Vegas, Baby!

Mrs. Joeman and I visited Vegas a couple of weeks ago as the first leg of our Nevada/California vacation (Disneyland and San Francisco being the other two destinations). This was Mrs. Joeman's first ever visit to Vegas, and my first in about 10 years.

We landed at McCarran about 5 -- 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We got our bags and picked up the rental car. We rented from Alamo, and checked-in online allowing us to skip the counter and directly pick up the car.

Since it's Mrs. Joeman's first trip, I decided to come straight up the the Strip so she could see all the sights. Even with the stop & go on the strip, we made it to Bally's by about 6:15. I had earned Diamond on our trip to New Orleans a few months ago, so we got to skip the front desk lines and use the Diamond check-in, which was very nice!

We got up to the room, dropped our stuff, and then back downstairs to the TR desk. We picked up our $100 Celebration Dinner certificate and a couple tickets for the High Roller. The Celebration Dinner is a nice perk, but I noticed that for 2 people, it's hard to spend the whole amount at a casual restaurant, but it is not nearly enough to cover the tab at one of the fine dining restaurants.

To get full value, we decided to go to one of the casual restaurants and order a lot of food with the intention of saving the leftovers for lunch the next day. We decide to head over to the Cafe Ile Saint Louis at the Paris, which looked none the worse for having had a complete blackout the evening before.

We ordered two appetizers apiece, as well as our entrees. Afterwords, we had lots of leftovers for the next day's lunch that we took back up to the room.

We ended the night with a ride on the High Roller. What a great way to see the lights of Vegas! Mrs. Joeman really enjoyed the views from the top.

Up next: Saturday's whirlwind tour of southern Nevada!

We got up early Saturday morning. The plan was to go to Jokers Wild for cheap breakfast and $1 craps, and then onto the Hoover Dam. We got to Jokers Wild about 7:45, but we found out the craps table wouldn't open until 9. Disappointing, but I figured we could play some VP, and then have breakfast. And by then, the table should be open.

So, I start playing some 25c DDB, and lose my first $20 pretty quick. I decided to switch to DW for a change of pace, and loaded in a $100 bill. A few hands later, this happens...


Woot! My 2nd ever royal, both in spades! That'll teach JW not to have their craps game going early on a Saturday morning! ;)

We then had breakfast (not bad for $2.49). Finally, they open their craps table, but it must only be $1 durring the week, because this morning it is $2. Oh, well. I ended up losing a few bucks, plus it seemed like the dealer's knew everybody at the table but me! Anyway, we left about 10 with full bellies and a fat wallet!

On the way back from Hoover Dam, we stopped at Hemenway Park in Boulder City to have a picnic with our leftovers from the previous night's Celebration Dinner. This is the park where the bighorn sheep come down from the montaind to graze. Many thanks to WoV member teddys for including this in his review of the Hacienda (evidently now called the Hoover Dam Lodge). We got a kick out of eating lunch with the bighorns!

Our next stop was Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden -- one of our MyVegas freebies. We actually parked across the strip at the Venetian -- I figured Mrs. Joeman would like to see the inside of the Venetian (which she did), but also I wanted to avoid paying for parking at the Mirage.

The Secret Garden was nice. The dolphin habitat has an underwater viewing area, and the dolphins seem to play up to the visitors. It was also great to see the big cats up close, but it seemes like their habitats are very small. The cats who weren't sleeping were pacing.

We were glad we went, but we would have been disappointed if we had to pay full price. I'm not sure how often he visits his own garden, but as we were heading for the garden's exit, we passed by Siegfried. We said, "hi," and thought about asking for a picture, but it looked like he was there on business, so we didn't ask for a photo op.

We got back to our car and headed to St. Joan of Arc church downtown for the evening vigil mass. It's a nice little church. I prefer it over the cathedral on the strip. To me, the Guardian Angel Cathedral feels a little too "Vegas-y" for a place of worship.

Up next: Saturday, Part II

Saturday evening, we went to the Neon Museum for a tour through their boneyard. The tour was enjoyable. It was neat to see signs from places I had been to previously, but are no more. Our tour guide also gave us some snippets of Vegas history. I was a little disappointed that more of the signs were not illuminated, but they explained to us that if they didn't receive a sign in working order, it was very expensive to fix it. But, they do what they can on their limited budget.

After our tour at the Neon Museum, we headed to the Four Queens for dinner at Hugo's Cellar. We really enjoyed the experience, and the food was good, too. Mrs. Joeman's complimentary rose actually stayed vibrant through our entire trip! With two full meals, a bottle of wine, tax, and tip, we got out of there for just under $200. Quite a bit more than I am used to paying for dinner out, but not too bad for a one-time experience.

