Warning! Don't let THIS, happen to YOU!
Transportation
We hadn't taken a December mini trip in a couple of years, but when I saw a $148 Southwest Air roundtrip airfare from an Northeast area airport, I had to jump on it. The flight times weren't ideal, but the price made up for it.
This was going to be our first full "test trip" without a rental car. I had been able to dodge car rental high pricing bullets with one time discounts to make recent rental prices semi reasonable, but I couldn't justify $200 for 3.5 days, when 90% of our trip would be downtown with the car sitting in the garage. So this was going to be a test and a new experience, sans rental car. This experience led to some notes from what I learned that will be helpful for future trips.
I did my homework on the buses, and found that first, that although the 108 or 109 do run often and after midnight, the closest to the downtown casinos they come is to get off at the Bonneville transit center. Between the length of the walk to the FSE from that stop, the fact that we'd be dragging bags in not the best of neighborhoods, and that it would be around midnight, made those routes unacceptable for us. So it was going to be the CX route, or Lyft.
On the first flight segment, we sat in front of "those people" that you don't want to sit near! These two VERY trashy women sat in the window and aisle seats, and when someone inquired about the middle seat, the answer given (lie) was that the person in that seat was in the bathroom, which was obviously not true. The woman made a comment to these trashy women about the lie, and it was ON. For 15 minutes they insulted her (she ended up sitting a few rows from them) on and on, like school children would, even coming up with things like "how come you have no friends sitting with you, don't you have any friends, you loser"? As if we all fly with a group of friends and everyone flying solo is a "loser". Of course all these comments were at full volume voice, with us sitting in front. I was very close to going back to talk to an flight attendant to ask them to intervene and point out that this harassment was over the line, and I wasn't even the one involved...yet. It quieted down a little bit, but their foul mouth trashy stories to each other at full volume went on for two hours. I counted down each ten minutes as getting closer to the flight ending. Luckily my Bose noise reduction headphones and music drowned out 80% of their chatter.
Then, while leaving the plane we learned..... that they of course, were going to Las Vegas and would be on our next segment too! Even better, we were A51 and A52, and they were right behind us to board, at A53 and A54 for the Vegas segment! And, not surprising, also staying downtown, but, lucky for us, at the Fremont. We did not see them around during our walks in the area, thankfully.
To get to our hotel we'd have to make the last CX bus, the 10:49pm bus, or take Lyft if we didn't make it. The goal was to take the CX from the airport, but take Lyft back to the airport, which is the only reasonable option to get to the airport for a 530am flight!
In prep for the trip, I was impressed with the "Transit" app (Google and Apple) which supposedly has real time bus info, tracking the individual buses! Pretty helpful technology.... IF the data is correct (foreshadowing).
We decided to carry on our bags onboard, to have a much better chance of making the last CX bus. We knew we had a half hour until the next CX scheduled bus. 10 minutes before scheduled arrival, the Transit app said the bus was 10 minutes late. 10 minutes later a bus pulled in with a CX route sign. I remembered that a CX Southbound bus was supposed to be coming first, with our Northbound bus supposedly 10 minutes away, according to live data. I decided to approach it, and walked faster as I unexpectedly saw a "North" sign on the bus. The door closed in my face. Fortunately the driver opened it for me to ask if he was going North to downtown. He grunted something like "yes". We scurried to grab the bags and board. I made a comment that their app said he wouldn't be here for another 10 minutes, and in reply, he grunted, again.
Lesson learned: somehow even "live data" can be wrong, and if the bus is supposed to be "late", it pays to be at the stop, ready, in case it happens to be on time.
We were the only tourists on board, and besides us they were probably about 15 or so locals. None of them were scary. This was a great deal as we went downtown for a grand total of $4 in bus fare. Probably less than the tip on a cab or Lyft.
