Have I ever told you how much I love amusement parks and thrill rides? Well guess what? I’m going to tell you about it now. I’m a huge fan of amusement parks that have thrill rides. My favorite rides of course are roller coasters and the bigger and faster the better. I also enjoy any other type of ride that pushes the envelope and gets my heart beating and puts a bit of a scare into my bones.
This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to take my entire family to LUNA PARK in Coney Island, New York.
For those of you not familiar with LUNA Park it is an amusement park that is right off the Coney Island Boardwalk and it overlooks the water. Whether this is the Atlantic Ocean or a bay that is up for debate. We can save that discussion for another blog post. Anyway LUNA Park is located in the heart of Coney Island at 1000 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
My family, which included my husband, two children and my mother and myself, arrived at the park around 1230 pm. While my husband found parking I met Rob who was the media representative for the park. He gave us all our 4-hour unlimited passes (wrist bands) and a map of the park. When my husband got into the park we started going on all of the rides. The park is not too big but not to small as well. The rides are arranged nicely with most of the kiddie rides and games placed towards the back of the park and the thrill rides at the front and middle. The great thing about going to the park yesterday was the weather. It was sunny the whole day and not to hot or humid.
The first ride we went on was called “The Tickler” which was listed as a high thrill ride.
It was sort of a combination of a mild roller coaster and a whip it ride. There were some minor drops as the car went down some slopes but most of the ride consisted of the car being jolted around tight bends. I guess the thrill of it was that it seemed as though you could fall off the edge of the tracks when this happened. After this we went on a ride called the “Electro Spin”.
In this ride you sit motorcycle style in a circle the ride begins slowly then starts rising high up a ramp on both sides. Eventually as it came up to speed the spins and drops could be felt in my stomach and it was really awesome as it came up on the beach side you could view the water and the boardwalk ever so briefly.
After this we hit the “Brooklyn Flyer”
which is a giant swing that rises up 100 feet in the air and spins you around. For those that do not like heights I suggest you avoid this one or at least don’t look down. We were then looking forward to going on “Wild River” which is like a log floom type of ride. Unfortunately they were repairing the ride at the time so we moved to “Luna 360”.
This is a pendulum ride that swings you back and forth high up in the air until you’re sideways. My husband, daughter and son sat out the first round but went on it later in the day (although my kids told en the end that this was their most favorite ride). After an hour or two we were realizing that the sun was getting a bit hot and we needed to make sure we stayed cool. With all that fun it is important not to forget about overheating.
We then headed over to the “Coney Island Hang Glider” ride, which was listed as a moderate thrill ride.
It was more for kids but my husband went on with my son and daughter. It is a ride that you lay face down in and it basically spins around going up and down. My husband and kids were not to0 thrilled about it after riding it. We then went on “Coney Island Sound” which was another circle ride.
But in this one the car you are in goes up and down abruptly creating that sinking feeling in your stomach. This was a surprisingly fun ride for all of us. After this we went on “Air Race”,
a ride where you are in the cockpit of an airplane and it spins around high in the air while doing 360-degree loops and spins. This was pretty exciting although we notice the car in front of us spun around much more than ours. We were in a Yellow car and we noticed that Green Car spun around much more that our yellow car so second time when we went on Air Race we were sure to grab the green car and we were very happy with ton of spinning…:) After this we went on a bunch of the mild thrill rides, which were mostly suitable for young children. Some of these were pretty fun and some were like rides you would find in a carnival.
After all of this we noticed that they were finally getting ready to open up the “Wild River” ride. We all ran over to the group of people that had lined up at the entrance. After about 5 minutes they opened up the ride and we were one of the first couple of groups to get on.
It was pretty good but didn’t get us too wet. After standing around in the sun all day we were hoping to get a little bit of splash to cool us off. After this we decided to go back on some of our favorite rides again. The great thing about our visit was the quickness that the lines moved along. One thing that we can’t stand about the huge amusement parks are the lines. Sometimes you end up waiting on a line for an hour or so for a 1-minute ride. Not at Luna Park. The most we waited for a ride was 5-7 minutes. It is not to say that the park was empty because it was pretty crowded.
After going on some rides we were realizing that our 4-hour pass was almost up. At this point my husband realized that there was another part of Luna Park that we missed. It was the area where they had the extreme thrill rides. We quickly rushed over there to find that one of the roller coasters was not working. However we were able to get on “The Steeple Chase” roller coaster.
On this ride you sit atop of horses but it’s a roller coaster. The ride starts out stopped in front of a stoplight. It then goes from red to yellow, and then green and you are shot out like a catapult. (Be sure to hold your head tight for this one). The speed is exhilarating and very exciting. You get this feeling like you are going to be shot out into the sky. But they you turn into some curves and drops and hills. It is over pretty quickly but the ride is nice. We went on it about 3-4 times before our 4-hour passes ran out.
When we were finally about to leave the park and end our most wonderful day I noticed a ride called “Zenobio”.
It was listed on our map as an extreme thrill ride and one of the rides that you had to pay extra for. Now usually at some of the bigger theme parks these extra rides can end up costing you $40 dollars or more. But here at Luna Park this one only cost $10 dollars. My daughter wanted to go on with me but she didn’t meet the height requirements. My husband, son, and my mother all said that they would pass on this one. This ride was VERY tall and it spins you through the air at speeds of 65 mph. It was crazy! For once I was afraid to look down for fear of falling. The ride was fantastic and well worth the extra money. Although I have to admit that the next day my back was hurting from the extra pressure and fear..:)
Overall our experience at LUNA Park at Coney Island was excellent. The staff throughout the park was very friendly and courteous and they kept the park extremely clean and neat. It also felt very safe and family friendly. The ride all looked safe and felt safe to go on. It didn’t feel like one of those temporary carnivals but a true version of a theme park. A theme park with a beach, boardwalk and ocean (water view). If you ever get the chance to visit Brooklyn, New York I suggest you check out Coney Island and I strongly suggest you visit Luna Park. Check out this special offer to learn how you can buy One Wrist Band and get the second one FREE.
Now tell me which amusement parks your family enjoys? And what rides are your favorite?
Disclosure: I received complementary Luna Park Wrist bands/ passes to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.
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How fun.
My husband and I went on the giant Ferris Wheel outside of Tokyo. I was OK until I could not see anything but the sky when the wheel got to the top. It is 377′ high. There is one near London also.