Jenkinson’s Boardwalk: a full tour of the multisite network we built
Last year we took a first look at the WordPress multisite network we built for Jenkinson’s Boardwalk. This is the full walkthrough. Jenkinson’s, in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, is really three businesses wearing one famous name: a boardwalk with rides, arcades, mini golf, a beach and restaurants, an aquarium, and a candy shop. Each one needed a website that felt like its own, and none of them wanted to babysit a separate server.
Our answer was a single network that we designed, built and now host and manage. Below we tour each part of it, page by page, and finish with why it makes such a good foundation for a mobile app.
Watch the network in action
The video follows a visitor across the Boardwalk, its events, the Aquarium and the Sweet Shop. Desktop plays by default. Switch to Mobile to see the same visit on a phone, which is how a lot of Jenkinson’s guests browse while standing on the boards.
Tap Desktop or Mobile to see the same tour on a laptop or a phone.
The Boardwalk
The Boardwalk site is the hub. Beach hours, ride schedules, dining, parties, groups and tickets all start here, and a thin bar along the top of every page hops over to the Aquarium or the Sweet Shop.
The homepage follows the calendar. In October the hero is Boo at the Boardwalk, with upcoming events scrolling beneath it, current promotions like the fall Half Price Rides deal, and shortcuts to the Ride Park Schedule, Pricing and Hours and Birthday Parties. Because those promotions and events come from the same calendar as everything else, a new post shows up on the front page the moment staff hit publish.
Navigation runs on Beaver Builder Mega Menu. Explore, Events, Groups and Parties, Plan Your Visit and Shop each unfold into a full directory, and there is even a balance check for the Boardwalk Bounce Card, the cashless card guests use on the boards. Staff rearrange that menu visually, so a new link never has to wait on a developer.
A seasonal homepage hero with events and promotions below
Promotions and quick links sit right under the hero
Explore
Some visitors want a menu, others want pictures. Explore serves the second group with one big grid of photo cards: Adventure Lookout, the Amusement Park, the Aquarium, Arcades, the Beach, Food and Drink, Fun and Games, Join Our Team, Mini Golf, Events and Shopping. Tap a card and you land on that attraction.
Food and Drink
Every place to eat lives inside the Boardwalk site with its own page, rather than being bounced to some outside link. The Food and Drink page shows each spot with a photo, a quick description and its location: Boardwalk Bar and Grill with the only rooftop dining on the boardwalk, Oceanside Dining and Pavilion facing the Aquarium, Little Mac’s near the Ride Park, the Inlet Bar out on the sand by the jetty, Jenks Club and Perks Cafe. The team edits all of them from the same dashboard as the rest of the site.
Events
Princess visits, concerts, fireworks, themed weekends: the Jenkinson’s calendar is busy. We built it on Events Calendar Pro so staff can set up a recurring series once, list venues and take RSVPs on the site itself, without leaning on a third party service.
The Events page starts with a carousel of what is next, then an Event Browser where visitors search, jump to Today, Week, Weekend or Month, or choose dates on a mini calendar. Each card shows the date, the name and where it happens.
Detail pages carry the real substance. Take Boo at the Boardwalk, running October 17, 18, 24 and 25, 2026, from 12:00pm to 4:00pm. Its page puts the place, dates and times first, then describes trick or treating, live shows, characters and rides at half the usual credits, then lays out an hourly schedule for each day, including Underwater Pumpkin Carving over at the Aquarium.
A carousel of upcoming events above a searchable browser
Event pages start with where and when, then the schedule
Pricing
Nobody on a beach towel wants to hunt for prices. Pricing and Hours puts every attraction on one page as a set of expandable panels: Aquarium admission, summer beach rates, Arcades, the Amusement Park, the Adventure Lookout Ropes Course, Castaway Cove and Lighthouse Point mini golf, and the Fun House. Open one and the essentials appear.
When we looked in October 2026, Aquarium admission was $19 for adults, $13 for kids 3 to 11, $15 for seniors and free for children 2 and under, and one ride credit equaled $1.00. Seasonal notes, like the ropes course staying closed until 2027, live right alongside the prices. Staff change a number in WordPress and every visitor sees it right away.
