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Adventureland Long Island!


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I started working as a professor at Farmingdale State College on Long Island nearly a year ago, and I have to admit, the school's proximity to Adventureland was actually a factor in my taking the job. And while I've communicated with park co-owner Paul Gentile via email and telephone to talk shop, I hadn't actually been over the park since August of 2008, when Cheryl, Lauren, our friend Dave, and I went there to get the credits. This made me sad, because during the school year when I bike from my office to the train station in the dark on my way home, Adventureland always cheers me up because their small Ferris wheel is always lit up with LEDs at night, even during the off season. So on a day when Cheryl was on her way to the Bahamas with Lauren, and with very bad traffic back to Queens, I decided to wait it out and kill some time at Adventureland. I was not disappointed, and it was better than I remembered it.

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Adventureland is more or less in that circle on the left, and my office is approximately at the end of that arrow. I took this picture while flying in the back seat of a Cessna with a colleague and Cheryl's uncle, who's also a pilot. Farmingdale State College actually has the largest collegiate flight school in the Northeast.

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Here's the 12-armed Ferris Wheel that I see at night. I think it's a Zamperla.

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Unfortunately I did not run into Alfie the mascot that day.

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Hey, it's New York! Adventureland is about an hour from Manhattan, maybe even less without traffic.

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The S.D.C. Hurricane.

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A pirate guarding the flume in the pirate area.

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There's also a pirate ship in the pirate area.

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Antique cars.

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Musik Express.

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Huss Frisbee.

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Zierer Tivoli coaster. These kids were really into it!

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Some version of a wave swinger.

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There is a lot of stuff jammed into a small space. There is one of those scramble-through things for kids.

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There are a lot of kiddie rides.

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I can't even show them all, it's so packed in.

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But still room for little touches along the midway.

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My kind of park!

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I had already eaten, but there seemed to be plenty of food options.

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The train ride took a good 10 minutes, which is amazing given the small size of the park.

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They had pictures and relics of old rides along the train route. Lots of Long Islanders have Adventureland memories: The park has been open for 51 years.

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The train ride was surprisingly serene too, given that you're surrounded by exburban sprawl.

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Good haunt stuff on the train route too. The owner told me that they were getting very pumped up for their Halloween event.

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My 4 remaining tickets were for the dark ride, and I was surprised to see that the old dark ride was gone and had been replaced...

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...by this! It's called Geister-Rikscha (Phantom Rickshaw). I think it was built by Mack way back when.

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I found that information and this earlier picture of the ride from an earlier location at this German ride site:

http://www.ride-index.de/include.php?path=content/content.php&contentid=1466

At least I *think* it's the same ride. I couldn't get a good picture of the whole face of the ride at Adventureland, and it's amazing how tightly they've managed to wedge it in.

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All of the rickshaw drivers are hooded! Totally creepy.

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It's fun. They've added a ton of props inside.

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All in all, it's a small but charming little park with a nice mix of rides packed into a smaller footprint. I had a really nice chat with owner Paul Gentile at the end of my visit. I hope to recruit him as a guest speaker for one of my classes. It's very much a family-owned and -operated kind of place and you can tell that it's a labor of love. Maybe it was because my last park visit had been to pathetic Camden in WV, and this park seemed incredible by comparison, but I left with a really good feeling about Adventureland. It was just good to see a local park that has been treated with a lot of TLC.

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Thanks for visiting Adventureland Long Island with me!

Edited by milst1
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You don't often get to see trip reports or even hear about the small parks, so that's why this site was set up to give these parks the exposers they really need. You never know what type of obscured ride may be found in parks like this, or a one-of-its-kind attraction that no one else has.

 

Great Photo Trip report, but the way. We need more photo trip reports on small parks; you may have that rare ride that might encourage a rider and amusement park flyer to go there and ride it!

 

"I'm not perfect; I just love to ride!!!"

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Thanks for the love, everyone!

 

I'm personally not a huge fan of Hurricanes, but whoever loves them should go take a spin! It's definitely a park that's worth a visit.

 

I know that I'm going to try to take more advantage of a great park that's right across the street!

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  • 3 weeks later...

GREAT report!

