NIAGARA AMUSEMENT PARK and SPLASH WORLD
Grand Island, NY
Formerly known as Fantasy Island and Martin’s Fantasy Island
Owned By: IB Parks and Entertainment
 2025 - Midway Mayhem & Flying Witch - (7/1/2025) The local news reports that Niagara Amusement Park is still working on opening three new rides this season. The Flying Witch dark ride originally planned for 2025 is now open, and Midway Mayhem (Huss Frisbee, formerly Revolution from Six Flags Great America) is listed as coming soon. The new article mentions two more attractions in the works that are not listed on the website yet… an unknown new family ride called Kraken and a Caterpillar kiddie ride.
Also, for the first time since the park opened, Niagara Amusement Park will be putting on a 4th of July firework show at 9pm. This is great for the local residents as the area has been without a fireworks show ever since Fantasy Island closed down.
Speaking of benefits for locals, they also point that the the park will host “Grand Island Night” on July 6th, where all local residents will be admitted for free into the park from 5pm to 8pm.
(2/24/2025) Well, I got something wrong… and I’m kind of glad I did. The new Flying Witch ride advertised for Niagara Amusement Park is NOT a flat ride after all. I has mistakenly assumed this was another saved Polyp flat ride, like the one they installed at Indiana Beach, but instead the Flying Witch is actually a DARK RIDE.
The Pinfari made dark ride was previously known at the Haunted Mansion when it opened at Rye’s Playland Park back in 1971. As the years went back, the ride’s name was changed to the Flying Witch at Playland until the park chose to close it for good in 2022. It was rumored at the time that it might have been purchased by Niagara Amusement Park, and it looks like this turned out to be true. Now we just have to wait for the park to tell us more about when the Flying Witch will ride again. In the meantime, enjoy a teaser they actually posted back in November that I totally missed at the time and below that, enjoy a video of the Flying Witch as it ran at Playland just before it closed for good.
(2/23/2025) Two new flat rides left over from those that were started to be set up for 2024 but failed to open as now listed as coming soon for the 2025 season: the Flying Witch (Huss Polyp) and Midway Mayhem (the Huss Frisbee (Revolution) removed from Six Flags Great America).
???? - Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop Coaster - LIKELY CANCELED - (6/1/2024) According to social media reports, at least half, if not all by now, of the roller coaster track for the former Cascabel 2.0 coaster from Mexico (formerly Kennywood’s Laser Loop) have been loaded onto trucks and shipped over into a storage lot at Indiana Beach instead. Indiana Beach has been home to the trains for this coaster ever since they were broughht into the country from Mexico anyway, so this is sort of putting the collection back together again, but all in Indiana. The park has also posted some comments on social media in responce to guest comments about the fate of this coaster, as it was previously mentioned as something that would be installed at the Niagara park, but now this no longer looks to be the case.
(2/10/22) The new Niagara Amusement Park and Splash World has officially confirmed that they will be adding a classic Schwarzkopf Flywheel launched shuttle coaster to the park. The pieces have started to arrive on site and it is “expected to begin construction as soon as the weather cooperates!!”
For those wondering, this is indeed the former “Cascabel 2.0” coaster that they bought from Mexico’s La Feria Chapultepec Magico park at the same time as the Triple Loop coaster going up at Indiana Beach right now. Perhaps even more importantly though, this coaster started off as the popular Laser Loop from Kennywood where it operated from 1980 to 1990 before being sold and shipped to Mexico.
I anticipate that a lot of old Laser Loop fans may come out of the woodwork and come to the new Niagara Amusement Park to give their old favorite a ride once again, and given the time that has past, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of multi-generational visitors coming to ride this together once again, with grandparents and parents bringing along their children and grandchildren to ride the coaster.
It is also worth mentioning that until now there was only a single Flywheel launched Schwarzkopf shuttle coaster left running in North America, which was Montezooma’s Revenge at Knott’s Berry Farm. Ironically, Montezuma’s Revenge just closed until sometime in 2023 last week to undergo a massive refurbishment project, so when the former Laser Loop returns it will be the only one running on the continent for the first year. There are currently only two other such coasters still running in the world: Psyke Underground at Walibi Belgium, though technically it was upgraded to a LIM launch system is no longer Flywheel launched, and then the Shuttle Loop at Nagashima Spa Land in Japan.
Good timing with the announcement, as a local reader spotted a few truck loads of coaster pieces arriving on site yesterday, parking at the Grand Island Plaza across the street and sent them in. (Photo credit to Logan Benjamin)
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