Convert? 4 Queens TR 8/21-8/26

Let me begin by saying we had a fabulous trip, probably the best so far, we had far too much fun…It was harder than ever to leave, I really wanted to cry on the plane ride home.

I do believe we've converted...we loved downtown!

Summary:

Hotel- we stayed 5 nights at 4 Queens Downtown check in was smooth, a nice room with king bed in the south tower on the 19th floor. Also we rented a car from National, so we had to pay $3/day to park in the garage, which was the only downside but we had great rates so we didn’t mind ($150 for 5 nights including Fri & Sat.) We will definitely stay downtown again.

Food- we ate like locals on this trip; Harrah’s was the only strip buffet ($3 coupon). We also had buffets at Sam’s Town, Orleans (2 for 1), Suncoast, and Gold Coast. Also ate dinner at Bally’s Sidewalk Café and made 2 trips to the Skyline for 5.95 20oz porterhouse steak w/ potato, rolls, and salad bar.

Gambling- we really didn’t win much on this trip. Slots were really greedy everywhere, only able to win on penny slots. So we played cheap roulette and BJ mainly downtown and Sahara. We loved the $2 table at 4 Queens and $1 tables at Sahara. We played for hours on little money and were served far too many drinks.

Misc.- we went to Red Rock Canyon, rented a boat on Lake Mead, drove around looking at areas to live, and visited family. We saw a BMW commercial and a scene for Angel being filmed on Freemont St. Also the drinks at La Bayou are great!

Now the details:

Day 1 8/21

After 3 hours of sleep we headed to Midway to catch the 8:00am flight on SW. Frank was pulled to the side to be searched by the new screeners, same process no difference noticed. We had A boarding passes and were able to get emergency row with no trouble. Flight was 10 min early; we got our luggage right away and headed to the National shuttle to get the rental car.

Frank is an Emerald Aisle member w/ National so we had no paperwork, we just selected the car we wanted and we were on our way. Frank was really hoping for a Monte but he settled with a Malibu. By 11am we were on I-15 headed towards Downtown. We were thrilled to back in our favorite city and pleased that we’ve had a trouble-free morning and hoped our luck would continue.

We arrived at the 4 Queens, check in was easy as could be, I asked for a king-room in the south tower (since I read those had the nicer rooms). Within minutes we were given our keys to our room on the 19th floor overlooking Freemont St. with Lady Luck and the mountains in the background. I was pleasantly surprised with our room, nice and clean decent sized except the bathroom was small. I really liked that the window was the width of the room and it opened. I thought our room was nicer than the one we had last month at the Flamingo. Well we decided to check out the casino and take a walk down Freemont.

We liked the atmosphere at 4 Queens, I was especially happy to see they had Press your Luck slots…its my favorite .05 machine and until then I’d only found it at the IP. I played but had no luck lost $5. Frank tried $3 BJ played about ½ hour, the cards weren’t in his favor. We stopped in mermaids got a crummy .99 margarita then headed to Plaza because on a past trip we learned to play there with .25 chips. Boy! That place still has that same smell. Frank tried roulette hit a couple numbers and broke even. We headed back to the hotel, walking through various casino’s checking table minimums, we were surprised to see everywhere had $3 BJ…past trips I swear we played for $1.

We drove out to Summerlin, where Frank’s grandparents live, to pick up his mom and aunt (they were visiting as well) and headed to Sam’s Town for the steak dinner buffet. Again it was great, I was saddened because they only had NY strip and no filet mignon like last time. Even still it was worth the money and remains my favorite buffet. We gambled for a couple hours after dinner; I lost $10 on penny and nickel slots. Frank broke even and his mom and aunt won $50 between them on VP.

We went to Paris, Frank and I lost nearly $100 on slots, while his mom and aunt went up the Eiffel Tower. Afterwards, we went to the bar and bought an Eiffel tower filled with margarita…Good but expensive. Then we walked over to Bellagio and watched a few fountain shows; again they had shows I haven’t seen. We went through the casino and visited the Conservatory still the same as a month ago, but still smelled wonderful. We took his mom and aunt back to his grandparents and headed downtown.

Unexpectedly, nearly every street to Freemont was blocked off. We figured they were doing construction or something. After a few attempts we found a street open and made it to the parking garage. After a quick stop in the room we decided to use the .99 draft beer coupons that we received upon check in. The bartender let us know that we didn’t the coupon the 14oz drafts are always .99 so we were happy.

