Note: Clicking on any pic brings up a slideshow with near full resolution images.
- Free sushi!
- How I "fired" a host and casino.... but then replaced it with a casino that is maybe the only true "old Vegas value" casino remaining!
- Dinner with the fishes.
- The "return" of Zorro!
- Pussy face
- That's the way the cookie crumbles.
- Caption/describe a humorous scenario for this picture taken on the way back from Jerry's Nugget.
- O'er the Ramparts we watched
Arrival Day
The flight with connection would bring us in about 630pm on a Saturday. I had a car reservation, but with the shortage, I had major concern that there would actually be a car available, as by the time Sat night comes, who is returning a car then to be re rented?
This gentleman was at our connecting gate, with his original pants, and stance, and turned out to be on our flight! I was looking to find the person wearing the other halves of these pants, but I didn't have any luck.
Pow, pow, bang, pow! That was the sound of the baggage claim at my airport bag claim area. What the hell were all these noises? Bowling balls! Cases and cases containing bowling balls, in their special carrier bags. Each of them mashing into the rim as they slid down the ramp. Must have been 20 bags on our flight alone. Later, I would see where most of them ended up.
I had an Avis rental using a code that was posted on another board, that was eliminated by Avis shortly thereafter. I got a $225 rate all in for 7 days! I ended up waiting for almost half hour, but finally got a car.
With the time difference, checking into Caesars after 8pm, the last thing we wanted after 12 hours of travel is to sit down to a big meal. The plan was to use a $25 Cosmopolitan food credit that I won in their online anniversary game last fall. It just so happens that the Tekka Sushi bar in Cosmo has a $25 8-piece take out special. https://assets.ctfassets.net/sahy2rpqbnsp/35d1Nmy7aizfDrmCCPFFco/355ab6212f015a9fb2aaa62dddb22793/tekka-to-go-menu-2.18.21.pdf
We would bring it back to Caesars, have some, and hopefully have leftovers for daytime snacks the next day or two.
Well Sat night in town was insane with crowds. It looked like New Years eve.
We managed to walk over to Cosmo, make it up to Tekka, place our order, and give them my players card (I had logged on the day before to verify the $25 food credit), but they told me there was no credit. The manager came over and I explained the situation. She said that to use the credit, I'd have to head down to the players club booth, have them activate the credit, and then come back. She then offered to call down to the players club to have them do this, but it was so busy that no one picked up the phone. Then, suddenly, she announced to us that to avoid having us potentially spend a half hour getting this done, that she was going to personally comp our sushi! Wow! What great customer service! Who does something like that these days?
We watched as the chef made the sushi before our eyes, using some very automated equipment. Having this light small meal was just what we needed, and we kept about half of it refrigerated to have during the next day. The next day, we went back and gave Cosmo some play, in order to "thank" them for this gesture.
Blue crab, and Toro, were the choices.
Let's get the negative stuff out of the way. I "fired" my host, and a casino!
For about 5-6 years I was a "Red" players card holder at the Arizona Charlies/Strat/Aquarius Laughlin franchise. That might sound impressive, but it was just a bit more play than to earn Diamond at CET.
It was a great program. I will illustrate by listing all the cutbacks they made to the program once Golden Entertainment purchased them.
- Revamped the players/slot club to add a new tier, and tiered such that my play, which got me the old top tier, needed to increase just to make the 2nd from top tier!
- The card downgrade resulted in me losing the comp pool cabana benefit.
- They also eliminated the permanent 4x points multiplier tied to my level, and instead instituted a "random multiplier" which knowledgeable players quickly found, was less on average than the old 4x. What a surprise!
- A year or two later, they removed the random multiplier and had the nerve to say it was to "avoid customer confusion" with the program! How kind of them! Instead there is now a calendar that is not published too far in advance, which lists certain days of the month (about 10 days) where there is some sort of multiple. If you are out of town you are just drawing straws when you book, hoping that you will be there on one of the multiplier days!
- In the last year, they rebranded one of our top 10 restaurants in Nevada, The Vineyard, to downgrade it into a low end pizza/pasta restaurant. This was the only restaurant there that we had any interest of having dinner in! (Outback is their "steakhouse".)
- Last year, they eliminated their weekend VIP comp brunch buffets (understandable due to Covid restrictions) without ANY substitute or alternative (not understandable - just more cost savings). Players with the two highest level cards would be invited to a roped off VIP area, with no cost in comps, to have brunch.