After dinner, we took a stroll out on Fremont St. It's been about 10 years since I was in Downtown Vegas, and boy has it changed in that time! Our Neon Museum tour guide had explained that in the early 2000's Vegas transformed form "Family Vacation Destination" to "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas," and I could see what she meant. I had remembered Downtown as fairly quiet place where you could find good deals on food, gambling, etc. Now, it just seems like one big night club.

If you remember from my New Orleans TR, Mrs. Joeman is not a fan of crowded places that smell like vomit and urine. Needless to say, she did not enjoy the atmosphere on Fremont St. And, to tell you the truth, it didn't do too much for me, either. Maybe if I were 10 years younger...

We made our way over to the Plaza. I was thinking that since we would be in Vegas for a few more days, I might take advantage of their $500 loss rebate for new members. However we found out that getting the rebate "the next two days" meant "exactly 24 & 48 hours" after signing up. It was going on 11:00, and our schedule wouldn't allow for us to be back at the Plaza at 11 on the next two nights. So, I decided to pass on trying for the rebate.

We wandered into The D to play some Sigma Derby, but had absolutely no luck. We decided to say goodbye (forever, as far as Mrs. Joeman is concerned!) to Downtown and call it a night.

Up next: Sunday -- Let's not get crazy, now!

Sunday morning, we jumped on the monorail and headed up to the Westgate to watch the 10:00 games at the Superbook. We got there about 8:45, but couldn't find two "comfy" seats together. We did find a couple of seats at the bar where we had a good view of the screens. With the help of Wizard's 1/2 Point Parlay recommendations, I bet a 3- and a 4-team parlay of the 10:00 games. And, with the help of no one in their right mind, I put $20 on the Jags' money line! :P

We watched the 1st half of the early games in the book, but at halftime, we found a bar out in the casino that also had the games on big screens. So, we watched the 2nd half there. Unfortunately, the Jags were the Jags, but at least they covered. Not good for my money line bet, but at least they kept my parlays alive. That is, except for the fact that the Browns didn't even put up a fight against the Cowboys, sinking both parlays.

We monorailed it back to Bally's and then wandered over to the Paris to find the Diamond Lounge. We had a few drinks and some snacks for lunch. Afterward, we headed to the Pinball HOF. What a great place! We got to relive our formative years with our favorite games from the 80's. Plus, your dollar seems to go a lot farther there than it does in the casino! ;)

Back at the hotel, Mrs. Joeman headed up to the room for a brief nap before getting ready for dinner. I decided to play a little UTH, but soon bust out on my $100 buy-in. One hand that I remember: I was dealt pocket Aces. After my 4x raise, the dealer dealt a rainbow board: A, J, 9, 7, 3. And what did the dealer have? Yup, 10, 8! :P

I decided it was time for some more VP! Since I'm still up several hundred from Saturday's royal hit, I get the wild idea to run a little through the $5 VP machines to see if I can parlay my win like last time.

Well, the first $300 went pretty quick, but I decided to put another $300 in and ran a little better. Then this hit:


Woot! I noticed that some of the $5 paytables had the 50:1 payouts at 239 coins instead of 250 to slide in under the handpay limit, but not this one. I dunno, I might be willing to trade $55 to avoid the hassle of a handpay.

I headed back up to the room to get ready, and we monorailed it over to MGM for dinner and a show: KA -- again, all compliments of MyVegas. The buffet was pretty good, and the show was amazing! The story line, the music, and the performers were all top-notch, but one of the biggest stars of the show, I thought, was the stage, which can move up and down, as well as rotate on multiple axes.

We hung out at the MGM long enough for me to play a little UTH and break even, then it was back 'home.' There wasn't much room at the UTH table back at Bally's, but the PGP table looked inviting. So, even though I have only played PGP once in a casino, and this was a $25 table (geez, I guess I can't keep calling myself a low-roller! :P), I decided to sit and buy in for a couple of hundred.

We had a good dealer and pleasant tablemates, and I actually won a few hands. It's a little after midnight, and I look over to see that Mrs. Joeman, without a word, had actually nodded off at the table! OK, it's past our bedtime! So, I cash out up about $100 and we head back to the room for the night.

Up next: Monday -- Go west, young man.

Monday morning, the plan was to get up early and head out to Red Rock Canyon to do some hiking. Well, it gets to be after 9 before we get going -- so much for the "early" part. We finally get out there, and we couldn't have asked for a better day for a hike -- not too hot and not too cool. We decided that since we were already running late, we would pick one of the shorter trails.

We decided on the Keystone Thrust trail, a 2.2 mile round trip up and back with about 600' of elevation change. This hike proves to be a good challenge for a pair of woefully out-of-shape flatlanders. We make it to the top, taking several breaks along the way to "enjoy the scenery!"

