First of all sorry for the delay in getting this posted. On day 6 you'll realize why! Please forgive all spelling and grammar issues.
Trip Report
December 17 – 31, 2014
Welcome to the return of the Christmas/Birthday Trip. There hasn't been one of these since 2010 and I'm excited for it to be back! This is going to be one of our “shorter” trips checking in at just 14 days. Even though it's shorter it will still be full of video poker action, comps, promos, coupons, and dining. My wife Dee will be joining me as usual on this trip and still using her wheelchair to get around but that won't deter from the fun. So, sit back relax and away we go!
Pre – Trip:
Prior to heading out to Las Vegas I surprised Dee with a short trip to Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Florida. This was so she could see her folks before the holidays as they spend the winters in Florida. We flew from our local airport Stewart – Newburgh into Fort Lauderdale back on December 13th for $155 per person. This isn't the greatest rate but it's not bad. I booked back in May to lock this in. I scored a rental car through Alamo for 4 days for under $20 per day and used a coupon and discount code from the Entertainment Book that got me a discount of $24. After taxes the rate was just $92 for a standard sized car. We ended up with a Chrysler 200. This car had only 980 miles on it and was in brand new condition. We spent 4 nights with Dee's folks up in West Palm Beach. The final night of the trip we spent at the La Quinta near the airport.
Day 1
Wednesday December 17, 2014
We were up very early this morning at 4am around. Once we were ready we headed out for the approximate 5 minute drive to Ft. Lauderdale International Airport. We had to drop off the car at the rental car garage which went very quickly. There aren't many people returning cars at 4:45am!
Next was a short walk over to the terminal and checking in with Southwest Airlines. I booked this flight back in May for $149 per person. I used points to pay for one of us and paid for the other. Two weeks later the fare dropped down to $126 so I re-booked and banked some credits to my account and had some points returned too. Since then the fares have fluctuated between $139 and $288.
Checking in here was fairly quick and we were off to the security area. Things here were good. People were behaving well except for the one lady that thought her kids were exempt from the no liquids rule and had bottled water in their back packs. We got through quickly with no issues.
When it was time to board we were allowed on first because Dee is in a wheelchair. This didn't stop all of those who showed up in airport wheelchairs from WALKING all over the terminal prior to the flight and WALKING down the jetway ahead of us. It really pisses me off how many people game the system so they can get priority boarding. Faking that you need a wheelchair is about as low as you can get.
This is flight 902, it's non stop and is scheduled to depart at 6:55am (now you know why we were up at 4am) and arrive in Las Vegas at 9:30am. The good thing about flying out of Florida is we don't have to worry about snow and ice delays!
The captain came on the PA and told us the flight would take 5 hours. We took off a bit late. The flight was smooth sailing for the most part except for two spots where the seat belt sign was turned on. Of course this is a magnet for every asshole douche bag to get up and move about the cabin. During the flight I logged onto their free TV service provided by Dish Network on my tablet. This really helped pass the time because this flight really sucks, especially this time of year when there are more headwinds. There was also a flight tracker and I saw we seemed to be way ahead of schedule.
We were given or traditional snacks consisting of Nabisco 100 calorie snacks and cup of juice. I had grabbed us a couple of bagels in the terminal too.
We finally started making our initial descent and landed at 9:05am, 25 minutes early despite leaving 10 minutes late. We had to taxi for a while until we got to the terminal. We got off last as we had to wait for Dee's wheelchair to be brought to the door. From here it was off to baggage claim. The bag was actually the last one out but that worked well since it took so long for us to get there it was perfect timing.
Once we had the bag I found a place for Dee to sit and I hopped on the rental car shuttle to go pick up the rental car. Originally rates were sky high but I was able to book a premium at Budget for $125/week after a coupon back in September. I wasn't happy with this rate and continued to check rates daily. In November I was able to score a rate of $88/week through Dollar for a full sized. A few days later I re-booked to a standard for $78/week and a few days after that I re-booked again for $72/week. On November 30th I got an e-mail from Dollar for 15% off on weekly rentals. I tried the code they sent me and while it raised the base price, after the discount I saved yet again. This time the price was $70.69 for the week. Then, oddly on December 2nd I got another e-mail from Dollar telling me I hadn't rented a car from them in over a year (false, I rented twice from them this past summer) and offered 20% off. I re-booked it again and the rate is now down to $66.24/week. This is by far the lowest rate I've ever gotten in Las Vegas for a weekly rental. The only killer is the 100.6% in added taxes and fees. That effing facility charge is the most unfair charge there is out there at $3.75 per day. Explain to me why a 14 day renter that doesn't use the garage any more than a 2 day renter has to pay 7x as much for it. I was a bit worried about the condition of the car I was going to get because the last time we were here all of their cars had VERY high mileage on them and were beat to shit.
Once there I headed to Dollar and found my paperwork in a dodge Avenger. I looked around the lot for something better but almost every car in the standard row was an Avenger. I checked the car over and decided that I would take it . It has 35,000 miles on it but seemed to be in pretty good condition. It would turn out this car wasn't as good as it looked as it had a slight “shimmy” in the back end but it ran well other than that.
I went back over to the airport to pick up Dee and in just a few minutes we were headed downtown to Main Street Station with a quick stop at CVS for some items we didn't bring with us. They didn't have everything they wanted so we hit Walgreen's too.
