Seafood Festival Hassle-Free Via Free Shuttle
The 2012 Festival of the Sea was held Sat. in Point Beach
The sun, the food and the fun made a visit to the Festival of the Sea a great time for my family, friends and I on Saturday afternoon.
And getting in and out quickly and easily via free shuttle bus was a big improvement over fighting traffic, driving around looking for a parking spot and then walking a long distance just to get to the beginning of the street fair.
Residents from Point Beach, Point Borough, Brick, many parts of New Jersey and beyond, ate, drank and partied at the 2012 Festival of the Sea in downtown Point Pleasant Beach.
The Point Pleasant Beach Chamber of Commerce, which planned and ran the popular seafood festival, could not have asked for more spectacular weather. The sunny skies and warm, balmy weather attracted crowds in droves.
The festival offered a wide array of seafood and landlubber fare alike, beverages, desserts, a wine garden, pony rides, games and arts and crafts for the kids and some entertaining live musical talent.
For the first time, I took a free shuttle bus from Point Pleasant Borough High School to the western edge of the seafood festival on Arnold Avenue and I'm glad I did. My family, friends and I walked from our house in Point Borough to the parking lot behind the Borough High School.
The bus, which was actually a comfortable passenger van, was waiting as we walked into the high school parking lot, got us there quickly and dropped us off. It felt great not having to drive around looking for a parking space.
When it was time to leave, we had only a brief wait before a bus arrived to whisk us back. The drivers were quite efficient and nice. I always wondered if it would be a good idea to take a shuttle bus to the festival. Now I know it is and our friends, who live in Monmouth County, agreed.
I would recommend the shuttles to anyone interested in avoiding traffic and parking shortages. There were plenty of parking spaces in the Borough High School lot.
There were also two other bus routes, as there have been in prior years, so that's an option to keep in mind for next year.
But no matter how you go, earlier is still better. The crowds had really thickened and the lines for lobster rolls at Point Lobster got really long by late afternoon.
Rick
9:56 am on Sunday, September 16, 2012
Great job organizers!
Michael Ramos
11:30 am on Sunday, September 16, 2012
As always Carol Vacarro and team did an AWSOME job.... Beautiful weather, wonderful food, friendly people and great shopping.... This is why I love living in PPB!!!!
Mike Corbally
12:23 pm on Sunday, September 16, 2012
A job well done by all involved.
Beach_N8iv
3:26 pm on Sunday, September 16, 2012
This was a GREAT day, a good time and a WONDERFUL way to end the Summer season.
Jenn
4:12 pm on Sunday, September 16, 2012
It was definitely a great way to end to summer with a bang
DBW
9:37 am on Monday, September 17, 2012
Why are all the comments deleted for those who don't feel the same way about this festival?
Denise Di Stephan
12:22 pm on Monday, September 17, 2012
I did not delete any comments at all from this story and neither did my editor (I just checked with him), so I don't know if other readers flagged comments or what may have happened. If you have any specific examples, please email me at denise.distephan@patch.com.
DBW
4:46 pm on Monday, September 17, 2012
Let me put it another way. The story about the seafood festival ran about 3 different times. I noticed once negative comments started to appear then the story was gone. Then the story re appears with all the comments gone and once the negative comments start coming and then it's gone again. I read people complain about everything from the traffic, to the greasy food being spilt every where, to the women who complained about dogs being in the food area. Go back and check that out.
Denise Di Stephan
5:50 pm on Monday, September 17, 2012
No thank you. I don't need to "go back and check that out." Stories did not disappear and then re-appear. No story about this topic "ran 3 different times." There was one story before the festival with some "negative" comments under it. Here is that story http://patch.com/A-xDbK and the negative comments are still there. While that story moved off the home page, that's only because all our new stories push the old stories down the left side of the home page and then eventually off the home page entirely, but they are still in the Patch website and can be easily accessed by using search bar in top right corner of home page. That story, which was posted on the early morning of Tues., Sept. 11, was not treated differently than any other. Then there was the story that I posted very early in the morning the day after the festival, which is this one. If you have any further questions, please email me at denise.distephan@patch.com. I don't recall deleting any comments from either story. So if any comments are missing, they must have been either deleted by the person who wrote them or they were repeatedly flagged.
Bowie Thelonius
8:35 am on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
You mean negative comments like mine? Not everyone enjoys this annual extravaganza. Some of us have to live here:Bowie Thelonius
3:43 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
I'd love to sit home and not go. In fact that's what I'm doing. Unfortunately I can't even get out of my driveway due to the huge volume of traffic.
Bowie Thelonius
2:16 pm on Saturday, September 15, 2012
What a mess! The Point Beach cops were out ticketing cars in my neighborhood, but oops, they can't ticket cars parked in Point Borough. So if anyone got a ticket from a Point Beach Cop, and they were parked on a Point Borough street, don't pay it.
Nick Carraway
8:33 am on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
This was a fantastic event on held on a beautiful September day. I could not help but notice, though, how quickly the streets began to fill up with cars, beginning first in Districts 1 and 2 and then spreading throughout the town. I don't think I'd seen the town that full all summer. I'm sure that residents who recently moved to town were probably surprised and maybe a little inconvenienced by all of the cars and craziness, as many of us who live here are every year. This is what PPB is about...hosting activities that draw in large crowds during the wamer weather days. It's not just District 4 who experiences difficulties due to visitors in the summer. The other Districts have burdens, too. Tolerance is the key. I sure would hate to see the residents of Districts 1 & 2 decide that the inconvenience of the Seafood Festival isn't worth hosting this wonderful event.