FOUR QUEENS
One part of our stay was at the Four Queens. One notable complaint was that only two of the four elevators in the South Tower were working, and this, while the place was mobbed with the cowboys in town. With it being the end of the rodeo week, at times it took over 10 minutes to wait for an elevator and as you could guess, once one arrived, people packed in, like sardines. For people on the lower floors, it was even worse as far as going down, as the elevators would be full, long before it got to the lower floors, which was frustrating for them. Many were taking the stairs down. It really was unacceptable and one frequent guest told me that it has been like this for many months, and the management knows about it, but yet has done nothing. I'll contrast this later with my stay at Circa which couldn't be more different than this.
We've must have eaten 40 meals at Hugo's Cellar restaurant, and never had to send anything back, but this time, the lamb, ordered medium, was cooked less than rare, and was raw inside. We dreaded having to send it back, knowing that the risk was that they'd over do it. We worked on the other entree while waiting for the dish to return.... and waited, and waited... When it finally returned, you guessed it, it was well done, and crispy on the outside. What are we going to do now? Send it back and wait another 15 minutes for another rack to be cooked? We just dealt with it, and ate the well done lamb, which fortunately was not totally dried out.
That's a SALAD!
I've been impressed with the Pixel phone magic eraser which is very good at locating people and removing them from the picture. A before and after below.
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I started the day of video poker play very early, and after about 10 minutes of play, a grubby "gentleman" sat down right next to me in the empty row of machines, with no intention of playing, and asked me how I was doing with my luck. I said, not good, and immediately cashed out and left the machine. I wasn't going to stick around for the rest of his act which was obviously to ask for money, best case scenario. I walked around a bit and saw him pull the same thing next to a woman playing alone. She put up with him for a bit and then he left.
I found a bug in the new Four Queens slot machine card readers, and it cost me comps/cash back! Since this was the new, combined Players card, with Binion's, and I already knew the points no longer displayed on the reader as you played, unlike the past, I periodically pulled the card and reinserted it, to get my point balances. On a couple of occasions I went into the menu on the screen to see what info could be displayed. Then I pressed the back arrow so that my balance wouldn't be showing to others walking by. Back to that screen there are 3 choices, 2 are to see information, and the 3rd says "Goodbye", clearly to exit that menu. So I pushed "goodbye" and continued playing for another 90 minutes or so to check my point progress. When I did, I got a surprise. My point balance hadn't changed, after almost 90 minutes of play! What?
I started trying to re-enact what I had done, and now I noticed that even after the card is accepted, and you leave the card untouched, that when you press "Goodbye" on the screen, it ends the session, and your card is no longer active in the machine for play! I called over an attendant who was unimpressed, and unsympathetic. She called over a tech, who came over, and said he'd turn off the machine and later replace the card reader. I had a hunch this was not a card reader issue, so right in front of them, I performed these same steps at another machine. Guess what? Same problem!
Believe it or not, the attendant's "solution" was to tell me, just like the old Henny Youngman joke where he says "Doctor, it hurts when I do this this", and the Doctor replies "So don't do that then", "well don't press 'Goodbye'". I asked does she think I am the only one pressing Goodbye to exit the menu and losing points because of it? She replied that others check points and haven't had this problem. (You can get points balance without going through this menu, but you do have to go through the menu to get your free play to display on the machine). The tech pretty much told her to stop trying to tell me it's not a problem, but he wasn't really too concerned either. As to whether they fix this, and when, which might need a software change from Oasis, the company that provides the software... only time will tell. I am sure less observant people are losing points due to this, and don't know about it. At the end of this discussion another player who is a frequent player overheard the end of this discussion said he would bring this issue up with his host, and possibly a casino manager.
Update, post trip: I had another trip a month later, but did not check to see if this point issue was still ongoing.
Back to playing. After having 90 minutes of play not applied to my account, I had a decent long day of video poker, playing mostly at one machine, holding my own, when I ran into a long dry spell. Looking to change things up, I moved to another machine. I had a good start, but it too turned down after a while. I thought about taking a break, or switching back again, but played a few more hands. After getting dealt four to a royal, I pulled the Queen of Clubs for a Royal Flush! So, this was almost certainly a winning trip!
