Attendance drop at Adventureland, other outdoor venues blamed on weather, economic worries

Adventureland has been drawing thousands of families to its rides and sweet treats annually since the 1960s, but the Farmingdale amusement park has seen a significant drop in visitors this year because of extreme weather.

At Adventureland, foot traffic is down nearly 25% compared with the same period last year.

Heavy rain in the spring and a heat wave in June were the main culprits, said park manager Caitlin DiSclafani, adding foot traffic is down nearly 25% since the park opened in March compared with the same period last year. 

I feel like a dry weekend was rare this past spring.

— Caitlin DiSclafani, park manager, Adventureland

“I feel like a dry weekend was rare this past spring,” she said.

Heavy rain and cooler-than-normal weather in the spring and record-breaking high temperatures in June also were blamed for a drop in attendance at amusement parks nationwide this year, park officials and experts said. Additionally, economic worries — such as concerns about jobs and uncertainty over the impact of tariffs — also are causing consumers to cut back on spending on amusement parks, economic experts said.

Nationwide, consumer spending on amusement parks in April and May was $174 billion,  a 4% decline compared to last year.

Nationwide, consumer spending on am usement parks, campgrounds and related recreational services in April and May totaled $174 billion, a 4% decline from the same two months last year, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

To combat attendance and revenue loss, some amusement parks and outdoor venues are offering more discounts, setting up more misting stations to cool off patrons or using other means to draw visitors.

For instance, on July 1, Adventureland launched Sunset Savings, which offers discounted admission Tuesdays and Thursdays after 5 p.m. to boost visits during cooler hours of the day, DiSclafani said.

During those evenings until Aug. 21, admission at the park is $27 per person plus tax, a discount of 45% for guests 2 to 24 years old and 32% off for those 25 and older.

The cooler times of day tend to be more enjoyable for smaller children and grandparents, DiSclafani said.

Some Long Islanders said Adventureland’s 2021 policy change that began requiring paid admission for all parkgoers, not just those riding rides, is having the most significant negative effect on attendance. The rule change is a turnoff for parents who are at the park just to accompany their children, not to ride, they said.

But Adventureland disputes the claim that the policy change is affecting attendance this season.

“The change in ticket policy happened four years ago — it’s not impacting the foot traffic this season. In fact, attendance in 2022 (the first full year of the admission policy) was greater than it was in 2019 (pre-admission policy),” DiSclafani said in an email Thursday.

Adventureland changed the policy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in early 2020.

“After being closed for 18 months for the pandemic, NYS amusement parks were allowed to open under very strict capacity measures, forcing us to become an admission park,” DiSclafani said in the email.

Attendance at Harbes Family Farm, which has locations in Mattituck, Riverhead and Jamesport, also declined  due to rainy weather, limiting some of its usual spring activities, CEO Edward Harbes IV wrote in an email.

The farm, which was founded by Harbes' parents in 1989, hosts a variety of daily activities for families, including goat mountain slides, corn obstacle courses, animal visits and a sports zone with football, baseball and basketball tossing games. The farm also holds annual events, such as the Sweet Corn Festival in late July.

“We do rely heavily on visitors coming to our farm to enjoy everything our farm has to offer,” Harbes said. “However, despite the weather affecting our weekend attendance, the weather was favorable to the growth of our crops, which was a silver lining.”

Attendance has declined only slightly for the overall season because the farm reopened for the spring season March 31 — the earliest it had ever opened after the winter shutdown, he said.

A nationwide phenomenon

Nationally, big-name amusement parks, which draw millions of visitors each summer, said weather played a big role in attendance.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp., which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and operates 27 amusement parks and 15 water parks in North America, but none on Long Island, reported that its April sales fell short of expectations due to the weather.

The company’s parks had about 175,000 fewer visits in April due to heavy rain and lower-than-normal temperatures, mostly in the Midwest, chief financial officer Brian Witherow told analysts during an earnings call in May.

Were it not for the unfavorable weather, park attendance in April would have been up about 8% compared to the same month in 2024, he told analysts.

Six Flags declined Newsday’s request for comment.

United Parks & Resort Inc. has 12 U.S. sites, including Busch Gardens and SeaWorld, but none on Long Island. Foot traffic at the company’s U.S. sites fell an estimated 9.6% on average over the 30 days through June 20, compared with a 1.3% drop in the same period last year, according to an analysis of Placer.ai cellphone data, Bloomberg reported this month.

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, United Parks did not immediately respond to Newsday’s request for comment Friday. 

But hot summer days are a boon to some theme parks.

Pittsburgh-based Palace Entertainment owns 20 entertainment properties in 10 states, including Splish Splash Water Park in Calverton.

Because many of Palace’s amusement parks are beside water parks on the same property, the company saw an increase in attendance during the steamy summer days, spokeswoman Lynsey Winters said.

At Splish Splash Water Park, attendance was down 3% compared to the same period in 2024.

“I think we tend to struggle more when there is a lot of rain in the forecast,” said Winters, who added that Splish Splash's attendance has been recovering since the rainy spring and is now down 3% compared to the same period in 2024.

This year, Palace’s parks have been heavily marketing their existing rainy-day guarantees, she said. If a park closes due to inclement weather, patrons are allowed to return on another day during the summer season, she said.

Weather woes

This year, 13 states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, had one of their five wettest Mays on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information.

New York State had its sixth wettest May this year.

A heat wave in late June impacted much of the central and eastern parts of the United States, which had record-high temperatures, according to the agency.

Record heat from June 22-25 occurred in 726 counties, where more than 100 million people reside.

Weather drivers in general, regardless of the month, come from upper air patterns, which is the jet stream, said Karin Gleason, monitoring section chief at the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Dips in the jet stream allow unsettled weather to enter sections of the country, she said.

“During the month of May, there was more troughing or more unsettled weather across the eastern United States, so [there was] an active storm track,” Gleason said.

In late June, peaks in the jet stream created a dome of high pressure, which brought extreme heat from the South to the Central Plains, Great Lakes and Northeast, she said.

On Long Island in May and June, the average monthly temperatures didn’t vary much from the averages over the past 10 years, but there were some daily higher-than-normal numbers for heat, according to the National Weather Service.

In Islip on June 24, the temperature hit 101 degrees, a record high for the month of June, said NWS meteorologist Bryan Ramsey.

In May in Islip, 4.67 inches of rain fell, compared with a 10-year average for the month of 3.28 inches.

Economic worries at play

While weather conditions can influence consumer spending, a bigger factor at play is typically economics, including disposable income and inflation, said Michael Zdinak, economics director of consumer markets at S&P Global Market Intelligence, a Manhattan-based financial analysis provider. 

Rising ticket prices at amusement parks and falling consumer confidence amid uncertainty over the impact of tariffs have led to a pullback in spending on non-necessities, he said.

People are being choosy with their dollars.

— Michael Zdinak, economics director of consumer markets at S&P Global Market Intelligence

“People are being choosy with their dollars,” he said.

Price is a major factor that Jessica Foti’s family considers before engaging in summer outings, said the West Babylon resident, who was at Adventureland on Tuesday with her two sons, 7 and 10 years old, and her sister, using discounted tickets purchased at a library.

"Everything lately is too expensive," the 52-year-old said.

Selden resident Kalli Rose Kelley and her family used Sunset Savings for discounted admission Tuesday, but admission was free for Kelley’s 18-month-old daughter.

This summer, Kelley and her family have been seeking cooler options for their outings, she said.

“We’ve only kind of done things with water. If there is something to keep us cool, that’s what we’ve focused on,” said Kelley, 34, a registered nurse.