Me (Paige Turner) and my DH, Mr. Turner (from here on out referred to as Mr. T, Big T, T-bone, plain old “T” or whatever else pops into my head) flew Denver to LAS on their 9:50 flight via Frontier. Mr. T had a credit w/expedia from a previously cancelled flight. Side note: I highly UN recommend expedia they lose all your info and charge you outrageous fees - terrible travel site - how they stay in business I don’t know. Anyway, with T’s credit, our two roundtrip airfares came to $270 total. With the exception of a 15 minute delay taking off, the flight was fine, but I later realized when we passed through security the make up bag I removed because of 3oz liquids never made it’s way back into my luggage, so my toothpaste, deodorant, makeup and hair products stayed back in Denver. I can go quite easily w/out make-up, what with my natural beauty and all, but knew I’d have to get myself more deodorant and toothpaste and use hotel provided toiletries for the rest. Arrived at Bally’s for our five night stay via cab (-$20 w/tip) shortly after noon. Requested a King, non smoking, highest level possible, North tower room. All requests were granted and we landed on the 14th floor. The last time I actually paid for a room in Vegas was 2007. I had zero in room comps from CET this year; however, in April they did send me an offer: any 5 nights $40/night. It was valid on weekends, but I had to call and book (not available on online) and prepay. Total for 5 nights with tax came to $225 ($45/night). Accommodations are close to what you read on review websites: spacious, clean, desk, sofa, and view of the Paris. My only complaint - uncomfortable bed and pillows. Mr. T said he slept fine, but I hated the mattress. Felt old and cheap and saggy. My back was sore nearly every morning. We later moved to the Orleans (more on this later) with a MUCH better mattress. Anyhoo, Bally’s is your typical but more than adequate Harrah’s property with an outstanding location that can’t be beat. 3 sheets. Ok, so we checked in, hastily unpacked, I swiped on some of Mr T’s deodorant when he wasn’t looking, and we head towards Ellis Island.
The plan for Day 1 was to take it easy: only three casinos on the itinerary. We knew we’d be hungry once we disembarked the plane, so Ellis Island cafe was first on the list, followed by some VP play in their casino to earn $10 FP w/ACG coupons. After filling our bellies, a quick stop over at Terrible’s (2/$10 MP’s), then Hard Rock for their “earn 250 points, swipe your card at the kiosk promotion” plus two more $10 MP’s. We planned on taking the free Hard Rock shuttle back to the strip where we’d “play it by ear”.
Now, here’s how it really went down. We arrived at EI about 1:00 pm. I ordered the bacon and eggs with a small OJ - DELICIOUS - five forks. T ordered the “build your own burger” with mushroom and swiss. They delivered the burger sans cheese. He had eaten half of it before the waitress showed up to check in on us. He wasn’t going to say anything, but I kindly told her they made his mushroom and swiss burger without the swiss. She promptly brought him out two slices. Of course we were still charged for the cheese. If it weren’t so reasonable at EI in the first place I would have been annoyed by that. He removed the bun (reported it was too large and very dry) and just ate the burger which he rated 3 forks. Lunch came to $15 w/ACG coupon and tip.
Here he is, Mr. T, Day 1 ready to win big, or $10 (whichever comes first) at Ellis Island!
We quickly played our $10 through. EI is supposed to have a bunch of full pay JOB. I couldn’t find one. The best schedule we could find was a 9/5 machine. We each played on one. I lost 5 bucks and Mr T won 10 bucks, so overall, we left EI up $5.
I should share w/you that after each casino, Mr. T and I total up our overall combined win/loss, number of free beers we swigged, cost of food, and record it immediately into my phone, so that’s how I’ll report each day.
A three block walk to Terribles for a quick MP coupon hit and run was next. My MO this trip was to use all MP’s on roulette. I’d selected the color red ahead of time, and told myself that was what I was going to stick to on every MP bet. Mr. T usually likes to watch me bet mine first, then he decides at the time how he’ll bet his. Walked up to an empty roulette table, friendly dealer wished me luck, and spun. Lost. T followed my losing red bet with another bet on red. Won. We left Terribles +$10.
Quick walked across the street to Hard Rock for their Wednesday promotion and MP’s. Once again, the minute I got there, I played my $10 MP on red roulette. Lost. Big T sauntered up, bet on red. Won. I was beginning to sense a pattern here, but carried on, head held high. Decided to earn my 250 points on single zero video roulette and video poker. Threw a $100 bill into the VR first. Played this a good long while and drank some beers with T while adding the first 100 points on my card - was only down about 7 bucks, and had managed to order three drinks each during this time. Next (and this was a huge mistake) we detoured to the Ghostbusters penny machines on the way to VP. My $93 TITO voucher quickly dwindled to about $30.
