Summer 2012 – Day 25
Familiar theme: it’s moving day. I finished up my trip report and checked out of Sam’s Town. I briefly thought of going back in to take another shot at the 9/6 Jacks progressive, but reminded myself that I’ll be right back again next weekend.
After getting the trip report finished, I headed over to Palms. Many of the ECLVA folks were going to have brunch at Gardunos Mexican Restaurant at 11:30. I was there an hour early, so I sat down at the 50-play 9/6 Jacks. It appeared to be a good session approaching because my second hand dealt was four-to-the-royal. I held my breath and was a little disappointed to have only caught one royal—but that makes six 2-cent royals for the trip. I cashed out and put in another hundred. Once again I went into a long drought of not getting dealt any three-of-a-kinds. I became frustrated with this and moved over to a different machine. I was dealt three-to-a-royal and not giving it much thought because you get these dealt to all the time, I was surprised to have caught another 2-cent royal—number 7 for the trip. The $80 win helped me continue to play for the entire hour that I was waiting to meet the group. I was once again dealt four-to-the-royal, but this time, I didn’t catch any. I then went into a funk, and finally cashed out $100 profit for the session.
Though the Palms wasn’t giving away any point swag today (Sunday), they did have a swipe promotion for small logo items and discounts. I swiped and was given a 5 dollar discount at any Palms restaurant. I waited at the entrance of Gardunos and no one showed up. I checked my phone for any missed messages and there were none. Finally at 11:45, Catherine (Bigfuss) and Paul (Tennis Bum) came and told me that they got a call from Bob and Harv saying had just woken after a long night at the machines and to start without them. It appeared no one else was showing up either, so the three of us went in. I had not yet used my 50% off LVA coupon for the Palms and used it here along with the $5 discount from the swipe promotion. Our $55 total was now down to just $21. A great deal for three.
The brunch, which I didn’t even know existed, was excellent. There were bottomless margaritas, and two cooking stations, one with the traditional omelets and another the other made custom ordered waffles. There were also an array of the usual breakfast items but there were also unlimited enchiladas, tacos, and quesadillas with a salsa bar and guacamole. It was an awesome brunch.
One of two custom cooking stations
Paul's waffle made with chucks of chocolate covered in caramel and topped with whipped cream
You can eat out on the patio at the pool of the Palms if you prefer
We were more than half finished when Harve and Bob showed up. For the next hour we sat and chatted. Everyone was sharing their Jeanne Marie (noahcat) stories. She isn’t with us this trip recuperating from an earlier surgery. She is missed and hope she’s knows just how much she is loved by all of us on this board. By the way, JM, Catherine dropped the good luck glitter into the toilet—but I’ll let her share that story to you. All the good folks from the East Coast Las Vegas Advisor group are amazing, friendly people and I’m very glad to know all of them and always look forward to our yearly meet.
Harv, Catherine, Paul, and Bob part of the ECVLA elite.
I had two hotels to check into today, Ballys and the Suncoast, each on the opposite side of town. First I went to Ballys as I was happy to find on the offers calendar that they gave me three nights. I requested and was given a room on the Diamond floor. I’m giving this room over to a couple of ex-students, Katrinna and Brianna who are coming in tonight at around 10 PM.
The view from the room at Ballys
I then drove to Summerlin where and booked my room in the Suncoast where I’ll be staying for one night. After putting my bag in the room and I went downstairs. There is a bank of 5-play nickel machines here on a progressive for each royal and a progressive if you’re dealt a royal. All the royals on the individual games were in the low $200 range, but the dealt royal progressive was at whopping $11,435! I have been dealt a few royals in my time, so it’s not impossible. Needless to say, all the machine seat were full; however, just as I walked by, a man left so I grabbed his seat and put in a hundred and played the best game on this group of machines, which is 6/5 Super Aces. It’s not a great schedule, but I’m having a rare trip this time around hitting quad Aces, which I normally have terrible luck. It looked really, really bad at first as I couldn’t catch any quad of any kind. I had almost lost my entire $100 when I finally hit a quad on game 4—quad Aces having held only one. That pays $100. I suddenly have all money back. I kept playing for a while and the quads started to loosen up. Having gone up a good amount and then going into a drought, I finally cashed out with my hundred breaking even for the session. The dealt royal will have to wait until I return here next week for another single night stay.
