The pandemic had me itching for a Vegas trip, not having gone since May 2019. This posting is a mishmash of what I experienced in Mid-Sept, then Mid-Dec. I had a great fun time both trips. While some of this is truthfully negative, but trust me I still loved it. Hopefully you readers will find this informative, albeit lengthy.
Hotels: I stayed at Luxor & Mgm Grand the first trip (with my buddy Joe); Paris and the Downtown Grand the second (with wifey).
Transpo: I usually Uber, but at Airport noticed that cabs now offer a posted fixed price that fares well with Uber. We paid $15 to go to Luxor, and $22 to Paris (excl tip). Pretty much got in cab right away, while I noticed the Uber area had a good sized crowd built up. Rest of the time we used Uber, all non-surge, and they still seem like a good deal. Eg. Luxor to Fremont Street $18. I took the bus one time from Luxor to Fremont Street. Was a long but fun ride, as it is good deal to sit up top and see all the strip, hotels and downtown area from.
Checking in Snafus:
Arrived at Luxor on Saturday 1 PM. Joe was excited to skip the line and use their Checkin App. Our room, a 2 BR Pyramid Suite, wasn't ready yet. The APP stated it would notify him once ready. We settled in at the Sportsbook Poker bar. After 2 hours (3:30ish) and each losing a hundy on some of the worst pay schedules ever encountered (eg. 6/5 JOB) Joe & I went to the front desk to see if the room was ready. It was chaos, with huge lines and everyone using the kiosks clamoring for rooms. A harried attendant, without checking Joe's room status, told him he couldn't help, that Joe just had to wait for the APP to notify him. The attendant told me it was extremely busy weekend as the Raiders were playing their first home game, and the day before they had 2000 room checkins. An hour plus later, about 5 PM, Joe had had it and went storming back to the checkin/kiosk area. This time he found someone who looked up his room, and behold, it was ready! We took the inclinators (my first time) to the 8th floor. The suite was....just ok. Room was dark, TV didn't have HD, toilet was a very loooong reach from the charmin. And it was apparent noone had been in there for a while as there was a fine layer of dust on most surfaces. Oh well, we're in Vegas, so ain't gonna get us down. Next morning there was no hot water, nor the next morning, etc. I learned to shower at off hours, but Joe struggled through it.
Paris checkin: Wife and I arrived on a Weds about 12:30. There was noone in line, and 4 attendants. A young man approached me and said if I wanted to checkin there was a $50 early fee. I thought about it, and rationilized it was worth it since I was there 3 nites for Free-Free-$35 (plus daily $45 resort fee, all 3 nites, total $190). I said we would do it and he told me to use the kiosk. Oh no, I told him I'm not using the kiosk. He said that was my only check in option. Prior to my trip I had rec'd several emails telling me to "Inquire at Checkin about a suite upgrade". I told him this, and he said he would find someone to help. After a few minutes a somewhat annoyed women showed up and took me down to a window. There was no friendly hello, no banter, no welcome back. She was all business. Told me we could get a Petite Suite for $60/nite. I asked for details on the room and all she could tell me was it is bigger. She then said it wasn't yet available, so we would have to wait. However we would still have to pay the $50 early checkin fee. Hmm? I retorted "so I have to pay that even when the room isn't ready?" She didn't know what to say, and started coughing out some reply, but I cut her off and told her we'll just take our regular room. In the confusion, or perhaps as a gift, she never charged us the $50 fee. As expected the room was very nice and clean, an end unit on the 12th floor. We had a view of the Bellaggio waters. The windows were grimy and dirty so unfortunately pics taken didn't come out so well. But on the plus side they were starting to clean them.
MGM I had no issues and a great "Grand" room. Clean, comfortable, quiet.
Downtown Grand: I love the hotel and casino but for the first time staying there the bands on Fremont kept me up. Probably because I had an 8th floor end room looking straight down the alley to the 3rd Street stage. Great view of the Christmas Tree, but even with ear plugs it was LOUD! It seemed to me the volume was much louder at the stage than prior trips. I walked up to the stage one night and it was so loud I had to escape it by ducking into the Fremont. If you stay at DGrand I suggest you ask for a high floor facing the mountains.