- The former weekly benefit of 2 appetizer/sandwich vouchers, which typically got me $30 worth of food, along with the 4 drink vouchers, were all in total, replaced with only a $15 weekly credit to your comp account. Meaning the alternative benefit could be viewed as being 1/3 the value of the former plan, even less, depending on the value of your comp drinks.
Next, my great host there, retired! The new one is poor, to put it mildly, as I will show below:
- Once, I lost out on $100 in free play because the host did not respond to my email for a freeplay bonus offer.
- Last summer, I received a voicemail from my host asking me if we were currently at our Arizona location, when we never spoke of any second residence to her, and never spoke to her about Arizona in any conversation. She obviously has us confused with someone else! How comforting!
- She sent a gift basket after the prior voice mail (with freebies like Casino logo sanitizer, dice, casino cards, etc) to us which never arrived. It took over 2 weeks of emailing back and forth before a second package was sent and received. Given the prior incident of the "Arizona residence", I think it is quite possible that she sent my package to someone else, and that maybe I wasn't even supposed to get one!
- Host balked at comping a $40 food charge, after a heavy day of play, and significant losses, where my former host would have picked up 3x that amount, without even blinking, even on a winning day. Watching her hem and haw as she looked at the screen and typed for 5 minutes was so ridiculous that it was comical, after the fact. It was as if her life was on the line. She then said, "well I can comp that.... because of your losses".
- I did not receive a response to email expressing interest in a room with a week's notice in February, until I re-forwarded the email some days later, then finally received a response after I had given up and booked a room elsewhere.
- Did not respond to my post trip email after I had played at her casino on a day trip which was on her day off.
- Host sent me a birthday card postmarked more than a month after my birthday, saying "hope you have a great birthday", note, "have" not "had".
To rub salt in the wounds, they also replaced the custard in their legendary Eclairs at Duet, a favorite on each trip, with a vanilla whipped cream. Once you start messing with my desserts, things get serious!
If I had to endure 4-5 of these things, each alone might not have driven me away, but taking all of this into consideration, I say, why do I want to drive 90 minutes each way, to a place that eliminated one of our favorite restaurants, and cut or eliminated so many of the benefits that made them so unique? Why would I patronize a place where a host doesn't even respond to more than half of my emails?
As the often quoted philosopher, Popeye, used to say, "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more". And with that, one of the casinos in our rotation for the last decade, the Aquarius Laughlin, is now gone from the rotation!
Coming up, I will try to turn this negative into a positive, and transition to a place that is maybe the one last true value/promo packed casino, and a place that I probably should have been visiting for years.
But first, the rest of Caesars
We did well at Caesars Palace, since my host blocked us off a Studio Suite? in the Augustus Tower. It really isn't that much better than a regular room, but since it is on the end of the hallway, it has a bit more space and windows in two directions. We had another tower in the way a bit in one of our views. Not a big deal, as we were happy to not get stuck with a crappy room checking in on Saturday night.
Sunday we had our one breakfast in the room for the trip, using some milk we bought across the street at the CVS in front of Bally's. Sat night, we waited on a line in CVS that had about 30 people in front of us, but the line moved so fast that they wait was only a few minutes.
I started play early at Caesars and for the first 2/3rd of my coin in, I was even! I knew it wouldn't last, and by the end, I had a bit of a loss. Not too bad.
I took a picture of the check in area early in the AM on Sunday,
and then again, mid afternoon.
The check-in crowds were crazy then, and this is on a Sunday eve, so weekday traffic! It used to look like this on Sunday's when the convention people were checking in, but this was weekday leisure travel!
We had a pool day out at Caesars main pool. All of the other pools were only open to those that paid for cabanas or day beds, etc. A very nice peaceful time, on a day with slightly below average temps, and a nice breeze.
For dinner we used my Diamond Celebration virtual voucher to help pay for dinner at Rao's. We had eaten there once before, years ago. Since then I've learned much more about their history. As you may know, due to its small size and the tradition of regulars having reserved regular tables, it is next to impossible to eat at their original New York City location.
We requested to be seated in the room which is supposed to be identical to the New York location. One of their traditions is that they have their Christmas decorations up all year long.
In general it was a very good meal, but overpriced. They actually want to charge $5 for having bread at the table. They don't tell you it isn't complimentary, they just ask "would you like some bread"? We passed.
Their house salad, for $17? was the worst dish of the entire week. It was if you bought a head of iceberg lettuce, sliced a bit of onion, quartered an almost ripe tomato, and poured some Wish Bone Italian dressing on it.
I was looking forward to trying their meatballs in person, as we make them here at home using their recipe. Thiers's was a bit better than the recipe version, and very good, for $21. The waiter tried to take the remainder away from us before bringing the entree's so we had to tell him that we' purposely left some to have with the entrees.
