Hope you enjoy and if you don't like detailed trip reports then by all means stop reading now. I'll pretend I didn't even know you were here to begin with. If you'd prefer a simple outline of our trip then you can find that below for your reading pleasure. This trip included both myself and my girlfriend, or GF. We tend to go to Vegas every few months since I seem to always need a future trip to look forward to...and i tend to plan ahead what we will try to accomplish on an upcoming trip. Having a general game plan or potential options on things to do sure beats "well what do you want to do now" discussions. Gambling and food budget for our trip was about $600...not including prepaid room. Enjoy
Sat 2/18
Palms $80 slot play for $50
MSS champagne brunch buffet/craps/slots
Misc Fremont St. gambling/coupon run
MSS growler
Check-in at Bill's
Relax
Full Montagu from Earl go Sandwich
Sleep
Sun 2/19
7am Drunk people watching
Walk to Mirage buffet
Walk to Tropicana/hit $100 & $300 on $5 top dollar machine
Walk to Aria/slots/craps
Walk back to Bill's
Make Battista's reservation then nap
Get ready then go eat dinner
Craps at Bill's
Slots at Harrah's
10:30pm - 4am craps at Harrah's
In bed at 4:30am
Mon 2/20
Slowly start to wake up at 6:30am
Get showered and packed up and on the road by 8
Stop at Buffalo Bills for breakfast and some last minute gambling
Pick up Chipotle for lunch then home at 1pm
Long version...
Sat 2/18
We left southern California a little after 5am. Gassed up, got some Starbucks for breakfast, and were on the road. It's a beautiful drive with fairly open roads and a beautiful sunrise to look forward to. After a brief stop at Primm for some snacks and to stretch our legs we headed straight to the Palms and arrived close to 9am.
I had prepurchased one of the $40 in slot play for $25 vouchers for each of us...giving us $80 in slot play. We ran it through various slots and ultimately we ended up down $10 on our initial voucher. Could have been better could have been worse. We had 2 of the ACG $10 matchplays and each did an individual $10 bet on black on roulette...2 spins...2 reds. Saw the automated craps machine and had to try it out...put $10 in and had it up to prob $25 but ultimately 7'd out. Not the best way to start a trip but it definitely could have been worse.
Left the Palms, and hopefully our bad luck behind, and headed to MSS. I had been eager to see the place for the first time and try their buffet considering the mixed reviews I've read. We arrived and parking in the lot was a breeze. Headed straight to the players club booth to redeem our 2/1 buffet coupon then on to the buffet.
Only had a few people in front of us in line and we were promptly seated after a short wait. The food was good in my opinion...but I was definitely in a breakfast food mood, or BFM, if you will. So my meal consisted of numerous waffles covered in strawberry purée and maple syrup and bacon. I did try a few other things but definitely made a point to satisfy my BFM. GF, on the other hand, had a little bit of everything and she wasn't all that impressed. I think we'd both definitely at here again (especially with the 2/1 coupon), but wouldn't go out of our way for it.
After we ate we hung around MSS and played some slots for an hour or so but didn't have much luck. Saw a couple of spots open up on the craps table so we jumped in. After about an hour or so we ended up about $50 between the 2 of us.
Next we decided to do our little fremont street coupon run and our first stop was 4 queens for $10 in free slot play each...no luck. Next stop was el Cortez where we got our free slot play but he machines were having problems loading it to the machine from our cards (even though it showed up on our cards). We decided to play anyways and turned $20 into $140 or so on one of those penny machines where whenever you win a line the involved items disappear and more drop down giving you the chance at more wins off of the same bet. Anyways, we ended up leaving elCo and headed to Golden Gate to sign up for the card and get our $25 matchplays done. Once again we both bet black on roulette and both spins came up red...was hoping to win at least one of the bets considering our bad luck at the Palms that morning. Headed over to LVC to get our $5 free play and do our matchplays. Free play surprisingly lasted a while...as for the roulette matchplays...well I went first and bet black and of course red came up. GF decided to try red for once and of course black came up...go figure huh? So for those keeping score that's 6 matchplays with an almost 50/50 chance of winning but instead it was 6 big losers.
