Shepherdstown, W.Va., – St. Patrick’s Day will mark a year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has caused a lot of changes to how we normally celebrate holidays and other celebrations. Thankfully, more and more people are receiving vaccinations for COVID-19. Ocean City, Maryland, was able to safely have a little fun to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2021.
With all of the uncertainties that the United States has had to face, the Delmarva Irish-American Club decided to cancel the Ocean City St. Patrick’s Day Parade for the second year in a row. This parade is known to bring hundreds of people to the hotel filled streets of Ocean City, so they wanted to be sure to keep all of their participants and viewers safe.
Many local hotels, restaurants, and bars came up with safe and exciting events for their visitors this past weekend. The Princess Bayside Hotel offered a scavenger hunt for all of their guests who were 21 and up.
The scavenger hunt started at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 13, and continued on for the whole day. The hunt took visitors to a variety of different bars and restaurants.
Once visitors arrived at a location, they would receive their next clue. Participants were encouraged to use different forms of Ocean City transport like the bus service or bike and scooter rentals. This hunt helped to not only support the hotel, but also local restaurants and rental services.
The Director of Sales at the Princess Bayside Hotel, Danielle Rickett, said that they, “came up with our own creative way to entice people, and hope to see everyone enjoying a break and relief after this past year. There is plenty of space in Ocean City to spread out in the offseason, and we look forward to helping out many restaurants in need.”
Along with activities for adults, the Princess Royale Oceanfront Resort had fun activities for kids. The resort held music performances from local bands as well as a bagpipe performance by the Ocean City Pipe Drums.
The Princess Royale also had a balcony decorating contest for all guests. There were games and crafts around the lobby that children could do whenever they pleased.
The boardwalk was filled with people socially distanced wearing green from head to toe. Everywhere you turned, someone was having a great time no matter if it was a small child or an older adult.
All restaurants and bars allowed dining at full capacity, but many still decided to cut their capacity limits down for the safety of their customers.
Alexa Thomas, an attendee of the weekend events, mentioned, “while the limitation of the amount of people can be a bit annoying, it makes me feel a lot better having space between me and the person sitting beside me. I would much rather get put on a waitlist than have to be squished into a tiny restaurant.”
St. Patrick’s Day weekend that was filled with fun and celebration, something that all of us needed after the year that we have all been through.
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