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Moreys Piers Discussion Thread


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They do have wristbands (they are discounted on Tuesdays FYI - I think its just an afternoon special, and obviously have no idea if they'll continue that this year, but they've been doing that for years now).

 

Otherwise they run about $60 per person - that may change depending on if its a weekend or not, I don't know if their pricing fluctuates during high peak times. Its a little steep when you factor in four of you but the problem is their tickets are expensive. The big coasters/flume/larger flats wind up coming out to almost/around $10 per person per ride if you go w/ tickets, so it honestly makes sense to get the wristband if you plan to ride a lot. And FYI - its not actual tickets. You get a card that you can load up with different tiers of tickets.

 

Also - just because you mentioned only spending a few hours. The piers are a good walk (10+ minutes) from each other. If you are doing a "credit run" its going to be a pain in the ass, not to mention their coasters aren't exceptional (Great White comes quite close at night but I'm biased). I say it here all the time - Moreys is not a quick stop. Spend the day - eat some boardwalk food, ride the tram car, browse the sh*tty tshirt shops, enjoy the free beach, have a beer, check out the pretty Jersey girls in bikinis, ride lots of flats.

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They do have wristbands (they are discounted on Tuesdays FYI - I think its just an afternoon special, and obviously have no idea if they'll continue that this year, but they've been doing that for years now).

 

This is helpful as the current plan is to hit the piers on a Tuesday after KD on a Monday. And cost of the tickets/Cards isn't really an issue its more of paying for stuff we won't use as this is our first trip (and I spent my summers visiting my grandmother and going to Seaside Heights) and I have no idea if we will ever go back. My brother and I are mostly interested in the coasters, flumes and dark rides, my nephews will ride anything.

 

Thanks for the tips, advice and any help/suggestions!

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Make sure to hit some flats - their Larson drop tower, IT (KMG Afterburner w/ lapbars only), and their wave swinger are all really good. The flume is awesome. I love their flyers due to placement/theme but they're new Larsons and Moreys are nazis about snapping. Ride the giant wheel for the views.

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Boldikus practically lives there, so he's covered most of it, but I'll say my one-day wristband on a Saturday in August (pretty much highest peak season) ran me $85. Totally worth it, as it was far less than I would have spent had I used tickets for each ride.

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Although I haven't been there in almost 20 years, I thought the most essential part of Morey's was nighttime, usually open 'til 12. The feeling of reaching the top of the lift on the GNE at night is incredible, as well as it seemed like a turbo switch was flipped on the thing at dusk.

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I also strongly recommend their collection of dark rides. Ghost Ship in particular shouldn't be missed. It's essentially a year-round haunt.

So thankful I got to experience the dark rides and walk-throughs they had in 2011! Even though Jersey Junkyard was the worst of the bunch by far, it was all part of the Wildwood experience. That one Egyptian-themed(?) walk-through, which I always forget whether it's still there, was surprisingly average-good, too.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I realize this isn't explicitly about Moreys, but the boardwalk is getting escape rooms.

 

Escape rooms coming to the Boardwalk this summer

 

xddarkride.jpg.3d720ffff495e110abbb0b0b5ae5990d.jpg

 

The escape room phenomenon, which began in Asia and has swept through North America and Europe in recent years, is coming to Wildwood this summer.

 

Three physical adventure games will take shape in the coming months at 4008 Boardwalk, alongside XD Dark Ride, the interactive, cinema shoot-em-up that debuted in 2016.

 

Escape rooms challenge players to solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, hints and strategy to complete various objectives. Players, either solo or in groups, are generally given a set time limit to unveil a secret plot hidden within the room(s).

 

These games are set in a variety of fictional locations, such as prison cells, dungeons and space stations, and usually the various puzzles themselves follow the theme of the room.

 

"This is going to be another phenomenal addition to the Boardwalk, as well as another first," said Brian Martin of XD Dark Ride. "Escape rooms have quickly become major attractions and destinations around the country, and are a big hit with groups."

 

What themes might be included?

