It was August in Vegas, a time of hot deals and even hotter exterior temperatures.
Luckily we had a strategy of staying inside as much as possible. This was another one of our long weekend trips made possible by favorable scheduling by Allegiant Airlines and my work demands.
I was able to put in a full day’s work on Thursday, pick up my wife and drive to Cedar Rapids for a 7:45 pm departure. We touched down at McCarran a little after 9:15 pm. While we arrived later in the day, it was exciting to see all the lights as we flew in.
We did the taxi line rumba, provided helpful guidance to the driver regarding use of the tunnel and were in front of the Stratosphere in a short amount of time.
Yes, the Strat is way far down in the post nuclear holocaust section of the strip, yes the Strat took out all of their decent VP except for a handful of 8/5 BP games that don’t give you points but no matter since they were giving us a free certificate for a cruise. We had also booked some time at the Gold Coast which has plenty of great gambling.
We were pretty fried after the day’s travel but still managed a couple of cocktails at the sports bar and some short pay 7/5 BP with a progressive meter stingily set at around $4,200 for the Royal. Not surprisingly- no joy and we tumbled off to bed. Our host had us in a mini-suite which is fine for our needs with a big bathroom, couch and chairs along with a dining table all in one room. More importantly was a display of fresh strawberries, champagne and chocolate dipping sauces. Our room needs are (in this order) bathroom, bed, coffee maker, refrigerator and a drapes that actually close enough to keep out the lights.
Up early for breakfast at Roxys- a great 1950s style diner. I had the full house which was actually a full plate of three eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, pancakes and a coupon for a 25% discount on a cardiac catheterization. I also knocked back a couple of Advil since I often get a day one headache in Las Vegas, even when drinking in moderation. Moderation is not useful apparently.
We wandered around and played for a bit before heading over to the Gold Coast. My wife had a coupon from them for two free nights, $30.00 in free play and some dining credits that we never ended up using. We had a basic but nicely updated room. We played the dollar NSUD near the high limit area where my wife got four deuces. I was more or less holding my own so we took the expanded bankroll into the high limit area where we played $2 NSUD (bust), triple play dollar $ BP (hit four twos on the bottom line- oh yeah) and some 10 coin dollar triple play bonus poker (modest gain).
We promised ourselves we were going to keep better track of our play so we kept all the tickets to figure it out. This is instead of our usual method of ending the night with our pockets crammed with random denomination bills smelling faintly of beer and cigarette smoke, three green chips and a cocktail napkin with a scrawled a note to myself - that I can’t read.
We ended up about $1,400 after several hours which took us to dinner time. Thanks to some valuable advice on these boards we got a great restaurant tip. We wanted to burn up some Harrah’s comps I had sitting in the account and wanted to try the recommended Buzios seafood restaurant at the Rio. This is a short walk from the GC and we got our newly lowest of the low gold level cards and our diamond status was no more. Sorry Harrah’s- you keep giving me fewer and fewer reasons to come by.
On the other hand, Buzio’s was GREAT and highly recommended. I started with six blue point oysters- super fresh and ice cold while my wife had a giant lump crab meat cocktail that must have had a third of a pound of crab meat in it. Fresh bread was delicious and refilled (just what we needed) continually before the main course. I had citrus glazed Dover sole and my wife enjoyed Thai peanut crusted Mahi Mahi. It was all very fresh, well prepared and super tasty. We are now officially stuffed and groaning- Good Gracious no, we don’t have room for dessert. What’s that? Key Lime torte, well, OK. We split one and found it wonderful.
We found some triple play 8/5 Bonus Poker on our way out- much to our surprise and played a few hundred through.
No wins, but it allowed enough time to digest at least some of the meal. We walked back to the Gold Coast and played some more before heading up to bed.
We were up early and had intended to have breakfast at the Gold Coast but were still too full from the previous day. Then we remembered that part of getting our free cruise certificate involved a continental breakfast back at the Stratosphere so we check out of the GC and cabbed back. Our driver was one of the few women I have encountered driving a cab in Vegas.
The cruise reception/breakfast was up on level 103 where there was an attractive spread of fruit, bagels, coffee and juice. Our host was there and from the high vantage point, pointed out various interesting facts about the area. He noted a series of apartment buildings and said that show girls used to stay there in the 60s/70s and sun bath on the roof tops. This activity earned the area the nickname of “naked city.”
The free cruise certificate was exactly that- I was prepared for all sorts of terms and conditions that made the free cruise cost about the same as if we had purchased it directly from NCL but we only have to get to the port and pay tax and port fees. We would be in an inside cabin however can upgrade for another $100 each to a window cabin or $200 more for a balcony. We will book this for next August.
NCL representatives were there playing a video about their cruise line featuring lithe young people cavorting around the pools, bars and dining rooms. I’ve been on cruises and most of our fellow passengers look like us, the opposite of young and lithe.
We played some more at the Strat, me at black jack and my wife on video poker and started giving back our winnings. Late afternoon we realized that we were hungry again (you can just go so far on a bagel and cup of coffee) and strolled over to McCall’s Heartland Grill located near the buffet.
This was another excellent meal made even better by a great waiter. It is remarkable how much difference the server can make and Joey was first rate. He seamlessly worked us through cocktails, appetizers and our main course. I had a strip steak served over fried onions and my wife had salmon, both dishes were excellent and enhanced by the sides, green apple potato au gratin and fried wild mushrooms. Once again we were bloated but decided to take desserts to the room- cornmeal pineapple upside down cake with caramel sauce. These ended up being left in the room refrigerator as we were too stuffed to even nibble.
More play and no wins so we decided to call an end to the gambling. We counted up the cash and found we were down about $600 for the three days but everything else was covered, and we got a cruise out of the deal.
We enjoyed the dining so much we are already booked to come back in September and will follow the same plan.
