Moreys Piers Discussion Thread

[LcHg5265]

Hey everybody!

 

This thread is simple! Rather than having a million little threads about everything that goes on at Morey's Piers, this thread is designed to consolidate it all into one user-friendly thread. Feel free to use it to post updates, trip reports, questions, comments, and of course, general discussion. For pictures and videos of the park as well as past updates, see TPR's Park Index Page.

 

Official Park Website

 

 

Below are some links to past updates from the park, you may be interested in. Enjoy!

 

--Robb

 

_____________________________________________________

 

2007

October 11th, 2007 - new restraints being tested on Great Nor'easter

 

2008

April 29th, 2008 - new restraints to premiere on May 17th

June 16th, 2008 - Small small destroys some kiddie rides

July 6th, 2008 - Coastin' by the Ocean details released

 

 

2010

Jan. 24th, 2010 - New Ride on Mariners Landing: 'Ignis Fatuus'

Mar. 23rd, 2010 - Four new experiences unveiled for 2010

March 24th, 2010 - Ghost Ship announced! Experience details included!

May 29th, 2010 - Ghost Ship: Preview Event Coverage and review of the attraction.

June 11th, 2010 - Joe's Fish Co. opens at Morey's Surfside Pier

June 16th, 2010 - New mega coaster in the last stages of planning

October 7th, 2010 - "Wipe Out" giant slide to close on October 10th

 

2011

April 15th, 2011 - Morey's Piers announces 'Terror on the Boardwalk'

May 6th, 2011 - GCI woodie now on track for 2013

June 4th, 2011 - Girl dies after falling 100 ft from ferris wheel

Ocotber 12th, 2011 - Morey Organization to build hotel for 2013 opening

 

2012

January 21st, 2012 - New Wipeout slide concept art released'

 

2014

October 8th, 2014 - Flyers coming to Wildwood

 

2016

February 6th, 2016 - List of improvements for 2016 season

 

2017

January 13th, 2017 - Co-founder Bill Morey dies

 

2018

January 4th, 2018 - Wild Whizzer announced for 2018 (SBF Visa spinner)

 

2019

November 13th, 2019 - Runaway Tram coaster being teased

 

_____________________________________________________

Original Post:

 

It seems that another park is looking into adding Vekomas new restraint design. I always thought that the SLC at Morey's was one of the smoother ones in operation, and this will only make the ride better!

 

I have always thought that Vekoma SLC's are very intense and thrilling coasters, but as many others, I find that the head banging is just to much to find the ride enjoyable. With these new seats, I think that the ride will finally get the recognition it deserves.

 

Its also nice to see that parks are considering an improvement to the guests experience with no large financial benefit to them.

 

NORTH WILDWOOD — Morey's Surfside Pier, 26th and Boardwalk, conducted its first tests of a new prototype design of roller coaster seat Oct. 10.

 

The Vekoma suspending looping coaster seat is made in the Netherlands.

 

Herald reporter Lauren Suit talks with Geoff Rogers, Morey's VP of Operations, about the difference between the prototype seat and seats currently used on the Nor-Easter. Watch as the new seat is tested.

 

(Follow link for short video clip)

http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/arti ... aster-seat

Edited December 3, 2018 by larrygator

[Primogen18]

I know this has probably been said somewhere, but Cedar Fair should be watching this for their SLC going into MiAdv.

 

This is great though, I love the placement of that ride around the waterslides and overlooking the ocean, this will be a great change and I look forward to checking it out.

[matteocrepaldi]

That looks pretty nice! I'd love to see those new restrains on our Blue Tornado next year!

[Alpenguy]

That looks really nice.

 

It makes me wonder what is inside the rubbery part of both those and B&M flyer restraints, but I think I'd actually willingly ride an SLC with that seat.

[ahecht]

I always thought that the restraints on the Vekoma flyers were among the most comfortable OTSRs I'd ever ridden with, so the fact that they're considering them on the SLCs is great news!

 

Now if only they'd install them at SFNE...

[coreyml]

i would love for these kinda OTSRs to be on maverick

they look great tho

[DerekRx]

I always liked the location and shoehorned aspects of The Great Nor'Easter, so if Morey's actually did get these new restraints for it, I would actually consider riding it again. Looks like Morey's is really trying to get noticed among the coaster community.

[YoshiFan]

This will make the ride a lot better. I last rode Great Nor'Easter in 2006 and if it is considered one of the smoother SLC's, I'd hate to ride a "bad" SLC. My shoulders hurt for a while after the ride. Hopefully I'll get there next year and try it out if they are added.

[Scaparri]

I'm really hoping this catches on across the nation. I truly love the SLC layout. The things are a blast when they are actually smooth. Hell, if parks replaced their old trains with these, SLC clones would no longer be listed as a con for said park. Well, maybe not T2. I don't know if anything can salvage that pile of excrement.

[ebl]

It appears that a flexible OTSR may well be the wave of the future, and will, hopefully, replace the age old horsecollars. Nice to see this.

 

Eric

[coasterbilly]

i really think that if these become a success (which it looks like they are), most SLC's should recieve trains with these at major parks. Obviously there are many many many SLC's out there so distribution would be interesting, but these restraints definitely will make the ride experience a lot more pleasant!

[bobafett]

It's about time they are replacing those god awful seats. I mean I sure hope they do. That is why I stopped riding the Nor'easter. My ears would hurt so bad after riding and I would get such an awful headache. We will just have to wait and see. And I can't wait to see the new coaster that debuts between the two piers next year. Thank heaven I have a house down the shore!

[LcHg5265]

So maybe intamin can update their neck chopping OTSR's with something like this. Oh how I hate those horrible horrible restraints.

