PROLOGUE:
Since I retired this past January, I've been on the road quite a bit; with trips to Michigan, attending the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, trips to the Harrah's properties in Chicago, Council Bluffs, Kansas City, Reno/Tahoe and many trips to Las Vegas. This recent trip I spent a week at Bally's to meet up with my Vegas friends David and Julie and to attend the Great Gift Wrap Up.
TRANSPORTATION:
I listen to the Vegas podcast, Five Hundy by Midnight on a regular basis and they have been touting a car rental service called "Autoslash". I used this travel site on my last trip and saved myself $50. This time I was able to upgrade from an intermediate to a full sized car and save $85 from Enterprise by using Autoslash. Like Tim says, "Save some cash with Autoslash". I booked my Vegas flight in August on Sun Country Airline for a cost of $148 RT all in. I am not exactly thrilled with all the changes that has been going on with Sun Country since the new CEO came on board last year, but their airfares to Vegas have dropped significantly. Their first class option is a joke; don't waste your money folks. I use their Visa card to book my flights and am a member of their flyers club so I can check a bag at no charge.
When I went online to pre-check in the day before my flight, I received an error saying that I had booked a seat in an exit row and had to checkin at the airport...WTF? My booked seat was not in an exit row. Three calls to Sun Country resulted in a total waste of time trying to get this matter resolved so I gave up and checked in when I got to the airport. Flight was on time with no issues. I love TSA precheck; best $85 that I have ever spent. Regular line at security was huge, but I was first in line and breezed though the TSA line in a matter of minutes. Double Hendricks and tonic before boarding and I was good to go. I ended up with a Nissan Ultima at the Enterpise rental center. I pointed out a sizable dent in the right front quarter panel; the boothling assured me that he had noted it on the rental agreement. I was in and out of the rental car facility in about 10 minutes.
HOTEL:
I checked into Bally's via the Diamond check in area around 10:30 A.M. and the clerk gave me a very nice remodeled room in the Resort (north) tower on the 19th floor away from the street noise coming from Flamingo. The room was large, with a nice sized flat screen TV, refrigerator, comfortable bed, large shower and a locked safe when I entered the room. Called the front desk and 40 minutes later maintenance arrived and unlocked the safe. I told him if there was a million dollars in the safe I would split it with him; alas, it was empty. Housekeeping was great all week. I unpacked and had several bourbon and waters in the room.
SHOWS:
David, Julie, some of their friends who were in town and myself used our diamond free show ticket option to see X-Rocks at Bally's one night. We were seated as a group in a booth, center stage...best seats in the house. It is a topless revue and kind of reminds me of Crazy Girls only better. The performers were naturally endowded and pretty good dancers and singers. If you want to see boobs on stage, this is it.....and it was free!
FOOD:
I had a delicious breakfast crouissant at Nosh a couple of mornings, a decent breakfast at Harrah's Fulton grill(decent food, bad service) and a very nice breakfast with Dave at Mon Ami Gabi using a food comp that covered most of the bill. I also used comps for a couple of meals at the D grill downtown; the prime rib was very disappointing. I grabbed a late night meal at the Earl of Sandwich at Planet Ho, delicious sandwich. A five dollar tip for housekeeping resulted in several extra portions of inroom coffee everyday. We were going to eat at the Sterling Brunch Buffet on Sunday morning but those plans fell through. I got a call from Julie around 8:30 in the morning saying that they had gambled all night, getting back to the room around 6:30...they were in no shape to have brunch! Well I still have my Diamond $100 dining credit to use by Jan 31; guess I will use it at BLT Steak when I am there the end of January.
ACTIVITIES:
The people at the Golden Gate and the D casinos had a promotion similar to the great gift wrap up. After looking at all of the merchandise, I decided to use my points for a nice hardsided spinner type suitcase. The next day we went to the great gift wrap up at Bally's. Dave and Julie combined their points for free play while I settled on a refractor telescope and a LED headlamp that I can use of hunting/camping. After some coaching, I was able to convince Julie to go with Dave and I to the Hogs and Heifers bar one afternoon. It is a biker bar located downtown just north of the FSE. The place was jumping, and one of the female bartenders remembered me from my previous visits so the beer and shots flowed. This place is one of my favorite hide-a-ways to take a break from gambling while I am downtown. Julie actually had a good time, but we could not talk her into dancing on the bar with the bartenders.
Our group are Vikings fans and after much debate we decided to descend upon the Pho diamond lounge to watch the football game...what an ugly game. My oldest son informed me that a good friend of his and wife were in Vegas so I had him give me my phone number in case they wanted to get together. They did contact me and I arranged for them to meet us and escorted them into the diamond lounge as my guests. They are a very nice young couple and my son says they enjoyed watching the game with us and availing themselves with the free food and cocktails. They were surprised that everyone in Vegas calls me "BigLar".
