Wildwood Observations

[darkinthepark]

I was down to Wildwood for the weekend with my family and I have some observations and pictures to share.


The Wildwoods are trying to reinvent themselves with million dollar condos covering the island, but the boardwalk still has classy establishments like this one. Seems counterproductive.


The new Sam's Pizza awning seems to be covered in bird crap. Apparently, the seagulls don't even like the new Sam's facade.


Not only does the Mack's Pizza sign look better than Sam's, it contains a lot less bird crap.


I noticed lots of these huge speakers aiming toward the beach. They must be new because I've never noticed them before. Has anyone been able to hear an announcement while on the beach? I can barley understand what they're saying when I'm on the boardwalk.


Here is one of the two tram cars that was covered in Coke advertising. I wonder how much coke had to pay for this type of advertising?


Does anyone else think that the Midtown Castle signs on the top of "Wildwood Casino" does not look right on this facade? It seems like the owners found the signs in the trash and decided to add them to their own sign. I remember when this casino sign was new and the "home of the big winner" would light up in Las Vegas style. Now the sign is a sad reminder of its former glory.

[nance]

Fantastic. I miss that place so much!! There's nothing like the beaches and boardwalks in New Jersey, I don't care where you live.

[FlyinGN]

good observations... Im glad they finally got rid of the water game called the mens room. Talk about out of place for a family resort..

[crazyaboutwildwood]

Thanks for the pics Bill. Great Observations. I wonder about all the T shirt places with all there stupid ass comments. Sams Looks really bad from the outside. LoL, The birds even think it looks bad!

[Al Alven]

Excellent observations indeed, Bill.

As for Sam’s Pizza and the “bird crap” issue… this is definitely one of the major drawbacks of opting for a storefront awning, as opposed to more original signage (ala Mack’s… or ala the old Sam’s, for that matter).

I spent the past weekend in Ocean City, NJ. Great Boardwalk, nice stores, terrific “family” environment. One of my biggest complains, however, is that so many of the Boardwalk businesses have awnings, and just about all of them are covered in… um, bird leavings.

I’m sure it’s probably a pain to go and clean these awnings on a consistent basis, but how hard could it be? If an owner decides to go this route, they have to be prepared for the ramifications. Most of the businesses with awnings in OC, as nice as they are, seem to have this problem.

You could easily tell the ones that clean their awnings often. Too many, however, looked as if they hadn’t been cleaned all season. It’s pretty disgusting, actually.

Just another reason to hope that Sam’s eventually develops some sort of more original marquee or something, eventually. The awning isn’t great to begin with, but it looks even worse with you-know-what running down it all summer long.

Anyway, thanks again for pointing this out, Bill.

[darkinthepark]

alalven said:

Excellent observations indeed, Bill.

As for Sam’s Pizza and the “bird crap” issue… this is definitely one of the major drawbacks of opting for a storefront awning, as opposed to more original signage (ala Mack’s… or ala the old Sam’s, for that matter).

I spent the past weekend in Ocean City, NJ. Great Boardwalk, nice stores, terrific “family” environment. One of my biggest complains, however, is that so many of the Boardwalk businesses have awnings, and just about all of them are covered in… um, bird leavings.

I’m sure it’s probably a pain to go and clean these awnings on a consistent basis, but how hard could it be? If an owner decides to go this route, they have to be prepared for the ramifications. Most of the businesses with awnings in OC, as nice as they are, seem to have this problem.

You could easily tell the ones that clean their awnings often. Too many, however, looked as if they hadn’t been cleaned all season. It’s pretty disgusting, actually.

Just another reason to hope that Sam’s eventually develops some sort of more original marquee or something, eventually. The awning isn’t great to begin with, but it looks even worse with you-know-what running down it all summer long.

Anyway, thanks again for pointing this out, Bill.

I never really noticed all the awnings in Ocean City. I'll have to check that out the next time we're down there.

As for Sam's awning...it doesn't look too durable so I doubt it will last many seasons in Wildwood's salt air and harsh sun.

[nance]

Do you still have to pay tp go on the beach in Ocean City, NJ? I know you used to; which I thought was awful.

[FlyinGN]

yup.. at least in season you do..

nance said:

Do you still have to pay tp go on the beach in Ocean City, NJ? I know you used to; which I thought was awful.

[cutietnj]

You have to pay at almost all the other beaches up and down the coast in NJ.

[JerseyDigger29]

I think you'll find that almost all signs and awnings that have been there for any amount of time have severe bird problems. The worst I ever saw were - or are - the metal signage above the games on the NW corner of Pine and the bdwk - just up the ramp from the old Strand Theater exits. It's really deep!

And in the winter time, when the pigeons have nothing else to do, you can see a huge pile along the ground in front of the games extending almost the length of the block. (No one to clean it up in the winter, I guess).

I also believe that if it isn't cleaned on a regular basis, metal signs tend to rot out completely from the chemical reaction to bird crappola.

Thom