The Boardwalk at Seaside Heights, NJ – All This and Snookie Too!

The teens are big fans of the Jersey Shore boardwalks having spent much time over the years strolling the boards on the way to the beach in Belmar, shopping in Asbury Park and Atlantic City and hitting the arcade games and rides in Pt. Pleasant and Wildwood.  This year, we added a new Jersey Shore boardwalk to the bucket list with a visit to the infamous mile long Seaside Heights, NJ boardwalk, where, in recent years, the rides, shops and games on the boardwalk have been a bit overshadowed by MTV’s reality show headliners including Snookie, Pauly D, the Situation and the rest.

Like any good tourists we made a point to ride the classics including the roller coaster, the merry-go-round, the tilt-a-whirl, the go karts, bumper cards, a death defying vertical round-up type ride called the Enterprise, and the chair-lift style Sky Ride which happens to glide right past the now famous Shore House and the Shore Store where the Jersey Shore cast members sometime show up for work selling tee shirts.

During our Sky Ride we noticed a fair amount of activity in front of the Shore House and decided to walk back up the boardwalk by way of the house.  It is well protected by a security detail but we managed to walk by just in time to see Snookie and best friend Deena coming out the front door.  Later we saw Pauly D, Vinnie and The Situation being filmed while hanging out on the roof deck at sunset.  A few minuted later, we saw NJ Governor Christie out with his family!  He made the news and You Tube that evening for have a rather loud disagreement with a heckler.

For the record, the teens totally enjoyed the rides, arcade games, pizza, and ice cream at the Seaside Height, NJ Boardwalk.  With more thrill rides and a wider selection of games than Pt. Pleasant, Seaside is a good afternoon or early evening destination for families with teens and tweens, although we recommend staying outside of town and away from the late night craziness that tends to take over when the bars let out.

The Seaside boardwalk definitely has its rough edges but it is actually much more family friendly than MTV would lead you to believe.  We visited from 5 pm to about 10 pm on a hot summer Thursday evening and found it to be a great night out for the teens – we certainly covered a lot of ground in just a few hours.  If you visit Seaside let us know what you think.