Associated parks:
None
7/21 Fly in
7/22 Morey’s Piers
7/23 Six Flags Great Adventure
7/24 Six Flags America
7/25 Hersheypark
7/26 Knoebel’s
7/27 Dorney Park and party at a friend's house
7/28 Dorney Park
7/29 Fly out
I had an uneventful flight from Tampa, FL to Philadelphia, PA. After a wonderful cheesesteak meet with a friend in Philadelphia on 7/21/02, my next stop was Morey’s Piers in Wildwood, NJ. I had stayed in Vineland, NJ, which was basically central to Morey’s Piers and Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ (my stop on 7/23/02).
I had a two-night stay in the Days Inn at Vineland, NJ. Vineland was kind of dumpy, but the Days Inn was an adequate and large room. I paid $48 a night at the AAA rate. I had no complaints about the place. I did get approached by someone in the parking lot. He said that he needed help. I said, “Sorry, I can’t help you.” I felt kind of bad since he may have had a broken-down car, but I saw him walking across the street from the Econolodge. I bet he was a panhandler. I could have given him some money, but I was being overly protective. It’s better to be too secure than not secure enough.
Wildwood was about an hour and a half from Vineland. I had to drive through a lot of rural areas to get there. I stopped for gas on the way over. I was ready to stick my credit card in the slot when the attendant came up to me and said, “Can I help you?” I was surprised that someone actually pumped your gas in this state! I don’t think it’s very difficult to pump gas. I had him fill up the tank. I wondered what I should do. Do I tip the man? It felt kind of weird when I’ve been used to pumping gas all my life!
The Wildwood area is pretty nice. There’s a lot of mom and pop motels along the beach. Pedestrians and bicyclists were everywhere! Parking seemed plentiful. Depending on where you parked, it was $5-$7 until 6 pm or $12 for all day. I chose the all day option.
I had arrived at 10 am and the rides at Morey’s Piers wouldn’t open until noon. I walked up and down the boardwalk, looking at the shops. The shops had a flea market feel to them. One place did tattoos and body piercing. I saw a shop that sold interesting clothing. One pair of boxers said “Latin b****.” What sort of trailer do you have to live in to wear this stuff?
One thing that surprised me was the price of food. There’s a place that sold pizza at 99 cents a slice. I didn’t eat it, though. Bottled water at the shops was $1. Usually, other amusement and theme parks would charge $2-$3 for bottled water. I did drink from the fountain, but the water was pretty warm. I drank 3 bottles of the cold water. One shop said that everything in the store was 99 cents, but they charged me $1 for bottled water! Hmmmm… J
I walked around the piers and the water park was crowded. Two Atlantic City casinos, Hanna’s and Showboat, was having an employee picnic. I hoped that they would all stay in the water park. As long as they were splashing around, there would be less people in lines for the ride. I was right! The rides were mostly walk-ons. I think the most I waited for a ride was 5 minutes.
I bought an all-day ride armband for $38. At noon, I started to ride. I was pretty much interested in the roller coasters, so I will concentrate on describing them.
Starting with the first pier (I can’t recall the name)…
THE GREAT NOR’EASTER
This is a SLC coaster made by Vekoma. These coasters are inverted and sit two across. The restraints look like linebacker padding. Whenever I see one of these, I think “hand and bang.” Serial Thriller at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure is a SLC coaster and really bangs your head. The Great Nor’Easter is no different. My head banged around on the restraints. It was not a good ride. I rode it one more time and I kept my head back against the seat. Still my head banged! Also, do all SLC coasters have to have a heart-shaped loop and three flat spins? The neat thing about this coaster is the lift hill is quiet. There is no clacking chain.
RC-48
This is a small, steel coaster with harness restraints. It was also a rough ride. Ouch! I rode it once for the credit.
FITZER
This was a surprise. It a small coaster, but it was very fun to ride. It reminded me of Space Mountain, except it was outdoors and had tighter turns. The cars loaded like the logs in Islands of Adventure’s Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. A very excellent ride! I only rode it once and I regret not riding it again. When I came back to it in the afternoon, the line for it was long.
