Adventures on Coney Island
My brother had been complaining that he hasn't been to any amusement parks since 2002 (I haven't been to one since... 2007?) so we went to Coney Island where they reopened the Luna Park back in May of this year. It's a small park. Very small. With no roller-coasters.
Our destination..... Luna Park.
So we left in the evening so we'd arrive there at night when it's cooler and the pretty lights are on. We took the train from Long Island to Manhattan and then the subway to Brooklyn. It took a little over 2 hours. The Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station is a pretty big station. It's the end of the line for 4 train lines. Here's a view of the inside.
Along one of the walls they had these cool amusement park images. This one of a roller-coaster was my favorite.
And here's the station from the outside.
The area looked a little run down and was dirty. Trash everywhere. We immediately went towards the giant ferris wheel. The place looked kinda empty and unsafe and not the Luna Park, so we explored elsewhere a bit (in other words, I was lost.)
We walked along the Riegelmann Boardwalk as the sun set. We came across this beautiful interesting-looking structure and I tried my damnedest to take a decent photo of it with my cheap shitty camera. After 6 attempts I ended up with one of my favorite photos in a long time. :)
After a trip to Wikipedia, I found out that this used to be the Parachute Jump. Opened in 1939 and stopped operating since 1968.
Further down the boardwalk we found the circus. They don't perform on Tuesdays so it wasn't open bur we could hear the exotic birds making sounds and people (the performers?) sitting around and talking. I love circus tents. I really should go to the circus again. The last time I went it was so long ago my memories of it are very hazy and I hardly remember any of it.
Just opposite the circus was this gorgeous decaying building. This is just one corner of it. I'd love to revisit it with a decent camera someday and take more pictures of it. Hopefully it'll still be there.
The direction we were walking in looked like it would just lead to apartment buildings so we headed back. We walked past the amusement area and went straight to the roller-coaster, The Cyclone, originally opened in 1927, restored in 1975 and is now a New York City landmark owned by the City. It's one of the oldest wooden roller-coasters still in operation.
Because I LOVE roller-coasters (so hard!!) this was the first thing we rode. One ride currently costs $8.
The platform with all it's rules and disclaimers. Look at the levers! :3
After you ride they give you the option to ride again for $5 and you get to choose which seat you want. We only rode it once because we're poor. XD
This is the car. Look at all that padding. It was certainly needed because it wasn't a smooth ride. But it was fun.
Then we found the Luna Park. We had walked right past it. (Navigation fail!) It was sandwiched right in-between the Cyclone and the cruddy park with the Wonder Wheel.
We went in and bought a Luna Card which can be used towards rides, games, food within the park.
First we rode this ride called The Tickler. It's got this creepy guy's face plastered all over it. You go along this track and sometimes the car spins. Ours did not spin at all... >:(
Then we rode the new ride called Air Race. I didn't get any decent photos of it, sorry. :( So here's a badly edited YouTube video I found.
It was nice. After the Cyclone, it was probably my second favorite ride.
Then we rose this. I think it's called the Eclipse. It's a small spinning pendulum ride. Normally I find this type of ride to be relaxing but this time it made me feel a tiny bit queasy.
Then we rode the Electro Spin. It was easily the coolest looking ride there but it was uncomfortable. You sit in this seat facing outwards on this disc thing while this bar comes up from behind and kinda squishes you. I imagine that is what it would feel like if some giant person held you between their thumb and index finger. The disc spins and rocks back and forth. Sorry, no decent photos of this one either so have a video.
Here's the Wonder Wheel and part of the Electro Spin.
After the Electro Spin we walked around the park a little looking at the other rides. We didn't ride this one called Surf's Up but I thought it looked neat especially while in motion. (The Cyclone is in the background.)
We didn't ride this one either but I bet this would be Layton's favorite ride! XD
We never saw the little swing ride in motion but I like how it looks. So pretty.
The last thing we rode the big swing ride, Brooklyn Flyer. (Again no pics, sorry. Have video instead.) For some reason this made both of us feel kinda sick. My brother was upset as it was the first time a ride has made him feel that way. For me it was the second time. After a few minutes it went away and we were fine.
We didn't feel like riding any more rides and we still had some money left on our cards so we decided to play a couple games.
Yes, they had Michael Jackson plushes. No, I didn't win one.
I played against my brother and beat him both times and won a retarded looking banana and a small teddy bear. XD
I later used the stupid banana as a pillow on the train ride home.
Then we left the park because none of their food stands had funnel cake. We went to the sleazy park next door which was closing in search of this elusive funnel cake when this HUGE FAT DISGUSTING guy dragged my brother to try playing his baseball tossing game for free. After the trial the guy tried to get us to pay to play more. We told him we had no money for that and walked away. Then this dude at the dart throwing game tried to drag us to his booth and we told him the same.
Finally we found a food stand the DID have funnel cake but they had JUST closed!!! D': I was soo upset! My delicious FUNNEL CAKE!!!!!! The one thing I was looking most forward to! TT^TT
We stopped by the Eldorado Arcade next-door. I had a few quarters so I tried playing that game where you add coins to try to knock down other coins. I once won $10 from this game. I didn't know down any coins but I won a few tickets which I exchanged for a plastic spider ring. It'll be Revol-Jack's new pet spider. XD
We were hungry so we went to Nathan's which is across the street from the subway station and I got a cheeseburger (lol) and my bro got some spicy chicken wings or something. And then we went back home. We left shortly after midnight and we didn't get home until 3-something in the morning.