It's been several trips since I have written a report. As I have
enjoyed reading other's reports, it seems only fair I take the time
to reciprocate.
Flew out of Milwaukee on time (5:30pm) on 7/2. This trip was
actually for work, but my "work" was for one day in Henderson on
7/6. I decided to get there four days early to make a mini-vacation
out of it. I have played at GVR several times, but never stayed
there. The job I had to do was just 3 miles away from GVR, and
being a room snob, and the fact they have lots of good vp... it sure
seemed like the perfect place to stay. Three weeks earlier I had
called and spoken to a host (not one from the recommended vpfree
list - they were off when I called and I was too impatient to call
back). He was nice and said he'd bring me in at casino rate and
review my play at the end. As this trip was work related, I wasn't
looking for everything to be comped... just my food and room from
7/2 - 7/4. I also needed a reduced rate for 7/5 and 7/6 as my boss
would have a fit if I charged the company for a suite.
As I planned to stay and play at GVR, I saw no reason to rent a car
as I normally do. The host had assured me that a cab would be less
than $20. There is construction going on at GVR and the cab driver
ended up going around the place 1.5x to find the inlet to drop me
off (meter running of course). Cab ride = $27 including tip. Ok, I
coulda rented a car. Oh well.
The bellman took my luggage and I attempted to check in. Gehrig
was working at registration (won't forget his name) and got all my
info and handed me keys. I asked if the room he gave me was a
suite. "Nope." I kindly said that my host had guaranteed I'd have a
suite. "I don't care what your host told you, this is what the
computer says... so this is what you get," were his sarcastic words
to me. I had read that the service here was terrific... so this was
not at all what I expected. Not wanting to start off getting worked
up, I took the keys and went to my room. It was indeed a standard
room. Don't get me wrong, the rooms are very nice, but this is not
what I had asked for. It fell far short of my expectations. I left
immediately and went to the casino to find the host.
You cannot see a host at GVR in their offices as they are off-limits
to the public. You must meet them somewhere. The players club
summoned Joey for me and about 10 minutes later he arrived. He looks
Italian, was well-dressed, and very handsome. We shook hands and I
told him what had just happened. He was clearly angry and asked if
I could give him a "little" time to sort this out. He said he'd
call me on my cell "soon." My commrade and I decided to kill time
playing for awhile. I had zero intention of playing the first
night. I'd been up for 17 hours and was exhausted. We lost $500
playing 25c and decided to eat at China Spice. Just as we finished
eating, Joey called. He was very apologetic for Gehrig's rudeness
and that my room had been given away. He asked me to stay in the
room I was assigned and said I could have the suite the next
afternoon. I thanked him for trying and went back to the room.
We took the leftovers with us as the food was delicious. The
portions were huge and the service was excellent. Called the desk
and requested that a refrigerator and the luggage be brought to the
room. The refrigerator showed up about an hour later. I fell
asleep waiting for the luggage. Another hour later, it finally
arrived. No clue why it took 2 hours to deliver luggage. Not a
good start to the trip.
After four hours sleep I was up and getting ready for the day. I
hate switching hotels or rooms.. I always like to get "settled."
After my shower, I found out the hair dryer didn't work. Another 30
minute wait. Ugh. Down to have breakfast at Original Pancake
House. The food portions are obnoxious. As my commrade said, "The
food wasted at this tiny restaurant alone could feed a small
country." Good service and delicious food. I was disappointed that
the coupon for this restauant in the POV Book is listed unter "O"
for Original Pancake House instead of under GVR. I didn't even see
the coupon until the last day of the trip (too late to use). Stupid
place to put it IMHO.
After several hours of play, the room was ready. A bellman came and
moved the luggage about 10 rooms down. This room was actually not
alot different from the regular room. A bit larger with a
seating/couch area, a larger closet and bathroom, and a very nice
pool view. Still not what I had envisoned, but acceptable. The
room was very loud as there is a pool party on Sundays at the GVR.
Joey had offered up a cabana for the day, which I declined. The
music was not to my taste, so headed back for more play. At this
point I will tell you that beverage service at GVR is terribly
inconsistent. Be prepared to be very thirsty while playing there...
or do what I did... I took my own Diet Cokes down with me ALL the
time.
Got back to the room about 10pm and was surprised to see the most
incredible tray of fruit I have ever seen. It was huge and the
fruit was so perfect it looked fake. I didn't know if this was
standard treatment for a suite, or if Joey sent it as an apology.
We nibbled at the fruit for the next 3 days - it was truly the
highest quality, most delicious fruit I have ever eaten. A welcome
treat too as our diets on vacation tend to include little/no fruit.
About midnight I decided to hook-up and check emails ($12.95 for 24
hours). I was just about to log off and head to bed at 1:45am when
the warning system went on. There is a loudspeaker in the room and
this warning was BLARING loud. Over and over and over, the same
message. I noticed many families with small children at this hotel
and couldn't help but think what a horrible time those parents must
have been having with their small children. Approx. a half hour
later it ended. Five minutes later, it started again. 10 minutes
later, it was over for good. Not being able to sleep with that
going on, I took the next 2 hours and wrote an email to Joey about
all of the disappointments I had encountered. I had no clue if he
even read emails (many hosts I'm told don't).
