![]() ![]() This year, the tentative dates for the bash are Thursday-Sunday June 2-5, 2022 (following Memorial Day). The Beach Bash typically falls the weekend after Memorial Day, giving guests another excuse to come to the beach in late Spring. Through the rest of the weekend, the Bash takes over the beach behind the hotel, featuring meet and greets with players, volleyball, flag football tournaments, cornhole and giant Jenga on Saturday night, there’s a bonfire on the beach complete with live entertainment and a fireworks and laser show lighting up the sky. Now, the weekend kicks off with a Thursday night tailgate party at the Clarion. The tradition started almost a decade ago, when the team took notice of their local fan clubs, or “Roosts,” holding a celebratory parade in Ocean City every year. The Clarion is the headquarters for the annual festival, wherein Ravens cheerleaders, alumni and mascots flock to the beach for a weekend honoring the Baltimore NFL team. Take, for example, the Ravens Beach Bash held anually. Once the sun passes over the hotel at midday, you can spend the afternoon and evening just lounging in the shade between dips in the ocean. But when guests stay at the Clarion, they’re really staying at the hotel and outside at its beach, because there’s no reason to go any further when there’s already so much going on right there. When some vacationers stay at a hotel, they rent a room, sleep in its beds and spend the rest of their vacation out and about, downtown, miles away from their accommodations. Today, as its motto hints, the Clarion gives guests plenty of reasons to stay at the hotel. “With him being on-site, everyone knows him and it’s just one big family.” The Clarion in 2022: This is his pride and joy, this is his baby,” Elman said of Dr. “He loves to interact with guests, talk with guests. Rather, the people who call the shots at the hotel actually live, work and play in Ocean City, Maryland. Unlike many larger hotels in Ocean City, the Clarion doesn’t answer to a big, off-site corporation or management company. Berger still owns and operates the hotel and is always on-site. “Back then, they didn’t envision that Ocean City would be what it is today,” General Manager Mark Elman said.ĭespite its enormous size, Elman considers the Clarion a mom n’ pop kind of business, at least in some ways. Back in the day, those north and south views were still ocean and beach as far as the eye could see, rather than the neighboring condos and sweeping hotels that have overtaken north Ocean City since. When the hotel was first built, it was the only property within its vicinity– that’s why all of its guest rooms have views that face the north and south rather than the oceanfront east. One of Elman’s main jobs at the Clarion is to stay ahead of the competition, which has skyrocketed since 1974 and ‘85, respectively. “We’re all here for one common goal, and that’s to make sure the guests are happy, and that way they keep coming back.” “Loyalty’s very important to him and I,” Elman said. There’s even an employee in maintenance, Keith, who has been at the hotel since its opening day. ![]() Likewise, the hotel has a following of loyal guests who have stuck with it since the original iteration of the hotel first opened in 1974. Sheraton or Clarion, the “Fontainebleau” part always stuck. “He walked up the beach, made an offer on what was then the Sheraton at 101st Street and Coastal Highway and the rest, as they say, is history.” “It all began in March 1985, when Berger retired to Ocean City and found himself bored,” Ocean City Today reported in 2015. The Clarion was originally a Sheraton Fontainebleau, and according to the hotel’s general manager Mark Elman, there are still guests from the Clarion’s days of yore who refer to it as the Sheraton.Ĭlarion President and CEO Leonard Berger purchased the property, then known only as the Sheraton, in the mid-1980s. Plenty of sand and dunes remain today, but thanks to resorts like the Clarion, there’s also plenty to do (and comfortable beds to sleep in) at the end of the beach day. In fact, it’s only been a few decades since North Ocean City, from 91st Street to the Delaware line at 146th, was totally developed at all. ![]() It’s hard to believe that the land where the Clarion now stands was once just sand and dunes less than 50 years ago. It also has a 7,500-square-foot ballroom, the largest of any Ocean City hotel. It has its own fine dining restaurant and buffet ( Horizons Oceanfront), its own pub ( Breaker’s) and casual dining out on the beach in the summertime ( Lenny’s Beach Bar & Grill). The hotel, one of the first on Ocean City’s upper streets, is 40,000-square-feet and fully equipped with all the makings of a full-service, all-encompassing beachside destination. ![]() It’s a question that the 37-year-old North Ocean City resort has been asking its guests for ages, and it’s a difficult one to answer. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |