Trip Report
June 22 – July 16, 2013
Welcome to the trip report for the summer of 2013. It's been almost a year since the last trip and I am really looking forward to this one. Joining me as she has the last few years will be my wife Dee. She is still in recovery mode from some medical issues she has dealt with but that won't stop us from having a great time. As with all of our trips there will be bargain hunting, promo chasing, dining, shows and of course gambling! The Cousins will also be meeting us out there for a week of the trip too and everyone is excited. That's it for the introduction, so let's get started on the report. Vegas, here we come!!
Day 1
Saturday June 22, 2013
We left the house this afternoon to head down to Newark Liberty Airport. I kind of stopped flying out of here a few years ago because of a few reasons. The fares just weren't good, the airlines started charging for luggage and the place is just a zoo. To get there I used the old play I used to use a few years ago of renting a car from the local airport. Originally I booked back in early May for a base price of $71. A few weeks ago the rates dropped and I got a full sized car for a base rate of $44. I picked up the car yesterday after work and they assigned me a Mazda CX9 with 11,000 miles on it in like new condition.
On the way to Newark we stopped off for an early lunch at Steak and Shake in Paramus Park. We both got a burger with fries and then we were on our way.
Traffic on 17 was slow until the 17 – 4 interchange like it always is. I gassed up the car just before the Meadowlands and headed for the NJ Turnpike. This was a mess due to some construction. They had miles of road closed for 100 feet of work and as always people waited until the last second to merge over.
We rolled into Newark and dropped the car off at Avis. Things were ok here but the return guy said his computer was broken so I had to go wait in line inside to get my return completed? Really? A billion dollar operation and they've only got 1 hand held? WTF? I went inside to finish the return and then we hopped on the monorail to the terminal. As expected, it was a zoo over here. This makes me wish we were in Albany flying Southwest. We finally got checked in and dropped off the one suitcase we had for the bargain rate of $25. I despise that the airlines started charging for luggage and despise even more that the public didn't revolt when they started doing it. Fortunately for us, we packed light and the tickets were booked using frequent flier miles so the luggage fee and the security tax was all we had to pay for. I've been sitting on these miles for years from when I actually used to fly Continental. A few years ago I also signed up for the Continental Airlines credit card and it came with 50,000 miles. Those are what we are using today. Since then Continental merged with United and that's who today’s' flight is with. These tickets were booked back in January and a few weeks ago the flight I booked was canceled and we were moved to an earlier flight. The only issue was we lost the seats I reserved. I went online and tried to pick seats but there were none together except in the back row next to 2 bathrooms. That was not going to happen. I called and got that straightened out.
Once we were checked in it was off to the zoo known as security. Things here were effed up. I tried to go to the wheelchair line but it was closed. I asked the agent were she wanted me to go and I had no problem going into the general line as it was very short. Instead she had another agent take us in circles who was lost and then a 3rd agent. Finally a 4th guy sent us through after we twirled around in circles for 10 minutes. I could have been through security already if I just got into the regular line. Security was easy and after they searched Dee we headed to the gate.
While we were at the gate they announced they needed 2 seats and offered $400 each for compensation plus meals and a flight on the 7:20pm flight. We decided to take it and just as the agent was about to complete the deal, they realized they didn't need the seats. This was good and bad. We were out $800 in vouchers but we didn't have to hang out in the terminal for the next 4 hours. They did let us keep the food coupons though so we ran to Famous Famiglia and got some pizza. This place like most airport food is a rip. 4 slices, 2 Gatorades and 5 garlic knots was $30. Yes, that says thirty dollars.
This is flight 1293, non stop to Las Vegas. We were scheduled to depart at 3:20pm and arrive at 5:58pm. The captain came on and told us we'd be flying for 4 hours and 40 minutes. The flight was pretty smooth except for a few pockets along the way. One thing that really disgusts me about United is everything has a price. You don't even get a pack of peanuts or pretzels from these clowns anymore. All we got was a cup of soda. I was glad to have had that pizza now!
I really hate this flight but we were finally on our initial descent. We touched down 20 minutes early and taxied to the terminal. From here we headed to baggage claim. I didn't realize that we were supposed to go to terminal 3 to get our bags and took my normal route to terminal 1 only to find out that we were in the wrong place. A nice airport employee helped get us to the shuttle to terminal 3 where the suitcase was waiting for us.
