Changing Times

Jersey shore amusement hotspot ditches paper tickets
December 12, 2006, 10:00 AM EST
Press of Atlantic City

WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) _ You aren't going to need a ticket to ride at one New Jersey shore institution starting next summer.

Instead, you'll need a plastic card.

Morey's Piers, a string of five seaside amusement parks, is doing away with its traditional paper tickets _ long the stuff of scrapbooks and displays at the Wildwood Historical Society Museum.

For rides from the mini tea cups to the AtmosFEAR, admission will be paid starting in 2007 with plastic cards that look a lot like credit cards. That means no more tearing off two or three tickets per ride.

Will Morey, president of the piers, told the Press of Atlantic City for Tuesday's editions that he thinks customers will be comfortable with the switch _ even if nostalgia seekers aren't.

The cards can be reloaded from home computers and registered so that it will be possible to find the owners of lost ones _ and to trace the track of kids lost while playing at the pier.

"We're a unique breed," Morey said, "and we don't want to be outdated."