Vegas Trip Report + Pics II
December 30th, 2013 at 5:13:37 AM
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For some time now I’ve been making pilgrimages to Las Vegas twice per year. Once in the summer and then once in the winter. I submitted a trip report back in July about my summer 2013 travel to Vegas, and what follows below is the report for my winter 2013 trip.
First, I need to confess something that will become apparent as this winter trip report unfolds: I told a couple of lies in my previous summer trip report. Not in the report itself, but during the subsequent conversations in response to the report. With good intentions and an honest heart at the time, I stated that I was going to re-evaluate my gambling mix to move away from being so heavily weighted on the penny machines. I even indicated that I was planning to learn some video poker strategies and add them to my repertoire for my next trip.
However, I ultimately did neither of these for my winter Vegas trip. I played those penny machines again like somebody was paying me to do it! And I did not learn (nor play) enough video poker to say grace over! Although I did play a little Jacks or Better VP. Anyway, I will try to prepare more diligently for my next Vegas trip this summer.
It has been said that confession is good for the soul, and now that I’ve gotten those items off my chest I will proceed with my report with a clear conscience. ;)
A brief overview before beginning the “official” posts for each day of the trip…
The winter 2013 trip consisted of three people: Myself, my son, and my cousin. As I’ve stated before, I’m in my early 40’s and my son is in his early 20’s. My cousin is a few years younger than me. We were in Vegas from Thursday December 12th through Monday December 16th, and the weather was very pleasant during our trip with highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. The ten-day National Finals Rodeo was finishing up while we were in town, and Vegas was filled with folks dressed in western wear and cowboy hats. I’m somewhat of a country boy myself (from the southeast as well as Texas) so the heavy western presence was fine with me.
Logistically, we had non-stop flights on Southwest, stayed at the Rio, and enjoyed a rental car for our transportation needs. We partook of some mighty fine eating, enjoyed a show, did some fabulous sightseeing (both on and off the Strip), and had a great time with our gambling. The only real downer was the fact that a couple of us got sickly at one point or another during the trip, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes!
Like my previous report, I’m just going to make a separate post for each day and describe what all we did. There will be a certain amount of similarities when compared to the summer trip, since there are several things that we always like to do on every visit to Vegas (i.e. Frankie’s Tiki Room, Battista’s, etc.). As before, the report will disclose prices and such where applicable for anybody who is interested.
There will also be some pictures included here and there to hopefully add a little variety. I’ll be blurring out our faces on the pics like I did last time, just in case the Feds are still looking for us.
:)
First, I need to confess something that will become apparent as this winter trip report unfolds: I told a couple of lies in my previous summer trip report. Not in the report itself, but during the subsequent conversations in response to the report. With good intentions and an honest heart at the time, I stated that I was going to re-evaluate my gambling mix to move away from being so heavily weighted on the penny machines. I even indicated that I was planning to learn some video poker strategies and add them to my repertoire for my next trip.
However, I ultimately did neither of these for my winter Vegas trip. I played those penny machines again like somebody was paying me to do it! And I did not learn (nor play) enough video poker to say grace over! Although I did play a little Jacks or Better VP. Anyway, I will try to prepare more diligently for my next Vegas trip this summer.
It has been said that confession is good for the soul, and now that I’ve gotten those items off my chest I will proceed with my report with a clear conscience. ;)
A brief overview before beginning the “official” posts for each day of the trip…
The winter 2013 trip consisted of three people: Myself, my son, and my cousin. As I’ve stated before, I’m in my early 40’s and my son is in his early 20’s. My cousin is a few years younger than me. We were in Vegas from Thursday December 12th through Monday December 16th, and the weather was very pleasant during our trip with highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. The ten-day National Finals Rodeo was finishing up while we were in town, and Vegas was filled with folks dressed in western wear and cowboy hats. I’m somewhat of a country boy myself (from the southeast as well as Texas) so the heavy western presence was fine with me.
Logistically, we had non-stop flights on Southwest, stayed at the Rio, and enjoyed a rental car for our transportation needs. We partook of some mighty fine eating, enjoyed a show, did some fabulous sightseeing (both on and off the Strip), and had a great time with our gambling. The only real downer was the fact that a couple of us got sickly at one point or another during the trip, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes!
Like my previous report, I’m just going to make a separate post for each day and describe what all we did. There will be a certain amount of similarities when compared to the summer trip, since there are several things that we always like to do on every visit to Vegas (i.e. Frankie’s Tiki Room, Battista’s, etc.). As before, the report will disclose prices and such where applicable for anybody who is interested.
There will also be some pictures included here and there to hopefully add a little variety. I’ll be blurring out our faces on the pics like I did last time, just in case the Feds are still looking for us.
:)
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 5:14:02 AM
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DAY 1 OF 5 - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12TH
We had been planning and looking forward to our winter 2013 Vegas trip from the moment we got home from our summer trip. I always keep a close, constant eye on the flights/prices on Southwest for months ahead of a trip in an effort to get us the best flights at the best prices. On past trips, it seems like our flights out to Vegas departed either very early in the morning or quite late in the afternoon. However, this time we were able to snag tickets for a non-stop flight that would depart Nashville at noon and arrive in Vegas at 2:20pm local time. This was, to me, the best of both worlds since it meant we wouldn’t have to wake up super early to get to the airport and we would also arrive in Vegas with plenty of the day still remaining to do things.
We arrived at the Nashville airport around 9:45am to drop our car off in the long-term parking and then catch the shuttle to the terminal. The lines at both the ticket counter and security were not especially long, and we were inside the terminal around 10:20am. This gave us time to sit down and enjoy something to eat from Whitt’s BBQ, which is a local restaurant chain in Tennessee. They were still serving breakfast, so all three of us opted for a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit and a coke ($21 total) which satisfied our hunger in anticipation of the 4 hour flight.
Our flight took off on time, and we were officially on our way! The flight was totally full, but we were able to all sit together on the same row near the very back of the plane. Based upon the attire (and overheard conversations), there were quite a few people on our flight who were headed to Vegas to attend the rodeo finals. We had a nice view of the Cumberland River in Nashville as we took off.
We had a group of younger guys (early 20’s) sitting behind us on the plane who were a little loud, somewhat drunk, and a bit obnoxious. I’m very easy-going and can pretty much just ignore stuff like that, but the dude sitting right behind me was violently coughing every few minutes for the entire flight. And he was coughing like he MEANT it. I’m not particularly a germaphobe (and I’m quite sensitive to other peoples’ dilemmas when they are sick), but I was a bit unhappy about being stuck in an aluminum tube for 4 hours with what sounded like patient-zero of the next tuberculosis outbreak seated directly behind me barking like a seal. I was just hoping I wouldn’t catch whatever he had and get ill like him in Vegas (which I didn’t) or later on get sick before my Christmas travels (which I did). :/
Anyway, our flight landed in Vegas about 15 minutes early but we had to wait for about 10 minutes for a gate to become available. After deboarding the airplane and claiming our luggage, we took the shuttle over to the rental car center to pick up our vehicle. I had previously reserved a full-size car, and we ended up with a Chevy Impala that had a nice big trunk and served us well for the trip ($109 total). I put my son on the contract as an additional driver since it was free to do so, and I liked the idea of splitting up the driving duties a bit.
After picking up the rental car we drove straight over to the Rio to get checked in. The registration desk had nobody at all in line when we got there around 3:15pm, so it took less than 5 minutes from start to finish to get our room. We received a 2-queen deluxe studio suite on the 9th floor of the Ipanema tower. This room was quite large and included a mini-fridge, a sleeper sofa, and had a very nice view of the Strip. I had reserved the room online several months before, and the total for 4 nights was $238 including all taxes and resort fees.
We spent about 30 minutes in the room getting unpacked and settled in, and then left to go enjoy a late lunch / early dinner. Our plans for dinner centered around trying one of the gourmet burgers at BLT Burger in the Mirage, so we got in the car and headed that way. We parked in the self-parking garage at the Mirage and proceeded to use the walkway bridge from the garage to enter the property. Once inside, we made our way across the casino floor to find the restaurant which is located close to the sports book. The Mirage had some nice Christmas decorations up as seen in the pics below.
BLT Burger had recently won the “Las Vegas burger wars” on the Cooking Channel’s show Best in Chow, so all three of us decided to order the exact burger that won the competition: The I-80 burger. This burger was cooked medium, came with caramelized onions & smoked bacon, and was definitely in the top five burgers I’ve ever eaten. My son and I got skinny fries with ours, and my cousin chose the sweet potato fries. Both styles of fries were nice and crispy and tasted delicious. The cost for all three burgers and fries came to $72 including tax and tip. I will definitely come back and eat here again on future trips!
When we were finished with our meal, we left the Mirage around 5:30pm and proceeded to one of our “regular” Vegas spots… Frankie’s Tiki Room over on Charleston Avenue. We typically save our visit to Frankie’s for whichever day we go downtown, but since we had the car we were able to go ahead and hit Frankie’s right away at the beginning of our trip. Because it was fairly early in the evening (and a Thursday), the crowd at Frankie’s was very light. There were only four or five other folks in there when we arrived, although business had started to pick up by the time we left.
My son volunteered to be the designated driver for the evening, so my cousin and I were both able to have two of Frankie’s tiki drinks each. The two drinks I selected were the Nakalele Knockout (a 5-skull strength rated drink that was VERY strong), and a Malekula (a 3-skull strength rated drink that was much milder). Both of my drinks were perfect and my cousin was very pleased with the two drinks he chose as well.
I was also able to pick up their newest ceramic tiki mug to add to my collection (this is the mug that was listed on the menu back in the summer but had been delayed in production). I have mentioned before that I feel like the mugs from Frankie’s make great Vegas souvenirs since they are unique and also have “Las Vegas” on the back of each one. Below is my current collection to date (along with one tiki mug from Rhumbar in the Mirage). I’m certain I’ll be adding to them in the years to come as Frankie’s releases new mugs every now and then ($75 for 4 drinks and 2 tiki mugs).
We socialized at Frankie’s for about 1½ hours, and then around 7:30pm decided it was time to go hit Casino Royale and play our favorite Star Wars penny machines. On the drive to Casino Royale my son decided he wanted to go back to the Rio instead, so he just dropped off my cousin and me in front of Harrah’s and took the car back to the Rio to play. We told my son that we’d catch the free shuttle back to the Rio after we were done at Casino Royale.
Upon entering Casino Royale, my cousin went and signed up for their player’s card. They gave him $50 of promotional slot free play and a sheet of coupons. He ran the $50 free play through one of the eligible machines that were sitting right outside of where he got the card, but did not hit anything that would qualify as a cash prize. He then took one of the coupons to the bar (2 Michelobs for $1) and got us set up with a couple of cold beers in preparation of sitting down at the machines.
