Our family is a frequent visitor of the local theme parks and even have season passes to Canada’s Wonderland. The biggest problem is that Canada’s Wonderland is always overcrowded during week-ends and you have to spend significant portion of the day in lines for different rides and shows. This constraint encourages us to plan our visits early in the morning, close to end of the day or during unsettled weather.
We were exited to learn that there is another amusement park in driving distance for day trip -
Martin's Fantasy Island. It’s located in the middle of
Grand Island, New York just few kilometers from
the Clifton Hill on Niagara Falls through
Rainbow Bridge and
Canada - US border and has more than 50 years of history and traditions. We went there on hot Saturday morning and spend just about 10 minutes on the border waiting for our turn to get to US. In another 10 minutes we reached the park.
Martin's Fantasy Island offers four unique shows through the day,
Water Park,
Thrill Rides,
Kiddie Land and
Miniature Golf. There are a lot of cafés with a good quality food and concession stands throughout the park were you can find beverages, cotton candy, candy apples, popcorn, hot dogs, nachos and ice cream. There are few souvenir shops with good variety of items to choose from. What we liked a lot that there are not too many people in the park. The longest line to the ride was within ten minutes and many of them you can take without any waiting time.
When we visit any theme park we are trying to watch its shows to get idea what that park is about. Shows reveal the soul of the park and build connection between us and that particular place.
First show we watched was
“Golden Nugget Saloon Show”. It is western saloon show inside the
Golden Nugget Saloon in
Western Town and filled with lots of country music singing and foot-stomping dancing. This show has two different alternating shows, is performed four times daily and can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
Second show is
“Wild West Shoot-Out” features some of the roughest, toughest cowboys. We watched as
the Marshall and
Calamity Jane fight off the bad guys as
the Old West comes to life in the streets of
Westerntown! It is interactive show and Teddy was given a gun to “shoot” a bad guy and got complimentary DVD with best
Shoot-Out shows of the last 50 years. It was interesting to know that some of the actors played in the show 50 years ago and compare them then and now. There are four different live shows per day.
Another show called
“Pirates of Fantasy” and more interesting for younger children. It is fearless action adventure on the high seas. There are two shows daily at
the Midway Theater.
Last show is a Puppet show. Four different shows filled with loveable characters performed daily inside
Basgetti's Restaurant. We enjoyed our puppet show, it was very kind and moving performance.
Showtimes for shows are scheduled in a way that you can watch them one by one and just need to reserve a time during the day for it.
After watching shows we had a lunch in
“Boopers” and took few rides.
Antique Cars, Bumper Cars, Tilt-A-Whirl, Carousel, Slide and Rock-n-Roll Teddy liked the most. There are a lot of rides for teenagers and adults in the park.
It was a very hot summer afternoon when we finally reached
Water Park. That place was crowded and we realised where all people hid. We rode thrilling
Water Slides, took relaxing
Lazy River few times and swam in enormous
Wave Pool. Teddy also spent some time in
Dinosaur Pool enjoying water fountains.
After
Water Park we took
Iron Horse Train ride and saw some parts of the park that didn’t see before. We made a stop in
Kiddie Land and Teddy tried
Magic Ring and
Doggy Dog Coaster. We also bought some souvenirs in
“The Western Shop”.
We’ll come back for sure. The park slogan is
“Spend the day … not a fortune!” and with day admission from $15.95 to $27.95 US it is true. In the rest of 2015 park is open every day except Monday until September 7th and on week-ends only from September 12th to 20th. It has something that you will remember for a long time.
And that's not all, we have very exciting news for our Canadian readers, a chance to experience the fun, shows, thrills and rides of
Martin's Fantasy Island for themselves. One lucky Teddy Out Ready reader will win
Martin's Fantasy Island prize pack which includes
five day admission tickets for the 2015 season, five food vouchers and a $50 gas card. For your chance simply fill the Rafflecopter form below and Good Luck!
Please note that the park is located in US and visitors need to have valid travel documents to cross the border and pay required duties.
a Rafflecopter giveaway