Adventureland will reopen this spring after a year, co-owner says
The co-owner of Adventureland Steve Gentile says the park will reopen this spring. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
When Adventureland reopens this spring, it will become an admission-fee park in an effort to control capacity and maintain an ability to notify customers should contact tracing be needed, a park manager says.
While previously anybody could enter the Adventureland grounds for free and only riders paid, the park will now be a gated park and anyone who enters will be required to have a timed entry ticket, says manager Jeanine Gentile. Tickets can be purchased in advance online to guarantee a spot; walk-ins will be allowed only if the park hasn't reached capacity for that day, she says.
The cost will be $39.99 for ages 2 to 24, $24.99 for people 25 and older, and free for 1 year olds or younger, she says. Previously, a pay-one-price ride bracelet cost $33.99 during the 2019 season and was required only for riders (the park was closed for the 2020 season due to the pandemic).
The park is limited to 33% capacity by the state, so Gentile says it's not financially feasible to have a chunk of those allowed into the park be non-paying visitors. "In order to implement all of the restrictions successfully, this was the best way to have control over the situation," she says. It hasn't yet been decided whether the entry-fee change will be permanent, she says.
Adventureland plans to reopen its outdoor rides on April 9, in accordance with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s announcement that indoor family entertainment centers and outdoor amusement parks may reopen with restrictions. It will open its indoor arcade on March 27; that opening will also require advance purchase of a $10 arcade game card online to guarantee a spot, Gentile says.
"It’s the light at the end of the tunnel that we’ve been waiting for," says Steve Gentile, co-owner and president of Adventureland in Farmingdale. "I can’t tell you enough how excited we are."
The park will debut its newest ride, the Sports Tower, which was supposed to be unveiled in 2020. "Nobody has ridden on it yet," Steve says. Cars shaped like basketballs, tennis balls, soccer balls and golf balls sail 60 feet into the air. "It gives you a beautiful aerial view of the park," he says.
Gentile says he expects all rides will be operating, including the Mystery Mansion haunted house, although they may have ridership limits and modifications of some parts of the attractions.
Other family entertainment venues are also gearing up to reopen. Urban Air Lake Grove plans to have a grand opening again on March 26, the first day opening is allowed by New York state, so families can return to the indoor family adventure park’s sky coaster, high ropes course, climbing walls, bumper cars, virtual reality games and more.
"It gives people a good opportunity to have an option to go out in a safe way, expend some energy and have some fun," says co-owner David Wolmetz. The venue had been closed since March 16, 2020, except for a brief five-week period in the fall.
Adventureland closed at the beginning of the pandemic and pivoted to offering outdoor concerts and drive-in movies in its parking lot. "The public supported us and enabled us to do what we did. I think we did it pretty darn good," Steve says.
Adventureland is committed to producing the outdoor concerts it has scheduled for the spring, but after that, drive-in events will possibly be put on hold, he says. "There may be something in the future, maybe not this year."
This year, it will be back to business not-quite-as-usual, as the park incorporates requirements regarding capacity, social distancing, mask-wearing and other safety measures. "We need Long Island to get back to normalcy," he says. "The kids need normalcy as well. Hopefully, this will be an outlet as a meeting place for their friends."
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
