March 2016 Trip Report

The drive to the airport was very smooth as the weather was clear and the roads were not busy on the Sunday morning. We were a little tired as we got caught by the switch to daylight savings that night so were up and about an hour earlier. The airport wasn't busy and getting through security and US customs pre-clearance took all of 30 minutes. Our flight was full, but we bit the bullet and checked a bag for $25 to avoid hassles when boarding. Good thing too as many people were asked to gate check their bags because they ran out of room in the overhead bins. We took off 20 minutes late too because someone had broken one of the latches on the overhead bins. They made this up in the air however and we actually touched down and were off the plane a few minutes ahead of schedule, and our checked bag was making the rounds on the carousel by the time we got to baggage claim.

We grabbed the car rental shuttle and went over to pick up our car for the week. I used Coilman's advice and signed up for Dollar's Express service. I avoided the main line and walked right outside, found my name on their screen, and went right to my car. The only problem was there were a number of scratches on the front and passenger side and even a dent on the front driver side bumper area. It looked like someone had done a lot of parking by feel with the car before we got it. We had to spend extra time getting the forms to mark all the damage. Then on top of that what looked like a radiator light came on when I first started up the car. It went away after a couple minutes, but given all the prior damage we marked I hoped that we wouldn't run into trouble with the car while we had it.

We got over to the Wynn by 2:30PM and our room was ready for us when we got there. We'd booked a Panoramic King at the Wynn, but we were warned that our room would be affected by work on a water main between 12AM and 6AM that night and water might not be available during that time. We were offered an unaffected room but declined as we didn't think we'd need to shower during that period. We got a room on the 34th floor and it was supposed to be non-smoking, but my wife smelled cigarette smoke as we came off the elevators and it also smelled like someone had relieved themselves in one of the fake plants in the elevator area. My wife found that very odd as typically we've never had that kind of experience at the Wynn.

After getting settled in the room, we decided to venture next door to the Venetian/Palazzo as we were keen to try out the restaurant CUT that board member Mosca raved about. It doesn't open until 5:30 unfortunately so we ventured up to the Regis Galerie in the Venetian as we were looking for a painting to hang in our bedroom. Regis Galerie expanded last year to take over the space next door so they have a lot more on display now. Cesar Salas showed us around and we saw some lovely Arabian carpets and some memorabilia that they’d purchased from Burt Reynolds after he and Loni Anderson split up. We saw a number of paintings that were very good, but might not have worked in the space we had in mind. However my wife found one painting that she loved, but would have to be hung somewhere else in the house. We left not buying anything.

We then proceeded up to The LINQ to get tickets to Matt Franco's magic show. We bought them directly from the box office and each ticket cost $80 after fees and taxes. We were lazy and didn't want to comparison shop at Tickets4Tonite, but after seeing the space where the show is I wouldn't be afraid to buy a discount ticket for anywhere in the theatre. We still had about an hour to kill before the restaurant opened so we tried our luck at the TI $0.50 Jacks or better full pay machines. I lost $60 before knocking off and my wife lost $80. It felt rare to actually hit on a straight or flush and between us I think we only managed one full house with nothing bigger. It just didn't feel like things were going to go our way and unfortunately that was going to be the pattern in gambling for our entire trip.

We got to CUT just after 5:30PM and had no problem getting a table. We both ordered a cocktail and then the waiter came by with the meat show. They have frozen cuts of the various steaks on a platter to demonstrate the marbling of the various breeds/cuts they serve and what the meat will be like if you order that type of meat. I ended up ordering the American Wagyu New York Sirloin and my wife ordered the USDA Illinois Petit Cut Filet Mignon. We shared sides of Onion Rings and a Cauliflower dish as well. For starters, I had the Pork Belly and my wife had the Warm Asparagus. My wagyu steak was the best steak I've ever eaten. Thank you to board member Mosca for his review and recommendation of CUT. My wife's steak was excellent as well, but she agreed that mine was just a tad better. We ordered a couple of the sauces on the menu to try -- the house sauce which was like HP sauce and the creamy horseradish -- but the regular mustards that they serve with the steaks are quite tasty too and in future I would just go with the standard mustards that come by default. We also ordered a bottle of French Shiraz/Syrah to go with our meal and it was merely OK. We probably should have just ordered the Cauliflower side dish as we couldn't finish both. For dessert, we shared the Banana Cream Pie. Everything, except the wine, was excellent.

