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Moreys Piers Discussion Thread


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You'll still be fine. You have 12 hours to ride 6 coasters and some flats and every single ride will be a walk-on until 6 or 7PM. Even after that lines are very manageable.

 

If it rains and you're a sadistic f*ck then go to the aquarium and dump some poor helpless goldfish in a piranha tank for 3 bucks a pop. If it rains and you're not a sadistic f*ck go to the arcade or play indoor mini golf or something.

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Unfortunately, as far as ERT...not for me; Coastin' by the Ocean was...not a thing I was aware of! I probably should have done a bit more research. Still, I'm sure it'll be fun one way or another

 

If you belong to a club you can still register. They get tons of ERT and cool sh*t (one of these years I'll do it) including 2 HOURS of Great White ERT from midnight -2am IN THE DARK Saturday night.

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What are the chances that they announce at Coastin by the Ocean that they will finally be building the wooden coaster between the piers? That would make me return to Morey Piers.

 

Well, waiting on that rumor was the whole reason I haven't actually been there yet. I gave in and booked a trip this weekend...so, far as my luck with such things generally holds, pretty good odds there

 

I just saw an article about the state considering investing a lot of money in rebuilding the boardwalk itself. I don't know if it would have any effect on the parks, but I can see them potentially trying to get a big new attraction in to capitalize on people already coming to a revitalized boardwalk, if it happens.

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^ What the story is referring to is rebuilding the actual boardwalk itself. Like the actual wood boards and concrete pilings underneath. The city doing that is not going to bring more people into town. They'll come either way, but they're not going to make a trip just to walk on some new wood.

 

Furthermore, I can't imagine how it would have any effect on the piers. The wood was replaced in front of Mariners Pier about 8 years ago.

 

For anyone that is not sure what we're referring to:

 

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/wildwood-planning-major-overhaul-of-famed-boardwalk/article_819523df-8165-5671-bc0d-6c9394ade7ce.html

 

As far as the pier-to-pier woodie, I think that ship has sailed.

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Here's a link to an interview with Jack Morey where he mentions they are planning at least 1 new coaster and a major waterpark expanison in the next 3 years. And he makes mention of the pier to pier woodie which is he says is all designed and ready to go should they ever go for it.

 

Forgive my memory, but didn't the city give them a lot of trouble when they tried to get it approved years ago?

 

http://www.phillymag.com/business/2017/05/25/moreys-wildwood-jack-morey/

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The wood was replaced in front of Mariners Pier about 8 years ago.

Cool, I had noticed the wood in that area looked a lot classier. If they replace the rest of the boardwalk to look just like that area, that'd be a huge visual improvement.

 

A safety improvement too. Some of the board are loose or sticking up and a nice tripping hazard.

 

I'll be down to the piers in a week, so I'll share my Great NorEaster thoughts after I ride. But then again, I also enjoyed it prior to the retracking so i might be a bit biased LOL

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Here's a link to an interview with Jack Morey where he mentions they are planning at least 1 new coaster and a major waterpark expanison in the next 3 years. And he makes mention of the pier to pier woodie which is he says is all designed and ready to go should they ever go for it.

 

Forgive my memory, but didn't the city give them a lot of trouble when they tried to get it approved years ago?

 

I don't remember hearing anything other than it is being delayed.

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Delayed would imply it was ever given any sort of projected date. From the beginning, the pier-spanning coaster project has always been exploratory and never a "yeah we're gonna do this" type of thing.

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Here's a link to an interview with Jack Morey where he mentions they are planning at least 1 new coaster and a major waterpark expanison in the next 3 years. And he makes mention of the pier to pier woodie which is he says is all designed and ready to go should they ever go for it.

 

Forgive my memory, but didn't the city give them a lot of trouble when they tried to get it approved years ago?

 

I don't remember hearing anything other than it is being delayed.

 

I asked about this coaster when I was there. The employee I asked was a long time employee and said they still want to do it. He mentioned something about the two piers actually being in different townships (Wildwood, North Wildwood) and that the issues due to who gets the property tax, permitting, and so forth has been problematic. If you look at the maps, 26th Ave is the boundary line between the two and that would place the piers in different towns.

 

Just what I was told.

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Alright, I don't usually do TRs, and I'm a terrible photographer, when I even remember to take pictures in the first place, but I'm damn near the only one in the office here today, so let's do this.

 

I've been meaning to hit up Morey's Piers for years now, and this was finally the summer for it. I usually do Dorney Park and Knoebels on the VJ day weekend (Rhode Island is one of two states that still gets VJ day off, which makes it a perfect weekend to travel out of state) but this year it seemed worth a bit of extra driving to swap Dorney out for someplace new.

 

The plan was to drag my brother Hunter down with me, and meet two friends there, Fluff and Kyree (look, we're a bunch of furry weirdos, no one uses their real names...), the former of whom would join for camping at Knoebels too. Unfortunately Fluff's car was rear ended right before the trip, so I ended up driving to pick him up too, which made a bit of a mess of the timing, but nothing we couldn't deal with.

