We spent a week at the Flagship 21-28 March 2008. After all the mixed reviews we read, some of them quite bad, we were apprehensive about staying there. Bottom line: we thought the place was just fine. I’ll give you our impressions in three categories. First, the small gripes. Second, the bad things we read from other reviews we thought were bogus. Third, the good stuff.

First, there were some small problems, but they were consistent with most of the other time-share experiences we’ve had over the years. Most of these time-share properties are a little older and are starting to show wear and tear. Flagship was no different. There were some scuff marks on the paint and wallpaper. One of the spare blankets had an old cigarette burn hole in it. The heater/AC units were old-fashioned hotel-style appliances and you had to flip open a metal hatch to get to the controls. The living room heater just blew cold air; we should have complained, but never got around to it since the one in the bedroom worked well enough to warm the whole unit. There was a largish gap under the unit’s front door that let in some occasional hall noise. But it wasn’t really bad, and at night, I put down a towel on the gap and that kept things plenty quiet. Like in most time-share condos, housekeeping doesn’t come every day. And don’t wait until the afternoon on the designated day to take down the “Do Not Disturb” sign—they didn’t come after lunch (though they did quickly bring clean towels when we called). You have to leave clean dishes when you check out, but once more, this is pretty standard in a time-share. The restaurant opened about 10 minutes late one morning when I was desperate for some coffee, since I had run out in the room, but I got my fix eventually.

Second, we read some complaints we just don’t get. Some people thought the place was in a “ghetto.” That’s a gross exaggeration. To the west is a little village of cute, new-construction vacation cottages—you can see the Borgata right behind them. Now to the east toward the ocean and little ways to the south, there are some distressed blocks, some of them pretty bad. But that’s what the ENTIRE CITY is like. Atlantic City is a motley mix of luxury areas, older working class neighborhoods, and bad neighborhoods. There are both tourists and poor people on every street. No matter where you stay, you’ll have to use common sense about where you walk at night. If you don’t like that, you won’t like Atlantic City. Someone complained about the distance from the casino action. Flagship is at the far north end of Atlantic Avenue, where it dead ends at the water. We LIKED being away from the noise and congestion. And if you have a car (we did) there’s nothing more than 10 minutes away in Atlantic City. The mattress was firm (another reviewer complaint) but we LIKE them like that, and had no trouble sleeping at all. The elevators (another complaint theme) were slow at peak times, but we actually timed the worst waits—normally nothing more than about 3 minutes, with one long wait during the week that went to about 5 minutes. We’ve been on similarly slow elevators in big city hotels, and if you used them during off peak times, there was no trouble at all. And yes, the maintenance people use the same elevators as the guests. I don’t get why that’s a problem to some reviewers—it’s not the Bellagio, it’s a time-share. But maybe as they remodel, they’ll add some capacity. If you want access to a modern supermarket, stock up before you get into the city—there’s an IGA under construction but it’s not done yet. It’s mostly small corner markets, but there are tons of places to get take out. Some people complained about the color scheme in the rooms—get a life! It was just fine. In fact when we closed the thick/dark curtains they did a great job blocking the sunshine when we were sleeping in.

Third, the clearly positive things about the place. They happily honored our request to be away from any renovation that was going on—they gave us a corner one-bedroom unit on the 27th floor. The views of the ocean and the city were BEAUTIFUL. The balconies were roomy and there was NO pigeon dung (another reviewer complaint—I suspect some moron had been feeding the birds). The security in the garage was good, with an attendant and room-key entrance to the building proper. The restaurant was pleasant, with decent food and nice views. The workout room was very good, with all the equipment and great views of the ocean. The rooms were CLEAN, spacious and comfortable. Some reviews talked about rude staff, but we didn’t see a BIT of that. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful—maybe they read some bad reviews and corrected the problem?

Anyway, all the pro’s and con’s considered, we had a fine stay. It’s a typical time-share property. We’ll go back. The underside of Atlantic City notwithstanding, there are cool things to see and do there (casinos with shows, the boardwalk, developments on the piers, some really great local eateries and bars), and we also took advantage of the close proximity to Philly, and just a little farther down the road, NYC (caught an opera at the Met!).