The Water Club in Atlantic City

 
One is taking quite a gamble to build a hotel in Atlantic City without any gambling, but those who like this Las Vegas-style hotel in the East can thank their lucky stars that there’s a new signature hotel there called  The Water Club.

I checked out this 800-room palace at 1 Renaissance Way last month and was very impressed, especially with the beauty (and service) in several areas, not surprisingly, often connected with water.

For example, on the 32nd floor is the Immersion spa pool, surrounded by uber-comfortable terry and teak lounges with orchids placed on each of them.  Hopefully, one remembers to remove the flowers before sitting down. 

But once you do, you can read, look out through the five-story glass windows, take a dip in the 80-foot long pool or large Jacuzzi, and relish the relaxation that one so rarely encounters in a gaming (as gambling is now called) atmosphere. 

You have to pay to use this quiet area a reasonable $30 a day -- but there are also several beautiful indoor and outdoor free pool areas on the lobby level with infinity pools, comfortable chaises, and even those large romantic Balinese beds.

A few steps away from these pools is one of four bars, which like the pools, is far prettier and more comfortable than in most resort-style hotels.  As you sip your exotic drink, you can sit down in one of several intimate alcoved areas, and look around at the towering trees and a skylight with the stars peeking above.  Nice.  And then, when you want to gamble you are in Atlantic City, after all--you can always walk over to the “mother” hotel, the Borgata, connected to the Water Club by an indoor walkway lined with expensive (e.g., “Just Cavalli”) shops. The Borgata also offers 14 restaurants, even a Starbucks.  A better choice for dining are the Wolfgang Puck and Bobby Flay restaurants, although to get a seat, you might have to book a table even before you make your hotel reservation.

The reason to make a hotel reservation here at this 43-story, 400 million dollar hotel itself instead of, say, the Borgata, or any one of the Atlantic City hotels, is because of the beauty, the service, and let’s face it, the status.  

It is the newest, and probably the best (although Donald Trump would indisputably dispute that) and it costs an average of 25% more than the Borgata. If you really want to impress, you can stay in one of the special suites and residences which can run in the $4,000 category.  They offer everything right up to a massage  room where you can have the spa send someone up to take care of you (no, not that way) right in your room.

The suites are beautiful but that’s also true of the “poorer” areas below as well.  All rooms (and a lot of the hotel) are brown and a not-quite-Tiffany turquoise.  Carpets, usually so ugly in hotels that if someone threw up on them you wouldn’t be able to tell (and in some cases it might improve them), are beautiful here as well as comfortable. 

Indeed, you don’t even want to put the slippers that come with the gorgeous bathrobes in the room because it feels so good to step on these carpets.  (And the robes are fabulous, too.)
Every one of the rooms in the hotel has a water view, and another great thing about the room (besides the bathrooms which are large with marble showers, big enough for two, with Rain Dome showerheads, and a separate “seating” area) is that they are very high tech, with 40” LCD flat panel TVs in all rooms and iHome Stereo System with iPod docking stations.  There’s wireless internet throughout the building and they claim to be the first 100 percent fully fiber-optic hotel in North America. 

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