After a good night’s rest we awoke about 8am, a few minutes later as we’re getting ready, the cleaning lady starts tapping furiously on our door. Before we can even answer, she’s entering the room. Whoa.
I thought it was way too early for housekeeping. We said we’d be leaving soon and to please come back shortly. This made me realize I needed to put our “do not disturb” sign out each night. I would have been highly pissed had she woken us up on our vacation.
Staying at Bally’s we were regular fixtures at Ellis Island and today was no exception.
I'm strolling down the hallway on my way to breakfast when I see this guy ahead of me. Any guesses who it might be?
Yo - It's Mr. T ! ! ! !
We headed over for breakfast, sans the scooter, and also drug the laptop along as we’d gone four days without internet. I’d noticed earlier in the week a Starbucks over at the Westin and was hoping we’d be able to tap into their free wi-fi after we ate.
I ordered my usual bacon and eggs and Mr. T did the same with two coffees to boot. Using another 2-4-1 our bill came to ten bucks before tip. We had one more $10 FP to run through (this one was from the MRB) and I cashed out +$7.50...damn near paid for my breakfast.
We left Ellis and crossed the street to the Westin Starbucks. Place was packed with long lines of folks waiting...couples paying more for their lattes than my entire breakfast. Anyway, I tried with no luck to tap wi-fi. It’s all connected to Westin which charges a $12/day fee. Found out later this location is not a “hot spot” and therefore no free wi-fi.
We returned to the room where I broke down and paid $14 for 24hours. It was well worth it to me. We both had lots of electronic correspondence to catch up on all in the comfort of our own air conditioned room.
This was the longest we’d spent in the room thus far, and the pesty housekeeping lady kept knocking on our door every couple minutes. I don’t know what she did the hour and a half we were gone, but after her third knock in 30 minutes we were pretty fed up.
Today was Saturday and the strip was PACKED. I hate the crowds, so we decided we’d be making it a pool and show day. I had a 2-4-1 to X-Burlesque at the Flamingo. The show was at 10pm, but you had to get in line about 9:15 for general seating. We decided to try it.
After finishing up on the laptop we threw on our suits, packed some reading materials, and headed to the Paris pool. We needed some down time and distance from the casinos and beer bottles. We found a great spot in the shade what with all the tall buildings completely surrounding the pool, and pulled out our books.
About 1:15, my eyes snapped open. Mr. T was looking at me and laughing, he said I’d been asleep about a half hour and several minutes earlier began snoring. The old dude next to me kept giving me funny looks - much to T’s amusement. Well hardy-har-har.
By now the sun is moving around the building and we’re beginning to lose our shade. We jump in for another refreshing dip, look at each other as if to say, “you ready to roll?” then, without another word, we packed up and headed back to the room to change.
“Pool Day” lasted a little over two hours, but it was enough for us. Eager to remove ourselves from the crowded strip, we shuttled from Bill’s to Gold Coast. Ah, the sight of polyester, smell of old people, and absence of booming music in our ears was blissful.
We decided to earn another two free buffets by putting 200 points each on our cards. (The MRB coupon is good for up to two people). This time we did much better and after adding the points came out $5 in profit between the two of us.
I remember glancing over at Mr. T (his machine had the speed dialed up) and noticing that while I just barely had the 200 points on, he was already at 277! We strolled up to the booth to get our buffets when we saw a sign, ‘Earn 300 points and get a free VP tourney entry.’
I looked at Big T and asked if he wanted to put on an additional 23 points and enter the tourney. “Hell yeah” he said, so we flew back on the FP JOB machines and added the points.
It’s about 4pm by the time he finished his 15 minute session. The tourney went from 11am - 7pm and we wouldn’t know the results until the following day at noon. Ug.
T-Bone had never been in a VP tourney before but enjoyed it nonetheless. I figured he had a few things going in his favor: 1)he has super-fast reflexes - I’d already swigged two beers since arriving at GC and am much slower than he is on the draw, so I was glad he was the entrant 2) he’d been improving on his basic strategy pretty regularly since February when we started using a JOB tutorial 3) let’s face it he’s MUCH luckier than me all the way around.
So he finishes his session and asks the guy working the tourney what a ‘good’ score is.
