Wind Creek Casino & Hotel Wetumpka Brief Overview

Opened on December 18, 2013 the Wind Creek Casino & Hotel Wetumpka pulled out all the stops to impress the public (Partially thanks to their parent company PCI Gaming, headquartered in Atmore, AL. This blog report is just about my brief experience to the new facility today. Fact: Wind Creek Wetumpka is now Alabama's largest casino, yes, even larger than its sister property Wind Creek Atmore (WCA)in Atmore, AL; WCW has more than 500,000 sq. including the hotel, almost double the size of WCA which has 285,000 sq. I went to Wind Creek Wetumpka (WCW) earlier today along with a friend. First instinct was "shock and awe", out-doing the now closed Victoryland.

But back to WCW. The vibrant lighting fixtures reminds me of something you would see in Las Vegas (more specifically The Aria Resort & Casino at CityCenter Las Vegas. Of course with it being Christmas time there was a Christmas tree in the atrium near the entrance that was astonishing. It took me about a good 2-3 minutes just to view everything in the grand entrance.

As my guest and I continued inside, I noticed that there were a lot of “cash center" machines. I made change and the machine gave me some $20 bill (OLD SCHOOL $20 bills) the gaming and "cash center" machines had trouble taking them, so I had to find the cashier station. So I have to travel through this maze of aisles and finally asked a worker just to find the cashier (which by the way, was at the very end of the building. – On a side note I know why casinos are set up this way, It’s because they want you to get kind of lost so that you can keep playing. The same applies for the cashier, they are in the back so that once you cash out, you will have to travel back through the labyrinth (hoping you will stop and play again) just to get to an exit – Sorry, PCI Gaming, LOL. Anyway after I finally found a few machines that my friend and I liked, we decided to sit down and play. I stayed about 3 hours, and really enjoyed the new facility! While I was sitting down at a machine I noticed that there was a button on the machines that you can push and order a drink from your seat, Awesome!!!! (I enjoyed a strawberry smoothie LOL). As I stated a moment ago, I was there 3 hours and still didn't get a chance to see all the games. The bar in the middle was astounding, although the fish (shark) tank to be featured on Animal Planets hit show "Tanked", was not set up to be shown yet. This is a major upgrade from the former Creek Casino Wetumpka across the street, which will become a convenience store and banquet hall.

The only down side was that I lost over $250 :( So I may stay away for a while. I wish I could be hired as a photographer or videographer or even work in publicity for PCI Gaming Northern Properties (which include WCW and Creek Casino Montgomery (CCM)), because I would love to work in advertising and marketing, but unfortunately there are no positions open for that kind of job. As a last note, I tip my hat off to Cody Williamson, General Manager, Wind Creek Wetumpka. I have had a few conversations with him, and I can say he is doing an tremendous job.

Overall, I would say to anybody to take at least one visit to the new facility. It's unlike anything the State of Alabama has ever seen.

PCI Gaming family consists of gaming properties in Alabama and Florida. This includes Wind Creek Casino & Hotel in Atmore, AL, Creek Casino Montgomery in Montgomery, AL and Wind Creek Casino & Hotel in Wetumpka, AL as well as Mobile Greyhound Park, in Mobile, AL Pensacola Greyhound Track & Poker Room in Pensacola, FL and Creek Entertainment Gretna, a Horse racing & Poker facility in Gretna, FL.

Photos done by Cooper Photography, except for shot of Cody Williamson, and the old casino location.

Victoryland Oasis Buffet Review - Old Post - May 2010

THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010

Victoryland Oasis Buffet Review

Today I visited the Oasis Buffet at Victoryland in Shorter, Alabama. I must preface by saying that I am a waiter at another restaurant, and so I view the service in a different way.

Upon entering the restaurant you pay at the doorway. For me I payed the adult price of $12.95 for dinner, and with tax the total came to $13.92. My waitress' name was Erin, and her service was "par", not excellent but ok.

I started with getting a sweet tea (it wasn't all that sweet, but that's my personal taste). I got up to get a salad, and noticed that the ranch dressing was very "watered-down", this was not that big of a deal to me, but next time I would prefer it to be a little thicker. While I was going to the next [buffet]line, I saw that there were a lot of workers just standing around. I started to become uncomfortable only because the workers that were standing behind the line were just staring at me. They were not doing anything, and all I kept thinking was "is there something on my face?" Because of this, I ended up skipping this line and moved to the next. As a waiter/restaurant worker, I am taught that you must always find something to do, don't just stand around. These people were literally "getting paid to do nothing".

So anyway, I got macaroni & cheese, dressing(stuffing), collard greens, a piece of tilapia, a chicken finger, grapes, and two desserts - sweet potato pie, and some kind of "dry" chocolate cake. All of the food was pretty good, with the exception of the dry cake lol. I would have liked to get some meat on my plate other than the chicken finger and piece of fish, but remember the line that I told you the workers were standing around at, that was the line with most of the meat on it.

My server was (like I said) ok, she gave refills with out me asking which was good. In addition to a lot of line workers standing around, there were also two cashiers, and two servers. To me this is too many people worker in relation to the number of customers. There were a total of 4 parties(tables) with no more than 3 people each, including myself(party of 1). At the restaurant that I work at, if the same number of people were in the restaurant, there would only be one cashier, one server and one cook, working at the same time, and the service (I have to say) would be good. I think at the Oasis Buffet, this is wasted money! When you have workers just standing around, you are just wasting money.

I ended up sitting around for a while to see if my waitress would kind of rush me along (or turn over the table - even though the restaurant was empty), fortunatly she did not, so I left her a 20% tip, and rounded it to $3.

Overall I would go back to the restaurant, just to see if the service would be any better. Anybody considering to eat here should give it a try, only to see if you may like it. I don't really see the hype about this place that local people (and I am local myself) like about it. I didn't even feel comfortable, and the restaurant does not have that "cozy local" type feel. There is really nothing that sets this restaurant apart from any other buffet. I guess that's because I have been to quite a few restaurants, and my major is Hospitality Management, so I have had better restaurant experiences.

On a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the best, I give it a 3.

Photos done by Cooper Photography.