Brief Downtown trip report 8/7 - 8-12

I had another great time downtown. My flight was late, arrived around midnight Sunday night. The nice part was not having to wait in the cab line! On the other hand, I was busy texting and didn't realize the nice lady driver was long-hauling me until it was too late. $35+ from the airport to the Fitz. Welcome to Las Vegas!

Fitgeralds gave me a corner room on the 31st floor (3124). The room showed some wear, but was well worth the $29 rate I paid. Nice view to the north and west. Most importantly, everything worked! And the shower head is nice and high, which is appreciated by those of us 6'3. Dropped my bags in the room and went downstairs for drinks and a walk.

I walked a whole 20 steps to the 4Q and was approached by two ladies. They must have been mesmorized by me, because they wanted to go back to my room (for a small fee). Not my cup of tea. I offered to buy them a drink and chat but they declined. Time is money I suppose. I hope they found someone else as charming as I apparently am!

Over the course of the next 5 days, I walked many miles, ate at several different places, and had more than my share of drinks. Oh, I gambled too. Here are some of my hits/misses.

Magnolia's (4Q) has excellent breakfast and reasonable prices. Pancakes...mmmmm!
Island Buffet (Fremont) lunch wasn't as good as I remember but the Cafe was excellent.
Courtyard Grill (Fitz) has cheap and good lunch specials.
Main Street Bar (Cal) nice, quiet place to drink a few too many beers and play VP. Great bartenders!
99 cent hot dogs at Mermaids...perfect for soaking up the many beers you drank at the Cal.
The microbrews at MSS are excellent. Try the High Roller and thank me later.
Vodka sours are decent all over downtown, but the Nugget's are top dog!
Ride the zip line, check out the free stage entertainment, and ogle the dancing bartenders outside GG!
Binion Burger...not what it used to be. Come to think of it, the whole place isn't what it used to be.
Walgreen's has just what you need after a few nights of booze and greasy food.
Girls of Glitter Gulch - I didn't go this trip but will stop in next time (just so I can review the place of course)
Beggars/panhandlers - more than ever. I don't look down on others, but enough is enough!
Video poker - not very many great games, but some playable games if you look for them.
El Cortez - great mix of people. In the time it took me to lose $40 on VP, the lady next to me lost $900.
Slots - I don't normally play them, but wom $125 on Megabucks. Purely skill of course.


I got a wild hair on Tuesday and decided to spend a night at the Gold Spike. Walked in and got a room for $25+resort fee. Resort fee included 2 bottles of water, pool access, and wireless internet. Big deal!! My tower room (621) was honestly the cleanest room I've ever had in Vegas (or probably anywhere else). But the casino itself has very little to offer. 1 bar, 4 BJ tables, and a small number of machines. It would be OK staying there as a group, but didn't keep me entertained all by myself. Do I regret staying there? Nope. I hope the Western opens their hotel by my next trip so I can try it!

Overall I had a great time. Met some neat people, experienced some new things, and actually won money. The strip is fun to visit once in awhile, but Downtown will always be my home in Vegas!

Very nice, Chadley! Thanks for that report! But you very easily could have immediately reported the "nice lady" long-hauler to the taxicab authority! That's just rotten but I can't say that it's surprising! You could have taken down her name and/or at the very least her taxi number!

And so yes, there is some decent video poker downtown if you know where it is (VPFree2 and VPinsider help with letting people know who has what and where it is).

I have not had any great desire to go back to or stay at Gold Spike. I visited the week that it re-opened and I was not impressed -- especially with the bad Video Poker there and the automatic hand pays there.

RecVPPlayer

Thanks for the writeup Chadley. I like your style, we do downtown the same way.

I agree about the cleanliness of the 'Spike, hope they can keep it up. For good VP downtown, you can't beat El Cortez or MSS.

Yes, the Strip is fun to visit, but the Vegas I like is downtown.

RecVPPlayer...I probably should have rported the driver, but really didn't want to mess with it at the time. It was late and I had a few gin and tonics under my belt, and a desire for a few more. I was upset at myself for not telling her to take Trop to I-15 (something I always do unless traffic is a mess). She didn't ask, I didn't tell her. She was cute though...maybe worth the extra couple dollars haha!

Chilcoot...Glad to hear you do Vegas like I do! I have to be strictly professional in real life and therefore tend to let my hair down (way, way down) when I visit Vegas. We might have to meet out there sometime and show the world how to have a little fun!

quote "Overall I had a great time. Met some neat people, experienced some new things, and actually won money. The strip is fun to visit once in awhile, but Downtown will always be my home in Vegas!" I think alot of us feel the same way. Hopefully We'll get that Downtown Forum after all~!

+1

But look at the message board lists because the new Downtown Message Board is already here and threads are already going on there!

RecVPPlayer

Wow finally a downtown forum! I'm going to cut and paste my TR right now.