SMOKE: smoking was everywhere! For past 2 years I've been playing in the smoke free casinos in MA and CT, so it took some getting used to. Even with the masks on I still feel like I second hand smoked many packs during my visits. The Luxor was the worst, probably given the crowds there for the Raider game. Many machines had full ashtrays sitting on them, and some cases poker machines were covered with ash from slobs playing them and low staff/no staff to wipe them down.
WEED: the smell of legal pot was also everywhere on the strip and downtown. On Fremont Street there is a Dispensary that appears to be doing very well. I don't do the stuff but am not bothered that it is legal. That said, downtown I encountered many homeless that were clearly stoned out of their minds, screaming at and harrassing tourists. I'd never seen them so aggressive in all my trips there. My wife and I learned to give them a wide berth and not make eye contact.
PPE: masks are required at all casinos, unless eating, drinking, or smoking. My buddy plays BJ, and he said in Luxor a woman at his table chain-smoked for 90 minutes, even stating she refused to put a mask on. He would have left but it was the only 3/2BJ game on the floor. I personally have no problem with the mask and it didn't impact me adversely at all. I mostly play at the bartops so as long as I had a drink in front of me I could dangle the mask off an ear. Occasionally we'd be told to pull the mask up. After the Raiders game a large crowd of fans packed the Luxor for about 2 hours. At that point the casino was essentially mask free as there was no way to police it. Here in the NorthEast the casinos have plenty of wipes and hand sani. At no point during either of my trips did I find wipes, and many times the hand sani stations were empty. Helps to have a small one with you and/or bring some wipes to clean machines before playing.
Eating: Most places I've eaten at previously were still open. Prices have gone up and some happy hours have disappeared though. Not unexpected given the country's inflationary climate. In Luxor we ate at TAPhouse 4 times. On Monday we were given 2 different looking menus, with most of the same food offerings. However one was about $3 more for many of the items. Turned out that was their weekend menu, where they were squeezing a few more bucks out of the football crowds. We opted to order off the cheaper menu. I ate at Ellis Island twice and was happy to find they are still a solid deal with large plates of food. The wife and I hit it on 55+ day and rec'd 20% off plus a free beverage. We stuffed ourselves silly for about $20, and had superb service. At 4Queens Magnolias' we had very good & big salads. Even without a coupon it was very fair pricing, similar to prior visits. Ate at Main Street Triple 7's 3 times while staying downtown. No more happy hour, but still large portions for just a bit more than I've paid historically. Love their Carlsbad IPA beer! In the Miracle Mile shops there is a great lunch deal at Oceans (name?) restaraunt. All plates/sandwiches $5 and beers $3. You won't get stuffed, but for the money it was perfectly sized. Finally, whilst staying at Paris rather than fight the crowds to pay $16 for bacon and eggs, I would take a short walk over to Earl of Sandwich in Planet Hollywood. Good sized bfast sandwiches for $5. Hit the Starbucks on the way back and wifey was happy to wake to bfast in bed.
Gambling: I mostly play VP, and as expected strip still has poor schedules, while downtown I found plenty of good play options. Serious VP players will get crushed on the strip if they don't hit a Royal. Eg. strip BP was 6/5/150. Downtown Grand and D have 8/5. (Conservatively) Averaging 4 Full houses/hour will cost you 40 credits (me, $10)/hour. I play about 6 hours/day, so my strip "VP tax" is about $60/day. But then again I get to stay partially comped in a nice midstrip hotel. Gotta factor all that into play. At the Downtown Grand I got a nice big room daily for $30 (all in) and great machines. But a totally different vibe. Very relaxing, but at times to mellow for my wife. The Luxor had four 7/5 DDB progressive games that normally i wouldn't touch, but the Royal was around $2k, and the low quads with kicker was at $400+. Those low quads caught my eye as I've hit that many times. I came back an hour later to play and about 10 mins in I got dealt A-2-2-2-5. Hmm, hold the Ace or not? I didn't hold the Ace and up popped a 2 where the Ace had been. Before I could say Goddamit, the poker gods tossed me a 3 in the 5th spot, for a $440 hit. That was my best hit of the two trips. My pal Joe hardly plays VP and on that same DDB game he got 4 to the Royal. He's never hit one, so he got all excited and nervous. We chanted the card he needed but alas, he is still Royal Free.
