Guest Spotlight: The Vincis
January 06, 2020
When Dorian Vinci began visiting Phil, the man who would become her husband, she couldn’t help but notice all the Wildwood paraphernalia in his apartment.
“I used to make fun of him,” she says. “Every time I opened a cabinet there was another Wildwood-themed mug or ash tray!”
That’s because Phil, a 43-year-old native of Brooklyn, has been visiting Wildwood since he was seven. (Although, you could argue he didn’t experience true Jersey Shore initiation until, while laughing at a joke on the boardwalk at the age of 15, a seagull pooped in his mouth.)
When Phil was a young boy on vacation with his family, he would collect flyers from inside various Wildwood hotels that advertised local restaurants or activities. Then, he’d create a scrapbook out of them that he’d hold onto during the offseason. Just after the holidays, in order to get his family excited about their next summer trip, he’d unveil his creation. As he got older, the Wildwood love only grew, and he did indeed begin stocking his apartment with Wildwood-themed gadgets.
“I’d save up all my points from the arcade,” he says. “And I’d choose an iron, a blender… I’d get all my appliances!”
After Phil and Dorian were married and had two children, the idea of traveling to Wildwood from their home in Staten Island felt a bit more daunting. But, when their youngest turned six months, Phil couldn’t wait any longer.
“I decided to rip off the Band-Aid,” he says. “We went for a daytrip, and that was it. We’ve been full-blown ever since, going multiple times every summer for five years straight.”
Phil, who drives a bus for New York City Transit, now works 12 and 13-hour days most of the year so that he can take long weekends in the summer in Wildwood. Oftentimes, when he gets home from work before a vacation, his family will be waiting for him in the car, already packed.
Staying at the Blue Palms resort — “the only place we’ll go,” Dorian says -- takes the headache out of traveling with children. For one thing, the location provides easy access back and forth to the boardwalk in case anyone needs a nap… or a pizza. (Phil’s been known to run over to Jumbo’s for a 24-inch pie the family can enjoy while they’re swimming in the Blue Palms’ pool.)
For another thing, the hotel is clean. Like, really clean.
“I once filmed the maintenance crew scrubbing the cement deck after hours,” Phil says. “I just couldn’t get over how much care is taken.”
Employees at the Blue Palms, he adds, treat his family “like royalty.” Benjamin Candelaria Sr. on the seasonal maintenance team has gone above and beyond, sharing exotic fruit with the Vincis from his hometown in Puerto Rico. And the Vinci children have become so attached to manager Zack Morey, they refer to him as their “best friend.”
The family have also grown attached to the other guests. While the kids create liquid welcome mats for each room using their water pistols, Dorian, a distributor for a health and beverage company, hands out free drinks to fellow visitors.
But the best part of each Wildwood trip is something a bit harder to articulate. No, it’s not continuing to win cool gadgets from the arcade (although Phil is very happy with his latest prize, a Bluetooth speaker). Rather, it comes down to watching the kids discover the intangible magic of Wildwood for themselves.
“I get teary-eyed,” Phil says. “I’m like a big baby.”
No, really.
As a special treat, he and Dorian once got their seven-year-old daughter, Mattea, out of bed at 11pm to ride the Great White coaster, something she’d been dying to do the year before when she didn’t quite meet the height requirement. The couple was so overwhelmed by her excitement, they couldn’t help but cry. It’s this kind of Wildwood memory Phil now records and uploads to a YouTube channel — The Vinci Family 2324 — so that his children have their own digital scrapbook someday.
“What makes me so happy is how much they enjoy it,” Phil says. “It makes me feel like a kid again myself. And I know they’re going to grow up and bring their own kids here. You can never really get Wildwood out of your system — it’s in your blood.”