Day 1 (Sunday, Oct 21)
We are mainly downtown people but I do like to see the fountains at Bellagio,etc. In the past we have told ourselves we will just catch the bus and go to the strip for a few hours but it never seems to happen so this time I insisted that we stay 1 night on the strip and the rest of our trip downtown. I booked 1 night at the Imperial Palace ( have stayed there before about 5 years ago and it is a central location, rooms were adequate), then the remaining 3 nights we had comped at The D. We booked a later (than usual for us) flight leaving Bellingham at 4:05 pm arriving in Las Vegas approx 6:35 pm - thought that would leave us enough time for a few hours getting my Fountains fix, strip people watching , etc. It was not meant to be as there were delays on our flight leaving - mechanical, security incidents , de-icing the plane so our flight was just taking off long after we thought we would be enjoying ourselves on the strip. I believe we finally got into our room a little before 11 pm and we were starving and tired. Our room at the Imperial Palace was fine - got a room away from the noise of Harrah's Carneval Court that overlooked the pool and it was clean and tidy. The only thing I did not care for about the Imperial Palace was because of all the construction the shuttle dropped us off inside the parkade and we had to find our way to the reception area at the front of the building ( from the parkade you end up at the back of the building near the Monorail station). I felt it could have been marked better as to which way to go. We played a little Keno and slots at Harrah's and ate a late night special of steak and eggs at the restaurant - it was very good ( or else we were just extremely hungary), reasonable price $17.27 including tax and we both agreed we would have it again. My husband won $50 on a penny slot ( More Chilies) and we left while we still felt like winners after our trying start to the day and went back to the room about 1:30 am.
Day 2 (Monday, Oct 22)
Because we ate so late last night we were not hungary so just had a coffee and tea. I didn't feel like navigating into the bowels of the Imperial Palace to find a cab so we trucked our suitcase (thank gosh for wheels on suitcases !) over to Harrah's and caught a cab to downtown from there. Room was not ready yet at the D so we put our suitcase with the bell desk. Our stay at The D included $50 free play, $50 match play ( 2@ $25) plus a food or drink credit of $15 along with our 3 comped nights. We were more than happy with this offer as we are definitely not high rollers - play the penny machines minimum bet and keno. We played our $50 free play together - turned that into $61.81, split the proceeds. Played at both The D and Binions for awhile to kill some time before we could get into our room. On the Motherload spin at Binions I won $10 free play but was not able to turn that into any real cash. We got into our room about 1 pm or so - we had originally requested a King but the room they had slotted for us the people had not checked out of so we took a room with 2 queen beds just so we could get into the room, unpack and settle in. We were assigned room 708 - room was clean and new beds and furniture but the location would not be my first choice again - was almost on top of the the sound stage for the nightly band and the music went on until after 1:30 am some nights ( could understand on a weekend but this was during mid-week) - it was just a little too noisy for us seniors. No big wins on any slots but no big losses either. We spent $75 on keno and won $32. On our 2nd spins at the Motherlode promotion at Binions I won $15 food comp and my husband won a "gift". The gift turned out to be a fold up shaving/comestic kit with of course the Binions logo - it is actually not bad and we will probably even use the item ! Had lunch at The D usimg some of our food credit, supper was at Binions using an ACG 2 for 1 coupon $13/94/$6.45 and used our comps to pay the $6.45.
