I actually feel quite differently about this than Mike does, though I mean no disrespect. I liked watching the way the sign on the Howard Johnson hotel kept having different letters blink on and off spelling different stuff. More seriously, when we arrived at the Atlantic we had just been almost a week at the Doral where my company staged a conference. I was sick and tired of seeing nothing but the Doral with it's high priced (and in my opinion lousy) restaurants. The catered conference food was very good, but I hated the 2 restaurants I tried. And I hated being in a resort with nothing but rich people and huge staffs of servants around, shops that had nothing I would ever want, etc.

The Atlantic is much more my style. I got a luxury suite to enjoy with my family, but at the beach I was just with normal folks. And I loved it that I could walk to a little convenience store that was family run and get a bottle of water and tub of ice cream late at night, rather than being stuck with room service. So everyone has his own different tastes, and the Atlantic totally appeals to me in part BECAUSE it has dumpy hotels next door. I hate Cancun and the syndrome that happens when there is nothing on a beach except fancy hotels. I would way rather look at a diverse neighborhood where luxury and the pursuits of ordinary folks commingle. My wife and I had various interesting converstaions about how hotels age, the way styles and tastes change, etc. that were stimulated by our surroundings at the Atlantic and I really enjoyed that.

Just my 2 cents, and anyone reading this who has a preference for a more sort of homogenous luxury may want to consider another hotel.