I grew up about 10 miles from this park and used to go there all the time in the '70's.

It was a great small home park then and looks as if it has been kept up very well.

It was actually a little smaller on the old days.

Rode my first coaster there, a Galaxy, used to be where the Hurricane is now.

That was also the end of the park, everything from there back has been added over the years, including the parking lot.

They had a few more thrill rides back then, they must have on of the first parks to get an Enterprise and I loved that ride.

They also had a Paratrooper and a Trabant that they used to have a great long cycle on.

Also gone are the Toboggan and Sky ride.

Such fun memories as a kid!!!

Thanks

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Thanks for this great report! I haven't been to this park in many years, but I also remember it fondly. And I'm so happy they still have a dark ride! It looks great, right down to the Terminator in the flash out front!

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  • 1 year later...

I'm pulling this thread up from the grave since there is some excitement on long island about the new Mack spinning coaster coming next year. I went to the park today after lunch with my mother since I had the day off (got to love Jewish Holidays and working in public schools!). Got my last ride on the Hurricane and the last ride of the season in! Took a few pictures of our beloved S.D.C. hurricane before it is removed.

 

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This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

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This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

image.thumb.jpg.5b5f1038aea244ff51bb4e7d674bdce4.jpg

This is the view from the Target just south of the park. I know it's hard to see through the trees, but this is the point of view that all the construction updates will be coming in from!

 

It is sad to see them taking it down, it's still running great! I hope someone is buying it off of them and that they are not just scrapping it! Hopefully once te park closes for the season I'll be able to stop by once a week or so on my way home to get everyone some updates!

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Taken from the back row of the train after a great ride

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Coaster porn

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The sign. Sorry for the lens flare...

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Top of the lift!

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An overview from the midway

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Starting up the lift

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Train from the opposite side of the ride

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Dropping into the best part of the ride

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About to take off!

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A view from the picnic tables next to the unload station

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  • 2 weeks later...

I live Yaphank, NY which is only half-an-hour (tops) from Adventureland. I've only been to it once before, and I chose the absolute worst day to go. It was April Fool's Day and what I didn't know at first was that it was also the middle of Passover, so the park was unexpectedly filled up to maximum capacity with a huge amount of Jewish schoolchildren that must've been on a field trip or something. I just wanted to get credits for the two coasters in the park, but we ended up staying for hours. I just found out right now that the Hurricane coaster is being removed, so if I have some extra time this Monday I might make a visit and ride it one more time just for the hell of it. Hopefully they'll get some brand new yet compact coaster to take its place in the future.

 

Edit: Nevermind, it's getting replaced with a spinning coaster. I can rest easy at night now.

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We went out to Long Island yesterday to ride Hurricane as we'd never been to Adventureland before and figured this was a good time to go. We only live "90 minutes away" according to Google (if you've ever been to Long Island you know how funny that is) but have never been there because going to Long Island is usually a nightmare. Like most New Yorkers we haven't done any of the big tourist spots in New York (Montauk point, Niagra Falls, the Statue of Liberty...) so we figured it was time to head out to the Island and see what it had to offer.

 

We decided to make a day of it and actually made it out to Adventureland with "only" an hour's worth of traffic delays. The park itself is pretty nice and it's amazing how much they managed to cram into a small area. Tickets are pretty expensive here with the major rides being between 4 and 5$ each so we only rode the 2 coasters and the haunted house. We would have rode the flume but it seemed to be closed for the season.

 

We don't ride kiddy coasters for credits but the family coaster here seemed respectable enough to take it for a ride without any shame and it was actually pretty good. The park added a tunnel and some nice landscaping around it which made it a pretty cool experience... the park is tiny but you can tell the owners take a lot of pride in it.

 

Next we rode the haunted house which was awful. We knew it would be but had to see for ourselves... this is only worth a ride if you have a wristband or if you're completely hammered.

 

Finally we went over to the Hurricane. We were excited to ride it since I grew up with the one at Rye Playland and haven't ridden one in a long time. Unlike the one that used to run in Rye it was a very enjoyable ride... the lap bars were a great modification by the park. It's a shame they're getting rid of this ride, I have a hard time believing the new coaster can be an improvement on this but I guess we'll wait and see.