Beers in hand, we rounded the corner at the back area of Casino Royale to find 3 of the 4 Star Wars machines empty and waiting for us. I’ve commented before that these Star Wars machines are usually empty every time we go there, which makes we wonder how long they will actually keep them if they get so little action? My cousin and I each put in $20 and started our play. We both stuck with betting the minimum 30 cents per roll, and actually got quite a bit of play (as well as a couple of white russians) out of our buy-ins. He hit several bonuses and I hit several decent regular payouts, so we were able to play those machines until we were kind of tired of them and ready to try something else.
We cashed out of the Star Wars machines, and walked about 15 feet to one of those “bubble” craps games at the back of Casino Royale. The minimum was $2 on the pass line, and it would let you bet $1 on other bets like the field and such. Although not as fun as regular craps (since you can’t hold/roll the dice), both of us really had a good time playing this type of machine. Since the minimums were low we were able to try several different bets at a $1 level versus a $5 level. We played the bubble craps for about an hour, and decided it was time to start heading back towards the Rio.
We left Casino Royale around 9:45pm, and stopped in at the pizza place between Casino Royale and Harrah’s. I selected a slice of my normal pepperoni & mushroom, and my cousin chose a piece of regular pepperoni (total cost of $13 for both). We took the slices “to go” and walked with them through Harrah’s and ate them while waiting for the shuttle that would take us to the Rio. The pizza tasted very good and was the perfect snack (although it came back to haunt us later).
On the shuttle ride back to the Rio, I texted my son and asked if he would be interested in playing the 11pm session of bingo at the Gold Coast. He decided that he would pass, so my cousin and I hopped off the shuttle at the Rio around 10:30pm and walked across the street to the Gold Coast. I’m somewhat a creature of habit, so upon arriving in the bingo room we purchased the typical buy-in that I choose when I play bingo which consists of a blue paper pack for each person plus an electronic machine to share. Total cost was around $28 including the purchase of the daubers for the paper packs. This actually turned out to be the only bingo session I played during this trip (I normally like to get two or three sessions in).
It was a mighty thin crowd at the 11pm game, which didn’t surprise me too much since it was so late on a weeknight. I was hopeful that the smaller number of players would translate into a better chance of winning for my cousin and me. We both enjoyed a Coors Light as the session began, and our spirits remained high as we each got fairly close on the first couple of games. But as the games moved on, we never did get it done all the way to hit a bingo. At one point I had three separate cards on the electronic machine that were only 1 number away from hitting, and I thought for sure I was going to bingo. But it just wasn’t meant to be. We ended the session around 11:55pm and decided it was time to call it a night.
My cousin and I walked back across the street to the Rio and went on up to the room. It was a little after midnight, and my son was already in there asleep. I had volunteered to be the one to use the sleeper sofa, so I began the process of getting it pulled out and set up. I had previously seen a review online where somebody said there were not any sheets on the sleeper sofa, and they were absolutely correct. Luckily, I had brought my own bed linens from home just in case, and I was able to get it all set up and ready to sleep on. The sleeper sofa wasn’t quite as comfortable as a regular bed, but it was not bad at all and it suited our needs just fine. I read my book for about 20 minutes, turned off my lamp, decided all was well, and then laid my head down on the pillow in anticipation of a fine night’s sleep.
And this is where the first day’s activities should have ended, with me peacefully sleeping the night away on a pull-out sofa at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. But it did not work out that way.
***T.M.I. ALERT BELOW***
The lamp had been turned off for maybe two minutes and I started feeling funny. And by funny I mean bad. And by bad I mean EXTREMELY nauseous and like the room was over 100 degrees or something. I knew I wasn’t drunk or anything, because although I had enjoyed a few cocktails over the course of the evening, they had been spread out across nearly five hours. I tossed and turned and took deep breaths over the next five minutes or so trying to convince myself that it wasn’t going to happen, but deep down in my heart (and stomach) I knew that it was indeed going to happen.
And of course it did. But afterwards I immediately felt better and the room felt nice and cool, and I was able to get back on the sleeper sofa and go right to sleep for the night. Looking back, I’m thinking the culprit was probably the pizza from the place by Harrah’s. Mainly because my cousin also got sick the following morning/day (much worse than me), and all three of us had eaten the exact same things from the exact same places since breakfast that morning. The only different item was the pizza that my cousin and I ate, which my son didn’t since he wasn’t with us at that time.
Anyway, once I finally got to sleep the remainder of the night went well and I slept fine!
.
.
.
Coming Soon: Day 2 of 5…
We had been planning and looking forward to our winter 2013 Vegas trip from the moment we got home from our summer trip. I always keep a close, constant eye on the flights/prices on Southwest for months ahead of a trip in an effort to get us the best flights at the best prices. On past trips, it seems like our flights out to Vegas departed either very early in the morning or quite late in the afternoon. However, this time we were able to snag tickets for a non-stop flight that would depart Nashville at noon and arrive in Vegas at 2:20pm local time. This was, to me, the best of both worlds since it meant we wouldn’t have to wake up super early to get to the airport and we would also arrive in Vegas with plenty of the day still remaining to do things.
We arrived at the Nashville airport around 9:45am to drop our car off in the long-term parking and then catch the shuttle to the terminal. The lines at both the ticket counter and security were not especially long, and we were inside the terminal around 10:20am. This gave us time to sit down and enjoy something to eat from Whitt’s BBQ, which is a local restaurant chain in Tennessee. They were still serving breakfast, so all three of us opted for a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit and a coke ($21 total) which satisfied our hunger in anticipation of the 4 hour flight.
Our flight took off on time, and we were officially on our way! The flight was totally full, but we were able to all sit together on the same row near the very back of the plane. Based upon the attire (and overheard conversations), there were quite a few people on our flight who were headed to Vegas to attend the rodeo finals. We had a nice view of the Cumberland River in Nashville as we took off.
We had a group of younger guys (early 20’s) sitting behind us on the plane who were a little loud, somewhat drunk, and a bit obnoxious. I’m very easy-going and can pretty much just ignore stuff like that, but the dude sitting right behind me was violently coughing every few minutes for the entire flight. And he was coughing like he MEANT it. I’m not particularly a germaphobe (and I’m quite sensitive to other peoples’ dilemmas when they are sick), but I was a bit unhappy about being stuck in an aluminum tube for 4 hours with what sounded like patient-zero of the next tuberculosis outbreak seated directly behind me barking like a seal. I was just hoping I wouldn’t catch whatever he had and get ill like him in Vegas (which I didn’t) or later on get sick before my Christmas travels (which I did). :/
Anyway, our flight landed in Vegas about 15 minutes early but we had to wait for about 10 minutes for a gate to become available. After deboarding the airplane and claiming our luggage, we took the shuttle over to the rental car center to pick up our vehicle. I had previously reserved a full-size car, and we ended up with a Chevy Impala that had a nice big trunk and served us well for the trip ($109 total). I put my son on the contract as an additional driver since it was free to do so, and I liked the idea of splitting up the driving duties a bit.
After picking up the rental car we drove straight over to the Rio to get checked in. The registration desk had nobody at all in line when we got there around 3:15pm, so it took less than 5 minutes from start to finish to get our room. We received a 2-queen deluxe studio suite on the 9th floor of the Ipanema tower. This room was quite large and included a mini-fridge, a sleeper sofa, and had a very nice view of the Strip. I had reserved the room online several months before, and the total for 4 nights was $238 including all taxes and resort fees.
We spent about 30 minutes in the room getting unpacked and settled in, and then left to go enjoy a late lunch / early dinner. Our plans for dinner centered around trying one of the gourmet burgers at BLT Burger in the Mirage, so we got in the car and headed that way. We parked in the self-parking garage at the Mirage and proceeded to use the walkway bridge from the garage to enter the property. Once inside, we made our way across the casino floor to find the restaurant which is located close to the sports book. The Mirage had some nice Christmas decorations up as seen in the pics below.
BLT Burger had recently won the “Las Vegas burger wars” on the Cooking Channel’s show Best in Chow, so all three of us decided to order the exact burger that won the competition: The I-80 burger. This burger was cooked medium, came with caramelized onions & smoked bacon, and was definitely in the top five burgers I’ve ever eaten. My son and I got skinny fries with ours, and my cousin chose the sweet potato fries. Both styles of fries were nice and crispy and tasted delicious. The cost for all three burgers and fries came to $72 including tax and tip. I will definitely come back and eat here again on future trips!
When we were finished with our meal, we left the Mirage around 5:30pm and proceeded to one of our “regular” Vegas spots… Frankie’s Tiki Room over on Charleston Avenue. We typically save our visit to Frankie’s for whichever day we go downtown, but since we had the car we were able to go ahead and hit Frankie’s right away at the beginning of our trip. Because it was fairly early in the evening (and a Thursday), the crowd at Frankie’s was very light. There were only four or five other folks in there when we arrived, although business had started to pick up by the time we left.
My son volunteered to be the designated driver for the evening, so my cousin and I were both able to have two of Frankie’s tiki drinks each. The two drinks I selected were the Nakalele Knockout (a 5-skull strength rated drink that was VERY strong), and a Malekula (a 3-skull strength rated drink that was much milder). Both of my drinks were perfect and my cousin was very pleased with the two drinks he chose as well.
I was also able to pick up their newest ceramic tiki mug to add to my collection (this is the mug that was listed on the menu back in the summer but had been delayed in production). I have mentioned before that I feel like the mugs from Frankie’s make great Vegas souvenirs since they are unique and also have “Las Vegas” on the back of each one. Below is my current collection to date (along with one tiki mug from Rhumbar in the Mirage). I’m certain I’ll be adding to them in the years to come as Frankie’s releases new mugs every now and then ($75 for 4 drinks and 2 tiki mugs).
We socialized at Frankie’s for about 1½ hours, and then around 7:30pm decided it was time to go hit Casino Royale and play our favorite Star Wars penny machines. On the drive to Casino Royale my son decided he wanted to go back to the Rio instead, so he just dropped off my cousin and me in front of Harrah’s and took the car back to the Rio to play. We told my son that we’d catch the free shuttle back to the Rio after we were done at Casino Royale.
Upon entering Casino Royale, my cousin went and signed up for their player’s card. They gave him $50 of promotional slot free play and a sheet of coupons. He ran the $50 free play through one of the eligible machines that were sitting right outside of where he got the card, but did not hit anything that would qualify as a cash prize. He then took one of the coupons to the bar (2 Michelobs for $1) and got us set up with a couple of cold beers in preparation of sitting down at the machines.
Beers in hand, we rounded the corner at the back area of Casino Royale to find 3 of the 4 Star Wars machines empty and waiting for us. I’ve commented before that these Star Wars machines are usually empty every time we go there, which makes we wonder how long they will actually keep them if they get so little action? My cousin and I each put in $20 and started our play. We both stuck with betting the minimum 30 cents per roll, and actually got quite a bit of play (as well as a couple of white russians) out of our buy-ins. He hit several bonuses and I hit several decent regular payouts, so we were able to play those machines until we were kind of tired of them and ready to try something else.
