One of the nice things about staying at the Hard Rock In Atlantic City is it’s right on the boardwalk. While one could just not leave the casino. I thought why not go out and explore a bit, see a beach, the boardwalk, and if there are any other casinos I can run into.
One of the more fun things I was finding out about Atlantic City is just going around and signing up for a new member reward card. Most times you get 15-$20 of free play. That was the plan for our boardwalk journey. End up at another casino and get some free play out of it.
The Boardwalk
One of the nice things about the time we went is it was still considered off-season. So while the boardwalk was starting to get somewhat busy. There were still many colder days and nights and heavy tourism had yet to set in.
The boardwalk itself was quite interesting. You might notice two yellow lines are going down it. Quite a few people were offering to take you on a ride on the boardwalk to different casinos and locations.
Since we were just looking to walk around and explore we did not attempt to take one of those rides. Some of them looked like carts on wheels that people pushed around. I think there was also a small tram that drove down the middle of the boardwalk.
People for the most part walked where ever they wanted on the boardwalk. You only had to worry about getting out of the way if you heard someone honking. During this time of the day, however, there seemed to not be anyone in the direction we went taking people for rides.
There were quite a few little shops and even restaurants and other things all lining the boardwalk. I would not be shocked if some of the places we passes were rather small casinos. There was even an arcade and I could have sworn one of the places looked like a movie theater as well.
The boardwalk also has some massive piers on it. While we did not go on any of them. It is quite impressive they fit an entire Ferris Wheel, a Merry Go Round, and quite a few other rides. It was tempting to want to get some funnel cake or something. We thought better of it for the time being. Since we had a different goal in mind.
Along the boardwalk were some amazing-looking beach areas as well. We even walked down the boardwalk for a bit of our exploration as well. With all the food in this area, it was no shock just how many seagulls and other birds were around this place.
It was a little too cold during our trip to want to take a dip in the water. It was fun however to stop for a moment and take a look at what kind of sea shells this beach gets. Nothing that I’ve not seen back at home. So we did not spend long looking.
You might also notice by now a few of these photos has this massive building in the background. That was our end point going down this direction of the boardwalk. It was just insane that they built that along the boardwalk. It sticks out.
After a while, we found ourselves back up on the boardwalk. This part of it seemed to have some heavy crowds. It seems like they were leaving the casino that we were looking to go into.
Ocean Casino Resort
This place was massive and even the entryway from the beach looked insane. Now if you were making a casino where would you put the main gambling floor? I would think you put it on an easy-to-access lower floor. That seems reasonable right?
This is the escalator someone thought would be a good idea to have people ride up to get to the casino floor. The photo makes it not look as bad as it was. You might also notice there is another escalator you can take to go up even higher above this one if you wish to get up onto some rooftop areas.
I have never in my life been on an escalator that has that many steps. It also for some reason seems to be a bit steeper than the ones I’ve ridden on in the past as well.
There are stories of people walking into this casino. Taking a look at that escalator and noping the heck out of the place. I really can’t blame them. I almost wanted to see if there was an elevator or something to ride instead.
This place had the wildest ceilings I’ve ever seen in a casino. The place also felt like a maze with how they had slot machines set up.
I got to say it. All the cameras they got sticking down from the ceiling ruined whatever kind of look they were trying to create. It’s an ugly and odd-looking ceiling.
So we walked over to where you can sign up as a new member and get a rewards card. That is when we found out they are no longer giving out free play. My first thought was “how fing cheap are you? Quite cheap they had some shitty T-shirts they were giving everyone.
Make matters even worse. I’m a bigger person. They did not have a T-shirt in my size. I ended up trying on the largest size they had later. It did not fit. So I found that to be rather disappointing. It also felt like the size of the shirt they claimed they had was a least one size smaller than what it said it was.
Since they did not give any free play and instead had some strange offers. We all decided since we did walk out here to just play one slot each and then leave. We were at least hoping if we played a little bit maybe they offer something else. As that is how some casinos work down here.
So instead of sticking my normal $40 into a slot machine like I tend to do. I just did $20 since they did not give me the $20 in free play I was expecting. The slot ate it like it was nothing. I don’t think I even had a winning spin on whatever machine I decided to play.
The people I’m with however sat down at a new slot machine everyone was trying to get on. They kept getting bonus after bonus after bonus. I was thrilled for them and I could tell they were going to play for a bit.
So I decided to do some walking around. Whoever designed the inside of this casino deserves to win the ugliest casino award ever. If there is no such award I should make one and present it to them. With how odd the lighting was here most of the photos I took just turned out dreadful.
There were at least quite a few slots inside this place I’d be willing to play. That was if I was in a bit of a better mood. There was also just some strange stuff I’d never seen before that I would not play if I was paid to do so.
For how massive the outside of the building looked. The inside felt cramped. I did not wander off that far from the people I was with. I however had a feeling this floor was not as big as I was expecting it to be.
I get back and they were still playing on the new Jackpot Carnival. This casino has such balls they even have signs on the slots saying “Ocean exclusive. . . in Atlantic City.” I hope they don’t have that exclusive for too much longer as much better casinos should have had this game in them by now.
At least the people I was with were still winning. This went on for quite some time. I was rather glad that at least they were getting their money out of this place. They more than made up for not getting some free play.
After a while, I’m getting a little bored. I also don’t want to just get everyone to leave since they were still winning. So I decided I’ll just put another $20 into a machine. It’s not like I did not bring a lot more money than that to play. I was just not in the mood to play.
I seldom play Pompe let alone number 2. I did some quick math and thought I’d be doing $1 a spin with how many lines were selected.
Turns out I was wrong. I was doing $3 per spin. I realized this mistake after my first spin. I thought oh well I only put $20 in. It will just be fewer spins than I was expecting.
A couple of spins in I hit something. The numbers start going up quite a lot. I know I’m not playing a 1 cent machine. I thought oh this must be 10 cents right? I mean I got 110 from a line hit? I doubled check and realize this was a $1 denomination high-limit machine. That makes sense since I’m doing $3 a spin.
I do a couple more backup spins to make sure there was nothing else to be done. I did not win anything other than my bet back once. I cashed out and walked away up about $80 overall. I’ll consider that win part of the free play they were advertising that we would get that they claimed they stopped doing.
Also, I feel a bit nuts for betting $3 a spin. At least it worked out for me. After a while the people I were with felt like they had won all they were on Jackpot Carnival and it was time to go. Everyone left up in this casino!
Before we left however there is that other set of escalators to take up to a rooftop area. The views up there were rather nice. They even had some areas to sit down and sunbathe in if you are into that sort of thing.
Final Thoughts
After that, we went down the two massive escalators and out the back way to end up on the boardwalk again. It was a bit of a walk back to Hard Rock but it was not unexpected. This was a nice little side trip and it was cool to check out another casino.
I’m rather glad we did not stay here for any nights. I just did not like how the inside of Oceans is set up. At least they had a cool-looking rooftop area.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.
