MONDAY 05/20
We had an early S/W flight out of Manchester N.H. from our home in Massachusetts.
A brief stop-over in Chicago, and we still landed in Las Vegas about 10:00 AM,
so this made our middle of the night (3:00 am) get-up worth it.
Everything moved swiftly from the tram, baggage claim and cab lines.
We arrived at The Orleans in no time at all.
Checked in, but had to wait an hour for a clean room.
No problem, it was because we requested a quiet floor, so the delay.
While we waited, we proceeded to gambled a bit ...... Well we are in Vegas, Right ???
Our traditional first session of gambling on every trip is to play
the Loose Deuces machines near the Alligator Bar,
........ BUT WAIT !!!!! ........ They are not here !?!?!
There was a bank of 8 of them here FOR YEARS.
Oh well, nothing lasts forever,
.......... so disappointed, we decided to play another of our favorite Video Poker games,
Triple Trouble Poker, which is located at the Crayfish Bar near the Casino Cage and Showroom area.
We didn’t receive a totally warm “Welcome to Las Vegas” greeting from these machines,
which in the past have been very kind to us.
However I did manage a small $100 hit.
Just about the time when we were about to move, Rock’n Rita looked behind us to her right,
and noticed the old Loose Deuces machines that we thought were taken away.
Aha !!!!!, they were only moved
However, now there were only six, ...... all in a row,
instead of the eight they used to have (4 back to back).
Happy as clams, we sat down and played, but after no luck and since we were VERY hungry,
we secured our room keys from the front desk, hurried up to room 2089,
dropped everything and hurried back down to the lunch buffet.
I can’t remember what exactly we ate,
but when we finished I commented that both of our plates were completely clean.
Man we were hungry.
Outside the buffet are Quarter Progressive Bonus Deuces.
We have been playing these machines for years also,
and we have each hit the Progressive Royal on them once each.
The Royal Flush was now at $1,299, so we played here for awhile.
Rock’n Rita started out very quickly with 5 Aces for $100, while I hammered away and lost.
In the afternoon we signed up for the Slot Tournament that we were going to play in.
then ventured to The Strip using The Orleans shuttle.
It now has The Strip pick-up and drop-off at the side of Bally’s way down on Flamingo Ave.
The only negative is that you have about 1/4 mile walk from there to The Strip.
It’s not that we don’t mind walking,
it’s just that those few minutes we would rather spend walking somewhere else
than this kind of “pre-walk, walk”. I’m hoping this is only temporary,
but then again, it’s better than no shuttle at all, that’s for sure.
We headed north to the Venetian, passing the casino formerly
called “Bill’s Gambling Hall and Saloon”, which was formerly called “The Barbary Coast”,
and which is to re-open as “Gansevoot Las Vegas”,
all boarded up and the outside adorned with graffiti and stickers.
Doesn’t anyone have any respect for the legend this place once was ?
We haven’t been inside the Venetian in a few years, and I wanted to check out Houdini’s Magic Shop again.
Before getting there we passed all the construction that is still going on with that LINQ project,
and you can see the base of that giant Ferris wheel taking shape,
especially from the shuttle stop on Flamingo Ave.
I hope this whole thing will be done by this October when we return.
It should be cool when it’s all finished.
We came upon Casino Royal and got the free coupons at the Players Club.
Our opinion, they were nothing great, but then again, others may find them of some value.
Then I remembered the old days here.
Does anyone remember when Casino Royale gave out those free Frozen Margaritas ?
........ you were hailed inside buy a sexy female voice over the PA
“Hey, …. It’s soooo hot outside. Why don’t you step inside for a freeee Frozen Margarita?”
We always did this, ........ Rock’n Rita got the Strawberry and I got the Lime,
It was very quick and easy, and the bartender even made a $2 tip.
From the Venetian we crossed over to the Mirage side of The Strip,
we headed south, and stopped in at Caesars.
We wanted to make sure our points still remained from the casino
formerly called “Bill’s Gambling Hall and Saloon”, which was formerly called “The Barbary Coast”,
and which is to re-open as “Gansevoot Las Vegas” lol
The boothling said that all points were transferred “automatically” by such and such a date.
However when she checked, both of our accounts showed zero points.
I “ballparked” a small amount of points which I believed to be accurate for each of us,
and they were added to our cards without any question.
