December Trip to AC

Day 1

I guess this really starts a few months ago... I've been hearing a lot of good things about Resorts especially for low rollers. So even though we were staying at the Borgata back then we spent a morning over at resorts thanks to an offer we got from Mohegan Sun. We had a decent time back then and sure enough we got some offers to come back.

Our 3 hour trip to Resorts was uneventful with fairly light traffic on the parkway. pulled into the self parking lot, free this time of year, though my wife is Epic level so it would be free anyway. It was only noon so we weren't sure a room would be ready so we left the bags in the car and headed to check-in.



Check-in went smoothly. On my wife's offer it said to ask for a suite upgrade (if available), so she did. Soon afterwards we walked into our 54th floor (numbers start at 30 so really on 24th floor) executive suite in the Rendevue Tower. Wow! Two bathrooms, a wet bar, dinning area, and living room in the entry room. A great view of the ocean. A couch, chair, and flat screen TV open to the dinning area with table and chandelier. This opens up through double doors into a second room which is the bedroom. Huge king bed, another flat screen TV, desk, desk chair, lounge chair, 2 double door closets (with robes), a safe the size of of mini fridge, and another great view right from the bed. This opens into a huge master bath complete with double vanity, soaker jacuzzi tub, toilet area and walk in shower. One of, if not, the nicest rooms we have ever stayed in. Good job Resorts.



We headed across the boardwalk to Land Shark for lunch. We got a seat near the porch so we could look out to the ocean. Not a lot of activity out there but it was a fairly nice day so there were a few walkers on the beach. The service and food was very good. I had a BBQ burger and my wife had the pulled pork sandwich.

We took the short walk up the boardwalk to see the construction on the Hard Rock (old Taj Mahal). I thought it was further along but much outside work still needs to be completed. You can see the inside is completely gutted. They have a lot of work to do before opening next summer.

Headed back in for some blackjack. I did ok in the afternoon booking a small win. Though I must say some of the dealers are not very friendly. I guess they forget they are in a service business. One quirk with their system is to get your "free play" you have to actually go to the promo booth to get your voucher. Other casinos seem to do this through the comp machines and it is much faster. A cheesecake promo was going on and again you have to wait in line (twice) once at the promo booth to get the voucher and again when you pick up the cheesecake. Seems very slow and antiquated. Good cheesecake though!

Dinner was at breadsticks cafe. The breadsticks were good. The rest was "just ok". I had french onion soup, good cheese, ok soup, and the turkey dinner. Gravy was kinda blah making the meal blah. The stuffing was good though. My wife had the pea soup (on special) which was awful (she sent it back) and spare ribs which were again "just ok". The service was also, "just ok". Can't say would would recommend this place again with so many other choices available in and around resorts.

The evening blackjack sessions did not go well at all so I made it a fairly early night and chalked up a fair size loss for my first day.

For those that care the Craps was $10 min with 5 times odds. BJ was $10 with H17 and $25 with S17 both paying 3/2. On a strange note: Resorts uses Automatic Shuffle Machines and not a hand shuffle. Presumably this is to speed up the game. Oh no... They require the dealer to call the pit over to press the button, watch them put the cards in the one side, have the pit again press the button to lift the other side and then take the cards out. With busy pit people this can be a much longer delay than hand shuffling would have been. Makes no sense to me.

Day 2

It certainly was a comfortable nights sleep in the executive suite. Resorts has a Dunkin Donuts so our breakfast was a great cup of coffee and a donut. We love Dunkin! My less than stellar blackjack results continued in the morning. We then headed out to the Tropicana. It was a beautiful day so we almost considered walking down but eventually decided to drive. The Trop used to be our regular home base, but since the remodel getting a room in the Havana tower is almost impossible and we frankly don't care for the rooms in the south or west tower.

Our real agenda was to see the new Star Wars - The Last Jedi in the IMAX. We arrived about 11AM and there was already a short line at the box office which opened at 11:30 (we planned on attending the 1PM show). They nicely opened at about 11:20 and we had no trouble getting tickets.

We headed to the casino floor and scoped out the changes. We had seen the initial remodel but it now looks like the entire casino floor remodel is complete. It looks quite nice. My wife played for a bit and came out a winner! As with Resorts the Craps was $10 and 5 times odds and BJ was $10 and $15 with H17 and $25 with S17 again paying 3/2.



We got in line early for Star Wars and it was a good thing as by the time they opened the doors there was quite a crowd lined up. While I enjoyed the movie I was not a fan of the 3D. It made the backgrounds blurry and far less sharp than I want from IMAX. I'll be happy to see it on a smaller screen in 2D when it comes to TV.

We headed back to Resorts and made reservations for Gallagher's Steakhouse with a $50 comp my wife had. The meal was good. We each ordered the filet Mignion Oscar style. This comes with garlic mashed and asperigus. It was quite reasonable with the comp though without it I think it was a bit overpriced for the quality.

After dinner it was more blackjack and my woes continued. The dealers just couldn't bust and managed to start me out with 14, 15 or 16 on almost every hand. It ended up being one of my worst nights of blackjack ever and once again I retired to the room early licking my wounds.

Would we go back to Resorts? Absolutely it was very nice even though we both lost quite big. The room was great and the property was good too. Some slightly more friendly dealers and a better way than having to stand in line at the promo booth are the only room for improvement.

