Trip report 6/1 to 6/8

I guess I started a real trend here with my pre-trip report earlier, although I can't seem to find it out there anymore. Anyway, we had a great time out there, and here is your basic trip report, to the best of my ability.

A quick overview:

I flew to Vegas with my friend John on 6/1 and returned on 6/8(at 1:50 am). Another friend, Adam, who works for USAirways, also flew out and met us at the airport on 6/1, then took the red-eye home on 6/5. We stayed in the same hotel room, and did NOT pay the extra $35 a night because that is highway robbery. Instead, what we did was tipped the maid $20 a night. Yes, the rooms at Treasure Island were free, but I don't really care. The way I see it, the maid could use the $100 a lot more than the casino...but that's just me. Anyway, here's the rundown.

Flight Information:

Continental to and from Philly, through Houston. 2 males, 31 years old...Not stopped for any special checks. We did notice that many people were pulled over, but my friend had no carry ons and I only had a plastic shopping bag with water and allergy medicine, so we really didn't have anything to check. All flights were very smooth, small amount of turbulance landing and taking off in Vegas, but otherwise, no turbulance at all, which was nice.

Car Rental Information:

Used the DESTC code at Dollar and rented a Hyundai for $126 total for the week. Avoided a long line by using membership card I signed up for on the web. The 5 minute application saved me at least 30 minutes, since the line was out the door when we arrived at Dollar. The car, however, was a real junker, and I would advise anyone to pay the extra $30/week for an intermediate car, which I should have done. Car return was smooth, bus to and from airport, no problems.

Hotel Information:

First night, Saturday, was a one-night stay at Riviera. Easy check-in using the auto machine saved 30 minute wait in line. Reserved room on Travelocity.com at $49+taxes. Initial card charge was $53, and $6 was added on at check-out for energy and other taxes, so room total was about $60. Check-out was just as easy with the auto machine in the lobby, again avoiding a long line. The room had an iron and an ironing board, but the smallest bathroom of any hotel I have ever stayed in. Overall, the room was OK, but nothing special. The pool was pretty nice, with the deep end going to 9 feet, but the day was so windy it was tough to enjoy the pool.

Checked into Treasure Island using Wagerworks 2 night accomodations on Sunday 6/2. For the first 2 nights, I used my account and John used his for the next 2. We asked the girl at the front desk to combine them, and she did with no problem. This room was a handicapped-ready room, with shower only, and it seemed the bathroom was a little smaller than our second room. On Wednesday morning, Adam checked into his 2 night room. For Wednesday night, we would have 2 rooms, and since Adam left that night, I moved into the new room. This room was not handicapped-ready, and it had a soaking tub and it did seem a little bigger, but I could be wrong there. John moved into it after he checked out on Thursday morning. It all may sound complicated, but it worked out fine. We left the maid in our original room $80 and the maid in our second room $40, so we spent some cash on the rooms anyway. Plus, we ended up charging around $200 in food and drinks to the rooms.

One thing I found inconsistent and confused me was the whole comp thing. I specifically charged stuff to the room hoping to get some of it taken off at check out time. I played quite a bit of slots, and was told so by the host who gave us a late check-out of 7:00 pm on Friday, which I thought was very nice. But the front desk would not take a single dime off the bill, which was OK, but the host said I could get comped for dinner if I wanted. I asked why couldn't I get something taken off the bill, and the host really had no answer. So my conclusion is to ask for the comp when you want it BEFORE charging to the room, I guess, unless I was doing something wrong.

Anyway, Treasure Island pool was great...lots of very nice single girls around there. I am a happily married man, but John and Adam, both single, seemed to have their share of fun. Anyone who was there last week would remember John, the big dark-skinned dude who we called Snipes all week because he spent around 6 hours a day at the pool every single day and looked like Wesley by Tuesday.

The jacuzzi was nice, although they don't turn on the jets unless you drunkedly yell "Bubbles" so obnoxiously they finally push the button to shut you the hell up...or at least that was how I got them to do it. Overall though, the TI is a great relaxed atmosphere and even though the lifeguard said we could not throw the hacky-sack around, like we did at Monte Carlo last year, we still threw it and by the end of the week, the lifeguards just looked the other way. When we had little kids and women throwing it with us, what could the lifeguards really do?

