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I feel like this is a great excuse for them to paint it in the spring and open it for the season somewhere around mid-August. lol

Best way to watch a parade is to power walk the opposite way it’s traveling and see the entire thing in 5 minutes.

First of all, something needs to be said... ***** WARNING / CAUTION / DANGER / TRIGGER WARNING***** This thread will feature a lot of very similar looking pictures. It's not my fault that all of these boardwalk parks happen to have similar if not identical rides. If seeing such imagery will cause you offense, to feel distressed, or to become exhausted from having to scroll through them, please do not continue in this thread. I'm also not a professional photographer, nor does my phone have the best camera in the world. My intent was to document every single ride at these rarely-discussed parks. Thank you and have a nice day. Okay, with that out of the way, we can begin! Stop #1 - Keansburg Amusement Park, Keansburg How this place continues to exist boggles the mind.... But first, a side note about my personal history with this town: I was born here, and lived there from age 0 to 6, from 1983 to the summer of 1989. My house was in bicycle-distance from the amusement park, and I distinctly recall riding there with my friends the last summer we lived there, without parents. Did I mention the route passes by a (now-defunct) strip club called Chasers (as in "chubby chasers")? Man, was it a different time back then. Not only that, but my father lived in that town since he was born, and was actually a games attendant at the park when he was a teenager, so yeah, my family has quite a bit of history there. Why did we move? Because the town was apparently a shithole then and has only gotten worse. The value of my old house, even with the new second story addition, is around $300k. "Wow, that's not cheap," you might say, but when you consider that the average home price in Monmouth County, NJ, is $550,000, yeah not looking so good anymore. Median household income? $39,000 Monmouth County as a whole is $65,000. My parents didn't want me going to school there, and I struggle to think what might have come of me had we stayed. Anyway, here's a picture of that old house of mine, mind you back then it didn't have that second story on it. Anyway, enough personal nonsense, on to the park! Just outside the gates, there's some batting cages, that most definitely haven't changed in 30 years. A little food stand, not open...a trend you'll see throughout this section. Many of these rides (you'll probably be able to tell which) actually date all the way back to the 1930s. Which is pretty impressive in my book. The park itself traces its history back to 1904. Classic train ride, has seen better days. Car ride, was operating. Planes, were operating. Kiddie drop tower, was operating. Kiddie Ferris wheel, was operating. Kiddie carousel, was operating. Motorcycles, were operating. \ Boats, were operating. Roto Jets....definitely have seen better days. This looks like a Whip, but is actually just a circle, so I'm not really sure the purpose other than just go 'round in circles. Was operating. Yet another "various vehicles rotate" ride. Was operating. Classic fire trucks, one of the older rides at the park. Was operating. One of the newer additions, was operating. Original Loop-o-Plane! Not operating. Adult, mini-double-shot tower. Not operating. Also not the smallest adult drop tower you'll see in this thread. Tornado, operating. The Haunted Manor. No, this is not the famous Spook House, which opened in 1931, which I'll talk about later, but instead a formerly-travelling haunted house that first opened in 1995, and then settled at this park in 2002. Sadly, not open (this was one of my reasons for visiting). Bumper cars, operating. Moby Dick, not operating. It may look like it, but it was just sitting there in that position. "Thriller," a Gravitron. Not operating. Tilt a Whirl, not operating. Zamperla flyer, was operating. Chance Chaos, the ultra-rare. You guessed it, not operating. Yep, they even have one of these things. If you've never seen it in action, as it rotates around, it rises and falls on eccentricly-mounted wheels. That's how they got their