Luna Park (Coney Island) 9/11/15

[Mrpq]

(coney*)

 

here is my trip report to what started out as a great night and how it went to crap real fast.

 

SOO

 

I haven't been down to Coney Island in years. My brothers gf came up with the idea to get myself, my gf, my brother and her self to take a little night trip down there. We saw group on had a deal on a 4 hour ride ticket bracelet so we all said why not. Myself being the roller coaster nut I am was pretty excited since I have never ridden the Cyclone in the 28 years I have lived in NY and this was my chance. Moving on, we get there around 7pm place is pretty empty so we are all happy since there are no lines. We go to get our bracelets and the lady tells us "we might close early tonight" keep in mind the website says 11. We ask "well what is early?" she replies "oh no earlier then 10pm but that's if we decided to close early" We all thought that was still more then enough time. Now we have our passes. .

 

Cyclone-Of course the cylone isn't included so we all pay the $9 to ride it I thought it was a blast. the trains are a little odd to get into considering you pretty much have to climb into them. but it was fun. More air tiem then I expected and I enjoyed how it tossed you around. Only thing that bothered me was the final dip before going up into the station, tweaked my back a little.

 

Thunderbolt- it was OK. it was not as smooth as I thought it would be, still fun though.

 

Luna Park- as a whole it was fun the other coasters they have are fun and the flat rides are pretty good.

 

Now this is where the night goes down hill

 

 

we worked our way through the rides and we got off the Thunderbolt and head over to the go karts since passes had been included in the group on. Take not that its 8:30pm at this time. Go over there guy working the ride says go stand over by the gate, ok cool. there has to be at least 19 guys working this ride and I notice 5 of them are sitting in the karts as the ride cycle starts. % mins later the ride is over and a worker goes "oh we are closed" I said "well what do you mean, you just told me to stand here and you have workers riding the ride" He comes up with everything under the sun. "oh well we are closing early"

"we have a special event tomorrow"

"we aren't part of luna park"

"the web site doesn't say luna park closes at 11"

"whats a 4 hour ride bracelet?"

"riders riding is how we close the ride"

 

I request a manager, a supervisor comes over. he was as useful as a 1 year old with a jack hammer. Things get a little heated my brother starts to get a little bit madder then I am and storms off and trips and nocks over a rack of basketballs. NOT on purpose he just turned around tripped the rack was there. OK big deal right? I talk to the security guard and he advised me to go over to the main gate. We get there and there is a line of other upset guest. We go up to the window explain what happens I request to speak to a manager. Lady goes "did you just come from the go karts" I replay "yes" she says ok ill call a manager to come down. At this point she walks away and I watch as she goes to make a call. I watch her the entire time while shes laughing and smiling and twirling her hair in her hands. 5 mins pass and I watch her walk over to the front gate to get another security guard. She comes back he follows. She goes "yeah you guys destroyed park property you need to leave" I go " where is the manager?" she smiles and says 'they aren't talking to you" I look at the security guard and he clearly sees I am about 10 seconds away from blowing a gasket. but I breath and say fine and walk away.

 

we left with no refund but my gf sent an email to group on explained what happened and they gave us a refund so that worked out.

 

My issue was not the money it was how the workers handled the situation and treated us like we knew nothing. The park while it is nice and it is clean is very poorly run in my opinion. yes it is end of season but that's no excuse for people to drag their feet. Some rides we sat for 15mins waiting to get started.

 

The only time I will possibly head back there is ti ride The wonder wheel (which wasn't open) or to ride the cyclone again. other then that Luna Park is one of the worst run parks I have ever been to

Edited September 15, 2015 by Yoshi

[Yoshi]

I fixed the thread title for you.

 

It sounds like the park needs to work on their guest service issues. I'm glad you were able to get a refund through Groupon. It seems annoying they sell the 4 hour bracelet and then not include some coasters on the bracelet or at least have the option to pay a small surcharge to add them to the bracelet like Knoebels does with their wooden coasters.

[pashacar]

That's a bummer. Luna Park is a lot like GAdv to me: Great if you encounter no issues, but as soon as something comes up, nobody knows how to/cares enough to deal with it.

 

Next time, stop at Totonno's for pizza. Guaranteed to put the smile back on your face.

[Mrpq]

I fixed the thread title for you.

 

It sounds like the park needs to work on their guest service issues. I'm glad you were able to get a refund through Groupon. It seems annoying they sell the 4 hour bracelet and then not include some coasters on the bracelet or at least have the option to pay a small surcharge to add them to the bracelet like Knoebels does with their wooden coasters.

actually the groupon included the thunderbolt. All the other smaller coaster where covered with the bracelet.

 

thanks for fixing that for me

[Mrpq]

That's a bummer. Luna Park is a lot like GAdv to me: Great if you encounter no issues, but as soon as something comes up, nobody knows how to/cares enough to deal with it.

 

Next time, stop at Totonno's for pizza. Guaranteed to put the smile back on your face.

I felt the same way as far as how it compared to GADV.

 

We actually went to go to a new burger spot Walhburger (spelling) but we didn't want to wait on the line after all the frustration. We ended up going to Roll n Roaster in sheapshead bay

[RunawayArrow]

Coney island was cool for the historic aspects but it was like a permanent carnival In a lot of ways.

[pashacar]

It looks a whole lot better now than it did a few years ago. They've done a nice job of Luna Park, even if some of the character of the place was lost in translation.

[Coaster Kang]

The Wonder Wheel is a seperate park I believe so you won't need to encounter Luna Park.

[Mrpq]

it is in its own park but that park was closed. That park still seems to have the "carnival ride" feel. Don't get me wrong Luna Park was nice, it was clean and wel kept just very poorly ran in my opinion.

 

On thing I found odd was while the park was open there were people going around spray painting trash cans. As in giving them a new coat of paint. Seemed weird to me they would to that out in the open with guest walking right by

 

Also, more of a NYC parks department issue, the boardwalk itself is a bit sketchy. My brother and myself must have tripped more times then we can count on loose boards that were popping up at there ends. I almost went down twice and my brother almost three times. It was dark out so that didn't help as far as seeing the trip hazard a head of time

Edited September 18, 2015 by Mrpq