Day 3 (Tuesday, Oct 23 )
My husband was using his LVA coupon ( get $5 free slot play for every 50 points earned) so we played a lot together on his card . I had a $35. slot voucher that we put into a penny game called Paradise Garden - interesting machine as it pays from both the right and left side and has lots of parrots and toucans as the symbols. We played together for quite some time and cashed out $80.07. Went to the El Cortez and played my favorite Quick Hits machine - max bet is only 60 cents. Hit a free playbonus that gave me $37.08 and I cashed out at $60.55 ( I had put $10 in). Went back to the D to work on getting my husband some more points and we used my winnings from the El Cortez to play on. We played some slots also at the Four Queens this time - used to stay there many times in the past but never ever received any offers nor did we get any credit for our Keno play so that is when we started playing more at Fitzgerald's and the offers just seem to pour in from them. It seems like the Four Queens have updated their slot machines and my husband found some machines he liked. We were on our way to a section of machines that caught our eye when we passed by 2 machines called "In The Money" that looked interesting - 25 cents a spin. I started playing minimum bet but noticed that you needed to play 75 cents in order to activate the instant spin feature. Told my husband and he didn't know if he wanted to spend 75 cents a spin but he begrudgingly did so as I was playing. Second spin in he was awarded 1 instant spin which activates a wheel at the top and whatever the pointer lands on that is what you get 200,400,500, etc credits. It landed on 25,000 - a cool $250. ! He owed me big time and as is our norm we split the winnings. My husband had OK luck all day on the slots. He earned $15 in free play from The D coupon and turned that into $75.34. He basically played the rest of the night on their money . I just managed not to lose too much ! Keno we held our own - spent $67.50 and won $58.50. For breakfast that morning we ate at Hennessey's - I had printed a coupon off the computer for a 2 for 1 breakfast but the gal told us Tuesdays it was 2 for 1 breakfast or burgers at lunch so we didn't really need the coupon. Not sure if this is a ongoing promotion or time limited. Price was $11.02. Our early supper was soup and 1/2 sandwich each at Binion's and the $15 food comp that I won yesterday covered it all.
Day 4 ( Wednesday, Oct 24)
No big wins ( or big losses) today. Best I can brag about is playing Creatures from Planet Moolah game upstairs at the D - won 57 free spins and cashed out $54.20 ( I put $5 in). Played at the El Cortez for awhile - while we were there Jackie Gaughan was downstairs playing poker at a table, big celebration was on for his 92nd birthday . There was free cake and champagne for everyone in the casino and people were coming over to give him a hug and wish him Happy Birthday. Keno we spent $52.50 and won $10. Breakfast we had at the Fremont buffet using 2 for 1 coupon that I downloaded from Fremont Street website $14.55/$7.27. Lunch we ate at the El Cortez coffee shop - really enjoyed it and liked being nestled away from the noise of the main casino $15.03 - one of the few times we paid full price for a meal. Supper we ate at Binion's (again) as one of us had won a 2 for 1 coupon on the Motherlode promotion. Much as I pride myself on using coupons there is just so many times one can eat at Binion's - food is OK and inexpensive but there is not enough variety. I wish their coffee shop downstairs was still open.
Day 5 ( Thursday, Oct 25)
Our plane leaves at 2:15 pm so we have shuttle coming to pick us up at 11 am. Breakfast we had at the D , using up the last of our food credit - $7.99 and paid with our comps. Played a couple of slots but nothing noteworthy, however we played some Keno while having breakfast - spent $30 and won $94. Trip home was uneventful.
Recap/Notes:
Leaving Bellingham so much later that what we had planned made us feel that we had lost a day as we never got to do the things on the strip that I was looking forward to. We both came home feeling we were ready to go back to Las Vegas. So I have already booked another trip leaving, Sunday, Jan 27 and returning home on Friday, Feb 1. We are staying an extra day and will spend Sunday and Monday night on the strip at Bally's and taking an earlier flight out of Bellingham ( 11:40 am arriving in Las Vegas approx 2:10 pm) . Got a great price on the rooms at Bally's for the 2 nights and the D is comping us the other 3 nights plus $25 free play, $25 in match play and $5 food or drink credit.
Came home with majority of the money we had taken - lost a total of $44 on Keno. Spent less than $100 on meals ( this includes meals at the shopping mall in Bellingham before we went to the airport and lunch we had at McCarron airport ). Parking, shuttles,cabs was $73.00
Strange thing happened to me at the Four Queens - I was playing a slot and when I cashed out there was a paper jam so slot attendant had to retrieve my slot voucher. It was intact but crumpled so he told me to cash it at the cashier's cage. It was only for $38 and some odd cents and when the young guy gave me my money as I was standing at the counter and starting to put the money in my wallet I noticed he only gave me $33. He had walked away and was standing with a group of other cashiers so I called him over and asked him if the slot voucher had been for $38. He said it was and I showed him the cash I had in my hand - he didn't bat an eye or question - just reached into his till and took out $5 ,gave it to me and walked away again. I thought he may have referred it to his supervisor or looked at the tape - yeh it was only $5 BUT. It dawned on me after I left that he initially never counted it out to me - first time a cashier hasn't counted the money back to me or spead it out on the counter as he or she counted it back.