 

So saturday morning comes along and...the weather reports seem to be getting worse by the hour. It's raining in my area already, but I'm hours away from Morey's, and I have a non-refundable room booked at the Most Expensive Red Roof Inn In America, so what the hell, no reason to call it off now. The weather seemed to clear up a bit driving down, but once we got to NJ, it was starting to look pretty bad again.

 

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Moderately threatening...

 

We now had a car full of three hungry people, but that shouldn't be too hard to deal with in NJ. There must be a Wawa around, right? ...no such luck. No Sheetz that far east either.

 

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Distant third place. But it's food! We just grabbed snacks; we wanted to be hungry enough for Boardwalk food in a couple hours

 

We were already running a little bit late, and Kyree looked to be getting to Wildwood early, so we'd have to rush to not keep him waiting. Hopefully we'd be able to make good time.

 

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...Haha. Right. New Jersey.

 

As we'd been expecting, the rain came, it came hard, and traffic came to a complete halt. No one does traffic quite like New Jersey. At one point, I took the wrong exit in an A/B pair, and had to turn around in a parking lot to get to the right side of the road. Did you know that New Jersey has fifteen minute traffic jams in their strip mall parking lots?

 

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Well, they do.

 

The traffic didn't lighten any as we got closer to the boardwalk, so we were running quite a bit later than I would have liked by time we got parked and met up with Kyree. The rain was still coming down on and off, but we were all willing to make the best of it. We had a bit of a walk from where we parked, and considered taking the tram, but after listening to it approach (WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE. WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE. WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE.), the four of us unanimously decided that we could use the exercise, and that we'd likely go insane listening to that announcement for the entire ride anyway.

 

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WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE

 

Despite the delays, we were there early as far as Wildwood time, and the rain was keeping people away, so the boardwalk was nearly deserted. Nothing on the piers was open yet, and the park had already announced that the waterparks would not open at all that day. Things weren't looking too promising at that point.

 

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The boardwalk looks a bit forlorn like this.

 

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Great White looks pretty good from here, but there's no signs of life anywhere near it.

 

So what to do? Well, eat, of course! I brought up TPR to check the list of places Boldikus had recommended, and pointed out a few, but was immediately overruled. As soon as we saw it, there was no way I was going to convince people that we should go anywhere but Grab-A-Weiner. The rain was becoming a downpour again at this point, and it was close and dry.

 

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We...pretty much had to. To be fair the menu did look pretty good, too.

 

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That was a small fry. There's little reference for size but that is a foot long hot dog. The small fry looked like one of those pails you'd bring to the beach as a kid.

 

I couldn't resist going for the Do-Wopper, their deep fried hot dog. That, and a "Small" Fiesta Fries with guacamole and sour cream. I wasn't on the boardwalk to eat healthy.

 

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Still wet, but people are coming out and the staff are optimistic

 

The hot dog? Pretty good! I was a bit disappointed that deep frying it didn't seem to create anything all that spectacularly different from an ordinary hot dog, but it was tasty nonetheless. The fries were a step up from that; hot and crispy even after being buried in toppings, lots of flavor, and the guacamole was far better than I expected from a hot dog place. Grab-A-Weiner hadn't been one of the places I'd planned to stop, but definitely no regrets.

 

By time we finished up there, the rain was pretty steady, so we killed a bit of time at the Boardwalk mall nearby. The hot sauce store was Fluff's idea of heaven, and he planned to go back later to try their ghost pepper challenge. They dip a toothpick in their hottest sauce and the crazy person who signed up for a torture session is expected to lick it clean, then not move or make a sound for 90 seconds afterwards. I would have loved to get pictures of that, but we just never ended up having time to go back for it. Given that Fluff grows Carolina Reapers in his backyard, I expect he would have done just fine with that one, though.

 

Of course, all four of us are into classic games, so there was no passing up Remember When. I wasn't thrilled at the prices; $1.00 for a game that was originally 25 cents seemed a little much, but then a lot of their games are incredibly rare, and they're kept up in remarkably good condition, so it's excusable. I found the first working STUN Runner cabinet I've seen in ages, a game that I could play for hours when I was a kid, and put my name at the top of the first score list (the game keeps track of scores on each of several tracks separately) on the first try; I've still got it! We played a bit of Pinball, and debated on Fascination, though on the latter we decided to just wait for Knoebels there. Sadly, Remember When doesn't allow pictures, so nothing from there.

 

After an hour or so, the rain hadn't stopped, so we decided to just go for it anyway. Heading onto Mariner's Pier, the central pier, everything was still shut down, but the guy working the ticket booth said that the rain should be stopping soon and they'd be opening things up, so we all took a bit of a gamble and bought our combo passes.