We ordered another beer from the cocktail waitress then headed over to VP. I think we played Bonus Poker. We looked around at all the pay schedules and this seemed to be the most favorable. Won back some of our Ghostbusters losses, but even after figuring in T’s MP win, we were still down 50 bucks. By now I had the 250 points on my card and two more beers in me. Went up and swiped my card and discovered I’d won $10 FREE slot play. Whoop -dee doo.
But wait, it’s not over, I had one more promo swipe. BAM: free Hard Rock T-shirt with two sizes to choose from: XL or XXL. Stupid. Hard Rock promos are not what they used to be. I remember three years ago, each of us put 200 points on our card, then swiped and were each rewarded $50 food credit that we combined for an excellent $100 meal at their restaurant Ago. I played through the $10 FP and after it was gone, so were we. Mr. T cashed out our chips and vouchers and we left the casino w/our “FREE” (but really $50) T-shirt. Mr. T quite liked the shirt, so its his. The silver lining to this stop over at HR was we stumbled out of there having drunk 10 free beers combined.
Here's me, a few beers into the trip, somewhere between the Trop and Bally's
Now this is the point in our trip where we were supposed to catch the shuttle back to the strip and mosey around town. Unfortunately, we arrived at the shuttle location at 3:30. Employee tells us shuttle only runs on the hour. DH didn’t want to wait 30 mins for the 4:00 shuttle - so he said, “Let’s walk.” We then asked the guy how far we were from Tropicana...he said nearly 2 miles. We had each purchased the $40 for $25 on slotcoupons.com for the Trop ahead of time and T wanted to use them.
So here we are: HOTTEST part of the day in the friggin’ desert and we’re WALKING, sweating our drunk arses off en route to Tropicana. And the dude was right...that walk is every bit of two miles...UG. However, there are no words to describe the feeling of accomplishment and refreshment we experienced upon entering the beautifully chilled Tropicana. It was simply delightful.
We enjoyed the Trop very much. Of course the slot play coupons were not valid on their best paying VP machines, so for the most part we gambled it degenerately on slots. I played Zeus - won a little. Then some blazing 7’s - won a little. Big T played Jackpot Block Party and wrangled out a “super bonus” on the bonus round. The super bonus meant four gift box screens opened up (instead of just one) so when you selected one ‘gift’ on any given screen, you actually opened four. It was cool and resulted in a “big win” of $34 on that particular bonus round. In the end, we walked out of the Tropicana up 4 more beers between the two of us and $30 to boot.
Ok, so by now it’s what? 6:00? You’d think after walking from Bally’s to Ellis Island to Terrible’s to Hard Rock and finally Tropicana, we’d have had enough. Of course not, this is Vegas baby and it’s day one and we are ENERGIZED.
I had a $15 voucher I needed to cash at the Excalibur for a friend who had forgotten to redeem it when she was in Vegas in April. We made quick work of that task, and then I asked DH if he wanted to hop the tram over to Mandalay Bay for win cards. “Yep,” he replied, so off we go over to the MB. I also remembered I had a 2-4-1 for the House of Blues and suggested maybe we just stay there for dinner. He said, “maybe” but neither of us were very hungry at all yet, so we didn’t really commit to it.
It was here at the MB we had a jaw dropping experience. First we go through all the necessary booth lines to get our $30 in chips for $20. No problem. There were no lines and we had our chips in no time. We saunter up to a $10 minimum bet roulette table. Do I even need to tell you I bet all $30 in chips ($10 at a time) on red and couldn’t win ONCE? Bah Humbug. Fortunately, my knight-in-shining non-negotiable chips appears and saves the day with a few nice wins.
This is not what made the experience remarkable however, it was the dude at the table with us betting max bet of $500 a spin that made us stop in our tracks. Another couple at the table with us told us he had already dropped $24,000 dollars so far that day - just on roulette. My first thought was ‘what an idiot’. I mean c’mon we all know the odds, roulette is the WORST game you can play and to irresponsibly throw that much money down on every spin...wow ridiculous.
