The top of Playland's homepage says "See you next season!" in large type. Below that it sells tickets to a haunted house and announces that Dog Beach is open.
The rides ran from Saturday, May 23 through the weekend of Sept. 12 and 13 this year, and the park has been closed for the season since Monday, Sept. 14. That comes to about 16 weeks. Dog Beach is open from Oct. 5 to April 18, which is closer to 28 weeks. The waterfront at the end of Playland Parkway has more open days without the rides than with them. In the off-season it splits into separate places, each run by a different group and each with its own rules.
Who runs what, November through April
| Place | Who runs it | Off-season window | Rules to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amusement park rides | Westchester County | Closed since Sept. 14, 2026 | Homepage reads "See you next season!" |
| Scared by the Sound | Haunt created by Pat Costello, at Playland | Final run Oct. 29–31 | Not recommended for anyone under 12 |
| Dog Beach and boardwalk | Westchester County | Oct. 5–April 18, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily | Dogs leashed on the boardwalk, six feet max |
| PlayLand Ice | American Sports Entertainment Centers | August through June | Session times posted on the rink's site |
| Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary | Westchester County Parks | Trails open daily, dawn to dusk | Dogs not permitted at any time |
Read the last column first. Two of these places share a parking area and a stretch of shoreline, and they have opposite rules on dogs.
The haunt's last three nights
Scared by the Sound is in its 25th season. Its final stretch begins Thursday, Oct. 29, and runs through Halloween night. That's the only Thursday on its calendar. The rest of October it runs Fridays through Sundays. According to the official hours page, Thursday, Oct. 29 runs 7 to 10 p.m., and Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31 run 7 to 11 p.m.
In the county's announcement, tickets run $29 to $40 per person and parking is $10 per car. The entrance and drop-off are at Fountain Plaza. The attraction covers more than 12,000 square feet. It isn't recommended for anyone under 12, though younger children can go in with an adult. The kid-friendly matinees are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 24 and 25, from noon to 4 p.m., so the closing Oct. 29–31 run is the full-strength version only.
Creator Pat Costello told the county, "Twenty-five years later, we're still finding new ways to scare our guests." After Saturday night, Playland is down to its off-season users: dogs, skaters and ducks.
Two dog rules, one parking lot
Dog Beach is open every day from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. through April 18. On the boardwalk, dogs must be on a leash no longer than six feet, and owners must clean up after them. Under the park's general rules, fishing is limited to the end of the pier, so anyone walking the pier with a dog will likely pass people with fishing lines.
The Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary is next door, and its county page lists dogs as not permitted at any time. Both places are reached from Playland Parkway, and in the cold months both are open daily, so it's easy to mix them up. The dog walk and the bird walk are two separate outings, even though the shore is continuous.
The sanctuary's rules follow from what it protects. The county describes 179 acres on a migratory flyway, with an 85-acre lake of mixed salt and fresh water that holds more than 5,000 ducks in winter. The Audubon Society of New York has designated it an Important Bird Area. The lake holds its largest numbers of ducks in winter, months after the rides have stopped.
What changes at Read Sanctuary after October
Three things on the county page matter for a weekday walk in November:
- Parking. The county's posted Read parking fee is "effective May through October."
- Hours. Trails are open every day from dawn to dusk, and the visitor center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. As the days shorten, dusk is what limits a late-afternoon walk.
- Facilities. Portable toilets are available daily all year, and the main building is open during regular park hours.
The sanctuary has three miles of trails through forest and field and a half-mile of public shoreline. The nature center has maps, a small set of exhibits and checklists of seasonal bird species. The county also notes that the Friends of Read Wildlife Sanctuary issues bar-coded membership cards that give access through the Playland parking lot to the sanctuary and kayak launch only. The Friends group says it runs monthly events, including workshops and guided nature walks. The county page doesn't show a date for its hours, so calling the sanctuary at (914) 967-8720 before a winter visit is a good idea.
The rink keeps its own calendar
The ride park works on a summer schedule, and the sanctuary works on a migration schedule. The Ice Casino follows the school year. PlayLand Ice is managed by American Sports Entertainment Centers, which says the building operates August through June. That makes it the one Playland venue that is busiest when everything else is quiet.
The rink's site lists public skating, daily freestyle, stick time, pickup hockey, learn-to-skate and learn-to-play classes, private lessons, camps and clinics. The next learn-to-skate semester runs Nov. 1 through Dec. 20. Nov. 1 is a Sunday, for anyone who has been meaning to sign a child up. Classes start every eight weeks and take skaters from age three through adulthood. Public-session times for October and November are posted as schedule graphics on the public skating page, and that page is the place to check before heading over.
The ice is a home base for a lot of the Sound Shore. ASE lists its regular users as Manhattanville's men's and women's hockey teams, the Rye, Fordham and Harrison high school programs, the Rye Rangers, New Rochelle Lightning, the Westchester Dragons and Mariners, the Rye Figure Skating Club and an adult hockey league.
The building itself is due for major work. A New York State Environmental Notice Bulletin published Jan. 7, 2026, covers "Ice Casino Improvements II" at 100 Playland Parkway. The scope is a full rehabilitation: new rink components, refrigeration and HVAC; updated locker rooms, restrooms, lobby and lounge; facade restoration and a roof replacement; and a small addition for the generator and mechanical equipment. The Westchester County Board of Legislators, the lead agency, found the project will not have a significant adverse environmental impact. The notice describes what will be done but doesn't give a construction start date. For now, the rink's own schedule is the best guide to this winter.
Why the quiet months carry more weight now
The off-season matters partly because the ride season has been uneven. According to The Rye Record, the park opened Memorial Day weekend 2025 with 14 of its 42 rides running, after management passed abruptly from Standard Amusements back to the county. About 213,000 people visited in 2025, with about $2.1 million in revenue. In 2019, the last full year of county operation before the pandemic, the park had more than 508,000 visitors and $10.36 million in revenue.
This year was planned as the comeback. The same report said county parks deputy commissioner Peter Tartaglia expected 90% of children's rides and 80% of adult rides to run on opening day, including the Dragon Coaster, which had been closed all of 2025. MyRye's ride watch listed Super Flight in June as removed or decommissioned, with a note that it was to be removed to make way for a future new ride. No replacement has been named.
Spring will show whether the ride count holds. None of the off-season calendars depends on it: the Ice Casino runs August through June, Dog Beach is open through April 18, and the ducks arrive on the lake in winter.
A November Saturday at the end of Playland Parkway
Here's one way to fit it together once the haunt has closed:
- Morning, with the dog: Dog Beach and the boardwalk, open from 6 a.m., on a leash of six feet or less.
- Late morning, without the dog: Read Sanctuary after the 10 a.m. visitor center opening. Pick up a seasonal bird checklist and walk the lake edge.
- Afternoon, indoors: A public session at PlayLand Ice, after checking that week's schedule graphic on the rink's site.
All three are on one road in Rye, and the rides aren't part of any of them.
Playland's off-season calendar is part of how the end of Playland Parkway works in practice. If you're thinking about how the waterfront end of Rye fits your household year-round, not just in July, Jennifer Jaffe can walk you through that part of the map. Schedule a Local Market Consultation.
