Park Thoughts

The Great White is Morey’s Piers’s oceanfront wooden roller coaster. It is the largest ocean front roller coaster in the world, and it is truly unique. While the ride itself is rather mediocre, it is still worth a review. The ride is not very themed, but a large fiberglass shark greets riders as they enter the line. The line goes under the tracks, and curves up to the station. By the length of the queue line, you can tell Morey’s is not subject to very long lines.

The ride starts by a quick drop out of the station under the boardwalk. The ride’s first drop is pretty good, you can feel it in your stomach. The loud screech of the train and the darkness of the tunnel makes it thrilling. When you come out from under the boardwalk, you have made a complete 180 degree turn and are on the opposite side of the pier. The chainlift up is slow, and gives lots of anticipation.

The drop isn’t that great, but the bouncing of the train makes it more thrilling. The drop is much less steep than El Toro’s, but I suppose its still fun. You come up and do a fancy curve, and the park has added a board under the tracks which makes the train make a roaring sound as it passes over, which is pretty cool.

You then drop down into another drop, and do another curve. By now the ride has gotten pretty rough, but not rough enough that it is painful. You curve around the outside of the structure, and then do what I like to call “dolphin hills”, (those little hills before the end), with an extra steep and long one surprising riders just in time for what used to be the ride’s photo section, but the park has gotten rid of the cameras. You do a large helix over the central part of Adventure Pier, do one more drop, and then curve to the final brake run. The first time I rode this, I was terrified. It was my first big roller coaster, and I was not exactly willing to ride. However, I grew to love it and even though it does not place in my Top 5 Woodies any longer, I still have a special place for it in my heart.

With all the mushy stuff aside, this coaster is pretty rough. It has aged not-so-well, but I’ve ridden much rougher coasters. It is comparable to Grizzly at Kings Dominion. What I’d say is, don’t come out to Morey’s Piers to ride this as it is not that amazing, but Morey’s Piers is a pretty nice place to you might want to come out if you’re not too far away.

Some interesting notes about this coaster are that it has steel-structure, and its first drop goes down to the sand of the beach.

What do you think of this coaster? Leave us your park thoughts.

Images courtesy of Flickr users JonJonDirector and kristen773.