Had a pocket full of chips from the MSS so we headed back here to cash out. I was hoping to try the 777 brewpub for the first time but we weren't really hungry so instead I bought a growler in the gift shop ($about 32 if I remember right) and headed over to 777 to get it filled up. Go a couple samples, and decided on the red for a reasonable $10. Left MSS and hopped on the freeway to get to our hotel for the next couple days--Bill's.
Got to the front desk a little after 4 and was able to get into a fountain view room on the top floor (which isn't really saying much but from my experience every level up helps decrease noise that much more). Got up to our room and did some basic unpacking of the essentials...like my small cooler which was promptly filled with my ginormous new growler and ice.
After a short nap I proceeded to try to get the wifi working in the room. GF was taking an online class and had to finish a final project by midnight. After a long call with their not so helpful wifi customer service who ultimately said they would send someone up to check it out but after an hour wait nothing happened, I decided GF would have to use their provided Ethernet cable which would leave her tethered to the desk and unable to lay on the bed with me while finishing her project. Oh, and I also called to cancel their engineer from coming up once I verified the Internet was working.
Around 10pm I was getting hungry so I decided I'd go puck up dinner and let GF work in peace. Decided on picking up sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich in PHo. On my way there I happened to glance at a cop standing by his car and did a double take. It ended up being one of the main cops on the tv show Vegas Strip, officer Jenkins. I approached him and asked if I could get a picture for GF...he asked what she was doing and why she wasn't with me and said she should be out partying and not doing homework in Vegas. Anyways...got my picture with him and continued heading to PHo for our sandwiches. Line was short and I was out of there in no time.
Got back to the room and both GF and I devoured our sandwiches...I absolutely love the Full Montagu...it's never let me down. GF laughed at my story and picture and barely met her midnight deadline to finish her work but she did get it done. Long day and some well deserved sleep was long overdue. In bed at midnight.
Sun 2/19
Woke up around 7am to see a couple drunk guys on the Bill's-Ballys bridge stumbling around...couldn't tell if they were going to fight or hug each other to death as they propped one another up. After watching them for a good 10 minutes we decided to shower and get ready for breakfast.
We walked over to the Mirage for their champagne brunch. Line was short and the LVA 2 for 1 coupon was put to good use. Round one consisted of 2 large plates stacked high with crab legs and shrimp. Crab was good but I've had much better there on previous trips. It is nice having them halved...makes it easier and less messy. Round two was breakfast food....waffles with strawberry purée and maple syrup and some French toast...always yummy. after another misc plate or two we left the buffet satisfied.
We decided to gamble a bit while we were there...nothing very memorable happened. Left the mirage and started our long walk to the Tropicana. Weather was a bit cold due to a slight breeze but the walk was comfortable and as we walked off our breakfast we warmed up.
Got to the Tropicana and went straight to the players club. I already had a card with them but GF did not. We had planned on taking full advantage of the $200 loss rebate promo. There wasn't any line and after a couple minutes we were off to find a machine to run some money through.
Ended up in the high limit room. I was supposed to play $100 in a $5 top dollar slot machine for someone so GF and I decided we'd go halvsies on the promo and do $100 in the top dollar and $100 of ours in another $5 machine. We had to do max credits ($10) per spin to qualify for the bonus round...and what are we here for? Well first spin we won $100...we decided to play it down to $100. After another 8 spins we got double bar - double bar - triple diamond...for $300. Ended up doing a couple more spins and cashed out at $400...didn't end up using the rebate promo but I guess that's the goal, right?