Guy asks him what he got: 2795.
Guy says anything over 2000 usually places in at least the top 50. Cool.
We looked up the prizes and 31st thru 50th place is $25 bucks. Awesome. $25 bucks. That’s worth another trip back the next day. As we’re strolling around I even say out loud, “What if you place 30th? That’s $50 bucks! Can you imagine if you win $50 bucks?!”
Big T said there’s still three hours to go in the tourney and lots of people may still be entering. We both agreed that even a $25 prize would be great.
We’re not ready to return to the strip yet, so we head over to the Orleans to swig a few Ultras, play three $10 MP’s, and another $10 FP using ACG and MRB coupons. The matchplays did not go over so well. I lost both of mine on you-know-what, Big T won his.
Side note: REALLY starting to hate MP’s.
However, I did much better on the $10 free slot play. See below.
Left the Orleans up a total of $88 and six beers. Score!
We shuttled back to Gold Coast for dinner. This is a lengthly process from the Orleans as they go all the way back to Bill’s on the strip before bringing you to GC.
Redeemed our two free buffets, and met a friendly server, Jeri, who was getting on in years, but still working hard servicing several demanding tables at once.We tipped her extra well for her efforts. I thought the GC dinner buffet was more than adequate. Of course our meal was comped, but I think even full price is only $12 per person and it rates pretty close to Mirage offerings. Figuring in both value and quality, I’d give it 4 forks.
It was approaching showtime at this point. We shuttled back to the strip and got in line at the Flamingo for our show about 9:10 pm and there was a line already forming. They opened the doors about 9:30. Our seats were alright. This show is in the Cabaret Theater where Vinnie Favorito performs. We liked all the old school footage from the 1950’s they showed prior to the performance.
My review of X-Burlesque: good music, good dancers, amusing comedian during intermission, overall decent entertainment. We paid $60 for two general admission seats...was hoping it would have been more like Peep Show (five claps) which we saw last summer. It wasn’t as good, but I’d give this show 3 claps; suppose you get what you pay for so no complaints.
After the 75 minute show at Flamingo we were finished for the day. Walked back to Bally’s and hit the hay, happy to be up on the day (for once) and dreaming of VP tourney standings...
I thought it was way too early for housekeeping. We said we’d be leaving soon and to please come back shortly. This made me realize I needed to put our “do not disturb” sign out each night. I would have been highly pissed had she woken us up on our vacation.
Staying at Bally’s we were regular fixtures at Ellis Island and today was no exception.
I'm strolling down the hallway on my way to breakfast when I see this guy ahead of me. Any guesses who it might be?
Yo - It's Mr. T ! ! ! !
We headed over for breakfast, sans the scooter, and also drug the laptop along as we’d gone four days without internet. I’d noticed earlier in the week a Starbucks over at the Westin and was hoping we’d be able to tap into their free wi-fi after we ate.
I ordered my usual bacon and eggs and Mr. T did the same with two coffees to boot. Using another 2-4-1 our bill came to ten bucks before tip. We had one more $10 FP to run through (this one was from the MRB) and I cashed out +$7.50...damn near paid for my breakfast.
We left Ellis and crossed the street to the Westin Starbucks. Place was packed with long lines of folks waiting...couples paying more for their lattes than my entire breakfast. Anyway, I tried with no luck to tap wi-fi. It’s all connected to Westin which charges a $12/day fee. Found out later this location is not a “hot spot” and therefore no free wi-fi.
We returned to the room where I broke down and paid $14 for 24hours. It was well worth it to me. We both had lots of electronic correspondence to catch up on all in the comfort of our own air conditioned room.
This was the longest we’d spent in the room thus far, and the pesty housekeeping lady kept knocking on our door every couple minutes. I don’t know what she did the hour and a half we were gone, but after her third knock in 30 minutes we were pretty fed up.
Today was Saturday and the strip was PACKED. I hate the crowds, so we decided we’d be making it a pool and show day. I had a 2-4-1 to X-Burlesque at the Flamingo. The show was at 10pm, but you had to get in line about 9:15 for general seating. We decided to try it.
