The Best New Jersey Theme Parks and Amusement Parks

Bowcraft Amusement Park: Scotch Plains

Bowcraft is a small, traditional amusement park geared to families with younger children (read: no major thrill rides). Attractions include the junior coaster, Crossbow, as well as a Scrambler, Pirate Ship, Tilt-A-Whirl, swing, and kiddie rides. It also offers an arcade, midway games, and food stands.

Casino Pier: Seaside Heights

Casino Pier is a classic seaside boardwalk park on the Jersey Shore. It features 35 rides, including Hydrus, a steel roller coaster with a vertical lift and and a 97-degree drop. Other attractions include a Sky Ride, a family coaster, the Shore Shot drop tower ride, and the Skyscraper pendulum ride, all crammed onto a narrow pier. Visitors will also find go-karts, a walk-through funhouse, and mini-golf. In 2019, the park added Centrifuge, an indoor Scrambler, Crazy Cabs, a spinning flat ride, and two kiddie rides. There is an adjacent water park, Breakwater Beach.

Clementon Park and Splash World: Clementon

Clementon is a classic, turn-of-the-century amusement park. Highlights include Hellcat, a wooden roller coaster, and the 100-foot-tall Thunder Drop tower ride. The park also offers spinning rides and kiddie rides. Admission to Clementon Park includes access to Splash World, the adjacent water park. It features Torpedo Rush, speed slides with launch chambers as well as many other water slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, and other attractions. In 2019, Clementon added four classic rides to its mix: a Scrambler, a Tilt-A-Whirl, a kiddie Dragon Coaster. and the kiddie spinning ride, Pirate Ship.

Note that Clementon Park closed at the end of the 2019 season, but new owners reopened it in 2021. For the 2021 season, Splash World is fully accessible, while a limited number of dry rides are operating at Clementon Park.

Diggerland USA: West Berlin

This unusual park is themed to construction and farm equipment. Some of the attractions allow guests, including children, to operate modified dump trucks, backhoes, tractors, and other vehicles. There are amusement rides that ingeniously incorporate construction equipment such as Greased Beast, which lifts passengers seated in a demolition trailer up into the air and then tilts to dump its human cargo out. There is also a zipline, ropes course, rock climbing wall, and many other attractions. In 2021, Diggerland added The Water Main, a water park with a lazy river, a splash playground, water slides, and other features.

Fantasy Island: Beach Haven

Another one of New Jersey's seaside parks, Fantasy Island is relatively small. Among its rides are a lovely vintage carousel, a large Ferris wheel, bumper cars, tea cups, and a Tilt-A-Whirl. It also offers an ice cream parlor, an arcade, and midway games. For 2021, the park is welcoming three new attractions: The Atlantic Scrambler and Crab Race, both spinning rides, and a small Ferris wheel featuring sea creatures. Fantasy Island also upgraded its arcade and introduced a new menu at its Shark Bites Grille restaurant.

The Funplex: East Hanover

The indoor family entertainment center includes bowling, go-karts, laser tag, a VR attraction, an arcade, a foam play area, and a climbing structure. It also features a collection of rides such as bumper cars, the XD motion simulator dark ride, a drop tower, the SkyScraper thrill ride, and the Reverse Time spinning ride. In the warmer months, The Funplex also offers Splashplex, an outdoor water park.

The Funplex: Mount Laurel

The second Funplex location includes both indoor and outdoor attractions. (The indoor family entertainment center is open year-round.) Among the attractions are bumper cars, laser tag, bumper boats, mini-golf, bowling, an arcade, and go-karts. Spinning rides include a Tilt-A-Whirl, the Fun Twister, and the Kite Flyer. There is also the High Velocity drop tower ride and the FunCoaster roller coaster.

Gillian's Wonderland Pier: Ocean City

The classic boardwalk pier park, which dates back to 1929, offers a wide variety of rides, including two family-level roller coasters, a huge Ferris wheel, a haunted dark ride, a log flume, and a freefall drop tower.

iPlay America: Freehold

An enormous indoor entertainment complex, iPlay America’s attractions include a spinning roller coaster, a carousel, go-karts, laser tag, a drop tower ride, spinning rides, a 4D theater, arcade games, ropes courses, bowling, and kiddie rides. The facility also offers Topgolf simulated golfing, love concerts and events, and multiple dining options.