Left Tropicana and walked over to Aria. On our way there we stopped at the little gallery to look at the great works of photography. Played at aria for a few hours...had no luck on anything. I take that back...had luck on one thing. I was give $6 in aria chips that someone forgot to cash in. Since most table games are at least $10 minimum and I didn't want to just cash them out I decided I'd throw them all down on hard 6 and 8 at a fairly vacant craps table. Second roll the shooter hit a hard 8 and I was how able to play the pass line. Shooter 7'd out shortly after and it was my turn to roll. Hit a couple numbers and ended up walking with about $40...was nowhere close to covering our previous losses to the slots but at least we ended on a good note.
Walked back to our room at Bill's. A lot of walking for one day of you add it all up but it really wasn't that bad since it was fairly broken up. We decided we'd have Battista's for dinner so I called them up to make a reservation. It was about 4 or 5pm and I had hoped to get a table close to 7pm...their earliest reservation ended up being 8:30...we took it. Had a lot of time to kill so we took full advantage of it with a nap and some relaxation.
Woke up, showered, and headed to Battisa's. Food was good as usual...probably the best garlic read I've had there before...usually it is a lot harder but it was soft with just the right amount of crunch. After a filling dinner and a full bottle of red wine we headed to the liquor store next door to pick up a big bottle of water and some snacks for the room. We quickly dropped them off at our room then headed toward harrah's for our last night of gambling. Slots, once again, didn't treat us well.
Around 10:30pm we walked by a fairly empty craps table so I decided to try my luck. Bought in with $100 and GF ran off to find some lucky slots with her $100. Cocktail waitress immediately came by and I ordered a blue moon...she said there was a $3 surcharge (wtf?...first time ever hearing that)...ordered a bud instead. It was a $10 table which wouldn't have been my first choice but it was here so why not. Things were going pretty good from the start. Had a guy to my right who seemed to roll well...then I seemed to roll well. Couple guys on the other side of the table weren't as lucky. Some people came and left but for the most part it was just me and my new buddy to my right. I started doing the fire bet for a buck or two. Needed 4 different points hit to make money. I ended up having a good roll and getting 4 points...think it made me $25...another point would have been a couple hundred...oh well my new buddy had $5 on it and he tossed me $30 for hitting it for him...makes me wonder how generous he would have been if I hit 2 more points and made him $5000. He said he has never ever won money on the fire bet before so he was ecstatic.
At some point GF came over and said she was out of money. At this point we finally realized it was pretty late so we knew we needed to wrap things up soon. Craps is the only game I can play for hours on end and lose my sense of time. I dipped into my pocket where I had been stashing $25 chips they've been occasionally paying me off with and gave her a couple (we split gambling money for the trip so there isn't separate "mine" and "hers" money...only "ours". I still had $100 worth of chips in my pocket so my buy-in was safe. Kept playing and was doing decent until some kids who appeared to have just left a club decided to come over and try their luck. After about 4 or 5 horrible shooters in a row (it never made it to my new buddy and my end) my chips in the rack were wiped out...thankfully I had the $100 safely tucked away in my pocket and $50 that was given to GF was hopefully turned into thousands by now.
Well GF came back to me at the craps table saying we didn't win anything but we did get a lot of points on my card...lol. I still had a couple bets on the felt so I was waiting to see the outcome. It is currently 4am and I have been at this table for over 5 hours. While I still had some money on the board and had my players card again I decided to ask if it wasn't too late to get rated...pit boss took my card...don't know how much it will help me (if at all). Few spins later shooter 7'd out and we decided to call it a night. We had a Sunday drive back to California and had previously decided to leave very early to beat traffic...too bad we hadn't planned on going to bed at 4:30am.