 

I have to say as much as we enjoyed the park one really strange thing happened though that left a bad taste in our mouths. I had remembered that Hurricane coasters feature a pretty awesome twisting drop mid-way through the ride that provides a great experience in the back seat and since we were only going to ride it once we wanted to make sure we sat there. The ride was a walk on but we asked the operator if we could wait for the back seat on the next train (we were the only people in line but 2 kids were sitting in the back). He proceeded to make the kids sitting in the back get up and move to the front of the train.

 

I could tell the operator didn't understand english very well (which is totally fine with me) so I tried to explain nicely that we didn't want to make the kids move and would gladly wait for the next train. He just yelled "you... there" and pointed to the back seat so we felt pretty awful about making the kids move and didn't really enjoy the ride as much as we should have. The man also checked everyone's lap bar 3 times and at one point went into the control booth to look for a sign for the new coaster and hold it up so everyone on the train could see it before checking our restraints a 3rd time. The whole thing was really bizarre.

 

After that we went out to Montauk which was supposed to be 90 minutes away but it ended up taking us a little over 2 hours. Not too bad for Long Island... If you're going out of your way for Adventureland this is probably a worthy add on as they let you up in the lighthouse and the scenery on the tip of the island is incredible. Be warned though that you should never do this in the summer or on a weekend. The return trip was amazingly awful...It took us 4 1/2 hours to get off the Island and as much as we enjoyed our day the traffic was a bit of a bummer. Still... I recommend checking this park out and making a day out of it so you can visit some other popular sports on Long Island. Just give yourself a lot of extra time. There was one point in Eastern Long Island that it took us 90 minutes to go 2 1/2 miles. I'm not joking.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As promised, construction has started and so have the pictures on my drive home from work!

 

 

 

Already within one week of work almost all of the track is gone and I'm sure that we will see the rest of the structure completely were both in the next two weeks, they seem to be working very fast!

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for posting that great video.

Kind of funny to call a video of a coaster being dismantled great, but I love this park.

Grew up close by so it was my first home park.

Used to go there all the time in the mid to late '70's

Rode my first coaster there, the Galaxy

What a hoot.

Glad to see they're keeping the park up so well and adding new things.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is actually milst1, posting on cherylbs's account. I did this whole report on Cheryl's laptop before realizing that it was logged in as her. Well, she needs to up her posts anyway.

 

I had to be at school last week in preparation for the new semester so I decided to drive around a little to see if I could get a glimpse of the new coaster. You can see a large crane from the road, so I drove around to get a better look, which, unfortunately, wasn't really there. But I did find some signs of progress, mainly track in the parking lot, which I share with you today.

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Sorry that I forgot to bring my camera and I just had my iPhone. Most of these photos look alike: there was track in the parking lot!

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As the promotional art has shown, it's green track with yellow supports. There's also a big pile of dirt in the parking lot.

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More track and more supports. It's not a big coaster or a big footprint, so it's hard to tell if the erection of the track has even begun.

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This could be the entirety of the support structure, for all I know.

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I'm going to call my "park connection" and see if I can get on-site to take some more pics.

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Now I'm sweeping the camera back over the the left.

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I realize that we've covered this ground already.

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But I was happy snapping away.

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And again.

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Now I moved closer to the fence and stuck my arm through to get these supports on the left. You can see Adventure Falls from here.

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The hits keep coming.

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I think these are the same angles but my arm is through the fence now. Not trespassing, exactly.

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Okay, last shot.

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I then drove around the block to see if I could get a better shot of the construction area, but this was the best I could do. This is from the parking lot of the neighboring Target store. You can see Ghost House from here, which shows how narrow the park is at that point of the midway.

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I also happened to notice the back of the Food Court area. Look at all the detailed theming that only the Target shoppers get to see. Reminds you that the park is one of the older things in the area. This must have been pretty rural in 1962 when the park opened, although I admit to not knowing from when this structure dates. The water tower, which is on the far side of the park's northern border, again highlights the narrowness of the property at that point. Anyway, thanks for checking it out with me! I hope I get some more good stuff soon.

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