Carousel Ice Skating Rink — Attraction in Ocean City

Stayed in an ocean front condo in July 2012 for a week with my 2 year old and 7 week old. Overall, it's a great location with excellent beach access, however the hotel is showing it's age and is in need of some updating.

The Good: Great location about 30 yards from the beach. Outdoor amenities are great - restaurant patio with decent food (when the order is right), nice outdoor pool and wading pool, sun bathing chairs, kids play area and inflated trampoline, nice landscaping. Ice rink, arcade, snack stand, and indoor pool were all very serviceable (though not fancy) and were popular with all the kids. The beach is very nice and clean, although it is extremely crowded right in front of the hotel (recommend walking left a bit for slightly lighter crowds). The room was a very large 2 bedroom with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and 2 bathrooms. A family of 6 could easily stay there with plenty of space, as long as you are willing to double up on each full size bed in the 2nd bedroom. Housekeeping was very polite, though were very busy and not always flexible with timing to clean. Parking was fine.

The Bad: The hotel is old and is badly in need of some updates. 4 elevators service 11 floors and are always packed (one got stuck when we where checking in). Screen door on the room was missing a screen. Carpet in the room had many stains, one outlet box was in pieces with exposed, non-bare wires, drop ceiling in the bathrooms (?) was yellowed. Appliances, while functional were very old. Toilets would gurgle when other rooms flushed, which was rather disgusting. We were on the 6th floor, and could indeed see the ocean from our balcony...however only on the horizon, since the roof an AC units from main 3 story atrium stood between our balcony and the ocean, hiding the beach and waves. Take out food orders from the patio were wrong more often than right.

Overall, it was a good vacation, and in the end if you are looking for a large room room to stay in to enjoy the beach and the outdoors...and can ignore some of aged and unmaintained details, then I'd recommend it. If you are looking for luxury or class,...

August 2011. Rooms were dingy & smelled a bit musty to me, but I have a very sensitive nose, so most people won't smell anything. After driving over 6 hours and finally settling in, we decided to get dinner in the hotel's restaurant, which was a disaster. They screwed up everything on our order; I tried to get O&V on my salad, not an off the wall request by any means, and they couldn't accomodate. DH's shrimp was inedible. Our waiter was clueless and barely spoke English, which isn't a bad thing, but I've dealt with plenty of foreign waiters/waitresses that are still good servers. Manager finally came over but DH didn't want to hear anything, being completely fed up at that point. Ice Rink was enjoyed by DD. VERY LOUD ATRIUM, so if your room is lining it, be forewarned; not pleasurable. Indoor pool was leaking during heavy rains, kids were standing under the falling water with their mouths open, unacceptable since the roof above that pool is flat and that's where all the seagulls hang out and deficate. And don't get me started on the stupid people throwing bread off their balconies for the seagulls to eat. It was revolting. Luckily that happened early on in our stay and we were able to avoid the indoor pool for the rest of the week. Card keys died quiet a few times, and staff was pretty rude when we explained that our keys didn't work, and how we did something wrong! Really? We're going back to Ocean City again this year and not going near this place, well, maybe DD will to go skating. Would not recommend at all, especially for the price...

Check in was a disaster. The lobby was so noisy we couldn't hear the clerk. Clerk was no help. Directed us to the wrong elevator. We circled the entire hotel before finding our room. Room was not very clean. Bathroom was so small there was nowhere to put your belongings. Coffee mugs were dirty--and nothing to clean them with. The location is excellent--right on the beach. Can't beat it. The outdoor bar is very nice, with good entertainment. The hotel itself is very overpriced; The pool is too small--we couldn't even get near it because it was constantly crowded. To boot, we misunderstood their smoking policy (due to the noise at check in) and thought smoking was permitted on the balcony. After arriving home, and checking our bank statement, we found out that they charged us an additional $200 for cleaning because we smoked OUTSIDE. We cleaned up after ourselves, there were no signs indicating no smoking outside the room, and I fail to see how it cost $200 to clean a 3X 5 concrete balcony. Admittedly, it was our mistake to not read the paperwork we signed--however, we both thought the desk clerk said it was ok to smoke on the balcony. NEVER AGAIN--DON'T DO IT! These people are sheeneys. The parking is...