After the hike, the plan was to go to Red Rock Casino to cash in some more MyVegas comps, and take advantage of their full-pay VP machines. Stations comps don't count against the "3 per 30 days" MGM comp limit, so we were able to get some more freebies. We cashed in a 2 buffet pass, a $10 match play, and 2 pool passes (which came with a pair of souvenir insulated mugs).

When we got there, Red Rock's players' club line was 10 deep. Evidently, they were having some problems with their self-service kiosks. However, the line moved quicker than we had expected, and we were able to get our MyVegas goodies without any problem.

After eating at the buffet (which was OK, but not spectacular) we headed out to the pool. Now, before the trip, we had debated whether it was worth it to spend our MyVegas capital on a couple of hours at a pool in November. But since we had a surplus of "gold chips" without much else to spend them on, we decided to go for it.

We made it out to the pool about 2:30, to find it pretty deserted. There were a handful of guests, and no staff except for one girl picking up towels and straightening chairs. There wasn't even anyone to collect our passes. (We still have them if anyone wants them! ;) ) We had one of the outer pools all to ourselves. It was still warm when we were in the sun, and the water was a comfortable temperature. After our swim, we sat at the edge one of the hot tubs, positioning our feet over the jets for a welcome massage for our barking dogs.

After our swim, we changed and headed back into the casino to play a little BJ and use the match play. Unfortunately, I lost half of my $100 buy-in, including losing the match play hand. Afterwards, I found a bank of 10/6 DDB (100.07%) machines. They were multi-denom, and held that full-pay table up through the $1 level, which is what I played. Unfortunately, the machine ate 3 of my hundred dollar bills in short order. At least I was able to hit a boat along the way and take advantage of the 50 coin payout!

Mrs. Joeman, who does not gamble much at all, decided to play the 25c version and hit her first ever single-line quads!


Up next: -- Monday, Part II

We then bid adieu to Red Rock and headed back to the strip. Even though it was dinnertime, we weren't all that hungry, but we still had a $25 dining credit that we hadn't used. We figured that was enough for an appetizer and a couple beers. Mrs. Joeman suggested Guy Fieri's place at the Linq, and we split an order of their Trash Can Nachos, which was pretty tasty.

On the way back to Bally's, I wanted to stop at the Cromwell and see if the rumors were true about full pay 25c VP. We walked over to the VP area, but could not find them. So, I found a few UX machines to vulture to no avail, and Mrs. Joeman decided to play some 25c DDB (with a not-so-great paytable). She ended up hitting her second ever single-line quads, this time 3's, earning her a cool $100, which put her ahead for the trip!

As we were leaving, I finally spotted the signs for the "99+% VP." They were tucked away in the southwest corner of the casino -- we had walked right by them when we came in! Oh, well!

Back at Bally's, Mrs. Joeman headed up to the room -- we were planning to leave at 5 or so the next morning to drive to Anaheim, and she wanted to get her 7.5 hours sleep. As for me, it's my last night in Vegas... time to go big or go home! I bought in for $400 at the MS Stud table and played $10 ante. It slowly dwindled down to a little less than $200 when I get dealt K9 of clubs. The dealer proceeded to flip up 3 more clubs and I hit the flush for a tidy $360 win. After a few more hands I cashed out and headed for the $1 DDB machines.

I'm in about $300 when I get dealt a pair of 3's, and end up drawing to quad 3's WAK! Woot! A nice $800 hit. Then about 4 hands later...


YOWZA! That's my third AWAK in DDB this year! Now, I am decidedly ahead for the trip, I should probably go to bed to rest up for my 4 hour drive early the next morning... but I don't! I keep having visions of my AWAK parlay in New Orleans a few months ago. So, I wander into the high limit room and once again challenge the $5 machines (and even a few ill-advised pulls on the $25 machine!) However, all I ended up doing was giving back a chunk of what I had just won. I just had to take a shot, though.

I headed up to the room to get a few winks before we left. We decided to give ourselves an extra hour of sleep and leave at 6 instead of 5, which was probably not a bad idea since the extra hour resulted in missing most of the SoCal rush hour. We left Vegas ahead about $1,600 for the trip!

Enjoyed reading the report joeman - glad to hear you and the Mrs. had a great time in Vegas. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Great tr, Joeman. You mentioned a couple of restaurants I haven't heard of ; I will have to check them out.

I really enjoyed reading the thorough trip report Joeman. It was a nice read on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

A great, fun read. Congrats on your winnings!

Great report and I appreciate the information!!! I will try to take advantage of some of your advice.

Thanks for the great trip reports! Love the photos of the video poker wins. They're beautiful to see! Also, I hope you don't mind me copying your style by referring to Mrs. smooth. She's the actual smooth one.