For the other dish we had Lasagna. I was surprised the serving was on the small side, but it was very rich and decadent and was a good enough portion without feeling too full.
The final check, for just a split salad, a meatball, chicken, and lasagna (certainly not a typical high end high priced meal) was about $120, which although everything but the salad was excellent, is still a bit overpriced.
We did our duty and walked over to the Bellagio gardens, nice as always.
One casino lost, another one gained!
Where do I begin? Southpoint is the place that I should have been playing at, years ago! What stopped me? Well, we had more than enough places to choose from for our typical week-long stays already. There was really no room in our schedule for a new casino, until I "fired" my host at Aquarius. The other aspect is that I've read numerous times that a day of decent play there may not result in any future comp room casino marketing offers. So, what did I do?
I cold called a host, and gave them info on my background and play level. They agreed to bring me in at the casino rate, and if my play was what I had suggested that it would be, they'd pick up the room. Fair enough!
So, what makes Southpoint so old school/high value? It's the last place that looks at the big picture as to what to offer guests to attract them! All casinos did this, years ago. You know how Sam's Town has been reduced to having one overpriced ala carte steakhouse, from its former handful of company owned good quality/great value eateries? Well Southpoint is still like the former Sam's and Boyd properties. Good VP, good comps, and get this, ELEVEN company owned restaurants! No McDonalds, no Outback, or the like! And those 11 are open even NOW, when many LV casinos have yet to reopen all their restaurants at their full schedule, even their damn buffet! While all other casinos (except Cosmo) closed their buffets and laid off the employees during the peak of the pandemic, South Point staffed UP their buffet, to have foods served, and kept it open! Bravo!
What else? An abundance of multi-play, full pay, VP! This helps smooth out some of the swings in VP. You can cut your denomination played, and instead play a multi hand game for the same total $ per pull! And unlike in most places, there are many machines like this with 99%+ pay scales!
How many 9/6 Jacks or Better 25c multi-play games exist in the entire city? Well at Southpoint, they have them, as well as even single play 9/6 JB at quarters, at one of their bars! What is this? 2003?
No drink tickets, no flashing lights telling the bartender to slap you for not playing fast enough for a comp drink. Things are just like you remember was the case everywhere at bar video poker machines, just ten years ago.
What else? Crazy old school LV values! How about two "happy hours" a day (weekdays) where at Steak N Shake, you can get a half price shake! Their already reasonably priced shakes are $2.49 during happy hours! https://southpointcasino.com/steak-n-shake-1-2-price-happy-hour
How about their legendary hot dog cart, with the $1.25 quality hot dogs in the afternoons? Of course, we had to try a shake and a hot dog.
What else? How about a deli with $6.50 "slices" of cake that could each feed a small family (these pics don't do justice to show the true size, these things were intimidating!), along with $5.50 brownies that look like they weigh over a pound each!
Obviously, the wrong tag there.
These turnovers were about 10 inches along the diagonal! Note they take the width of the tray.
What else? How about a thing called a fun book? You remember those, right? Coupons offering freebies or significant discounts? Okay, so there are no gaming coupons in this one anymore, but they did have a coupon for a free drink, a free Budweiser, and a free bottle of wine for ordering two entrees at Don Vito's, their Italian restaurant!
Maybe your issue is that the South Point is so far from the Strip that it would be costly to get transportation to and from the airport? If so, they have a free airport shuttle, that you can actually make reservations for! https://southpointcasino.com/hotel/airport-shuttle
What else? On what planet does a casino gift shop sell wine and liquor at prices similar to discount package stores, while allowing you to pay with comps? I was shocked looking at some of the shelf prices, at how low they were! Gift shops are notorious for having high prices which people will pay for the convenience factor! I picked a couple of samples to verify, and found the Southpoint prices to be the same or less than some liquor stores! Who does that? The list: Southpoint! End of list!
Compare the wine price to Total Wine: https://www.totalwine.com/wine/red-wine/pinot-noir/c/000018?brandcode=kendall-jackson
Many if not most of the bowling balls that were already described above, arriving with other baggage on our flight, were headed here, to the South Point. This bowling event is so big that it takes the entire bowling center for 2.5 months!
Dinner was at Don Vito's. Sometimes dishes look better than they taste, but this one, Osso Buco over saffron risotto, for just $39, was my favorite of the trip, and rivaled the same dish at Andiamo's at the D.
Typical line of bowlers with their bowling ball bags, in line, getting into elevators at the South Point
The filet mignon was excellent, even though the pic doesn't really look too appealing. Baked potato, on the side dish, came with the entree.