The room at the Suncoast
Great view of the golf course from my all window wall in my room at the Suncoast
I drove back to the Strip because I received a text from Natalie (now a senior at UCLA), another former student and actress of mine who said she and four others from her class were on their way in to Vegas for a 21st birthday celebration and would I like to meet up with them. I once again parked at Bill’s and texted where they were—the last I had heard they were at Barstow. This time, the text read they were in their PJs in the room and would be having dinner with the Renee’s parents (the birthday girl). What? Now I’m completely confused. How did they get from Barstow to their room, into their PJs within an hour? I shrugged my shoulders, wrote to her to wish a happy birthday to Renee. That was the last I heard from them. Odd.
Okay, so now I’m suddenly here on the Strip waiting for the girls to arrive and they’re not expected for another four hours. I played some quarter triple play at Ballys, which was a mistake. I then thought I might walk the Strip for a while to see what’s new and to eat up some time. I walked down to the strange Hawaiian Trading Post, which is really just a bunch of kiosks made of faux-straw selling knick-knacks and tourist souvenirs. An interesting thing was done when they built the pedestrian walkway from Planet Hollywood across Harmon to the Harley Davidson Café. Like all of the pedestrian bridges along the strip (and there are now many) you have to go up an escalator to get to the bridge, but at the top of this one is a group of stores and a couple of small restaurants you have to pass in order to get on the bridge. They’re not part of Planet Hollywood as far as I can tell and are just there for nothing other than the people who are crossing the bridge. I’ve never seen this before. I thought about the people who worked in the small Mexican restaurant there knowing that they work at bridge crossing, no doubt a long sought-after dream come true.
I walked down to the MGM Grand to see if they got any further on their remodeling of the old poker room area, but nothing seems to have progressed. I made my way across the bridge to NYNY and then walked through the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino. This place remains a bit of an enigma to me. It seems to have been lost being sandwiched between NYNY and the now gargantuan Center City complex. However, this place, on this Sunday night, was buzzing. There were a lot of people gambling and all the restaurants seemed full. Even the beer pub in the back was standing room only. I made my way to the tram which is a free air-conditioned ride to Aria, Vdara, and the Bellagio. I rode it to Bellagio and as I walked through the casino, I found my earlier visit suspicion here was true. They were installing new carpet as this time around the one side that was closed was now open and the side I walked through before was now closed. It must cost a fortune to change a carpet in a place this size.
View of the Aria from the Tram stop
The center piece at the chocolate shop in the Bellagio
I made my way back to Ballys after watching a water show in the front of the Bellagio along with the thousands of others taking lining the walkway and pedestrian bridges enjoying the show and taking pictures. Though 15 years old, this remains one of the iconic attractions in Las Vegas. I was back in Bally’s and called the girls. They were frustrated because they hit construction between Baker and Las Vegas and at times were at a stand-still. They would be about an hour longer. Great! Another night of staying up past midnight for me—three in a row. I suppose I’ll just to adjust. One good thing, though my “dogs” are screaming, I am getting plenty of exercise this trip. I’m walking everywhere—if only I could get the don’t overeat thing down, I’d be in good shape.
The girls finally made it. I showed them to their room and they began to unpack. They’re staying for two days—they brought enough clothes for a month. I showed them around Ballys and the Paris and we then walked across the street to Planet Hollywood so I could show them where the Holly Madison show was located. I got them tickets to see the show. Katrinna is a huge fan of Holly Madison and when she heard the show was closing in December she was afraid she’d never get a chance to see it. The reason I got the room and the show tickets for Katrinna (other than the fact that I’m a really nice guy) is that a few weeks before my final production of the female version of THE ODD COUPLE was to open, I had to fire the main character (that’s another story). It looked like the show wouldn’t be able to continue and the rest of the cast was going to be robbed out of the last production of the year (including some seniors). However, I called and asked Katrinna, who graduated a couple of years ago and now working as a TA at one of our elementary schools, if she’d consider coming in and saving the production. It would mean learning hundreds of lines and all the blocking in just a few weeks. She agreed and the show went on as scheduled. She saved my show and did a great job in the character of Olive. So, in return, I got her the room and the show as a thank you. She brought along her best friend, Brianna (also my assistant director many of my shows a couple of years ago).
Katrinna on the left as Olive from out production of THE ODD COUPLE (female version)
The all-important unpacking of a week's worth of clothes (there's more not in the picture)
Brianna and Katrinna ready for tomorrow's performance of Holly Madison and the Peep Show
We made our way back to Ballys. It was now midnight, and I still had to drive back to Summerlin. So, we said our goodbyes. The bed in my room at the Suncoast looked SO good and I was a goner in no time.
