My wife and I try to take a winter trip most years to get some relief from the demands of work and the northwest winter weather. This year we had booked a cruise with the Princess line early in the year because we had a pre-paid cruise deposit purchased several years ago that was due to expire if not used. We decided on a trip to the eastern Caribbean during our usual scheduled time off in December. After booking the cruise I started checking flights, and even with almost a year in advance, flights across the country to the departing cruise port in Ft. Lauderdale with agreeable schedules and prices were limited. I watched air departures for about a month and half and then decided I had to try something different. We enjoy Vegas, and as a rule though we know it’s not warm during December it’s usually nicer in Vegas during winter than at home, but more important there were more accommodating flights to our destination port at acceptable fares. So I booked the flights, one leg to Vegas, then after a day and a half, on to Florida for the cruise and back again with more time in Vegas before going home. The total trip took a good chunk of our annual vacation time, but we didn’t have any other big plans for the year, so the trip was on.
Throughout the coming year I didn’t think much about the trip as work kept us busy and we were able to get away for a couple three day weekends to Vegas, once during the spring and then later in the summer. As winter approached I had the cruise and air taken care of, but so far hadn’t booked hotels for the two legs of Vegas. I had been waiting for mail offers which weren’t expected to show until about a month prior. Finally as the mailers came I was a little disappointed to see the second leg of our Vegas trip was strategically absent in the offers from most of the casinos we patronized. I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised with the New Years block-out dates, as my level of play usually nets just standard room comps and the second leg of our trip was over a premium period. As the trip approached and the final mailers trickled in, I became more and more concerned about having a hotel over the holiday. I went ahead and booked the first leg of the Vegas trip pre-holidays with no problem as it was during the second week of December, but New Years was another issue.
Looking over the offers in hand nothing really jumped out as special, so I booked the El Cortez, since I had been wanting to check out what it was like staying there and they were offering a little free play. I had tried twice before to book the EC, but they had a tournament going on both times I wanted to stay on the previous occasions. This time it was no problem and they set us up for vintage suite for the first part of the trip, but were already booked for New Years. A few days after booking the EC I received an enhanced offer from the Golden Nugget with four times the free play of the El Cortez. So of course I ended up also booking the GN for the same period. While I had the GN marketing on the on the phone I also inquired about New Years and was told the I could only get the player’s rate for the two days which be about $400 total; I wasn’t interested in paying that sort of rate.
By the end of November I was getting concerned that I might have to actually pay for a room out of pocket, and worse yet, at New Years premium. Now I know some might say tough luck having to pay for room when plenty of others always pay, and are lucky to just get a comp buffet, but for the last twenty five years my play has been enough to cover rooms for my wife and I, and even friends. I figure if I’m willing to risk the money gambling the least the casinos can do is put me up for the night. I also have a similar rule about liquor; I never pay for a drink in Nevada. Of course the reality is that I’ve often probably paid a hundred times what a drink was worth when having a bad run and the waitress was slow, but it’s more about the spirit of the notion than good economic sense. Anyway, the mail offers hadn’t come through for New Years, and I was starting to wonder if I would be able to get any sort of room over the holiday comp or paying. So I started calling all the places where I had some relationship from play.
One of the places I decided to call was the M Resort. We had played there six months before two days in a row for a couple hours each day, and though it wasn’t a lot of play I figured it should be worth something based on past experience with other places I had played in the past. However the M had proved to be a bit different. About a month following our prior trip my wife started getting mail offers, but I had received none. I felt her offers were modest, but fair for her level of play. A little free play, the daily gifts and a percentage discount offer on rooms, but I had gotten nothing. I called and talked to marketing asking about my situation. They told me I had no record of play. I said I was surprised that I wasn’t eligible for something as I had bought in for $500 at the craps table a couple days in a row and my wife was basically a nickel slot player that usually didn’t risk more that a $100 a day. They replied that they didn’t really have a mail marketing program for table players. I told them I thought that was strange and how did they expect to get table players to visit the casino. The marketing person replied that I should deal with my table host. I said I didn’t know any specific host, but someone had bought us a nice dinner in their Italian restaurant after my last play. The marketing person said, ok I’ll transfer you to a host in the pit. This seemed a bit unusual and I had diminishing hope of success. But, sure enough a host picked the phone in the pit. I could hear the play in the background, as the host asked for my player number. The host looked up my play and asked what I wanted. A little of guard, I requested that I would like a couple nights for the 30 and 31st over New Years. The host paused and then said, no your play won’t cover that as it would be something like almost $2k for the rooms available for the holiday. I sunk in my chair, but didn’t give up. I said then how about the preceding two days. To my surprise after a moment he said no problem. I thanked him and after getting off the phone pondered the old adage that it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Now I only needed two more nights to make the trip complete; just two of the toughest nights of the year. The only mail offer I received from Vegas was for our old standard the Riviera. Despite our long time relationship going back more than two decades, last time we had stayed there the I was unhappy as play was weak and the tables weren’t open all hours I wanted to play, so I really had doubts whether we’d stay again. But under the circumstances I decided a room is a room, and likely even the current incarnation of the Riv would have a fair amount of action over the one of the biggest holidays of the year, so we booked without issue.
Like usual I worked long hours leading up the trip trying to wrap some projects before we departed and the year came to an end. Two days out from leaving I was feeling overwhelmed and almost guilty about taking off the end of the year. Then on the last day scheduled I arrived at work to find that my coworkers on the off shifts had helped pick up some of the work I was involved in and I was able to wrap up a big job on the last day, so I was satisfied. Like usual my wife had waited until the last minute to pack, as she says that she doesn’t like leaving the clothes in suit cases too long as it causes too many wrinkles. As part of her just in time plan she dropped off stuff at the cleaners that wasn’t due to be picked up until the night before we left. It was close like usual, but everything worked out and we were packed by midnight. The following morning we left to the airport at 6:45 stopping by the 13 Coins for breakfast with our friend that drove us the airport for the 9:30 flight. Everything continued according to plans with us arriving in Vegas and reaching the Golden Nugget about 2pm.
We checked in at the GN, validated the $200 in free play and went to our room. The wife was tired so she took a nap while I headed down for some play. The craps table was at $5 and seemed to have a comfortable amount of players so I gave it a run. After about two hours I saw one good shooter and was able to climb back up from the choppiness that had chopped away at my buy in. One good shooter is all you need and I was able to reach as high as making $100 line bets by the time the shoot faded, and I was able to cash out with a $525 profit. I figured the wife had probably had enough rest by then so I headed upstairs to get her.
She was now awake and watching tv by the time I made it back to the room. We needed to get checked in at the El Cortez and we would need something to eat sooner or later so we headed over to the EC. We made the short walk to the EC in decent weather and once there the wife went on to play machines while I checked in. After dealing with the desk I located her and then we went up to check out the vintage suite. Vintage was an appropriate description, as the room looked liked an old time modest apartment from the post WWII era. When I offer a description of the place I don’t want to imply it wasn’t nice, just old fashioned. The room was clean and nicely outfitted, but the low ceiling, layout and windows dated the place as compared to modern hotel rooms. As a matter of fact the room reminded me more of an apartment than a hotel room. I would assume that what was once the apartment living room is now the bed room and the smaller room off to the side was likely the original bedroom which is now sort of a sitting room with no windows. I would have stayed under some circumstances, but frankly the Rush Tower room back at the GN was much nicer and with the extra cruise baggage I was interested in ferrying the bags up and down the stair only access.
I had $65 in free play at the EC and I wanted to use it that night so we headed downstairs and gave it a go on 25 cents VP. I was able to cash out with $52, so I considered that ok. Then I went to play $3 craps while the wife continued on the slots. I played for a couple hours never getting much ahead, but I was able to beat down a loud mouthed don’t shooter when I had the dice one time. Now I have nothing against don’t shooters in general, and on rare occasions I have played the don’t in one form or another, usually laying numbers, but I do have issues with a loud mouths cheering for a 7 against the rest of the table. After a particularly annoying period of that guy running his mouth I got the dice and I told him that I love to break don’t shooters. He upped his bet as I picked up the dice, and in this case I was able to do as I said by making the point shortly. His first loss didn’t faze him, and it would not have bothered me either, but then he upped his bet more. After a few more rolls I hit the point again taking his money and paying the line. This happened another five times and each time he upped his bet in a Martingale sort of progression. His last bet he said was $2k as went away bellowing to the pit which seemed to know him as a regular. He left and I finally sevened out passing the dice. Unfortunately, as much confidence I had in beating the don’t, I was betting no where to the level of what the nasty don’t player was playing, so I only got up a couple hundred to his multi-thousands lost. I kept playing a bit longer and started giving it back at a pretty good clip, so I cashed out with only a $35 profit. Not much money, but satisfying all the same.