fun back in the day! Yes, not operating, of course. Basically, this entire half of the park was not operating. Including all of the following: Aww, cute little baby teacups! I think someone forgot to put the wheels back on LOL. None of them had wheels. They do have an actual Whip, albeit kiddie-sized. Red Baron (rotating/elevating planes), under construction. Kiddie train, under repairs. Yes, that is how decorated it is normally. They also have two Go-Kart tracks. And a boardwalk park staple, the burlap sack slide. Ah. Bev and Wally's arcade. How I so remember dropping dollars and dollars of quaters into the arcade games here....Outrun, Donkey Kong, Hang-On...the list goes on and on. Alas, now reduced to 100% redemption games. Sad, sad indeed. Another arcade, the Game Room. Do you think they paid the appropriate royalties for the artwork? At least this one had a tiny, tiny section of non-redemption games! And a full-size carousel, which did not appear to be operating. Back to the rides of the park, they've got pirate ship that is super-well themed, and totally stands out from the rest of this abandoned-looking place. A Wave Swinger, that looks kinda new. Sea Serpent, their kiddie coaster, which looks a lot older than it is (it's a 1998 Miler model). Which is right next to the world's tiniest and worst decorated log flume ever. And finally, the star of the show, Looping Star, a Pinfari looking Zylkon, that has been at this park since 2015 but has been operating and traveling since the mid '80s or '90s. Of course, it's closed. So yeah, about what I expected from coming here. Oh, and all of those kiddie rides I mentioned as operating? Yeah, they only had about 4 ride operators shuffling around to the different rides. Which was fine, because there was like 3 families there, and me, and that's it. You might say "well, it's a Monday at the end of August, lots of kids are back in school, etc. etc." You will see from my later parks on this blitz road trip, yeah that didn't matter. All of the others were packed. They also have a tiny water park, that similarly appeared not that populated. Oh, I almost forgot, the Spook House! Some history: This dark ride, built by the Pretzel Company (famous for Devil's Den at Conneaut, Haunted House at Camden Park, Spook-a-rama at Deno's in NY, and the original Dante's Inferno at Morey's, to name a few), opened in 1931 as the "Mystery Ride," seen here in a photo provided by the park's website: Those cars, and the track, continued to operate all the way up to 2012, albeit with some changes to the scenery inside and out. Here's a couple of photos showing the ride over the years. 1970s, from Pintrest. 1992, from Wordpress. Mid-2000s, from Patch.com The park's website says the following: "One of Keansburg Amusement Park’s oldest rides and seen on History Channel’s American Restoration, is undergoing a complete restoration!" Yeah, not so much. There is zero sign of the ride anywhere in the park; the old location it used to be at is now (presumably, based on the sign overhead) a games stand. I asked the guy selling tickets about it, and he had never heard of it. A manager standing behind him said "You mean the ride that got destroyed by (sic) Hurricane (sic) Sandy? It's never coming back." Major, MAJOR bummer. I'll continue to hold out hope that it one day returns, but I'm not holding my breath. So, I left this place with zero credits and zero dark rides. On the plus side, I only spent like $3 for parking plus an extra hour out of my day to get here. I honestly don't know how this park survives. The area is majorly depressed, there are tons of better park options around, many rides appeared to be in a state of disrepair that couldn't have been new, it's not supported by any government or historical preservation society. Because of my memories here, I'll really be sad if it ever closes down, but the logical part of me thinks that would be a better fate for the park than continuing to putter along the way it is. Next up: Jenkinson's Boardwalk in Point Pleasant. Which probably won't get posted until next week sometime (work the next two days then a SFoG/Carowinds trip over the long weekend). I just really wanted to get this one up first since I had so much to say about this place. Thanks for reading!

