Alexle2007
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2013
Nice! If I wasn’t taking DS and a couple of friends to iFly tomorrow for his early birthday party (his birthday is in March but I got awesome BF price so we are celebrating early), we might have made a spontaneous trip down there since we have a long weekend.Took a spontaneous trip to the beach this week with DD and 2 grands. Not the warm beaches - we went to Ocean City and stayed at the Courtyard on the Boardwalk. We had gone to DD doctors appt and they had rescheduled her because doctor was in surgery, so I said lets go pack a few things and get out of town for the night. Within two hours we were on the road. I was looking at Hyatt Place but DD is Platinum with Marriott and wanted to stay Marriott. She booked a $61 a night rate (AAA) and we were ocean front with a $20 room credit for their pantry. Before leaving we used this to get juice, soda and other snacks. In summer this hotel is much more expensive, but we had the nice weather so this week worked. The room was clean and comfortable although the bath is pretty small in my opinion. The balcony is nice to watch the waves and seagulls - not too many people out there but there were some.
We ate at the restaurant in the hotel called Captains Table and it was very good. We stayed 2 nights and had breakfast twice and dinner in the dining room the second night but room service the first night. No complaints at all. During the day we took a drive over to see the ponies on Assateague and enjoyed the 60 degree weather the last couple of days.
Minimal shopping but I dropped in to WHBM to use up the $74 remaining on my gift card. That was easy - just picked out some tops in my size and didn't even try them on. The staff there were so nice and since it was Valentines, they had cupcakes. They fixed a plate of cupcakes for all of us and after we stopped at Panera for some lunch, we had cupcakes for dessert.
I think @Alexle2007 sometimes stays here in summer. It's right next to the new Hyatt I will use this summer and 2 blocks from Holiday Inn and Suites where I usually stay. I like the HI&S for the space as it's almost double plus the balcony is huge there and they have a great kids pool area. But I certainly will stay at this Courtyard again, as it was a very pleasant stay.
I used my gift cards to pay the bill at the end and it was super easy. No hassle whatsoever. Conversely, if we had used the SPG Lux credit, that would have worked as well. The one thing the desk clerk cautioned about was that the gift cards wouldn't work using them directly in the dining room, but charging our meals to the room and then paying the bill at checkout worked fine.
So, I used gas gift cards that I got at 30% off, Marriott gift card from the Amex offer at 20% off, and WHBM gift card from Amex offers at 30% off, plus Panera gift card with 20% off from the Rose Gold card. Put another $40 on my Rose Gold in the gift shop at the National Seashore buying stuffed ponies for the girls and picked up some snacks at CVS as I had extra bucks to use up. It was an almost cash free experience, using discounted cards already collected and paid for - no bills coming!
We saw the ponies from a distance - they were off in a marsh and not blocking the road like they usually do and I saw a lot of seabirds and a beautiful great blue heron who flew off when I tried to get a picture. We didn't do any beach walking because of daughter's broken leg although she did suggest I could push her in the beach wheelchair - I declined. She also couldn't use the pool as her doctor has not okayed that, and we were right by the indoor pool area. But we did drink a ton of free lobby coffee flavored with hazelnut - for some reason this was just delicious. Overall a very relaxing and enjoyable two nights.
We typically stay at the Comfort Inn Boardwalk at 5th St. I’ll have to look at Courtyard. We stayed at the Courtyard when we went to VA Beach last summer.
Did you go up to Rehobeth to the outlets or just to the ones outside of OC?