June-July 2015 - 1000 Degrees / Free Play is King / Goodbye to a Man Who Met Elvis

June-July 2015 - 1000 Degrees  /Free Play is King/ Goodbye to a Man Who Met Elvis

Prelude

Normally, I avoid taking an LV trip from June to mid Sept, due to the heat, but when a series of great casino offers came my way which were only good for June and July, I just HAD to book a trip, and head out before the end of June, without much time to plan.

I had a very generous free play offer from one casino for June, and then an even better offer. with more freeplay, from the same casino for July.   The game plan would be to start and end the trip there.  The icing on the cake is when the Golden Nugget Laughlin sent me a "we missed you" offer which offered to match any freeplay I received from any other casino for a stay in June.  This was now set up to be the highest grossing freeplay trip ever for me.   As far as the heat goes, I know that typically, June and early July are pretty dry in LV and the monsoon flow moisture typically comes in late July and August.

I rushed to book rooms for these great offers, but finding decent airfares less than 30 days in advance, in the summer, proved to be a great challenge.   I found the best fare I could find and wound up using a free companion voucher I had in my Delta account from having their credit card for paying off the second ticket.   I was able to book my trip to hit all 3 of these key offers, and fill the other days in with my typical other hotels in between.  Costco came through with a very reasonable car rental price, as usual, $181 for a week, all inclusive, for a full size car that had 81 miles on it.   The trip was all set!

I was watching the weather in the days before we headed out there, and noted that the dew point was -11 on the day that I looked.   Yes, a negative dew point.   As dry as it can be.   However, I noticed as we inched closer to our trip, the dew points and temperatures were heating up above normal.   I saw forecast temps in the 110 range for the 10 day forecast!   So much for missing the peak heat of the summer!

For some reason I did not take many pictures this time around so the report is a bit pic light.

Note: Clicking on a picture brings up a larger view of it.

Palace Station being Palace Station

A couple of trips ago I played a bit at Palace Station while using a MyVegas award there.   I guess that put me back on their radar as I received an offer for a "Split or Take All" dinner and drawing.   I was trying to figure out if the expected value of the drawing was better than another offer they sent me that came with free play, so I emailed a host there (my drawing offer encouraged me to contact a host to book the event).    As more common than not, my email to the host with questions went unanswered.   I decided to book the drawing anyway to check it out.

Knowing this was Palace Station and wasn't a really high end event, I was hesitant about going for the dinner there because I suspected it to be blah food.   (The menu was one of the questions for the host which was unanswered)   So, we decided to skip the dinner part and go to the Cosmo buffet (there is a section on that later in the report) and then to the drawing, arriving after the dinner.   When we arrived for the drawing, dinner was still being served (a buffet), and one of the main items on the buffet for the drawing guests was, drum roll please, spaghetti and meatballs.   There also was some chicken breast dish sitting in some creamy lemon sauce.   Nothing wrong per se with those foods, but in LV on vacation, we like to eat nicer meals  Well now, after dinner, it was time for the drawing.

They gave each participant and their one guest each a drawing ticket at the registration.  Now the casino GM took the stage to announce the beginning of the drawing.   

First he announced that all the people with red tickets had to move to one side of the room (there were about 300 people attending), while those with blue tickets had to move to the other side.   One problem with this was some of the attendees were elderly and some in wheelchairs, etc, so splitting up the couples in those cases probably was not pleasant for them, as they would have to be left unattended for a time.   Imagine 150 people or so all having to stand up from their seats at the dinner tables, leaving their significant others, and having to find a seat across the room.   It was a bit chaotic.   Surely there would be a good reason for this seating request, right?  ;-)     Well, the first step of the drawing was to have someone select an envelope that had a red or blue entry inside it, and then only those with that color ticket would qualify for the next step of the drawing.   That's it?  That's why everyone had to move to sides of the room?  Okay, a bit odd, but let's continue.

Now he asked for all those with the blue tickets to come up near the stage, and they even had a rope set up to keep the remaining contestants separated from the rest of the guests.   Now we would learn what the Split or Take all meant.   For each future round, they would ask the remaining contestants if we wanted to split the $15,000 in cash equally, or go on to eliminate 50% of us to double the cash award per person.   All it took was one person to say they want to go for more money and we all would be required to go on.   So, right now we had 150 people and the award was $100 each in cash.  All it would take is just ONE PERSON to say "continue" and we would eliminate another half of us.  Several people shouted out to continue.   Here is where I started shaking my head.   Now, instead of this drawing being a "positive experience", that is, talking about winners, and winners advancing,  it was now a negative experience, picking names from the drawing barrel to publicly eliminate each person, by their full name.   The 75 names were drawn, one by one, and each of those people name's were announced, and were eliminated.  Think of how long it takes to pick 75 entries, read out their names, and ask the person to raise their hand, one by one. That's not the worst part of it.  Just to rub salt in the wound, after the person raised their hand, the GM would shout out "see ya!", or  "your gone!",  or "get outta here", something along those lines, in a taunting kind of tone of voice.   Yes, it was meant to be fun from his standpoint, but I could see how it would be belittling or obnoxious to some people, having this shouted out to them just as their moment of disappointment came, being eliminated from the contest. I was hoping someone who was eliminated would do something to show their disapproval, like yell back at him "why don't you leave instead!", but there was no such entertainment.   I stood at the back of the remaining group, shaking my head, cringing at this process.  After some time, a man who was also standing behind most of the crowd near me must have seen my reaction, and he chimed in agreement.  "Nice way to run a contest" he said to me.  I said,  "well this is my first Palace Station event, and this is what I had feared, Palace Station being Palace Station", referring to the lower end nature of their business.   We agreed how this whole elimination method was awful, and had some good laughs about it, and how it was typical of Palace Station.

Well the two of us made it through the first round after 75 names were read.   Now the prize was $200 each to the 75 remaining, and again it would take just one person to shout out that they wanted to go on.    Now it was clear, there were 2-3 people right in front of the GM who had that gamble for it all mentality, and would be asking to continue again and again.   It appeared that at least 95% of us wanted the sure $200, and to end the drawing, but no, we would continue now to another round.   Our only hope was to hope for those 2-3 people would be eliminated next, so the rest of us could actually take some money home.   

