Morey's Piers June 2014

I visited Morey Piers during my Wildwood, NJ vacation the second week of June. What a fantastic park, or umm, group of parks.

No play-by-play here, because I visited the Boardwalk parks throughout many days. I did finish the week off on Saturday with an all-day pass. I took a break at the hotel to take a nap, eat, and recharge before going back out for some evening and night rides.

I stayed at The Adventurer Hotel, located at the south end of the Wildwood Boardwalk. The location of this hotel was perfect, because it was close enough to all the action, but just far enough to avoid the crowds. It was right on the beach, so the views were beautiful.

Morey's Piers is three seperate parks on three different piers that are linked by the main Wildwood boardwalk. There is a lot of walking between piers. If you are tiered, you can flag down the tram. At $3 per ride, each ride, no matter how far you travel, it can get pretty expensive though. I only rode the tram for the end of the day, going back to the hotel.

The boardwalk had many shops, arcades, and places to eat. Some were kind of expensive, but I was surprised to find some places that offered some fantastic values. Even the places that weren't the cheapest were priced right. You could find a bottle of Coke or water for a dollar or two. You could find a slice of good pizza for a few bucks. Many places offered hot dogs or fries for a dollar. The food stands were really good too.

But you are probably reading this for info on the park, so here it goes...

Morey's Piers wasn't perfect. Some rides were closed all week. I dreamed of riding the Ferris Wheel at the park, with amazing views of the beach and the boardwalk. I also was very excited to ride the sky lift over the wood coaster. Those were closed, unfortunately, but that was forgivable because of the atmosphere. People were having a great time. Popular music played loudly over the PA system. Families were in their summer clothes. Kids were running from ride to ride. I didn't see this kind of enthusiasm at Six Flags. It reminded me of Kennywood, for some reason. It had the same kind of feeling as that fantastic park.

I didn't go into the water parks. Morey's has two really nice water parks, which are small, but larger that you would think could fit.

The park has a large selection of fun, well-maintained rides. Some of the coasters are portable models, but are unique and interesting.

Roller Coasters:

Doo Wopper: This smallish wild mouse style coaster (Zamperella Zig Zag coaster, to be exact) had a few interesting themeing elements that gave it a diner theme. The ride is smaller than most wild mouse type coasters I have been on, but still a lot of fun.

Flitzer had a really fun design. I have always wanted to ride one of these types of coasters. It is much smaller than I anticipated, but extremely fun. It has a wall that blocked about half of the ride from view.

Fly the Great Nor'Easter is a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster, fits snuggly into the park. Water slides run through the structure, and pathways directly underneath it. This coaster, unlike many other SLCs, sports a very comfortable vest-style restraint. That is very necessary because it still tracks like a Vekoma SLC. It is one of the better SLCs I have ever rode, because of the comfortable restraints and the amazing view of the beach from the lift hill.

Great White is a CCI wooden coaster. I expected this coaster to be really rough for some reason, but my rides on it were not bad at all. It's actually pretty fun. The layout has a few S-curves during some of the drops that made this coaster exciting and unique. It was actually my favorite ride at the Piers.

Rollies Coaster is a Pinfarri Zyclon, much different than the Zyclon that I am used to that used to be at DelGrosso's in PA. It had much of the same feel, but the ride vehicles were newer, or at least seemed newer. This made the ride seem more sturdy. It was closed most of the day Saturday, but it did open for some night rides eventually.

Sea Serpent is your basic Vekoma Boomerang coaster. I expected it to hurt. It was surprisingly smooth as butter, and very fun.

Zoom Flume was closed for part of the day, but when it opened, I rode it over and over and over. Like a few rides at Morey's Piers, you couldn't be a single rider for Zoom Fume, but the staff at the park was very helpful in finding me someone to ride with. Zoom Flume was a fantastic log flume ride with two large drops, an underground (or under the boardwalk, actually) section, and a large portion of the ride was elevated above the park. The splashdowns were very forceful at the bottom of the drops, so much so that inertia actually forced me to stand up during one ride.

If you do only one thing at Morey's Piers, make sure it is Ghost Ship. It is a walk through haunt with live actors who actually are allowed to touch you. Really scary and a lot of fun!

The park also has a lot of unique flat rides, a few dark rides and a handful of low-capacity high-thrill pay-extra rides. They even had a strange maze attraction.

Overall, this park was really great; much more fun than a lot of parks I have visited. I highly recommend a visit.

I made a video of the park. I used my iPod touch. I can't figure out how to upload the video in HD, but the quality is pretty good as it is. Thanks for reading.

Awesome video, Travis. I can't wait to go there someday, it looks like my kind of place.

Nice report, the no single rider on the log flume must be a somewhat new policy. I haven't been there in a few years and don't remember the ride having that rule.

Beautiful job on the video! The "Watch The Tram Car" audio intro seals the deal.

It's a really nice park, and they really pack it in to the space they have. I think it's the only Boomerang I actually enjoyed. Hope you were there late enough to see the place lit up at night, their lighting packages are great.

You must have missed that part of the trip report and video, KPJB. :p I was there at night too. The park took a whole new personality when it got dark and the lights came on. That Saturday, it was much more crowded at night too.

I really wanted to upload the video in HD. I'm happy that it looks okay.

Their boomerang was the best I've ridden of its type as well. The seats/restraints were a different design than most booms I've ridden, and I wonder if that has something to do with the comfort level. I really actually liked that particular ride.

