After the years long drama surrounding Coney Island’s seafront real estate with all the closures, controversy, proposals and buyouts, the story has finally been bookended with the opening of the new Luna Park. The park is operated by Zamperla and contains 19 rides including Electro Spin, a Disk-O; Brooklyn Flyer, a Sky Flyer type ride; and Air Race, making its world debut at Luna.
Next season Zamperla will open the second phase of their plan, a thrill park containing two roller coasters, go-karts and the speculated Slingshot ride as posted here previously.
The park will be open daily up until Labor Day, at which point it’ll operate on a weekend only schedule. There is no charge for admission with rides being on a pay-per-ride basis; pay one price wristbands are also offered. For more information check out Luna Park’s website.
Due to the fairs proximity, I stopped by three out of the four days it spanned. For the third or fourth year now, Blue Sky Amusements have provided the rides, bringing nearly all of their rides to the event. The fair featured…
Zipper
Himilaya (Wisdom)
Riptide (ARM Ali Baba)
Round Up
Gravitron
Sizzler
Scooters
Chair Jet Swinger
Gondola Wheel
Super Slide
Berry-Go-Round
A myriad of kiddie rides
A selection of greasy treats stands
Numerous games and concessions
Considering how the lines were, the Zipper seemed to be the big hit at this fair with some dual loading action going on at the busiest times. Just to the left of Zipper was the Chair Jet Swinger, a no-frills swing ride that actually went pretty fast. At first I thought it was a Watkins Swinger model but it’s actually a custom swing ride built by Ron Cooke of Cookes Amusements (the operator that previously did this fair.)
To the right of the Zipper was a Scooter ride which was pretty standard as far as Scooter rides go. This particular one did have a recording that said “turn the wheel to go backwards” or something to that effect. While at the fair one night, some kids were tossing a stuffed football prize around when it landed over by me. I picked it up to throw it back but unfortunately the football flew off course and landed atop the Scooters. Oh well!
To the right of that was a Wisdom Himilaya decked out with lots of lighting, strobes, sirens, and music. It also went forwards and backwards. It didn’t have the ‘wow’ factor of a full fledged Musik Express or Super Himalaya, but it also doesn’t rack on multiple trailers unlike those two! It’s probably a better fit for this carnival than a larger one anyway with all the families and kids around.
Next to the Himalaya was a Sizzler; almost a requirement at fairs today if they don’t have the real deal (ie. Big Eli Scrambler.) This Sizzler, unlike the one I saw at the St. James Carnival, went pretty darn fast. Actually I think the three outer hubs spun faster than the center hub! The rides color scheme consisted of white with pink, blue, orange and green cars along with banks of red, white and blue turbo lights running along the sweeps and center ornament. The cars also had bluish-white lights on the back…very nice.
Round Up was the next ride up on the midway. It was a Hrubetz model with an interesting yellow, green and white color scheme. It doesn’t sound all that good on paper, but it didn’t look bad. The ride also had LED lights around the platform and sign that alternated colors every so often as well as some old style florescent tube lightning. To the right of this was another centrifuge ride, Gravitron, which had the standard yellow, red, orange, green, blue lighting. It also had ALF on the flash!
The last thrill ride was Riptide, a re-themed ARM Ali Baba. The particular ride has undergone some major lightning upgrades and features sequenced LED lights on the boom as well as red LEDs on the gondola. It’s got to be the most tricked out Ali Baba I’ve ever seen.
The fair also had a medium sized ferris wheel on the far side of the midway. It was pretty nice looking with the green and multicolored cars color scheme and sequenced lighting package. The wheel sort of reminds me of a Big Eli style wheel with gondola cars; it’s not as robust looking as something like the Chance Century Wheel which is comparable in size.
Along with the rides was an alley of games located near the school. Games consisted of chance wheels (one of which my friend was working), frog bog, shoot out the star and other typical carny games. One game actually had inflatable, red, white and blue machine guns as prizes…that was interesting! Inside the school’s gymnasium was a small restaurant and the ‘new’ gifts table featuring unwanted and unused Christmas gifts donated by parishioners (hence, new gifts table!) There were also various vendors that sold sports items, stuffed toys and the like.
Finally, here’s a video of Riptide for your viewing pleasure!
Oh yeah, I’ve got some more setup photos for you all! This time it’s from the Our Lady of Peace carnival in New Providence, NJ with Blue Sky Amusements running the show. A little preface: I stopped by on Sunday only to find 4 pieces sitting in the fairly large parking lot which was a bit odd since they usually have banks of  racked rides parked around by that point. However, I stopped by again on Monday at around 4:00pm and found that everything was there with several rides being setup simultaneously. These guys work fast!
If you’re interested in going, the fair runs from May 19 – May 22 with the fair going from 6 – 10pm Wednesday and Thursday; 6 – 11pm Friday and 1pm to 11pm on Saturday.
I swung by St. Matthias in Somerset, NJ this past Sunday to check out the build up process of their annual carnival which starts tonight and runs until Sunday the 16th (click here for hours.) The rides are provided by Amusements of America which meant that there was some seriously large pieces sitting around the field awaiting to be setup including a KMG Fireball, Century Wheel, and Flying Bobs.
Each photo below has a little description below it (if javascript is turned on) once you click the thumbnail.
I found out about this fair by simply seeing a poster for it one day. Two days before the fair I took a ride over to the location to see the build up only to be met with a couple of trailers and a racked kiddie ride. Arg…this might not be much of a fair. Two days later, on the opening day, I planned to swing by while I was in the area. Apparently the ride company rushed everything in there in the span of those two days as there were indeed a number of rides setup. The carnival had…
Round Up
Sizzler
Swinger
Ferris Wheel
a myriad of kiddie rides
a number of greasy treats stands
a selection of chance wheels and carny games
a racked Super Slide
Not a terribly large carnival, but a carnival nonetheless. The fairground (aka parking lot) was pretty small and everything was crammed into it in a jigsaw puzzle-like fashion. The Sizzler and wheel were near the front with a few kiddie rides placed around them as well as some food and game trailers. The Sizzler looked nice but went sloooow. As for the wheel, the workers were putting the finishing touches on it as the fair was in progress. It was really nice looking though with purple, yellow and green lights and a blue and silver color scheme. The wheel was also rim driven which only a ride nerd like myself could appreciate!
The Round Up was peeking out between a balloon race game and one of those kid funhouses with the ball pits and stuff. The fencing was about as close as you could have it to the ride without defeating its purpose. The ride also came pretty close to a small tree, as shown in this photo. The ride looked ok with a red, white and blue color scheme and lighting. However, the ride ran longer than heck with the cycle running at least 4 minutes!
To the right of the Round Up was a small path between the fencing and the kid funhouse which lead to a small, oval kiddie coaster, a generator and a Swinger secluded in the back. Swinger is a medium sized swing ride that simply spins; no tilting or any tricks like other swing rides. It too also had a long cycle…must have been ride ticket only day! All the way in the back of the lot was a racked Super Slide. Not sure if it was going to be set up at some point or if they just bailed out on it due to space concerns.
I stayed for about 15-20 minutes taking photos before I went on my merry way.
