Six Flags Dead Man’s Party celebrates 10 years
Jackson, NJ – This year at Six Flags Great Adventure, the cast and crew of Dead Man’s Party celebrates their 10th year in production. The musical peformance is hands down the most popular show at Fright Fest. If you haven’t yet seen Dead Man’s Party you’re missing out on one of the best Halloween performances in the tri-state area.
The production quality of the show is second to none and the performance draws thousands of viewers for each performance. The show runs twice nightly throughout Fright Fest.
This year, Dead Man’s Party features choreography produced by Ashle Dawson, the runner up of the first season of “So You Think You Can Dance” and brings back hit songs that have been dropped over the past 10 years.
Most notable is Evanesence’s “Bring me to Life” which makes its return after a two year hiatus. Digging deeper the show brought back “Bad to the Bone” and “Feed my Frankenstein”. Continuing with the tradition started in 2008, the opening ceremony for the Awakening shares the stage with Dead Man’s Party and provides the lead in to Dr. Fright’s annual party.
This year’s show is slightly different than past years with a few minor additions to the set and minor changes to the peformance, but one of the best shows yet.
To see more photos of this year’s Dead Man’s Party, visit Jackson NJOnline on Facebook. To see our videos of Dead Man’s Party and Fright Fest, check out our GKNJ channel on You Tube.
Dead Mans Party videos from 2007-2008. Fright Fest videos from 2007-2008
Check back regularly for Fright Fest updates and next weekend for 2009 video.
Argh! The Pirates of the Jersey Shore are in search of Pirate Pete
Brick, NJ – Did you know that being a pirate is back in style after being uncool for more than 100 years? Piracy in the world is on the rise and locally, you can find a merry band of pirates sailing the Metedeconk River in Brick Township. They’re the Jersey Shore Pirates, located on Princeton Avenue just passed Windward Beach, setting sail for a one hour tour six times daily, bringing children on a Pirate adventure that they will never forget.
The tour begins as the would be pirates get inked up with tatoos and facepainting and given proper pirate attire. Then the captain rounds up the scallywags and puts them to work aboard the Sea Gypsy, the most notorious pirate ship on the Metedeconk in search of Pirate Pete’s treasure. Along the way, the children interactively help the captain and the crew find the treasure and defeat Pirate Pete.
It’s a wonderful experience for the children and better than any pirate adventure you can find in the Caribbean, where Pirate tours are common place. The captain of the Sea Gypsy runs a tight ship and makes sure each one of his little mates goes home with a smile. Pricing is affordable and reasonable and well worth it as your children will be wanting to go back aboard the Sea Gypsy every day for the next two weeks!
It’s an unforgettable and local experience for young children and parents to share in an interactive high seas adventure that will have your kids searching for treasure maps, scouting the horizon for clues and manning the water cannons to rid the Metedeconk of Pirate Pete once and for all. Our group of Jackson children and families from the Jackson Mom’s Club had a great time on deck and can’t wait for next year.
For more information on this wonderful Pirate adventure, visit www.jerseyshorepirates.com.
Fort Wadsworth a great adventure across the bridge
They say everyone has a skeleton in their closet and I’m no exception. I don’t normally go around admitting this story or telling people because for many years it was something I was not very proud of, but going through old photos today, I realized it was just one of those phases kids go through and there’s nothing to be ashamed of.
I was 17 when I graduated high school and as many who know me already know, I eventually wound up becoming a U.S. Marine shortly after. What you may not know is that before I joined the Marines, I joined the Army. Yes. There. I said it. They say that overcoming denial is the first step of recovery. While I was a senior in high school, an Army recruiter (Sgt. Davis) convinced me that I would be better off joining the Army with a Military Intelligence MOS instead of the Marines with a basic communications MOS. It was a better career move he said. Being gullible, I conned my parents into signing the paperwork and I spent my summer prior to basic training, as a 17 year old working for the 24thMilitary Intelligence Battalion at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island. So I was indoctrinated into the U.S. armed forces into a pre-training program that allowed you to live and work as a real soldier before you actually became one. I trained for 3 months at Fort Wadsworth and Fort Dix doing an awful lot of cool stuff with the Army, but somewhere along the line I felt like I was doing something wrong.
My parents weren’t fond of my life’s choice and did not want to see me in the military, considering at the end of my 3 months, we were a nation at war with Iraq (August 2000). So shortly before my 18th birthday I pulled another con job. I told my parents I did not want to be in the Army and they revoked my papers (since I was 17 still) and the contract was deemed null and void.