 

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Still wet, but people are coming out and the staff are optimistic

 

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Wandering around a bit, the skies do seem to be lightening a little

 

Since nothing was open yet, we figured we'd wander down the boardwalk and scope the place out, see what else we wanted to do (and eat), and dodge the trams. (WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE. WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE.) The whole place still looked a little sad with so few people around, but the quiet was nice, too, and we had time to just take in the sights and enjoy all the delightfully tacky, brightly colored glory of Wildwood. That was also where we saw the sign advertising Cattle & Clover ("A steakhouse with an Irish soul"). That one got my attention quick.

 

Just about as we reached the end of the boardwalk, the rain let up. Turning around, we began to see a glimmer of hope.

 

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Blue! It's blue!

 

We could see rides beginning to test, so we headed on down to the nearest pier, just in time for It to begin its first few swings of the day. Now we're getting somewhere! We wandered a bit and watched the ride crews getting everything ready. There was still almost no one there, so we were expecting lots of walk-ons once rides opened.

 

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No activity on the flume yet, though. Worrying.

 

If you've never watched a Gravitron's first startup after heavy rain, it's quite the show. That tarp that passes for a roof collects a huge amount of water, and once the ride's spinning it just flings it everywhere. Unfortunately that meant all over my phone as I tried to get a picture, so the wet fingerprint reader didn't want to cooperate, and by time I got the phone unlocked and managed a picture, there was only a sprinkle left.

 

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Several seconds too late for the picture I wish I'd taken

 

The ride crew told us it would be a few more minutes before it was open, but behind us, we saw Rock and Roll, the piers' Bertazzon Matterhorn, claim first place in the race to open, and rushed on over. As a first ride of the day...eh. I've been on faster, and slower. Decent enough, but nothing particularly amazing.

 

As we got off though, we saw employees test-riding Great Nor'Easter. Perfect! I'd never been so excited to get on an SLC before. For the most part, it lived up to what I've been hearing around here laterly. Indescribably smoother than any other SLC, almost no rattle at all. It did have a few big jolts but nothing I found too unpleasant. If Vekoma can build rides that run like that now, I hope we'll see more of them. The way this thing twists through the waterslides and structure around it makes for such an exciting ride, too. Entirely in another league from an everyday SLC. (Hunter found it painfully rough and said he wouldn't ride again. I can't even get my mind around that.)

 

(Unfortunately now that things are actually more interested, I stopped taking as many pictures. Between being distracted by actually getting on rides, and trying to herd cats keeping my group together...)

 

The pier isn't big so we didn't worry too much about the order, we just hit things as they opened. Tilt-a-Whirl was next, and everyone jumped into their own cars, to my disappointment; more weight in a car is usually good there. I didn't expect much riding solo, but...I don't know if Morey's ride is better, or better maintained than other Tilt-A-Whirls or if we just got lucky, but I had the craziest ride I've ever had on one. The spinning just never stopped. Absolute love for this one.

 

Dante's Dungeon was...okay? I do have a soft spot for old dark rides, and this isn't a bad one, but the gags don't really stand out. Having live actors in there has the potential to make this one special, but none of them seemed to want to be there when I rode; just vaguely waving hands at us and whatnot. I'm sure it's hard to do too much more without being hit by a car or stepping on the electrical rail, but as it was, they didn't add much.

 

No one else wanted to do Atmosfear, but I wasn't passing up an ARM tower. I got put on the side looking out to the ocean, which made for an usually tranquil view on the way up. I believe this ride usually has a soundtrack to mask the mechanical sounds before the drop, but it wasn't playing, so the drop wasn't as much of a surprise as it could have been; still intense though, and the brakes feel like they don't come on until ten feet above the ground. No matter how many times I ride these, there's always that moment of "we're not going to stop in time!" Great tower, though I think Knoebels' Stratosfear edges it out just on location.

 

As I got off, we noticed Zoom Phloom was up and running, and raced for it..well, I did. No one else was thrilled at the idea of getting wet again just as we were starting to dry off, but everyone did eventually get on. Zoom Phloom is fantastic. Long layout, two great drops, lots of awesome interactions with the rides around it (Nor'Easter flying right by, what feels like inches from you!), and the under the boardwalk section...it all adds up to what's probably my favorite log flume so far.

 

We headed over to Kong from there...I can't say I was impressed. It wasn't running particularly quick, and it might just have been the wind at the time or any number of things, but I didn't feel like I could even get much real height out of the cars, nevermind anything even approaching a snap. Ah well, not every ride can be a winner.

 

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I love the way everything's packed in so tightly, especially towards the back. I'm sure it's out of necessity with the limited space, but it makes for such unique rides, with all the wrapping about each other, and I just sort of love how it looks. Minimal themeing, just pure crazy engineering...it definitely has an appeal to me.

