Epic trip - 4 Queens, Suncoast (OMG!!), MGM

This was a 4 night trip we planned for our 25th anniversary (not that we really need a excuse to go to Vegas!). We checked our offers and booked 3 nights comped at 4 Queens, 3 nights comped at Suncoast and 2 nights comped at MGM along with some freeplay and food. My sister and BIL were going to meet us there on the 2nd day so we offered them our room at Suncoast.

Then we had some serious health issues with a family member and up until a week before we left, we had doubts we would even want to go away. In the end, the health crisis improved and since we had airfare booked and my sister was driving to Vegas, she said she’d stay home and look after anything that came up. I’m so lucky to have a sis like her! Then - the night before we left, we had an electrical fire at our house (husband and daughter do a Griswald Christmas light display every year – this year they obviously reached the breaking point), so by the time we left town we were ready for a break but not feeling 100% confident that things would go well.

When we arrived in Vegas Sunday night, the Rock n Roll marathon was still finishing up. After a brief disagreement, our cab driver insisted that we go downtown by way of the tunnel since taking the shorter route would take between 1-1 ½ hours. I thought – ya right, we’ve heard this before, but as we drove down the freeway towards the 4 Queens, we could see vehicles backed up at least a mile long at every exit. There must have been some expensive cab rides that night for those that needed to get to the strip. (I read in the paper the next day that many residents were unhappy as well as they weren’t able to get to work). I must be the only person ever to be grateful for a $42 cab ride through the tunnel to downtown! The marathon ran down Fremont and the side streets were roped off, so we got dropped off about a block away and had to dash across Fremont between runners. Luckily we only had 2 small bags so we had no problems.

When we checked in at the 4 Queens, the only request I made was for a south tower room. We aren’t ones to try for upgrades, we take what we get and hope for the best. We ended up with a room on the second floor and a view of the roof but that was okay because the thing we like best about 4 Queens is the location. Every time we stay I hope they have upgraded a bit but they rarely do. The coffee pot didn’t work the next morning but I left a note and it was replaced. But the thing that really got us was the toilet tank lid. They had replaced it not with another proper fitting lid, but I would guess some maintenance man found a flat piece of plastic from lord knows what and decided it would do as a replacement cover. In order to flush the toilet, the plastic lid had to be lifted. Seriously 4 Queens - how much would it cost for a proper lid? Anyhow, the room was clean with comfy beds so we just laughed about the lid and carried on.

We needed a drink so we went to the back bar for VP. It was packed but we found some single seats and hubby got an $800 quad within 20 minutes of sitting down. Life was looking pretty good! Later we went over to The D for some blackjack and some more VP. By the end of the night, (after winning at BJ and losing it to VP) I was up $22 over my original $800 stake and hubby was up about $500. It’s such a great feeling going to bed a winner on the first night. But that was just the beginning….

 

Nice that your husband hit 4 Aces! The room at 4Q looks comfortable (I haven't stayed there before), but the toilet lid thing is absolutely ridiculous!!! :Þ

 

Jimbo, the rooms at 4 Queens are clean and comfortable and you can't beat the location. We've had rooms with burnt out lights and broken remotes but we're there to gamble so don't concern ourselves too much about minor issues in the room. I have to say they've been good to us over the years.

That said, I just can't believe that there is an employee at the 4 Queens that walked into that room, placed that on the toilet, stood back and thought "Damn, that looks good"!

Nope, I just can't wrap my brain around that one!

 

Monday

We had meal credits at The D so we started our day there. We grabbed a coffee at McDonald’s and stopped at the Long Bar just long enough to drink it. Hubby hit his second $800 quad of the trip. Then we went up to the Vue bar for a bit. I love the music upstairs at the D and had to smile when they played ‘I think I love you‘ by the Partridge Family. I got that record for my 10th birthday and played it till it wore out. Great memories! We had breakfast at The D Grill with a $25 comp. I had the chicken ceasar salad and it’s the best I’ve had in Vegas (trust me - I’ve been searching for years). Homemade sauce and croutons (not those hard as rock store bought ones) and homemade jam for the toast. Two thumbs up!