My second thought as I’m watching this guy gamble degenerately is, “Damn, he’s an unlucky SOB.” I’m not kidding, the guy would bet on about 30 numbers every spin and I lost count of the number of times the number would hit on the one square he had no chips on. Big T elbowed me and told me I had to get a picture of the stacks of chips this guy was throwing on the table. As I looked at the photos I snapped, I don’t think they do justice, but you can judge for yourself. Sitting there, watching this live, well, it was worth my $20 win chip loss to see this unfold in person.
Finally, after losing two/three thousand more, he walks away from the table, head down. We think he’s going off to get drunk somewhere and lament his losses and hopefully learn from his dimwitted choices. Next thing you know...he’s baaaack and has a fistful of hundred dollar bills. I shake my head. Naturally, he proceeds to lose it all. Betting heavily on numbers 17 and 20. He walks away from the table again, and BAM #17 wins - not one chip on it. From our estimates this guy lost about $6000 in front of us for the half hour we were there. Couple that with the reported $24K he already dropped and you have a tidy little $30,000 loss on the day.
During our time at the table we learned this guy was a medical rep and in town on business. Someone else pointed out his wife at the table next to us betting stacks of green ($25) chips on blackjack. It was only Wednesday and he said he was staying through Sunday. $30,000 a day? How? But here’s the best part, I asked the guy if he was being rated for his play, because I said, “You probably get a bunch of great comps out of this level of action.” His response was he didn’t even have a players card and that he doesn’t bother with that nonsense! Unreal.
Stack #1 mostly on 17 and 20
He keeps going though with nickels on top of his color. I think the little stack of "yellows" are my non-negotiables...
Ok, so we leave MB up $10 because of Mr. T’s small win, plus got 4 free beers and lively entertainment. We head over to Luxor for more win cards...lost them all in a matter of minutes, but managed to eek out one beer each before leaving. Luxor is barely worth mentioning. It’s a cold, closed in casino with not much to redeem it, save it’s win card offer. We got in, got out, and wished we’d skipped it altogether: total Luxor loss: $40.
We’re walking back to Bally’s and starting to get a little hungry. We’re discussing plans for the next day (which is to travel downtown) when it occurs to me I can buy our 24 hour bus passes that evening and they’ll last straight through the next evening. “How about going downtown for dinner?” I asked. Mr. T thought this was a good idea. We went up to the room to freshen up. No-I did not use his deodorant this time, as we found a 7-11 next to Ellis Island and I got a travel size deodorant and toothpaste for only $3.
After freshening up, grabbed our downtown coupons, then headed to Paris to catch the SDX. Our pass was stamped at 9:30 pm. We were starving by the time we got in line at Magnolia’s around 10:00. I ordered the open faced turkey w/mashed potatoes and gravy and Big T got a club sandwich with fries. We drank ice water, and after the 2-4-1 were pleased with our $9.67 bill before tip. Four forks!
We hit the Four Queens where Mr. T was a new member sign up and came away with 6 beers plus a $10 profit. Signed up at LVC next, ran our free play through and ended up +$15. Finally, we hit the Golden Gate. I hate this place. Why? Because we both bet our $25 matchplays on “red” and lost. I felt exactly like the Mandalay Bay douchebag betting so recklessly on roulette and then walking out of there with my head hanging $50 in the hole.
We decided to call it a night and hitched the bus back to Bellagio where a quick walk across the bridge got us back Bally’s and it was lights out on Day 1.
The plan for Day 1 was to take it easy: only three casinos on the itinerary. We knew we’d be hungry once we disembarked the plane, so Ellis Island cafe was first on the list, followed by some VP play in their casino to earn $10 FP w/ACG coupons. After filling our bellies, a quick stop over at Terrible’s (2/$10 MP’s), then Hard Rock for their “earn 250 points, swipe your card at the kiosk promotion” plus two more $10 MP’s. We planned on taking the free Hard Rock shuttle back to the strip where we’d “play it by ear”.
Now, here’s how it really went down. We arrived at EI about 1:00 pm. I ordered the bacon and eggs with a small OJ - DELICIOUS - five forks. T ordered the “build your own burger” with mushroom and swiss. They delivered the burger sans cheese. He had eaten half of it before the waitress showed up to check in on us. He wasn’t going to say anything, but I kindly told her they made his mushroom and swiss burger without the swiss. She promptly brought him out two slices. Of course we were still charged for the cheese. If it weren’t so reasonable at EI in the first place I would have been annoyed by that. He removed the bun (reported it was too large and very dry) and just ate the burger which he rated 3 forks. Lunch came to $15 w/ACG coupon and tip.
Here he is, Mr. T, Day 1 ready to win big, or $10 (whichever comes first) at Ellis Island!
