Golden Gate 6-7pm madhouse

I just experienced the 6-7pm Golden Gate madness of having an open bar and handing out envelopes of freeplay to every One club member who shows up with ID and card in hand.  It's total organized madness for the first 15 minutes, and after that it's just a crowded room of people and machines.  They take your One card at the players club and then you wait a minute or two before they call your name to pick it up along with a golden envelope. My freeplay ticket inside (careful opening it so as to not destroy the ticket) was for $25, and was quickly eaten by a slot machine with pretty lights and explosion sounds.  I would have used it on VP at the bar but too many people crowding it made that a bad choice .  I don't know if the voucher is only good for 6-7pm, but it may be. The open bar sticks to the basics for the most part-two ingredients or less it seems, and who can blame them.  Must have had 8 bartenders working.  I opted for bourbon neat (Larceny).  Couldn't stand how loud it was in there so I left to use my Pop Up Pizza LVA coupon at the Plaza.  Is Derek Stevens on a mission to make everyone deaf?  So that's my experience.  Good, but unnecessarily loud.

Appreciate the report, Neil.  Best of luck in LV. 

I think Derek might be deaf, all his properties run at 140 decibels.   I think once the free play and open bar ends his new Golden Gate Arcade will be 1/3 full if he's lucky.  I can see people still playing VP there if the odds are good, but really, what is the draw to a soulless raft of blinky light tables?

Did the GG deal again tonight with a much better outcome.  When they call your name and you pick up your golden ticket (like Charlie in Willy Wonka), they also tell you not to open it until 7:15.  Didn't do that, immediately opened it and found a $50 ticket inside.  Played it through some chicken egg slot at $5/pull.  Walked out with $40 cash.  Thanks Derek!  I don't see not doing this every day while I'm here.  I was in the GG at 6:20 and out by 6:35.  Skipped the open bar.

A post so nice, you posted it  tw.........six times.  LOL.  Major site glitch.

Yeah, bad connection where I am.  Looks like I successfully deleted the extras.

So it looks like the free play and open bar from 6-7 is a permanent (until the bean counters deem it a loss), so in a way, it's a brilliant promo to get kids into his arcade, at least for an hour.  I'm heading back to Fremont in a month so I'll check it out if it's still ongoing.

We can use this thread to keep people up to date on what's going on with it and if and when it closes. 

I am staying at the Golden Gate on September 29.  Hope it lasts until then!!

They should give you double free play!

You probably already know this but:

Try to get an internal room or one facing the back of the building where the valet is.  If you are even close to Fremont that Main Street stage is extremely loud at Golden Gate and last time a friend had a room there they had 100 year old single pane windows and it was front row stage sound until 1am.  Probably the loudest room on Fremont bar none!