We ate one breakfast at Binion's Cafe, using the Four Queens funbook 2/1 coupon. There was almost no line there, compared to all the cowboys on line for Magnolias. Breakfast was fine, with fast service, but the silverware there is by far, the cheapest crappiest flatware I have every touched, and that includes dining halls and cafeterias! The metal on the fork handle was so thin, that it was almost like a blade, and would hurt your hand if you gripped it too tightly! Amazing!
New Casino Fashion Trend!
We spotted a new trend in headwear in casinos. Apparently it is now in fashion to wear a casino players card on your head! But the more seriously awful part of this particular story is that it seemed likely that something shady was being attempted here. This gentleman approached the Four Queens player club booth with this card, trying to use it, only to be denied because, if you can believe it, he somehow had his wallet "stolen" and had no ID. But he promised he was the owner of this card, isn't that enough? Once denied, he quietly walked away, not upset at all. I bet he would have somehow claimed he had "forgotten" his PIN number, when his wallet was "stolen", if he were asked about it.
The Grinch that "stole" Christmas
My closing on posts says "LV where we've found a new way to cut costs, every time you visit."
Well "we" found a new way they found to cut costs! Casino management has apparently been invaded by Grinch's! Yes, several of our favorite casino Holiday decoration displays from past years Downtown have been eliminated! Oh, I bet it is due to Covid-19 precautions (sarcasm based on recent other cutbacks using that excuse)
A short list of examples would be 90% of the wonderful Golden Nugget's Christmas decorations are gone, especially those in the long hallways around the pool. Now a couple of small ordinary Christmas trees dot the property!
And even the Bellagio, despite having one large exception of the never better current Christmas display in the conservatory, no longer has any Christmas decor hanging from the ceiling in the mall walkway from the Strip sidewalk entrance or on the large vase based figures ! Stunning!
In past years there were all sorts of Holiday decorations hanging through the Bellagio mall in this area.
The Circa and D have next to no Holiday decorations! Once again, a couple of ordinary Christmas trees dot the properties. Nothing that anyone is going to look fondly at, or visit just to view.
The wax Holiday images drawn on the glass door entrances at the Cal are long gone, years ago!
How much could these savings amount to be? Nothing significant, but Grinch's running the casino business will cut nearly anything and everything that isn't producing revenue!
2016 Golden Nugget Decorations Below
This is how the door at the California looked for many years, until around 2017.
2016 Venetian
More cost cutting the day after the cowboys left! The Golden Nugget International Beer Bar (yes it has a name), and the always busy Starbucks right off of the FSE, were closed, in the early afternoon!
CIRCA/D or D/CIRCA
My original plan was to play at Circa on Sunday, and play on the video poker machines that look into the amazing Sportsbook during the NFL games, and then play at the D on Monday. We hadn't checked into Circa yet, so I walked over, very early. As soon as I passed security checking my license at the outside door, I encountered chaos! A mass of men were running towards the door, in random directions, with shouting and screaming. I moved to the left, and they went left. I moved to the right, and they were getting closer, now to the right. I was going to get run over by the group. I bailed and went back out into the between the entrance area between the two sets of doors, and backed up to the wall in that area, to put as much distance as I could from this group. They made their way in area between the sets doors, past me, and at that point I could finally see that they were "escorting" a young man from the casino, while he was yelling and screaming and fighting back against them, really giving them a challenge. They pushed him out onto the FSE concrete, after which he of course stood up, still shouting, and tried to re-enter. They pushed him back each time. What an early morning wake up excitement!
I had this (now I realize) silly idea that I was going to head down early Sunday morning, to the Circa VP machines, facing the sportsbook, and get a spot to play while watching the games. Obviously I was forgetting that this is the new Las Vegas, where if there is a chance to charge for something, they will! Those that know Circa on football Sunday's know that they rope off the entire section, hours before the first football game, and charge for seating, even at a gambling machine. I am surprised it is allowed by the Gaming commission to charge for a seat at a gambling machine.
See the dividing rope at the bottom of the picture.
The boss and his wife's reserved sportsbook seats at the video poker row.
Anyway, I reversed my plans to now play at D on Sunday, and then to return to Circa on Monday for play there.
