COVID-19 has changed everything a lot, but it has affected businesses the most. Adventureland theme park is no exception to that. Adventureland is an amusement park in Farmingdale, New York that has been providing entertainment and fun times to the people of Long Island for 58 years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic they were not able to reopen in the most recent season and experienced significant loss. The Charles Street Times interviewed one of the Adventureland managers, Caitlin DiSclafani, and was able to learn more about the effects of COVID-19 on business.

Adventureland hasn’t had a customer in the park since October 2019.  This means it has been one full year since they have been opened up for business. There is no way for them to pinpoint the exact amount of revenue Adventureland would have made, but it is “certainly into the 7-figures.” It isn’t just money that Adventureland lost; they also lost faithful employees. They didn’t hire any of their 650 part-time employees for the 2020 seasons which left many people without a job for the summer. Of their full time employees, 20% percent were laid off and 100% were given some sort of pay cut. Until now, Adventureland had never had to lay off any staff members since they opened up in 1962. 

The amusement park industry in NY has been struggling since everything shut down due to COVID-19. Caitlin talked about how NY did great with the reopening plan, but seemed to abandon the amusement park industry.  “Our industry just feels left behind—New York State has not given us any information about when we can open, and has not provided any relief for our industry.” The Amusement park industry has been closed in NY since late March. New York has said they would work on opening NY amusement parks at the same time as states like New Jersey and Connecticut,  but since July those states have already had Amusement parks re-open. In 47 states, Amusement parks are open and no outbreak has taken place in relation to them. In NY there have been beaches, minigolf, zoos, escape rooms, haunted houses, malls, go-karts, and many other attractions opened up. Yet there is still no word on when Amusement parks will open up in New York. 

During these hard times, Adventureland has received support from its community and dedicated fans. People signed a petition to get the Governor and other NY officials to provide assistance for Adventureland. Many of these loyal fans also contacted local and state officials about Adventureland. Patrons donated money to Adventureland and were put on the wall of support, a wall that will include plaques for those who supported Adventureland during COVID-19 pandemic. Adventureland was also able to find other ways to make profit by hosting drive-in concerts and movie theaters in the parking lot, but it still didn’t add up to even close to as much money as they would have made. If you are interested in showing support for Adventureland, you can sign the petition at here or donate for the wall of support at here.

Adventureland is a valued part of Long Island, it has been providing entertainment for 58-years and will hopefully do it for many more. Caitlin said, “We’ve been here for 58 years and hosted generations of families at our park-please know that we are doing everything we can to make sure we can be here for another 58-years to bring Long Island safe family fun and the best of our industry every summer.”