A week or two later, after my 18th birthday, I went back down the recruiter’s office and enlisted in the Marine Corps. Looking back, I know I made the right decision, but I also learned about one of the coolest places in Staten Island, Fort Wadsworth.
In 1994, the base was abandoned by the Clinton Administration, like so many other fine military installations and was turned over to the National Park Service. Millions of people drive across the Verrazano Bridge each day and many don’t even know what’s below them.
Under the Verrazano lies a piece of American history that is an incredible spectacle to behold. Fort Wadsworth has a history that dates to before the Revolutionary War and many of the structures were built back in the time of the war of 1812 and continued active service through the Civil War and beyond.
The entire base is a walk through U.S. military history and it is now open to the public as a National Park. You can read more on thehistory of Fort Wadsworth on Wikipedia, but if you happen to travel into Staten Island or Brooklyn, you might want to take a quick detour and explore the old fort underneaththe Verrazano.
During my summer at the base, I fell in love with Fort Wadsworth. On cool summer nights, we used to camp out on the roof under the bridge with the skyline of New York City in the distance and strange and constant hum of traffic overhead. It was a great way to spend the summer after graduation and a great place to visit.
Ok, so it’s not in New Jersey. It’s in Staten Island, but what’s the difference anymore?
Family Day Trip NJ: Atlantic City Boardwalk
Atlantic City, NJ – Atlantic City, the East Coast’s gambling mecca and adult playground has softened its image over the past few years in an attempt to lure the average American family into its once sinful clutches.
The Atlantic City we knew when we had just turned 21 is much different today, just as 42nd street then is not the 42nd street of today. While 42nd street in Manhattan has become the new commercial tourism Mecca of New York City, Atlantic City still has a way to go, but it’s getting there.
Just off the boardwalk, a once run down section of town has been converted from check cashing, strip clubs and bars into an urban factory outlet center with a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse thrown in the mix. On the other side of the island, the Convention Center has become one of the state’s most popular professional tourism draws. While you’re at the Convention Center, don’t forget to have lunch at Tunn Tavern, a modern day recreation of the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps.
On the boardwalk itself, things have also changed where it was once just an avenue for adults to casino hop long into the night, it is becoming a very popular family spot as well. For starters, there is the age old miniature golf course across from the old convention center. After a game of miniature golf, you can get lunch and adventure across the boardwalk at the Rainforest Cafe.
The Rainforest Cafe is one of the most unique restaurants you’ll ever visit as it’s as close to eating in the jungle as you can get without actually eating in the jungle. The restaurant is decorated lavishly with jungle trees, ponds and fish tanks, surrounded by a tropical landscape where elephants, tigers, alligators and monkeys lurk. Every half hour a tropical storm rushes through the restaurant. The food is decent, but the experience is why you should go. The cafe is also a tourist trap, so be ready for the kids to want anything and everything that’s available in the gift shop, which you have to walk through before and after your meal.
Walking up the boardwalk a bit to the north, you will find the New Jersey Korean War Memorial where you can educate your children about America’s once forgotten war. Beyond the memorial, you can take the family for a movie at the Imax theater at the Tropicana resort always playing a selection of family movies.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum is another place the kids will fully enjoy. It’s a museum full of strange oddities and makes for a great Halloween season destination.
If the Rainforest Cafe is not your idea of a nice family meal, you can always opt for the Hard Rock Cafe. Along your walk, you’ll pass numerous souvenir shops, arcades and boardwalk style eateries.
The main attraction for kids at the Atlantic City Boardwalk of course is the Steel Pier, full of rides, amusements and games of chance.
Atlantic City’s boardwalk, while not quite the family environment you will find at Wildwood or Point Pleasant does make for an entertaining day trip. While you’re in the area, you might also want to check out Lucy the Elephant, the Atlantic City lighthouse, Storybook Land or even the Ocean City Boardwalk.
If mom and dad want to get in a little shopping time, there’s also the Pier Shops at Caesars which is full of higher end retail outlets and restaurants.
Lucy the Elephant a Jersey Shore treasure
Margate, NJ - An extremely large elephant has been spotted just off the beach in Margate at the Jersey Shore. The elephant has been reported to be 65 feet high and 60 feet long and has a hunger for tourists.
