Yet another fun trip, just got back from a week in Vegas. We had a great time, got together with our friend, Linda from Minnesota (linda2244) and our friends from back home, Jon and Mimi. Didn't do so well this time, we're down about $1500 on $45K action; we did well, though, with MyVegas rewards and with MRB and ACG coupons ($118 yield between the two).
WEDNESDAY
Easy non-stop flight from Tampa on Southwest; first stop was Sam's Town, took a cab and had to argue constantly to not be long-hauled ("no, I said to take Nellis; turn here..."). Got a nice atrium-view room at Sam's, and it was Senior Day, so we were getting 5x points all day on Wednesday.
Played mostly dollar JoB at the sports book bar (progressive got up to $4800 at one point; guess who didn't hit it), also some FPDW. Linda2244 got in a few hours after us, and we hit the buffet for lunch, with Roy and Jim; Roy is an old friend of hers from Minnesota who retired to Henderson. Nice folks, fair buffet, but the price was right. Stayed at Sam's and played for the rest of the day, saw the Mystic Falls show (you know, the Redneck Bellagio show), got to bed early.
THURSDAY
Got a quick breakfast buffet at Sam's, and played until mid-afternoon, then we took the Sam's Town shuttle over to Harrah's and across the street to the Mirage. Linda (wife) and Linda (2244) got beaten up on the slots for a while (no decent VP there, so I didn't play), then we hit the buffet (yeah, too many buffets this trip), which I'm fond of. Had excellent seats for LOVE, complements of MyVegas. We had seen the show about 7 years ago and it was great to see it again. Great music and visuals, pure Cirque, tremendous talent all around. Back to the shuttle and Sam's, a little more play and bedtime.
FRIDAY
Moving day. Played some more at Sam's, real roller coaster that morning but did okay (the $4800 progressive was gone by then; didn't get the $4002 royal, either). Quick snack at the sports bar deli, then took the shuttle downtown. Linda and I checked in to MSS, Linda2244 to the Plaza. MSS is kind of our home casino, we really love it there. Good rooms, friendly staff, good games. I mostly played JoB at the bar (my only bitch about the place is that the only dollar JoB is at the bar; there's some on some Game King slant-tops near the valet entrance, but they give only 1/3 points), also some NSUD and a little DB (also 1/3 points), got my ass kicked in general. We visited Linda2244 at the Plaza, also scoped out the Las Vegas Club. Both places continue to deteriorate, it's a damned shame given their history and the recent remodel. Not much of anything at the LV Club now, no food, the north end is completely closed off, 1/3 of the main casino floor has been sold and converted to a cheesy gift shop. Plaza is already showing signs of wear, employees look forlorn. The cash machines have been taken out of both casinos, so you have to go to the cage to cash out TITO tickets; I think they're minimizing their cash reserves, also hoping that you'll see the trip to the cage (and the lines) too much of a hassle and just keep playing until you lose.
Anyway, the three of us went down to the El Cortez for the evening. El Cortez Day is always fun. Played some coupons, free play, etc., got beaten up on Multi-Strike JoB, mostly played blackjack, was up and down. Very crowded on a Friday night, couldn't get on a DD game (our preference) for a while, so played some SD, which is a pain in the ass since we were only getting two hands before the shuffle. Anyway, next stop was Roberta's (okay, The Flame), always good and always nice to have Linda (yeah, another Linda) wait on us. Tried the Steak Diane, which was odd but tasty; Linda (wife) had king crab (terrific) and Linda2244 had walleye (also great). Back home after dinner, hit a few more casinos on the way back (Binion's had a second promotional slot machine, at the northeast entrance on Casino Center, were giving out $10 MPs which weren't protected at all, didn't have to get a voucher at the players club or even show your card at the table; played a bunch of those). Got a chocolate macadamia ice cream cone at Lappert's (at the Cal), and that was that.
SATURDAY
Usual $200 cup of coffee in the morning; had a lot of those this trip. Walked around a bit, got over to the Downtown Grand, which is a nice looking place but a VP wasteland. Got the same sign-up $3 FP as everyone else, did get a full house, though (ha!). Not sure how they're going to do, it wasn't too crowded and I don't think people are going to stay on Ogden AVE for that kind of vibe. Also dropped by the old Gold Spike; still a big game room with a bar, still empty, even have a faux ice rink out back with some sort of plastic "ice."
