Seabreeze Amusement Park - 6/26/2026
Early this morning Brian, Shawn and I set off from Pittsburgh on the long drive to western New York for a weekend of amusement parks
and sightseeing. Our first stop was in Rochester, New York at Seabreeze Amusement Park. This small family owned park
on the shores of Lake Ontario opened in 1879, making it one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States.
We arrived at 1:00 and were instantly welcomed with the cool breeze off of the lake. Our first rides were on Wave Swinger,
Bumper Cars and Brian and I rode Music Express. The first roller coaster of the day was Bobsleds. We all rode this
family-friendly coaster built in-house by the park and opened to the public in 1962. It is noteworthy for being recognized as
the second-ever tubular steel coaster, after Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland in California.
Next, Brian and I rode Whirlwind, a Maurer spinning coaster. This compact steel gives family thrills that fits perfectly into
the park. It gave twists and turns, plenty of good spins.
We all rode the Carousel and looked at the historical artifacts, photos and memorabilia throughout the carousel's building.
Then we got burgers for lunch at the Seabreeze Grill. We continued our rides as Brian and I rode WindStarz.
The main attraction of the day was up next, Jack Rabbit. This coaster opened on May 31st 1920, and with Leap The Dips at
Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvania closing at the end of the 2023 season, Jack Rabbit is now the nation's oldest operating
roller coaster. Additionally, this coaster is noteworthy as one of the earliest examples of John A. Miller's revolutionary
underfriction wheel design that locks trains to the track.
We took two laps on this classic coaster with its great layout and a surprising finally hidden in a tunnel.
To finish off our day of rides, Brian and I rode Tilt-A-Whirl. This wasn't necessarily going to be our final ride of the
day. The spins during the first half of the ride were nearly nonexistent. But for some reason the ride was out of
control with nonspot sinning which was nearly brutal during the second half. Once I staggered off the ride, I knew I was nearly
done for the day.
When planning and researching Seabreeze for this trip, I was questioning the quality of the park. Being a small older family
owned park, I thought it might be a little rundown or something. To my surprise this is one of the best looking parks I've been
to. All of the rides and buildings are brightly painted and not a speck of rust is to be found anywhere. The grass, trees
and flowers are wonderfully maintained.
The weather throughout our visit was perfect, with temperature in the low 70s, a light breeze off of Lake Ontario and beautiful
skies. The crowd was most definitely mostly families. There were a good number of people, yet all of the rides in the park,
except Bobsleds, were walk-ons.
We had only been at the park for two and half hours, but we had conquered all the rides we wanted. We are all very satisfied
with our visit to this beautiful park. Around 3:30 we headed back to the car.
We drove to our hotel in Batavia, had dinner at a local restaurant and rested up for more coasters tomorrow at Six Flags Darien
Lake.
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