Summer 2012 – Day 16
Main Street Station has a nice casino, and the hotel is admittedly old but for $39 per night, it’s a good deal. There are some drawbacks: on one side you get the sound of the freeway, which is just outside your window and on the other side (facing downtown where I’m at) there’s the trains that run during the night and the seemingly non-stop sirens. With all of this, I was still able to get about six hours of sleep. I got up at 4:30 and wrote the trip report and drove out to a Starbucks to send it in. I had a small breakfast at a Burger King and hung out for a while reading and just kicking back. I was going to be meeting Terry and Louise back at the hotel at 10 AM, so I headed back and played a Spartacus machine and the progressive Joker’s Wild machine until they arrived—no wins.
After meeting up with them, we drove out to the Tropicana where Terry had a $100 in free play waiting for him when he took advantage of a promotion for first time card holders that if you lost $200, you’d get $100 free play that same day and another $100 upon a return trip. This was to be his return trip. We parked at New York New York as the Tropicana doesn’t have very much garage parking, plus getting in and out of NY/NY is easy and convenient.
Looking out at the Strip from the NY NY pedestrian bridge...105+ today...whew!
We walked through NY/NY taking a picture of the casino floor and a Jelly Belly Statue of Liberty. As nice as this place is, it’s pretty much on the lower end of the MGM group of hotels. The Coyote Ugly bar is still there, but the ESPNZone is gone. The Sportsbook has been expanded some but the real appeal here is the walk through their restaurant row, which is made up to look like typical streets of New York.
Casino floor of New York New York
Now that's a lot of Jelly Bellys
We took the pedestrian bridge passing one “possibly” handicapped panhandler and another 20-something dude holding a sign reading, “Why Lie?—Need Weed.” (What a moron). There was a detour down the escalator because the MGM is constructing an addition. It appears they’re going to add some more retail stores right up to the sidewalk, but we weren’t sure. We made a turn and then took the other pedestrian bridge to the Tropicana. I’ve talked about this last year, but I’d like to repeat how much I like how well they’ve remodeled this place. It’s all white and very modern. The designers hit a homerun here. On the bad side is that their machines are tight and the video poker schedules are scandalous: 7/5 Jacks, and 6/5 Bonus. However, we found that the first bank of machines you come to after walking from the Sportsbook (also a must-see), the schedules for quarter play bonus is 7/5 with progressives on all the different quads as well as the Royal.
The Tropicana Hotel
Terry went to the promotion booth and had his $100 free play loaded and Louise signed up for a new card (the promotion has changed where now if you lose $200, you get $50 free play now and $50 upon a return visit). Of course, we played at the bank of machines I just mentioned. All three of us sat together playing 7/5 Bonus. Everyone was doing poorly when I held three Aces and caught the fourth for a nice $130+ win (the progressive). Not long after that I hit quad 9s for another progressive of $55+. Finally, I’m having a decent day at VP. Louise and Terry, on the other hand were getting squat. Louise lost her hundred, and Terry having already lost the $100 free play was already in his next hundred. I went into a long cold streak and cashed out $75 up and walked over to a favorite penguin penny machine, hit a bonus, and cashed out another $12 profit.
Terry wanted to play more (his so-called revenge trip wasn’t working out as he planned), so Louise and I took a tour of the place. She picked up a coffee at the Starbucks outlet, and then we visited the theater where Dancing with the Stars is currently playing. We then walked through the beautiful registration area before returning to Terry who finally caught a quad and cashed out $10 ahead.
Beautiful Registration area at the Trop
We walked back to over to the MGM and decided to take a look around for anything new. What we found was that the Lion Exhibit has been taken out replaced by a “demo” room for the hotel. Also gone is the poker room that has been moved down the hall. The entire entrance is being changed but it’s difficult to see what they’re doing. We walked all the way back to the CBS store. There’s no doubt we got our exercise for the day as this is a long trip. The restaurants are absolutely beautiful, but the prices are over the moon (porterhouse steak at The Steakhouse was $92). We played a few games and finally walked back to NY/NY to pick up the car.
We drove back to the 4 Queens to have a late lunch of my favorite pizza at the Chicago Brewery. Terry still had some comps left to use, and we ordered the all-meat thin crust, finished that off, and then ordered another one. We couldn’t put that one away, so we packed up the rest and I have something to snack on tomorrow (thanks Terry!). We said our goodbyes. I’ll be picking them up early tomorrow to drive them to the airport as they’re heading for Hawaii for a wedding then returning here next Saturday.
