Cyclone's 85th Birthday Bash!

Luna Park is holding a blow-out birthday party this Saturday, June 30th in honor of the Cyclone Roller Coaster's 85th birthday. Starting at noon, a ride on the Cyclone will cost 25₵ for the first 85 minutes in honor of the coaster's original cost when it opened in 1927.


Also featured:
- A freestyle concert featuring Coro, Lisette Melendez, Cynthia, Noel and other performers 
- Appearance by Sarah Lee and Lil Cee of 92.3 Now
- Famed sideshow artist and magician Todd Robbins will perform some of his greatest tricks
- Meet and Greet with the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team
- Performances from our favorite little girls at Diva Dance Studio
- Zumba Fitness® by Miss Gina Argano

...and tons of FREE GIVEAWAYS 

Gina Argano choreographed a flash mob dance that will step off at 4pm on Saturday. Learn the moves from the video below, and we'll see you there!

Performances are FREE and open to the public. Stop on by!

Vote on the LunaPic Finalists!

The finalists for the LunaPic contest have been chosen after a lot of deliberation and a lot of email sifting. You can vote for who YOU think should be the Grand Prize Winners on our Facebook page.

The LunaPic Finalists for the LunaPic Photo and Video contest are: 

Best Close-Up:

  

Madeline Diaz

Michael Viola

Bianca Soto

Best Overview:

Maria Torres

Lisa Mattera

Bruce Robert Kalish

Best Nighttime:

George Morrison

Robert DeRosa

Ryan Rosa

Most Artistic:

Karen Hillgrove

Eli Shlomovich

Jennifer Nazario

Best Video:

 

Judith Brown

Jack Dee

Exciting Events Coming to Coney Island!

A view from inside the Mermaid Parade.

Coney Island has some WILD events coming up!!!

This Saturday, June 23rd is the 30th Annual Mermaid Parade! The nation's largest art parade features mermaids and mermen, sea creatures, fancy floats and antique cars. If you can't handle wild and wacky fun, don't even get off the subway!

This year, King Neptune is Jackie Martling and Queen Mermaid is Annabella Sciora. Props to Coney Island, USA for putting up the Mermaid Parade for the past 30 years!

That guy in the third row knows how to scream!

Next Saturday, June 30th is the Cyclone Rollercoaster's 85th Birthday Party. It'll be the craziest party for a roller-coaster ever! We have local musicians, celebs and personalities. We're crowning the winners of the 2012 Cyclone Rollercoaster Charity Coasterthon. And we have surprises. Lots and lots of surprises*. Since it's not a real surprise if we tell you beforehand, you'll just have to trust us on that one.

*Okay - we'll reveal one of them:

Rides on the Cyclone Rollercoasters are going back to their original price for the first 85 minutes: a whopping 25 cents. You read right: Rides on the Cyclone will be 25 cents! Dig some quarters out of the sofa and come on down!

Cyclone Charity Coasterthon a Huge Success

This past weekend, nine charities competed to win $24,000 from Luna Park!

Each charity picked their two biggest coaster fanatics to ride The Cyclone Rollercoaster until one person was left standing (or strapped in). Because of the incredible dedication and determination of the contestants, eight charities made it to the end.

After 134 cycles on the Cyclone, the following teams remained:
You Gotta Believe (Arelis Keane and Rosario Keane)
Alzheimer's Association (Amy Peterson and David Chung)
American Cancer Society Relay for Life (Katherine Smith and Vanessa Konstantino)
Give Kids the World (Larry Meisel and Fran Holz)
Sean Casey Animal Rescue (Lorena Carvajal)
New York Aquarium (Jamal Augustus)
New York Cares (Melvin de Jesus)
Youth Services Opportunities Project (Matt Brooks).

The only team that didn't make it was Team Special Olympics NYC (but they put in a valiant effort). The eight winning charities split the $24,000 prize money. Each charity set up an information booth in front of the Cyclone. The organizations were joined by Fuze, 92.3 NOW and Luna Park's own LUNAtic cheerleaders.

Check out our YouTube channel (youtube.com/LunaParkNYC) for videos of the event, interviews with contestants and a video mash-up!

Former Linebacker Dhani Jones Visits Luna Park

Dhani Jones and friends start their ride on The Cyclone Rollercoaster.

Dhani Jones visited Luna Park last weekend to ride the rides and film some footage for VH1's Big Morning Buzz. Jones took the time to talk to staff and guests before plunging down the world-famous Cyclone Rollercoaster and soaring upside down on the Air Race.

After traveling the park with his film crew and other hangers-on, we were able to convince him to ride the brand-new Boardwalk Flight at the Scream Zone. We won't tell if he screamed the whole time...

A former NFL linebacker, Dhani Jones played football for the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Bengals. Jones is now somewhat of a TV personality - and a really nice guy. We hope to see him again soon!

Dhani Jones and a lucky staff member ride the Air Race.

Jones walks it off in his harness after riding Boardwalk Flight.

Anthony Bourdain Rides the Cyclone!

Anthony Bourdain prepares for ride #2!

Yesterday, a famous chef, writer and New York native zoomed around the track of The Cyclone Rollercoaster. Anthony Bourdain rode the iconic Cyclone roller-coaster as part of his Travel Channel TV show "No Reservations." Guests patiently lined up in the ride queue to watch him zip along the track.

The Cyclone is a different ride depending on where you sit - it'd be great to see what Mr. Bourdain would say about a ride in the middle...or even in the bumpy back!

Bourdain laughs with guests and park staff.

Luna Park thanks Anthony Bourdain for visiting us and trying out the Cyclone and for talking to our staff and guests. We're sure he made many Cyclone enthusiasts very happy yesterday!

There he goes!

*No gourmands were harmed during the writing of this blog post.