Yes, that is the Benny Binion statue, moved years ago from Downtown.
If you're a horse or rodeo person, you know what these are, above. If you don't, you now have a google assignment. You can't expect me to do everything for you!
The highlight of the stay, especially considering my difficult Aquarius comp story, was when I checked in with host, after my play. I am of the belief of under promise, over deliver, and so I put in about 20% more coin in than I suggested I was planning on playing there. We stopped in to see the host, late in the day before the next morning's check out. The host asked in a disbelieving voice, "why didn't you charge dinner to the room? I would have picked up the charges"! (We paid at the restaurant, with points earned on my play) OMG! I was being "scolded" by the host for NOT letting them pick up a meal charge! 180 degrees from Laughlin! See, I'm not crazy! Or maybe I still am am? She insisted that she pick up breakfast for us, via a comp, in their coffee shop, the next morning. So we ordered a bit extra, to try out some dishes that we'd probably not order, like the lox and bagel plate.
The only downside of the stay was our "view" from our low floor room. Next time we'll do better!
Southpoint, to me, is the most unique property in town, and quite possibly the best overall value in town. Here's hoping that this becomes a regular on our stays from now on!
JN and the D
We headed out of Southpoint and wanted to do a sort of mini coupon run, with another stop or two. One stop was to each get a free Krispy Kreme doughnut for being vaccinated. Of course, casino locations of KK do not participate in the giveaway, so we stopped at one on the way, North of Southpoint. We don't have a KK close by so this was our one chance to reap the benefit.
Then, we stopped at the mecca of gaming. That's right, we went to Jerry's Nugget! We actually did redeem some LVA/ACG coupons there, and managed to get on the NSUD machines and played a bit. Between prior comps on the card and those we just earned I was able to purchase a comp eclair at their coffee shop! Even better was that they put it in a Jerry's Nugget to-go box!
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| The box that says, "I've made it", to all those wanna-be's! |
I'll admit that although the eclair was good, I had expected better. I think it was that the chocolate icing was too thick, like that on a chocolate cake, rather than a ganache, for my liking. Next time we'll try the Strawberry Ring.
Some Jerry's history shots.
Note, the sign says nothing about prohibiting going into the fountain, or bathing in it. Are they trying to tell us something? Anyway, this view out of one of the entrances of Jerry's is light years from the rest of the surrounding views!
On the drive from Jerry's to Downtown, my eye caught something on the side of the road. Luckily there was a traffic light ahead, so traffic was slow! Was it? Is it? No way!
Yes, it was a pair of men's patent leather shoes in pretty good condition, in the island between lanes on LV Blvd! This didn't appear to be something that say dropped off the back of a truck, or a trunk, as it was a pair, together, still with a nice shine to the shoes. I was trying to think of the scenarios where at this location, these shoes would have been dropped, or lost. Help me out! Can someone put a good caption to this picture? Note, this was too far from Jerry's for it to be likely part of the story.
Later on, we settled into the D, and checked into a "premium" sort of room at the end of the hall. As much as I try to give it a chance, I can't really like staying at the D. This time, on a low 90 degree day, the in window air conditioner had trouble keeping the room cool, even at night. The second night the room was on the warm side although I turned down the AC to lowest temp, 61 degrees. In addition, we had a toilet that wouldn't stop running. Wondering how this wasn't noticed when the room was cleaned? I try and try, but I have had issues with each stay there (our 3rd).
I played mainly at the Vue Bar, but at this point I can't think of anything notable there except for me losing, which come to think of it, for this trip, isn't notable at all! I think the bartender had some "very informed" medical information on Covid-19 why vaccines weren't necessary, the details which somehow now escape me, despite having the privilege to hear it in person.
We got our Southwest match play, plus a ACG coupon match play and did well there.
Dinner was wonderful again, at Andiamo. We had a waiter who was on his first day back in a year and a half (not Covid related), who was pretty entertaining. This time we went for a split salad, then the Chilean Sea Bass, and the Lamb. Hey, we went 3 nights of meals without a single lamb dinner, this was the first one of the trip! Our food credit took care of dinner.
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| We split a salad, so this is half. |
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| Rack of LAMB! (#1) |
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| Chilean Sea Bass over Pea Risotto cake |
Sigma Derby, down again!
Panera "Tour" of Southern Nevada
We have a monthly "subscription" to unlimited coffee at Panera, which can be used an any location. So throughout the trip, if we were nearby, or it was around breakfast time, we'd find a way to stop at a Panera on our route for the day. This time, we hit four locations during the week. We visited locations near South Point, Palace Station, and West side near I215, but the winner, in terms of best outdoor seating location, was the location near Rampart, as shown below.