We cashed out of the Star Wars machines, and walked about 15 feet to one of those “bubble” craps games at the back of Casino Royale. The minimum was $2 on the pass line, and it would let you bet $1 on other bets like the field and such. Although not as fun as regular craps (since you can’t hold/roll the dice), both of us really had a good time playing this type of machine. Since the minimums were low we were able to try several different bets at a $1 level versus a $5 level. We played the bubble craps for about an hour, and decided it was time to start heading back towards the Rio.
We left Casino Royale around 9:45pm, and stopped in at the pizza place between Casino Royale and Harrah’s. I selected a slice of my normal pepperoni & mushroom, and my cousin chose a piece of regular pepperoni (total cost of $13 for both). We took the slices “to go” and walked with them through Harrah’s and ate them while waiting for the shuttle that would take us to the Rio. The pizza tasted very good and was the perfect snack (although it came back to haunt us later).
On the shuttle ride back to the Rio, I texted my son and asked if he would be interested in playing the 11pm session of bingo at the Gold Coast. He decided that he would pass, so my cousin and I hopped off the shuttle at the Rio around 10:30pm and walked across the street to the Gold Coast. I’m somewhat a creature of habit, so upon arriving in the bingo room we purchased the typical buy-in that I choose when I play bingo which consists of a blue paper pack for each person plus an electronic machine to share. Total cost was around $28 including the purchase of the daubers for the paper packs. This actually turned out to be the only bingo session I played during this trip (I normally like to get two or three sessions in).
It was a mighty thin crowd at the 11pm game, which didn’t surprise me too much since it was so late on a weeknight. I was hopeful that the smaller number of players would translate into a better chance of winning for my cousin and me. We both enjoyed a Coors Light as the session began, and our spirits remained high as we each got fairly close on the first couple of games. But as the games moved on, we never did get it done all the way to hit a bingo. At one point I had three separate cards on the electronic machine that were only 1 number away from hitting, and I thought for sure I was going to bingo. But it just wasn’t meant to be. We ended the session around 11:55pm and decided it was time to call it a night.
My cousin and I walked back across the street to the Rio and went on up to the room. It was a little after midnight, and my son was already in there asleep. I had volunteered to be the one to use the sleeper sofa, so I began the process of getting it pulled out and set up. I had previously seen a review online where somebody said there were not any sheets on the sleeper sofa, and they were absolutely correct. Luckily, I had brought my own bed linens from home just in case, and I was able to get it all set up and ready to sleep on. The sleeper sofa wasn’t quite as comfortable as a regular bed, but it was not bad at all and it suited our needs just fine. I read my book for about 20 minutes, turned off my lamp, decided all was well, and then laid my head down on the pillow in anticipation of a fine night’s sleep.
And this is where the first day’s activities should have ended, with me peacefully sleeping the night away on a pull-out sofa at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. But it did not work out that way.
***T.M.I. ALERT BELOW***
The lamp had been turned off for maybe two minutes and I started feeling funny. And by funny I mean bad. And by bad I mean EXTREMELY nauseous and like the room was over 100 degrees or something. I knew I wasn’t drunk or anything, because although I had enjoyed a few cocktails over the course of the evening, they had been spread out across nearly five hours. I tossed and turned and took deep breaths over the next five minutes or so trying to convince myself that it wasn’t going to happen, but deep down in my heart (and stomach) I knew that it was indeed going to happen.
And of course it did. But afterwards I immediately felt better and the room felt nice and cool, and I was able to get back on the sleeper sofa and go right to sleep for the night. Looking back, I’m thinking the culprit was probably the pizza from the place by Harrah’s. Mainly because my cousin also got sick the following morning/day (much worse than me), and all three of us had eaten the exact same things from the exact same places since breakfast that morning. The only different item was the pizza that my cousin and I ate, which my son didn’t since he wasn’t with us at that time.
Anyway, once I finally got to sleep the remainder of the night went well and I slept fine!
.
.
.
Coming Soon: Day 2 of 5…
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 6:22:10 AM
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Dude, what is wrong with your face! You gotta see a plastic surgeon for that problem! How do you eat and breathe!?
-----
You want the truth! You can't handle the truth!
December 30th, 2013 at 6:32:01 AM
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Quote: boymimboDude, what is wrong with your face! You gotta see a plastic surgeon for that problem! How do you eat and breathe!?
LOL!
Unfortunately, those are the "after" pics from my existing plastic surgery. You do NOT want to see the "before" pics.
;)
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 7:30:12 AM
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Thanks for the report. I look forward to reading the rest. I really love your tiki mug collection. What a great conversation piece!
December 30th, 2013 at 7:50:22 AM
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Great report! Enjoyed reading it.
BTW, I think I've seen your brother before (haha):
BTW, I think I've seen your brother before (haha):
Fighting BS one post at a time!
December 30th, 2013 at 12:09:38 PM
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Thanks for the kind comments on my report so far!
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 12:09:55 PM
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DAY 2 OF 5 - FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13TH
On Friday morning I woke up around 7:15am local time. I usually wake up and get moving much earlier than this, but I guess I must have needed the sleep after the previous day’s activities. The morning view of the Strip was mighty fine looking out the window.
On my Vegas trips, I typically treat myself to a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks each morning and then drink it while slow-playing a penny machine by myself. This is usually due to my being up much earlier than everyone else. However, since I didn’t wake up until after 7am this morning, everyone else was pretty much awake and moving by the time I was ready to slip out and go downstairs for my little “tradition”. So I just went on down and got my Caramel Macchiato as well as everyone else’s coffee order and brought them straight back to the room. ($16 for a caramel macchiato, a peppermint mocha, and a dark roast coffee).
After everyone had finished their coffee and completed getting ready, we went to the car and headed out for our first activity of the day which was breakfast at the Hash House a Go Go in the M Resort. The M Resort is about 10 miles south of the Strip, and is one of the places we like to visit when we are on a trip that includes a rental car.
We arrived at the M Resort around 10am and were seated immediately in the Hash House a Go Go. Although I had branched out a bit on my last visit to HHAGG, on this trip I went back to my old faithful and ordered the sage fried chicken. My son and my cousin decided to split a blueberry pecan pancake & eggs combo. All of the dishes tasted fantastic, and the portions here are enormous so there was plenty of food for all of us to share ($45 total for two breakfast entrees and a bloody mary).
My cousin had ordered a bloody mary with his meal, but by the time it arrived he wasn’t looking or feeling too well so he did not drink much of it. In fact he wasn’t able to eat much of his breakfast either. We didn’t know it at the time, but he was starting his downward spiral that ultimately made him take to the bed for almost 24 hours.
We played various slot machines at the M for a while, and decided to head back to the Rio since my cousin was feeling progressively worse. Once we got back to the room, my cousin didn’t leave it until mid-morning on the following day. We concluded that he must have had the same situation that I did earlier since he said he didn’t feel real great the previous night either. However, where in my case the offending food had been “gotten rid of” fairly quickly the night before, in his case the offending food got all of the way into his system. I guess that may be a good argument to get the poison out as quickly as possible whenever the situation arises!
It was around 12:30pm, so we decided that my son and I would go downstairs and play for an hour or so there at the Rio to see if my cousin would be feeling well enough to take part in the next item on the itinerary for the day (which was to do some eating & gambling at some of the South Strip properties). We went back up to the room around 2pm, and my cousin said he was not feeling well enough to join us, but that he would hopefully be feeling better later that afternoon for our plans to go downtown.
My son and I decided to let my cousin rest in the room, and we retrieved the car and headed on down to the South Strip. We parked at New York New York, since getting a slice of pizza from NYP there in NYNY was the next item on the agenda. We walked out of the NYNY parking garage, across the casino floor, and then up to the food area that houses NYP. This is one of our favorite pizza places in Vegas, and we each got a slice of their pepperoni and a drink (total of $18). The crust on the pizza this time was a little lighter than normal (I like it dark and crispy), but it still tasted great and was very satisfying.
At this point my son and I split up for a short while. He walked over to Excalibur to look for the “Seven Rush” machine that he did so well on last time, and I walked over to the MGM on a mission of my own. I love the movie Vegas Vacation, and I had decided before this trip that I was going to get myself a Keno ticket from the MGM with the exact same numbers that were called in the Keno game during the ending scene of the movie when Sid Caesar won (and then proceeded to die). I walked around the casino floor for a while and couldn’t find the Keno room so I finally asked one of the floor men where it was located. He said the MGM, as well as most other Strip casinos, no longer have a regular Keno room.
Well shoot, that was a fairly long walk for nothing. :/
Brushing off my frustration with the failure of my apparently ill-conceived Keno plan, I headed on over across the street to join my son. I walked out of the MGM to the Tropicana and then over to Excalibur.
I found my son on the Seven Rush machine that he had left in search of. Although this machine was kind to him last trip, it was putting a serious beating on him by the time I got there. He was down to his last few dollars of a $40 buy-in, and Seven Rush finished him off within the next five minutes. You win some and you lose some, and this time he was on the latter half of that particular expression.
We strolled around inside Excalibur for another hour or so playing several other machines here and there, and ended up about even on that stretch of play (not counting his $40 loss before I got there). It was around 4:15pm, so we decided to head back to the Rio to check on my cousin and prepare for our trip Downtown. As we walked back through NYNY to go to the parking garage, I stopped by their gift shop and picked up a very nice 2-year (2014/2015) Vegas calendar to hang on my wall at home ($10).
The drive back to the Rio was quick, and we spent an hour in the room relaxing and getting ready to go Downtown. My cousin was still feeling terrible and said there was no way he would be able to join us that evening, so my son and I got the car and started the drive towards Downtown around 6:00pm. Traffic was not too bad, and it did not take long at all to get down there and get parked. We chose to park at Main Street Station and although the sign at MSS said there was a $3 fee to park, we were able to get the fee waived by showing our B-Connected players card.
After getting the car parked, we walked on over towards Fremont Street. We decided to try out the Golden Nugget first, and found some fun goldfish bonus penny machines in there that gave us a lot of play for our money. We both bought in for $20, and played those machines for about 40 minutes and neither won nor lost anything significant during that time. We cashed out even and went out to Fremont Street to check out the sights and pick another place to play.
Unlike my previous trip in the summer, Fremont Street was not super crowded this time. There were plenty of people, but we were pleased to not see the unpleasantly crushing crowds that we ran into last time. I have a young nephew who loves the band KISS, so when I saw a group of street performers dressed like them I knew I had to get a picture for my nephew!
I also snapped a pic in front of Carl “Safe Sax” Ferris. I’m not sure how long he has been down there on Fremont, but it seems like we have seen him on every trip. He plays very well (and very loudly)!
My son and I moved on over to Binions to play, and when we went inside were extremely pleased to find a bank of the exact same Star Wars machines that we like so much at Casino Royale. These Star Wars machines were paying out very nicely, and we cashed out of those machines $25 up between the two of us. I like Binions, and the only minor downside was when I ordered my white russian drink while I was playing. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but in the past Binions had served my drink in a larger plastic cup (sort of like a mid-size Solo cup). But this time my drink came in the narrow small glass that I’m so familiar with from most other casinos. Like I said, this is a VERY minor complaint and the drink tasted as good as always. There was just less of it!
