Amusements at the Pier

From nine stories above the Santa Monica Pier, we have a million-dollar view that takes in the Getty Center, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and a guy scouring the beach with a metal detector. It almost makes the $12 we spent for three minutes on the Ferris wheel seem like a rent-control bargain. That is, it might, if my family would bask in the scenery.

“What else do you see?” I ask my husband.

“I see the ocean, and it’s awfully big,” he says.

My 10-year-old son slinks down in the gondola, trying not to dwell on the fact that we’re dangling more than 130 feet above the sea. My 14-year-old daughter is doing what she does best: needling her brother.

Eight revolutions later, “the world’s first solar-powered Ferris wheel” comes to a stop, and we step back into Pacific Park, billed quite specifically as “the West Coast’s only amusement park on a pier.” Except for all the bare midriffs, it’s as if we’ve stepped off a leisurely time machine that’s revolved back to 1909, the year the pier was built.

With its 20 midway games and dozen rides, the park is an old-fashioned experience. But it comes with a 21st century price tag.

The park’s not on the scale of a Disney adventure, in terms of price or size. But the dollars can quickly add up. Tickets for rides cost $1.50 apiece, and one ride can eat up as many as four tickets. The park offers several deals that can bring down the price: A 20-ticket book for $20 and wristbands for unlimited rides for $8.95 or $15.95 (over 42 inches tall).

Because the daredevil gene sprouts nowhere on our family tree and about half the pier’s rides are “for little kids,” our medium-size offspring don’t want all-day wristbands. If they had deeper pockets, maybe, but we’ve given each kid $15 to spend, and the hypnotic whir of the pier’s arcade is calling. We opt for a $20 ticket book, which gets the four of us on seven rides and uses up $11 of the kids’ combined budget. The rest will be poured a quarter at a time into the Playland Arcade during the two hours we’ll spend at the pier.

My daughter loses her stomach “once or twice” on the roller coaster that goes 35 mph and wraps the 21/2-acre park. The bumper cars give my son a generous six minutes to joyfully crash into other drivers. He also considers playing midway games in the Pier Pressure Zone, but the $2 required to fling one dart sends him straight to the indoor arcade.

The 6-year-old park’s old-fashioned feel isn’t an accident. “We wanted things that were evocative of the past,” says Stacy Glazer, director of marketing for Pacific Park.

About 3.5 million people visited the pier last year, says Mark Samson, a spokesman for the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corp., landlord for pier tenants. The pier’s first amusement park dates to the 1920s, but storms and changing tastes took their toll. In 1990, a new concrete substructure allowed heavy-duty rides and restaurants to be placed atop the pier.

“It was a playground for the rich and famous from way back when,” Samson says. “It has such a high-recognition factor. As sappy as this may sound, it provides one of the nicest views in Southern California.”

Sherry Hanover of West Los Angeles takes her two young children to the pier at least once a month. “I grew up going to Atlantic City,” she says. “It’s a lot smaller than what Atlantic City offers, but it feels like a retro pier. It’s big enough to spend a couple of hours, and we all love the carousel.”

And the cost? “If you compare it to a movie where you buy tickets, popcorn and drinks,” Hanover says, “it’s comparable and it also lasts about 90 minutes.”

Inside the Playland Arcade--still run by the Gordon family that founded it in 1951--my son and daughter are busy playing some of the 200-plus games. They range from Skeeball and shooting hoops to the truly weird Whac-a-Mole. Driving the kids’ quest are the tickets they win, which can be redeemed for surprisingly decent prizes.

If I choose to believe owner Marlene Gordon’s theory--and what parent wouldn’t?--my children are proving how smart they are. “You have to be very bright to play these games,” says Gordon, who was born into the arcade business. “The kids are so mathematical and they understand the games. They’re practically geniuses.”

My boy wonder is obsessed with a machine called the Chocolate Factory. He’s spending 50 cents a pop to manipulate a crane to pick up a candy bar, trying to set up a chain reaction that might push a candy bar into his hand. He spends $3.50 for the thrill of winning a good-size 3 Musketeers. I point out that a vending machine in the arcade sells candy for 75 cents.

“Yeah, Mom,” the math prodigy says, “but how fun is that?”

Pacific Park, Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica. Winter hours vary. Rides and games, $2 to $6; unlimited rides, $15.95 or $8.95; discounted 25% for AAA members or 30% with coupon from www.pacpark.com. (310) 260-8744. Playland Arcade, open daily, (310) 451-5133 or www.playlandarcade.com.