The Ds rooms are nice and the beds are new. Noticed this time that if you go to the main floor of the casino to play the slots say between 6:30 am and 10 am the music is not as loud. (Maybe some of the upper management aren't there ?). Was speaking with a cashier and she said she thinks management may be finally be getting it re volume. She felt there was no need to that loud of music after the girls/dancers have gone home. Upstairs on the 2nd floor they actually have a cashier in the cage - probably because of the Sigma Derby and other coin machines. Did not try the Sigma Derby as every time I wanted to there were no seats. The D must have a policy that all the cocktail waitresses are required to wear short skirts and no pants. One of the cocktail waitresses on the 2nd floor who has been there for years was wearing short skirt and every since we have been going there since it was Fitzgeralds always wore black dress slacks. I am sure she is older than us ( and we are both in our 60's) and know she had a hip replacement last fall. The skirt did not really do anything for her. We saw one waitress on the main casino floor who had the skinniest legs I have ever seen - I kid you not they were like two matchsticks and her knees were just knobs of bone sticking out! She looked either anorexic or like she was ill she was so thin - even her cheek bones were sunken in. She was wearing short skirt and long leather boots to her knees and could hardly walk - I don't know how she managed to carry a tray with drinks. She was not a young person in her 20s or even 30s but I guess people do what they have to do to keep their job. I could not help but watch her every time I saw her - kept thinking she was going to fall over.
Did not play our usual amount at the California this time - we like the keno pit there and used to play slots there as well but they have changed their slot inventory and a lot of our favourites are gone.
We still enjoy Binion's and like the Motherlode promtion - they have had this promotion going on for 1 1/2 to 2 years now and it keeps us coming back to play.
We are mainly downtown people but I do like to see the fountains at Bellagio,etc. In the past we have told ourselves we will just catch the bus and go to the strip for a few hours but it never seems to happen so this time I insisted that we stay 1 night on the strip and the rest of our trip downtown. I booked 1 night at the Imperial Palace ( have stayed there before about 5 years ago and it is a central location, rooms were adequate), then the remaining 3 nights we had comped at The D. We booked a later (than usual for us) flight leaving Bellingham at 4:05 pm arriving in Las Vegas approx 6:35 pm - thought that would leave us enough time for a few hours getting my Fountains fix, strip people watching , etc. It was not meant to be as there were delays on our flight leaving - mechanical, security incidents , de-icing the plane so our flight was just taking off long after we thought we would be enjoying ourselves on the strip. I believe we finally got into our room a little before 11 pm and we were starving and tired. Our room at the Imperial Palace was fine - got a room away from the noise of Harrah's Carneval Court that overlooked the pool and it was clean and tidy. The only thing I did not care for about the Imperial Palace was because of all the construction the shuttle dropped us off inside the parkade and we had to find our way to the reception area at the front of the building ( from the parkade you end up at the back of the building near the Monorail station). I felt it could have been marked better as to which way to go. We played a little Keno and slots at Harrah's and ate a late night special of steak and eggs at the restaurant - it was very good ( or else we were just extremely hungary), reasonable price $17.27 including tax and we both agreed we would have it again. My husband won $50 on a penny slot ( More Chilies) and we left while we still felt like winners after our trying start to the day and went back to the room about 1:30 am.