We quickly played our $10 through. EI is supposed to have a bunch of full pay JOB. I couldn’t find one. The best schedule we could find was a 9/5 machine. We each played on one. I lost 5 bucks and Mr T won 10 bucks, so overall, we left EI up $5.
I should share w/you that after each casino, Mr. T and I total up our overall combined win/loss, number of free beers we swigged, cost of food, and record it immediately into my phone, so that’s how I’ll report each day.
A three block walk to Terribles for a quick MP coupon hit and run was next. My MO this trip was to use all MP’s on roulette. I’d selected the color red ahead of time, and told myself that was what I was going to stick to on every MP bet. Mr. T usually likes to watch me bet mine first, then he decides at the time how he’ll bet his. Walked up to an empty roulette table, friendly dealer wished me luck, and spun. Lost. T followed my losing red bet with another bet on red. Won. We left Terribles +$10.
Quick walked across the street to Hard Rock for their Wednesday promotion and MP’s. Once again, the minute I got there, I played my $10 MP on red roulette. Lost. Big T sauntered up, bet on red. Won. I was beginning to sense a pattern here, but carried on, head held high. Decided to earn my 250 points on single zero video roulette and video poker. Threw a $100 bill into the VR first. Played this a good long while and drank some beers with T while adding the first 100 points on my card - was only down about 7 bucks, and had managed to order three drinks each during this time. Next (and this was a huge mistake) we detoured to the Ghostbusters penny machines on the way to VP. My $93 TITO voucher quickly dwindled to about $30.
We ordered another beer from the cocktail waitress then headed over to VP. I think we played Bonus Poker. We looked around at all the pay schedules and this seemed to be the most favorable. Won back some of our Ghostbusters losses, but even after figuring in T’s MP win, we were still down 50 bucks. By now I had the 250 points on my card and two more beers in me. Went up and swiped my card and discovered I’d won $10 FREE slot play. Whoop -dee doo.
But wait, it’s not over, I had one more promo swipe. BAM: free Hard Rock T-shirt with two sizes to choose from: XL or XXL. Stupid. Hard Rock promos are not what they used to be. I remember three years ago, each of us put 200 points on our card, then swiped and were each rewarded $50 food credit that we combined for an excellent $100 meal at their restaurant Ago. I played through the $10 FP and after it was gone, so were we. Mr. T cashed out our chips and vouchers and we left the casino w/our “FREE” (but really $50) T-shirt. Mr. T quite liked the shirt, so its his. The silver lining to this stop over at HR was we stumbled out of there having drunk 10 free beers combined.
Here's me, a few beers into the trip, somewhere between the Trop and Bally's
Now this is the point in our trip where we were supposed to catch the shuttle back to the strip and mosey around town. Unfortunately, we arrived at the shuttle location at 3:30. Employee tells us shuttle only runs on the hour. DH didn’t want to wait 30 mins for the 4:00 shuttle - so he said, “Let’s walk.” We then asked the guy how far we were from Tropicana...he said nearly 2 miles. We had each purchased the $40 for $25 on slotcoupons.com for the Trop ahead of time and T wanted to use them.
So here we are: HOTTEST part of the day in the friggin’ desert and we’re WALKING, sweating our drunk arses off en route to Tropicana. And the dude was right...that walk is every bit of two miles...UG. However, there are no words to describe the feeling of accomplishment and refreshment we experienced upon entering the beautifully chilled Tropicana. It was simply delightful.
We enjoyed the Trop very much. Of course the slot play coupons were not valid on their best paying VP machines, so for the most part we gambled it degenerately on slots. I played Zeus - won a little. Then some blazing 7’s - won a little. Big T played Jackpot Block Party and wrangled out a “super bonus” on the bonus round. The super bonus meant four gift box screens opened up (instead of just one) so when you selected one ‘gift’ on any given screen, you actually opened four. It was cool and resulted in a “big win” of $34 on that particular bonus round. In the end, we walked out of the Tropicana up 4 more beers between the two of us and $30 to boot.
Ok, so by now it’s what? 6:00? You’d think after walking from Bally’s to Ellis Island to Terrible’s to Hard Rock and finally Tropicana, we’d have had enough. Of course not, this is Vegas baby and it’s day one and we are ENERGIZED.
