DAY SEVEN: WEDNESDAY:
Day 7 of 8
PALMS 3X POINTS
I got to the Palms about 7:15 AM and planned to use the 3x points POV
coupon. In April when I was there, and I was playing $1.00 10/7
double bonus machines (100.17% payback), I racked up quite a few
points with the POV 3X points coupons. Now that I was playing the
better paying, full pay JW (100.646%) and that was only available at
the 25c level, accumulating a lot of points was not going to happen.
Still, I figured why not use the coupon since I was playing there
anyway. I had to play the first 45 minutes without the coupon because
the player's club did not open until 8:00 AM. Then I stopped and
signed up for the 3X points. After about a 2.50 hours of play and
being down quite a bit, I finally managed to hit a wild royal for
$150 and then things turned back in my favor. In the end, I left up
$100 and planned to return tomorrow morning to see about my triple
points.
BOUCHON BREAKFAST
Since we had not had anything but muffins, pastries and coffee for
breakfast since we'd been there, I decided it was time to get a full
breakfast. I read that Bouchon, an upscale dinner restaurant was
serving breakfasts until 10:30 AM. It is relatively new only open
about a year, but a renowned chef, Thomas Keller, who was named
America's best chef by Time Magazine operates it. He is also a
recipient of best chef awards from the James Beard Foundation. The
restaurant is located on the tenth floor in the Venezia tower in an
elegant dining room that overlooks a garden terrace with a fountain.
My wife had basic food of scrambled eggs, regular breakfast sausage,
and toast and I ordered the French toast. We both had coffee. The
coffee was reminiscent of the crappy coffee I got in Europe when I
ordered Café Americano, watered down expresso. My wife's eggs and
sausage were good but not much different or any better than you'd get
at any coffee shop (although she liked the potatoes). My french toast
was essentially a small piece of bread pudding with a few slices of
very thin apples on top. After looking at my small portion I decide
this was not going to fill me up, so I asked the waitress to bring me
a white (chicken) sausage. I buy chicken sausages in the supermarket
about once a month and cook them on the grill and they are delicious.
After I ordered the extra food, for some strange reason when we were
about halfway through with our meals they then decided to bring out
some breakfast rolls with butter and jam. I think they forgot to
bring them with the coffee or before the meal.
The sausage arrived and I cut a piece and put it in my mouth and I
nearly threw up. I couldn't swallow it or keep it in my mouth any
longer so I deposited back on the plate. It had the texture of cat
food or more specifically cat excrement and the taste of what I
imagine to be both mixed together. It was vile, very vile. Needless
to say, I told the waitress and she very thoughtfully took it off the
bill.
I think I'll try Denny's next time I'm looking for a hearty breakfast
or at least anyplace other than Bouchon. Au revoir Bouchon!
RUSSIA! EXHIBIT
We next headed downstairs to the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum display.
The exhibition changes about twice a year. This one was Russia! The
Majesty of the Tsars: Treasures from the Kremlin Museum. The room was
small and the display was limited and was unspectacular. My wife went
to the Egyptian exhibit there in April and liked it and we both went
to the Titanic exhibit in April at the Tropicana and liked it. This
one wasn't as good as the others.
MAC KING
I figured if I went to the Russian Exhibit, my wife might be more
inclined to want to go with me to the Mac King Show, since she's not
a big fan of magic shows in general.
I had a coupon from ACG that allowed for two free admissions with the
purchase of two $8.00 drinks. The show is rated as the best afternoon
show in Vegas. And it was really a nice little show. It was clean
enough to bring your kids but surely not sterile. He is as funny as
he is talented as a magician. And there is something nice about him.
I think he has a sincere humility. It's almost like he is embarrassed
to toot his own horn although he really has earned the right to. I
was entertained and pleased with the performance and my wife even
liked it and was happy that I dragged her there. You left feeling
good -- and we only had diet cokes.
FASHION SHOW MALL
After the show, we walked back to the Venetian to our room and then
decided to walk across the boulevard over to the Fashion Show Mall.
My wife looked around Nordstrom's since we do not have one where we
live, but couldn't find anything of interest. She then went to Fresh
Produce Sportswear another store that is not available in our area
and found something she "needed". By then it was about 6:15 PM and we
were both hungry after our late yet unfulfilling breakfast at
Bouchon. So we walked across the bridge across Las Vegas Blvd. to
Wynn.
WYNN BUFFET
Once we arrived in the casino area, I went to the player's club to
collect the two free buffets. I gave him my card and he loaded the
two buffets on there. He said when you get to the cashier at the
buffet, just give her the card and she'll swipe it and you'll be all
set. We found the buffet and there were quite a few people ahead of
us. So I asked the hostess how long it would be and she said about 15
minutes, and it was. The nice thing is on the side of the line there
are chairs, so that only one person is required stand in line while
the others in the party can sit, which my wife did. It was now about
7:00 PM.
Well this was the best buffet, foodwise, that I've every eaten at and
I've been to the Alladin, GVR, and the Bellagio buffets. The best
part was the lamb. They had both rack of lamb as well as individually
cooked lamb rib chops with less bone. The latter were cooked just
right, still hot, tender, and flavorful. One other unique item they
had was large chunks of smoked sturgeon. In addition, the mashed
sweet potatoes were very good. The asparagus were long thin fresh
stalks cooked perfectly: tender on the inside and slightly browned on
the outside.
The assortment and quality of the rolls was excellent as well. I
think I remember cranberry bread that was excellent. My wife had
swordfish and she said it was very good and she loved the asparagus.
She also had a nice looking salad. They also had shrimp but we
were "shrimped out" from previous meals. Neither my wife nor I like
crab, but the crab legs were massive and the woman sitting next to us
said they were the best crab legs she had ever eaten anywhere.