On my way back to the D, out on Fremont St, I heard once again, yelling and screaming. It's about 8:30am, so it was quite stark against the quiet of the early morning! Once again, it was the same guy that got thrown out of Circa, was now being tackled by FSE security, as he shouted profanities, threats of lawsuits, and later, omg the humanities, about how they lost his hat! His repeated phrase was "you guys are so f'ed - and you don't even know it". I got a bit of video, but the clips I recorded really didn't do the event justice, as unfortunately after he had calmed down quite a bit by then! Seconds later I got a video of them carrying his body, head first, with his body parallel to the ground, men holding him by each limb, around the corner, to put him down on the sidewalk. He did a very good job of occupying 4-5 security guards, just to half control him, and still had a lot to say.
Eventually, I made it up to the Vue Video Poker Bar at the D.
I always make it a point to put at least a small contrarian bet against a team I hear some loud mouth "expert" boast about to others. It wins about 80% of the time. A man at the Vue video poker bar was talking loudly on his phone, adding up the dollar totals of what the "wins" should be for the day, featuring his Vikings over the Lions, along with other bets, and how that would be an easy win. I went over to the sportsbook to bet on the Lions, and then came back and played near him as the Lions dominated the game. He left in the 3rd quarter, down 21-7
Observation, if you play at the machines on the end near the outside door at the Vue Bar, in the winter, bring a jacket! It was cold playing in those seats.
I have nothing notable about my play there. I couldn't keep anything good going. Long steaks without a quad followed by a few short spells of a few quads in a very short time, to give me hope. It was a bad day financially, there, but still, enjoyable. I've had more than my share of wins, and royals there, in the past couple of years.
We checked in to Circa, for our second stay there. (Our October stay is going to be in a trip report that I am still finishing). Once again, it was a great stay, and I look forward specifically to staying there. The place amazes me, especially as for going from and to your room. If you have a room close to the elevator, it's as quick as the smallest hotel you can think of. As a test, I had a sports book ticket that I would be cashing on the second floor mini Circa sports book desk. From the time I left the room, taking the elevator down, going to the sports book, collecting my bet and coming back to the room was less than 4 minutes. Repeat, less than 4 minutes to go from my room, "wait" for the elevator, go down to the casino, cash the ticket, "wait" for an elevator up, and walk back up to my room. And that quickness was not unusual. The elevators are simply amazing. You press the button and an elevator is practically waiting for you, and rarely is anyone else in the elevator. Once again contrast this to the Four Queens experience. It couldn't be more different. It felt like I was in some small exclusive private hotel that had a private elevator just for me to go up and down to the casino.
Speaking of elevators, inside I got to add to my collection of pictures of odd signs in the Circa hotel elevator.
Fine? How much?
And upon checking in, what's this? Treating a guest with a little perk? How long can this last? I had check in privileges to the VIP check in room. They actually had complimentary bottled water and coffee! And stop! What's that, little chocolate biscotti packages with Circa logo's on them, for ME? Really? Remember those kinds of things, like water and coffee that Caesars used to have in the Diamond check in, that "had" to be removed because Caesars has such a "stringent" Covid-19 prevention policy? Everyone needs to realize, Caesars didn't remove these things for savings, they did it to "protect us customers".... still, today! ;-) Anyway this was a nice little retro classy perk from Circa.
View of Neon Museum from the Circa room
Dinner was at Andiamo. First, from the time it opened Sunday at 5pm, it was packed. There was a crowd waiting to be seated.
Once again, a place where we've never had an issue with the meals, until now. The veal chop, ordered medium was much closer to well done! Once again though, edible and not dried. The waitress agreed and apologized, and gave us a complimentary dessert. Still this entree, with the marsala based mushroom toping and sauce is really delicious.
