

By: shepd

shepd — Mon, 25 May 2015 04:50:00 +0000

There are signs as you drive in informing you you cannot bring food into the park (and they also inform you that you may picnic on the front lawn). There are signs telling you that you may not bring food into the park at the gates. It’s clearly stated on their website in multiple places. I’m not sure how much more effort CW can put into informing you that no, you may not bring outside food into the park. As an adult, I expect that you’d be smart enough to take advantage of the place you were asked to eat at multiple times. But, instead, you chose to sneak food into a place you were told you can’t. You were caught. Sucks to be you. Take advantage of their picnic court next time. The food there is terribly overpriced anyways, so I completely understand why people don’t want to eat there, and they clearly get a lot of people wanting to bring their own food, which would explain the 10 signs posted as you drive into the place telling you where you’ll need to eat.

Obviously it’s run a lot like a theatre where they’d rather you buy expensive food inside (so they ban you bringing your own). However, unlike a theatre, Canada’s Wonderland will let you leave, eat your picnic, and come back in at no extra charge. It seems like a fair policy to me, and it’s pretty much standard at all theme parks that aren’t in Orlando or Anaheim.

Also, having known an employee from the park who worked prior to 2007 (and having been there myself 15 years ago) the no outside food policy is long standing. The National Post would do well to dig a little deeper as Canada’s Wonderland was actually more strict back then—that employee found out that picnics weren’t allowed at that time on the front lawn, they required patrons to vacate the premises (including the parking lot) entirely to eat outside food.

By: More Important Dads in the Food World | US Healthy Kids

More Important Dads in the Food World | US Healthy Kids — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:44:14 +0000

[…] Daniel Flanders […]

By: Most Important Dads in the Food World | kyhealthykids

Most Important Dads in the Food World | kyhealthykids — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 11:41:37 +0000

[…] Daniel Flanders: Dad. Husband. Pediatrician w/special interest in primary care, nutrition, obesity, feeding problems & eating disorders. Discovering that I like to write. This past Saturday, my wife, two kids and I woke up to a beautiful warm sunny morning and decided to spend the day at Canada’s Wonderland (CW)…So why this rant? To confiscate outside food but prominently offer healthy food choices – even at inflated prices – would be justifiable. Alternatively, offering crap at outrageous prices could be justified if, as an alternative, families were allowed to bring food from home. But to combine ‘no outside food’ with ‘outrageously unhealthy options’, at ‘criminally high prices’ is a triple-foul that, in my opinion, crosses a threshold of acceptability. CW can always say that they’re not in the health food business. Fair enough. But I suspect they don’t consider themselves to be in the ‘Slowly Killing Children‘ business either. […]

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Fri, 03 May 2013 19:26:40 +0000

My son and I are vegan, so before we visited CW a few years ago we checked if there would be adequate food on their website. Of course there wasn’t (and still isn’t) so we packed our own. We told the bag inspectors that this food was medically necessary (which I think would be true for anyone since it is not possible to get a day’s worth of nutritious meals at the park) and were allowed to keep our food.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:19:45 +0000

Your Comments

Canadas Wonderland does have a picnic area just outside the gates for families to eat there own packed lunches……. there is also alot of space and grass to sit on and eat it. The only pain is having to leave the park to do it…but if you are that concerned with the food nutrition in the park then it is the option to go!

By: RE : brandon@bertelsen

RE : brandon@bertelsen — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:57:30 +0000

[…] RE: My Family’s Visit to Food Blunderland […]

By: Brandon Bertelsen

Brandon Bertelsen — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:49:33 +0000

This is a great post. The economic incentive for them to act in this manner far outweighs any negative publicity it may attract. It’s the same thing at the movie theatres. Salty, fatty, high-carb foods and beverages are insanely cheap to create (think pennies, maybe quarters), people enjoy eating/drinking them and you can sell them at astronomical margins when there are no other options. I would hazard to guess that more than half of the parks proceeds come from the sale of food-stuffs (or rental fees for operators on their private land).

What else do you do there but wait in line, eat, drink, rinse, repeat?

By: Sheilajain

Sheilajain — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:50:35 +0000

I am also not necessarily fanatic about healthy food, but it would be nice to have choices. I also think as a society we need to make it a health and safety issue that there should always be free drinking water available (not just bottles for purchase), and there should be more flexibility on allowing food from home. What about people with severe allergies or other restrictions? You are meant to stay at parks like these for hours at a time so then not being able to eat any food is a huge problem.
Incidently one kid’s party place i went to recently didn’t allow outside food b/c of allergies and cross-contamination. Ha! There was really nothing for my 11 month babies to eat so I had to take them outside to feed them.

By: mammafaus

mammafaus — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:15:26 +0000

I hate when these parks do this. Our 5 kids are mostly grown now but dragging that kind of group to an amusement park was always hideously expensive. I love that the Disney Parks not only now sell healthy choices but have lockers available and a picnic area so you can pack your own and come out as a family to eat. The slight inconvenience of this option is well worth both the nutrition and money saved. Sad thing is, WONDERLAND doesn’t realize if they had an option like that they would actually attract a large group that would not only visit but make more frequent visits. They would probably spend more on souveniers when their pocket money isn’t competing for food.