The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is a seaside amusement park in Santa Cruz that opened in 1907, making it one of the oldest and most classic parks out there. The Boardwalk is a little different from most theme parks as rather than paying to enter, you enter and exit the park at will. To ride, you either purchase individual tickets, or an all-day ride pass. We are really excited to be covering this park now!
As it is the off season, the official park hours are 12PM to 5PM, although the rides actually remain open almost until 6PM. Some rides and attractions are also closed for off season work and maintenance. To compensate for this, the park offers a discounted all day ride pass. The discounted all day pass is only $23.95 for unlimited rides.
Fireball is closed, unfortunately. We actually quite like that ride, more so than its sibling at California’s Great America, Delirium.
Sky Glider is also closed.
It would look as if Fireball and Sky Glider were the only closed attraction, until you walk down to the southernmost end of the park. The entire section is closed and being extensively refurbished. This includes many rides such as Riptide, Logger’s Revenge, Cave Train, Tornado, and others.
Many restaurants in the area are closed as well.
An arcade in that section is being completely redone.
It appears as if they are painting large pieces of wood white, maybe for The Giant Dipper.
The Ferris wheel has many of its cars off the structure, presumably being refurbished.
We really hope that Cave Train is receiving some work. It has potential to be a good dark ride, but has really fallen into a state of disrepair recently.
Working your way back to the center of the park, everything else is open. Everyone’s favorite ride, the Giant Dipper is open but only running one train.
For a 90 plus year old ride, it is very smooth with some crazy laterals, great airtime, and awesome head chopper effects. Expect a full ride review on it in the near future, because we love this classic!
Undertow is also open. It is running four out of its six trains, each holding four people. 
We really enjoy this coaster as well, and it’s certainly better than its predecessor Hurricane. A great ride for those of all ages. Expect a review for it in the even nearer future!
Double Shot is also open. This is actually a custom model which is 125 feet tall as opposed to the standard 85 feet, making for a slightly more intense ride with slightly more airtime.
Pirate Ship is also open. This one doesn’t quite tilt as high as the same style attraction at Pacific park. It is more synonymous with Six Flags Magic Mountain’s attraction.
The Auther and Looff Carousel is also operating. Now if anything was ever a classic, it’s this carousel. There is a mechanism that dispenses rings with which you attempt to throw said rings into a clowns mouth. It is actually really fun and adds that much more to a very family friendly ride. Built in 1911, it is one of the oldest carousels in the world.
It even has its logo imprinted in the ground outside of it.
The Haunted Castle dark ride is running as well. Although it’s not excessively scary, it’s a cool thing to have as yearlong attraction, and some of the sets look half decent. It is a very impressive attraction for a boardwalk park.
With all of these attractions, you almost forget about the beautiful stretch of California Coast Line right in front of you. It is very popular in the summer and actually features quite a few concerts.
That is mostly it for this update. Expect more coverage from this awesome park in the future as well as some of the ride reviews mentioned above. Make sure to leave a comment about your thoughts on this park below!
Also, click here to check out the Twisted Colossus Update from the same day, including information and pictures of Scream!’s repaint!
Great photos! Loved the article!!!