A Visit to Coney Island

"The only thing about America that interests me is Coney Island" ~ Sigmund Freud.

Sorry for the radio silence on this blog lately. I've been without internet for the past few days thanks to a feline-related mishap. But in case anyone is curious, last Saturday I finally got to experience something I've wanted to do since I was like 10. Yes, last Saturday, Sarah and I hopped on the F-Train and rode it all the way to the last stop to visit Coney Island!


Here's the thing about Coney Island. It's not one centralised amusement park, like Disneyland or the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk or, well, any amusement park back in California. It's actually two - Luna Park and Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, as well as a few rides and games that aren't incorporated into either amusement park, a beach, an aquarium, various restaurants and sweet shops, a discotheque, and a museum that sometimes hosts freak shows (but sadly not the day we went) and magic shows.

Amusement parks are inherently expensive. Two parks means twice as expensive - I must have spent about $100! I'm still too scared to check my bank account to find out. Though I still would have liked to see it back in the early 20th century when there were even more amusement parks up and down the peninsula.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing about Coney Island. It's not an island. It's a peninsula. Before anyone whines "then why is called Coney Island?" the answer is that it was an island once, but some of the water got filled in with landfill to connect it to the rest of Brooklyn. Coney comes from the Dutch word "Konijn" - which means "rabbit"! Apparently way back in the way back when this place was full of bunnies, so they called it rabbit island - Konijn Eiland! (Sarah and I did not see any rabbits. The only wildlife we saw were seagulls and one very brave praying mantis.)

(I picked it up and moved it off the boardwalk to some nearby plants so it would not get hurt by the other parkgoers. Isn't it cute?)


Sarah and I started the day at Luna Park, which is the bigger of the two. One gets the impression that Luna Park bought up quite a bit of land as other amusement parks went under, especially since one of its coasters, Steeplechase, is named after a now-defunct Coney Island amusement park.

We got wristbands that allowed us to ride unlimited rides for 4 hours, but if I had to do it again I don't think I would go that route. With the exception of the historic B&B Carousel (which dates back to 1906, though it has been renovated a few times since then - wikipedia tells me the horses were updated in the 1920s), Luna Park is all thrill rides and carnival games. It's pretty much entirely roller coasters and spinning rides. I can't do spinning rides - that's the one type of ride that makes me feel ill - so that meant that I was only riding roller coasters for the first part of our day.

In my opinion, a good amusement park needs balance. You can't just have roller coasters or thrill rides. You need some slower rides to balance it out. You need some dark rides. I am inordinately fond of dark rides, especially classic ones that utilise old-school practical effects, but even without that bias I stand by this opinion. Because if you only have roller coasters, parkgoers can only ride so much before their bodies are just done.

Turns out my limit is 4. 4 roller coasters and I was done. That definitely didn't take 4 hours. It took more like one.

The last roller coaster we rode was the Cyclone, which is actually on the National Register of Historic Places since it's one of the oldest roller coasters still running in America, opening in 1927. I don't wanna brag or anything, but the Giant Dipper wooden coaster back in Santa Cruz is three years older, having opened in 1924, so this is not the oldest roller coaster I've ever ridden. Sorry not sorry, Coney Island.

And boy did those three years make a difference. The Cyclone is faster (60 mph compared to the GD's 55 mph) and higher (85 ft compared to the GD's 70 ft) than the Dipper, though the two coasters are the same length, 2640 feet. And the Cyclone is rougher. A lot rougher, to the point where after about halfway through it's not even really enjoyable anymore. This thing made me sore by the end of it. I'm glad I did it once but I'm sorry, the Giant Dipper is just a better ride all around.

The Coney Island beach

After the Cyclone and the B&B Carousel (we named our horses "Brunhilda" and "Sally") we needed lunch. We had decided we were done with thrill rides for the day, and thus done with Luna Park. If/when I do go back (I'd like to see a freak show), instead of spending $50 on a wristband I think I'll just spend $3 for the carousel ticket and be done with it!