After breakfast, we wondered over to the Downtown Grand to check it out. It was fairly quiet but to be fair, most casinos around Fremont are pretty quiet in the morning and early afternoon. We signed up for a card and won $3 each after putting $20 in the machine. (You have to play the machine to find out if you won $3-$1000). Double double bonus poker on quarters is still 7/5 but at least on dollars it’s 9/5. Blackjack rules were reasonable and comparable to The D and Golden Gate – 3/2, H17, DOA, DAS, surrender. I was surprised they weren’t 6/5.

While it’s not our type of casino, it is a pretty nice place. I really think they’re going after a different clientele than the regular downtown gambler that exists today. I could see it appealing to a number of members on here, those that aren’t there just for good gambling odds, but those that appreciate the pool and fitness room, nice restaurants but without the high prices on the strip. It would make a great home base and busses to the strip are close by. The DTG seems to offer something completely different than what’s been available downtown. (I wouldn’t compare it to the Nugget as it seems far more casual). Time will tell but I bet they do well.

It was a great day weather wise so we decided to go on a tour of the other casinos just to see what’s new and headed over to Main Street Station. We went to Joe’s bar to see if we could meet up with him. There were lots of women there but only one couple so I asked the bartender if he knew Joe (silly question, I know!). He said you mean Joe from Wisconsin, Green Bay Joe? The bartender showed us where Joe would be sitting and told us to come back at 4. Jeeze I thought, not only is Joe famous at MSS but now he’s got the bartenders booking appointments for him! We never did make it back but look forward to meeting Joe and his wife on another trip.

We headed back down to the Plaza where we saw the outdoor beer garden is taking as long as the Zipline to build. We checked out Las Vegas Club and were surprised to see some changes in the layout of the tables. They also have a stage now for dancing girls. The tables looked inviting and hopefully the dancing girls bring in some much needed business. I’d hate to see any blank walls on Fremont Street.

We popped into the Golden Gate to use our free play. They had a new list of cocktails on the bar without any prices. That was a bit odd so I got to wondering if the drinks were so bad that without a comp no one in their right mind would pay for them. An older gentleman beside me ordered ‘Ain’t she sweet tea’ so I asked him how it was. He quickly called for the bartender to bring another straw for me. I was trying my best to politely decline his offer but it didn’t seem like he could be put off. It was a little early in the day but I finally had to order my own as there was no convincing him that I really didn’t want to share his. Downtown people are so friendly! The drink was okay but a little weird served in a cup. Turns out the gentleman did finally find someone to share his drink with so he was happy. Hubby used his $25 free play and got quads for $250 while I used my $9 free play and got quads for $100! Twenty minutes of play and we left $350 richer!

Checked out Binions and saw that all our food comps have been deleted and their VP pay tables aren’t great so didn’t stay.

We wandered down to check out the Zipline. Now that most of the construction stuff has been removed, I think it looks really good.

We stopped at Mickey Finn’s for a bowl of clam chowder and I tried the deep fried ice cream just for something new (I tried their ceasar salad last trip and they used turkey stuffing bread cubes for croutons. Poultry seasoning and ceasar salad just don’t mix). I wouldn’t recommend their food. Just kinda blah. Added to that is that they spell out the amount of tip at the bottom of the bill. Maybe it’s just me but I find that insulting. I’m more than capable of doing the math myself, thank you very much.

Next up –Suncoast…

 

Great start to your trip and alot of good info. Thanks!

 

Enjoying your report so far. Glad to hear you like the Four Queens. We have our first stay there this coming weekend, actually our first stay DT (usually we are on the strip). Hoping we like it as we will most likely stay when we come in March as our stay overlaps with CONEXPO so the rates are quite high on the strip.
Keep it coming.................

 

I'm looking forward to reading about your Suncoast experience, as I plan to sit at the bar and play Bonus Poker Deluxe for most of the day there this Thursday.