 

Doo Wopper was a walk-on, so we gave it a shot. With low enough expectations, it wasn't terrible. It has a relatively weak layout for a wild mouse, but the brakes were completely off; not one touched the car until the station brakes, so I got more out of it than I expected. Mid-tier for a wild mouse, nothing to go out of the way for, but nothing to complain about when there's no line either.

 

Flitzer was not running and didn't look like it would be; the staff had all abandoned it as far as we could see. That was disappointing, but there would be another shot at that tomorrow.

 

We'd been saving the best of Surfside Pier for last though. It was time for It. If you've ridden It, you already understand, and if you haven't, I'm not sure you really can understand how different this thing runs from other Fireballs. It is just batshit insane, it runs like it's trying to do its best to throw you from the ride. It spins faster, it swings higher and harder, it crushes you into your seat and launches you out of it, and it does it all with you strapped into barely-there restraints. One of the most intense flat rides I've ever ridden; it absolutely lives up to the hype and more. I could have ridden it for hours; Hunter and Fluff loved it but both said their stomachs could only handle one, so we'd have to go back for more later. Instantly one of my favorite flats anywhere though.

 

We headed down the boardwalk (WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE) to Mariner's pier. By now the weather had turned around entirely; puddles drying up and the skies looking downright pleasant.

 

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The boardwalk looks like a different place entirely once the sun comes out and the bright colors come to life

 

We passed by the bumper cars, as there just weren't enough people to make it worthwhile; what's the use of bumper cars without people to bump? We started with Rollie's Coaster; it didn't look like much but the station was empty. It was just about worth the time we waited in line, too. The restraints are just not built for adults on that; sitting almost on the floor with my knees jammed in against me did not make for a comfortable ride. The coaster runs alright; at the very least it's fairly smooth. It just doesn't do a lot.

 

We headed to the back and found the powered monorail and the go karts not running. The latter was disappointing; I really wanted to try them with their under the pier layout. Ghost ship was open though, and I'd heard good things about that. Like everything else I'd been excited for so far, Ghost Ship did not disappoint at all. Unlike Dante's Dungeon, the actors here were getting far more into their roles and really having fun with it. The set designs are great, the whole attraction seems higher budget than I would have expected for a boardwalk, and it goes on for far longer than it looks like it should from outside. Some of the stunts are simple but incredibly effective; one tunnel feels like it's closing in on you as you walk through, and by the end of it we were almost crawling to get through; I'm not particularly claustrophobic but it was intensely unnerving, in the best kind of way. GREAT stuff here. I did feel like there was a bit of unused space, but perhaps when the park's not so dead, there would have been more actors in there?

 

I was the only one in the group who had any intention of dealing with a Boomerang, so I rode Sea Serpent alone. I have to ask, who did they sacrifice, and to what otherworldly deity, to get a Boomerang to run like this? I'd thought Zoomerang at Lake Compounce was about as good as it got, but Sea Serpent was /very/ noticeably smoother, and felt faster too. Maintenance, weather conditions, blood sacrifices, I don't know what it comes down to but very definitely the best Boomerang I've had the chance to ride.

 

The Wave Swing was...a Wave Swinger, and since I love Wave Swingers, I have no complaints. The elevated position made it a little more thrilling, a little nicer views, though it still doesn't quite compare to Lake Compounce's crazy fast one, definitely one of the better ones for the scenery.

 

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There's no such thing as a bad Wave Swinger

 

Maelstrom was still down, as expected after the Ohio State Fair accident. Sad, with how I love those relatively rare rides, but expected.

 

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I hadn't had my hopes up for it, but still a bit disappointing

 

Instead, we got on Riptide, their swinging ship, after being treated to a very New Jersey exchange. A pair of kids on the ride before us started panicking and asking for the operator to stop the ride, which he did. Of course, rides don't stop immediately, and they started shrieking that he wasn't stopping it fast enough, which of course set of the kids' parents, and ended up in an...intense three way confrontation that seemed quite stereotypically in place for the Jersey Shore. Much censorship would be required to reproduce it in detail...Yikes. Still, we got on the ride...aaaand it immediately broke down. Oops. Well, out of all the rides there, it wasn't a super high priority, so we just moved on.

 

The Waltzer here was running visibly slower and without the spinning of the Tilt-a-Whirl on the other pier, so we gave it a pass and went for the Teacups instead. Now, Hunter and I take teacups /seriously/. There is video somewhere of us and our father years back on the SFGAdv teacups, where the ride op was letting the fastest spinning teacup stay on for another ride, and us getting in four rides in a row before we were too tired to take on more challengers. Unfortunately a lot of teacups are badly braked these days, but we're always excited to try out a new one and see what we can do with it. Unfortunately, at Morey's, that's a big nothing. These were the worst braked teacups I've ever tried to spin; we could barely even get ours to move. One of the bigger disappointments among the rides there.

