Seaside Heights Boardwalk

STAY AWAY FROM BALLOON POP GAME AT NORTH END– IT’S A SCAM! There is a balloon pop game at the north end of the boardwalk, across from the skyride– the only one north of the rides. The woman with long blonde hair, whose bra was above her dress, completely scammed my 12 year old. He knows how to play darts and popped a total of atleast 10 total in the two sets of games he played. She wouldn’t let us see the tags to see what size he won. She said he could get a large if he popped 3 more. He gave the $ 5, popped more and she told him he needed $ 10 and needed to pop 5 more. We walked away at that point, telling him it was a scam. After $ 15 and popping atleast 10 popped, he ended up with 1 small when he should have had atleast 10 small and even a medium. She truly ruined his night by scamming a child. We left and I called the police when I got home and was told the division of consumer affairs takes care of that so I submitted a complaint to them. These games are licensed and what she did was illegal.

Went down preseason and had a lot of FUN,
Loud, silly barkers trying to get you to play for boardwalk prizes, the salt air, funnel cakes, pizza, cheesesteaks…
Still love to play those boardwalk games even at my age! I never get tired of trying to win the better prize, I left with three stuffed animals and an Emoji keychain and I can’t wait to go back and get the full-​sized Emoji! Also craving a funnel cake!
The paintball was a hit with my son… He’s looking forward to that…
Bring cash and be prepared to spend some…

I love the Jersey shore. I have been staying in Ortley beach for many years now. Seaside has had its share of destruction the past several years. Hurricane Sandy and the fire. Since they renovated last year, it is much cleaner. I noticed more policeman on the boardwalk also. They are adding more attractions each year. They have rides and games for kids. Zeppoli’s & Kohr’s ice cream which are my favorites. Fried oreo’s are a must try. I like to walk on the Boardwalk in the day time. Night gets very crowded. My family from ages 1yr. to 40 yrs., love coming here every year. Looking forward to July.

Beautiful place to relax during the summer. The only thing is you have to pay to get on the beach! Boo!

Although I worship the Wildwood boardwalk, I am game for any. I got to experience this one on a typical summer evening. Rest assured, some of the following experiences were untypical.
Parking is expensive. However, the robot/​automated parking attendants placed by the town to replace humans take all types of American currency. The ones we utilized were at the south end. At 6:40 p.m. there were plenty of spots there.
Walking towards the action, you will see a big restaurant after a few minutes of walking. It will be on the left, and on a corner, but attached to other businesses. This is where you will pee. The place is so busy that management does not care.
I do not have to report on «Polish Water Ice», as it has closed down. I thought it was good. Kids love eating the color blue in different forms, and attending adults must comply.
Here is the highlight of the trip: an arcade was piping out «Poison» by Bel Biv Devoe. No one can resist chanting the word «poison» manipulated by synthesizer. How people make themselves walk by, I do not know. It is hard not to dance.
Everyone seemed fine with the «Three Bros.» pizza but me. An employee at the front counter kept screaming, «Wagon wheel, half sausage, half onion». Either the purchaser of that pizza passed out due to the fumes in the dirty bathroom, or they were busy cleaning their table with bleach. It is very busy in there and not my style. Some of the walls are mirrored, adding to the confusion. Pizza is boardwalk style– lowfat mozzarella, thin, and huge.
On an interesting note connected with this pizza place, I had the most surreal experience that I have ever had in my entire life. Please… this bears reporting. Standing between the boardwalk proper and this place’s territory was a girl dressed like she had just departed from a Twenties’ ice cream social. She had a large, male relative skipping around her in a circular fashion. I stopped long enough to notice that her hair was perfectly coifed, and it had a side bow. She was wearing a fluffy white dress, which is taboo at a boardwalk. The male was dressed almost like an athletic prep from the Fifties. I was grateful to discover that the large male skipping around her was a huge teen, but that did not clear up the uncanniness that is still with me to this day.
The public bathroom almost across from that pizza place/​portal is terrible. My daughter was embarrassed because I was making jokes about the river running through it– no joke. People come right off of the beach sopping wet, and use this bathroom. Very weird, and very unhealthy.
My daughter conned my husband into letting him get conned into buying an overpriced, cheaply made, hooded shirt. I have done extensive research on exactly what store this shirt was purchased at. It seems to be next door to the one that Snooki worked at, but I cannot say for certain. They con you even more by asking you if you desire to give your garment the special treatment, which will somehow lengthen the life of your shirt. I told my husband that the unseen spray that the guy sprayed on it could have been hairspray for all he knew. All I know is that the shirt went kaput after four months of some wear. Thirty cents a day.
Well, Dunkin’ Donuts will always bring you back to reality with a smack of caffeine. Really, it’s there! Right in the middle of the boards. Add funnel cake, whining kids, and barkers for summertime perfection.