Next up was the rental car shuttle. For this trip the car rates were very high. I originally got base rates in the area of $900. It was actually going to be cheaper to take a cab to the hotel the first night and pick up the car at one of the hotels. I checked the rates daily and finally got lucky scoring a premium for a base of $389 after a 10% discount from What's On Magazine. The premium car was actually cheaper than the smaller cars. When we arrived they had our car and paperwork all set. We are assigned a Nissan Maxima with only 2,700 miles on it. I gave it a quick look over and loaded up. We were on our way!
First stop was over at the 99¢ Only Store and then CVS for some survival items. Then it was over to the Gold Coast. This room was booked on a mail offer good for 2 nights, $50 free play per day and $50 food per day. We really only needed one night to start the trip but I booked both nights in order to get the perks.
When we arrived checking in was fast and we were off to handicap room 633. This room has 2 queen beds, nightstands, dresser, flat screen TV, and work desk. There is a view of Palms and the South Strip. The bathroom is handicap equipped with a roll in shower.
Once we dropped our bags in the room we headed downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat at Noodle Exchange. I got Cashew Chicken and Dee got a Noodle Bowl and some Firecracker Shrimp Rolls.. The service was slow tonight and the food was great.
While we waited for the food I stopped at the slot club to activate the free play. They added both days on at once so it would all be available tonight. After we ate we hit the triple plays. I loaded my free play and Dee used cash. Neither of us hit much of anything and we hit no quads. We played for about 30 minutes and I lost my free play and Dee lost her $100 so we're already down for the trip.
We finally got to bed around midnight Las Vegas time so it was 3am our time. It's been a long night, so goodnight everybody.
Total win/loss for the day -$100
Total comps for the day $339
Day 2
Sunday June 23, 2013
We were up early today and started with some food from Java Coast in the room. I got a muffin and a fruit plate that we shared. Dee watched Joel Osteen on TV while I typed this report. Now we're going to go to the pool and the fitness center for a while! I'm not much of a gym guy but the exercise is part of Dee's regimen to recovery so it's important that we get her the exercise she needs.
When we were done at the pool we got cleaned up and then went to lunch at Noodle Exchange. Today we both ordered our favorite lunch special of lemon chicken. This came with some nasty looking soup that Dee ate but I refused. You also get a spring roll and fried rice all for $6.99.
Next up we hit the triple plays. I scored a set of aces early on and had a few other quads. Dee hit a few quads too but the dealt winners weren't there. We did get a good amount of play in with me cashing out even and Dee down just $50.
We went up to the room, grabbed our stuff and headed out. I made a quick stop at Target to grab a few more items that we missed last night and then it was onward to the Silverton. We'd be checking in for the next 3 nights. I booked this room through a mail offer of 3 complimentary nights and $75 in free play. Checking in here has always been pretty simple and today was the same.
We were given room 1088. This is a handicap room with 2 queen beds. There is also a nightstand, dresser, and work desk. The bathroom is standard although a bit larger with safety bars around the toilet and in the tub. There is a view of the trees that surround the pool but there typically aren't any good views here anyway. This room is also on the first floor so we don't have to screw with elevators!
We got our things set up in the room and then it was time for some casino action! Today we chose to play the nickel 100 play video poker. These are a lot of fun and one of Dee's favorite games. We blew through quite a bit of cash here at first and I switched over to just 50 hands. Things leveled off a bit but the dealt winners weren't as plentiful as they needed to be. As soon as I switched over I got dealt a full house that got me back into the game. Shortly after I scored dealt quad 4's for a nice 10,000 coin win. Dee got lucky and on a 3 card hold scored a royal for $200 on line 10. By the time we were finished we cycled quite a bit of action through the machines and only dropped about $200.
I activated my $75 free play and decided to just run it through a $1 machine. I played just 15 hands to churn it through and ended with exactly $75! It's not too often I can actually do this. That helped offset some of the loss from the 50/100 plays games.
For a late dinner we went to Sundance Grill. Dee got her favorite, Joe's shuffle and I got biscuits and gravy with eggs. All was good and we decided to pack it in for the night and headed to the room.
Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $287
Day 3
Monday June 24, 2013
I was up early this morning and ran over to Starbucks to get Dee a coffee and a small breakfast to munch on for both of us. I was still kind of full from last night.
We started off the day with some time at the pool. Oddly the weather so far this trip is not typical with temperatures not even hitting 100. Today's high is only supposed to be 93.