We were hungry by then, and since we had a $25 food credit we gave the Flame a try. We were both pleased with our meals and even had a complementary bottle of wine on top of the $25 food credit. The food was fresh, the staff was nice, the portions were large and the total bill was modest for what we had. Not the fanciest place in town, but a good value with or without comps and not hard to recommend. After dinner we played machines a bit more with nothing of significance then headed back to the GN for bed.
The next morning I woke up early around 4am, still conditioned to work hours. After trying to get back to sleep for half an hour I gave up and headed down to venture out on Fremont Street. When we were last in town we left with my Boyd card at four fifths the way to earning a Sapphire level, so I thought I might as well get to the next level as I planned to play anyways. I headed over to Fremont Casino and played VP for while giving them several hundred. I had enough of the Fremont for the moment so I headed over to Main Street Station. I had a little better luck there, but still didn’t come out a winner leaving more dough behind, but reaching Sapphire level. Not sure it’s that big of a deal, but I would have played anyway. Best out of morning was two 4oaks, not much for all that I put through the machines in three hours. It was about breakfast time, I headed back to the room to get the wife. She was up and we headed back to the Fremont to use some comps for breakfast. Unfortunately when I was there earlier I hadn’t noticed that the restaurant was closed, (for remodel?). I was hungry and the wife wasn’t impressed with me leading her around, but I still wanted to use some Boyd comps, so I said we would go to Main Street Station. Unfortunately the weather had been getting worse since I got up and now it was rainy and little cold and we were not really dressed for much of a trek. So, not to be deterred we started cutting through casinos along the way to Main Street Station. As we approached our destination we ended up in the California. I had not been in there for years, but at some point before we left I realized that it was also a Boyd Casino, so we stopped there for breakfast and didn’t bother going on to the MSS. We were surprised at how much the restaurants in the Fremont and California were alike and had a decent meal.
After breakfast we retraced our route through the various casinos back to the Golden Nugget. By then it was time to get ready for our planned visit to the M Resort. We were in town for such a limited time I had decided we would go without a car this leg of the trip. This time before we went out we dressed more warmly. We walked over to the bus stop and planning to take the metro bus to the Fashion Mall to catch the complimentary M Resort shuttle. We were a little short on time and unfortunately buying the tickets from the kiosk proved more challenging than expected. I was concerned that we would miss the M shuttle since I was not sure exactly where the M shuttle departed from, but with advice from the Duce driver we made it to the M shuttle in time. The M shuttle was efficient and a nice benefit for patrons of the casino. We got to the M about 3 pm and wandered around a bit before using one of my wife’s offers for a comp buffet. As a rule we are not really buffet types, but I had read the M’s was very good. We were not disappointed as the food was really good and fresh.
After lunch we played various machines with no success of significance. Before we left I wanted to leave the majority of the cash I had brought for the trip in a safe deposit box at the M as I had no desire to bring much cash on the cruise as felt the gambling on board ship was no match for Vegas. I went to the cage and requested a box. I was told they had no boxes. I asked how could leave money at the casino for future play. The cage teller told me to leave it in my room safe. I tried to explain that we were leaving for week and half long cruise and that I wouldn’t have a room sitting empty for a week and a half while we were gone. The cage teller seemed perplexed and called for a manager. I explained the situation to the manager and after some confusion about as to whether I wanted credit; I flipped out my cash to make my point. Then the young fellow said “no problem,” and that they could take my cash and give me a note, and offered to set up a line of credit in addition. I thought about the credit for a minute and despite not needing it on this trip I figured I might as well set it up for the future, though I didn’t have my banking information with me. He said no problem again and that as long as I had a line with an another Vegas casino the M finance people could make it happen; as it turned out the credit application ended up being the only disappointment with the M for the entire trip. We caught the 6pm M shuttle back to the Fashion Show Mall and then caught the Ace back to Golden Nugget.
After getting back to the Golden Nugget I decided I better play off the $200 GN freeplay netting about $150 off Super Times DDBP. Then I ended up playing craps resulting in a loss while the wife rested. Before we left I decided to check in with the casino host we had met on the last trip in June to see just in case if he might be able to help us with a room for New Years. When I went to the host office and asked for our host, the rep paused and said he wasn’t there. I said we were leaving soon and hoped to see our host before we left. After a pause the rep reluctantly offered that our host was no longer employed by the GN. I was caught a bit off guard, but requested a new host. The woman rep asked what she could do for me. I told her I was interested in a room for last leg of our trip for New Years. She checked my play and then said all she could do was offer casino rates at about $450 total for the two holiday nights. I was not impressed and told her that we would stay at the Riviera since we were set up there anyways. I played a bit more of VP and then around 9pm I headed upstairs to get my bags ready for the next leg of travel. A bit later we took the Bell shuttle to the airport for our redeye flight to Ft. Lauderdale.
I’ll try and get the next two parts written as soon as time allows. We aren’t much in the way of photo takers, but we did take a few, and if I can figure out how to post pics, I’ll give it a shot.
Outsider
Part II
Following our experience with previous cruises out of Florida and an overpriced low quality hotel from the previous year’s cruise, we decided for this trip we really had no desire to spend any more time than necessary in the citrus state or whatever one chooses to calls it. After studying flights from home and then looking at other choices including the stop over in Vegas, I found what we were looking for. The redeye out of Vegas worked well, and since the weather wasn’t good in Florida when we got there, we felt assured we hadn’t missed much by not staying in Florida before the cruise. After arriving in Florida we took a cab from the Ft. Lauderdale airport to the cruise terminal at Port Everglades and were able to get on board ship in record time. After dropping our carry bags in our room we had a nice lunch in the ship’s dining room and the second part of our trip was well underway.
My wife and I enjoy cruising for a number of reasons. The primary reason cruises appeal to us is that it affords us time to spend to spend together as a couple without the distractions of routine demands of home or work. In addition, going to a variety countries is interesting, although admittedly spending just a few hours in a place doesn’t offer much opportunity to really get to know a place. But as I always say, at least I’m not stuck behind the wheel driving like the family vacations we used to take when we had kids at home. We enjoy the change of routine cruising offers. Having a nice breakfast in the dining room followed by walking the deck, a little reading, then lunch, a little more reading or some ship specific activity leading to getting ready for dinner, and then the evening’s show or perhaps a little gambling, fill our days at sea. Back at home we are always pressed for time it seems and the simple pace on board ship is a nice break. We really enjoyed watching Sunday Night Football outside on the ship’s deck. Some of the Princess ships have giant mega-screens outside they call “Movies under the Stars.” It was really fun watching the Packers play the Patriots from deck loungers in the seventy degree evening. It was a close game and the young Packer’s substitute quarterback really played well until the last minute of the game when he showed some confusion under the pressure of the clock. Great game, I wish they were all that close.
Gambling on the ship was typical for what I had experienced on cruise ships in the past. The slots and VP were tight and I never saw many winners while there. What was notable was the relatively new payout system that required setting up a pin number tied to ones cruise card. Cash in, or debited to the card, but only electronic payout, so without setting up a pin number account, there is no longer a way to receive payout. I’m not much of card player, but I play craps while on board ship. Their craps layout generally favors the house more than Nevada craps with a maximum of double in the field and limited to double odds for line bets, with no hopping bets other than craps bets, but of course it’s “the only game in town,” while at sea. I played three times and never saw a single good hand worth mentioning. The dealers were competent, but tended to rush the game a bit considering there were so many non-experienced shooters willing to take a chance at the dice. Of interest to chip collectors was the vast number of obsolete chips used in play. For some reason there were chips dating back to the nineties used in play. I saved a few of them for my collection, but since I was in the loosing mode I only saved a few.