Monday morning I woke up around 5:30AM and called down to the front desk to ask about the water situation and was told that they were projecting to be done by 6AM so I had to wait. Once 6AM rolled around I showered up, but one of the side effects of the water shutdown was a lack of hot water. I ended up showering in lukewarm water. Brrrrr. I then headed out for an early morning craps session while my wife rested. Just to be sure, I walked up to Casino Royale and confirmed that their table games are shut down between 5AM and 9AM. I then circled back to the Wynn and bought in at a craps table for $200 on a $10 minimum table. Most of my betting at craps tables over the last three years has been on the don't pass and that's how I started out. I was alone to begin with and I managed to 7-out on points of 6 and 9 to start. Then I managed to get a 4 so I rolled out a don't come which ended up on the 8. I typically back my don't bets with $30 to keep things simple, but I'd toyed with rolling out $40 on points of 4 and 10 to take full advantage of the double odds the Wynn offers. It's a good thing I didn't because within a few rolls I made the 4. My come out after that had me on the 10, and my 8 was still alive. I made the 8 within three rolls and the 10 a couple more rolls after that. Much to my surprise I would continue to make a number of points of 4 and 10 the rest of the trip. I stayed away from don't come for the rest of that session, but made money on the don'ts on points of 5, 6, 8, and 9. I ended up a modest $45 before knocking off so we were down $95 overall.

For breakfast, I grabbed a couple of yoghurt, danish, and juices from the CVS that opened at TI and brought them back to the room. My wife got showered up and still needed her hot drink for the morning so we walked over to the Starbucks at TI and then tried our luck at the $0.50 full pay Jacks or better machines while we waited for the Fashion Show Mall to open. My wife had a little luck and cashed out several tickets each worth $10 or $15. I however washed out completely and lost $100. Her good fortune combined with my bad fortune meant that we were down another $20 and $115 overall. We then knocked off and did a little shopping at the mall. We didn't plan to buy much given the poor exchange rate of the Canadian dollar versus the US, but there are some things that my wife can only find in her size when shopping in the US.

Monday afternoon my wife made an appointment to get her nails done at the Wynn salon so I was left to my own devices for a couple hours. I popped over to TI again and hit the $0.50 Jacks or better machines to see if my luck had changed. Again I washed out $100 within 30 minutes. Undaunted I wandered back to the Wynn and played a little more craps. This time the table was cold and I managed to win playing the don'ts with one point made for every two points lost. This session I managed to seven out on the 4 while I had a point of 8 on the don't come going as well. That's the only time that happened where I won both the don't pass and don't come for the entire trip. I then made a point of 10 while on the don't pass the next time the dice passed to me. Even with the mixed luck, I'd managed a small net win such that I was down $150 overall.

For supper, my wife and I headed north of the Wynn to Tacos El Gordo. Before the trip I'd consulted with a co-worker who is originally from Mexico City so that I could avoid the head, brains, tripe, and tongue tacos. We ended up with a couple spicy pork, a couple beef, and a chorizo taco. We also got the peppers and onions too. The bill for the tacos was quite a contrast to the bill we'd gotten for the previous night's supper. All the tacos were delicious and are the best I’ve eaten, but we don’t have a lot of Mexican places at home to compare to.

After supper we headed out for Matt Franco's magic show. The theatre is fairly small -- maybe around 500 seats total -- so really any seat in the house is good enough so if you can get cheaper tickets through Tickets4Tonite or another method then go ahead and do it. Matt Franco's show is all centered around legerdemain. For his first trick, he makes an audience member write on a $100 bill and then through an elaborate build up makes the $100 bill appear inside a sauce packet for some Ramen noodles. Another trick has him manipulating coins from hand to hand as well as to a metal shaker and concludes with him disappearing underneath a sheet while manipulating the coins only to re-appear at the back of the theatre rattling the coins in the shaker. He also did his disappearing cell phone trick that he performed for America's Got Talent. The final trick is getting everyone in the audience to pick a card while he flips them in front of a camera then he fires a few dozen decks of cards with an air canon into the audience, but makes the card picked by the audience to stick to the roof of the theatre. He then gathers up a bunch of the cards from the audience and uses those cards to reproduce all the numbers used in the show -- the date of the performance, the row number where the cell phone re-appeared, the last 4 digits of the cell phone and the serial number of the $100 bill from the beginning of the show. He performs more than just the tricks I've described and overall we thoroughly enjoyed the show. It's family friendly and is cheaper than other shows in Las Vegas. Contrasting it to David Copperfield's show Matt Franco's show is all about sleight of hand rather than the elaborate illusions that Copperfield creates, but both shows are excellent in their own way.

