Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Poised to be the First Theme Park In California To Re-open

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk plans to be the first California theme park to re-open, according an article in OC Register. Yesterday we guessed it might be the first California park to re-open.

Under the latest guidelines from the state of California, small theme parks can partially re-open when their county’s hit the “orange” covid case tier. Santa Cruz county just entered the Orange tier today, and the Boardwalk is one of the California parks that falls into the “small park” category.

From a visit to the Boardwalk earlier in the summer when restaurants started to open. The beach, shops, and restaurants have been open several months.

It sounds like a November opening is most likely. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk VP of Marketing and Sales Marq Lipton told the Register, “We don’t have an opening date yet. It won’t be this week. It likely will be in a couple weeks.”

It’s still not completely clear to me how a park that normally is pay per ride will handle the capacity restrictions, so they may need to build out some ticket check areas, and will need to get a reservation system in place.

Only Select Rides Will Open

Also, don’t expect all rides to be open. The Boardwalk normally funcitons in a limited capacity during the offseason, usually with only a handful of rides — including one of the big roller coasters — open on any given day.

It seems like a gimme that the Giant Dipper will be one the first rides to reopen.

“It’s impossible to say which rides will be open,” Lipton said. The indoor attractions will for sure be closed, but he did say one of the coasters will be running. The biggest highlights of the Boardwalk are the 1924 roller coaster the Giant Dipper, and their 1911 Looff Carousel. I think it’d be a safe bet that those two will open with the park.

The Boardwalk partially re-opened earlier in the summer, with restaurants and shopping. So hopefully some of that smooths and speeds up opening of rides. It’s also important to remember that in the Orange tier only residents of the park’s county can visit, so don’t make plans to drive across the state to visit yet!

The park said an announcement will go up on their website and social media when they set an opening date, so keep your eyes peeled, and make sure you’re following us on Social media @Coaster101.

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