Pt. 3 Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk VS The Über-Everything Theme Parks

I already stated in part 2 that I prefer the SCBB to all the bigger theme parks. Here are my reasons:

1. The Beach!!! - The Boardwalk is literally next to the beach. What is better than being next to the beach? Nothing. After riding the rides all morning and early afternoon, we changed things up by getting into our bathing suits and going to the beach for a couple of hours. I body surfed for the first time in 20 years!!! More on that later - maybe. Colton, who came from Denver, Colorado to stay with Marv and Joanie, swam in the ocean for the very first time ever (he didn't like its saltiness). At what other park could you do this? None of them. After having fun in the water for a couple hours, we changed back into our clothes and went back for more rides and stuff on the boardwalk. Unfortunately, I did have salt water hair. But I just bought a hat, put my hair in a ponytail, and called it good.

2. Good music - I notice what music is playing where ever I go and take mental notes. I love to be surprised by a song I love. This happened all day at the Boardwalk. Mostly they played classic soul and classic rock, which is perfect for a beach side amusement park. I was singing along to songs all day to myself. What was almost as fun as the great music, was that the entire day long I didn't once hear Hannah Montana, The Jonas Brothers, High School Musical, Camp Rock, etc. - I guess I did hear Rihanna once though. But I can make some small allowances for not playing any Disney produced songs.

3. Cost - there is no entrance fee to the boardwalk. You simply buy either an unlimited ride pass, or ride tickets if you only plan on doing a couple rides. This is unlike the other places where you have to pay $50 or more to enter the park, but may never actually ride the rides. The unlimited ride pass was $25 I think.

4. Better food- anyone who's ever been to Disneyland or the other big parks, can testify that the food sucks and is UBER-expensive. It's safe to say that you're probably not going to get a great deal at any amusement park on food, but the SCBB has a variety of food vendors, and some of them are actually good. They have a lot of what you would find at a fair, which is usually much better than what you have to buy at the big places. Also, at the SCBB, you can actually just walk across the street and eat at any number of little food establishments, or bring whatever food you want to in a cooler, and have lunch at the beach, or even on the boardwalk.

5. Close parking - at the SCBB, you need not walk a mile to catch a tram that will drop you a half a mile from the park entrance. The parking is close, which makes it easy to leave stuff in the car you might want later, but don't don't want to put in a locker.

6. No Disney souvenirs or cartoon themed rides - well I guess there are cartoon theme rides, but what I mean is that the SCBB doesn't seem to be sponsored by Disney, Nickoldeon or Warner Bros.. There's only so much Disney, Nickelodeon, etc., stuff I can take. I'm not anti-Disney, but it sure was nice to not have all the souvenir stands pushing Disney in our faces at every turn. The merchandise was mostly geared around beachy items, which is so much better than the ubiquitous Disney Princesses, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, Dora, blah blah blah (I left Spongebob out because I love him) cheapy stuff they usually have at such places. Oh, the stuff is still cheapy, but it's beachy cheapy.

7. Everything is very close together! - like a traveling carnival or fair, but not hastily put together by traveling crack heads. They have all the classic old school carnival rides, but also plenty of thrill rides for people like Ella who will ride ANYTHING! Even rides put together by crack heads if she were allowed to. Everyone was satisfied, and we didn't have to walk 1,000 miles to do it all.

8. And lastly, the SCBB is close to Monterey, which is close to Carmel, which is not that far from Big Sur. How can you go wrong with that?

9. Our kids have also decided it's their favorite place, without me having to do any of my usual brainwashing.

I'm not even getting paid for this ad - can you believe it? And if you made it this far and actually read this entire post, you're invited to come with us next summer :)