DRIVE: was fun both ways. I had almost empty roads and Elvis gospel music on Sirius to start the drive down to Las Vegas, and I visited some of my old work sites on the way home. I do NOT miss the job, but I enjoyed working with some good people. Email is nice, but it was much nicer to have some face-to-face chats after a couple of years.
HOTELS: The first night was at Paris, nice room with a view of the pool, Eiffel Tower and Bellagio. The next three nights were in an Atrium room at Sam’s since my excuse for the trip was a VP tournament there. My last two nights were at the Flamingo, with a nice view of Caesars entrance and fountains.
SHOWS: I caught the Big Elvis show, a group called JAMM at Ballys (not my music but very good!) and a good pianist/singer at Paris. I’ll explain later, and he was really good and doing music from the 50s and 60s that I enjoy, but I wouldn’t even go inside to sit down and give Harrah’s the price of a drink since that was the part of the trip that they had really pissed me off. I missed some other shows on my list too. In-A-Fect was performing out at Sam’s, but I would return to Sam’s so tired each night that I just wanted that darn wolf to finish his howling so I could crash<g>. I had intended to catch Lena Prima out at Arizona Charlies on Friday night, then switched plans when I discovered Gary Puckett was performing that night at SouthPoint – ended up seeing neither show because I just didn’t want to fight the traffic I could see from my Flamingo window.
I also passed on The Mentalist even though I had free tickets stashed away, but I did catch a good group at Harrah’s Carnival Court on one of my strolls and enjoyed the lounge music wherever my feet took me.
FOOD: just wasn’t a priority on this trip. I had one good brunch, but a couple of nights at Sam’s, I just grabbed some orange chicken/chow mein from Panda Express and ate in my room while waiting for the last atrium show to end. That was preferable to the one night I ate at the Sam’s buffet<vbg>. I hit the different Diamond lounges for some good appetizers in the afternoons on the strip; they seem to serve wings all the time, but second “entrée” was either pot stickers or spring rolls.
I’d have a snack in late afternoon and basically another snack at night if I was hungry, but those lounges are a good place for people-watching around free food<g>. Breakfast ranged from donuts to my mandatory visit to the Gold Coast buffet – simplicity was definitely the food theme on this trip.
M: That good brunch was Thursday, when I joined LeeAnn and Michael on my first visit to M. Others have already described the choices and quality, and everything I had was good, but I wouldn’t rate it ahead of the Bellagio buffet except for price ($12 range). I didn’t sign up for the slot club until afterward – there was no line there or at the buffet since M has stopped giving away free buffets when you sign up. To tell the truth, we were having so much fun chatting that I didn’t pay that much attention to what I was eating<g>. I stayed and played for an hour afterward, left a few bucks ahead with a good overall impression of M – it reminds me of Red Rock, not the colors but the general layout and atmosphere.
BOWLING: what bowling<g>? I did have the equipment with me and did drag it down to the alley in Sam’s one morning, but the lanes were full, and I just never got back to it. HOWEVER, I did receive a golf lesson from Toby Tater and Don at Durango Hills.
I was thrilled to be back on the links after a 12 year absence, but I was also extremely rusty – which would have been frustrating if I wasn’t having so much fun. I did get some of my short game back, i.e., putting and sand shots, but it was taking me entirely too long to get INTO the sand traps<g>.
FLOP: I never did catch up with Eric & Ellen. We played phone tag during the week, but our paths just went different directions. My apologies, but I was too tired & drained that last night – I didn’t even eat dinner that night, just crashed in my Flamingo room and was on the road home at 5:30 a.m. the next morning. It would have been fun to meet the folks who raised Tim The Dealer!
GAMBLING: I actually placed in the VP tournament out at Sam’s Town; I didn’t check the list for details, but a $25 credit popped up on my slot card, which meant I came in somewhere between 37th and 75th. That was probably my best result at Sam’s! No, wait a minute, I hit Deuces at Sam’s, at SouthPoint and at Bill’s. YEE HAW! It wasn’t a winning trip, but coming back with middle triple digit expenses is wonderful after a week in Las Vegas! Sam’s kicked my butt overall, as did the Orleans, but I came out ahead at M, SouthPoint, Bill’s and Gold Coast – and played pretty even at various Harrah’s properties.
HARRAH’S INCONSISTENT CHECK-CASHING POLICY: in a word, SUCKS! I never bring that much cash with me since I have check cashing at Harrah’s, Sam’s and the Orleans, and I have cashed checks at Bally’s, Flamingo and Paris in the past, but Harrah’s Entertainment has put in new policies at some of their Las Vegas properties. I played some at Paris my first afternoon, then moved over to Bally’s and got cleaned out, so I walked over to the cashier with a check written for the exorbitant sum of $250. The clerk was pleasant and courteous but informed me they could only allow me to cash up to $140. I looked at her and said something like “that’s a Diamond card I just handed you, ya gotta be kidding!” She politely informed me that Bally’s only cashed checks based on current play that day or trip. I told her that I wouldn’t yell at her since she had to follow procedure, but I asked if she had a manager I could yell at<g>. LOL, I am not really the yelling type, but I did want to discuss the matter with her manager – who refused to come out and talk to me. Instead, she sent the cashier back with a message “that she would do $250 for me THIS time.” That really pissed me off! Only after this gracious authorization was I asked for a credit card reference; I was never asked if I wanted to apply for check-cashing or a line of credit. The manager did come out to put an over-ride into the computer, but she didn’t say “hello” or even look at me. Tim The Dealer described Harrah’s training for us; this woman must have slept through the entire part on customer service – she wouldn’t have lasted 10 minutes in my business! I took my money across the street to Bellagio – didn’t really gamble because my mood would have frozen the fountains<g>, just wandered around and was back in my room early and checked out of Paris by 6:30 a.m. the next morning. Later in the trip, out of curiosity, I checked with Paris, and they would have cashed $200 based on really meager play there that first night, but Flamingo still uses the Tele-Check machines so I would have had no problem there. I just mailed off an application for a line of credit at Flamingo – and a two page letter to Harrah’s western vice-president, giving more details and basically asking if it’s Harrah’s new policy to drive away Diamond players.
For such a laid-back trip, I sure did have fun! I’ll search out my notes (hidden somewhere in the mess on my desk) to see if I left anything out, but most of those notes had to do with the check-cashing incident<vbg>.
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