Map
The printed park map became an interactive one using the Mapplic plugin. Guests can zoom and pan the illustrated boardwalk, go full screen, search a list of rides, shops, restaurants and services (right down to each ATM), follow the numbered key, or grab a printable PDF.
The Aquarium
Jenkinson’s Aquarium has been on the boardwalk since June 1991 and is marking 35 years in 2026. It is a separate site on the very same multisite network, with its own 35 Years of Wonder look and its own menus: Visit, Penguin Cam, Groups and Education, and Adoption, Encounters and Programs. The shared top bar still links back to the Boardwalk and the Sweet Shop.
Families check hours, read about the animals and tune into the live Penguin Cam from home. Programs like Painting with Penguins, Sensory Saturday, Penguins and Pajamas and Junior Keepers are featured on the homepage. Teachers find group rates, check in and parking tips, activities for before and after a visit and outreach programs, then request a field trip through Gravity Forms. Anyone can adopt an animal online too, Beach Donkey the penguin included.
Booking encounters online
Tickets and programs run on WooCommerce with WooCommerce Bookings for anything on a schedule. Encounter: Seals is a good example: a 30 minute visit with a keeper to meet Noelani and Turbo, $150 per person, ages 7 and up, two guests at most. Guests set their party size, pick an open date in green, choose 12:50pm or 3:50pm and book. From product page to confirmation, it all stays in the Aquarium’s own design.
The Sweet Shop
Jenkinson’s Sweet Shop dates back to the early 1900s and is open all year with salt water taffy, homemade fudge, chocolates and gift baskets. It is the third site on the network, with its own style and a short menu: Online Store, Seasonal Sweets and Treats, and Weddings and Custom Favors.
Wedding favors, showers and birthdays are covered, along with custom touches like chocolate dipped wine and liquor bottles. Those one of a kind requests come through Gravity Forms so the shop gets every detail up front.
The Online Store is WooCommerce. Products with choices, like Salt Water Taffy, the Assortment of Fudges and the Sweet Shop Sampler Chocolate Box, show a price range and a Select options button, while simpler items such as Souvenir Salt Water Taffy at $14.99 drop straight into the cart. Shipping and local pickup are handled by WooCommerce extensions, and seasonal items are managed from the same WordPress backend as the other two sites.
A note on the Shop link
To be precise about what runs where: the Shop item in the Boardwalk menu leads to a merchandise storefront that is hosted separately and is not part of the multisite network. The Sweet Shop store described above is the one that lives on the network.
One multisite network
Boardwalk, Aquarium and Sweet Shop share one WordPress installation, one plugin stack and one design system. A theme update, a security patch or a speed improvement goes out once and reaches all three. Visitors moving between the sites feel the family resemblance.
Teams still stay in their own lanes. With Admin Menu Editor and User Role Editor, Aquarium staff handle showtimes and education without seeing candy inventory, and the Sweet Shop team handles products and orders without wading through ride schedules, all from one shared admin.
It is built to grow, too. NS Cloner can spin up a new site for an attraction, a campaign or a sub brand from the same foundation, and MainWP and All in One WP Migration help manage changes across the network when summer gets hectic.
Hosting and management
We host and manage the network ourselves. Every site shares the same caching rules and accessibility improvements, and iThemes Security Pro, Performance Lab and The SEO Framework protect and tune the whole platform in one place. That keeps speed and the mobile experience steady for guests checking hours on their phones.
Why this is app ready
Here is where AppPresser feels right at home. Hours, prices, events, the map, Aquarium programs and Sweet Shop products are all structured WordPress and WooCommerce content already, which is exactly what we turn into native iOS and Android apps. A Jenkinson’s app could pull the same calendar and pricing, open the interactive map, let guests book a seal encounter or reorder taffy, and send a push notification when fireworks or a half price ride day is coming. With one network as the source, the app and all three websites would stay in sync without double entry.
More from the network
The takeaway
Jenkinson’s now runs a boardwalk, an aquarium and a candy shop from one WordPress platform. Guests get quick answers on hours, prices, events and maps, plus online booking and shopping, on any screen. Each team runs its own site, and we keep the whole network fast, secure and ready for whatever comes next.
Running more than one brand or location? Tell us about your project and we will talk through a website, a mobile app or both.