I still hadn’t check into my next place, so I headed out to Paradise Rd. to where my next stop, the Candlewood Suites are located. I’ve never stayed here though I’ve passed it dozens of times as it’s located directly across the street from the Starbucks on Paradise and just a few yards to Terribles Casino. I’m staying here because I used up all my weekend comps this month and I’m a member of the Holiday Inn Express club, and this is a sister property. The rooms are $90 per night (not bad for a weekend) but I get a $75 VISA card rebate when I mail in the receipt (yep, always looking for the bargain). I chose a room on the fourth floor so as to not have anyone above me. The room is not a real suite, but it’s a terrific room nonetheless. As you can see in the picture, there’s a full kitchenette along with the bed, and a very large working station. There’s also a leather recliner and a good size bathroom. In the kitchen are plenty of plates and utensils, a coffee maker with coffee, and a microwave with a package of microwave popcorn ready to be cooked up.
The Candelwood Suites on Paradise
The bed in the room
The work station with the kitchenette in the background
entrance with TV in the corner
What’s a little different about the place is that it’s what’s known as an Extended Stay Hotel, which means that maid service is only once per week, but you can always get anything you need from the front desk. There’s also a laundry room on each floor, a gym, and a pool. Also what’s interesting is that there is a small store which is based on the honor system. The groceries are very reasonably priced (cans of soda $.50 and remember the $3.75 orange juice at the Las Vegas Hotel gift shop I raged about? The same bottle is here for $1.50), with plenty of frozen items. You take what you want and drop your money into a slot or fill out a form to be billed to your room. There’s no need for an ice machine as all the refrigerators have ice makers in them. I do have one complaint about the room—the bed is a little too firm for my liking, but that’s a small quibble. The TV has all the extended channels included free HBO and the WI-FI here is free as well. This is an excellent bargain play if you have no other hotel comps.
After checking in and the BIG lunch, I honestly didn’t feel like going anywhere else today, so I got myself comfortable, put on the TV and called it a day.
More tomorrow
Main Street Station has a nice casino, and the hotel is admittedly old but for $39 per night, it’s a good deal. There are some drawbacks: on one side you get the sound of the freeway, which is just outside your window and on the other side (facing downtown where I’m at) there’s the trains that run during the night and the seemingly non-stop sirens. With all of this, I was still able to get about six hours of sleep. I got up at 4:30 and wrote the trip report and drove out to a Starbucks to send it in. I had a small breakfast at a Burger King and hung out for a while reading and just kicking back. I was going to be meeting Terry and Louise back at the hotel at 10 AM, so I headed back and played a Spartacus machine and the progressive Joker’s Wild machine until they arrived—no wins.
After meeting up with them, we drove out to the Tropicana where Terry had a $100 in free play waiting for him when he took advantage of a promotion for first time card holders that if you lost $200, you’d get $100 free play that same day and another $100 upon a return trip. This was to be his return trip. We parked at New York New York as the Tropicana doesn’t have very much garage parking, plus getting in and out of NY/NY is easy and convenient.
Looking out at the Strip from the NY NY pedestrian bridge...105+ today...whew!
We walked through NY/NY taking a picture of the casino floor and a Jelly Belly Statue of Liberty. As nice as this place is, it’s pretty much on the lower end of the MGM group of hotels. The Coyote Ugly bar is still there, but the ESPNZone is gone. The Sportsbook has been expanded some but the real appeal here is the walk through their restaurant row, which is made up to look like typical streets of New York.
Casino floor of New York New York
Now that's a lot of Jelly Bellys
We took the pedestrian bridge passing one “possibly” handicapped panhandler and another 20-something dude holding a sign reading, “Why Lie?—Need Weed.” (What a moron). There was a detour down the escalator because the MGM is constructing an addition. It appears they’re going to add some more retail stores right up to the sidewalk, but we weren’t sure. We made a turn and then took the other pedestrian bridge to the Tropicana. I’ve talked about this last year, but I’d like to repeat how much I like how well they’ve remodeled this place. It’s all white and very modern. The designers hit a homerun here. On the bad side is that their machines are tight and the video poker schedules are scandalous: 7/5 Jacks, and 6/5 Bonus. However, we found that the first bank of machines you come to after walking from the Sportsbook (also a must-see), the schedules for quarter play bonus is 7/5 with progressives on all the different quads as well as the Royal.
