UPDATE – the Suncoast Real Deal has been reinstated for 2019!  You can find more information HERE, but otherwise, give the rest of this post a read for my thoughts on it, and whether I think it’s a worthy splurge!

Have you heard about the Suncoast Casino Real Deal?

I’ll admit – I’d seen billboards, heard about it on East Coast Radio, but I’d never actually looked into it.  And once I did, I can’t believe I hadn’t tried it out before!

For only R199, you receive a booklet of the most amazing vouchers.  Meals for 2 people (at a selection of restaurants), movie tickets for 2 people, drinks for 2 people and other extras and discounts too!  I’m sure you all know the cost of going to the cinema these days (you might have to take out a loan or sell a kidney if you want to buy snacks to go with the tickets).  Sheer insanity!

This is such a fantastic idea for a date night – and so a date night the hubby and I had.

WHAT YOU GET FOR YOUR BUCKS

So, as I said – you pay R199 for the booklet of vouchers.  They’re valid for use between Sunday and Thursday, which means they aren’t for use on Fridays and Saturdays – obviously the casino’s peak times.  Not a problem, I think!

In return for that, you get the following: –

• Dinner for 2 at one of the selected 5 restaurants.  Each of the 5 restaurants provides a small set menu on the booklet of vouchers, so you can decide what you feel like and head there.  Drinks are not included unless specified.
• Movie tickets for 2.  This is just your tickets, and is only limited to 2D movies.  But hey – that’s still pretty good!  Full price movie tickets are R65 a pop at Suncoast so that’s a value of R130.
• Drinks for 2 at any casino bar.  This is from a list of selected drinks only, and one for each guest.  It includes Kway Cool drinks, local beers, tea and coffee.
• 2 x parking vouchers.  Not to be used on day of purchase (although this is pretty self explanatory, as you’ve already paid to get in by now anyway).
• A voucher for you and a partner to have a 30 minute back massage at Suncoast Towers Spa.  You pay R250pp – a reduced price, as they’re usually R400 – and save R150pp.
• A voucher for an extra R10 worth of tokens, when you buy R50 of tokens at The Magic Company arcade.  I actually prefer the arcade area to the actual casino, so loved this!
• A voucher for 20% off any Whizzer Cup at Milky Lane.  Discounted ice cream!

Sadly, this specific deal was only valid until the 30 November 2017, but I’m hoping that they’ll have a nice, new offer early in 2018 – I’ll keep you updated!

WHAT WE GOT UP TO 

We arrived at Suncoast, grabbed our booklet and headed straight to the cinema to see what was showing and book our movie.  We went with Murder on the Orient Express, as the cast sounded fabulous and it was based on the best-selling novel by Agatha Christie.  We just selected our show time and our seats, and tore out the voucher for the lady at the till (who patiently waited while I snapped a picture of the voucher itself).

We then checked out the restaurant options and their set menus, and went with Havana Grill.  Neither of us had eaten there before, and the other options were John Dory’s, Mimmos, Café Vigour and Spur.  All had delicious looking meal options, but we wanted to try somewhere new!  We’ve eaten at Café Vigour and loved it though – you can read about that HERE.

We settled down, and since we were absolutely famished, decided that we’d share a starter (the Jalapeno Poppers, R50) with our drinks.  Hubs opted for a shaken Margarita (R60) and I saw one of my favourite red wines was available by the glass and went with that – the Diemersfontein Pinotage (R60 per glass/R240 per bottle).

The Poppers were absolutely delicious, crispy, spicy and creamy, with a sauce to dip them into.  Filled with so much cheese too!

For mains, we went off the set menu with our voucher.  Hubby chose the 200g Sirloin Steak R130.  He had the option of chips or salad, and went with the salad.  He also opted to get an extra sauce on the side, and went with the Biltong and Cheese sauce at R30.  The steak was cooked exactly as he’d requested, and the salad had a lovely dressing on it.  The sauce actually tasted just like a warm, melty bowl of cheese-spread with biltong on top, and while that’s not exactly fine dining, we absolutely loved it.  Really great for dipping chips in, so he was pretty sad he’d gone with the healthier salad option.

I opted for the Chicken Curry with rice and a poppadum that WAS on the menu for R123, but seems to not be on their online menu now (perhaps they’ve refreshed their menu).  My meal was beautifully cooked and a really huge portion – I honestly couldn’t finish it!  Super delicious though.

We were so full that we couldn’t face dessert, and ended off our meal with a shot of Jagermeister each.  Yum!

We only had about 10 minutes until our movie started at this point, and headed straight back to the cinema.  There was just no space in our tummies for popcorn and sweets, so we skipped the queue and went straight into the movie house.

The film was absolutely amazing.  I thought that the cast was exceptional, and the way it was shot was so good that we were gripped throughout the whole film!  I love Johnny Depp especially, and he does an amazing job as the villain.  Our only negative thing was that the seats were not very comfortable.  We kept shuffling around trying to find a comfortable position.  Still worth it though, that’s how great the film was!

We sadly didn’t cash in on any of the other vouchers.  By the time our movie ended it was after 10pm, we were still too full for ice cream, and had a 30 minute drive home on a week night, so a drink and session in the arcade weren’t really an option (the life and times of an old married couple haha).  This wouldn’t have been an issue, as we could have come back to use the remaining vouchers, however the following day was the final day of use.  Super sad, but we totally loved the deal!  What we did use equated to R383, and the booklet is only R199!  Sure, we chose extras at dinner (which we would have done anyway) and we didn’t use all the vouchers, but the value for money is just outstanding!

When Suncoast relaunches the deal in the new year, we’ll definitely be returning for more.

Have you ever tried out the Suncoast Real Deal?  Do the entertainment centres or casinos in your area offer such great deals?

**DISCLAIMER – while I was treated to a complimentary Real Deal booklet on behalf of Suncoast, all opinions are honest and my own.**