Travel & Activities

Why You Should Take the Family to Bay Beach

A few weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. We dropped the kiddo off with his grandparents up north and then hit the road to Door County. The two of us spent Saturday and Sunday in Door County and went back to his folks house Sunday night.

Both my husband and I took the day off on Monday, our official anniversary. We planned to spend that day with our son. Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to hit Bay Beach Amusement Park in Green Bay on our way home.

I have fond memories of going to Bay Beach as a child. My mom took my brother and I there a few times and it was always a blast.

My husband, having grown up in the area, also spent time there as a child. So, we were both excited to take our son there for the day and see how the place had changed over the years.

Turns out, it was pretty much the same as we remembered. They still have many of the classic rides we enjoyed as children.

Our son just turned 4 years old, which is the perfect age for Bay Beach. Admission is FREE and tickets are just $.25 a piece. Kiddie rides are only 1 ticket per ride. Most of the family rides are just 2 tickets, with a few of the larger rides at 3 tickets per ride. The roller coaster, which we did not go on that day, is 4 tickets per ride.

We bought $10 worth of tickets to start with and figured we’d see how far that got us.

Turns out $10 in tickets bought us almost 4 hours of fun that day. With all three of us being able to enjoy some of the rides.

Once we had tickets in hand, we asked the kiddo where he wanted to start. He immediately pointed to the Ferris wheel, which was an interesting choice for a 4 year old.

Ferris wheel at Bay Beach
The Ferris Wheel at Bay Beach.

It has been a very long time since I rode a Ferris wheel. I forgot what a process it is for them to load and unload people on the ride. I was impressed with how patient our son waited, both in line, and in our seat, as the ride attendant got people on and off before the ride could actually begin.

They were in the process of building a brand new Ferris wheel while we were there. Which was much larger than the one we rode and had big round seats that probably could fit 6-8 people at a time.

The smaller version we went on had standard seats that fit two people comfortably. It was a bit of a squeeze to get a third in the middle. Even one that only weighs 40 lbs.

Family on the Ferris wheel
The whole family having fun on the Ferris wheel.

The view from the Ferris wheel was really beautiful though. It gave us a full view of the park and the water. I got a little dizzy to be honest, but also captured an awesome shot of the swings behind us. Which I took while holding my phone over my head pointed backwards.

From there we hit the kiddie rides. There are several options for littles, including boats, airplanes, race cars and lady bugs. I appreciated that they even had a smaller, more kid-friendly version of the swings (which is my favorite amusement park ride). Because the kiddo wasn’t quite tall enough for the those. Plus, I think they would have been a bit too scary for him.

The Giant Slide at Bay Beach
View from the top of the Giant Slide.

My husband and I each took a turn on the swings. Then we went down the giant slide as a family. I will say that they need to grease that sucker up. Because there was a lot more scootin’ than slidin’ in those burlap sacks in order to get down all three sections of the slide.

Since we arrived around lunch time, we did take a break to eat something while there. We opted for the Main Pavilion, though there are several concession stands throughout the park.

Similar to the inexpensive nature of the rides, the food was actually super affordable as well. Sandwich options (hamburger, cheeseburger, hot dog, etc.) ranged from just $2.65-3.50 per sandwich. The frozen lemonade was super tart and a delicious treat on a hot summer day. Which only set us back $2.50 for a 16 oz.

Lunch for all three of us cost about $12 total. There were arcade games in the main hall as well. The boys played while we waited for our food, which cost a few dollars more on top of that.

Sky Fighter ride at Bay Beach
Riding the Sky Fighter kiddie ride for just one ticket!

After we fueled up, we went back outside to use up the rest of our tickets. We each took a turn on the carousel and the kiddo hopped on a few more of the kiddie rides. I thought we would end with a train ride through the park, but for whatever reason my son wasn’t interested.

We wound up buying $1.00 more worth of tickets before we left. Bringing our grand total for the afternoon to a whopping $11. Which means four hours of fun for the whole family, with food, only set us back about $25.

It was totally worth the stop and the money. Bay Beach is a wonderful place for all ages – because I certainly felt like a kid again. There were plenty of options for all of us to enjoy. And at the end of the day, my face hurt from smiling so much.

Plus the visit to this charming little amusement park brought so much joy to our son.

And that right there, is priceless.

child waving from carousel

One thought on “Why You Should Take the Family to Bay Beach

  1. Hi there! This article could not be written any better! Going through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He constantly kept talking about this. I’ll forward this post to him. Pretty sure he’s going to have a good read. I appreciate you for sharing!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Verified by MonsterInsights