I actually booked this back in June when we were here with host Ipo for 6 nights and a silver card which allows us to eat complimentary at any non-gourmet restaurant at the downtown Boyd properties. When my December offer arrived I had her add the $75 free play to my account.
Ipo blocked our normal room for us. It wasn't ready yet but we were able to check in and get our silver card. As a matter of fact the current guest of that room was still in there. I guess that's ok considering it was only 10:30am!
For lunch we hit the Market Street Cafe over at the Cal. I started the trip with my favorite hot open turkey sandwich. Dee had the spaghetti and meatballs and was very excited to see it added back to the menu since it has been removed a while back. Sadly she didn't really like the meatballs though.
Now it was finally time for some video poker action! We started of with our favorite triple/five play machines. The notable hands for this session were Dee hitting aces about 3 minutes in. I hit a straight lush but I was quad deprived. I was down $200 with only 2 quads but had a lot of play. I switched over to my hail Mary of double-double on my last $20 with no luck. I popped in a 3rd bill and left the game on DDB. The biggest surprise was when I held a lone ace, looked over at Dee who was fidgeting around and turned back to see aces and a kicker for $500 on line #4. I switched back to bonus poker and got dealt kings shortly after.
Dee hit another set of aces and many bonus quads. I also hit another set of aces on bonus poker. After a pretty nice first session of the trio we finished with a $400 win. We also scored 28 scratch cards worth $57. (27 @ $2 & 1 @ $3)
It was after 3pm now so we went to see if the room was ready. It was and we were given the room I requested #1724. This is a handicap accessible room. These rooms are the same as the standard rooms here at Main Street Station with a king bed, nightstands, table with chairs, dresser, 32 inch flat screen TV, closet, fridge and a work desk. The bathroom is laid out similar to the regular rooms as well except it's all one room instead of being split into two. It also has safety bars around the toilet and in the tub. I was excited to see this bathroom got a mini renovation of a new tub, surround and shower head!
I got our stuff from the car and got us unpacked while we took a short break. It is nice being able to move into a place for 6 nights.
It was time for another session of video poker. Noteworthy hands were just a few quads here and there and Dee getting dealt a large number of full houses. We didn't get half the play we did earlier and lost $200 each wiping out the wins from earlier. We scored 8 scratch cards worth another $16 (8 @ $2).
For dinner we went to the snack bar over at the California. I had the saimen and Dee had the chili cheese fries. The food here is always very basic but always good too. We topped this meal off by splitting a peanut butter cookie!
To finish the night we ran my free play through a 50¢ 8/5 bonus progressive. There no no big hits but I was able to cash out with the full $75.
Thanks to scratch cards and free play we were actually able to scratch out (no pun intended) a small win today.
Now it was getting late and our bodies thought it was 3 hours later so we decided to get to bed.
Total win/loss for the day $150
Total comps for the day $225
Day 2
Thursday December 18, 2014
We were up early today and started off with some breakfast at the buffet here at Main Street Station. As always this buffet is one of the better ones out there.
After breakfast it was time for some video poker action. The plan today is to pretty much park our asses here at Main Street Station and the California. The first session of the morning was not that good. Highlights were me hitting aces and Dee getting dealt quad sixes on triple play. Despite those hands we dropped 5 bills between us. We did score 17 scratch cards worth $35 (16 @ $2 & 1 @ $3).
Even though the plan was to stay here for the whole day we needed a change of atmosphere. Since we had been there in a really long time we decided on Rampart out in Summerlin. When we got here the first thing we did was get some slot cards. Dee was a new sign up and got some left over turkey salt and pepper shakers with a value of about 50¢. She also gets a 2 for 1 buffet and the chance to “spin” a wheel if she earns 20 points today. Now it was off to the 10-play dime machines for some fun. This is one of my favorite games to play and Dee likes it too. This started out as the session from hell. We were both feeding in bills one after another. I took a hail Mary shot going to double-double at the end of my 3rd bill and scored quad fours with a kicker. I switched back to bonus poker and hit aces on my first hand. I hovered on these credits for the next few hours while Dee continued to bleed. There were few dealt winners and drawing to hands wasn't improving them by much. I did get lucky and saved the day by getting dealt aces but it was still too little too late and we dropped a wad of cash here.
When we were done playing we went and did Dee's free spin on the kiosk and she won $15 in free play. This was a nice prize as some of the crap on the wheel was lame, like 250 points worth just over $1 and I was sure she was going to get that!
It was time for some food so we went to the slot club. They were running a promotion where if you earned 1200 points you got a voucher to the Caramel Room and got to choose one of 4 dinners for free. Dee had lobster tail and I had the prime rib. The only issue was they only had well done left (at 6pm mind you) so I took the end cut hoping it would be flavorful and have a nice bark on it but, it didn't and resembled pot roast. I honestly don't know why anyone would ever order red meat well done. It has absolutely no flavor whatsoever. This place is pricey and service is excellent. However if you keep to just the free portion of the meal you can get out of here for just the price of a tip.
Next we found a penny game Dee wanted to run her free play on. It wasn't treating us very ell but on the very last spin she hit the bonus round and we got over 3000 coins. We cashed out and took the win! On the way out the door we stopped by the roulette wheel and burned a couple of match plays. I played mine on black and #33 black came in for the $10 win. The next spin Dee played odd and #6 came up for a $5 loss netting us another $5 win.
