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Memorial Day Weekend Mania: What Rides Are Open in Coney Island?

Posted in Amusement ride, tagged Coney Island, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Dreamland, Memorial Day 2009, rides, Thor Equities on May 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

“What rides are open in Coney Island?” This question is one of the search terms being used to arrive at ATZ. Since Astroland closed last year, people continue to be uncertain about what rides have remained here and are open. Last weekend’s postponement of Thor Equities much advertised “Festival by the Sea” due to “threat of bad weather”on a sunny day and no show rides was a slap in the face to the “Coney Island is Really Fun. Really Open” campaign. Here’s the Memorial Day Weekend ride count…

Kiddie helicopter ride at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park in Coney Island. Deno’s has 22 rides including the world famous Wonder Wheel. Photo by me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

~~More than 35~~ 40 rides owned and operated by Coney Island’s veteran ride operators have been open since April 5th. Come out and enjoy the Cyclone Roller Coaster, Wonder Wheel, Eldorado Skooters, the Polar Express, Saturn 6 and kiddie rides such as the Bumblebeez and the Sea Serpent Coaster.

Coney Island Cyclone, Second Ride of the Season. Photo by Pablo57 via flickr

photo via pablo57, flickr

At Thor Equities “Dreamland Amusement Park” (on the former Astroland site aka Sittland East) the Georgia-based Geren carnival’s Ring of Fire, Himalaya and Scrambler were set up and open for business for the first time on Saturday. You may remember these rides from Thor’s “Summer of Hope” carnival on Stillwell last season. Geren’s rides left in mid July to play the carnival’s Southern fair route. Will they stay till Labor Day this year or be switched out with other rides? Geren’s Spin-Out was also open for biz on Saturday.

Georgia-based Geren Rides Spin-Out at Thor Equities "Dreamland Park" in Coney Island. Photo by me-myself-i

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Five additional carnival rides–one thrill ride, a merry-go-round, three other kiddie rides– were being set up at Joe Sitt’s park-in-progress on Saturday but were not yet ready to open. ATZ will be posting updates and analysis of the Memorial Day Weekend and will have more to say about Joey Coney Island’s shortcomings as an amusement park tycoon. I mean what kind of a 21st century amusement park developer fails to have his “upwards of 25 rides” in place and ready for action on the first big weekend of summer?

The title of my post “Memorial Day Weekend Mania” is dedicated to Bob Guskind of Gowanus Lounge, whose coverage of all things Coney inspired me to launch ATZ. If Bob were still here, he would undoubtedly be covering this story and I would be at the beach.

MEMORIAL DAY UPDATE…On Monday, eight of the nine rides at Sitt’s Dreamland were operational and open for business. The carousel was under construction.

JUNE 4, 2009 UPDATE> ..“What rides are open at Coney Island?”
Coney Island Ride Count

AUGUST 5, 2009 UPDATE…“Coney Island Has 56 Rides and 33 More Days of Summer!”

Merry Go Round Set up at Thor’s amusement park-in-progress on Memorial day Weekend. Photo by me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Astroland Closed But Your Kid Can Still Ride the USS Astroland This Summer!

Posted in Amusement ride, tagged Astroland, Boat Ride, Coney Island, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Herschell, Kiddie Park on May 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

USS Astroland, Herschell Boat Ride at Deno's Kiddie Park in Coney Island. Photo by me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Astroland closed in September 2008, but your kid can still ride the USS Astroland in 2009, and 2010, and far into the future. Wish I could ride too–but grownups aren’t allowed. This classic Allan Herschell kiddie boat ride is in Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, which according to a new sign is “open this year, & next, & next, & next, & next…” Deno’s owns the Wonder Wheel and the land beneath it and has a lease on the kiddie park property through 2020. Last October, the City entered into a purchase agreement to acquire the 1-acre kiddie park parcel for $11 million from the Ward family after Thor Equities dropped out of the deal. The Coney Island Rumor Mill is sayin’ the closing is imminent. Will city officials break a bottle of Brooklyn egg cream against the hull of one of the kiddie boats to celebrate the land acquisition? Of course, the rides belong to Deno’s and are not part of the deal.

