coneyislandchris

Yeah, same... I would have loved to been able to add that one to my count. Oh well -- gives me an excuse to come back next season!

DF, what day of the week are you planning on going? I was there yesterday as a single rider and crowds were honestly not bad. Outside of the morning's Bizarro snafu, the longest I waited for any ride was about 40 minutes for Sky Screamer. I didn't wait more than 30 minutes for Wicked Cyclone once. Plus, they have a promotion running that if you buy a WC shirt, they will give you a coupon good for one free access through the WC Flash Pass line. I already knew I was walking out of there with a shirt, so that just pushed me past the tipping point. As much as I love WC, I probably wouldn't spend the money on Platinum just to get in unlimited no-wait re-rides on it when I'm not going to get my money's worth out of everything else in the park (many of which were near walk-ons).

In line for SFNE's Bizarro yesterday morning. They were still sending test trains through close to 11:00 AM. Person directly behind me, to his girlfriend: "Yeah, they're just sending empty trains through so they can create demand for Flash Passes. It's all about the money."

Same - 5'11" here. Cracking up at "Worldstar: The Ride". It's okay though -- got enough re-rides on Bizarro and Wicked Cyclone to make up for that momentary loss of judgment.

FWIW, I'm at the park today, and Goliath is still closed -- the ride ops are telling people it will be open again for the Labor Day weekend. Take it with a grain of salt though. Also thanks to Mind Eraser, rode my first and probably (hopefully) last SLC. Yikes. My head is still spinning...

Having never ridden a 4D before, I have to ask, why the general hate directed towards them?

Still no Goliath, I take it?

I'll get the kiddie coaster credits in while I have small kids. I can't picture myself riding one of them by myself without my son or daughter with me. That being said, I'm not sure how much longer the son is going to enjoy Wacky Worms etc, not after hitting actual adult-size coasters!

When I visited last month, Skull Mountain was by far and away my least enjoyed coaster overall. I don't get the hype and love. The exterior theming wrote a check that the interior theming and the actual ride itself couldn't cash.

That was included on the first episode aired tonight; they blindfolded and earmuffed Kari while putting her on the Glenwood Canyon Flyer, took metrics, then repeated it without the blindfold and earmuffs to show what a difference there is when certain senses are missing.

Watching tonight's episodes as well... Would that happen to be your footage of Olympia Looping, Robb? I really like the way this show breaks down the science and engineering behind all of the rides. Very cool stuff! Though I'm getting a bit tired of hearing, for example, "150 feet -- that's as tall as a 15-STORY BUILDING!!!"

Oh, absolutely, and I don't disagree that it's not a 100% fair comparison to other parks that have a single POP for entry. Just getting annoyingly technical for the sake of playing devil's advocate. It kills me that there aren't any POP wristbands that actually include the coasters... or last for more than four hours of a given day. But like I said, that's New York for ya.

If we want to get technical about it, Luna Park at Coney Island has six upcharge attractions that aren't included in the price of an unlimited ride wristband; B&B Carousell - $3 Coney Island Cyclone coaster - $9 Thunderbolt coaster - $10 Coney Island Raceway go-karts - $10/driver, $5/passenger Zenobio - $12 Slingshot - $22 ...that's New York for ya.

Nice shots Zack! I'll be making my first trip up there next Tuesday -- how were the crowds overall yesterday? I'm hoping that it'll be smooth sailing for quick re-rides with no Flash Passing. Really looking forward to Wicked Cyclone as it'll be my first RMC and all I've heard is nothing but endless gushing over them, so I have very high expectations.

What are wait times typically like during the week for BD with only one train? I'm hoping to swing by on Tuesday on the way back from SFNE.

Awesome, thanks for the suggestion! I don't know how I completely blanked on Hersheypark; I must have just assumed that with all the extreme coasters they had in their lineup, that even their smaller ones were 48" minimums. Looking at their website, it seems as if there are four coasters he'd be able to ride. (And one of them is Sooperdooperlooper? Very cool!) Yes, it was a great day at Knoebels indeed, I hope to post a full photo TR when we get back home and I'm in front of a computer again! Glad to see the park hasn't changed that much from what I remember when I was a kid.

