Excalibur trip report(10/1-10/4)

Saturday, check in at the excalibur. Picked up MLife players cards for the wife and I. Room was in tower one, 19th floor. Stripview room. The stripview was not that great. To see the strip I had to press my face to window and look to the side. Room was clean, no smoke odor. I do smoke, but not in my home or any room I stay in. Widescreen TV, which we barely watched. Bed was comfy and the AC worked really well. My wife likes to freeze me out. I try to snuggle up next to her to warm up, but she says she is hot. Well you get the picture, sigh.

The Excalibur in general looks the same as last year. A bit dated and worn. But we stay here for the room prices and have always been satisfied . Did not eat any meals at the Excal this time around, in fact we didnt hit a single buffet the whole trip though I had intended to. The buffet here in the past was nothing to brag about but no complaints really either. I am not to hard to please i suppose.

The BJ dealers I will complain about. They seem to be very unhappy. No conversation. barely even a smile. I may as well have been playing a machine. Machines may very well replace them someday, and they are not doing anything to help themselves in that regard. Suffice to say i didn't play that much BJ here. Anyway negative 450 for BJ here. That is for wife and myself.

Craps table crew were better, but the atmosphere at the craps is generally different from BJ. positive 125 for me, negative 50 for the wife. 2 sessions.

Slots positive 100 for me maybe (bad memory) , wife positive 5 or 6 hundred. She hit the MajorBucks on the megabucks for 500. That 10 million progressive sure looks due. How big does that thing get generaly?

Anyway total price for a sat, sun, mon night stay, 355.88 resort fee taxes and all. MLife account shows POINTPLAY-$1.19/FREEPLAY-0.00/HGS POINTS-119/EXPRESS COMPS-$22.21

I didnt even go by the desk when leaving. First time doing the Player card thing, and was kinda rushed when leaving and probably a line to wait in. This includes my action at MGM Grand and Luxor.

The crowd at the Excal was kinda poor looking. Dont enjoy watching folks lose money who from the looks of it can't afford it. Didnt see to much tipping going on. May explain dealers lack of enthusiasm. Yes I did tip. Maybe around $200 dollars in tips for the trip. Crowds at the Grand and Luxor certainly look better off. I enjoy playing in that environment more. Overall we had a good trip. Great fun.

Will do a report on my overall gaming. New Member here. i have been visiting the forums here for awhile now.

Quote: cono

The BJ dealers I will complain about. They seem to be very unhappy. No conversation. barely even a smile. I may as well have been playing a machine..

The last time I played BJ at the Ex was in 2005,
and a hot pit babe in skin tight jeans bugged
me so much about getting a players card that
I finally left. I sat down and started winning
right away and she thought I had Wonged the
table and I hadn't. When she wasn't bugging
me, she was staring at me. I was staring when
she turned her back, those jeans were spray
painted on..

Quote: cono

The BJ dealers I will complain about. They seem to be very unhappy. No conversation. barely even a smile. I may as well have been playing a machine. Machines may very well replace them someday, and they are not doing anything to help themselves in that regard. Suffice to say i didn't play that much BJ here. Anyway negative 450 for BJ here. That is for wife and myself.

I second the feeling, kind of. I played some double-deck there, pitch, 3:2, no RSA or surrender. The first time the dealer was kind of surly, although not like Bellagio surly. However, the pit boss was more than friendly and very eager to take my card... which is quite unusual for an MGM property. The second dealer was much better, seeming to be a little more interested in seeing me win. I was tipping when i got up which helped, but I started so far down it was tough to throw some bones out there.

Welcome!

>The stripview was not that great.
Las Vegas is not known for truth in advertising.

>Room was clean, no smoke odor.
Beats the view any day!!

>Widescreen TV, which we barely watched.
Yeah. Same here. I barely watch it, so it makes little difference if there are three in the room plus one inside the bathroom mirror, as many of the upscale resorts have.

>Did not eat any meals at the Excal this time around,
Yeah. Understandable. Its not bad its just not really all that impressive either.

>Anyway negative 450 for BJ here. That is for wife and myself.
That is alot for an unenjoyable dealer experience.

>Anyway total price for a sat, sun, mon night stay, 355.88 resort fee taxes and all. MLife account shows
>POINTPLAY-$1.19/FREEPLAY-0.00/HGS POINTS-119/EXPRESS COMPS-$22.21
I will let the Mlife Comp Experts comment on this, but my first question is did you wait sufficiently for your play to be all caught up in their computers? It seems low to me.

>I didnt even go by the desk when leaving.
I would say "mistake" but then running down the runway yelling at the plane to stop is sort of a mistake too.