The first port we encountered two days into our cruise was Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas US Virgin Island. St. Thomas is nice place, fairly clean, with fewer signs of overt poverty and not too crowed as compared to some of the other Caribbean islands. Its got some interesting history based in the plantation business dating back to colonial times, but in modern times shopping and tourism are probably the biggest things its got going. The main city center is comprised of nineteenth century shops with high ceilings and tall doors that were likely converted former warehouses. It is really quite a pleasant walking and shopping experience and it is one the best places in the Caribbean to purchase medium to high end items such as electronics, watches and jewelry. Because it’s a US Possession, it’s not only a duty free port, but there is an enhanced allowance for buying popular items such as tobacco and liquor. I have no interest in tobacco, but the liquor deal is enticing. Travelers are allowed to take home up to six standard bottles per person instead of usual two; all you have to do is pay for it be able to haul it. Six glass 1000ml (bigger than a fifth), per person, bottles is a significant amount of weight to lug around, not to mention the space it takes up in packing. On the island is a famous store dating back to mid-eighteen hundreds named A. H. Riise, and that’s were we did our liquor shopping. Popular brands that are produced in warm climate area and some that aren’t are offered at around fifty percent of retail as compared to back home. I ended up buying a jumbo of 15 year old Cruzan rum as a novelty and a couple bottles of my favorite rum to drink.
St John's Cathedral Antigua
Antigua Fountain
The third day of our cruise we went to the former British possession island of Antigua. St. John, Antigua is a little grittier, more crowded and poorer than St. Thomas, but with plenty of old historic nineteenth century buildings. A major difference apart for St. Thomas is that Antigua has gambling. There was a casino called King’s Casino right as one left the docks to come ashore, and then numerous, perhaps a dozen more throughout the city more inland. Most of the casinos were tiny and many had only a few dozen slots, but the first one we encountered by the docks was the largest having two or three hundred machines and various card based table games. The only thing notable about one of the smaller ones was the one that had some sort of bingo like numbers game with a globe full of balls, old wooden bet board sort of like a cross between a roulette layout and a PM wheel run by two old white guys that looked like they were in the know. I talked to one of them for a couple minutes and discovered that they had left the states over thirty years ago and not made it back since. I wondered if the two had had to leave the states and had taken refuge in paradise, so to speak. The pair was an unusual site and stood apart from most everyone else we encountered on any of the islands for a number of differences and their background. After a few hours of window shopping and some buying, my wife and I headed back toward the ship stopping to play at the biggest casino by the docks. The VP was nothing to get excided about as it was only a best of 6/5 pay, no worse or better than the ship. But after playing what was different was that the play was in some sort training mode during play where the “best” hand was automatically selected like some of the free practice games I have tried at home online. Even more surprising was some of what I considered non-strategic holds such as three non-suited straight holds that it recommended. Needless to say I overrode a number of the recommended holds, though the indicated holds on pairs and the like were a no brainer. I played for a while and then hit four kings and cashed out more than tripling my buy in. The King’s Casino near the docks in St. John turned out to be the only casino with card table games we encountered of the five islands we visited. All things considered it was a good place and I would recommend the casino over some I’ve encountered in foreign countries through the years.
St. Kitts town square
The following day we sailed to island of St. Kitts. Basseterre, St. Kitts had the most upscale shopping close to the port area leading into the aged city two blocks inland. The original city was somewhere between the first two ports we encountered in terms of cleanliness and crowdedness. All in all, not a bad Caribbean port city. St. Kitts also had casinos, not as many and none as large as Antigua’s, but there were some all the same. As with Antigua, the largest and best was near the docks. I didn’t catch the name of the casino, as it had no chips for souvenirs due to absence of table games. We stopped in there to play for bit after shopping and hitting the cheap internet in town. The machines had a better pay listed at 7/5 and one 9/6 pay out game. These machines had no “training mode hold” feature, but I was not as fortunate as before as to quit a winner. However, the casino did offer complimentary drinks and I had a good rum punch while there. I would rate this clearly the second best casino we visited during this trip based on size, cleanliness, pay tables and complementary drinks. Though the lack of table games, put it behind the casino in St John.
Next was Bridgetown, Barbados, it was the largest and busiest of the cities we visited during this trip. It had a smattering of older nineteenth century historic buildings, but appeared mostly 1950s to 1960s “modern era” two storied buildings. It was like stepping back in time to cities I remember from my youth, but with the human crush of modern Asia, though the inhabitants were of course Caribbean peoples. There was gambling in Bridgetown, but most that we saw was in what appeared to be in the rougher part of town with the government buildings as a buffer between the better downtown area and the gambling/bar area. I took a look in a few of these places, but didn’t stay. The places we saw were either bars with just a few machines or the couple of places were the focus was clearly the fifty to a hundred machines, but they gave me impression of low end clip joints, though there seemed to be plenty of the locals giving the machines a go. I had no problems taking a look, I could see that these were places for locals not for tourists.
The final stop of trip was Castries, St. Lucia. Poverty was apparent and it didn’t seem to have much to offer other than the typical tropical beauty of Caribbean. The town itself was a mix of modest shed type construction and some better buildings some up to four stories that I presumed were condos for snowbirds and the like. In addition, outside of the city there was no shortage of beautiful private homes of the well to do on the surrounding hillsides like on most of the islands. I have no first hand knowledge if there is gambling, but in the couple of hours we walked the town I saw none, and that was no more or less time than we took to locate gambling in any of the other ports. As for not having much to offer, to be fair we were visiting on the Christmas Holiday, most everything was closed and it was raining. However, without a doubt the city had no way near the quaint and bountiful features of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas or the big city aspects of Bridgetown, Barbados. We headed north by ship back to Florida to begin the last leg of trip back in Vegas.
Part III
After the end of the ten day cruise we headed west to Vegas via Delta Air. The weather had been bad in the east and had even snowed in Atlanta over Christmas, which normally would be of no concern; except for this trip we had layover in Atlanta. Turned out it was sunny and about 45 degrees by the time we got to Atlanta, so weather was not an issue on the day we flew. Long flight but we got in about 7pm, and hustled to try and get the M Resort shuttle from the airport that was scheduled to leave at 7:30. We made it the parking lot just as the shuttle pulled up, but without our bags. Normally on a Vegas trip we would just be carrying, but with a ten day cruise in the middle of the trip we had three checked bags. I talked to the driver and requested he wait while I got the bags. He had no other passengers except my wife at the time and said he could wait 5 minutes. I went back to get the bags and they showed about 5 minutes later and I rushed to meet the shuttle and my wife.
We rolled up to the M about 8pm Tuesday night, and checked in for two comp nights. We were impressed the room to say the least. Similar to the GN Rush, but larger and even better appointed with an extra tv. Only complaint was something to do with the HVAC and a differential between the rooms and the hall which caused a whistling sound that actually woke me up in the middle of the night resulting me getting up and blocking the bottom of the door with a towel to reduce the noise. After settling in to the room we headed down to get something to eat and play a little, though we were tired after traveling all day.
When we got to the Vegas I only had a hundred dollar bill and some miscellaneous notes worth less than another $100, the wife had about the same at $160. I wasn’t really short as I had left a considerable amount equal to around four days play at the M cage on the first leg of the trip. For our first play of our return to Vegas we went to a bar mostly to get a beer before dinner. I played DDB VP and my wife played Leopard Spots and she hit a bonus round and cashed out $100 ahead. I was not so lucky, but a least I got a beer. From the bar we went to the nearby Vig Deli, which I would more likely call a grill if I was calling the shots, and had couple good barbeque sandwiches. After eating, my wife played slots for about half an hour and then went to bed while I looked around for an interesting VP game. I decided to try DDB with the Dream Card game. It was new to me and though I expected a premium max play charge I didn’t expect it would double the cost per play. I played for a while at quarters while trying to figure out exactly what the Dream Card actually did for me. As I began to understand the value of the Dream Card and got a hold of the cost per spin I started hitting 4oaks. I cashed out a couple tickets for over $200 and then went to bed.
The next morning I woke up early on Caribbean time; 4am Vegas time. I tried to get back to sleep, but gave up and got up at 5am and went down to look around. The casino was totally dead with only dealers and a few slot players present. I walked around and tried a few different VP games with no luck and ended up back at the Dream Card game. I played for a while and hit four twos, eventually cashing out two tickets, one over $500 and another for plus $200. By then I had finally gotten a cup of coffee from the seldom seen waitress and headed over to Baby Cakes to get a bear claw to take back to the room for the wife and I. I was up almost $1k by then so I decided to defer pulling my money from the cage as long as possible. We went down for breakfast and went to the Hash House A Go Go. Something I wanted to do, because of what I had heard, and found sure enough the servings were ridiculously large. I ordered the pork cutlet Benedict and the wife ordered the chorizo hash, good in general, though I didn’t care for the Hollandaise sauce, as it was not lemon based and was too sweet for me. A real experience, but what a waste of food; I was only able to eat about a third of the cutlet, probably could have done two in my twenties, but not now. After breakfast I played craps with no luck. Then more VP with more ok hits, but nothing spectacular. We went to the grill again for dinner and I had fish and chips and the wife had a sandwich and both were good.
