Centreville Amusement Park
When looking for an amusement park with kid friendly rides and pocket friendly prices that is family oriented Centreville Amusement Park is a great place to choose compared to other amusement options in the GTA area.
The amusement park is great for younger children, aged approximately 3 - 10 but the Haunted House, Log Ride, Roller Coaster and a few others are great fun for older children and parents as well.
There are many rides: an antique horse carousel, a small ferris wheel, bumper cars, small car and firetruck rides, a log ride that splashes into water, a swan ride, minigolf, mine coaster and many more. The newest addition is a small roller coaster that even young kids can enjoy.
Not all kids are allowed on every ride: some have height restrictions, but the restrictions are for safety purposes. Also, parents need to go with smaller kids on certain rides.
As with every popular attraction, the best time to visit are the shoulder seasons or weekdays. Standing in long lineups for rides and food on a weekend isn't that much fun. So go early in the day, if possible.
There are restaurants and fast food outlets available throughout the amusement park area. You'll find hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, cotton candy, ice cream and other snacks.
The train is permanently out of service since the 2018 flood which damaged the tracks but there are plenty of other awesome rides to choose from!
The gondola at Centreville gives a great view of many of the rides and it even goes over the Far Enough Farm for an aerial view of the animals.
Tickets
Advanced online tickets are recommended but there are no refunds. Online ticket purchases to Centreville are somewhat cheaper than box office prices but online tickets must be purchased at least a day in advance.
Centreville season passes need to be redeemed during your first visit of the season in the guest services building, which is the big white building near Pizza Pizza. You’ll get a season pass card that you will need to bring with each visit to get your wristbands for the day.
Prices, taxes included:
- Season Pass: $95.00
- Day pass for under 4 feet tall: $39.75
- Day pass for over 4 feet tall: $50.00
- Family Pass: $166.00 (includes 4 day passes)
There is not entrance fee. You only need tickets if you're going on rides.
You can also purchase individual tickets for $1.30 each. Each ride requires between 3 and 6 tickets per person. Individual tickets don't expire and carry over for the next year.
Pro tip #1: Centreville has three ticket booths: one by the main entrance, one by the guest service building and one by the haunted barrel ride.
Pro tip #2: As for lineups, a good strategy is to start with the roller coaster and the log ride as these attractions tend to have the longest lineups as the day goes on. Lines for other attractions are fairly evenly distributed.
Pro tip #3: There are lockers by the washrooms that operate with a toonie. There are no water fountains so bringing your own water bottles is your best bet to avoid buying expensive bottled water.
Far Enough Farm
The Far Enough Farm is a small petting zoo adjacent to the amusement park. Admission is included with your day pass to the theme park. The farm is home to ponies, goats, peacocks, horses, hares and a variety of other animals.
For more information visit the theme park's website.
Send in your comments about Centreville at Toronto Islands
Had a wonderful, busy day at centreville with granddaughters 6,4 & 2. Had to spend a lot of time in Far Enough Farm with the 2 yr old as most rides were too big for her. She loved it, but I found it lacking in info. Please post the animals names and makes. Maybe just a little bit about them. The only one that had any info was the Billy Goat..Gunner. what was the cow with a hump and horns???
My other comment would be..what happened to the train? The track is there...but no yrain. We took our kids there from 1989 to 1999...and they looked forward to it. I love that it's still there but...just those 2 requests.
Access to the farm and even the entire Centreville Park area is accessible at no cost after your take the ferry to the island. The only paid features of the park (aside from the ferry) are the rides, lockers, and of course food/dining.
You can have a great day with your young kids and your baby in a stroller without paying for anything other than the ferry cost. Toronto Island is an absolutely beautiful spectacle, whether you are alone, with your partner, or your kids. Anyone who doesn't visit at least once a year is missing out!
You don't need an all day pass if you only want to go on a few rides, you can purchase individual tickets. You can visit the Far Enough Farm without a ticket - I have never seen anyone check tickets or wristbands there.
Is the only way to get admission to the farm via an all day pass? Or is there a way to purchase that separately as I was only planning to get tickets to go on a couple rides versus a day pass.
We purchases a season pass. Never got the confirmation email. Then stood in line for about 30 minutes if not more only to be told that we need to stand in another line -inside a building that has no signage about season passes. Way to treat your most loyal patrons. Would it hard to a) send the confirmation email b) hire a kid at $15/hr to yell "season pass holders this way, everyone else that way" or heaven forbid put up a sign at the entrance. Crappy start to the day. After this the rides were amazing though and we walked around the island later on which is really nice by the rivers.
ps: anyone know if there are lockers?
I know the kids working the rides don't get paid a lot and they don't really understand customer service as well as adults may but some of them are a tad rude. The people at the log rides just yelled at the people coming up next "Yellow box!" to tell them that they needed to wait in an area marked by yellow paint. They could have easily said "Please wait in yellow box area". Little things like this make a difference believe it or not.
If you go on every ride once, have lunch and a snack at some point, that's all the day well spent. I agree with the website, you need to pick a strategy and go in a certain order to avoid long lineups at the more popular rides. The food was good too although on the pricier side but that's like that everywhere now
We come here every year twice: in May and in September when the crowds are not so big and have a blast. My kids like this park more than Wonderland - me too! The surroundings (beautiful island) make all the diff.