The Tropicana Hotel
Terry went to the promotion booth and had his $100 free play loaded and Louise signed up for a new card (the promotion has changed where now if you lose $200, you get $50 free play now and $50 upon a return visit). Of course, we played at the bank of machines I just mentioned. All three of us sat together playing 7/5 Bonus. Everyone was doing poorly when I held three Aces and caught the fourth for a nice $130+ win (the progressive). Not long after that I hit quad 9s for another progressive of $55+. Finally, I’m having a decent day at VP. Louise and Terry, on the other hand were getting squat. Louise lost her hundred, and Terry having already lost the $100 free play was already in his next hundred. I went into a long cold streak and cashed out $75 up and walked over to a favorite penguin penny machine, hit a bonus, and cashed out another $12 profit.
Terry wanted to play more (his so-called revenge trip wasn’t working out as he planned), so Louise and I took a tour of the place. She picked up a coffee at the Starbucks outlet, and then we visited the theater where Dancing with the Stars is currently playing. We then walked through the beautiful registration area before returning to Terry who finally caught a quad and cashed out $10 ahead.
Beautiful Registration area at the Trop
We walked back to over to the MGM and decided to take a look around for anything new. What we found was that the Lion Exhibit has been taken out replaced by a “demo” room for the hotel. Also gone is the poker room that has been moved down the hall. The entire entrance is being changed but it’s difficult to see what they’re doing. We walked all the way back to the CBS store. There’s no doubt we got our exercise for the day as this is a long trip. The restaurants are absolutely beautiful, but the prices are over the moon (porterhouse steak at The Steakhouse was $92). We played a few games and finally walked back to NY/NY to pick up the car.
We drove back to the 4 Queens to have a late lunch of my favorite pizza at the Chicago Brewery. Terry still had some comps left to use, and we ordered the all-meat thin crust, finished that off, and then ordered another one. We couldn’t put that one away, so we packed up the rest and I have something to snack on tomorrow (thanks Terry!). We said our goodbyes. I’ll be picking them up early tomorrow to drive them to the airport as they’re heading for Hawaii for a wedding then returning here next Saturday.
I still hadn’t check into my next place, so I headed out to Paradise Rd. to where my next stop, the Candlewood Suites are located. I’ve never stayed here though I’ve passed it dozens of times as it’s located directly across the street from the Starbucks on Paradise and just a few yards to Terribles Casino. I’m staying here because I used up all my weekend comps this month and I’m a member of the Holiday Inn Express club, and this is a sister property. The rooms are $90 per night (not bad for a weekend) but I get a $75 VISA card rebate when I mail in the receipt (yep, always looking for the bargain). I chose a room on the fourth floor so as to not have anyone above me. The room is not a real suite, but it’s a terrific room nonetheless. As you can see in the picture, there’s a full kitchenette along with the bed, and a very large working station. There’s also a leather recliner and a good size bathroom. In the kitchen are plenty of plates and utensils, a coffee maker with coffee, and a microwave with a package of microwave popcorn ready to be cooked up.
The Candelwood Suites on Paradise
The bed in the room
The work station with the kitchenette in the background
entrance with TV in the corner
What’s a little different about the place is that it’s what’s known as an Extended Stay Hotel, which means that maid service is only once per week, but you can always get anything you need from the front desk. There’s also a laundry room on each floor, a gym, and a pool. Also what’s interesting is that there is a small store which is based on the honor system. The groceries are very reasonably priced (cans of soda $.50 and remember the $3.75 orange juice at the Las Vegas Hotel gift shop I raged about? The same bottle is here for $1.50), with plenty of frozen items. You take what you want and drop your money into a slot or fill out a form to be billed to your room. There’s no need for an ice machine as all the refrigerators have ice makers in them. I do have one complaint about the room—the bed is a little too firm for my liking, but that’s a small quibble. The TV has all the extended channels included free HBO and the WI-FI here is free as well. This is an excellent bargain play if you have no other hotel comps.
After checking in and the BIG lunch, I honestly didn’t feel like going anywhere else today, so I got myself comfortable, put on the TV and called it a day.
More tomorrow