Went to Aloha Specialties (one of my favorite restaurants in Vegas) for lunch, had the Aloha Bento, then back to MSS.
A few more crappy sessions, including a total of three natural quads on NSUD (but none on the dollar JoB). Pissed me off.
Dinner was at Oscar's, over at the Plaza. For some reason, Linda and I had a total of $280 in food comps that we had just found out about (seems like a pleasant surprise from their switch-over to the new players club system), and we decided to check it out. I was fairly impressed. Great location, although the view of Fremont ST is gone since they built the structure for the west end of the new zipline; still, it was cool to finally eat in the dome. Service was very good, maybe a little intrusive, in contrast to the negative reviews of the service from last year. The food was uneven but solid: excellent crab cakes and French onion soup, excellent ribeye (the special that night), fair skirt steak (and studding it with whole garlic cloves just doesn't work), good stuffed shrimp, lousy roasted corn brulee (could have gotten better out of a can), great lava cake. Overall a very good meal.
However. We paid with our food comps and were told that Linda still had $80 in comps left on her card (bill was about $200). The next night, we went to Island Sushi for dinner to use the rest of the comps (I have a feeling that there won't be many places to eat by our next trip) and found out that Oscar's had somehow taken the entire $280 off the cards. Not sure if it was a mistake or a scam or what, but I was told that I'd have to resolve it at the restaurant. Went up to Oscar's and talked to the manager, who was a dick. He was generally adversarial about the whole thing and at one point said that he doubted my word about the whole thing (never good form to accuse a customer of being a liar). Said that it might take him a while to look up my check from the previous night. Well, after about 30 minutes, he came out and said that he couldn't find it and that he had called VIP services and that they'd give me an $80 food comp. No apology at all, and when I got down to VIP services, the host (who was very nice and very helpful) indicated that he had never called. She tracked him down and ultimately got it straightened out, but after about 40 minutes of hassles. Kind of leaves a bad taste in the mouth for the Plaza.
Anyway, it was a good dinner. Went back to MSS afterward, had a scotch and played some more VP; Linda2244 continued to get beaten up at the Plaza (she thinks the place is a lot tighter than before, but it's hard to tell with slots). Bedtime.
SUNDAY
FINALLY a good start. Turned $100 into $402 over coffee; only one quad, but the full houses and flushes were flowing. Also played some DB, third hand was quad aces for another $200. Nice.
Jon and Mimi had arrived on Saturday (had comp rooms at the GN), and the five of us hit the brunch buffet at MSS. Not a high-end buffet but good, solid food and a pleasant environment, it was nice to catch up and conspire about Vegas. Played all afternoon, also ran down to Castro's for a few cigars, ran through Binion's and checked out the new Elvis museum, which is probably pretty interesting if you're interested in Elvis (I'm not). The price was right, zero. Got to see Elvis's bottle of Mylanta, that was pretty interesting.
Didn't have the bucket of fried chicken that he was eating when he died on the toilet, tough. Anyway, back to MSS, played some more, then ran down to the Plaza and to Island Sushi. Had the whole hassle with the missing $80, but the food was good (had some ahi poke and tonkatsu with curry gravy).
MONDAY
Another $200 cup of coffee (sigh...). Met Linda2244 at Hash House a Go Go and got rid of the last of our comps; I had a fried salmon sandwich, which was okay and too big.
Moving day again; Linda2244 went up to Cosmo, and Linda (wife) and I moved to Four Queens. I finally started winning at the Queens; turned my $80 FP into a quick $120 on the dollar DB machine (one day, I'll have the cojones to play dollar DB with a bunch of my own money) and did well on JoB. Most of my time there was between dollar JoB and the quarter DB progressives (there are only 8 machines now) and I did okay. Linda (wife) didn't do so well, unfortunately. Anyway, we decided to run down to the El Cortez again for a little more blackjack; I did pretty well, made almost $100 on one two-deck shoe (poor Linda didn't do as well), lost a little on Downtown Deuces and headed back to the Queens. Stopped at Pizza Rock, the new and trendy pizza joint next to the DT Grand. Very good pizza, had a margherita (from the wood oven) and a Sam Giancana, a thin-crust Chicago thing.
