lame Vegas trip report

Just returned from a four day trip to Vegas. Weather was OUTSTANDING!

Went with friends, who stayed at Paris all 4 days. My wife and I had a 3 day free offer from Aria, and I could also stay at Paris if I chose. We ended up Fri and Sat at Aria, and Sun and Mon at Paris.

Arrived Vegas airport, 10:00 AM on Friday. Our friends had landed about an hour before and met us at baggage claim. After waiting 25 min or so for our bags (longest wait I have experienced there), we headed outside only to run smack into the longest Taxi lines I have waited in, in Vegas. I know the lines can be long there, but I have never experienced more than a few minutes wait to get into a taxi. Not sure where all the people went that were in the airport though, as the strip seemed to be rather empty all four days. Nothing like it used to be even two years ago.

Took the airport cab to Paris. As we got into the cab, we mentioned how much fun we were going to have in Vegas again. At that point the cabbie turns to me and says, "Paris right? highway or city, sir". It is my feeling that had we not been talking about having been to Vegas in the past, we would have received the highway version of the trip. I think this was a test, which I passed by answering, "city". This is the first time out of 8 trips, that I have come close to getting the expensive version of the trip. Checked our friends into Paris. At this point, it was our intention to walk to Aria, which is just across the street and down a bit. YEAH RIGHT. Once we got outside I suggested we take the taxi instead of dragging our bags down the sidewalk. Now it was the cabbie's turn to be disappointed. I heard the Paris attendant tell him to drop us off, come back to Paris, and he would put him back to front of line for the next fare. I matched my tip to the fare, so the cabbie wasn't too disappointed with the short trip. (When we went back to Paris, we chose to walk it, and that was just dumb. Dragging luggage around outside is too much like work.)

Aria check-in was very smooth, and fast. They had my room, and had the $100 spa credit listed. Told me to charge the spa to my room, and they would take off $100 at check-out. Easiest offer I have ever used. Finding the room elevators was a bit trickier. After two days I can move around in that casino a bit better, but an orienteering class could be held in there, and not everyone would pass!
The room keys are proximity keys. Place it near the lock pad, and the lock disengages. Open the door and as you step into the room, things happen. The curtains automatically draw back, the lights all come on, and the TV turns on with music and a "Welcome, Mr Your Name". The TV is the Master Controller for the room. You can control any light, the curtains, and the temperature (supposedly). You still have to get up and use the shower or potty though. Wake up options include, opening the curtains, or turning on lights, or turning on the TV, or music, or any combination of the above. Our room was illuminated by some sort of 24 hour sun, so closing the curtains at night was mandatory, unless you are a native of the north pole and use to constant daylight. The system is neat, but overwhelming. I am pretty much a techno geek, and it took a while to figure out how it all worked. They really need to send someone up to show people how to use this stuff. The temperature was set to 74* when we got there. I like it to be cool at night, so I set it to 68*, but the system never got lower than 71*. (Same thing in my Paris room though, so I am wondering if the engineers are messing with the HVAC systems and not letting the systems set lower than 71*).
Room was fabulous. Only real complaint was the design of the bathroom sinks has the faucet high above the sink, and as soon as the water hits the drain, it splashes back on you. There is just no way to wash your hands, or brush your tooth, without getting a wet stomach too, or using a minute dribble stream of water.
I mentioned the spa comp, which my wife reported to be terrific. We also had two freebies to Viva Elvis, at Aria. I had read mixed reviews about the show, so I wasn't sure what to expect. They had the tickets at the counter for us, which was a nice surprise (it doesn't always work like it is supposed to). The seats were couch seats, fifth row back from center stage. VERY NICE seats, and I am NOT a high roller. Not sure how I got this hooked up, but it was nice. My wife and I loved the show! I thought it was very good.

Aria had $10 craps tables all day Fri. and Sat. Even Saturday night I was able to play for $10. Not that it mattered much though. While my room would not cool below 71*, the craps tables were apparently made from a block of ice. My dog can answer the question on how I did at Aria craps! "Ruff" I lost all the money I had allocated for Fri and Sat at Aria, and my wife did the same with her slot money. The crowd is young, and the nightclub scene is very active. I think there must be a dress code, which requires the young ladies to wear dresses that start just above the 1/2 way point of the chest (in most cases) and to stop at their hips. I believe this is probably to keep them from smuggling in any weapons!

Saturday evening we bought 24 hour Gold Line passes and rode to Freemont street. We played craps at Binions and Golden Gate, but I don't recall the outcomes (small losses I thi. We were mostly killing time while enjoying playing with better odds. On Sunday we rode to the Stratosphere to play some 10x odds craps. On the way back, Transit police got on the bus at 2 different stops, to check for valid tickets! We still had 2 hours left on our passes, so we were okay. One guy on the bus saw the officer step on, and he jumped out the back door, so I'm guessing he had just realized he was at his stop.