 

Am I right that you had a chicken ceasar salad for breakfast? It actually sounds really good.

 

Enjoying the report. Congrats on some nice hits.

These dancing girls at LVC....are these the girls in the 'fetish pit' or has that concept been abandoned and now there is some kind of new set up involving dancing girls?

 

Tree DA - The LVC seems to have finally abondoned the term Fetish Pit. The stage now is right in their entrance way and comes out to the front of the club so will be hard to miss. We were there late morning so there was nothing happening when we went by. They've tried so many different things with their dancers over the years, I sure hope this one works for them.

Hanoscf - Chicken ceasar was my breakfast. I'm not much of an egg eater and for some reason salad and chicken just seems to hit the spot for me. I've tried ceasar salad twice at Magnolia's but they serve the chicken cold and it tastes like it's been sitting in the fridge uncovered for a week before you get it. The chicken at The D was either freshly cooked or warmed just right because it was tender and moist. The fresh croutons are like having a piece of toast with breakfast. I'd definitely recommend it.

 

On our trip a few months ago, my husband and I spent an afternoon at Suncoast. We played VP and BJ for about 3 hours which resulted in our current offer of 3 nights, $100 per day free play and $100 per day food credit. So our plan for this afternoon was to bus out to Suncoast and register for our room, play a few hours, have some lunch and then head back downtown since we were feeling the luck there. We caught the bus just outside the D and for $2 each, we enjoyed a 25 minute ride. We really like taking the bus because we’re able to relax and enjoy the view. It’s nice to see a bit of the saner/normal side of Vegas. The busses are clean, the drivers and passengers are very friendly and there’s usually only about 4 other people on board. There are only about 4 stops on the way to Suncoast so it goes by pretty quick.

We went to register and discovered I’d lost my credit card somewhere along the way. Neither of us carry our credit cards in Vegas but instead leave them in the safe. I was pretty sure I had put mine in my purse before leaving the 4 Queens but after frantically looking, couldn’t find it. I offered to leave a $500 deposit but that wasn’t working for them so the clerk offered to phone our host and see if she could wave the rules. Well, since this is our first time staying there and we were using a marketing offer, I knew we were unknown to any host there. Anyhow, the clerk phoned someone and was making progress I think when my husband realized he had a Visa debit card that she would accept. The clerk asked if we still wanted a smoking room (yes) and said that unfortunately she had none available (they were getting carpets replaced in the rooms) so she would comp upgrade us to a suite. Then she asked if we still wanted 2 beds (yes). She then said she would give us a comp upgrade to a 2 bedroom suite in order for us to have the 2 beds we wanted. Being reasonable people, we agreed to go along with the plan! Kudos to Suncoast for going above and beyond to make sure their customers are happy. It really was an incredible upgrade they offered.

So here we were with not a stitch of luggage, checking into our 2 bedroom suite. We couldn’t believe it when we opened the door. Kitchen, living room and dining room, 2 separate bedrooms each with private ensuite with tub, separate shower and toilet room, floor to ceiling windows over looking the mountains and strip in the distance, 6 tv’s, 8 phones, a luxurious 1500 square feet… And all this because we played there for a few hours last trip! After coming from our room at the 4 Queens, this was truly unbelievable!

We didn’t think it could get any better but we hit the casino in a great mood. I played a lot of BJ. They have 2 deck pitch games with $10 minimum (although I think they also had a $5 table as well). BJ pays 3/2 and unlike other Boyd casinos downtown, Suncoast allows splitting any two cards and DAS. I had a few good runs, leaving the table with $600, $400 and a couple $100 wins. I also broke my all time record this night by winning 14 hands in a row at one table! Husband was doing well at VP and had at least 2 - $250 quads plus enough smaller wins to keep him ahead. By 7 pm, we both realized we’d be foolish to go back downtown since we were doing so well, so we bought toothbrushes and toothpaste at the gift shop and called Suncoast home for the night.