The next day we used a comp for the buffet and it was great. Chicken fried steak and chili rellanons, the craziest meal of the trip and right up my alley for a vacation meal. I played more craps and won a hundred and some, and then played more VP with no great success. This was our last day there so I had to pull my cash before we left. I went to the cage and showed the teller the slip. They counted out my money and as I started to walk away I remembered the credit application that they had had me fill out when I was there before the trip. I asked about the credit application and the cage person checked and replied that I was not approved. I was floored. A little agitated, I inquired of the details. The cage person said, “not enough information.” I requested the manager. The manager came out and look at the papers and said, “sorry the credit department rejected your application.” I said, “I understand I didn’t have my banking information with me, but when I was here a two weeks ago, your other manager encouraged me to sign up and said as long as I had active lines at other casinos I would be set.” The manager replied, “sorry there’s nothing I can do.” I still had my money lying at the window and I said, “you mean to tell me I just pulled thousands of my money here and you’re not going to approve a line for less than is sitting here in cash?” “I’m sorry sir.” I said, “I’m sorry too, as I guess I will have to take my cash elsewhere.” That pretty much did happen, as it was nearing our time to move the next casino anyway.
We really enjoyed the M in most every respect save for the credit application issue. Upon reflection, the credit application was not something I really needed at that time, so I didn’t really loose something I had to have. What really pissed me off was the fact that prior to the cruise, a short time earlier, it was their manager’s idea to apply, and he was the one that assured me that would be a done deal; and then it wasn’t. My suspicion is that for what ever reason, the finance people were not willing to bother to call either casinos that I listed where I had existing lines. For now, I’ll just write off a bad experience with the finance person that I never met, and let the positive first hand experiences I had in the casino, and with the various other employees, dictate my overall impression of the M. I look forward to go back again and expect to have a good time.
After the cage interaction, I went up to pack and prepare to move to the next casino. I had played two days with just less than $200 I had left over from the cruise and was up about two $k. Overall I had the bulk of my money I had taken for the trip, but was down about a day’s play overall, so I felt pretty good for a trip now going on two weeks. My plan was to keep on the cheap for transportation, because we could. I checked out with a total charge of about $40 for the two days after comps. At 2:30 we boarded the shuttle with our bags bound for the Fashion Show Mall. I had expected the weather to be bad and to take a cab for the rest of journey, but when we got there the weather was nice. I suggested to the wife we walk to the Riviera since the weather was decent. She was not impressed, but complied. We made the two Vegas blocks, perhaps four regular city blocks, walk in about ten minutes without incident and were able to immediately check into the Riv.
After unpacking I went down to play craps while the wife rested. We were planning on going to see Saturday Night Live comedian John Lovitz at the Palms, but when I called to check on our tickets the box office said they were refunding for the show unless we wanted to see the Second City Comedian they had booked as a replacement, as John had had a heart attack over the holiday and was recovering. So, I resorted to playing craps for the night’s entertainment. The Riv was packed with players and I hadn’t seen it that busy for a decade. It was even busier than the M had been. I got into busy craps game and started jawing with some of my old dealer friends. I played for a couple hours and quit at a push. It was getting near dinner time so I went up to get the wife. We went down and had dinner at the La Salsa Mexican place in the food court. We’ve been going to that place since it opened and have never been disappointed when we were looking for a quick inexpensive Mexican meal. I really like their condiment bar with their salsas and stuff. After dinner the wife hit the slots and I headed back to the craps table. We still had a couple days and I had been drinking modestly, so I made a change. I started ordering Cognac neat. The waitress complied and kept me stocked for the next three hours. During that time the play was average, not good and not bad, but at some point things changed to the plus side. And as a matter of record, I was significant contributor to the cause. After a couple hours play I had two of the best back to back shoots that I can remember in some time. A portion of the other players did their part also, but I had the best shoots of the session overall. I played for about another hour until it started getting too choppy and I was getting wobbly, so I cashed out lower than my peak for the night, but still up over $1,100.
I went to bed satisfied and feeling no pain. The next day was another story. It was New Years Eve morning and I was hung over. I hadn’t had hang over in years and had forgotten how bad they can make you feel. I tried to sleep a bit more, but finally gave up and found some relief from the shower. The wife was surprisingly sympathetic. We went down to Kadie’s for breakfast and we had a good meal. It was nearing noon by then I decided to see what kind of VP they had there. I found a bank of four Super Times Pay/ multi-game machines and played a little. Later I played craps and lost my stake. By then it was time to get ready for the comp New Year’s Eve special invitation buffet. We dressed and went over to the convention hall for dinner. The food was good, and the event sort of reminded me of the last time we had a special meal at the Riv. The last time we had such a meal there was for the Riv’s 50th anniversary in about 2005. That was near the end of better times for the Riv and it seems to have struggled since then. It was nice to see the casino as busy as it used to be, even if it was just a couple days on one of the biggest holidays of the year. In talking to my dealer buddies they said that the casino was busier than last year, and that after the recent financial restructure and a new investor, that there was hope for the future.
After dinner we went up to the room to get our overcoats and my hat and prepared to go outside to watch the New Year’s Fireworks. About fifteen minutes before midnight they opened up the strip side doors just like they do in summer to allow easier street access. I had experienced the air conditioning over the doors during the summer and was pleasantly surprised to feel that the heat was just as effective during the cold weather. We huddled near the door with huge crowds waiting for the fireworks. At the moment of the evening, we walked out to middle of the street. In all our times to Vegas we had not yet been there over New Years, so this was actually something new for us. We turned back and forth to watch the shows with the Stratosphere to the north and various shows on the major strip casinos to the south. The fireworks were excellent, especially the unique ones from the Strat. Tried to take a couple pictures, but didn’t really capture the actual spirit of the moment. After the show we played some machines with no wins worth mentioning and then went to bed.
The next day I got up fairly early like usual considering we stayed up later than usual. It was New Years day and I was happily hangover free. I still had most of the money I had brought on the trip, but wasn’t ahead for the trip. I had plenty of time before we left so I decided that I would play until I had a win for the trip or lost. There was a decent looking early craps game going, so I got in. From there I literally never saw a single point made and it wiped me out in short time. I took my coffee and went to play VP for a while. I had a couple hundred win after a while so I headed back to the craps table. All new players, so it was bound to be different than earlier right? Wrong, about the same situation, no one could hit a number and I was wiped out and leaving the table a few minutes later. Before I left the table I arranged with our host while he was near the pit for a late check out to match our flight, he also offered to take care of all our food and incidentals and I was obliged as the Riv always has always done well for me for the last couple decades. By then it was breakfast, so I headed upstairs to get the wife. I told her about the late check out and we headed down to Kadie’s for another nice breakfast. After breakfast I figured three’s a charm and headed to the craps table for another round before we left. Wrong again, and I lost my ass again. After that I headed to play some VP with no real success there either. I headed up to the room, packed and then checked out without any charges. We caught a cab to the airport and headed home.
To recap the trip’s gambling, I had some decent Vegas craps wins until the last day. I lost on board ship which is typical. In Vegas I hit one 4oak with a kicker on VP, but not a single royal during the trip. This is the first trip since I started playing VP in earnest that I didn’t hit at least one royal during a trip. Despite the lack of wins, I had the most fun playing machines downtown because of the variety, and at the M because of the newness of machine models. I enjoyed craps the most at the Riv, mostly because of the remainder of the long time group of dealers there that I have known for over two decades. The M craps game was my second favorite mostly due to the quality of players, and the general lack of riff raff, followed by the GN’s game. As for foreign gambling in the Caribbean, I believe one can find some decent action, as long as overall expectations are adjusted. And like usual, the worst gambling by a number of my measures is found is on board ship, no matter what line. Overall I had a couple good Vegas runs, but never was significantly ahead for the trip, and couple not so good runs. Too bad I couldn’t have quit on a win, but you never know when things are going for or against you until after the fact. And I didn’t come to Vegas to sit in my room for the last day or so and watch tv after winning a bit. I had had a good run at times, and had lots of action and fun along the way for the trip. We were in three states, five countries, and about three dozen casinos over a three week period. I still had money in my pocket when we headed home and didn’t use any credit for the trip, so it was a good trip all things concerned.
