Morey’s Piers Unveils New Giant Wheel LED Lights on the Wildwood Boardwalk
If you’ve been down to the Wildwood Boardwalk this summer, you’ve probably noticed that something looks a little different about the Giant Wheel at Morey’s Piers. And honestly, “a little different” is probably an understatement.
Over the offseason, Morey’s Piers gave the 156-foot-tall Giant Wheel on Mariner’s Pier one of the biggest upgrades it’s ever received. Most people knew crews had completely taken the wheel apart to refurbish it.
Morey’s Piers Unveils New Giant Wheel LED Lights on the Wildwood Boardwalk
The entire ride was disassembled, the massive center hub was rebuilt and restored, and then the wheel was put back together piece by piece. It was a huge project, but what nobody was really expecting what came after it was rebuilt.
That’s because Morey’s also installed an entirely new lighting package completely changing the way the Giant Wheel looks at night.
The Giant Wheel now features a brand-new sixth-generation LED lighting package capable of displaying incredibly detailed animated light shows across the entire wheel.
The new system contains more than 300,000 individual LEDs, transforming one of Wildwood’s most recognizable landmarks into what is essentially a 156-foot-tall video display.
According to Eworks Pro, the latest generation of its lighting technology includes video import capabilities, allowing designers to create far more detailed animations than ever before.
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If the name Eworks Pro sounds familiar, there’s a reason for that.
The company has been working with Morey’s Piers for roughly 15 years.
In fact, the original founder of Eworks developed and installed what the company says was the world’s first full-color LED lighting system on a large Ferris wheel right here in Wildwood after Will Morey commissioned the project in 2005.
Since then, the company has continued supplying lighting systems to amusement parks across the country while returning to Morey’s to continue upgrading the Giant Wheel as technology has evolved.
They have done the lighting on many other wheels from Pacific Park in California, Seattle’s Great Wheel and Maryland’s Capital Wheel. At Morey’s they installed lights on KONG and Atmos-fear.
According to Anders Johansson, owner of Eworks Pro, the previous lighting system on the Giant Wheel lasted 12 years despite operating in one of the harshest environments possible.
“That’s crazy in the coastal salt spray environment,” he told the Wildwood Video Archive.
If you’ve ever owned anything near the beach, you know exactly what he’s talking about. Salt air has a way of destroying just about everything over time, making that lifespan even more impressive.
The first real glimpse of what the system could do came during the Barefoot Country Music Festival.
If you were here that weekend, you probably saw the wheel displaying cowboy boots, cowboy hats, festival graphics, logos, and a number of custom animations that seemed almost impossible to pull off on a Ferris wheel. It immediately caught everyone’s attention.
After seeing those first animations, I posted a short video and asked if you wanted me to come back and film the entire show package. The answer was a pretty overwhelming yes.
So that’s exactly what I did.
I spent an evening walking the boardwalk, capturing every lighting sequence I could, filming from multiple locations so you could really appreciate how different each animation looks depending on where you’re standing.
I also sent our new Seagull up into the air to capture several aerial angles, because from above, you really get a sense of just how much this wheel dominates the Wildwood skyline once the lights come on.
[See Video at the bottom of this article]
Since the Fourth of July, Morey’s has continued adding and rotating through dozens of different animations. Some are patriotic, including a beautifully animated American flag. Others are just plain fun, with dolphins jumping through the ocean, floating jellyfish, colorful crabs, smiley faces, geometric patterns, and plenty of other designs that seem to appear throughout the night.
It’s another reminder that Morey’s Piers continues investing in the rides that have become icons of the Wildwood Boardwalk. The Giant Wheel has been one of the defining images of Wildwood for decades, and while the ride itself hasn’t changed, the experience of seeing it at night certainly has.
I’ve seen a lot of upgrades happen on the boardwalk over the years, but this is one of those improvements that genuinely makes you stop and watch. You don’t even have to ride the wheel to appreciate it. Just standing on the boardwalk for a few minutes and watching the animations cycle through is entertainment all by itself.
If you haven’t had the chance to see it in person yet, it’s absolutely worth taking a few minutes during your next trip to the boardwalk. And if you’ve already seen it, I’d love to know which animation is your favorite. I’m curious to see if everyone has the same one, or if there’s one sequence that ends up becoming the fan favorite.
Below is our video of the wheel, at least of its latest show as of the first week of July. Before you watch, please consider subscribing.