We played at Binions for about an hour, and decided to move on after I hit a nice little $20+ “big win” on a new Zombie machine we had decided to play.
We strolled around and took in the sights, and did some minor play at the 4-Queens where we ended up losing around $10. Since it was about time to head back to the Rio, I decided I wanted to go over to Mermaid’s so we could try one of their fried Oreos. There were a couple of showgirls at the entrance to Mermaid’s that were doing some fairly aggressive tip-hustling, but we scooted on past them and entered in search of fried goodness. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones with this idea and the line inside to place an order was crazy-long. Definitely too long for us to wait, so we walked on back to Main Street Station to get the car.
It was around 9:30pm, and on the drive back to the Rio my son said he wanted to stop and get an In-N-Out burger. We punched the name into the GPS, and it took us to the In-N-Out located on West Sahara Ave. My son got a double-double combo, and I ordered a regular single cheeseburger (total cost of $11). They tasted delicious, and reminded us of the burgers from Five Guys which we have here in the southeast.
We called my cousin to see if he wanted us to bring anything back for him, and although he did not want a burger, he did ask us to swing by CVS to pick up a few things for him. Luckily for us, there was a CVS just up the street from In-N-Out so it was just a short detour.
Back at the Rio we hung around in the room to rest for a bit, and then my son and I headed downstairs to play a little more. We played bubble craps for a while, and I decided to go over to the video poker machines to see what was up. This is where I wished I had done some research in advance, because they had many different types of video poker games to choose from. I selected a game that I was somewhat familiar with (Jacks or Better), and played at the quarter level to try it out.
Since I was playing only 1 credit per hand, the $20 I put in the machine seemed like it would probably last forever. I hit what seemed like a bunch of hands that paid back my 1 credit, but didn’t hit anything higher than three of a kind during my play. I was one card away from a straight flush in hearts one time, but it didn’t come through. I saw other people playing games with a bunch of hands on the screen (as opposed to my one hand), and those looked like fun. I’ll try to be more proactive next time in learning the various VP games.
I headed back up to the room around 11:15pm, and my son showed up about 10 minutes after me. We called it a night and got some good sleep in anticipation of another full schedule the following day!
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Coming Soon: Day 3 of 5…
On Friday morning I woke up around 7:15am local time. I usually wake up and get moving much earlier than this, but I guess I must have needed the sleep after the previous day’s activities. The morning view of the Strip was mighty fine looking out the window.
On my Vegas trips, I typically treat myself to a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks each morning and then drink it while slow-playing a penny machine by myself. This is usually due to my being up much earlier than everyone else. However, since I didn’t wake up until after 7am this morning, everyone else was pretty much awake and moving by the time I was ready to slip out and go downstairs for my little “tradition”. So I just went on down and got my Caramel Macchiato as well as everyone else’s coffee order and brought them straight back to the room. ($16 for a caramel macchiato, a peppermint mocha, and a dark roast coffee).
After everyone had finished their coffee and completed getting ready, we went to the car and headed out for our first activity of the day which was breakfast at the Hash House a Go Go in the M Resort. The M Resort is about 10 miles south of the Strip, and is one of the places we like to visit when we are on a trip that includes a rental car.
We arrived at the M Resort around 10am and were seated immediately in the Hash House a Go Go. Although I had branched out a bit on my last visit to HHAGG, on this trip I went back to my old faithful and ordered the sage fried chicken. My son and my cousin decided to split a blueberry pecan pancake & eggs combo. All of the dishes tasted fantastic, and the portions here are enormous so there was plenty of food for all of us to share ($45 total for two breakfast entrees and a bloody mary).
My cousin had ordered a bloody mary with his meal, but by the time it arrived he wasn’t looking or feeling too well so he did not drink much of it. In fact he wasn’t able to eat much of his breakfast either. We didn’t know it at the time, but he was starting his downward spiral that ultimately made him take to the bed for almost 24 hours.
We played various slot machines at the M for a while, and decided to head back to the Rio since my cousin was feeling progressively worse. Once we got back to the room, my cousin didn’t leave it until mid-morning on the following day. We concluded that he must have had the same situation that I did earlier since he said he didn’t feel real great the previous night either. However, where in my case the offending food had been “gotten rid of” fairly quickly the night before, in his case the offending food got all of the way into his system. I guess that may be a good argument to get the poison out as quickly as possible whenever the situation arises!
It was around 12:30pm, so we decided that my son and I would go downstairs and play for an hour or so there at the Rio to see if my cousin would be feeling well enough to take part in the next item on the itinerary for the day (which was to do some eating & gambling at some of the South Strip properties). We went back up to the room around 2pm, and my cousin said he was not feeling well enough to join us, but that he would hopefully be feeling better later that afternoon for our plans to go downtown.
My son and I decided to let my cousin rest in the room, and we retrieved the car and headed on down to the South Strip. We parked at New York New York, since getting a slice of pizza from NYP there in NYNY was the next item on the agenda. We walked out of the NYNY parking garage, across the casino floor, and then up to the food area that houses NYP. This is one of our favorite pizza places in Vegas, and we each got a slice of their pepperoni and a drink (total of $18). The crust on the pizza this time was a little lighter than normal (I like it dark and crispy), but it still tasted great and was very satisfying.
At this point my son and I split up for a short while. He walked over to Excalibur to look for the “Seven Rush” machine that he did so well on last time, and I walked over to the MGM on a mission of my own. I love the movie Vegas Vacation, and I had decided before this trip that I was going to get myself a Keno ticket from the MGM with the exact same numbers that were called in the Keno game during the ending scene of the movie when Sid Caesar won (and then proceeded to die). I walked around the casino floor for a while and couldn’t find the Keno room so I finally asked one of the floor men where it was located. He said the MGM, as well as most other Strip casinos, no longer have a regular Keno room.
Well shoot, that was a fairly long walk for nothing. :/
Brushing off my frustration with the failure of my apparently ill-conceived Keno plan, I headed on over across the street to join my son. I walked out of the MGM to the Tropicana and then over to Excalibur.
I found my son on the Seven Rush machine that he had left in search of. Although this machine was kind to him last trip, it was putting a serious beating on him by the time I got there. He was down to his last few dollars of a $40 buy-in, and Seven Rush finished him off within the next five minutes. You win some and you lose some, and this time he was on the latter half of that particular expression.
We strolled around inside Excalibur for another hour or so playing several other machines here and there, and ended up about even on that stretch of play (not counting his $40 loss before I got there). It was around 4:15pm, so we decided to head back to the Rio to check on my cousin and prepare for our trip Downtown. As we walked back through NYNY to go to the parking garage, I stopped by their gift shop and picked up a very nice 2-year (2014/2015) Vegas calendar to hang on my wall at home ($10).
The drive back to the Rio was quick, and we spent an hour in the room relaxing and getting ready to go Downtown. My cousin was still feeling terrible and said there was no way he would be able to join us that evening, so my son and I got the car and started the drive towards Downtown around 6:00pm. Traffic was not too bad, and it did not take long at all to get down there and get parked. We chose to park at Main Street Station and although the sign at MSS said there was a $3 fee to park, we were able to get the fee waived by showing our B-Connected players card.
After getting the car parked, we walked on over towards Fremont Street. We decided to try out the Golden Nugget first, and found some fun goldfish bonus penny machines in there that gave us a lot of play for our money. We both bought in for $20, and played those machines for about 40 minutes and neither won nor lost anything significant during that time. We cashed out even and went out to Fremont Street to check out the sights and pick another place to play.
Unlike my previous trip in the summer, Fremont Street was not super crowded this time. There were plenty of people, but we were pleased to not see the unpleasantly crushing crowds that we ran into last time. I have a young nephew who loves the band KISS, so when I saw a group of street performers dressed like them I knew I had to get a picture for my nephew!
I also snapped a pic in front of Carl “Safe Sax” Ferris. I’m not sure how long he has been down there on Fremont, but it seems like we have seen him on every trip. He plays very well (and very loudly)!
My son and I moved on over to Binions to play, and when we went inside were extremely pleased to find a bank of the exact same Star Wars machines that we like so much at Casino Royale. These Star Wars machines were paying out very nicely, and we cashed out of those machines $25 up between the two of us. I like Binions, and the only minor downside was when I ordered my white russian drink while I was playing. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but in the past Binions had served my drink in a larger plastic cup (sort of like a mid-size Solo cup). But this time my drink came in the narrow small glass that I’m so familiar with from most other casinos. Like I said, this is a VERY minor complaint and the drink tasted as good as always. There was just less of it!
We played at Binions for about an hour, and decided to move on after I hit a nice little $20+ “big win” on a new Zombie machine we had decided to play.
We strolled around and took in the sights, and did some minor play at the 4-Queens where we ended up losing around $10. Since it was about time to head back to the Rio, I decided I wanted to go over to Mermaid’s so we could try one of their fried Oreos. There were a couple of showgirls at the entrance to Mermaid’s that were doing some fairly aggressive tip-hustling, but we scooted on past them and entered in search of fried goodness. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones with this idea and the line inside to place an order was crazy-long. Definitely too long for us to wait, so we walked on back to Main Street Station to get the car.
It was around 9:30pm, and on the drive back to the Rio my son said he wanted to stop and get an In-N-Out burger. We punched the name into the GPS, and it took us to the In-N-Out located on West Sahara Ave. My son got a double-double combo, and I ordered a regular single cheeseburger (total cost of $11). They tasted delicious, and reminded us of the burgers from Five Guys which we have here in the southeast.
We called my cousin to see if he wanted us to bring anything back for him, and although he did not want a burger, he did ask us to swing by CVS to pick up a few things for him. Luckily for us, there was a CVS just up the street from In-N-Out so it was just a short detour.
Back at the Rio we hung around in the room to rest for a bit, and then my son and I headed downstairs to play a little more. We played bubble craps for a while, and I decided to go over to the video poker machines to see what was up. This is where I wished I had done some research in advance, because they had many different types of video poker games to choose from. I selected a game that I was somewhat familiar with (Jacks or Better), and played at the quarter level to try it out.
Since I was playing only 1 credit per hand, the $20 I put in the machine seemed like it would probably last forever. I hit what seemed like a bunch of hands that paid back my 1 credit, but didn’t hit anything higher than three of a kind during my play. I was one card away from a straight flush in hearts one time, but it didn’t come through. I saw other people playing games with a bunch of hands on the screen (as opposed to my one hand), and those looked like fun. I’ll try to be more proactive next time in learning the various VP games.
I headed back up to the room around 11:15pm, and my son showed up about 10 minutes after me. We called it a night and got some good sleep in anticipation of another full schedule the following day!
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Coming Soon: Day 3 of 5…
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 12:30:27 PM
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Looking forward to more.
Just curious, is your itinerary planned out in advance?
Just curious, is your itinerary planned out in advance?