More tomorrow
Familiar theme: it’s moving day. I finished up my trip report and checked out of Sam’s Town. I briefly thought of going back in to take another shot at the 9/6 Jacks progressive, but reminded myself that I’ll be right back again next weekend.
After getting the trip report finished, I headed over to Palms. Many of the ECLVA folks were going to have brunch at Gardunos Mexican Restaurant at 11:30. I was there an hour early, so I sat down at the 50-play 9/6 Jacks. It appeared to be a good session approaching because my second hand dealt was four-to-the-royal. I held my breath and was a little disappointed to have only caught one royal—but that makes six 2-cent royals for the trip. I cashed out and put in another hundred. Once again I went into a long drought of not getting dealt any three-of-a-kinds. I became frustrated with this and moved over to a different machine. I was dealt three-to-a-royal and not giving it much thought because you get these dealt to all the time, I was surprised to have caught another 2-cent royal—number 7 for the trip. The $80 win helped me continue to play for the entire hour that I was waiting to meet the group. I was once again dealt four-to-the-royal, but this time, I didn’t catch any. I then went into a funk, and finally cashed out $100 profit for the session.
Though the Palms wasn’t giving away any point swag today (Sunday), they did have a swipe promotion for small logo items and discounts. I swiped and was given a 5 dollar discount at any Palms restaurant. I waited at the entrance of Gardunos and no one showed up. I checked my phone for any missed messages and there were none. Finally at 11:45, Catherine (Bigfuss) and Paul (Tennis Bum) came and told me that they got a call from Bob and Harv saying had just woken after a long night at the machines and to start without them. It appeared no one else was showing up either, so the three of us went in. I had not yet used my 50% off LVA coupon for the Palms and used it here along with the $5 discount from the swipe promotion. Our $55 total was now down to just $21. A great deal for three.
The brunch, which I didn’t even know existed, was excellent. There were bottomless margaritas, and two cooking stations, one with the traditional omelets and another the other made custom ordered waffles. There were also an array of the usual breakfast items but there were also unlimited enchiladas, tacos, and quesadillas with a salsa bar and guacamole. It was an awesome brunch.
One of two custom cooking stations
Paul's waffle made with chucks of chocolate covered in caramel and topped with whipped cream
You can eat out on the patio at the pool of the Palms if you prefer
We were more than half finished when Harve and Bob showed up. For the next hour we sat and chatted. Everyone was sharing their Jeanne Marie (noahcat) stories. She isn’t with us this trip recuperating from an earlier surgery. She is missed and hope she’s knows just how much she is loved by all of us on this board. By the way, JM, Catherine dropped the good luck glitter into the toilet—but I’ll let her share that story to you. All the good folks from the East Coast Las Vegas Advisor group are amazing, friendly people and I’m very glad to know all of them and always look forward to our yearly meet.
Harv, Catherine, Paul, and Bob part of the ECVLA elite.
I had two hotels to check into today, Ballys and the Suncoast, each on the opposite side of town. First I went to Ballys as I was happy to find on the offers calendar that they gave me three nights. I requested and was given a room on the Diamond floor. I’m giving this room over to a couple of ex-students, Katrinna and Brianna who are coming in tonight at around 10 PM.
The view from the room at Ballys
I then drove to Summerlin where and booked my room in the Suncoast where I’ll be staying for one night. After putting my bag in the room and I went downstairs. There is a bank of 5-play nickel machines here on a progressive for each royal and a progressive if you’re dealt a royal. All the royals on the individual games were in the low $200 range, but the dealt royal progressive was at whopping $11,435! I have been dealt a few royals in my time, so it’s not impossible. Needless to say, all the machine seat were full; however, just as I walked by, a man left so I grabbed his seat and put in a hundred and played the best game on this group of machines, which is 6/5 Super Aces. It’s not a great schedule, but I’m having a rare trip this time around hitting quad Aces, which I normally have terrible luck. It looked really, really bad at first as I couldn’t catch any quad of any kind. I had almost lost my entire $100 when I finally hit a quad on game 4—quad Aces having held only one. That pays $100. I suddenly have all money back. I kept playing for a while and the quads started to loosen up. Having gone up a good amount and then going into a drought, I finally cashed out with my hundred breaking even for the session. The dealt royal will have to wait until I return here next week for another single night stay.
