Atlantic City Bally's Map

Map of Bally's Atlantic City

What drove me nuts before hand was that there is no map of Bally's Atlantic City online.

Now there's one.

Atlantic City to Las Vegas

Some thoughts....

 

Is Atlantic City better than Las Vegas?

 

No. No it's not. Are some aspects better than Las Vegas? Very little.


Some will quickly point out that Atlantic City has a beach. Alright, if you simply love the 'Northern' Atlantic Ocean beaches then yes, then the beach is a huge plus. If you're like me and prefer the white sands, blue waters of the Gulf Coast beaches to Florida beaches, where the water temp is at least 80 degrees......that's a beach. The cloudy colored frigid waters that crash upon the shoreline of Atlantic City to me is simply the Ocean, not the beach.


Some with also point out that Atlantic City has a Boardwalk. Which erm, so does Wildwood and Seaside Heights along with other places along the Atlantic Ocean. Where seagulls will swoop down and steal food right out of your hand if you're not careful. Where homeless people ask you for money. Where it's not safe late at night.


I can continue on and on about the negative aspects of Atlantic City, but I am not here to bash it by any means. I fell in love with Atlantic City years ago, I have a lot of fond memories here. I'm simply not a beach guy, even though I live in the Ocean State/City of Newport R.I., I rather walk the trails along the beach than be in the sand. And for the record, let's all admit, sand gets EVERYWHERE. My wife enjoys the Boardwalk, a lot more than I do, it is a nice walk between Bally's to Resorts or visa-versa from Bally's to the Trop. Great place to people watch as well. One could almost compare it to Fremont.


So, is some aspects of Atlantic City better than Las Vegas?


Yes, but very few in my opinion. The traffic/drivers are better in AC then in Vegas. Except during big events like the Atlantic City Airshow. The drivers are more predictable in Atlantic City that's for sure.


Atlantic City is very seasonal, I enjoy walking through an empty casino during the middle of winter. This past trip to Atlantic City, I literally could of played any machine I wanted...(Except for Super Bowl Night, Harrahs was packed) Lines to restaurants where non existent. Some people hate it when it's slow, I personally love it. The less people, the better. Perhaps it's because my line of work brings me into customer service and generally people suck.


I also find that customer service in the Casinos is also better. I'm also talking about the people who work inside the restaurants inside of the casinos as well. I generally find that they genuinely want me to be there, and to be a return customer. I feel that some of workers inside the Casinos of Las Vegas are there for a paycheck.

Will I return back to Atlantic City?

Probably, but I am not rushing back here by any means.  For starters, It's 306 miles from my doorstep to the Boardwalk. If am pushing 20 over the speed limit I can generally make it in 4 1/2 hours. If I simply average 60mph it takes 5 hours. For anyone that knows the route between here and there, CT is a nightmare, along with the Cross Bronx. I feel that by the time I get across the GW, I shave off about a year of my life due to stress. Going back, I've always hit traffic in CT but twice. So going back I am almost guaranteed to hit traffic.


We've tried flying, from PVD to PHL however, Southwest does not do it anymore. Plus rentals are expensive from Philly as well. Between rental/flight, it's comparable to simply flying out to Vegas, since it's dirt cheap to get a rental in Vegas.


Once you get to know Las Vegas, it's certainly cheaper to eat there, besides having a ton more options. Since I had successful trip in AC, I don't have to worry about any resort fees or even parking fees at any Mlife or CET properties on the strip, which was a huge turn off in the past.


So I'll probably be staying in Las Vegas for my next trip, which will be after the baby is born. Less stress from traveling, cheaper and better food options, better weather, and c'mon it's Las Vegas Baby!!!




Again, this blog expresses my opinion only. Thanks for reading about my ramblings :)

Atlantic City 2/4/18 - 2/7/18

Hello Friends!!!

 

As for some of you that already know, I was suppose to visit Las Vegas on my first solo trip this past week but I decided to put the trip on hold, as my wife is now 7 months pregnant and I did not want to be so far away so......

 

'We' went to Atlantic City instead. Booked at Bally's and Harrah's. This posting is going to be a lot shorter than my original Vegas post of course, a lot less pictures. No Food Porn, mostly Slot Porn this time :)

 

Again, any opinions I post is that of my own, you may have experienced things differently than I have and again I strongly suggest that if you have not visited certain places, please go visit them to draw up your own conclusions. 