December 30th, 2013 at 12:49:38 PM
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Quote: AlanLooking forward to more.
Just curious, is your itinerary planned out in advance?
Thanks!
Yep, I always work up a "semi-loose" itinerary for each day of the trip in advance before we leave for Vegas. I try to arrange events somewhat geographically so activities that are close together will hopefully be scheduled on the same day.
Vegas has so much to do and so much to offer that a person (like me) can sometimes find themselves overwhelmed and get bogged down in having too many options to choose from. Developing a general itinerary in advance seems to work well for us, and lends some structure to the trip.
Since the itinerary is flexible, we don't always follow it to the letter but it is always nice to have as a fallback plan of action!
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 1:14:45 PM
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Sure hope you took in a meal at THE ALL AMERICAN BAR & GRILL at the RIO since you were staying there
One of my favorite places to dine while in Vegas... great ribs
One of my favorite places to dine while in Vegas... great ribs
December 30th, 2013 at 1:45:37 PM
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Nice report. And all I can say is...
Thank God the Tiki Bar is open
Thank God the Tiki torch still shines
Thank God the tiki bar is open
Come on in and open up your mind
Thank God the Tiki Bar is open
Thank God the Tiki torch still shines
Thank God the tiki bar is open
Come on in and open up your mind
December 30th, 2013 at 2:53:14 PM
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Quote: blount2000Thanks!
Yep, I always work up a "loose" itinerary for each day of the trip in advance before we leave for Vegas. I try to arrange events somewhat geographically so activities that are close together will hopefully be scheduled on the same day.
Vegas has so much to do and so much to offer that a person (like me) can sometimes find themselves overwhelmed and get bogged down in having too many options to choose from. Developing a general itinerary in advance seems to work well for us, and lends some structure to the trip.
Since the itinerary is flexible, we don't always follow it to the letter but it is always nice to have as a fallback plan of action!
Thanks, I think that's a good plan. Whenever I get to go, I am like a chicken with its head cut off, go here, go there, go anywhere, there is zero plan and that's not an efficient way to go. I will have to re-think this on my next venture.
December 30th, 2013 at 3:25:00 PM
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Great report so far. I enjoyed the summer report as well. Was this the first time yo ever had in n out burger?
December 30th, 2013 at 5:24:59 PM
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blount2000- You're back with another trip report. That's great! I enjoyed the last one you did. Really like the way you write.
Gonna re-read the last one before I get into this one. Thanks man.
Gonna re-read the last one before I get into this one. Thanks man.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
December 30th, 2013 at 5:42:32 PM
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Quote: coilmanSure hope you took in a meal at THE ALL AMERICAN BAR & GRILL at the RIO since you were staying there
One of my favorite places to dine while in Vegas... great ribs
I love me some ribs, so it sounds like I may have unfortunately missed out on some good ones since we did not partake of the All American Bar & Grill this time.
I will have to put that on my list for next time!
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 5:42:46 PM
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Quote: JohnzimboNice report. And all I can say is...
Thank God the Tiki Bar is open
Thank God the Tiki torch still shines
Thank God the tiki bar is open
Come on in and open up your mind
Great song!
Frankie's actually sparked my interest in the tiki culture after my first visit a few years ago. The authentic tiki bar seems to be harder and harder to find these days.
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 5:42:55 PM
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Quote: BeardgoatGreat report so far. I enjoyed the summer report as well. Was this the first time yo ever had in n out burger?
Thanks!
This was actually the second time my son and I have had In-N-Out burgers. The first time was a year ago on our 2012 winter trip. We both loved their burgers (especially my son), so we were glad to get the chance to enjoy them again. I hate that my cousin wasn't able to try them due to his illness, because I know he would have loved them as well.
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 5:43:04 PM
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Quote: KeyserSozeblount2000- You're back with another trip report. That's great! I enjoyed the last one you did. Really like the way you write.
Gonna re-read the last one before I get into this one. Thanks man.
Yep, back again!
Thanks for the compliment! I enjoy writing the reports, and I'm glad that they seem to be well-received.
You serious, Clark?
December 30th, 2013 at 5:48:22 PM
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In my opinion in n out is the best burger you can buy when factoring in price and taste together. I made a bet I could eat a 10x10 which is 10 patties and 10 slices of cheese in between two buns. It was delicious. I demolished it but then threw up about an hour later. All that cheese was too much. Anyway I look forward to the rest of your report. Ill take a guess you eat pizza at least 3 more times haha.
December 30th, 2013 at 6:38:38 PM
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I don't think i'd go to vegas for bingo, penny slots and diarhea but I'm really enjoying reading this.
get second you pig
December 31st, 2013 at 2:39:56 AM
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Heads up for next time: there's an in and out on tropicana right after you get off tropicana west on the highway. Its right before the days inn. Its a lot closer to the Rio since you can take the back road there. Another cool place to check out is Huntington press which is right across the street from the Rio. They have great gambling books and I got a few books on clearance for $2.
"Man Babes" #AxelFabulous
December 31st, 2013 at 4:15:38 AM
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Quote: djatcHeads up for next time: there's an in and out on tropicana right after you get off tropicana west on the highway. Its right before the days inn. Its a lot closer to the Rio since you can take the back road there. Another cool place to check out is Huntington press which is right across the street from the Rio. They have great gambling books and I got a few books on clearance for $2.
Thanks for the heads up on both those! I love books about Vegas so I will definitely have to check out Huntington Press next time.
You serious, Clark?
December 31st, 2013 at 4:16:52 AM
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DAY 3 OF 5 - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14TH
I woke up Saturday around 7am, and after getting ready I eased down to Starbucks to pick up my Caramel Macchiato. My cousin was feeling a bit better this morning, and wanted to try a regular coffee and a piece of cinnamon coffee cake since he was quite hungry. I brought all of the items right back up to the room, once again electing out of the “slow-play penny machine” portion of my typical morning tradition.
The breakfast destination on the itinerary was the Original Pancake House, but we decided to wait a while before heading out to make sure my cousin was feeling up to it. Around 9:45am he decided that he was feeling better and was ready to tackle the day as planned.
We left the Rio and drove over to the Original Pancake House located on Fort Apache Road & Flamingo. We arrived at the restaurant around 10:30am, and were pleased to find immediate seating without a wait. One reason I had chosen the OPH was because they serve a breakfast item called a “Dutch Baby”, which is an egg based dish kind of like a big puffy crepe or a soufflé. I’ve had (and made) these before, and I find them delicious so of course that is what I ordered. My cousin ordered some strawberry crepes, and my son chose the sourdough French toast. I had a $20 Groupon for the OPH, so the total after the Groupon came to $25. Service was speedy but attentive, and we were all very pleased with experience at the OPH!
Following breakfast at OPH, we continued on with the next item for the day which was to cruise the 13-mile loop at the Red Rock Canyon Park (entrance fee $7 per vehicle). This was a beautiful scenic drive, and there were plenty of hikers and rock-climbers having a nice time in the cooler weather. We stopped at a place or two on the loop to take some pictures and enjoy the vistas.
My son decided to climb one of the larger rocks, and below is a picture I took of him along with a picture he took of me from his position up on the rock.
We spent around 1½ hours in the park, and when we left around 1pm we decided to make a quick stop by the Red Rock Casino to play some of their games and maybe get a late lunch. We played around on their penny and quarter machines for a while with no decent hits, and eventually decided to head on back to the Rio. I had kind of wanted to eat at Fatburger there in the Red Rock, but it was too soon after our late breakfast and none of us were very hungry. Maybe next time.
We got back to the room at the Rio around 3pm, and unanimously agreed that it was time for an official exercise in recuperation (i.e. a good old-fashioned nap). We had a show on the agenda for later that evening, and we wanted to be well-rested for it and the activities that would follow.
After a refreshing snooze, we all got ready to head out to the Orleans Casino to get some dinner followed by a show. We left the Rio and arrived at the Orleans around 6:30pm in search of a place to get a bite to eat. After evaluating the available options, we elected to eat at a restaurant called Koji Sushi Bar & China Bistro. It was not super crowded, and we were seated quickly. I chose my “go-to” item when eating at a Chinese restaurant, which is the sesame chicken. It turned out to be very good, and my cousin was also very pleased with his entrée – General Tsao Chicken (total for both entrees came to $33). My son was still not super hungry, so he decided to skip the Chinese restaurant and went to play some table games instead.
The comedian Sinbad was performing at the Orleans Showroom, and we had tickets to see the 8pm show. After our meal at Koji, we met back up with my son and made our way to the showroom around 7:40 to be seated. The room was not huge and our tickets were center stage about nine rows back, so we were very happy with our seats (tickets were $79 each including taxes & fees).
The Sinbad show was fabulous, and all three of us thought it was hilarious. I’ve always liked Sinbad’s comedy and acting, and this first chance for me to see him in a live setting was a real treat. He was only there in Vegas on Friday and Saturday night, so I’m glad our trip dates coincided with his tour dates. Below is a picture we took of him on stage. The picture quality is pretty poor, but it’s the only one we were able to get.
The Sinbad show lasted from 8pm to around 9:30pm, and afterwards we decided to drive over and park at Harrah’s to do some sightseeing and gambling there in the mid-Strip area. We left the Orleans, crossed Las Vegas Blvd, and then came in the back way to Harrah’s parking garage using Koval Lane in order to avoid the traffic on the Strip. Parking at Harrah’s was a snap and we were able to walk through Harrah’s and step out onto the Strip very quickly.
As expected, our first order of business was to go into Casino Royale to spend a little time on our Star Wars penny slots. Surprisingly, only two of the machines were open so we all played some Reel ‘Em In fishing slots for a while until the Star Wars ones opened up. We were eventually able to get three of the Star Wars slots next to each other, and enjoyed playing on those for a while. The machines were being stingy on this night, so we moved to some King of Dragons and Panda slots that were a bit more generous. My own buy-in disappeared fairly quickly, but my son and my cousin did well on these and both left up around $15 each.
It was getting close to 11pm, so we left Casino Royale and walked across the street to the Mirage to watch the volcano. All three of us have seen the volcano show before, but it never gets old to us. We’ve always enjoyed going to the several free shows on the Strip like the volcano, the Bellagio fountains, the pirate show at TI, etc. Although the pirate show at TI has not been working the last few times we tried to go see it, and I believe I read somewhere that it may be gone for good?
After the volcano show was over, I mentioned that I was a little hungry and asked if anyone else was interested in getting a quick snack. My cousin noticed that I was looking across the street at the pizza place between Harrah’s and Casino Royale, and he said that he was fully prepared to punch me in the throat if I was suggesting that we get another piece of pizza from there after we had both been so sick after eating there. I reminded him that the pizza place MAY have been the prime suspect, but that we didn’t know for absolute certain that our sickness came from there. I was kind of ready to give it another try, but both he and my son vetoed the idea. This place is still on my list of favorite pizza places to eat though, and I’ll definitely be visiting it again on future trips.