Overall, the people were friendly, the food at the restaurant by the pool was very good, with the nachos proving to be impossible to finish and costing me $20 in a bet with my friends. The service was great and the room was clean, and included a free room safe, which was very handy.

Restaurant/Buffet Information:

As previously stated, we ate lunch by the pool almost every day at TI. By night, we each had free buffets at MGM, Bellagio, and Mirage(supposedly).

Saturday afternoon, we ate at the Riviera buffet, which for $13 each was a bit over priced. It was very average, and did not really include much. But I guess because it was a champagne brunch, it was overpriced. For dinner, we ate the Steak and Lobster dinner at the Stardust because we happened to be watching the Holyfield fight in the same place and it was convenient. The food was so-so, and the service was not too good considering how empty the place was.
Sunday night was MGM and it was fantastic. Good shrimp, prime rib, fish…everything was excellent. Soda was good, and service kept it coming quick. Dessert selection was great, with these really good chocolate mousse cups in a choc dish that were fantastic. There was a small problem with them being confused about our reservation for Wednesday, but instead of making us wait all night, the girl simply let us through and said she would look into it the next day…unlike the jag offs at Mirage…

Monday morning was Paris Breakfast buffet, which I paid for because my cheap ass friends would not spend the $13. The food was incredible…I am not a big fan of breakfast, but this was a whole different breakfast buffet. I ate crepes for the first time, stuffed with blueberries and apricot. I ate waffles, a shrimp and scallop omelet that was incredible. And the service was incredible. The waitress was at the table every couple minutes asking if we needed water, OJ, anything. That night was Bellagio. What can I say…as a seafood fan, this was the best buffet I have ever had. I ate at the Rio Seafood buffet last year, and this one was over and above that one. The sushi, fish, stuffed crab,. And prime rib was incredible. Did I mention King Crab legs, already shaved? Not the snow crab legs, which are $4 a pound in your local supermarket…these were the King Crabbies…and they were awesome. Oh, and don’t worry about peeling your shrimp…it is about 21-25 to a pound, and it is already peeled. Service was both excellent and friendly. No problems picking up the passes, and the line was around the corner, except for the VIP line which was “go right in sir.”

Tuesday night was Mirage. Boy what a pain in the ass. First-off, let me begin by saying that I am the computed person of the three of us, so I am really the one who set this whole thing up. All these guys did was bring ID. Well, wouldn’t you know that of the three of us MY PASS was not there, but theirs were there. Now I have these two breaking my stones to no end, laughing their asses off at me, while I am trying to tell the lady there has been some kind of mistake. She tell me the wagerworks people are not there until the next morning, and that I could call then. No comp. No line pass. No NOTHING. I was like…Why would they have one and not me…I CALLED ALL THREE IN FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. I was so pissed off I threw the number on the desk and told her that her casino sucked and I would not spend a nickel in there…which was untrue. It was still cheaper to buy my dinner and have the other 2 free than to go somewhere else. Besides, the Mirage buffet is supposed to be really good right? Wrong. It sucked. I guess it is OK, but compared to MGM and Bellagio, it was horrible. The waitress brought us sodas then went to play Video Poker I guess. The steak/prime rib/shoe leather was so bad I left this big piece on my plate, which I felt bad about, but what could I do…it was terrible. Bellagio is 8 dollars more, so it is supposed to be better…but MGM is only a dollar more, and I would rather spend that dollar than each the crap at Mirage. Plus, their service people suck.

Wednesday, it was back to MGM, where the same girl was there. She APOLOGIZED for the confusion the other night (Yes, she still remembered us, and the whole 3 extra minutes we had to wait) and we were once again treated to excellent service and food.

Thursday, back to Bellagio, where it was as good as before.

