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Gillian's Funland Discussion Thread


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Hey everybody!

 

This thread is simple! Rather than having a million little threads about everything that goes on at Gillian's Funland, this thread is designed to consolidate it all into one user-friendly thread. Feel free to use it to post updates, trip reports, questions, comments, and of course, general discussion. For pictures and videos of the park as well as past updates, see TPR's Park Index Page.

 

Official Park Website

 

 

Below are some links to past updates from the park, you may be interested in. Enjoy!

 

--Robb

 

_____________________________________________________

2006

February 4th, 2006 - Kiddie Park proposed on site of former landfill in Sea Isle, New Jersey - SEE BELOW

 

2009

July 10th, 2009 - Video of park's grand opening

July 11th, 2009 - A PTR of the park!

 

 

2010

February 3rd, 2010 - Funland to expand with five new rides!

_____________________________________________________

 

 

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news ... 4478c.html

 

The company that owns the Steel Pier in Atlantic City is considering opening an amusement park on a former landfill in the northern end of Sea Isle City.

 

Mayor Leonard Desiderio said Atlantic Pier Amusements approached the city with plans for an amusement park on a chunk of city-owned land on Landis Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets.

 

The concept is still in an early stage, Desiderio said.

 

Building there would require several state environmental approvals, as well as the support of residents and the three-member City Commission, he said.

 

“I told them (the company) an amusement park would help with tourism and would be a welcome business to any tourism community,” Desiderio said. “Of course, we have to go according to what the public has to say, and especially the public in the north end, and what they're thinking (about) entertainment in this area.”

 

About six years ago, the city lost a popular summer recreation spot for families.

 

Fun City was a small amusement park that operated near 32nd Street and the beach for nearly 30 years, but it was sold to make room for duplexes, taking with it its Tilt-A-Whirl, Merry-Go-Round and Scrambler. It also took away one more family attraction from the resort town.

 

Desiderio said the city is preparing a list of possible uses for the former landfill. What the city doesn't want there, Desiderio said, are houses.

 

Desiderio said he supports keeping city ownership of the land and perhaps leasing it long term. That way, down the line, the property cannot be sold to build more condominiums or duplexes.

 

Carmen La Rosa, an architect for the amusement company, said the site is about 14 acres, about half of which is buildable.

 

“The main thing is to go to the state and see what we can get approvals to build over a landfill,” he said.

 

La Rosa said the amusement park would include a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, other rides and the potential for a water park.

 

There isn't much available land is Sea Isle City, especially for an amusement park, so the former landfill seemed a good site, Desiderio said.

 

Over the years, people have proposed using the area as a golf course, but it wasn't large enough, Desiderio said.

 

So now, we have theme parks being built on top of trash. Good job New Jersey! You try to change your image, but you can't...

Edited by jedimaster1227
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It's a common pratice in more places than our lovely state. Developing on former landfills is actually not that bad. Usually the dump isn't open for a number of years, so the grass and other plants end up breaking down any of the garbage that would be troublesome, and there is no smell. Plus, since it's flat, it's easy to build on.

 

Plus, anyone's who'se ever been to Jersey knows the only trashy/smelly part is the Turnpike outside of Linden/Elisabeth where the oil refineries. I just find it funny that the "trashy/smelly" reputation comes from a strip of highway that's maybe 3-5 miles long.

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Normally I would be excited about a new park but considering it's from the Steel Pier owners, I am not that optimistic. For those who have never been to the new Steel Pier (new in that there was an old one that was around in the early part of the century to the 60's or 70's), it almost seems like a run down carnival more than an amusement pier. There are skill games all over before you even walk in with the game booth workers asking everyone walking by to play and the games are rigged (oval rim for a basketball game). It's very expensive at $6 for 1 ride on the Crazy Mouse and the rides don't look like they are in the best shape. And who can forget the incident last summer where they ran the log flume without water in the trough which caused 4 or 5 riders to be ejected from the ride. Even though I spend most of my summer less than 15 minutes from Steel Pier, I don't even have the credit there because I don't feel safe going on rides there.

 

I'll stick with Gillian's Wonderland Pier and Playland (both in Ocean City) and Morey's Piers for my sea shore park trips.

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Parts of Sea World in San Diego are built on top of an old Landfill. When they were building the Polar Bear exhibit for Wild Arctic, they kept having problems with old tires rising up to the surface that they would have to remove. This type of development is actually going to become very commonplace, and it can be done safely with all the new technology that has been developed to remediate landfill sites.

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  • 3 years later...

A great video on the grand opening of Funland in Sea Isle New Jersey.

 

Looks like most of the rides are from Cypress Gardens including the Zamperla Mini Mouse Coaster. (thanks to rcdb) I couldn't find a website for them.

 

http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/pre ... 03286.html

 

(Sorry if this has been posted, I used the search feature and couldn't find anything)

Edited by larrygator
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^No need to apologize.

 

This has been mentioned somewhere in another thread, but never in it's own thread.

 

Personally, I'm not going out of my way to ride it, but I'll try to hit it up next year on my way home from Morey's.

