ROLLERCOASTERS: 24/09/22 Luna Park & Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park visit

September of this year I took a trip to NYC to visit friends, enjoy the cultures, and ride coasters just a subway ride from the city's center. I heard about Vekoma's 2019 suspended family thrill ride installation Phoenix and thought from the videos that it was something I just had to feel for myself. It inspired me enough to make the trip and spend a late afternoon to evening on the boardwalk.

One thing I love about NASCAR's Chicago Street Race is the view of the lake just a 180-degree turn from the view of the city. The contrast feels like such a magical transportation and a mesmerizing setting to bask in unique thrills where I can casually access in the city I reside. I felt a rather mellow anticipation on the rail ride to the location that quickened my pace as I drew closer. The first ride I saw was Phoenix rising over the concrete and a smile leapt from my face through my feet.

A ride will cost you $10 and earn you two consecutive laps of decent forces completely clean of vibrations. It feels like a gravity shower. If I lived in NYC I would visit this at least once a week for at least one go. There are some exciting leg-chopper moments and lots of interactions with the ride's own track and its setting. I rode in quite a few places and really enjoyed the back row. I felt that the back was pulled through the second-to-last banked curve with a sensational force. The ride doesn't really have any theming, the station is pretty much bare wood or on the gravel with no shade from the sun, and ride staff only has tables for stashing loose items on the side. All-in-all, and with no wait, I walked directly on to four rides of this lovely beast and it was worth every penny! 

After my first ride on Phoenix, I felt like I was on cloud nine. I headed over to Cyclone for my first ever ride. I ranked five total rides across my visit and managed to sit in every car. On my fourth ride, I rode in the middle row and absolutely loved it. It can really be quite an athletic ride! Prior to turns I would shift in my seat during the brief airtime to brace myself for the serious lateral forces of the turns. I felt the airtime was much more exciting in that middle row and would time a slight standing motion in my seat and enjoy even more of that sweet weightlessness. Cyclone has such a pace that with the right timing it feels like bunny-hopping. I think the initial drop is more intense from the back car but feel that the airtime is more even across the hills in the middle row.

Cyclone has some lighted signage which looks nice in the waning sun of the approaching evening. The track itself isn't lighted, so the details vanish when the natural light does. Still, it looks quite imposing in front of the darkening, cloudy sky. 

My head was buzzing quite a bit from the vibrations of Cyclone after my first ride, so I decided it was lunch time. I sat with a chili cheese dog and a Pepsi while I took in the view from the beach across the ocean. From then, I bagged a four-hour wristband for Luna Park so I could just spam rides until I got dizzy or worse. From the boardwalk, I could see the towering vertical lift and drop of Zamperla's Thunderbolt. It was my next target.

Thunderbolt is not a comfortable ride but it is awesome. Vertical drop, vertical loop, zero-g roll, Stengel dive, off-kilter dive roll, two bunny hills, a corkscrew, and another bunny hill before the breakrun? That's four different inversions with bursting airtime pops on top! The layout is just astonishing on paper and would be all the more incredible if the ride was smooth. Still, I think Luna Park is lucky to have this ride. If the track had better profiling and it had a more comfortable harness the ride would be in a league practically of its own especially for its location and accessibility.

And one of the even more awesome things about it is its lighting that even somewhat chases the car on the track. It is so hypnotising to see in motion.

The dive roll at the end has a particularly rough exit that will fling your arms if you don't grip the handlebar on the thigh harness. The thigh harness really pinched my thighs. I don't have a measure for my thigh circumference but maybe I'll get back to you. lol

I took three rides on this thing and even managed two as consecutive laps. During the late afternoon the crowd was mostly young kids and their parents, few of whom wanted to ride. I got the rumbles from each ride which lasted quite a while but weren't enough to induce a headache or sickness for me. I wore contacts and might have also had a different experience with eyeglasses or without correction. I took another lap on Phoenix after this and the clean forces really seemed to wash away the rumbles. I used Phoenix as a remedy for that one other time before finally leaving the park at night. However, even the knowledge that Phoenix would physically sift the rumbles did not motivate me to a fourth ride. I think I should have rode some more, though. I had almost two hours left on my pass.

I rode only one other coaster less worthy of mention than this, Soarin' Eagle, but I did ride Soarin' Eagle four times. It's a backwards-loading flying coaster with a spiral lift and two inline twists. It is really rough, the flying harness is uncomfortable and will most likely catch your hair if it isn't neatly tied, and the arm of the circle lift rotates continuously at constant speed, so it crashes into the bar to lift your car with an uncomfortable force and alarming noise. Some ride lifts necessitate ear plugs, this is definitely one of those. I wish ride and park designers were more aware and considerate of the sound levels guests experience. This ride has abrupt dives and virtually no rhythm through its sections or comfortable pace through its inline twists. This exact model is the prototype for its design which reportedly experienced many operational problems that lead to its closure at its initial installation. Even if it was technically addressed, sometimes I wonder if ride quality is the symptom of those seemingly mysterious operational problems.

Luna Park was awesome. Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park charges $10 per Phoenix admission and has no wristband option like Luna Park, but the combination of ride tickets for Phoenix and $75 pass for Luna Park sufficed nicely for me. I managed 12 rides on three attractions. My five rides on Cyclone would have totaled $50 itself. I went upside-down 20 times in New York City and took the subway back to my hotel. Three vertical loops, three zero-G rolls, three dive loops, three corkscrews, eight inline twists, and one 45-minute train ride to my comfortable bed. I'm looking forward to next year and I hope to bring my girlfriend.