Thundervolt Roller Coaster at the PNE

Playland at the PNE is Vancouver’s amusement park with all kinds of rides including a roller coaster, bumper cars and fun kiddy rides.

In 2025 Playland ran from the Victoria Day long weekend in May until the start of the PNE Fair which ran from August 16th until September 1st. Later in the year, in October, there is Fright Nights for the Halloween season.

Visit pne.ca/playland for the attraction’s official website.

This article contains the following information:

About Playland | Hours and Admission | Playland Rides | Tips & Advice | Other Information

Click any of the above links to jump to a specific topic, or continue reading to learn all about Vancouver’s Playland amusement park. Or, click Pacific National Exhibition (from late August until early September) or Halloween Fright Nights (in October) for PNE events and activities at various times of the year. See our article about Vancouver’s Playland Rides for descriptions of individual rides.

Playland at the PNE

Playland is Vancouver’s amusement park. It usually runs on weekends in the late spring and early fall, and daily in the summer, except for the last three weeks leading up to the September long weekend when the place turns into the Pacific National Exhibition, or PNE.

Playland is open on select dates between mid-May and mid-August. In 2025 the attraction operated from Saturday, May 17th, until Friday, August 15th (after which the PNE Fair started up and ran until September 1st). During the fair there are all sorts of rides. There are also concerts, shows and other fun things to see and do.

Visit the PNE/Playland website for tickets and full details about the amusement park.

View of Playland from the Ferris Wheel — Rides at the Amusement Park

About Playland

Playland is a great place for kids. It has all kinds of rides including two roller coasters, with one being a 65-year-old wooden antique. Other popular ones for adults and teenagers include Atmosfear, Hellevator and The Beast. There are also all kinds of rides for little children.

Playland is a great place – it’s not modern and fancy like Disneyland, but is still tons of fun.

Think of Playland as a large, fancy midway carnival that comes to your town once a year and sets up in a big parking lot – with the usual Tilt-a-Whirl, Scrambler and Ferris Wheel. Playland has some fancier rides too, though, which makes it an impressive and fun place!

See our article about Playland’s Rides for descriptions of the attraction’s various rides.

Playland Hours and Admission

Playland runs on select dates between mid-May and mid-August. Tentative days and hours of operation in 2025 are listed below. (Note: Exact dates, times and other details were subject to change.)

May 17th to June 26th, 2025: Open on Saturdays and Sundays between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm.
June 27th to August 15th, 2025: Open on Wednesdays to Sundays each week. Hours were 11:00 am to 5:00 pm most days, although the park was sometimes open until 7:00 pm on select Fridays and Saturdays.

Visit the PNE/Playland website for tickets and full details about the amusement park.

Tickets Prices

There are two different season passes to choose from for Playland. The Fun Pass costs around $109 and allows access to kid-friendly rides. The Thrill Pass, meanwhile, costs about $149. This pass is for people over 48 inches tall and includes access to the kid-friendly rides. (Note: In 2025 if you bought your season passes by May 21st you could save $20. Early-bird prices were $89 for the Fun Pass and $129 for the Thrill Pass.)

Day passes for all of the kid-friendly rides start at about $35 per person. One day of thrilling rides starts at about $47 each.

Benefits of season passes include a 10% discount on Playland games, food and beverages. Passholders also get to take a friend for free any day that Playland is open in May. There are other perks too.

Note: In 2025 Playland had a special discount available online during the second half of the summer. Attendees could use the promo code 2FOR1 to get two tickets for the price of one for any weekday between late July and August 15th.

Playland Ride Fun — Breakdance Amusement Ride

Playland Rides

The following rides were open at Playland for the 2025 season, or at least to begin it:

AtmosFear, Balloon Explorer, The Beast, Breakdance, Cap’n KC, Cedar Rapids Log Flume, Choppers, Cool Cruzers, Dizzy Drop, Enterprise, Flutterbye, Gladiator, Hellevator, Hell’s Gate, Honeybee Express, Merry-Go-Round, Pirate Ship, Rock’n’Cars, Scrambler, Sea-to-Sky Swinger, Sweet Escape Mini Golf, Teacups, ThunderVolt, Westcoast Wheel and Wooden Roller Coaster.

The ThunderVolt coaster is the most recent addition to the park. It replaced the now-retired corkscrew coaster in 2024 and is the fastest electric coaster in the country.

Watch the video below for an idea of what some of the rides look like. The video was filmed during Fright Nights. Check out our Playland Rides article to learn more about each ride, along with rides that may return in the future.

(Note: The music in this video is Roller Coaster by Scandinavianz from Pixabay.)

Tips & Advice

Below are some suggestions and additional information to help you make the most of your Playland experience.

TIP #1: Take a sun hat and sunscreen on hot sunny days as there isn’t a lot of shade. Also take a water bottle.

TIP #2: Try to arrive early on weekends and days with good weather. This way you’ll be able to enjoy the most popular rides first, before the afternoon crowds and accompanying ride lineups.

TIP #3: The Flume (water log chute ride) is especially popular on hot days. Also, do the roller coasters and Flume early in the day before the crowds form, or at the end of the day if it’s not hot weather. You don’t want to be cold for the rest of the day after getting soaked on the Flume!

TIP #4: In past years Fun-Priced Thursday ran on all Thursdays in July and August. Everyone could get a Thrill Pass for the normal price of a Fun Pass. This meant you could save up to about $15 or so per person. Whether this happens again in the future is to be confirmed.

TIP #5: If you plan to leave and return later, don’t forget to get a re-entry stamp on your way out so you can get back in.

TIP #6: Most years members of the BC Automobile Association (BCAA) get around 30% off admission and ride passes at the Pacific National Exhibition (i.e. when Playland becomes the PNE from the third week of August until the first weekend in September). The discount is for the PNE, not Playland.

TIP #7: Some people love the old wooden and rickety roller coaster, and some people don’t. It’s a “classic” (i.e. antique), so don’t say you haven’t been warned!