 

Pirates of Wildwood next! I had absolutely no idea of what to expect going into this ride, and I'm glad for that, since it made it all the better. Taking the first turn in the ride, the neon colored "3D" made me think I was going into another Garfield's Nightmare, and I was ready to hate it, but...Pirates of Wildwood is a very different ride from that tragedy. More of a playful parody on "real" pirate rides, it follows a bunch of pirates literally raiding the amusement piers...It's silly fun, it doesn't take itself seriously at all, and I laughed my way through the entire ride. Far more fun than I expected.

 

We were getting through the major attractions pretty quickly, and anything we'd missed was closed or nothing anyone felt any particular need to do, so we figured it was time to get the last pier, then dinner. We took the walk on down the boardwalk WALK THE TRAM CAR PLEASE to Adventure Pier, and Great White.

 

Great White had the longest line so far; for the front row, we waited about ten minutes. In the front, GW was a solid enough coaster; not a ton of airtime or forces, but pretty fast, very smooth, and a decent layout with some fun high banked turns. Nothing that would hit my top ten list, but fun and easily re-rideable. We got off and the rest of the group decided they were tired and wanted to just sit for a bit. Fine with me; time for me to go back for a second ride! This time I remembered what I'd been told and got in line for the second to last row...and one ride before mine, they decided it was time to add a second train to the track. I wish I'd gotten the whole thing on video; the whole procedure was so drawn out and almost comically inefficient. I couldn't really bring myself to complain though when the waits had been so short everywhere else, and it ended up being more than worth it. The difference between the front and the magic seat on Great White is HUGE. In front it was enjoyable; in back it feels like an entirely different coaster. The relatively tame ride gets replaced with one with some great pops of air, it just feels faster the entire way around. I did get the other train that time and it's possible that some of the difference was there, too, but...second ride pushed GW much higher up in my list. It's still not going to knock Phoenix or Twister out of their place, but...great stuff.

 

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Great White definitely deserves more love than it seems to get.

 

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Morey's looks amazing at night; so much packed into one skyline

 

The sun was going down now, and we were getting hungry, but still had a couple things we wanted to do first. Since we didn't know better, we gave the Chamber of Checkers a shot. ...Uh. Essentially you walk into a room with a bunch of doors. Most of them are fake, with things that flash or honk at you when you open them. On the third or fourth try, you find one that opens out into a small "maze" of chain link fence in back. A couple staff people stand out there and give you apologetic looks while you walk past the fences back to the entrance/exit. Did they just...get bored partway through building this thing and never finish? Is there supposed to be more to this? The website shows what looks like actual maze walls, not just fences. As is, this thing is just a couple minutes of WTF that we could laugh about, but be very glad we hadn't had to pay actual tickets for.

 

Dinner time? Nope, not yet. One more very, very important stop first. BOAT TAG! I discovered the Boat Tag attraction at Knoebels just in time to try it once before it was removed, and I've missed it since. I was not passing up a chance at another one, upcharge or not. I drove one boat with Kyree as my turret gunner, Hunter driving the other with Fluff in the turret, and a couple of other teams out there at the same time as us.

 

I can't say exactly why I love Boat Tag so much. The boats are cramped, smelly, slow, hard to manuever, shooting things rarely has much effect...

 

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...but once they close me into this thing, it does't matter. This thing may as well be a proper battleship. I'm going to war and loving every second of it.

 

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I can't imagine it's nearly as much fun from outside the boats

 

And I wasn't the only one. Everyone loved it and wanted to go back for more...but dinner was calling first. We'd planned on boardwalk food, but that ad for Cattle & Clover was still in my mind, and a quick google search found it only a few blocks away. Well, good beer and real meals probably would beat junk food, right?

 

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30 craft beers and extensive whiskey list. Got my attention now.

 

We spent a little while at their outdoor bar while we waited for a table, and I tried their Shepherd's Ale while I relaxed there. It's an Irish Red that's produced exclusively for them by a local brewery, and it's fantastic. It didn't take long to get our table and things just got better from there. For something between a steakhouse and a pub, the menu is fairly extensive; lots of steaks, sandwiches, and burgers, but all sorts of other specialties as well; fish, ribs, meatloaf, lamb...and then their Irish specialties. We started with a couple appetizers - broccoli bites and fried pickles. Our server (who was awesome the entire time) warned us that the broccoli wasn't like the usual cheese and battered kind you usually get in that area; no batter or cheese on these, just a light panko dusting and a peanut butter sauce. Both were delicious; I've never devoured broccoli like that before, and the fried pickles (giant slices of their house made pickles) were the best I've had anywhere. And then dinner itself. I went with their Irish Torte; Corned Beef, Irish Bacon, bangers, and roast potatoes in a gruyere cream sauce and a pastry crust, topped with Honey Jameson Mustard Carrots.

 

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I quite simply can not come up with words for this dinner.

