Belmont Park in Mission Beach is unveiling a multimillion-dollar revamp just in time for the busy summer season, featuring upgrades to its historic Giant Dipper roller coaster and new attractions for visitors.<\/p>\n
The nearly century-old amusement park expects about 150,000 visitors during peak summer months as families return to enjoy the updated rides, beachfront views and classic attractions.<\/p>\n
One of the park\u2019s most iconic features, the Giant Dipper, recently underwent a $1.6 million rehabilitation project focused on improving the ride experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the Giant Dipper, which just turned 100 years old last year, it’s going into a 101st birthday in July, just went under a six-week rehab this past February,\u201d said Sarah Abelsohn, marketing director for Belmont Park.<\/p>\n
The work primarily focused on smoothing out the wooden track to enhance comfort for riders while preserving the coaster\u2019s historic charm.<\/p>\n
In addition to the coaster upgrades, Belmont Park has introduced new attractions, including a free-access play structure near Shipwreck Cove designed for younger visitors and families.<\/p>\n
For longtime visitors like Sofia Holt, the park continues to evolve while holding onto its nostalgic appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little girl, coming here for the first time, especially being little like, very, very, very little.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holt said Belmont Park remains a place she returns to again and again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite ride is either Mic Drop, which is over there, or it’s either one of the newer ones back over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the park offers more variety than many might expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cA playground that you usually see, that you would see at the park, no, there\u2019s one at Belmont Park. You would usually think that you would have hot dog on a stick only at malls, no, we have hot dog on a stick here. You’d believe we only had ocean to swim at, no we have a plunge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abelsohn said Belmont Park\u2019s unique setting continues to set it apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it doesn’t get more iconic than this, and it also doesn’t get more Sandiego than this. Like, where else can you go Go out for a surf, hit up the beach, ride on the roller coaster, go into the arcade, and then eat like, some really great bites.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWetzels pretzels. You can’t go wrong with the mini bites,\u201d Holt added.<\/p>\n
For Holt, the reason to keep coming back is simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m just here to have fun\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belmont Park in Mission Beach is unveiling a multimillion-dollar revamp just in time for the busy summer season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[11109,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-263107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-mission-beach","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}