Get ready! Your vacation at the shore is about to change.

TheWildwoods is going year-round and a lot of your time may be spent indoors.

 

In the beginning, back when the Wildwoods was really wild, Lenni Lenape Indians of the Delaware Nation walked all the way from the Delaware Valley to the Wildwoods by way of King Nummy Trail (NJ Route 47). Those good folks knew something modern tourists have come to learn: a summer at the shore will help you avoid the heat back home and fill your belly with some great seafood.

Then, about a couple of hundred years ago, some enterprising mainland farmers figured out that if they ferried their cattle to the Wildwoods to graze for the summer, by September, they would have some really fat – and happy – critters to take back home in the winter. Later, Victorian tourists learned the joy of dipping their toes in the cool surf, and the Wildwoods as we know it today was born.

Back then, most visitors could afford a week or two in the Wildwoods. But eventually, their vacations, like their Victorian hemlines, grew shorter and shorter until now, when a good time at the shore might consist of one or two trips a season of a few days each.

Throughout all of our history, however, one thing has remained the same: the season lasted from about Easter to early September, until the local economy tanked and the island began to die in the early 70’s and 80’s. Because of this, the movers and shakers got together and decided that for the Wildwoods to survive, the season needed to become longer.

So they created some fantastic fall events to entice everyone to stay a little longer. First came the state firemen’s convention. Then the N.J. Hot Rod Association roared onto the island in their flashy cars and evil-looking monster trucks. Then some enterprising Irishmen said, “Let’s have a really big party at the end of the summer.” And suddenly, the season wasn’t ending until about October 1st.

Even so, there were still some people who said that if the Wildwoods was to survive, it must stay open all year long, especially once the hotel rooms from the 50’s and 60’s started dissappearing like green head flies on a strong easterly breeze.

Now, with the announcement that NW has named a potential developer for Seaport Village Pier, things in the Wildwoods are about to change again. I absolutely guarantee it.

The proposed waterpark will not only be upscale like this island has never seen before, it will also be tied in to a 405-room year-round hotel across the boards that will be meant to support the convention center. When you couple this facility with the current waterpark at Montego Bay Resort, and then you consider all the “Wildwood-25’s with their indoor everything. (One, for example: the “WB Resort” at Burk and Ocean Avenues, is supposed to have an indoor beach with actual sand and real waves for goodness sake). Then you figure all the indoor fine dining and amenities, as well as the fancy nightclubs and health spas… Absolutely no one will ever have to leave their hotels anymore.

You won’t be coming to the Wildwoods for the “fun and sun” any longer. Now you’ll be coming here to check out your favorite year-round indoor summer wonderland, complete with wall-to-wall valets and concierges.

But then again, I guess if you really think about it; now you won’t have to make that back-breaking trek across the beach any longer.

Hmmm, I wonder if the Moreys can enclose the Sea Serpent and the Great White Shark, too. — Thom F – The Wildwoods.

What do you think?