Photo TR: Jersey Shore

My non-enthusiast boyfriend was heading to DC for work and flying in to BWI, so I decided to join him over the weekend for a credit wh*re trip to beautiful southern New Jersey! I'd never been to any of the parks, and jumped at the chance to pick up 17 new credits. I was at 380, so if everything was open I'd come close to 400!

 

We were supposed to leave ATL at about 7:30, but huge storms up and down the east coast caused major delays. We didn't end up getting a rental car at BWI until well after midnight. We drove about an hour and a half to our hotel just over the Jersey border, and finally got some sleep.

 

First stop, Clementon Park! We drove about 45 minutes to get there. It's a small park, with only one credit. I liked Hell Cat, but there's a set of mega-brakes on the first drop that really suck a huge amount of speed out of the ride. It's Mean Streak style "grab and hold" first drop trims. It was still a decent ride, and fairly smooth, but didn't have much airtime. I vastly prefer the Wisconsin Dells Hell Cat, which is an airtime machine.

 

Another 1/2 hour drive, and we pulled up to Storybook Land. This is a beautiful kiddie park. Twenty acres of lush woods with lots of exhibits and rides. And of course Bubbles: the coaster. What could be more fun than a grown man riding a bright pink kiddie coaster with a giant bubble machine? The things we do for credits...

 

A short drive into Atlantic City, where we hit some traffic but managed to make it to the Trump Taj Mahal to pick up the credits at Steel Pier. Atlantic City seemed a bit run down, but was still very crowded. Lots of traffic and tons of people out and about. Steel Pier was just a quick credit stop - it's not very heavy on charm.

 

Next stop, Ocean City for Gillian's Wonderland Pier and Playland's Castaway Cove! This was a pretty nice area with lots of vacation homes, well maintained streets, families on bikes, and a popular boardwalk and beach. A total of six credits between the two parks. Both were nice and jam-packed with rides.

 

Another drive south, another credit. Gillian's Funland is a tiny kiddie park on a parking lot. But there's a Wacky Worm!

 

And on to the final stop: the three piers of Morey's! This is where I hit the first lines of the day. It was pretty crowded. Still only about a 15 minute wait for the Flitzer and Doo Wopper, and not much of a wait on anything else. The Great Nor'easter was absolutely brutal! I thought the new style of trains might make it more enjoyable, but it was one of the roughest coasters I've ever been on. The corkscrews throw you around like a rag doll.

Great White was better than I expected. It's a fun woodie, not too rough, and with a unique pre-lift drop down below the pier.

 

After an exhausting day of coasters, we drove to Dover where we spent the night, before checking out historic downtown Dover and then Annapolis on Sunday.

Southern New Jersey is an easy place to pick up lots of credits, but bring lots of cash! We must have paid over $30 in tolls, and some of the piers are cash-only for tickets purchases.

Ha, Carney's Point. Got this place cheap on Priceline.

Our rental car was very orange.

Made it to Clementon Park!

Small trains.

twisty bits.

Clementon Park.

Clementon.

Storybook Land entrance.

Lots of shade.

Embarrassing credit.

Creepy little elf dude watches Bubbles.

Wheeeeee

The kids were loving it.

Great theme for a tilt-a-whirl!

Humpty.

Park map.

Happy birthday, Storybook Land!

Mother Goose.

Taj Mahal casino.

Steel Pier.

Steel Pier entrance.

Kiddie Coaster credit! The operator asked, "you know this is the kid's coaster, right?"

Coastin' on the beach.

RCDB calls this coaster "Little Leaper." Steel Pier's website and posted ticket list call it "Kiddie Coaster." But the actual sign is "Mini Mouse."

Reverchon credit... got some intense spinning on this one!

Skeleton Domo approves!

Lunch time! "World famous" subs.

So delicious... Italian meat coma...

Om nom nom

Abandoned synagogue as we drove out of Atlantic City.

Gillian's Wonderland Pier

Big ferris wheels seemed to be a theme of the Jersey Shore.

This miniature knight is also glad we're here.

Runaway Train was surprisingly fun. The trains are a bit bulky, but it's smooth and has a good first drop.

Another embarrassing credit... choo choo...

New, from Legoland!

OH NOES! Miner Mike is closed!

This is obviously a "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" promotional tie-in.

This section of Gillian's is elevated above some bumper cars and other rides.

Not too busy yet... maybe because it was hot.

Gillian's also had this large covered area with lots of kiddie rides and a nice ocean breeze.

Gillian's entrance from the boardwalk.

The beach looked great and was pretty busy... but no time for that, there are credits waiting!

This guy is taking his Hovearound to the Grand Canyon.

Playland's Castaway Cove, home of three more credits!

Python

I had a solo ride. It's OK... a bit of head bashing but not bad. Smoother than the one in Oregon.

Flitzer. These are fun little rides. Smooth and with a couple of nice directional changes.

Don't mind him, he's just Flitzin' around.

Hmm, what's that all odd white blob? Oh well, it must just be a cloud or something.

Wait a minute! All of the ladies are covered up! This mural is anti-woman!

Lots of rides here.

Kiddie coaster time again! One thing that's great about these seaside parks is that they won't turn adults away from the kiddie coasters. They want your money!

They call sprinkles "jimmies."

I hear the same thing in Midtown Atlanta all the time.

Gillian's Funland sign.

Not very attractive entrance.

