This decision by the RTC to make a two tiered bus system for tourists is frustrating.
Folks with a local ID have no difficulty starting their day on the 202 and going on strip buses with a 24 hour residential pass because they have a local ID.
They buy a 24 hour residential pass for $5 and those are good to go then on any bus.
Most bus riding posters on this board just pretend to be local because they don't expect that any driver on a strip bus is going to ask for a local ID.
No one in years of writing here, elsewhere, and on the blog has ever reported being asked for local ID. Many report being asked for Senior ID.
Once you are past a Deuce driver with your residential pass, you can relax for that trip. You have passed for local.
If you chose the SDX and an inspector should ask you for the all access pass on an SDX bus (you don't show the pass on entry) you just play dumb and at most they will put you off the bus at the next stop.
So, check your destination. If the next stop is your SDX destination, the residential pass will get you there one way or another.
And from what I'm reading and my own experience, the inspectors ask for the bus passes about 33% of the time. They are looking for people who ride with no passes, expired passes, or those who ride on a reduced priced pass with no senior/youth ID. No one has ever reported being asked for a local ID. One worker at the Binions stop confidentially told me that drivers don't ask. It just takes too much time.
Folks who feel uncomfortable with a choice that technically breaks the rules could solve the problem in a few ways.
They might take the free shuttle from the Gold Coast to Caesar's Forum and wait to buy the 24 hour pass from a strip machine. That pass works fine on all buses, including the 202. Waiting to buy the buss pass also gives you more be time for the money. So if you are going from the Gold Coast and want to walk around or gamble near Caesar's in the morning, buying the pass at noon for example will extend the life of the pass until noon the next day. They are time stamped when they are validated.
There have been complaints about finding the way out of Caesar's from the Forum Shops and the free shuttle does not start until about 9 AM, so others might pay $2 for a one way bus ride that drops off alongside Bally's. Then later buy a 24 hour all access pass from the machine in front of
Paris, for example. Again, if you are going to be walking along the strip before using the 24 hour pass, this might not be any loss in value. The all access pass from the
Paris machine will be $8, that is a dollar for every 3 hours. If the $2 pass buys you a few hours of time, then it is about a wash.
I don't know if the 202 bus driver sells the $8 pass when you board the 202 bus. That might also be another decision. It just has never come up. Jimbo, who no longer posts, used to report asking for one and getting the same $5 pass and the driver telling him it was good.
However, you don't want to plan on buying two 24 hour passes for the same 24 hours.
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A good bit of what you decide depends on your schedule and itinerary.
The free shuttle from Gold Coast to Orleans gets you in touch with another residential bus that connects with the strip at Tropicana the 201. From there the free shuttle at
Excalibur goes all the way to
Monte Carlo with a stop in
Luxor. I go that way from the Gold Coast to
Mandalay Bay because I want to leave before the free Coast shuttle starts and I want to avoid strip buses and perhaps have breakfast at Orleans or poke around there a bit.
There is a fee shuttle from
Bellagio to
Monte Carlo as well.
I often take those sorts of routes because I avoid the strip buses whenever I can, especially the Deuce.
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If you are going from the Gold Coast to downtown, pretending is more of an issue because there are some seedy places to get dropped off were for some fluky reason, you were asked for a local ID on an SDX bus. It is more risky. And you sit longer wondering. And you have to get back, perhaps late at night, through the same shady areas. I'd have the all access $8 pass for that trip.
For you this is rather a small change kind of decision. For seniors it adds up to more money because the residential passes cost just $2.50 but the strip passes still cost $8. Most of us just get a 15 day all access pass from a Walgreen's or the BTC and that covers the whole trip.
