Amusement ride | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for the ‘Amusement ride’ Category

RFP for Children’s Amusement Park in Staten Island’s Midland Beach

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, tagged Midland Beach, Parks Department, Request for Proposals, RFP, Staten Island on March 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The site in Midland Beach includes the Foundations for Six Amusement Rides. March 13, 2014. NYC Parks Department

In January, NY Carousel Entertainment and Big Mark’s Action Park were among the amusement park operators eyeing Staten Island’s beachfronts when the City released a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) that mentioned rides as well as carnivals and stall-based amusements. Last week, the Parks Department followed up by issuing an RFP (Request for Proposals) for the development and operation of a Children’s Amusement Park as well as the operation of mobile food units and souvenir carts in Midland Beach, with a 12-year term.

Midland Beach’s 2.5-mile boardwalk and beach area extends southeast from Fort Wadsworth to Miller Field’s Gateway Recreational Area. The proposed site is located on Father Capodanno Blvd. between Seaview Ave. and Sand Lane, and includes concrete foundations for six rides. A diagram shows the pads occupied by a carousel, magic castle, sky glider, mini airport and spinning teacups circled by a trackless train, though these are just examples. There’s also a pad for a concession building with attached public restrooms, which are under construction.

Vintage Postcard: The Souvenir Booth, Midland Beach, Staten Island, N.Y. Collection Milstein Division, New York Public Library

The RFP does not say when the park is expected to open, but a proposer meeting and site tour is set for March 28, with a due date for proposals of April 16th. To download the RFP, visit the Parks Department’s Concessions Opportunities page.

Midland Beach, just south of South Beach, once had hotels, beer gardens, bathing pavilions, theaters, carousels, Ferris wheels and other amusements. Vintage postcards in the New York Public Library show a variety of entertainments, including trapeze performances, boxing exhibitions and a Whip ride.

UPDATE June 25, 2014

Fantasy Shore Amusement Park in Midland Beach opened on June 28th with four rides: Tea Cups, Train, Frog Hopper and a mini-roller coaster christened the Verrazano Viper. Fantasy Shore is run by NY Carousel Entertainment, which also operates Fantasy Forest Amusement Park at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens.

Vintage Postcard: Everybody Rides the The Whip at Midland Beach, Staten Island. Collection Milstein Division, New York Public Library

High Hopes for Coney Island’s New Thunderbolt Coaster

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, tagged Coney Island, Luna Park, roller coaster, Thunderbolt, Zamperla on March 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Teens gaze at billboard for Thunderbolt Roller Coaster set to open in Coney Island in May 2014. Photo © Tricia Vita

Coney Island has been home to dozens of roller coasters since the Switchback Railway debuted in 1884 but it’s been a long 87 years since one was custom built for the People’s Playground — the Cyclone in 1927. The fact that Coney has landed on a national list of “Top 5 New Coasters for 2014” is cause for cheers of anticipation. At today’s groundbreaking for Zamperla’s new Thunderbolt steel coaster, slated to open in May in Luna Park, officials expressed high hopes for the 2014 season and the future of a reinvigorated Coney Island.

Mark Treyger, the neighborhood’s new City Councilman said “The Thunderbolt’s arrival is a major addition to the amusement district that will further stimulate and excite our local economy while providing enjoyment to thousands of Coney Island visitors.” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said the coaster “promises to be an ‘electrifying’ boost to the local economy, all while delighting the young and young at heart.”

Ground Breaking for Thunderbolt Roller Coaster, Luna Park Coney Island, March 10, 2014. Photo via Luna Park NYC Facebook

The 115-foot tall coaster will reach speeds of 55 miles per hour during a two minute ride that features a 90-degree vertical drop, a 100 foot vertical loop, an 80 foot zero-g roll, a 112 degree over-banked turn, a unique heartline dive, a corkscrew, and several airtime hills, according to the ride manufacturer.