I was eliminated in the middle of this next round, and was waved bye bye to by the GM.   I knew this whole event experience would be one of the noteworthy stops of the trip, but the whole experience was so negative that we decided to head out from the drawing room after elimination (which many others did too), rather than staying many more rounds while the "go for it all" gang kept voting to go another round.   I have no idea how it ended up.   I'm glad I went though, just to see the way they ran this whole thing.   Leave it to Palace Station to run a contest where than names picked in a drawing were to eliminate you, rather than have you advance to the next round.   I'm sure a college marketing class would have a field day studying this as a case of how not to run a promotion.

Since this would probably be the first and last time we saw a Palace Station room, I took some pictures of the room and the view.   The room had a cheapish feel to it, even though the furnishings looked fairly new and the room photographed well.

Views from Palace Station tower room

This was the view OJ had when he went to Palace Station "to get his stuff back" from someone staying here.  (The crime he was sent to prison for happened in the Palace Station hotel)

Cosmopolitan Buffet

I had always wanted to try this place, and had a 2/1 coupon from the LVA that had expired in March.   It was posted that the Cosmo agreed to honor the existing coupons given in Jan to March, until the end of the year, via a memo that was sent to the slot club booth staff in late March.   I knew there was some risk here, as things like this tend not to go smoothly for me.   We handed over the coupon at the slot club and the first representative said it was expired.   I explained there was a memo in late March that said this was to be honored until year end.  The rep called the supervisor who through the rep, told us that that too had expired and they decided to no longer extend the date.   We were told that if we wanted to pursue this further to go to the main slot club booth and ask to speak with the supervisor.   We headed to that booth and there were two women and one man behind the desk.  We approached the man with the coupon and before we could ask to speak to the supervisor, he took a pen and circled the expiration date.   Surely he was highlighting this and going to give the coupon back to us.   He began writing on a pad, scribbling away.  What was he doing?   We kept silent.  He tore off the sheet and handed it to us.  It was a 2/1 buffet authorization!   I have no idea if he was the supervisor or not, we never got to that point.  But, he was pretty young, and looked too young to have that position.   I don't know if we were lucky or not, if the true supervisor would have honored the coupon, but it didn't matter.  We had our 2/1!

Typically I don't pay for dinners, and this is the first dinner that I even partially paid for in many years, but since the 2/1 coupons are rare for the Cosmo, and it was a place I wanted to try, we handed over the $43 for the 2/1 buffet, as a new experience.

I'm not sure how I would review it. It certainly was good though.  What was surprising is how small the buffet and the room was compared to the other top end buffets.   The seating area was about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of Bellagio's room.   The number of dishes was half of that of the other premium places, but the quality was good.   This place was the fist to introduce the mini portion buffet concept.   There wasn't any dish that floored us, but the Lamb Lasagna was unique and very tasty, with large clumps of ground lamb inside the one layer of pasta cheese and sauce.  Half way through dinner a large crowd came in, and it was entire wedding coming in full wedding wear to eat at the buffet.

Mini salads and a creamy cone with caviar at the Cosmo buffet.   The one on the left was a highlight, very fresh and crunchy.

Loved the mini metal milk carton

"And the heat-my God, the heat!" - Elaine (The Burning, episode 16, Season 9, Seinfeld)

The date was wrong of course, but this was the temperature at 10:30pm in LV that night!

You know its hot when you hear LV locals commenting on the heat/humidity.   Each day now was about 110 degrees, and the monsoon flow was upon us early, bringing up the dew points to the 50's making everyone uncomfortable.   One morning however was a bit breezy, and it almost felt humane outside.   We decided to make it to the St Rose Trail next to the M Resort for a run, armed with water and a cooling towel and with a planned shorter distance than normal.   I follow the yearly insane Badwater Ultra Marathon in Death Valley and wanted just a little taste of what they experience.   We made it through the shortened goal and the water was gone before halfway.  At the end, I felt a little different and knew that was all I could reasonably run in these conditions.   The problem was that even the LOW temperature each morning at around 5 am was OVER 80 each day, and in Laughlin one day the low was 90!!!!  So, there was no real way of escaping the heat by exercising outside early!

As it was about 110 each day I began to realize the if you took the high temperatures for each day of the trip, including the day we arrived and the day we returned, the sum of the temperatures was about 1000 degrees, so I thought it was a fitting partial title to this report.

Tues to Thurs ended up being a bit warmer than the early week forecast!   How do you like those lows?

At times if felt not so bad, but at other times it was "oh god, let's get inside"!   In all, it didn't really stop us from doing much, although we did cancel plans to see a LV 51's baseball game as the typical temperature even at 11 pm was 100 degrees on most days!

I came up with a theory based on this experience that once the temperature is over 98.6, that breezes make the body feel warmer instead of cooler.   This because the air is now warmer than body temperature and will pull the "coolness" from the body into the warmer air.   There were a few days when at around 110 there was a breeze, and did nothing to make you feel cooler.

Something that became apparent due to the heat is that in several hotels, the elevators aren't air conditioned.  Normally you don't notice this, but when it is 110 degrees, its obvious.   We had several crowded elevator rides with still 100 degree-ish air!   The worst was Harrah's Laughlin.  In fact, even the suite we had was kind of warm as the A/C had trouble keeping up to the 114 degree heat, even with it set on max for 24 hours.

The other seasonal impact we noticed were how many more families with children were everywhere.  I'll refrain from commenting about how many children under 3 were being dragged around the casinos and hotels by their parents after 11pm at night.  In many of the hotels we stay at in April May and October, we get our choice of seats near the water, with air temps near 90.   Here, even with the 110 degree heat every pool and beach area was jammed.   Harrah's Laughlin even checked keys to see if you were a guest before letting you by the beach!   In the dozen or so times we were there before, that was never done!   After sitting inside most of the time in the lounge, we dared move to sit outside for a while in the shade at the Harrah's Laughin Diamond Lounge for about a half hour in the 112 degree heat and watched as the monsoon storms moved north over Arizona across the river.