We had planned to go to the steakhouse for dinner but when we got there at 8:50 and realized it closed at 9, we decided to go to Cafe Sienna. Food was just okay (actually my husbands dinner was awful but that could be because of what he ordered rather than the way it was prepared. He had some asian dish that looked like rice soup.) I had steak and ceasar salad (not good – kraft dressing which I can do at home along with teeth breaking croutons) and then noticed empty plates going by with lobster tails on them. We had lunch there the next day and I asked the waitress to show me where the lobster was on the menu. It turns out prime rib and lobster tail is this months special and is not on the menu. It’s unfortunate our waitress didn’t let us in on that little secret last night. We used only $45 of our comp and the remaining $55 disappeared overnight. At Suncoast, the good restaurants close at 9 so it’s something to keep in mind.

We had a early night and before I went to bed, I was up $33 on my original $800 from yesterday. I had lots of wins today but probably spent more on VP than I should have. Still I had my original funds and hadn’t even dipped into day two’s stake so it seemed like a win to me.

Coming up…a bit more downtown gambling and another day at Suncoast. Can it get any better than this? Oh you bet it can…!!

 

And a few more pics...

 

Really enjoying the report! Next time have your people make an appointment with my people at MSS.:evillaugh Sorry we missed you.

I started reading the report today and my first thought on the toilet, before I saw the picture, was that you had to lift the tank cover, reach inside and pull the chain.

That sure is a nice suite compared to MSS. Even when we lived there, it was our second favorite casino, but we never have never seen a room. Turtleman wants us to check them out. I do have offers for a couple of free nights and had a room booked last trip to do exactly what you did. Take the Wax, check in, get the free play, play for a few hours and come back downtown. Too many relatives in town, so we cancelled. Maybe the next trip.
Looking forward to the rest of the report!

 

LV2Gamble - You'll have fun at 4 Queens. Just stay away from room 235!

 

Tuesday

My husband woke up around 5 this morning and since he couldn’t get back to sleep, he said he’d bus downtown and get our luggage. Actually, I think he was a little worried about me scaring people by running around without makeup or combed hair but bless his heart for offering to do that. He went out to check the bus schedule and realized he had 20 minutes to kill before it came at 6:30. The line up was long at the Java coffee stand so he went to the bar for coffee and VP. After just a few minutes of play, he got a Royal Flush for $4000! By the time the paperwork was done, he’d missed the bus so came back to the room to wake me up and share the excitement. So now I was wide awake and we both decided to head downtown.

We both wanted to play a bit more at 4 Queens and since we hadn’t used their $10 free play offer yet for showing another club card, we stopped at the players club to get that loaded on our card. I got nothing for my free play but wouldn’t you know it – my husband pulled Quad Aces with a 4 for $2000! It’s always a good feeling when you’ve paid the U.S. government $1800 in taxes all before breakfast! For the rest of the day, I prayed to the VP gods to let me pay some taxes too.

Hubby ended up playing a bit longer and before we left to grab our luggage, he’d picked up a $250 win as well. My good news of the day was finding my credit card in the safe. We also had won a cassarole dish with our points at 4 Queens but had to leave it behind as we had no room in our luggage.

Back to Suncoast, my husband’s incredible run of luck continued. He won $800 and then 17 minutes later won another $250, then 3 minutes later won another $800, followed in 18 minutes with another $250 and finally another $250 an hour later! That’s $2,350 in the space of 2 hours, all on top of the $6000 he’d won earlier in the day! It was the most unbelievable day, one we hope to repeat but likely won’t see for a long time. If I hadn’t taken photos, I probably wouldn’t believe it myself. Honestly, I got a quad during this time too but was so busy snapping pics of his wins, I forget to get my own.

Our original plans called for going to the MGM tonight but again, there was no way we were leaving Suncoast when winning. We were booked on a comped room offer with free play/food that required a minimum of 2 night stay. Since they have a 48 hour cancellation policy and we didn’t want to get dinged for the resort fee, I called them up and told them our flight got fogged in and would they still comp us for just a one night stay? That was no problem for them and they would even offer our freeplay and food credits if we arrived tomorrow for just one night. Score!