We headed to the car and then it was down to the Four Queens. We parked in the garage and then off to the front desk to check in. We didn't need the room here but we planned a day of gaming action here so figured it would be nice to have the room to take a break in. This offer is for 2 nights, $40 free play and $20 in non-negotiable gaming chips. I booked both nights pretty much because I could. I don't think I've ever seen more than 2 people checking in here at one time and today was the same. Everything was in order and we were given room 1025. This is a handicap room with 2 queen beds, nightstand, desk, dresser and flat screen TV. There is a view of the Golden Nugget and part of Fremont Street. The bathroom is standard with safety bars and is large in size.
Once we checked out the room it was down to the casino and the player's club to get Dee a card. While she has an old account with her previous name, she doesn't have one in our name so is going to sign up as a new member. This week they are giving $10 free play to new members that earn 10 points and a T-shirt to those that earn 50. You also get a deck of cards for signing up. We've also got a coupon from the American Casino Guide for 2X points up to 500.
Now that Dee was armed with her new card it was off to the video poker machines. Today we chose to play the 9/6 jacks or better machines. We started with quarters and almost immediately Dee hit a quad. She continued to hit quads quite often and never looked back. I wasn’t as lucky at first and couldn't seem to hit much. I scored a few quads and got back in it and then had the meter up and down. I eventually lost my $100 and switched to halves. I hit a quad right away and got back into it followed by numerous full houses. We continued to plug away and Dee continued to grow her meter. While we were playing a host actually came to Dee at her machine, thanked her for signing up, said her play was very good and handed her a $20 comp to Magnolia's. After about 5 hours we finally reached a quitting point with me being down $100 and Dee being up $200. Yes, She won $200 playing quarter jacks or better over 5 hours. I was impressed.
After we cashed out we went back to the player's club and got Dee her $10 free play and T shirt. She also turned in her 2X point coupon from the ACG and the supervisor credited those right away and offered to cash out her points which she did for $40.
For dinner we took the comp to Magnolia's Veranda. This is one of our favorite restaurants although we don't get here very often. Dee got spaghetti and meatballs and I got the hot open turkey sandwich. Both of our meals were good but I thought the sandwich was lacking without a vegetable, or even a garnish on the plate. We topped off the meal by splitting a piece of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.
After dinner we ran Dee's free play through a slot and she cashed out $10.08 and I ran mine through at VP and cashed out with $30.
I also had the $20 in non-negotiable chips to play so we hit the roulette wheel and played them one at a time on black. These chips are one time use only so they don't go as far as they could. I won twice and lost twice so I was able to turn them into $10 in cash.
It was getting late so we headed back to the Silverton for the night. Since there was no hurry to get back we took a drive down the Strip. It was amazing the amount of changes that have taken place since the last time we drove down here. Last year when we were in town we didn't drive on the strip at all with exception of going from the Riviera to Sahara.
We got back to the Silverton around 9pm and took it easy in the room for the rest of the night. Dee read her book and I watched WWE Monday Night Raw on TV.
Total win/loss for the day $200
Total comps for the day $213
Day 4
Tuesday June 25, 2013
We got up today and started off with breakfast in the room. I went over to the Sundance Grill and grabbed a big Stack Breakfast. It's 3 pancakes, 2 bacon strips, 2 sausage patties and eggs. This was plenty for both of us to share.
We skipped the pool and gym today but Dee did her exercises in the room. After she got a quick workout in, we got cleaned up and ready for our day.
Once we were ready we hit the casino and stopped at the slot club to get Dee a new card. The same deal that applied yesterday at the Four Queens also applies here. We're getting Dee a fresh new card and taking advantage of the sign up bonus. Today's offer was a free buffet for earning 50 points and a free Silverton draw string bag just for signing up. I think we'd have that covered in a few minutes.
Once Dee had her cards we hit the 100 play machines again that we played the other day. We did quite well on these this session with Dee scoring a royal 2 different times. She also scored some nice dealt winners. I was hovering close to even for most of the session with a small spike that quickly dwindled. I didn't get nearly as many dealt winners as Dee did. By the end of the session Dee was up $300 and I was up $3!
When we cashed out we stopped at the player's club and got Dee's free buffet coupon and had her $20 free play added to her card from the promo they were running today for $5 in free play for every 250 points up to $20. We also swung by the host office and got another buffet slip based on her play.