Friday, instead of going to Mirage, we went to Mandalay Bay, where I had heard some great things. Well, for the price, around $23 a person, this buffet is nowhere near as good as Bellagio. It does have a really good pasta station that was nice. But the Dungeoness Crabs were tasteless and the shrimp were not peeled (guess we were a bit spoiled by then). The prime rib was great though, and overall the food was probably worth it. However, the service is where it slacked off. The guy brought us a soda and then he kept coming back to take ourplates, but never asked if we wanted refills on the sodas, which were empty. I lost another $20 because I bet that the next time he came he would ask if we wanted refills, and he did NOT, so being annoyed that I lost the $20, I yelled as he went away, “Can I get a refill please!” To which he responded, “Sure” and he left. Did not even ask my friend, which created even more laughter. So when he brought my soda, my friend says, “CanI get a refill please!” The guy huffed and said “Sure”, but you know he was thinking why didn’t you ask me before…well duh you moron, people should not have to ask…you should offer…or better yet, just bring the damn soda out ya jag off.

Show Information:

Lance Burton was dark. Mystere was dark. O and Danny Gans were sold out long in advance. Even the damn Amazing Jonathon was on vacation, and his commercial was pretty funny. Needless to say, we didn’t see any shows.

Gambling Information:

We played a lot of $1 craps at the Sahara, which is a nice friendly casino and easy to get to after valet parking. Also, the $1 madness blackjack provided us with a lot of fun, and I even won $40 on one of the spins, which was more than the $11-15 we usually won on the thing. I played that new “Deuces Wild” poker table game, which was both fun and profitable. I started playing $2-$2-$4 and by the last day, I was playing $10-$10-$20. All it took was one hand to win big cash, and I probably ended up +1000 at that game. I got 2 straight flushes with $10 up there, winning $400 each time, and 4 of a kind more times than I can remember. The pit boss said they were the only place with that game as a trial, but my prediction is that it won’t be around long. Everyone seemed to be winning on it. Unfortunately, I also have this weakness for Pai Gow Poker, and I spent all of my profits from Deuces Wild on that Pai Gow Poker Bonus game. This game lets you play both your hand and a dragon hand, which I started doing quite often. I probably ended up losing more than the 1000 I won at the other game, but, really, do we ever learn?

I also spent a day playing Omaha at the Bellagio, where I won about 300. It never ceases to amaze me just how stupidly some people play Omaha. There was the usual crowd of regulars there…funny how you can go somewhere once a year and remember the same people a year later at the table. But to me, Omaha is fun win or lose. Bellagio card is supposed to be up on the same system as the MGM/Mirage card by the end of the year, but it is not there yet.

The “One Card” is very nice as it allows you to pool all your points from Luxor, Monte Carlo, Circus Circus, Mandalay Bay and a couple others. I am hoping Mandalay Bay will send me some offers in the mail, because next year, pool boy(John) wants to stay where the Beach is. Me, I’d rather stay at Sahara, where the limits are low and the people are fun.

That's all...I hope you enjoyed it.

 

Nice trip! Can't agree more about the Bellagio buffet, I can eat it every meal...

Sorry about charging all that stuff to your room and then not getting anything taken off.

~Vegas Jer Disclaimer~
NEVER charge something to your room that you really didn't want to or were not ending up paying for anyways...

 

Regarding the comps, we ran into the same thing at Aladdin. We were only able to comp meals before we ate them, not after we charged them to the room. So instead of being able to take anything off our room bill, we had to use the points we accumulated on merchandise like clothing, jewelry, etc. from the Aladdin promo booth.

 

Thanks for writing such a detailed trip report. It was a nice read. It wasn't clear to me from your report when you actually spoke to a casino host. Like Sonya said, you should check with a casino host BEFORE checking out at the front desk. When you did speak to this host, you probably should have arranged to speak with her again sometime between the time you do your last gambling at that casino and the time you check out at the front desk. This way, the casino host can check your account (before you go to the front desk to check out) and decide what, it anything, they could take off the room bill. If you go to the front desk to check out before speaking to a host about the possibility of taking something off the bill, you're probably going to have to pay the entire bill. Of course, if you're playing table games, you could always ask for a meal comp after playing a certain amount of time. If you're just playing slots or video poker, then I think you'd have to speak to a host if you wanted a meal comp during your stay. Personally, I prefer hooking up with a host before or mid-way through the trip and arrange to talk to the host before checking out to see what can be taken off the bill.