Going to try and finish the trip here in part 2.
1/18- Got out at the usual time around 10. Headed out a little bit earlier today. Probably got on the road a little before 11. This time we headed out to North Las Vegas. We started out at Aliante Station. It's a nice place and not a lot of people around it. It was pretty dead inside. Ate at the buffet for lunch, and it was good! Best station buffet I have had. Did some gambling there, but did not end up being a winner. Next we headed to Red Rock Resort. It's a nice place, but like everywhere else I didn't end up winning here. Wife ended up leaving there $50 ahead. We ended up going to the movies there and saw True Grit. It was nice to get away from gambling for a little bit. We both enjoyed the movie. By the time we got out of there it was already dark and the drive back brought us some very nice views of the strip and surrounding area. Next we stopped at Texas Station. Another nice looking station casino. Lost as usual lol. Headed next door to Fiesta Rancho. It was another decent looking locals casino. Pretty dead inside there as well. Ate a little Denny's since we were still a bit full from the popcorn. We both ended up losing money at Fiesta. Next we headed downtown for a few hours. Parked at Main Street Station since parking is free. Played a little bit at Main Street Station. Mostly played Twilight Zone since I love that game. Ended up winning a little bit, but not much. Left something like $10 ahead. Walked down to the Fitz to play some blackjack. On the way down to the Fitz we encountered a homeless person. This is not that unusual, but what happened is an interesting story. He hit us up for change, which for once I actually didn't have. I told him I didn't have any. He got mad and said something a long the lines that yea well he would get the money anyways without my help, but thanks anyways. I was trying to be nice and I told him that I hope he does get the money. This did not sit well with him and now he just starts calling me names an swearing at me. At this point I have enough of this guy, and am tired of being nice. We are pretty much at the fitz now walking in and I turn to him and tell him hey look there is a McDonald's inside that has food..... but oh wait you need to money for that. He got really pissed and gave me the finger and just started letting the swear words fly. I just laughed and walked inside the Fitz... Played there a couple of hours and ended up even. The wife continued to play blackjack and I just walked around for awhile. Ended up playing some slots to kill time and was up and down. Ended up a little down overall. Wife was finally done and we headed back to IP around 4. Got some McDonald's breakfast on the way back and called it a night. I think this was the day where it ended up getting to 70 degrees
1/19- By this time the lack of sleep was catching up to me. Slept in a little bit later today. Got up closer to 11. Headed to Hard Rock to use a $25 off $35 Restaurant.com certificate at Lucky's 24/7. We ended up getting potato skins, two pepsi's, a personal size pepperoni pizza, and a bacon cheese burger to get to the $35. Had a lot of leftovers, but nowhere to store them. Ended up throwing a lot of it away After that we headed over to the Venetian so the wife could use the $25 free play coupon for new sign ups. I used it last year so I couldn't use it again. There were a ton of people here because of a convention at the Sands convention center. I ended up losing another $30 or so. Wife won a little bit off the free play. After that we decided to hit up Boulder Highway. Last year while we were out there we ran out of time and didn't get to Boulder Station. Got to Boulder Station in time for dinner. Since Aliante is a station casino and had a good buffet we decided to try the Boulder Station buffet for dinner. It was alright, but pretty disappointing compared to the buffet we had at Aliante. Did a little bit of gambling, but continued to lose. Station casinos were not generous to me at all. By this time it was already 8, and we headed back towards the strip. We had tickets to see Naughty Boys Hypnosis at 9 at the Clarion (Formerly Greek Isles). Got there around 8:30, and exchanged the vouchers for tickets. I think I got the voucher for like $2 from a Vegas 4 Locals auction. After getting the tickets we were told seating would begin in about 15 minutes. Saw that they had about 20 slot machines so we decided to play some slot to kill the time. Played Twilight Zone and ended up cashing out $15 ahead. The funny thing is that they have no ticket vouchers at Clarion. Everything is hand paid. At this point it was close to 9, and we headed to see if it was time for the show. Waited in what was no line at the box office waiting for the doors to open. Shortly before 9 someone came out and asked if we were here to see Naughty Boys. I said Yes, and then he told me one of them came down with a headache at the last second and the show is canceled..... Yea right! More like we were the only people with tickets, and they weren't going to perform for two people. He told us we could use our tickets from tonight for the Friday night show. I just said alright and we left. We didn't end up going back on Friday. Figured it was only a waste of time. Only out $2 for it anyways. After that we decided to take a short drive over to the Stratosphere. We have never been up on the tower at night. Been up there a couple times during the day, but never at night. It was only about a 5 minute wait to get up there. Used a BOGO free coupon for tower admission. It's really cool being up there at night. Took a lot of pictures and videos. Left there and headed back downtown. No homeless people stories from this night. Parked at Main Street Station again. This time we played mostly at Vegas Club. Played some slot and blackjack. Headed back to IP around 2. As you can see the nights are starting to get earlier. At that point we called it a night since we had to check out the next morning.