We left Rampart and returned here to Main Street Station. For some more video poker. This time it was streaky at first but then leveled off a bit. I took a hail Mary on my very last hand and got dealt 3 aces. I landed the 4th one without the kicker for $200 to get back to even. We each hit a few quads including me hitting aces two more times on bonus poker and Dee landing some too. The swings were too much though and we finished up with just a $50 win. We managed 11 more scratch cards for $22 (11 @ $2).
It was getting late so we decided to pack it in after a long day of video poker.
Total win/loss for the day - $1000
Total comps for the day $218
Day 3
Friday December 19, 2014
We started off today by going to breakfast over at the Fremont Buffet. Dee likes it here despite it being average at best. Due to remodeling in the casino though, it was closed. Instead we opted for the Lanai Express where we both got the deuces wild breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage and potatoes for $3.99.
From the Fremont we went over to the Four Queens where we'd be spending part of our day playing video poker. Today's plan was to play on Dee's card. She's got a mail offer for $200 in free play. She's also got an LVA coupon for $10 in free play and a letter explaining their new comp program offering $60 in comps.
When we got there we settled in at the 9/6 jacks or better machines and played for halves. Things were decent here today with nothing good or bad happening. We both hovered for quite a while until I started getting low paired to death. I did my hail Mary to double-double and got dealt quad jacks to get back into the game. I was on a roller coaster ride for the session and ended up dropping 3 bills which I didn't think was too bad considering I was playing halves. Dee on the other hand got dealt a couple of quads and hovered on the same bill the entire time we played and cashed out even. While we were playing a guy came up to us and gave us his hardly used Four Queens fun books. The highlight of this was they still had the $10 match play coupons.
We went to the slot club and turned in her letter and activated her LVA coupon. Dee was all set with an extra $60 in comps on what she just earned and had $210 in free play.
We decided to run the free play through quarter 9/6 jacks. We were able to turn the $210 into $220. Next up we stopped at the roulette table to burn those match plays we scored from the fun books. I played black and 28 black hit. Dee played odd and 32 came up so we only scored a $10 win here but, that worked. All in all for the day we finished down $70 here at the Four Queens.
We made our way back to Main Street Station and got the car out of the valet and ran out to pick up a few items.
For a light lunch we decided to hit Jack in the box for some tacos and a milkshake for the ride. This is one of our favorite fast food places to eat while in town because we don't have them back home in NY.
We came back here to Main Street Station with the plans of staying here for the rest of the day. We came up here to the room to take a break for a while and my friend Yahtzee Mike called and said he's arrived. We made dinner plans for the Market Street Cafe later this afternoon.
After the break we met up with Mike and for dinner we went to the Market Street Cafe over at the California. I had the prime rib special which was actually better than the pot roast style prime rib I had at Rampart last night. Dee had a chicken finger meal that had 4 huge chicken fingers.
After dinner we hit our usual triple play video poker machines and Mike ran over to the Four Queens to play for a while. This time things were very streaky. In no time I was in for 3 bills. I took a hail Mary and landed quad fours with a kicker to get close to even. Dee was bleeding too but at a slower rate. Things started to smooth out and we were hitting our fair share of quads to keep going. I was getting way too many hands with no winners at all and on five play, that can be and was brutal. Finally I had a hand that was dealt with 4 to a royal and popped one on line 3 for the $1000 hit.
Dee continued to hover now but I was still going through some wild swings until I got dealt quad threes (sadly with a kicker on bonus poker).
By the time we were done with this session we were up $700 and collected 30 scratch cards worth $61 (29 @$2 & 1 @ $3). Mike came back and we hung out for a while before wrapping up.
Dee was tired so came to the room and for a late night snack I hit the snack bar over at the Cal. I had the Saimen. This is a noodle soup with pork, and some nasty pink and white fishy things. I always get mine without those. It was tasty and I was set for the night.
Total win/loss for the day $650
Total comps for the day $367
Day 4
Saturday December 20, 2014
Today we slept in a bit and started off with an in room breakfast of cookies I picked up at The Cal last night.
Once we were ready to go we went back over to the 4 Queens. Today we would be playing on my card. I also have a mail offer for $200 in free play and the same letter Dee got explaining the new comp program and $60 comp dollars. The only thing I don't have is the $10 free play coupon because I used that back in the summer when we were here.
Once again we started off with the 9/6 jacks machines at the 50¢ level. Things were decent here with no big wins or losses. Dee hit a few quads and a straight flush. Oddly I hit no quads for the session until the very end yet most of the time had more credits on my meter than Dee had. I ended up going into a dry spell and not even hitting full houses or flushes for close to an hour and dropped a $100 bill. Dee caught a late session quad and finished her session up $100 and we went to lunch dead even.
We stopped off at the slot club to turn in my letter for $60 in comps to go with the comps I'd already earned by playing and then went to eat lunch at Magnolia's Veranda. I had a steak sandwich medium rare and Dee had a club. My steak was so overcooked I did something I rarely do and sent it back. At first I though just the edges were overdone until I cut into the middle. This thing was well done and tasteless. The waiter went and got me a new one that arrived in about 3 minutes and it was cooked to perfection.
When we were done eating we hit the video poker machines again. Things were holding steady again this time around for me but Dee dropped $100 fairly quickly. Lucky for her the next bill kept her going for a while. Over on my machine I finally started hitting the quads I didn't hit earlier. I got sixes twice in a few minutes and then later on hit nines. Later in the session I hit quad fours and then quad fives in back to back hands. Then soon after is when it happened. I held 3 cards to a royal and filled in the other 2 cards I needed for the dreaded king high straight flush. We finished off this session with a small but much needed win.
