We got an attractive offer from Harrah’s Saint Louis- free airfare and hotel for a four night stay. We are recovering from my wife’s diagnosis of breast cancer and treatment that involved a mastectomy so a rambling/gambling trip sounded great to us, and we booked. We live in the mid-west so travel time looked to be minimal, even including the connection through the Bermuda Triangle of air travel- Chicago.
A check on VPfree2 showed what looked like un-Harrah’s like playable video poker including 9/6 JOB in dollar denominations.
I worked a full day on Friday and then headed off to the airport. We ended up delayed in Chicago which is pretty much typical in our experience, however we were in Saint Louis a little after 10:00 pm with a Harrah’s provided vehicle waiting for us. The property is actually located in Maryland Heights, Missouri- far away from almost everything else. The property is clean and well maintained. Check in was easy and we soon found ourselves on sixth floor of the Mardi Gras tower. The room was spacious and clean although the view was of the parking lot. We are coffee addicts and we were pleased to see;
-An in room coffee maker
-Real china mugs
-Starbucks coffee packets
Naturally we immediately went down to scope out the casino. The casino is kind of spread out and has a non-smoking section although it is connected to the smoking section. Maybe this should be called “smoking” and “smoke reduced” although the Harrah’s terminology was “smoke free” and “smoke freely”. Drinks were not comped for players although only $3.50 each. They had self serve beverage stations for coffee and soft drinks. We found the JOB and started what turned out to be a long period of donations to Harrah’s bottom line. Eventually the day caught up with us and we tumbled off to our room.
We slept in until 10:00 am the next morning, and went to find some breakfast, only to learn that the buffet (called “eat up”) closes at 10:00 am. This is a bit narrow since they don’t open until 8:00 am. I did like the fact that the buffet entrance is marked with a giant fork in the floor. You have to take stairs or an escalator up to it. We went back to the little coffee shop (café Aroma) and learned that they were out of breakfast sandwiches so had coffee and pastries to start the day. Then off for a more leisurely evaluation of the casino. We found some uprights in the non-smoking area that listed their percent payback including BP, JOB and a variant called triple bonus poker although not a three play version of bonus poker. We saddled up but couldn’t hit anything worthwhile. I also prefer slant tops to the uprights although the uprights hold less smoker’s spoor.
We decided to hit the buffet early which featured “Shrimp-tastic Saturdays” and found a wide variety of shrimp dishes (surprise!) including coconut breaded fried shrimp which were excellent. Shrimp on a skewer were tough both to eat and get off the little wooden stick although they also had a good sliced prime rib at the carving station. Harrah’s also gets points for asking what you want to drink as you pay for the buffet so you don’t have to wait for the server to provide your drink order before heading to the trough.
Harrah’s was running multiple promotions and events while we were there and we got tickets to attend their version of the match game. The casino hosts provided the answers to questions players had to match and the contestants were called from the audience. It was all good fun with free cocktails and snacks provided. They also had a complicated promotion where you swiped your card at the promotion center and potentially won a chance to spin a large slot machine for prizes up to $500,000.00 Sonya’s swipe earned her a spin which resulted in a free buffet. Everyone won something from a lottery scratch off ticket and sometimes buffets or free play in the $5 to $10 range. Later in the trip I won a spin, and got a non-winning lottery ticket.
Our plans had included a visit to the Missouri Botanical Gardens however the weather turned with severe thunderstorms forecast throughout most of our trip. The thunder was so loud one night that Sonya couldn’t sleep and all the channels featured local news with maps showing colored areas of concern for tornado formation. I was impressed with a report of teacup sized hail but fortunately didn’t see any and no twisters developed.
Well- we know how to keep ourselves occupied in the casino and I will spare you the painful details of no jackpots and no significant wins. Sometimes it just goes that way.
We had dinner one night at Charlie Gitto’s- the Italian place which we thought was good. I had the clams with linguini and Sonya enjoyed a veal dish with lump crabmeat. The appetizer was fresh tomatoes sliced with cheese and balsamic vinegar.
The following night we ate at The Range. The special was a four ounce filet served with huge shrimp that looked like little lobsters. We both got the special and were amazed at how filling it was. The baked sweet potato was served with pecan butter- especially tasty. By the time we got through the soup and salad, it was slow going to get through the ample portions. No chance at dessert at either place- we were just too stuffed.
Staff were uniformly polite and friendly throughout the property. My only gripe other than not winning was the sad state of the ticket out dispensers on the VP machines. About ten times during our visit the ticket wouldn’t come out.
The drill is you then press “2” on the little keyboard and wait for the obviously very busy slot techs to show up. I found this unusual and a bad use of player’s and slot tech’s time.
Overall- we had a good time. We had an early morning flight out so we left the resort at 4:30 am- yawn and luckily had a quick connection in Chicago and then home to Iowa. We have an east coast trip planned in July (parents and Mohegan Sun) and then off to Vegas and San Diego (sons) in August. I will now go light candles at my video poker shrine.