Mon 2/20
Had set the alarm for 6:30am...ended up getting up around 7:30am...GF was very patient with me...I tend to be a bit cranky after a few hours of sleep. We showered, packed up, and we're on the road a little after 8am. Stopped at Buffalo Bills to get McDonald's for breakfast and do some last minute gambling. Picked up chipotle for lunch then arrive at home around 1pm safe 'n sound
Hope you enjoyed our trip report...apologize for the length but you can't say I didn't warn you...sad thing I'd I know there is a lot that was left out. Ultimately we weren't winners but we did come home with a good portion of our bankroll and spent a lot less on food than we had planned so that helped to even things out. Now it's time to plan our next trip in May
-Rob
Sat 2/18
Palms $80 slot play for $50
MSS champagne brunch buffet/craps/slots
Misc Fremont St. gambling/coupon run
MSS growler
Check-in at Bill's
Relax
Full Montagu from Earl go Sandwich
Sleep
Sun 2/19
7am Drunk people watching
Walk to Mirage buffet
Walk to Tropicana/hit $100 & $300 on $5 top dollar machine
Walk to Aria/slots/craps
Walk back to Bill's
Make Battista's reservation then nap
Get ready then go eat dinner
Craps at Bill's
Slots at Harrah's
10:30pm - 4am craps at Harrah's
In bed at 4:30am
Mon 2/20
Slowly start to wake up at 6:30am
Get showered and packed up and on the road by 8
Stop at Buffalo Bills for breakfast and some last minute gambling
Pick up Chipotle for lunch then home at 1pm
Long version...
Sat 2/18
We left southern California a little after 5am. Gassed up, got some Starbucks for breakfast, and were on the road. It's a beautiful drive with fairly open roads and a beautiful sunrise to look forward to. After a brief stop at Primm for some snacks and to stretch our legs we headed straight to the Palms and arrived close to 9am.
I had prepurchased one of the $40 in slot play for $25 vouchers for each of us...giving us $80 in slot play. We ran it through various slots and ultimately we ended up down $10 on our initial voucher. Could have been better could have been worse. We had 2 of the ACG $10 matchplays and each did an individual $10 bet on black on roulette...2 spins...2 reds. Saw the automated craps machine and had to try it out...put $10 in and had it up to prob $25 but ultimately 7'd out. Not the best way to start a trip but it definitely could have been worse.
Left the Palms, and hopefully our bad luck behind, and headed to MSS. I had been eager to see the place for the first time and try their buffet considering the mixed reviews I've read. We arrived and parking in the lot was a breeze. Headed straight to the players club booth to redeem our 2/1 buffet coupon then on to the buffet.
Only had a few people in front of us in line and we were promptly seated after a short wait. The food was good in my opinion...but I was definitely in a breakfast food mood, or BFM, if you will. So my meal consisted of numerous waffles covered in strawberry purée and maple syrup and bacon. I did try a few other things but definitely made a point to satisfy my BFM. GF, on the other hand, had a little bit of everything and she wasn't all that impressed. I think we'd both definitely at here again (especially with the 2/1 coupon), but wouldn't go out of our way for it.
After we ate we hung around MSS and played some slots for an hour or so but didn't have much luck. Saw a couple of spots open up on the craps table so we jumped in. After about an hour or so we ended up about $50 between the 2 of us.
Next we decided to do our little fremont street coupon run and our first stop was 4 queens for $10 in free slot play each...no luck. Next stop was el Cortez where we got our free slot play but he machines were having problems loading it to the machine from our cards (even though it showed up on our cards). We decided to play anyways and turned $20 into $140 or so on one of those penny machines where whenever you win a line the involved items disappear and more drop down giving you the chance at more wins off of the same bet. Anyways, we ended up leaving elCo and headed to Golden Gate to sign up for the card and get our $25 matchplays done. Once again we both bet black on roulette and both spins came up red...was hoping to win at least one of the bets considering our bad luck at the Palms that morning. Headed over to LVC to get our $5 free play and do our matchplays. Free play surprisingly lasted a while...as for the roulette matchplays...well I went first and bet black and of course red came up. GF decided to try red for once and of course black came up...go figure huh? So for those keeping score that's 6 matchplays with an almost 50/50 chance of winning but instead it was 6 big losers.
