NJ - July 20-22 "Piers, Piers and more Piers"
Associated parks:
None
Best Coaster – Great White at Moery’s Piers. It had an amazing location, good air-time, interesting extras like the dive under the pier to start and no line.
Worst Coaster – Great Nor’Easter at Morey’s Piers. I enjoyed the SLC’s at PCW and SFWoA but this one was much too rough to enjoy in any way. Time and the sea air have not been kind to this coaster.
Biggest Surprise – Mighty Mouse at Playland in Ocean City. I expected nothing before I arrive. I expected nothing having seen it in person. I was wrong. It is now my favourite mouse. Air-time that lifted up my whole body on several occasions and it ended with a helix. Who puts a helix on a mouse? I loved it.
Biggest Disappointment – Crazy Mouse at Steel pier. Overpriced, rough and couldn’t get my car to spin. I wish I wasn’t such a credit whore…
Best Ride Ops – Great White at Morey’s. They were friendly but not overly so, leaving plenty of room under the lap bar and not stacking the trains.
Worst Ride Ops – Python at Playland. I’ve never seen someone who was so uninterested in doing their job and actively discouraging people from riding. No check of the restraints either.
Best Flat Ride – Log ride at Morey’s. It was long, scenic and plenty of splashes. No line either which is rare for water rides.
Worst Flat – NJ Junkyard at Morey’s. I feel as if a minute has been stolen from my life.
Funniest Moment – Having the ride op at Sea Serpent recognize my soccer jersey and then hold up restraint checking so we could discuss English Premier League football for a few minutes. I guess you take whatever you can as a ride op to make your job more enjoyable.
Trip Report
Atlantic City – July 20
My friend and I arrived on the boardwalk at about noon. We parked at Trump Taj for $4. For those who enjoy a bit of gambling, sign up for the Taj players card and play for 30 minutes and you will receive 2 free buffets. They even have nickel slots for those who just want free food.
Steel Pier is just outside the Taj. At first glance and this being my first pier experience, I was impressed. Good game selection with great prizes, happy kids, plenty of rides and a great view. We walked around and checked out the ride selection.
The log flume looked interesting, but the Wild Mouse was why we were here. The ride cost about $5.25 per person. That was damn expensive but being a coaster credit whore I paid. No wait and hopped in the nicely designed car that was looking rather sun-bleached. The ride was disappointing. I couldn’t get the car to spin, the turns were harsh and the connections between the track pieces seemed to be unusually rough. I felt cheated when I got off but I understand all coaster experience can’t be the best. I’d recommend giving this coaster a miss.
As for the rest of Atlantic City, we walked up and down the boardwalk, stopped in a few casinos and chilled on the Caesar’s Beach Bar for a while. Nice town but I couldn’t see spending more than two days there.
Wildwood – July 21
We arrived at around 11am. We trekked to the beach which is about a mile from the boardwalk. There should be shuttle busses. After some water and sun time, we hit Morey’s Pier.
First of all, this amusement park is just a joy to look at. It’s is visually beautiful and the design is even more impressive. The go-karts below the pier, the water park intertwined with amusement rids, and the use of space in general is worth going to see. Anyone who says any park is out of space should take a trip to Morey’s.
We started on the middle pier with Sea Serpent. It was a standard boomerang but the pier setting added a lot to the ride. The lift hills seemed steeper to me for some reason but I think it was all in my mind. It was a fun ride and not overly rough. One of the better ‘rangs I’ve been on. Not much reason to re-ride it though. I did have some fun talking soccer with the ride op though. Everyone is waiting for the restraint check and the train to dispatch but he’s taking to me about who’s going to take the English Premier League next year. Priceless.
Next was the coaster with no name that RCDB tells me is Rollies Coaster. Not sure how to explain this ride. It was almost a Wildcat design with bulky cars. There were a few rough patches and really nothing to make it stick in my memory.
We moved on to the next pier and Great Nor’Easter. I enjoyed Top Gun at PCW and Serial Thriller at SFWoA. They had some fun elements that outweighed some roughness. Unfortunately this SLC was very rough. The fun elements were impossible to enjoy and I left the ride disappointed.
I took a look at RC-48 that was testing but not open. I don’t think I missed much expect a sore neck.
