Grand Victoria (Indiana) - TR

I went before Mothers Day and was a tad late for posting.....

The Grand Victoria is a 4 floor boat in Rising Sun Indiana, about a 90 minute drive from my house. It took me a touch longer as I took a very scenic route (all 4 hours of it). The trip was uneventfull as it was overcast and didn't start raining until I got to Indiana. As anybody in this area (Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana) can tell you, our weather forcast is a four letter word, R A I N. We've gotten about 30" of it since the 1st of April. If this continues, the road near the Ohio River, will be impassable. The water line on some sections are less than a few feet from the road.

The only problem with the drive is this nasty habit that Ohio and Indiana seem to share when it comes to state route signs. They are few and very far between them. Some are located 5 to 10 miles apart and some are about every few blocks. Once you get on Route 56, the signs mark the area very well.

You drive through the golf course on route to the hotel and casino, it looked real nice but with the rain, it was quite the soggy mess. Check in was a breeze and within a minute, I shuffled off to room 373. A non smoking room, which is the first for me since I quit back in November. The view overlooked the golf course and the nice stream running down it. I could have gotten a river side view, with extra bathroom stuff and 2 buffets for an extra $20, but since the river was a nice murky brown, I didn't think the bathroom stuff and 1 buffet was worth it.

The room had 2 queen sized beds, a 27" tube tv, and a coffee pot. Its a new type with a disposable filter and holder. So its a simple matter of opening up the package, putting it in the coffee pot, and pouring the correct amount of water and in a minute, coffee. Bathroom fare was the typical stuff. No name brand or anything.

The casino (boat) is rather small compared to Hollywood (former Argosy), but you did hear quite a few jackpot dingers going off, so somebody was winning money. The entire casino was about as big as El-Cortez, just on 4 floors. On the fourth floor, they had a host station. I got a pic of it but was promptly told no pictures by one of their security folks. I complied, so no pics of the inside of the rest of the boat(casino).

The gambling was great in spots and bad in others. The craps table was back and forth and then acted like the name of the table. A bright spot, the crew asked for your players card when you first bought your chips. They didn't have to do it, but you at least got some points on the card for your play. After dinner I went over to the penny Monopoly slot and stuck a twenty in it. Seems like that rich guy had a soft spot and allowed me to win some cash off of him. I hit the bonus round and picked up 9,000 credits, which I played down to an even 10,000 and cashed out. Next, I cruised over to a $1 slot and hit that one for $115. A few minutes later I found a shamrock penny slot and hit that one for $99. I then crusied back over to the table games area and found a slot that had the blazing 7's with a devil and a diamond. You got to the bonus round if you hit either the diamonds or the devils. Well, I hit the diamonds and cashed out at $22.50. So, for an $80 investment, I won a tad more than $300 bucks.

The rest of the night was more of a give and take kinda thing. The slots took and gave back little. Oh well, I came back with something.

Food: The dinner buffett wasn't bad at all. They had listed baked salmon, but they had BBQ'd salmon instead. The rest of the fare was ok. They had oven roasted turkey w/dressing, ham, meatloaf, steak (cooked to order), baked talipia, liver and onions, salmon, plus the typical veggies and deserts. I had the liver and onions, mashed taters and gravy, and veggies, plus the talipia and desert(ice cream). The food was nice and hot, service was prompt, and the food tasted ok.

Breakfast, on the other hand wasn't good at all. The scrambled eggs was the highlight on an other wise crappy meal. I made the GOD awful mistake of putting the sausage gravy on top of the home fries, which made them taste like crap. The sausage links had an off flavor and ruined any decent taste they had.

Conclusions: I'll be back, as I like the feeling of the place. It's nice to see and hear people actually winning, which make me want to gamble in the hopes I might win something.

Chef, Thanks for writing! Great thing about casinos is the weather outside doesn't matter. Sounds like you had a few decent hits.

Hey, thats the first local wins I've had.

With our weather, a sunny day is like winning the lotto.

Very nice report, thank you for sharing.

Appreciate the trip report---wife and I are planning a trip to the Belterra/Hollywood/Grand Vic area in a month or two and so we really appreciate the info. Belterra is a little pricey on hotel prices----do you think the Hollywood or GVic hotel is preferred? Thanks again.

Grand Vic is lower priced on rooms than Hollywood. Your best bet would be to stay there and use that as your base. The travel time between the 3 isn't too far so staying at Grand Vic shouldn't be a problem. I don't know about the view at Belterra, but between Hollywood and Grand Vic, the Vic wins out.

I've never stayed at Hollywood so I can't comment on their rooms, but I've stayed many times at both Belterra and GV. GV is a Hyatt, (or at least was and it appears it still is, but they recently went through an ownership change so they may not be in the future), and the rooms are relatively large, but there isn't a lot of "pizazz" to them; its a basic, but "nice", hotel room. Its a low rise building with three levels and is shaped like a "V", with "views" of either the parking lot, the center of the "V", or towards the river. I've never been on the 3rd floor, and I can't recall being on the 1st either, and other than one stay many, many years ago where I had a river "view", (you can't see much), and once when I faced the "V" I've always gotten the parking lot. There is an indoor pool, and I think a little exercise area as well. All parking is surface, (no garage), but there is a valet.

The Belterra is a tower, perhaps 20 floors or so, but its far enough off the river that you can't see much from any room I've been in. They added on a few years ago so there are new rooms and old rooms, and I think its the old rooms that are the nicer ones. The "regular" rooms are OK, nothing special, but the other ones are pretty sweet. The baths have double doors and a whirlpool tub with a separate glass shower and there is a TV in the bathroom. The rooms are not huge, but big enough. I don't know how they hand them out but I've never used the $20 trick and in all but one stay, (on a very crowded night), I've been given the nicer rooms. They have a spa, an outdoor pool that I've only seen from my window but looks pretty nice, and a fitness center. The parking is a 3 level garage, with valet on the lower level.

I've eaten many times at both buffets and give the edge to the one at Belterra. I thought everything was prepared with just a little more attention there than at GV. I've always liked the GV casino over most any other I've been in because it has WINDOWS, and a unique center section where the escalators are that is open. The Belterra has two levels, GV has 4. As I recall Belterra has a non-smoking section in the front of the top level, GV has a non-smoking section in the front of the lowest level.

Thanks guys, we appreciate the information a bunch. We live in central IL and last year we went to French Lick, Aztar in Evansville, and Horseshoe Southern In, but didn't make it over to B-Terra etc. But, like I said, we plan on that trip in the near future. Thanks again.

Very nice trip report, Chef, thanks for sharing.

And by the way, congratulations on quitting smoking. Everyone knows how hard that is. Way to go, buddy!

Try doing it at the same time as not drinking.

The nice thing, I was out cold for about the first 10 days so all of the nicotine was out of my system once I woke up.

TsuDoNihm - Hollywood is a multistory building but the bad point is the location. Its a long walk to the casino, GV was a quick elevator ride down and a very short walk and your gambling.