So...one of the reasons I stopped posting this past week as much is I went to Atlantic City. I did a metric crapton of research before this and i decided Resorts was the best place to go for me. Normally, I go on vacation down south, but my parents are older now and don't want to travel as far. We normally go to places like Myrtle Beach, Pigeon Forge, or Savannah, so I figured, okay, let's go to the hotel with a Margaritaville in it! We like Margaritaville, right? Also, it was affordable AF. Like, we've always been the scroungers and savers, where we tend to find the cheapest way to do something. It's not that we really cut on actual quality of life when we go. I mean, if we wanted we could sleep in like a Motel 6 with like a 2 star rating and have a horrible experience, but we try to find the best way to do things that's still reasonably affordable. Resorts ticked those boxes between it being clean, affordable, and having reasonably priced food.
But if you go online, a lot of people HATE resorts for some reason. It baffles me. If the hotel is clean and reasonably priced, what's the problem? Most people seem to push staying in like Borgata, Ocean, or Hard Rock instead. But...those places are a lot more money, and while if you are a high roller, they're a bit nicer, they're just not what we're looking for. Researching what people say about resorts i get complaints like not liking the people who go there, there being "thugs" hanging around the entrance to the casino, the services being limited, and it feeling like living in a shopping mall. Now, as I'll get to later, maybe in this article or the next, AC does have a homeless problem. The city is half resort and half...ghetto, let me put it that way. I'll do a sociological analysis on it later and give my thoughts on it from that perspective. But still, I did my due diligence and researched further, even watching a guy walk through the casino, stay in the rooms, and it's a pretty decent casino. Maybe not the best or flashiest, but definitely not bad either. I mean, I won't name names but I've watched the guy go through other casinos that flat out have a "dead mall" vibe and feel more like a casino from the fallout universe. This doesn't for the most part. I guess the art deco style can fit that retro style fallout has at times, but it's not like run down. It's just not super fancy.
Funny thing is, my parents also talked about staying where we're staying and their friends were like OH YOU DONT WANNA STAY THERE, WHY DONT YOU STAY IN THE BORGATA? Because 1) it's more money, 2) the room is smaller, 3) its isolated from the boardwalk, and 4), it doesn't have anything that we actually want that we can't get elsewhere?
Anyway, we stayed there, mostly had a good experience. A few minor gripes, but I'm under the impression I could or would run into any of the issues I had in ANY other casino. No, there were no "thugs" hanging by the boardwalk, if anything, after sitting there drinking a drink while watching people come in, I noticed something. A lot of black people go on vacation here. Why? Probably the same reasons, it's affordable. You dont wanna waste a lot of money for minimal gain and you wanna stretch the cash you have as far as it will go, so you go to the affordable place. Are these people who are apparent Borgata/Ocean/Hard Rock fanboys just racist against black people? You decide, but I get the impression some of what they're saying is code for "we want to go somewhere that keeps out the riffraff", ya know, like they're oh so superior. Ya know how when a black dude goes into a mostly white neighborhood people start screaming the neighborhood is going downhill and start moving out, creating a self fulfilling loop that causes the place to start going downhill as all the money and jobs disappear and things become increasingly ghetto? Yeah, that seems to be how these guys sound to me. When these guys start saying the casino is "ghetto", that seems to be what people are saying.
Also, a lot of it just seems to be putting on airs. Like, Ive never been in the economic class where we've gone to fancy places where we overspent and then we basically brag and virtue signal about how wealthy we are and how we can afford it. But a lot of people DO do that stuff. And I never went for it. I look at resorts and compared to other hotel experiences I've had over the years, it WAS relatively upscale. I mean, when I was down south, we used to talk about wishing about how we could afford to stay IN like, the margaritaville hotel, and here...we basically did that. And it was NICE. Again, we didn't do anything too crazy, and I guess if you want upscale, resorts isn't for you, but hey, it was a solid experience coming from my lower middle class background and the accommodations I'm used to. And honestly? I'll be blunt, it didnt cost much more than staying in a ratty motel 6 style hotel honestly. That's the real kicker. Like...any place that's affordable and clean...this was like...what, $20 more a night? And sure I could stay cheaper but then we'd be cutting WAY down on quality to the point that we'd have roaches and bedbugs in the room and we...dont...want...that...
Idk. It's just amusing watching how this pans out and what people say about this stuff, and what THEY seem to accustomed to. Yes yes yes, if you wanna spend 2x the money I did to stay in the fanciest places with the fanciest food, go for it, but I don't want that. I'm basic. And some people hate basic, but given my tastes, basic is FINE. As we'll get to in the next article, I'm not really that hardcore on vacationing anyway given some of my political views, since I don't like the idea of people being forced to serve me and me having to pay them for the "privilege" of doing so. You can kinda get that impression from previous articles I've written, like that one I did on food service a while back. I just go because my parents like going, and I'll go with them.
And yeah, just a few other topics worth mentioning:
The hotel has a very strict policy against actual "thugs" and homeless. They dont let people stay or sleep in their cars in the garages. They dont let people use the bathrooms to change. There's no place to sit unless you're actively gambling or eating anything. ALL of these casinos in atlantic city are strict about that sort of thing to keep the actual riffraff out. If anything, the strictness actually works against legitimate consumers. Just a few examples:
1) Due to all of the walking I did carrying in my own stuff (which was made needlessly difficult because they wanna incentivize us to pay people to do it for us, because that's what upper class people normally do), and then walking around the boardwalk all day on my first day, my feet were KILLING ME the rest of the trip. Like, I was in pain walking. And these casinos, while nice to walk through and look at, have no place to sit unless you go to the food court to eat something, or to a spot where youre gambling. Unlike places down south, there's no place to actually sit, because they dont want people to just sit and exist. The place exists for you to spend money. If you're not actively consuming, they dont want you there. This had a negative impact of making whatever issues with my feet WORSE during my stay, even though I was a legit consumer with a hotel room.
