Summer of Tournaments – Day 45
Slept in a little too late and had to rush to make breakfast. Then there was a small snag: both elevators were being worked on, so we were escorted to the main floor by housekeeping down the service elevator. Breakfast again was excellent and met Terry, who walked from the Mirage to meet up with us. The elevators were fixed and went back up to the room to finish the daily report.
The Cromwell from the Las Vegas Blvd/Flamingo intersection
Cindy, Terry, and I all loaded in the car and drove over the Excalibur as I needed to get my tickets for the King of Tournaments dinner show tonight. I parked the car at New York, New York because the parking lot is more accessible than at the Excalibur. We walked through the casino and came up to the new Hershey’s candy store. It’s interesting that they chose this location directly across the street from the M&M chocolate store. Of course it was wall to wall candy and the center had an amazing display of decadent pastries. As expected, everything was wildly over-priced.
The entrance to the Hershey’s store in New York, New York
Cindy and Terry in front of an all-chocolate Statue of Liberty
This is a MyVegas freebie, so I had to go to the slot club first and pick up the voucher. Then it was over to the Box Office to get the tickets. The MyVegas freebie was only a single and I needed to purchase another ticket. The girl at the box office was very helpful. It turns out I needed to call MYVegas first to confirm the seat. Now, I should have known this because I remember having to do this when I used my last MYVegas comp at Aria for their show, but I AGAIN neglected to look at the directions. Fortunately, the girl at the Box Office called MYVegas for me and arranged everything. My extra ticket cost $60 after all the add-ons and taxes and after a good 30 minutes had the tickets in my pocket of the 6 PM show. (Reminder for those of who play MYVegas: follow the directions and it will save you a lot of time and energy) We walked back to New York, New York and had a beer at the upper bar ($7.50 each—yeow!)
We dropped Terry off downtown as he’s going to meet up with David for some gambling at the Four Queens, and headed over to the Encore and Wynn as Cindy hadn’t been there before and see what it was like. We stopped by Sinatra’s to check out his Oscar and Emmy. The Encore, which the casino is relatively small, is all class. I played a little and won $10 and we headed over to the Wynn and walked around for a while. I tried playing a Fish machine and gave Steven Wynn his money back.
We drove back to the Cromwell so I visit the Drai’s Beach and Pool upstairs. For those of you who remember the Barbary Coast, you’d remember their parking lot was on top of their hotel. I’ve taken many pictures from there in previous reports mentioning that the view there was so spectacular that it seemed so wasted as a parking lot. No doubt, the architects for the Cromwell felt the same way. As now where the parking lot used to be is a full-fledged nightclub and a pool area. After showing the security guard my room key and 7 Stars card, we were allowed to go up one of the six elevators to the pool area. At this time there weren’t a lot of people there but those who were there were young, tight-body types—something out of an advertising poster. The pool area is simply spectacular.
The Pools on the roof at the Cromwell
One of the views from the Pool area
Another view from the pool area.
The entrance to the Drai’s Nightclub, one floor below the pool
It was time to go back to the Excalibur for the Kings of Tournaments show. We sat down about a third of the way up from the dirt arena. This show has been here since the hotel opened in 1990. This is the first time I’ve seen it simply because it wasn’t anything that really appealed to me. After being seated we were given our drink and a bowl of tomato soup, and that was soon followed by our meal of a Cornish hen, two potatoes, a stick of broccoli, and a biscuit. Everything has to be eaten with your hands as there is no silverware. The soup is in a bowl that you drink from. Surprisingly, the food was very good as we ate during the show. This is one of the few shows in Las Vegas that is kid-friendly and the place (holds about 800 people) was packed with kids. The show surprised me. I really liked it. The fighting, the jousting, the horses, the story—yes—all a bit stagey, but we both really had a good time.
Cameras aren’t allowed, but I managed to sneak this pic before the show began
Originally, the plan was to go down and meet Terry, but after calling him, he and Dave were knee-deep in video poker at the Chicago Brewery at the Four Queens, so we agreed to meet up tomorrow.
