I'm not much for trip reports so I'll make this as brief as I can:
Palms: stayed during the lingerie night promotion. My host coded me for the promo. Didn't know what it was but it had $50 of FP plus tickets to event. Asked them to change it to another promo that had $250 FP which they did. While playing, saw all these people coming in barely dressed in lingerie (mostly women), must have been a parade of a couple hundred for an hour. Realized then that the event was for locals & it must have been some sort of best costume contest. A friend of mine said he would have taken the tickets.
M Resort: first time to stay here & it won't be the last. Definitely like the rooms & the buffet. I'm not much for buffets but I do like this one. The owners of the M were the ones who built & owned the Rio so the excellent buffet is a throwback to the glory days of the Rio. The rooms are European-style. Room key needs to be inserted in order for lights to work. Bathroom mirror has a section which is actually a TV so you don't miss your favorite programs. My room made great use of natural lighting.
Stratosphere: usually stay in a suite but didn't want to wait for one to be ready so I think I was put in some sort of semi-suite. One thing I like about staying here is they always stock the refrigerator with water & soft drinks. (One time the room had a full-size refrigerator -- no it wasn't full of stuff, just drinks.) $250 FP
Silverton: this is my "home" casino as I used 2 offers for a 4-day stay & $600 FP. Standard room & not much to report except that they seem to be doing well.
During Palms stay, talked to front desk person who said she was working only 1 day/week. Said she wouldn't make it if she wasn't married. During rest of trip talked to other employees & found out that many were working short hrs & even with 2 jobs, they didn't have 40 hrs. Nevada's unemployment rate is 15% but with underemployment in Las Vegas, the people I talked to think it's closer to 20% in LV.
I've cut back on my LV trips in the last 2 yrs so this was an unusually long one for me. Part of it was to help family with show tickets & meals but I was in for a nasty surprise when I tried to get show tickets during the week. A couple of years ago, it was no problem to get weekday tickets to many shows. Now many of those shows are performing only on weekends. It's like a lot of the restaurants are also open on weekends -- Fri-Sat, many on short hrs on Sun.
Gambling: nothing to add to database, except that I think all the positive machines are gone from Statosphere. At the last minute, I did get into a $10K BJ tournament at the El Cortez. Don't know if I've reported on EC before but it's not the EC of 10 yrs ago where I was wary of going there. They've cleaned the area up & have more security. Have only stayed there once (in a nice retro suite) & have to say that I should have listened to Babe a long time ago. Although my gambling hasn't been positive, my feelings about EC are. If you look at last week's issue of Gaming Today, you'll see a good reason for avoiding slots on the Strip -- slot holds have gone up significantly on the Strip.
In general: haven't stayed on the Strip for over a yr now & the new casinos, M & South Point are 2 good reasons not to. You avoid the congestion & have a better overall experience. The one exception that I'll make is the Wynn. With Ritz-Carlton gone, it now has the best service levels in LV.
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