Her name is Lucy, and she’s a 127 year old National Historic Landmark just two miles south of Atlantic City. Lucy now stands at the beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and has become a beloved figure of the Jersey Shore by all who know and have met her.
Lucy was built in 1881 by a land developer who wanted to use the structure as a way to promote his development of South Atlantic City (now Margate), which was largely undeveloped at the time to sell seaside lots to residents in Philadelphia.
However, by 1887, the developer, John Lafferty was stretched too thin and his plans weren’t exactly going as planned and he began unloading many of his assets, including the huge elephant he built and patented in 1881. He sold the oversized elephant to Anton Gertzen and died a few years later in 1897, never to realize the impact his creation would have on the Jersey Shore.
The Gertzen family opened Lucy to the public and charged 10 cents for people to go inside and see the huge elephant by the ocean. In 1900, she was officially named Lucy. The success of Lucy spawned a period of Lucy wannabe’s, but none caught on and none remain today. There was Cape May’s Light of Asia which dwarfed Lucy, but in a short time the structure had deteriorated and was torn down in 1900.
Then there was the Elephantine Colossus in Coney Island which was a 7 story and 122 foot tall elephant, but was a complete financial failure before it burned to the ground in 1896, just 12 years after it was built.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Lucy was a successful tourist attraction and and was visited by actors, actresses, dignitaries and even presidents. In 1970, the Gertzen family donated Lucy to the city of Margate after 70 years of operating and maintaining her.
By this time, Lucy had fallen ill. She was falling apart and needed reconstructive surgery or she herself might have met the wrecking ball like the other elephants before her.
A fundraising drive was put into action to save Lucy and in 1970, she was moved to her current home and the reconstruction process began. The efforts fell short financially, but in 1971, Lucy was added to the National Register of Historic Places which opened the door to federal grants to finish the restoration process.
$124,000 later, Lucy’s makeover was complete and she was once again opened to the public, remaining pretty much the same for the next 40 years as she is today.
You may feel it’s not enough to make a trip to Margate just to see Lucy, but she’s in very close proximity to the Ocean City Boardwalk, Atlantic City Boardwalk and Storybook Land, so she can very easily be added to any Cape May County day trips. The kids will love her just as much as the adults.
Stewart’s Root Beer in Toms River a Jersey Shore Tradition
Toms River, NJ - Each year, millions of visitors drive down Route 37 in Toms River on their way to sun in the fun on the barrier island. Whether they are going to Seaside, Island Beach or the more secluded beaches of Ortley and Lavalette or the nightlife along the boardwalk strip and the boulevard, they all have to pass the historic Stewart’s restaurant on their way over the bridge.
It may not look like much. In fact, it may not even look inviting to vacationers from Brooklyn, North Jersey and Staten Island, but for local residents like myself who grew up at the shore, not going to Stewarts is like a Brooklyn native never having pizza at Grimaldi’s. It’s like a Staten Islander never going to Denino’s or a North Jersey native never tasting a ripper at Rut’s Hutt.
There’s nothing particularly special about the restaurant either. Aluminum picnic tables overlooking gridlock traffic from a sand and gravel parking lot, but there’s something about Stewarts that our whole family enjoys. It all started back in the 70’s as a young boy on the way to Island Beach or Seaside, which was a 3-4 times a week occurrence for us in the summer. Most times, my dad would pass right on by telling 3 screaming boys in the back seat that “we packed sandwiches for the beach today”. After all, it was the 70’s. Kids and families didn’t eat out as much as they do these days.
But those times when he would steer his truck over in the right lane going south on Fischer Blvd, we knew what was coming.. Stewarts hot dogs and root beer.. in the car! Back then, like now, the waiters, dressed in referee style uniforms came to the car, take your order and place the number of glass mugs on a ticket on your window. Ours of course always had 5 back then. Today, we have 4 as we carry on the tradition to the 4th generation in my family.
They mark the number of mugs they give you because they serve their trademark root beer in heavy glass mugs, which probably grow feet and walk quite often. Back in the 70’s and 80’s they used to give you wooden french fry forks, but those days are long gone, I guess.
While many people line up for hours at the new Sonic in Howell for manufactured fast food chain burgers, there’s rarely ever a wait at Stewart’s and it’s one of the few remaining old fashioned restaurants at the Jersey Shore. Not much has changed here in the 30 years I’ve been going and not much will probably change until one day somebody realizes that perhaps that high traffic corner might be served better as a Super Wawa or McDonald’s drive through. It will be a sad day for the Jersey Shore when that happens, but until then, make sure you treat the family to ice cold mug of Stewart’s Root beer in 1950’s car hop style on your way to the beach.