For dessert, I sampled a crème brulee which was excellent, some sort
of chocolate tort, pecan pie (which I shared with my wife) and a bit
of bananas foster. They also had a variety of flavors of ice cream
and other desserts as well. Everything was gourmet quality. Even the
lemonade tasted great. The only complaint was the tables were a bit
too close together, but it kind of worked to our advantage as we
began to talking to the two woman at the next table and we had a
really good conversation with them trading notes about the good and
bad places we each had been. It was comped, but even if I had to pay
the full price of $30 plus tax, I think it would be worth it to come
here one night.
HARD ROCK PINK TACO
After we ate, we planned to meet my brother at about 10:00 PM at the
Pink Taco at the Hard Rock which becomes a bar after 9:30 PM. It was
supposed to be Karaoke tonight after 9:30 PM. My brother loves to
participate in Karaoke and he had a few co-workers ready to jump on
stage with him. On the way over I stopped at Kinko's on Paradise and
printed Southwest boarding passes for tomorrow's flight. I got
two "A" line passes.
At the Pink Taco much of the music was dance/club music, so Karoake
was only offered on a limited basis. After being there an hour and
after having to throw the DJ a $5.00 bill, my brother was finally
allowed to get up there. He looked like Tony Orlando and Dawn up
there as two of his co-workers who were his backup singers were black
women. It was funny, but nobody was really paying attention. It
looked more like a pickup bar. Therefore, most of the people were
young singles looking to hookup. Since it looked like it might be at
least an hour before my brother would have an opportunity to get up
there again, we parted company about 11:30 PM
THE PALMS (WANNA BUY SOME ARIZONA DESERT LAND?)
Since it was our last night there my wife decided to give video poker
another chance. So we headed to the Palms. I found a 1c, 2c, 3c, 4c,
5c, machine that you could play one through 50 hands that had 9/6
jacks or better. I told her since her luck wasn't going well with
deuces wild to try this and to just play a penny at fifty hands per
play. That way she was only wagering a total of 50c per hand and
rarely would you lose the entire 50c because some of the hands would
win. Her luck didn't change but she played on $10 for quite awhile,
about halfway through a local guy sitting next to us and playing the
same machines starting giving us suggestions on "winning more". I
didn't agree with much of what he had to say, but I figured what the
heck she was losing anyway. He said to switch from Jacks or better to
Bonus Poker. He was adamant. So my wife did it. Next he said cut down
the number of hands to 25 but play 2c instead of 1c. To me that was a
neutral suggestion, so I told her to try it. The guy was an idiot,
but he was nice idiot and he was funny. And I figured if my wife
couldn't win at least this fool could entertain us.
Mr. Know-It-All kept having to feed his own machine a bunch of $20
bills while we sat next him and he kept depleting his credits, so if
you go by that anecdotal evidence I don't think he knew what he was
talking about. When he told her to go by the feel as to which cards
to keep, when it was clear what the best play was, that's when he
lost me. But he was so sure of himself that what he was telling her
was right, he almost had both of us convinced that multiple hands of
four aces or royals was just around the corner.
Then he introduces us to his buddy who mentions he is selling Arizona
desert land. Then he goes into his speil. I almost felt like I was
the fish in the Sting and these two guys were trying to reel me in.
He never came out directly and asked me if I wanted to buy some land,
but I could tell he was chumming the waters and waiting for me to
convince myself that I had to buy some now and I was going to ask him
if he would bestow the honor upon me of allowing me to buy some from
him. I wasn't biting.
Anyway, like the self-proclaimed VP aficionado next to us, we ran out
of credits and decided to get away from these two con artists. I went
to my JW machines on the opposite end of the casino and after a bit
of bad luck, I ended going up by $15. Since by then it was after 1:00
AM we decide it was time to leave.
DAY EIGHT: THURSDAY (FINAL DAY)
Day 8 of 8
MORNING MATCHPLAYS
About 9:00 AM, I went to the Sahara and with the player's club sign-
up got $10 in free Slot/VP cash. I ran it through and was left with
$5.00, which I cashed out. Next, I played a $5.00 ACG matchplay at
blackjack and lost. Next, with the a POV coupon I bought $50 worth of
chips for $40, After I ran through the $50 of non-negotiable chips
playing blackjack, I was only left with $25 in real chips. Since my
buy in was $40, I'm down $15. Next, I move on to Terrible's where I
play a couple of matchplays and end up $15. So, for the morning I'm
even.
TIME TO GO
We do express checkout and check our bags with valet. It's about
11:30 AM and we attempt to use the gift certificate at Grand Luxe
again. They have the full menu: hot and cold. I try the ribeye steak.
It was tender and flavorful with mashed sweet potatoes (for $26), and
my wife had half a pizza and a salad. With the tip, we use up the $50
gift card. We gas up the rental, pull into Dollar and are in and out
in about five minutes. We get to Southwest and do curbside bag check
in and then get through security. We arrive at the gate at about 2:00
PM for a 2:25 PM flight, but the flight is delayed until the 3:00 PM.
Sitting around I'm getting itchy and find some video poker machines
in the terminal. Is this where I lose it all back? I invest $5.00 in
crappy airport video poker and lose $5.00 and quit. I head back to
the gate and the flight is starting to board. As I approach my seat
in the plane I realize I really will be going home with a $725 win.
Very happy I slip into my leather seat. About five hours later we're
back in Manchester, NH and I'm about $700 richer. Couldn't have done
it without the help of the vpFREE website. Thanks to all that
contribute.
I'll have to start planning the next trip.
THE END
Steve