Flamingo, 8/24-8/31 2016

Here is my report from the recent trip I had with my husband, our 4th trip. It was a great week! I was planning on doing a live-ish report this time, but I never got around to starting it, so… maybe next time! This time it will be one post for each day.


Day 1: Arrival

We arrived at Flamingo at about 7 pm on the 24th, tired after a long day of travel (OSL-EWR-LAS) and the stress that comes with it, including almost missing our connection at EWR. Check-in line was long and it took some time, but we eventually got our GO room on the 17th floor, with a view of Bally's and the Bellagio fountains (well, part of it at least. Required to get really cozy with the window, and Drai’s was sort of in the way).

Usual routine: shower and freshen up, get some food and check out the casino. We decided to just go to the food court and get a quick bite there.

After that, slots. I'm sad to say that I was slightly disappointed by the selection of penny slots at the Flamingo this time. A few nice ones and a lot of meh. But with all the nearby properties, it wouldn't be a big problem anyway. Tried a few different ones, without much luck. Britney ate my money, as did Austin Powers, and Quick Hit wasn't any better. And don't even get me started on Monopoly ... Did get a $18 win on Great Zeus, but that was pretty much it. Hubby didn't exactly do great either, so we called it an early night and went to sleep at around 11.

 

My bride--who plays penny slots exclusively--had the exact same observation on our last time there. (The fact I had a nice hit on a quarter machine didn't help her either...)

Great start to your report! Thanks so much for sharing!

RICHARD

 

This is my pet peeve with Flamingo, Caesars, and a whole bunch of other CET properties as well! They seem to always take out many of the fun and popular machines! [/QUOTE]

 

Glad to hear it's not just me. Will definitely stay somewhere else the next time, because even though there are bigger and better casinos just a short walk away, it is nice to have the option of not taking that walk and still having a great time

Part 2 coming soon - I am still a tiny bit jet lagged, so this all might take a while

 

Day 2: Cash Coaster strikes back



This morning was pretty much like the morning after arrival always is for us. Woke up far too early, around 5 am, feeling starved. Only food we could find available on property at that time was the pizza joint, so we had breakfast there. I'm not a big fan of pizza for breakfast, but at least it was really good pizza.


After eating, we headed over to CVS for water, sunscreen and other necessities, then back to our room to relax and plan the day.


We decided to check out the casino at the Linq first, where I found my old "friend" Cash Coaster - It has never given me the free games, and the second I saw it, my mind was set: this trip it was going to happen, no matter how much I would have to spend to make it happen. That’s what happens when you watch videos on YouTube showing great pays. Unfortunately, this was apparently not the right time.


Next, we walked over to Paris as we hadn't been there before. We just walked through, before having lunch at the Bally's food court.


On the way out we found the LOTR slot machines, which the both of us really like, so we had to play for a while. Got the ring feature a few times, but it didn't give either of us much. Cashed out with only a few cents left, and went to the Grand Bazaar shops.


After browsing a few shops just for fun, we headed back to our room. My eye was having some reaction to the heat or the sunlight or whatever and started running and looked a bit swollen, so I needed to stay in the dark for a while so it could calm down and I didn’t look like a crazy person anymore (not that crazy, anyway).

By the time I was ready to go out again it was dinner time, and we had Mirage buffet passes from MyVegas, so that's where we decided to go. Food was great as usual, and I could finally have the red velvet cake I had been craving since our last trip, although now in mini cupcake form. Best cake ever!

After eating we hit the casino. Again, not much luck. Both Dragon Spin and Batman were fairly nice to me, so when we left I was up $20, while hubby was down the same amount. Back to Flamingo. Hubby wanted to sleep, so I spent some alone time in the casino. More Cash Coaster, more Britney, and no luck at all.

 

Sorry you are having a bit of bad luck at
the slots. Hope it picks up for you. Enjoying
following along!

 

Hunter, if you're listening in, please take notes and pass it on! CET is losing a LOT of previously-loyal slot players due to this!

 

Hoping days 3 and beyond have better results!

 

Day 3: Walking and driving and shopping

Woke up even earlier than the day before. This meant pizza for breakfast again, as well as lots of time to kill before we could pick up our rental car. Spent some time in the casino, just playing random stuff for a while before hubby wanted to give Shoot to win craps a go, he played while I watched. The $20 he put in lasted for a good while, but mostly due to small bets and small wins, it eventually was all gone – nothing unexpected.


By the time he was done I was getting cold from the A/C, so we decided to go outside and take a walk. First we went over to Bellagio via Caesar’s. Visited the Conservatory for the first time, where they had a nice underwater themed display. Then we moved along to Planet Hollywood. Saw an “OMG! Kittens” machine, and being the cat lover that I am, I just had to play. I enjoyed it a lot, and the bonus game was fun. Walked out even, and started to go back towards Flamingo. We still had an hour or so left, so we looked at the birds in the wildlife habitat, before taking a quick stop in our room to empty a suitcase as we were planning on doing quite a bit of shopping that day.


Got the car and headed out. Hours later we were done shopping for the day, and stopped by Rio to get tickets for Rock of Ages. After that, time to get ready for dinner. We were going to get the buffet of buffets 24hr pass, so we decided to do that, starting with Planet Hollywood. The line was long, but not as long as the last time we were there even though this was a busier time. After what seemed like forever, we got in. Food was just as I remembered: OK, but not as good as it’s said to be. Some of it was really good, though, like the lamb kabobs in the mid-eastern section.


After dinner we played for a short while, can’t even remember what, before walking through Miracle Mile and then back to Flamingo. No great results this evening either.

 

We were there last week and felt the same way about the slots at the strip casinos, we spent a majority of our slotting time downtown.