Back to the hotel, caught a couple of VivaVision shows (Bon Jovi and the new Who show [good music, boring graphics]), smoked a cigar (Hacienda Veracruz, kind of forgettable), played some DB. Interesting session, the woman to my left got two quads in two hands, then a straight flush about four hands later. Then the guy on my right got quad aces. Finally got my quad sixes and went to bed.
TUESDAY
Played heavy today, I had that double points coupon from the ACG, and I did pretty well all day. Stopped for lunch, decided to finally try the Heart Attack Grill and survived. Had a single bypass burger (1/2 pound nondescript patty, cheese, high-grease chili and five slices of bacon) and some fries (deep-fried in lard, and damned tasty).
Played some more, then we took the SDX up to Aria, where we met Linda2244 and Jon and Mimi. Gorgeous hotel; watched some guy playing blackjack at $500 per hand, totally clueless (I don't think there's any correlation between bet size and skill; might be a negative correlation), also watched the $10K/hand baccarat crowd for a bit. Linda (wife) decided to try Five 50 Pizza as an appetizer, got a slice of the Gotham, which was terrific, much better than at Pizza Rock.
We had buffet comps from MyVegas and really enjoyed this one, I thought most of the food was excellent, probably Bellagio quality. After dinner, Mimi and Jon went back to MGM and the three of us saw Zarkana (MyVegas again). Great show, this was probably the most circus-like Cirque show that I've seen, and it was excellent. Got back on the SDX downtown, played some more (got a couple of dealt quads, and a Chinese New Year commemorative horse for getting over 777 points) and bedtime.
WEDNESDAY
Last day. Played a bit more in the morning, bought some NHL futures for Linda. We ran over to The D, got some chili dogs at American Coney Island (I like that place, great, natural-skin weenies), checked out, took the WAX to the airport and a non-stop back home.
Overall, not a profitable trip, but plenty of fun, and lots of time to catch up with friends. Next trip in July!
WEDNESDAY
Easy non-stop flight from Tampa on Southwest; first stop was Sam's Town, took a cab and had to argue constantly to not be long-hauled ("no, I said to take Nellis; turn here..."). Got a nice atrium-view room at Sam's, and it was Senior Day, so we were getting 5x points all day on Wednesday.
Played mostly dollar JoB at the sports book bar (progressive got up to $4800 at one point; guess who didn't hit it), also some FPDW. Linda2244 got in a few hours after us, and we hit the buffet for lunch, with Roy and Jim; Roy is an old friend of hers from Minnesota who retired to Henderson. Nice folks, fair buffet, but the price was right. Stayed at Sam's and played for the rest of the day, saw the Mystic Falls show (you know, the Redneck Bellagio show), got to bed early.
THURSDAY
Got a quick breakfast buffet at Sam's, and played until mid-afternoon, then we took the Sam's Town shuttle over to Harrah's and across the street to the Mirage. Linda (wife) and Linda (2244) got beaten up on the slots for a while (no decent VP there, so I didn't play), then we hit the buffet (yeah, too many buffets this trip), which I'm fond of. Had excellent seats for LOVE, complements of MyVegas. We had seen the show about 7 years ago and it was great to see it again. Great music and visuals, pure Cirque, tremendous talent all around. Back to the shuttle and Sam's, a little more play and bedtime.