Best Places in New Jersey for Kids: Dorbrook Recreation Area
By Phil Stilton
Colts Neck, NJ (GoKidsNJ) – Tucked away amid Colt’s Neck’s horse ranches and somewhere between Eastmont Orchards and Delicious Orchards, you’ll find one of New Jersey’s most unique county parks, the Dorbook Recreation Area, home of the Dorbrook Spray Park. The spray park is a water play area designed by the Monmouth County Park System with dozens of water sprinklers, buckets and water play activities for kids from toddlers through pre-teens.
While the park, to adults may not seem very large, to children on a hot summer day, it’s just a huge and fun as any commercial water park. Best of all, the park is free. Children can play with the cascading waterfall activity, wait under the buckets dumping gallons of water on the children or like most, move between the activities for hours at a time.
The water is clean and safe, it is filtered chlorine, tested for ph and levels daily by park system employees and twice weekly by the Monmouth County Health Department. Infants must wear approved swim diapers and food and drink is not allowed in the Spray Park.
When the children get waterlogged, Dorbrook Recreation Area comes fully equipped with picnic tables, shaded grass areas for blanket picnics, soccer fields and one of largest modern soft base playgrounds in the state. Did I mention it is also home to the biggest sandbox I’ve ever seen in all the years I’ve been travelling around New Jersey for GoKidsNJ?
The playground is split into several main areas. There is the 5-12 set which features activities that will work the minds and muscles of any child. One of the neat features in this playground is the rolling slide which the children roll down a slide made completely of warehouse style rollers. There is a huge sitting seesaw, swings and a very large toddler play area. To most kids, the main attraction is the huge sandbox that was very clean, unlike many we’ve been to over the years.
Beyond the Challenger Place playground and the Spray Park, Dorbrook Recreation area encompasses 535 acres of open space and wooded areas which include 2.3 miles of paved trails for walking, biking and skating. The park has tennis courts, basketball courts, an inline skating rink and two swimming pools used for park system swim lessons.
The open space has made Dorbrook Park an ideal place for flying kites and model rocket launches. The Dorbrook Recreation Area in Colts Neck definitely ranks near the top as one of New Jersey’s best county parks. For more information and directions, visit the Dorbrook Recreation Area’s website.
New Jersey’s Bug Museum Insectropolis offers rainy day fun
Toms River, NJ – If you’re into bugs or just looking for something different to do on the next rainy day in New Jersey, you might want to try out Insectropolis, a bug museum located on Route 9 in Toms River, NJ. The museum is owned and operated, oddly enough, by Ozane, a pest control company. A trip to the ‘bug museum’ as my daughter affectionately refers to Insectropolis is a great way to pass time indoors if your Jersey Shore vacation gets rained out.
Insectropolis offers both self guided and guided tours of their exhibits, starting off with an exhibit that introduces children to basic insect anatomy. Head, thorax and abdomens and continues through an educational introduction to the worlds of insects. Many thousands of specimens are on display including beetles, moths and butterflies, including large exotic species.
There are computer kiosks with bug laden learning games that tests the children’s abilities to identify bugs and challenge their ability to retain what they learn throughout the tour. There is a bug penetentiary where the most criminal of bugs are on display for all to see, including mosquitos, ticks, fleas and other disease carrying specimens that have plagued humanity through the years.
As you progress through the winding rooms of countless insects on display, you will eventually reach the ant tunnels, a carpeted play area where children can crawl through the tunnels just like the ants in the huge ant farm nearby. Dozens of different arachnids are on display in the spider room and you can watch each in their artificial ‘natural’ habitat as they spin webs, devour prey or just mill around their tanks.
Insectropolis is also home to a working glass behive where you watch the bees at work building their hive, storing their honey and caring for their larva. It’s truly an amazing site to sit and watch bees at work, just inches away with an inside viewing that you won’t get on National Geographic.
As the tour winds down there is a hands on station where children can hold hissing cockroaches, glowing scorpions and milipedes in which I was told “feels like daddy’s beard in the morning”. Insectropolis may not fill your entire day, but on a rainy day, it sure beats the local mall or waiting in the hotel room for the rain to stop. Their gift shop is also chock full of insect themed toys, plushies, puzzles, butterfly farms, ant farms and they even have edible insect delights. If you want to munch down some meal worms or suck on a lolipop with a scorpion filled center, it’s all at Insectropolis.