How about a picnic?

Golden Nugget Laughlin

As I said in the intro, the marketing offer that I received to match another casino's freeplay is what "forced" me to book this trip.   We only stayed at this hotel once before, many years ago as a stopover on our Grand Canyon trip and only stayed there about 10 hours.    I knew that the rooms had been updated by the relatively new owners and was looking forward to staying there.  After this experience, we would never stay there again.

It started just after checking in, when I thought I heard steps behind me as I walked back to the room, but no, it was someone walking in the hallway in the floor above me!   In our room we heard every step on the floor in the room above us, which ended up keeping us awake as they didn't go to sleep until around 2 am. Mind you, I don't believe anything they were doing was worthy of a noise complaint. They weren't jumping, and there was no party in the room. They were just walking across their floor. Then, they were up early, around 7 am, and then too we heard their pounding foot steps and it woke us.

The reason for this is the construction.  It's an old 4 floor hotel.  Four floors!  There are two hotel wings, separated by a courtyard, so that 3 of the four sides of the buildings have a crappy view.  Being only four floors, it was constructed not from steel and concrete, but mainly from wood, likely with plywood floors, so there isn't much sound insulation and footsteps are heard pounding through the wood.  As well, we heard simple normal voice level conversations from the room next door, almost being able to make out their words.  I will say that the mattresses were the best we had in Laughlin, but it really didn't matter.

What did we do? We immediately booked a comp room at Harrah's for the second night in Laughlin, where we were upgraded to a comp suite.

I redeemed my freeplay at the Golden Nugget on crappy 7/5 bonus machines after finding that the former 8/5 Bonus video poker machines had been removed/downgraded.   There was no reason, gaming or lodging, that we would ever want to stay or play in this casino again, so we played only about 50% more coin in than my freeplay offer and then cashed out, netting about 80% of my freeplay.

The coffee/wine shop at Aquarius Laughlin has the most ridiculous sized eclair that I have ever seen and since Laughlin is still a place with some good values, it's more then enough dessert for 2, for $4.89!

An eclair from the Aquarius.  Note the dime for size reference!

Now, here was the funny part.   The next night in our "quiet suite" a monsoon storm came in at around 2am with 40-50 mph winds.    These winds found every nook and cranny in all the walls in our corner suite, exposing every fault in the cheap mid 1980's single pane windows, causing them to "sing" and whistle.   Down below, palm trees were bending, and anything not heavy or tied down was blowing across the lots below.  It lasted about 45 minutes, and eventually brought some rain with it.  Still we had a better night sleep than the prior night.

Pictures from Harrah's Laughlin:

View from the Range restaurant.

View from the river via the Laughlin Water Taxi

View from top floor suite.

Purple-ish stormy sky reflecting on the river

We see this property across the river all the time, but were now high enough to see that it has a pool.

Sunset to the west in Laughlin.

One of my little hobbies is collecting pictures of unique signs.   I added another to my collection when I spotted this on the window in our suite at Harrah's 

It is unique and it is odd, because in all the times I have been to Laughlin, there haven't been a lot of bees, and certainly not around the 21st floor of the tower.   However, at certain times of the year there are a lot of other flying insects.   My theory is that "bee activity" sounds more customer friendly that "bug or insect activity", so that was chosen for the sign.

Once every few years on the way back from Laughlin we go the one mile south on route 95 to the California border after getting gas in Arizona.   We end up visiting 3 large states in a half hour.   This time I noticed, especially from the back, that the Welcome to California sign had been used for target practice.

The obligatory Bellagio conservatory pics

The theme this time is undersea.

The clam shell opens every few minutes, see short video below.

Casino Collectibles Convention

The annual Casino Collectibles Convention happened to be in town during our trip and while they charge admission the first two days, on the third it's free to come in and look.   I am not a chip collector by any means but I do have a small casual collection.   There were about 40 tables of vendors set up, mainly selling casino chips.   We looked around and I purchased some cheap ones, 4 chips for $10 total.  It was fun seeing all the vendors exhibits and the history of these collections.

The four chips I purchased.

Casino play - Do I really have to talk about it?

I had about 5 years of 5-7 day trips where I would hit one royal flush per trip, which was a little above expectation, but not wildly so.   On these trips I would come home a winner.  Since then, the last few years have been feast or famine.   I am currently going through a famine.   No royals for a week long trip means a loss, almost definitely.    I will highlight one session which still makes me shake my head.   I attempted to play at the Cal downtown but the machines I wanted to play were taken.  So, I walked over to Main St Station and the Boars Head bar to play some Jacks or Better.   I was hoping to play for a bit and hit a Four of a Kind to get one of their scratch off tickets.

After about five minutes of play, I hit a four of a kind (4K) and waited for my first scratch ticket which was $2.   About 15 minutes after that, I hit a straight flush.   The bartender heard the long sounding payout and asked if I hit another.  I told her no, it was a straight flush.  I had thought for a second about asking if there was a scratch ticket for that, but then I remember the name of the promotion, "Score for Four", which obviously was talking about 4K.    Behind me appeared an attendant with a scratch card, and she told me the 4K and higher gets a scratch card!   The bartender had called her over.  That was nice.    

I continued to play and in 5 minutes, yes, another 4K and another scratch card.    Two hands later, I hit another one.   I started to pile up the scratch cards, and I liked that they had put the time of day on most of them, documenting how quickly I was hitting these hands.  Five minutes later, I hit another.  Eight minutes after that, yes another 4K for a scratch card, my sixth in about 40 minutes.   This was getting crazy.

It took me a whole half hour to hit another 4K (that is still a bit better than statistical expectation of about one every 45-50 minutes or so), but 6 minutes after that, I scored again.   10 minutes later, the hot streak continued.   After 7 minutes, another 4K.    Three minutes later, another. 2 minutes after that, yes, again, now 12 scratch cards!   None of this timing is an estimate.  The time of day is written by the attendant on each Score for Four scratch card.