Paul and Sonya from Iowa
A check on VPfree2 showed what looked like un-Harrah’s like playable video poker including 9/6 JOB in dollar denominations.
I worked a full day on Friday and then headed off to the airport. We ended up delayed in Chicago which is pretty much typical in our experience, however we were in Saint Louis a little after 10:00 pm with a Harrah’s provided vehicle waiting for us. The property is actually located in Maryland Heights, Missouri- far away from almost everything else. The property is clean and well maintained. Check in was easy and we soon found ourselves on sixth floor of the Mardi Gras tower. The room was spacious and clean although the view was of the parking lot. We are coffee addicts and we were pleased to see;
-An in room coffee maker
-Real china mugs
-Starbucks coffee packets
Naturally we immediately went down to scope out the casino. The casino is kind of spread out and has a non-smoking section although it is connected to the smoking section. Maybe this should be called “smoking” and “smoke reduced” although the Harrah’s terminology was “smoke free” and “smoke freely”. Drinks were not comped for players although only $3.50 each. They had self serve beverage stations for coffee and soft drinks. We found the JOB and started what turned out to be a long period of donations to Harrah’s bottom line. Eventually the day caught up with us and we tumbled off to our room.
We slept in until 10:00 am the next morning, and went to find some breakfast, only to learn that the buffet (called “eat up”) closes at 10:00 am. This is a bit narrow since they don’t open until 8:00 am. I did like the fact that the buffet entrance is marked with a giant fork in the floor. You have to take stairs or an escalator up to it. We went back to the little coffee shop (café Aroma) and learned that they were out of breakfast sandwiches so had coffee and pastries to start the day. Then off for a more leisurely evaluation of the casino. We found some uprights in the non-smoking area that listed their percent payback including BP, JOB and a variant called triple bonus poker although not a three play version of bonus poker. We saddled up but couldn’t hit anything worthwhile. I also prefer slant tops to the uprights although the uprights hold less smoker’s spoor.
We decided to hit the buffet early which featured “Shrimp-tastic Saturdays” and found a wide variety of shrimp dishes (surprise!) including coconut breaded fried shrimp which were excellent. Shrimp on a skewer were tough both to eat and get off the little wooden stick although they also had a good sliced prime rib at the carving station. Harrah’s also gets points for asking what you want to drink as you pay for the buffet so you don’t have to wait for the server to provide your drink order before heading to the trough.
Harrah’s was running multiple promotions and events while we were there and we got tickets to attend their version of the match game. The casino hosts provided the answers to questions players had to match and the contestants were called from the audience. It was all good fun with free cocktails and snacks provided. They also had a complicated promotion where you swiped your card at the promotion center and potentially won a chance to spin a large slot machine for prizes up to $500,000.00 Sonya’s swipe earned her a spin which resulted in a free buffet. Everyone won something from a lottery scratch off ticket and sometimes buffets or free play in the $5 to $10 range. Later in the trip I won a spin, and got a non-winning lottery ticket.
Our plans had included a visit to the Missouri Botanical Gardens however the weather turned with severe thunderstorms forecast throughout most of our trip. The thunder was so loud one night that Sonya couldn’t sleep and all the channels featured local news with maps showing colored areas of concern for tornado formation. I was impressed with a report of teacup sized hail but fortunately didn’t see any and no twisters developed.
Well- we know how to keep ourselves occupied in the casino and I will spare you the painful details of no jackpots and no significant wins. Sometimes it just goes that way.
We had dinner one night at Charlie Gitto’s- the Italian place which we thought was good. I had the clams with linguini and Sonya enjoyed a veal dish with lump crabmeat. The appetizer was fresh tomatoes sliced with cheese and balsamic vinegar.
The following night we ate at The Range. The special was a four ounce filet served with huge shrimp that looked like little lobsters. We both got the special and were amazed at how filling it was. The baked sweet potato was served with pecan butter- especially tasty. By the time we got through the soup and salad, it was slow going to get through the ample portions. No chance at dessert at either place- we were just too stuffed.
Staff were uniformly polite and friendly throughout the property. My only gripe other than not winning was the sad state of the ticket out dispensers on the VP machines. About ten times during our visit the ticket wouldn’t come out.
The drill is you then press “2” on the little keyboard and wait for the obviously very busy slot techs to show up. I found this unusual and a bad use of player’s and slot tech’s time.
Overall- we had a good time. We had an early morning flight out so we left the resort at 4:30 am- yawn and luckily had a quick connection in Chicago and then home to Iowa. We have an east coast trip planned in July (parents and Mohegan Sun) and then off to Vegas and San Diego (sons) in August. I will now go light candles at my video poker shrine.
Paul and Sonya from Iowa