We walked on into the Mirage with the intention of enjoying a drink at Rhumbar, which is one of our favorite nighttime spots. We’ve sat outside before in the past, but usually just enjoy our libations there at the bar. However, on this night Rhumbar was totally packed inside. There looked like there might have been a short wait for some outdoor seating, but the inside bar was absolutely full with not one seat available. We were a little disappointed since they make some mighty fine cocktails at Rhumbar and it is almost always on our “to do” list for visiting Vegas.
By now it was around 11:30pm so we decided to walk back and get the car at Harrah’s and then drive back to the Rio. We arrived back to the Rio around midnight, and since I was still a little hungry I went up to the Rio’s food court area to get a quick snack from Burger King (which is called the BK Whopper Bar in the Rio). My plan was to just order a small single burger, but they said they do not offer the small burgers and the only option was for one of their full size burger meals. I was nowhere near hungry enough for a full size burger, so I elected to pass on eating at the BK Whopper Bar. I always bring a stash of peanut-butter crackers and payday candy bars with me on our Vegas trips, so I just went on up to the room to enjoy one of those as a late night snack.
We were all back in the room by 12:30am, and got a good night’s sleep in preparation for the next day.
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Coming Soon: Day 4 of 5…
I woke up Saturday around 7am, and after getting ready I eased down to Starbucks to pick up my Caramel Macchiato. My cousin was feeling a bit better this morning, and wanted to try a regular coffee and a piece of cinnamon coffee cake since he was quite hungry. I brought all of the items right back up to the room, once again electing out of the “slow-play penny machine” portion of my typical morning tradition.
The breakfast destination on the itinerary was the Original Pancake House, but we decided to wait a while before heading out to make sure my cousin was feeling up to it. Around 9:45am he decided that he was feeling better and was ready to tackle the day as planned.
We left the Rio and drove over to the Original Pancake House located on Fort Apache Road & Flamingo. We arrived at the restaurant around 10:30am, and were pleased to find immediate seating without a wait. One reason I had chosen the OPH was because they serve a breakfast item called a “Dutch Baby”, which is an egg based dish kind of like a big puffy crepe or a soufflé. I’ve had (and made) these before, and I find them delicious so of course that is what I ordered. My cousin ordered some strawberry crepes, and my son chose the sourdough French toast. I had a $20 Groupon for the OPH, so the total after the Groupon came to $25. Service was speedy but attentive, and we were all very pleased with experience at the OPH!
Following breakfast at OPH, we continued on with the next item for the day which was to cruise the 13-mile loop at the Red Rock Canyon Park (entrance fee $7 per vehicle). This was a beautiful scenic drive, and there were plenty of hikers and rock-climbers having a nice time in the cooler weather. We stopped at a place or two on the loop to take some pictures and enjoy the vistas.
My son decided to climb one of the larger rocks, and below is a picture I took of him along with a picture he took of me from his position up on the rock.
We spent around 1½ hours in the park, and when we left around 1pm we decided to make a quick stop by the Red Rock Casino to play some of their games and maybe get a late lunch. We played around on their penny and quarter machines for a while with no decent hits, and eventually decided to head on back to the Rio. I had kind of wanted to eat at Fatburger there in the Red Rock, but it was too soon after our late breakfast and none of us were very hungry. Maybe next time.
We got back to the room at the Rio around 3pm, and unanimously agreed that it was time for an official exercise in recuperation (i.e. a good old-fashioned nap). We had a show on the agenda for later that evening, and we wanted to be well-rested for it and the activities that would follow.
After a refreshing snooze, we all got ready to head out to the Orleans Casino to get some dinner followed by a show. We left the Rio and arrived at the Orleans around 6:30pm in search of a place to get a bite to eat. After evaluating the available options, we elected to eat at a restaurant called Koji Sushi Bar & China Bistro. It was not super crowded, and we were seated quickly. I chose my “go-to” item when eating at a Chinese restaurant, which is the sesame chicken. It turned out to be very good, and my cousin was also very pleased with his entrée – General Tsao Chicken (total for both entrees came to $33). My son was still not super hungry, so he decided to skip the Chinese restaurant and went to play some table games instead.
The comedian Sinbad was performing at the Orleans Showroom, and we had tickets to see the 8pm show. After our meal at Koji, we met back up with my son and made our way to the showroom around 7:40 to be seated. The room was not huge and our tickets were center stage about nine rows back, so we were very happy with our seats (tickets were $79 each including taxes & fees).
The Sinbad show was fabulous, and all three of us thought it was hilarious. I’ve always liked Sinbad’s comedy and acting, and this first chance for me to see him in a live setting was a real treat. He was only there in Vegas on Friday and Saturday night, so I’m glad our trip dates coincided with his tour dates. Below is a picture we took of him on stage. The picture quality is pretty poor, but it’s the only one we were able to get.
The Sinbad show lasted from 8pm to around 9:30pm, and afterwards we decided to drive over and park at Harrah’s to do some sightseeing and gambling there in the mid-Strip area. We left the Orleans, crossed Las Vegas Blvd, and then came in the back way to Harrah’s parking garage using Koval Lane in order to avoid the traffic on the Strip. Parking at Harrah’s was a snap and we were able to walk through Harrah’s and step out onto the Strip very quickly.
As expected, our first order of business was to go into Casino Royale to spend a little time on our Star Wars penny slots. Surprisingly, only two of the machines were open so we all played some Reel ‘Em In fishing slots for a while until the Star Wars ones opened up. We were eventually able to get three of the Star Wars slots next to each other, and enjoyed playing on those for a while. The machines were being stingy on this night, so we moved to some King of Dragons and Panda slots that were a bit more generous. My own buy-in disappeared fairly quickly, but my son and my cousin did well on these and both left up around $15 each.
It was getting close to 11pm, so we left Casino Royale and walked across the street to the Mirage to watch the volcano. All three of us have seen the volcano show before, but it never gets old to us. We’ve always enjoyed going to the several free shows on the Strip like the volcano, the Bellagio fountains, the pirate show at TI, etc. Although the pirate show at TI has not been working the last few times we tried to go see it, and I believe I read somewhere that it may be gone for good?
After the volcano show was over, I mentioned that I was a little hungry and asked if anyone else was interested in getting a quick snack. My cousin noticed that I was looking across the street at the pizza place between Harrah’s and Casino Royale, and he said that he was fully prepared to punch me in the throat if I was suggesting that we get another piece of pizza from there after we had both been so sick after eating there. I reminded him that the pizza place MAY have been the prime suspect, but that we didn’t know for absolute certain that our sickness came from there. I was kind of ready to give it another try, but both he and my son vetoed the idea. This place is still on my list of favorite pizza places to eat though, and I’ll definitely be visiting it again on future trips.
We walked on into the Mirage with the intention of enjoying a drink at Rhumbar, which is one of our favorite nighttime spots. We’ve sat outside before in the past, but usually just enjoy our libations there at the bar. However, on this night Rhumbar was totally packed inside. There looked like there might have been a short wait for some outdoor seating, but the inside bar was absolutely full with not one seat available. We were a little disappointed since they make some mighty fine cocktails at Rhumbar and it is almost always on our “to do” list for visiting Vegas.
By now it was around 11:30pm so we decided to walk back and get the car at Harrah’s and then drive back to the Rio. We arrived back to the Rio around midnight, and since I was still a little hungry I went up to the Rio’s food court area to get a quick snack from Burger King (which is called the BK Whopper Bar in the Rio). My plan was to just order a small single burger, but they said they do not offer the small burgers and the only option was for one of their full size burger meals. I was nowhere near hungry enough for a full size burger, so I elected to pass on eating at the BK Whopper Bar. I always bring a stash of peanut-butter crackers and payday candy bars with me on our Vegas trips, so I just went on up to the room to enjoy one of those as a late night snack.
We were all back in the room by 12:30am, and got a good night’s sleep in preparation for the next day.
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Coming Soon: Day 4 of 5…
You serious, Clark?
December 31st, 2013 at 4:31:43 AM
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Glad you got to see Red Rock, that's a pretty neat place. Since you had wheels, hopefully, if you haven't been before, you made it to the bypass bridge, which is pretty neat too.
December 31st, 2013 at 7:52:10 AM
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Quote: AlanGlad you got to see Red Rock, that's a pretty neat place. Since you had wheels, hopefully, if you haven't been before, you made it to the bypass bridge, which is pretty neat too.
We did indeed make it to the bypass bridge the day after enjoying the drive at Red Rock. Having a vehicle seems to really open up the pool of activities to choose from when visiting Vegas.
You serious, Clark?
December 31st, 2013 at 11:26:35 AM
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DAY 4 OF 5 - SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15TH
I slept in quite late on Sunday morning, and didn’t even crack an eye open before 8am. However, everyone else was sleeping like rocks as well so this was the one morning of the trip that I was able to get my Starbucks Caramel Macchiato and do some slow-play on the slots by myself (as opposed to getting everyone’s coffee and heading straight back to the room).
Because it was already 8:30am, I knew my “slow –play” time wouldn’t be super long. So instead of hitting my normal penny slots I chose to try out a regular quarter machine to maybe get lucky and win some money. I selected a regular single line non-video machine (Triple Diamond), put in $20, and played max credits while sipping my coffee. The machine was fairly consistent by taking the credits down about $5 and then awarding about $5 during the various spins. I was done with my coffee and had about $16 left on the machine when it hit a triple diamond with double bars which equated to a nice $56 win. I immediately cashed out for $72 which was a mighty good feeling to start out the day!
I left the slot machine, went back by Starbucks to get everyone else’s coffee, and then proceeded up to the room. My son and my cousin were getting ready when I arrived with the coffee, and we were heading out to breakfast within 30 minutes of my return.
For breakfast on Sunday, we chose to eat at a restaurant called The Egg and I which is located over on West Sahara Avenue. We arrived around 10am, and had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. My son and I have eaten here before, and in the past we have enjoyed their breakfast skillets which are very good. For this trip I chose the chicken cordon bleu skillet, my son got the chicken fried steak skillet, and my cousin went with the eggs benedict. My meal was just as tasty as prior visits to the Egg and I, and all three of us left full and satisfied. Total cost for all was $39 including tax and tip.
Since we had the rental car on this trip, we had on our agenda a visit to Hoover Dam with a scenic drive around the north shore of Lake Mead to follow. So after finishing breakfast, we hit the road headed that way. The drive out to Hoover Dam is very nice, although I somehow missed the road to the actual dam itself and ended up driving over the new big bridge that has been built down from the dam. We turned around at the first exit after the bridge and went back over to locate the correct road to the dam. Once at the dam, we parked the car ($10) and then just did some walking and sightseeing. We had all been on the “official tour” of the dam in the past, so we elected to skip the tours and just enjoyed strolling across the top of the dam and taking some pictures.
