The Story Of Castle Dracula

The Story Of Castle Dracula
Dark In The Park (2024)

If I were to make a list of my top ten favorite places in the world, Castle Dracula in Wildwood, NJ would be very close to the top of that list.

A website dedicated to dark rides and attractions called Dark In The Park recently published this excellent short documentary film that is dedicated to the haunted attraction.  I've contributed some photos of the castle to this website quite a few years ago and I was happy to see that they included some of them throughout the video, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw in the last few seconds.

At 26:53 in the video, there's a photograph of a little boy sitting in the boat of the Dungeon Moat Ride with a young man in a blue Rolling Rock t-shirt.  This photo was taken by my grandfather in the summer of 1987.  The man on the right is my dad, and the little boy is me.

Have A Horrible Day

Castle Dracula
Wildwood, NJ
I don't remember seeing these when I was a kid, but I can imagine the folks behind Castle Dracula hiding these all over the boardwalk in Wildwood to trick folks into picking up an ad for the attraction.  Pretty clever!  This one belongs to Diane Brozowski Dockter.  She took these photos and shared them on the Castle Dracula Tribute Page.

More Ghoulish Than Ever

Castle Dracula billboard
Wildwood, NJ

This photo was taken by Mike Vlkovic in the late 80's and shared to a website called Dark In The Park which is dedicated to the greatest haunted house attraction that I have ever experienced.  It once hung on the old carousel building at Cedar and The Boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey.

I took a photo of the same billboard when I was a kid.  I believe that I took this in August 1987 when my family and I were on vacation in Wildwood.  I'm pretty sure that my photo was taken a couple of years earlier than Mike's because the theater referenced on the top billboard shows "Blaker & Shore Twin Theaters" in mine, and "The Shore 4 Theaters" in his.  I think it's pretty cool to be able to see small changes of a single spot over a period of time.

Castle Dracula

Castle Dracula
Midway Pier - Wildwood, NJ
In this side shot of the castle, you can see the I-Scream shop (with the giant pretzel).

I Find Your Lack Of Sunlight Disturbing

Castle Dracula
Wildwood, NJ (1979)
It doesn't get much more awesome than Darth Vader standing at the entrance of Castle Dracula on Midway Pier.  May the Fourth be with you.  [source: Joseph Stevenson - Wildwood365]

Wildwood In The 80's

This photo was taken sometime in the early 80's and was used for a Wildwood postcard.  I can almost smell the ocean air when I look at this.

A Boat Ride Through The Dungeon

Castle Dracula: Dungeon Boat Ride
Nickel's Midway Pier - Wildwood, NJ
This is the other video that was recently shared by Onneff69 on YouTube.  This is a complete video of the Dungeon Boat Ride portion of Castle Dracula.  My family and I went to Wildwood every summer in the 80's when I was a kid, and this boat ride was one of the parts of our vacation that I enjoyed and looked forward to the most.  I'm very thankful that someone captured this amazing attraction and shared it with the world.

A Walk Through The Castle

Castle Dracula
Nickel's Midway Pier - Wildwood, NJ
Youtube user Onneff69 shared a couple of amazing home videos that were recorded in June 1991.  This is a walkthrough of one of my favorite places in the world and a cherished memory from my childhood.  Unfortunately, Castle Dracula was burned down by two teenagers in 2002 so future generations will never be able to experience first hand how truly awesome this place was.

Dungeon Moat Ride

Here are the photos of the Castle Dracula Dungeon Boat Ride that I mentioned yesterday.  All of them were taken from 1985-1989.  Once again, the ones that look nice and clear were taken by my grandfather.  The grainy, off-center ones were taken by me when I was a kid.

These three photos of two staff members who worked at the entrance of the Dungeon Boat Ride were taken in the summer of 1989.  Like all of the folks who worked at Castle Dracula, they stayed in character, and they weren't limited to the entrance of the boat ride.  There were live performers hidden among the attractions in the dungeon, some of whom would jump on your boat as you were riding through.

These two photos from 1987 show my dad and I sitting in one of the boats as we're about to enter the Dungeon.  Each boat had a grim reaper statue standing at the back.  The concrete moat that held the water that the boat floated on was painted red, which made it look like you were riding through the dungeon on a river of blood.

