We have been to OC many times before and we have always stayed on the Boardwalk. This was our first time staying at this hotel. We were looking forward to staying at the Port O Call since we were bringing our 3 Grandchildren ages,3,6 and 10 and the hotel promotes itself as it caters to children. It was clean and the staff is very friendly. We found that the hotel tries to be "Child Friendly," but has difficulty following through. The snacks that they brought to the room each day were chocolate chip cookies and apple juice. The first night it was fun to come back to the room and find the snack (though 2 out of 3 of the children do not like chocolate), the second night the children were excited to see what the snack was going to be and were disappointed, by the 3rd night they had no interest in it. The Childrens eating area is great and the children enjoyed it. However, not real "Child Friendly" when it came to special orders. When our 3 yr.old Grandson asked for M&M's to placed on his French Toast (they serve Happy Face Pancakes with M&Ms) he was told that they may not be able to do it. As a result he refused to order the French Toast. The hotel was a 1 1/2 mile walk to the rides on the other end of the Boardwalk. Little feet have difficulty with the walk back. We did not feel it was centrally located for children.

They screwed up every thing to do with the reservation. They sent my confirmation to a stranger with my credit card info, had the wrong number of people in my party, the wrong room, and the wrong departure date. They overbooked, called me on the cell phone and told us to leave as we had to check out a day earlier than we were supposed to. They were very rude and while I was going through this, they were doing it to another family. They locked us out of our room and said housekeeping was going to pack up our room. This was the fourth or fifth year we were at this hotel. They don't know how to handle their mistakes and their manager would not even come out of his office to address the problem.

Based on the collective impression I got from other reviews, I was not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. We had a king coastline room (which means king bed and view of ocean) on one of the uppermost floors. The room was spacious (including fridge and sleep sofa), clean and comfortable. And the large flat screen TV which allowed you to view Showtime and HBO movies at no extra charge was a nice perk. It's not exactly a bargain, especially with the two night minimum stay in high season, but a good option if you don't want to rent a house or condo for a longer stay.

We had a very nice stay on the 9th floor, city view, connecting rooms (with my two teens). I thought the entire hotel was very clean, and our rooms were very comfortable. Bathrooms were completely renovated with granite, and seperate sinks in changing area. Coffee maker with choice of teas, and even real creamers in fridge (with note telling you so). Location was perfect, right on the boardwalk, but the quiet part. I didn't hear a sound at night! Only problem was one morning restaurant turned us away at 10:55 am, when they were supposed to be open until 11 am for bkfast. However, when we mentioned it to front desk manager, she gave us all free bkast for the next day! Overall, a great place at the Jersey shore, and a step up from most of the motels we were used to. This is a hotel and it's very nice. We also got pre-season discount because it was in June, so I do imagine the rates go up starting with July.