 

Martin hinted that space or time travel could be involved, as well as a Wildwood-inspired room.

 

"You'll have to wait and see," he said with a wink, also noting that the escape rooms will be fully operational by Memorial Day Weekend.

 

Stay tuned!

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I realize this isn't explicitly about Moreys, but the boardwalk is getting escape rooms.

 

It's great to hear about the other options on the boardwalk. Whether it be the food, brewpubs, arcades, fascination, mini-golf or go karts it is all part of the Wildwood ecosystem.

 

A huge part of the Morey experience is the boardwalk. The piers and the boardwalk are intrinsically linked and visiting Morey Pier, without doing anything else on the boardwalk means you are missing the experience.

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^^^I couldn't believe it that there were no escape rooms already when I visited the shore last year. I distinctly remember along my significant other if he wanted to take out a 25k loan and move to Wildwood to put one in there lol. Glad to see that will be an option for families this summer. They've been so popular in Orlando, I think we are up to at least 15 different facilities offering 3-5 rooms appiece now.

 

Oh and fascination at the retro arcade is absolutely the best thing at Wildwood. I spent like 40 bucks there in one night and don't regret a thing!

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^^^Larry you are preaching to the choir.

 

^ and ^^ Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the Boardwalk Mall was sold and is being ripped out and modernized. The future of Retro Arcade is hanging in the balance. Last I heard it was up in the air as to whether weirdo Randy (the guy that ran the arcade and owns all of those games) would return. Dude has hundreds and hundreds of games more than what he had there - he also had much of them in storage in a building on Pacific Ave and I always thought having an arcade with all those retro machines would do much better maybe not tucked down in that basement with almost no advertising at all. The place was always kinda empty. Not to mention his whole "no photos or videotaping" rule when in there, which in the age of Instagram, social media etc is the dumbest thing on the planet imo.

 

Any way ya cut it, the Boardwalk Mall will be different in 2018 (personally, I am happy as it needed it). A bit more about Randy/the pending sale from late last year:

 

Pinball wizard of Wildwood hopes to play another day

 

randy.thumb.jpg.7039c9a9c7e314c3a32a1f2dd15df3f5.jpg

In the din and the darkness of a basement arcade on the Wildwood boardwalk, Randy Senna sits alone with a few of the 500 mannequins he made in his image.

 

A maze of wood-paneled shooting games and retro pinball machines he resurrected rises up around him, alive with the clicks and buzzes and pings no modern games make.

 

The collection, curated and handpicked over a lifetime, had been for sale for a week, and for the blue-eyed wizard of Wildwood’s bygone days, letting go was akin to losing one’s own molecules.

 

“Everything is special!” Senna, 56, yelled Monday afternoon, his volume as loud as every speaker there. “I don’t want to get rid of anything — but yes, certain things, of course, are more special than others.”

 

He has operated the “Remember When Retro Arcade” in the bowels of Wildwood’s Boardwalk Mall since 2011, but believes the future is uncertain now that the property, a former movie theater, is under contract with a new owner.

 

The mall is one of the largest buildings on Wildwood’s rambling, eclectic boardwalk, with dozens of small stores and kiosks selling everything from designer sunglasses to hot sauce on its three floors. In recent years, as some tenants left, the mall’s owner allowed Senna to put additional games — he has thousands elsewhere — in any unrented spaces to keep them from looking empty. Retail space above the building’s marquee, its clam-shell windows looking out over the boardwalk, beach, and Atlantic Ocean, was closed all summer.

 

The Boardwalk Mall, according to the commercial real estate website Loopnet.com, was for sale for $2.495 million and the property’s real estate agent declined to comment, saying the building was “under contract.”

 

The building’s current and longtime owner, Martin Falk, opened the Boardwalk Mall in 1977 and believes the potential new owners intend to keep it that way.

 

“I understand Randy’s concern, but he may be getting ahead of himself,” Falk said. “They’re going to need tenants.” Senna said he hasn’t spoken to the new owners and doesn’t know their names. Other longtime tenants are keeping fingers crossed.