I decided to run my free play through $1 9/6 jacks to take a shot. This was good at first with some straights and full houses but then I was going 4-5 hands in a row with nothing followed by a high pair followed by 4-5 hands of nothing. I and cashed out with $150 in profits.
Dee wanted to play her favorite penny slot and try to win a Mustang (yeah, that's going to happen). Oddly we did very well on this game hitting lots of 500, 800 and 2400 coin hits and she cashed out with $100 for an $80 win. I wanted to try out the new Rolling Stones slots and took $20 over to those. First of all, the pay outs suck on these. Even getting multiple pay offs was only netting 20 coin wins on a 50 coin bet. The bonus rounds were fun though and we hit 5 or 6 of those. I turned my $20 into $60 and we quit with a $120 win on penny slots between us!
We headed back over to Main Street Station and took a short break since we'd been on the go for quite a few hours. Then once again we hit the video poker machines. We were doing poorly to start but Dee was doing exceptionally poorly. That was until she held 2 cards to a royal and hit one on line 4 of her five play machine.
This was one of the few highlights of her session as she was grossly under-quaded. The main highlights of this session for me were hitting aces and getting dealt quad eights along with a bunch of others. The low light of the session was hitting the ultra dreaded (not to be confused with the dreaded) A2345 straight flush. We also scored 26 scratch cards all for $2 each worth $52.
For dinner we went to the Cal Snack Bar. Dee had chili over rice and I had saimen. We split an order of vegetable egg rolls and a giant cookie. Everything here was pretty good tonight and when we were done we went back over to Main Street Station and hit the video poker machines again.
This time we played triple play with mixed results. No major hits and just a few quads. Dee busted out and I was close but during my hail Mary hit quad eights and got back into it and then climbed back to even. We scored 4 more scratch cards worth another $8 and wrapped it up for the night.
Total win/loss for the day $1000
Total comps for the day $356
Day 5
Sunday December 21, 2014
We started off with meeting Yahtzee Mike this morning at the buffet. Everything was pretty good here and we had a good time and good food together.
Mike headed out to Silverton to check in and we hit the video poker machines. This was a mistake as things were not good at all. I hit aces, quad ours twice and various other quads and dropped $200 in no time. I continued to play and dropped 2 more bills on top of that. Dee dropped 2 as well. In total we got about an hour of play and dropped most of what we had won yesterday. I was going 5-6 hands on five play with zero pay outs then getting a small hit then losing 5 straight again. On one bill I was down to $20 before I had a hand that paid more than I bet. Dealt winners were far and few between as well. We got 14 scratch cards all for $2 this time around.
We too a short break up in the room then headed out. We went up to the strip to check in at Planet Hollywood. We won't be staying here but we have some plans center strip the next few days and will use this room as a home base of sorts. I booked this on an offer of 2 nights, $50 free play and $25 resort credit. Since I'm diamond the stupid resort fee is waived. When we arrived I had the option of parking in the garage that's 127 miles from the casino or to park in what was once the worst valet in town. I opted for the garage since I was hoping for a quick check in and a quick exit.
Checking in was fast here in the diamond area and quickly we were on our way to room 1415. We haven't stayed here in many years and the rooms aren't much different than they used to be. This is a handicap accessible room with 2 queen beds. There is also work desk, flat screen TV, arm chair and closet/dresser combo. The windows give us a view of the south strip. The bathroom is quite large with a roll in shower, vanity, and toilet with safety bars.
The reason for booking this room is because over the next 2 days we have planned to go play at The Cosmopolitan tomorrow and wanted a place to take a break if needed. The fact that the room came with some extras didn't hurt!
Next up we were off to Silverton. The plan here was to play on my card and get the free play from our mail offer which was $125. We were also going to meet Mike here and our other friends Norm and Andrea for dinner at the buffet.
We were able to get on our favorite machines the 100 play video poker. These are a lot of fun. Things went up and down here. Up a few hundred one minute, down a few hundred the next. Dealt winners weren't frequent enough and Dee had a hard time turning trips into quads. One hand she didn't hit a quad until line 98. Another hand she hit two and then there was the dreaded hand of hitting none. Yup, imagine that, 100 shots at a quad and not connecting on a three of a kind. I hit a royal on a 2 card hold on line #63 but that was it for the session.
We met up with everyone and hit the buffet. Prior to eating I went to see a host and he graciously comped all 5 of us to the buffet. The food here was good tonight, fresh and tasty and it was busy enough that the foods turned over quickly. We had a great tine with everyone and it was good to enjoy our time with them.
We hit the 100 plays again, again with mixed results. Up and down would be the theme with us up a few hundred for a while, then down. The excitement was building when I was dealt four to a royal and as luck would have it filled it I on none of the lines. This is just not our day!
To wrap up at Silverton I ran my free play through a $1 8/5 bonus machine. Nothing good or bad here and turned the $125 into $100.
We came back down here to Main Street Station and wrapped it up for the night with a short session of triple/five play. This was a waste of time and money. Between us we only hit 6 quads. Our scratch cards were all for $2 again. Dee managed to break even and I dropped another $300. My hail Mary moves netted me a few regular quads but nothing to keep me alive.
We went to the room ad to bed early tonight since it was probably the only way to stop the bleeding.
