visiting my friend Lynda, I was at the airport again, flying to Philadephia to eventually meet up with Kaleb and his family in New Jersey.
The plane ride in coach was uneventful. When I arrived in Philadelphia, the plan was to ride the SEPTA train from the airport to 30th Street Station, where I would board the Atlantic City Rail Line to, uh, Atlantic City. The train service was to be shut down for maintenance starting September 8, so my trip was timely. Else, Kaleb would have to pick me up from the airport on his drive towards the coast, adding more delay on top of the expected traffic.
The beach house was in Ocean City, NJ, but with many family members coming for the long weekend and limited bedrooms, I figured Kaleb and I could spend a few nights in Atlantic City, since I had never been there before and had ulterior motives to boot.
The
SEPTA train platform was easy to find from the terminal, but it was not obvious which side of the platform to board, as there were no other passengers waiting, similar to what happened the first time I rode it
four years ago. This time, there was an employee in the vicinity, so I asked her for information. She helpfully pointed out that I could buy a discounted ticket from the kiosk by the platform entrance door with credit card, versus paying full price in cash on the train...awesome! When the train came, people got off but it was still heading towards the other terminals; I had to wait for it to return before getting on. There was hardly anyone on board.
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| save a few bucks buying from the kiosk |
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| empty! |
|
The conductor took my ticket without giving me a receipt. When I got off at
30th Street Station, as I was approaching the turnstiles, I was in a bit of a panic as I didn't have a ticket to "scan out", like in other subways and metros. Fortunately as I got close enough to see, the turnstiles were "free" to exit, so no need for a ticket. I followed the signs towards the Amtrak station and bought a ticket for the Atlantic City Rail from the NJ Transit kiosk. (after asking the friendly information desk)
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| Amtrak this way |
|
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| NJ Transit kiosk |
|
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| neat train station |
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|
There had been torrential rain pouring down in the Lancaster area lately - Kaleb had told me that he had a hard time getting back to his dad's house the night before after visiting friends as all the roads were flooded. This also affected the Amtrak Keystone train today. Normally I would have taken that train to get to Lancaster, but services were suspended indefinitely (and turned out to be so until the next morning). Fortunately I was taking the train to Atlantic City instead.
Last time I rode Amtrak, the train had a designated "quiet car" and was labeled as such on the outside of the door, but today on the Atlantic City Rail, there wasn't any indication. I went to the front-most car and it turned out to be the quiet one; there were no signs indicating it to be so, only when the conductor barked out on the PA system that the quiet car was numbered 5413. There were a few young people talking amongst themselves (not in a loud or rowdy tone) and as the conductor passed through for tickets, he yelled, "THIS IS THE QUIET CAR!" They didn't sound a peep after that. While the conductor was collecting tickets, I noticed him scanning people's phones, so you could buy them through an app as well. (
MyTix)
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| THIS IS THE QUIET CAR! |
|
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| you could also buy tickets on your phone |
|
At the end of the line, everyone got off and headed towards the station exit. I had read online that there were shuttles called "
jitneys" that would take you to the various casinos in the area for free from the station and would leave shortly after the train's arrival, so I didn't chance going to the restroom. There were no signs for this service; I noticed a line of shuttles parked to the left while exiting the station so I headed in that direction. There were no signs in any of the shuttles either, so I had to ask each driver if they were going to the
Borgata. The people a few steps ahead of me were doing the same for their casino. Eventually, I got an affirmative and hopped in. A few minutes later, all the shuttles were taking off to their destinations. The one I was on stopped at a couple places before arriving at the Borgata. A guy was trying to get onto the shuttle after a passenger disembarked at one of the earlier stops, but the driver closed the doors on him and took off. I and others sitting on the right side watched this guy running full speed after us, yelling "Wait!", like on a TV show or in a movie. We were remarking, "There's someone that wants to get on...", but we were ignored. Then when the rest of us got off at the Borgata, a lady waiting at the stop was asking him if he was going to the train station and he replied, "No, I have to get gas" and she countered, "But aren't you going to the station after getting gas?" and he just closed the doors on her and sped off. So strange. I felt fortunate to arrive at my destination in one piece.