After the show, my wife rested in the room and I looked for some blackjack to play. Unfortunately evenings at the Wynn feature $15 minimum blackjack at 6:5 and the 3:2 tables are sitting at $50 or $100 per hand. Heck I even saw a $25 minimum table on 6:5. Much to my dismay, many of the 6:5 tables were very busy and I ended up not playing any blackjack that evening. Instead I poked around their video poker offerings at the Wynn. I found a 3/5-play 9/5 Super Times Pay Jacks or better machine for $1 and also an 8/5 version of the same for $0.25. I wasn't brave enough to try a single line of the 9/5 for $1 so I chickened out and ran the 3-play machine for $0.25. I didn't get any multipliers for probably 20 hands at the start and luckily I managed to turn holding low pair into 4-of-a-kinds probably three times that prevented me from sinking. In then end however, I ended up washing out $100 and down $250 overall.

Tuesday morning I woke up around 6AM and got cleaned up and hit the craps table at the Wynn. At this point, I wasn't sure where my luck was going to go as far as pass or don't pass was concerned so, to decide, I asked the stickman if their birthday was odd or even. If it was even I would start on the pass line. If it was odd then I would start on the don't pass. The stickman's birthday was even so I started on the pass line. I actually made my point of 9 and then a 7-out on a 6. At this point, another gentleman joined and we held out on the pass line for three rounds where it was point made then a couple 7-outs in a row so we were both floating in the bowl. At this point, the cocktail waitress comes around and asks us if we want anything. I order an orange juice and the other gentleman switches his order from coffee to orange juice. After this the pass line started working consistently for us. I actually managed setting a point on the come out followed by making the point immediately after on 8, 5, and finally 10. I failed on a point of 9 and then the other fellow managed three points of his own. I put out a few place 6's and 8's that didn't hit that cut into my winnings, but overall I managed to recover to $65 over my buy-in so I knocked off.

Feeling good and thinking my luck had changed I spied that one of the Wynn's 3:2 blackjack tables was at a $25 minimum that morning so I bought in for $300. Overall the cards were not going in my favour and on top of that the dealer was an Eastern European fellow who constantly questioned the basic strategy card I'd printed off the Wizard of Odds website for the 4-8 deck soft 17 game. He particularly didn't like surrender on a 15 against a dealer 10 which happened a couple times. He also didn't like hitting a 12 against a dealer 2. He claimed he'd done the math and my card was wrong. I let it pass. Some might have found the dealer rude, but I wasn't offended. I knocked off down $200 for that session and $385 overall.

After breakfast and getting cleaned up my wife was keen to buy some makeup at the Sephora at the end of the Venetian, but it was 9AM so we had an hour to kill before the place opened. I dragged her over to the $1 9/5 STP machines I'd found earlier and we both gave them a try looking for an early multiplier to get us ahead. Again no multipliers showed up in the first 15 hands or so and my wife lost $100 and I knocked off after losing $50. At this point, we're down over $500 and my wife was getting antsy about all the losing, but I reminded her that our gambling losses to that point hadn't yet caught up to the price we paid for the meal at CUT on Sunday night. Even as she's voicing her concerns, I'm thinking that things could turn into a real blood bath at the tables for me this trip.

We got to Sephora at 10AM and my wife warned me that she'd be at least an hour or maybe two. I took the opportunity to play a little craps at Casino Royale. The table was at a very comfortable $5 minimum when I got there and given my horrible luck I thought I'd start out on the don't pass. It was very choppy with point made then a 7-out and I was bleeding chips slowly. There was a set of moms and dads and their two kids who looked like they'd just turned 21 at the other end of the table from me. I started betting pass line when the ladies shot and it came to no good. I was in for $200 and had to roll out another $100 as well to keep going. Then the young son who was the other side of the stick from me then stepped up and started rolling. He made a couple of points while I held out on the don't pass so I gave up and switched to pass line. He continued to make points and even hit a 4 in his roll. I jumped on place 6 and 8 and managed to make a little from those too alternating between taking the money and moving up a unit. I never got past $18 though. Finally the kid had a 7-out after 20 minutes of rolling and I'd managed to recover to even at this point.