We took a short break and then hit the buffet for dinner. It was slow in here tonight but the foods were really good and everything was fresh. We of course ate too much and came back up to the room to rest for a while before going back to the casino.
We wanted to play the 100 plays again but they were being used so opted for the 10 play quarter games instead. We didn't do well on these at all dropping $300 between us in very short order. The 100 plays were opened up so we parked at these for a while. We did a little better than on the 10 plays and got quite a bit of play. At the end I dropped just $100 and Dee broke even. While it wasn't as good a session as it was earlier we still ran another 10k through the machines tonight.
Dee still had her $20 free play from earlier to use and wanted to try it in a one of her favorite slots. She actually got the meter up into the $50 range and cashed out at $30. I took her ticket to the craps machine. This is the type of machine where the dice bounce around like the old pop-o-matic like the game Trouble used to use. I sat here for a while losing $10 and then we played another penny slot of Dee's choice. She hit a few bonus rounds and had a few big hits here and turned the $20 ticket into $50 and we quit for the night.
While we didn’t win today we did run a lot of coin through the machines today. Hopefully Dee gets some nice offers in the near future from all this action.
We came back to the room and took it easy for the night and packed up most of our stuff for tomorrow's move then, we went to sleep.
Total win/loss for the day -$50
Total comps for the day $130
Day 5
Wednesday June 26, 2013
Today I started off the day grabbing a quick breakfast snack at Starbucks where I think I totally effed up. I accidentally used Dee's card. They even checked my ID and must have only looked at the last name. I sure hope I didn’t just get her a zero play day and dilute her huge day yesterday.
After we ate, we packed up the rest of our stuff and headed out fairly early. Today is the day that the cousins are arriving. Their flight is scheduled to land at 10:27am in Terminal 3. I had no idea where to go to get to terminal 3 but I figured it out. Their flight landed a few minutes early and we met them at baggage claim. We grabbed their things and then it was off to the car.
We took a drive out to Henderson and went to Fiesta Henderson for lunch at their new Cafe Fiesta. I'm glad to see they got a cafe back and got Denny's the eff out of there! Dee got a turkey club with fries and I got the ultimate grilled cheese. The food was good and I was glad they have a cafe again.
When we finished lunch it was onto 95 and off to Laughlin. The ride went quickly since the 4 of us were talking the whole drive but it was pretty windy. We arrived at the Aquarius in just about 2pm. We self parked and checked in at VIP services. I booked these rooms though our host and she comped both rooms for all 5 nights. Meals at the cafe and buffet are also covered. I had $225 in free play from a mailer, and Dee got $50 free play for her birthday. We also got $50 each for our anniversary for a total of $375. In just a few minutes we were on our way to room 10104. This is a handicap room with a partial river view and partial mountain view. It's got a 2 queen beds, a nightstand, dining table, dresser, and 32" TV. The bathroom is standard with some extra space and bars. The cousins got room 6106 which is identical except for the handicap stuff.
We got settled in and took a break and then hit the casino. We chose to play the triple/five and ten plays this afternoon. Things weren’t that good for me with few dealt winners, few quads and lots of hands with no payout. Dee was up and down and switched to five play. On a key hand she was dealt a flush with 4 to a royal. She dumped the odd card and nailed a royal on line 3 for her 4th royal of the trip. This saved us a bit but we were already so far in that it just kept us above water. I was dealt a similar hand a few minutes later but I don't have Dee's luck and didn't even get a payout.
For dinner we all went to the buffet. I've said it before and I'll say it again that this buffet is very overpriced for the selection and quality of the foods and they should be embarrassed about the price.
After dinner we took a walk to the Riverside to work off some of the food we just ate and the girls checked out some rings a Ring-o-Rama and then we went to the watchman.
We came back to the Aquarius and the cousins called it a night as they were still on east coast time. Me and Dee took a break for a while and then returned to the casino. We played more triple, five and ten play which turned out to be a mistake. We couldn't hit a thing with very few quads and I didn't get a dealt hand better than three of a kind. Dee hit a set of aces but it was too little too late. At the end of this session we were actually down for the day even with Dee's royal included.
