Hey Gang,
This TR will be a departure for me, as I'll be doing it in topic
format, rather than in the loquacious minute-by-minute style I
normally use. It's just been too long to remember alot of the
minutiae of the trip. After the next trip, I'll probably go back to
the other style.
Transportation:
My flight was Southwest, ALB to LAS, non-stop both ways. Excellent
flight. CC's flight was Spirit, DTW to LAS, non-stop, and she
upgraded to Business Class for $40 each way. I'd have drank the cost
of the upgrade in free booze, but she did not. Oh well. Both flights
on time or early. Car rental at Dollar with Fastlane. Excellent
service, and since they were out of intermediates, we took a PT
cruiser with no upcharge. Having a car on this trip was excellent,
since CC had a bum ankle. Only complaint was that Aladdin's valet was
often full, so we had to use the parking garage, and it's a haul to
the room from there. I think they have a small lot on purpose, so
more people have to walk through the mall. Strip traffic was on the
light side, about 22 minutes from Mandalay Bay to the Strat.
Hotel Rooms:
We had to change halfway through the trip, since we each made
reservations to score the best rates. The room for the first two
nights was high, but South Strip view. This was still a nice view,
but we scored a high Bellagio view (North Strip) room when we
switched. Both rooms were excellent, as always. I still maintain that
these standard rooms are the best on the Strip, with the possible
exception of the Venetian -- I've never stayed there. Without a
doubt, they are better than the Bellagio and the Mirage, at least to
me.
Gambling:
Lots of numbers in this section, skip it if you don't like that.
Because CC had the major bankroll for this trip, we played mostly
slots. Had zero luck at Boulder and Sunset Stations, Ellis Island,
and the Flamingo. The Jeff Foxworthy slots, which we thought we'd
like, were terrible -- you have to pay extra just to be eligible for
the bonus round, if you happen to hit it. Ridiculous concept. The
MASH slots are boring, which was a downer for me. We had moderate
luck at Aladdin, with lots of up and down. There, we enjoyed the
Kenny Rogers Gambler slots, hitting a couple $100 wins, the Let's
Make a Deal slots, hitting the big deal for a $120 win, the Three
Stooges slots, the Young Frankenstein slots, and the Hollywood
Squares slots. I still love Press Your Luck, but we got killed on
them this time. The Palms, Gold Coast, and Hard Rock treated us well,
giving up numerous $50-75 wins. Ironically, we had our best luck at
Bellagio, hitting a Price is Right slot for $308 and a Leprechaun's
Gold slot for $160. I also had my only reel slot win there, hitting a
$1 Double Diamond for $100. The only video poker I played was "Big
Red", the $1 9/6 JoB at Aladdin I hit a couple quads and cashed
ahead $50 after 2 hours of play and 6 Newcastles.
The only table games I played were in the use of matchplays, mostly
blackjack of course. Here, I had mixed, but below-average luck. At
Ellis Island, I lost 8 in a row and went 4-for-15 for the trip. At
Terrible's, I went 1-for-4. The Hard Rock and Key Largo treated me
marginally better, I went 3-for-6 at Imperial Palace, and I
maintained my perfect record at Bally's and Paris, cashing in on 2
$10 Casino Player MPs. I'm now 8-for-8 there.
Numbers-wise, I ended up plus-168, winning $102 on Freeplay, (only)
$66 on MPs, losing $24 on slots, VP, and video BJ, and picking up $24
in cashback. The wins identified above were on CC's bankroll. Her
coin-in total was about $10,500 over 6 days of play -- $4800 at
Aladdin, $3000 at Bell'agio, $1300 at Gold Coast, and the balance at
the Stations, the Palms, and a small amount at Ellis Island. She lost
about $350, a return of over 96% -- definitely a good trip on the
slots, considering we played mostly nickel videos.
