Gillian’s Wonderland Pier & Playland’s Castaway Cove
Ocean City, New Jersey – Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Today was an improvised day. Normally I like to have these trips planned to the last detail, so it was slightly surreal to pull our car into a cheap parking lot by the beach aware that nearby were not one but two amusement parks that before yesterday night I didn’t even know existed, let alone planned on spending a full day at. But it was a decision we were both satisfied with, especially as neither of us could stomach the thought of spending a second day in Six Flags Over Dante’s Inferno and the ocean promised a cool, moist breeze to help manage the heatwave that was still washing over the entire region. Plus neither of us had been to the Atlantic in a long while and we were so close it made sense to go the last little bit, as if a frontier had been reached signifying
a milestone of our travels, with a new, refreshed outlook to carry us on our return leg west.
To be perfectly honest, I was kind of bored by Ocean City. There are two competing amusement parks on opposite ends of the boardwalk (located on the side facing the city, they don’t go out into the beach or over the water), but they did not open until 6:00pm which meant most of the day was spent walking along the beach, checking out several of the eclectic
seaside shops, getting food, and otherwise just ambling. I’m not a water person, I’m not a water ride person, I’m not a water park person, and I’m certainly not a beach person. I find them aggravating, watching all the people migrate to one area to collectively enjoy in doing one seemingly pointless activity. It’s probably more due to my own willful desire to self-pity and cast myself as a self-imposed outsider, rather than anything to do with the beach itself. If there is one thing I do enjoy about beaches, though, it’s that there’s plenty of room for walking, and I do enjoy long walks as they stimulate the nerves and cardiovascular system just enough to open a gateway
to the beach of the mind, my preferred summer relaxing getaway destination and there aren’t nearly as many ugly people. By the way, yes, I did spend some time in the psychedelic 60’s and 70’s
emporium found along the Ocean City boardwalk.
The two amusement parks that call Ocean City their home are Gillian’s Wonderland Pier and Playland’s Castaway Cove. Both are pretty small and hokey, with a fairly high concentration of brightly colored, mostly transportable rides fitted into the space of a small city block. Once 6:00pm rolled around we elected to begin continuance of our roller coaster adventures at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier by buying a book of 25 tickets for $20. As most of the rides there take four to five tickets this might seem a little pricey considering there are no unlimited wristbands being offered (‘pricey’ at least for Ocean City, New Jersey demographics), and Gillian’s did reinforce one of my major critiques of pay-as-you-go systems.
It is that most parks that implement this policy generally will have severely overserved capacity with many empty seats being sent out on rides, and the crowd levels on the midways suggest that there remains an untapped demand to fill those empty seats, but for whatever reason an economic equilibrium cannot be reached that sees those seats occupied. Even more disappointing is the fact that there should be a competitive environment between the two amusement facilities, but the market mechanism either isn’t working properly (an oligopoly is about as diverse a single market can handle when it comes to theme parks) or maybe they simply have found that charging a high amount for fewer riders does produce larger returns than charging a low amount for many riders. The midways were relatively well-populated (at least for a Tuesday evening), but the rides ran infrequently and I was often the only person on board; even if I were to decide to go big and buy a huge-ass book of tickets, I’m still missing a very important element of atmosphere from my purchase due to other people’s abstinence from riding. No lines are great but the positive energy seems to die a little when ride motors are idling and people are milling around the exits rationing out tickets to their kids.
Oh well, it did mean I got free choice of seating when I decided to credit my first coaster of the day, Gillian’s Wacky Worm. Front row, score! I lamented plenty three days ago over my caving in to my first Wacky Worm at DelGrosso’s Park, now I had more to lament over riding my first Wacky Worm that I would pay $4 for. And I would have even more to lament in the future. Their second coaster, a Miner Mike, appeared to not be running, and a shame as at only 3 tickets it would have been a real bargain. I convinced my dad to use some of our tickets to join me on the next ride, the impressively large Giant Wheel, an opportunity to take many pictures not wasted.
The next ride I did was the Canyon Falls Log Flume, a relatively decent log flume considering the space and construction constraints of Gillian’s that includes a section indoors, built under the deck with some fake rock walls. There’s one big drop that you don’t get at all wet on, although despite this it is still possible to get a good splashing if the timing is correct. One of the channels meanders dangerously close to the opposing splashdown run off after the big drop, and if a log is coming through this area as you’re drifting past a ton of water will have enough altitude to clear the rock barrier and land squarely on top of you. Had I gotten on the log ahead of me
I would have learned this in a much less pleasant manner.
