Texas Gramma Las Vegas Christmas to New Years 2013.

Good... the trip on American Airlines from DFW to McCarran was very good... especially when compared with our nightmare trip last year on Spirit Airlines. Believe me, it was worth the extra price. We checked bags at the curb with no hassle. Last year, flying on Spirit, we had to wait over half an hour for a person to check one bag in... they decided they needed a a 30 minute break right in the middle of checking bags!
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The security check was competent but fast.. it helped that I was pushed in a chair allowing me and my son to go to the head of the line at security.. also we took “choice” on American which allowed us to be in the 1st boarding... it’s a small upgrade but not expensive... it allows you to change flights without a penalty, extra bag, 1st boarding, etc.
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We arrived at Mc Carran where the D sent a limo to pick us up. Especially nice in the late evening to have no hassle with cabs. We had 2 lovely rooms at The D. Mine was equipped with special features for older people like bars in the shower, so I could feel secure. It’s room 2525... nice mattress, couch, TV, dining table, chairs, refrigerator and great view!
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Enjoyed gambling at The D... did not win at slots, but had some good luck at Freebet Blackjack, which I had not played before, but loved immediately. This trip I played more table games, after practicing online for months. This included Pai Gow Mania, 3 Card Poker and a trip to the Fremont to play $3 craps where I had a good roll and a good group... doubled my entry and quit because I was tired... had been there over an hour on a good table.
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The food at Andiamos Steak House was outstanding! We had two lovely meals there. Enjoyed a dinner at 2nd Street Grill and had luncheons at Binion’s and 4 Queens. Visited Golden Gate for breakfast and had our traditional shrimp cocktail for lunch.
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Binions casino was okay, we enjoyed swiping our cards and getting the little freebies, like a velour blanket, a mini cooler, and $10 lunch vouchers. I still miss their restaurant that was downstairs... it was so good... don't know why they would change one of the best things they had going for them. Never did get the time to eat the chicken fried lobster tail at their steakhouse..maybe next year!
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Fremont has interesting slot selection. Golden Nugget was good to us... my son won on the big clanking machine at the front door.... the giant machine. I won a little on a nearby machine called Flight of the Devil or something similar... my plan to write names of machines I played never happened.
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Las Vegas Club was weird... some older machines, etc. but when we started toward the back a man stopped us and said the LV Club was closed, we could go no further... strange, it did not look closed, a lot of people were playing slots... anyway we soon left because the perfume was overwhelming me.
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Played at California mostly slots, blackjack and PaiGow... wanted to eat dinner at Pasta Pirate or Redwood Grill, both highly recommended, but decided not to come back because it was very cold and off Fremont a block or so at night did not look encouraging.
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THE BAD... overall it was not a winning trip for either of us... I only came home with $300 of my bankroll for 6 days.
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We were extremely disappointed with El Cortez... we had planned to spend a whole Saturday there but ended up leaving by 9 a.m. First we had breakfast in Cafe Cortez, very nice as usual. The slots... nothing looked appealing... older machines... hardly anybody in the casino at 9 o’clock... deserted looking!
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My son played 1 on 1 blackjack with a woman dealer. On a $50 bet she gave herself his card and gave him her card which caused him to lose the bet. He said you do realize you just misdealt the hand. She denied it. He appealed to 3 pit bosses standing behind her. They shrugged and said too bad we weren’t watching. No offer to look at film or anything... just sort of a “tough luck” attitude... obviously we did not stay at Cortez any longer.
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We decided to avoid El Cortez in future trips.. even though they have great offers... the place seemed almost like it was abandoned and neither of us is used to being treated like they could care less about us being there. Noticed online they closed their poker room... I can see why... there was virtually no one in the casino... maybe a dozen people at the most.
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Overall we enjoyed the trip... as much as you can when you do not come home a winner. We love The D and how they treat us and look forward to a winning trip in 2014!
Thanks, good info, look forward to your next report.
Thanks for the report!

I'm sorry to read about your gaming loss as well as about all of that stuff that happened to you at El Cortez. I have never found the place practically empty -- but then again, I will never be in there on a Saturday morning. I'm often there late at night and I've always seen a fairly decent amount of people. And it's not good that they treated your son that way on his $50 bet.

But then again, it may very well be that that $50 bet was viewed as being so high (in their eyes) and therefore it was that that caused the Dealer "mishap" to happen. Your son should have insisted immediately that the video be looked at. Otherwise, I can't say that it completely surprises me that the Pit Bosses took no action on the incident since the bet was "that high of an amount of money" in their eyes.

As for playing at El Cortez, I also like their offers, but I don't play enough to qualify there for comp nights (where I can get those kind of offers from Four Queens).

As for Las Vegas Club, since they closed the hotel part, I think that they don't want anyone to go back any further than the Slot Club booth area. Maybe there are liability issues with people being back there since the machines don't go to the back part of the casino anymore, they don't have Keno there anymore and nobody needs to check into the hotel since it got closed. And so I think that the guy who stopped you really meant to say that the rear part of Las Vegas Club was closed, not the entire casino.

With California Casino, another way for you in the future to get in there with more safety (since you're concerned about that) would be to get over to Main Street Station and then take the pedestrian bridge that goes between them. That's too bad that it now sounds like all of the side entrances to the back part of Las Vegas Club's casino are now basically closed!

RecVPPlayer
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