Galaxyland, West Edmonton Mall, Canada Photo & Video Report

[robbalvey]

For our Mindbender POV Video Click HERE!

Hey everyone!

Elissa and I had a film shoot at the West Edmonton Mall this past weekend and wanted to share some photos and video with you all. The link to the video is above (sorry I can't embed the video here, otherwise I would) and below are photos and our trip report.


Hello Galaxyland!


"Hey everyone, we are just here to do a little filming and ride the AWESOME Mindbender!"


Mindbender did NOT disappoint...OMFG! The ride was totally amazing...


Hidden Mickey?


This ride is seriously Schwarzkopf at his best!


140 feet tall...inside a SHOPPING MALL!


And yes, those three loops will challenge your equilibrium!


The rest of the mall is pretty awesome too. It's like part shopping mall, part Las Vegas!


I love her...I really, really do!


Ahh, I love Canadian McDonald's with their cute maple leaf!


Ohh, those crazy Canadians and their elephant poo!


"All public writings must be written in English and French!"


Yup, there is even a full size water park at the mall where Candians can float around in Cheerios.


Lots of "Fantasy" like mini-golf so you can imagine you are somewhere else other than Canada freezing your a$$ off!


The Michael Phelps Store.


Galaxyland is also home to the world's largest phallic object surrounded by purple walls.


Let's not forget some pictures of that Gerstlauer spinner!


They also have one of them long-trained Zierer coaster thingies.


Has anyone ever seen one of these before?!?!?



This is the OMFG shot of Mindbender!


Yes, that IS a "backwards car" you see there!


Climbing the lift backwards you start to think "maybe this wasn't such a good idea...."


Several thoughts race through Elissa's mind before plunging into the abyss that is backwards Mindbender: "Why have I done this? Will I survive? Does God exist? Who invented liquid soap and why?"


This is pretty much the image you see for the minute or so while you experience backwards Mindbender.


No, you are not seeing double, this is the signature "loop within a loop" photo.


"I'm not going all the way to Canada without getting my picture with a moose!"


If you can catch a glimpse of what's outside you'll see snow, snow, more snow, cars covered in snow, still more snow, large random mounds of snow, and finally....snow.


Notice how the Galaxy Orbiter track is in the background of almost every picture?


STOP FOLLOWING US EVIL BACKWARDS CAR!!!


Our visit to the park has come to an end, and now it's time to head home. Here is the view from our hotel. Yeah, it's mostly snow!


Here we are on the motorway trying not to die!


There is supposed to be an airport out there somewhere!


Here we are on the plane. Um, if you are reading this, it means we actually survived our terrifying take off in the snow...where we couldn't see the runway...and they didn't even bother to de-ice the plane! WTF!


Here we are back home in California.


Hope you guys enjoyed the update!

--Robb

[vfire]

Great trip report, and what a nice little theme park inside the mall. But with the frightful weather outside, I guess most of the amusements would have to be indoors. I don't know why people would choose to live in the cold and snow like that.

[BC_DisneyGeek]

Nice trip report. I visited the mall back in 2003 or so. Can't say I was too thrilled with the coaster, but I particularly loved the water park.

I also really loved the igloo-themed hotel room I stayed in. The Fantasyland hotel is quite fun.

[robbalvey]

One more thing to note. The Submarine ride that has been talked about quite a bit here is now closed. The loading platform has been completely covered up by the bumper boats. You can still see they have the ride vehicles in the water as "decoration" and the ride system is all there, but is looking quite worn now.

[sir clinksalot]

Wow, Mindbender looks totally sweet. Like some old-school Schwartzkopf goodness there!!!

Thanks for the video and pics.

[Swellpixiegirl]

Originally Posted by vfire

Great trip report, and what a nice little theme park inside the mall. But with the frightful weather outside, I guess most of the amusements would have to be indoors. I don't know why people would choose to live in the cold and snow like that.

I live here, but not by choice. It is hell, and yes, it has frozen over. My hubby has applied for a transfer back to civilization. Speaking of my hubby, he's ATC and he may have controlled your plane out of Edmonton airspace, so don't be afraid of your takeoff...you were in good hands ;D

The Anthony Henday (the "motorway") was brutal that weekend! Even when it looked bare you were still sliding all over the place. We've had another big snowfall since then too. I have almost 5 foot snowbanks in my front yard.

Robbalvey did a very good job of making the place look good...its not easy to do! It is seriously dated in its theming, the waterpark is smelly and dirty all the time, the ice at the Ice Palace indoor rink is slushy. There used to be 4 dolphins who performed a show 2-3 times daily, but they all died. They replaced them with sea lions. They had flamingos for a year or so where you used to board the subs, but they're gone. Seriously, if you're going to build a monstrosity like that, do it right, folks!

Robbalvey, you are very VERY kind! I'm glad you had some fun at WEM; the rest of the city has nothing to offer. BTW, what were you shooting?

[robbalvey]

^ Thanks for your comments, especially coming from a local.

I do want to note that I didn't make any attempt to make the place "look good." You have to remember that we go around the world visiting parks and riding roller coasters. We have visited most of the major "indoor attractions" all over the world - Mall of America, Lotte World, Toverland, South China Mall, etc, etc.

WEM absolutely ranks up there as one of the top indoor attractions in the world!

We didn't find the indoor water park to be any more or less nice than lets say an indoor water park like Tokyo Summerland or Aqualibi in Belgium. I thought it was very nice and on par with other offerings.

To someone from California (and to someone originally from New York City) the ice rink seemed fine. How often do you find a full sized ice rink inside a mall attraction? Not that often anymore. It seemed on par with the one at Lotte World.

We watched a few minutes of the sea lion show and the "picture with a penguin" thing and the theater was PACKED, even with standing room only, so obviously some people must also feel the show was entertaining.

I know that sometimes when you are local to something it's impossible to see it for anything special because you see it all the time, but you guys DO have something special there.

We were absoultely impressed.

And that is an honest review, not any attempt to make the place "look good."

--Robb

[DonDuck]

Wow, that is a whole lotta stuff in a mall. Great TR!

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

My parents took me there in the 80s, it was cool.

Thanks for the memories!

[Barbossa]

Nice trip report. A tip if you go back; there's a good restaurant to go to for breakfast brunch in the mall: Cafe Europa. If you look at the pic of the lagoon and the Santa Maria, Cafe Europa is on the upper floor to the right of the Santa Maria. It's a good price for all the food you get.

Also, if you want to let off some steam, the mall has a shooting range where you can go shoot guns like uzis and other good stuff.

As far as the subs in the mall go, I got to ride them way back in 1987. I guess I read/heard somehwere that they are up for sale now.

The whole ride/attraction area in the mall looked better in the past. It used to be a western theme rather than a cartoony space theme. In my opinion it looked a lot better previously. I remember they used to have a little motor boat ride there like in Disneyland.

Also, if you are in Edmonton in the summer, check out Fort Edmonton park. It's just a five minute drive from the mall. They filmed the railroad scenes from the Brad Pitt movie "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" there. The locomotive that they used in the movie makes its home at the park.

[cakvalasc]

Sucks that the submarines are gone =(

[denice25]

nice report!!!

[Barbossa]

For interest, read post #19 on this thread about the Mindbender accident that happened back in 1986:
West Edmonton Mall

[Villains Fan]

Great trip report...thanks! I was in Edmonton about 10 years ago on a business trip and ended up at WEM almost every night since there was so much to do. Ah, memories.......

[pratt55]

Super cool pictures of a place I may never get to go to. Thanks for taking the time to post and share.