Just a little bit about my Ocean City stay this year.
As usual, the Hyatt staff were outstanding, friendly and personable - all of them! They almost seek you out to make your stay pleasant. They actually texted me to ask if everything was okay (with room and service) a couple of days. And, you can do contactless checkin with your phone.
This year I had top floor partial view, but as far up front as possible. Booking on points will get you ocean front when it's not busy but they are full most weekends.
Overall, Ocean City needs people to work. In summer they rely heavily on recruiting from countries in Europe and Asia. This year there is a fly in that plan. Seasonal workers are a hot commodity.
Anyway, on checking in you have the opportunity to 'decline housekeeping'. And they will credit you $10 a night. On Friday or Saturday night in July, oceanfront is a whopping $846 before taxes this summer. It was also for this past weekend with the airshow. So, $10 is a peanut in the grand scheme.
But for me using points, it was a nice little bonus. I tried to spend it. I bought a dessert and a glass of wine. But I still ended with a $26 credit on my card. Because they also refunded occ taxes and some other tax on the $30 credit.
The credit took care of a fairly decent breakfast at a restaurant called Barn 34 on 34th street for those that might go. It was good and a 'new' spot for people like me who've been going forever. Parking not so good though.
Arrival Friday: Standard slice of pizza from Franco's under the Hyatt. Franco's is not part of Hyatt, but it and another business had the space before the Hyatt came. So, now they are both prettied up and freshened up and seem to do good business. I would have gotten another slice the next day but on Saturday and Sunday, you had to buy a whole pie.....it was super busy everywhere.
Dinner Saturday: I also ate at a hole in the wall called Crab Stop - take out food. I got shrimp, corn and crab soup. The crab soup was excellent, the corn was fresh and the shrimp were tasty but fairly standard with a tiny sprinkle of Old Bay.
Sunday Dinner: Because of crowds and traffic I did not want to go anywhere I couldn't walk to. So, I tried Coastal Flats on the Boardwalk next to the Hyatt. Got a Bacon, Lobster grilled cheese sandwich, plus another seafood soup - crab and corn chowder. And an order of grilled asparagus to mitigate the other 2. The sandwich was tasty and no shortage of lobster. I only ate half as it was pretty big. I again ate half the soup as it was large - and nowhere near as tasty as the one from the crab place. Not bad, just not anything to even write about here. The grilled asparagus was more charred then grilled but it filled its purpose, again double what I could eat. I did take out, although when I sat at the bar to order, I had some good conversation with another guest dining there by themselves. Both the guest and one of the Hyatt staff did not rate this place highly but my sandwich was good and at least 1 out of 3 items ordered was a winner.
I ate treats also for 3 days but we won't go into those extra calories.
The guest I had conversation with, was staying at the Holiday Inn 17th. He (like me) has stayed all over town on points. he told me that they have renovated the Holiday Inn. At least his room. So I'll look forward to that on my July trip.
I took one drive out to Assateague Park to see horses and that was it. My car stayed parked under the hotel. But I walked a lot, both on the beach, on the Boardwalk and even walked the streets a bit, to get food. It was a good trip!
Airshow - this year finally got to see the paratroopers land a few feet away from me. That was my only new experience.
The airshow set up messes with my beach time. This year was 'normal' which means the beach is basically sold in front of the hotels I like. I had to walk an extra block to set up my own chair and umbrella. If you didn't have hotel parking or didn't get street parking (very limited) there were some entrepreneurs selling spots for up to $60. There is metered parking also and I don't know if they jacked that for the weekend, but I wouldn't be surprised. The guy who charged me $5 to park on 34th St Monday morning said he was getting $40 on the airshow days. 20 blocks from ground zero. Normally I don't pay for parking, anywhere as I can usually find something.
So, next year, I may come on airshow weekend also, but probably just for the last day and spend Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. That is if I can get the room to begin with.