Good customer service.
We continued to head south and stopped at the Bellagio.
They have Triple Trouble Video Poker there which we both like playing.
Last May we each hit Royals on those machines, but we haven’t hit a Royal since.
With not much luck on Triple Trouble, I started switching from game to game,
and was lucky enough to hit this Straight Flush on Joker Poker before cashing out.
We now headed for the Bellagio Buffet for supper.
It’s been a few years since we have eaten dinner here, and this time we were not as impressed.
It’s not a bad buffet, but in our opinion, not worth the $63.98 for two people.
In the area we were seated, I thought the service could have been much more attentive,
but as in all “reviews”, it could just be the day.
However I’m not complaining, ....... because in our case, this buffet was comped.
TUESDAY 05/21
Today, as every morning on this trip, we ate at The Orleans Breakfast Buffet.
This is one of our small, but always anticipated luxuries of our Vegas vacations.
Since we go to Vegas twice a year, I consider this my semi-annual “Bacon-Fest”.
Bacon, every morning, ........ Everyday !!!!!
We played in the morning session of the Slot Tournament at 9:30.
There were 220 entries, and after session 1, Rock’n Rita was somewhere in the middle of the pack,
while I had the dubious distinction of being in 220th place. That’s LAST PLACE ?!?!?!
Can you believe it ???? ........ DEAD LAST !!!!!!
That’s definitely not me, as I consider myself an extremely competitive person.
Well I’ll fix that during the afternoon session, but for now,
let’s attack that bank of Progressive Deuces again that is now up over $1,500
Rock’n Rita was the first to hit 4 Deuces this trip.
Here she had two nice hits only 6 minutes apart (the new cameras tell you everything),
For $250 and $100.
I moved on to play some Joker Poker (KOB).
Here I hit a nice inside straight for $500.
I switched to a game called Double Bonus Deuces Wild and hit a Wild Royal for $250.
Then I hit 5 Fours for $500.
Come 1:30 pm and we were ready and seated for Slot Tourney session #2.
Rock’n Rita was still holding her own at the end,
and I’m guessing she’s probably still in the race, and was hopefully now in the money,
......... probably up out of the $25 range and more like in the $50 group.
Me, ........... I had another horrible session. I mean how bad can one do ???
...... well that’s me. I am still buried in last place.
I honestly think if a toddler was hitting those buttons, he would have received a higher score.
We did some pool time, relaxed and were now ready
for one more session at those Progressive Deuces before dinner.
The Progressive Royal was now close to $1,700 !!!!!
Here I just held one Deuce, and $250 popped up.
This evening we ate at the Prime Rib Loft in The Orleans.
Tonight I’m a a little hungrier than usual,
so I ordered the Stuffed Crab Mushrooms (all mine since Rock’n Rita doesn’t like mushrooms).
I had my usual Gin Martini, and we both had Prime Rib (medium),
baked potato and salad, and somewhere along the way I had a White Zin.
After dinner, we split up, Rock’n Rita determined to hit those Progressive Deuces for the Royal,
while I gambled in the casino near the food court.
I hit a nice straight flush on Joker Poker.
Six minutes later (again according to the data on my camera for the next picture), my phone rings;
Hold On, I’m Coming ~~~ Hold On, I’m Coming
Oh, that’s my phone ringing.
I have that classic song by Sam and Dave as my Ringtone.
I continue to play video poker while talking on the phone.
This is not the most intelligent thing to do,
but I guess it’s kind of like talking on the phone while driving.
You know what’s happening, it just doesn’t have all of your attention.
Me: ........... “Hello”
Rock’n Rita: ........... “I just hit 4 Deuces” (sorry no pic here, as we weren’t playing together)
Me: ........... “Very Nice. That’s twice already. Keep it up”
Rock’n Rita: ........... “Yada, yada, yada”
Me: ............ “Yada, yada, yada”
Rock’n Rita: ........... “Okay, bye. I love you”
Me: ........... “Bye, Love You”, ................... “HEY I JUST HIT A ROYAL”, . “Hello?, Hello???”
She hung up, so I immediately called her back.
She was kind of bothered, wondering why so soon after she hung up, that I was calling back;
Rock’n Rita: ........... “Yeassssssssss???? ”
Me: ………. “I just hit a Royal”
Rock’n Rita: …………… “What !?!?!?!”