The dice then passed to me. I hesitated. All my instincts were to bet don't pass on myself and see the dice move to someone else who I would then join on the pass line. However inspired by the young gentleman who'd done so well, I decided to bet pass line for my roll. I then went on the longest roll on the pass line I've ever had. It ran 40 minutes. I didn't make as many points as the young gentleman as I only hit four with both a 4 and a 10 mixed in. I jumped on place 6 and 8 and hit three 6's during the roll, but multiple 5's, 8's and 9's during the run. I had a good mix of 2's, 3's and 12's on the roll as well and the fellow to my left had made a ton of money on the Field bet throughout my time at the table. The end of the table with the moms and dads and kids placed all the numbers including 4 and 10 and I made them a ton of money. Now Casino Royale is old school. Before the young man had started his roll a floor person was splitting time between several games, but when he started hitting his numbers the floor person stayed full time at our table. When I was over 30 minutes through my roll a more senior floor person came by to start monitoring the game. He was insisting that the stickman turn the dice several times before passing the dice to me in an attempt to break the streak. Superstitious nonsense in my opinion, but I knew they were a sweat-the-money kind of joint before this. I found it kind of charming. I had my 7-out a few minutes later and the senior floor person came by to say to the other floor person, "See turning the dice like that always works." The moms, dads, and kids all cashed out each up between $400-500 and one of the moms came by to thank me for the roll. I didn't want to burst her bubble and tell her it's all random so I merely said, "Your welcome". The stickman asked if they gave me a tip and I replied, "No". My wife came by shortly after my roll so I coloured up for $490 which was $190 in the black for the session.

We then went looking for a laptop for my daughter for her to use at university this Fall and unfortunately couldn't find a cheap one that wasn't a Chromebook/Windowsbook. From there, my wife got me to take her to a wool shop called Sin City Knit Shop and she picked up a few things there. At this point, we were getting hungry so I remembered that Alex Stratta had opened a diner-style comfort food restaurant called Salt and Pepper in the Tivoli village. We planned to be in the area anyway as we were going to gamble at Red Rock Resort and Casino and then do a hike in Red Rock Canyon.

We get to Tivoli village and poke around a little and can't find the restaurant. We chatted up one of the security folks who said it was open all of a month before shutting down so the security guard recommended Brio Tuscan Grille instead. Here the waiter recommended the Spicy Shrimp and Eggplant appetizer, but modified it by adding angel hair pasta as part of the dish to give it a little more bulk for lunch. My wife loved it. I had the Sliced Steak Salad which was good too, but not as good as my wife's dish.

Next we hit Red Rock Resort and Casino, we played the $0.25 Deuces Wild video poker, but had absolutely no luck. I hit one five-of-a-kind and no wild royals. My wife got one five-of-a-kind as well, but nothing bigger. We cashed out down $140 total which meant we were down $435 overall for the trip.

From there we headed over to Red Rock Canyon and got there at about 3:30PM. My wife wanted one of those poles for hiking and she was just able to buy it before the shop closed at 4PM. We took a few pictures around the interpretive centre and then headed out on the scenic drive. The second parking stop is the hike to Calico Tank. I understood, from my reading on the web, that at the end of the Calico Tank hike there is a spot where you can look back into the valley and photograph Las Vegas. This was my main reason for choosing this hike. The first part of the hike was fairly straightforward in that things were fairly flat, but the hike becomes more challenging after that i.e; actual climbing is necessary. This took a fair amount of effort and my wife wasn’t prepared for the level difficulty either. On top of that, we did the hike in regular running shoes. Once we got to the tank, I left my wife to rest up and I made my way to the opposite side to get shots of Las Vegas. She said to let her know if the view was worth it. I said it was so she carefully made her way over to the far side so she could also take in the view of Las Vegas.
While we were taking in the view and my wife was getting a few more shots with the camera she slipped on a rock, twisted her ankle, bashed her knee, and then finally landed on her elbow on the arm that was holding up the camera. It was a very bad sprain of her ankle and even though we didn’t end up getting her checked by a doctor I wouldn’t be surprised if she tweaked some ligaments in her ankle. Now we’re half way through a hike at the top of a canyon, we’ve got about an hour and twenty minutes before the sunset, and my wife has now got a bum ankle. She struggled through getting back, and at a couple points I thought we might have to give up and call emergency services and we’d end up camping in the desert overnight with emergency personnel. My wife was a trooper though and managed to get back to the car although it was 7:20PM by that time. I got some ice and nipped over to the CVS for ibuprofen and a compression bandage once we were back at the hotel.