1/20- Woke up late at around 10:45 when checkout is 11..... ugh! Called down and was able to get a late checkout. They gave me until noon. This was at least enough time to shower and get the things together. Checked out at noon and took the stuff to the car. Packed the car and headed back down to the IP buffet and used another BOGO free buffet. Another decent buffet, but we were not as hungry today. After eating we headed down to Planet Hollywood since we were staying there for a night comped. Got there around 1:30 and checked in. Had no problems checking in. Our comped room was a Hollywood Hip Room. Asked for a high floor room, and got a 30th floor room. View was pretty crappy as you have to pay more for a strip view room. Room had nice beds, nice tv, nice walk in shower, and soaking tub. It was a nice room. We just relaxed and stayed in the room for awhile and charged the batteries some more. Headed out around 3:30 and just walked around Planet Hollywood for a bit before going over to MGM. Did a little gambling there, but not much to report. By this point it was about dinner time and we walked down to Gameworks. We had a $10 off $20 from restaurant.com to use. The place was dead with almost no one there. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be. Food wasn't that good. Don't think we will eat there again. Headed back to Planet Hollywood as we had ticket to see Marc Savard Mesmerized. Show was at 10, and was pretty full. It's a great show. This is our second time seeing it, and we loved it both time. Got out of there a little after midnight and just walked around for a little bit. Headed up to the room around 1 as we both were pretty tired. Watched some t.v. and went to sleep around 2.
1/21- Woke up around 9:30 and did the usual shower and get ready. Checked out at 11 and decided to go to Silverton. Never been there before so it was another new casino to check out. Had a coupon for some free play. Nice looking casino with a huge Pro Bass shop. Used the free play plus a little extra money and we were on our way. After that we headed to Ellis Island. We decided to try out Metro Pizza since we never have had it. Very good pizza! We had a coupon for Ellis Island to get $10 in free play, and you also get $10 for signing up. The problem was you had to wait 24 hours for it to activate. We did a little gambling anyways and left. We headed downtown as our last night was at the Fitz. Had Buy One Get One night free offer. I paid for Friday and got Saturday free. Even though we were leaving Saturday night I wanted to have the room all day Saturday. I just figured we would check out Saturday night when we left. No problems checking in and I asked for a high floor corner room. Got the second highest floor, but it was not a corner room and was not a King Bed like I had reserved. Called down, but was told the only King beds they had were in smoking rooms. I find this hard to believe, but oh well not a huge deal. We can survive with two full beds for one night. After that we headed down to Fremont Street. First stop was to Mermaids to get some hot dogs, and deep fried oreos. Saw a homeless man inside asking for change to buy a hot dog. This time we had some spare change and gave it to him. He eventually got enough money to buy his hot dog. After buying it security asked him to leave. Next we headed down to El Cortez to use our $10 free play coupon. Ended up doing alright at El Cortez and left a little ahead. Wife did decent there as well. After leaving there we walked down Golden Gate to use a coupon there. You could use $5 free play after 20 points or $25 free play after 100 points plus you got another $5 after 20 points as a new sign up. The first game I played was a Monopoly game and I ended up being up around $25 after that game. I already had 15 points at this point and just decided I would play to 20 points and take that free play since I would know I would walk away ahead. Played to 20 points and got the $10 in free play. Lost the free play quickly and left $20 ahead. The wife ended up playing until 100 points and got the extra free play money. She left $30 ahead. We then walked over to Vegas Club to use our $5 free play coupon. Not sure what machine I used the free play on, but it didn't take long to lose it. While waiting for the wife I played some quarter games and ended doing well on those. Left $40 ahead. Wife also left a bit ahead. We tried to go over to Plaza to use the $5 free play there, but the Slot Club Booth is closed during construction. It's a complete ghost town in there, and this was a Friday night! After all of that it was around 11 and we were hungry. We had a $10 food credit at the Fitz, and decided to just eat at their grill. I got chicken fingers, and the wife got chicken parm. Food was actually pretty good. At this point it was a little past midnight. We were both tired, but didn't want to go to sleep since it was the last night. We were seriously running on fumes though. We decided to go up and take a nap for an hour or so...... Yea that worked out well lol. One hour turned into the whole night! Oh well.