2) So...the bathrooms dont want you changing clothes. Okay, dont want homeless people washing up or changing in there, i get it. But let's take this example. On the way out, when we were about to go home, a family member messed up their clothes and had to change. We were literally minutes from checking out. We couldnt use any casino floor bathroom to do this due to the policies against it, we had to go back up to the room to do so. And if we checked out, well then, we ARE screwed aren't we? You mean, we, legit consumers who just spent the past several nights in your rooms and ate every day in your dining establishments, couldnt just go to the bathroom to change our clothes to make sure that we were driving home in clean clothes? I understand why the policies exist, but you understand how this can sometimes make things harder for actual paying customers, right?
3) I know others who have gone to AC where one person goes there because they like to gamble and their spouses, boyfriends, what have you, prefer to stay in the car. Of course, security doesnt want people staying in the car...because that's what homeless people do. Some of them live in their car, park in the garages, and then sleep there. So...again, if youre not actively gambling, they dont want you there, even if you or someone else in your party is a legitimate paying consumer.
Again, for all of the talk about how resorts is lax because "thugs" hang out around it, it seems to me like they're so strict with anti homeless policies that I actually kinda found it alienating as a paying consumer who had a reason to be there. but I digress. It really is a matter of perspective. Upper class people complain about this crap because omg i dont wanna share a casino with those poors! And here I am being more lower class and if anything I'm like, yeah this is too strict. Dont get me wrong, I understand homeless people in the casino could pose a possible security threat to actual customers, but yeah. It's just a pretty hostile way to go about solving the problem. As always nuance exists, and sometimes blanket policies aren't the best ways to address it.
Another final topic I wanna talk about in regard to this is the food court. I LOVED the food court. Because one thing I realized in helping to budget for this trip was the biggest, most egregious expense is the food. Most casinos push for upscale dining experiences where you're paying $30 for pasta dishes that should cost $15, or $65-100 for steaks that should cost like $30, etc. And again, it just seems pretentious and has the whole putting in airs thing. like oh, WE'RE the ELITE dining experience. We are pushing LUXURY. Meanwhile all I see it paying twice as much for something I could get elsewhere. Solution? Resorts has an excellent food court full of cheap, affordable dining options. We could get a cheese pizza for like $20, so not much worse than home, burger meals for like $18 that puts fast food to shame, etc. Sure, you arent getting the "luxury" experience, but meh...you can get that upstairs in the fancy places. We dont want fancy, we want affordable. Maybe this is where the "shopping mall" comparisons come from. I know all AC casinos have food courts, but checking out hard rock, it did seem a bit more expensive, and looking online, other casinos had places closer to like, that hard rock style experience with theirs. Like fancier, flashier, but a bit more money. With me, food is food, as long as it tastes good I aint gonna complain. And the food tasted plenty good. The pizza (assuming you get whole pies) was fresh and stringy. The burgers were fresh and of good texture, definitely beats burger king or mcdonalds while costing about the same as them these days. I seriously dont think those places realize they were so successful because they put out mediocre food for cheap. Even I won't settle for THAT stuff on vacation. I guess I had to settle for dunkin for doughnuts in the morning, but that's like a northern thing. For some reason us northerners REALLY like dunkin, even though I find them mediocre as hell. I'm on team krispy kreme all the way but it's hard to find those north of the mason dixon line (yeah i know philly has a couple places with them but most dont). And sure I could go to a luxury establishment like over in hard rock for better doughnuts but it kinda lacked the convenience. Cant win them all but I cant complain. Anyway, we saved tons of money due to the food court, and I think that's why people dislike it so much. "Omg its like a shopping mall", you mean...affordable food court dining options? because that was the only thing mall like to me. That and the stores being in there, and all of them have that. I mean, tropicana reminds me MORE like a mall from what I've seen, just a fancier one.
And again, I guess, if you want fancy and like fancy, there are better options there. But if I had to go elsewhere I'd probably go to like tropicana or something, not to the big three everyone brags about. Also affordable, and seems to have a lot of interesting stuff on their premises like arcades, movie theaters, stores, places to eat, etc. Why didnt I go there? Well, for what we were going for, resorts seemed to be a better fit. I was thinking more about emulating the southern vacations I go on with places like margaritaville on the premises, getting a better room for less money, and also being in a more central location. Tropicana is on the far end of the boardwalk away from everything, resorts is more in the middle with lots of other casinos with other accommodations nearby like Hard Rock, and even showboat and ocean. So...yeah....
Either way, we werent really there long enough to fully take in what options we did have. I feel like we barely scratched the surface of what was offered and yeah while we plan to go back, it was interesting.
Anyway, I just wanted to write this due to how it intersects with more political topics I normally engage with. I got that "sociological imagination" thing going on and understand how social sciences and trends intersect with daily life to a point that I just cant turn it off and see it everywhere I go. And I just wanted to write this given how much racism and classism I see in regards to people crapping on my own preferences. Really, I'm not gonna trash anyone who likes a bigger fancier casino, but if those types start crapping on MY preferences with really ridiculous criticisms, well....now I'm gonna actually dissect what's actually being said.
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