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Trip Report... Downtown at the Fremont: Where are those .99 Margaritas?

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Sue24, Aug 23, 2014.

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  1. Sue24

    Sue24 High-Roller

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    My Trip Report

    This was my 9th trip to LV, almost all trips taken in the summer. I had comped rooms at the Fremont Aug. 18-21. My gambling friend, Jean & I left Des Moines 20 min. early and arrived in Vegas ahead of schedule, flying Allegiant... $136 round trip for each of us... the best bargain ever! Our joke has always been that we could go to LV with all we needed packed in a Walmart sack, so we set out to prove just that. Each of us squeezed some summer tops, clean underwear, and capris in a purse/tote. Specifically, I used a "31" bag with my liquids right on top and my most comfy sandals on my feet. No checked bags, so no added fees!!

    Here are some thoughts about Downtown since my last trip with my husband last summer..........

    Transportation to hotel... WAX bus... $2 each. There were about 6 others on the bus. We were DT in no time, very few stops, and no issues. All others boarding were tourists too, so no funny business observed from the weirdoes of the world.

    Hotel... The Fremont. On our most recent trips we have stayed at 4Queens, but this time nothing was available for me. I even called back to make sure, but was told our gambling was not enough. Hard to believe! Last trip my husband & I both used my card, but no offers were given, not even a casino rate. OK, then. When I received the mailer from the Fremont we made a call & were in for 3 nights, no resort fee, zero balance at check out. Yes, the rooms are small, tiny bathroom too, but the price was right and the beds were comfy! Everything was FREE and CLEAN!:clap:

    Food... We ate 2 breakfasts at the Golden Nugget buffet on the ACG coupon, 2 for 1....excellent both days, 2 pots of coffee, yummy pastries, nice atmosphere & super friendly servers and cashiers. I highly recommend the GN buffet for breakfast!! Two of our evening meals were at 4 Queens, Magnolia's. Last trip I had a run in with a boothling who was extremely rude. After that trip I emailed the marketing dept. to report the incident. This trip I received a $30 courtesy credit for my inconvenience. I felt that was an excellent customer service move. So, that first meal was free with the voucher, while the 2nd meal was a 2 for 1 for my birthday month, a nice perk. Seems like not many places give away freebies for birthdays anymore. We also ate at Binion's cafe, 2 for 1 burgers, ACG. In the past, I have bragged on these, but this time the meat was dry, dry and tasteless. We'll look for a better burger next trip. Maybe we love our Iowa corn fed beef too much! Snacks at the airport came from Burger King and a smoothie place at A gates, don't remember the name. We spent very little for food which was fine with us, more $$ for gambling! FYI... Magnolia's prime rib & their cheese cake, both great!:thumbsup:

    My friend is a big slot player, but has only been DT to see the light show.... so.... we had to hit every casino to get player cards & any freebies for a new member. I already am a member of most clubs, but here is a rundown of what Jean received and some thoughts on each place...

    Fremont... With the ACG she received $10 free play after playing $25 through. Play where you stay, they say. We did.
    Four Queens... nothing for a new player. Nice variety of machines.
    The D ... nothing. Loud and lively.
    We concentrated most of our gambling at the above 3 places.

    Golden Nugget... very nice inside, more like a strip resort. Their offer was $10 free play after earning 100 points. Hmmmm... that is a lot of gambling, so we didn't spend much time here. I showed her the shark tank pool and the big nugget from Australia. I wouldn't mind staying here, but I think I roll too low for them. Instead, I will just enjoy their breakfasts!

    Las Vegas Club.... Awww ... where is the player's club... it's all dark in the back. Oh, I saw a sign to go to the cashier to get my ACG $5 free slot play. OK. But that window is dark too! Next, I asked at the real cashier and she told me to go to the Plaza to redeem my free play. What?? I looked around and saw about 6 people playing machines. No one was at the tables, in fact, the dealers were just standing around visiting. Yes, this was on a Wed. at noon, but still. Maybe they should just lock the doors & forget it. I won't be back.