Here are a few shots that we got while at Red Rock Canyon:











We’d planned to hang around the hotel on Wednesday anyway so my wife’s bum ankle didn’t hinder things too much. I again got up early and hit the craps table. This time the stickman’s birthday was odd so I started on the don’t pass. This time nothing worked. Whatever I bet – pass or don’t pass – was a loser. I washed out $250 in 30 minutes.

From there, I popped over to the CVS to get the next size up for the compression sock as the small didn’t quite fit, and I also stopped by the Concierge at the Wynn to grab a wheel chair for my wife. She outright refused to use it when I wheeled it in however.

For breakfast, we made our way down to the Wynn buffet as we’d gotten a free buffet with our room booking. The Wynn buffet has been redone and a new chef is in charge. We got down at 9AM and the lineup was long and getting longer as everyone looked to be giving the new buffet a try. It seems to me like the selections have shifted under the new chef. There seem to be fewer overall selections, but within one kind of item you have many more options. For example, there were many different types of sausage available, but they only had roasted pork. No roasted lamb, or beef. They had three different types of pancakes to order – traditional, red velvet, and lemon. I expected to see lots of fruit offerings for breakfast, but the selection there was very limited. We enjoyed everything we tried, but I’m at a point in my life where I can no longer make a buffet pay. Overall I my opinion shifted on the Wynn buffet in that I would give it consideration against Caesars or the Bellagio buffet now where before it was solidly in third place for me.

We planned on buying the painting that my wife liked that morning, but the shop doesn’t open until 10AM so we both played the 3-play $0.25 8/5 Super Times Pay Jacks or better machines. I again had no luck at all and washed out $100, but my wife was very pleased to hit a 10x multiplier and hold 2-pair off the initial draw. She hit a full house on the middle draw for a total win of $150. She was extremely pleased as we’ve played the STP game many times and got a multiplier and had nothing to hold or missed holding a low pair. She remarked later that probably all her video poker gambling for our trip was most likely in the positive and it was just me that was weighing us down. She was right as overall we were down $635 and that was due to my poor luck.

We then got over to Regis Galerie and bought that painting my wife took a liking to on Sunday, and they tried to get my wife to pick up a lovely set of very expensive jade earrings, but I held her off. From there we headed back to the Wynn so my wife could rest her ankle as we’d planned to go to the pool later. As a result, I headed over to play a little more craps at Casino Royale. I was expecting a $5 minimum but it was $10 when I got there. I was a little surprised and another person who showed up at the same time questioned them on the hike in minimums. The dealer on our side said that they figured they could because of all the people coming in for the NCAA basketball tournament. I was a little perturbed. If I have to play for $10 I might as well play at the Wynn and get rated, but my laziness took over. I bought in and was again unsure how to bet – pass or don’t pass. I compromised and put out a place 8. The dice had just passed to a young African American gentleman at the far end and he proceeded to roll a ton of 8’s. I pressed to get to $24 after the second payoff and then he must have hit six more 8’s on his roll. From there it went a little choppy as the dice passed to our end of the table with a point made then a 7-out. On my roll, I actually made a point of 4 and 10, but then I lost on a 6. Then things went sideways and after several points not made I retreated with $100 more than my buy-in.
I headed back and got changed to go down to the pool. My wife just lounged around on the lounge chair resting her ankle while I alternated between boiling myself in the hot tub and then cooling off in the main pool. It was nice to just relax and soak in a little sun.

We headed over to Ellis Island Casino and Brewery for supper. I knew they had $0.25 full pay Jacks or better video poker and I was interested to try their home brew as well. It was extremely busy in the casino area and there was a waiting list to eat at the Cafe. While waiting for a table we toured around to find the full pay machines. I was surprised to find that many of their machines were not full pay so you had to be careful about which machines you played. The blackjack and craps tables were open too and the minimums were a nice $5, but you couldn’t get near them. We’d each lost about $20 on video poker when our table was ready.
My wife had the light beer and I tried their Amber ale. My wife found the light beer a bit watery and my Amber was similar to home brew a buddy’s dad makes. Both were not bad, but not great either. We also ordered their Root Beer and we both liked that. I had the Prime Rib for dinner and my wife had the Beef/Bacon burger. Mine was pretty standard fare. My wife liked her burger quite a bit, but it was huge and she just couldn’t finish. We discussed hanging around for the Karaoke at 9PM for a little entertainment, but we were both pretty tired and maybe we’ve been hanging around the Wynn too long because we just didn’t feel comfortable there. It was very smoky and the lower ceilings made me feel cramped. The video poker machines were dirty and had blurry screens. There were nicotine stains everywhere. I was a little sad in the realization that I’m becoming a snob.