Day 3

One last day to wake up and see the beautiful ocean view from our room. Checkout was easy from the room. It was a really warm day as well so we headed over to the Gardener's Basin for a bit to check it out and grab a couple of geocaches. We then made our way over to Borgata for the rest of our stay.



Check-in was quick though there were no suite upgrades available. We like the basic room at Borgata but after the suite at Resorts we were a bit cramped :). It was on the south side of the building so we still had a view of the ocean as well as the bay. All in all a very nice room.

We ate lunch at the taco place in the MarketPlace and I began my comeback hitting the Blackjack Tables. By dinner time I had put a good dent in my losses and we happy headed to our complementary buffet. We are not huge buffet fans but the Borgata Buffet is quite good and certainly when we can get in for free it is a must on any trip. I had a sirloin steak while my wife had prime rib. Along with lots of other goodies from the buffet.

One of the things we enjoy doing is spending some time in the "Living Room" at the base of the elevator shafts. It is a very nice quiet area in an otherwise noisy and busy casino. There is a beautiful Christmas tree there and we will often find time to just sit here, relax and talk. While doing this a young couple with an adorable young girl of maybe 2 1/2, dressed very nicely, came in and took some pictures in front of the tree. First the mom took pictures then the dad. My wife got up and offered to take some of the whole family and they readily agreed. When done, the little girl ran up to my wife and wrapped her arms around her legs giving her a big hug and thank you! It was simply adorable. After a few hugs and my wife starting to return to her seat the little girl blew her a big kiss with another thank you!!!!! :) :) :)



After dinner I had another quick hit at Blackjack but eventually my streak had to come to an end so I ended the day with a losing session but still knocked off a good chunk of my losses from Resorts.

Conditions at Borgata - VERY friendly dealers. Craps $10, and $25 open regular and sometimes $15. With 3, 4, 5 Odds rather than the usual AC 5 times odds. Blackjack is $10 and $15 with H17 8 decks, $25 and $50 with S17 6 decks all with 3/2. Automatic shuffle machines are in use (the dealers can push their own button). High limit room is $100 and up. Of note it was easy to get my match play vouchers from the comp machines.

Day 4

The day started with 3 winning sessions at Blackjack and I was within $100 of being even for the trip! Woo Hoo. We had a very nice lunch at Bread and Butter and all was going pretty well. Then later in the after noon a couple of bad blackjack losses put me back in a whole again. Then this happened.

Sitting at a blackjack table with 2 other gentleman and a very nice dealer. Borgata has the Lucky Ladies side-bet on all their tables. I never play (its a bad bet) but the guy next to me was playing most of the time $5 maybe $10. On one particular hand he play $15 and got dealt a Q of hearts, dealer shows an A and his second card is another Q of hearts. So that's 125-1 but wait if the dealer has a blackjack it is 1000-1! The dealer immediately calls the pit before checking for BJ. The pit suggests he take insurance (not sure why he is worried about his $50 bet if he would win $15K but he throws another green chip out). The dealer checks and starts high fiving the pit boss. The player doesn't understand at first but then gets its and she turns over a 10! Its the only time I've rooted for a dealer blackjack but glad I did. The guy was completely in shock. It took a good 15-20 minutes to get through all the paperwork but they payed him out his 15K and then took 4200 for taxes. It sure was nice seeing all those orange chips! The guys tipped the dealer $500 which I found very excessive (maybe $100 or $150?). But he still walked away with over 10K in his pocket. For those wondering he can get a check from the cage but not at the table.

I ended that session up and we headed to dinner at NoW (Noodles of the World). We enjoy the food their and it was a nice meal. I played a quick session after dinner before heading to the comedy club for the show. The first comic was ok, the second Chris Roach from TV's Kevin can wait was really not very good. Fortunately, the headliner, Mitchell Walters was very funny so we ended on a high note.

After the show I tried to play some more Blackjack but the "crazies" were out, making it quite un-enjoyable. So after trying a couple of tables I gave up and considered playing some craps. The tables were packed however and I just wasn't in the mood to cram myself in. So before heading up to bed I decided to check out some Ultimate X machines for some multipliers. I ran $10 up to around $20 on one machine and then check a second and found 2 2X lines on a 10 play deuces wild. I was dealt 10h Jh Qh xx Ah and quickly held the 4 to a royal. I hit draw! On one of the 2X lines I hit the Kh for 8000 coins. Woo Hoo! I don't play a lot of Video Poker so this was my first Royal - what a thrill. I let it slowly tally up the coins and savored the moments. There is nothing like your first royal!



So with that I was fairly close to even for the trip and called it a night. While the trip did end up a bit negative it was a nice recovery from the early losses. Our checkout and return trip home were uneventful so we had another successful trip to AC.

So, I was looking through the Trip Reports section and noticed that I missed this one.

Nice report, BJ4F, especially with the happy ending! Congrats on your 1st royal! Love to see those royals, and on a multiplier, no less. Glad you had a good time.

I've never been, but one of these days, I'll make the trip up to AC.

Was your freeplay something from a hotel offer?

Regular calender freeplay can be downloaded directly at the slots in resorts ac. Sometimes you have to activate it at a kiosk first before it shows up at the slots