Jenkinson's Boardwalk: Pt. Pleasant Beach

The small Jersey Shore park offers a drop tower ride, a carousel, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, spinning rides, and two small roller coasters. Other attractions include three mini-golf courses, a fun house, an arcade, and an aquarium.

Keansburg Amusement Park: Keansburg

Another Jersey Shore park, Keansburg offers a small roller coaster, antique cars, a carousel, a whip, and a log flume, among other rides. It also has an arcade, midway games, and go-karts. There is an adjacent Runaway Rapids water park.

Land of Make Believe: Hope

Land of Make Believe is a small park geared mostly to families with younger children. Its attractions include a small coaster, spinning rides, and a Christmas Village meet and greet with Santa Claus. In 2019, the park added Off Road Safari Adventure, an ecotourism ride in a 4X4 open-air vehicle, and Scream Machine 360, a thrill ride that turns passengers upside down. One price includes admission to Pirate's Cove waterpark.

Legoland Discovery Center: East Rutherford

One of many Legoland Discovery Centers throughout the country and around the world, this one, which opened in 2021, is located at the American Dream complex. The indoor venue is more like a family entertainment center than a full-blown theme park (such as Legoland California). While it is smaller, the Discovery Center shares some features and attractions with the larger Legoland theme parks. These include a 4D Theater that shows a repertoire of films, including one based on the popular Lego movies. Among other features are an interactive dark ride, Imagination Express, Lego character meet and greets, and opportunities to build Lego models. Legoland Discovery Center also offers a cafe and a shop.

Morey's Piers: Wildwood

It's amusement nirvana at the Jersey Shore's largest ride complex with three classic boardwalk and pier parks plus two waterparks. There are over 150 rides, including seven coasters. Highlights include the Great Nor’Easter, a steel coaster, and The Great White, a wooden coaster. There is also a carousel, a giant Ferris wheel, lots of spinning rides, and bumper cars. The water parks overlook the ocean and include water slides, a lazy river, and private cabanas. Morey's also operates nearby hotels, including the Pan American and the Starlux Boutique.

Nickelodeon Universe: East Rutherford

Part of the massive American Dream mega-complex, Nickelodeon Universe is a major, 300,000-square-foot theme park that includes five roller coasters and a variety of other attractions themed to the popular children’s TV network. Among the thrill machines are TMNT Shellraiser, a world-class ride that includes a magnetic launch, seven inversions, a141-foot climb up a vertical lift hill into a pop-up tower, and, at 121.5 degrees, the world’s steepest drop on a coaster. A second coaster, The Shredder, is billed as the world’s tallest (85 feet) and longest (2,247 feet) free-spinning coaster.

American Dream also includes a separate DreamWorks-themed indoor waterpark, the largest in the country, a huge outdoor observation wheel, a SeaLife aquarium, and an indoor ski slope.

Playland's Castaway Cove: Ocean City

A great Jersey Shore park, Playland's Castaway Cove features four coasters, a freefall tower ride, spinning rides, and kiddie rides. its newest coaster, GaleForce, opened in 2017. It includes three magnetic launches, a greater-than-90-degrees drop, and a top speed of 64 mph. The park also offers mini-golf, go-karts, and an arcade.

Six Flags Great Adventure: Jackson

This is an enormous Six Flags complex with a Wild Safari experience (that is included with admission to the amusement park), a separate admission Hurricane Harbor waterpark, and one of the country's biggest and most popular seasonal ride parks. Highlights include the record-breaking Kingda Ka rocket coaster and El Toro, a wild, airtime-filled ride that is among the best wooden coasters in the country.

Steel Pier: Atlantic City

One of the most famous amusement piers of yore, the Steel Pier was rebuilt in the 1990s with a modest assortment of rides and amusements. Highlights include a 227-foot-tall observation wheel, which can accommodate 240 passengers. Helicopter tours of the shoreline and city are available.

Storybook Land: Egg Harbor Township

A family-owned and -operated park, Storybook Land is geared to young kids with a storybook and nursery rhymes theme. Rides include a small roller coaster, a small drop tower ride, a carousel, antique cars, and a train ride. The park is open on select days through the early winter and offers fall and Christmas-themed events. In 2019, Storybook Land opened Deep Sea Divers, a vertical spinning ride.

Wild West City: Stanhope

This "western heritage" park for the young-uns is nestled in the rough-and-tumble wilds of New Jersey. There aren’t any amusement park rides, but there are shoot-em-up shows, stagecoach rides, pony rides, panning for gold, a train ride, and other wild west diversions (and mini-golf).

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