Rampart Day
Next was another (and maybe final) attempt to get on the comp room mailer list for the Rampart casino, which was the surprise of last trip, in terms of enjoying the property. We went again on "Winning Wednesdays", which is a great promotion. For $2,000 coin in, you can redeem those points for a $25 voucher at their coffee shop, the Earl Gray Cafe. For $3,000 coin in, you can redeem those points for a $50 dinner voucher, up to 2 in a day, for their restaurants. Our dinner at the Hawthorn, with outdoor seating, was a highlight of last trip and despite the SOB's not deeming me worthy of a full comp room casino marketing offer (buy 1, get one free), I wanted to give them another relatively strong day of play to be able to have a comp stay there in the future.
We arrived early, so we could play enough to earn and use the coffee shop $25 voucher for breakfast. Breakfast was fine. The room was nice, a little noisy. We got to see a first, for us. A man with a very large protruding belly, eating alone, wearing what I would call a semi professional bib! No, this was no lobster bib! It was much larger, and looked to be terrycloth. He did not appear to have any disabilities, and was eating alone. The bib was draped over his large belly, which no doubt, would have made a great "tray" for crumbs and drips.
Another promo on this day was a free slot tournament. You get 1-2 entries a day. It was on one of those newer slot machines that takes two hands to play. One, like usual, to "pull" the lever, while the other hand is needed to pop bubbles or bells that slide across the screen. I can see how some older players, with less active reflexes and hands, would be at a disadvantage playing these machines. We played, relatively early in the day, and at the time one of our rounds resulted in the 2nd place high score. Since there were so many hours left in the day, I didn't think our score had much chance of placing, but the employees said we had a good chance of cashing in the tournament.
For dinner, we did a repeat of last trip, and sat at one of the few outdoor tables near the water/garden area. The temp at the time was 92, but being shady, and with a bit of a breezy, with no humidity, it was actually a bit on the cool side, by the end of dinner! This time, one of us was going to not have the lamb dish, as we were on a LRD (Lamb Restricted Diet) for this trip!
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| Half a salad, once again, sufficient. |
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| Lamb Dinner #2 |
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| Sea Scallops |
Once again, a wonderful salad, and a nice, not overfilling dinner, in the most relaxing outdoor atmosphere you can find. This time, we were joined at dinner by another couple!
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| Friends joining us for dinner. |
When is a Royal Flush, not a "Royal Flush"? I may be in the minority here, but I don't think of considering a multi play royal flush, when dropping in denomination, a real true royal flush. It's just a good hand. Why? Partly because easily, you can easily still have a losing day if you hit only one low denomination multi hand royal flush. A true royal flush significantly changes the finances of a trip, whereas a pseudo royal flush leaves you still in the red for the day.
Having said this, comically, in the last 2 or so years, since I started moving say, 15% of my play to multi hand, playing many tens of thousands of multi play hands, I had yet to hit a single one of these mini royal flushes.
We had just reached my coin-in targets for the day, and I was doing one of those things where I would cash out at the next round 100 credit number, either up or down. On one of the very last hands of the day, I hit a royal flush on a 10 play, holding 3 pieces of the royal in the initial hold. Of course it made a large dent in my loss for the day, but did not wipe it out. As I said, I don't count this as a royal flush in my play history.
A bit later, the slot tournament winners list was posted some time after 8pm, and sure enough, I had placed near the middle of the pay list, for a $125 cash win! Nice! This made up for the lack of having/using a free play/room offer. Cashing out the voucher at the cashier was a bit of an event, which took several minutes. I was only half exaggerating when I said to the cashier, that it was easier to close on a mortgage than to get through all the paperwork and verification for my $125 payout!
..... The Return...... of Zorro!!!!
About 11-12 years ago, during several trips downtown, a man would catch our eye outside the casinos listening and moving to the Fremont Street music. He was dressed rather smartly, had a presence about him, and acted like the "mayor" of downtown, greeting and smiling at passerby's, while occasionally doing a little dance, then at times shaking hands of guests at the Golden Nugget, and tipping his hat to people entering or leaving! Nearby was his large black bag, with an umbrella protruding, looking like some kind of James Bond top secret briefcase! What a sight to see! Well after a few years of being entertained, we suddenly no longer saw him around. Since then, we've looked for him during each trip (over 20 trips since then), but were disappointed each time.
