Long Island’s Adventureland amusement park has announced a $10 million, five-year expansion plan, with 10 percent of the property to be updated and three new rides coming.
For the 2024 season, Adventureland is introducing a new ride called Moon Chaser that will spin, twist and invert riders in the air. Another new ride, the Jr. Pirate Ship, will also open this season.
The New York-based destination, a family business opened in 1962, was closed for more than a year during the pandemic.
“You just kept those feelings to yourself and said we are going to get through it, save for a rainy day. It was a rainy day. It was a rainy year,” Paul Gentile, Adventureland’s co-owner, told CBS News.
Three new rides coming to Adventureland
“It’s like you have your hand out from a 6-foot hole and Long Islanders were pulling us out of the hole and we were helping them by pulling them as well,” he added.
“We all helped each other out. It was like mental therapy and who ever thought we would be here today?”
Next year, Adventureland will add a family-friendly ride that simulates ocean waves called Wave Twister. It is billed as the first of its kind in the US and due to open for the 2025 season.
“We are trying to bring innovation. There are a lot of rides you can buy out in the market, but they look the same, behave the same, so we are trying to come up with new movements, new combination of movements,” Roman Rothe, owner of R.E.S. Rides, told CBS News.
Adventureland reopens for the 2024 season on 23 March.
