Gory details of the 36 hour whirlwind 6/15/2015

OK, posting this in a new thread, since the other thread turned into a "who wants to go to dinner" thread.

Arrived Monday afternoon the 15th. The agent at Sixt told me "we have reserved a BMW 3 series for you. I was stunned and told her "I only reserved an economy car.". She said, since you are a VIP customer and we are out of economy cars, we are upgrading you.

Now, the only problem is that the deposit for a 3 series is $900.00.

Which brings me to a topic about people stressing about deposits for vacation. If it fits your particular situation, the American Express card is a good answer for that. For $49.00 a year, you never need to stress about deposits running up your credit card. You don't need to pay with it, just use it for deposits and you can pay with your credit card.

I did get an email notification about excessive charge but since it was only a deposit, no sweat.

OK, so I got into the BMW, and by the way, I now know that I would NEVER, EVER get one of these since I had a harder than average time getting in and out of it. It Only had 1800 miles on it. The regular rental fee was $85.00 a day, and I got it for $30.00/day.

Went and checked in at Palazzo. The clerk kept trying to upsell me, even though I was on a full room comp. I politely said no (did I need a room overlooking the strip, did I want a larger room, yada, yada, yada).

Went up to the room and immediately went downstairs to start playing.

I was there for two things:

1)Get my GOld status (for the remainder of 2015 and all of 2016), and
2)the Grazie Summer Gift giveaway, and it was bonus points week (2X). SO, based on the time schedule and my return flight at 6AM on Wednesday, I needed to get any/all play out of the way Monday and early Tuesday.

I figured that I'd end up with little more than $100 in GGG points, and if so, I would just turn them into freeplay.

So, I took out a marker, and got beat up pretty badly In the High Limit room at Palazzo. I gotta quit "swinging for the fences" early in the trip. I took out a second marker and went over to a machine I had never seen before, $5.00 "King Cash". This is a variation on Top Doallr, where a certain set of symbols gets you 2, 3 or 5 offers.

My offer got me 2 offers.

So, about 14 pulls in, I got the bonus. I thought, great, a little money back . . .



Yep, 500 coins on the first offer. Duh, should I take it or maybe hope for 1000 coins? Took the offer, got hand paid, and then paid off the second marker.

OK, now I'm done and waiting for my buddy's (Les) plane to arrive. Apparently there were flight delays, so he was going to be late. Dinner with Pleepleus was at 7PM, so we might have to go directly from the airport over to PHo.

I texted Pleepleus, and he was over at Cosmopolitan playing. I told him that I'd text him again when we got to the restaurant. So, I went to the TR booth to make sure that I could use RCs directly to pay the bill. That taken care of we headed upstairs to the Strip House restaurant.

Pleepleus showed up and showed me a W2-G that "brought him even". I responded by showing him mine, reflecting that it had just brought me even as well.

It was a good dinner. I had:

1/2 dozen oysters
Lamb T-bones (medium rare)
Goose fat potatoes
Creme Brulee

Pleepleus had:

appetizer (I forgot what)
Filet Mignon
String beans

Les had:

Tuna cevice
Rib Eye steak

It was a good dinner. Pleepleus is "good people". We shared stories and gambling/life philosophies.

After dinner, we went our separate ways, Pleepleus to Cosmo, Les and I went to Cromwell. I figured I need to put in a 1000 TC day so as not to incure a gaming day without gaming.

Cromwell wasn't very good to me, but I made my 1000 TC without getting too beat up.

Went back to Palazzo and played there until 1:30AM, then decided it was time to hit the hay. I checked my point total and it had sufficiently increased.

Day 2

So, Les got up early and went out. I woke up at 7AM and texted him we agreed to meet at Wynn at 7:30. I went over to Wynn and took out a marker over there, and played "a little" getting up "a little".

Les showed up and said "Since we have a "nice" car, you wanna drive to Laughlin?". Well, since I was pretty much done at V/P, and there was a Harrah's in Laughlin, I said, "why not?".

So we go into the car and off we went.