 

There are lion face fountain built into the wall of the castle.  You can see them from a distance in the photos of the outside of the castle that I shared yesterday.  I'm pretty sure that I took this picture when I was sitting in the boat waiting to go into the entrance of the Dungeon.  Usually, the water squired out of the mouth of the lion in an arc, but I guess it wasn't working properly on the day that I took this picture because it appears that the water was trickling down from the mouth along the side of the wall.

After you boarded your boat, you'd enter the Dungeon through the mouth of this giant white skull.  There were red lights at the tunnel's entrance, which gave the impression that you were about to enter a blood-soaked hell.

I wish that I had more and better quality photos of the inside of the dungeon.  Keep in mind, these were taken in a dark tunnel by a kid between the ages of 5-9 using a 110 film camera with a lousy flash.

One of the rooms that I remember best was a pirate ship that was crewed by skeletons.  All of the skeletons moved, including the one at the center of this picture who turned the wheel.  The photos really don't do it justice.  The flash photography not only kills the lighting and the ambiance, but it reveals some of the wires that were used to make the skeletons move.  All of these were hidden in darkness, with the lighting used to show off only what they wanted you to see.  It was spooky as hell!

 

Here are three more of the demons that you'd see in the Dungeon, which are just a small sampling of that you'd see.

About halfway through the ride, the boat left the dungeon and went through a cemetery in an outdoor courtyard.  I'm not sure where in Castle Dracula this was set up, but you couldn't see it from the outside.  To the best of my knowledge, the only way that you'd see even a hint of this cemetery is if you rode through the Dungeon on a boat.

There was a catacombs section with mortuary cabinets that looked like the bodies were attempting to escape.

Last, but not least, you'd ride beneath this massive demon.  I think this was at the end of the ride, but it's been over ten years since I've been here, so I can't say for sure if that's right.  When you consider how the castle met its untimely end, the flames painted on the wall are even more unsettling.

Remembering Castle Dracula

My family and I went to Wildwood every summer when I was a kid, and one of my favorite parts was Castle Dracula on Nickel's Midway Pier.  It was by far the coolest haunted house that I've ever seen to this day.  I can't believe that no one is ever going to get to experience this incredible place again; all thanks to two jerks.

This was the billboard on the old carousel building near the Medford's Phillies Franks building, which you can see on the right.

There were two parts to it: a Dungeon Boat Ride and a guided walking tour through the rooms of the castle.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos inside the main part of Castle Dracula, but I have quite a few of the outside and the Dungeon Boat Ride.

Here are some photos from outside the castle that were taken by my and my grandfather between 1985-1989.  The ones that look crisp and reasonably well-centered are his.  The grainy, off-center ones were from my 110 film camera that I had when I was a kid.

The experience at Castle Dracula began before you even set foot in the place.  Not only was the castle itself a stunning to see, but there were loudspeakers hidden on the grounds that played creepy music, and employees who were dressed as vampires and demons walking around the area in character.

The entrance on the left hand side (between the wooden fence and the black rod iron) is a ramp that led down to the Dungeon Boat Ride.  The entrance to the left of the brown garbage can in the photo above led to the drawbridge, which you would cross to get into the walkthrough portion of the castle.

I don't remember ever going to this Castle-I-Scream window.  I suppose it's where my father or my grandfather would go to buy our tickets to get in, but the name and the picture of a hot dog, pretzel and snowcone on the sign suggests that they served food too.  If they did, I'm pretty sure we never stopped there to eat.

The balcony had an animatronic Count Dracula that could move and talk.  I don't remember exactly what it said, but he would beckon everyone who passed by to pay a visit to his castle.  The little lion face on the wall beneath Dracula's balcony spit water out into the moat, and I'm pretty sure that the black object on top of the stone statues on either side of the drawbridge was a torch that they used to light when it got dark out.

The Castle Is Gone

Two idiots burned down one of my favorite places in the world.  Whatever punishment they get will not be nearly enough  [source: The Press of Atlantic City - 1/17/2022 - Page A1 and Page A10].