Wildwood Roller Coasters
When it comes to Wildwood roller coasters, you shouldn’t exactly expect Six Flags-level entertainment, but Wildwood is more equipped for coaster thrills than any other Jersey Shore town by a long shot.
The Morey’s Piers people have done a fine job seeing to that, building large entertainment areas on each of their three Wildwood boardwalk piers, with coasters, water parks, haunted houses, and go-karts. And it’s definitely super cool to ride a coaster overlooking the ocean.
The esteemed author of A Great Number of Things approves of Wildwood’s Great Nor’Easter coaster.
There are three larger-sized Wildwood roller coasters (and some smaller ones for the younger kids), and you can get a day pass to ride all of them. Again, they aren’t Kingda Ka or the Top Thrill Dragster, but they’re pretty good, and the best part is that they are all very different in structure and thrill.
So here’s my thoughts on the Big Three Wildwood roller coasters:
The Great Nor’Easter was even cooler when it was red, but it’s still a badass ride.
Wildwood Roller Coasters #1: The Great Nor’Easter – The Great Nor’Easter looked cooler when it was painted red in my humble opinion, but the ride is just as fun with white tracks. This one is on the outer edge of Surfside Pier, the northernmost of Morey’s Piers.
The Nor’Easter is a suspended roller coaster, meaning that the cars hang from the tracks rather than sit on them. This makes for wide swinging around the turns and through the loops, adding to the whoa factor. It slowly climbs to a level of 115 feet and then plunges into a 95-foot drop, followed by several loops, hard turns and a corkscrew or two before bringing riders back around. Its top speed is 55 MPH, which isn’t bad and saves fuel. It’s not a long ride, 2:05 with the long climb up the hill, but you won’t feel gypped on the thrill quotient.
The cool thing about the Great Nor’Easter is the way it just seems to be built around and through everything in the pier. The ride flies by several spots in the waterpark, and from the waterpark you can watch people screaming by you on the coaster from several platforms. At times it almost seems like riders could kick the log flume. It makes waiting in line or climbing up the steps at the waterpark much more amusing.
Click here for some point of view action…
The Sea Serpent, conveniently located near a waterpark.
Wildwood Roller Coasters #2: The Sea Serpent – There are several iterations of the Sea Serpent in amusement parks that I’ve seen, so it’s not exactly a Wildwood original, but I definitely remember being intimidated by it when it first appeared on Mariner’s Landing on the boardwalk many years ago. (It was out of service at the time, that’s why I didn’t ride it, I swear!)
The Sea Serpent is unusual in being a “Boomerang” roller coaster. It starts by lifting the cars up to a 125-foot height backwards, then drops them back down, through the station, then through a loop and a cobra roll before heading up the other hill. Once the considerable momentum has carried it as far as it can go, the train lifts the cars the rest of the way, and then lets them go again—backwards. If you’ve never ridden backwards on a coaster before…it’s pretty cool.
The Sea Serpent reaches a top speed of 47 MPH. Not fast on Route 55 on the way to Wildwood, but pretty darn fast when going loudly through a cobra loop.
Click here for Sea Serpent point of view action…
The Great White, shot from a far enough distance to get the whole thing in.
Wildwood Roller Coasters #3: The Great White – It takes a bit of a walk from the other piers to get to the Great White, which is on the southernmost Adventure Pier, closest to the Convention Center. (I believe if you get a day pass, you get free rides on the tram car until 5:00 PM or something.) Adventure Pier has definitely grown in entertainment value in recent years, and The Great White is well worth the trip. Even if it’s the only one of the big three that isn’t painted white (slaps head).
The Great White is an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster—the kind where the real thrill is wondering whether these old, rusty tracks and shaky wooden beams are going to hold the coaster while you’re riding it—not to mention those old cars with only the lap bar holding you in them. There aren’t any loops, but that first hill takes a long time and gets to 110 feet, with a steep drop to start a long ride. Great White gets to 50 MPH, which is pretty fast on those rickety tracks! Stay hydrated to help avoid the headache.
Great White has another really cool feature…at the start of the ride, there is a short 25-foot drop, and then you actually ride under the pier for a bit before going up the first hill. Very cool, especially at night, and especially if you’re not expecting it. (Which I guess you are now, sorry.)
Click here for some very cool Great White point of view action…
So there you go, your best shot at inducing bile while in the Wildwoods. All three of these coasters are well worth riding, and unlike the coasters in other Jersey shore towns, they’re big and fast enough to make it worth the trip for any coaster buff.
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