After getting lost and taking the long way down (30 min extra), we arrived in Laughlin. Harrah's is away from the other casinos, so we stopped at the Colorado Belle. Now, Laughlin is 10 degrees hotter than Las Vegas, on average. It must've been 100 degrees at 9AM!

Walked up and down the Riverwalk, played penny WW4, made a whole $50, and then went over to Harrahs.

So, we got to Harrahs and had breakfast. OK, the only good thing about Laughlin is that meal prices are lower than the Las Vegas strip. More like downtown. I used RC to pay for breakfast. Then decided to play for about 1/2 hour before going home.

The casino was relatively quiet, and we were in the lower 10% of the age range (and we're not spring chickens). Very little eye candy, which is something that I enjoyed at V/P and the strip in general.

So, I spent all of my time in the High Limit slot area, and Les went out to play craps. I made about 500 TC and spent about $300. Not too bad.

Hit a couple of small ones.



As we left, we asked the valet the quickest way back to LV, he told us, and we then saw where we got misdirected.

Got back to LV at 12:30PM 5 hours killed. SO, only 2 things remained.

1)Grazie Gift Giveaway
2)Make another 500 TC on CET

Took a side trip downtown to the Beef jerky store and got some things that I needed. Skipped Jinju Chocolates since I'm having lunch with the owner on my next trip.

We went down to the GGE and I found out that I had about $112.00 in Gift points. So, I got a couple of gift cards and some Tchotchkes.

I had also accumulated additional comp points from my play, which we would use for "siew yeh" (Chinese evening snack) later.

Les and I met up and I suggested that we go up to the Linq and walk around. So we walked up and down the shopping promenade, went to Goorin's Hats, where I told them that I wasn't doing well enough to buy a new had, but would be back next trip and buy the hat before I started gambling. Visited the polaroid museum. What made them think that they could charge for that I don't know.

Followed 2 waitresses from the Tilted Kilt down the street, and then made our way back to Flamingo. We entered the Diamond Lounge at Flamingo and there was a wait for tables. After about 15 minutes we were seated and they were service BBQ brisket and Mac and Cheese as the entrees. I told Les that this could be dinner. (I know, cheap chinaman me)

So, after we ate there, it was time for us to split up. Les was going up to Bally's to play craps, and I went to the High Limit slot area. I ended up about $400 and made my remaining 500 TC. Now it was getting near NBA Finals gametime, and since both Les and I are Warriors fans, we wanted to see/hear the game.

I texted Les and he was at the Mirage. I told him that I needed to go to the Wynn to pay down the marker I had taken out in the morning. We met at the Wynn at 7:30 and I was just about done, so I suggested that we go to SLS to watch the game.

We got to SLS and it was pretty dead. I played some slots and visited my host, who almost didn't recognize me, but then remembered me and asked if I wanted to stay there on my next trip. I told here that I'd think about it. I was trying to get a "feel" for the casino.

So, long story short. I played at SLS, lost $300 and the game was getting close to the end. Les had a ticket on the game that he had bought for one of our friends. The sportsbook closed at 9PM, so I suggested that we start going up to PHo (where he bought the ticket).

On the way back, Les said that since we would be there again in 9 days, we didn't need to cash in the ticket right now, it could wait, so we went back to Palazzo and ate at Zine noodle.

We had a $60.00 meal for two that was good. The good thing was that we didn't have to come out of pocket for anything but the tip. The $60.00 meal was about $25-30 up on Spring Mountain. $8.50 for a cup of Hot&Sour soup! $18.50 for a plate of Seafood Fried rise! But, what the heck, I had comp money to spend on food, and it would have been $150-$200 if we had eaten at a Steakhouse.

We both had 6AM flights, which meant getting up at 3:45AM, so that meant early bedtime. That is Les' normal schedule, since he goes to work when he returns. This time it was my schedule as well, since I had to drive my Dad to dialysis in the morning.

We got to the airport right on time, and guess what? My flight was cancelled. So, I lost my earlybird (will be refunded) and was moved from A18 to B24. I ended up paying $40 to get moved to A9 since I was going to be late and needed to get off the plane in a hurry.