THE SLIDE
I had to do the slide Morey’s Piers. The piers began with the slide and grew from there. Unfortunately, I found out I was a clumsy oaf. I can sit in a coaster car, put on a seatbelt, and pull the restraint down, but the slide was different. I should have been weary of sliding down on a potato sack. The attendant was very patient and let me take my time to sit down on the potato sack. Then I went down. She told me to sit straight up, but I automatically leaned back instead. I went down the slide like the agony of defeat guy! I skinned my below and got a sore butt! I decided to avoid slides at all the other parks that I was going to visit.
CONDOR
I saw this ride on a coaster video and it looked neat to ride. You sit in a small car and spin around. Then you slowly rise and spin around high in the air. Then you come down to earth. The ride gave a neat view of the entire area.
DANTE’S INFERNO
This was a dark ride and it was pretty bad. I saw two kids ride it twice. I wondered why. It had a lot of generic spook house things that were kind of spooky, but looked very cheap. A car alarm sound went off a lot during the ride. This must have disturbed the neighbors who were trying to sleep. I didn’t see the seven concentric circles of hell either. You know them -- the seventh circle was listening to Michael Bolton all the time, the sixth was your mother-in-law’s visit, etc. J
Onto the next pier...
THE SEA SERPENT
This is a basic boomerang coaster. It lifts you up, releases you through a cobra roll and a loop, and then sends you back through the same loop and cobra roll backwards. The ride was fairly smooth. Going backwards was a neat sensation, especially through the loop. However, aren’t there boomerang coasters that have a different layout? I mean, a park can buy one and slap a new name on it, but no matter what the name, it’s still a standard boomerang. I rode it twice because it was pretty fun regardless.
ZYKLON (OR THE COASTER WITH NO NAME)
I had trouble figuring out the name of this one. The coaster had no sign that said what it was. I dubbed it “The Coaster with No Name,” which prompted me to sing, “I’m trapped in Morey’s Piers with a Coaster with No Name” a lot during the day. I had to look in Tim O’Brien’s “Amusement Park Guide” to figure out its name. Zyklon coasters seem to be found a lot in amusement parks. It was a fun ride, sort of like a mouse coaster without the “S” curves. Zyklon had a lot of brakes in the wrong places, though. I rode it twice.
MOBY DICK
This was a flat ride that spun you around vertically. It didn’t flip you. I rode it because it looked interesting. My head kept on banging from one side of the harness to another as the ride spun.
SKY SHIP
This ride put you into Peter Pan-like ships and rode you around the water park. This was the longest wait all day – 5 minutes! It was a relaxing ride that gave me a great view of the water park. I rode this around 3 pm and the water park was still packed!
DARK WATER
Dark Water was another Morey’s Piers dark ride. Like Dante’s Inferno, this was a pretty terrible ride. You sat in boats and floated down a river. Scary stuff was all around you. Unfortunately, the boat ran as slow as Disney’s It’s a Small World boats. The scary stuff wasn’t scary at all. I could see the strings on the scary things! The boat that I was in beached! The boat was turning a corner under a bridge and went up on the ground to the right. I waited for a few minutes for help, but I didn’t hear a message to stay in the boat or that there were technical difficulties. I guess there aren’t hidden cameras around like some other places. Another boat rear-ended me, but I was still beached! Being the only one in the boat, I had to shift my weight to the right to unbeach myself. During the rest of the ride, I had to move to the other side of the boat as it made turns.
The final pier…
DOO-WHOPPER
This was a mini-mouse coaster themed around a drive-in fast food place. Your cars resembled 50’s era cars. The coaster didn’t have as many “S” curves as other wild mouse coasters, but it did have the swooping drops. It was a lot of fun. I only rode it once. My butt was still sore from the slide incident and Doo-Whopper made it sorer.