We moved over to some single line 9/6 jacks or better and downloaded the free play. The plan was to simply run this through and ease some of the losses today. We got lucky here and of the $375 in free play cashed out a total of $373.75
Total win/loss for the day -$100
Total comps for the day $590
June 22 – July 16, 2013
Welcome to the trip report for the summer of 2013. It's been almost a year since the last trip and I am really looking forward to this one. Joining me as she has the last few years will be my wife Dee. She is still in recovery mode from some medical issues she has dealt with but that won't stop us from having a great time. As with all of our trips there will be bargain hunting, promo chasing, dining, shows and of course gambling! The Cousins will also be meeting us out there for a week of the trip too and everyone is excited. That's it for the introduction, so let's get started on the report. Vegas, here we come!!
Day 1
Saturday June 22, 2013
We left the house this afternoon to head down to Newark Liberty Airport. I kind of stopped flying out of here a few years ago because of a few reasons. The fares just weren't good, the airlines started charging for luggage and the place is just a zoo. To get there I used the old play I used to use a few years ago of renting a car from the local airport. Originally I booked back in early May for a base price of $71. A few weeks ago the rates dropped and I got a full sized car for a base rate of $44. I picked up the car yesterday after work and they assigned me a Mazda CX9 with 11,000 miles on it in like new condition.
On the way to Newark we stopped off for an early lunch at Steak and Shake in Paramus Park. We both got a burger with fries and then we were on our way.
Traffic on 17 was slow until the 17 – 4 interchange like it always is. I gassed up the car just before the Meadowlands and headed for the NJ Turnpike. This was a mess due to some construction. They had miles of road closed for 100 feet of work and as always people waited until the last second to merge over.
We rolled into Newark and dropped the car off at Avis. Things were ok here but the return guy said his computer was broken so I had to go wait in line inside to get my return completed? Really? A billion dollar operation and they've only got 1 hand held? WTF? I went inside to finish the return and then we hopped on the monorail to the terminal. As expected, it was a zoo over here. This makes me wish we were in Albany flying Southwest. We finally got checked in and dropped off the one suitcase we had for the bargain rate of $25. I despise that the airlines started charging for luggage and despise even more that the public didn't revolt when they started doing it. Fortunately for us, we packed light and the tickets were booked using frequent flier miles so the luggage fee and the security tax was all we had to pay for. I've been sitting on these miles for years from when I actually used to fly Continental. A few years ago I also signed up for the Continental Airlines credit card and it came with 50,000 miles. Those are what we are using today. Since then Continental merged with United and that's who today’s' flight is with. These tickets were booked back in January and a few weeks ago the flight I booked was canceled and we were moved to an earlier flight. The only issue was we lost the seats I reserved. I went online and tried to pick seats but there were none together except in the back row next to 2 bathrooms. That was not going to happen. I called and got that straightened out.
Once we were checked in it was off to the zoo known as security. Things here were effed up. I tried to go to the wheelchair line but it was closed. I asked the agent were she wanted me to go and I had no problem going into the general line as it was very short. Instead she had another agent take us in circles who was lost and then a 3rd agent. Finally a 4th guy sent us through after we twirled around in circles for 10 minutes. I could have been through security already if I just got into the regular line. Security was easy and after they searched Dee we headed to the gate.
While we were at the gate they announced they needed 2 seats and offered $400 each for compensation plus meals and a flight on the 7:20pm flight. We decided to take it and just as the agent was about to complete the deal, they realized they didn't need the seats. This was good and bad. We were out $800 in vouchers but we didn't have to hang out in the terminal for the next 4 hours. They did let us keep the food coupons though so we ran to Famous Famiglia and got some pizza. This place like most airport food is a rip. 4 slices, 2 Gatorades and 5 garlic knots was $30. Yes, that says thirty dollars.
This is flight 1293, non stop to Las Vegas. We were scheduled to depart at 3:20pm and arrive at 5:58pm. The captain came on and told us we'd be flying for 4 hours and 40 minutes. The flight was pretty smooth except for a few pockets along the way. One thing that really disgusts me about United is everything has a price. You don't even get a pack of peanuts or pretzels from these clowns anymore. All we got was a cup of soda. I was glad to have had that pizza now!
I really hate this flight but we were finally on our initial descent. We touched down 20 minutes early and taxied to the terminal. From here we headed to baggage claim. I didn't realize that we were supposed to go to terminal 3 to get our bags and took my normal route to terminal 1 only to find out that we were in the wrong place. A nice airport employee helped get us to the shuttle to terminal 3 where the suitcase was waiting for us.
