Coney Island, Luna Park Trip Report - 6/22/14

[Mikey]

I was back in Washington DC this past week and had a weekend to kill. Having been to Six Flags America, deciding it's not worth the space on the transit map. And growing tired of numerous visits to Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion, both of which are awesome parks for the record. So I decided to take the rental car with unlimited miles, and haul ass to New York City. Because why the love not.

After being nickled and dimed in four separate states and three hours of power cruising I finally arrived to Edision New Jersey. I checked into the hotel around 11 PM and drove down the road to Penn Station to hop on the NJ Transit train. After a short train ride that terminated under Madison Square Garden I headed towards Times Square. Getting out of Madison Square garden was interesting because some of the streets were blocked off due to a Billy Joel concert.

Around 2AM I headed back to the hotel. Later in the morning I would get back on the NJ Transit Train, and a path train to head towards Central Park and Coney Island.

Times Square

More Times Square

Even More Times Square

You Guessed it!, Times Square

Day Two, First Stop Red line to Central Park. After a transfer, and 19 stops I finally made it to Coney Island.

PATH Train Towards Coney Island

Brooklyn Bridge

Coney Island Cyclone Side View

Cyclone Station, where air gates or modern safety standards haven't been invented yet!

Coney Island Cyclone Signage

Coney Island Cyclone Side View

Cyclone Station, where air gates or modern safety standards haven't been invented yet!

Handles with out labels.

Most inappropriate ride name ever.

The World Famous Wonder Wheel

You may remember this ride for the 2009 IAAPA Attractions Expo.

Kiddie Coaster for Kiddies

I wonder why Triumph the Insult Comic Dog would say about this ride...

It cost so much because you broke it so bad.

Preparing to launch...

The newest ride, Thunderbolt....

... would have been nice to ride. But it was down more then it was up. When it was running they were cycling so slow the line was out of the queue line.

Back to the train station...

This trip was quite brief and was very rapid fire and spontaneous. I wish that I had more time to visit then I did and see more then I did, but alas the drive killed a lot of time. There was not a single moment where I was not moving at "operations pace" or flat out running.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Damn I was hoping you could tell us how bad Thunderbolt was because I've heard not good things.

[TTD03]

Yea I have heard it is not good at all, I am hoping to get out there sometime this or next week.
Welcome to NJ Mikey, Edison is not more than 20 minutes away from me so you should come over for a stalking visit

this august im going its a 15 min drive to there my dad is on 20 ave. 86 st and the d train from 20 ave to coney island and in manhattan my dad has a restaurant called boky on bayard street so its like right next to the manhattan bridge close to columbus park at your own risk try it out and we won the neighborhood winner.......... i miss nyc

[TTD03]

^ Well that changed topics like 3 times

If we're shouting distances from NYC I live about 2 hours away, the majority of the population of my area, is from or works in the city

[TTD03]

2 hours, that's a terrible commute for those people.

[Mikey]

For a park that resides in such close proximity to a large population like New York, I was a bit disappointed with it overall.

The majority of the populace in the area was actually on the beaches and not on the boardwalk. I would say that for every

guest that was on the boardwalk or in the gates of the park, twenty more were on the beach.

I can see where this place has it's own charm, but I think you can only see it or relate to it if you are a native to the east coast.

It really seemed like a showcase for Zamprella rides that happened to be operating as a seaside amusement park.

The Coney Island Cyclone was a unique experience given it's age and I think its something that everyone should visit at least once.

Hopefully they will get the problems sorted with Thunderbolt.

[Paradox]

I have heard that the coaster itself is not rough, but the seats are painful and they do look very uncomfortable to me.

first time i went on the cyclone was in 2011 it was when it was very rough i got some scars and bleed a bit and a splinter :I

[TTD03]

Paradox wrote:

I have heard that the coaster itself is not rough, but the seats are painful and they do look very uncomfortable to me.

I agree.

RollerCoaster1234 wrote:

first time i went on the cyclone was in 2011 it was when it was very rough i got some scars and bleed a bit and a splinter :I

Sounds not painful at all

Coney Island is one of the best place for the visitor and i really like your report because i realized through the pics that you take much fun during the trip i also try but seas is main problem its not comfortable..

[TTD03]

I keep getting more curious about the comfort level of this ride as time goes on.
Also, was the retractable magnetic anti-rollback necessary on this? Seems like another moving part they don't need and can it even stop the train in an emergency, thought the whole deal with magnets was that it could never stop something completely.