THE GREAT WHITE
This was a great out and back wooden roller coaster. I rode it four times. It was a more emotional ride since the manufacturers of the coaster, Custom Coasters International (or CCI for short), closed operations a few days previous. The ride was a tribute to the great coasters CCI had made. During my first two rides, I was the only one in the coaster. I rode it once in the middle and once in the front. It was a very smooth ride. A few more people loaded into the train during my third ride. It was still a smooth ride. Later, I rode it with a full train and it got really rough! What gives? Still, I liked the coaster. I generally like out and backs better than twisters since they seem a bit smoother.
JERSEY JUNKYARD
This was yet another scary dark ride. Like the other ones, this one was not very scary and was pretty terrible. Must Morey’s Piers had a bad dark ride on every pier? Fortunately, this one was short. At the end, a character vomiting at the end was pretty gross. He must have eaten on the boardwalk! J
One of the piers had a ride called the Maelstrom. You’re strapped into cylinders. The ride picks up the cylinders, spins them around, and turns them upside down. I passed on this one! Also, the pier with the Great White seemed to be the least busiest one that day. I think it was because that pier didn’t have a water park. The casino employees appeared to hang around only around the water park piers.
I did walk along the beach, but I couldn’t stand the brown sand. In Florida, our beaches have white sand. I was missing the beautiful Florida beaches.
The day was sunny and warm, but a nice sea breeze cooled things off.
There’s a tram car that goes up and down the boardwalk. It costs $2.25 a way, which was a pretty good deal. At the end of the day, my feet felt my bricks and the tram car was a godsend. I wouldn’t take it a lot since $2.25 can add up, but I did it once and it was a nice ride. When someone was in the way of the tram car, the driver would play a recorded message that said, “Watch the tram car please.” People got out of the way. I would have hated to see road kill of tourists on the boardwalk! I had “watch the tram car please” stuck in my head all day.
I spent around 6 hours at Morey’s Piers. I did some re-rides and videotaping. I left a little bit after 6 pm and headed back to the hotel.
Tomorrow: Six Flags Great Adventure
*** This post was edited by Barry H on 8/22/2002. ***
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Good Times!! Good Times!!
CCI Lives On!!!!
-Patrick
*** This post was edited by cdrpointcrazy4 on 8/23/2002. ***
Barry H said:
"I stopped for gas on the way over. I was ready to stick my credit card in the slot when the attendant came up to me and said, “Can I help you?” I was surprised that someone actually pumped your gas in this state! I don’t think it’s very difficult to pump gas. I had him fill up the tank. I wondered what I should do. Do I tip the man? It felt kind of weird when I’ve been used to pumping gas all my life!"
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"To get inside this head of mine, would take a monkey-wrench, and a lot of wine" Res How I Do
Sounds like a fairly fun day at Morey's. I love the location of Great White.
Just reading your trip report got the dang-blasted tram spiel stuck in my head. Argh. I feel your pain.
cdrpointcrazy4 said:
Over at www.rcdb.com, it says that Zyklon is no longer standing........Maybe you thought Zyklon was Rollie's Coaster. http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery648.htm?Picture=1 Is that what it looked like? If it is, that was Rollie's Coaster, not Zyklon.-----------------
Good Times!! Good Times!!
CCI Lives On!!!!
-Patrick*** This post was edited by cdrpointcrazy4 on 8/23/2002. ***
Yes, that is it! I guess I need to check RCDB for my coasters from now on. :)
Sounds like you had a good time. Oregon also doesn't allow you to pump your own gas either. Good TR.
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I'd rather being riding coasters... or playing Halo
*** This post was edited by hunter11 on 8/23/2002. ***
GroundskeeperWilly said:
Its actually Harrahs casino. Why did you decide to stay in Vineland? Where did you get your directions to Wildwood? I live 10 minutes from VIneland and can make Moreys Piers in like 40 minutes
I stayed in Vineland because it was 1/2 way between Morey's and Six Flags Great Adventures. I got directions from mapquest.com.
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