Next up was the rental car shuttle. For this trip the car rates were very high. I originally got base rates in the area of $900. It was actually going to be cheaper to take a cab to the hotel the first night and pick up the car at one of the hotels. I checked the rates daily and finally got lucky scoring a premium for a base of $389 after a 10% discount from What's On Magazine. The premium car was actually cheaper than the smaller cars. When we arrived they had our car and paperwork all set. We are assigned a Nissan Maxima with only 2,700 miles on it. I gave it a quick look over and loaded up. We were on our way!
First stop was over at the 99¢ Only Store and then CVS for some survival items. Then it was over to the Gold Coast. This room was booked on a mail offer good for 2 nights, $50 free play per day and $50 food per day. We really only needed one night to start the trip but I booked both nights in order to get the perks.
When we arrived checking in was fast and we were off to handicap room 633. This room has 2 queen beds, nightstands, dresser, flat screen TV, and work desk. There is a view of Palms and the South Strip. The bathroom is handicap equipped with a roll in shower.
Once we dropped our bags in the room we headed downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat at Noodle Exchange. I got Cashew Chicken and Dee got a Noodle Bowl and some Firecracker Shrimp Rolls.. The service was slow tonight and the food was great.
While we waited for the food I stopped at the slot club to activate the free play. They added both days on at once so it would all be available tonight. After we ate we hit the triple plays. I loaded my free play and Dee used cash. Neither of us hit much of anything and we hit no quads. We played for about 30 minutes and I lost my free play and Dee lost her $100 so we're already down for the trip.
We finally got to bed around midnight Las Vegas time so it was 3am our time. It's been a long night, so goodnight everybody.
Total win/loss for the day -$100
Total comps for the day $339
Day 2
Sunday June 23, 2013
We were up early today and started with some food from Java Coast in the room. I got a muffin and a fruit plate that we shared. Dee watched Joel Osteen on TV while I typed this report. Now we're going to go to the pool and the fitness center for a while! I'm not much of a gym guy but the exercise is part of Dee's regimen to recovery so it's important that we get her the exercise she needs.
When we were done at the pool we got cleaned up and then went to lunch at Noodle Exchange. Today we both ordered our favorite lunch special of lemon chicken. This came with some nasty looking soup that Dee ate but I refused. You also get a spring roll and fried rice all for $6.99.
Next up we hit the triple plays. I scored a set of aces early on and had a few other quads. Dee hit a few quads too but the dealt winners weren't there. We did get a good amount of play in with me cashing out even and Dee down just $50.
We went up to the room, grabbed our stuff and headed out. I made a quick stop at Target to grab a few more items that we missed last night and then it was onward to the Silverton. We'd be checking in for the next 3 nights. I booked this room through a mail offer of 3 complimentary nights and $75 in free play. Checking in here has always been pretty simple and today was the same.
We were given room 1088. This is a handicap room with 2 queen beds. There is also a nightstand, dresser, and work desk. The bathroom is standard although a bit larger with safety bars around the toilet and in the tub. There is a view of the trees that surround the pool but there typically aren't any good views here anyway. This room is also on the first floor so we don't have to screw with elevators!
We got our things set up in the room and then it was time for some casino action! Today we chose to play the nickel 100 play video poker. These are a lot of fun and one of Dee's favorite games. We blew through quite a bit of cash here at first and I switched over to just 50 hands. Things leveled off a bit but the dealt winners weren't as plentiful as they needed to be. As soon as I switched over I got dealt a full house that got me back into the game. Shortly after I scored dealt quad 4's for a nice 10,000 coin win. Dee got lucky and on a 3 card hold scored a royal for $200 on line 10. By the time we were finished we cycled quite a bit of action through the machines and only dropped about $200.
I activated my $75 free play and decided to just run it through a $1 machine. I played just 15 hands to churn it through and ended with exactly $75! It's not too often I can actually do this. That helped offset some of the loss from the 50/100 plays games.
For a late dinner we went to Sundance Grill. Dee got her favorite, Joe's shuffle and I got biscuits and gravy with eggs. All was good and we decided to pack it in for the night and headed to the room.
Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $287
Day 3
Monday June 24, 2013
I was up early this morning and ran over to Starbucks to get Dee a coffee and a small breakfast to munch on for both of us. I was still kind of full from last night.
We started off the day with some time at the pool. Oddly the weather so far this trip is not typical with temperatures not even hitting 100. Today's high is only supposed to be 93.