    Plaza... big, still a little funky smelling to me. We were able to redeem both the $5 Plaza ACG & the LVClub $5 here. Great, much more convenient. For me, that was $5 on an old Goldfish & $5 on Black Widow... ended up with $26 and change. Nice!

    On to Main Street Station. I always like this place just for all the old cool antiques and photo ops. Jean did not receive anything here but graciously offered to play on my card, so that was great.... points for another trip! We played various machines here and ended up. I like the old VP machines.... Treasure Chest, I think they are called... the ones where you can earn a scratch card for 4 of a kind. I didn't get one, but played my same $20 for a long time and ended up even. Jean had a healthy ticket to cash before we moved on back to the old train display....between Plaza & MSS.

    Supper break... just a minute.
     
  2. gambler

    gambler VIP Whale

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    Please eat fast :)

    I'm a downtown junky and am loving this report!

    The 4Q's normally hands out flyers for first time player's by their entrance closest to The D. They include $10 FP and a t-shirt after a small amount of play. I've never seen them hand out those fliers at the other main doors though.
     
  3. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Enjoying the report!
    Just a fyi you receive a scratch card on any VP machine for 4OAK, not just Treasure Chest.
     
  4. Candy Apple

    Candy Apple VIP Whale

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    Did you visit Container Park?
     
  5. keno60

    keno60 VIP Whale

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    I believe the 4 Queens still has the once in a lifetime deal if you show them another downtown casino card they give you $10 free play. For your next trip!
     
  6. Sue24

    Sue24 High-Roller

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    OK, I think we were leaving MSS to visit the train display along Main Street. Amtrak travels through our part of Iowa so there is a lot of train history in our area, interesting for us to look at. However, in the blazing sun of mid afternoon, you can’t peak into those cars to see what is being so nicely described nearby. I seem to recall that the display is lit up at night, is that right? Might be a better time to visit if you want to see inside, fyi. Also, Jean is a great volunteer. She was itching to get inside those cars with a dust rag. It’s a shame that the dining cars are allowed to collect all that dirt. She would have the place shining in no time!

    Main Street itself is a complete mess. Every sort of heavy equipment was in use, digging up old road surfaces and preparing for new concrete. In my experience, cement projects are completed in no time in Vegas, so hopefully Main will be back to normal soon. I hope so…. there were no pedestrians on that side of the street, so the California entrance behind LVClub was blocked off. We did not take the time to find the side doors to the Cal. But that is my preferred way to go to MSS. I wanted Jean to first see the casino from the cross over bridge. It is such a cool way to enter & see the entire place with all the old woodwork, etc.

    Now we headed back to the Plaza to play BINGO! I know, you are groaning! My 85+ year old Mom plays with her church ladies! But this was a great way to save a little on the slot bankroll and it was fun with the electronic machines. I am way too muddled with ADD to use dobbers & papers. Both of us just wanted to hear the machines sing! Jean is the lucky one,,,, she didn’t win but was one away on a $1000 game. Darn! Here is one of my better photos. She is waiting at a slot near the escalators to the 3rd floor while I get the scoop on bingo times & prices. It is on the odd hours and cost us $40 with an ACG coupon to play the 3pm session.
     
  7. Sue24

    Sue24 High-Roller

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    OK, how do you post a photo??
     
  8. FullPay

    FullPay When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

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    My wife and I sat down at the 99cent margarita bar to play video poker about three years ago. The drinks were comped and we both pushed them back after one sip. "What do you expect for 99 cents?", says the bartender.
     
  9. joshrocker

    joshrocker VIP Whale

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    Great report so far!
     
  10. Sue24

    Sue24 High-Roller

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    Other casinos we visited:

    Downtown Grand…. 12 people were gambling here, much like at the LVClub. The freebie for new members was some sort of slot tournament ?? We never quite figured that one out. No draw for free play. I felt a boring vibe there, so probably won’t be back. We could see their roof top pool from our room at the Fremont and it looked cool.