Every additional detail I hear about the Raptor just makes me shake my head more and more. 40-something? School teacher? Why the flying f**k did this guy, who ABSOLUTELY should have known better, decide to ignore all posted and printed warnings, intentionally climb fences and go into restricted areas, end up directly in the path of an oncoming train, and somehow not realize the train was going to hit him? Honestly, this almost sounds like suicide by coaster. Because it seems almost impossible that this happened the way it did by accident. Yes, it's a tragedy that someone died, but this is the sort of tragedy that should be 100% completely preventable by following directions and obeying posted warnings. Too many damn people in this world feel that the rules don't apply to them and/or that they're invincible.

So, after taking my soon-to-be 4-year-old son to Knoebels on Wednesday, and riding on all the wooden coasters there, he's been bitten by the coaster bug something fierce. He's exactly 42" tall, and was able to go on everything except for Impulse. With that being said, are there any other theme parks on the East Coast that have full-size, non-kiddie coasters that would be good for the two of us to visit? It seems that most of the big chains start their full-size coasters at 48", but if there's some others that I'm overlooking I'd love to know about them! Bonus points if they're within a 3 hour drive of NYC.

DVR has been locked and loaded!

I've been toying for a while with doing the SFNE / LC day trip myself, but have been wondering if it's really worth it overall. After reading this report, I'm going to try and figure out how to shoehorn it into my schedule before the operating season ends. Nice work and looking forward to the rest of your report!

And here's some of the aerosol art they have on display in the Smorgasburg section. I definitely recommend checking it out and grabbing a bite to eat if you get a chance, as it's way more impressive when they're towering over you

The Cyclone signage. Reach out and touch it someday... Very stylized depiction of the Wonder Wheel on the side of a building. And the actual Wonder Wheel itself. The new Steeplechase. Yet another longview of Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt towering over the Coney Art Walls in Smorgasburg. "Thunder Bolt" in Deno's, not to be confused with "Thunderbolt". The Tickler, skipped riding it on this trip but is pretty fun for a rotating wild mouse style. Hope those shoulder restraints are working! The entrance to "Scream Zone", which houses two coasters and a couple other extreme thrill rides. Standing on these rungs to properly position yourself on a flyer can be a little bit awkward. I *love* this "spiral staircase" lift hill! Well, it's definitely going to be a very vibrant ride once it's up and running... ...but sadly that day is not today. The "night" train is running during the day. Maybe they'll switch to the "day" train at night.