1/22- Woke up pretty early. Both of us got up before 10.... So much for booking Saturday so we could sleep lol. We both felt good though since we got a good amount of sleep. Did the usual showering and getting ready and got downstairs around 10. It was still fairly quiet around. Went over to Fremont to eat at the Paradise Garden Buffet using a BOGO free coupon. This is the second time we have had their brunch buffet, and we both like it. After that we did a little gambling and headed back over the the Fitz. Went upstairs and got our $10 free play coupon for the 4 Queens. Used the $10 and actually left a little ahead. Think I left around $30 ahead. Continued to play at different places on Fremont until we got down to the Califronia. we wanted to play some more blackjack, but everywhere was full. We finally found a table at the California and played there for the next few hours. It was a fun table with some nice dealers and fun people. After a couple hours I left a little bit ahead. Wife stayed a little longer and ended up losing a little bit. By this time it was already 5 and our flight out was the red eye at 10. We headed back to the Fitz to get our stuff packed up. Finally got our stuff ready and checked out around 6. Headed back to Ellis Island to use our $20 in free play before heading to the airport. I played a little bit of slots, but mostly video poker with my free play. I ended up turning my free play into $40. At least I am leaving the last place a winner lol. The wife also turned her free play into a winner. I think she won $20. Grabbed another slice of pizza from Metro Pizza and was on our way. After filling up the gas tank we had to stop at Jack in the Box for some tacos. The wife has a brother, and her parents who love the tacos from this place. We were told to get $20 worth of tacos in total. They are 2 tacos for $1..... So the order ended up being for 40 tacos lol..... I don't think they were all too happy about having to make 40 tacos but oh well. The cashier got snippy with me and when my order was ready she told me 40 tacos were a lot of tacos.... I responded by simply telling her they were for family members who don't live in the area and wanted us to bring some back. She comments back to me saying yea well they are cheaper at Taco Bell...... I have no idea what planet she is living on, but no they're not. I respond back to her by telling her Well like I said they're not for me....... If it was up to me I would gladly eat Taco Bell because I think they have better tacos..... She didn't say anything back. After that I grabbed the 3 bags of tacos and left. After leaving there we dropped off the car and took the shuttle to the airport. There was a lot of turbulence on the flight back, but nothing much to report about the flight back. Weather was in the mid 60's most of the trip, except for the two days it hit 70. Landed back in Detroit at 5 A.M. It was the whopping 12 degrees outside!
Here are some notes about the trip.
Even though North Las Vegas is statistically a better place to gamble it did not pay off for me. I did just as bad there as I do on the strip. Just my bad luck I guess. I usually do the best downtown.
Aliante Station is a pretty nice casino with a very good buffet. The problem is that it's pretty far out, and not really close to that many things.
There are still plenty of places that pay 3-2 for blackjack. Many of the places off strip do, and El Cortez downtown does. Even some of the machines with the "enhanced" animated dealers pay 3-2. Sahara has one of those machines that is also uses a single deck, but the payout was a crappy 6-5
I had no problems using any coupons from either LVA or ACG. I was asked for my ACG card a few times which I did carry with me. The wife didn't carry her card around, but they still let her use the coupons anyways.
Station Casinos hate me lol.... Alright they don't personally hate me, I just didn't find any good luck while I was gambling at them. Hopefully other people have better luck.
