Park Review
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Farmingdale, New York August 4, 2001 I returned last Sunday from my first ACE coaster event, the ACE Preservation Conference (I've been to EastCoaster, a non-coaster riding event in February, several times). My weekend began very early, on Friday, when I awoke at 5 am. I didn't encounter any traffic, drove right past the still-closed Coney Island parks and made it to Long Island's Adventureland in plenty of time for our 9:30 EPT (Exclusive Park Time). The folks at Adventureland let us use the entire park for an hour and a half before their regular opening to the public. This is a small park with lots of kiddie flat rides. "It's all about kids!" the park proclaims every chance it gets. Yet some of the rides were thrilling and scary enough for older folks. There's the Huss ride (Adam Sandy tells me it's a model known as a Ranger) called Looping Star, my first one. Every time someone on this list mentioned the Looping Star, I thought they were referring to a different ride, but this Looping Star is like those swinging ships that go all the way around. But there's no gradual swinging to get this ride up to speed. Once the restraints are locked, the ride takes off and flips over the top from a standing start. A few times in one direction, then a few rotations in the other provide a nice view and some airtime. The restraint is basically a pillow shoved into your stomach, and it doesn't hold you in very tightly. I should have known something was up when I noticed that the roof inches above my head was padded. Rumor: I heard that this ride was being removed at the end of the season, for some technical problem which I don't remember now. Maybe it was because it's hard to maintain. Bumper boats. Also my first time on one of these. Fun enough. Then there's the Surf Dance, a Mondial Super Nova. Also my first one of these I'd seen. I like this one. It's a bit scary, with its surprising changes of direction and speed, the swinging gondola providing nice stomach-dropping airtime. A haunted house was nicely themed on the outside, but during the dark ride, each gag was illuminated so briefly that most times I couldn't tell what I was supposed to see. Then there were the park's two coasters. The kiddie coaster was called the Lady Bug coaster, although some maps have it labeled the Paul Bunyan coaster. Apparently that was the original name but it always had cars painted like ladybugs, so all the guests called it the Lady Bug coaster, and now so does the park. This was a Tivoli-type coaster that works, but is not very interesting to talk about. Cha-ching. The other coaster was an SDC Hurricane. I'd never even seen one of these before, let alone ride one. It's sort of like an intense Galaxi coaster. After the first drop, there's a small airtime hop. After a turnaround, there's a drop into a steeply banked helix, then up onto a short flat stretch that looks like (but is not) a block brake area. The train (a short three cars) dives to the right off of this so steeply that, in the front row at least, it reminded me of the evil "space diver" Flashback (Six Flags Magic Mountain). But with only lap bars, there was no painful headbanging. More steeply banked helixes followed, and by the time the train slammed into the brakes, I was a bit dizzy, and impressed that such a small coaster could pack such a big punch. Yeah, it's a bit rough and wild, so I wouldn't want to ride it too often, but it's pretty fun. I also rode the train, which should really be called Train: The Backstage Tour. Like at most parks, this train goes around the outer perimeter of the place, but that means really all you can see is the back of these rides: �Oh look, there's the truck that Looping Star came in, there's the overflow water outlet for the Bumper Boats, there's the water that overflowed from the Bumper Boats, there's the engine for Surf Dance,� all the while choking on the diesel fumes given off by the train's locomotive. If you go, you can skip this ride. There's an arcade with a pretty good variety of games, with great prices (real pinball, still only a quarter for five balls!). And after a hamburger for lunch, it was on to Playland, in Rye, New York. Jon Zucker
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