Made it home in time to take my Dad to Dialysis and get to work.

So, a 36 hour trip, and I acconplished a few things.

1)Made my Gold level at V/P
2)(2) 2,000 TC days (1,000 + 1,000 bonus x 2)
3)Went to Laughlin (done it once, don't need to again)
4)Met another VMBer (Pleepleus) and shared RCs
5)Prepped for my next trip in 8 days (that trip I can relax, but I have other objectives on that trip)

Thanks for reading . .

 

Nice report!

The title made me think you did a lot worse than you did though. Lol

 

Me too!! Sounds like a fantastic 36 hours. Good luck on your next trip also. I think I will be in town the same time as you! Good luck to us both!

 

Sounds like a quick, fun trip. Thanks for sharing!

I didn't realize Laughlin was so close. Would you recommend making the half day trip? We are always looking for new things to try.

 

There are several small towns on the way down that I would have stopped at, had I had more time. I forgot to cash in a Keno ticket worth at least $3.00, so next week I may go down again and stop at all the places I missed.

You can say "I've been to Laughlin and it sucked/was great!"

Remember to take a paper map or a "real" GPS. The reason that we got lost is because we were using a cell phone as a GPS and there was no cell service turning on to 163 east, so we didn't get a map update.

 

Well, I've decided that I'm deliberately keeping the numbers vague.

I was down and a little over budget this trip. I had to keep in mind that my next trip was 10 days away.

"chasing" Seven Stars is tough if you're trying to keep privileges at other casinos. If/when I make it, I will publish those "gory" detail, but the jury's still out on how much financials I want to share.

 

That's definitely true. I met a guy from another forum that was both noir and seven star primarily from video poker. When we chatted, it sounded like most years cost him something in the wallet. If it wasn't that way, then casinos would really be out of business. But maybe he was up the year where he got a $72,000 dealt royal...[emoji33]

And of course, your numbers are your business, but whatever details you're willing to share on this journey is cool with me. Best of luck on a winning trip next weekend!

 

Yeah, maintaining CET Diamond and mLife Platinum are getting to be tough, as well as Venetian/Palazzo, Wynn, and the properties downtown.

Since I made Gold at V/P this trip and I'm not (planning on) going to the Winter GGE (saving it for the mLife and CET Gift Giveaways), I think I'm gonna drop serious play @ mLife, Wynn and downtown.

I'm not at the EI (Expendable Income) level of you or some of the other players here. Bad enough that I go as much as I do.

 

Did you win anything on the Summer Gift Giveaway?

 

Lol...same here!

DaiLun...you should have played some slots with Plee! As far as chasing points to "maintain" privileges, I would not get too concerned over that. Those "privileges" are much less than what you could get through just playing. Of course it is good to keep track of the daily points, to maximize bonuses, but I would not be concerned about Lo-playing or no-playing a day. I am guilty of chasing points...it is an addiction that I fully blame Microsoft XBOX for...lol. Hell, I chased points at a local casino for a stinking beach towel recently...lol. I have Lo/no-played CET many times and honestly, how I am treated has not changed. With MLife, I am starting to think frequency, or at least timing of trips has a lot to do with marketing offers. My MLife hosts always sets me up with consistent accommodations, but the marketing offers can very widely.

Best of luck next week! I want to see a thread full of jackpot pictures and a pocket full of CET pink slips!

 

The Summer Gift Giveaway is to "cash in" Gift Giveaway points.

http://www.venetian.com/casino/events/summer-grazie.html

I only had $122 worth of gift Points, so I took a Best Buy and Macy's gift card and some tchotchkes (A small piece of worthless crap, a decorative knick knack with little or no purpose.)

 

Thanks for the gory details! Do you know if Grazie does bonus points other than during GGE?

 

Well, remember that the bonus points were only for the Summer GGE. They weren't Status points or Slot Rewards points. They were just bonus points to use at the GGE.

There Is a winter GGE that is held during the week of Thanksgiving.