 

“I know there is an offer on the building and I’m trying to put myself into a state of grace,” said Joseph DiMartino, 67, whose Old Time Photo has been operating since the building opened.

 

DiMartino’s photo booth, where customers dress as cowboys or Southern belles, is one of the mall’s mainstays and he said potential buyers said they want him there. He just hopes they jolt the 26,320-square-foot venue back to life.

 

“It’s been a real disappointment and a real difficult year,” DiMartino said.

 

Senna said he has an option to purchase the building and has consulted a lawyer. In the meantime, he put the entire collection at the arcade, several hundred machines, up for sale on eBay for $702,000.

 

“The Retro Arcade has been in operation for 7 years, and now it looks like we are going to lose our location due to the building being sold and re-purposed,” Senna wrote in his listing.

 

There’s no place on the boardwalk, or anywhere in Wildwood, Senna could afford to rent and move his collection, he said. He can’t pay for storage and certainly doesn’t have room in “Randyland,” his 21,000-square-foot property on Pacific Avenue a half-mile away that’s full of games.

 

Senna, who spent years working in Walt Disney World in Orlando, has been dreaming of opening Randyland as a retro arcade museum for at least a decade, but zoning issues have kept the place dark. Most of his Randy mannequins and heads, designed to be the “Mickey Mouse” of his world, are there.

 

Tourists still peer in through the windows of Randyland, dark and locked like Willie Wonka’s factory, from the sidewalk. The public did get a peek into Randyland in 2011, when Senna appeared on the reality series Hoarders.

 

He didn’t actually throw anything out in the episode. Instead, he moved games from Pacific Avenue to the boardwalk to open the arcade.

 

“That doesn’t make me less of a hoarder,” Senna said.

 

Wildwood Commissioner Pete Byron, who once ran a pork-roll shop in the mall, hopes new owners keep Senna around and keep the marquee aglow. “It’s fallen on some hard times,” Byron said. “It’s an icon of the boardwalk, though.”

 

Byron said the city has worked with Senna to get Randyland open as the museum he wants it to be. Byron said Senna knows there are some variances he would need and fire-suppression systems he’d have to agree to.

 

“Personally, I think he’s a good guy. He’s a brilliant guy,” Byron said. “The city would love to see that building open.”

Senna said he’s done well there in the Boardwalk Mall basement, home to various arcades over the decades, despite not having games that spit out tickets to win stuffed animals, bracelets, and even televisions.

 

Senna is a purist who plays games for the thrill of it, and wants others to do the same.

 

“What’s up there now, they’re not arcades!” Senna yelled, motioning to the boardwalk beyond the mall’s steel doors.

 

The opening theme to Laverne & Shirley blasted through the arcade Monday, followed by themes from other sitcoms and the occasional squawk from a mechanical crow in a Western shooting gallery.

 

Signage plastered on the walls promoted Senna’s appearance on Hoarders, his mentions in GQ Magazine and other news outlets, but one sign seemed more ominous, particularly when the wooden casket in the shooting gallery creaked open.

“If we move, want to follow us?” Randy’s latest sign read.

 

On Tuesday morning, the eBay listing ended with the collection unsold, but Senna’s not opposed to an offer, as long as it’s for everything. Randy’s retro arcade will live on, loud as ever on weekends until the mall closes for the season in October.

 

No one, Senna said, is as dedicated to retro gaming as he was, when he bought it all in the first place, piece by piece, up and down the Jersey Shore, where he worked in arcades nearly his entire life before and after his stint in Orlando.

 

“I live the dreams,” Senna said in an e-mail Tuesday morning. “I must remain loyal to the old ways, and die with them if I must. It is not for money alone that a man spends his life building a business: It is to preserve a way of life that one knew and loved.

 

Here is the episode of Hoarders he was on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYBTWtEIVaQ

 

Dude is strange.

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Dude is strange.

I think we have a winner for Understatement of the Year.