It took almost an hour to hit another, but 8 minutes after that back for another 4K.  15 minutes later, I hit my 15th scratch card.  The only bad part was ALL of the scratch cards were for the $2 minimum win.

Now I had 14 4K's and 1 straight flush in a 2.5 hours.  It was really less play time than that because of all the time I spent waiting for the attendants for the scratch cards.   So my active play was just over 2 hours.   Now of course you would think I was a big winner, right?   Well the last hour was pretty bad, and guess what?   My end result was that I was even except for the straight flush!   Yes, I was only up 250 coins after 14 4K's and 1 SF!!   So, was I lucky, or not?     To have a session this full of 4K's and yet if it wasn't for the straight flush I would have been even!    That is how my luck went this trip.  This was my good luck session, can you imagine the bad luck sessions on the trip?

I took pictures of the backs of all the scratch cards with the times written on them (that is how I got such detailed timing of the wins above), but I am not posting them because I don't want to have to take the time to black out my players club number and the signatures of the slot attendants.

GOODBYE TO A MAN WHO MET ELVIS 

This next part I am a little careful to write about since I am publishing someone else's story and I don't want to cause him unwanted attention or invade his privacy.  I will not use his name.   A couple of others have posted this story of his on the Internet at other sites, and this has resulted in some people crudely coming in to "see the guy with that story".   I know most here are reasonable nice people, but I also know that some might not be, and I want to protect him from any of those types.

I have known this story for a few years, but I am writing about it now since he just retired a week or so ago, sadly (from my selfish point of view), so now he won't have to worry about people coming in looking for him just for this story.

This man is the best waiter in Las Vegas.  He has worked at Hugo's Cellar for over 30 years, and he has more energy and enthusiasm for his craft after all this time than any of the others there, some 20-30 years his junior.   He brings life to the place, and makes dinner not just a dining experience, but a fun one as well.   However, the man is not a clown, its not about a show, its all about his natural personality and his love of people, his customers.

He has many many stories of his life in Las Vegas, where he has lived most of his life.  His father was a chef at the Sands, and he has stories of his father cooking for and meeting the likes of Dean Martin, etc, back in those days.   But he has one special story of his own.

When he was a teenager, he was dating a girl that was able to periodically get tickets to see Elvis at the International (which is now the Westgate).   He estimates that they saw Elvis live about ten times during his residence, which is impressive alone. One day, he got this idea that the two of them would go the hotel and go up the fire escape stairs to get to the floor where Elvis lived, while Elvis was performing downstairs.    

They found the right floor, and to their surprise, the door was open to his very large suite.  They couldn't resist going in for a look.   So they did.   They walked around, amazed at the furnishings and his clothing all around the room.   They weren't taking or damaging anything, just enjoying the thrill of being in Elvis's room.   One thing that really caught their eye was the large bear skin rug.  

Well, for some reason (I am a little blurry on this), Elvis's entourage came back to the room earlier than they expected and they were caught in his room.   For sure the police were going to be called.   But just before that happened, Elvis himself showed up in the room and asked what was going on.  His team told him what happened and that they would handle walking the kids down to get them out of his way.  Elvis though would have none of that.  "They're just a couple of kids not doing any harm, let them be" he told them.

Elvis proceeded to have a little chat with them, and then the fun began.   He told the boy, "go ahead, take one of my shirts from over there, pick one for yourself".   Our future waiter went ahead over to the rack and did that.   Then Elvis handed him a pair of his cuff links to go with the shirt!   For the girl, Elvis told her to take one of the bags of fan mail that were piled up, to take home for herself.  I know this sounds kind of odd, what is someone going to do with fan mail sent to Elvis, but that's what he came up with.  It's sure better than being arrested.  And with that he sent them on their way.

Now our future waiter was just in his teens, and very into motorcycles.   Yes Elvis was a big star, but when you are a teen, you probably can't really value something like this.  So, unfortunately, Elvis's shirt and cuff links were traded................ for motorcycle parts, which just ices the cake on this amazing story.

Now, how many people have met someone that actually met and had a conversation with Elvis?  

We said our goodbye's to our waiter friend, and wished him luck.   If there was a top 3 list of things we looked forward to most on our Las Vegas trips, dining at his table each trip was one of them.  We would plan our trips so we would never dine there on a night he had off, and always requested his table, getting seated by 5:30 so he would be a little less busy and had time to spend to chat with us.  In the future there, the food might be almost as good, but our dining experience there will never be the same.

MISCELLANEOUS

Just a few days earlier, I read about the two escaped convicts being found in upstate New York, and what one of them possessed at the time of capture, including bug spray and Pop Tarts.   So, I was wondering if that triggered a new appreciation of Pop Tarts when I saw this downtown at a bar..

Bartender,I'll have the usual; a gin and tonic, and a Pop Tart.

I don't like the downtown talentless "entertainers" but this one put enough effort into it that I was amused.

April 2015 - Saying Goodbye to the Riv, Service on a Silver Platter, and the Moving Bus Stop

Saying Goodbye to the Riviera, Service on a Silver Platter, and the Moving Bus Stop

DISCLAIMERS

More and more, I write these trip reports because I like to document the little trip detail tidbits that become memories so I can refer to them in the future.   In some of my past trip reports where I had a few pages of detail, spending hours typing it up, there were about 1000 views, and yet in one recent report, the most frequent topic of the comments was debating the model year of my car rental, rather than comments on the true trip related content.   That told me even more to write these reports for my own purposes rather than writing what might interest others more.

Another series of comments in my prior reports were asking for pictures of winning hands.   I play a lot of Video Poker.  When you play a lot you have many (hopefully) great hands, but is that really noteworthy?   You can have some great winning hands and still lose, as I did three days this trip where I hit four aces in double bonus video poker for 800 coins, an yet lost significantly for each of those days.   So, aside from some off the charts positive run, I question that value/entertainment people get from seeing winning hands posted.   Should I post a pic of the four aces, without the hundreds of losing hands that made those sessions losing ones?  So, you won't see any pictures of VP hands in in this report.  