 

Day One - 2/4 Super Bowl Sunday

 

Originally I was going to leave early Monday morning at 3am, then I decided screw it, I'll leave the minute I get out of work Sunday night and....the roads should be dead since everyone should be watching the Superbowl.

 

It poured. Buckets. From the minute we left our home (Newport RI) to about 1 hour out of AC. We were just about 20 minutes past the GW when the Eagles won the Superbowl. (Congratulations Philly, I was pulling for you since I am a Giants fan living in Pats Country)

 

Finally we arrived at Harrah's. Hit Zero traffic which is always nice. Took about 5 hours, stopped twice at rest stops, which is awesome time considering it poured for a good chunk of the trip which kept my speed down.

 

Checked in, Paid originally for a King non smoking room in Marina Tower. Got a double queen instead. Asked politely for any upgrades if possible and she didn't get the 'gist' of what I was driving at. It was midnight and I simply didn't care since we were going to be here for just one night. 

 

For the amount of bitching/moaning I hear about these rooms, I found absolutely nothing to complain about. Room was spotless. Only downside was that there was no safe, which I assumed since the room was the most basic one you can get. I found it to be cleaner than the atrium room suites that I have been in.

 

Back downstairs, quickly ate at Cafe Tazza, Had a Chicken Caesar wrap, wife had erm ummm some yogurt thing with granola, just know she enjoyed it. My wrap was simply ok, was not expecting much. She retired to bed and now it was time for me to play......

 

I am a Quick Hits Junkie. If it has some sort of Quick Hits symbol, I'll be playing it. The older the machine is, the better.  Played some 5 line quarter quick hits, made a little money, then I found some Dollar quick hits in which quickly gave me my first non-taxable handpay.

 

 

Decided to hit up the Diamond Cove and was playing a newer quick hit machine for 9 dollars a spin and quickly was up 300 dollars so I decided to push it and go to max bet of 45 dollars a spin... and it paid off several spins later.....

After that I played around on the older 5 dollar quick hit machines but didn't have much luck. Decided to retire while I was still up.

 

Day 2 - 2/5 Monday

 

Quickly got up, now that it's daylight we sort of have a view from our window....or maybe from the window by the elevators, I don't remember......

 

 

Was going to eat breakfast at Harrah's, even had some 20 dollar credit from booking but I heard so much about this Gilchrist restaurant that had some good breakfast so we decided to go there instead. (Gardner's Basin Location)

 

Alright, all things considered, yes the menu is cheap. The food was quite basic, you can't really mess up breakfast items so in theory, yes the food was good or it tasted exactly the way it's supposed to taste. (I know to some people that statement will make perfect sense).  I could of easily replicated everything I was served in my own kitchen right this second. Alright, now on to my complaints/concerns. This place sits right next to the water, near the Atlantic City Aquarium so there was a constant breeze. For starters, it was quite chilly this morning so of course our seats were right next to the door and yes this place is busy. My poor wife froze her ass off every time the door opened. Unfortunately only table open so we could not switch at the time. This place is very small, and they cram everyone in it. The kicker was, we got the waitress in which it was her very first day. Which isn't usually a bad thing until she has friends who stops in to say hello to her for support for her first day which added to the door being open/closed.  Rest of the staff was extremely friendly including the trainer of the trainee.

 

Would I give this place a second chance? Sure during a nice summer morning to grab a table outside. But I would not expect anything special if you do check out this place.  Simple cheap breakfast eats. Perfect place for a low-budget trip to AC. Again this was the Gardner's Basin Location. Clicky for more information

 

Onwards to Bally's. This is our first time staying here. We were booked here in the past several years ago that when we arrived here we saw how disgusting the casino floor was and we cancelled. I decided to give this place a fair shake, as there has been updates to the property in the last several years along with updated rooms. Rooms were comped anyway. 

 

Since we arrived early,  we had to pay the annoying fee of checking in early of 10 dollars, (From hindsight I would of paid 20 dollars) however, my comped room selection was available, which was a waterview king non smoking jubilee room. Sweet. Here some pics of the room and the view from the room.

 

Needless to say we were quite impressed with the room selection, and I was quite impressed with the relaxing view from the 'ahem' throne.