 

This is clearly a fixation for him, but he seems to have been doing pretty well with it. If you have a mental condition, you always have it. It's best to learn to live with it and do something positive. He could be hoarding these games and never leaving his house--happens to a lot of people--but instead he's displaying them, letting people share them, and at least a couple of people seem to have really enjoyed the place. Seems like he's doing all right.

 

Now, losing a thing like that can be really harsh for a guy like him. I hope this doesn't crush him.

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Possibly losing the Retro Arcade puts a damper on my Friday.

 

I agree that location wasn't the best. I just happened to walk into the Boardwalk Mall. Not sure why I did. I think I just wanted to buy water somewhere? But once I saw the Retro Arcade I knew I needed to visit.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Seaport Pier update: restaurant, bars, swim club and more (via Wildwood365)

 

seaportpierconcrete.jpg.703c48f51af56001068d27d8cf7a78d2.jpg

Things are taking shape at 22nd & Boardwalk, literally and figuratively...

 

Back in October, we shared the initial details on plans for Seaport Pier, at the former location of the Seaport Village outdoor mall at 22nd & Boardwalk.

 

Today, as the first segments of the pier's new concrete base were being poured, we learned quite a bit more via John Little Jr., who announced on Facebook that he is teaming with Gavin Wolfe of Philadelphia's Three Monkeys Cafe to be a part of Seaport Pier.

 

What we know so far:

 

* Seaport Pier is still on target for a May 2018 opening.

 

* The pier's main structure will house a restaurant with four different menus from Philly-based Green Eggs Cafe including their famous brunch selections.

 

* There will be table seating inside and outside for around 350 people.

 

* The building will also include three bars, including one inside the restaurant with 100 bar stools and one outside, just steps away from the beach.

 

* Additionally, there will be a takeout coffee shop on site.

 

* As seen in previous renderings, Seaport Pier will feature a private swim club with a swim-up pool bar. Membership will have seasonal, monthly, weekly and daily options.

 

* The back (beach/ocean)-facing end of the pier will have a concert venue.

 

Even more details are forthcoming. Stay tuned!

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Official Seaport Pier announcement and more details.

 

BG Capital announces development of Seaport Pier - A year-round multi-purpose venue for regional and tourist guests of North Wildwood

 

PHILADELPHIA, PRNewswire - BG Capital is proud to announce the recent acquisition for the development of the new Seaport Pier in North Wildwood, Cape May County, NJ. This agreement will bring new life to the once foreclosed and vacant Seaport Pier located on the Boardwalk at 22nd Avenue.

 

A multi-purpose venue with resort-style amenities for regional and tourist guests will provide entertainment and activities for visitors of all ages. To learn more about pool memberships and for general information, email info@seaportpier.com.

 

Co-founders of BG Capital, Daniel Govberg and Joseph Byrne, are proud to announce the recent acquisition for the development of the new Seaport Pier in North Wildwood, Cape May County, NJ. A multi-purpose venue with resort-style amenities for regional and tourist guests will provide entertainment and activities for visitors of all ages.

 

"We are thrilled that we were able to work out this deal in cooperation on both local and state levels. Mayor Patrick Rosenello was instrumental in making this deal happen, and facilitating this revitalization effort for the North Wildwood community at large, and to the millions of tourists who travel to this destination year round," said Joseph Byrne, co-founder of BG Capital.

 

The plan includes a public swim club, restaurants, upscale coffee bar, and bike parking, as well as an agreement with a renowned entertainment company. Ashley Govberg, Principal of ACG LLC and chief designer, is heading up all aspects of the design, and is focused on creating an inviting and exciting atmosphere for all to enjoy.

 

GREEN EGGS CAFÉ

Brunch powerhouse restaurant, Green Eggs Café, will be one of the pillar establishments at the new Seaport Pier, providing decadent eats with the freshest local ingredients, and featuring La Colombe Coffee. Green Eggs Café focuses on serving the highest quality product at the lowest possible price point, all while maintaining an eco-conscious philosophy on a daily basis. The Seaport Pier location marks the fifth Green Eggs Café restaurant to open. Other locations include, South Philadelphia, Northern Liberties, and Midtown Village in Philadelphia, as well as Miami.