 

I don't have the culinary vocabulary to describe it, but it was absolutely one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. The carrots alone were mouthwatering and I don't even particularly like carrots. The others got shepherds pies and short rib mac and cheese; all were (almost) as good as my Irish Torte. While we were eating, a local band was setting up, and went into a huge range of covers from the expected Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murhphies on to ska and southern rock. Great stuff, and lots of fun.

 

This is supposed to be Theme Park Review, not Restaurant Review, so that's enough of that, but seriously...if you're going to Wildwood and have any love for a good Irish pub, you really need to stop in there. It's just one of those places that gets everything right.

 

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This place. Right here. Find this door and go in it. Do it.

 

We'd planned on going back for more boat tag, but we were exhausted and knew we had to get an early start the next day, so we headed back to our cars and our hotel for the night instead..

 

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Great White is calling, but the others want to get some sleep. Another day, Great White.

 

Off to our $300 a night Red Roof Inn. Which...was a Red Roof Inn.

 

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In the time it took me to unlock the door, go back to my car, and return, my roommates had the place looking like we'd been there a week. Skills.

 

The hotel was clean and comfortable, at least, as I've come to expect from the chain.

 

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The location and view...um...maybe not 0 a night material.

 

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This guy. This guy right here. Even among the other trailers...this guy.

 

We started the next morning off with donuts from Fractured Prune. I think it's safe to save I've never had donuts quite like that before. I can only imagine how unhealthy those were, but...there was something about how I wasn't at the boardwalk to eat healthy. The toppings were all amazing, gooey melted chocolate and berry sauces and just about everything you could think of. Don't let the small size of the donuts fool you though; they're filling. I couldn't quite finish the three I ordered.

 

From there we raced back to the Piers to get there for waterpark opening. Raced there quickly enough to forget entirely about sunscreen. The little things that come back to haunt you later...

 

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For their location and size, Morey's waterparks look great. Well kept up, and even a bit of themeing packed in there, along with the typical Morey's tangle-of-rides

 

Most of the slides at Morey's waterparks are fairly generic, but generally big and pretty good, with a couple exceptions in either direction. The adventure river felt a little underwhelming, with not a lot of "adventure" to it; not that different from the supposedly calmer lazy river. The Sky Pond Journey was about the most New Jersey ride imaginable; a long cluster of traffic jams where we had to wait several minutes to go anywhere in each pond. On the other hand...the Sidewinders may be my new favorite waterslides. They don't look like that much, just a couple turns running into moderate sized speed slides, but...I've never gotten airtime on waterslides like these. They're fast and each of the sections of the drop has water jets that help to almost throw you into the air just as the slide drops out from under you. Several times in my runs down them had serious time with me airborne with my mat between myself and the slide, and none of the three even close to touching. There are times when you're well above the sides of the slide, wondering if you're even going to come back down in time to make it through the tunnel section. It's like riding Phoenix, on water.

 

Unfortunately I made one of the worse decisions of the weekend and forgo taking sandals with me; they're usually a nuisance at waterparks, having to find somewhere to put them between rides, and all. Usually I just tough it out and deal with the concrete on my feet. The boardwalk, however, is...a boardwalk. With boards. You can see where this is going, a well as I should have. We actually managed to walk all the way down the pier between the two waterparks (WATCH THE TRAM CAR PLEASE) and back without the world making me pay for my poor forethought. We made it back down most of Surfside pier, past the flume, next to the Gravitron, fifteen feet from the end of the boards and the start of the waterpark, when I put my foot down and felt the Spear of Destiny go through it, or perhaps it was Gae Bolg... I was pretty fond of the boardwalk, but I really didn't want to take a chunk of it home in my foot...after a lot of hopping about and cursing, and quite a bit of minor surgery on myself, I managed to get most of it out so I could actually walk, but that pretty well used up the last of our waterpark time; we needed to get food before we headed out. After changing back into dry clothes, I did stop to buy a few ride credits and sneak in a ride on the Flitzer, which was up and running that day. Pretty unique little coaster, not like anything I've been on before. It's nothing I'd go out of my way for again, but the swooping drops and turns are kinda fun.

 

Surprisingly, while we were at the Mariner's Pier waterpark, Maelstrom was up and running! Unfortunately I was in a bathing suit at the time and had no way to buy ride tickets, so I didn't get a chance to get on it...but it does look to be back in normal operation.

 

 

We hit Mack's for pizza - I'm not generally a fan of thin crust pizza, but Mack's was among the better of what I've had, not the most memorable food I've had but no complaints - and then it was time for Kyree to head back towards home and for the rest of us to head for the only place that could improve on the weekend so far from there - Knoebels!