1/18- Got out at the usual time around 10. Headed out a little bit earlier today. Probably got on the road a little before 11. This time we headed out to North Las Vegas. We started out at Aliante Station. It's a nice place and not a lot of people around it. It was pretty dead inside. Ate at the buffet for lunch, and it was good! Best station buffet I have had. Did some gambling there, but did not end up being a winner. Next we headed to Red Rock Resort. It's a nice place, but like everywhere else I didn't end up winning here. Wife ended up leaving there $50 ahead. We ended up going to the movies there and saw True Grit. It was nice to get away from gambling for a little bit. We both enjoyed the movie. By the time we got out of there it was already dark and the drive back brought us some very nice views of the strip and surrounding area. Next we stopped at Texas Station. Another nice looking station casino. Lost as usual lol. Headed next door to Fiesta Rancho. It was another decent looking locals casino. Pretty dead inside there as well. Ate a little Denny's since we were still a bit full from the popcorn. We both ended up losing money at Fiesta. Next we headed downtown for a few hours. Parked at Main Street Station since parking is free. Played a little bit at Main Street Station. Mostly played Twilight Zone since I love that game. Ended up winning a little bit, but not much. Left something like $10 ahead. Walked down to the Fitz to play some blackjack. On the way down to the Fitz we encountered a homeless person. This is not that unusual, but what happened is an interesting story. He hit us up for change, which for once I actually didn't have. I told him I didn't have any. He got mad and said something a long the lines that yea well he would get the money anyways without my help, but thanks anyways. I was trying to be nice and I told him that I hope he does get the money. This did not sit well with him and now he just starts calling me names an swearing at me. At this point I have enough of this guy, and am tired of being nice. We are pretty much at the fitz now walking in and I turn to him and tell him hey look there is a McDonald's inside that has food..... but oh wait you need to money for that. He got really pissed and gave me the finger and just started letting the swear words fly. I just laughed and walked inside the Fitz... Played there a couple of hours and ended up even. The wife continued to play blackjack and I just walked around for awhile. Ended up playing some slots to kill time and was up and down. Ended up a little down overall. Wife was finally done and we headed back to IP around 4. Got some McDonald's breakfast on the way back and called it a night. I think this was the day where it ended up getting to 70 degrees
1/19- By this time the lack of sleep was catching up to me. Slept in a little bit later today. Got up closer to 11. Headed to Hard Rock to use a $25 off $35 Restaurant.com certificate at Lucky's 24/7. We ended up getting potato skins, two pepsi's, a personal size pepperoni pizza, and a bacon cheese burger to get to the $35. Had a lot of leftovers, but nowhere to store them. Ended up throwing a lot of it away After that we headed over to the Venetian so the wife could use the $25 free play coupon for new sign ups. I used it last year so I couldn't use it again. There were a ton of people here because of a convention at the Sands convention center. I ended up losing another $30 or so. Wife won a little bit off the free play. After that we decided to hit up Boulder Highway. Last year while we were out there we ran out of time and didn't get to Boulder Station. Got to Boulder Station in time for dinner. Since Aliante is a station casino and had a good buffet we decided to try the Boulder Station buffet for dinner. It was alright, but pretty disappointing compared to the buffet we had at Aliante. Did a little bit of gambling, but continued to lose. Station casinos were not generous to me at all. By this time it was already 8, and we headed back towards the strip. We had tickets to see Naughty Boys Hypnosis at 9 at the Clarion (Formerly Greek Isles). Got there around 8:30, and exchanged the vouchers for tickets. I think I got the voucher for like $2 from a Vegas 4 Locals auction. After getting the tickets we were told seating would begin in about 15 minutes. Saw that they had about 20 slot machines so we decided to play some slot to kill the time. Played Twilight Zone and ended up cashing out $15 ahead. The funny thing is that they have no ticket vouchers at Clarion. Everything is hand paid. At this point it was close to 9, and we headed to see if it was time for the show. Waited in what was no line at the box office waiting for the doors to open. Shortly before 9 someone came out and asked if we were here to see Naughty Boys. I said Yes, and then he told me one of them came down with a headache at the last second and the show is canceled..... Yea right! More like we were the only people with tickets, and they weren't going to perform for two people. He told us we could use our tickets from tonight for the Friday night show. I just said alright and we left. We didn't end up going back on Friday. Figured it was only a waste of time. Only out $2 for it anyways. After that we decided to take a short drive over to the Stratosphere. We have never been up on the tower at night. Been up there a couple times during the day, but never at night. It was only about a 5 minute wait to get up there. Used a BOGO free coupon for tower admission. It's really cool being up there at night. Took a lot of pictures and videos. Left there and headed back downtown. No homeless people stories from this night. Parked at Main Street Station again. This time we played mostly at Vegas Club. Played some slot and blackjack. Headed back to IP around 2. As you can see the nights are starting to get earlier. At that point we called it a night since we had to check out the next morning.
