Well I'm back from AC. What can I say, LOVED it! I had a great time. I will admit to being a bit....leery of AC. I mean come on, it IS New Jersey. But it was nice. Very contained, rather quiet, lots of old people, but nice. I left here on the Amtrak after 7 in the morning, got to Philly to meet my sister after 9, immediately hopped an NJ Transit train to AC and got there after 11. BORING scenery. Reminded me of home. And not in a good way. From the AC train station, we found the jitney labeled for our hotel and off we went.
Our first hotel was the Sands Hotel. OK I'm used to Vegas and it's EXCELLENT customer service. May I just say that AC hotel customer service SUCKS! Oh.My.God. We got there, there's no self check-in kiosk, so we have to stand in this LONG ASS LINE! And there's like 4 people at the front desk, but only 2 1/2 are working and THEY keep stopping to talk to each other. Come ON now. Finally get to the head of the line - and do they have early check-in? Uh...NO. So we go and leave our bags at the bell desk and go off to explore. First things first, even though we are STARVING, we go to the casino to sign up for our slot cards. Seriously AC folks customer service is NOT a bad word. Well at least we got ten slot dollars and a half pound of taffy each for signing up. Went to the casino and did our usual ritual of playing Wheel of Fortune. So after that it was time to eat.
There really wasn't anything to eat in our hotel. So we made our way out of the hotel and took the long way to the Boardwalk (we're famous for finding the longest possible way to get anywhere). We ended up at Johnny Rocket's outside Bally's Park Place/Claridge (next to our hotel and connected by some mysterious indoor walkway it took forever to find after the fact). Decided it was too expensive when we saw a sign for the Garden Buffet that was $6.99. Yes, yes, I know - we should've known better. But it seems to be a tradition that our first meal in a new place must suck royally. Anywho, we headed down the Boardwalk to Garden Buffet (I think it's one of the Bally's buffets, but don't quote me on that). I kid you not, there were only two sides to the damn thing and they were identical. All I can say is thank God for the fried chicken because w/out that, we would have starved. Seriously. Everything else was pretty much not edible. So we enjoyed the fried chicken and our free plastic cup of ice water. BTW, these people actually ruined the desserts. WTH.
After lunch it was off to Bally's casino to sign up for their slot card. The good thing about this one is that it's good for Vegas, as well. WHOO HOO! Did the WOF thing at Bally's and decided to find our way out of there to go check in finally. We wandered through Bally's then through Claridge (marked difference - Claridge was way nicer) and blundered our way through to the indoor walkway and back to Sands. Stood in the long ass line again and finally checked in. Then we went to the bell desk. NO BELLHOPS. NO ONE WAS AT THE DESK. So we waited for 10 friggin' minutes. Guess who didn't get a tip? Anyway, us and an older couple went to the elevator and no one could quite get that we were supposed to insert the room key in the slot then hit the button. It was by fluke, finally, that we ended up on our floor. Ah - the hallways....
Pink walls. White chair rail. Pink roses w/green leaves and white trellis...and the carpet was bright green w/pink roses as well. Right. All I could do was pray the room didn't match the hallway. As luck would have it, the room was in nice sand tones *whew*. The bathroom was nasty. Mildewed grout. YEESH.
Later on, we explored more. We ended up taking the long way (yes again) to Trump Plaza. Got our slot cards there - and ended up with a free wireless mouse. Ended up at Tropicana and got cards there as well. We ended up eating there at some cafe. We were looking for the Rainforest Cafe, but somehow never made it to that side. Too lazy to walk back so we took a cab back to Sands.
Next morning, we checked out of Sands and cabbed it over to Resorts, our next hotel. All I can say is you should've SEEN the grins on our faces when we pulled up. First there was doorman service. Then we walked into the black marble lobby lit w/blue. It was SO classy and pretty. It was so pretty I won't even dwell on the SUCKS ASS CUSTOMER SERVICE. *ahem* At any rate, we did the bell desk thing again and headed off to the casino. We signed up for slot cards there and once more headed to WOF. We then toured the hotel, got excited when we saw a Thunder From Down Under poster, and found the indoor walkway between Resorts and the next hotel, Trump Taj Mahal (again - the LONG way - much easier to take the Boardwalk). Headed to Trump, decided the Taj Card line was way too long and went and played WOF. Wandered around Taj a bit then found the indoor walkway (same story as before) to the next hotel, which was Showboat. We'd considered staying at Showboat when we were researching this trip, but I'm glad we didn't. Showboat was interesting and I can't wait 'til House of Blues opens up there. That'll be great. We signed up for the Harrah's/Showboat card which is also good in Vegas (WHOO HOO!) and found out we could each get a free 12 pack of Coke (alright now!). Eventually we headed back through Showboat and Taj to Resorts to check in. Off to the elevator. The halls were...interesting. A bit bright. Orange, yellow, red and green plaid carpets. Which actually wasn't ugly. Our room was very beachy. But nice. Textured sand colored walls and carpets, white-washed wood and orange, yellow and blue plaid beds. The bathroom was a bit less skeezy than Sands. That night, I think we ended up eating at a cafe at Taj.
The next day (TFDU day WHOO!) we took a walk on the beach. It was so pretty and peaceful. Then we found the jitney over to Borgata. I fell in love immediately. It felt like home. That is definitely the most Vegas-y of the AC hotel/casinos. AND the demographic was most definitely younger. I MUST stay there. 'Course we signed up for the My Borgata card and played slots. We ate at the buffet, as well. Now THAT is a buffet. Good interesting HOT food that had TASTE. And the desserts? BLESS YOU BORGATA! We returned to our hotel for naps and then got up to ready ourselves for the 11:30 TFDU show. We hadn't seen this cast before, as they are the touring group and usually do West, Midwest and overseas. I'm now as in love w/them as I am w/the Vegas cast, if not more. The show as great and the guys are SO SWEET. We saw them outside in the hotel later on and they recognized us and stopped to talk. Great personalities, all of them. And that, folks, would be the main reason why we must return to AC before they leave at the end of July.
So that was the AC trip. Well worth it. I needed the break. I want to go back. And may the next trip be the BEST.
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