 

Despite concerns about the weather, and sunburn and splinters from a couple poor choices, it ended up being a fantastic day and a half at Wildwood. I love the atmosphere and look of the place; the rides are well maintained and most run great cycles. It seems like, while a lot of their rides are fairly commonplace models, the ones at Moreys just seem noticeably better than any of the others; It, Nor'Easter, and even their Tilt a Whirl were just miles ahead of anything similar. The food at the boardwalk was good, the food a couple blocks away was even better. Even with the lack of lines and waits though, I wasn't quite satisfied with how much I got to do; if I'd only been there for the rides it would have been plenty, but there's just so much more to the boardwalk. I'd love to get more time to explore a bit; that will just have to wait until next year though!

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Inside was more subdued than I expected. Actually kind of pleasant, really.

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Awesome report! Seriously, some good photos and loved your descriptions. You should do more.

 

A few things:

 

As much as I'm in Wildwood, I've never eaten @ Grab-A-Weiner. I've heard its good, so maybe I'll have to finally grab a weiner other than my own. Passing by always makes for a good laugh. Nice to hear you got some Fractured Prune. I never had them until earlier this summer and they are incredible. I hate Cattle and Clover. Haha! I've gone there quite a few times late @ night after the boards to have a drink or two and I always hate the vibe in there. Its always douchey late at night when I'm there. I have yet to eat anything but like munchie fries to soak up to beer but maybe I'll have to go back. My bro-in-law loves it.

 

That lame maze we got into on here in Bill's trip report thread a little while back. It used to be much more extensive, I can't believe they haven't done anything to update it since last year.

 

Glad to hear you were not let down by "IT". Such a great ride. The flyers are barely snappable (they're new Larsons, no surprise here) tho I have, and also been kicked off them... possibly more than once... but have only had success on really windy days. But I love that they are elevated above the boardwalk (same reason I now love their Waveswinger) and the themeing on Kong is nice, not to mention they look great at night with the lighting package underneath the boats. Smart move going for the magic seat on Great White, you don't get much air in the front since the main drop, the drop out of the station, and the drop into the bunnyhops are the only major spots for air. You need that yank in the back. The blue train is definitely running better this season.

 

I really gotta get over to the waterpark before Labor Day wknd. I'm so lucky to have a place to stay down there w/ the hotel prices what they are.

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Thanks! I'll get to one for Knoebels in the next few days, at least.

 

I'd say Grab a Weiner is definitey worth a stop; if for the fries more than the weiners. I'm surprised to hear that about Cattle and Clover; it seemed a pretty good atmosphere, but we weren't there incredibly late. I can see how it might be different later on with a different crowd. The food really was fantastic though.

 

The maze was so ridiculously bad it would almost be a shame if they did improve it now.

 

I can't imagine how anyone could be let down by It.

 

I did get the red train for my first run on Great White, and blue the second, so that does make sense. It felt faster too consistently through the course to have been just the better seat.

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Here's a late trip report of the Coastin' By The Ocean event (my family had 6 days in Wildwood, so I didn't want to start it until I got back, then I procrastinated). My sister let me use the pictures she took for this report, since my phone doesn't have a very good camera.

 

The rain during the first day did nothing to stop us from having a great time. At least it wasn't super hot like last year! The ERT was great, and there were quite a few times where I stayed on rides multiple times in a row without getting up. The staff was really nice and enthusiastic as well. Rides I got on during that morning:

 

Great Nor'Easter x 3 - The rain rides on this were soaking, since for whatever reason whenever you would go through the rollover element at the beginning would cause a lot of water to fly up and hit the riders. It added to the fun! One of my favorite Vekomas now, and a really solid coaster.

AtmosFEAR x 6 - Everyone knows how great this tower is. Even after repeated rides, it still feels like it's not going to stop in time at the bottom!

Dante's Dungeon - Weird, cheesy, fun dark ride.

Doo Wopper - I was going to skip it, but the rest of my family wanted to ride it, so I went on with them. I actually got a really nice ride on it. It was completely trimless except for the one before the last turn, but that last turn still had crazy laterals.

KONG - I actually got a little bit of snapping out of it, at least what little bit I could get. One of the better Larson flyers.

It x 3 - Love IT! Insane cycle as always.

Zoom Phloom x 3 - I had a blast on it like always, especially in the rain. After the other rides I rode in that morning, I couldn't have possibly been any more wet, so I didn't mind re-riding it despite the weather.

Tilt-A-Whirl - In my experience, the modern-style tilt-a-whirls tend to be way better and have way more spinning, so that's why this one is so good.

 

Around 7 pm they gave us food at the party pavilion near the end of Mariner's pier, and a lot of it was really good! They had these amazing peanut putter & jelly wings! It was a sweet, fruity sesame seed sauce on the wings, with a delicious peanut butter sauce on the side. They also gave out these awesome homemade-style ice cream cookie sandwiches. I love that the park goes the extra mile to do this for the event!

 

After the dinner we got some more rides in. Unfortunately the night ERT on Great White was cancelled because of the weather, but I got some of the best rides I've had on it the next day (more on that later). Rides:

 

Flying Galleon

Ghost Ship - Interesting, well-themed, unique attraction with a decent length.

