take any bus to a casino and they'll give you at least $25 in slot play. go to a more struggling casino and you can get more (trop will add on discount food vouchers, resorts will give 30, ac club will give 30 and food vouchers, taj was giving out 35 and food voucher but that may have stopped). buses don't go to borgata or revel (high end resorts). i usually take a bus to any casino, find a video poker machine, play my comp dollars and cash out, then go play poker at revel or borgata.

play a good 6 hours or so a day at borgata and you'll start getting free weekdays and discount weekends (but still a couple hundred for summer weekend nights)

play 10 hours at revel and earn a free weekend night.

apparently if you put in a few long sessions at taj you'll get some free weekend offers. specific weekends offered by mail. this is second hand info... i've never gotten them and haven't played a lot there in the last 5 years.

pretty tough to get get free rooms at ceasars properties (showboat, caeasars, harrahs, ballys) but check with any of the rooms for a discount (play a certain amount of hours... get a special rate).

same with tropicana, call the poker room and get a poker rate for playing a certain amount of hours.

i wouldn't put golden nugget at the top of your list for poker action. borgata is king. will pretty much always have more games then the rest of the ac combined and is extremely well run and pretty luxurious. the only room that can match it in comfort and service is revel. revel won't have as many games though but has great action most weekends. it's my preferred room on weekends now. (borgata and revel are also the "nicest" casinos in ac... with golden nugget, harrahs and caesars also being "nice").

after borgata and revel... imo the second tier of rooms are: harrahs (near borgata), showboat (near revel) and tropicana (far end of boardwalk).

i used to take academy or greyhound about 50/50 depending on which was leaving when i wanted and going near where i wanted. now i almost always take greyhound unless it's full.

it's true, academy cut a lot of their buses. i heard they were going to increase their schedule for the summer though, but haven't seen it yet. i usually grab a 2am bus back and academy no longer offers that. so it's either the midnight bus or wait till 4am. (greyhound buses are also nicer, have bathrooms and often wifi).

but.... they are both crowded. if coming back at a normal hour on a weekend, greyhound OR academy it's a good idea to line up early. so far this year i've had to wait for the "next bus" twice as the one i tried to get on was full. this isn't a problem when it's not summer or during the weekend. but on summer weekends you need to get to your gates early to get on the bus.

in answer to your question, yes greyhound has more buses running more often. it's just as crowded... BUT if you miss a bus you won't have to wait as long for the next one usually.

they both get the same comps at the casinos. i think the 35 plus food voucher for the taj was a promo they had for a while. i think it's back to just 25 now.

the food vouchers you'll get at tropicana, atlantic club (and sometimes resorts and taj) are usually 10 or 15 dollars off the buffet or other restaurants. i don't pick buses based on which casinos they're going to... i pick it based on the time they're leaving. but if it happens to be making a stop at atlantic club i always get off there since i can end up getting a buffet for 10 bucks and they have a good amount of high-odds video poker to use the 30 dollars in comps they give. then i either walk or take a jitney to revel or borgata.

i have no idea where to see/verify what comps are offered at each casino. my data is just from experience. i know they give better offers to buses that travel further. tropicana gives free buffets and more comp money to the buses that come from pittsburgh.

good luck.

my "usual" weekend is either bus down after work friday back wee hours of morning saturday, or bus down early saturday back wee hours of morning sunday.

when i earn the free rooms at revel i always book them for a weekend in the future and usually get friday and saturday in a row then come down with my wife or some buddies for a more social trip. once in a while the wife and i will take a day off work use a weekday comp room at the borgata waterclub and enjoy their pool.

the buffets at showboat and borgata are great (and showboat isn't as great as it used to be since they took away the lobster, reduced the amount times they put out crab legs and raised their prices... but it's still very good). all the others are "ok" and small. but they're still buffets. just eat some of the stuff that looks good and eat a lot!

yeah... if you get dropped at the atlantic club and walk to the taj.. you get $5 more (and a cheaper meal). but it's like a 20-30 minute walk (on the boardwalk though so a nice walk). if you have a bag/suitcase you might not want to walk. you can take a jitney for 2.25 but then you're only really gaining 3.75 by getting off at atlantic club and you're losing time.

resorts give 30 too though... so if you can get off there it's also near taj.

I always take Greyhound Lucky Streak, the buses leave frequently and all offer bonuses. They are open return, which is very convenient. I've also found that they are open departure as well, just buy any ticket online and line up downstairs when you get to Port Authority. All the casinos I've been dropped off at gave a $25 slot voucher, but I've heard that the Taj offers $30

that's the same for academy... just not quite as many buses... and greyhound is $2 or $7 more depending on when you leave. but i too almost always take greyhound now for the convenience of the more return buses.

www.luckystreakbus.com

Bring the card you paid with to Port Authority and pick them up at will call (near the top of the escalator down to the greyhound wing)

I've never had anyone hassle me about taking the next Greyhound if I missed one and I've gotten on earlier buses than I reserved many times as well. I believe the return ticket is good for 4 days from the date you chose. The greyhound road rewards program throws me 10% discounts sometimes and you can earn miles towards free trips

i just buy them at port authority. if you buy your ticket on a friday or saturday evening greyhound charges 5 bucks more (but like other poster said, you could just pick a non-peak time and then line up for any bus).

for greyhound you can buy or pick up tickets at the gate (79 or 80) on the lower level of the north building, or at the greyhound ticketing counter on the middle level of the north building or main level of the south building.

for academy you can buy your ticket at the gate (1) on the lower level of the south building or at the main ticket counters on the main level of the south building.