We headed to the car and then it was down to the Four Queens. We parked in the garage and then off to the front desk to check in. We didn't need the room here but we planned a day of gaming action here so figured it would be nice to have the room to take a break in. This offer is for 2 nights, $40 free play and $20 in non-negotiable gaming chips. I booked both nights pretty much because I could. I don't think I've ever seen more than 2 people checking in here at one time and today was the same. Everything was in order and we were given room 1025. This is a handicap room with 2 queen beds, nightstand, desk, dresser and flat screen TV. There is a view of the Golden Nugget and part of Fremont Street. The bathroom is standard with safety bars and is large in size.
Once we checked out the room it was down to the casino and the player's club to get Dee a card. While she has an old account with her previous name, she doesn't have one in our name so is going to sign up as a new member. This week they are giving $10 free play to new members that earn 10 points and a T-shirt to those that earn 50. You also get a deck of cards for signing up. We've also got a coupon from the American Casino Guide for 2X points up to 500.
Now that Dee was armed with her new card it was off to the video poker machines. Today we chose to play the 9/6 jacks or better machines. We started with quarters and almost immediately Dee hit a quad. She continued to hit quads quite often and never looked back. I wasn’t as lucky at first and couldn't seem to hit much. I scored a few quads and got back in it and then had the meter up and down. I eventually lost my $100 and switched to halves. I hit a quad right away and got back into it followed by numerous full houses. We continued to plug away and Dee continued to grow her meter. While we were playing a host actually came to Dee at her machine, thanked her for signing up, said her play was very good and handed her a $20 comp to Magnolia's. After about 5 hours we finally reached a quitting point with me being down $100 and Dee being up $200. Yes, She won $200 playing quarter jacks or better over 5 hours. I was impressed.
After we cashed out we went back to the player's club and got Dee her $10 free play and T shirt. She also turned in her 2X point coupon from the ACG and the supervisor credited those right away and offered to cash out her points which she did for $40.
For dinner we took the comp to Magnolia's Veranda. This is one of our favorite restaurants although we don't get here very often. Dee got spaghetti and meatballs and I got the hot open turkey sandwich. Both of our meals were good but I thought the sandwich was lacking without a vegetable, or even a garnish on the plate. We topped off the meal by splitting a piece of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.
After dinner we ran Dee's free play through a slot and she cashed out $10.08 and I ran mine through at VP and cashed out with $30.
I also had the $20 in non-negotiable chips to play so we hit the roulette wheel and played them one at a time on black. These chips are one time use only so they don't go as far as they could. I won twice and lost twice so I was able to turn them into $10 in cash.
It was getting late so we headed back to the Silverton for the night. Since there was no hurry to get back we took a drive down the Strip. It was amazing the amount of changes that have taken place since the last time we drove down here. Last year when we were in town we didn't drive on the strip at all with exception of going from the Riviera to Sahara.
We got back to the Silverton around 9pm and took it easy in the room for the rest of the night. Dee read her book and I watched WWE Monday Night Raw on TV.
Total win/loss for the day $200
Total comps for the day $213
Day 4
Tuesday June 25, 2013
We got up today and started off with breakfast in the room. I went over to the Sundance Grill and grabbed a big Stack Breakfast. It's 3 pancakes, 2 bacon strips, 2 sausage patties and eggs. This was plenty for both of us to share.
We skipped the pool and gym today but Dee did her exercises in the room. After she got a quick workout in, we got cleaned up and ready for our day.
Once we were ready we hit the casino and stopped at the slot club to get Dee a new card. The same deal that applied yesterday at the Four Queens also applies here. We're getting Dee a fresh new card and taking advantage of the sign up bonus. Today's offer was a free buffet for earning 50 points and a free Silverton draw string bag just for signing up. I think we'd have that covered in a few minutes.
Once Dee had her cards we hit the 100 play machines again that we played the other day. We did quite well on these this session with Dee scoring a royal 2 different times. She also scored some nice dealt winners. I was hovering close to even for most of the session with a small spike that quickly dwindled. I didn't get nearly as many dealt winners as Dee did. By the end of the session Dee was up $300 and I was up $3!
When we cashed out we stopped at the player's club and got Dee's free buffet coupon and had her $20 free play added to her card from the promo they were running today for $5 in free play for every 250 points up to $20. We also swung by the host office and got another buffet slip based on her play.
