Coney Island is one of America’s classic amusement park locations, and is likely one of the only parks known by reputation alone to the majority of people, enthusiasts or not. During my first visit to the park this September, I...
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What’s Left of Coney Island? Part 2: Rust and Relaxation
Note: This is the second part of a two-part series contrasting Coney Island’s Golden Age and its present-day state. You can read the first part here. Part II: Rust & Relaxation A piece of advice: if you visit Coney Island,...
Continue reading...Our Top 10 Coasters Over 50 Years Old Still Operating!
With 2019 marking the end of great decade of roller coasters, we’ve decided to take a look back at some of the best coasters from a different era: The oldest! One of the awesome things about roller coasters is that...
Continue reading...Talking With Zamperla’s Jay Crisler, Roller Coaster Engineer Extraordinare
During the IAAPA Expo, I met Zamperla’s Head of Engineering and Service, Jay Crisler. It wasn’t a scheduled meeting, we just happened to share a charter bus seat on the way to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. During the 40 minute ride,...
Continue reading...My First Visit to Kennywood Park
Kennywood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been near the top of my amusement park bucket list since I first saw photos of it in my first roller coaster book. As a child, I viewed Kennywood as the quintessential American amusement park —...
Continue reading...Kennywood Roller Coasters Ranked By a First-Time Visitor
I made my first visit to Kennywood this weekend, and I took a ride on each of the six major Kennywood roller coasters. Although it wasn’t easy, I decided to rank the historic amusement park’s roller coasters — separating the...
Continue reading...Luna Park’s Thunderbolt Opens Today
The wait is over. Today, Coney Island’s Luna Park will debut Thunderbolt, a unique steel Zamperla looping coaster. Update: The park today released an onride POV of Thunderbolt. Watch it below: According to the Luna Park website, Thunderbolt is the “first custom...
Continue reading...Luna Park’s Thunderbolt Nears Completion
Later this month, New York City’s Luna Park will debut Thunderbolt, a modern steel take on a former Coney Island wooden coaster of the same name. The coaster, made by Luna Park owner, Zamperla, towers 115 feet over the boardwalk...
Continue reading...Luna Park’s Thunderbolt Goes Vertical
Luna Park is making impressive vertical progress on its new-for-2014 Zamperla coaster, Thunderbolt. The park shared some exciting photos of the coaster’s lift hill structure on Facebook. So far the construction has been focused on the 125-foot-tall vertical lift hill....
Continue reading...New Renderings of Luna Park’s Thunderbolt
Earlier this month, Luna Park released updated renderings of its new-for-2014 coaster, Thunderbolt. The Zamperla steel coaster is a nod of sorts to the Coney Island wooden coasters of long ago. But it’s no classic wooden coaster. Riders will see...
Continue reading...Coney Island Building New Thunderbolt
Zamperla will construct a re-imagined Thunderbolt roller coaster at Luna Park at Coney Island in 2014. The steel coaster will stand near where the original wooden coaster stood, which operated from 1925 to 1982 and was razed in 2000. The...
Continue reading...A-Z Coaster of the Week: Phantom’s Revenge
This week we travel to West Mifflin, PA to visit Phantom’s Revenge at Kennywood! It originally opened as Steel Phantom in 1991 and included four inversions. In 2000, DH Morgan Manufacturing was brought in to refurbish the ride and take...
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