By Craig Terry, courtesy Cape May County Tourism
Praise for the service
“You get great support from the staff,” said Vicki Clark, executive director of the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, which holds a Business at the Beach Expo at the convention center each April. “Exhibitors tell me they never get service like they do here. You pull up to the loading dock, and the staff takes over while you park your car.”
An in-house caterer turns out everything from hot dogs to gourmet meals in a $1 million kitchen.
“We are very customer-oriented,” said Linda DeRitis, sales account manager. “We have to be. People have to travel to get here, so it has to be a special experience.”
Bud Willard agrees. The head of Tall Cedars of Lebanon of North America, Willard has chaired his organization’s annual convention for the past nine years.
“I love the people who work at this convention center. They go out of their way to be accommodating,” he said. “They are competitive in price and very flexible.”
“The convention center has extended our shoulder season and has been a huge economic engine for this area,” Rose said.
Go by car
Primarily a drive-to location, Wildwood’s nearest airport is Atlantic City International, 40 miles away. Some fly to Philadelphia or Newark, and rent cars.
During the summer, public trolleys run up and down the island, and electric tram cars ply the two-mile boardwalk, calling out their recorded, gentle warning as they have since 1929: “Watch the tram car please.”
The Wildwoods have 8,000 guest rooms and 3,000 condominiums for rent. Many rooms are in family-oriented motels.
“What we don’t have yet is a 250-room hotel with all the amenities,” Rose said.
Hotel on the way
Such a hotel appears to be in the offing. The 39-room Starlux Hotel, two blocks from the convention center, plans to break ground soon for a six-story expansion with 100 or more guest rooms.
“It will be big, and we hope to open in 2014,” said Gordon Clark, the general manager. “All the rooms will have a water view.”
Clark said the expansion will include a sixth-floor meeting space for 200 with a balcony that overlooks the beach and a three-tiered swimming pool. Although it will be integrated with the 10-year-old Starlux, the doo-wop style that marks the older hotel will be toned down in the new one.
“We will have the amenities that business travelers need,” Clark said. “But Wildwood is still a resort town, so it will be a blend. You’ll find lots of hookups for electronic gadgets but probably no big desks.”
Starlux is one of five Wildwood hotels owned by the Morey family, whose patriarch began chilling and thrilling people in 1969 when he set up an enormous 12-lane slide called Wipe Out on the boardwalk. Morey’s Piers now operates three amusement piers on the boardwalk with more than 100 rides and two beachfront water parks.
Pan American penthouse
The Pan American Hotel, another owned by the Moreys, has 77 ocean-view guest rooms and a multipurpose room suitable for meetings of 30 to 40 people.
Two areas of its restaurant can be used for private events: a sun porch by the pool for up to 40 and the main dining room for up to 70.
A delightful surprise at the Pan American is the fifth-floor penthouse where the Morey brothers grew up. Available for events, it has an engaging diagonal layout with a terrace overlooking the ocean that can be tented and that seats 125.
Reflecting Wildwood’s split personality, the 100-room Port Royal hotel offers a comfortable, just-refurbished room with windows for meetings of 50 to 75 people. In July and August, however, no meetings are allowed; it becomes the hotel’s game room.
The nicely furnished lobby can be used for events, as can a canopied section of the pool deck and a patio outside the restaurant that overlooks the beach.