We walked outside and were quickly told to stay inside for the moment because of filming. Now we understood why the streets were blocked off. We walked over to the crowd of onlookers and watched them film a 1980 firebird and a new BMW at the starting line for a street race. Then I noticed Binions had James Brown on the jumbo-tron, it was the same video over and over again. After they filmed that shot we where able to walk across and get a better view. We eventually found out they were filming a BMW commercial with James Brown and supposedly Marlon Brando. We saw them film a scene with James Brown. Then stunt doubles raced side by side down casino center with a LVMPD chasing after them even a helicopter with a spotlight following from above. It was really exciting and interesting. Definitely something you don’t see everyday. In between shots we went into Binions, Frank lost $20 at BJ within minutes. I didn’t like the atmosphere it was really dark, the casino was pretty dead except for the craps table…probably because of the filming. We’d been awake over 24 hours so we called it a night and went to bed.

Day 2 8/22

We woke up about 10am and picked up Frank’s mom, then headed to Red Rock Canyon. We took the scenic drive and stopped to take pictures at the overlooks. It was really beautiful, we want to return when the weather is cooler and do some hiking.

We were hungry and decided to eat the buffet at Orleans since grandma had given us a 2 for 1 coupon. Lunch for Frank and I was 7.95 it was a deal. They had a large selection and food was pretty good. I liked the made to order Mongolian stir-fry, I would’ve preferred the shrimp to be peeled. I was sad when the replaced the fried shrimp with scallops. I wasn’t brave enough to try the crawfish…they frightened me. Afterwards we signed up for the slot club and we were given a mini personal fan and a windshield shade.
Frank played some $3 BJ, his mom played VP and I played .25 and .01 slots. I was the only one that came out ahead; I won $30 playing penny Ring’em Up-a game I hadn’t seen in years. Frank’s mom booked the night at 4 Queens so we went back to the hotel so she could check in. Check in was just as smooth as ours and her room was down the hallway from ours.

She wanted a nap, so Frank and I decided to grab a beer and headed to Fitzgerald’s, I lost $20 at BJ rather quickly so I moved on to slots while Frank played for a couple hours. I found another press your luck machine and penny slot Ring’em up. I lost another $15 but had lots of fun, I think Frank walked away even. We headed back to meet his mom, made a stop at the bar, and headed back out to Freemont. As soon as we walked out there was a huge crowd they were filming again, this time was an episode for Angel…I’m not familiar with the show, but the characters were walking around with monster faces. They allowed pedestrians to walk around as extras.

After watching for a few minutes we went to Golden Gate. They were handing out fortune cookies-the fortunes where promos and coupons, mine was good for a free well drink. Frank played hand held BJ and I found a 3 coin .05 DD machine I played for a while and cashed out with $10. Afterwards we watched the light show and headed over to LVC, we played .25 roulette Frank was doing well, he was winning on every other number until they changed dealers. We had a couple drinks then headed over to Main St Station. We played some slots, no wins for us and we really didn’t like the atmosphere of the casino so we went back toward Freemont St. Made a stop at La Bayou bought a ½ yard margarita and kamikaze mix for 6.00 then we headed back to the 4 Queens for $2 BJ. We played for a few hours and all that I drank was catching up to me, I was up $25 and Frank was even so we called it quits. I really needed to sober up so we found his mom and ate at Magnolia’s I think the food and service were good but I really don’t remember. It was 4am and I couldn’t hang anymore so we went up to our room, I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Day 3 8/23

We got up about 11:30 surprisingly I didn’t have a hangover. After his mom checked out we dropped her off at Rampart casino and we headed to Harrah’s for lunch. Walked through carnival court to get the $3 off coupon for the buffet. Food was good and selection was the same as last month. Overall I thought last time was better, the only thing that was just as good was the prime rib. But it was less crowded so I things were sitting out longer, last time was really busy and everything was fresh. After lunch we purchased tickets to see the Improv later that night. We walked over to Casino Royale to play some more cheap BJ but all the tables were full. I wanted to go to Riviera because it was the only strip casino I had never been in, so we walked back to car and headed there.

The Riviera wasn’t the place for us, it was an older crowd and all the florescent lightning on the ceiling drove me nuts. I didn’t find anything I liked about the place, Frank played a .25 slot and couldn’t line up anything on a pay line. After that we left and went to see if Sahara still had $1 BJ tables.

We were in heaven, we couldn’t believe how many $1 tables they had…there were many to choose from, some had different rules and gimmicks. We bought in for $20 and played over 3 hours, we had a lot of fun, and broke even…the only reason we left was we needed to get back to Harrah’s for the Improv.

