X

Old Coney Island lives…in Costa Rica

Still swinging, down in Costa Rica. via Flickr user Maryanne Ventrice

The death of the Astrotower a couple of weekends ago was sad for everyone who remembers the days of Astroland, and got them feeling a little nostalgic. Amusing the Zillion’s Tricia Vita was of course not immune to it, and like someone looking up some old exes, she went looking to see where the old Coney rides went. They’re here and there, and in real cool news, a couple are as far in Australia and Costa Rica.

Vita spoke to Mark Blumenthal, who was Astroland’s former operations manager and has been in charge of selling the rides to other parks. He told her that some of the rides have stuck close to home, with the Enterprise making a home in Seaside Heights in New Jersey, while the Teacups and Circuit 2000 went to Adventurer’s Park which is right here in Brooklyn.

But if you want to go far to get a taste of home, you can ride Astroland’s old Kiddie Coaster down under in Australia, and swing back and forth on the Pirate Ship and spin on the Breakdancer in beautiful Costa Rica. Sure it’s a long way out there, but really, how much longer does it take to get to Costa Rica than it does on the subway when the trains have those inexplicable summer delays? Hey, you should write a song about that!

David Colon :