New Luna Park for Coney Island, NY

[GoGoBoy]

I just found out today that a new amusement park is about to open at Coney Island in New York. I visited Coney Island a couple of years ago when Astroland (the former amusement park) was about to be closed down, it was a real mess and looked to be in quite a state. I was very excited to find out today that the City of New York purchased a large parcel of land and have leased it out to an amusement park operator. The new park will be called Luna Park and will be based on the original Luna Park which operated there back in the early 1900's. Even more interesting is the park is being built and managed by Zamperla. I have had a look at a few of the concept designs and I am very impressed with the fact that Zamperla is theming the park around the old style of Luna Park - incorporating many of the old designs and concepts into the new rides. Zamperla will be building a number of brand new rides (prototypes) for this park and will continue to use it as a sort of testing ground for their new rides - as well as having permanent rides. People in the New York community are very excited that this should help to reinvigorate Coney Island and bring it back to the good old days. I am especially impressed that they are embarking on this project given the state of the economy. The first stage of the park will open in just a few weeks and will feature 19 Zamperla rides including a roller coaster and flume ride. The second stage of the park is due to open next year and will be called the 'Scream Zone' with a bigger rollercoaster and other attractions. I would have loved to have seen Luna Park Sydney do something similar ie. bringing in cutting edge new rides (albeit ones with a small, low impact footprint) such as these Zamperla models and theming them around old Luna Park attractions. A link to a news article regarding the new Luna Park at Coney Island which features a video is here - http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/0..._enjoyment.html A link to a good About.com article showing some of the ride and theme concepts and how they match up with the original park designs is here - http://themeparks.about.com/b/2010/04/22/m...w-luna-park.htm