First stay at the new Hard Rock Atlantic City - August 2018.

Yes, not so new now, and not really brand new when we stayed in August for my wife's birthday.  I played a fair amount at the Trump Taj Mahal, I was getting comped rooms any day, but I received a one night offer for having a Caesars Diamond card, and I was able to get an additional night through a host, as well as a suite upgrade.

We got there after midnight on a Friday, and I know comped room types are not guaranteed (even the host said he couldn't guarantee one), but when I checked in, the clerk told me that my suite was reserved.  Yay!

I had stayed in the end of the hall suite a few times when it was Trump Taj Mahal, so I was interested in seeing the renovations.  You can click on this link to see photos of the room.  It was nice and spacious.  I was disappointed that they took out the jacuzzi tub and the wet bar, but the dining table and large sitting area were nice, as is the half bath.

It was a bit stormy when we got up, we could see the clouds rolling in:

For lunch, we just went to one of the places on the way towards the parking garage, Burgers & Hops.  It was a decent burger, but quite pricey.

We took a walk around the property, ran into a friend outside of Sugar Factory, and walked over to Showboat to see how it is looking.  Still a bit bleak, but they do have a glow golf course as well as an arcade.  Still lots of empty space where the casino was.

Another thing we got for the status match was two free buffets.  I'm sure many people got this, as when we went there around 6:45 PM, there was quite a long line.  When we finally got seated, there was quite a line to get food.  The stations are not laid out very well, and it is hard to get around to pass a station you do not want to get to one you do want.  Although I didn't think there was a large variety, there was enough that made it interesting.

There was enough turnover that the dim sum items were not hard or dried out, and the prime rib was quite tasty.

The pool was open until 10 PM, unusually late for a casino/hotel, but unfortunately, we did not have enough time to enjoy it.

Sunday morning we checked out and headed over to Resorts for the Sunday Brunch at Capriccio.  It is always outstanding, although a bit pricey for around $50.  But the shrimp, crab claws, and beef can't be beat!  Plus bottomless mimosas and finishing with a cappuccino.  I let Jorge, the manager, know it was Cath's birthday, and they decorated a strawberry shortcake for us.  We've been going here for years, and we come here every chance we can.

As far as Hard Rock, the property looks nice.  Everywhere we went, though, it was blasting hot.  The casino floor, the hotel hallways, the room, it was hot everywhere.  We obviously won't be getting a suite every time we stay, but we saw the "regular" room in the South Tower and it was nice.  Hopefully I'll get regular offers to come back.

2018 running, well, walking mostly. . .

Continuing on the "running" theme, although it seems I never wrote about it last year, I did the Wildwood 5k and 8k in April this year.  I also capped it with the Atlantic City 10k in October.

The 5k runners!

Admiring the. . . balls. . .

The famous Wildwoods sign.

Starting the 5k.

One down, one to go!

Two sleepy bears. . .

Anne enjoying the post-race food.

8k in the books!

Sue and her medal!

Catherine and her coffee!

The medalists in Avalon, NJ.

Finished!

Rainy morning in Atlantic City

The Start/Finish line.

The professional finish line photo!

He finished, but didn't really medal.

Catherine and I!

Jacques and Tito's vodka.

Exhausted after the race!

2018 catch up

Yeah, I have not posted anything since my Las Vegas trip in January (okay, I just posted about my Frontier flight), so I guess I should write about things this year.

First thing is that I started a new job in July!  After a year and a half, I finally landed a job with BDO, another professional services firm, although quite a bit smaller than EY.  I work in the transfer pricing division, which is totally different from the business tax compliance work I was doing before.  Much of my work still ties with tax returns, so I have similar deadlines, but I am no longer working with tax returns for the most part.  A majority of my work is similar to what I was doing with EY, project coordination (tracking deliverables, billing and receiving, research, etc).  I am enjoying my time there and my coworkers are really nice.

Yay, work!

Oh, and the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup!  I was watching it at Buffalo Wild Wings in Fairfax with my friends Chris and Caryn.  Caryn and I were at MCI Center in 1998 when the Red Wings swept out the Capitals.  We got to see the Cup on the ice, and although we didn't get to see it in person, we got to enjoy the moment together.  Our family braved the hot weather to get to the parade and rally (well, the rally part, we camped out there with my friend Joe, but missed parade part).  We also braved the heat to try to get our photo with the Cup at Kettler, but after waiting for around six hours in the heat in the parking garage, when we were about 12 people away, they whisked the Cup away!  They gave us tickets which they said would let us know of future Cup photo opportunities, but to date, I haven't heard anything further regarding that.  Fortunately, we were able to get our photos at the Hershey Bears game later that year.

Celebrating at Buffalo Wild Wings!

Joe and I sweating it out on The Mall.

The whole family was there.

Ovi and the Cup!

Yay, parades!