We took a short break and then hit the buffet for dinner. It was slow in here tonight but the foods were really good and everything was fresh. We of course ate too much and came back up to the room to rest for a while before going back to the casino.
We wanted to play the 100 plays again but they were being used so opted for the 10 play quarter games instead. We didn't do well on these at all dropping $300 between us in very short order. The 100 plays were opened up so we parked at these for a while. We did a little better than on the 10 plays and got quite a bit of play. At the end I dropped just $100 and Dee broke even. While it wasn't as good a session as it was earlier we still ran another 10k through the machines tonight.
Dee still had her $20 free play from earlier to use and wanted to try it in a one of her favorite slots. She actually got the meter up into the $50 range and cashed out at $30. I took her ticket to the craps machine. This is the type of machine where the dice bounce around like the old pop-o-matic like the game Trouble used to use. I sat here for a while losing $10 and then we played another penny slot of Dee's choice. She hit a few bonus rounds and had a few big hits here and turned the $20 ticket into $50 and we quit for the night.
While we didn’t win today we did run a lot of coin through the machines today. Hopefully Dee gets some nice offers in the near future from all this action.
We came back to the room and took it easy for the night and packed up most of our stuff for tomorrow's move then, we went to sleep.
Total win/loss for the day -$50
Total comps for the day $130
Day 5
Wednesday June 26, 2013
Today I started off the day grabbing a quick breakfast snack at Starbucks where I think I totally effed up. I accidentally used Dee's card. They even checked my ID and must have only looked at the last name. I sure hope I didn’t just get her a zero play day and dilute her huge day yesterday.
After we ate, we packed up the rest of our stuff and headed out fairly early. Today is the day that the cousins are arriving. Their flight is scheduled to land at 10:27am in Terminal 3. I had no idea where to go to get to terminal 3 but I figured it out. Their flight landed a few minutes early and we met them at baggage claim. We grabbed their things and then it was off to the car.
We took a drive out to Henderson and went to Fiesta Henderson for lunch at their new Cafe Fiesta. I'm glad to see they got a cafe back and got Denny's the eff out of there! Dee got a turkey club with fries and I got the ultimate grilled cheese. The food was good and I was glad they have a cafe again.
When we finished lunch it was onto 95 and off to Laughlin. The ride went quickly since the 4 of us were talking the whole drive but it was pretty windy. We arrived at the Aquarius in just about 2pm. We self parked and checked in at VIP services. I booked these rooms though our host and she comped both rooms for all 5 nights. Meals at the cafe and buffet are also covered. I had $225 in free play from a mailer, and Dee got $50 free play for her birthday. We also got $50 each for our anniversary for a total of $375. In just a few minutes we were on our way to room 10104. This is a handicap room with a partial river view and partial mountain view. It's got a 2 queen beds, a nightstand, dining table, dresser, and 32" TV. The bathroom is standard with some extra space and bars. The cousins got room 6106 which is identical except for the handicap stuff.
We got settled in and took a break and then hit the casino. We chose to play the triple/five and ten plays this afternoon. Things weren’t that good for me with few dealt winners, few quads and lots of hands with no payout. Dee was up and down and switched to five play. On a key hand she was dealt a flush with 4 to a royal. She dumped the odd card and nailed a royal on line 3 for her 4th royal of the trip. This saved us a bit but we were already so far in that it just kept us above water. I was dealt a similar hand a few minutes later but I don't have Dee's luck and didn't even get a payout.
For dinner we all went to the buffet. I've said it before and I'll say it again that this buffet is very overpriced for the selection and quality of the foods and they should be embarrassed about the price.
After dinner we took a walk to the Riverside to work off some of the food we just ate and the girls checked out some rings a Ring-o-Rama and then we went to the watchman.
We came back to the Aquarius and the cousins called it a night as they were still on east coast time. Me and Dee took a break for a while and then returned to the casino. We played more triple, five and ten play which turned out to be a mistake. We couldn't hit a thing with very few quads and I didn't get a dealt hand better than three of a kind. Dee hit a set of aces but it was too little too late. At the end of this session we were actually down for the day even with Dee's royal included.
We moved over to some single line 9/6 jacks or better and downloaded the free play. The plan was to simply run this through and ease some of the losses today. We got lucky here and of the $375 in free play cashed out a total of $373.75
Total win/loss for the day -$100
Total comps for the day $590
