Wednesday 19th August
Caught the 9.15am flight from Edinburgh to London then the 1.45pm flight from London to Philadelphia. We were lucky enough to be upgraded from economy to premium economy on the long haul part of our journey and had an empty seat beside us.
This was our meal and the beef just melted in our mouths.
On arrival we managed to find the SEPTA train station to catch the train into the city centre Amtrak station (25 minutes) and caught the train from there to Atlantic City (90 minutes). The little Jitney bus was waiting at the station when we arrived and took us to Bally's where we were quickly checked in and were allocated a king room on the 38th floor with a lovely view of the beach and sea. Played slots till about midnight and then collapsed into bed exhausted.
Thursday 20th August
Had breakfast then walked back to our hotel to sit in the sun up at the pool deck. The only reason that we knew about this area was because we watched a YouTube video before we came which said if you walked through the pool area you would come to it. Judging by the number of people using it not many people know about it or they prefer to go to the beach. It's seen better days but it was nice and quiet and we were given towels to lie on.
Friday 21st August
Had breakfast then bought our discounted bus tickets for the Jitney buses (10 tickets for $7.50 if you are over 62 years) - the normal fare is $3 per ride.
Caught the Jitney bus to Harrah's and wandered round the shops, restaurants and casino.
Left there after a couple of hours and took the Jitney bus to the Hard Rock Hotel for an hour
before walking to Resorts Hotel for an hour where we came across an unusual slot player 😉
There is a Margaritaville just inside Resorts Casino
Walked back to our hotel via some shops on the Boardwalk and had dinner, a rest and played slots at night.
Saturday 22nd August
Had breakfast then walked to the bus station to see about getting a bus to Ventnor and Margate next week. We then walked all the way along Pacific Avenue to the Ocean Hotel and casino - about 1.5 miles. First stop was the skywalk for a seat in the rocking chairs overlooking the beach for a rest after our hour long walk to get here! Even though it's a cloudy day today it's still lovely and warm.
Had a wander round the hotel and then played slots for a little while and hit a good bonus on Mighty Cash for $53 after only a few spins playing 18 cents a bet.
Played a few more and left $55 up. Caught the Jitney bus back to Bally's, had dinner and a rest then played slots at night.
Sunday 23rd August
Had breakfast then sat in the sun on the Bally's sun deck for an hour or so. Found our favourite slots in the Wild Wild West casino next door to Bally's so played there for a while and then moved to Caesar's casino and played there. Had dinner, a rest and played slots at night in Bally's.
Monday 24th August
Had breakfast then packed a couple of bags and caught the Jitney bus over to the Borgata Hotel where we are staying for 1 night courtesy of playing myvegas (we just need to pay the resort fee plus taxes which work out at $41.63). Checked in and redeemed myvegas rewards for $10 free play each, $10 food credit each and 50% off the dinner buffet each. Whatsapped our son back home to show him our room and the view.
Queued for the buffet opening and after all our deductions from myvegas we were charged the princely sum of $3.18 for the 2 of us 😮 The normal price is $42.99 plus tax per person. We think that either she took the $10 food credit off twice for both of us or the lady at the MGM Rewards desk put $20 on for each of us by mistake. Either way we weren't complaining 😂 and the buffet was delicious especially the desserts 🤣
Had a rest before playing slots at night with our $10 free play each and finished the night $20 up. Here are some more photos of the hotel.
Tuesday 25th August
Checked out of Borgata and caught the Jitney bus back to Bally's and dropped off our bags. Had breakfast then walked along to the bus station and caught the 505 bus to Margate City. The single fare for seniors is 85c - a bargain!
Walked along Ventnor Avenue then turned left at Benson and found Lucy the Elephant - the largest elephant in the world built in 1881.
Lucy the Elephant is a six-story elephant-shaped wood frame and tin clad building, constructed in 1881 by James V. Lafferty in Margate City, New Jersey. Lucy was built with the purpose of promoting real estate sales and attracting tourists to the area.
Walked down to the beach and took some photos where you can see the hotels of Atlantic City in the background.
Wednesday 26th August
Had breakfast then set off to walk to the Ventnor Fishing Pier as it was a nice day. It took us over an hour and a half with rests along the way as it's 2.8 miles away. We're glad we went as Ventnor is another lovely city to walk through and it has a boardwalk as well. The views from the pier were lovely.
We took the bus back, had dinner, a rest and played slots at night. We celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary with a couple of glasses of wine as the time difference made it 27th August back home 😊
Thursday 27th August
Had breakfast then spent a few hours in Caesars casino making a surprising profit of $57 playing a mixture of 15c and 20c bets 😮.
Spent time at the sun deck in Bally's before our dinner, a rest and a final night at the slots.
Friday 28th August
Had breakfast then walked to the station to catch our train to Philadelphia. We had looked on line and it said there was a train at 10.32am so we went for that one. We got to the station at 10.17am only to be told that today's train time was 10.12am and not 10.32am. The next train was 12.04pm so we had a long wait in the station. Transferred onto the SEPTA train in Philadelphia city centre which took us to the airport and checked in for our flight. Spent time in the BA lounge before boarding our flight to London Heathrow.
A few more photos from our trip
This is the boardwalk which still looks like it's slanted but is perfectly flat (it's just an optical illusion). The Hard Rock Hotel is on the left with the Steel Pier on the right with the big wheel.