Thursday morning came and I again hit the craps table at the Wynn. This session was a total wash out. I burned through my $300 buy-in trying everything. Pass line, don’t pass, don’t come, place 6 and 8. Any direction I tried was wrong. The session was not without its amusements though. The floor person handling the table was an Asian fellow who was inflicting durian hard candies on the stickman and dealers. I told them my dad’s side of the family is from Singapore so at Chinese New Year my cousin often buys a durian fruit to have at dessert. I told the dealers the taste is actually OK, but the smell is what gets to most people when trying the fruit. A few tried them while I was playing and they described the flavour as interesting. That distinctive durian odour started floating around the table. Not nearly as pungent as the real fruit, but it was there none the less.

After that we packed up and checked out of the Wynn. Our flight wasn’t heading out until 2:15PM so we headed down to the MGM Grand and parked there. My daughter wanted a Coca Cola bear and a picture of the giant coke bottle at the Coca Cola store. I nipped over to NYNY as I understood they had $10 blackjack tables that still paid 3:2. I hardly had any sessions of blackjack this trip so I was hoping to squeeze one more in before I left. I’m sad to report that all the tables I found for less than $25 were all 6:5. I left in disgust.

After that, we headed off to the airport to head home. We’d eaten some very nice meals, enjoyed our show, and I had my head handed to me gambling. I’ll be back for more next year though, but next time I hope to convince my cousin and his wife to join us in Las Vegas. It might be nice to switch things up a little and have another couple along to share a view or a nice bottle of wine with in Las Vegas.

--helpmespock

Awesome TR helpmespock! I didn't get to finish the whole thing yet, but I did want to wish you wife a speedy recovery. Ouch!

Quote: helpmespock

We then went looking for a laptop for my daughter for her to use at university this Fall and unfortunately couldn't find a cheap one that wasn't a Chromebook/Windowsbook.

Where did you look? The one place I would suggest is Fry's Electronics in Town Square. Then again, that's probably where you went, in which case, what is your definition of "cheap laptop"? Or perhaps the question is, what is your definition of "non-Windowsbook laptop"?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Awesome TR helpmespock! I didn't get to finish the whole thing yet, but I did want to wish you wife a speedy recovery. Ouch!

Thanks! Her ankle was a problem on the Wednesday, but she was moving around better on the Thursday. It is much better now, but her ankle is cracking way more than she's used to. It'll probably be another couple weeks before it's completely back to normal.

My wife is sitting in the 4th picture in the bottom left. That was just before she made her way over to the other side of the tank and twisted her ankle.

--helpmespock

Quote: ThatDonGuy

Where did you look? The one place I would suggest is Fry's Electronics in Town Square. Then again, that's probably where you went, in which case, what is your definition of "cheap laptop"? Or perhaps the question is, what is your definition of "non-Windowsbook laptop"?

We looked on-line at Fry's and they had similar ones to Best Buy so we just went to a Best Buy to look at them.

The Windowsbook laptops are similar to the Chromebooks in that they have to have an internet connection to be able to get anything done. My daughter wanted something that could continue to function off-line as our older sons, who are currently at university, warned her that Wi-Fi at school can be spotty some of the time.

Here is an example of the thing we were trying to avoid -- Dell Insiprion.

We found her an OK HP laptop back home, but we ended up paying $400 for it.

--helpmespock

Really interesting TR helpmespock, amazing detail. I really enjoyed reading the whole thing.

Had a great time reading your report. Your gambling has a familiar sound - much like my last foray.

Enjoyed you details.

Thanks for posting.

Don

Thanks for the long and detailed TR!
Nice pics, especially the first two. Nice blue sky. My sky always get washed out or something. Why is that?

Quote: TwoFeathersATL

Thanks for the long and detailed TR!
Nice pics, especially the first two. Nice blue sky. My sky always get washed out or something. Why is that?

