Waikiki Inn, Wildwood Crest, NJ (motel)

Name:Waikiki Inn
Type:motel
Street:621 Ocean Avenue
City:Wildwood Crest
State:NJ
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:
Here is one of the Wildwood motels that Mo-Eye missed.

The Waikiki Inn.

The Waikiki Oceanfront Inn opened in 1969. It was originally known as the Waikiki Motor Inn. Although recently renovated, the owners have retained the thatched canopy, lava rock walls, mosaic mural, and neon sign. This motel is one of the few motels left with a Polynesian theme.

I have this postcard. The coffee shop on the 6th floor roof is supposed to be cool.

Found these on the web.

Awesome sign.

DC

On 2009-11-07 16:59, Dustycajun wrote:
Although recently renovated, the owners have retained the thatched canopy, lava rock walls, mosaic mural, and neon sign.

....AND, especially appreciated, they seem to have retained the artificial palm trees! :)
They are among those things that get pegged as "outdated kitsch" first.
I always liked those at the Tiki Motel at Lake St George:

Then, and now:

You beat me to it DC! That was my next one!

I also love those fake palm trees. As I was going through a bunch of photos on the web it seemed like a ton of motels had those, even the non Polynesian ones. Whoever manufactured those must have had a killer sales person in Wildwood! I did notice that that some of them are not original to the locations, such as the Ala Kai. They have them now, but they're not in the 1960s postcard that DC posted. When did these faux fronds start showing up?

To add to the fake Palm Tree note above - I realized that Wildwood is actually quite famous for these. They call them Palmus plasticus Wildwood and are considered the official tree of Wildwood. The Caribbean Motel was the first to use fake palm trees. They were then planted at the Casa Bahama, and after that everyone was putting some in.

An ash tray and some stickers featuring the Palmus plasticus Wildwood from the Waikiki Inn in Wildwood on ebay.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-12-23 15:57 ]