Hmmmm. I didn’t think the boardwalk was THAT terrible. Maybe it depends on what time of the year you go.
My friend and I went once a few days ago and again yesterday. We both enjoy the old time candy store that’s located where the concentration of the carnival rides are. There’s another one on the boardwalk that is mainly bulk candy, but we prefer this one. Also to be noted is a shop another review mentioned; the Vintage Anchor. While there are quite a few souvenir and t-​shirt places, even a few duplicate vintage clothing stores… this is the ONLY shop that contains unique merchandise. You can find beautiful clothing and jewelry here.
I was trying to find souvenirs for my friends back home… but forget it it. There’s also nothing here to buy for your significant other. The souvenirs here would appeal mostly to a young party crowd. Some of the shops seemed to have a conflict as to what crowd to appeal to… such as the Twisted Fish… but all of them really. There are no clothing/​merchandise stores that are appropriate for younger kids, as most of them also sell those instruments for smoking weed. I can’t say I’m surprised.
There are also quite a few arcades and carnival games. I can’t speak to any experience with any of that. While we walked by quite a few, there was one worker that called out to us, «Hey girls, you know you want to party.» (In reference to his beer pong game.) He looked like he was a late thirties frat boy. That’s who seems to be staffing a lot of the carnival games. Again, if I had kids, that aspect probably wouldn’t appeal to me. (Not that it appealed to me then, haha. I was just indifferent.)
Regarding the restaurants, eh. There were quite a few pizza places… my friend specifically likes Three Brothers. While I intially found consuming a giant slice of pizza to have a bit of bizarre charm, I didn’t want to do it again the second time around. The calorie tradeoff just wasn’t worth it. I ventured off by myself and decided to try Spicy’s lobster roll and a sampler platter of oysters, clams, and shrimp. I’d definitely stop again for the lobster roll, despite it not being authentic. (I also wrote seperate reviews on both Three Brothers and Spicy’s.)
I didn’t use any restrooms or the beach while I was there. Dodged that bullet! We were staying with a family member that has private access to the beach.
So lastly, that brings us to the actual people walking around the boardwalk. Honestly, I didn’t find it all too raunchy. Sure, there’s your girls from 14 – 21 that want to dress slu-​er, inappropriately. There’s the young guys running around shirtless with just jeans on. (Most of them were fit, but the laws don’t discriminate against body type, haha.) There’s the tourist families with their kids. There’s groups of teenagers that don’t have anything better to do than go their millionth time to the boardwalk… but I didn’t see anything wildly inappropriate as these other reviews have stated. I didn’t see any strung out-​yikes-​better-​keep-​full-​eyes-​on-​my-​wallet types of people. However, I never let my guard down either, because the locals warned us…
I think your experience with the boardwalk has to do with the time of year and day that you visit. I would avoid this place during the night, as I could picture the crowd turning undesirable, but it seemed to be okay mid-​day. It’s definitely not a hot spot for tourism in my eyes though. Two visits and I’ve had my fill.
Sorry to hear about all the damage in this area from Sandy and the fire. :/

ehhhhhh like eh. Like totally eh. Like totally eschew it for sure. Such a small-​ass beach.
PROS: A few cheap eats at least. (got a hot dog/​soda and 2 nice tacos for $ 12)
CONS: Small beach, no girls when I was there, hard to navigate to, not too exciting. Seeing that the MTV Jersey Shore craze has been gone for awhile, there’s no point going here. I mean you can go there, but if you live like 2 hrs away, don’t bother.

I always enjoy myself when I go to Seaside Heights. There are certain days to get a band to rides the rides. Seaside Heights uses a card to put your ticket purchases on your card. You can refill the debt card with more ticket credits when it runs out. Make sure you have cash on hand as well as your debt card. Spicy Catina has food and a DJ playing music. There is also a dance floor. All ages can go in Spicy Catina until 10pm. After 10pm only 21 & up are allowed on the dance floor. However you can eat on the restaurant side.