Each little boat is named after a different Coney Island park, all defunct now except for Deno’s, whose namesake is the ocean blue USS Deno’s Wonder Wheel. When the rides were repainted a few years ago, former arcade owner and history buff Stan Fox had the idea it would be a neat way to pay tribute to Coney’s amusement heritage. The other boats are named after Boyton’s Sea Lion Park (1895-1902), Luna Park (1903-1946), Dreamland (1904-1911) and Steeplechase (1897-1964).

Although Astroland closed in 2008, Coney Island has 50 54 amusement rides up and running in 2009!

Deno's Wonder Wheel Park's new banner proudly proclaims "We ARE Coney Island!" Photo by Pablo57 via flickr

photo via pablo57, flickr

Joe Sitt’s No Show Rides

Posted in Amusement ride, Coney Island, News, tagged Astroland, Coney Island, Dreamland, Joe Sitt, rides, Thor Equities on May 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Cyclone Roller Coaster, Wonder Wheel, Eldorado Skooters and more than two dozen independent rides owned by local operators have been open for business in Coney Island since Palm Sunday. Coney’s Only No Shows are Joe Sitt’s promised 25 Rides. Here’s what Sittland East (the former Astroland site) aka Thor Equities so-called “Dreamland Amusement Park” looked like on May 15, the day of its long planned grand opening.

Where are "Some" or "Half" of the 25 Rides?

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Contrary to the misinformation given out to the media on Thursday by Thor’s pr tools that anywhere from “some” to “half” of the 25 promised rides were being set up at Thor’s “amusement park,” there wasn’t a single new ride set up by Saturday. The Brooklyn Paper, metro, and the NY Post dutifully reported what they were told by Thor’s pr about the rides being set up and it is ABSOLUTELY FALSE.

As of Saturday, May 16, everything that is operating on Sittland East has been there for the past few weeks–the Batman inflate, the largest rat & headless woman sideshows, a few games. The equipment was moved around to open up a midway for the anticipated rides. But where are the rides? ONLY 3 rides have arrived in recent days and ALL 3 are still sitting disassembled on trailers.

The word on the street is the DOB’s safety requirements do not allow the operators to set up the rides on the property as long as the other attractions—the sideshows and games– are open for business. That means we don’t expect them to start setting up the 3 rides until Monday at the earliest.

The three rides are sitting on trailers belonging to Georgia-based Geren Rides. They appear to be the Ring of Fire, Scrambler and Himalaya, which played Sitt’s Summer of Hope on Stillwell (Sittland West) last year and left in the middle of July to play fairs in Tennessee. Thor’s long-running ad posted on usedrides.com says “If you need to leave in Aug for fair season that is not a problem.” I expect to see quite a bit of coming and going, that is if the promised “dozens of amusement rides” ever get here…

On April 5, the Opening Day for Coney Island's Cyclone, Wonder Wheel and Other Rides and Attractions, Thor 's Dreamland was nothing more than a "Coming Soon" sign

Joe Sitt evicted Astroland Park months ago and had plenty of time to arrange for replacements for Astroland’s 11 adult rides, 14 kiddie rides, 3 arcades and about a dozen games. He should have had them in place, ready and open for business on Palm Sunday, and then every weekend after that till Memorial day. Then full blast, 7 days a week. May 15 is late by both Coney Island and carnival standards, and yet he can’t even keep that promise.

The grand opening of Thor Equities’ Festival by the Sea and Dreamland Park was postponed till next weekend because the tents weren’t up to code and the rides hadn’t arrived. Obviously Joe Sitt doesn’t have a clue about anything having to do with running an amusement park. He should sell the land to the city and get the #%$@ out of the Coney Island!

But don’t let the above photos of Thor’s empty lot deter you from coming to Coney Island! Please come out and patronize the longtime amusement operators who have been open since April 5th, Coney Island’s traditional opening day of the season. The Cyclone Roller Coaster, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement park with 25 rides, Eldorado Skooters and arcade, McCullough’s Kiddie Park, Coney Island Arcade, Bowery and Jones Walk games, The Coney Island Sideshow, the Coney Island Museum, The Polar Express and 12th St Amusements and much much more…

AUGUST 5, 2009 UPDATE…”Coney Island Has 56 Rides and 33 More Days of Summer!”

JUNE 4, 2009 UPDATE…“What rides are open at Coney Island?”
Coney Island Ride Count