Comps and Coupons:
Though CC lost $350 gambling, she received a discretionary room night
comp, valued at $99, $31 in cashback, and a free dinner buffet at
Aladdin, worth $22. Her comp total was $152, with $142 coming from
Aladdin. If we figure a theoretical 8% loss at slots, she received
37% of theoretical back in comps, and I figure this to be pretty
close to what we deserved. She also was hosted right away, and we've
been comped one night up front for our upcoming trip in April.
Anyway, an overall $200 loss for 6 nights made her very happy. As
indicated above, I received $24 in cashback, not all earned on this
trip.
I was very successful with freeplay coupons, and CC did pretty well,
too. I was able to use another Palms POV and another Hard Rock POV,
to my surprise. As far as MPs, I was easily able to use 3-4 a day at
Ellis, 2 a day at Key Largo, and several each trip to the Hard Rock.
Terrible's limited me to one per day, and I was able to play six in
my one trip to the IP. CC scored a free buffet, a free hat, and a
nice paperweight for getting to successive point levels on her
account, and we hit their scratch card game several times for $5 and
$10 freeplay amounts.
Meets and Dining:
On Sunday, we met Patti and her friend at the Petrossian Bar in
Bell'Agio, and we had a very nice time chatting for a couple hours.
Patti, I don't care if you were tired, it was wonderful to meet you.
I had a nice chat with an older woman at the fountains before CC
arrived. Apparently, she frequents these boards but doesn't post. If
you're out there, we chatted Wednesday night, December 10th, shortly
after the Con Te Partiro performance, and I thoroughly enjoyed
meeting you. The night I played VP at the Aladdin, I also chatted at
length with the gentleman playing before me. I noticed he had
Dancer's cards, and we talked about playing perfect strategy and the
Vegas boards. As above, if you're out there reading this, I enjoyed
our talk. Part of the greatness of Vegas is meeting people who feel
the same "pull" to our favorite city, and these two were no
exception. The only down note of the whole trip was the spontaneous
appearance of the Militant Jesus Freaks one night outside Bell'Agio,
placards and all. Of course, they showed their ignorance and bigotry
by verbally accosting a younger man, simply for his spiked haircut.
Sorry, guys, I think Jesus will smite you for this one. I especially
loved the one man's comment, "I'm suuuure you do drugs, too!!" If I
had the energy, I would have destroyed the group with logic, and
would have only lost a few IQ points in the ensuing battle of wits.
The truly sad part was that it was a group of nine, ganging up on
one. I doubt Mr. Righteous would have been so bold if he was alone!
The dining highlight of the trip was definitely Ellis Island. CC and
I had four dinners out of six there, partaking of the sirloin special
twice, and the "king cut" prime rib twice. With my POV and ACG two-
for-ones, two complete steak dinners ran us $8, and two prime rib
dinners (12oz, I'd say) ran us $12. The sirloin is as good as
advertised juicy, tender, and flavorful, and easily as good as any
$15 steak I've had in this city! The prime rib was also good, fork
tender and complete with salad, veggies, potato and root beer for $8.
Three months later, CC and I still talk about how good the food was.
In addition, when you leave, they hand each diner a $5 MP, and these
can be used on any table. Unfortunately, we only went 2-for-8 on
those, but those freebies made the expected cost of our meals about
$3 for our steaks and $7 for the hunks of prime rib! Unbelievable. We
also ate at In-N-Out burger twice -- good as always the Gold Coast
buffet twice, the Aladdin buffet one night, Aladdin's Zanzibar Café,
and the Guadalajara at Sunset Station. In-between, I had several
excellent hot dogs at Barbary Coast, all for free, and all good. As
usual in Vegas, we didn't have a bad meal, and I gained weight.
Shows:
The Bell'Agio fountains were amazing as usual nine trips and I'm
not sick of them. The Christmas display at the Conservatory was
excellent, and we walked through it twice, taking lots of pictures.
We didn't catch any lounge entertainment, but we saw Wayne Brady,
from "Whose Line Is It Anyway" at the Paris. CC ordered the tickets
early enough to get fifth row, and the show was hilarious. I had low
expectations after seeing Ray Romano last January, but I laughed non-
stop. He is an amazing talent.
Thanks For Reading!!
Dave