We were told if we got to the pillar on the right, we'd be "guaranteed" to get a photo.

That was as close as we got to getting our photo taken.

Hey, it's Capitals' arena announcer Wes Johnson!

Tessandra got to try on the Championship Ring!

The Prince of Wales Trophy.

The Rocket Richard Trophy

The Conn Smythe Trophy!

The actual playoff MVP!

Ovi's name on it!

And his Championship Ring!

The keepers of the. . . monkey?

It was great talking hockey with these guys!

Tessandra with Phil and the other guy (unfortunately I didn't get his name!)

Worth the wait!

Finally!

I flew Frontier. . . And survived!

I typically fly Southwest because it is usually the cheapest option, plus you get two free checked bags, and you don't get nickeled and dimed with fees.

Granted, those cheaper fares are generally from BWI, which is about an hour away from me.  Add in the parking cost and it adds up a bit, which has caused me to actually figure out if paying a little more to fly out of IAD is better (Dulles is only about 13 miles away from my house).

I had some Southwest flight credits to use before the end of November, so I was scheduling a November trip to Las Vegas.  I was originally flying out of BWI, but then saw a Frontier fare that was pretty good coming back, $68.99.  I could have gotten the fare even cheaper if I waited a week, but alas, I booked the fare I liked.  In the future, I'll know that Frontier runs sales quite often.

I did pay a little more for the WN flight from IAD (around $60 more), but factoring in the two hour travel time, and the parking cost, I think it was worth it.

So, this is about my Frontier flight, which was scheduled to depart at 6:40 AM on Tuesday, November 13.

I got to McCarran around 5:30 AM, plenty of time to get to the gate at Terminal 3.  I have TSA Pre, so the security line went very quickly.  I did check in around 6:40 AM on Monday morning and got seat 29A, a window, so I was happy with that.  I've been told that it is best to check in late to get a better seat.

We boarded ahead of schedule, so I was pretty happy about that.  That is, until they made an announcement that we had a mechanical issue.  There was a problem with the wheel on the trash cart, so we had to wait.  Wow, really?  Eventually we taxied out around 7:05 AM, so around 25 minutes late.  The flight was uneventful, and we landed at IAD around 2:35 PM, about 26 minutes late.

Now, about the plane.  You do have to pay for everything "extra", meaning a good seat, checked bags, carry-on bags, snacks.  At least you don't have to pay for the toilet (yet).  You do get a "personal item" for free.  Knowing this, I went out and purchased the BoardingBlue Rolling Personal Item at a total of $48.84.  It is not a high quality bag, but not overstuffing it, it did fit in the personal item box:

Perfect!

I did manage to get four days worth of clothes in that bag, including three pairs of jeans (which are ridiculously bulky).  Any trip longer than that and I think I'll have to pay for a bag, or do laundry (which I've done before on my January trip).  I don't think this bag would handle being thrown around by baggage handlers, but for carrying on a plane, it seems to be perfect.

I think for future trips (if there are future trips on Frontier, Spirit, or other carrier where I could only take a personal item), I may invest in some packing cubes to help.  I also had a little assistance with the baggage rules.  I use a bi-pap, which as medical equipment does not count towards your baggage limit, so I was able to pack a few things in that bag.  I also cheated a bit, and wore a small backpack under a hockey sweater.  I only had two t-shirt in it, I think, plus some snacks.  I don't think it mattered though, as I wasn't asked about any of the bags I had (although YMMV).  My plan was to store my "personal item" in the bin and put the bi-pap case under the seat (since it was smaller) anyway.  I was told that there is typically a decent amount of bin space, as people do not want to pay for carry-ons, but there was no bin space in my area at the back of the plane, and fortunately, I was able to get the bag in a bin a few rows toward the front.

We were flying Harp Seal:

You can't beat that, eh?

The cheap seats are indeed cheap, as this picture illustrates:

Bare bones seat

Yeah, that tray "table" is pretty tiny:

At least I'm short, so I didn't have an issue with legroom:

Sometimes, it's good to be short!

I didn't find the seat horribly uncomfortable at first, but as the flight went on, I did find myself squirming a bit.  It was a full flight, so I had people next to me, who I did have to inconvenience once towards the end of the flight.

There is no wifi, so no in-flight entertainment, I just had my iPod with me.  I did see that on my Southwest flight out, they just started offering free movies and TV, so I did catch up on Ant Man and the Wasp on my flight out.  For comparison, here was my legroom on that Southwest flight:

Seatguru says that the Frontier flight I took was on an Airbus A320, the economy seat has a pitch of 28"-29" and a width of 18".  My Southwest flight was a Boeing 737-700, with a seat pitch of 31" and a width of 17".

Every flight experience is different, but my first impression of Frontier is positive.  I have another flight with them in January, so hopefully that experience will be as good or better.