But speaking of Royals, my wife seldom plays VP. And when she does I drive her nuts because I always point out where she is making mistakes, eg. only holding one of two pairs on JOB or BP. One night at the Downtown Grand she sat next to me and dropped in $20. On her 4th hand she goes "I got a flush dealt!" and held all the cards. I casually looked over and my eyes bugged out cuz she had 4 to the Royal. I told her to HOLD IT! and explained to her we toss the 5 of hearts in hopes of getting the Queen of hearts. She sort of understood why, so we chanted Queen, Queen, Queen, and wouldn't you know it popped up for a cool grand! On that particular trip I played about 40 hours of VP with no Royal, and she hits one in less than an hour of play.
One final gambling tale. At Luxor Joe played the only 3/2BJ table steadily. It was $25 min, which was slowly killing him. But after the Raiders game the table was upped to $50 min. Too steep for Joe, so we watched the table clean out fan after fan after fan. They were all betting big as they were excited from seeing the Raiders win in OT. After the dust settled and the fans had left, about 11pm, the table was still $50 with no one playing it. I asked the dealer if they could drop it back down, or grandfather Joe in at $25. She called over the pitboss, a kid half my age who scoffed at us, saying it's been busy all night. I pointed out no, actually no ones played there since the fans all left, and Joe here is an invited guest (4 nites comped, suite) so how about allowing him to get back in the game. Maybe I didn't word it as nicely, as that did not sit well with him, as he retorted something like either play it or not, but basically don't bother me with this. Joe was pissed, so took his play elsewhere. I played a nearby poker machine and over the next hour or so didn't see a single person stop to play there.
Show Tix: A couple of those former Tix4Tonite have reopened. They now offer some "discounted" shows, but in checking them out I found the 50% off deals are gone. Also, all the show prices seem to be higher now. I mean $102 to see the Rat Pack? I went there to inquire on Piff the Magic Dragon tix, and found I could only get them on Ticketmaster. After 15 minutes of fumbling with their site I decided I would just go to the Flamingo Box Office. Learned can only buy them after 5, so the four of us went back the night of the show about an hour before it started. 4 tix were fairly priced at $62 each, but with the service charge they came to $78 each. I saw this same show pre-pandemic at half price for about $35..Sigh...Anyways the show was great and we got moved from the back to the front row to fill seats, so it all worked out well.
In closing, an odd tale: I left Luxor on Sunday nite to check out OYO and to eat some Hooters wings. After stuffing on wings (and stuffing my eyes back in my head) I played some poker, then used a $5 matchplay (from slotclub giveaway) on Roullette. I placed my coupon and $5 down on red, and saw the table was littered, absolutely covered with chips. Whaat? Big bettors in this place? A young man at the end of the table, wearing an obscene t-shirt was the whale. Each spin he was putting down $500-$700 on the table, covering almost every number. Some he'd put 50 chips on, others he'd only bet 10. He'd then win back about half of what he bet. Then he'd repeat. At one point I saw him pull out and count his cash wad. I counted about $6k. When he won big he would pocket the black chips in the other pocket, never putting them back into play. I noticed a mean and serious looking guy behind him scanning the crown and table the whole time. Hmm, a fun table but not knowing how this would end I decided to beat feet after about 10 mins. BTW, I won my Roullette MP, $10. Later I found a Hooters coupon in one of the local guides for 10 wings, $10. Damn, I coulda saved $6!
Thanks for reading!
Bob D