Until this trip! Now, over ten years later, we spotted him, much the same as ever (except not currently dancing to FSE bands which were on hiatus). We had a short chat with him, told him how much we missed him. He claimed to have never left, and revealed his very appropriate, self named persona as.... ZORRO! Yes, his hand motions while dancing were often like a Zorro sword! An appropriate name for sure!
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| Is it? Could it be? No way! |
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| He's back! The fashion King of Downtown! |
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| The "mayor", at "work". |
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| Zorro (carrying bag) cashing out his win! |
In part of the chat, he told us "I'm not homeless, but....." well in my book, anyone who starts a sentence like that IS homeless. On the other hand, he dresses so nicely he obviously had some money for the wardrobe. You have to understand, for over ten years we've been wondering where he was, and we now know Zorro still rules the FSE! He is my nomination for Mayor of downtown. Re-discovering Zorro, and having a conversation with him was like meeting LV royalty! Long live Zorro! Is there a better way to celebrate the return of semi normal life downtown, than the return of Zorro?
Flashback, 11-12 years ago, see that Zorro hasn't aged! Is he a human?
Here are some poor quality photos of Zoro from 2009-10
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| Dancing Zorro! (note almost same outfit 11 years later) |
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| Always the life of the party! Give him room! |
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| Taking a break with his "James Bond" bag next to him. Umbrella? Or space age secret weapon? |
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| Zorro in the middle of the action! |
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| My fav pic of him, from 2009, hands in motion as he does a dance in his black outfit. |
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| The "mayor" of Downtown, ready to greet his constituents in 2009. |
Four Queens Stuff
For our lunch/snack while at the Four Queens, we changed things up and this time tried the chicken wings at the Chicago Brewery there. Would have them again!
Playing VP was the usual high variance experience. I was up 1/4 of a royal flush, only to see it disappear into a small loss, which was offset by the free play on my offer there. I'd take that outcome every time, but still would have been nice to keep my gains for an actual solid win. This is with getting Aces twice during the long day of play!
Dinner at Hugo's is a mandatory part of each trip. Lately, I've moved to the Beef Wellington, and "splurged" the extra $5 or so for the potato au gratin, while our other dish was Chilean Sea Bass.
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| Nice touch, painting a rose on the Covid glass divider. |
THE CRUEL COOKIE SHUT OUT!
I experienced a devastating event this trip!
Last year, I read a comment in a Four Queens thread that the delicious cookies, which are no longer available at Magnolias in the Four Queens, were still available at Binion's Deli. I was up to that challenge! So I set out to purchase some there, expecting that Magnolia's was not going to have the cookies in May (and that was the case, again). I headed to Binion's Deli and asked about cookies. It was around 4pm. The worker there said that all they had left was a few oatmeal raisin cookies (my least favorite of their cookies), and that this was because a woman had come in and bought all the remaining chocolate chip cookies. This woman is now my enemy! He said that this happens quite often.
I don't understand how businesses survive and yet not take advantage of more fully stocking items that easily sell out.! Anyway, he said to come by "tomorrow morning". That was interesting as they don't open until 11:30am.
I went to the Four Queens slot club desk and had them print me out a comp voucher that I could use at Binion's. Then, I arrived the next day at noon to enquire about the cookies. "The chef is way behind today, I don't even have my corned beef yet today! Check back mid/late afternoon!", I was told. I left with my head bowed, but returned around 4pm to ask for a status. "No cookies today!", he informed me, with little to no sympathy in his voice! There it was, shutout of cookies again, even after going to the source! Life can be so cruel! What more could I have done? I wonder if, next trip, I can put in an order in advance of my desired varieties, and pre pay for them?
Instead, I used my comp vouchers for a root beer float, made with root beer from the Chicago Brewery and frozen custard from Binion's. After tasting this, I actually prefer the root beer without ice cream. We also had a separate side cup of frozen custard at Binion's Deli, which was delicious. This is now one of my top 10 LV bargains, as it is $1.99, and generous serving size! Sorry for no pic!
A Classic Conversation at Four Queens!
I like to start play very early at the Four Queens so I can get a lot of play in for the day. What that means is I am there for that golden hour, as I call it, around 7am, where you have the early risers and the up all nighters, both in the casino at once. I probably was about 15 minutes into my play when this guy, and girl, both in their mid 20's started having a conversation about 10 feet from me. He looked for sure like he was up all night, and had a 3 day old, ugly, thin, scraggly beard. She was a bit trashy looking. I knew right away this was going to be interesting. It sounded like a negotiation, so I figured it was either a hooker situation, or a drug deal. But as I listened, he was pleading too much for it to be either of those. "Come on" he kept pleading to her. "Just....xxxx" (I had trouble hearing the rest). It was back and forth. They moved a few feet closer, and now it was clear that this guy was trying to pick up this girl/and or her friend. Both sides sounded like they were under the influence. He was getting nowhere though. I'm not even sure she understood that he was trying to pick her up!