More tomorrow
Totals:
Tournaments: 24 Cost: $389 Won: $2285 Balance: $1896
Slept in a little too late and had to rush to make breakfast. Then there was a small snag: both elevators were being worked on, so we were escorted to the main floor by housekeeping down the service elevator. Breakfast again was excellent and met Terry, who walked from the Mirage to meet up with us. The elevators were fixed and went back up to the room to finish the daily report.
The Cromwell from the Las Vegas Blvd/Flamingo intersection
Cindy, Terry, and I all loaded in the car and drove over the Excalibur as I needed to get my tickets for the King of Tournaments dinner show tonight. I parked the car at New York, New York because the parking lot is more accessible than at the Excalibur. We walked through the casino and came up to the new Hershey’s candy store. It’s interesting that they chose this location directly across the street from the M&M chocolate store. Of course it was wall to wall candy and the center had an amazing display of decadent pastries. As expected, everything was wildly over-priced.
The entrance to the Hershey’s store in New York, New York
Cindy and Terry in front of an all-chocolate Statue of Liberty
This is a MyVegas freebie, so I had to go to the slot club first and pick up the voucher. Then it was over to the Box Office to get the tickets. The MyVegas freebie was only a single and I needed to purchase another ticket. The girl at the box office was very helpful. It turns out I needed to call MYVegas first to confirm the seat. Now, I should have known this because I remember having to do this when I used my last MYVegas comp at Aria for their show, but I AGAIN neglected to look at the directions. Fortunately, the girl at the Box Office called MYVegas for me and arranged everything. My extra ticket cost $60 after all the add-ons and taxes and after a good 30 minutes had the tickets in my pocket of the 6 PM show. (Reminder for those of who play MYVegas: follow the directions and it will save you a lot of time and energy) We walked back to New York, New York and had a beer at the upper bar ($7.50 each—yeow!)
We dropped Terry off downtown as he’s going to meet up with David for some gambling at the Four Queens, and headed over to the Encore and Wynn as Cindy hadn’t been there before and see what it was like. We stopped by Sinatra’s to check out his Oscar and Emmy. The Encore, which the casino is relatively small, is all class. I played a little and won $10 and we headed over to the Wynn and walked around for a while. I tried playing a Fish machine and gave Steven Wynn his money back.
We drove back to the Cromwell so I visit the Drai’s Beach and Pool upstairs. For those of you who remember the Barbary Coast, you’d remember their parking lot was on top of their hotel. I’ve taken many pictures from there in previous reports mentioning that the view there was so spectacular that it seemed so wasted as a parking lot. No doubt, the architects for the Cromwell felt the same way. As now where the parking lot used to be is a full-fledged nightclub and a pool area. After showing the security guard my room key and 7 Stars card, we were allowed to go up one of the six elevators to the pool area. At this time there weren’t a lot of people there but those who were there were young, tight-body types—something out of an advertising poster. The pool area is simply spectacular.
The Pools on the roof at the Cromwell
One of the views from the Pool area
Another view from the pool area.
The entrance to the Drai’s Nightclub, one floor below the pool
It was time to go back to the Excalibur for the Kings of Tournaments show. We sat down about a third of the way up from the dirt arena. This show has been here since the hotel opened in 1990. This is the first time I’ve seen it simply because it wasn’t anything that really appealed to me. After being seated we were given our drink and a bowl of tomato soup, and that was soon followed by our meal of a Cornish hen, two potatoes, a stick of broccoli, and a biscuit. Everything has to be eaten with your hands as there is no silverware. The soup is in a bowl that you drink from. Surprisingly, the food was very good as we ate during the show. This is one of the few shows in Las Vegas that is kid-friendly and the place (holds about 800 people) was packed with kids. The show surprised me. I really liked it. The fighting, the jousting, the horses, the story—yes—all a bit stagey, but we both really had a good time.
Cameras aren’t allowed, but I managed to sneak this pic before the show began
Originally, the plan was to go down and meet Terry, but after calling him, he and Dave were knee-deep in video poker at the Chicago Brewery at the Four Queens, so we agreed to meet up tomorrow.
More tomorrow
Totals:
Tournaments: 24 Cost: $389 Won: $2285 Balance: $1896