>The crowd at the Excal was kinda poor looking. Dont enjoy watching folks lose money who from the looks of it can't afford it.
Well, thats about what the Excalibur gets.
>Crowds at the Grand and Luxor certainly look better off. I enjoy playing in that environment more.
Maybe your next mailer will be enjoyable for you.

I played in the Excalibur about 2009 and the BJ dealers and pit bosses were miserable then, as was the bar staff. I've not been back since. It used to be a good cheap gamble joint. Now it seems to be just a cheap gamble.

Cheers for the review, interesting to see nothing's changed.

Quote: thecesspit

I played in the Excalibur about 2009 and the BJ dealers and pit bosses were miserable then

As I said, in 2005 they were totally paranoid. The lady
pit broad was at the point of asking me to leave if I
didn't give her my DL so she could get me a players
card.

Quote: FleaStiff

>Did not eat any meals at the Excal this time around,
Yeah. Understandable. Its not bad its just not really all that impressive either.

The Baja Fresh is pretty good actually.

Quote: FleaStiff

>The crowd at the Excal was kinda poor looking. Dont enjoy watching folks lose money who from the looks of it can't afford it.
Well, thats about what the Excalibur gets.
>Crowds at the Grand and Luxor certainly look better off. I enjoy playing in that environment more.
Maybe your next mailer will be enjoyable for you.

The Excal poker room is awful. Absolutely the worst dealers anywhere. Old, slow, and one lady is too short to reach the mucked cards or chips without a back-scratcher to pull them in. One dealer was so absent-minded she started flipping through the muckpile while waiting for a player to act, in full view of the players in the 1 through 3 seats, so we knew what had been mucked. They still write down players on the waiting list in pencil on a form on a clipboard like it was still in the 1980's. Hilariously terrible room, like something from Vegas Vacation.

>Anyway total price for a sat, sun, mon night stay, 355.88 resort fee taxes and all. MLife account shows
>POINTPLAY-$1.19/FREEPLAY-0.00/HGS POINTS-119/EXPRESS COMPS-$22.21
I will let the Mlife Comp Experts comment on this, but my first question is did you wait sufficiently for your play to be all caught up
if their computers? It seems low to me.

>I checked my MLife acct. online when i got back home. I tried checking my wife's also but having problems getting it to work. It would be great if it were a joint acct. One acct. with" player 1" and "player 2". Maybe they already have this. I haven't checked. Also played a couple of session's and didn't bother with the card. My betting is generally in the 10-50 range. Unless they have 5 min. on craps.

Quote: cono

Also played a couple of session's and didn't bother with the card. My betting is generally in the 10-50 range. Unless they have 5 min. on craps.

I think it is generally agreed that getting a card and using the card is the right thing to do. Sure there are some vociferous dissenters but it seems that comps for that trip and for later trips become too much of a consideration to throw away your potential comps by playing without a card.

Some off-site but same card gaming will still take forever to show up on the computer. Even some on-site gambling just doesn't make it into the computer system as promptly as it is supposed to. Overworked floormen? Distractions? Whatever?

There are endless arguments as to Linked Accounts for a husband and wife versus utterly separate accounts. One couple I know have separate names, separate addresses for their gambling and will often piggyback room offers by checking out of his room and checking into her room thus extending a 3 night offer into a 6 or 7 night offer. It got confusing when I took their remaining nights in one room as they left without checking out and I did an Express Checkout for them after paying the hotel for two nights under my name but staying for four nights.

You should always know your "theo". That is the only way to know if you are getting good comps, average comps or bad comps, but to know your theo you have to know how much you bet and how long you stayed at each game.

You mentioned 50 dollar betting. At Excalibur if you bet fifty dollars at BJ for a sufficient period of time that is a free hotel night for sure as well as free buffet. At Bellagio they probably want to see 100.00 in that circle each and every time.

Quote: FleaStiff

You mentioned 50 dollar betting. At Excalibur if you bet fifty dollars at BJ for a sufficient period of time that is a free hotel night for sure as well as free buffet.

LOL! Bet $50 at the Four Queens or Fitzgeralds and you'll
get room comps for a month..

Quote: EvenBob

LOL! Bet $50 at the Four Queens or Fitzgeralds and you'll get room comps for a month..

Well, I'm told its not quite that long but ... . The main point is that if you've risked sufficient money for others to have qualified for various freebies and you do not get similar freebies, then you should at least know what is happening and make your decisions about it. I know one woman who when she calculated her theo and talked to other slot players about what they had been getting, she telephoned her host and politely but quite firmly let him know they would be seeing her at their neighboring casino from then on.