The room at the Suncoast
Great view of the golf course from my all window wall in my room at the Suncoast
I drove back to the Strip because I received a text from Natalie (now a senior at UCLA), another former student and actress of mine who said she and four others from her class were on their way in to Vegas for a 21st birthday celebration and would I like to meet up with them. I once again parked at Bill’s and texted where they were—the last I had heard they were at Barstow. This time, the text read they were in their PJs in the room and would be having dinner with the Renee’s parents (the birthday girl). What? Now I’m completely confused. How did they get from Barstow to their room, into their PJs within an hour? I shrugged my shoulders, wrote to her to wish a happy birthday to Renee. That was the last I heard from them. Odd.
Okay, so now I’m suddenly here on the Strip waiting for the girls to arrive and they’re not expected for another four hours. I played some quarter triple play at Ballys, which was a mistake. I then thought I might walk the Strip for a while to see what’s new and to eat up some time. I walked down to the strange Hawaiian Trading Post, which is really just a bunch of kiosks made of faux-straw selling knick-knacks and tourist souvenirs. An interesting thing was done when they built the pedestrian walkway from Planet Hollywood across Harmon to the Harley Davidson Café. Like all of the pedestrian bridges along the strip (and there are now many) you have to go up an escalator to get to the bridge, but at the top of this one is a group of stores and a couple of small restaurants you have to pass in order to get on the bridge. They’re not part of Planet Hollywood as far as I can tell and are just there for nothing other than the people who are crossing the bridge. I’ve never seen this before. I thought about the people who worked in the small Mexican restaurant there knowing that they work at bridge crossing, no doubt a long sought-after dream come true.
I walked down to the MGM Grand to see if they got any further on their remodeling of the old poker room area, but nothing seems to have progressed. I made my way across the bridge to NYNY and then walked through the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino. This place remains a bit of an enigma to me. It seems to have been lost being sandwiched between NYNY and the now gargantuan Center City complex. However, this place, on this Sunday night, was buzzing. There were a lot of people gambling and all the restaurants seemed full. Even the beer pub in the back was standing room only. I made my way to the tram which is a free air-conditioned ride to Aria, Vdara, and the Bellagio. I rode it to Bellagio and as I walked through the casino, I found my earlier visit suspicion here was true. They were installing new carpet as this time around the one side that was closed was now open and the side I walked through before was now closed. It must cost a fortune to change a carpet in a place this size.
View of the Aria from the Tram stop
The center piece at the chocolate shop in the Bellagio
I made my way back to Ballys after watching a water show in the front of the Bellagio along with the thousands of others taking lining the walkway and pedestrian bridges enjoying the show and taking pictures. Though 15 years old, this remains one of the iconic attractions in Las Vegas. I was back in Bally’s and called the girls. They were frustrated because they hit construction between Baker and Las Vegas and at times were at a stand-still. They would be about an hour longer. Great! Another night of staying up past midnight for me—three in a row. I suppose I’ll just to adjust. One good thing, though my “dogs” are screaming, I am getting plenty of exercise this trip. I’m walking everywhere—if only I could get the don’t overeat thing down, I’d be in good shape.
The girls finally made it. I showed them to their room and they began to unpack. They’re staying for two days—they brought enough clothes for a month. I showed them around Ballys and the Paris and we then walked across the street to Planet Hollywood so I could show them where the Holly Madison show was located. I got them tickets to see the show. Katrinna is a huge fan of Holly Madison and when she heard the show was closing in December she was afraid she’d never get a chance to see it. The reason I got the room and the show tickets for Katrinna (other than the fact that I’m a really nice guy) is that a few weeks before my final production of the female version of THE ODD COUPLE was to open, I had to fire the main character (that’s another story). It looked like the show wouldn’t be able to continue and the rest of the cast was going to be robbed out of the last production of the year (including some seniors). However, I called and asked Katrinna, who graduated a couple of years ago and now working as a TA at one of our elementary schools, if she’d consider coming in and saving the production. It would mean learning hundreds of lines and all the blocking in just a few weeks. She agreed and the show went on as scheduled. She saved my show and did a great job in the character of Olive. So, in return, I got her the room and the show as a thank you. She brought along her best friend, Brianna (also my assistant director many of my shows a couple of years ago).
Katrinna on the left as Olive from out production of THE ODD COUPLE (female version)
The all-important unpacking of a week's worth of clothes (there's more not in the picture)
Brianna and Katrinna ready for tomorrow's performance of Holly Madison and the Peep Show
We made our way back to Ballys. It was now midnight, and I still had to drive back to Summerlin. So, we said our goodbyes. The bed in my room at the Suncoast looked SO good and I was a goner in no time.
More tomorrow