The new $10 million dollar ride is named in honor of the 1925 Thunderbolt, which occupied an adjacent lot on the same block until it was controversially and illegally demolished in 2000 on the orders of Mayor Giuliani. The house under the roller coaster made famous by Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” was the real life home for 40 years of Mae Timpano. Thanks to the New York Times mention this morning of the new Thunderbolt lacking one feature–a house built beneath it–the obit of the last man who lived there is our top post of the day. Do you think the new Thunderbolt should have a house beneath it like the old one? Maybe an Airstream?

The Thunderbolt will be the third Zamperla coaster in Luna Park to be named after Coney Island attractions of the past. In 2010, their Wild Mouse-style spinning coaster was rechristened “The Tickler” in honor of an innovative 1906 thrill ride in the original Luna Park, after which the park is named. The next year, a Pony Express-themed Motocoaster in Scream Zone was dubbed the Steeplechase Coaster, after Steeplechase Park’s signature horse race ride.

RFP for Operator of Battery Park’s SeaGlass Carousel

Posted in Amusement ride, tagged carousel, ferry, ferry feasibility study, New York Aquarium, park, Request for Proposals, RFP, SeaGlass Carousel, The Battery on March 5, 2014| 2 Comments »

SeaGlass Carousel. Courtesy Battery Park Conservancy

A unique carousel celebrating the history of the Battery as the first home of the New York Aquarium, which opened in 1896, is almost set to spin. After a decade of fundraising and construction, the Battery Conservancy issued an RFP (Request for Proposals) for the operation and maintenance of the SeaGlass Carousel along with food and merchandise carts in Manhattan’s Battery Park. There will be a recommended proposer meeting on March 11, with a due date for proposals on April 14th. To download the RFP, visit http://www.thebattery.org.

Designed to simulate a dive to the bottom of the sea, the carousel features iridescent fish set on four moving turntables within a nautilus shell structure. “Combined with swivel and the up-and-down motions of the fish mounted on these turntables, these various systems generate up to 25 axes of motion…swimming indeed,” according to the RFP.

SeaGlass Carousel was conceived and designed by WXY Architecture + Urban Design and their engineering teams, George Tsypin Opera Factory and Show Canada. The $16 million dollar project was funded with a combination of public and private funds.

Upon the opening of the carousel in 2014 and the Battery Garden Bikeway in 2015, over 90% of the park’s rebuilding will be complete. One of New York’s oldest parks, dating back to 1693, Battery Park was once home to the New York Aquarium, which was located in Castle Clinton from 1896 until 1941. The SeaGlass Carousel is expected to operate 7 days a week, year-round.

The Battery Conservancy’s original vision for the park’s redo included working with the New York Aquarium at Coney Island to develop a ferry link from the Battery waterfront to a dock near the aquarium. In 2007, then City Councilman Alan Gerson, whose district included Battery Park, told the New York Sun, “I would like to get the job done during the next fiscal year, especially now that Coney Island is being rebuilt.”

The NYCEDC commissioned a Coney Island Ferry Feasibility Study focusing on three potential ferry pier locations to be built or refurbished in Coney Island: Steeplechase Pier, West 8th Street and a location in Coney Island Creek, but Coney Island was not among the prioritized sites in the NYCEDC’s 2013 Citywide Ferry Study. Friends of Coney Island Creek Ferry Landing + Park, a group advocating for a recreational ferry link between Coney Island and The Battery, held a test run last June.

UPDATE August 19, 2015:

Ten years in the making, the much-anticipated SeaGlass Carousel at Battery Park will open to the public on Thursday, August 20th, from 1pm till midnight. NY Carousel was selected to operate the ride. ATZ’s report, including photos and video of the carousel’s inaugural spin at yesterday’s press preview, is here.

May 31, 1934 aerial image of the New York Aquarium, then located at Castle Clinton in Battery Park, during a Navy visit to New York City. Photo via NYC Parks Department