I'm not sure how new this change is but I was looking at Adventure Island's hours and saw they are now open year round. Last time I looked at their calendar a few weeks ago, closing day was in the middle of November. https://adventureisland.com/park-info/water-park-hours/ I'm glad I now won't have to go to Orlando any time I want to go to a water park over the winter although I still want to try Aquatica.

Congrats Skyline! You've now officially managed to rip off Larson, RMC, AND E&F Miler! Wonder if these kids coasters will work better than their current models...but hey, at least it's an interesting concept! I'll take one that's 300' tall, has speeds up to 90 mph, has 10 inversions, and has height requirement of 48". (Wait...did I just describe an RMC T-Rex? What manufacturer are we talking about again?) Let's see...who's up for getting it first, La Ronde, Valleyfair, or Wild Adventures?

A nice addition to any park's SBNO collection!

Thanks for the laugh. lol

Hopefully Phantom gets painted purple. The world needs more purple coasters lol

Okay, we've finally arrived at my last stop on this whirlwind blitz of NJ's boardwalk amusement parks, a place that I had completely forgotten existed: Fantasy Island, Beach Haven, NJ This is basically an outdoor FEC with a big arcade. Great for kids, very little for adult thrill seekers. This place is so out of the way, too (about a 30 minute drive from the nearest highway), it's really only for locals and those who vacation on that barrier island. Which is fine by me, everyone needs parks! NJ is truly gifted in that department. On with it, then. The only coaster here, kiddie or powered or otherwise, is Hang Ten, a standard figure-8 SBF Visa Spinner, but 7 laps though if that's your thing. Whatever, it got me to 191, in the perfect place to break 200 at SFoG the next weekend. Here's the rides: Ferris Wheel Drop tower, unknown make. Carousel Pirate ship Boats-go-round (without water) Junior swings Kiddie train Tilt-a-whirl Tea cups themed to the beach. Looks like a Zamperla "Dizzy Dragons" model Cars-go-round Scrambler Bumper cars Baby pirate ship Pirates-go-round Kiddie Ferris wheel Mini-himalaya And finally, Hang Ten. There's also a very small water park next door. So that was every boardwalk amusement park in New Jersey. I know it was kinda repetitive, but thanks for reading...I just kinda wanted to share something that people in a large part of the country don't get to experience. I hope you enjoyed. If not, oh well, you'll be more entertained by my next report.

I wonder did that SBF ride ever open this summer!? It was still under construction when we were there and I don't remember seeing any reports of people getting on it. Also, that damn Pirates ride!!! In addition to it trying to kill you in the brakes, it also tried to kill us half way through when our lap bar popped open. And now I really want pizza!!!

^Yeah, I wouldn't do public transportation, it just doesn't work well in LA. Go for that shuttle service for LAX and use Uber around the park.