Surprisingly, the first and only wacky worm of the trip!

Not very crowded at all.

Official Indiana Jones theming.

I wondered why our parking meter was a FAIL... maybe because it's not yet October 31th?

Made it to Morey's!

So much domo on the Jersey shore!

Another Flitzer. This one has an anime space surfer theme. Obviously.

Doo Wopper

New trains on the Great Nor'Easter. Ouch!

Vekoma twists of pain! ow ow ow

Splashy mcsplasherson ride was very popular.

Yep, we're at Morey's!

This was actually a very fun dark ride.

'rang

I see you, Great White!

This Ghost Ship looked very cool. Oh yeah, and there's a credit on the left.

Just monkey-ing around at Wildwood.

The sun was starting to set.

It started getting quite crowded as the temperature cooled off.

Next credit is an Arrow racer. But I couldn't find the Intamin jr. version.

tee-hee

"Ninja" domo says "put things unnecessarily in quotes!"

Nice view back towards the other pier.

Last credit! My 396th coaster!

Getting darker...

Night time on the beach.

Edited August 24, 2011 by shivtim

WooHoo for WhiteHouse subs. Probably the longest line you waited on all day.

Awesome update! Trying to get my BF to want to travel like that!

Reminds me of my Whore on the Shore day I had back in May, although I started to the north and finished at Morey's.

 

9 parks, 22 credits, 10 hours!

 

Gambling, hookers....and a church. Sure...why not?

Honestly, me being a tiny but tall person, I thought the new trains on Nor'Easter made it bearable when I rode it a year or so ago.

^I was there about 3 weeks ago on the Road To CP trip. I think Robb commented that if the SLC still had the original trains that it might actually kill someone.

I never realized I was so close to so many credits. I need someone to go credit whoring with me.

 

Great report

Glad you had a good time in South Jersey, Ive been here all my life and still havent been on all those rides. BTW if you think AC is run down now, you should have seen it 10-15 years ago. We never went into AC growing up, atleast now its semi passable.

Looks like a fun way to spend the day. What day of the week did you do this?

I hope the old trains on the SLC weren't even worse than these! It's the roughest SLC I've been on. At least there really isn't any headbanging thanks to the thin flexible straps, but instead you get full-body banging as the train jackhammers through the curves. It's a shame, because it looks pretty impressive looming over the end of the pier and swerving over the waterslides.

 

 

Reminds me of my Whore on the Shore day I had back in May, although I started to the north and finished at Morey's.

9 parks, 22 credits, 10 hours!

Looks like we did almost the same trip! I just didn't have the time to head up to the parks further north (like Casino Pier). But someone could definitely do them all in one long and expensive day - it would be around 25 credits!

 

Looks like a fun way to spend the day. What day of the week did you do this?

It was a Saturday. Most of the parks don't open until around noon. We hit Clementon at 11:30AM, and were done at Morey's by 7:30. I would have loved to have more time at the piers at night. It's probably a cool atmosphere with all of the people and lights, and they are open until midnight or later.

Very cool, looks like a fun day.

I hope the old trains on the SLC weren't even worse than these! It's the roughest SLC I've been on. At least there really isn't any headbanging thanks to the thin flexible straps, but instead you get full-body banging as the train jackhammers through the curves. It's a shame, because it looks pretty impressive looming over the end of the pier and swerving over the waterslides.

 

It used to run really well from what I've heard. Makes you wonder if they got the new trains so they wouldn't have to put as much maintenance in.

Is it just me...or does anyone else see an almost hidden Mickey?

^ I thought the same exact thing!

Now if only I could convince my boyfriend to take a trip like that. I've been asking for 3 months to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain (we moved to SoCal in May) and we are just now headed there this weekend!

You should of done the Ghost Ship, definitely was my favorite part of Morey's Pier.

Very cool trip and report of it! Seaside honky-tonk amusement parks and piers are among my favorite places on Earth. Especially when they have well-maintained dark rides.

 

Really does suck to hear that the Nor'Easter is such a Snooki-level disaster these days. It looks so cool ripping so close to the other rides, and it wasn't too unpleasant to ride many years ago.

Sounds like you didn't get a lot of sleep. Reminds me of my recent trip to Mt. Olympus! Please forgive me for being jumpy, but I'm amazed of all the kiddie coasters you rode.

All of the ladies are covered up!

 

Maybe this was once on the european carnival circuit and the girls are painted topless or with nipples - typical american to paper them over.....

Very nice trip! Sometimes, you need these whoring-trips. I can imagine myself spending a bit more time in some of the larger parks. But otherwise, what's there to see when your coming for coasters?

 

How did you experience the new Vekoma SLC trains? Personally, I think the restraints are a massive improvement.

Looks like a fun way to spend the day.

Very cool, looks like a fun day.

yall couldn't be more wrong

Nice! I can tell by the rider's face in the first row of the Great Nor' Eastern that it was a painful ride; I rode it twice just to make sure.

 

Otherwise, Morey's was awesome! Very neat rides.. and cool boardwalk area.

I've done most of those parks, though on different trips over the years. I've never actually managed to be in the area when both coasters at Steel Pier are operating.

 

And yes, in the northeast "sprinkles" are almost always called "jimmies". Just one of those regional things.

Is it just me...or does anyone else see an almost hidden Mickey?

 

 

Yes! Me too. Totally.

 

Thanks for the great trip report!