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Rye Playland

MestnyiGeroi

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
I've just spent the day at Rye Playland (north of NYC, along the Long Island Sound, almost to Connecticut). This place is a hundred years old, and the seaside architecture still retains all the Art Deco charm of the years in which it was built. The park has an old-school family atmosphere, and the star attraction is the Dragon Coaster, a historic ride from the 20s recognized by ACE, with its unique theming preserved (you enter a long tunnel through the mouth of a dragon); it's a pretty great ride with some steep drops and bunny hills galore (and it gets much faster when it's full and has had a chance to warm up). The park also has a beautiful hundred-year-old carousel, a rare and surprisingly intense steeplechase ride, and a rare and surprisingly intense whip ride. All around this place is a classic old-school American amusement park.

So I'm baffled as to why -- if I'm correct -- there are a number of CF forumers who really hate this place. OK, it was overpriced, and it has a Zamperla volare that's pretty brutal. But other than some particularly bad specific experience, why in the world would anyone hate this place? If all you love is major thrill rides, I could see being disappointed, but if you appreciate classic, historic amusement parks, what's not to love?
 
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I love, love, loved Rye but now I'm kinda meh about the place.
Back before they had pretty much back to back Uh-Oh's with their Scrambler and then the Old Mill... the park changed, and for the worse. A lot of the charm seems to be gone, they added all these rules (have to be under 6 feet tall to ride the mouse? or even... bumper cars?) I feel like the staff got rude too... And the last time I was there, a policeman asked 'why are you taking photos' ((just of the midway, not even of anyone//thing)) Umm.... Is that against your rules? No? Way to make your park seem so, SO unwelcoming... turned me off from wanting to go back. Yet leading up to its somewhat downfall... I had gone to the park back to back to back seasons.. and kept bringing new friends with me each time so they could experience the park. Now, its been +10 years since I've visited and I have no desire to return.
 
CanobieFan said:
I love, love, loved Rye but now I'm kinda meh about the place.
Back before they had pretty much back to back Uh-Oh's with their Scrambler and then the Old Mill... the park changed, and for the worse. A lot of the charm seems to be gone, they added all these rules (have to be under 6 feet tall to ride the mouse? or even... bumper cars?) I feel like the staff got rude too... And the last time I was there, a policeman asked 'why are you taking photos' ((just of the midway, not even of anyone//thing)) Umm.... Is that against your rules? No? Way to make your park seem so, SO unwelcoming... turned me off from wanting to go back. Yet leading up to its somewhat downfall... I had gone to the park back to back to back seasons.. and kept bringing new friends with me each time so they could experience the park. Now, its been +10 years since I've visited and I have no desire to return.
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Hm. Well, I didn't love, love, love the park, but I enjoyed it, especially the historic charm. Fwiw, I engaged with quite a few of the staff today and they were all in the range of nice to very nice.
 
MestnyiGeroi said:
there are a number of CF forumers who really hate this place.
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Count me as one of them. I thought Dragon was ok, but I didn't like the park as a whole at all. It also didn't help that the ride ops said I was too tall for the wild mouse, despite already sitting in the f**king car with the restraints down by that point. I'm dead on 6 feet, hardly freakishly tall, and most of that is in the legs anyway, so it makes no difference once you're sitting.

Regardless of that, I thought it was a dump to be honest.
 
gavin said:
Count me as one of them. I thought Dragon was ok, but I didn't like the park as a whole at all. It also didn't help that the ride ops said I was too tall for the wild mouse, despite already sitting in the f**king car with the restraints down by that point. I'm dead on 6 feet, hardly freakishly tall, and most of that is in the legs anyway, so it makes no difference once you're sitting.

Regardless of that, I thought it was a dump to be honest.
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Huh -- I'm six feet tall and I rode the wild mouse with no problem. Not that you missed much; the best part of the ride is the fact that the cars themselves are shaped like mice.

I guess I could see someone viewing the place as a dump. But what you saw as dumpy, I saw as part family-style carnival, and part historic East Coast seaside amusement park. Either way, Disney it ain't.
 
gavin said:
Count me as one of them. I thought Dragon was ok, but I didn't like the park as a whole at all. It also didn't help that the ride ops said I was too tall for the wild mouse, despite already sitting in the f**king car with the restraints down by that point. I'm dead on 6 feet, hardly freakishly tall, and most of that is in the legs anyway, so it makes no difference once you're sitting.

Regardless of that, I thought it was a dump to be honest.
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Yep. I went once and never find the need to go back again.
 
MestnyiGeroi said:
Well, I feel that I've "done" Playland and don't feel the need to return any time soon as well, but I liked the place. Did you actively dislike it?
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Yeah. It felt dirty, poorly run, mismanaged.. just a meh place. Only worth going back if I was actually THERE and had free bands to ride.. AND I could get on the kiddie and Volare.
 
Snoo said:
Yeah. It felt dirty, poorly run, mismanaged.. just a meh place. Only worth going back if I was actually THERE and had free bands to ride.. AND I could get on the kiddie and Volare.
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I believe it does have new management as of this year. Maybe that's why I didn't notice any egregious mismanagement. And the place was definitely not dirty to my eyes.
 
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