Total win/loss for the day - $ 1150
Total comps for the day $355
Trip Report
December 17 – 31, 2014
Welcome to the return of the Christmas/Birthday Trip. There hasn't been one of these since 2010 and I'm excited for it to be back! This is going to be one of our “shorter” trips checking in at just 14 days. Even though it's shorter it will still be full of video poker action, comps, promos, coupons, and dining. My wife Dee will be joining me as usual on this trip and still using her wheelchair to get around but that won't deter from the fun. So, sit back relax and away we go!
Pre – Trip:
Prior to heading out to Las Vegas I surprised Dee with a short trip to Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Florida. This was so she could see her folks before the holidays as they spend the winters in Florida. We flew from our local airport Stewart – Newburgh into Fort Lauderdale back on December 13th for $155 per person. This isn't the greatest rate but it's not bad. I booked back in May to lock this in. I scored a rental car through Alamo for 4 days for under $20 per day and used a coupon and discount code from the Entertainment Book that got me a discount of $24. After taxes the rate was just $92 for a standard sized car. We ended up with a Chrysler 200. This car had only 980 miles on it and was in brand new condition. We spent 4 nights with Dee's folks up in West Palm Beach. The final night of the trip we spent at the La Quinta near the airport.
Day 1
Wednesday December 17, 2014
We were up very early this morning at 4am around. Once we were ready we headed out for the approximate 5 minute drive to Ft. Lauderdale International Airport. We had to drop off the car at the rental car garage which went very quickly. There aren't many people returning cars at 4:45am!
Next was a short walk over to the terminal and checking in with Southwest Airlines. I booked this flight back in May for $149 per person. I used points to pay for one of us and paid for the other. Two weeks later the fare dropped down to $126 so I re-booked and banked some credits to my account and had some points returned too. Since then the fares have fluctuated between $139 and $288.
Checking in here was fairly quick and we were off to the security area. Things here were good. People were behaving well except for the one lady that thought her kids were exempt from the no liquids rule and had bottled water in their back packs. We got through quickly with no issues.
When it was time to board we were allowed on first because Dee is in a wheelchair. This didn't stop all of those who showed up in airport wheelchairs from WALKING all over the terminal prior to the flight and WALKING down the jetway ahead of us. It really pisses me off how many people game the system so they can get priority boarding. Faking that you need a wheelchair is about as low as you can get.
This is flight 902, it's non stop and is scheduled to depart at 6:55am (now you know why we were up at 4am) and arrive in Las Vegas at 9:30am. The good thing about flying out of Florida is we don't have to worry about snow and ice delays!
The captain came on the PA and told us the flight would take 5 hours. We took off a bit late. The flight was smooth sailing for the most part except for two spots where the seat belt sign was turned on. Of course this is a magnet for every asshole douche bag to get up and move about the cabin. During the flight I logged onto their free TV service provided by Dish Network on my tablet. This really helped pass the time because this flight really sucks, especially this time of year when there are more headwinds. There was also a flight tracker and I saw we seemed to be way ahead of schedule.
We were given or traditional snacks consisting of Nabisco 100 calorie snacks and cup of juice. I had grabbed us a couple of bagels in the terminal too.
We finally started making our initial descent and landed at 9:05am, 25 minutes early despite leaving 10 minutes late. We had to taxi for a while until we got to the terminal. We got off last as we had to wait for Dee's wheelchair to be brought to the door. From here it was off to baggage claim. The bag was actually the last one out but that worked well since it took so long for us to get there it was perfect timing.
Once we had the bag I found a place for Dee to sit and I hopped on the rental car shuttle to go pick up the rental car. Originally rates were sky high but I was able to book a premium at Budget for $125/week after a coupon back in September. I wasn't happy with this rate and continued to check rates daily. In November I was able to score a rate of $88/week through Dollar for a full sized. A few days later I re-booked to a standard for $78/week and a few days after that I re-booked again for $72/week. On November 30th I got an e-mail from Dollar for 15% off on weekly rentals. I tried the code they sent me and while it raised the base price, after the discount I saved yet again. This time the price was $70.69 for the week. Then, oddly on December 2nd I got another e-mail from Dollar telling me I hadn't rented a car from them in over a year (false, I rented twice from them this past summer) and offered 20% off. I re-booked it again and the rate is now down to $66.24/week. This is by far the lowest rate I've ever gotten in Las Vegas for a weekly rental. The only killer is the 100.6% in added taxes and fees. That effing facility charge is the most unfair charge there is out there at $3.75 per day. Explain to me why a 14 day renter that doesn't use the garage any more than a 2 day renter has to pay 7x as much for it. I was a bit worried about the condition of the car I was going to get because the last time we were here all of their cars had VERY high mileage on them and were beat to shit.
Once there I headed to Dollar and found my paperwork in a dodge Avenger. I looked around the lot for something better but almost every car in the standard row was an Avenger. I checked the car over and decided that I would take it . It has 35,000 miles on it but seemed to be in pretty good condition. It would turn out this car wasn't as good as it looked as it had a slight “shimmy” in the back end but it ran well other than that.
I went back over to the airport to pick up Dee and in just a few minutes we were headed downtown to Main Street Station with a quick stop at CVS for some items we didn't bring with us. They didn't have everything they wanted so we hit Walgreen's too.
I actually booked this back in June when we were here with host Ipo for 6 nights and a silver card which allows us to eat complimentary at any non-gourmet restaurant at the downtown Boyd properties. When my December offer arrived I had her add the $75 free play to my account.
