Coney Island and Nickelodeon Universe - 6/29/23

After a few days in New York doing the typical touristy things we took a drive over to Coney Island. I went in with low expectations as I knew this wasn’t going to be a typical theme park experience. We ended up spending just over two hours. More on that later.

Some highlights:

• Opening times are really fluid at Luna Park and Deno’s. Cyclone and Phoenix opened more than a half hour after opening.
• We opted for the pay per ride as there were several rides I didn’t want to do. The wristbands at Luna Park are $75 on site ($65 online). But they also have an unadvertised special where you get $120 in points for $100. Deno’s has a similar deal.
• Tickler was a hard pass for me. The kids rode it and found it rough and not fun.
• Steeplechase has a surprisingly powerful launch. Really fun ride!
• Tony’s Express was a decent family coaster, nothing special though.
• Nathan’s Famous just isn’t all that great. I’ll take a Chicago style dog instead.
• Cyclone is absolutely insane! The ejector air is off the charts.
• Phoenix at Deno’s is an outstanding family suspended coaster. A lot of great lateral forces.
• Spook-A-Rama is super cheesy. My daughter thought it was boring.
• Be careful parking. We were over the meter by 3 minutes and were slammed with a $115 ticket. The meters only allow you to add 2 hours of parking. If you are staying longer you may want to park in the aquarium lot for $18.

Since we had some extra time and were staying in the Meadowlands we gave Nickelodeon Universe at American Dream a whirl. We bought the twilight all you can ride bands for the kids. They were $44 with a 15% code we got from our hotel. I chose to go with points. The coasters are all $12 per ride.

Some highlights:

• Slime Streak had ridiculously slow operations. Six of the 20 seats were blocked off. They had one ride op checking and closing every restraint. The ride itself had a surprisingly quick drop. The rest of the ride attempted to give some air time but failed at that.
• The Shredder was a solid spinner. I have a much lower tolerance for spinning rides than I used to. But I decided to give it a shot since the seats face inward. Even though this spins quite a bit it didn’t bother me much.
• New York is ridiculously expensive!

Other than the parking ticket and fighting traffic to get back to New Jersey it was a pretty good day!

Mulfinator:

Opening times are really fluid at Luna Park and Deno’s

We had the same experience last year with some rides opening late. Luna opened at 11 and Deno's was scheduled for noon. It was raining on our subway ride over there but stopped when we got off. We stayed until 3pm, it remained dry, and Deno's never opened.

Steeplechase has a surprisingly powerful launch. Really fun ride!

Much better than I had anticipated as well.

Nathan’s Famous just isn’t all that great

I know it's a historic location, but they're basically a chain now and I can get their dogs at Sam's Club, so I was in no hurry to try it. We opted for Coney Island Brewery in the lower level of the baseball stadium next to Thunderbolt. They had very good food and very good beers. Their logo is really cool with a tattooed punk mermaid sitting in front of the Cyclone. I bought a hoodie.

Cyclone is absolutely insane! The ejector air is off the charts.

Yes. We had low expectations because I heard it could be rough. It was just great. All the airtime and not rough at all. We also payed per ride and ended up riding multiple times.

kpjb:

I know it's a historic location, but they're basically a chain now and I can get their dogs at Sam's Club, so I was in no hurry to try it.

The line for the Nathan’s on the boardwalk was ridiculous. We just happened upon the location near Spook-A-Rama in Deno’s. Walked right up.

I have also had Nathan’s at various places, including Universal, so it wasn’t a real draw for me. But since I was at Coney, I did want to see it and spend time at the original location.
I needed lunch, so I opted for something that was in the non-frankfurter range. I think I got the fried clams or crab cakes or something like that. The place was busy so I wound up going down some sketchy alley and sitting on the curb of the building and eating my lunch there. It was everything I expected and hoped for.
I’d heard complaints about Cyclone over the years, but I thought it was fantastic. I’m a big guy, at the time probably 220 so I got that rolling sofa seat to myself. The bar locked tight but there was plenty of rough and tumble action especially some sideways-leaning laterals. And the operators were what we don’t see much of in Ohio, lol. I could’ve sat there all day.