Windsor Casino & Hotel Girl's Night Out
Written: May 12 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good service, well maintained gaming area, good food
Cons: Under construction which made it not very attractive and a nuisance to get around.
The Bottom Line: Great for a getaway, the casino is good and offers lots of food choices, spa and pool
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| susiee's Full Review: Casino Windsor Hotel, Windsor, Ontario |
The Windsor Casino has been a favorite gaming destination for my family for a while. The casino was around before Detroit opened its casinos, and at this time is the only one with its own hotel attached to the casino.
Recently a group of my friends and I spent the weekend at the Windsor Casino for a Girls Weekend. To my surprise, the hotel books up quickly on the weekends; I had planned the trip for one weekend and couldn't actually get rooms for two nights for 6 weeks from the time I called.
We booked a Bachelorette's Package, which is a very good deal. For $299 a night Canadian, including taxes, you get a room, $40 in casino tokens, four room service breakfasts (total of $60 value, which was more than enough food for 4), and passes to an area nightclub and a discount pass for an area restaurant. Since the room itself was $279 plus tax for the night, this was worth the cost.
Valet parking for hotel guests is free, and there was plenty of staff on hand to unload our stuff and take it up to our room.
Check in time was 4 p.m., but we arrived at 3 and were able to check in with no trouble. At check in, the concierge noticed we had brought a case of beer and offered to bring up a "bar fridge" to our room (no cost for this, either).
The Room
The room was fairly large, with two double beds. We did feel there was more than enough room to have had two queen beds instead, but doubles were what it came with. In addition to the beds, there was a small table with two chairs, a nightstand, a dresser with a tv, and a very large closet. Inside the closet was a room safe.
The bathroom had both a shower stall and a tub, and was very well lit and clean. Little amenities such as soaps, shampoos, and lotion were provided as well as a hair dryer. Real glasses were available instead of disposable plastic cups, a nice touch.
The Food
Shortly after arrival, we headed to the Market Buffet for dinner. The Market Buffet has a very interesting selection. You can start at the Fresh Salad Bar, then move on to the Bread and Soup Company for an assortment of breads and soups. The Seafood bar really impressed my friends (I'm not a seafood person, so didn't have anything from there). They particularly enjoyed the sushi. An Asian section had tons of different stir fry dinners, another section had tons of pasta, veal parmigian, and other Italian dishes. The grill offered beef, barbecue chicken, grilled salmon and more. The dessert section was the largest I've seen at a buffet! It was awesome with choices of different kinds of cakes, pies, cookies, ice cream, fruit, and you can customize your desserts with different toppings. It was pricey, though, at $24.95 per person for dinner, despite the signs in the casino stating $21.95 for the Buffet.
The second day we had dinner at the Terrace Cafe. This was much more reasonably priced, with huge portions. The menu ranges from breakfast, to huge burgers, ribs, seafood, steak, chicken, sandwiches and more. For under $10 each, we all had dinners which we couldn't finish because the portions were so large. These are meals that can easily be shared and fill up two people, which we did the next day for lunch.
If you want fancy dining, the Riverside Grille is the place to go. We didn't dine there on this visit, but my husband and I have been there in the past. It has a wonderful view of the Detroit River and skyline. The menu is varied and they have over 50 different wine selections. It's an expensive meal, but the food has been outstanding on our visits.
If you want just a quick bite or a snack, the Pronto Cafe on the second floor is the place to go. It offers pizza, sandwiches and snacks.
One restaurant I haven't visited is Cache. This exclusive restaurant is for Premier and Preferred Club Players, and has only limited seating available to the general public. It has the type of menu I tend to avoid with things like Lobster Nicoise and Muscovy Duck Breast.
Our package included room service breakfast for 4, with our choice of anything on the room service menu. We each ordered a meal, and were astonished by the amount of food. We could have easily shared 2 meals between the four of us and still had food left over. Room service delivered very quickly, we ordered at 9:30 a.m. and had the food by 10 a.m. It arrives on a cart with insulated boxes on the bottom, and the cart itself has wings which open up to a fairly large table. My one friend kept raving about how the sausage was the best she'd ever had. The food was accompanied by a large collection of little tiny jars of peanut butter, ketchup, jelly and jam, which were really cute (and we took a bunch home as they would be great for camping trips).
The Casino
The casino and hotel are under construction for remodeling. It used to have a beautiful fountain at the main entrance to the casino, but that is gone. Everywhere we went we found signs telling us that a new grander casino was coming soon, with big temporary walls blocking our way. This was probably the only negative part of the visit.
The slot machines were well maintained, I saw very few machines that were "down" other than an area closed off for an upcoming tournament. About half of the slot machines issued and accepted "tickets" instead of coins. However I found that machines that took tickets did not accept tokens, and ones that took tokens didn't take tickets, which made it hard to roam around switching machines.
Service for the machines was very quick, if you needed change or the machine ran out of tokens for payoffs. However, getting a drink was another thing entirely. My group ended up regularly returning to our room just to get a glass of water, since we had very little success in getting a waitress and a drink. Strangely, very late at night (after 3 a.m.), we suddenly having waitresses offering drinks every 10 minutes, so maybe it was just too crowded earlier in the evening.
The casino has a Poker Place with 15 tables offering various games of poker with table minimums starting at $3 to $6 (depending on the time and day). There was also Baccarat, Black Jack, Caribbean Stud Poker, Craps, Roulette, Let It Ride, Pai Gow, Spanish 21 and 3 Card Poker.
Entertainment
The Showtime Lounge was closed during the construction, so the entertainment factor was small. There was a band playing in the Melodies lounge/bar area. Also in the lobby area we were entertained by a single man playing multiple instruments all stuck on his body, singing country songs.
The Spa
One of my requirements for any Girls Weekend is a visit to a spa and the Windsor Casino has its own spa. Martin's Coiffeur and Spa is a full service spa offering hair styling, pedicures, manicures, makeup services and a variety of massages. I opted for an hour long Relaxation Massage, and it was wonderful. The cost for this was $110 Canadian.
The Pool and Health Club
Guests of the hotel are welcome to use the Health Club and pool during their stay. The website told us that it was open from 6 am until midnight, however, on Saturday night, the pool and club closed at 10 p.m. We had a security guard in the pool area every 5 minutes from 9:30 until 10 p.m. telling us that it was closing soon, which kind of ruined our last half hour there.
Overall
Overall, we had a wonderful relaxing time. The room was comfortable, the food was good, the staff was friendly. We would have preferred bigger beds, and the construction was a minor inconvenience, but when it's finished, things should be great!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
susiee
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