BELLAGIO CONSERVATORY
I usually throw in a few pictures of the Bellagio Holiday Conservatory, just to add some contrast to the report, but this time it was notable enough to feature it. I had seen reports and pictures of crowds and lines to enter, and wanted no part of that, so we went as off peak (with good daylight) as we could, a very early midweek afternoon. We've been to probably around 4 prior Christmas displays there, but this one, for some reason really impressed me, more than any prior one. It was so worth the trip, despite the return bus trip from hell, which I will include after the photos. The display is themed "Gingerbread Dream, A Holiday Confection"
The electric toy train running under the tree was not working, and as I walked behind the tree a couple of employees were working on it. I happened to hear one of them mention to a guest that the reason that the tree smell live is that it IS a live tree! I had no idea! It always seemed so full that I figured they had an enormous artificial tree. It turned out that the person we were talking to was the Manager of the Bellagio Conservatory, so she talked to us about the efforts and planning that goes into pulling this off. And not unexpectedly, there is a full year of planning and work behind what you see! They probably should consider letting her speak there on occasion as a special event as it was great to listen to her.
She showed us a video on her phone of the tree being helicoptered out of the mountains, and I think she said this tree was groomed, for years, with the intention of bringing it to Bellagio. She claimed there is a video of the tree transportation on the Bellagio website, although I could not locate it!
It was actually empty off peak enough to go inside the gingerbread house without being trampled!
The Deuce route bus ride from Downtown to Bellagio wasn't that bad. We had purchased a two hour pass, and managed to get a bus back after visiting Bellagio, within the 2 hours. The bus ride back was a marathon, to say the least. Crowded, for sure, but for added delays a rider near the Venetian entered on a motor scooter, and the bus driver sat and waited and waited, for the rider to maneuver the scooter into the EXACT designated spot. It took over 5 minutes for that to happen, before we continued. Every stop was busy along the Strip, to the point of every stop being a delay while the driver pleaded for people to move back, to allow more people to board. Eight stops like this, in a row, on the Strip!
Then the scooter man got off the bus at the stop near the Strat. He now had to maneuver the scooter, back and forth, no less than 12 times, slowly, in a very tight space, in order to turn around to begin the process of heading to exit the front door. This took no less than 10 minutes, eventually with other riders trying to help by picking up the wheels, with little result. And just to make the trip more fun, another rider on wheels now entered at the same stop, with, thankfully, only a wheelchair, that more easily got into the designated spot on the bus. The ride was absolute torture! When we exited the bus, it was as if we were released from prison, complete with shouting in celebration of our new "freedom". I'm sure most people exaggerate when they quote times to make their story more sensational. I don't have to, I can look at my tracking data for the exact time! I checked my Google location history to get a reading on the return bus trip length. What was funny is that unlike our trip to the Strip, for the trip back Downtown, Google doubted that it could have been a bus trip, likely due to the long duration of the trip!!! The app had to ask me what type of transportation I used, and walking was one option on the list! ha!! According to Google tracking, our bus ride back took 1 hour and 15 minutes to go approximately 5 miles! Insane! Had we known that would happen, we'd probably take Lyft back Downtown. But, in any case, we enjoyed the Bellagio so much, it was worth the trip.
CIRCA/D DAY 2
For our second night at Circa/D we decided to have a repeat dinner at Andiamo's. This would allow us to try something other than our normal Osso Buco or Veal Chop. Which by the way, are spectacular. On the second night at Andiamo, we were trying to figure out what to order, and the waiter tried to encourage us to get, guess what, osso buco and the veal chop, which he said were the best on the menu. We said we agreed but we had them last night, and wanted to try something new.
I'm not going to say that they have issues here and the place is subpar, but we both ordered shellfish seafood dishes on the second night, and we were both moderately sick with stomach issues overnight. There's no question in my mind it had to do with something with the shellfish not being kept properly. I had the scallops dish. If you look at the picture it looks very impressive, visually, but they were the most ordinary scallops I've had and the ricotta gnocchi was basically just like bulk without much taste. I really wouldn't have this dish again, but at least I tried experimenting with it.
For Monday Night Football, Circa didn't have the video poker machines roped off for paying customers. So I was able to get a great seat and play while watching.
