Adventureland - Long Island - Saturday, April 25

I won't make this one too long, but Preflux and I enjoyed a two-hour "pop in" visit to Adventureland yesterday. Beautiful spring day, sunny, breezy, light sweatshirt weather...all is good.

On the way in I noticed that they now had a "prefered parking" area. Really? Advetnureland isn't that big. I went along side the flume in order to get a quick exit later.

The park was hopping, but not too crowded. Our longest wait was 2 cycles for the bumper cars. This set of cars was a little slow to respond and there was no off-grid center area to generate a one way circle. THis was bum who you want, when you want, how you want. Ahhh....love that burt sulpher bumper car smell!

Swings...nice. Great feeling. Nice breeze. Ah....spring is here.

Carousel - double decker, but I never saw the top level open. I also noticed the the horses have name tags. Perhaps former employees? Who knows. There were some people in the spin-it-yourself-turret that were really moving. Ah spring....lot of dizzy young 'ems.

Music Express - 80s music. One direction. (No not the group...the rotation) Harder for me to walk up down up down to get into car. the plastic seat belt didn't come close to fitting, but the bar closed easily. I have been on enough music expresses to know that I was ok...but they never checked it. I would have left if it was a coaster.

Aligator or crocodile ride. I love this thing. Very rare. very fun. Preflux and I did it together and it was a tight fit for us...but the feeling of the gator / crock kicking out over the water was EXHILORATING. We both love it. This ride had one croc or gator missing and another that was unridable as it was tied to the ring. I hope they get all ten up and running.

Pirate Ship - Very long cycle. I was starting to lose it . Sat in high position. a little queasey by the time I got off. Ran into some people that preflux knew from school. It's nice to see decent people.

Antique Cars - Very short track and the only one that we actually needed tickets for. (Everyone else forgot to ask and I used a distraction tequnique to help us) "Don't forget to check your height?" "Oh good, there's two seats over there?" "Busy day today...but nice people here." Sometimes saying something like that to an op takes him / her out of their element and they forget to check. Heck, I entered the park with 20 left over tickets from last year and we left with 14. Not bad!

Food - 2 Good pretzels and a good but small soda set me back about ten bucks.

Bathroom - The one near the back end of the park was clean.

Security - There, but not in anyone's face.

Crowd - Overall very well behaved. About as many non-riders as riders

Turbulance - It's nice that the construction of this ride is an open view in a sealed off area. The track looks nice for what it is and what it will be. While not ready yet...it is progressing nicely. I hope there will be leg room on it and that it helps to make riders happy.

Ah Spring...perfect for a pop-in visit to Adventureland.

Thank you for reading this.

In my opinion, the ride op shouldn't have to remind you to give them your tickets. That is like going to a store, stuffing merchandise into your pockets (I'm sure Richie left his tickets hidden in his pocket), and walking right out feeling innocent because the cashier never asked for your money!

You make a good point. I should stop doing that.

I'm not going to judge you, but I will say that that is not a lesson I would want to teach my kid, if I had kids. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

You're otherwise probably a cool guy though. :)

Several years ago, I won a four pack of tickets to Adventureland. But because Long Island's a hike for me, an area I don't know, and couldn't get anyone to join me, they went unused.

Remorse... Redemption... Resurection...

Sounds like a movie trailer voice-over.

Just a note to say that I apologize for nost of the post that started this thread. Things haven't been going so great with me on several fronts and I took it out on the industry and hobby that I love. I'm an adult...I should know better.

I finally made it back to Adventureland during Memorial Day Weekend. I picked up a set of tickets - More than enough to cover my day at the park about a month ago. I also bought a pretzel and a small soda.

I walked out of the park and threw all of the tickets in a can. I didn't go on one ride.

I do feel better about everything...and I even taxed myself more by not going on the (recently openend) Turbulance.

I know I didn't have to post this...but I kind of wanted to...if only to close the chapter on a bad book.