I had a $15 voucher I needed to cash at the Excalibur for a friend who had forgotten to redeem it when she was in Vegas in April. We made quick work of that task, and then I asked DH if he wanted to hop the tram over to Mandalay Bay for win cards. “Yep,” he replied, so off we go over to the MB. I also remembered I had a 2-4-1 for the House of Blues and suggested maybe we just stay there for dinner. He said, “maybe” but neither of us were very hungry at all yet, so we didn’t really commit to it.
It was here at the MB we had a jaw dropping experience. First we go through all the necessary booth lines to get our $30 in chips for $20. No problem. There were no lines and we had our chips in no time. We saunter up to a $10 minimum bet roulette table. Do I even need to tell you I bet all $30 in chips ($10 at a time) on red and couldn’t win ONCE? Bah Humbug. Fortunately, my knight-in-shining non-negotiable chips appears and saves the day with a few nice wins.
This is not what made the experience remarkable however, it was the dude at the table with us betting max bet of $500 a spin that made us stop in our tracks. Another couple at the table with us told us he had already dropped $24,000 dollars so far that day - just on roulette. My first thought was ‘what an idiot’. I mean c’mon we all know the odds, roulette is the WORST game you can play and to irresponsibly throw that much money down on every spin...wow ridiculous.
My second thought as I’m watching this guy gamble degenerately is, “Damn, he’s an unlucky SOB.” I’m not kidding, the guy would bet on about 30 numbers every spin and I lost count of the number of times the number would hit on the one square he had no chips on. Big T elbowed me and told me I had to get a picture of the stacks of chips this guy was throwing on the table. As I looked at the photos I snapped, I don’t think they do justice, but you can judge for yourself. Sitting there, watching this live, well, it was worth my $20 win chip loss to see this unfold in person.
Finally, after losing two/three thousand more, he walks away from the table, head down. We think he’s going off to get drunk somewhere and lament his losses and hopefully learn from his dimwitted choices. Next thing you know...he’s baaaack and has a fistful of hundred dollar bills. I shake my head. Naturally, he proceeds to lose it all. Betting heavily on numbers 17 and 20. He walks away from the table again, and BAM #17 wins - not one chip on it. From our estimates this guy lost about $6000 in front of us for the half hour we were there. Couple that with the reported $24K he already dropped and you have a tidy little $30,000 loss on the day.
During our time at the table we learned this guy was a medical rep and in town on business. Someone else pointed out his wife at the table next to us betting stacks of green ($25) chips on blackjack. It was only Wednesday and he said he was staying through Sunday. $30,000 a day? How? But here’s the best part, I asked the guy if he was being rated for his play, because I said, “You probably get a bunch of great comps out of this level of action.” His response was he didn’t even have a players card and that he doesn’t bother with that nonsense! Unreal.
Stack #1 mostly on 17 and 20
He keeps going though with nickels on top of his color. I think the little stack of "yellows" are my non-negotiables...
Ok, so we leave MB up $10 because of Mr. T’s small win, plus got 4 free beers and lively entertainment. We head over to Luxor for more win cards...lost them all in a matter of minutes, but managed to eek out one beer each before leaving. Luxor is barely worth mentioning. It’s a cold, closed in casino with not much to redeem it, save it’s win card offer. We got in, got out, and wished we’d skipped it altogether: total Luxor loss: $40.
We’re walking back to Bally’s and starting to get a little hungry. We’re discussing plans for the next day (which is to travel downtown) when it occurs to me I can buy our 24 hour bus passes that evening and they’ll last straight through the next evening. “How about going downtown for dinner?” I asked. Mr. T thought this was a good idea. We went up to the room to freshen up. No-I did not use his deodorant this time, as we found a 7-11 next to Ellis Island and I got a travel size deodorant and toothpaste for only $3.
After freshening up, grabbed our downtown coupons, then headed to Paris to catch the SDX. Our pass was stamped at 9:30 pm. We were starving by the time we got in line at Magnolia’s around 10:00. I ordered the open faced turkey w/mashed potatoes and gravy and Big T got a club sandwich with fries. We drank ice water, and after the 2-4-1 were pleased with our $9.67 bill before tip. Four forks!
We hit the Four Queens where Mr. T was a new member sign up and came away with 6 beers plus a $10 profit. Signed up at LVC next, ran our free play through and ended up +$15. Finally, we hit the Golden Gate. I hate this place. Why? Because we both bet our $25 matchplays on “red” and lost. I felt exactly like the Mandalay Bay douchebag betting so recklessly on roulette and then walking out of there with my head hanging $50 in the hole.
We decided to call it a night and hitched the bus back to Bellagio where a quick walk across the bridge got us back Bally’s and it was lights out on Day 1.
