June 29, 2024
Screen capture/cape-may.jerseycapetickets.com
Planning to spending a day at the Cape May beach. The shore town now offers digital beach tags, that are purchased online and displayed to beach-tag checkers using a smartphone.
A fun day in the sand in Cape May no longer requires pinning a beach tag to your swimsuit or backpack because the southernmost town at the shore has added a digital tag option for visitors.
Cape May will still have its traditional, hard-copy daily beach tags, but on Tuesday town officials announced they would start offering the digital versions that people can purchase and then display to the tag checker, all using their phones.
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The virtual beach tag is for sale on cape-may.jerseycapetickets.com alongside the rest of Cape May's physical badge options. They cost $10, the same price as the physical beach tag. When the purchase is complete, the website will display a QR code that can be scanned by a tag checker upon arrival at the beach.
To buy a digital pass, go to the ticketing website on a smartphone, tap the "Make Reservations" button below the option that reads "Daily Pass — Digital." It takes users to a screen where they can select the date they plan to go to the Cape May beach, and after picking a date the option to select a time slot will appear. For those purchasing a daily pass, there just will be one option in that menu: "Beach Pass."
Next, choose the quantity of beach tags to buy, tap "Confirm" at the bottom of the screen and the total price will be displayed. There is a 30-cent processing charge, as there is for using the website to buy a physical beach tag.
After entering your name, email address and payment information to finish the purchase tap "View Receipt" and the QR code will be displayed. It is valid for the entire day for which it is purchased. Visitors will need to keep the browser tab with the QR code open on their phones if they plan to leave and reenter the beach.
Cape May's website also sells three-day ($20), weekly ($25) and seasonal passes ($40). There is no digital beach tag option for these. After the purchase is complete, those beach tags need to be picked up by showing the QR code that appears at the end of the transaction. The QR code displayed for the purchase of physical daily, three-day, weekly and seasonal passes is valid for one scan.
Beach tags can be picked up on the Promenade at the kiosks at Howard Street, Gurney Street, Madison Avenue and Broadway. At these locations and beach entrances, tags can be purchased entirely in-person using cash or a check.
Among the other municipalities at the Jersey Shore offering digital beach tags are Sea Isle City, Long Beach Township and Ship Bottom. These towns utilize the smartphone app My Beach Mobile for those purchases and to show the passes to tag checkers.
While developers for My Beach Mobile said their app will support more beaches and locations in the future, a Cape May official said the city is collaborating with the Jersey Cape organization for its digital beach-tag solution because they had a prior working relationship with the nonprofit.