Had a pocket full of chips from the MSS so we headed back here to cash out. I was hoping to try the 777 brewpub for the first time but we weren't really hungry so instead I bought a growler in the gift shop ($about 32 if I remember right) and headed over to 777 to get it filled up. Go a couple samples, and decided on the red for a reasonable $10. Left MSS and hopped on the freeway to get to our hotel for the next couple days--Bill's.
Got to the front desk a little after 4 and was able to get into a fountain view room on the top floor (which isn't really saying much but from my experience every level up helps decrease noise that much more). Got up to our room and did some basic unpacking of the essentials...like my small cooler which was promptly filled with my ginormous new growler and ice.
After a short nap I proceeded to try to get the wifi working in the room. GF was taking an online class and had to finish a final project by midnight. After a long call with their not so helpful wifi customer service who ultimately said they would send someone up to check it out but after an hour wait nothing happened, I decided GF would have to use their provided Ethernet cable which would leave her tethered to the desk and unable to lay on the bed with me while finishing her project. Oh, and I also called to cancel their engineer from coming up once I verified the Internet was working.
Around 10pm I was getting hungry so I decided I'd go puck up dinner and let GF work in peace. Decided on picking up sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich in PHo. On my way there I happened to glance at a cop standing by his car and did a double take. It ended up being one of the main cops on the tv show Vegas Strip, officer Jenkins. I approached him and asked if I could get a picture for GF...he asked what she was doing and why she wasn't with me and said she should be out partying and not doing homework in Vegas. Anyways...got my picture with him and continued heading to PHo for our sandwiches. Line was short and I was out of there in no time.
Got back to the room and both GF and I devoured our sandwiches...I absolutely love the Full Montagu...it's never let me down. GF laughed at my story and picture and barely met her midnight deadline to finish her work but she did get it done. Long day and some well deserved sleep was long overdue. In bed at midnight.
Sun 2/19
Woke up around 7am to see a couple drunk guys on the Bill's-Ballys bridge stumbling around...couldn't tell if they were going to fight or hug each other to death as they propped one another up. After watching them for a good 10 minutes we decided to shower and get ready for breakfast.
We walked over to the Mirage for their champagne brunch. Line was short and the LVA 2 for 1 coupon was put to good use. Round one consisted of 2 large plates stacked high with crab legs and shrimp. Crab was good but I've had much better there on previous trips. It is nice having them halved...makes it easier and less messy. Round two was breakfast food....waffles with strawberry purée and maple syrup and some French toast...always yummy. after another misc plate or two we left the buffet satisfied.
We decided to gamble a bit while we were there...nothing very memorable happened. Left the mirage and started our long walk to the Tropicana. Weather was a bit cold due to a slight breeze but the walk was comfortable and as we walked off our breakfast we warmed up.
Got to the Tropicana and went straight to the players club. I already had a card with them but GF did not. We had planned on taking full advantage of the $200 loss rebate promo. There wasn't any line and after a couple minutes we were off to find a machine to run some money through.
Ended up in the high limit room. I was supposed to play $100 in a $5 top dollar slot machine for someone so GF and I decided we'd go halvsies on the promo and do $100 in the top dollar and $100 of ours in another $5 machine. We had to do max credits ($10) per spin to qualify for the bonus round...and what are we here for? Well first spin we won $100...we decided to play it down to $100. After another 8 spins we got double bar - double bar - triple diamond...for $300. Ended up doing a couple more spins and cashed out at $400...didn't end up using the rebate promo but I guess that's the goal, right?
Left Tropicana and walked over to Aria. On our way there we stopped at the little gallery to look at the great works of photography. Played at aria for a few hours...had no luck on anything. I take that back...had luck on one thing. I was give $6 in aria chips that someone forgot to cash in. Since most table games are at least $10 minimum and I didn't want to just cash them out I decided I'd throw them all down on hard 6 and 8 at a fairly vacant craps table. Second roll the shooter hit a hard 8 and I was how able to play the pass line. Shooter 7'd out shortly after and it was my turn to roll. Hit a couple numbers and ended up walking with about $40...was nowhere close to covering our previous losses to the slots but at least we ended on a good note.