Luckily we had a strategy of staying inside as much as possible. This was another one of our long weekend trips made possible by favorable scheduling by Allegiant Airlines and my work demands.
I was able to put in a full day’s work on Thursday, pick up my wife and drive to Cedar Rapids for a 7:45 pm departure. We touched down at McCarran a little after 9:15 pm. While we arrived later in the day, it was exciting to see all the lights as we flew in.
We did the taxi line rumba, provided helpful guidance to the driver regarding use of the tunnel and were in front of the Stratosphere in a short amount of time.
Yes, the Strat is way far down in the post nuclear holocaust section of the strip, yes the Strat took out all of their decent VP except for a handful of 8/5 BP games that don’t give you points but no matter since they were giving us a free certificate for a cruise. We had also booked some time at the Gold Coast which has plenty of great gambling.
We were pretty fried after the day’s travel but still managed a couple of cocktails at the sports bar and some short pay 7/5 BP with a progressive meter stingily set at around $4,200 for the Royal. Not surprisingly- no joy and we tumbled off to bed. Our host had us in a mini-suite which is fine for our needs with a big bathroom, couch and chairs along with a dining table all in one room. More importantly was a display of fresh strawberries, champagne and chocolate dipping sauces. Our room needs are (in this order) bathroom, bed, coffee maker, refrigerator and a drapes that actually close enough to keep out the lights.
Up early for breakfast at Roxys- a great 1950s style diner. I had the full house which was actually a full plate of three eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, pancakes and a coupon for a 25% discount on a cardiac catheterization. I also knocked back a couple of Advil since I often get a day one headache in Las Vegas, even when drinking in moderation. Moderation is not useful apparently.
We wandered around and played for a bit before heading over to the Gold Coast. My wife had a coupon from them for two free nights, $30.00 in free play and some dining credits that we never ended up using. We had a basic but nicely updated room. We played the dollar NSUD near the high limit area where my wife got four deuces. I was more or less holding my own so we took the expanded bankroll into the high limit area where we played $2 NSUD (bust), triple play dollar $ BP (hit four twos on the bottom line- oh yeah) and some 10 coin dollar triple play bonus poker (modest gain).
We promised ourselves we were going to keep better track of our play so we kept all the tickets to figure it out. This is instead of our usual method of ending the night with our pockets crammed with random denomination bills smelling faintly of beer and cigarette smoke, three green chips and a cocktail napkin with a scrawled a note to myself - that I can’t read.
We ended up about $1,400 after several hours which took us to dinner time. Thanks to some valuable advice on these boards we got a great restaurant tip. We wanted to burn up some Harrah’s comps I had sitting in the account and wanted to try the recommended Buzios seafood restaurant at the Rio. This is a short walk from the GC and we got our newly lowest of the low gold level cards and our diamond status was no more. Sorry Harrah’s- you keep giving me fewer and fewer reasons to come by.
On the other hand, Buzio’s was GREAT and highly recommended. I started with six blue point oysters- super fresh and ice cold while my wife had a giant lump crab meat cocktail that must have had a third of a pound of crab meat in it. Fresh bread was delicious and refilled (just what we needed) continually before the main course. I had citrus glazed Dover sole and my wife enjoyed Thai peanut crusted Mahi Mahi. It was all very fresh, well prepared and super tasty. We are now officially stuffed and groaning- Good Gracious no, we don’t have room for dessert. What’s that? Key Lime torte, well, OK. We split one and found it wonderful.
We found some triple play 8/5 Bonus Poker on our way out- much to our surprise and played a few hundred through.
No wins, but it allowed enough time to digest at least some of the meal. We walked back to the Gold Coast and played some more before heading up to bed.
We were up early and had intended to have breakfast at the Gold Coast but were still too full from the previous day. Then we remembered that part of getting our free cruise certificate involved a continental breakfast back at the Stratosphere so we check out of the GC and cabbed back. Our driver was one of the few women I have encountered driving a cab in Vegas.
The cruise reception/breakfast was up on level 103 where there was an attractive spread of fruit, bagels, coffee and juice. Our host was there and from the high vantage point, pointed out various interesting facts about the area. He noted a series of apartment buildings and said that show girls used to stay there in the 60s/70s and sun bath on the roof tops. This activity earned the area the nickname of “naked city.”
The free cruise certificate was exactly that- I was prepared for all sorts of terms and conditions that made the free cruise cost about the same as if we had purchased it directly from NCL but we only have to get to the port and pay tax and port fees. We would be in an inside cabin however can upgrade for another $100 each to a window cabin or $200 more for a balcony. We will book this for next August.
NCL representatives were there playing a video about their cruise line featuring lithe young people cavorting around the pools, bars and dining rooms. I’ve been on cruises and most of our fellow passengers look like us, the opposite of young and lithe.
We played some more at the Strat, me at black jack and my wife on video poker and started giving back our winnings. Late afternoon we realized that we were hungry again (you can just go so far on a bagel and cup of coffee) and strolled over to McCall’s Heartland Grill located near the buffet.
This was another excellent meal made even better by a great waiter. It is remarkable how much difference the server can make and Joey was first rate. He seamlessly worked us through cocktails, appetizers and our main course. I had a strip steak served over fried onions and my wife had salmon, both dishes were excellent and enhanced by the sides, green apple potato au gratin and fried wild mushrooms. Once again we were bloated but decided to take desserts to the room- cornmeal pineapple upside down cake with caramel sauce. These ended up being left in the room refrigerator as we were too stuffed to even nibble.
More play and no wins so we decided to call an end to the gambling. We counted up the cash and found we were down about $600 for the three days but everything else was covered, and we got a cruise out of the deal.
We enjoyed the dining so much we are already booked to come back in September and will follow the same plan.