Will answer some questions related to the trip if requested, otherwise done until spring.
Outsider
Throughout the coming year I didn’t think much about the trip as work kept us busy and we were able to get away for a couple three day weekends to Vegas, once during the spring and then later in the summer. As winter approached I had the cruise and air taken care of, but so far hadn’t booked hotels for the two legs of Vegas. I had been waiting for mail offers which weren’t expected to show until about a month prior. Finally as the mailers came I was a little disappointed to see the second leg of our Vegas trip was strategically absent in the offers from most of the casinos we patronized. I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised with the New Years block-out dates, as my level of play usually nets just standard room comps and the second leg of our trip was over a premium period. As the trip approached and the final mailers trickled in, I became more and more concerned about having a hotel over the holiday. I went ahead and booked the first leg of the Vegas trip pre-holidays with no problem as it was during the second week of December, but New Years was another issue.
Looking over the offers in hand nothing really jumped out as special, so I booked the El Cortez, since I had been wanting to check out what it was like staying there and they were offering a little free play. I had tried twice before to book the EC, but they had a tournament going on both times I wanted to stay on the previous occasions. This time it was no problem and they set us up for vintage suite for the first part of the trip, but were already booked for New Years. A few days after booking the EC I received an enhanced offer from the Golden Nugget with four times the free play of the El Cortez. So of course I ended up also booking the GN for the same period. While I had the GN marketing on the on the phone I also inquired about New Years and was told the I could only get the player’s rate for the two days which be about $400 total; I wasn’t interested in paying that sort of rate.
By the end of November I was getting concerned that I might have to actually pay for a room out of pocket, and worse yet, at New Years premium. Now I know some might say tough luck having to pay for room when plenty of others always pay, and are lucky to just get a comp buffet, but for the last twenty five years my play has been enough to cover rooms for my wife and I, and even friends. I figure if I’m willing to risk the money gambling the least the casinos can do is put me up for the night. I also have a similar rule about liquor; I never pay for a drink in Nevada. Of course the reality is that I’ve often probably paid a hundred times what a drink was worth when having a bad run and the waitress was slow, but it’s more about the spirit of the notion than good economic sense. Anyway, the mail offers hadn’t come through for New Years, and I was starting to wonder if I would be able to get any sort of room over the holiday comp or paying. So I started calling all the places where I had some relationship from play.
One of the places I decided to call was the M Resort. We had played there six months before two days in a row for a couple hours each day, and though it wasn’t a lot of play I figured it should be worth something based on past experience with other places I had played in the past. However the M had proved to be a bit different. About a month following our prior trip my wife started getting mail offers, but I had received none. I felt her offers were modest, but fair for her level of play. A little free play, the daily gifts and a percentage discount offer on rooms, but I had gotten nothing. I called and talked to marketing asking about my situation. They told me I had no record of play. I said I was surprised that I wasn’t eligible for something as I had bought in for $500 at the craps table a couple days in a row and my wife was basically a nickel slot player that usually didn’t risk more that a $100 a day. They replied that they didn’t really have a mail marketing program for table players. I told them I thought that was strange and how did they expect to get table players to visit the casino. The marketing person replied that I should deal with my table host. I said I didn’t know any specific host, but someone had bought us a nice dinner in their Italian restaurant after my last play. The marketing person said, ok I’ll transfer you to a host in the pit. This seemed a bit unusual and I had diminishing hope of success. But, sure enough a host picked the phone in the pit. I could hear the play in the background, as the host asked for my player number. The host looked up my play and asked what I wanted. A little of guard, I requested that I would like a couple nights for the 30 and 31st over New Years. The host paused and then said, no your play won’t cover that as it would be something like almost $2k for the rooms available for the holiday. I sunk in my chair, but didn’t give up. I said then how about the preceding two days. To my surprise after a moment he said no problem. I thanked him and after getting off the phone pondered the old adage that it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Now I only needed two more nights to make the trip complete; just two of the toughest nights of the year. The only mail offer I received from Vegas was for our old standard the Riviera. Despite our long time relationship going back more than two decades, last time we had stayed there the I was unhappy as play was weak and the tables weren’t open all hours I wanted to play, so I really had doubts whether we’d stay again. But under the circumstances I decided a room is a room, and likely even the current incarnation of the Riv would have a fair amount of action over the one of the biggest holidays of the year, so we booked without issue.
Like usual I worked long hours leading up the trip trying to wrap some projects before we departed and the year came to an end. Two days out from leaving I was feeling overwhelmed and almost guilty about taking off the end of the year. Then on the last day scheduled I arrived at work to find that my coworkers on the off shifts had helped pick up some of the work I was involved in and I was able to wrap up a big job on the last day, so I was satisfied. Like usual my wife had waited until the last minute to pack, as she says that she doesn’t like leaving the clothes in suit cases too long as it causes too many wrinkles. As part of her just in time plan she dropped off stuff at the cleaners that wasn’t due to be picked up until the night before we left. It was close like usual, but everything worked out and we were packed by midnight. The following morning we left to the airport at 6:45 stopping by the 13 Coins for breakfast with our friend that drove us the airport for the 9:30 flight. Everything continued according to plans with us arriving in Vegas and reaching the Golden Nugget about 2pm.
We checked in at the GN, validated the $200 in free play and went to our room. The wife was tired so she took a nap while I headed down for some play. The craps table was at $5 and seemed to have a comfortable amount of players so I gave it a run. After about two hours I saw one good shooter and was able to climb back up from the choppiness that had chopped away at my buy in. One good shooter is all you need and I was able to reach as high as making $100 line bets by the time the shoot faded, and I was able to cash out with a $525 profit. I figured the wife had probably had enough rest by then so I headed upstairs to get her.
She was now awake and watching tv by the time I made it back to the room. We needed to get checked in at the El Cortez and we would need something to eat sooner or later so we headed over to the EC. We made the short walk to the EC in decent weather and once there the wife went on to play machines while I checked in. After dealing with the desk I located her and then we went up to check out the vintage suite. Vintage was an appropriate description, as the room looked liked an old time modest apartment from the post WWII era. When I offer a description of the place I don’t want to imply it wasn’t nice, just old fashioned. The room was clean and nicely outfitted, but the low ceiling, layout and windows dated the place as compared to modern hotel rooms. As a matter of fact the room reminded me more of an apartment than a hotel room. I would assume that what was once the apartment living room is now the bed room and the smaller room off to the side was likely the original bedroom which is now sort of a sitting room with no windows. I would have stayed under some circumstances, but frankly the Rush Tower room back at the GN was much nicer and with the extra cruise baggage I was interested in ferrying the bags up and down the stair only access.
I had $65 in free play at the EC and I wanted to use it that night so we headed downstairs and gave it a go on 25 cents VP. I was able to cash out with $52, so I considered that ok. Then I went to play $3 craps while the wife continued on the slots. I played for a couple hours never getting much ahead, but I was able to beat down a loud mouthed don’t shooter when I had the dice one time. Now I have nothing against don’t shooters in general, and on rare occasions I have played the don’t in one form or another, usually laying numbers, but I do have issues with a loud mouths cheering for a 7 against the rest of the table. After a particularly annoying period of that guy running his mouth I got the dice and I told him that I love to break don’t shooters. He upped his bet as I picked up the dice, and in this case I was able to do as I said by making the point shortly. His first loss didn’t faze him, and it would not have bothered me either, but then he upped his bet more. After a few more rolls I hit the point again taking his money and paying the line. This happened another five times and each time he upped his bet in a Martingale sort of progression. His last bet he said was $2k as went away bellowing to the pit which seemed to know him as a regular. He left and I finally sevened out passing the dice. Unfortunately, as much confidence I had in beating the don’t, I was betting no where to the level of what the nasty don’t player was playing, so I only got up a couple hundred to his multi-thousands lost. I kept playing a bit longer and started giving it back at a pretty good clip, so I cashed out with only a $35 profit. Not much money, but satisfying all the same.