The Improv was great as usual this was our 7th time seeing the show and it has never disappointed us. With the 2 for 1 coupon it is a great deal and guaranteed good time. After the show we headed back downtown, I was a little hungry so we stopped in the Burger King in 4 Queens. It’s sad that I ate BK in LV but I wanted something really quick. The food and the service was much better than what we get back home. We grabbed a .99 draft and walked down to Golden Gate. Frank went back to BJ and I went back to the same DD machine. We each played about an hour and broke even. I was craving another drink from La Bayou…we got the same as last time. Went over to Freemont no tables were open and no slots were calling me, so we went back to the 4 Queens and played .01 frequent flyer for a couple hours. When we looked at the time, it was past 3am decided to go to sleep because we were supposed to meet Frank’s family for breakfast at 8:00.

Day 4 8/24

We woke up at 7:30 a little later than we planned; this was the earliest we’d ever gotten up in Vegas. We drove out to Suncoast, we were late so his family got a table without us. The line was insane, everyone in the neighborhood must of wanted .99 breakfast. We didn’t want to wait, so we had the buffet instead. It was 4.95 (I think) food was good with a variety of breakfast choices and made to order omelets. We stayed and played for a couple hours said our good byes to the family. Then headed to Lake Mead, we decided to rent a boat again. This time we rented from the Callville Bay Marina we had a speedboat for 2 hours cost was $165 plus a $350 deposit, which was more expensive than the LV marina last year. But it was worth the money we had a great time and got some sun. It was relaxing, exciting and romantic…we had a blast. We’d jump out in the middle of the lake to cool down.

After leaving the lake we checked out some areas around Henderson to see if it would be somewhere we’d want to live. We found a new subdivision just off Boulder Hwy called Boulder Ranch that had housing in our price range; we’ve contacted the builder for more info. We stopped at the Skyline for the 5.95 steak special. Even though they raised the price a $1 from last year it was still worth every penny. You can’t beat it for the price …you get an open salad bar, 20oz porterhouse with baked potato and dinner rolls. Service was excellent and our bill came to 15.55. We decided we’d have to come back again before we left. We drove around looking at some more areas while we headed back downtown.

We showered then headed to Sahara for some more $1 BJ we played about 4 hours had good drink service and friendly dealers played on $20 including tips and broke even. Then decided to go back downtown so we wouldn’t have to worry about driving after we’d been drinking. We had some more drafts at 4 Queens and played .25 and .01 slots. The $2 table was full so we headed back to the Golden Gate. Frank played more BJ with a rowdy group, while I went back to the DD machine. I lost $10 went to check on Frank he was up $30 I watched while he played. Drink service at the tables is great but never saw a waitress at the slots. I think Frank cashed out about $40 up and we went back to the 4 Queens. Frank played .25 slot winning for dummies and won $60. We wanted to get on the $2 table but it was still full so we opted for penny slots we won $18 and it was past 4am so we headed up to the room.

Day 5 8/25

We got up around 11am and made a trip to the Gamblers General Store. Frank really wanted a BJ layout for home. But they all stated Dealer must draw to 16 and stand on all 17’s. He wanted one that stated dealer must hit a soft 17, which only came on the tables. It was neat to look around they had tons of stuff. He ended up buying a Tripoly game that we recently learned to play. We headed to Gold Coast for their buffet. We had brunch for 8.95 not bad, but disappointing it was the same food we had at Orleans and Suncoast. All the breakfast items were the same as Suncoast and all the lunch items were what we had at the Orleans. Frank had another made to order omelet and I had another stir-fry.

I wanted to go to the Luxor since I won some money there last month. We parked in Mandalay’s garage that place was a zoo. Valet was completely full and we waited forever for the elevator for the parking garage. We took the walkway to Luxor, I found a crystal 7 machine calling me, I went to play it but I needed change. When I went back someone else was on it and hit for 250 coins, I was sad but tried another one…it sucked up my money. I went to the crystal 5 machine I won on last trip, but there was a lady playing it she had over 400 credits. I played a couple DD slots, hoping she’d cash out so I could get on it. But I lost $15 within 20 min…checked on her she had over 600 now. I gave up and we went back to Mandalay. Frank tried a couple slots lost $20 and I played winning for dummies and made $20. We decided to leave and go back to Sahara because we were able to play a lot longer, get some drinks and have more fun. We played another 3 hours on $20 and broke even. We left once the sun started to go down because we wanted to see the fountains at Bellagio.