FYI:  Clicking on a picture brings up a full sized view.

M Resort

One of my current pet peeves is the ridiculous overuse/misuse of the word "perfect".   It has become one of those trendy words, and with that has lost its meaning.  "Perfect" used to have to do with perfection.   When you ask me my address and I give you the information, "perfect" is not the word that should be used in a response to my simple, factual answer.   So, imagine how entertained I was when the early 20's female front desk clerk at the M Resort managed to give me no less than EIGHT "perfects" (we counted them, smiling after each one) during the check in process!   In all the things I have done in my life, I don't even any of them have warranted eight "perfects"..... until now.  I am SO GOOD at checking in!  /pats self on the back/

Upon entering the hotel room I found that there was no laundry bag inside, which was not typical.   Housekeeping was just across the hall so I asked her for a bag.  She didn't have one, and neither did the other housekeeper on the floor.   She said she would get me one.  I just assumed someone would bring them each a package of bags and housekeeping would then knock on the door and hand me one when they arrived.   There was a knock on my door, and when I opened it, I saw a man presenting a silver tray with a..... yes... a laundry bag on it.   I could not contain my amusement, and said to him, "on a silver tray? Really?", before thanking him and knowing I already had an amusing memory to document for the trip.   I wonder if I asked for more toilet paper if it would have had the same delivery treatment?  ;-) 

On Thursdays at the M there is a free slot tournament and you get one free entry, and can earn up to four more if you have about $1,250 in Video Poker play.  I was happy to see that at least for this week, instead of the boring slot tournament, they changed it to Triple Double Bonus Video Poker, which meant now at least some skill would help in the competition, instead of pure luck.   We went with an aggressive strategy of only holding pairs (and 3 of a kinds of course), or 2-3 cards to a royal, or an Ace.  This allowed us also to play a lot more hands,to try to hit a big hand.  You need to score pretty high to place.  Before we started, we watched one woman taking about 10 seconds to carefully hold four cards to an inside straight which if hit would have paid hardly anything in the big picture, and cost her the time of playing a couple of more hands in that time.  Each session is 5 minutes of play.  Our aggressive strategy paid off with a four fours with kicker win on one of the sessions.   In addition, all entries qualified for three drawings in the evening.   We first found that one of our entries was picked for a $30 win in the drawing, and then later on that our highest session score placed in the top 20 for a $50 tournament prize!   Certainly not life changing, but rewarding, and fun to know we cashed in both the contests.

I love the M, but there are a couple of issues I have with them.  One is that they act like their hotel pool is like the Hard Rock's Rehab club, and they have a security guard physically search (not just look inside) any bags you bring in.   There were two middle aged women ahead of us, and our "hero", the security guard, found a small bag of chips and nuts, and was proudly announcing that they would have to be held for them, and outside food was not allowed by at the pool.  Then he found a bottle of prescription medications she had in her bag and treated her like she was a drug king pin, asking for ID, etc.   Finally, the guests had enough of this search, and they turned back to the hotel, forgoing a day at the pool due to this search.   I have been to hotel pools at MANY quality hotels (note I said hotel pools, not pool clubs), and none of them search your bags except the M.   I voiced my displeasure to the policy and pointed out that none of the strip hotel pools search bags of hotel guests, but they insist that their pool is like a club pool.   On this nice weekday afternoon, there were about 20 people by the pool, the majority of them middle aged women hotel guests.  Just like club Rehab, right!  ;-)    I mention this in case anyone else has to deal with this.  I encourage you to voice or write them with your displeasure over this policy.  If enough people do so, maybe they will rethink this silly intrusive policy.

THE STRIP

We checked out a renovated room at the Westgate and were pleasantly surprised.   They did a nice job, and the beds were top notch!   There were quite a bit of smaller renovations around the property, some completed and some underway.   .

Westgate room

QUIZ #1

We saw these new super oversized pots which were part of the renovations on the way to the pool.  Take a look at the picture and take a guess the price of this pot. It was about 3.5 feet tall.  They left the price tag on the pot.   Post your guesses and I will post the actual price of the pot in about 10 days.

Here are a couple of pics of the refreshed (not enough change to say renovated) Westgate pool area.  They added some astroturf around the pool and they are painting the concrete leading from the hotel to the pool.

Path from hotel to pool.  The fences are there because they are coating and painting the concrete, similar to what was done at the FSE.

Refreshed cabanas near main pool

CAESARS

This was the first time staying in the Octavius tower at Ceasars.   The room was very nice, but really not much nicer than the Augustus tower, and after experiencing the long extra walk through a low ceiling narrow hallway to get there, I would pick Augustus over Octavius next time we stay there.   I should have clocked the walk from the parking garage to the Octavius tower.  It must be near a quarter mile and it gets very old, fast.

We went to Caesars Diamond lounge and I was glad to see that the real chicken wings were back, instead of the product they had last time that were some kind of processed chicken on a bone.   This was a Sunday evening yet I have never seen more people on line for the entry and buffet inside!  For at least the first 45 minutes there was a line of about 15 waiting at the start of the buffet, and when we left, there was a line of about 15 waiting outside to for people to leave in order to get a seat.

For our free Diamond Card show for the month, we chose tickets for a ride to the top of the Eiffel tower at Paris.   I liked the views from here much better than the High Roller Observation wheel.   A few of my pictures looked just like some postcard pictures!

LAUGHLIN

We went to Laughlin just a couple of days before the dreaded River Run Bikers weekend so we could avoid the crowds and the requisite insanity, but the event still had an impact as many hotels had closed off much of their outdoor parking days early so that they could fence in huge areas for bikes to park.   A few places including Harrah's updated their signs on their doors to now specifically exclude "chemical agents" from the property in addition to "colors".  Gee, I never see signs like this at the Wynn! ;-)

Just your typical preparation for the bikers!  Make sure to leave those chemical agents at home!

A sign put up in advance of the biker event.

Every entrance/exit had one of these tables added to collect glass from bike run customers before leaving.  

