Down the midway there is an absolutely beautiful little scene where the antique cars pass a stream and water wheel.  It was the spot that I will always think of when LIA is mentioned.  The park has an “L” shape so at the end of the well-wooded midway one must turn right to continue.  Here we saw a Huss pirate ship.  We sat in the back but got only minimal airtime.  Now it was onto Adventure Falls, the parks new flume ride.  Honestly, this is one of the more bizarre flumes I have been on.  It has some very good points and some bad ones.  The boats can only really comfortably seat three as they are split so that two people sit in the front and one in the back.  They are also well-decorated with “supplies” on the boat.  The station utilizes a grab bar above the entranceway which assisted riders getting in or stepping out of the boat.  After the station conveyer let us go the boat hunt and pecked its way through the course worse than any other log flume I have been on.  The problem seemed to be that the trough was too small, so the boat only made it through turns after being pushed by the water build up behind it.  There were a few times where the boat slowed to a near-stop and I was afraid we would have to get out and push.  The first lift was short, utilized planks (Sparky pointed out to me that these were not unlike Intamin’s shoot-the-chutes lifts) to raise the log to the top of the drop and I did not notice any anti-rollbacks.  After a wet splashdown we made a u-turn and headed up the second, larger hill.  Here there was no water at the top of the lift, only tires, and the water rejoined the equation as the hill sloped downward.  The splash at the bottom was wet- I mean Barr log flume wet.  It did not bother me, but I could tell it splashed more than the park expected because large sheets of plywood had been set up at the bottom of the hill to help contain the “extra” splash.  [Author's note: I later learned this was FAB's first flume ride].

          The antique cars were next and they were a bit disappointing.  Instead of allowing riders to power or steer the cars they simply operated on a rail like a dark ride so the element of control was lost.  The little kids in front of us did not seem to mind, though.  We worked our way back over to the Ladybug  Express coaster which looks to be a standard Zierer coaster, like a smaller version of the ones found at SFNE, SFWOA & SFGAdv.  It was quite fun and the ride’s speed definitely surprised my friends.  The coaster’s best feature was a nice tunnel that was placed in front of the coaster’s last turn. 

          We walked down the left side of the park and hit the bumper cars, which provide ok bumping action, and got on the Zierer swings.  We got a nice, long cycle and the park has some nice foot choppers as a result of the trees being so close.  Next door was the 55-foot Zamperla balloon wheel which had a REALLY long cycle and offered nice views of the park and surrounding areas.  The front of the park houses a great kid’s area.  Anyone with little ones could spend hours here, the park knows how to cater to families with a kiddie area that seemingly has more attractions than most major themers. 

          We spent the rest of the day getting more rides in on the Looping Star, the Music Express (nice, long cycle), the Surf Dance (a great ride) and the Hurricane.  Being a glutton for punishment I got several rides in the Hurricane’s last seat and near the end was starting to gray out (just a little bit) from the bizarre combination of positive lateral g’s and negative vertical g’s.  It was a very nice way to end the day at this pretty little park.  I had come to the park with pretty high expectations and I must say they were met and surpassed.  Because my friends do not obsess over coasters like I do we only spent a little over three hours at the park (4-7), but I could have easily stayed until nine or ten.  The rides look to have very nice lighting packages & I would like to see the park when it was pitch black out.  Thank you Long Island Adventureland for a wonderful day.  I hope the park has continued success.  It looks like they are a bit landlocked, but it was hard to tell.  If they do have room to expand I would love to see a small, used Schwarzkopf looper (like Laser @ Dorney or Scorpion @ BGT), I think it would be a perfect fit.  Or, if they want to continue with flat rides, I think a used Mondial Top Scan, Splashover, Shake or a Huss Top Spin or Zamperla Wind Shear would all be perfect fits for this park for a slight jolt in the thrill factor.  I did not mention one ride for having fast ops because almost all of the staff was fast, efficient and friendly- seemingly a rarity at today’s parks.  Congratulations to LIA’s owners & staff for running the park so well.  I can’t wait to return!

Back to Trip Reports Home

Adam Sandy, Copyright 2001.