This past weekend, I headed over to Brooklyn in the late morning on Friday and checked out what the situation was like with a smaller crowd than I'm usually used to. Plus, I had a free ride on Thunderbolt coming my way thanks to a Pepsi can redemption, and who am I to turn down a free ride? The view from the east end of the boardwalk. After arriving and finding unmetered street parking less than a block away from the Cyclone, I made the trek down the boardwalk to where the Thunderbolt is. It's all by itself, down towards where the carousel and parachute drop are. While all of the Luna Park-owned rides were supposed to be up and running by noon, I found myself waiting until around 12:20 before anyone even came by to actually raise the gate on Thunderbolt, and another 10 minutes before they got their systems up and running. When I hit the ride's ticket window to redeem the can, I was then told that we can only redeem these cans at Luna Park's guest services window... which, as you may guess, is all the way back down the boardwalk. Kind of silly to have the same exact pass cards at each window and not be able to offer redemption right at the ride, but whatever. Thunderbolt and a vacant lot. After another fifteen minute walk back and forth to get this taken care of, I'm back for my first ride on Thunderbolt finally after missing out on it last season. The restraints leave something to be desired, for sure. I'm not that much against the leg-press part of it, that's fine to me, but the lack of any actual, serious restraint on the shoulders is a huge flaw IMO, especially when they opt for extremely loose seatbelt strap style restraints. I'm a big guy, so when I get slammed into them as we're flipping upside down, yeah, it hurts a bit. I'm more scared for the lightweight eight-year-old girl I was seated next to, whose straps were just loosely flailing around her head, nowhere close to her shoulders. When the lift hill is a straight 90 degrees upright, it's really disconcerting. That being said, the ride itself was decent enough, but nothing particularly thrilling. The inversions were fun enough but really hampered by the straps, and same thing with the small amount of airtime on the camelbacks towards the end. After two rides on it, I think I'm good. I'll give it a [6/10] overall. Yup, that's steep. After my time with Thunderbolt is done, I spend some time walking through the open air food stand section from Smorgasburg, mainly because they have a ton of cement walls propped up throughout the area, all featuring aerosol artwork from a variety of the city's underground artists. A lot of the artwork draws on the history of Coney Island, while others are a bit more abstract and trippy. Overall, a pretty cool way to spend some downtime. You can see some photos of these pieces attached in another post below. The iconic Parachute Jump and B&B Carousell. Now it's time to check out the coasters over at Luna Park's "Scream Zone" section. Only two smaller ones; a stand-up flyer called "Soarin' Eagle", and a launched version of the classic "Steeplechase" ride where you're sitting on a horse. I opt for Soarin' Eagle first, as there's no real line for it. I love the spiral lift hill on this, really unique and fun! The ride has a pretty small footprint and yet you get a lot of swinging back and forth, plus a couple inversions. Can I say I honestly had more fun on this smaller flyer than I did on Superman: Ultimate Flight at SFGAdv? My only complaint is more personal due to my height; I couldn't quite find the right rung to step on, and I alternately felt as if I was either too high up or too low down to really get comfortable here (but even still, the uncomfortableness didn't match anywhere near what I have on a regular standup coaster like Shockwave or Green Lantern). I'll rate this one at a [7/10]. Soarin' Eagle in action! Afterwards, I hop in line for Steeplechase, which was about a ten-minute wait, thanks to a school trip that was in front of me. As I mentioned, you're sitting on horses -- or, to be more precise, leaning over the horse. The restraints lock your legs into place, and then come up from the horse's rear end and press down on your back. I didn't have a problem with this, but the fellow next to me was in some very obvious discomfort thanks to it. I didn't realize it was launched until I was actually sitting down waiting for the ride to begin, so it was kind of a cool surprise to me. You get some decent speed out of the launch (nothing rivalling the top tier Intamins, of course), but for the most part, it's a really basic layout with nothing too crazy going on. Probably a [5/10], as it just didn't really have a lot going on past that first launch and felt like it was over way too soon without anything majorly fun happening. ...aaaaaand they're off! There's no line for the Power Surge at this point, so I take a moment and head over to that and grab a seat. I haven't been on one of these in a while, and forgot what exactly it was like... basically, a three-dimensional Tilt-a-Whirl! The ride op didn't run it for too long though, the ride felt like it was over in under a minute. C'est la vie. You spin me right round, baby, right round... After this, I head over towards Luna Park proper, and check out the status of the new Windstarz ride. Sadly, it was still not running, and appeared to still be undergoing weight testing, judging by the sandbags on the ride and ground near it. I asked an employee if there was any idea when it would be up and running, and he said "your guess is as good as mine at this point". Oh well... Windstarz, still inoperational. With that out of the way, and only a little bit of time left, I decided to go check out how the good ol' Cyclone was doing. With next to no lines at all, I had my pick of any seat on the train. Rode it five times in straight succession, using up the last of my long-standing credit on my Luna Park card, and bounced all over from the very front to the last seat and everywhere inbetween. What can I say about the Cyclone that hasn't been said already a million times before? It seemed to be running in great shape, with a smoother ride than I remember, and the cushy couch-like cars and comfortable lap bar helped a ton. Not a crazy amount of airtime, but a few of the smaller hills definitely gave me a lift once or twice. Honestly, the only painful part remaining is the dip before re-entering the station, and even that was bearable. The one scary thing was certain seats on the "night" train that they were running happened to have extremely loose seats in certain cars. How loose? Loose enough to come dislodged mid-ride. (Thankfully, I was able to wedge it back into place fairly quickly.) I absolutely love this coaster, adore the layout, the location, and riding it will never get old for me. A solid [9/10], mostly due to personal bias, but hey, it's my trip report, right? Hello, old friend. "Last warning!" A few more random photos to follow in the below posts. Yeah, Coney Island isn't perfect, and it could definitely be much better, but it's my home base. I still remember my nana (RIP) telling me stories about how when my grandfather and her got married, they hopped a train to New York and spent their honeymoon at Coney Island. I still remember that first little bit of fear I had going down the first drop on the Cyclone. I remember getting hot dogs and fries from Nathan's, never mind what my father says -- they're still my favorite. While it wasn't my first amusement park, I've made so many good memories here that I'm willing to overlook its faults. I love Coney Island!

When I visited on a Saturday last month, the park was massively crowded. After waiting in Dominator's non-moving line for ten minutes I bounced and snatched up a Fast Lane Plus, and didn't look back. Well worth the purchase. That being said, if you're visiting in September, it's entirely possible it may be less crowded, so I have to second everyone else in saying wait until you get there, gauge how the crowds look, and if it seems like it's going to be too much waiting, then yes, definitely pick one up.