It's T-shirt time! Cabs ah here! Come at me bro! Casino Pier, Seaside Heights Ah, Seaside. The place where I spent most Fridays back in high school, with the same group of friends, only two of which I still actually periodically talk to. A place where I've dropped hundreds of dollars in to Dance Dance Revolution and the retro-arcade in the now-destroyed Fun Town Pier. A place where I rode my first ever looping roller coaster, Fun Town's aptly-named "Looping Coaster" (a Pinfari looper). A place where I worked the two summers between my junior and senior year and the one after I graduated college. Doing what, you might ask? That's right....games carny, just like my father did in his youth. Some things come full circle. I've gotta talk about that though. I'm not going to mention which company's games I worked for specifically, to protect the owner who is an awesome guy, but let me tell you about this job. Here was a typical day for me: Get into town around 9:00 AM and lay out on the beach for an hour, before they started charging (yes, Seaside is one of NJ's many pay-to-go-on-the-beach towns), then start my shift at 10. Every three hours, get a 15 minute break, in which I'd stroll down the boardwalk to the Beachcomber Bar & Grille (famously where Snooki was punched*), pound a shot or two, and come back to work. Did the bosses mind? Nope, not at all! Alcohol made me more animated in my spiels, which got more customers to play, which made the bosses more money. At the end of the day (typically midnight on a weekday, 1 or 2 AM on a Friday or Saturday), I'd go to the bars or a house party with people I hit on during the workday, or play poker with the guys, or shoot down to Atlantic City for an all-night blackjack session, just to come back and do it again the next day. This happened 6 days a week. Honestly, it was the greatest job I ever had - very laid back, could smoke whenever I wanted, met tons and tons of people...if I could do that for what I get paid now, with benefits, I would in a heartbeat. *Fun Fact: I was there the night it happened, but not actually in the bar when it happened. When their "advance team" rolled into the bar to tell the owners they were coming, I promptly ske-daddled my way right on out. I wanted nothing to do with them. Anyway, you guys don't care about that. On to the park! Casino Pier is the only remaining amusement pier in town. The other park, Fun Town Pier in neighboring Seaside Park, got absolutely wrecked by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and then completely destroyed by a massive fire in 2013. Though investigators deemed the cause to be an electrical short under an ice cream stand, I'm thoroughly convinced that the owners didn't have Hurricane coverage and burned it down on purpose for the insurance money. You can't convince me otherwise. Anyway, yeah, Casino Pier. A nice collection of both thrill rides and kiddie stuff here, along with an awesome roof-top mini-golf that I sadly didn't have time to get pictures of here. Needless to say, it hasn't changed much since I played it weekly back in high school (the player with the worst score amongst my friends always had to buy everyone's Kohr Brother's frozen custard), and it's a nice classic course with all of the standard mini-golf gags (loops, windmills, etc). This park has four coasters: -Hydrus, which we all know about -Pirate's Hideaway, famous for appearing like a well-themed dark ride but actually just being a coaster-in-a-box -Hot Tamales, a kiddie coaster -Xolo Loca, a variant on the SBF Visa spinner with the flipping seats. Unfortunately, Hyrdus and Xolo Loca were both closed during this trip. I had ridden Hydrus on a previous trip, so no big loss there, but I was eager to try out the flipping seats on Xolo Loca. But I'll get to the two coasters I did ride at the end of this post. First, the ride collection: So this is what the Zamperla buggy-go-round is supposed to look like, huh? Wave Swinger Motorcycles-go-round (I promise there won't be so many this time!) Disk-o Various-vehicles-go-round Claw ride, Super Storm. I think it's a KMG model. Either way, sideways spinning and swinging does not agree with my stomach. Standard Moby Dick. Skycoaster. Hard to tell here, but the cable running from the other tower was not attached, and the ride was obviously not operating. Also, note the knockoff Mighty Mouse. Musik Express. Tilt-a-Whirl with the new style cars Pretty sizeable Ferris Wheel, one of their newer additions. Centrifuge, an indoor Scrambler. Think like Cosmotron at Knoebel's - light and sound show to blasting music. Yes, in retrospect I realize I should have grabbed a shot of the actual ride. Kiddie carousel Standard burlap sack slide Standard climby structure Boats-go-round Another Dizzy Dragons. Zamperla must be making a fortune on these things and the buggy-bouncers. Horse-and-carriage-go-round Dumbo-go-round Kiddie whip themed to NASCAR Bumper cars Standard wacky-house Another Crazy Cabs. A well-themed example of the most pathetic log flume ever An actually-sizeable S&S drop tower, set on the double-shot program. And wrapping out the non-coasters, a Sky Screamer. Here's a shot of Hydus, not running, just because. And a few of Xolo Loca and Hot Tamales; the former is the orange track in these pictures. I think it's kinda cool that one coaster wraps completely around the other. And finally, Pirate's Hideaway. So I'll talk about that one first. The outside looks really cool, right? Awesome airbrush paint job, you'd think you're in for a treat of a pirate-themed dark ride, right? Nope. You get nothing inside. Just a big open box, complete with various tools at the ground level. Check out TPR's POV to see what I'm talking about. What did I think of the actual ride, though? Not terrible....until the second to final brakes, which slam you to a complete stop and drive your gut directly into the lap bar. Pass if you don't need the humorous credit. And Hot Tamales...it's a kiddie coaster, there's not much to be said. 5 laps, which is almost too much. So, opposite the Pier is the Casino Pier arcade. Which used to house a 100-plus year old Dentzel/Looff carousel, right here: For whatever stupid reason, the owners decided to sell it. Supposedly, it's being refurbished and will be placed in a new structure that has yet to be built along the boardwalk, but I'm not holding my breath. Of course, before heading out, I had to get some Three Brother's Pizza. Honestly the second best pizza I've ever had (yes, better than Mack's in Wildwood). Huge slice, but also huge price (like $6). And that about does it for Seaside Heights. A good park for both kids and thrill-seekers a like, when everything is running. For other adult entertainment, you've also got almost a dozen bars and nightclubs, both on the boardwalk and inland a few blocks (though sadly Karma, made famous by Jersey Shore, is now a wedding venue after the city pulled their nightclub-liquor license). Next stop: Ocean City's parks, Gillian's Wonderland and Playland's Castaway Cove.

So many kiddie rides!