With only five tickets left I had several options left to try, most notably the Sling Shot tower ride that offered a long combo program of upward blast cycle followed by a long, climatic rise to the top. However, for the coaster enthusiasts the obvious choice would be the Runaway Train, arguably the premier roller coaster in Ocean City. That is neither saying very much,
nor would I personally even argue that way once I had a chance to try them all. The 2006-built
L&T Systems ride is at least the most modern and technologically advanced coaster in Ocean City, with force-controlled computer-bent track and a sleek, steel grey and brown aesthetic. Unfortunately the layout was on the wrong side of the dull divide, a rather abbreviated figure-eight course that its overly long train had a difficult
time keeping pace through, with only one major drop to speak of and then a layout that noodles from end to end of its compact footprint rather aimlessly several times, until a tight final helix produces a semblance of something more interesting, but then it’s over. The biggest component of interest for me was the braking system, which appeared to consist of a flat metal plate laid over the track, and I couldn’t figure out if it was friction based or magnetic based.
At first glance, Gillian’s Wonderland might appear
to have the deeper pockets of the two establishments, with an impressive castle façade along the boardwalk masking a large arcade and upper ride deck, and a number of larger, supposedly higher-quality rides (the Giant Wheel, Log Flume and Runaway Train), but I actually found Playland’s Castaway Cove to be the more enjoyable, with a greater diversity of amusements (Gillian’s is rather lacking in terms of flat rides, at least those you don’t already know from local small-town carnivals), and the livelier vibe to be found over there both reflected and contributed to this perception. My dad again decided that he was happier as a spectator than an active participator, so I bought only enough tickets as would be required to do each of the three roller coasters once, as most of the good rides were similarly in the $4 to $6 range and the discounted bundled ticket deals didn’t
start until you were laying more than just one Andrew Jackson down on the counter (this is why it’s probably a good idea to go to these parks with a group, you can split a Mega Book six ways and essentially get double the rides for the same price). Starting from the smallest and working my way to the largest, the first coaster here was the Sea Serpent, a cute little pink Miler children’s coaster built over a car ride that was undoubtedly more fun than the competing Wacky Worm across the boardwalk, although the fact that we actually had a full train of passengers helped.
Next was the Flitzer, my first encounter with this fairly common model of coaster from Zierer,
and also my first encounter with queues in either of Ocean City’s amusement parks. I can attribute the second fact to a combination of low capacity (each car is only big enough to seat one person, two if they’re small and willing to sit on each other’s lap), low price (the only ‘big’ roller coaster priced at four tickets, all the other adult rides worth riding are either five or six), and quite possibly being the best roller coaster
in Ocean City. That last factor is more subjective, mind you. It was mostly down to a case of the rolling stock. Although the capacity is shot to hell because of them, I adored the tiny little toboggans, with their retro-streamlined look and the very open seating which make the rider’s subjective experience feel intimately linked with the rails, surroundings and speed, however slow it may have actually been. The layout was deceptively longer than first appearances might have otherwise suggested as well, which is always a plus.
Finally I had the Python, a Pinfari Zyklon looping coaster which was not nearly as popular as the previous ride;
I had to wait about five minutes to get the needed minimum number of four riders to send the train around. Perhaps there was a reason for this. Well, it did at least prove to be much more intense than the competing Runaway Train, although that’s mostly another way of saying it rattles you around a lot more. Actually it wasn’t as bad I was expecting, most of the curves were taken slow and/or at a wide radius, and the steep first drop followed by a second descending curve drop into a vertical loop is fun for a portable seaside
attraction. The very sharp transition at the top the hill immediately after the loop did its best to kill me, however, and the rest of the ride was an exercise in helices that didn’t pay off as well as I imagine the designers
hoped they would. I could almost excuse it as a production model portable coaster from the 1980’s if Schwarzkopf hadn’t already been in business for several decades prior. Oh well, it was one more for the list. It was also now nearly dark out and my dad and I needed to get going. As laid-back as today had been, tomorrow would more than make up for it as we had three full parks across two states on the agenda.
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