Some Good, Some bad.... mostly old and tired
25 years ago, I worked in Ocean City Maryland during summer breaks from college and the Carousel was an interesting novelty, given the inside ice rink and (then) decent rooms. Sadly, the rooms have seemingly not been upgraded since... here's the detail of the good, bad & the uuuugly:
The Good:
1) The breakfast buffet is very good, with a great selection and enough tables to keep the waiting line moving. At $9.95 (or free for 12 and under) it really can't be beat.
2) The Sports Bar staff is funny and poignant, and they make a decent drink and really good angus beef burger. Price very reasonable
3) The ice rink itself is a bit small, worn, rough and not very well taken care of... but it is unique, it is indoors, and it is only $5 for hotel guest to use. Our kids had a BLAST on it during the weekdays, and also midday on Saturday (when everyone else was on the beach). However, Friday and Sat nights were a crowded nightmare, with local 'expert' high school aged hockey skaters (aged 14 - 16) racing in and out and around the novice skaters (aged 3 to 12 or so) scaring the beegeezers outta them, and pushing them around. Hotel staff was of little help.
4) Beach access right the from the lobby was outstanding! The beach was large and clean.
5) Located at 118th Street, there are tons of restaurants and two movie theatres within 20 blocks or so.
6) Carousel Bistro/Ice Cream Shop - the guy there in the morning makes the BEST Cafe Mocha - seriously. He makes it with a blend of regular chocolate and white chocolate, and it was AWESOME.
The Bad
1) The rooms are really in poor condition, with the beds as hard as a rock and the bathrooms about the size of a typical linen closet (and we had a 'deluxe oceanfront room' with two queen beds). The carpet is that substandard indoor-outdoor matted mess and it showed the stains of the last 2 or 3 decades of use.
2) There are four floors of oceanfront rooms, and they have ONE, very small, very slooooooowwwww elevator to serve them. Trying to get our luggage cart to the front desk to checkout was a pain in the ###.... every time the elevator came, another party was already in it and there was no room for a second luggage cart. There are no ramps to the upper floors either. It took us 20 minutes just to get an empty elevator!
3) The hotel does not have a modern computer system... it took them three tries to make a card pass that would actually work our room door. In addition, unlike most modern hotels, the card pass does not let you charge meals or drinks to your room. You have to go back to the front desk and get the manager to sign a piece of paper that you have to also carry with you everywhere (that's really convenient in a bathing suit, eh...) . Just silly
4) The oceanfront rooms also open (on the interior side) to the Atrium and the ice rink. That's kinda cool, but the walkway around the interior SUCKS!!! It is narrow and built to code used 40 years ago, with a railing that only comes up to my rear end (I'm 6foot 1 inch tall). The first time that I realized that my 9 year old was looking at ice skater four stories down while bending over the rail at his waist... well... I almost ####. The rail needs to be at least 12 inches higher --- BE CAREFUL!!!
The UUUGLY
1) One night, the wind blew above 20 mph (which is not all that uncommon for a beach location). All night long, a roof panel went BANG, BANG, BANG... every 15 or 20 seconds.... sounding (as my 9 year old stated) like someone throwing a table from the fourth floor down onto the ice rink. Yes, every 15 to 20 seconds -- WE HAD NO SLEEP at all that night, and we heard many, many, many people talking about it the next day.
The hotel manager said that there was nothing that they could do about the issue, as it is caused by a roof panel covering the hotel's heat unit's exhaust pipes that does not like strong winds coming from the North to Northwest direction.
I asked the manger why they didn't put that type of entertainment into their marketing materials... and received a blank stare, of course. Was not offered a refund or other restitution for the loss of a night's sleep.
2) Refer to #3 on the good list - the ice rink bullies on Friday and Saturday night were unbelievable. Since the staff did not take action, I did - and directly confronted the youths. Their response prompted a bit of aggression on my part, which subsided when these punks saw hotel uniformed security come over. The unruly kids chilled out but did not leave (as I had hoped they would)... when our skating was over for the night, we did take a circuitous route back to our room to make sure that the punks did not know which room we stayed in.
Yes, it was that uncomfortable.
Bottom line
I would not go there again on a weekend or on any summer night or holiday period, but would go there again with our kids under these circumstances:
a) weekday night during the school year
b) ice rink open & functioning
c) online weekday discount rate of $59.99 still available
d) weather forecast of winds less than 15 mph
If one of those criteria could not be met, it would not be worth the $60.
Unique Quality: See item 4
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