My son and I headed down to Wildwood for Saturday and Sunday. My son got a job in the Mariner's Landing arcade so he was handing in his paper work to get set up for the summer. The weather was cold and rainy, but it didn't seem to stop people from coming to the island. The boardwalk and shops seemed busy and people are ready to get back to normal. Some people are still wearing masks, but not many. There weren't any Covid restrictions anywhere that I saw. No limits to the number of people in the arcades or restaurants, no mask restrictions, no checking of vaccinations. From the look of things, it is going to be a busy summer down the shore. Although the weather was bad while we were down, we still managed to get all of our favorite things....Kohr's Brothers, Polish Water Ice, Curley's Fries, Snow White roast beef, and of course, Mack's Pizza. The rides were closed on Saturday, but both piers opened on Sunday and I even saw them testing the Great White...although we weren't around long enough to see if they opened it. Here are some pictures and observations.
All the arcades were busy. This is Mariner's Arcade, where my son will be working this summer.
A new Plinko game in Ed's Funcade.
We ate at Nan & Pop's restaurant, which is at the location of the old Lobster Shack. The food was good and the owner stopped at our table and was very friendly. It is done up in a 50s style and the food has a homestyle feel to it. It is on the pricey side, but the portions are large.
So we stopped in the boardwalk mall arcade to see what's new. They moved out many of the games, but there are still many broken games in there and not much worth playing. They have two small shooting galleries instead of the one larger one. A worker came over and chased me out because he though someone sent me there to spy on them since I was taking pictures. I told him I take pictures in all the arcades, but he didn't believe me because he said that he worked at every arcade on the boardwalk and no one allows pictures to be taken. I guess since there was no one in there playing, he had lots of time to devote to chasing me out of the arcade. I doubt this guy ever worked at any of the real arcades because I didn't recognize him.
They have this electric sign on the boardwalk saying that the no-smoking policy will be strictly enforced. I still saw people smoking and vaping...so I don't know how strict they are going to be.
Poppi's Carmel Corn is now Wally's Restaurant. Also, the Coca-Cola sign doesn't seem to be working.
Mister Softee is back in its original location.
It doesn't look like the Ghost Ship will open again this summer. Probably because of the lack of workers.
Morey's raised the hot dog prices to $2 now. They need to make up for last year's bad season.
Mack's looked so good on Sunday that I got 2 slices! They both were fantastic and went down real easy!
The former location of Quincy's Lobster Rolls is now The Great American Lobster Roll Company. My son tried the lobster mac and cheese and enjoyed it. Also, the Kohr's Brothers in that block is now another ice cream shop called Johnny Scoops. They have a variety of soft ice cream flavors.
Papi's Tacos was open and looked good...although we did not have a chance to try them out. Notice they kept the spinning Stewarts sign. I hope they still serve Stewart's Root Beer.
Joe's Pizzeria got a new sign. They got ride of the sign with the Italian guy giving the finger.\
Quincy's Lobster Rolls is now located where Johnson's Carmel Corn was. They look fancier now, although they don't have any indoor seating. I hope the boardwalk can support two lobster roll places so close to each other. We shall see who survives the season.
I will be spending more time in Wildwood this summer since my son got a job down there. I hope that it is much warmer when we return in mid June.
Thanks for a great report! It's really nice to see some normalcy again. Last year was so sad not knowing what the season would be like. It was actually the first time I've had to cancel a summer reservation. Congrats to your son on getting a job down there! If I didn't live 3 hours away and my son wasn't a part of his Extended School Year Program, I would love to work there for the summer!
The way it used to be....The Boardwalk Mall...........(793) Boardwalk Mall - YouTube
Really enjoyed the report and pics Bill. That is awesome that your son got the arcade job. So glad for your first person account of the state of normalcy returning. Thanks for your faithful reports. much appreciated........Warren.
Great report as always Bill. Congrats on your son getting the job at the arcade! Sounds like he'll have a heck of a time.
Speaking of arcades, what a bummer to see the boardwalk mall arcade in that state. It's really sad. After Randy it was never great, it has so much potential to be a great arcade. If only it was able to work out for Randy, and he can have two arcades: his current one plus a return to the boardwalk mall. Maybe one could be for super retro (50's-70's) and the other for modern retro (80's-00's) games. That's my dream, anyway, knowing it'll never happen.
Understandable about the Ghost Ship, but really unfortunate. Was looking forward to going in it in August. Two years in a row without the Ghost Ship being open gives me a bad feeling...