Flitzer was a fun little coaster. There were some nice g’s in the turns and all around laugh out loud fun. It was well worth a couple of rides. I’m not sure about the cardboard cut-out theme, but I sort of works for the coaster. It’s plenty of fun for the children.
Next up was the last pier. The first coaster we hit was Doo Wopper which I subsequently figured out was my 100th coaster. Sure makes me wish I hit Great White first. Doo Wopper is a standard Zamperla Zig-Zag coaster. I’ve ridden one at my home park of La Ronde and this one compares poorly just for all the breaks. Too much breaking kills a wild mouse. Also, all the themeing is gone. Are they planning on moving the coaster?
I saved the best for last and got about a dozen rides on Great White. This coaster was all I expected and more. The drop out of the station and screaming turn under the pier to the lift hill is one of the best starts to a coaster I’ve been on, and it just got better. Great air, fast turns, amazing ride ops and no wait, not to mention the unique setting make this coaster one of the better ones I’ve been on. CCI did a fine job.
Morey’s surprised me because I’ve never been to a pier park and it’s a whole new experience. We went on plenty of flats too, with the highlight being the go karts and the flume. Lowlights incuded the dark rides. Wow were they terrible. Staff was all very friendly and the crowd was having fun everywhere you looked. Another world class, distinct ride in the calibre of Great White would be nice, but as it stands now I’ll be back.
Ocean City, NJ – July 22
Ocean city seemed to have a different type of vibe. It’s a family resort and from what I can gather, upper middle class families. There was also a distinct lack of hotels. Apparently you have to rent apartments by the week. Oh.. and the distinct lack of alcohol was also different. I’m from Montreal. We have to drink when doing everything.
Wonderland had a City Jet. Fun ride, not too expensive but it seems a little slow. It was early in the day though. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it gets better as the day goes on. The park was cute and small. Plenty for the kids to do but few real thrills, which seems to keep to the theme of the city.
We moved on to Playland and their three coasters. Flitzer was up first. It was a carbon copy of the ride at Morey’s sans cardboard cut-outs. There ran 3 trains on the circuit at a time instead of 2 at Morey’s and that added to the fun. The ride was much smoother too. It seems to have gotten more TLC.
Python was a fun ride, except for the turn after the first drop. Wow did I smack the back of my head really well. There were some good g’s and the loop was nice, but not worth a re-ride. The policy of a minimum of 4 riders was a tad annoying but it would have been much more tolerable if the ride op wasn’t actively campaigning for people to stay away. This guy would have been happy if nobody rode all day. At one point when there was 4 people ready to go and I was waiting to take some pics, he left to go talk to what I assume was the manager to discuss his schedule. Oh well..
RCDB lists Playland’s Wild Mouse as just that, “Wild Mouse”. The Playland website lists it as “The Mouse”. The ride has a sign calling it “Mighty Mouse”. I like the last one and I really like this ride. Wow. I recommend to anyone who may be thinking of going to go just for this one coaster. It starts out like any other mouse and then goes nuts with a double down drop that almost tosses you out of the tub and then bunny hill after bunny hill that keeps you out of your seat the whole ride. And then to top it off, it finishes with a helix. What mouse has a helix? I loved it and had to go buy more tickets just to ride it again. This mouse is mighty.
Thanks for reading and I’ll be posing a SFGAdv report soon… including getting stuck on the Superman lift thanks to some little kid.
edit to replace formating
*** This post was edited by Mtl_Shag 7/26/2003 4:22:01 PM ***
------------------
http://photos.coasterfuge.vze.com/
------------------
Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.
------------------
-Sean Newman
gadvMAN - No time for funtown. This wasn't a pure coaster trip and I was already pushing my luck.
------------------
http://photos.coasterfuge.vze.com/
As for Wildwood. I agree that the dark rides are lame. There was the best haunted castle at Nickels Pier but was burnt down a year or 2 ago. Nickels is across from Mariners Landing, the middle pier.
Glad you had a good time. I live close to all 3 of these towns, so its nice to see an outsiders take on practically my homes towns.
------------------
Shop @ www.countypaintball.com "Paintball should be fun, not expensive"
You must be logged in to post