Time to go exploring....Casino floor was quite clean compared to what I've seen in the past and there was a ton of security walking around. It was extremely slow as well compared to Harrah's. We ended up walking over to Caesars as well, cutting through the Wild Wild West Area. We checked out the nearly empty Pier Shops as well, almost looks like there's 10 stores left in the entire 3 level shops, quite depressing. I did gamble here and there, nothing to really write home about. We did stop at Johnny Rockets, my wife enjoyed her burger and shake, I went with a grilled chicken over salad which was surprisingly quite tasty. Service was pretty good as well.  Headed back into Bally's to gamble, wife went upstairs to take a quick bath and gaze onto the Atlantic. Found some more old school quick hit machines and had a few decent hits.

 

Met back up with the wife, time for dinner.  According to some on the trip advisor forum some people preferred Palace Court Buffet over Harrah's so I was looking forward to going there. It was slow so we got in right away. The brisket was pretty good. And that was it. Whoever said the palace court buffet was better than Harrah's should be hung by their toes. I felt completely ripped off, completely overrated buffet. Even if I received free buffet passes I might consider going again here because it would be free, but I would never spend another penny here. 

 

Back to Bally's to Gamble. I mostly hung out in the high limit area, it was extremely quiet, except for the occasional waitress bringing me another drink or the security walking around. My wife finally caved in and went to bed. I was now focused on one job and that was DIAD. (Diamond-in-a-Day) Essentially earn 5000 TC's in one day and earn 10k in bonus TC's to get over the 15k threshold to Diamond. I had a few decent hits.

Mission accomplished btw, I was already Platinum for the day and I hit over 5k for the day to bump me up. Time for me to crash.

 

Day 3 - 2/6 Tuesday

 

Bed was extremely comfortable.  My phone woke me up from an alert and I read this.....

Are you ^*(%^*&(%^$%* me?!?!? As I gaze out to the Atlantic Ocean from my bed I click the warning and......

Ok you got me, jokes on me and the rest of the East Coast. Time to pick a spot for breakfast and it was Cafe Roma in Caesars. My wife got the french toast which she said it was simply ok, and I rolled with the buffet. The fruit selection for the Buffet was horrendous. It was either whole apples/bananas/oranges or chopped up melon or watermelon. I guess to some this would not be too bad but I was looking for the Berry variety, blue/black/rasp/straw or even grapes.  Props to the chef operating the omelette station, he was a pretty good juggling everyone's demands.  Overall service was ok. 

 

Time to change it back up and decided to go back to Harrah's. Grabbed my new platinum card on the way out so I don't have to pay for parking. Very uneventful this time around. Wife went window shopping and I hopped back on quarter quick hits with zero luck. I did witness someone hitting a Buffalo Grand machine near Cafe Tazza, looked like they hit for 2900. Always good to see at least one person winning. Time to go back to Bally's.

 

Decided to stop at the Irish Pub to grab a quick lunch. If you were wondering which Irish Pub, it's the only one. Last time I actually stopped in here, it was years ago when slot machines were still taking tokens and TITO wasn't even talked about. Got completely smashed here as well. Well anyways back to today, place still looks the same. Again, cheap good eats. I got a Bacon Cheese 'Steer' Burger and Wife got Jersey Crab Cakes. I've missed this place. Link to website Sorry for a crappy picture.

Back to Bally's. I was starting to get a little low on my bankroll, with 'chasing' DiaD the night before and having zero luck at Harrah's....I've decided to go with what I enjoy the most, dollar quick hits.  Solid Choice. I actually hit on this machine the night before and got it again.

 

Some more quick hits....

I was not too crazy when I decided to sit down at this particular machine, tried them in Vegas, only had one really good hit for a couple of hundred. I've seen people get extremely lucky on them so I said sure. Max bet was 25 dollars a spin (was on 10cent denom, I could of set it lower), and well hell, I'm here to gamble. I'd say about 9 spins in I got the bonus....

Thank-You Lightning Links :) All of a sudden my bankroll looks pretty good again. 

 

I checked my TR App to see how many RC's I had and lo-and-behold I got my Bonus TC's and was now a Diamond. Woot. Now for Dinner.

 

Since we were so disappointed with the Palace Buffet, we had to now go to Harrah's for their buffet to make up for it. Off we go.

 

The Gold/Platinum line going in was all the way out into the hallway. If I had not made Diamond we would of probably skipped and gone elsewhere. We went in, quickly paid and got a table (which took the longest of waiting for a table to be cleared) within 20 minutes. The food was simply awesome. Even the brisket here was better than Caesars along with everything else. Again, Harrah's buffet in my opinion is in my top 5 casino buffets in the country, with being number 1 in Atlantic City. Off to the Diamond Cove.