Me: ........... “Yeah, Just as you were hanging up, I was hitting draw, .... and hit a Royal !!!”
WEDNESDAY 05/22
Day two of Bacon-Fest.
We are eating these gig-normous breakfasts, and then don’t look at food all day until dinner time.
Well except the day we went to the movies and had the free popcorn coupons,
which btw are pretty good size bags,
or if I had a Frozen Margarita at the pool with my favorite snack, Reduced-Fat Cheez-its.
Anyone have the bartender skewer a couple of those large green olives
and add them to your Margarita ?
I find that the saltiness of the olives compliments the lime taste really nice.
Today was day two (final day) of the Slot Tourney.
I was determined not to finish in last place. I have my pride you know.
So at the 9:30 session I banged away at those buttons for 15 minutes,
while Rock’n Rita did the same a couple of rows over,
........ three sessions, and we never played in the same row together.
Since we had an early slot session, we had a lot of time between now and the Awards Banquet,
so we hung out by the pool for a couple of hours then shuttled it to The Strip.
Since the drop off is way back at Bally’s, which at that point is near the monorail,
We decided to take it to the MGM, saving time and energy.
Then we would walk back north from there.
At the MGM we wanted to play that “famous” Lion’s Share progressive slot machine.
Well there is this lady on it.
I observed that she had about 57 credits showing,
and was hitting the spin button about once every two minutes.
I suggested to Rock’n Rita that we should go shopping to use our points
that were put on our M-Life Cards on Monday, then return,
hoping the Lion’s Share machine would be available.
Now maybe someone can help me out here........
We tried at 2 or 3 places at the stores in the MGM (even their logo shop),
and they didn’t allow you to pay with the points from your card.
I was told that they can only be used for food, lodging, and/or something else.
Does anyone know what the story is with points on an M-Life Card ? (thanks).
While walking through the MGM we saw this sculpture of David Copperfield.
I don’t know how many of you have ever seen this.
One thing about Vegas is that there is always something interesting,
almost around every corner. We are always seeing something new,
or something that we have never seen before.
So now we trek back to casino, and the woman is still sitting at the machine
with just about the same number of credits showing.
Notice I said “sitting”.
I asked her politely if she was playing it, and she said yes.
Then I said, “but you’re not”, ........ so she hit the button,
then she just sat there doing nothing again.
I complained, and the floor personnel ruled that as long as she
has money in the machine, it’s “being played”.
Of course she hit “SPIN” a little more often when they were watching.
........... So we never played that machine
Oh well, it will just be a bigger Jackpot when we return to hit it in October.
BTW, If anyone noticed a steamy contrail moving north on The Strip that day,
it was the smoke coming from my ears as Rock’n Rita smartly and swiftly
escorted me out of the casino and onto the sidewalk.
We then stopped in M&M’s World.
Although I seldom buy anything here, it’s cool to see all the fun stuff.
From there we walked through the gauntlet of Time-Share Hawkers,
Super-Heroes, Porn-Slappers and Elvis Impersonators,
finally making our way up to and through the Paris, to Bally’s and to the shuttle.
Got off at the Gold Coast and played for a spell, both earning a free buffet voucher,
which is good until the end of the year.
While “earning” points for the buffet (which I believe was 100 points),
we saw that if we each earned 300 points, we each would each receive a set of stereo headphones,
so we quickly racked up all the needed points by playing dollar Loose Deuces.
Rock’n Rita made about $100, but sadly neither of us found those 4 Deuces for $2,500.
The shuttle came quickly and we were soon back at The Orleans.
At 6:00 we attended the Awards Dinner, which was really very nice. ,
It featured great food, a live band, open bars, and Rock’n Rita’s favorite part,
......... large dessert tables full of specially made confections.
It was here that was posted the grim news, ........ I ended up in 211th place out of 220.
Rock’n Rita placed 111 out of 220 and just one place (30 points) out of receiving $25.
Nevertheless, this is always a fun event that we have attended for the last 3 years.
BTW, First prize for this tournament was $8,000 !!!!! ........ if anyone is still reading this report.
After all the eating, we were ready for more gambling,
........ after all it’s been a couple of hours now and we’re getting itchy.
Rock’n Rita had this super nice hit playing fifty cent “Triple Double Bonus”.