 

The next morning it was time for Mariner's and Adventure Pier ERT:

 

Sea Serpent x 2 - Back row, second-to-last row.

Wave Swinger

Musik Express

Moby Dick

SpringShot x 2 - Intense hang-time on this!

SkyScraper - Great like always.

Screamin' Swing

Skycoaster - My sister went on it with me. Great experience, and even better that it's included with the event admission!

Great White x 6 - Even in the morning it was running great. Still smooth, but it throws you around more now than when it first got re-tracked, which is the perfect smoothness for a wood coaster. I sat in the front once and middle once, but the rest was in the back two rows. The best was still to come though that evening. I got stuck in the station since my restraint wouldn't come up after my last ride, and they had to use this tool they stick into the train and pull extremely hard to release the restraints. Pretty interesting.

 

After the ERT I went back to Mariner's for a bit:

 

RipTide

Giant Wheel

Waltzer

 

Night rides from later on that day:

 

Maelstrom - First time I got on it in a while because it always has maintenance issues. My god that thing is crazy.

Ghost Ship - We had a smaller group, so it was better this time.

Tea Cups - During the first half of the ride, my siblings and I got the cup spinning ridiculously fast, way faster than these ones are usually able to go. Unfortunately halfway through, the cup just stopped. It didn't just slow down, the thing just stopped spinning completely. I don't think it was the braking, since there was no way to get the cup moving again the entire ride. Maybe the ride op was able to disable the spinning for our cup because it was too fast? Who knows.

Great White Epic Night Rides Of Death x 6 - WOW! If every ride I got on Great White was like this, it would be on the same level as Thunderhead or Twister. It's got the perfect balance of smoothness and shakiness, and at night it ran FAST! Way faster than it ever did in the 7 or more years I've been riding it. The laterals are always great, but even better when the trains warm up throughout the day. The major airtime moments are way more pronounced, as well as the more floaty moments, and the and pacing is great. All of that along with the unique location makes for some of the best night rides I've ever had. I rode it two more times later in the week at night, and it was running just as well. I decided that Great White deserves to be in my top 10 wood list overall, and if we were just taking night rides into consideration, it would be right outside my top 5. A great way to end this fantastic event.

 

Pictures:

 

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Skycoaster

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View from the Giant Wheel

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Adventure Pier

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KONG running better than usual

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IT!!!!!

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Getting ready to spin

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Doo Wopper running great

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Adorable Zoom Phloom sign

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Invisible ghosts having fun on Zoom Phloom

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Oooooh

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Backside of the wheel

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Great White!

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Non-upcharge Screamin' Swing for us!

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Beach view from Giant Wheel

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About to get on Riptide

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Sea Serpent

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Swingy

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Nice report/pics.

 

I need to do Coastin By The Ocean - if only for the Great White late night ERT. Maybe next year. Sucks about the weather and that the ERT at night was cancelled. Between that and the free upcharge rides it seems worth it.

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They've been there since the 2013 refurbishment.

 

http://www.nj.com/indulge/index.ssf/2013/05/an_all_new_safari_adventure_an.html

 

First, the famed Zoom Phloom attraction received a full makeover.

 

Drawing inspiration from the Tree of Life at Disneys Animal Kingdom, Moreys Piers Sea of Life Zoom Phloom ride features seals and sea life hand carved out of the existing rock work by Joe Pez of Concrete Links, the same artist who carved the rocks, logs and waterfalls of River Adventure with a steak knife last spring.

 

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After the dinner we got some more rides in. Unfortunately the night ERT on Great White was cancelled because of the weather, but I got some of the best rides I've had on it the next day (more on that later).

 

Great report! Were the ops still stapling like crazy at Great White for your visit?

 

I thought Great White could have been a wonderful coaster but it was hard to get airtime after the op tightened my seatbelt to the max and shoved the restraints all the way down.

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Great report! Were the ops still stapling like crazy at Great White for your visit?

 

I thought Great White could have been a wonderful coaster but it was hard to get airtime after the op tightened my seatbelt to the max and shoved the restraints all the way down.

FWIW, did not have this issue when I was down there at the end of last month.

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Yeah I don't recall us having that issue the weekend I met up with Bill and Andrew in early August. We only rode twice but I don't recall getting stapled that trip. It's definitely not a usual thing. In fact if I recall on our midnight ride that day I wasn't stapled at all and was getting nice amounts of airtime, as we were absolutely flying on that lap.

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After the dinner we got some more rides in. Unfortunately the night ERT on Great White was cancelled because of the weather, but I got some of the best rides I've had on it the next day (more on that later).

 

Great report! Were the ops still stapling like crazy at Great White for your visit?

 

I thought Great White could have been a wonderful coaster but it was hard to get airtime after the op tightened my seatbelt to the max and shoved the restraints all the way down.

Nope, they didn't staple at all.

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