We parked at Bally’s and ate at the Sidewalk Café service and food was good as usual. After dinner we stopped at the bar for 2 for 1 margaritas (still had coupons from last trip) we took our drinks and watched the fountains. I can never get enough…still seen new shows, but didn’t see any of our old favorites. The winds were kind of strong at one point during the Proud to be an American song the wind carried the water and gave us a shower. It was quite chilly.

We really wanted more $1 BJ so we went back to the Sahara played for another 3 hours on $20 we really had tons of fun, drink service got really slow but that was due to a shift change. I cashed out $10 and Frank was even. We went back to Golden Gate, Frank played BJ and I went back to my DD machine. I played a about an hour and broke even, Frank lost his buy in but still had fun. Headed back to 4 Queens and had no trouble getting on the $2 table, we had 2 great dealers Chubby and Diane, drinks were plentiful one after another. At this point it sunk in that this was our last night so we refused to look at the time…we just kept playing and playing. Nearly 6 hours went by and Diane mentioned the sun was probably up…it was 7am by 7:30 we called it a night and I made $20 Frank made $50. We went up to the room and I watched the sun come up over the mountains it was amazing.

Day 6 8/26

We slept much later than planned, got up at noon, rushed around packing up the suitcases and checked out of the 4 Queens. We headed to the Skyline for lunch had our 5.95 porterhouse again we had great service. Then depression of going home started to settle in. We needed one more BJ fix before going home, found a $2 table with very friendly dealers. We played a little over an hour gave the dealers quite a bit in tips…we just kept winning. Unfortunately we had to leave to get to the airport…we thanked our dealers and cashed out. I was up $20 and Frank broke even. Sadly, it was time to drop off the rental car.

We had a little difficulty finding National since its no longer on Rental Car Rd. Eventually we located Alamo/National lot, even though the signs were little help. We dropped off the car and experienced our first problem…they wanted 3.99 a gallon for gas. We thought that was ridiculous and tried to get a reasonable price but had no luck. We’ll know next time to return the car with a full tank. Then we hopped on the shuttle and headed to the airport.

We had no problems at McCarran, but we arrived kind of late so we had B boarding passes. No emergency row for us. The flight home was really depressing and there was a lot of turbulence…it was a very bumpy ride. We arrived in Midway at 11:10pm and headed home.

It’s horrible being home…it’s cloudy, humid, and boring. The thought of winter around the corner is terrible. Unfortunately, we won’t get back to our favorite city until early next year.

 

Thanks for the extensive TR!

We stayed downtown this past spring and agree that downtown is a very cool place. We would stay down there again in a heartbeat.

 

Fabulous report. VERY well written!!

Thanks for taking so much time to share your experiences. It's obvious that you guys really know how to have fun in Vegas. I'm breathless just from reading about it.

And try not to feel too bad about being home. "Early next year" is only a few months away.

 

I haven't read your whole trip report yet (I'm printing it out now), but I'm glad to see another downtown convert!

 

Great trip report!
I'm sorry that you did'nt like The Riviera. Thats one of my favorites. My wife and I are considering staying down town for the first time next year.I hope that it goes as well as yours.

 

Glad to here you enjoyed your stay Downtown!!!
Now if we can just get a few 100,000 MORE
people a year to stay Downtown,ALL the Downtown
casinos would be as nice as the Golden Nugget!!
and just maybe the Strip casinos would loosen
there slots a little and get rid of that 6:5
Blackjack!!
Booger

[ September 03, 2002, 09:45 PM: Message edited by: Booger ]

 

I read your trip report on our drive to the mountains on Tuesday. Great report! I love hearing from people who truly have a lot of fun without spending a fortune.

You can tell you guys are young, though - how much sleep did you get, total? Like 15 hours in 5 nights or something?!!

 

Thanks to you all for reading

We truely had a great time Frank and I still have the Vegas Blues...we miss it

David: I'm so jealous that you are able to call that fabulous city home.

Billy: Good luck with your travel plans!

Booger: The funny thing is we never even played at the Golden Nugget, we felt if we were going to play those kind of minimums we should do it on the strip. I really enjoyed the old vegas style of the other downtown casino's. It was a great change of pace.

Bigdogmom: I know we slept very little on our trip, but the city keeps us awake...plus there's too much you can miss by sleeping. However, I was exhausted when we got home. The greatest thing about Vegas...its a place where you can spend a lot of money but you don't have to

 

My thoughts exactly! It sounds like you guys have similar gambling stakes to my husband and me but, boy--we can't handle those hours! Wish we could though. I HATE sleeping when I'm there--it just feels like I'm wasting time. I'm sure my bankroll (or lack thereof) appreciates the break though!

Thanks for sharing your trip report--
Debbie