Note the Lite Beer ad in black and white.

These flags with the "no colors policy" were on every post on the main driveway.  There were dozens of these!  Enough to get the message?

The measures that everyone has to go through to cater and avoid all the biker gang issues amazes me.   We saw several beer company advertisements on signs welcoming the bikers, and what at first looked odd was the fact that they were all in black in white.  Did you ever see a Budweiser or Lite Beer logo in black and white?   Why was this done?  To bend over backwards to avoid using colors in their ad which might favor one gang over another.  Ridiculous!  How about this beer companies?  Stand up and avoid advertising at events that have so much potential criminal activity that you have to alter the color of your ads!   No, you can't avoid it, because it's all about the money!

The first morning in Laughlin, being that my body was still on east coast time, I was up early, and happened to catch the sunrise just before it made it's way over the mountain.

Sunrise at Laughlin

On the ride back from Laughlin, close to where 95 joins 93.  There is a large flat open land area where we often see people running off road vehicles and running remote control planes, and the like.    Today there was a nice dust devil there spinning away, and we managed to get some good shots of it.  Way in the back is an electric solar plant.

Okay, in my last report I had some fun with the ridiculous spelling/grammar errors on the signs at the Harrah's Laughlin buffet, and my impact on the word became apparent again, as it looks like they became away of my report, and attempted to fix the signs.  But Harrah's being Harrah's, they of course did not fix all of them.

My favorite was the former "Fresh Fruit Display" sign, which I questioned in my last report if it was a "display" should we be eating from it?  Well the braintrust at Harrah's had them "update" the sign by what looks like rubbing off the word "Display" from the sign, instead of reprinting in.   The result is a monument to me and my prior report, and to the "quality" of the "resort"

On the plus side, they actually reprinted the Lo Mein sign since my prior report, correcting the spelling, but our old friend "Powder Sugar" sign (and some others) still remain in their original glory!

The shadow of the word "Display" still visible.    Maybe next month;s budget will allow the $5 for reprinting the sign?

Lo Mein sign has been reprinted with correct spelling.

"Powder Sugar" sign, still in discussions at Harrah's HQ on coming up with a plan to correct it!

Some news, an aside,  Harrah's Laughlin is now the first Laughlin Hotel/Casino charging a "resort fee"!   Insert your own joke here.

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE RIVIERA AND SOME RIVIERA MEMORIES

We stopped at the Riveria,  the first hotel we stayed at years ago.   Back then, they were one of the last casinos to continue to have "mini junket" programs which they called a "spree", where you played a certain amount at the table or slots, and then qualified for cash, reduced room rate, comp shows, and meals/food credit.   My first stay there was for a blackjack spree.   You had to play about 5 hours of $5 double deck (good rules) blackjack in two days to qualify.   What I remember most is that the pit I played at was right at the bottom of the stairs, just steps from the strip, and from my seat at the table, I could see he lights of the cars as they drove by and the lights of Circus Circus coming on.   During mild times of the year, like the time I was there, the doors were all folded back, so you had an open air, unobstructed view outside.   So there I was feeling the mild desert air coming in, playing $5 blackjack on the strip, something that cannot be done today anywhere (the Riv removed the pits that were close to the stairs and put slot machines in that area, years ago).

I found the Spree information sheet for Slots/VP, which I participated in later years..   You needed to play $9,600 coin in on your trip (2-3 days?) to qualify.  Once you did, you received (in addition to the normal slot cash back of 0.25%):
- $100 cash (which is twice your expected loss for $10k of 9/6 JB VP)
- $100 comp (in addition to the buffet and drink credits)
- $25 bar credit (back then drinks were cheaper)
- Comp admission to all 4 running shows, including Splash.
- 3 Comp buffets daily (I limited my meals there because I valued my health)

The Riv at one time in the late 90's had an entire row of coin based 9/6 25c Jacks or better machines, and when you cashed out the coins hitting the metal drop tray sounded like golf ball sized hail hitting metal because the trays were so far below the machines..

The buffet was pretty bad, home to the worst tomato juice on the planet for breakfast, but if you paid for the buffet at the slot club in slot points, breakfast was the equivalent in points to redeeming $2 in cash back, in other words, very cheap!   Caesars buffet charges about $25 for breakfast now, and you know what, a made to order buffet omelet pretty much tastes the same at a $2 buffet as at a $25 buffet.

The Riviera was home to the major annual spring billiards tournaments and conventions, which actually was running when I visited in April.   They will have to find another place.

I have to confess, I actually saw Crazy Girls on my first trip there, as it was comped on the Spree program.   I still remember the awful recorded "Girls, Girls, CRAZY GIRLS!  Girls, Girls GIIIIIIIRLS!", lip synced theme song that started the show.

The area of the North Strip in the late 90's was busy (not as busy as the Flamingo area) because you had the Stardust, Circus Circus, Slots of Fun, Westward Ho, and Silver City all within walking distance.  Westward Ho had the 9/6 25c progressive, and had about 30 9/6 machines tied to it (nearly a whole room), and the progressive was usually over 100% ($1250+)

I still have my Riviera denim jacket (I will add a pic in time) which I bought with slot points.   Now, suddenly, its historic.

As time went on I found that the video poker benefits were better than Blackjack.  And about $7000 coin in in a 4 day trip qualified you for 6 months of "calendar rates" which were about $30/night.   I continued playing VP there and remember one memorable night were they offered double slot points (which was rare) from 12am to 2am, which I took advantage of, and this being the Riv, not many others noticed or cared to participate.   So I was pretty much alone on this midweek night and the main sound I remember is the "Top Dollar" slot machine sounds, which was being played by one of the few other players that night.. (example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1G4t7SZmfw)  "First offer"  "Second offer"  "You're a winner", over and over again.   These machines are still around in many casinos, and when I hear them I still think back to that night.    We stopped playing/staying there after the one Purple upright 9/6 Jacks of Better machine, which was the only good  VP machine remaining, was removed in 2006,

Years ago we took in a free (2 drink minimum) show of the Lon Bronson band at the Lounge at the Riviera.   This was a show that started each Saturday night at 1 or 2am and featured some of the best musicians from all the venues/shows around town, who hung out there and played after hours, featuring an excellent brass section.

