After quite a fascinating tour of Philadelphia and some other places and stops, it was time to head down to Atlantic City for some crazy fun! Our first stop for just the night was the Golden Nugget. With a name like that, I was expecting a lot.
Once we got close enough to Atlantic City we could see all the casinos off in the distance. I’m not used to there being a bunch of casinos all in one area. Down from where I am you mostly just have either the boat or one casino that has a couple of properties in the state. Sure there are some other places to gamble but they are so far away I’ve never been.
While we would not be casino hoping this night that would end up being something we would do. While they do have something called a Jitney to take you from casino to casino that was not a service we ended up using to get around.
Once we got into the Golden Nugget the main floor was rather breathtaking. At the time I did not know it but the Golden Nugget would end up being one of the smaller casinos we would end up going to.
This place was also a bit confusing with all the escalators. We would end up trekking our stuff the hard way the single night we were going to stay here. Later in the trip we would come back for a couple of nights and find an alternative and easier way to haul our bags to the guest rooms.
We ended up lucking out and getting put into a suite. Later on, we would find out there was almost no one at this casino during the weekday. Other than a couple of people once it became night time we had the place to ourselves.
I ended up taking some photos of the suite after we used it a bit. I do hate those online traveling photos of hotel rooms taken as if they never even slept in the room. You know those kinds of photos where you wonder if someone just bribed the front desk to get into a room to take a couple of photos and leave.
This room also ended up having this massive L shape couch that worked out as a second bed. We could have fit another person on there if needed.
After lots of walking around. I was down for an endless hot shower. While I wish the shower was a tad bit bigger. All I cared about was the hot water. That is not something I get at home where the hot water run out quickly.
It was then time to gamble for a while. We were all set up in the room and just so I would not forget what room. I took a quick photo on our way out of the room and the floor number. I also did the same where we parked. This is quite an easy thing to do so you never forget where your room or car is.
We walked down a little ramp to get into the casino and a Rakin Bacon was calling my name. While I did get a couple of bonuses on it. These things the first night kicked me behind. I still had fun as I love this slot.
For quite a few years now I’ve been wanting to find and play a Wolf Run Gold. It turns out the Golden Nugget has it. While I did not win it was great to see some of the features of the game and get some wilds on it.
I also got to check this game off my list of slots I’ve been wanting to play. I did get a small win of $11 on a resin and a couple of other line hits. I however did not walk away doubling up.
At one point I needed to use the bathroom. At the time we were in the smoking section of the casino. Right next to it was the women’s bathroom. I however did not see the man’s bathroom.
So I ended up exploring 90% of the casino floor. It turns out the part I skipped over had a separate male’s bathroom. Thankfully this was not a massive casino but you know when you need the bathroom you don’t want to be looking around for it.
I ended up having to leave the casino floor. Go down a dark alleyway, give a guy the magic handshake, $5, do the Hoki Poki, and spin around 55 times for a bathroom to appear. Ok, it was not that bad.
I did have to leave the casino floor and go up the ramp. That is where I recalled at least seeing a bathroom. At first, I thought there was only a women’s bathroom there as well. Thankfully I looked a little over and finally found the male's bathroom.
Later on, I learned when you are in the smoking section of the Golden Nugget. The male's bathroom is on the opposite side of the female's bathroom. You have to cross by the high-limit room and go all the way down to the wall. There you will find a bathroom I swear I was the only person to ever use. They sure liked to hide it!
After that fiasco, it was back to more gambling. I ended up sitting down at a Buffalo Link and getting the bonus. It was just the one x and two x bonus. At least I got it right before I ran out of money so I got to keep playing a bit. Again however no double-up.
After a couple more slots, no one was feeling lucky so we went upstairs to our room for a much-needed break and short rest. We also got a view of the pool and hot tube area. We would not be going to the hot tubes the first night but later on in the trip we sure would be enjoying them.
After a while, I woke up from my nap since I had not gotten any sleep for an entire day. I noticed I was the last one left in the room so I headed down to the casino floor to gamble and find some people.
After some walking around on the floor I realized I was almost the only person in the casino. I was in utter shock at just how empty this place was. It was past 4 AM but I’m used to casinos being super busy during the late night time slot.
