With a trip to Kings Island planned for mid-October, my aim is to make Orion my 400th credit. In order to do so, however, I needed to secure five credits before the trip. My plan was to do a quick tour through New Jersey and visit three never before visited beach parks. Knowing I could run into a ride closure along the way, however, I had three locations on stand by where I could make up a credit if needed. Did I have to use any of those back ups? Did I meet my goal? Find out in my Quest for 399.
When I sat down to plot out my course through New Jersey for the Quest for 399, I decided to start at the northern most location and work my way down. Not only would that have me closer to home in Maryland afterward, but it also worked out with one of the more southern locations not opening until 4 p.m. That northern most park was Keansburg Amusement Park.
Keansburg was listed as opening at noon and I arrived around 11:50 a.m. I saw a couple of rides testing, so I had my hopes up. Most of the other parks I planned to visit consisted of SBF Visa spinning coasters, so I was looking forward to breaking that up. Yes, even if it was was a Pinfari Looping Star. Sounds weird, I know!
Not Off to a Good Start for My Quest
Last year, Mike from Canobie Coaster, who was interviewed here on We Were Inverted back in August, published a review of this park where he asked the question, “Is this the world’s worst amusement park?” During his visit, most of the rides closed and the park appeared extremely run down. When all was said and done, he recommended for anyone wanting to visit Keansburg, to call the park first to find out if the rides would be running.
Taking that advice, the day prior I tried calling the park a few times. No one answered, but the park was closed after all. I crossed my fingers that Mike’s experience was partly due to the pandemic and that mine would be better. My biggest concern was that it’s late September. After seeing it was the park’s final weekend of operations. however, I thought that maybe, just maybe, there would be a decent crowd looking to visit the park one last time for 2021. That wasn’t the case at all!
Both Coasters & Haunt Closed
Since I arrived at the park a few minutes before opening, I walked around and shot some content. I shot all the photos you can find throughout this blog and I also shot some vlog footage for the We Were Inverted YouTube channel. I’ll be editing over the next few days after publishing the blog counterparts here.
Once I was done shooting my footage, I walked over to the ticket booth and asked if either coaster or the Haunted Manor would be open. Much to my dismay all three attractions were closed. She cited the fact that it was park’s final weekend and they had a bare bones staff. She wasn’t lying either. I saw about a dozen people walking through the park, but even less staff. She apologized and asked if I was a coaster enthusiast. I told her I was and she recommended a few other beach parks, including another one I already was planning on visiting during this trip – Jenkinson’s Boardwalk.
After getting the bad news, I shot a little more footage to share the bad news in the vlog, bought a slice of pizza at Pizza V’s and was on my way to my first back up location – iPlay America.
Even After Missing Out, I Plan to Return
Being totally honest here, Keansburg was the location I was most looking forward to visiting with the ride selection offered. Not only does the park have two coasters, but they have a haunted house, a classic dark ride, a small log flume, and some neat looking flats. One of those flats, Pharaoh’s Fury, is the neatest looking pirate ship-style ride I’ve seen. I love Egyptian history and art, so I might be bias. Either way, it looks awesome and I included a photo of it down below.
My aim is to visit Keansburg again in 2022 during the summer. By then maybe the Spook House dark ride will be open as well. It’s currently listed on their site as undergoing restoration. They make mention of it being featured on the History Channel’s American Restoration show too. I’m going to have to find that and give it a watch. I love old school dark rides.
If you plan on heading to this park, I offer the same advice as Mike did in his review – call the park first, especially you’re going out of your way to visit. It wasn’t so bad for me since I had was planning to make several stops that day. I’m glad I was at least able to walk through the park and take in some of the sights and not have to stare at a closed park through a fence like I did several years ago in Upstate New York when I found Sylvan Beach Amusement Park to be closed.
Keansburg Amusement Park Photo Gallery - September 25, 2021
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): n/a