Now that I switched my plans, Monday was Circa day. I played some during the day at the bonus poker machines overlooking the sports book and had a decent session. Long sessions of no four of a kinds once again followed by 5 to 10 minute periods with three or so four of a kinds to give me hope. I was able to manage to get a seat for Monday Night football at one of the few machines available with a view of the sportsbook and the experience was much better than I had expected. There was an energy in the air. Almost like a Super Bowl energy, even though it was an ordinary game between Arizona and New England, which hardly was a rivalry or a featured game on the schedule, but the cheering at each play and the crowd noises of the game over the speakers, plus the crowd at the sportsbook made it very exciting to watch. I had a bet on New England, which was my favorite pick of the weekend, and was surrounded by Arizona fans who were very supportive of their team.
A picture from another trip report taken there the same night shows this particular man, in his "Murray" Cardinals jersey. https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?posts/2495053/
I was shocked at his reaction when New England had to burn a time out early in the 2nd half was as if there was a turnover! Loud clapping, screaming, "That's it! One timeout gone! Yes!!". I had to do a double take to see if he was serious, and he was!
At some point in the evening I managed to get over to Derek's seat that had been reserved for him on Sunday and play on that video poker machine. I can say I did a little better on that machine than the others so maybe Derek has it set loose for him. That's a little bit of a joke. I managed to get Aces once in bonus poker and had dealt straight flush, so it was a pretty decent session at Circa. I managed to get close to break even, and hit my coin in goals to hopefully trigger future free play offers there, on which was my first day of play there, ever.
Favorite Moment without a Picture
While in one of the packed like sardines elevator trip down in the Four Queens there was a cowboy who could have been a ringer for the old Marlboro man, complete with bushy mustache. He was carrying a leather non wheeled suitcase, and hanging from the handle by the laces was a single light blue canvas casual shoe, which caught my eye. Well it caught another rider's eye, and she has to ask, "Okay, what happened to the other shoe?", which of course sent the elevator into laughter, for those that could see it in the tight quarters. He replied that his bag was packed so full that there was room for one shoe inside, but not the other! Interesting! We all had a good laugh.
Return Trip
Taking a bus was out of the question for a 530am return flight. I know no one could make guarantees, but the day before we left, I asked the Concierge if they knew there was decent Lyft coverage for a pre 4am weekday ride, and they said yes. I made it a point as soon as we woke at 315am (did I really type that?), to check Lyft availability, and call for a cab instead, if needed. Surprisingly, there were a couple of choices that would pick us up at Circa in less than 10 minutes! We packed up first and then I went back to Lyft, to request a ride to the airport for the reasonable $21.
The escalator in the rear leads from the garage entry, just off the hotel lobby, bringing you to the very impressive and cavernous Valet and Ride Share pick up area.
Here is a tip. I had my Android phone set for scheduled night time do not disturb, which of course was on at 3am, and so, I did not receive text alerts from Lyft. The Lyft app said "waiting to select a driver" or something like that, for several minutes. We decided to wait in the room until a driver was selected. Suddenly the app said the driver was there and we had only 4 minutes before they would charge a late charge or leave! As I mentioned earlier, the great elevator service was such that we left the room, took the immediate elevator down 35 floors to the 2nd floor, and headed over the enclosed walkway over to the parking garage, where the Lyft was waiting in this magnificent football field sized, brightly lit valet/rideshare area, all in 3 minutes. Probably impossible to do at any other major hotel. We were at the airport by 4am, and right on time for a leisurely pace to comfortably make the flight. The lesson learned is when being up at that kind of hour, to turn off do not disturb, as I suspect more timely Lyft message alerts from the texts would have alerted us of the ride status more quickly than the app!
Was the sans rental car approach worth it? Well the transportation savings of $165 covered all the tips for all meals of the week, plus our departure airport parking for our time away. We did have to endure one bus ride from hell though.
I sometimes question whether these short trips are worth all the travel time (12-15 hours each way in total), and going in I did here too. But something about this trip (besides winning) was very uplifting, and fun, and we enjoyed each of the few days we had, and enjoyed the comped rooms and meals, despite the shortfalls in the meal prep we ran into.