Actually, I thought maybe I was crazy to enjoy Great White, but apparently I'm not the only one. It was also MY favorite ride when I visited Morey's.

I hated Great Nor'easter, but you're certainly right about the views...that coaster and many of the other rides there have expansive and gorgeous views of the beach and the other piers. I especially enjoyed the little pirate ship monorail thingie that I actually thought was Ghost Ship (I had no idea that the haunted ship part was open during the non-Halloween season. I'm sorry I missed that now).

Rollie's Coaster scared the crap out of me, but had it not looked so unstable, it would have been a ton of fun. Glad you enjoyed it! I white-knuckle gripped the bars the whole ride. *laugh*

I'm so glad you enjoyed your trip to Morey's, Travis. I know you've been looking to get there for a long time. :)

Wow, great video and trip report Travis! Those light packages really are as spectacular as I heard they were! I was planning a trip to SFGAdv and Morey's Piers in a couple years and now I think I will try to follow through with that.

Ghost Ship was great, Bunky. It had an exciting theme, and the actors knew how to scare. The layout was confusing. I'd love to see floor plans for that haunt!

I'm amazed that Noah's Ark still gets the Golden Ticket for best walk through dark ride. I'd give it to Ghost Ship.

...and I did miss that part of the TR. I was skimming it at work while I was waiting for some music to compile.

You made me think. While Ghost Ship is newer and fresher, I'm thinking that Noah's Ark is just more fun. I don't know. They are very close in the quality of the experience.

Did NA ever get the breakaway wall flood scene at the end fixed? That was a very unusual stunt for any attraction.

Very nice TR and video LK. It sounds like it made up for the shortcomings at SF: GrAdv. I'm planning a northeast coast trip for next season now, partly due to the Thomas the Tank park that's opening next year in NE. Hopefully my son is still in to Thomas & Friends next season. Wildwood / Morey's will be extra icing on the cake.

I've only been to one park in the region; SF:GrAdv once back in 2007 for a half day that got rained out. I stood in line for El Toro for 3 hours and finally gave up without riding a single ride. I was only in NJ for work for a couple of days. Sadly, the highlight of the trip was the sight seeing. (Mostly toll booths and smoke stacks)

Morey's Piers is a hidden gem, and one of the most underrated attractions in the industry. They will be hosting a stop for Coaster-Con 2015 and I strongly encourage those in the enthusiast community to join.

The place is just so unique, and family owned. If you are looking for the biggest, fastest, tallest, you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a themed, immersive experience, you will be disappointed. If you are looking to ride a bunch of B&M's, nope. But Morey's Piers is as real, and authentic as it gets.

It is classic americana, a little carnival like, a little tacky and just plain cool. You will find nothing like it elsewhere in the entire world. If you are at all nostalgic about classic ride parks, this is the place for you. And Morey's also have two really cool waterparks right on the beach.

If you get a chance, visit the place. It is only about 1.5 hours from SFGAd, but well off the beaten path in far southern NJ. But it is worth the drive.

LostKause said:

Did NA ever get the breakaway wall flood scene at the end fixed? That was a very unusual stunt for any attraction.

Don't know what you're talking about. Noah's Ark ends in a ramp that leads out of a door.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Well, look at the time. I gotta go.

Well played. lol

I have been going to Morey's Piers my whole life and it is one of the most underrated theme park experiences in the area. I was just in Wildwood the past few days; I live up the coast a bit so I try to make it down to Wildwood a few times every year. My experience this time wasn't as positive as in the past because I do feel like the place has gotten a bit too pricey for what they're offering. Also, while the Great White CCI coaster has always been my favorite, the competition is less stiff because I feel like Fly - the Great Nor'Easter has become much more of a rough ride recently. I'd love for B&M to design trains for the coaster because that would really make it an amazing ride again. The Vekoma trains are just too uncomfortable any more. Also, I think the piers are in desperate need of a new coaster. Obviously spacing is an issue but at 55 bucks for a ride wristband, I think they need to be offering more than what they currently are. The views from the three coasters and the ferris wheel are nearly unparalleled though!

It's obligatory that I comment that I am not complaining here... The Ferris Wheel was closed when I went. I was kind of disappointed about that, but the rest of the park was so awesome that I could forgive them for it easily.

You are not supposed to comment about the price of anything being too high here on CoasterBuzz, by the way, because it is considered complaining, and complaining disrupts the enjoyment of people reading the posts, but let's break the rules for a second...

When I was there, I did think that admission was kind of high, but there were still so many people buying it. In hindsight, I think it is priced just right, because the park has just as many rides and attractions as a larger park once you add all three parks together. Vacation entertainment is expensive.

If you hit Moreys monday tuesday or wednesday you can get pop from 12-6 for 25 bucks with tram ride included.

Is it wrong to want to try an SLC to see how bad it is?

It's much better than most SLCs I have been on. The restraints don't bash your head in like many others, because they are soft straps, much like the new B&M shoulder harnesses. The ride is still kind of bumpy in many places, but I did ride it more than once on purpose.

...And while reading that, keep in mind that it is more a positive comment on the Morey's Piers SLC and less of a negative comment about SLCs at other parks.

Wouldn't it be awesome if when the old SLC opens at Kentucky Kingdom, they would install the same kind of soft restraints?

I would also like to add that the dude manning the entrance had a metal detector wand, and was not letting anyone through with any kind of loose article, even if was your wallet or cell phone, and even if it was secured into a zippered pocket. The good news here is that they offered free lockers nearby to place these items in. GUSH!