Finally she stopped him, looked at him and said "you're a pussy face". He was surprised, and was snapped out of his negotiation routine. What? he asked. She came back again more matter of factly, this time, with "you....are.... a pussy face". By this time her friend kind of disappeared for a bit. He then said, "I don't know what that means!" She kept on, "you're a pussy face". And him, "what is that? '', back and forth in their semi inebriated state. He was suddenly very frustrated, and did what any 7 year old boy would do in this situation. He came back with "no, you're a pussy face"! Brilliant come back!
Her friend came back, and the first girl pointed at him, and said to her friend "Isn't he a pussy face?". She nodded, and he came back with his same stupid reply. Then he thought better of it, and went back at trying to pick her/them up. Meanwhile, all this time, there I am trying to not let on I am listening, and also trying to concentrate on the correct video poker holds, while listening to this stupid, idiotic conversation near me, and biting my lip. I thought there might be more drama ahead, and figured this was going to involve security soon, but surprisingly, eventually the two parties kind of went their own ways.
After a couple of hours, it was time for Magnolias.
Our second meal of the trip with a doily! This is the semi healthy SOUTHWEST VEGGIE SKILLET ...........~ V 10.49 Two eggs any style on a medley of sautéed fresh sliced peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, spinach, asparagus, pepper jack cheese and avocado; served with hash brown potatoes and choice of toast
A Near Very Expensive Mistake!
In the mid afternoon, I wanted to take a bathroom break from playing, but was trying to continue a run I was on to reach break even first. I kept getting close to my goal, and then losing. Finally, another four of a kind pushed me over my goal. In a hurry to get to the restroom, I pushed the cash out button, quickly grabbed the voucher and my slot card, and headed to the bathroom.
When I returned to the casino floor, I saw a couple of attendants around the machine I had just left. I approached them, curious as to what was going on. "Something wrong here?", I asked. "Where you the one who just left this machine?" they asked me. I told them yes I was. "Well you almost lost this!" the attendant said, showing me a voucher machine in the amount I thought I already cashed out! I reached into my pocket, and pulled out the voucher I had taken. It was BLANK! You know all those "player is responsible for verifying" disclaimer? Well this was that once in a blue moon occasion when the voucher print malfunctioned, and the credits stayed in the machine. Okay, 99.9% of the time I probably take a quick look at the voucher, but since I was in a hurry, this time I didn't. I suspect the print error set off some kind of error code, and then an attendant was alerted to come over and then cashed out my credits on another voucher! Wow, close one! I thanked them in great relief!
ACD
We took a quick side trip to Arizona Charlies Decatur. I think we went in once about 12 years ago. Since they use the same Players Card as Aquarius in Laughlin (the casino I "fired" (see part 1 of this report)), I wanted to earn a couple of points, to reset my 13 months till all points expire clock. Knowing they had full pay deuces was another reason to go. Just to play that game for a bit. The funny part is my level of the TrueRewards player card there gives me a voucher for not $1, not $2, but a $3 comp per day at the gift shop! Is there a more pathetic "VIP" players perk than that? I'm sure everyone is impressed by that as I am! I was able to obtain a bag of M&Ms Peanut, and two bags of Planters Peanuts, which actually is surprising for $3. High roller comps! There was a buzz on the gift shop line behind me as I proudly signed the $3 comp voucher, and handed it over the the cashier. "Peanuts, for free? Must be some of those VIP's are here again!"
I don't know if they are considering a rebranding, or if they are just making some updates, but the AZ Charlies signs, both the large one out front, and the one over the entrance, we taken down, leaving things looking rather shabby, even for AZ Charlies standards!
Decatur No-Name Casino (aka Arizona Charlies Decatur)
We played maybe 20 minutes of full pay deuces wild. Ironically, that seemed to trigger, about a week later, a one night comp room offer for AZ Charlies Decatur! I don't how special this was, but at the kiosk, I had an offer for a "limited edition" LV Knights True Rewards players card, which I had printed.