She hit four 3’s with a Deuce kicker for a quick $1,000 !!!!
Does anyone know why the black lines appear when taking pics of machines ?
As you can see, this picture I had to take more than once to get the paytable totally visable.
THURSDAY 05/23
Once again I attended “Bacon-Fest”, and after breakfast we both played more of the
Progressive Bonus Deuces outside of the buffet.
The Royal Jackpot must have been hit sometime Tuesday night (I believe)
because now it was nearing $1,500 again.
With no luck we meandered around the casino and settled on the STP by the Alligator Bar.
We were both playing Ten-Play, switching from DDB to Deuces Wild.
On these machines your choice of denomination is limited to only dimes or nickels,
and I was playing dimes. When I looked at Rock’n Rita's screen I saw that she was playing nickels.
I suggested that she should switch to dimes, but she didn’t want to.
Okay, ...... Well the odd thing was that earlier in the week she had commented how she
has never had a Royal dealt to her, or had ever drawn all five cards to a Royal.
Wouldn’t you know it, not long after I noticed her playing nickels,
she received a Royal after drawing ALL FIVE CARDS.
Although she only received $200 for this Royal, she did break her Royal-less streak.
Our Agenda today had us spending the afternoon and night Downtown.
We took the shuttle to The Strip and walked up to the front of the Paris
to get the Express bus Downtown.
Once on Fremont Street, we headed directly for the El Cortez, where we played for about 2 hours.
I played on just two machines, ....... my favorite Dollar Joker Poker (which pays $90 for 4 OAKS),
and another VP Joker machine prior to leaving just to run through my free play,
which I couldn’t use on the dollar Joker Poker.
This I cashed that out with a $30 profit to be pocketed in anticipation
of maybe taking a cab back to the hotel.
At the El Cortez, Rock’n Rita bounced from machine to machine not hitting much of anything,
while I sat at my lucky dollar Joker Poker hitting 4 OAKS 14 times (once on two consecutive hands).
I remember her saying to me, “You’re always lucky here, and not at Main Street Station,
and I’m always lucky at Main Street Station, and you’re not”.
This is very true, especially when she sits at that bank of quarter Progressive-Royal Loose Deuces,
which she has taken full command of in the past.
I finally cashed out with something in the range of $500 +/-, but can’t exactly remember.
I thought you would enjoy seeing this lucky hand. I only held a King, but still received 4 Jacks on the draw.
We walk up Fremont Street to the Four Queens,
where we got our free tickets at to see “Jay Bolan Acoustic Retro Rock Show” for later that night.
Then we stopped in the Golden Nugget. Rock’n Rita wanted to see the “Gold to Go” ATM Machine,
and right near it is the giant “Hand of Faith” gold nugget.
Then we proceeded to head straight for Main Street Station
where we planned on using the 2/1 LVA Coupon for their buffet.
I asked Rock’n Rita if she wanted to play first or eat, and since we were both hungry, we ate first.
This is the second time we’ve eaten at the MSS Evening Buffet.
The first time didn’t impress me that much, but this time it seemed better.
I think we both actually liked it better than the Bellagio Buffet we had on Monday night.
After all, when there’s fried chicken on the menu, ..... they have me at “This way please”.
Now on to gambling in Rock’n Rita’s lucky casino.
We decided to first play some quarter Deuces Wild machines that pay a whopping $750 for 4 Deuces.
Two trips ago we couldn’t find these machines, ...... then our last trip we found them,
but that area was blasting icy cold air from the air conditioner, which made it intolerable to sit there.
Apparently there was an AC problem or people complained,
because this time it was comfortable playing in that area.
I don’t think we were playing five minutes when I was DEALT the following hand for the $750.
This was the reason I wanted to play these machines,
.......... and not only was my 4 Deuces Jackpot dealt,
but I also broke my losing streak at Main Street Station
A little before 9:00 we were in the Four Queens to see Jay Bolan,
but a girl stopped us at the showroom door.
She told us that he was sick and had to cancel his show, ....... food poisoning.
Bummmmmer.
She was nice about it and gave us two tickets for any other night,
plus two free drinks for that night and two free drinks for when we return to the show.
Okay that’s fine with me. We’ll be back in October.