FRIDAY
Moving day. Played some more at Sam's, real roller coaster that morning but did okay (the $4800 progressive was gone by then; didn't get the $4002 royal, either). Quick snack at the sports bar deli, then took the shuttle downtown. Linda and I checked in to MSS, Linda2244 to the Plaza. MSS is kind of our home casino, we really love it there. Good rooms, friendly staff, good games. I mostly played JoB at the bar (my only bitch about the place is that the only dollar JoB is at the bar; there's some on some Game King slant-tops near the valet entrance, but they give only 1/3 points), also some NSUD and a little DB (also 1/3 points), got my ass kicked in general. We visited Linda2244 at the Plaza, also scoped out the Las Vegas Club. Both places continue to deteriorate, it's a damned shame given their history and the recent remodel. Not much of anything at the LV Club now, no food, the north end is completely closed off, 1/3 of the main casino floor has been sold and converted to a cheesy gift shop. Plaza is already showing signs of wear, employees look forlorn. The cash machines have been taken out of both casinos, so you have to go to the cage to cash out TITO tickets; I think they're minimizing their cash reserves, also hoping that you'll see the trip to the cage (and the lines) too much of a hassle and just keep playing until you lose.
Anyway, the three of us went down to the El Cortez for the evening. El Cortez Day is always fun. Played some coupons, free play, etc., got beaten up on Multi-Strike JoB, mostly played blackjack, was up and down. Very crowded on a Friday night, couldn't get on a DD game (our preference) for a while, so played some SD, which is a pain in the ass since we were only getting two hands before the shuffle. Anyway, next stop was Roberta's (okay, The Flame), always good and always nice to have Linda (yeah, another Linda) wait on us. Tried the Steak Diane, which was odd but tasty; Linda (wife) had king crab (terrific) and Linda2244 had walleye (also great). Back home after dinner, hit a few more casinos on the way back (Binion's had a second promotional slot machine, at the northeast entrance on Casino Center, were giving out $10 MPs which weren't protected at all, didn't have to get a voucher at the players club or even show your card at the table; played a bunch of those). Got a chocolate macadamia ice cream cone at Lappert's (at the Cal), and that was that.
SATURDAY
Usual $200 cup of coffee in the morning; had a lot of those this trip. Walked around a bit, got over to the Downtown Grand, which is a nice looking place but a VP wasteland. Got the same sign-up $3 FP as everyone else, did get a full house, though (ha!). Not sure how they're going to do, it wasn't too crowded and I don't think people are going to stay on Ogden AVE for that kind of vibe. Also dropped by the old Gold Spike; still a big game room with a bar, still empty, even have a faux ice rink out back with some sort of plastic "ice."
Went to Aloha Specialties (one of my favorite restaurants in Vegas) for lunch, had the Aloha Bento, then back to MSS.
A few more crappy sessions, including a total of three natural quads on NSUD (but none on the dollar JoB). Pissed me off.
Dinner was at Oscar's, over at the Plaza. For some reason, Linda and I had a total of $280 in food comps that we had just found out about (seems like a pleasant surprise from their switch-over to the new players club system), and we decided to check it out. I was fairly impressed. Great location, although the view of Fremont ST is gone since they built the structure for the west end of the new zipline; still, it was cool to finally eat in the dome. Service was very good, maybe a little intrusive, in contrast to the negative reviews of the service from last year. The food was uneven but solid: excellent crab cakes and French onion soup, excellent ribeye (the special that night), fair skirt steak (and studding it with whole garlic cloves just doesn't work), good stuffed shrimp, lousy roasted corn brulee (could have gotten better out of a can), great lava cake. Overall a very good meal.
However. We paid with our food comps and were told that Linda still had $80 in comps left on her card (bill was about $200). The next night, we went to Island Sushi for dinner to use the rest of the comps (I have a feeling that there won't be many places to eat by our next trip) and found out that Oscar's had somehow taken the entire $280 off the cards. Not sure if it was a mistake or a scam or what, but I was told that I'd have to resolve it at the restaurant. Went up to Oscar's and talked to the manager, who was a dick. He was generally adversarial about the whole thing and at one point said that he doubted my word about the whole thing (never good form to accuse a customer of being a liar). Said that it might take him a while to look up my check from the previous night. Well, after about 30 minutes, he came out and said that he couldn't find it and that he had called VIP services and that they'd give me an $80 food comp. No apology at all, and when I got down to VIP services, the host (who was very nice and very helpful) indicated that he had never called. She tracked him down and ultimately got it straightened out, but after about 40 minutes of hassles. Kind of leaves a bad taste in the mouth for the Plaza.
Anyway, it was a good dinner. Went back to MSS afterward, had a scotch and played some more VP; Linda2244 continued to get beaten up at the Plaza (she thinks the place is a lot tighter than before, but it's hard to tell with slots). Bedtime.
SUNDAY
FINALLY a good start. Turned $100 into $402 over coffee; only one quad, but the full houses and flushes were flowing. Also played some DB, third hand was quad aces for another $200. Nice.
Jon and Mimi had arrived on Saturday (had comp rooms at the GN), and the five of us hit the brunch buffet at MSS. Not a high-end buffet but good, solid food and a pleasant environment, it was nice to catch up and conspire about Vegas. Played all afternoon, also ran down to Castro's for a few cigars, ran through Binion's and checked out the new Elvis museum, which is probably pretty interesting if you're interested in Elvis (I'm not). The price was right, zero. Got to see Elvis's bottle of Mylanta, that was pretty interesting.
Didn't have the bucket of fried chicken that he was eating when he died on the toilet, tough. Anyway, back to MSS, played some more, then ran down to the Plaza and to Island Sushi. Had the whole hassle with the missing $80, but the food was good (had some ahi poke and tonkatsu with curry gravy).
MONDAY
Another $200 cup of coffee (sigh...). Met Linda2244 at Hash House a Go Go and got rid of the last of our comps; I had a fried salmon sandwich, which was okay and too big.
Moving day again; Linda2244 went up to Cosmo, and Linda (wife) and I moved to Four Queens. I finally started winning at the Queens; turned my $80 FP into a quick $120 on the dollar DB machine (one day, I'll have the cojones to play dollar DB with a bunch of my own money) and did well on JoB. Most of my time there was between dollar JoB and the quarter DB progressives (there are only 8 machines now) and I did okay. Linda (wife) didn't do so well, unfortunately. Anyway, we decided to run down to the El Cortez again for a little more blackjack; I did pretty well, made almost $100 on one two-deck shoe (poor Linda didn't do as well), lost a little on Downtown Deuces and headed back to the Queens. Stopped at Pizza Rock, the new and trendy pizza joint next to the DT Grand. Very good pizza, had a margherita (from the wood oven) and a Sam Giancana, a thin-crust Chicago thing.
Back to the hotel, caught a couple of VivaVision shows (Bon Jovi and the new Who show [good music, boring graphics]), smoked a cigar (Hacienda Veracruz, kind of forgettable), played some DB. Interesting session, the woman to my left got two quads in two hands, then a straight flush about four hands later. Then the guy on my right got quad aces. Finally got my quad sixes and went to bed.
TUESDAY
Played heavy today, I had that double points coupon from the ACG, and I did pretty well all day. Stopped for lunch, decided to finally try the Heart Attack Grill and survived. Had a single bypass burger (1/2 pound nondescript patty, cheese, high-grease chili and five slices of bacon) and some fries (deep-fried in lard, and damned tasty).
Played some more, then we took the SDX up to Aria, where we met Linda2244 and Jon and Mimi. Gorgeous hotel; watched some guy playing blackjack at $500 per hand, totally clueless (I don't think there's any correlation between bet size and skill; might be a negative correlation), also watched the $10K/hand baccarat crowd for a bit. Linda (wife) decided to try Five 50 Pizza as an appetizer, got a slice of the Gotham, which was terrific, much better than at Pizza Rock.
We had buffet comps from MyVegas and really enjoyed this one, I thought most of the food was excellent, probably Bellagio quality. After dinner, Mimi and Jon went back to MGM and the three of us saw Zarkana (MyVegas again). Great show, this was probably the most circus-like Cirque show that I've seen, and it was excellent. Got back on the SDX downtown, played some more (got a couple of dealt quads, and a Chinese New Year commemorative horse for getting over 777 points) and bedtime.
WEDNESDAY
Last day. Played a bit more in the morning, bought some NHL futures for Linda. We ran over to The D, got some chili dogs at American Coney Island (I like that place, great, natural-skin weenies), checked out, took the WAX to the airport and a non-stop back home.
Overall, not a profitable trip, but plenty of fun, and lots of time to catch up with friends. Next trip in July!