We got lunch at Nathan's, since it is a famous Coney Island institution! Now granted, it's famous for hot dogs, and as I am a vegetarian, I could not sample such a... well. I hesitate to call it a 'delicacy'. But Sarah seemed to like it. Myself? I had cheese fries. Normally I try to eat fairly healthy but it's impossible to do so at an amusement park it seems, or at least it is in New York. (Back in California, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk did have areas where one could get a veggie burger or a salad, but Santa Cruz is full of hippies so I'm guessing it's an anomaly among amusement parks.) Anyway, the cheese fries were delicious. Totally bad for me, but the fries were so crispy and they were just smothered in gooey, salty cheese.

And after that, it was time for us to explore Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, named for its most famous attraction - another landmark ride on the National Register of Historic Places, and the main image for this blog entry - the Wonder Wheel! But that actually wasn't the first Deno's ride we rode. We decided that since it was the most famous, we'd save it for last. Instead, we started with a dark ride called the Spook-a-Rama.

Sarah and I both love spooky/creepy things, and the cheesier the better, so we both knew we were going to enjoy this. It's not the oldest ride in the park, but the older parts of it still date back to the 1950s, so it's still a respectable age. Being a dark ride nerd, I was delighted to find out this is one of the few remaining dark rides built by the Pretzel Company. There have been some updates made since the 50s, and there are a few modern effects, but there are still a lot of the older practical effects in play, too.

And the thing is? Those older practical effects are still legitimately scary! In a fun way, of course. I know how they're done. I know the 'spiderwebs' are threads hung from the ceiling, I know the 'blood' spray is just water in the dark, I know the jumpscares are spring loaded and connected to buttons that the car rolls over. Knowing all that doesn't stop you from being spooked when it happens.

(Side note, if you wanna read an interesting article about old school dark rides, read this one!)

The Spook-A-Rama was the high point of the day. It was my favourite ride at all of Coney Island, and it was also Sarah's favourite! If you ever find yourself at Coney Island, I cannot recommend this one highly enough! It was amazing!

View from the Wonder Wheel - you can see Manhattan in the distance

At the time it was built, in 1918 (it opened in 1920), the Wonder Wheel was the tallest ferris wheel in the world! (I believe the London Eye holds that record now.) It has two types of cars. The white cars are stationary. The red and blue cars swing along a track as the ferris wheel moves.

I love ferris wheels so I was really excited to ride it. And of course the swinging cars seemed like such a novelty that we decided to ride in one of those. I... was not expecting to be completely fucking terrified.

See, logically I knew that this thing has been running a really long time with no fatalities (which I can't even say about my beloved Giant Dipper roller coaster... full confession I have this morbid fascination with reading about amusement park fatalities but that's neither here nor there). I knew logically that we were safe. But when the car started speeding forward it sure as fuck did not feel that way. It felt like it was going to fly right off and we were going to fall to the ground and die. Sarah was teasing me a bit for this, but I was clinging to my seat for dear life! Next time I'm riding a stationary car for sure!

Me being me, we couldn't end the day without visiting the Coney Island USA Museum.




Far from being a stodgier institution like the MET or the American Museum of Natural History (as much as I genuinely love those stodgier institutions), this one is actually a bar on the first floor, and like I said they sometimes host freak shows as well as hosting the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Upstairs is the museum, which I thought would focus more on the old school 'freaks' at the freak shows. (Which used to be less about people hammering nails into their own skulls and more about people with physical deformities. I find the history of freak shows fascinating, as many of these people made a fortune doing them and were happy despite how dehumanising and problematic these things were.)

While there were some old photos of 'freaks' (I hesitate to use that word), it was more about the history of the Coney Island amusement area, which included a 3D-printed scale model of the long-gone Dreamland (which looked like it was beautiful back when it existed), cars from rides which have since disappeared, and even old funhouse mirrors, so that was fun! The guy running the museum was clearly very passionate about Coney Island's history and I was glad Sarah and I went.

All in all, I am glad I saw Coney Island. Most of it was a one-time thing for me but I do wanna go back to ride the Spook-a-Rama at some point in the future. But in the far future. I'm not made of money, after all!

-Nym-