1/20- Woke up late at around 10:45 when checkout is 11..... ugh! Called down and was able to get a late checkout. They gave me until noon. This was at least enough time to shower and get the things together. Checked out at noon and took the stuff to the car. Packed the car and headed back down to the IP buffet and used another BOGO free buffet. Another decent buffet, but we were not as hungry today. After eating we headed down to Planet Hollywood since we were staying there for a night comped. Got there around 1:30 and checked in. Had no problems checking in. Our comped room was a Hollywood Hip Room. Asked for a high floor room, and got a 30th floor room. View was pretty crappy as you have to pay more for a strip view room. Room had nice beds, nice tv, nice walk in shower, and soaking tub. It was a nice room. We just relaxed and stayed in the room for awhile and charged the batteries some more. Headed out around 3:30 and just walked around Planet Hollywood for a bit before going over to MGM. Did a little gambling there, but not much to report. By this point it was about dinner time and we walked down to Gameworks. We had a $10 off $20 from restaurant.com to use. The place was dead with almost no one there. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be. Food wasn't that good. Don't think we will eat there again. Headed back to Planet Hollywood as we had ticket to see Marc Savard Mesmerized. Show was at 10, and was pretty full. It's a great show. This is our second time seeing it, and we loved it both time. Got out of there a little after midnight and just walked around for a little bit. Headed up to the room around 1 as we both were pretty tired. Watched some t.v. and went to sleep around 2.
1/21- Woke up around 9:30 and did the usual shower and get ready. Checked out at 11 and decided to go to Silverton. Never been there before so it was another new casino to check out. Had a coupon for some free play. Nice looking casino with a huge Pro Bass shop. Used the free play plus a little extra money and we were on our way. After that we headed to Ellis Island. We decided to try out Metro Pizza since we never have had it. Very good pizza! We had a coupon for Ellis Island to get $10 in free play, and you also get $10 for signing up. The problem was you had to wait 24 hours for it to activate. We did a little gambling anyways and left. We headed downtown as our last night was at the Fitz. Had Buy One Get One night free offer. I paid for Friday and got Saturday free. Even though we were leaving Saturday night I wanted to have the room all day Saturday. I just figured we would check out Saturday night when we left. No problems checking in and I asked for a high floor corner room. Got the second highest floor, but it was not a corner room and was not a King Bed like I had reserved. Called down, but was told the only King beds they had were in smoking rooms. I find this hard to believe, but oh well not a huge deal. We can survive with two full beds for one night. After that we headed down to Fremont Street. First stop was to Mermaids to get some hot dogs, and deep fried oreos. Saw a homeless man inside asking for change to buy a hot dog. This time we had some spare change and gave it to him. He eventually got enough money to buy his hot dog. After buying it security asked him to leave. Next we headed down to El Cortez to use our $10 free play coupon. Ended up doing alright at El Cortez and left a little ahead. Wife did decent there as well. After leaving there we walked down Golden Gate to use a coupon there. You could use $5 free play after 20 points or $25 free play after 100 points plus you got another $5 after 20 points as a new sign up. The first game I played was a Monopoly game and I ended up being up around $25 after that game. I already had 15 points at this point and just decided I would play to 20 points and take that free play since I would know I would walk away ahead. Played to 20 points and got the $10 in free play. Lost the free play quickly and left $20 ahead. The wife ended up playing until 100 points and got the extra free play money. She left $30 ahead. We then walked over to Vegas Club to use our $5 free play coupon. Not sure what machine I used the free play on, but it didn't take long to lose it. While waiting for the wife I played some quarter games and ended doing well on those. Left $40 ahead. Wife also left a bit ahead. We tried to go over to Plaza to use the $5 free play there, but the Slot Club Booth is closed during construction. It's a complete ghost town in there, and this was a Friday night! After all of that it was around 11 and we were hungry. We had a $10 food credit at the Fitz, and decided to just eat at their grill. I got chicken fingers, and the wife got chicken parm. Food was actually pretty good. At this point it was a little past midnight. We were both tired, but didn't want to go to sleep since it was the last night. We were seriously running on fumes though. We decided to go up and take a nap for an hour or so...... Yea that worked out well lol. One hour turned into the whole night! Oh well.