Ipo blocked our normal room for us. It wasn't ready yet but we were able to check in and get our silver card. As a matter of fact the current guest of that room was still in there. I guess that's ok considering it was only 10:30am!
For lunch we hit the Market Street Cafe over at the Cal. I started the trip with my favorite hot open turkey sandwich. Dee had the spaghetti and meatballs and was very excited to see it added back to the menu since it has been removed a while back. Sadly she didn't really like the meatballs though.
Now it was finally time for some video poker action! We started of with our favorite triple/five play machines. The notable hands for this session were Dee hitting aces about 3 minutes in. I hit a straight lush but I was quad deprived. I was down $200 with only 2 quads but had a lot of play. I switched over to my hail Mary of double-double on my last $20 with no luck. I popped in a 3rd bill and left the game on DDB. The biggest surprise was when I held a lone ace, looked over at Dee who was fidgeting around and turned back to see aces and a kicker for $500 on line #4. I switched back to bonus poker and got dealt kings shortly after.
Dee hit another set of aces and many bonus quads. I also hit another set of aces on bonus poker. After a pretty nice first session of the trio we finished with a $400 win. We also scored 28 scratch cards worth $57. (27 @ $2 & 1 @ $3)
It was after 3pm now so we went to see if the room was ready. It was and we were given the room I requested #1724. This is a handicap accessible room. These rooms are the same as the standard rooms here at Main Street Station with a king bed, nightstands, table with chairs, dresser, 32 inch flat screen TV, closet, fridge and a work desk. The bathroom is laid out similar to the regular rooms as well except it's all one room instead of being split into two. It also has safety bars around the toilet and in the tub. I was excited to see this bathroom got a mini renovation of a new tub, surround and shower head!
I got our stuff from the car and got us unpacked while we took a short break. It is nice being able to move into a place for 6 nights.
It was time for another session of video poker. Noteworthy hands were just a few quads here and there and Dee getting dealt a large number of full houses. We didn't get half the play we did earlier and lost $200 each wiping out the wins from earlier. We scored 8 scratch cards worth another $16 (8 @ $2).
For dinner we went to the snack bar over at the California. I had the saimen and Dee had the chili cheese fries. The food here is always very basic but always good too. We topped this meal off by splitting a peanut butter cookie!
To finish the night we ran my free play through a 50¢ 8/5 bonus progressive. There no no big hits but I was able to cash out with the full $75.
Thanks to scratch cards and free play we were actually able to scratch out (no pun intended) a small win today.
Now it was getting late and our bodies thought it was 3 hours later so we decided to get to bed.
Total win/loss for the day $150
Total comps for the day $225
Day 2
Thursday December 18, 2014
We were up early today and started off with some breakfast at the buffet here at Main Street Station. As always this buffet is one of the better ones out there.
After breakfast it was time for some video poker action. The plan today is to pretty much park our asses here at Main Street Station and the California. The first session of the morning was not that good. Highlights were me hitting aces and Dee getting dealt quad sixes on triple play. Despite those hands we dropped 5 bills between us. We did score 17 scratch cards worth $35 (16 @ $2 & 1 @ $3).
Even though the plan was to stay here for the whole day we needed a change of atmosphere. Since we had been there in a really long time we decided on Rampart out in Summerlin. When we got here the first thing we did was get some slot cards. Dee was a new sign up and got some left over turkey salt and pepper shakers with a value of about 50¢. She also gets a 2 for 1 buffet and the chance to “spin” a wheel if she earns 20 points today. Now it was off to the 10-play dime machines for some fun. This is one of my favorite games to play and Dee likes it too. This started out as the session from hell. We were both feeding in bills one after another. I took a hail Mary shot going to double-double at the end of my 3rd bill and scored quad fours with a kicker. I switched back to bonus poker and hit aces on my first hand. I hovered on these credits for the next few hours while Dee continued to bleed. There were few dealt winners and drawing to hands wasn't improving them by much. I did get lucky and saved the day by getting dealt aces but it was still too little too late and we dropped a wad of cash here.
When we were done playing we went and did Dee's free spin on the kiosk and she won $15 in free play. This was a nice prize as some of the crap on the wheel was lame, like 250 points worth just over $1 and I was sure she was going to get that!
It was time for some food so we went to the slot club. They were running a promotion where if you earned 1200 points you got a voucher to the Caramel Room and got to choose one of 4 dinners for free. Dee had lobster tail and I had the prime rib. The only issue was they only had well done left (at 6pm mind you) so I took the end cut hoping it would be flavorful and have a nice bark on it but, it didn't and resembled pot roast. I honestly don't know why anyone would ever order red meat well done. It has absolutely no flavor whatsoever. This place is pricey and service is excellent. However if you keep to just the free portion of the meal you can get out of here for just the price of a tip.
Next we found a penny game Dee wanted to run her free play on. It wasn't treating us very ell but on the very last spin she hit the bonus round and we got over 3000 coins. We cashed out and took the win! On the way out the door we stopped by the roulette wheel and burned a couple of match plays. I played mine on black and #33 black came in for the $10 win. The next spin Dee played odd and #6 came up for a $5 loss netting us another $5 win.
