While the majority of Cedar Fair parks are located in the United States, sister park Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto, Canada is one of the companies leading parks. Canada’s Wonderland clocks in over 3.5 million guests per year, the second highest among Cedar Fair parks behind Knott’s Berry Farm (Source: 2014 Theme Index). This means, chances are if you are a Platinum season passholder, you will venture north above the border to try Canada’s Wonderland at least once. In addition, if you also happen to be on a mission to try 4 of the 5 giga-coasters in the world, you will make it a point to get to the park to try Leviathan!

Reader Heather K. writes in with the following question:

“We’re heading to [Canada’s Wonderland] next weekend- skipping our originally planned [Cedar Point] trip to try something new (we’ll hit CP later this month instead!). How is $$ handled in the park? Do they only accept Canadian or do they take US too? Should we exchange before we get there or not bother? Or maybe I should plan on sticking with credit/debit the whole time? I’m assuming most food places take cards? We have Platinum Passes so paying for parking isn’t an issue. Thanks for any answers you can give me!”

Canada’s Wonderland accepts MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Interact Direct Payment, US and Canadian traveller’s cheques, and both Canadian and the US Dollars for admission. The park will be able to convert the US Dollar to the Canadian Dollar when purchasing admission at guest services. However, things work a little different when in the park.

The majority of food locations will accept credit/debit cards, with the exception of some lone food carts, which will be cash only. We are told there are some dining locations that will perform the currency conversion for you if paying in US Dollars. However, the exact list of which do or do not convert the money for you is unknown.

When paying with the US Dollar throughout the park, most of the locations will exchange your US Dollar for the Canadian Dollar at 1:1. Therefore, depending on the current exchange rate, you automatically lose money when paying with cash.

We recently returned from a trip to Canada’s Wonderland. Here are our family’s tips for paying for things at Canada’s Wonderland.

1) Try and pay with a credit card when ever possible. However, you need to make sure you confirm ahead of time that you are using a credit card with no foreign transaction fees. Otherwise, you will get back and realize your credit card company will charge you for every transaction for the privilege of converting the money for you.

Be careful when paying with a debit card because chances are they will also charge you a foreign transaction fee.

2) If you do not like using credit cards, and prefer to pay with cash, we recommend converting your dollars before you get to the park. This way you get the best value for your money. You can do this as soon as you cross the border.

3) Make sure you use your Platinum pass whenever you make a purchase to receive 15% off at most food and merchandise locations.

On an unrelated note, here is another tip when visiting Canada’s Wonderland from the United States. If you have a US cell phone provider, and do not want to pay for an international calling plan when crossing over the border, make sure prior to crossing the border you turn airplane mode ON. Then you can turn the WIFI back on, ensuring that you do not use your phone except for when connected to WIFI.

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