Day 2 (Monday, Oct 22)
Because we ate so late last night we were not hungary so just had a coffee and tea. I didn't feel like navigating into the bowels of the Imperial Palace to find a cab so we trucked our suitcase (thank gosh for wheels on suitcases !) over to Harrah's and caught a cab to downtown from there. Room was not ready yet at the D so we put our suitcase with the bell desk. Our stay at The D included $50 free play, $50 match play ( 2@ $25) plus a food or drink credit of $15 along with our 3 comped nights. We were more than happy with this offer as we are definitely not high rollers - play the penny machines minimum bet and keno. We played our $50 free play together - turned that into $61.81, split the proceeds. Played at both The D and Binions for awhile to kill some time before we could get into our room. On the Motherload spin at Binions I won $10 free play but was not able to turn that into any real cash. We got into our room about 1 pm or so - we had originally requested a King but the room they had slotted for us the people had not checked out of so we took a room with 2 queen beds just so we could get into the room, unpack and settle in. We were assigned room 708 - room was clean and new beds and furniture but the location would not be my first choice again - was almost on top of the the sound stage for the nightly band and the music went on until after 1:30 am some nights ( could understand on a weekend but this was during mid-week) - it was just a little too noisy for us seniors. No big wins on any slots but no big losses either. We spent $75 on keno and won $32. On our 2nd spins at the Motherlode promotion at Binions I won $15 food comp and my husband won a "gift". The gift turned out to be a fold up shaving/comestic kit with of course the Binions logo - it is actually not bad and we will probably even use the item ! Had lunch at The D usimg some of our food credit, supper was at Binions using an ACG 2 for 1 coupon $13/94/$6.45 and used our comps to pay the $6.45.
Day 3 (Tuesday, Oct 23 )
My husband was using his LVA coupon ( get $5 free slot play for every 50 points earned) so we played a lot together on his card . I had a $35. slot voucher that we put into a penny game called Paradise Garden - interesting machine as it pays from both the right and left side and has lots of parrots and toucans as the symbols. We played together for quite some time and cashed out $80.07. Went to the El Cortez and played my favorite Quick Hits machine - max bet is only 60 cents. Hit a free playbonus that gave me $37.08 and I cashed out at $60.55 ( I had put $10 in). Went back to the D to work on getting my husband some more points and we used my winnings from the El Cortez to play on. We played some slots also at the Four Queens this time - used to stay there many times in the past but never ever received any offers nor did we get any credit for our Keno play so that is when we started playing more at Fitzgerald's and the offers just seem to pour in from them. It seems like the Four Queens have updated their slot machines and my husband found some machines he liked. We were on our way to a section of machines that caught our eye when we passed by 2 machines called "In The Money" that looked interesting - 25 cents a spin. I started playing minimum bet but noticed that you needed to play 75 cents in order to activate the instant spin feature. Told my husband and he didn't know if he wanted to spend 75 cents a spin but he begrudgingly did so as I was playing. Second spin in he was awarded 1 instant spin which activates a wheel at the top and whatever the pointer lands on that is what you get 200,400,500, etc credits. It landed on 25,000 - a cool $250. ! He owed me big time and as is our norm we split the winnings. My husband had OK luck all day on the slots. He earned $15 in free play from The D coupon and turned that into $75.34. He basically played the rest of the night on their money . I just managed not to lose too much ! Keno we held our own - spent $67.50 and won $58.50. For breakfast that morning we ate at Hennessey's - I had printed a coupon off the computer for a 2 for 1 breakfast but the gal told us Tuesdays it was 2 for 1 breakfast or burgers at lunch so we didn't really need the coupon. Not sure if this is a ongoing promotion or time limited. Price was $11.02. Our early supper was soup and 1/2 sandwich each at Binion's and the $15 food comp that I won yesterday covered it all.
Day 4 ( Wednesday, Oct 24)
No big wins ( or big losses) today. Best I can brag about is playing Creatures from Planet Moolah game upstairs at the D - won 57 free spins and cashed out $54.20 ( I put $5 in). Played at the El Cortez for awhile - while we were there Jackie Gaughan was downstairs playing poker at a table, big celebration was on for his 92nd birthday . There was free cake and champagne for everyone in the casino and people were coming over to give him a hug and wish him Happy Birthday. Keno we spent $52.50 and won $10. Breakfast we had at the Fremont buffet using 2 for 1 coupon that I downloaded from Fremont Street website $14.55/$7.27. Lunch we ate at the El Cortez coffee shop - really enjoyed it and liked being nestled away from the noise of the main casino $15.03 - one of the few times we paid full price for a meal. Supper we ate at Binion's (again) as one of us had won a 2 for 1 coupon on the Motherlode promotion. Much as I pride myself on using coupons there is just so many times one can eat at Binion's - food is OK and inexpensive but there is not enough variety. I wish their coffee shop downstairs was still open.