I think it's mostly due to relative humidity. When it's low then you get the deeper looking blue in the sky. The last picture that has the shot looking at Las Vegas was taken quite late so the relative humidity was on the rise and you get that milky look. At home in Southern Ontario, our relative humidity runs 70% a lot of the time so our sky always has that milky look.

--helpmespock

Quote: helpmespock

Here is an example of the thing we were trying to avoid -- Dell Insiprion.

We found her an OK HP laptop back home, but we ended up paying $400 for it.

So, apparently, your definition of "cheap laptop" and mine are two vastly different things - US$400 is cheap for a laptop.

And you're absolutely right in that someone going to university needs a laptop that doesn't need an always-on internet connection - especially to run, say, Word or Excel.

Quote: helpmespock

… I was a little sad in the realization that I’m becoming a snob.

Hehe, this should be your byline...

Again, great trip report! Too bad about the variance, but I admire your discipline to walk away from the 6:5 Blackjack, even though it would be your last shot for a while. I don' t know if I could have done the same.

I am surprised about the Durian candy even being allowed on the floor. The smell of the fruit is powerful. They even have laws in some Asian countries against eating it in public places, and maybe even against carrying it on public transportation.

Did the art store crate the painting for you? Did you have any trouble bringing it through the Airport security?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Hehe, this should be your byline...

Hmmmm...maybe not. 8-)

It's a fine place and I'd actually go back, but I would know what to expect next time.

Quote: Ayecarumba

Again, great trip report! Too bad about the variance, but I admire your discipline to walk away from the 6:5 Blackjack, even though it would be your last shot for a while. I don' t know if I could have done the same.

I am surprised about the Durian candy even being allowed on the floor. The smell of the fruit is powerful. They even have laws in some Asian countries against eating it in public places, and maybe even against carrying it on public transportation.

Did the art store crate the painting for you? Did you have any trouble bringing it through the Airport security?

It felt like two steps backward and one step forward as far as my gambling activities this trip, but heck it's gambling after all.

The smell from the candy wasn't close to the pungent aroma of the fruit, but that distinctive smell was there.

In Singapore, the subway is sealed so that they can run air conditioning so there are prominent displays of the Durian fruit with a red circle and slash through it:



When we have it at Chinese New Year they freeze it to try to knock the smell down. It doesn't work. 8-)

The painting is being shipped up by the gallery. They were going to fix up the frame it was in so it wouldn't have been ready to fly back with us anyway.

--helpmespock

Thank you for the very entertaining trip report, hmspock :) But so sorry to hear about your wife spraining her ankle and the overall losses. :/ Sounds like the two of you had a good time in spite of that.

Nice report! The paranoia of Casino Royale never fails to amaze me. The slots look busy enough that they really shouldn't have to sweat craps. Hope your wife's ankle gets fully back to normal!

Quote: Chereya

Thank you for the very entertaining trip report, hmspock :) But so sorry to hear about your wife spraining her ankle and the overall losses. :/ Sounds like the two of you had a good time in spite of that.

It was fun despite the losing and the ankle. We always enjoy the weather regardless of anything else and we got a big contrast as we've had some late snow here at home. They're calling for 15cm (almost 6 inches) of snow tonight. I teased my wife by saying we should look at the forecast for Las Vegas. She narrowed her eyes at me and said, "Don't be cruel".

--helpmespock

Quote: tringlomane

Nice report! The paranoia of Casino Royale never fails to amaze me. The slots look busy enough that they really shouldn't have to sweat craps. Hope your wife's ankle gets fully back to normal!

Thanks she's a lot better, but it'll probably be a couple more weeks before her ankle is back to normal.

I find the antics at Casino Royale very amusing. I've seen them switch out the entire set of dice when they thought the table was hot. I've seen them stop the game for the count to interrupt a hot roll. I just smile while they're doing it and hearing the confirmation bias at the end was lovely.

I wonder if Casino Royale is feeling squeezed these days in that they don't think they are making enough profit? That would explain the 5AM to 9AM shutdown of all table games to save costs and the addition of the food court at the back to get people through the place. Although the general casino environment in Las Vegas looks to be trying to increase profits with the widespread rollout of 6:5 blackjack.

--helpmespock

Salt & Pepper at Tivoli Village closed I believe.

Fun report! Too bad about all the bad luck, and then to top it off Mrs helpmespock's ankle.

That American Wagyu NY sirloin is the same as I had, and I agree that it was the best steak that I've ever had, too!