Do you enjoy paying out of the nose for EVERYTHING? Do you enjoy walking 12 blocks to the beach,…read morebecause EVERY SINGLE parking space is taken; and I mean EVERY. SINGLE. ONE? Do you like being shoulder to shoulder on a gravelly beach, as quads tear down the beach in front of and behind you? If so, boy do I have a beach for you!
I knew something was wrong when we were crossing the bridge INTO POINT PLEASANT, and I saw people walking with their beach stuff. I literally said to my wife, "thats a terrible sign. If people are walking from HERE, it must be PAAAAAAAAAAAACKED." Understatement of the year.
Mind you, this was a SUNDAY AFTERNOON, when most people are usually heading BACK from the shore. There was ABSOLUTELY NOT A SINGLE SPOT to be had in the entirety of Point Pleasant. We parked on like St. Louis and Philadelphia, at the ABSOLUTE END of a dead end street, which is about 5 or 6 CITY blocks from the beach. (A PRIVATE beach, by the way, so we also had to walk about 3-4 blocks up to get to the peasant section where the Poors could participate.) In fact, after parking, and realizing how far of a walk it was, I drove my wife and daughter to the beach and dropped them off with all the supplies so they wouldn't have to endure the military grade road march, and drove back to where our spot was. It was taken by the time I got back. MAYBE 3 minutes total.
I'm not exaggerating about the parking issue. Spots would get taken AS people were pulling out of them. I found my spot by basically stalking a family walking to their car and hopping in their spot the millisecond they left. They weren't even done the K turn in the street before I was in their abandoned spot. It's a nightmare.
Once you hit the parking lottery and do find a spot, head up to the kiosk to stand in line to pay for the privilege of setting foot on PPs gravel beach. The sand here is 30 grit sand paper. It's so coarse that it doesn't even feel like SAND. The price for all this is $15 per adult. (Saving grace; kids under 12 are free, and veterans are free....a rare W for Point Pleasant.) Once onto gravel beach, good luck finding a spot, as the beach is as packed as the parking spots. Also, after setting up, keep an eye out for the life guards zooming back and forth on their 4 wheelers. There is no dedicated path, lane or area; they just zoom in and out of the beach goers.
Also, for the love of god, I hope you don't get hungry, or even worse, have to use the bathroom. Your options are $47 pizza (that is not an exaggeration), and a mobile port-a-potty set up in a parking lot, with a line extending back to the boardwalk.
I almost forgot to mention the waves. I'm not sure if this is a Point Pleasant problem, or if it was just a rough day, but the waves here are legit scary. I wouldn't let my 7 year old in the water past her ankles, and that was with me right by her side. Grown men were being knocked down and dragged back into the surf with every passing wave. Again, not sure if that's normal, but I saw another reviewer mentioning it, so I decided to throw my 2 cents in. If it IS a normal thing here, you are INSANE or have the parenting acumen of Casey Anthony, if you let your children go into this beaches ocean.
UGH.
I really, REALLY didn't feel going here was anywhere NEAR worth the time and cost it took to come here. I will not be back of my own volition.
Positives are that it was very clean, the aforementioned discounts for vets and kids, and that it has that Jersey Shore, summer time beach vibe, if that is your thing. But, you better LOVE people if you're coming here. Me....I'm good.