We were hungry by then, and since we had a $25 food credit we gave the Flame a try. We were both pleased with our meals and even had a complementary bottle of wine on top of the $25 food credit. The food was fresh, the staff was nice, the portions were large and the total bill was modest for what we had. Not the fanciest place in town, but a good value with or without comps and not hard to recommend. After dinner we played machines a bit more with nothing of significance then headed back to the GN for bed.
The next morning I woke up early around 4am, still conditioned to work hours. After trying to get back to sleep for half an hour I gave up and headed down to venture out on Fremont Street. When we were last in town we left with my Boyd card at four fifths the way to earning a Sapphire level, so I thought I might as well get to the next level as I planned to play anyways. I headed over to Fremont Casino and played VP for while giving them several hundred. I had enough of the Fremont for the moment so I headed over to Main Street Station. I had a little better luck there, but still didn’t come out a winner leaving more dough behind, but reaching Sapphire level. Not sure it’s that big of a deal, but I would have played anyway. Best out of morning was two 4oaks, not much for all that I put through the machines in three hours. It was about breakfast time, I headed back to the room to get the wife. She was up and we headed back to the Fremont to use some comps for breakfast. Unfortunately when I was there earlier I hadn’t noticed that the restaurant was closed, (for remodel?). I was hungry and the wife wasn’t impressed with me leading her around, but I still wanted to use some Boyd comps, so I said we would go to Main Street Station. Unfortunately the weather had been getting worse since I got up and now it was rainy and little cold and we were not really dressed for much of a trek. So, not to be deterred we started cutting through casinos along the way to Main Street Station. As we approached our destination we ended up in the California. I had not been in there for years, but at some point before we left I realized that it was also a Boyd Casino, so we stopped there for breakfast and didn’t bother going on to the MSS. We were surprised at how much the restaurants in the Fremont and California were alike and had a decent meal.
After breakfast we retraced our route through the various casinos back to the Golden Nugget. By then it was time to get ready for our planned visit to the M Resort. We were in town for such a limited time I had decided we would go without a car this leg of the trip. This time before we went out we dressed more warmly. We walked over to the bus stop and planning to take the metro bus to the Fashion Mall to catch the complimentary M Resort shuttle. We were a little short on time and unfortunately buying the tickets from the kiosk proved more challenging than expected. I was concerned that we would miss the M shuttle since I was not sure exactly where the M shuttle departed from, but with advice from the Duce driver we made it to the M shuttle in time. The M shuttle was efficient and a nice benefit for patrons of the casino. We got to the M about 3 pm and wandered around a bit before using one of my wife’s offers for a comp buffet. As a rule we are not really buffet types, but I had read the M’s was very good. We were not disappointed as the food was really good and fresh.
After lunch we played various machines with no success of significance. Before we left I wanted to leave the majority of the cash I had brought for the trip in a safe deposit box at the M as I had no desire to bring much cash on the cruise as felt the gambling on board ship was no match for Vegas. I went to the cage and requested a box. I was told they had no boxes. I asked how could leave money at the casino for future play. The cage teller told me to leave it in my room safe. I tried to explain that we were leaving for week and half long cruise and that I wouldn’t have a room sitting empty for a week and a half while we were gone. The cage teller seemed perplexed and called for a manager. I explained the situation to the manager and after some confusion about as to whether I wanted credit; I flipped out my cash to make my point. Then the young fellow said “no problem,” and that they could take my cash and give me a note, and offered to set up a line of credit in addition. I thought about the credit for a minute and despite not needing it on this trip I figured I might as well set it up for the future, though I didn’t have my banking information with me. He said no problem again and that as long as I had a line with an another Vegas casino the M finance people could make it happen; as it turned out the credit application ended up being the only disappointment with the M for the entire trip. We caught the 6pm M shuttle back to the Fashion Show Mall and then caught the Ace back to Golden Nugget.
After getting back to the Golden Nugget I decided I better play off the $200 GN freeplay netting about $150 off Super Times DDBP. Then I ended up playing craps resulting in a loss while the wife rested. Before we left I decided to check in with the casino host we had met on the last trip in June to see just in case if he might be able to help us with a room for New Years. When I went to the host office and asked for our host, the rep paused and said he wasn’t there. I said we were leaving soon and hoped to see our host before we left. After a pause the rep reluctantly offered that our host was no longer employed by the GN. I was caught a bit off guard, but requested a new host. The woman rep asked what she could do for me. I told her I was interested in a room for last leg of our trip for New Years. She checked my play and then said all she could do was offer casino rates at about $450 total for the two holiday nights. I was not impressed and told her that we would stay at the Riviera since we were set up there anyways. I played a bit more of VP and then around 9pm I headed upstairs to get my bags ready for the next leg of travel. A bit later we took the Bell shuttle to the airport for our redeye flight to Ft. Lauderdale.
I’ll try and get the next two parts written as soon as time allows. We aren’t much in the way of photo takers, but we did take a few, and if I can figure out how to post pics, I’ll give it a shot.
Outsider
Part II
Following our experience with previous cruises out of Florida and an overpriced low quality hotel from the previous year’s cruise, we decided for this trip we really had no desire to spend any more time than necessary in the citrus state or whatever one chooses to calls it. After studying flights from home and then looking at other choices including the stop over in Vegas, I found what we were looking for. The redeye out of Vegas worked well, and since the weather wasn’t good in Florida when we got there, we felt assured we hadn’t missed much by not staying in Florida before the cruise. After arriving in Florida we took a cab from the Ft. Lauderdale airport to the cruise terminal at Port Everglades and were able to get on board ship in record time. After dropping our carry bags in our room we had a nice lunch in the ship’s dining room and the second part of our trip was well underway.
My wife and I enjoy cruising for a number of reasons. The primary reason cruises appeal to us is that it affords us time to spend to spend together as a couple without the distractions of routine demands of home or work. In addition, going to a variety countries is interesting, although admittedly spending just a few hours in a place doesn’t offer much opportunity to really get to know a place. But as I always say, at least I’m not stuck behind the wheel driving like the family vacations we used to take when we had kids at home. We enjoy the change of routine cruising offers. Having a nice breakfast in the dining room followed by walking the deck, a little reading, then lunch, a little more reading or some ship specific activity leading to getting ready for dinner, and then the evening’s show or perhaps a little gambling, fill our days at sea. Back at home we are always pressed for time it seems and the simple pace on board ship is a nice break. We really enjoyed watching Sunday Night Football outside on the ship’s deck. Some of the Princess ships have giant mega-screens outside they call “Movies under the Stars.” It was really fun watching the Packers play the Patriots from deck loungers in the seventy degree evening. It was a close game and the young Packer’s substitute quarterback really played well until the last minute of the game when he showed some confusion under the pressure of the clock. Great game, I wish they were all that close.
Gambling on the ship was typical for what I had experienced on cruise ships in the past. The slots and VP were tight and I never saw many winners while there. What was notable was the relatively new payout system that required setting up a pin number tied to ones cruise card. Cash in, or debited to the card, but only electronic payout, so without setting up a pin number account, there is no longer a way to receive payout. I’m not much of card player, but I play craps while on board ship. Their craps layout generally favors the house more than Nevada craps with a maximum of double in the field and limited to double odds for line bets, with no hopping bets other than craps bets, but of course it’s “the only game in town,” while at sea. I played three times and never saw a single good hand worth mentioning. The dealers were competent, but tended to rush the game a bit considering there were so many non-experienced shooters willing to take a chance at the dice. Of interest to chip collectors was the vast number of obsolete chips used in play. For some reason there were chips dating back to the nineties used in play. I saved a few of them for my collection, but since I was in the loosing mode I only saved a few.
The first port we encountered two days into our cruise was Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas US Virgin Island. St. Thomas is nice place, fairly clean, with fewer signs of overt poverty and not too crowed as compared to some of the other Caribbean islands. Its got some interesting history based in the plantation business dating back to colonial times, but in modern times shopping and tourism are probably the biggest things its got going. The main city center is comprised of nineteenth century shops with high ceilings and tall doors that were likely converted former warehouses. It is really quite a pleasant walking and shopping experience and it is one the best places in the Caribbean to purchase medium to high end items such as electronics, watches and jewelry. Because it’s a US Possession, it’s not only a duty free port, but there is an enhanced allowance for buying popular items such as tobacco and liquor. I have no interest in tobacco, but the liquor deal is enticing. Travelers are allowed to take home up to six standard bottles per person instead of usual two; all you have to do is pay for it be able to haul it. Six glass 1000ml (bigger than a fifth), per person, bottles is a significant amount of weight to lug around, not to mention the space it takes up in packing. On the island is a famous store dating back to mid-eighteen hundreds named A. H. Riise, and that’s were we did our liquor shopping. Popular brands that are produced in warm climate area and some that aren’t are offered at around fifty percent of retail as compared to back home. I ended up buying a jumbo of 15 year old Cruzan rum as a novelty and a couple bottles of my favorite rum to drink.