The night was spent on blackjack again with more wins than losses and I recovered all the money I’d lost at VP. We went to Salvatores (Italian) for dinner and it was awesome food.

I forgot to mention that when I went to the Suncoast player’s club to get my free play loaded, the clerk asked if I’d be attending their New Year’s Eve party which I received an invitation for just before we left. She mentioned that they really do it up for their guests with a really nice meal and 50 inch flat screen tv’s. Thinking this was a draw for prizes, I asked how many tv’s they drew for. Oh she said, they don’t draw for prizes, everyone that attends gets one!! She wasn’t sure what was on the gift list this years but promised me I wouldn’t regret coming.

For anyone that’s even thinking of checking out Suncoast, you just have to do it! They are more than generous with comps, seem to have winning machines and it’s a really nice casino to boot. I think next trip, we’ll use Suncoast as our home base and maybe spend one night downtown. We still like the option of casino hopping and for us, staying the whole trip just at Suncoast would get boring.

 

Congrats on all the winning!
I've been meaning to get out to SunCoast, but it's SOO far out there (I view it as similar to SamsTown or Sunset Station; all by itself)
and FWIW, even at a HUGE discount, those 50" TV's would cost $300 to purchase (black friday sale)
daaaaamn

 

This report is EPIC as the title says. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Love how your husband is killing the VP. Heck of a run

 

Wednesday

We spent the next morning at Suncoast but came up with only one $250 quad so we took a cab to the MGM for our final night (fare $42). We played VP at a bar there and got a $250 quad, then wandered over to Excalibur for another $250 quad, on to NYNY for at least 2 more $250 quads and then the camera ran out of juice. My husband won $600 playing BJ at NYNY and we called it a night. It’s a good thing this was our last night because I think I was getting carpel tunnel from playing so much VP.

MGM rooms are really nice but we aren’t fond of the casino. It’s just too big for us. I doubt we’ll be getting any more offers from them since we didn’t give them much play but at least we got to stay there once. In the morning, we used our $50 food comp for breakfast at Avenue 24 – Bacon and eggs, sausage and eggs, 2 coffee and an oj for $44. It was comparable in taste and quality with what you get at 4 Queens for $14.50. (There's not much you can change with fried eggs.) They do give you linen napkins at the MGM though! Breakfast was slow coming so we ran out of time to put $100 in the Lion’s Share. Funny cause that really was the only goal we had on our list as a must do.

We took a cab to the airport for $13 and our luck continued with us being waved into the expediated line at the airport so were able to breeze through security without removing shoes, computers, belts, etc.

Out of the 9 casinos we played at on this trip, we left with more money than we came with at 7 of them (only the Downtown Grand and MSS let us down). It was an unbelievable lucky streak and throwing in the upgraded suite at Suncoast just made for a perfect anniversary. We checked before we left Suncoast and had accumulated $180 free play/food to use next time.

We probably spent around $30 on 2 meals as the rest were comped. We bought only 1 drink the whole trip (a $10 chocolate martini at NYNY) but still managed to drink like fish. I don't even want to think how much we tipped but whatever it was, it was worth it!

So in the end, after all was said and done, I came home with all my gambling funds and an extra $300. I never did have to take more from my stash, the original $800 I pulled out the first night, carried me through the whole four days. I think the lowest I ever got was down to $400. My husband came home with his original fund and an extra $7400. We’ve made note of our lucky clothes and you can bet we’ll be wearing the same clothes next trip!

 

Very nice report. What a winning trip. Luck was certainly with you. I will have to check out Suncoast. I believe we have been there once but I think we need to make a trip out there. So glad you enjoyed your vacation.

 

Great trip. Thanks for the report. I haven't eaten at The D so far, but your pictures make me think I should give it a try.

It's the 113 you rode to the Suncoast? Sounds like it might be worthwhile to give it a try next trip.