We were finished at Hoover Dam around 1:30pm, and left in the car to proceed to our next activity which was the scenic drive around part of Lake Mead. A short distance after leaving the dam, we turned off of Highway 93 onto North Shore Road and came into the Lake Mead Recreation Area where we paid the $10 fee to enter. It was a nice sunny day and the views of the lake were spectacular. The drive itself was not as long as I had pictured in my mind, but I think that is because we chose to head back to Vegas after just the North Shore portion. I think we could have driven and enjoyed the views much longer if we had continued around the lake. The part we did see was fantastic, though.
After completing our scenic drive, we went back to the Rio to rest, regroup, and also do some “preliminary packing” since this was our final full day in Vegas and our flight home left in the morning. We hung out at the Rio until around 4:30pm, and decided that we’d go hit the “South Strip” again since my cousin wasn’t able to join us when we went there on Friday due to his illness.
We drove over to the Excalibur and parked in their surface lot next to Tower II. Once inside the casino, we played various penny machines for a while before settling in on some Goldfish slots. We found three machines side-by-side, and all three of us were having some very good luck. We all kept hitting multiple bonuses, and eventually we had turned our $60 buy-ins ($20 each) into $120. We decided that we’d cash out and run the $120 through a two-coin dollar machine and take a shot at winning some substantial money. When you have a 1000 credit hit on the penny machines it is nice, but keeping it real it’s only $10. But if you hit 1000 credits on a dollar machine then you’re talking real money!
We took our $120 to a two-coin single line dollar machine (Double Diamond), and each took turns pulling the handle and playing it down $20 at a time before the next person would take over. It would hit now and then, and eventually got down to $48 when it hit for $100 which gave us $148 on the machine. Since we had gotten some play on the dollar machine already, we decided to cash out and take the money to the $5 machines to see if we could win some REAL money.
We went into the high limit slot room in Excalibur (we were the only ones in there), and chose a Double Diamond $5 slot. When we inserted the $148 ticket in the machine, it automatically spit out a ticket for $3 which I had not seen happen before. I guess the high limit slots must automatically cash out anything that is not a multiple of the chosen denomination.
We stuck a $5 bill back in the machine which brought the cash up to $150 and the credits up to 30. We decided that we would take 10 spins each and see what happened. I did my 10 spins first and did not hit a single extra credit. My cousin took his 10 spins next and also did not hit a single credit. My son sat down to play down the final 10 spins, and he had 3 credits left when he hit a winning combination that awarded 30 credits. That took us all the way up to $165, which we promptly cashed out and split between us at $55 for each person. Playing those $5 slots was nervous work, and we were mighty glad to get our money back out of them. Since all of our play at Excalibur had started with our original $20 buy-ins, we were all up $35 each which was nice.
It was after 6pm, and we had 6:30pm dinner reservations so we decided to bid the Excalibur farewell. We went back to the car and drove to the restaurant we had selected for dinner: Battista’s Hole in the Wall over on Audrie Street behind the Flamingo.
I mentioned in my past report that we have hit Battista’s on every visit to Vegas (it is typically our last meal), so this trip was no exception. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:25pm and were seated at our reserved time of 6:30pm. The restaurant was very crowded for a Sunday and it seemed like the place was as busy as I’ve ever seen it. While being served a salad, garlic bread, and unlimited complimentary wine, I once again enjoyed my preferred entrée at Battista’s which is their Chicken Rio. I think this is the fifth time in a row I’ve ordered the Chicken Rio, but I can’t help it. It just tastes that good to me!
In addition to the great meal, we also fulfilled the Battista’s tradition of having their accordion player come around and play a short song for the folks at the tables. Some of the people at our table were from Canada, and he played a song related to where they were from and they were very pleased.
We finished up our meal at Battista’s around 7:45pm, and decided it was time to head back to the Rio to get the majority of the packing done since we planned to check out of the hotel around 6:45am the following morning. On the drive back to the Rio we stopped at a Chevron at the corner of Flamingo and Dean Martin Drive to gas up the rental car in anticipation of returning the car in the morning. Gas was $3.24 per gallon and it cost right at $40 to fill the car back up.
We got back to the room at the Rio around 8:30pm, and spent the next hour getting everything cleaned up and packed and ready to go for the early morning check-out. Once everything was packed, we went downstairs to the casino one last time to get that last little bit of play in. I was mistreated by a Dragon Orb machine and promptly moved to a machine called Queen of the Wild that I had never played before. It turned out to be a very fun machine (although it was a 50 cent minimum instead of 30 cents), and I played it for about 45 minutes before hitting an especially nice combo that paid out almost $65. With that win I had $75 on the machine (from my $20 buy-in), so I decided it was time to cash out and quit!
After cashing out my win at the ticket redemption machine, I found my cousin and my son sitting at the bubble craps machine getting their behinds handed to them. They had both been up and had been doing well, but their luck had taken a quick downward turn and their un-harvested profits (as well as their original buy-ins) were sacrificed to the bubble craps machine. This was also their cue to call it quits, and all three of us headed back up to the room around 11pm to call it a night.
We took a nice long look out the window at the nighttime Vegas skyline before going to bed. We knew it would be the last time we’d see this view for a while, and we figured we’d better take it in while we could!
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.
.
Coming Soon: Day 5 of 5…
I slept in quite late on Sunday morning, and didn’t even crack an eye open before 8am. However, everyone else was sleeping like rocks as well so this was the one morning of the trip that I was able to get my Starbucks Caramel Macchiato and do some slow-play on the slots by myself (as opposed to getting everyone’s coffee and heading straight back to the room).
Because it was already 8:30am, I knew my “slow –play” time wouldn’t be super long. So instead of hitting my normal penny slots I chose to try out a regular quarter machine to maybe get lucky and win some money. I selected a regular single line non-video machine (Triple Diamond), put in $20, and played max credits while sipping my coffee. The machine was fairly consistent by taking the credits down about $5 and then awarding about $5 during the various spins. I was done with my coffee and had about $16 left on the machine when it hit a triple diamond with double bars which equated to a nice $56 win. I immediately cashed out for $72 which was a mighty good feeling to start out the day!
I left the slot machine, went back by Starbucks to get everyone else’s coffee, and then proceeded up to the room. My son and my cousin were getting ready when I arrived with the coffee, and we were heading out to breakfast within 30 minutes of my return.
For breakfast on Sunday, we chose to eat at a restaurant called The Egg and I which is located over on West Sahara Avenue. We arrived around 10am, and had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. My son and I have eaten here before, and in the past we have enjoyed their breakfast skillets which are very good. For this trip I chose the chicken cordon bleu skillet, my son got the chicken fried steak skillet, and my cousin went with the eggs benedict. My meal was just as tasty as prior visits to the Egg and I, and all three of us left full and satisfied. Total cost for all was $39 including tax and tip.
Since we had the rental car on this trip, we had on our agenda a visit to Hoover Dam with a scenic drive around the north shore of Lake Mead to follow. So after finishing breakfast, we hit the road headed that way. The drive out to Hoover Dam is very nice, although I somehow missed the road to the actual dam itself and ended up driving over the new big bridge that has been built down from the dam. We turned around at the first exit after the bridge and went back over to locate the correct road to the dam. Once at the dam, we parked the car ($10) and then just did some walking and sightseeing. We had all been on the “official tour” of the dam in the past, so we elected to skip the tours and just enjoyed strolling across the top of the dam and taking some pictures.
We were finished at Hoover Dam around 1:30pm, and left in the car to proceed to our next activity which was the scenic drive around part of Lake Mead. A short distance after leaving the dam, we turned off of Highway 93 onto North Shore Road and came into the Lake Mead Recreation Area where we paid the $10 fee to enter. It was a nice sunny day and the views of the lake were spectacular. The drive itself was not as long as I had pictured in my mind, but I think that is because we chose to head back to Vegas after just the North Shore portion. I think we could have driven and enjoyed the views much longer if we had continued around the lake. The part we did see was fantastic, though.
After completing our scenic drive, we went back to the Rio to rest, regroup, and also do some “preliminary packing” since this was our final full day in Vegas and our flight home left in the morning. We hung out at the Rio until around 4:30pm, and decided that we’d go hit the “South Strip” again since my cousin wasn’t able to join us when we went there on Friday due to his illness.
We drove over to the Excalibur and parked in their surface lot next to Tower II. Once inside the casino, we played various penny machines for a while before settling in on some Goldfish slots. We found three machines side-by-side, and all three of us were having some very good luck. We all kept hitting multiple bonuses, and eventually we had turned our $60 buy-ins ($20 each) into $120. We decided that we’d cash out and run the $120 through a two-coin dollar machine and take a shot at winning some substantial money. When you have a 1000 credit hit on the penny machines it is nice, but keeping it real it’s only $10. But if you hit 1000 credits on a dollar machine then you’re talking real money!
We took our $120 to a two-coin single line dollar machine (Double Diamond), and each took turns pulling the handle and playing it down $20 at a time before the next person would take over. It would hit now and then, and eventually got down to $48 when it hit for $100 which gave us $148 on the machine. Since we had gotten some play on the dollar machine already, we decided to cash out and take the money to the $5 machines to see if we could win some REAL money.
We went into the high limit slot room in Excalibur (we were the only ones in there), and chose a Double Diamond $5 slot. When we inserted the $148 ticket in the machine, it automatically spit out a ticket for $3 which I had not seen happen before. I guess the high limit slots must automatically cash out anything that is not a multiple of the chosen denomination.
We stuck a $5 bill back in the machine which brought the cash up to $150 and the credits up to 30. We decided that we would take 10 spins each and see what happened. I did my 10 spins first and did not hit a single extra credit. My cousin took his 10 spins next and also did not hit a single credit. My son sat down to play down the final 10 spins, and he had 3 credits left when he hit a winning combination that awarded 30 credits. That took us all the way up to $165, which we promptly cashed out and split between us at $55 for each person. Playing those $5 slots was nervous work, and we were mighty glad to get our money back out of them. Since all of our play at Excalibur had started with our original $20 buy-ins, we were all up $35 each which was nice.
It was after 6pm, and we had 6:30pm dinner reservations so we decided to bid the Excalibur farewell. We went back to the car and drove to the restaurant we had selected for dinner: Battista’s Hole in the Wall over on Audrie Street behind the Flamingo.
I mentioned in my past report that we have hit Battista’s on every visit to Vegas (it is typically our last meal), so this trip was no exception. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:25pm and were seated at our reserved time of 6:30pm. The restaurant was very crowded for a Sunday and it seemed like the place was as busy as I’ve ever seen it. While being served a salad, garlic bread, and unlimited complimentary wine, I once again enjoyed my preferred entrée at Battista’s which is their Chicken Rio. I think this is the fifth time in a row I’ve ordered the Chicken Rio, but I can’t help it. It just tastes that good to me!
In addition to the great meal, we also fulfilled the Battista’s tradition of having their accordion player come around and play a short song for the folks at the tables. Some of the people at our table were from Canada, and he played a song related to where they were from and they were very pleased.