St John's Cathedral Antigua
Antigua Fountain
The third day of our cruise we went to the former British possession island of Antigua. St. John, Antigua is a little grittier, more crowded and poorer than St. Thomas, but with plenty of old historic nineteenth century buildings. A major difference apart for St. Thomas is that Antigua has gambling. There was a casino called King’s Casino right as one left the docks to come ashore, and then numerous, perhaps a dozen more throughout the city more inland. Most of the casinos were tiny and many had only a few dozen slots, but the first one we encountered by the docks was the largest having two or three hundred machines and various card based table games. The only thing notable about one of the smaller ones was the one that had some sort of bingo like numbers game with a globe full of balls, old wooden bet board sort of like a cross between a roulette layout and a PM wheel run by two old white guys that looked like they were in the know. I talked to one of them for a couple minutes and discovered that they had left the states over thirty years ago and not made it back since. I wondered if the two had had to leave the states and had taken refuge in paradise, so to speak. The pair was an unusual site and stood apart from most everyone else we encountered on any of the islands for a number of differences and their background. After a few hours of window shopping and some buying, my wife and I headed back toward the ship stopping to play at the biggest casino by the docks. The VP was nothing to get excided about as it was only a best of 6/5 pay, no worse or better than the ship. But after playing what was different was that the play was in some sort training mode during play where the “best” hand was automatically selected like some of the free practice games I have tried at home online. Even more surprising was some of what I considered non-strategic holds such as three non-suited straight holds that it recommended. Needless to say I overrode a number of the recommended holds, though the indicated holds on pairs and the like were a no brainer. I played for a while and then hit four kings and cashed out more than tripling my buy in. The King’s Casino near the docks in St. John turned out to be the only casino with card table games we encountered of the five islands we visited. All things considered it was a good place and I would recommend the casino over some I’ve encountered in foreign countries through the years.
St. Kitts town square
The following day we sailed to island of St. Kitts. Basseterre, St. Kitts had the most upscale shopping close to the port area leading into the aged city two blocks inland. The original city was somewhere between the first two ports we encountered in terms of cleanliness and crowdedness. All in all, not a bad Caribbean port city. St. Kitts also had casinos, not as many and none as large as Antigua’s, but there were some all the same. As with Antigua, the largest and best was near the docks. I didn’t catch the name of the casino, as it had no chips for souvenirs due to absence of table games. We stopped in there to play for bit after shopping and hitting the cheap internet in town. The machines had a better pay listed at 7/5 and one 9/6 pay out game. These machines had no “training mode hold” feature, but I was not as fortunate as before as to quit a winner. However, the casino did offer complimentary drinks and I had a good rum punch while there. I would rate this clearly the second best casino we visited during this trip based on size, cleanliness, pay tables and complementary drinks. Though the lack of table games, put it behind the casino in St John.
Next was Bridgetown, Barbados, it was the largest and busiest of the cities we visited during this trip. It had a smattering of older nineteenth century historic buildings, but appeared mostly 1950s to 1960s “modern era” two storied buildings. It was like stepping back in time to cities I remember from my youth, but with the human crush of modern Asia, though the inhabitants were of course Caribbean peoples. There was gambling in Bridgetown, but most that we saw was in what appeared to be in the rougher part of town with the government buildings as a buffer between the better downtown area and the gambling/bar area. I took a look in a few of these places, but didn’t stay. The places we saw were either bars with just a few machines or the couple of places were the focus was clearly the fifty to a hundred machines, but they gave me impression of low end clip joints, though there seemed to be plenty of the locals giving the machines a go. I had no problems taking a look, I could see that these were places for locals not for tourists.
The final stop of trip was Castries, St. Lucia. Poverty was apparent and it didn’t seem to have much to offer other than the typical tropical beauty of Caribbean. The town itself was a mix of modest shed type construction and some better buildings some up to four stories that I presumed were condos for snowbirds and the like. In addition, outside of the city there was no shortage of beautiful private homes of the well to do on the surrounding hillsides like on most of the islands. I have no first hand knowledge if there is gambling, but in the couple of hours we walked the town I saw none, and that was no more or less time than we took to locate gambling in any of the other ports. As for not having much to offer, to be fair we were visiting on the Christmas Holiday, most everything was closed and it was raining. However, without a doubt the city had no way near the quaint and bountiful features of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas or the big city aspects of Bridgetown, Barbados. We headed north by ship back to Florida to begin the last leg of trip back in Vegas.
Part III
After the end of the ten day cruise we headed west to Vegas via Delta Air. The weather had been bad in the east and had even snowed in Atlanta over Christmas, which normally would be of no concern; except for this trip we had layover in Atlanta. Turned out it was sunny and about 45 degrees by the time we got to Atlanta, so weather was not an issue on the day we flew. Long flight but we got in about 7pm, and hustled to try and get the M Resort shuttle from the airport that was scheduled to leave at 7:30. We made it the parking lot just as the shuttle pulled up, but without our bags. Normally on a Vegas trip we would just be carrying, but with a ten day cruise in the middle of the trip we had three checked bags. I talked to the driver and requested he wait while I got the bags. He had no other passengers except my wife at the time and said he could wait 5 minutes. I went back to get the bags and they showed about 5 minutes later and I rushed to meet the shuttle and my wife.
We rolled up to the M about 8pm Tuesday night, and checked in for two comp nights. We were impressed the room to say the least. Similar to the GN Rush, but larger and even better appointed with an extra tv. Only complaint was something to do with the HVAC and a differential between the rooms and the hall which caused a whistling sound that actually woke me up in the middle of the night resulting me getting up and blocking the bottom of the door with a towel to reduce the noise. After settling in to the room we headed down to get something to eat and play a little, though we were tired after traveling all day.
When we got to the Vegas I only had a hundred dollar bill and some miscellaneous notes worth less than another $100, the wife had about the same at $160. I wasn’t really short as I had left a considerable amount equal to around four days play at the M cage on the first leg of the trip. For our first play of our return to Vegas we went to a bar mostly to get a beer before dinner. I played DDB VP and my wife played Leopard Spots and she hit a bonus round and cashed out $100 ahead. I was not so lucky, but a least I got a beer. From the bar we went to the nearby Vig Deli, which I would more likely call a grill if I was calling the shots, and had couple good barbeque sandwiches. After eating, my wife played slots for about half an hour and then went to bed while I looked around for an interesting VP game. I decided to try DDB with the Dream Card game. It was new to me and though I expected a premium max play charge I didn’t expect it would double the cost per play. I played for a while at quarters while trying to figure out exactly what the Dream Card actually did for me. As I began to understand the value of the Dream Card and got a hold of the cost per spin I started hitting 4oaks. I cashed out a couple tickets for over $200 and then went to bed.
The next morning I woke up early on Caribbean time; 4am Vegas time. I tried to get back to sleep, but gave up and got up at 5am and went down to look around. The casino was totally dead with only dealers and a few slot players present. I walked around and tried a few different VP games with no luck and ended up back at the Dream Card game. I played for a while and hit four twos, eventually cashing out two tickets, one over $500 and another for plus $200. By then I had finally gotten a cup of coffee from the seldom seen waitress and headed over to Baby Cakes to get a bear claw to take back to the room for the wife and I. I was up almost $1k by then so I decided to defer pulling my money from the cage as long as possible. We went down for breakfast and went to the Hash House A Go Go. Something I wanted to do, because of what I had heard, and found sure enough the servings were ridiculously large. I ordered the pork cutlet Benedict and the wife ordered the chorizo hash, good in general, though I didn’t care for the Hollandaise sauce, as it was not lemon based and was too sweet for me. A real experience, but what a waste of food; I was only able to eat about a third of the cutlet, probably could have done two in my twenties, but not now. After breakfast I played craps with no luck. Then more VP with more ok hits, but nothing spectacular. We went to the grill again for dinner and I had fish and chips and the wife had a sandwich and both were good.