My negative memories of the Riv are led by their ridiculous check in lines, which were legendary in Las Vegas.   There were many times when the check in wait was over an hour.   I have no idea why they in particular had such issues with check in.

We took many pictures of the inside of the hotel and casino, although much of it looks very different than it did ten years ago, when we stopped staying there.    One of our stays was during the time they were filming the movie "Casino" there, which was filmed very late at night.  I was back counting at the blackjack tables when some over zealous guy from the movie production team came over and yelled at me thinking I was walking around the area in an attempt to be in the background of the filming, which was funny to me, as I was just trying to find a good count to sit down and play.   There were no scenes with non actor customers in the background in the final movie, so either that scene was edited out or it was just pure paranoia/power that made the production guy act like that.

What might be most unique about the Riviera is the old school pool, which, like many of that era was originally equipped with a deep end, and a diving board.  Of course the diving board is long gone, but the 9 foot deep end of the pool, a REAL pool, is still there!   Other than the possibility of the Sahara (now SLS) pool, it may very well be that this is the last deep pool in LV, and after this closes, we will be left with 4 foot deep kiddie pools around town.

With all the hoopla about the closing, the place was more full than in any of the 8 or so prior visits we had there in the past ten years.  Kind of ironic that it's closing now that business is picking up.   We spoke to a gentleman there who was seeing us take pictures and was telling us how it was his first time at the Riviera.   We spoke to a long time security guard who was thankful and seemed touched to hear our words of concern for his future, post closing.

What follows are many pics of the interior of the Riv, a way to preserve some memories.

The "dreaded" escalator to the dreadful Riviera buffet.  I am proud to say we only ate here a handful of times despite many days at the hotel.

Hallway of Monte Carlo tower where we usually stayed.

Elevator waiting area in Monte Carlo tower.

Ice machine in Monte Carlo tower. only noted because I used it so many times over the years.   I wanted to be the first person ever to put a picture of an ice machine in a trip report!

Monte Carlo tower room.  Somehow I remember them being nicer, years ago.

Main showroom where the show Splash was held.

This large empty room is the original "Nickeltown" area, which had it's own food area and bar.   The food area was known as "Hound Doggie's".  The room eventually became the sportsbook, until that too was moved.

They issued free wooden nickels at the end of the bar which were good for 5 cent popcorn, and lemonade when this Nickeltown section opened.

The former Nickeltown entrance, from the inside.

This was the area of the little gift shop inside Nickeltown.

High limit slots area.

Current Sportsbook area.

This more or less was the daytime view from the blackjack tables I used to play at.

A pit was in this slot machine area, right off the strip, where I played Blackjack on my early stays there in the 90's

View in front the strip sidewalk.

Main bar which surrounded the entertainment lounge.

This was the post where the one remaining 9/6 Jacks or Better Video Poker machine stood for years.

The cool part is they are holding up nine fingers for the new tallest in town, nine story Riviera Hotel which was being constructed!

NINE, that's right NINE foot deep pool!

9 Feet deep!

Former check in parking area which had misters on hot days.

Former bell desk when front desk was near casino.

Old front desk area is now hidden behind that back wall of the tournament area.

Unique escalators from middle of casino to underground valet parking area.

Underground valet parking area.

DOWNTOWN LV

We had our usual great meal at Hugo's at the Four Queens.  I typically get a glass of wine with dinner, usually the Shiraz, and although by no means am I an oenophile, but I noticed that it had a better taste than the previous visit, so I asked the long time sommelier, John, if he updated the selection.   He smiled and complimented me since he did indeed move to a newer vintage, and was impressed that I had noticed.

The last time I made it to the new downtown market, in October, the second day it was open, and posted the first pictures, someone mentioned that one of the signs in my pictures showed that they were going to be selling Stumptown coffee, and that it was rare as it was only offered in a few places.   So, this trip, when we walked by, I wanted to stop back in and try it to see if the hoopla about it was justified.   Well, after just over 6 months since the opening, they already, as of mid April, switched from Stumptown coffee to Peet's, so I passed.

At the Cal, it looks to me that they are starting a long renovation process.  The woodwork from the main part of the casino pit looks like it is going to be history.   They were working on one of the posts in the pit, and had transformed it from the wood look to a "modern" light colored painted look.   Outside, they were in the process of painting the red trim on the building signage that runs along the building, as the former red color was now bleached after years and looking very faded.

Old post near Cal pit.

New post near Cal pit.

Repainting red on Cal sign.

For many years the Boyd Gaming casinos had the many of the best value restaurants in Las Vegas.   Just like many things, that it changing.   After closing Pasta Pirate at the California, they have made some changes at the Redwood Grill there.   Salad is no longer included with dinner, a sneaky way of increasing prices.

I had the "pleasure" of playing at a bar at the California where a bartender, David, was working.   He proceeded to talk under his breath (but plenty loud enough for me to hear), badmouthing every person he came in contact with after he turned away from them.  Customers, employees, even people on TV.   At first it was entertaining, but after 15 minutes of his hateful, angry, insulting comments about everyone and anyone, I couldn't take it, and I left to head over to Main St Station to play at their bar instead.  

Long Saga - The Moving Bus Stop

This part is long and detailed, I fully understand many may just want to skip it.   It was much more annoying living it as opposed to reading it, I assure you.   

We decided to try something new and take the Westcliff Airport Express (WAX) bus back to the airport from downtown.   Since our trip was ending downtown, and I rarely even touch my rental car during my downtown stays, I figured that I could return my car just after arriving downtown and save a few bucks (more like $100) on the rental, while experiencing this amazing $2 bus fare value back to the airport.   I returned the car, took the car rental shuttle back to the airport, and then took the Westcliff bus back downtown, for $2, which leaves from level 0 at the airport.   I assumed that I could buy a bus ticket at the kiosk, and thought that it might even be mandatory, but the machine had no mention of WAX tickets.   Some locals there told me that the kiosk did not sell tickets for this route, and instead you just slide $2 into the bill acceptor on the bus, which was the case.    Something I still haven't figured out was that the schedule posted at the airport bus stop was slightly different that the PDF schedule which I downloaded from the LV transportation website that same day.  It turned out that the posted schedule was correct, while the PDF was not.   So it was a few more minutes of waiting.   I exited the bus at the end of the FSE, at LV Blvd, so it was a short three block walk back to hotel.