1/22- Woke up pretty early. Both of us got up before 10.... So much for booking Saturday so we could sleep lol. We both felt good though since we got a good amount of sleep. Did the usual showering and getting ready and got downstairs around 10. It was still fairly quiet around. Went over to Fremont to eat at the Paradise Garden Buffet using a BOGO free coupon. This is the second time we have had their brunch buffet, and we both like it. After that we did a little gambling and headed back over the the Fitz. Went upstairs and got our $10 free play coupon for the 4 Queens. Used the $10 and actually left a little ahead. Think I left around $30 ahead. Continued to play at different places on Fremont until we got down to the Califronia. we wanted to play some more blackjack, but everywhere was full. We finally found a table at the California and played there for the next few hours. It was a fun table with some nice dealers and fun people. After a couple hours I left a little bit ahead. Wife stayed a little longer and ended up losing a little bit. By this time it was already 5 and our flight out was the red eye at 10. We headed back to the Fitz to get our stuff packed up. Finally got our stuff ready and checked out around 6. Headed back to Ellis Island to use our $20 in free play before heading to the airport. I played a little bit of slots, but mostly video poker with my free play. I ended up turning my free play into $40. At least I am leaving the last place a winner lol. The wife also turned her free play into a winner. I think she won $20. Grabbed another slice of pizza from Metro Pizza and was on our way. After filling up the gas tank we had to stop at Jack in the Box for some tacos. The wife has a brother, and her parents who love the tacos from this place. We were told to get $20 worth of tacos in total. They are 2 tacos for $1..... So the order ended up being for 40 tacos lol..... I don't think they were all too happy about having to make 40 tacos but oh well. The cashier got snippy with me and when my order was ready she told me 40 tacos were a lot of tacos.... I responded by simply telling her they were for family members who don't live in the area and wanted us to bring some back. She comments back to me saying yea well they are cheaper at Taco Bell...... I have no idea what planet she is living on, but no they're not. I respond back to her by telling her Well like I said they're not for me....... If it was up to me I would gladly eat Taco Bell because I think they have better tacos..... She didn't say anything back. After that I grabbed the 3 bags of tacos and left. After leaving there we dropped off the car and took the shuttle to the airport. There was a lot of turbulence on the flight back, but nothing much to report about the flight back. Weather was in the mid 60's most of the trip, except for the two days it hit 70. Landed back in Detroit at 5 A.M. It was the whopping 12 degrees outside!
Here are some notes about the trip.
Even though North Las Vegas is statistically a better place to gamble it did not pay off for me. I did just as bad there as I do on the strip. Just my bad luck I guess. I usually do the best downtown.
Aliante Station is a pretty nice casino with a very good buffet. The problem is that it's pretty far out, and not really close to that many things.
There are still plenty of places that pay 3-2 for blackjack. Many of the places off strip do, and El Cortez downtown does. Even some of the machines with the "enhanced" animated dealers pay 3-2. Sahara has one of those machines that is also uses a single deck, but the payout was a crappy 6-5
I had no problems using any coupons from either LVA or ACG. I was asked for my ACG card a few times which I did carry with me. The wife didn't carry her card around, but they still let her use the coupons anyways.
Station Casinos hate me lol.... Alright they don't personally hate me, I just didn't find any good luck while I was gambling at them. Hopefully other people have better luck.