Alright, back to it! After the disappointing and out of the way trip up to Keansburg, the next boardwalk amusement park south is... Jenkinson's Boardwalk in Point Plesant Yeah, that's actually the name of it. Once home to a Flitzer (that now resides in Ocean City, MD), the only true roller coaster they have is a SBF Visa Spinner....but, it's not one of your usual figure 8 models! This one actually has a proper lift hill and somewhat of a course to it. But I'll talk about that when the time comes. So this park is mainly aimed at little kids to pre-teens...they have very few rides that adults without children would be interested in. Which, this is fine for what it is - Point Pleasant is mostly known as a family beach town (aside from the two Tiki bars on the boardwalk and one several blocks away, there are no real bars), and the park keeps with that image. As you'll see, this place was PACKED, only a few hours after my trip to Keansburg. So, let's get going with the kiddie ride rundown! Fire trucks-go-round Mini-carousel Convoy, with a unique original paint scheme Helicopter-go-round Dumbo-go-round Motorcycles-go-round Balloons-go-round Flying-go-round Pirate ships-go-round Wow, a break from the go-rounds! Tiny Larson tower (still not the smallest drop tower you'll see in this thread!) Dragon-themed teacups Finding Nemo-go-round? Tornado, their powered coaster. This has been here forever; I distinctly remember riding it when I was little. I didn't ask if solo-adults could ride, so I did not. Planes-go-round Kiddie-swings Adult-sized bumper cars, though I don't understand why you would name a bumper-car ride "Grand Prix." "Daytona 500?" Sure, but not after formula racing LOL. Boats-go-round The first of several Crazy Cabs I'd see on this trip. Basically a SBF Visa Spinning coaster without the coaster. Standard Tilt-a-Whirl Adult swings Moby Dick with a theme I'd not seen before Gravitron Super-Himalaya Mini spinning-swing. I can't stand the big versions of these, so I didn't even try out this little one. Standard carnival burlap sack slide. And they've got a cute little train ride, that also has been here forever. There's also a nearby ropes course. Now, onto the coaster! They call it Tidal Wave. Like I mentioned before, this is a SBF Visa spinner, and has quite a bit more to the course than the standard figure-8. Basically, it exits the station, does a 190 degree right turn, goes up the lift hill, makes a 180 degree left hand turn, does a little dip, another 190 degree left hand turn, goes down about a 15 foot drop under the lift hill, then a 190 degree right turn back into the station. The cycle is a 3 laps, so you definitely get your money's worth for the $6 the ride costs. This was my first ever spinning roller coaster of any manufacturer...given my general aversion to spinning sideways, I had always avoided them. But, my quest to reach 200 coasters by the end of the calendar year and limited travel days remaining in the season kinda forced my hand here. That said, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Granted, it's a one-and-done for me, but it was a fun little ride. I sat in the very front car, which is on a tilted piece of track when it comes back into the station, and being the only one the car, it was quite unbalanced and I spun probably a dozen times before the ride op stopped it. That about did it for Jenkinson's. It's a fun park with a LOT for kids packed into a tight space, but though I might go back for Martell's or Jenk's Club (the two aforementioned tiki bars on the boardwalk, both of which I've been to before and are super fun) another time, I don't see myself coming to this park again. Oh, Fun Fact? "Jenkinson" owns like 90% of what's on the boardwalk in this town. The amusement park, two arcades, the bar/pizza place, a mini-golf place, and an aquarium. It's not quite as bad as Ocean City, where the Mayor owns one of the amusement piers and a lot of business on the boardwalk, but yeah...totally Jersey. Next stop: Infamous summer home of Pauly D, Snooki, and the rest of those animals - Seaside Heights!

I'm very excited to try Superman forwards (even with the bulky harnesses compared to the original lap bars). My first visit to SFMM was in the summer of 2010 when it had just closed for the renovation. Hopefully this means the park will try to keep both tracks running frequently, rather than only ever having one side open for budget cuts.

Yeah I don't think the second station added as much as they hoped. Also, on ElToroRyan, his channel is the most jarring in terms of disconnected theme park content of any that I follow. One video will be his friends making a ton of low brow jokes as they wander a park drunk, the next will be this highly technical breakdown of a rollercoaster from his ride op experience and engineering background. It is a weird channel.

Passes are available online again. KT went the last two nights and we went last night and were very surprised at the lack of crowds for a "sold out" night. I really hope they're limiting capacity, but I wonder if we'll see it upped by next weekend.

Fun fact: The highest ridership the park ever achieved with Ka was during the the 2013 season with only one station and three trains. El Toro Ryan (who worked the ride) talks about it extensively in his excellent Problematic Coaster video about Ka. I recommend checking out the entire video (and all his other vids) but skip to around 17:40 for the goods about the station/capacity.

"If you're watching a parade, don't follow it. It never changes. If the parade is boring, run in the opposite direction. You will fast-forward the parade." - Mitch Hedberg

Wow, what a rambling series of disconnected thoughts. Paragraph upon paragraph describing Google Earth images. This is not "research." There is nothing firsthand in the entire article. The author read some articles and used some mapping programs and wrote about an Internet search. Nowhere in this entire piece is there any original reporting or any actual journalism. It's sensationalism. Moving on.