    Binions …. has lots of machines, and some promo slot play we tried to earn each day. Once my score was 6! I think you needed over 4000 to actually win the free play. The most fun was the free photo with the million dollars. That is a nice souvenir from DT that everyone should get. And this trip I learned you can get a photo each day, so we had pics taken together and separately, worth a few laughs.

    El Cortez ….In the Allegiant magazine on the plane, I discovered an ad that said if you showed your boarding pass, you would receive $10 free play. So we claimed that one day and walked down there again to get the ACG $10 free play the next. Jean really liked the machines there, a nice mix of older & new slots, including her all time favorite, Jade Elephant!

    The .99 Margarita…. As we were getting off the elevator at the Fremont, Jean spied the poster on the end of a bank of VP machines. “Where are those?” she asks. I nearly stumbled and fell. I’m a beer drinker but have never known Jean to consume alcohol, ever! Well, of course, I know where to find them. Not your best margarita ever, but for the price it quenched our thirst after a hot day of pushing slot buttons and walking around…. directly from the Fremont bar.

    The trip home was forever LONG! Allegiant was suppose to depart about 7am but instead left LV about 3pm on a Sun Country plane. I don’t know what the reason was for this delay, but we were 2 tired girls by the time we arrived in Des Moines around 7:20 Iowa time. Ugh! That was really the only hitch in the trip… a huge inconvenience for sure. We each received an $8 voucher for food in the airport and maybe a flight voucher for a future trip. I still need to check into that. Allegiant has always had it’s issues, but this deal was the worst! They are certainly unpredictable, but still have the best air fares out of Des Moines and they are direct!

    Really an enjoyable trip, lots of laughs. You know, you can work with someone for over 30 years, but don’t really know what kind of travelling/gambling partner they might be. In this case, I couldn’t have asked for a better companion. Now I am waiting for Jean to duplicate the GN’s bread pudding! Yum!
     
  11. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    I'm sure there are probably better ways to do it. I save it to a photo sharing site. I use Photobucket, then copy the code and insert it into my post.
     
  12. kodidog

    kodidog Low-Roller

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    Great trip report...Thanks for sharing with us. Nice to hear about all the Downtown Casinos as will be staying there with Hubby for his first time in a few weeks..and he'll be searching out players cards, I'm sure!
     
  13. lawyerlarry

    lawyerlarry Tourist

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    Agreed with the"what do you expect for .99 margaritas. Order what you want or order a mexican martini, then you might get a real drink.
     
  14. steveky

    steveky Tourist

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    I had no idea that there was Bingo in Vegas. Will be hitting that up for sure. I have the fondest memory of playing it in the church hall about 30 years ago. Dunno about the machine idea though... did that not take the fun element out of it?

    Great TR Sue - thanks for sharing!
     
  15. Sue24

    Sue24 High-Roller

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    About the Bingo... it is at the Plaza & is on the odd hours. 1,3,5...up the escalator to the 3rd floor.

    We used the machines because we were sure we would miss numbers. I thought it was kind of fun to watch your cards... we played 9 at a time. That was plenty for rookies! You can bring up your best 3, or even your best 1 card or all 9. Ha, ha... bring your reading glasses if you want to watch all 9.

    The ACG coupon was for a small rainbow.

    We went to the 3pm session & it was over about 3:50.

    Good luck!
     
  16. Sue24

    Sue24 High-Roller

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    Forgot to mention the cutest thing.... when we were at the GN Buffet for breakfast.... a server with a fantastic, soulful voice sang Happy Birthday to a couple people. It was not your usual version of Happy Birthday, but her own style, almost gospel like. The kid we were seated closest too got tears in his eyes. So did we!

    A neat idea, if someone in your party is having a bday!
     
  17. Blonde_4_ever

    Blonde_4_ever LasVegas4ever.com

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    I always love a downtown report! Thanks!
     
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