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Park News - (5/1/08) Rye Playland will open for the season on May 10th with special entertainment at 11am and the park opening at noon until 9pm. A special unlimited ride band will be available on opening day for just $15 as Playland celebrates their 80th season.
  On a cautionary note… I’m really hoping for the best for the park this season since they have suffered from an odd death every season for the past four years, starting with the death of a 7-year old who climbed out of her seat on their indoor Mind Scrambler in 2004. This was followed in 2005 when a 7 year old boy went for a ride by himself on the Old Mill and never returned, they later found his body trapped under one of the flume ride’s lifts where it was assumed that he had gotten scared and jumped out of the boat in the darkness. In 2006 a 43 year old man decided he felt like taking a swim in one of the park lakes (where your not supposed to swim) and ended up drowning. Finally in 2007 another death took place on the Mind Scramber which was strangely similar to the 2004 accident, except this one involved an employee in her 20’s who was not seated properly in the Scrambler car when it started to move. There was quite a bit of controversy over the death last year however as it was argued that it may have been a second employee at the ride panel who started the ride prematurely and the victim may have simply just tried to jump into a car to avoid being struck by the moving ride. The Mind Scramber has since been taken out of service permanently, though I’m not sure if it has been removed from the park or not. Now maybe I’ve been watching a bit too much Lost or Supernatural lately but after four years of this, I’m starting to wonder if the park may be… cursed? No... that couldn’t be right, could it? Well there is the well documented Madden Curse and it looks like they’re trying to put an end to that this year, but I’m still waiting to see how this season goes just the same.
  (3/5/08) A reader sent in a few pictures (see sidebar) of Playland Park this week. Interesting to see the bright colors contrasted against the snowy background.
  (2/12/08) Screamscape is happy to report that according to Laff In The Dark the two classic dark rides at Playland Park, Zombie Castle and Flying Witch, have been saved.
  (7/25/07) According to Westchester County Officials, the Mind Scrambler attraction at Playland Park will never reopen following the most recent death of a park employee last month. In addition to this the county has decided that four other park rides will also be closed forever after this season: Bumper Fun (bumper discs), Flying Witch (Dark Ride), Zombie Castle (Dark Ride) and Power Surge (Zamperla) which will be replaced with newer “up-to-date rides”. I’m a bit confused about some of these others… the Zamperla Power Surge is a fairly new attraction design from the last 5-6 years, so I’m not sure why they would remove it. Meanwhile Zombie Castle is a classic Laff In The Dark Certified Classic Dark Ride that certainly should not be removed as the nation’s last official Laff In The Dark ride still operating. The Flying Witch is also a classic and unique dark ride that should also be preserved in a classic park like this. Over the last year so many classic dark rides have been lost such as the Haunted Hotel at Myrtle Beach Pavilion, Phantasmagoria at Bell’s Amusement Park, FrightZone at Erieview, as well as the fate of the dark rides at Williams Grove and Joyland Park, and the unknown future for rides like Coney Island’s infamous Dante’s Inferno… something should be done to save these two rides for future generations to enjoy at Playland Park. Click here to read the Save The Rails campaign and see how you can help!
  (6/30/07) This summer has gotten off to a real rocky start it seems as another accident on an amusement ride has been reported. According to the article, a female employee in her 20’s was killed while on the Mind Scrambler at Rye Playland around 9:30pm Friday night. This is a standard Scrambler style ride enclosed in a building. Emergency workers responded but said there wasn’t much anyone could do and pronounced her dead on the scene. No details as to how she died have been released yet, but the ride was the scene of another death back in 2004 when a 7-year-old girl climbed up on her knees out of the restraint and was thrown. Since then seatbelts were added as well as additional lighting, so barring a mechanical failure we can only assume right now that the woman may have done something she shouldn’t have. For whatever reason, this is actually the 4th death in the last 4 years at Rye Playland. Following the 2004 accident there was the highly published death of a 7 year old boy riding alone on the Old Mill who climbed out of his boat, and last year a 43 year old man went for a swim in one of the park’s lakes and drowned.

2008 - Yo-Yo and Himalaya - Planned - (11/20/07) Playland officials are working on a plan to purchase two new rides for the park this year, a Yo-Yo swing ride and a Himalaya Music Express. Looks like they are going old school as the two rides are intended to replace the Mind Scrambler and the Power Surge. It seems they are also talking about buying out the privately owned Go-Karts.
  (7/25/07) New attractions are being looked at to replace several older park attractions that were said to be on their way out after the 2007 season.