Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Update

Alexander: It’s been a year since our last Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk visit, and honestly a year is too long!! Let’s get to it!


– Over the years, many of our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that not everyone mentioned where they got the images from. We are totally fine with our audience using our images, BUT ONLY IF credit is given to californiacoasterkings.com. Thank you! –


We’re just visiting for a few hours, so we’re taking advantage of Santa Cruz’s convenient street parking!

It’s a beautiful day in Santa Cruz!

Sean and I are wearing matching button-ups. They have tacos on them. 

Can’t come to the Boardwalk without visiting the famous 1973 mural!

Giant Dipper is running like a dream as always.

People can say what they want about the Morgan trains; I love this rolling stock and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I find the the ride perfectly comfortable. It seemingly floats along with ease.

One of the best rides here! It’s Logger’s Revenge! With the departure of Great America’s Logger’s Run, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk now has the only log flume in NorCal.

And it’s a great one! A really iconic late-70s elevated Arrow flume! 

I struggle to think of parks that maintain their rides better than the Boardwalk. Knoebels? Lagoon? Silverwood? 

I’m just a fan of seaside parks in general as well. Can’t wait to hit up Morey’s Piers again someday. 

On a sad note, the gap left by the Ferris Wheel also leaves a hole in our hearts. We hope to see it replaced with another Eli Bridge wheel.

A fun quirk here is that quite a bit of the prizes for midway and arcade games are actually Boardwalk branded merchandise.

Giant Dipper time!

These little acrylic signs have been here since the 90s I think. Classic!

I sorta miss the classic Boardwalk logo, but the new one really looks great on the Giant Dipper trains.

Every classic coaster I’ve ridden that runs these trains has been a wonderful experience. 

Perhaps the most iconic building at the Boardwalk is the Fascination / Octopus Garden building. The latter was replaced with bathrooms and a smaller midway game of a similar style, but the garden is still intact.

A trip to Santa Cruz is incomplete without a stop at Marini’s. 

I don’t consider myself that big of a taffy fan, but if it’s not Marini’s, I’m not eating it. 😉

None of the merch feels right  now that the Ferris Wheel is gone.

*drowns sorrows in taffy*

The last ride of the day is the sky ride!

I can’t get enough of the views up here on a nice day.

Who can guess what ride these seahorses sit atop?

Caveman on the sky ride. It’s a Santa Cruz thing.

MATCHING TACO SHIRT SELFIE!

Skipped the haunted house this time. Always has such a long line!

The answer to the seahorse question is he Boardwalk’s 1911 Loof Brass Ring Carousel. 🙂

Here’s what we really came up here for!

Amazing views of the Giant Dipper!

There is just something so special about this ride.

And, despite 1-train ops, throughput is quite impressive! They load and dispatch this thing in about 20 seconds.

That concludes our Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk update. Until next time!


Thanks for checking out this quick stroll along the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk! Check out our new Six Flags Magic Mountain update filled with teasers for their 2019 attraction, as well as our TRON (Magic Kingdom) construction report!

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