 

Day 4: Please, no more buffets!!


Finally we had adjusted to the time zone, and got up at a more normal time! Started the day with breakfast buffet at Flamingo. Decent for breakfast, but we both got this vibe that it wouldn’t be the best place for dinner.


After eating, hubby had to go back up to the room to get something he had forgotten, and I played the Enchanted Mermaid machine while waiting. It was pretty nice, actually. Time was short, but I probably could’ve made the money last for a good while on that one.


Next on our plan was to take a drive out to Valley of Fire. The drive wasn’t too long, and it was such a beautiful place. In my opinion, however, rocks and sand have limited entertainment value no matter how fancy it is. So we didn’t exactly stay for hours…


The drive back felt very long – we decided to go via lake mead. I’m glad I wasn’t driving, as I got so sleepy from all the nothing out there that my biggest Fantasy was to find a coffee shop around every bend. I rarely drink coffee.


Lunch buffet at Harrah’s. I can honestly say the only thing I really liked about it was the garlic bread. I had expected more, but that’s life.


While at Harrah’s, we had to test the casino as well. Tried some machine with fairies or something, where there was an option to buy a bonus game. $20 lasted a long time, got up to about $30 after getting the bonus (the real way, not by buying it), and after playing it down to $20 again, we decided to actually buy the bonus game even though it felt super silly. It was not a good deal. It cost $20 for the cheapest alternative, and it gave back $13…. Ended up at zero, and left.


On to the south outlet mall, then the Boulevard mall. After doing some shopping, we mutually decided that we’d had enough buffets and would settle for three meals with the buffet passes. Burgers were more tempting.We spent the rest of the night at Flamingo/Margaritaville. My luck still wouldn’t show itself, and I didn’t get the bonus games on Cash Coaster this time either. Hubby on the other hand did pretty well on Batman. I’m not sure how well, but he started with $20 and ended the day with a $60 cashout voucher.

 

Day 5: I wanna rock!

The first thing we did after getting up was to go to Target just to pick up a few things, followed by a nice brunch at IHOP. Then we just drove around for a while, before going to hang out in our room. It was a slow day, which was kind of nice.

So, we just watched some TV and relaxed for a while, then got ready to go out again. I was ready first and decided to go down to the casino while waiting for hubby. Played SATC for a while, got a few bonus rounds and had a good time. And then it was time to go to Rio to have dinner and see Rock of Ages.

Our plan was to eat at Guy Fieri’s El Burro Borracho, but the line was so long that we didn’t have the time for it. So we ate at the Indian restaurant, Royal India Bistro, instead. They had decent food for a decent price.

Then it was time for Rock of Ages. I’d wanted to see that show for a long time, so I had a lot of expectations. It was sort of different from what I imagined, but it was so much fun!

After the show it was once again casino time. Once again I let Cash Coaster take my money with next to nothing in return and no bonus, so my quest lived on. Hubby did good on Batman again, and his initial $20 quickly turned into $100. We tried a few less memorable machines, before going back to Flamingo again.

It was too early to end the night, so we decided to just hang out and play some more in Flamingo/Margaritaville. And I got one of my biggest wins of the week, $42 on Gremlins, so that was a good thing.

 

Day 6: Finally!!

We didn’t have any particular plans for the day, so we (ok, I) decided it would be a good time to do some more shopping. So we started with a food court breakfast, and figured that we could just walk up to Fashion Show. Because of the heat, we walked inside as much as we could.

When we came to Casino Royale, we decided to just take a quick look at the casino to see if there were any fun slots we hadn’t tried yet. Sphinx 3D was one such machine, and we both wanted to give it a go. Also signed up for their loyalty club, so that after losing $20 we both got $20 in free play. Lost the $20 pretty fast. And it didn’t go any better with the free play.

Moved on, and into Venetian/Palazzo. Made a quick stop at the Godiva store to get some awesome chocolate to bring home, not even considering that chocolate melts… well it pretty much survived, though.

After shopping, backs and feet were aching so we grabbed a cab and went back to our room to figure out where to eat and what to do. We ended up going to Margaritaville, where we had the volcano nachos – that’s a lot of food!

On the way out, I decided to give Cash Coaster another try. And finally! Bonus triggered, and I was all “Yes!!!!” but very silent. It gave me less than $4, but at least I got my closure.

We spent the rest of the night at Harrah’s. Got a few good wins on some dragon themed machine, but nothing more.

 

Day 7: Last day

Got up and started packing a little bit, before going over to Harrah’s to enter their daily slot tournament. It was our first tournament ever, so little did we know that pushing a button rapidly for 3 minutes straight actually hurts…a lot! LOL. We were in different rounds. Hubby came in 13th in his round, while I came in 7th in mine. We went to eat at Toby Keith’s, before doing the High Roller.

Then we went back to the room to do some more packing, before taking a cab down to NYNY to spend a few hours on that end of the strip. Walked across the street, first we wanted to do the Coca Cola international sample tasting thing. Not all soda is good, but that Italian one – I can’t believe anyone would actually drink that!

Dinner at Outback was good, but of course steak is almost never wrong.

Then we walked back to NYNY and played for a few hours. Won a bit on the Crystal slot and on Batman, but in the end we had to leave empty handed. Back at Flamingo, hubby wanted to go to bed because we had an early flight the next morning. I was not ready for sleep yet, and stayed in the casino for a while. I gave Britney another chance. Got a couple of bonus rounds, but the pays were pretty much ridiculously low. And then I went to bed, as we had to get up at 4 am.

 

Nice reporting so far!
Do the Gremlins payouts change if you feed the slot machine after midnight?

RICHARD