The next day we used a comp for the buffet and it was great. Chicken fried steak and chili rellanons, the craziest meal of the trip and right up my alley for a vacation meal. I played more craps and won a hundred and some, and then played more VP with no great success. This was our last day there so I had to pull my cash before we left. I went to the cage and showed the teller the slip. They counted out my money and as I started to walk away I remembered the credit application that they had had me fill out when I was there before the trip. I asked about the credit application and the cage person checked and replied that I was not approved. I was floored. A little agitated, I inquired of the details. The cage person said, “not enough information.” I requested the manager. The manager came out and look at the papers and said, “sorry the credit department rejected your application.” I said, “I understand I didn’t have my banking information with me, but when I was here a two weeks ago, your other manager encouraged me to sign up and said as long as I had active lines at other casinos I would be set.” The manager replied, “sorry there’s nothing I can do.” I still had my money lying at the window and I said, “you mean to tell me I just pulled thousands of my money here and you’re not going to approve a line for less than is sitting here in cash?” “I’m sorry sir.” I said, “I’m sorry too, as I guess I will have to take my cash elsewhere.” That pretty much did happen, as it was nearing our time to move the next casino anyway.
We really enjoyed the M in most every respect save for the credit application issue. Upon reflection, the credit application was not something I really needed at that time, so I didn’t really loose something I had to have. What really pissed me off was the fact that prior to the cruise, a short time earlier, it was their manager’s idea to apply, and he was the one that assured me that would be a done deal; and then it wasn’t. My suspicion is that for what ever reason, the finance people were not willing to bother to call either casinos that I listed where I had existing lines. For now, I’ll just write off a bad experience with the finance person that I never met, and let the positive first hand experiences I had in the casino, and with the various other employees, dictate my overall impression of the M. I look forward to go back again and expect to have a good time.
After the cage interaction, I went up to pack and prepare to move to the next casino. I had played two days with just less than $200 I had left over from the cruise and was up about two $k. Overall I had the bulk of my money I had taken for the trip, but was down about a day’s play overall, so I felt pretty good for a trip now going on two weeks. My plan was to keep on the cheap for transportation, because we could. I checked out with a total charge of about $40 for the two days after comps. At 2:30 we boarded the shuttle with our bags bound for the Fashion Show Mall. I had expected the weather to be bad and to take a cab for the rest of journey, but when we got there the weather was nice. I suggested to the wife we walk to the Riviera since the weather was decent. She was not impressed, but complied. We made the two Vegas blocks, perhaps four regular city blocks, walk in about ten minutes without incident and were able to immediately check into the Riv.
After unpacking I went down to play craps while the wife rested. We were planning on going to see Saturday Night Live comedian John Lovitz at the Palms, but when I called to check on our tickets the box office said they were refunding for the show unless we wanted to see the Second City Comedian they had booked as a replacement, as John had had a heart attack over the holiday and was recovering. So, I resorted to playing craps for the night’s entertainment. The Riv was packed with players and I hadn’t seen it that busy for a decade. It was even busier than the M had been. I got into busy craps game and started jawing with some of my old dealer friends. I played for a couple hours and quit at a push. It was getting near dinner time so I went up to get the wife. We went down and had dinner at the La Salsa Mexican place in the food court. We’ve been going to that place since it opened and have never been disappointed when we were looking for a quick inexpensive Mexican meal. I really like their condiment bar with their salsas and stuff. After dinner the wife hit the slots and I headed back to the craps table. We still had a couple days and I had been drinking modestly, so I made a change. I started ordering Cognac neat. The waitress complied and kept me stocked for the next three hours. During that time the play was average, not good and not bad, but at some point things changed to the plus side. And as a matter of record, I was significant contributor to the cause. After a couple hours play I had two of the best back to back shoots that I can remember in some time. A portion of the other players did their part also, but I had the best shoots of the session overall. I played for about another hour until it started getting too choppy and I was getting wobbly, so I cashed out lower than my peak for the night, but still up over $1,100.
I went to bed satisfied and feeling no pain. The next day was another story. It was New Years Eve morning and I was hung over. I hadn’t had hang over in years and had forgotten how bad they can make you feel. I tried to sleep a bit more, but finally gave up and found some relief from the shower. The wife was surprisingly sympathetic. We went down to Kadie’s for breakfast and we had a good meal. It was nearing noon by then I decided to see what kind of VP they had there. I found a bank of four Super Times Pay/ multi-game machines and played a little. Later I played craps and lost my stake. By then it was time to get ready for the comp New Year’s Eve special invitation buffet. We dressed and went over to the convention hall for dinner. The food was good, and the event sort of reminded me of the last time we had a special meal at the Riv. The last time we had such a meal there was for the Riv’s 50th anniversary in about 2005. That was near the end of better times for the Riv and it seems to have struggled since then. It was nice to see the casino as busy as it used to be, even if it was just a couple days on one of the biggest holidays of the year. In talking to my dealer buddies they said that the casino was busier than last year, and that after the recent financial restructure and a new investor, that there was hope for the future.
After dinner we went up to the room to get our overcoats and my hat and prepared to go outside to watch the New Year’s Fireworks. About fifteen minutes before midnight they opened up the strip side doors just like they do in summer to allow easier street access. I had experienced the air conditioning over the doors during the summer and was pleasantly surprised to feel that the heat was just as effective during the cold weather. We huddled near the door with huge crowds waiting for the fireworks. At the moment of the evening, we walked out to middle of the street. In all our times to Vegas we had not yet been there over New Years, so this was actually something new for us. We turned back and forth to watch the shows with the Stratosphere to the north and various shows on the major strip casinos to the south. The fireworks were excellent, especially the unique ones from the Strat. Tried to take a couple pictures, but didn’t really capture the actual spirit of the moment. After the show we played some machines with no wins worth mentioning and then went to bed.
The next day I got up fairly early like usual considering we stayed up later than usual. It was New Years day and I was happily hangover free. I still had most of the money I had brought on the trip, but wasn’t ahead for the trip. I had plenty of time before we left so I decided that I would play until I had a win for the trip or lost. There was a decent looking early craps game going, so I got in. From there I literally never saw a single point made and it wiped me out in short time. I took my coffee and went to play VP for a while. I had a couple hundred win after a while so I headed back to the craps table. All new players, so it was bound to be different than earlier right? Wrong, about the same situation, no one could hit a number and I was wiped out and leaving the table a few minutes later. Before I left the table I arranged with our host while he was near the pit for a late check out to match our flight, he also offered to take care of all our food and incidentals and I was obliged as the Riv always has always done well for me for the last couple decades. By then it was breakfast, so I headed upstairs to get the wife. I told her about the late check out and we headed down to Kadie’s for another nice breakfast. After breakfast I figured three’s a charm and headed to the craps table for another round before we left. Wrong again, and I lost my ass again. After that I headed to play some VP with no real success there either. I headed up to the room, packed and then checked out without any charges. We caught a cab to the airport and headed home.
To recap the trip’s gambling, I had some decent Vegas craps wins until the last day. I lost on board ship which is typical. In Vegas I hit one 4oak with a kicker on VP, but not a single royal during the trip. This is the first trip since I started playing VP in earnest that I didn’t hit at least one royal during a trip. Despite the lack of wins, I had the most fun playing machines downtown because of the variety, and at the M because of the newness of machine models. I enjoyed craps the most at the Riv, mostly because of the remainder of the long time group of dealers there that I have known for over two decades. The M craps game was my second favorite mostly due to the quality of players, and the general lack of riff raff, followed by the GN’s game. As for foreign gambling in the Caribbean, I believe one can find some decent action, as long as overall expectations are adjusted. And like usual, the worst gambling by a number of my measures is found is on board ship, no matter what line. Overall I had a couple good Vegas runs, but never was significantly ahead for the trip, and couple not so good runs. Too bad I couldn’t have quit on a win, but you never know when things are going for or against you until after the fact. And I didn’t come to Vegas to sit in my room for the last day or so and watch tv after winning a bit. I had had a good run at times, and had lots of action and fun along the way for the trip. We were in three states, five countries, and about three dozen casinos over a three week period. I still had money in my pocket when we headed home and didn’t use any credit for the trip, so it was a good trip all things concerned.
Will answer some questions related to the trip if requested, otherwise done until spring.
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