 

"We are beyond excited to be joining the team at Seaport Pier this coming summer to add a destination to the already established North Wildwood dining scene. We will be bringing Green Eggs Café to the pier for a fun and delightful breakfast and brunch experience. Green Eggs Cafe's team will also be adding a light and refreshing food and beverage menu Poolside! In addition, the team will be adding a bar and grille concept operating for lunch and dinner. All three models will focus on Jersey fresh products," said a representative from Green Eggs Café.

 

SEAPORT PIER BAR & RESTAURANTS

Alcoholic beverages will be available at three designated areas on the pier - The Dive Bar, The Sand Bar, and the Starboard Swim Club. The creation of these three establishments is being spearheaded by hospitality veterans John Little Jr. and Gavin Wolfe.

 

"Being a part of this venture with BG Capital and the great city of North Wildwood is thrilling to us. We believe this is something the Jersey shore needs. We can't wait to work alongside the great people of North Wildwood, Green Eggs, and the other exceptional entertainment entities. We look forward to being a part of its growth and success," sentiments expressed by John Little Jr. and Gavin Wolfe.

 

The Dive Bar will incorporate the historical South Jersey Coastline and the old Deep Sea Diver outfit, and will feature kid-friendly equipment and apparatus. The Sand Bar, just steps away from the beach, will be the perfect public gathering space to meet, eat, drink and soak in the sun, as well as to host entertainment events on a grand scale. The Starboard Club is a modern, "resort-style" pool that will offer residents and tourists an alternative to the beach. Seasonal, monthly, weekly and daily memberships will be available. Amenities will include private locker rooms, pool side food and drink, even a swim-up style bar. A pool management company is expected to join the team.

 

DEVELOPMENT

At fourteen and a half feet above sea level, the building plans adhere to the most stringent codes for beach front development. All elevation, wind, and flood plain guidelines have been met according to both local and state code requirements.

 

OPERATING PARTNERSHIPS

Danny Govberg, co-founder of BG Capital remarked, "With our successful track record of increasing property value, BG Capital looks to do other projects and acquisitions like the Seaport Pier, functioning as a reliable operating partner, where we can contribute to the strategic and operational development for portfolio companies."

 

Also something Moreys related - Opening days for 2018 are as follows:

 

Mariners - Sat March 31st

Surfside - Sat May 5th

Adventure - Sat May 19th

 

Tram Car service begins Thurs May 3rd

Macks Pizza opens March 24th

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Most of the staged rollout has to do with staffing. The bulk of their employees are local kids and foreign exchange workers who don't become free until mid-May/early-June.

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edit ^ beat me to it

 

Oh no it totally has driven me up a wall for as long as I can remember. It stings a bit more in the fall when Adventure and Surfside close in mid September and only Mariners is open for the Oktoberfest event. But Mariners being the first to open/last to close makes sense because its the center of the boardwalk, and of town really.

 

Though as a regular, and someone who does visit in the spring/fall, the staggered openings/closings does make sense based on the crowds they typically get - they'd be spread really thin if they opened all three piers on the shoulder season, not to mention their staffing is mostly made up of internationals who don't arrive until May/June. And taking visitors into account - many people do start to visit Wildwood on the weekends in spring but it stays totally dead on weekdays til mid June and immediately after Labor Day, opening all three piers would only be warranted if the weather happened to be really good and they can't exactly plan around that.

 

I get opening Adventure last/closing first as it has the least amount of attractions and I'd assume Great White needs more general maintenance than the two Vekomas so this gives them more time there. But I have always wished they'd open Surfside earlier and closed it later - I would love if they expand their Oktoberfest to include Surfside at some point, but I know with their limited staffing after Labor Day its likely never going to happen.

 

I may go down next month for a visit to the folks and to get some pizza, but I'm planning my first visit for rides for May 5th weekend.

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