Walked back to our room at Bill's. A lot of walking for one day of you add it all up but it really wasn't that bad since it was fairly broken up. We decided we'd have Battista's for dinner so I called them up to make a reservation. It was about 4 or 5pm and I had hoped to get a table close to 7pm...their earliest reservation ended up being 8:30...we took it. Had a lot of time to kill so we took full advantage of it with a nap and some relaxation.
Woke up, showered, and headed to Battisa's. Food was good as usual...probably the best garlic read I've had there before...usually it is a lot harder but it was soft with just the right amount of crunch. After a filling dinner and a full bottle of red wine we headed to the liquor store next door to pick up a big bottle of water and some snacks for the room. We quickly dropped them off at our room then headed toward harrah's for our last night of gambling. Slots, once again, didn't treat us well.
Around 10:30pm we walked by a fairly empty craps table so I decided to try my luck. Bought in with $100 and GF ran off to find some lucky slots with her $100. Cocktail waitress immediately came by and I ordered a blue moon...she said there was a $3 surcharge (wtf?...first time ever hearing that)...ordered a bud instead. It was a $10 table which wouldn't have been my first choice but it was here so why not. Things were going pretty good from the start. Had a guy to my right who seemed to roll well...then I seemed to roll well. Couple guys on the other side of the table weren't as lucky. Some people came and left but for the most part it was just me and my new buddy to my right. I started doing the fire bet for a buck or two. Needed 4 different points hit to make money. I ended up having a good roll and getting 4 points...think it made me $25...another point would have been a couple hundred...oh well my new buddy had $5 on it and he tossed me $30 for hitting it for him...makes me wonder how generous he would have been if I hit 2 more points and made him $5000. He said he has never ever won money on the fire bet before so he was ecstatic.
At some point GF came over and said she was out of money. At this point we finally realized it was pretty late so we knew we needed to wrap things up soon. Craps is the only game I can play for hours on end and lose my sense of time. I dipped into my pocket where I had been stashing $25 chips they've been occasionally paying me off with and gave her a couple (we split gambling money for the trip so there isn't separate "mine" and "hers" money...only "ours". I still had $100 worth of chips in my pocket so my buy-in was safe. Kept playing and was doing decent until some kids who appeared to have just left a club decided to come over and try their luck. After about 4 or 5 horrible shooters in a row (it never made it to my new buddy and my end) my chips in the rack were wiped out...thankfully I had the $100 safely tucked away in my pocket and $50 that was given to GF was hopefully turned into thousands by now.
Well GF came back to me at the craps table saying we didn't win anything but we did get a lot of points on my card...lol. I still had a couple bets on the felt so I was waiting to see the outcome. It is currently 4am and I have been at this table for over 5 hours. While I still had some money on the board and had my players card again I decided to ask if it wasn't too late to get rated...pit boss took my card...don't know how much it will help me (if at all). Few spins later shooter 7'd out and we decided to call it a night. We had a Sunday drive back to California and had previously decided to leave very early to beat traffic...too bad we hadn't planned on going to bed at 4:30am.
Mon 2/20
Had set the alarm for 6:30am...ended up getting up around 7:30am...GF was very patient with me...I tend to be a bit cranky after a few hours of sleep. We showered, packed up, and we're on the road a little after 8am. Stopped at Buffalo Bills to get McDonald's for breakfast and do some last minute gambling. Picked up chipotle for lunch then arrive at home around 1pm safe 'n sound
Hope you enjoyed our trip report...apologize for the length but you can't say I didn't warn you...sad thing I'd I know there is a lot that was left out. Ultimately we weren't winners but we did come home with a good portion of our bankroll and spent a lot less on food than we had planned so that helped to even things out. Now it's time to plan our next trip in May
-Rob