Normally I get great sleep on these trips (8 hours or so), but
again, I was up 4 hours later. Today was the 4th and the place was
hoppin. Actually, the whole weekend was very busy. Played at GVR
all day.
Picked up a rental car on the 5th and headed to Wynn. I wanted to
put 500 points on to see what offers it might bring. Played $1 & $2
JB till I had 600 points. Had to ask for a cocktail waitress after
a good half hour had passed. She came back regularly after receiving
a good tip. Ended + $200. Dumped $100 of that in a Double Diamond
so as not to "look" like just a vp player. Walked around and was
unimpressed overall. Clearly, loads of money was spent building
Wynn, but the decor was not to my personal taste. My commrade had
to fly out that night, so we purchased a corned beef, coleslaw, and
dessert from Wynn's deli for his flight home. He said the sandwich
was so horrible and dried out that he threw it away on the plane
(the sandwich cost $9.95). It wasn't until I got home and went
through my receipts that I saw that the deli had added their own tip
to the bill. I have never had that happen anywhere before (except
in restaurants with a party of 8 or more). Very disappointing. If I
do get an offer and stay there, I will speak to someone there in
person about the sandwich and the tip.
I went to (real) work on 7/6, played that evening till midnight and
checked out on the 7th. Joey was off that day and told me to just
leave the bill open and call him to review the bill by phone.
VP Notes:
I played $1 DB and DDB almost exclusively. Best hands:
25c = 4 Aces $200
$1 = 4 Aces 5x at $800 for $4000
$1 = 4 Aces w/ kicker $2000
$1 = RF $4000
The RF was a huge surprise. My last 4 trips to Vegas have been very
negative. I was down $2000 for this trip and was disgusted with how
bad the day had been going. The nice woman next to me was playing
LD. The recent discussion of LD is ironic. Out of disgust, I
switched from my normal favorites and decided to give LD a whirl. I
have played less than 1000 hands of this game in my vp career. Less
than 5 minutes after switching to LD, I pulled 2 cards for the RF!
Wooohooo!!! My luck did a quick 180 and I continued to lose. End
of trip result: + $800
I spoke to Joey Friday night. Points accumulated were 56,940 (in 3
days) + 3000 points. One evening I did not insert my card correctly
and didn't notice it for about an hour. My commrade called a tech
for me who was very nice and reviewed the stats on the machine. He
put in for a credit to my account for 3000 points. That was good.
The bad part is, the computer recognizes it as a "gift" of points,
not points earned, so it does not count toward getting to the next
level card. I know better. My fault. We played on my commrade's
card on check-in and check-out day so as not to reduce daily
averages. Those points are not included here. I do not keep as
accurate records as many of you do, but I figure my "counted" coin-
in (due to the 3000 point error) was approx $110,000. Total comps
were $1100, so, about 1%.
I am headed back for 8 days in August (4.5 days attending a seminar
for work at Harrah's). I was thinking of stopping in at GVR to get
my card to the next level (3,060 points), but I don't know if it's
even worth it as an out-of-towner. It seems to me that GVR is much
like the Palms in that locals get much better offers.
Many thanks to Babe for sending the RF-Fairy to visit me on this
trip!
Side-notes: I played every machine in the rack by the cashier that
has 10-coin DB. Did horrible! I know my limited play means nothing
in the end, but that rack should have a "Hoover" sign over it : )
Also, Joey DID respond to my email just hours after I sent it. He
said he checks his email first thing every day at work. He said he
had sent the fruit as an apology and once again thanked me for being
so understanding. He was very nice to work with. I would recommend
him to others: Joey Szabo.
Correna Correna
Rental Car Addendum: I neglected to mention a disappointing
experience I had with Dollar rental car while in Vegas. On the day
of return, my colleage (who is never on time for anything) was so
late that we did not have time to refuel before dropping the car
back off at Dollar. We were charged (as expected) for refueling.
What I didn't expect was to be charged for 4 gallons having only
driven 47 miles. The following is a
letter I wrote to Dollar:
I rented a Dodge Stratus which gets an average of 25 miles per
gallon (according the the Dodge website)from your company. That
means I would have used approx. 1.9 gallons of gas as I put 47 miles
on the car according to the receipt. Had I been fairly charged for
an amount close to that, I would not be complaining. Clearly,
charging me for 4 gallons was fraudulent. Multiply that by the
outrageous price of $5.40 per gallon, and it is incomprehensible. My
complaint is not the price per gallon (no matter how outrageous,
this information is clearly given to the customer).
I do hope your company will reconsider the fraudulent practice they
currently use to overcharge unwary customers for gallons of fuel not
used.
Sincerely,
Correna Hurley
Dollar responded within 48 hours. They admitted no wrong-doing, but
say they are sending me a $20 gift certificate for my "trouble."