Coney Island

I’d never made it to Coney Island in the three and a half years I lived on the east coast, so when I went back to NYC for a few days in September, I decided to make it happen.

The season was over, so the entire part was completely deserted—except for the few people working on the rides. The boardwalk, on the other hand, was packed.

While I’m sure the rides would have been fun to see, I’m actually glad I went when everything was deserted—it makes it a little more real, if that makes sense. A bit creepy, more than a bit run-down, it felt like I’d stepped back in time.

Well worth the train from Manhattan.

I finally went!! It was lots of fun… a bit cold today but that just means there weren’t any crowds!

Don’t pay the 25 cents to use the bathrooms inside the trailer at Astroland. I can’t tell you more without having flashbacks.
If anyone knows of clean bathrooms in Coney Island, please post.

I headed down to Coney Island in August of 2007 as soon as I heard that they were planning to close it down.
It was a cloudy day, which it made it all that much more gloomy. I loved the Cyclone, but didn’t have time to ride the Wonder Wheel. I recommend it to anyone that wants to check it out before who-knows-what happens to it.
I do have to get back and ride the dark rides and Wonder Wheel this time.
Oh, and I went to Nathan’s, which was one of those must-do things. Love those fries!

Isn’t like I remember when I was a kid, it’s a dump now.

I need to go to this soon, before Disney destroys what it was and makes it into whatever travesty of commercialism they plan to do since they just bought it.

Went to the siren festival, saw the New York Dolls, rode the cyclone, rode the swinging car on the wonder wheel, ate a nathan’s hotdog, sat on the boardwalk.

I would say it’s exactly what I expected, I would have been sorely disappointed if it was disneyfied and fixed up.

Mind you, the old feeling made me worry more about my safety on the rides, :S

one thing that disappointed me – growing up as a kid, they used to have this ice cream company that had a picture of a cone with like 20 balls of ice cream on it called coney island, I was hoping to get one of those, but alas!

Ahh good times, too bad they’re tearing some of it apart to build that resort.

Coney Island in the snow! Totally abandoned and glowing white, it was amazing.

If you’re visiting NY and don’t have a lot of time—skip Coney Island. For one thing, it’s pretty far from Manhattan (if you’re a tourist, that’s probably where you’re staying). And although it’s great to hang out if you have an afternoon to kill down at Coney Island, it’s definitely not Disney-fied. The rides are all very run down.

That being said, I think it’s a great place, but I can guarentee it’s not what you think it is.