Seaside Heights seems to have a bad rap, but I have to say it was nicer than I thought it to be. The crowd was quite mixed; families, young singles. The boardwalk has your standard boardwalk things, like T-​Shirt shops, pizza, Kohr’s custard, games etc. The Pier has lots of rides ranging from kiddie rides to the ‘you gotta be crazy’ to do that!’. Everything is within walking distance in Seaside; so once we parked the car we never needed it again. Do note that there are a lot of parking meters and paid lots and if you don’t have a parking pass for the area you could end up spending a bit to park.
The beach is nice, the sand could be a little cleaner, but its a large beach so you could find a spot without feeling crowded. On the weekend the beach is packed; the lifeguards are constantly blowing their whistle to get people to listen. There are also announcements on the beach. I’ve never heard so many lost children announcements in my life. Overall though we did enjoy the beach.
I must say though that being on a bachelorette trip, it turned out to be a great place for it. The bride-​to-​be got lots of attention in the form of well wishes, being selected for audience participation, reduced cover charges, free drinks etc. It definitely made her feel special and added to the experience.
While Seaside Heights may not be the best spot on the Jersey Shore, it’s a more affordable option that will do the trick.

Best place in the world. The trashiest place, but the best place.
Public Bathrooms are disgusting. Avoid them if possible.
Yummy eats are to be found everywhere. The rides are way overpriced.
At the end of the day though, there’s no place on earth like the Jersey Shore!

Good and bad experiences/​memories of this place:
Cruising around with my sister and her 99′ bright red eclipse, navigating the crowded streets of families/​teens/​rowdy guys.
We got cheese fries and pizza and ate it while people watching, getting cotton candy and chocolate covered graham crackers.
But to be honest, you don’t just get rowdy and obnoxious kids 18 and under (that’s to be expected –we were all young once and youth is about having fun and being crazy and loud), they get racist. Just walking around with my sister, and I have to hear Asian slurs, completely unsolicited. We are literally doing nothing but looking around at the boardwalk and we can’t even enjoy our night in relative peace.
Ugh. That alone made me not want to come back here.

Coming here for years. Tonight as my 8 year old son was playing a machine at lucky Leo’s his stuffed animal he won so proudly on the boardwalk was stolen from him. Security cameras don’t work. Plus no security at all for such a large crowd of 18 & under. Management had no sympathy nor understand & would not accept 15,000 points so my son could at least have a stuffed animal to replace the one taken from him! Never again. Ocean city is such a nicer environment for family’s

There are good things about Seaside Heights and then there are not so good things also. Let’s start with the positives: the beach is really clean. Hurricane Sandy did a number on the Jersey Beaches, so New Jersey had to replace tons of sand so it’s nice and clean. The water was very clear the day we went also. The beach daily fee is $ 6 on the weekdays. Not sure whether that goes up on the weekends or not. So if you’re looking for a good beach that has adult beverages available in the boardwalk should the urge strike you, Seaside would be a good choice since Ocean City is a dry town. Now the bad: 1. the food in the boardwalk just plain sucks. It’s bad pizza joint after bad pizza joint. With an occasional sausage and pepper stand. Crapola. 2. The shopping consists of cheap T-​shirts places that have goons hanging outside trying to aggressively pull you inside to see bad souvenir stuff. There’s one or two exceptions to this. There’s a cute boutique style place that just opened called Vintage Anchor at 617 Boardwalk that has really cute, higher quality wraps, boho shirts, jewelry, bags, etc. It’s towards the end of the boardwalk that has the amusements. If you’re strolling along, you can’t miss it. It’s noticeably different than the other stores. 3. The crowd walking up and down the boardwalk can be a little sketchy. There’s a mix of families, single young kids, older people and then the ‘other’ element. The other I speak of are strung out looking people looking at you like you’re going to like be their next victim. The aggressive pan handlers that don’t take no for an answer when they ask for spare change. So, that’s why my review is mixed. I like the beach, but am not a fan of what’s left of their Hurricane Sandy damaged boardwalk.

This place has been getting a bad rep for years. Why all the negativity?
Apparently there is «riff raff» on weekends, but we go during the week and truly enjoy ourselves! Between the fire and Hurricane Sandy, so much of the boardwalk is gone. It’s really sad. We have been going since I was little, and my mom has so many memories from her grandparents taking her when she was little, that it’s hard to get to the end of the boardwalk and not get a little sad.
With that said, the beach is great and not as strict as other Jersey beaches with where you can and can’t go, and it’s only 6 dollars to get on… Lots of fun shops, the sky ride, and plenty of variety of boardwalk food.
Jersey strong.