We finished up our meal at Battista’s around 7:45pm, and decided it was time to head back to the Rio to get the majority of the packing done since we planned to check out of the hotel around 6:45am the following morning. On the drive back to the Rio we stopped at a Chevron at the corner of Flamingo and Dean Martin Drive to gas up the rental car in anticipation of returning the car in the morning. Gas was $3.24 per gallon and it cost right at $40 to fill the car back up.
We got back to the room at the Rio around 8:30pm, and spent the next hour getting everything cleaned up and packed and ready to go for the early morning check-out. Once everything was packed, we went downstairs to the casino one last time to get that last little bit of play in. I was mistreated by a Dragon Orb machine and promptly moved to a machine called Queen of the Wild that I had never played before. It turned out to be a very fun machine (although it was a 50 cent minimum instead of 30 cents), and I played it for about 45 minutes before hitting an especially nice combo that paid out almost $65. With that win I had $75 on the machine (from my $20 buy-in), so I decided it was time to cash out and quit!
After cashing out my win at the ticket redemption machine, I found my cousin and my son sitting at the bubble craps machine getting their behinds handed to them. They had both been up and had been doing well, but their luck had taken a quick downward turn and their un-harvested profits (as well as their original buy-ins) were sacrificed to the bubble craps machine. This was also their cue to call it quits, and all three of us headed back up to the room around 11pm to call it a night.
We took a nice long look out the window at the nighttime Vegas skyline before going to bed. We knew it would be the last time we’d see this view for a while, and we figured we’d better take it in while we could!
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Coming Soon: Day 5 of 5…
You serious, Clark?
December 31st, 2013 at 11:44:41 AM
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Seems you're spending more on food than gambling and the food seems relatively marked up quite a bit.
I am a robot.
December 31st, 2013 at 12:16:32 PM
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Quote: onenickelmiracleSeems you're spending more on food than gambling and the food seems relatively marked up quite a bit.
Yeah, that's true. We usually spend more on the food/shows/activities that we do on our gambling. Although this trip it ended up around 50/50 since we only saw one show.
I always bring what I feel is a decent gambling bankroll (for a low-roller anyway), but I never get the courage to actually "expose it" in play like I tell myself I will before the trip.
You serious, Clark?
December 31st, 2013 at 12:53:53 PM
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Blount, another awesome site to visit when you have wheels is a place called "Valley of Fire" I enjoy your trip reports .
December 31st, 2013 at 1:05:58 PM
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Quote: corvetteracingBlount, another awesome site to visit when you have wheels is a place called "Valley of Fire" I enjoy your trip reports .
Wow. I just googled it and it does look awesome. I'm not sure how this place has missed getting on my "trip radar" in the past, but it's definitely on there now!
You serious, Clark?
January 1st, 2014 at 4:39:58 AM
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DAY 5 OF 5 - MONDAY, DECEMBER 16TH
Knowing that we were planning to leave the hotel at 6:45am, I had set my alarm for 5:30am. At home I typically wake up before my alarm, but I was sound asleep at 5:30am when the alarm went off to wake us up. I immediately went on down to Starbucks to get that final Caramel Macchiato and bring back coffee for the others.
We all finished getting ready and then completed the last of our packing that wasn’t able to be done the night before. I checked out on the TV right at 6:45am, and we headed downstairs with our luggage to load up the rental car. After loading up the car, we took one last look at the Rio (and also took a picture) before cranking up and driving away to return the rental car.
It did not take long at all to return the car, and we were on the shuttle to the airport by 7:20am in anticipation of our 9:40am flight. The shuttle dropped us off at the airport, and we checked our luggage and made it through security by 8:00am. Since we had plenty of time before our flight, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast ($23) from Burger King and Sbarro in Terminal C.
Our flight back to Nashville was scheduled to take off on time, so we boarded the plane around 9:20am. Vividly remembering “tuberculosis guy” coughing behind me on the flight out to Vegas, when boarding started we immediately went to the very last row in the plane so nobody could sit behind us. This turned out to be a smart move, because the entire group of loud guys (including coughing dude) were on our same flight home back to Nashville (although they were not as loud or festive as they were on the flight out there). They ended up having to split up and sat a few rows in front of us. And yes, the dude was still coughing, although not quite as violently as before. I won’t point him out in the picture below, but rest assured one of the “back of the heads” you see belongs to him.
The flight was nice and smooth and the plane passed by Lake Mead on our way out of Vegas.
We landed in Nashville around 3:15pm CDT, claimed our luggage, took the shuttle to get the car out of long-term parking ($45), and then made it back home before dark.
I’ve said before that it is always a bit sad when a Vegas trip comes to an end. We spend months looking forward to each trip, and then in a matter of days it is all over. As mentioned earlier in this thread, I always develop a loose itinerary for each trip in order to give us a little “structure” so we can get the most value for our time, and as you can see from the two pics below we stuck to it fairly well. Since the itinerary is loose and flexible, nothing is ever set in stone (except pre-purchased show tickets). But it is nice to have a general plan of action for each day, even if we don’t end up doing everything that we planned!
Anyway, that brings the winter 2013 Vegas trip report to a close. And, as always, plans for the next trip were already being formed before the wheels of the airplane touched the ground from this one!
:)
Knowing that we were planning to leave the hotel at 6:45am, I had set my alarm for 5:30am. At home I typically wake up before my alarm, but I was sound asleep at 5:30am when the alarm went off to wake us up. I immediately went on down to Starbucks to get that final Caramel Macchiato and bring back coffee for the others.
We all finished getting ready and then completed the last of our packing that wasn’t able to be done the night before. I checked out on the TV right at 6:45am, and we headed downstairs with our luggage to load up the rental car. After loading up the car, we took one last look at the Rio (and also took a picture) before cranking up and driving away to return the rental car.
It did not take long at all to return the car, and we were on the shuttle to the airport by 7:20am in anticipation of our 9:40am flight. The shuttle dropped us off at the airport, and we checked our luggage and made it through security by 8:00am. Since we had plenty of time before our flight, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast ($23) from Burger King and Sbarro in Terminal C.
Our flight back to Nashville was scheduled to take off on time, so we boarded the plane around 9:20am. Vividly remembering “tuberculosis guy” coughing behind me on the flight out to Vegas, when boarding started we immediately went to the very last row in the plane so nobody could sit behind us. This turned out to be a smart move, because the entire group of loud guys (including coughing dude) were on our same flight home back to Nashville (although they were not as loud or festive as they were on the flight out there). They ended up having to split up and sat a few rows in front of us. And yes, the dude was still coughing, although not quite as violently as before. I won’t point him out in the picture below, but rest assured one of the “back of the heads” you see belongs to him.
The flight was nice and smooth and the plane passed by Lake Mead on our way out of Vegas.
We landed in Nashville around 3:15pm CDT, claimed our luggage, took the shuttle to get the car out of long-term parking ($45), and then made it back home before dark.
I’ve said before that it is always a bit sad when a Vegas trip comes to an end. We spend months looking forward to each trip, and then in a matter of days it is all over. As mentioned earlier in this thread, I always develop a loose itinerary for each trip in order to give us a little “structure” so we can get the most value for our time, and as you can see from the two pics below we stuck to it fairly well. Since the itinerary is loose and flexible, nothing is ever set in stone (except pre-purchased show tickets). But it is nice to have a general plan of action for each day, even if we don’t end up doing everything that we planned!
Anyway, that brings the winter 2013 Vegas trip report to a close. And, as always, plans for the next trip were already being formed before the wheels of the airplane touched the ground from this one!
:)
You serious, Clark?
January 1st, 2014 at 5:12:31 AM
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I enjoyed reading. If you dont mind me asking. What was your final bill for the trip.
Expect the worst and you will never be disappointed.
I AM NOT PART OF GWAE RADIO SHOW
January 1st, 2014 at 5:53:34 AM
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Quote: GWAEI enjoyed reading. If you dont mind me asking. What was your final bill for the trip.
Thanks!
My final bill, which includes all of the costs for me and my son (both gambling and non-gambling), came to $2,120.
The total "non-gambling" costs for all three of us came to $2,280 which includes the round-trip flights, hotel, rental car, food, shows, etc., etc. On these trips, I pay for everything for everybody and then "bill" them after we get back home. It works out easier this way so we don't have to worry about splitting checks at restaurants and such.
On the gambling, when the smoke cleared we each lost a net of around $300 per person for a total of $900.
So for me, the final bill ended up being:
$760 Non-Gambling Costs
$300 Gambling Losses (Net)
------
$1,060 Total Cost Per Person
x 2 (I pay for my son's trip)
--------
$2,120 Total Cost for Both My Son and Me
====
You serious, Clark?
January 1st, 2014 at 7:30:35 AM
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Quote: blount2000Wow. I just googled it and it does look awesome. I'm not sure how this place has missed getting on my "trip radar" in the past, but it's definitely on there now!
I googled it and clicked on Images for Valley of Fire. There are lots of good pictures there but what's with the naked dudes? Is that a thing there?
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth. - Mahatma Ghandi
January 3rd, 2014 at 1:43:22 AM
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Valley of fire is a neat place to see. I really enjoyed when we went last year @ christmas time it was one of the hilights of the trip .
January 19th, 2014 at 1:17:58 PM
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Quote: blount2000Thanks!
My final bill, which includes all of the costs for me and my son (both gambling and non-gambling), came to $2,120.
The total "non-gambling" costs for all three of us came to $2,280 which includes the round-trip flights, hotel, rental car, food, shows, etc., etc. On these trips, I pay for everything for everybody and then "bill" them after we get back home. It works out easier this way so we don't have to worry about splitting checks at restaurants and such.
On the gambling, when the smoke cleared we each lost a net of around $300 per person for a total of $900.
So for me, the final bill ended up being:
$760 Non-Gambling Costs
$300 Gambling Losses (Net)
------
$1,060 Total Cost Per Person
x 2 (I pay for my son's trip)
--------
$2,120 Total Cost for Both My Son and Me
====
Sound pretty ok actually.
January 19th, 2014 at 1:43:19 PM
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Can I ask what the concern is about posting great pictures ? What the hell does that have to do with anything?
January 19th, 2014 at 8:12:43 PM
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Quote: tournamentkingCan I ask what the concern is about posting great pictures ? What the hell does that have to do with anything?
Of course I am biased since the report is mine, but I feel my trip report was perhaps enhanced a bit through the inclusion of the pictures. Especially since each photo was specific to this particular visit to Vegas.
That being said, I realize not all readers may feel that the pictures added any value to the trip report. And that is perfectly ok! We can't all like exactly the same things!
You serious, Clark?
January 19th, 2014 at 8:13:36 PM
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I like the photos
January 20th, 2014 at 10:31:06 AM
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Quote: blount2000Of course I am biased since the report is mine, but I feel my trip report was perhaps enhanced a bit through the inclusion of the pictures. Especially since each photo was specific to this particular visit to Vegas.
That being said, I realize not all readers may feel that the pictures added any value to the trip report. And that is perfectly ok! We can't all like exactly the same things!
Perfect response. I like the pictures and the reports, gives me some ideas for alternate activities when I visit.