The bus back to the airport was much more of an experience though.   The bus driver who had dropped me off downtown warned me about a some sort of detour route.  I didn't comprehend it all due to his accent, but I knew I needed to check into this.  The day before our return trip, we decided to check out the return stop and watch the bus pick up.   The stop is right next to Binions, a very central location.  It turns out that there is a security guard who doubles as a bus information person who works at the stop.   So, we asked him about the return trip.  Sure enough, he told us that there was a detour due to construction in the area, and that this route would now not pick up here, but instead on LV Blvd, about a block from where I was dropped off, at the same place the "Duece" bus stops downtown.   He even pointed to a big orange detour sticker that was plastered on the route information sign at the stop, informing of a detour that would be continuing for four more days.   We spelled out our trip for the next morning, and he reaffirmed that we would have to wait further down at the detour stop to pick out up the bus.

This information was too important for us to just take one person's word for it, so I called the transportation company information line to speak with someone on the route detail.  Surely the company running the buses would know for sure!   Well, oh my god!   The "expertise" level of these representatives was stunning!   It was like talking to a computer.   All they wanted to hear from you was an address you were starting from, and where you were going to, and they would just type this information into probably the same website as the public would.    When I described my location as "downtown LV, Freemont St hotels" it was met as if the person I was talking to lived in Iowa (no, they were in LV),    She had almost no idea what I was talking about, and just wanted an address!   After giving her an address, she directed me to a local bus, which would have taken much longer than the express, and also did not stop close by.   I asked her why she gave me this bus when there is an express, the WAX.   She put me on hold and came back with some info on the WAX bus, which was still less information than I already had.   "Well what about the detour?   Is there one for this route?".   She then put me on hold.   Now, shouldn't the rep at the transportation center know about any detours and be proactive about giving that information?   What good would it be to give me the times my bus is running to the airport if you don't tell me that it's not stopping at the normal stop?    She came back to tell me that yes, she had found that there was a detour, still in effect tomorrow, but was only for the northbound route, not affecting me.   Of course, this information was different than what the person at the stop gave me, and also disagreed with the detour sticker on the bus stop.  Who should we believe?   Are we going to wait at one stop and then miss the bus back to airport when it turned out wrong?

A second call to the transportation company, with a different agent, gave similar, half competent results.   This just in, the RTC transport representatives are not "perfect"!     We then went down to the detour bus stop and asked one of the drivers of a different route about this detour, and she too confirmed that tomorrow's bus would be stopping at the detour stop.

I specifically did google searches on the route with the words "detour" and there was even a section of the transportation website that listed some detours, but this one, for the WAX bus, was not even mentioned on their own site!

The next morning, after breakfast, we walked by the original bus stop at Binions and noticed that the orange detour sticker was no longer on the route sign!   Did it fall off?  Did someone peel it off?   Yesterday's sticker said the detour was in effect for FOUR more days!

Our only hope for definite truth, it seemed, would be to each stand at one of the two possible bus stops earlier in the morning, an hour before our bus time, at the previous run, and physically see where the bus would stop.   Can you guess what we found?   The bus stopped today at the original, convenient, non detour, bus stop, which meant all the information we had gotten in our proactive attempt for correct information was not correct!  Had we listened to most of the advice, we would have missed the bus.  ( We did have back up plans of taking an airport shuttle or a cab.)

It's a long story, but what we can learn from it is that you should question the answers on important information even if they come from supposedly correct source for information!   Had we not done our own research, we would have missed the bus,   We did all we could do in advance, asking the on site rep, asking the transportation information line, asking a bus driver, and still the information was wrong!

With all that being said, the express bus is a great bargain, and is reliable once you know where it is going to stop.  We just happened to be there during this confusing detour.

FSE

The term "street performer" is giving these downtown people WAY too much credit.  There is no "performance" or talent in putting on a costume!  A new term needs to be coined for these people!

As far as the FSE goes, downtown is really going downhill.   In the "old days", you just had a few beggars.   Now there are many more.   Then there were a few "street performers" who would show up in the evenings in their costumes.   Now though there are many of these "street performers" and now many their outfits are eyesores at best, and are now even around in the day times.   Yes, maybe the idea of the old man in the Borat man thong is funny at first, but when you have to see it every time you walk by, it gets old, quickly.   The latest addition to the "performers" is the new trend of very overweight girls, wearing nothing on top but pasties, effectively topless.    This is happening even in the early afternoons!  I know LV is not a great family destination, but there are some cases where people take their children on vacation outside the casinos.   They are going to be exposed to this crap!

I know some of you are reading this and saying, come on this is funny stuff, they are just having fun.   Well do you have any family or friends that might be looking to plan a trip to LV?   Would you knowingly send them downtown to the FSE as part of their trip, knowing that they would be seeing this as an exposure to what Las Vegas is and expect them to like it?   

QUIZ #2

Post your answer.  Which casino do you think this picture is from?

SUMMARY

As usual, all nights were comped, including some nights where I was double booked in two hotels.   All meals were comped as well.   I used a 2/1 Delta airlines voucher that Delta Amex card holders are entitled to once a year to keep the airfare down.   As far as playing goes, it was probably my worst trip ever, and aside from two days with very small wins, the other days were significant losers.  The trip was net loss due to not having any royal flushes on this trip.  I would rather have won, but I knew one of these type trips was going to come sooner or later.  I had fun despite the losses.  We got to say goodbye to the Riv and have our first experience with the WAX bus to the airport.   My favorite day of the trip, once again, was the day we spent at the M Resort, and cashing in two of the promotions there just made it that much nicer.