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| getting off the train |
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| jitneys located far to the left of this door |
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| on the jitney |
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| entrance to the Borgata from the jitney stop |
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Check-in was easy and the room was comfortable. I had gotten a discounted rate thanks to having
Mlife Gold status. Another reason I wanted to stay in Atlantic City: as part of the grand opening of the
Hard Rock and
Ocean Resort back in May, they offered status matches to competing casino loyalty card members, causing the other properties to follow suit. This was great as I could match my status to Total Rewards Diamond with valuable benefits. I will get into more detail when I write about those days.
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| regular Borgata room |
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| shower only |
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| the Borgata is away from the boardwalk |
Kaleb wouldn't arrive until around 9-10pm, so I walked around the hotel, checking out the casual eats and playing Pokemon Go. The one that looked the best was the
Borgata Baking Company. We ended up eating here all the time as the food was tasty and reasonably priced. The watermelon spears were the bomb. The desserts looked so good - I regretted not buying any because as the days went by, for some reason, the selection dwindled and was not replaced.
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| I see you Gyarados |
The next morning, Kaleb and I had breakfast at the same place. There were lots of yummy selections, but my favorite was the bagel piled high with smoked salmon.
Afterwards, we drove down to Ocean City to meet up with the rest of the family at the beach house. It took about 30 minutes even though it was just ten miles away (due to the speed limit and stops on Atlantic Avenue) though I won't complain as it was a pretty drive and slow enough to spin and drop Pokemon into gyms.
We finally got to meet baby niece Raelynn for the first time.
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| so adorable! |
Kaleb and I walked to the boardwalk to grab a late lunch while the kids took a nap. Then we all went back there for some dinner and frozen custard.
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| brat with sauerkraut and cheese |
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| sisters awake and ready to go |
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| pretty |
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The next day, Kaleb and I made it to the beach. It was a cloudy day, but you could still get sunburned!
Beach time was followed by porch time, then we grabbed take-out dinner from
Island Grill and celebrated Grandma Betty's 90th birthday.
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| short walk from the house |
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| fried shrimp |
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| Aunt Nancy |
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| happy 90th birthday Grandma! |
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After dinner, we went back to the beach, searching for pebbles for Kate's jewelry project as the sun set.
Tonight, Kaleb and I hit the Atlantic City boardwalk to accomplish my status matching goals. (there is a nice writeup about the technique
here) First stop was to Caesars (and Bally's) since my main objective was to secure Diamond status. It turned out that the Total Rewards desk closed at 8pm. On a holiday weekend?!? I would have to wait until tomorrow but in the meantime, we went to the Hard Rock to match my Mlife Gold to their
Rock Royalty tier. Once I had that card, I went to the Ocean Resort and got their highest tier,
Premier Black. (unfortunately, they've changed their policies and it only matches to Platinum now) We had a bit of fun with the new statuses, including free slot play and player's lounge access (which we had not expected). Note that I got Mlife Gold status from matching
status on Celebrity Cruises, no gambling involved!
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| parked at Caesars Palace |
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| walking down the boardwalk |
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| status match publicly advertised |
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| lots of people out at 10pm |
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| inside Ocean Resort |
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| nice Ocean Resort restroom |
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| free lounge access for Black cards |
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| a light snack |
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| complimentary drinks |
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On Labor Day, we checked out of the Borgata and went next door to Harrah's to get my Total Rewards (now called Caesars Rewards)
Diamond card. Mission accomplished...Kaleb and I would get to enjoy the status benefits during a trip to Las Vegas later this month.
The rest of the day was filled with beach time and a sit-down dinner at Island Grill.
After spending Monday night at the beach house, we drove back to Pennsylvania the next morning. We stopped by a
Wawa to try one of their hoagies; I found I prefer
Sheetz subz! I still think it's weird that gas stations in this area have ginormous convenience stores that sell freshly made fast food.
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| gotta get Brown's donuts before we leave! |
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| Wawa hoagie |
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The last days of the trip were spent with friends and family.
The only (minor) issue with our journey home was the TSA PreCheck line in Baltimore - it was much longer than the regular line. However, I wasn't willing to switch as I am spoiled with not having to take off my shoes, laptop, liquids, or go through the nude-o-scope. The
CLEAR line looked very inviting...perhaps we'll have a chance to try out in the future...hmm...
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| line for precheck! |
This ends our Labor Day trip...what's next? Kaleb and I head to Las Vegas...stay tuned...
***
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Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
