Luxor(y), Livery, Lady, Limos, Lunch, and Liquids in Las Vegas 4/19-4/21

Luxor(y)--Monday of this week, I got the wild idea of making a spur of the moment trip to Las Vegas this weekend. This trip will be about double the time on the ground of our quickest trip, but it still clocks in at about 36 hours and will be our second shortest trip.

I don't have a host at this point as I am barely qualified based on offers and actions by my only host, who retired last fall. I started the process by making a reservation for a room at Luxor. My offer allowed me to book a Tower One Bedroom Suite which is enough luxury for us for this trip. Rooms are nice, they are close to the elevators, and we have liked them when we had them in the past.

Livery--we will be flying in on a plane that will feature the livery of everyone's favorite (kidding, of course), Southwest Airlines. My wife is A-Lis Preferred, and I am her companion in so many ways, so we should get decent spots in the herd boarding scheme.

Lady--You gotta start somewhere. Once I did the first two things, I decided I should actually see if my wife wanted to make the trip. Initially, her answer was a very clear "maybe." Eventually, she came to a more enthusiastic response.

Limos--Remember that I have complained a bit about losing my not really well-deserved host in threads? My Lady likes a Limo ride on these trips. I called the host office at Luxor and a nice lady answered. Once I confirmed who I was, she went over my reservation and asked if I had any questions. Being used to rejection (I was a Marine Corps recruiter for 13 years), I asked for a limo. She went somewhere and talked to someone, and presto...I had a limo and a new host. It is somewhat tenuous...it came with the standard "keep your play up" like last time reminder. They'll get what they get. They can say no if they want next time or for back end. I will ask. I am not afraid of hearing "No."

Lunch--We have a reservation for lunch at Ri Ra and for dinner at Bavette's on Saturday. Ri Ra is one of our favorites and I wanted to try Bavette's. It was mostly paid for by resort credit until...

Liquids--My lovely Lady looked at the weather and decided it was pool time. 92 and sunny forecast and our best chance at pool day in Vegas. The pool alone is not enough, she requested a cabana, too. This is pretty standard and actually saves us money...the longer we are at the pool, the less we can lose in the casino! We tried one at Luxor a while back and it was fine. It isn't a Sky Suites Pool cabana, but it met our needs and is at a much nicer price point. So...we will have some expenses beyond the resort credit and the comps listed on my account.

Who knows what kind of report this will turn out to be as we move through the trip. I am trying to stay off my phone and be in the moment.

I am hoping for a winning trip...

 

God damn this title is catchy. Sitting here pondering a TR title for myself, and this pops up. Well done! Following, and have a fantastic time.

Many moons ago, I grabbed a Luxor cabana at the price of, gasp, $100. Included a bunch of water and fruit. It was perfect for what we needed it for - shade.

 

I hope I have at least a highlight or two that can match the title! I hope your coming trip is a good one!

While we love the Sky Pool, the music at the Luxor pool when we last had a cabana there was good, the service was great, and it provided what I need most on a pool day...shade! I severely limit my time in the sun because I hate both sunscreen and sunburn. The price point is decent.

 

Liquids (Part 2)--This is going to be an interesting trip for us. It is our first trip to Las Vegas since we challenged ourselves to drink less alcohol in mid-January. We were in a rut and it was time to change. In the months since then, we have had one bottle of wine and a small bottle of champagne at home. No other drinking at the house but we do have some drinks when we take a trip. I actually took every drop of alcohol out of the house and placed it in a "safe house" for what I thought was a month and has now lasted more than three.

Our drink of choice at home is Hop Wtr. We usually have one a piece each evening.

The change makes any drinking feel different--I just don't enjoy it all that much. Every time I have more than one drink somewhere, I notice it.

We'll see what happens this weekend.

 

This!! Exactly what we think when we are at the pool in Vegas. The price per hour is a definite bargain compared to most other activities in Vegas (especially anything involving gambling lol).

 

Whoo hoo. Have so much fun!

 

Checked in for our flight…I upgraded to A14 and my wife has A21. We won’t fly enough to use all of our upgrades this year, so I only moved up a few slots but I really would like the wider exit row on the plane that is scheduled. It is a new flight number from the inbound flight the plane is making…that is a good thing.

 

Picked my Lady up from work and headed to the airport. Flight took off on time and we are on our way!

Houston airports picked a new main food vendor a while back. Not a fan.

 

Pool time!! Woo hoo!
I've only been to the Luxor pool once....stayed there just as their pool was about to close, so I got one day at Luxor pool and got to go to Mandalay Bay's pool the other days. Definitely not enough shade at the Luxor pool, so a cabana is a good idea.

