The Playland Park homepage now leads with "See you next season!" Right below that banner sit two other notices. One sells tickets to a haunted house. The other says Dog Beach is open.
The page lays out how the grounds at 1 Playland Parkway actually run. The ride season is the short one. Westchester County opened the park on May 16 and 17, 2026, held a grand opening on May 23, and listed September 12 and 13 as the last days the rides ran. September 14 is marked "CLOSED FOR THE SEASON." That comes to about 17 weeks. Dog Beach runs from October 5 to April 18, which is about 28 weeks.
From October through December the park is quieter, but it isn't shut. The same shoreline changes hands, from wristbands and a midway to haunted houses, leashes, naturalist walks and a hockey rink.
How the summer ended
This was the first summer the county marketed the park as its own. Its April 20, 2026 season announcement called Playland "run by those who care most about it: Westchester County." That followed the 2025 split with Standard Amusements, the former operator, which the county laid out in a published timeline.
The ride lineup changed too. MyRye reported in August that county officials confirmed two rides were gone for good: the Himalaya in Kiddyland and the Sky Flyer in the main park. The same ride-status table listed Super Flight as removed to make room for a future new ride and counted 38 active rides. The report put Big Park bands at $27 for residents and $32 for nonresidents. None of the sources say whether a replacement for Super Flight is coming next season, so that question is still open.
October belongs to the haunted houses
The first event after the rides closed is also the oldest. Scared by the Sound opened its 25th year on Friday, October 9. Talk of the Sound reported more than 12,000 square feet of haunted houses, running Fridays through Sundays all October.
The details from that report:
- Regular nights: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through October
- Kid-friendly matinees: October 24 and 25, with vendors and goody bags
- Closing run: Thursday, October 29 through Saturday, October 31
- Tickets: $29 to $40
- Parking: $10 per car
- Age guidance: not recommended for children under 12, though they may attend with an adult
Parking during the haunted house costs $10, less than the $15 the park charged on ride days this summer, according to MyRye's August report.
Talk of the Sound also carried a quote from County Executive Ken Jenkins: "For 25 years, Scared by the Sound has been part of the Halloween tradition in Westchester, giving generations of families and thrill-seekers a reason to come together and celebrate the season."
The sanctuary is trying something new on October 17
Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary shares the Playland Parkway address and sits on the other side of Playland Lake. This October it's running a Halloween event of its own for the first time. The county's listing for Spooktacular Oktoberfest 2026 says, "This is our first year doing a Halloween Event at Read Sanctuary!"
The county lists it for October 17 from 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 a person, and children 3 and under get in free. The listing promises live music, food vendors, Halloween crafts, a haunted house, a bounce house, hayrides and trick-or-treating set in the sanctuary's bamboo forest. The trails stay open during the event for anyone who wants a walk along Long Island Sound. Calendars for new events sometimes shift, so check the listing for current hours before you go.
Both Halloween events are aimed at families with young kids. The Oktoberfest is a single afternoon of trick-or-treating in the bamboo, while Scared by the Sound runs on October weekends for teenagers and adults, with its two matinees set aside for younger kids.
The sanctuary's busy season starts as the beach empties
After Halloween, the Read Sanctuary runs the rest of the off-season. The county's sanctuary page describes three miles of trails, shoreline open to the public, and an 85-acre lake that hosts more than 5,000 ducks in winter. The summer crowds come for the beach and pool. The ducks arrive in the months after those close.
The Friends of Read Wildlife Sanctuary calendar builds its late-fall programs around the shoreline:
- November 13, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.: a presentation on molluscs
- November 14, 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.: a shell walk along the shore
- November 20, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.: a presentation on seaweed
- November 21, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: a seaweed walk along the shore
- December 5, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.: "Read the Rocks!" with the sanctuary naturalist, for ages 6 and up
- December 19, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.: "Wintering Ducks," for ages 10 and up
The November dates pair each evening talk with a shoreline walk the next day or so: molluscs on Friday the 13th, then shells on the beach Saturday morning, and the same pattern for seaweed the following week. The December rock walk covers "the ancient, and recent, forces that have shaped the landscape," according to the Friends listing.
The Wintering Ducks description is more specific about birds than the county page: "Long Island Sound attracts an amazing number and diversity of ducks in the winter. Join the Sanctuary Naturalist to look for Merganzers, Long Tails, Buffleheads and other waterfowl and seabirds." Both December programs meet at the Edith Read Sanctuary Visitors Center.
Hours and parking
The county lists the trails as open daily from dawn to dusk and the Visitor Center as open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, with portable toilets available year-round. The Friends' own visit page gives the same 10-to-4 hours but says the Visitor Center is closed Sundays. The two sources disagree on Sundays, so confirm before planning a Sunday trip around the building.
The county's sanctuary page says parking fees apply May through October. According to the county's parking page, rates are $12 on weekdays and $15 on weekends, and Friends members park at the sanctuary free. Neither source spells out how nonmembers get in by car once the fee season ends, so the safest plan is to check with the sanctuary first.
Dog Beach covers the longest stretch
Dog Beach covers more of the calendar than anything else on these grounds. It's open daily from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. from October 5 through April 18. Dogs must stay on a leash no longer than six feet while on the boardwalk, and owners must clean up after them.
The 6 a.m. opening means the boardwalk is open before sunrise all winter. The six-foot leash rule covers the boardwalk specifically, per the park's notice. Dog Beach opens three weeks after the rides close and stays open until a month before they reopen. On any given weekend this fall, a dog walker on the boardwalk and a family at the October 17 Oktoberfest may be a few hundred yards apart.
The Ice Casino runs through the winter
The Playland Ice Casino is the indoor part of the off-season. The rink's website posts public skating schedules for October 2026 and November 2026 as graphics, so the session times are only on the site itself.
The next Learn-to-Skate semester runs November 1 through December 20. The rink describes eight-week sessions for skaters from age three through adults. Its Learn to Skate page says the program follows Learn to Skate USA. For older skaters, the rink also lists an adult hockey league, StickTime and adult pickup hockey, plus a freestyle registration link for figure skaters. Prices and session times weren't available as text on the pages reviewed, so playlandice.com is the place to check before showing up with skates.
The Learn-to-Skate semester starts the day after Scared by the Sound's last night and ends the day after the Wintering Ducks walk. From late October to the end of December, at least one of these operators has something scheduled on almost every weekend.
The weekend calendar, October to December
Put the sources side by side and the weekends line up like this:
- October weekends: Scared by the Sound, Friday through Sunday, plus Dog Beach every morning from 6 a.m.
- October 17: Spooktacular Oktoberfest at Read Sanctuary, 1:00 to 5:30 p.m. per the county listing
- October 24 and 25: Scared by the Sound kid-friendly matinees
- October 29 to 31: Scared by the Sound's closing run
- November 1: Learn-to-Skate semester begins at the Ice Casino
- November 14 and 21: shell and seaweed walks along the sanctuary shore
- December 5: Read the Rocks!
- December 19: Wintering Ducks
- December 20: Learn-to-Skate semester ends
None of these require a ride wristband. Scared by the Sound starts at $29 and the Oktoberfest costs $25, while the Dog Beach and the sanctuary trails list hours without a posted fee during this window.
The rides return in the spring. Dog Beach closes April 18, so whatever date the county sets for the 2027 opening, the off-season calendar will have run about seven months.
If you live near the Playland waterfront or are thinking about it, Chris Tulotta can tell you how that part of Rye works year-round, from the summer parking crowds to the quiet winter boardwalk. Let's Connect.