 

I tried to replicate my win again on the same machine I hit on but did not have any luck, I did get the bonus again but nothing to write home about. Here's a short video on a quarter quick hit machine, $11.25 a spin.

 

 

Even though I re-triggered the bonus, and even after I shut off the video I got the 3 bonus symbols of which it did not reward anymore free games, I only cashed out with 700 dollars. I know for some this would be a huge win and yes I should not be greedy, however, given the circumstances, it should of paid out a helluva lot more. Oh well I guess I have to settle on this next pic.

 

 

Alright back to Bally's. Last night in AC, I figured I would spend some time in the high limit area again to battle some quick hit machines and the wife can mosey on upstairs to bed. Had a few more hits, was very lucky on this machine, hit at least a grand on 3 separate occasions, with the next 2 pics coming very close to each other.

 

 

Off to bed before I pass out on a slot machine.

Day 4 - 2/7 Wednesday

Ugh, more rain. Snow/Freezing Rain/Sleet up north. Leave AC now and deal with Elements or go to Borgata and wait until everything changes to rain? Silly question. Check out was sort of a breeze, resort fees were now waved but I still had to pay for my breakfast at Caesars since it happened at Caesars and the host on duty could not take care of it. Whatever, I am now ahead so I did not care.

 

Borgata. This place annoys me. Annoys me to the fact that this place should be on the boardwalk and not out in the Marina area. Annoys me that since they look like the closest resemblance to any Las Vegas Strip Casino, they are entitled to charge more for everything here. With that being said, we went to guest services for a new card since I didn't bring my mlife card with me and they quickly upgraded me to Gold status since I was diamond. (Bonus). They also gave me 100 slot dollars and 25 dollars towards food. Woot. Breakfast here we come.

 

Decided on the Metropolitan.  Got served the best breakfast by far on this trip. Again Omelette for me and Cinnamon French Toast for the wife. We both loved our breakfast and the service there. Off to Gamble.

 

Did a lot of slot hopping. No Dollar quick hits 3 reels, just the 5 dollar denom's of the 3 reel ones. Wasn't having too much luck, did get the bonus on one of the newer Bier Haus machines but it barely brought me back to even. Saw an older Cashman machine and decided to give it a whirl...Second spin in...

Never thought that would happen. So it was a pleasant surprise, lol. Slotted around a little bit more, then decided to head home.

 

Again, rain for the entirety of the road trip, hit zero traffic as well, that was a huge surprise, that rarely happens.

 

Summary - Final Thoughts

 

This is going to sound crazy but I really enjoyed Bally's. I found it safer and also cleaner than Harrah's. I saw a ton more security at Bally's as well. I don't know if I am simply getting older but I find the clientele to be louder and obnoxious at Harrah's than at Bally's. The clientele at Bally's though is a bit more depressing as it brings in more from the boardwalk. Ironically I did find the people at Bally's friendlier. Nobody asked me for money either which I read somewhere on TA that this is becoming more of a problem. Then again I was in the high limit areas 95% of the time I gambled and did not step one foot onto the boardwalk. (We took the second floor bridge to the pier shops)

 

Diamond in a day. I strongly suggest don't try this unless you have the bankroll to do so. And if you do, be smart on how you gamble. A slot machine can either be your worst enemy or your best friend, and usually it does not stay your best friend for long. Main reason I chased this was because now of the tremendous perks it now carries in Las Vegas. No resort fees and also no parking fees. That alone will save me some dough on staying on the strip. Again, just paying the fees could of been a lot cheaper than chasing after Diamond. Play to have fun, don't chase comps.

 

This is definitely one of the rare trips in which everything was paid for with gambling wins and I came home with more money than I started. It does not happen often. I am glad my wife was with me as originally I was going to Vegas solo. I am ecstatic that she was with me for my hand-pays because if that sort of luck happened in Vegas I would of been a little depressed that I could not share my happiness with her. 

 

On our way home we stopped at the Cheesequake Rest Stop northbound on the Garden State and I decided to have some chili cheese dogs from Nathan's. In about 4 hours I got violently ill with horrendous vomiting and other stomach issues for about 24 hours and I almost back to normal 3 days later as I typing this up. Never ever again will I eat food from a rest stop. Just Coffee.

 

Not sure where my next trip will be or where to. Hope you have enjoyed the trip report, sorry for lack of trip pictures, was here to gamble this time and not sightseeing :) 

 

Ciao