We left Rampart and returned here to Main Street Station. For some more video poker. This time it was streaky at first but then leveled off a bit. I took a hail Mary on my very last hand and got dealt 3 aces. I landed the 4th one without the kicker for $200 to get back to even. We each hit a few quads including me hitting aces two more times on bonus poker and Dee landing some too. The swings were too much though and we finished up with just a $50 win. We managed 11 more scratch cards for $22 (11 @ $2).
It was getting late so we decided to pack it in after a long day of video poker.
Total win/loss for the day - $1000
Total comps for the day $218
Day 3
Friday December 19, 2014
We started off today by going to breakfast over at the Fremont Buffet. Dee likes it here despite it being average at best. Due to remodeling in the casino though, it was closed. Instead we opted for the Lanai Express where we both got the deuces wild breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage and potatoes for $3.99.
From the Fremont we went over to the Four Queens where we'd be spending part of our day playing video poker. Today's plan was to play on Dee's card. She's got a mail offer for $200 in free play. She's also got an LVA coupon for $10 in free play and a letter explaining their new comp program offering $60 in comps.
When we got there we settled in at the 9/6 jacks or better machines and played for halves. Things were decent here today with nothing good or bad happening. We both hovered for quite a while until I started getting low paired to death. I did my hail Mary to double-double and got dealt quad jacks to get back into the game. I was on a roller coaster ride for the session and ended up dropping 3 bills which I didn't think was too bad considering I was playing halves. Dee on the other hand got dealt a couple of quads and hovered on the same bill the entire time we played and cashed out even. While we were playing a guy came up to us and gave us his hardly used Four Queens fun books. The highlight of this was they still had the $10 match play coupons.
We went to the slot club and turned in her letter and activated her LVA coupon. Dee was all set with an extra $60 in comps on what she just earned and had $210 in free play.
We decided to run the free play through quarter 9/6 jacks. We were able to turn the $210 into $220. Next up we stopped at the roulette table to burn those match plays we scored from the fun books. I played black and 28 black hit. Dee played odd and 32 came up so we only scored a $10 win here but, that worked. All in all for the day we finished down $70 here at the Four Queens.
We made our way back to Main Street Station and got the car out of the valet and ran out to pick up a few items.
For a light lunch we decided to hit Jack in the box for some tacos and a milkshake for the ride. This is one of our favorite fast food places to eat while in town because we don't have them back home in NY.
We came back here to Main Street Station with the plans of staying here for the rest of the day. We came up here to the room to take a break for a while and my friend Yahtzee Mike called and said he's arrived. We made dinner plans for the Market Street Cafe later this afternoon.
After the break we met up with Mike and for dinner we went to the Market Street Cafe over at the California. I had the prime rib special which was actually better than the pot roast style prime rib I had at Rampart last night. Dee had a chicken finger meal that had 4 huge chicken fingers.
After dinner we hit our usual triple play video poker machines and Mike ran over to the Four Queens to play for a while. This time things were very streaky. In no time I was in for 3 bills. I took a hail Mary and landed quad fours with a kicker to get close to even. Dee was bleeding too but at a slower rate. Things started to smooth out and we were hitting our fair share of quads to keep going. I was getting way too many hands with no winners at all and on five play, that can be and was brutal. Finally I had a hand that was dealt with 4 to a royal and popped one on line 3 for the $1000 hit.
Dee continued to hover now but I was still going through some wild swings until I got dealt quad threes (sadly with a kicker on bonus poker).
By the time we were done with this session we were up $700 and collected 30 scratch cards worth $61 (29 @$2 & 1 @ $3). Mike came back and we hung out for a while before wrapping up.
Dee was tired so came to the room and for a late night snack I hit the snack bar over at the Cal. I had the Saimen. This is a noodle soup with pork, and some nasty pink and white fishy things. I always get mine without those. It was tasty and I was set for the night.
Total win/loss for the day $650
Total comps for the day $367
Day 4
Saturday December 20, 2014
Today we slept in a bit and started off with an in room breakfast of cookies I picked up at The Cal last night.
Once we were ready to go we went back over to the 4 Queens. Today we would be playing on my card. I also have a mail offer for $200 in free play and the same letter Dee got explaining the new comp program and $60 comp dollars. The only thing I don't have is the $10 free play coupon because I used that back in the summer when we were here.
Once again we started off with the 9/6 jacks machines at the 50¢ level. Things were decent here with no big wins or losses. Dee hit a few quads and a straight flush. Oddly I hit no quads for the session until the very end yet most of the time had more credits on my meter than Dee had. I ended up going into a dry spell and not even hitting full houses or flushes for close to an hour and dropped a $100 bill. Dee caught a late session quad and finished her session up $100 and we went to lunch dead even.
We stopped off at the slot club to turn in my letter for $60 in comps to go with the comps I'd already earned by playing and then went to eat lunch at Magnolia's Veranda. I had a steak sandwich medium rare and Dee had a club. My steak was so overcooked I did something I rarely do and sent it back. At first I though just the edges were overdone until I cut into the middle. This thing was well done and tasteless. The waiter went and got me a new one that arrived in about 3 minutes and it was cooked to perfection.
When we were done eating we hit the video poker machines again. Things were holding steady again this time around for me but Dee dropped $100 fairly quickly. Lucky for her the next bill kept her going for a while. Over on my machine I finally started hitting the quads I didn't hit earlier. I got sixes twice in a few minutes and then later on hit nines. Later in the session I hit quad fours and then quad fives in back to back hands. Then soon after is when it happened. I held 3 cards to a royal and filled in the other 2 cards I needed for the dreaded king high straight flush. We finished off this session with a small but much needed win.