After finishing up on the laptop we threw on our suits, packed some reading materials, and headed to the Paris pool. We needed some down time and distance from the casinos and beer bottles. We found a great spot in the shade what with all the tall buildings completely surrounding the pool, and pulled out our books.
About 1:15, my eyes snapped open. Mr. T was looking at me and laughing, he said I’d been asleep about a half hour and several minutes earlier began snoring. The old dude next to me kept giving me funny looks - much to T’s amusement. Well hardy-har-har.
By now the sun is moving around the building and we’re beginning to lose our shade. We jump in for another refreshing dip, look at each other as if to say, “you ready to roll?” then, without another word, we packed up and headed back to the room to change.
“Pool Day” lasted a little over two hours, but it was enough for us. Eager to remove ourselves from the crowded strip, we shuttled from Bill’s to Gold Coast. Ah, the sight of polyester, smell of old people, and absence of booming music in our ears was blissful.
We decided to earn another two free buffets by putting 200 points each on our cards. (The MRB coupon is good for up to two people). This time we did much better and after adding the points came out $5 in profit between the two of us.
I remember glancing over at Mr. T (his machine had the speed dialed up) and noticing that while I just barely had the 200 points on, he was already at 277! We strolled up to the booth to get our buffets when we saw a sign, ‘Earn 300 points and get a free VP tourney entry.’
I looked at Big T and asked if he wanted to put on an additional 23 points and enter the tourney. “Hell yeah” he said, so we flew back on the FP JOB machines and added the points.
It’s about 4pm by the time he finished his 15 minute session. The tourney went from 11am - 7pm and we wouldn’t know the results until the following day at noon. Ug.
T-Bone had never been in a VP tourney before but enjoyed it nonetheless. I figured he had a few things going in his favor: 1)he has super-fast reflexes - I’d already swigged two beers since arriving at GC and am much slower than he is on the draw, so I was glad he was the entrant 2) he’d been improving on his basic strategy pretty regularly since February when we started using a JOB tutorial 3) let’s face it he’s MUCH luckier than me all the way around.
So he finishes his session and asks the guy working the tourney what a ‘good’ score is.
Guy asks him what he got: 2795.
Guy says anything over 2000 usually places in at least the top 50. Cool.
We looked up the prizes and 31st thru 50th place is $25 bucks. Awesome. $25 bucks. That’s worth another trip back the next day. As we’re strolling around I even say out loud, “What if you place 30th? That’s $50 bucks! Can you imagine if you win $50 bucks?!”
Big T said there’s still three hours to go in the tourney and lots of people may still be entering. We both agreed that even a $25 prize would be great.
We’re not ready to return to the strip yet, so we head over to the Orleans to swig a few Ultras, play three $10 MP’s, and another $10 FP using ACG and MRB coupons. The matchplays did not go over so well. I lost both of mine on you-know-what, Big T won his.
Side note: REALLY starting to hate MP’s.
However, I did much better on the $10 free slot play. See below.
Left the Orleans up a total of $88 and six beers. Score!
We shuttled back to Gold Coast for dinner. This is a lengthly process from the Orleans as they go all the way back to Bill’s on the strip before bringing you to GC.
Redeemed our two free buffets, and met a friendly server, Jeri, who was getting on in years, but still working hard servicing several demanding tables at once.We tipped her extra well for her efforts. I thought the GC dinner buffet was more than adequate. Of course our meal was comped, but I think even full price is only $12 per person and it rates pretty close to Mirage offerings. Figuring in both value and quality, I’d give it 4 forks.
It was approaching showtime at this point. We shuttled back to the strip and got in line at the Flamingo for our show about 9:10 pm and there was a line already forming. They opened the doors about 9:30. Our seats were alright. This show is in the Cabaret Theater where Vinnie Favorito performs. We liked all the old school footage from the 1950’s they showed prior to the performance.
My review of X-Burlesque: good music, good dancers, amusing comedian during intermission, overall decent entertainment. We paid $60 for two general admission seats...was hoping it would have been more like Peep Show (five claps) which we saw last summer. It wasn’t as good, but I’d give this show 3 claps; suppose you get what you pay for so no complaints.
After the 75 minute show at Flamingo we were finished for the day. Walked back to Bally’s and hit the hay, happy to be up on the day (for once) and dreaming of VP tourney standings...
