Description: We stayed here for my fathers 60th birthday. We had 4 rooms, and all were excellent. They are very well done. They were all very comfortable and attractively decorated.
Parking is free and plentiful. No need to use the valet unless you really want to. There are a few entrances to the hotel from the parking lot, so you're never too far from a door.
Check in was painless and fast, although they were having trouble with their keycard system during our stay, so one of our keys didn't work, and we were locked out of our room several times during our stay...it was quickly fixed with a stop at the front desk for a new key, but it was annoying.
We didn't really try any of the onsite restaurants as my parents are locals, and they have a few local favorites that they took us to, so I can't comment too much, although we did grab a slice of pizza from the Top Hat Deli. It wasn't bad, but wasn't anything to write home about.
The Casino was great. The whole place is smoke free (which is wonderful), and they were always opening new gaming tables, so it wasn't much trouble to find room...even as a large group. The staff is REALLY nice, and very helpful. We really enjoyed some of the dealers and wait staff. They were a lot of fun.
One note here if you are a drinker. The alcohol is VERY highly controlled here. You are not allowed more than 1 drink every 20 minutes. They are VERY strict on this rule, and they have security monitoring it constantly. If you try to be sneaky and go to different bartenders, security will pull you aside, and ask you to adhere to the policy. You can’t even get a drink for a friend…only 1 drink at a time. From what I understand (our dealer was explaining this to us) it is against Illinois Law to gamble while intoxicated, so the Casino is responsible for making sure you’re not drunk. The bartenders are fired no questions asked for serving a drunk patron. So if that is what you are looking for, this isn’t the place to go.
We tried to go see the free comedy show, but when we arrived, 10 minutes before show time, it was already full and they wouldn't let us in. So probably plan to get there early, especially if you want good seats. Also, note that you are not allowed to bring a drink from the casino into the comedy club...they sell more expensive drinks in there, so they don't want you buying the cheap ones at the casino and bringing them in.
A couple of minor annoyances we had are:
1) The water temp in the showers fluctuated wildly, so throughout your shower you had to adjust the water temp constantly...this was especially annoying when you had shampoo running into your eyes and you had to quickly find the knob to stop the scalding or freezing water. This issue was consistent across all 4 of the rooms we had, so I assume it's a hotel wide issue.
2) The bathrooms are laid out with the shower on one side of the room, a sink/vanity area in the center, and a toilet room on the opposite side. For some strange reason, the towel hooks were placed in the toilet room instead of near the shower...so after your shower you had to drip all the way across the freezing tile floor to get to your towel...very strange...why didn't they put something near the shower to hang your towel on??
Lastly, just a couple of things to be aware of before booking a room. The shower is surrounded by a frosted glass window into the room...so if you're traveling with friends or children, just note that everyone in the room can see your silhouette as you are showering...and even more if you get too close to the glass.
Also, the bathroom door is a sliding "barn door" which is very hip-and-trendy looking, BUT, it doesn't provide much privacy...if you are using the toilet, everyone in the room can "hear" you, so we had to leave the TV on whenever we went into the bathroom to get a little privacy.
All in all though, it was a great hotel, especially for the Quad City area, so I'd highly recommend it, and I'll certainly stay there again.
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