I sat down at some slot machine I don’t recall the name of. I did get a couple of bonuses. This is when I started to notice something about the Golden Nugget. I was getting what felt like higher frequencies of bonuses. That bonus however paid rather badly.
I’d need to change up my normal tactics if I wanted to escape this casino with some money. It did not matter that much however as I ended up getting my payback later in the week when we returned to the Golden Nugget. For now, however, it was back to more losing.
The person I was looking for down there, in the end, was the one who found me. They were about to go back up to the room and call it a night. They thought I must have been still sleeping. Since that was not the case we continued to play for a while longer.
I sat down at one of the bag games and no shock just a $20 win. At least I popped some bags and got to play for a while. This slot was also along the ramp to get into the casino. So I for sure thought it was going to be a winning one.
I’d end up going back to playing the bag game and the Rakin Bacon slot a few more times during our first day. Not any real luck on any of them. They were at least a blast to play.
For how small this casino was they did have a lot of what we wanted to play. They also had some newer slots as well. The nice thing about this smaller casino is they were not going to have twenty of the same slot to fill the floor like a larger casino would have. They might have a couple of more sought-after and played slots. Otherwise, you might only find one or two a slot and that was more than enough.
One favorite of ours that they did happen to have was The Wizard of Oz Over the Rainbow. This was also perhaps the first slot machine while I was there I finally got a double-up on.
At this point, it was getting to be 6 AM and I was starting to feel a bit tired again. I however just found another slot I’ve been looking for. Well in fact I’ve passed over it a couple of times while exploring the casino. So I already knew it was there.
It was Little Shop Of Horrors Directors Cut. I ended up getting quite a few different bonuses on this slot. Including the wheel bonus where if I recall I won $4.
I love the original Little Shop Of Horrors slot. So I was rather thrilled they had the newer one here. I would go off to play it a couple of times as well during our trip.
Here are some photos of the casino. As you can see at the hour during the weekday we were playing it was almost dead. There was one other guy here. We got the run of place being able to play any slot we wanted.
This place did end up having some rather fun-looking decor that kept the playing with a positive energy vibe.
It is crazy looking back and seeing how empty this place was. This was a photo of the smoking section. They carved out a giant portion of the back of the casino for them. They had quite a few fun slots back there as well including some Rakin Bacons and Wizard of Oz I’d go and play.
While there were a few other sections of the casino I found myself quickly distracted from taking further photos and back at the Little Shop Of Horrors Directors Cut.
I ended up getting I think the rampage reels bonus. The plant with its vines split up the screenshots and gave me three of them. It then gave me a bunch of wild wheels. It was not like a massive win but hey $22 kept me playing further.
A couple of spins later I ended up getting the nudge and lock wilds bonus. As you are playing the normal game the wilds you land get fed to the planet. It then pops and you get this bonus. When you land a wild reel it sticks and you get +1 to spins.
After a couple of smaller bonus features, I decided to get off this slot at a break even. I had enough fun on it, for now, I felt I wanted to see what else there was to play.
I ended up playing Golden Century where I got a mind-blowing $2.05 bonus win. A couple of spins later I got a $10 bonus. A lot of the slots were starting to be like this so it did not take long before we just went up to our rooms. It
Final Thoughts
We got a little more shut-eye before it was time to check out. We did go down and play a little more before we left. The place was still rather empty. We would later return during the weekend and this place was hoping from long lines at check-in many slots being filled the entire time.
The biggest downside of going during the weekdays when nothing was going on late at night was the lack of getting anything to drink. I think the vending machines for a can of soda on the hotel floors wanted $3.5 or $4. It was highway robbery for sure and that was something we discovered at all the casinos here. You either got drinks for free or you way overplayed for it.
The good news is at least at the Golden Nugget and other casinos certain alcoholic drinks are free on the casino floor. So when there was someone on the floor servicing drinks fun times were had by all. Even more so at the next casino, we went to as you could order from the slot machine screen itself! More on that in the next post. I did however prefer to just give a person my order as then you could get booze and some water at the same time.
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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.