I made several visits to Harrah's diamond lounge during my stay. One of the bartenders, Orhan, is always glad to see me and fixes a nice side car cocktail just the way I like it. I had several good conversations with some of the "regulars" that I often see there.
GAMBLING:
I was with a pretty "fast" crowd this trip and did a lot more gambling than I usually do. I played a lot of triple play bonus poker at Bally's and Paris as well as single line VP at the Golden Gate bar. The female bartender, Valeria, treats Dave and I well. A bottle of Heineken is sitting in front of me as soon as I sit down. I started out the trip with a bang the first day. Within 30 minutes of starting to play I hit a royal flush for a cool grand and two straight flushes. Later in the afternoon I played at Paris and the quads fell like rain. I put a ton of tier points on my player's card and I was up over $1200 by the end of the day. Day two was another good day of VP and was up at one point $1400. Sadly, the next three days were losers. I took a gambling break on the second to last day of the trip and broke even the last day.
I did get to play craps with Dr Mike from the "You Can Bet On That" gambling podcast at Harrah's one night. He is one hell of a nice guy and a very agressive bettor at the craps table. His father was also playing and he is one fine, grand old gentleman. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with them even though I lost $150.
One night, five of us took over a row of VP machines at Bally's and had a great time cheering each other when one of us hit a quad. The cocktail waitress became a good friend and we were never without a drink..she was tipped very well. Dave was sitting next to me and lamented about all of the quads I was getting; I hit dealt quad aces on triple play. The cocktails were freely flowing and after a couple of hours Dave hit a Royal. We all started shouting and cheering being pretty loud. A young Asian lady walked over and politely asked what was all the commotion about. We explained about the royal flush and winning $1000. Dave was pretty excited and asked for a hug from our new friend. She gave Dave a big hug which was a prolonged embrace, much to the lady's surprise. Remember we had been cocktailing for several hours. When they disengaged, Dave said, "Oh, I like the feel of your satin blouse". The look on the lady's face was priceless. She politely thanked Dave for the "compliment" and beat a hasty retreat....Vegas. After she was gone I asked Dave if he wasn't being a little bit "creepy" and we had a good laugh. Later on Dave hit another Royal, but no hug was forthcoming.
One afternoon Dave and I went on a mini coupon run to Ellis Island and Hooters. I ended being up between my matchplay and freeplay by $60. I also used the LVA coupon for free drinks at the bar. Their own brewed porter is very nice. Unfortunately they would not honor their famous egg nog with the coupon so a bought a glass which was very tasty. I also got a free T-shirt while there. It has been a long time since I stepped inside of Hooters and they have remodeled the place since my last visit; looks nice. I made money on my free play but lost my matchplay to break even.
EPILOGUE:
This was a seven day trip and I was exhausted when I returned home. I never sleep well when I am in Vegas. When I dropped off the car the bothling asked me about the dent. I told her that it was noted on the rental agreement when I picked up the car. She said that there was no such notation. I gave her a stern look and she backed off immediately. I was not having any of that shit. Dave and I sat in the American Express Centurion Lounge at the airport before our flights and sampled several glasses of wine. My flight left on time and I was greeted with temperatures in the teens when I arrived in Minneapolis. I had to scrape a good amount of snow and ice off of my car at the park and fly lot...always fun. The drive home was uneventful, pulling into the driveway around 1 A.M. Fortunately my son had plowed out my driveway and sidewalks while I was away...good kid. Unfortunately, my cat, Nick, was not there to greet me. I recently lost him to old age, he was 21 years old and had a great life being my companion.
I am in the process of putting together a 32 day road trip starting in late January and ending in late February. I have comped nights at Harrah's Kansas City, AK Chin, Harrah's Laughlin, Golden Gate twice, two different stays at Bally's, back to Laughlin, a couple of days in Reno, and an overnight stay in Harrah's Council bluffs. Naturally due to the length of the trip I will not be gambling heavily everyday. But I should be able to get a decent jump on making diamond status for 2020. I plan on making several day trips around the Las Vegas area and do some hiking at Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire and Zion. Maybe visit a few ghost towns and make another visit to Death Valley. There are a lot of nongaming options in Vegas and I plan to hit a several of them. A visit to the Art of Shaving for a haircut and a straight razor shave is on the docket as well as visiting the
Bellagio Art Gallery and conservatory. Watching the Super Bowl in Vegas is always a lot of fun, especially with friends like David and Julie. I hope I can talk my daughter who is still living in Napa, to fly down for a couple of days for a visit and some gourmet dining.
Well folks, that's a wrap. Thanks for reading. Hope you all have a Vegas trip planned for the near future.