Golden Nugget Notes
You'd think I would have learned by now to stick with my judgement. We learned that the Downtown Events Center (DTEC) was having a big show on Friday night, as so, that, along with the fact that there was no entertainment yet on the FSE stages, led me to ask for a FSE side room in the Rush tower, as this time, being more quiet. When I described why, the check in attendant first said, no, there aren't any shows yet (showing her lack of knowledge). After we convinced her that there was a show, she disappeared into the back room to discuss our room request with her boss. Surely these experienced people would have more knowledge than me, right? They said that the positioning of the Rush tower was such that it didn't have a clear view of the DTEC stage, and so that this side would still be the best choice for a quiet room! Okay then, we took their advice!
Can you guess what happened? This DJ show at the DTEC went past 1am. We had an early morning ahead for checking out. I so much wanted to find out who the manager was, and have him come up to the room at 1:15am when the interior walls of the room were shaking with movement from the stage sound.
I ticked off another item on my trip checklist when we ordered the generous 11oz Perrier bottles while playing VP, after Dewey posted about this rare-ish, decent sized bottle available there!
The trip ended with dinner with the fishes at Chart House at Golden Nugget. The highlight was the dessert, which was amazing. Being entertained by the fish during dinner was even better than I had remembered from the last time we sat in that area, years ago.
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Concert night at Downtown Events Center means $$ parking at Golden Nugget.
Car rental pick up tidbit
I forgot to post this on day 1 of the report, so I'll add it here. There was a long wait for available cars at Avis, so while waiting, I chatted with the desk attendant for a bit, about how I'd like any vehicle type other than an SUV. I told her the main reason was that when we move from hotel to hotel, between check-ins, that the bags in the back of the SUV are visible to those walking by, vs a secure sedan trunk. She nodded in agreement. 10 minutes later, she tells me my vehicle is ready. I figured I didn't have to ask, but I did. "It's a sedan, right?", I asked. "No, it's an SUV!", she told me! I shook my head and laughed. I guess I wasn't very persuasive. We found ways to try to make the bags less obvious in the rear.
Final thoughts
First, it's kind of amazing, now that we are up to around 70 lifetime trips, and yet we're still being able to have totally new experiences, like here, saying in Southpoint and fully discovering it.
We kept our commitment to the LRD (lamb restricted diet) and held the count to 2 meals between the two of us, in a week! That's an accomplishment!
We did manage to have not one, but two doilies under our dishes this trip! Glad to see Covid-19 has not impacted the doily usage at area restaurants. (Yes, it is fun saying and typing "doily").
Yet another losing trip, while playing on average, machines with 99.5% expected value, and using proper strategy. Hey, I control what I can, and have no choice but to live with the variance of ups and downs.
All hotel nights were comped, all meals were comped (except for the $1.25 Southpoint hotdog, which only takes cash), plus semi generous amounts of free play, and no damn resort fees. That always helps to make up for the losses. Another win is not getting Covid-19 on the trip, which included 12 hours of roundtrip flight.
Now if I can only get a Binion's/Four Queens cookie!
Plans are to go back in October, mainly for another cookie attempt!
As typical, we were told our major Southwest flight segment to head home was totally full, and there were no empty seats. It was like hitting a small jackpot when they shut the door and announced that because of a late connection, there would now be 30 empty seats, including the one between us!
Time to say good-bye!
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| Caesars Laurel Lounge ("What's that?", the Nevada readers ask) |
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| Volleyball tournament on the beach |
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| A gentleman sporting his exclusive cushioned "iPhone holder shelf". |
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Part of our "Sunday Supper" feast at Angeline's. |
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| Cassata cake was part of the Sunday Supper. |
I make it a point to only mention video poker play experiences that are personally unique. Well, in July, in Atlantic City, at Borgata, near the end of a long day, I had a couple of 250-800 coin hands that wiped out a lot of my losses. After hitting Aces, I cashed out, planning to finish up at some low volatile Jacks or Better. Well the machine I later sat down at had other ideas. What followed was maybe my best (non royal flush) 90 minutes of Jacks of Better in my life.
It was comical. I just recited the hands as I got them. "Dealt straight, dealt flush".... four to a flush? Sure, here comes the 5th, of course, easy! Dealt two pair? Not, wondering IF I will complete a full house, but instead, which of the pairs will hit to complete the full house? There is no such game as super bonus Tens, but it there was, they probably would have checked the machine for a malfunction. I counted. I had four of a kind in Tens six times in 90 minutes, and there were plenty of other quads as well. More than half the time, I hit my flush or straight draws, over and over. It started to feel creepy, like something was not normal.
At my peak, I was up over 1/4 of a royal flush in this session, without a royal or even a straight flush, and being Jacks or Better, no bonus hands. Then suddenly, after about 90 minutes, things dried up. I cashed out still way up for the session, leaving me just a bit in the black for the 3 day royal-less trip, not bad!
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