Have an awesome time!

 

Public House wings…and a beer…

 

Breakfast at Ri Ra

 

More later…but this trip is (more) rapidly coming to a conclusion.

Our first grandchild is on the way today (a little early) and we are headed to the airport in a bit…

 

Congrats…. One of the only acceptable trip interrupters. Safe fast travels home

 

Friday, 4/19

We arrived in Las Vegas a few minutes early and our driver was on site. We arrived at Luxor at the time our flight was supposed to have arrived. Took our things to the room and got ready to head downstairs for a little food at public House and some gambling fun.

I was at a craps table by 8:30 or so. The table was in the middle of a hot roll and I patiently waited for that to end before buying in. I am not sure why I bother when playing there...people are always tossing money on the table no matter where the shooter is in a roll. It really makes no difference since the dice don't care. At this point, why do I? To be polite? Anyway... When I finally bought in, things started off rough and never really changed course. I played my normal way...pass line with at least 2x odds and 6/8 (if not the point) for the table minimum. The table minimum was the always weird $20. The first $500 went like a blur. No one hit anything that worked for me.

$500 more...

$500 more...

Then I get a call from our son. He said "don't let mom freak out, but K's water just broke". Things start flashing in my head...when can we leave? Is everything going to be alright? It is a few weeks early. Ok, calm down. I lose a bit more and my wife walks up with a nice slot ticket for $800. I tell her to stay calm and give her the news. She goes through the emotional rollercoaster for a minute and we decide to work on getting a decent flight out Saturday. Back to the tables and slots.

This was the trend from then until about 2 a.m., when we called it quits. It was bad enough that, even though she kept providing winning tickets, I had to go get the rest of our bankroll before midnight. Probably stupid, but we aren't coming back for a while.

Headed up to the room, finalized the Southwest reservation and checked the numbers. They were ugly. Down $2700 in real money and showing $2553 down on the win/loss sheet. Slots up. Table games down.

Southwest really worked out pretty well for us. I made a reservation for the cheapest seat available on Saturday. Since it is already Saturday, I them made a same-day change to the flight I really wanted. Got my wife's boarding pass. It was C1000 or something like that...Okay, she jump on with her A-List preferred. Then I added my companion pass and got the same type of number. Screw that. I upgraded both of us with our "free" upgrades and we were now A11 and A12. Cancelled our Sunday flights and got some points back overall.

Sleepy sleep.

 

Saturday, 4/20

Sleep sleep sucked just like usual on the first night. We were up at 6:30. My wife said that she wanted breakfast at Ri Ra at least since we had time. Fine with me. It is gonna be a long day; might as well start it with a good meal.

We headed over to Ri Ra and arrived early for the reservation she made. I told them to cancel our lunch reservation and they didn't. That earned me a nasty note from Open Table, but I wrote a comment and hopefully took care of that. Breakfast was tasty and the Irish Coffee was nice.

Back to the tables. The suckage continued. Down $500 in a few minutes and I am not sure any of our bankroll is going to make the trip home. My wife is still handing me winning tickets. That allows me to keep playing and losing, but the holes is getting deeper.

She brings back $1245 ticket but no W-2, since she had $75 in the machine when the bonus she got started. The slot attendant was actually waiting to see if it hit as a hand pay.

Then, finally, a nice roll happened. Some guy betting table minimum and maybe one place bet starts hitting everything. I press my numbers, up my odds, etc. as normal and then as he goes longer and still is hitting stuff, I start covering other numbers with place bets and come bets. I have odds at the max odds for my bet, up my place bets, etc. Finally, I am above even for the morning at least. I ended up with come bets on all the numbers beside the points AND a few numbers with additional place bets.

He finished rolling. The guy next to him rolls and I color up just as the dice are coming to me. Lock it up...time to go!

My wife is still playing and I head to the room. I can't get there. The damn elevator won't accept my key. I head down to the VIP lounge and get new ones. Now my wife is cashing in her ticket and kind of gets lost in the casino for a second. Finally, she meets me and we head up and clear out of the room.

On to the airport and then the hospital.

It was an absolutely awesome moment meeting our grandson!

Then headed home...

 

Trip Results...



It was a winning trip because we met our grandson for the first time...

I would say we lost $900 instead of $745 but I don't really know for sure because I have a wad of smaller bills laying around now that I am getting everything unpacked....

It was always going to be our second shortest trip to Vegas, but it was a lot closer to the shortest than we thought!

 

The big win of the trip…

 

Now the Vegas money can go towards the grandson.

Congratulations!!!