Amanda Talks Travel

On February 22, my husband, Dustin and I took a bus trip from Muskegon, MI to Little River Casino in Manistee, MI and then continued on for an overnight stay in Petoskey at Odawa Casino Resort.  There were two buses that went on our trip:  a motor coach bus and a limousine bus.  Dustin and I were fortunate enough to get on the limousine bus which was booked through Affordable Limousine out of Grand Rapids.  Justin was our driver and he also had his wife, Samantha (Sam), accompany him on the trip.  Justin and Sam were adorable, polite, and fun.  The limo bus was comfortable and also made it easy to have a conversation with everyone on the bus and not just the person sitting next to you which is what happens on a coach bus.  The only negative about the trip was that the DVD player wasn’t working for the TV.  It was a long 5.5 hour each way bus trip without a movie to watch.  To Justin’s credit, he did everything possible to try to get it to work and was very apologetic for it not working.  It wasn’t his fault and we were all very understanding of that.  In some areas of Northern Michigan the roads weren’t that great because of the weather conditions, but I never felt unsafe the way that Justin handled the roads.

Little River Casino we have been to several times.  On this trip we spent just over 3 hours there.  They had a drawing going every hour so we were really hoping someone from the trip (60+ people) would win one of them, but no one did.  But that’s all part of the gamble.  The staff at Little River is always very friendly and easy to talk to.  We each received some free play money and $5 in food credit for coming in on the bus.  Dustin and I decided to eat at the Heron at the River for lunch.  I ordered the Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich and he ordered Prime Rib Chili in a bread bowl.  We both really liked our food and would order both again.  My sandwich was a bit messy and easier to eat with a knife and fork.  It was also a bit heavy for lunch, but that wouldn’t stop me from ordering it again.  Dustin commented that they could have fit a little more chili into his bread bowl, but it wasn’t a big deal.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice with sounds of the running water going through the inside garden that the restaurant overlooks.  After lunch we played some more slots and broke just about even.  The slots there are updated frequently enough that we usually have a few new machines to play each time we go.

We arrived in Petoskey at Odawa in the evening and checked in to our hotel.  The Odawa hotel is located off the property of the casino.  There is a shuttle that runs all day between the two, but I still find it a bit of an inconvenience than having it connected to each other.  This was our second time to the casino and hotel at Odawa. This time our room was located on the first floor of the hotel with a view of the parking lot.  The room was nice, but nothing to rave about.  There was a mini fridge in it that I didn’t remember from before, so that was a welcomed addition.  Being on the first floor it was a bit noisy, but that is to be expected in any hotel first level room.  My biggest complaint about the hotel room was that it seemed to be impossible to get the room temperature up to a comfortable temp.  I kept turning up the thermostat and the furnace was blowing, but it didn’t seem to get much warmer.  I didn’t bother complaining to the front desk though because it wasn’t unbearable, it was just colder than I would have liked.  It was only 4 degrees outside, so I was just chilled to the bone and needed extra heat to warm up than I normally would have needed.

The casino appeared to have added many more slot machines than when we were there previously.  Saving…. to be continued….