When you buy the ticket from greyhound (online or in person) you pay for the entire roundtrip upfront. You can book a trip that is longer than 4 days if you like. I'm not sure if Academy is just as lenient as Greyhound when it comes to missing your scheduled bus

i have never bought my bus ticket online so i don't know how much you can save or what happens if you miss the bus... let me know what you know!

academy is 36 (if you join their frequent bus rider program you get a free one for every 10 round trips)

greyhound is normal 37 plus the 1 dollar gas charge they've started adding on

4 day return policy is same for academy.

also note of difference... academy stops at cheesequake rest stop to pick up more passengers on the way down and usually sits there about 5 - 10 minutes. drops off on the way back but that only takes a minute.

greyhound usually stops at bus terminal but almost always after the casinos and also sits there for 5-10 minutes.

result: greyhound will get you to the casinos a little faster. academy will get you home a little faster.

My experience with Greyhound booking online is that you pick any date you like for the return (could be same day, 4 days, 7 days, whatever) and you can use that return ticket to go back anytime. For example, I booked a trip with the same day return, decided to get a room, and used it to go back the day after instead with no issue.

You can leave earlier or later with Greyhound as far as I know. You can definitely leave from any casino served by Lucky Streak or you can even leave from the AC bus terminal (where all the Lucky Streak buses headed for Port Authority stop after the casinos on their way out)

the only confusing difference in this aspect is that greyhound makes you specify your return trip (to appease their ticketing systems i would guess), but you can use it for any return bus from any casino for 4 days just like academy. you are not at all obligated to go back on the return bus you picked. in fact, you may not even get a seat on that bus (but i would imagine if you complained hard enough you could make an argument that you have a reserved seat on that specific bus).

once a greyhound bus is filled, it's filled. they don't pull people off, so if you need to leave on a specific bus get there >10 mins early to line up

and yes i believe you can book a return ticket for 2 months out and use it to come back whenever

Greyhound is $41 on Friday nights. Also, about the "have to show up for a specific bus when you leave for AC," that is only when you book Academy via Megabus. Megabus offers cheaper tickets on more off peak times (and I think slightly cheaper even on peak times) but you book in advance for a bus at a specific time.

I've seen a few people talk about getting a meal voucher at Taj after taking the bus?? I've gone many times over the last few months and almost always take the 3PM Saturday Academy bus to Taj and I've never gotten a food voucher, just $35 in slot play. Note: Trump Plaza does not give $35 like Taj does, only $25 like most other places.

On May 25 I went to Resorts and got $25 in slot play and a $10 food voucher (only usable at the buffet).

Just within the last month, I saw someone show up for the 3PM Saturday Academy bus with a 6PM Megabus ticket and they did not let her on, even though the bus was not full. She also paid a few $$ more when purchasing from Megabus than the regular Academy ticket price.

i didn't get a food voucher at taj 3 weeks ago and i remember because i was surprised. i got one a month or two before that and ate at the buffet.

good to know about resorts. they're making a lot of changes with their new director and partnership with mohegan sun. hopefully they can turn that place around.

Whats the latest on properties doing Tier matches? Is there a list anywhere?

Interesting. I've been taking that 3PM Taj bus exclusively since December and I've never gotten a food voucher.

wow

i think i'll be sticking with greyhound. they do charge $41 on friday if you purchase in the terminal, but if you purchase online at www.luckystreakbus.com i've found it's always the same price regardless of day or time

so there is def a problem with boarding greyhound busses on peak times (peak times are also 4am on a saturday morning as most people on that bus have no money for a hotel room). I found some of the times you need to be there 40m early. last time the line was ridicilous and the bus was already half-full when it arrived so greyhound send another bus right after. worst case scenario really is if you wait at AC bus terminal that you miss 1 bus and then board the next so wait time is 30m to 1h. busses from bally's or caesars are most prone to being full.

don't by tickets at the greyhound terminal as you end up not getting the slot play which adds up if you go every week. if you buy online it's always $39 and $25 slot play for CET properties.

you get the slot play if you buy at the greyhound terminal, but you have to pick the middle buying option, not the top buying option when you're presented with the prices on the screen.

I have a comped premium room at showboat 7/25-7/28, my question is are there any suites there with 2 beds, and being platinum, would the $20 trick work to get a complimentary upgrade? I know most suites only have a king bed though. Thanks for any info

im not 100% sure about this but i believe the only suite that the showboat offers is their house of blues studio which is 1 king bed, its about a 0% chance the $20 trick would get you this room