I am ready to move on.

Thank you (As always) for reading this.

I'm not judging you. Everyone makes mistakes. :p

But what did you do with the 14 tickets you walked out with on April 25th? :-)
If I'm in a situation where I have too many tickets, especially redemption tickets, I look for the kid that is playing games like it's his job. If mom or dad is around I ask if it would be ok to pass my tickets to their son and they always say ok.
I'm glad you feel better now, but you might've scanned the crowd for the family that looked like they could've used your tickets for a few more rides. That would've been especially satisfying.

I know your intention was to pay the park back and clear your conscience, but those rides were running whether you were in them or not. Tickets in the trash can don't do anybody any good.

And I'm not being judgy either, just sayin.

Yeah, but the point was to pay for the rides he had already taken the other time. Giving away those rides again, while generous, is still something for nothing..

What Andy said...

As for giving redemption tickets away, I do that a lot, and asking the parents never crossed my mind. I sometimes feel a little weird about it, so I make sure it's a ten-second interaction. Maybe I should ask the parents from now on, especially now that I'm not a young man anymore.

I have never given away ride tickets, but I would give those to the parents, no question.

And I get that, Andy. But I still kind of don't get it. On the day he scooted by he went home with 14 tickets that no one collected. There's no mention of what happened to them, but there is mention of a new strip of tickets that he purchased then threw away. It still kind of doesn't pay the park back, if that was the intention. Unless he threw the 14 away, too.

And to be perfectly clear, this is not an attempt to make Mr. Reflux feel bad about what he did on either date, he's got enough going on that a visit back here for more abuse isn't what he's looking for, I'm sure. I was just saying if it was me I would've given the tickets to someone less fortunate. Or how about this?- Go to the office, explain the situation, then ask how restitution might be made. Something as simple as handing the uncollected tickets over, or asking if it would be ok to find someone nearby that could use them. (This solution carries a certain amout of risk. The park either thanks him kindly for his honesty or detains him and calls the cops...)

I'm as honest as the day is long, but I (and I'm not the only one here, I'm sure) rejoice just a little when I pull up to a parking meter and see that someone else's time is left for me to use.
And yet just this morning the supermarket cashier gave me three bananas on the house, finally, because her scale wasn't working. I thanked her then took my bananas over to the U-Scan, weighed them myself, and paid the 69 cents. I just couldn't see walking out with them when there was another avenue for payment. I also never considered eating the free bananas today, then going back to the store tomorrow to buy three more bananas then throw them in the trash. That, at least to me, wouldn't make it right, either.

Well, the comparable idea for bananas would be to buy them, then put them back on the shelf. (Which I will admit, I've done when I wanted to buy alcohol before I was of age. I'd buy something that was equally priced, put it back on the shelf and then five-finger-discount the booze)

I should have mentioned that the tickets that I had on hand are gone too.

Yes, I have also given away tickets to people in the past. Actually...even here.

I just wanted a fresh start.

Sometimes we all need that.

Absolutely, good for you.
And enjoy your next trip, worry free. I can hear it now... " PLEASE take our tickets! I can't go through that again!"
I'm dying to hear about Turbulance.
And that croc ride you mentioned is interesting. Some place else has those, themed to jet skis or something. I'm thinking Legoland, maybe.

I got a chance to visit Adventureland this past weekend. It was my first time visiting the park, mainly because Hurricane was never all that appealing and getting to Long Island is kind of a pain. Turbulence was worth the trip. It's one of those rides that isn't too big on intensity but is very big on fun. The track layout is extremely compact, with lots of quick directional changes to get the cars spinning. The helix near the end was surprisingly forceful. And I know the averge park-goer doesn't care, but to me it's nice to see spinning coasters that aren't the same old Maurer SC-2000 or Gerstlauer 420/4 models. My only complaint was that just one train was running, which made the line crawl and resulted in a 30-35 minute wait time.