Day 5 ( Thursday, Oct 25)
Our plane leaves at 2:15 pm so we have shuttle coming to pick us up at 11 am. Breakfast we had at the D , using up the last of our food credit - $7.99 and paid with our comps. Played a couple of slots but nothing noteworthy, however we played some Keno while having breakfast - spent $30 and won $94. Trip home was uneventful.
Recap/Notes:
Leaving Bellingham so much later that what we had planned made us feel that we had lost a day as we never got to do the things on the strip that I was looking forward to. We both came home feeling we were ready to go back to Las Vegas. So I have already booked another trip leaving, Sunday, Jan 27 and returning home on Friday, Feb 1. We are staying an extra day and will spend Sunday and Monday night on the strip at Bally's and taking an earlier flight out of Bellingham ( 11:40 am arriving in Las Vegas approx 2:10 pm) . Got a great price on the rooms at Bally's for the 2 nights and the D is comping us the other 3 nights plus $25 free play, $25 in match play and $5 food or drink credit.
Came home with majority of the money we had taken - lost a total of $44 on Keno. Spent less than $100 on meals ( this includes meals at the shopping mall in Bellingham before we went to the airport and lunch we had at McCarron airport ). Parking, shuttles,cabs was $73.00
Strange thing happened to me at the Four Queens - I was playing a slot and when I cashed out there was a paper jam so slot attendant had to retrieve my slot voucher. It was intact but crumpled so he told me to cash it at the cashier's cage. It was only for $38 and some odd cents and when the young guy gave me my money as I was standing at the counter and starting to put the money in my wallet I noticed he only gave me $33. He had walked away and was standing with a group of other cashiers so I called him over and asked him if the slot voucher had been for $38. He said it was and I showed him the cash I had in my hand - he didn't bat an eye or question - just reached into his till and took out $5 ,gave it to me and walked away again. I thought he may have referred it to his supervisor or looked at the tape - yeh it was only $5 BUT. It dawned on me after I left that he initially never counted it out to me - first time a cashier hasn't counted the money back to me or spead it out on the counter as he or she counted it back.
The Ds rooms are nice and the beds are new. Noticed this time that if you go to the main floor of the casino to play the slots say between 6:30 am and 10 am the music is not as loud. (Maybe some of the upper management aren't there ?). Was speaking with a cashier and she said she thinks management may be finally be getting it re volume. She felt there was no need to that loud of music after the girls/dancers have gone home. Upstairs on the 2nd floor they actually have a cashier in the cage - probably because of the Sigma Derby and other coin machines. Did not try the Sigma Derby as every time I wanted to there were no seats. The D must have a policy that all the cocktail waitresses are required to wear short skirts and no pants. One of the cocktail waitresses on the 2nd floor who has been there for years was wearing short skirt and every since we have been going there since it was Fitzgeralds always wore black dress slacks. I am sure she is older than us ( and we are both in our 60's) and know she had a hip replacement last fall. The skirt did not really do anything for her. We saw one waitress on the main casino floor who had the skinniest legs I have ever seen - I kid you not they were like two matchsticks and her knees were just knobs of bone sticking out! She looked either anorexic or like she was ill she was so thin - even her cheek bones were sunken in. She was wearing short skirt and long leather boots to her knees and could hardly walk - I don't know how she managed to carry a tray with drinks. She was not a young person in her 20s or even 30s but I guess people do what they have to do to keep their job. I could not help but watch her every time I saw her - kept thinking she was going to fall over.
Did not play our usual amount at the California this time - we like the keno pit there and used to play slots there as well but they have changed their slot inventory and a lot of our favourites are gone.
We still enjoy Binion's and like the Motherlode promtion - they have had this promotion going on for 1 1/2 to 2 years now and it keeps us coming back to play.
