Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

[Psymonds]

hitting up the boardwalk soon, any suggestions? I've been there before but it's been a decade?

 

[BeccaM]

I just had my kids there two days ago. Despite it being a weekday, it was still packed and the lines for rides were long. 30+ minutes or more for some. I was also surprised how early in the evening they closed. Rides were shutting down with full lines, and food vendors were closing up despite customers trying to get orders in.

Check out the ride pricing ahead of time, and make decisions on what you’re willing to spend, and then stick to it. I thought the wrist band prices were ridiculous for the rides they offered, but I did see quite a few kids wearing them.

Tons of great food options - everyone will find something they like. All (almost all?) food vendors were card payment only - no cash.

Have fun!

 

[Psymonds]

I just had my kids there two days ago. Despite it being a weekday, it was still packed and the lines for rides were long. 30+ minutes or more for some. I was also surprised how early in the evening they closed. Rides were shutting down with full lines, and food vendors were closing up despite customers trying to get orders in.

Check out the ride pricing ahead of time, and make decisions on what you’re willing to spend, and then stick to it. I thought the wrist band prices were ridiculous for the rides they offered, but I did see quite a few kids wearing them.

Tons of great food options - everyone will find something they like. All (almost all?) food vendors were card payment only - no cash.

Have fun!

we're going early, and school starts for some districts yesterday and today, so I'm hopeful. Oldest wants to ride the coasters, youngest will want to ride the kiddie rides. wife said she got a deal on wristbands, I'm hesitant to ask how "good" it was.

I'm going with my six flags expectations not Disney expectations for ride ops.

 

[DodgerGirl]

hitting up the boardwalk soon, any suggestions? I've been there before but it's been a decade?

I'm familar with Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk so I can help you out and it's an amazing place. One place you can start with is Neptune's Kingdom and it's a indoor part of the Boardwalk and it has good food and shops and one or two games and at the end of the entrance is the arcade which is pretty cool and the prices for tokens to play video games are really cheap and are really fun to play. The Boardwalk currently is not doing concerts at this moment but they are for free and if you have younger children they have an area with kiddie rides that your kids will like and a neat train called The Cave Train. But if you don't want to eat at the Boardwalk there are fast food restaurants including a Burger King that's right next to a shopping mall and a McDonald's there too
Hope you have fun and hope this advice helps
Dodger

 

[bcla]

I'm familar with Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk so I can help you out and it's an amazing place. One place you can start with is Neptune's Kingdom and it's a indoor part of the Boardwalk and it has good food and shops and one or two games and at the end of the entrance is the arcade which is pretty cool and the prices for tokens to play video games are really cheap and are really fun to play. The Boardwalk currently is not doing concerts at this moment but they are for free and if you have younger children they have an area with kiddie rides that your kids will like and a neat train called The Cave Train. But if you don't want to eat at the Boardwalk there are fast food restaurants including a Burger King that's right next to a shopping mall and a McDonald's there too
Hope you have fun and hope this advice helps
Dodger

I don't believe the closest chain fast food is within reasonable walking distance.

 

[Psymonds]

update: we went.

Wife paid $40 pp for wristbands (online advance purchase, could be as high as $70 day of)

Gorgeous day, they were open 12-7 and we did not have time for everything, but came close.



we got in line for the Haunted Castle once, it went 101 and we abandoned the line, came back prior to close and it was almost an hour line, so that was the one thing we didn't ride that I wanted to.


Giant Dipper, back row has solid air time and it's pretty smooth for it's age. The operations are good, it rarely waited in the station more than a minute, but also is one train operations.

Most of the other kiddie rides we didn't have to wait more than a cycle for. I think it's a combination of school starting back this week and them having 10 or so kiddie rides open.



The carousel is a classic with the ring toss. I've only done this here and in Spokane and the Spokane carousel they run faster, so the ring toss here is easier but still a challenge. need to be on an outside horse to do it.




Anyway, if we paid per ride we would have crapped out after 2 hours or so, maybe less, each ride is $4-8pp

we ate mediocre food on the boardwalk. Did not want to spend time going elsewhere since the hours were limited.