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
Park News - (8/22/22) Good news for Niagara Amusement Park and Splash World, as the local news has confirmed that The Silver Comet wooden coaster has finally reopened to the public. Check out a new POV video of the coaster below.
 2023 - Dark Ride, New Coaster and other Rides - (11/26/2022) Niagara Amusement Park has been posting some good updates to their FB page as of late, revealing new updates coming to the park for the 2023 season. The list of rides coming includes the return of the Giant Wheel, a Pinfari Dark Ride, a Herschell Kiddie Horse & Buddy ride, The Serpent (a S.D.C. Galaxi style coaster that formerly ran at Kokomo’s in Michigan), Antique Cars and the Sea Dragon.
Other improvements coming in 2023 include the new “Western Store”, Sluice (pan for gem stones), an “I Got it” midway game that looks kind of like Fascination, a new retail store selling official park branded merchandise, and some new benefits for season passholders.
The park also says that they have a few more surprises up their sleeves that will come in future announcements. Lets hope that one of those will have something to do with the former Kennywood Laser Loop coaster that is in storage at the park.
(9/23/22) According to a post on Instagram, Niagara Amusement Park is working on adding a “Pinfari Dark Ride” and a “SDC Galaxi” coaster to the park for the 2023 season. According to the Dark Ride Database the Flying Witch dark ride at Playland is a perfect example of a Pinfari dark ride in North America. Ironically, the Flying Witch closed in 2021, but was said to actually have been sold to Niagara Amusement Park, so we’ll have to see what form it takes when it reopens.
???? - Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop Coaster - (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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