 

EDIT: hmmm! I might not be going to Morey's next year, a new woodie is no longer listed on rcdb as NEW for 2010.

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That's how I feel as well, if I drive past Sea Isle City, I'll stop to get the credit but otherwise it's not worth it.

 

I remember seeing plans for the park, showing it was small with not many rides and almost all kiddie rides and one of the higher ups was reported as saying, no major thrill rides because they don't to keep it for kids and not teens.

 

If that is the case, I hope there is no maximum height for the coaster but I am guessing there isn't since Gillian's in Ocean City lets adults ride all 3 coasters.

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^^^^ LOL. I'm the one who told RCDB that it was from Cypress Gardens. I find it really cool when I read the first post all talking about my information. I can't tell you how good it feels.

The pictures on the site were mine and I know you can't tell, but when I was there. the ride is definitely used. the Zamperla logos were fading and well, it matched Cypress Garden's to the "T" whatever that means. Well, since there is a topic about it I might as well show off the rest of the park.

^^To Yoshi- No there is no maximum hight limit. I was able to ride no problem. No signs posted that you had to be under a certain limit either.

 

The park was dead when I went. The reason the RCDB photos don't have the coaster running. There were maybe 3 families there. and one of them rode the coaster with me. So, to have a better time on the coaster, i decided to over exaggerate everything and be like kind of yell "WEEE!!!!". So when I got off, the little girl who sat behind me toldl her mom "That guy in front of us is wierd!"

YAYzamp.jpg.5a54b9f6886fec93c22ec5ed86cfff0d.jpg

The most thrilling ride there. Definitely used. Didn't even want to ride it

fesign.jpg.acab1318a783a6b054113d5382a6f045.jpg

I was thinking of the TPR index when i took this picture, and realized how bad it is. This is actually taken OUTSIDE the park.

Funland.jpg.6111d09c7b50262baad56a13fb64f6b9.jpg

YAY! FunLand! Those two people in the picture were still finishing off the landscaping around it.

zamperlaheaven.jpg.314b4f491a050ffbaea90f39d7668ec9.jpg

Yeah, the size of the park. It's all Zamperla. If you like Zamperla, you'll love it here if you don't... umm... You won't

traffic.jpg.0d5c1c048c617838e019e5960681ad05.jpg

And lastly. the delays it causes everyone else. I'm just glad it looked like no one got too injured at either of those. Oh. And EZ Pass ROCKS in NJ. I love our express EZ pass lanes.

traffic2.jpg.8f752dd79d34302db593971c98a879b9.jpg

And since I'm no fun. I decided to end this on a serious note. Don't tailgate. On my way home on the GSP. TWO major accidents. This one you can't see, because of all the emergency vehicles, and because I kind of just... didn't even look.

funslide.jpg.d4294961603060ff59de2fe6193d20a1.jpg

The tallest ride in the park! YAY for sliding!

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Wait, there is a new park in New Jersey and Big Mike didn't sniff it out first???

Wow.

 

Chris.

 

 

Don't be alarmed Chris, I already posted about the new park last Wednesday and tipped everybody off!

 

 

Peace, Big Mike

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It kind of seems lame that the park doesn't have it's own website. On the Gillians website there is a small notice that Fun Land has opened. I believe all it tells you is that it opens at 4pm daily. and that it is in Sea Isle. The park really needs a good marketing team. I'm a marketing major here... hint hint if Gillians reads this.

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I went to Sea Isle City back in 2000 and I remembered another park being there. It had bumper cars and a few others, but I forgot the name of it. I think it closed up not long after that.

 

It's good to see Sea Isle get a park because it had to be one of the nicest looking beaches I've visited.

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  • 6 months later...

http://www.parkworld-online.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/1595/Gillian_s_Funland_expands.html

 

Opened last summer, Gillian's Funland at Sea Isle City in New Jersey will expand this season with the addition of five new rides.

 

After acquiring more land on both sides of the park, Jay Gillian worked with broker Rides-4-U to obtain a collection of rides from the now-defunct Kiddieland Amusement Park at Melrose Park in Illinois. These include a Eli Bridge Scrambler, Sellner Tilt-a-Whirl, Allan Herschell Wet Boats, plus a Zamperla Kiddie Swing Galleon ship.

 

"I chose these rides because they are great family rides," offers Gillian, who also operates Gillian's Wonderland Pier in nearby Ocean City,. "I hit all the numbers I planned to hit [last season]. I was very conservative."

 

Gillian opened Funland with 12 rides plus concessions and made about $400,000 in his first season.

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  • 9 years later...

I'm not sure if this is the right spot, but does anyone know what happened to the Super Flipping Arm that Gillian's Wonderland Pier was building for 2017? It was under construction during my visit two years ago, but now there is no mention of it on the website. I'm curious if it ever even opened.

Flip.thumb.jpg.0fecb48e87bf73fd120ab3aeb9c38266.jpg

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Not sure how old the Google Maps satellite images are, but that spot appears to be occupied by some sort simpler rotating ride.

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