Atlantic City: Tropicana Chelsea Tower (August 2019)



My spouse and I stayed at the Tropicana in the Chelsea Luxe Tower on a Saturday evening in late August 2019. We booked our stay online the day before, and we were immediately charged one night’s fee (non-cancellable). Check-in time is 4:00 pm on Saturdays (5:00 pm on Sundays and 6:00 pm for day-of bookings); however, when we arrived around 12:30, the front desk agent offered us an early check-in for an additional $20, which we accepted. Parking in the Chelsea Tower is valet only for $15 with a Trop card and $20 without.

The Tropicana property offers many dining options. Counter-service outlets include A Dam Good Deli, Fiesta Buffet, Going Nuts, La Petite Creperie, Marketplace Express, Perry’s Pizza, Premium Ice Cream Parlor, two locations of Starbucks, The Green Bar, Tony Luke’s, and Zeytinia. Casual sit-down restaurants include A Dam Good Sports Bar, Broadway Burger Bar, Casa Taco & Tequila Bar, Chelsea Five Gastropub, Chickie and Petes, Cube Libre, Firewaters Saoon, Gilchrist, Hooters, PF Changs, Ri Ra Irish Pub, and Seaside Café. Finer dining is available at Carmine’s, Golden Dynasty, Il Verdi, Okatshe, Olon, and The Palm. (We dined at Okatshe on this visit; see our separate review. We have also dined previously at Olon and Cube Libre.) Bar/nightlife options (most with live music on some nights) include the 10 North Lounge, Anthem, Bar Olon, Boogie Nights ($15 cover charge on Saturday nights), Kiss Kiss Nightclub (we attended a comedy show there prior to the nightclub opening), Missile Bar, Planet Rose Karaoke Bar ($5 cover charge), Tango’s Lounge, Wet Willie’s, and Whiskey Five Bar (in the Chelsea on the fifth floor). The property also offers an escape room and IMAX theatre, as well as shop in The Quarter. A spa, indoor pool, seasonal outdoor pool, and fitness center are onsite. 

Because we booked our stay last-minute on a sunny summer weekend, our lodging options were limited. (For comparison, the Hard Rock, Ocean [Revel], Borgata, Water Club, and Caesars were sold out.) Many of the room options at the Tropicana were unavailable, so we decided to take our chance at booking a Chelsea Luxe Oceanfront room. Our room number was 1512 and offered an excellent view of the Atlantic Ocean. Our room was a nice size, with a king bed abutted by two nightstands (with cute bird lamps), a desk/bureau unit that held the TV, a comfy chair, a bar area (with empty mini-fridge below and shelves above), another shelving unit, a large closet, and a nice-size bathroom. Echos of Nature/Silver Lining Amenities International toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, massaging bath soap, facial soap) were provided. Décor had a retro feel (which some people may view as needing an upgrade, but it seemed in relatively good condition to us). We had read many negative reviews of the Chelsea property before our stay, but our visit was totally satisfactory. We liked that the Chelsea offered its own valet parking garage, and that the check-in lobby was right next to the area where we dropped off our car (rather than needing to drag our bags through the casino in order to reach the check-in desk, like guests must do at some other AC properties). We were also thrilled that we could check into our Chelsea room early (even though we had to pay a small fee). 

We enjoyed our stay at the Tropicana in the Chelsea Luxe Tower, and we would stay there again in the future.














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