Western Playland — Attraction in Sunland Park

Employees here have always been helpful and cautious when it comes to safety precautions on the rides, but unfortunately though we had a bad experience on the “Wipeout” ride.

It went as follows:

It was about 6pm, the sun was setting, and it had been very VERY windy the entire day so everyone was more on edge about making sure we were secure in our seats. The conductor did not check our seatbelts at all, or any of our fastenings (We had been here since open, and every SINGLE other employee had been checking us all day.) She did not check the bars after they were lowered, which would have been a preventative measure due to the pain that would ensue. She did not give us any indication of where to sit the children, we had never rode this ride before so we didn’t know how the seating would affect our weight distribution. So both my younger brother (9), and my cousin’s 8 year old child in their seat, sat to the outside. When the bar lowered, I became concerned because the bar was painful as soon as it lowered and I wanted to adjust it. I tried to look over at the conductor, but as soon as she lowered them she had already started the ride. Then as the ride accelerated a couple seconds in, my cousin and I both called over to each other that we had sat the kids in the worst position as soon as we felt our weight shift. We were both around 200 lbs next to small children and our weight was squishing them more as the ride progressed. It was not only that, but the bar I hadn’t had the opportunity to fix was now painfully stabbing at my abdomen as I try not to press my entire body weight on my 70-lb brother. I admit, I did begin to panic, I started to yell at that she needed to stop the ride. But as the ride went on the pain became worse and my brother was becoming more vocal that he couldn’t breathe. In the moment, all I could hear was him saying he was “suffocating” and I was panicking knowing I was stuck pushing and yelling in pain for the conductor to stop the ride. I didn’t know if he was just dramatizing how he felt or if he was genuinely in danger, and that was the worst part of it. I understand that it is an amusement park, and people scream, but I was not screaming in a regular fashion. I was saying things along the lines of “Please stop the ride! Its hurting me! We are hurting! Stop please!” but it just kept going on. What upset me so much was not that we made a bad seating decision on a ride, it’s that it was easily preventable if the conductor just properly checked our seating and communicated with us. My cousin’s child had started crying because she was squished so hard on the ride. I want to reiterate, in all the years I have been coming here, the employees have always been very safe, so today was an outlier but it was dangerous regardless. I just think it’s necessary to communicate for improvement on the precautions employees take.

I did already email the park and hopefully some better policies are put in place. I love this place and it’s very special to me how safe it’s been for years which is why this was even more of a bad...

On 4 Oct 2025 815pm, I showed up with my family for their evening hours. I got behind the line at the ticket counter. Waited for almost 20mins before my turn. I purchased 2ea tickets at the cost of $30+ dollars each. We moved to the entrance of the park were I presented the purchased tickets, only to be told that I need it additional tickets to enter the park. I was told to go to the season pass counter and purchase the additional tickets. The young lady at the season ticket counter informed me that the tickets that I had purchased at the ticket counter were only good for the hunted house event going on inside the park. She also informed me that the ticket counter was a third party company that only dealt with the hunted house event and that "they" should have explained that to me. I asked to speak with the manager. Another young lady came to the window and informed me basically the same as before. She explained that the tickets that I had purchased were only good for the hunted house and that if I wanted to enter the park at this time that I had to purchase additional tickets to come in or I could wait til 10pm, when the park officially closed, so that I could enter for free to the hunted house. There were zero signs informing the public of any of the above mentioned issues. I informed the manager that it was the park's responsibility to inform the public of the additional cost and of the "other" company operating inside the park grounds. She let me know that such information was listed on their website. Not very helpful at all. She did apologize several times. However, that is not either sufficient nor adequate to the public. I left the season pass counter and returned to the ticket counter were I asked for a refund on the tickets. Also, I informed the clerk of the issue and received an other apology for not informing me of the process. I took my refund and my family and left the park. It was a very frustrating and infuriating situation that could easily been avoided if they just simply had an information sign explaining their process.

I believe that paying $30+ per ticket, plus additional entry fees to the park is just simply ridiculous. I am all for supporting local entertainment venues, but at these ridiculous prices it's just crazy.

Western Playland must be doing really well to have such policies in place. It had been years since I had the desire to attend their premises. Now, I remember why I stopped attending.

I am quite certain that I will think twice before attending...

This was the first time taking our preschool and elementary aged children to a park like this. We had an enjoyable visit overall, but it wasn't cheap. 2 adult's general admission tickets (rides not included), 2 children's unlimited ride bracelets, and 1 senior citizen's general admission ticket was $60. Ride tickets were an additional $3 each and some rides required 2 tickets per person. This park is fairly small, making it easy to take advantage of most of the rides and carnival style games ($1-5 for each 1-3 chances to win) within the limited operating hours. The cost and quality of food is typical of a theme park, so unless you want to blow $80 on mediocre junk food, I recommend eating before arriving.

The park's location is ideal. As the sun sets, the park is cast in the shadow of the mountains, eliminating much of the oppressive heat and bombardment of the sun's rays. It is surprisingly pleasant to walk around in the 100° heat. Also, next to the park's entrance is the Splash Down log ride. Without waiting to actually ride it, you can position yourselves on the walkway that gets hits by the giant wave from the ride and begin your park exploration wet and cool!

You will want to wear closed toe shoes because ants of every size and kind are EVERYWHERE! No bench was clear to sit on, and I don't recommend standing still for any length of time or you will be covered in them. If you intend to get wet, make sure you choose clothes that won't chaff as you walk around.

We went on a weeknight and never waited in line for a ride. The rides are worn and not all of the features work, like the horns of the kiddie cars; and some, like the merry-go-round, make awful screeching sounds. The train was inoperable while we were there due to "technical...