Gene Staples is doing a wonderful job restoring this park! Fantasy Island was a big part of my life and it is so nice to see it come back alive. Keep up the good work Gene!
I remember come to Fantasy Island back late 70's to mid 2000's when it close in 2020 I was sad now i glad it coming back i Hope will stay so i take my Nephews and Great Nephewa for Many many years way 2 go (Niagara Amusement Park and Splash World) bringing iot back
Wow.. Glad to see the park looking not bad..... Just to walk around the place in Fall would be a treat. The trees all mature..... too bad DarienLake cannot get it together.... With a 1000 acres to work with that place could have been the CedarPoint of the East.... DarienLake looks trashy.....
Previous management at Darien had the place looking pretty good. But now that it’s under Six Flags management, it’s being given that special Six Flags treatment.
Wow this brings me so many memories!!! Im taking my son there tomorrow so we can do something fun with just the 2 of us..Im so excited I haven’t been there in probably 20 years at least!!!!
Have a good time! Just so you’re aware, I recently found out that the park has been having trouble getting enough workers (like many parks), so they’re still behind schedule on getting the rest of their ride lineup together. Keeping my fingers crossed for next season….
At some point they shoild build a mini nigara falls to replace the little fountain. Would be a cool enterance. They should also move the shuttle loop to canobie lake park.
Apex Parks suddenly walked away from it, stripping it of nearly all its rides and leaving it to vandals. Gene Staples has had to basically rebuild the park from the ground up. He's got a plan in place, but it's taking longer than expected because he can't find enough help. But I expect you'll see more progress next year.
Makes me emotional watching this. I grew up here. Darien Lake was too pricey and had long lines (my parents opinion) so I had to follow thier beliefs. Fantasy Island had a petting zoo for a period of time even. The last videos I watched were all of urban explorers checking out a heavily vandalized park, And until yesterday I thought it was all over for good. Amusement parks are so interesting.
Considering it closed during COVID and was left to rot before being bought and restored (still ongoing obviously), yeah, that's a bit of an understatement. The former owners liquidated what they could move easily and left the rest to turn into one of those urban exploration things like Six Flags N'Orleans. The Silver Comet was so bad they had to retrack the whole thing and redo some support work.
Tysm for all of this! I’m waiting for new coasters to come out and all Ik is for this year it’s just the serpent.. and the rest of its basically kiddie rides😂
I’m impressed they’ve gotten as far as they have at this point. Right now it’s skewed towards kiddie rides. But pretty soon they’ll have a lot more variety in the park.
Gene Staples is doing a wonderful job restoring this park! Fantasy Island was a big part of my life and it is so nice to see it come back alive. Keep up the good work Gene!
Glad I found your channel and nice episode. I think your the only one out there that has shown the Flying Witch going up! Keep up the good work.
If you check out the trip report link in the video description, I posted photos of the interior construction as well.
@@jayducharme I'll take a look....did not realize more content, thank you!
@@jayducharme Wow....
Just watched this again.....amazing how there is not much out there on the Flying Witch......hmm....Happy New Year!
Supposedly they're going to have it ready for next season. 🤞
MY LOCAL THEME PARK. Always preferred it because it's more affordable than Darien Lake.
I’m excited for the flying witch rides return
Me too!
I remember come to Fantasy Island back late 70's to mid 2000's when it close in 2020 I was sad now i glad it coming back i Hope will stay so i take my Nephews and Great Nephewa for Many many years way 2 go (Niagara Amusement Park and Splash World) bringing iot back
Wow.. Glad to see the park looking not bad..... Just to walk around the place in Fall would be a treat. The trees all mature..... too bad DarienLake cannot get it together.... With a 1000 acres to work with that place could have been the CedarPoint of the East.... DarienLake looks trashy.....
Previous management at Darien had the place looking pretty good. But now that it’s under Six Flags management, it’s being given that special Six Flags treatment.
Please do more of the park walkthroughs! Would love to see parks like Knoebels and Waldameer.
Stay tuned.
Wow this brings me so many memories!!! Im taking my son there tomorrow so we can do something fun with just the 2 of us..Im so excited I haven’t been there in probably 20 years at least!!!!
Have a good time! Just so you’re aware, I recently found out that the park has been having trouble getting enough workers (like many parks), so they’re still behind schedule on getting the rest of their ride lineup together. Keeping my fingers crossed for next season….
You know what would be funny. If we croud funded enough money to build the tallest coaster in the workd and put it here 🤣 some 700 ft monstrocity.
I’m sure the KOA campground would love that…
At some point they shoild build a mini nigara falls to replace the little fountain. Would be a cool enterance. They should also move the shuttle loop to canobie lake park.
They could finish what Marineland never did.
Why did fantasy island close? This looks like such a downgrade and they only kept one of the rides
Apex Parks suddenly walked away from it, stripping it of nearly all its rides and leaving it to vandals. Gene Staples has had to basically rebuild the park from the ground up. He's got a plan in place, but it's taking longer than expected because he can't find enough help. But I expect you'll see more progress next year.
Do know when the back of the will be open
No idea. The park still lists all those rides as “coming soon”.
Do you know when the new rides will be added?
They’re being phased in gradually, some later this season and some next season.
Makes me emotional watching this. I grew up here. Darien Lake was too pricey and had long lines (my parents opinion) so I had to follow thier beliefs. Fantasy Island had a petting zoo for a period of time even. The last videos I watched were all of urban explorers checking out a heavily vandalized park, And until yesterday I thought it was all over for good. Amusement parks are so interesting.
This place fell off hard, I remember it back in 2014
But it’s coming back. Give it a couple of seasons.
Considering it closed during COVID and was left to rot before being bought and restored (still ongoing obviously), yeah, that's a bit of an understatement. The former owners liquidated what they could move easily and left the rest to turn into one of those urban exploration things like Six Flags N'Orleans. The Silver Comet was so bad they had to retrack the whole thing and redo some support work.
Awesome!! The park looks great!! What a wonderful place for families to go and have fun... fun for everyone!! Fantasey Island reborn
Thankyou all the best to Gene staples AWESOME
Tysm for all of this! I’m waiting for new coasters to come out and all Ik is for this year it’s just the serpent.. and the rest of its basically kiddie rides😂
I’m impressed they’ve gotten as far as they have at this point. Right now it’s skewed towards kiddie rides. But pretty soon they’ll have a lot more variety in the park.
are geting miner mike coaster relocate it form a park from in Wisconsin.
@@planecrashes633 They’ll have a nice selection of rides when they’re all back together.
@@jayducharme ok nice I might go to nigra falls this year
Was this formerly known as Fantasy Island?
Yes.