Stopped here a few weeks ago as this was the only NJ boardwalk I hadn’t been to. Visited with my kids on a Tuesday evening after grabbing pizza at Maruca’s. Boardwalk was a little more sparse than I expected, but had everything you need — food, ice cream, games, shops & ocean.
It was nice to see the ongoing construction of the boardwalk — it looks like there are improvements in the works. We’ll have to come back to check it out!

I’m not sure why people have always made a big deal out of the fact that there is alcohol served on this boardwalk. So what? Despite the fact that there’s bars on the boardwalk, this place seems very juvenile to me, and not in a good way. Had you asked me a few years ago what my favorite boardwalk was, this would have been it. Now that I’ve had a few more years of adulthood under my belt I can tell you if you want a truly adult boardwalk experience then Atlantic City is where it’s at. Here you will simply be swigging cheap beer with frat boys and hanging out with the inexperienced just-​turned-​21 crowd.
That being said it’s not the greatest place to take kids either, but not because of the booze factor. The arcades on this boardwalk are definitely not top notch. The rides are uninspired, and yes, I realize Hurricane Sandy and the fire had their parts to play in this, but I still think the rebuilding could’ve made this place a lot better. No restaurants or stores really pop out as being must-​sees.
Add to all this that the town is 50 percent New York based tourists, and 50 percent Philadelphia based tourists and you have a pretty rough crowd on your hands. The vibe here is just not a nice one. Places like Wildwood (which is mostly Philly people), and Asbury Park (which is mostly New Yorkers) are still rude towns but just feel more cohesive as a cultural location than here.
Fortunately the number of gawkers here related to the ridiculous reality show has gone down, however they can still be found. If you’re in the area it’s worth checking out, but honestly the Jersey shore has so many better boardwalks to offer.

What can I say? I LOVE this beach! it caters to needs of all ages as far as I’m concerned. If you want more of a crowd, and the food attractions, rides, and games, I would suggest coming to the main part of this boardwalk. If you are looking to relax a little more, without the crowd, just drive down a little further along the beach line, and you will pay 6 bucks per car load for some peace of mind and relaxation. For the regular part of the beach it is 5 dollars per person up until 5 pm. after that it is free. The walk from parking, to boardwalk, to beach is literally like a block. So much better then other beaches. It is clean, and smells wonderful.

Barf.
The number of drug addict scrawny looking folk has multiplied. The boardwalk/​beach are solely dominated by after prom festivites from May to mid June. Double barf.
You’d like to think with an opportunity to rebuild, the town could’ve done better, but that is seemingly unlikely.
The prices are majorly inflated. $ 5 for a snapple. $ 5! I’m happy to never ever return to this dump of a town.

We had a blast visiting the Seaside Heights Boardwalk… it was so fun! However, how very sad this place has turned into since the last hurricane and «fire at an ice cream store.»
We visited on a Friday afternoon. No rides were operating. Boo. However, we had some great pizza. Which I will review shortly.
The beach was clean and we enjoyed our time there. The games on the boardwalk were okay. The stores we visited had a lot of cool souvenirs and of course great saying t-​shirts that were funny, cool, and inappropriate. We are on the Jersey Shore here, so duh!!!
The newly replaced boardwalk is nice, however, there are several spots that are vacant or gone. Very sad. Hopefully they figure out what to do with the open space…
I would definitely visit the Jersey Shore again. Maybe at a less humid time of year. Yeah right!!!

Good:
— lively place. This was one of my few experiences on one of the Jersey shore boardwalks and it was fine. We visited this place around 8 PM on a weekend night and the place was buzzing with people.
— lots of greasy, junk food selling food stalls (funnel cakes, zeppolis, pizza, frozen custard, cheesesteaks, etc)
— lots of arcade games, a water park, go karts, rides, ziplining, etc.
— Good seafood. We found PJs place through Unilocal and it was a great find.
Bad:
— loud music all around, lots of teenagers in trashy clothes
— Lots of greasy fast food joints claiming to have the best finger food, but sadly not.
— Too busy on the weekends when the weather is nice.
Ugly: Not sure if I saw public restrooms. This is the problem with a lot of public places, lack of public restrooms.