 Last weekend while spending some time in New York Renée stopped by Coney Island and Luna Park. Home to some unique coasters and rides with a great seaside setting. Lots of wackiness and good food. Written by Renée Girard Click any of the pictures below for a larger version We're at Luna Park at Coney Island on this hot summer day in Brooklyn, NY!   Had to check out Thunderbolt first! 
Thunderbolt was more intense than I expected, a little rough, but a unique coaster to ride. 
 Remember the 9 hour+ waits for these at Fun Spot America? No lines here!  I guess I'll brace myself for a journey on Soarin Eagle while we're here. 
Yup, I'm good with just one ride on Soarin' Eagle.  Rode the Tickler several years ago, but it's a decent wild mouse coaster.  I remember riding WindstarZ at IAAPA last year, and here it is now at Luna Park. Fun ride!  Air Race is another one of a kind ride that you can find at Luna Park 
Saddle up for Steeplechase!   Another fun and unique ride that you can find at Luna Park! We loved Steeplechase!  And of course Coney Island is home to the world famous Cyclone  Having already done the Cyclone several times, we skipped it this time around. But it's always good to see it! 
 It's pretty clear that you sit where you're told on the Cyclone at Coney Island  Checking out some of the sights along the Coney Island boardwalk 
 And if you're hungry, there's always the original Nathan's to grab a hot dog  Instead of hot dogs, we opted for fantastic beer and pizza at Coney Island Brewing Co
 And our afternoon was complete with beer cup towers and sword swallowing at Coney Island Brewery.
Our summer afternoon was a blast at Luna Park at Coney Island  Related Updates:  Day Three of my epic trip brought me through Nebraska and Iowa and what better way to take a break from driving than at a great amusement park. Adventureland in Iowa is a great smaller park with some great rides, great food, outstanding staff and a main street that may look a bit familiar to most of you. There's a lot of pictures to get to, hope you enjoy the update!! If you missed the first two updates from my trip to Adventuredome at Circus Circus, Las Vegas or Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Colorado click the links to get caught up!!  Upon arriving to the park around 3pm after a 9 hour drive I headed to the booths to get my ticket. If you are going to the park be sure to stop by a local "Taco John's" to get a coupon, it will save you a few bucks.  I was kind of worried that 3 hours wouldn't be enough to experience everything the park had to offer but thankfully a Wednesday in May wasn't very busy. It also helps that the operations at the park were phenomenal. Upon entering the park, I caught a glimpse of the train station. As a train fan I made a point to come back later and enjoy.  Headed through the tunnel under the tracks  As soon as I did, I was met with a town square that looked awfully familiar, cute, quaint and welcoming.  The parks carousel  Let's take a look at the parks town square and Main Street   Some of the buildings are functional, some look to be just themeing. Not sure if they open these up when the park is busier, it certainly wasn't needed during my visit.  The other side of Town Square  The Fire Station is where you rent all of your strollers and/or wagons  Shave and a Haircut ...      I love this clock  The parks carousel is beautiful    The left side of Main Street was completely destroyed in a fire in 2010, the park has done a GREAT job rebuilding and matching the two sides. If you squint you can almost see the castle, just like at Disneyland. ;)   The newest side of Main Street  They even have a Penny Arcade   Photography store at the end of Main Street  A look back at Main Street  Let's take a little ride on the railroad     The train isn't necessarily a "transportation" ride, but just circles back to the front of the park.     The train ride gives a great view of the park and many of the rides     The Paratrooper. One of my favorite flat rides  The park is absolutely beautiful and very well maintained. Just a nice place to spend a spring/summer day.    Geese seem to follow me everywhere   One last look at Town Square from the train station  Beyond Main Street you get to have a great time on many of the parks rides  The first coaster I came to was Tornado, which is a fun wooden coaster. It proves that it doesn't have to be the tallest or the fastest to be fun.  Lots of shade in the queue for those hot summer days    The ride stretches out to cover most of the backside of the park and gives a great view of the waterpark which sadly wasn't open during my visit. It looked awesome!    Fans of Windseeker at Knott's rejoice, the park is building their own model named Storm Chaser. As you can see the ride is a bit smaller than the standard model but it should give some great views of the park once it opens in June.    Once the ride opens we'll be sharing all of the info the park provides us. It's scheduled to open sometime in June.  Some of that good park food I was talking about earlier. Giant Pickle on a Stick ... because anything on a stick is awesome.   Walking along the lake towards the back-side of the park  Hmmm ... =)  The park has an AMAZING collection of flat rides  Next up was The Dragon. I'd heard a lot of mixed reviews of this ride, I thought the layout was great, a bit bumpy but overall not the worst ride I've ever been on.  The exit from the station to the lift is pretty unique  Double Loop Awesomeness!!   HELIX!!   These would be like 10 foot Ninja Turtles in real life  Heading to the very back of the park, the Outlaw Gulch area is the parks Wild West area   Saw Mill Splash is a great raft ride. I didn't ride this one but I've ridden similar rides. Lots of fun.   This is definitely one of the better themed ones I've seen   The other major ride in this area of the park is the Outlaw, which at a height requirement of only 42" is a great "starter" coaster.   Outlaw is a very fast and fun woodie that I rode multiple times   The surrounding area is themed nicely  Sidewinder, another of my favorites  Very retro 80's   The ride that I was looking forward to most was definitely The Underground which is a fun roller coaster with some dark ride elements.   It definitely has some themeing that reminded me of the Calico Mine Ride at Knott's, just on a lesser scale, but still a heck of a lot of fun.  Not sure what these things are for (other than shade) but I've seen them at a few other park sand they are cool looking.  Bernie Benard!!!  Lastly, one of my favorite rides at any amusement park has always been the Sky Ride, sadly they are becoming harder to find. Adventureland actually has a pretty great one!!    Time for an overhead view of the park   Through the trees!!  River Rapids Log Flume, another of my favorite type of ride     A birds eye view of Main Street   That's going to wrap it up for this update, we hope you enjoyed this look at a great amusement park. If you ever find yourself in Iowa, Adventureland is definitely a park you should find the time to visit. You will have a great time. For more information on the park you can check out their website at www.adventurelandpark.com Tomorrow we are going to be playing catch-up a bit with some press info from Knott's and Legoland California and then early next week we'll have some updates from Six Flags Magic Mountain/Hurricane Harbor, Six Flags Great America and Six Flags St. Louis. |
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