After a full afternoon and night Downtown,
we really didn’t feel like doing The Strip bus to The Orleans shuttle,
which included that walk to the Bally’s shuttle stop,
so we took a cab back with my $30 Free-play-profit from the El Cortez.
FRIDAY 05/24
Our last full day.
After another day of Bacon-Fest we exited the breakfast buffet,
and once again played the quarter Progressive Bonus Deuces together for a while,
I got a little bored, and moved to play the slant-tops behind them.
I was playing that Caveman Keno game for quarters just for a change of pace,
then played Joker Poker (KOB)
NOTE: All of the Joker Poker that I played was KOB.
I never play Joker Poker, 2 Pair, and although I wasn’t looking for it,
I actually never saw it on any machine this trip.
Now sitting next to me was a little old lady playing Bonus Deuces Wild.
She was playing ONE NICKEL at a time. That’s one nickel per hand.
Wouldn’t you know that within a short period she hit 4 Deuces for $10, and 5 Aces for $4.
She was alone and so I was being friendly and commented “Nice hit” to her for the Deuces.
She wasn’t all that excited about the win,
but was kind and replied that the $10 win was not all profit,
as she already put $5 into the machine.
Today was opening day nationally for the movie “The Hangover III”,
and since we were staying at The Orleans which has movie theaters on the premises,
it was a good opportunity to go.
We also had those free popcorn coupons that we received at Check-in.
We actually saw “The Hangover” (which was set in Vegas) at the same theater when it first came out.
So this is cool that we are now seeing another Hangover movie,
which is also set in Vegas, while we are actually in Vegas.
What was also kind of cool was that there was a brief shot in the movie
of The Orleans from West Tropicana Ave, ..... and we are sitting inside watching the movie.
Don’t blink, or you’ll miss this scene.
BTW, we found the movie a little weird and corny at times.
I did find it entertaining though, mostly because it wasn’t long enough for me to fall asleep.
Rock’n Rita didn’t think it was that great at all.
The popcorn was really good though ..... Rick ~ Rita
Later Rock’n Rita and I ended up on our favorite Loose Deuce machines.
Neither one of us have hit 4 Deuces on these since we’ve arrived.
I’m now feeling extra lucky and overdue.
After a few minutes I hold just one Deuce, and the other 3 fall in like U.S. Marines at roll call.
Rock’n Rita figured all the luck was gone from the Loose Deuces machines and she soon up and left.
I then played some quarter 5 play DDB on the machines behind me,
inserting my TITO from the previous machine.
I had some pretty good hands early here, and at one point had my credits just shy of $1,000,
but was never able to get to that magic number.
SATURDAY 05/25
We have a 1:35 pm flight out, ......... time to leisurely have the last Bacon-Fest breakfast,
then play for a bit, pack, and head out for the airport.
It’s always sad, but we know that we had another great Vegas vacation.
We gambled many hours, relaxed by the pool a lot, walked the famous Las Vegas Strip,
ate and drank to our heart’s content, each hit a Royal Flush,
...... and were so occupied with everything that we never even turned the TV on.
While sitting in the airport, we do like to play video poker while waiting to board.
This time was no different, so I sat down and inserted two $20’s,
playing some quarter Triple Bonus game ............... Lost my $$$.
Inserted $40 more, playing different games, ......... Lost my $$$.
Inserted another $20, ....... Lost that too.
Now I throw in a $100 bill, playing Bonus Deuces, and switching to .50 cents.
I played this down to my last hand, making me now down $200,
when I hit 5 Aces for $200 !!!!!!, ....... AND IMMEDIATELY CA$HED OUT,
I felt VERY lucky that I dodged a bullet,
and that I was able to break even at the airport just minutes before boarding.
It’s always hard to leave Las Vegas, but we know that we will be back again.
This was the 25th trip that we have taken to Las Vegas together.
As we take off, we pass by The Orleans for a goodbye wave,
then do a huge 180 and cross directly over the northern end of The Strip.
The “above 10,000 feet” announcement was made,
so I was able to break out my and snap a couple of cool pictures.
GOODBYE LAS VEGAS ..... See you again in October.
We arrived at our house in Massachusetts about midnight.
It was windy, rainy and 40 degrees.
Thanks for reading.
I hope you enjoyed our Trip Report.
Rock’n Rick and Rock’n Rita