I decided to run my free play through $1 9/6 jacks to take a shot. This was good at first with some straights and full houses but then I was going 4-5 hands in a row with nothing followed by a high pair followed by 4-5 hands of nothing. I and cashed out with $150 in profits.
Dee wanted to play her favorite penny slot and try to win a Mustang (yeah, that's going to happen). Oddly we did very well on this game hitting lots of 500, 800 and 2400 coin hits and she cashed out with $100 for an $80 win. I wanted to try out the new Rolling Stones slots and took $20 over to those. First of all, the pay outs suck on these. Even getting multiple pay offs was only netting 20 coin wins on a 50 coin bet. The bonus rounds were fun though and we hit 5 or 6 of those. I turned my $20 into $60 and we quit with a $120 win on penny slots between us!
We headed back over to Main Street Station and took a short break since we'd been on the go for quite a few hours. Then once again we hit the video poker machines. We were doing poorly to start but Dee was doing exceptionally poorly. That was until she held 2 cards to a royal and hit one on line 4 of her five play machine.
This was one of the few highlights of her session as she was grossly under-quaded. The main highlights of this session for me were hitting aces and getting dealt quad eights along with a bunch of others. The low light of the session was hitting the ultra dreaded (not to be confused with the dreaded) A2345 straight flush. We also scored 26 scratch cards all for $2 each worth $52.
For dinner we went to the Cal Snack Bar. Dee had chili over rice and I had saimen. We split an order of vegetable egg rolls and a giant cookie. Everything here was pretty good tonight and when we were done we went back over to Main Street Station and hit the video poker machines again.
This time we played triple play with mixed results. No major hits and just a few quads. Dee busted out and I was close but during my hail Mary hit quad eights and got back into it and then climbed back to even. We scored 4 more scratch cards worth another $8 and wrapped it up for the night.
Total win/loss for the day $1000
Total comps for the day $356
Day 5
Sunday December 21, 2014
We started off with meeting Yahtzee Mike this morning at the buffet. Everything was pretty good here and we had a good time and good food together.
Mike headed out to Silverton to check in and we hit the video poker machines. This was a mistake as things were not good at all. I hit aces, quad ours twice and various other quads and dropped $200 in no time. I continued to play and dropped 2 more bills on top of that. Dee dropped 2 as well. In total we got about an hour of play and dropped most of what we had won yesterday. I was going 5-6 hands on five play with zero pay outs then getting a small hit then losing 5 straight again. On one bill I was down to $20 before I had a hand that paid more than I bet. Dealt winners were far and few between as well. We got 14 scratch cards all for $2 this time around.
We too a short break up in the room then headed out. We went up to the strip to check in at Planet Hollywood. We won't be staying here but we have some plans center strip the next few days and will use this room as a home base of sorts. I booked this on an offer of 2 nights, $50 free play and $25 resort credit. Since I'm diamond the stupid resort fee is waived. When we arrived I had the option of parking in the garage that's 127 miles from the casino or to park in what was once the worst valet in town. I opted for the garage since I was hoping for a quick check in and a quick exit.
Checking in was fast here in the diamond area and quickly we were on our way to room 1415. We haven't stayed here in many years and the rooms aren't much different than they used to be. This is a handicap accessible room with 2 queen beds. There is also work desk, flat screen TV, arm chair and closet/dresser combo. The windows give us a view of the south strip. The bathroom is quite large with a roll in shower, vanity, and toilet with safety bars.
The reason for booking this room is because over the next 2 days we have planned to go play at The Cosmopolitan tomorrow and wanted a place to take a break if needed. The fact that the room came with some extras didn't hurt!
Next up we were off to Silverton. The plan here was to play on my card and get the free play from our mail offer which was $125. We were also going to meet Mike here and our other friends Norm and Andrea for dinner at the buffet.
We were able to get on our favorite machines the 100 play video poker. These are a lot of fun. Things went up and down here. Up a few hundred one minute, down a few hundred the next. Dealt winners weren't frequent enough and Dee had a hard time turning trips into quads. One hand she didn't hit a quad until line 98. Another hand she hit two and then there was the dreaded hand of hitting none. Yup, imagine that, 100 shots at a quad and not connecting on a three of a kind. I hit a royal on a 2 card hold on line #63 but that was it for the session.
We met up with everyone and hit the buffet. Prior to eating I went to see a host and he graciously comped all 5 of us to the buffet. The food here was good tonight, fresh and tasty and it was busy enough that the foods turned over quickly. We had a great tine with everyone and it was good to enjoy our time with them.
We hit the 100 plays again, again with mixed results. Up and down would be the theme with us up a few hundred for a while, then down. The excitement was building when I was dealt four to a royal and as luck would have it filled it I on none of the lines. This is just not our day!
To wrap up at Silverton I ran my free play through a $1 8/5 bonus machine. Nothing good or bad here and turned the $125 into $100.
We came back down here to Main Street Station and wrapped it up for the night with a short session of triple/five play. This was a waste of time and money. Between us we only hit 6 quads. Our scratch cards were all for $2 again. Dee managed to break even and I dropped another $300. My hail Mary moves netted me a few regular quads but nothing to keep me alive.
We went to the room ad to bed early tonight since it was probably the only way to stop the bleeding.
Total win/loss for the day - $ 1150
Total comps for the day $355