Visit www.insectropolis.com for more information.
From their website:
Insectropolis is a fun and unique insect learning center that dazzles visitors of all ages. There is plenty to see and do here! Set within the architecture of a bug-themed city, our creative displays entertain guests as they learn about these fascinating creatures.
View thousands of beautiful and bizarre exotic insects from all over the world. Play bug games on our touch-screen computers. Pretend you are a termite as you crawl through our mudtube. Watch ants forage for food and build tunnels in our live ant nest. Safely get up close to our observation hive and see our busy bees. Or spy on our many other live insects. Of course, your visit is not complete unless you touch a bug! Touch a live tarantula, scorpion, millipede, and a hissing cockroach before you leave. Whether you are a bug enthusiast or just a curious visitor, Insectropolis has over a dozen exhibit areas that are sure to educate and entertain.
Rain dampens Father’s Day at the Jersey Shore
Seaside Heights, NJ – Fathers Day weekend in Seaside Heights, New Jersey is usually one of the busiest days along the Jersey Shore. Beaches are usually packed with vacationers from the tri state region and there’s not a parking space to be found from Cape May to Sandy Hook.
This year, so far, such has not been the case as Jersey Shore businesses, already suffering from problems caused by economic downturn are getting hit extremely hard with higher than normal rainfall in June. Rain has washed out nearly every weekend this summer along the shore. In fact, it has rained 18 of 22 days so far in June, delivering over 4 inches of rain by the month’s midway point. The average New Jersey rainfall amounts for June typically average 4 inches. New Jersey is on track for 6 to 8 inches of rainfall before the month is over.
All along the boardwalk, both the economy and the rain has kept vacationers away. On Sunday, Father’s Day, the crowds were light as stand employees sat around all day waiting for the visitors who never came. Store owners grumbled and complained about the rain the entire length of the boardwalk, but hope that the sun will return and they can make up lost ground in July and August.
Rides were closed at the Casino Pier and Funtown Pier in Seaside for most of Father’s Day weekend. The Casino Pier was hoping to lure dad’s with a “Dads ride free” promotion where fathers, accompanied by a paying child can ride all day for free and given a complimentary pass to the Breakwater Beach waterpark, which remained closed for yet another weekend.
The weather didn’t scare away the surfers as the tumultuous storms created wind and wave conditions ideal for the perfect wave, or as perfect as you can get here at the Jersey Shore.
With the first one third of the summer tourism season, which runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day, now in the books, local businesses owners are hoping for a return to normal seasonal weather at the Jersey Shore. Many businesses have been hit hard this spring as higher than normal rainfall has dealt a financial blow for an industry not on any waiting list for a government sponsored handout. If the rain continues and the crowds continue to stay away, it could have grave consequences for the Jersey Shore’s economic lifeline.
Best Places for Kids in NJ: Surflight Childrens Theatre
Long Beach Island, NJ – The Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven, New Jersey is no different than any other theater in New Jersey. Each summer however, the theater transforms itself into a children’s theater, running fairy tale productions from June through July, every year.
The Surflight Theatre started way back in 1950 in Beach Haven Crest in a 2,200 seat tent with a cast of 60 that included a 12 piece orchestra for a three week long season. Over the next few years, the theater bounced around Long Beach Island from their tent to the old Beach Haven meat market and even an old garage that barely fit 300 occupants.
Over the years the theatre grew in size and even added an adjacent ice cream parlor, the Show Place Ice Cream Parlour, which itself has become just as popular as the theatre itself. The ice cream parlor was added to the mix in 1975 and has been a landmark on Long Beach Island ever since. Before or after each show at the theatre, you can enjoy ice cream and a meal at the Show Place Ice Cream parlor and watch a 50’s style floor show.
The children’s theatre itself started back in 1956 and has continued through the years, delivering quality family entertainment and putting smile on kids faces for half a century. Some of the shows held regularly each season include Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Princess and the Pea, Beauty and the Beast and other children’s classics.
As an added touch, the staff will invite the children on stage during intermission to give birthday wishes to any children celebrating a birthday.
Surflight’s staff delivers a quality performance for every show, whether it’s one of their standard theatre productions or the summer long children’s theater. The theatre is a great compliment to any Long Beach Island vacation.