My new tip routine is to make a $6 place bet on the 6 or 8, or both, as a player control bet. I have the dealers take one, then press, then take, etc. The craps dealers, and boxmen, were all very appreciative of that tip action. Casinos were Aria, Monte Carlo, Golden Gate, Stratosphere, and Paris. At Stratosphere, I played for about an hour and 1/2, making bets for the dealers, and betting mostly $66 inside along with a $5 passline and full odds bet. I ended up dropping 300 or so. I then asked the box if I could get 2 comps to take in the view from the top of the Stratosphere. He sent me to VIP services, where they were happy to give us 2 tickets to go up top. I probably should have asked for a comp to do the SkyJump again. I might have been able to get that as well. I am 100% convinced that solid tipping gets you a much higher rating, and more comps!

On Monday we signed up for Player cards at Wynn to get a $10 slot free play. My wife won $33, which she promptly turned into $0.22 . I turned my $10 free play into $7.87 cash, so we came out slightly ahead. I also won $165 for 1/2 hour of play at the $10 Wynn craps tables. From there we went to Palazzo ($15 tables) and then to Encore for some more $10 action. I made a passline bet for the dealers, who then were quick to point out that I could put $5 shoes on their bet, instead of the $2 shoes I had there. Then two rolls later, they pointed out that I had forgotten to post any dealer bet. This kept up for the 20 minutes I played. The tip hustling at the Encore was the WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN. I was so put off by it that I actually stopped making any bets for them. When I busted out of the $200 buy in, I took the last $2 to the cage and got the money. I cannot remember the last time I did not leave $1 chips on the craps table for the dealers! I have zero interest in ever playing at the Encore again.
The rest of my craps play all occurred at Paris. I was able to play $10 at every session, morning, noon, night, and all through the weekend too. I had two notable occurrences during craps sessions. At Aria on Saturday afternoon I was playing at a table by myself (I enjoy a fast game with good flow, and empty tables, or tables with 3 or 4 players who stay out of the middle, usually flow nicely) when a player walked up to the other end and got a marker. I looked down the table while they counted out stacks of white and yellow chips. I recognized the yellows as $1000, but had to ask about the whites ($5000). He must have taken a 120k marker! I had been on a good roll, but the pressure was too much for me and I 7'd out after 5 more throws. I left soon after, but I think the guy was down about 20k. On Monday morning I was playing at Paris, again on a table by myself, when a guy stopped the game to cash in. He bought in with 79 $100 bills which took a while to spread and count. He then bet $100 to $150 across, with $25 bets on each number for the dealers. When the dice came back to me, I had a 4 point roll, with a number of place bets hit. After my 3rd point, a green chip came flying down the table from his end. :-) Thank you very much! I stayed for his roll, and 1 more by me before leaving for breakfast. I would have liked to stay on that table. I am sure it would have been fun and profitable.

we need to hear how your luck was gaming

Wait...that's the extent of your trip report? Just the cab ride? I guess your thread title was accurate

Hmmmm, this is very strange. Yesterday this trip report was 3x as long. I had most of the details in for all four days of craps play, and now it has vanished. :-( Which was pretty much the same thing that happened to my bankroll. Come to think of it, they both lasted about the same amount of time, too.

I came back on to update Sunday night's action at Paris. The table was pretty cold, with only 1 person making a point in one solid trip around a full table. The dice passed to the other end where the guy proceeds to make 5 fire points (with nobody on the fire bet). The next guy PSO, but then the next shooter makes 4 fire points, again with nobody on the fire bet. I left about an hour later, only to find out that they hit the 5 point fire bet shortly after I left. So, 3 fire bets in about 1.5 hour time frame.

I also played Pai Gow poker for about an hour with my wife. Being a good soldier, I declined to play the bonus bet, much to the chagrin of my right side neighbor. In the first 15 hands, I had 10 hands that would have paid off on the bonus bet. The guy was freaking out that I was not playing the bonus! The worst was, I wasn't even winning most of these hands. The dealer kept pulling slightly better hands, so I was pushing a great deal.

I think this post was started twice. The longer version is here.

Quote: rdw4potus

I think this post was started twice. The longer version is here.

thank you rdw4. I thought I was going crazy!

Well, I guess this shows why I had trouble opening the curtains at Aria! Perhaps I am technology challenged after all!

When I was creating the original post, I happened to hit the TAB key, immediately followed by the space bar. Unfortunately that key sequence causes the cursor to jump to the POST button, and the space bar is the same as hitting the enter key, so the result was my newly started thread was posted. I then hit the browser back key and proceeded to finish the post. It looks like that action must have created the thread twice. Pretty much sums up my craps play too.

My wife likes to play the Goldfish slot machines. They have a new version now that has a seahorse race as one of the bonus games. I gave her $40 to play that as I was playing craps for the last hour before we headed to the airport. I finally got a winning session (+330) and headed over to see how wifey was doing. She had $7 left of the $40, and she was playing it down rather quickly. She made her last spin, leaving $.02 in the bank. BONUS GAME came up, and it was the seahorse race.
This game has 60 or so clamshells on the screen. You pick a clamshell and it flips over to reveal which horse moves forward, and how many spaces. The top horse was worth $329, down to the 5th horse that was worth $7.29. So she is picking the shells, and she gets the 5th horse right at the finish line, but not yet across. I pick a shell, and I move the 3rd horse ($62.10) next to the finish line as well. My wife picks, and gets a shell that moves every horse 1 space. Ding Ding, both the 3rd and 5th horses cross the finish line, and what do you know? We get paid for BOTH of them! Sweet. $69 win on the last bet of the trip.