[itsme102]

This is great news! Nor'easter may have been one of the "smoother" SLC's, but last year there seemed to be alot more headbanging. The open design is perfect for the location. Now people can actually see the waterpark they're flying over.

[Canobie Fan]

Smoother? GNE is by far the worst SLC I have been on! (of the 10)

Its also the only one I didnt reride....Because it was that bad.

 

Too bad cause the view it has its so nice. It just ended up beating the shit out of me.

 

Canobie "lol...It was my 400th coaster" Fan

[bobafett]

^You are exactly right Canobie Fan. I haven't been on it in years. It really was a head chopper. The Morey's organization is pretty decent company and maybe they will invest in these new seats to make it a smoother ride. Let's hope so! Now, if they would only reopen the Golden Nugget..............

[FlyerACE1]

deleted

Edited December 13, 2011 by larrygator

[Primogen18]

I'll have to look into it considering they are testing the lap bar SLC trains...

[King of Ka]

I really hope these type of restraints catch on. I can think of a ton of coasters that would benefit from these (*cough*Intamin*cough*). In fact, any coaster with OSTRs would be so much better with soft restraints.

 

I think this is the first thing I've seen Vekoma do right.

[BRTeller]

Wow those look very cool, and most importantly comfortable and less head banging.

 

Hope to see this on all SLC's some day if they are as comfortable as they look.

[texcoaster]

I think that this current trend of manufacturers making their rides more comfortable is AWESOME.

 

First, Premier reworked those LIM-launch trains and Mr Freeze moved up more than 100 spots on my faves list. Poltergeist at SFFT followed suit and that coaster moved up even farther. It went from my bottom 10 to my top 25!

 

Now it looks like Vekoma is getting the hint. It makes sense that if you are going to do all that engineering on designing a bitchin layout, and if the park is going to drop $10 million or so, that you'd want a ride that people actually enjoy. Duh.

 

Vekoma.... if you're reading this, I have one word for you: GOUDURIX

 

It's such a pretty coaster and a killer layout... and yet it's number 481 on my faves list. Dead last. I wonder if the migraine and bruises that it gave me after only one ride could be the reason?

[Absimilliard]

I don't think Parc Asterix would buy anything from Vekoma directly. They like to "update" their rides in-house and given the recent work done on Goudurix, new trains are out of the question. Last year, they changed the ride computer, rewired the whole ride, modified the trains to have an electric restraint release AND added little lights to the headrests that tell if they're locked.

[texcoaster]

I don't think Parc Asterix would buy anything from Vekoma directly. They like to "update" their rides in-house and given the recent work done on Goudurix, new trains are out of the question. Last year, they changed the ride computer, rewired the whole ride, modified the trains to have an electric restraint release AND added little lights to the headrests that tell if they're locked.

 

...none of which makes the ride experience any better for the customer. In fact, I'll bet that most of the park visitors wouldn't even notice those changes.

 

What they will notice, however, is how badly the ride beats them.

[Absimilliard]

Parc Asterix doesn't care. They're still full most of the summer, even with very minimal investments. Since 2001 (the year they added a 12 million dollars Mack Bobsled!), they added a cheap dark ride in 2003, replaced a great show with a lame one and they're building a "Mad House" this winter. That's it. There was a very serious project to replace Goudurix with a B&M looper or Inverted, but the park never received the budgets for it! Instead, they just got barely enough to upgrade Goudurix to keep it running.

 

The main problem with Parc Asterix is that its now owned by "la Compagnie des Alpes". Compagnies des Alpes is an almost public company that owns a lot of amusement parks (which they invest PENNIES in them!) and skiing places (need a new chairlift? Here's 20 millions!). Compagnie des Alpes is runned under the mentality "we're not here to make a profit", so they only invest when its really needed. Seeing that Parc Asterix is still getting 1.6 million visitors...

[Acero]

The main problem with Parc Asterix is that its now owned by "la Compagnie des Alpes". Compagnies des Alpes is an almost public company that owns a lot of amusement parks (which they invest PENNIES in them!) and skiing places (need a new chairlift? Here's 20 millions!). Compagnie des Alpes is runned under the mentality "we're not here to make a profit", so they only invest when its really needed. Seeing that Parc Asterix is still getting 1.6 million visitors...

Kudos to that! Compagnie des Alpes is probably one of the most uninterested and boring theme park operators in the world. They make absolutely no effort to change what they consider already 'good enough,' and have extremely poor guest relations/support. It's actually sad to see the Parc Asterix is so neglected that they don't even receive show upgrades and so forth. The management the operator has installed at the park Walibi World thinks that removing rides and putting on mediocre shows is going to somehow maintain the amount of guests that the park amazingly receives. I'm actually quite jealous of the team at Walibi Belgium, who really put their hearts into maintaining rides AND a decent water park, investing in shows, entertainment, and 'quality' restaurants and keep a real balance between child and thrill attractions (addition of Vertigo in 2006/2007 -- Walibi World's last major attraction was Goliath, which was constructed during the Six Flags Holland era). According to the Walibi World management, keeping a balance is removing thrill rides, closing thrill rides, and installing wastes of space. In fact, Walibi World was the first park to test these new SLC seats, and even though the reaction from the GP was great during the test sequences, they have not shown large interest in purchasing train-fulls of these new seats.

Well back on topic, I believe that Vekoma is heading in the right direction with these new seats, obviously, it's just sad it took them, what - 13 years to do so. The pain has been there since the inception of the SLC, and was quite evident, so taking over a decade to redesign such migraine-inducing trains seems quite unreasonable. But hey -- at least they've done it. Now it's up to the parks to invest in the trains (highly reccomended for any SLC-possessing park out there).