June 8-15 Annual Girls' Trip - long

Hi all! Let me start out by saying that I love Las Vegas! I'm lucky enough to be able to go about 4 times a year, either with my hubby, daughter, sisters, or friends.

Every June is my annual girls' trip for 7 nights at Sam's Town. There's L, S, J, and myself, and we are all in our 50's. We booked this trip last August already so I could use my air miles. So my flight for this trip cost me a $5 fee, and of course, baggage fees. But I can live with that. There's no way I could fit everything I want to bring for a whole week in a carry on. And we had direct flights out of Milwaukee and back so there wasn't as much of a chance of losing the luggage. Not that it couldn't happen, but so far we've been lucky.

All of us continue to get the free nights/free food offers from Sam's, so in the spring I emailed our slot host and she set up 2 adjoining rooms for the 4 of us for the whole week. We give them enough play so they've been comping the whole stay for the last several years. (Thanks, Rebecca!) The adjoining rooms consist of 1 room with 2 queen beds and the other room with a king bed. The king room also has a refrigerator, a safe, and a coffee pot, of which we used all three. J and I always share a room, and L and S always share a room. Prior to our trip we use birthdates and our state's Supercash drawing lottery numbers to decide who's going to get their own bed and who's going to have to share the king bed. The king bed is so big that it's never a big deal to sleep in the same bed, but to get their own bed for the whole week is great! So the first person that has their birthday month and day drawn in the lottery gets their own bed, and of course, the person that shares with them also benefits. BUT, being the gambling women that we are, we also have money on it! :wink Depending on what position your birthday numbers are picked, you win money from the others. It's $1 for the first position, $2 for the second, etc. Well, my birthday numbers were drawn in the second and third position, so I won $5 from each of them! And I get my own bed! We're not even to the airport yet and I'm up $15!

The flight on Tuesday went fine and we took the car rental shuttle over to pick up the car. Now, being the gambling women that we are, :wink we also had money on what the mileage of the rental car would be when we picked it up. The person that was closest without going over the actual mileage got $5 from the others. Well, L got that $15, so she was happy, too. J booked the car and did all the driving for us. With the discounts she used, it only cost us $222 for the whole week, so about $56 each. I was very happy with that. I will say though that it was a challenge to get all our luggage into a standard-size car. We had to put one suitcase in the back seat. Next time we'll go up to the next size if we can.

We drove to Sam's Town, got checked in, got a bite to eat, and gambled at Sam's for the rest of the evening. L was up a few hundred that evening, but the rest of us lost. I think I lost around $200.

Wednesday - We went to Red Rock, Suncoast, and the Rampart. Being the hardcore gambling women that we are, :wink all we did was gamble. Most people probably would have driven to see the actual red rock in the mountainside, but we saw it as we drove down the highway so that was good enough. I brought Miles along to help navigate. Miles is my GPS with a Brittish accent. We laughed everytime he pronounced "Las Vegas Blvd." I don't remember exactly how the other ladies did, but I know I paid for an awful lot of soda and toilet paper at these places!! Probably lost about $330 for the whole day. In the evening after we all have had our fill of gambling for the day and had our tail between our legs, we each bought $20 of keno numbers using the 3 numbers of our birthdates (month, day, and year) and go up to the room to watch keno on the tv. If we were all together watching and your 3 numbers came up, you won $1 from the other 3 ladies. We dubbed that "Bedtime Keno."

Thursday - We stayed at Sam's all day to take advantage of 7x points. A friend of ours that lives in Vegas about 6 months of the year met us at Sam's also. He just hit Emerald on Thursday, so that shows how much he gambles! Anyway, we were surprised by some more friends that flew in and didn't tell us they were coming. They did that one other time also. That was nice.
We ate at Billy Bob's that evening and used our points to pay for it. Steaks were great as always. This was my worst day of gambling with loses around $450. Went to play bedtime keno around 10:00 pm.

Friday - We stopped at Boulder Station, Arizona Charlies, and Eastside Cannery on Boulder Hwy for a bit. Lost. J discovered the new Queen slot machine at Arizona Charlies and proceeded to take $142 out of it. That became her new favorite slot machine for the rest of the week. I played it at Eastside Cannery for a bit and thought it was awfully loud! But I guess if you're winning, who cares?

I booked Blue Man Group through Goldstar for Friday night. Used valet at the Venetian and went to pick up the tickets. S and I have seen it already, but L and J never did so they wanted to go. Both S and I thought it was better the first time and that they changed the show a bit, but it still was a good show. So if you've never seen BMG, it's still worth seeing. Anyway, we walked to Harrah's for a couple of hours so I could put some points on my player's card there. Ended up donating to the Harrah's employee retirement accounts. Lost about $300 for the whole day. We all gambled at Sam's again when we got back for about an hour or so, then went to play bedtime keno.

Saturday - We played at Sam's in the morning and I hit my first big pot! $600 on keno. We went downtown in the afternoon and stayed until 9:00 pm or so. J hit $650 on the Queen slot machine at the 4 Queens. Went back to Sam's and gambled a bit, then went to play bedtime keno. If we don't stay awake the whole time while our 20 games are playing out, we check the numbers in the morning. And I actually won about $50 on my birthday numbers! L won $88, so she was really happy. I had my one and only winning day on Saturday, ending up about $500 up.

Sunday - Miles guided us to Southpoint, M Resort, Green Valley Ranch, and Sunset Station. Lost. Went back to Sam's late afternoon and ended up playing bingo that night. And believe it or not, we were NOT the youngest people in there! But we were close! J won $150 at bingo and S won $50. Bingo is a little boring but it was a way to "lessen the losses," so to speak. I lost about $220 for the day. We played bedtime keno and I won about $10 at that.

Monday - L and J wanted to go to the Pawn Stars shop because they are both big fans of the show. Well, they aren't very good at directions at all. If L would have to navigate, she'd end up in Utah or California, depending on which direction she thought was prettier. S didn't want to go, and they wanted me along to help navigate. I only saw the show once for about 10 minutes, so I was a little familiar with it. Well, we get in line outside because they were filming. They finally let us in and the old man is there. Everyone was taking pictures with him, and of course L wants one, too. She said he didn't say one word the whole time she stood near him. She talked to him and he never looked at the camera or anyone. He was totally oblivious to everything going on around him. I think the door to the place had more personality than he did! I can understand that people probably drive him nuts and he most likely hates every minute of that, but that's part of the job and what he signed up for, IMO. Oh, well. L and J got their stuff and were happy. And - we didn't end up in another state because I navigated!

After the pawn shop we went to the Gold Coast. Last year J got 7500 extra points on her card there because it was her birthday and she wanted to see if they still had that promothion. Well, they don't. But they did have 5x points on Monday so we stayed and gambled a bit there. Then we went back to Sam's and gambled, ate, gambled, played bingo, gambled, then went to play bedtime keno while we started packing for our departure the next day. Finally went to bed around 2:00 am. Needless to say, by Monday I'm in the "I don't care" mode. I'm losing my big rear end off (well, actually it's still there. ) I just keep pulling out the c notes because I know I won't be there next week. In fact, we're talking about making our trip 8 or 9 nights next year. A week just isn't enough!! Anyway, I ended up paying for the Bingo hall's electric bill and promotional watches they gave away on Tuesday for Father's Day. Lost about $450 for the day.

Tuesday - Departure day. I managed to lose another $300 or so before we left for the airport. Ended up spending around $1700 or so for the whole week, which isn't bad for 8 days of vacation. That's only a little over $200 a day if you average it out. And since my flight and hotel were virtually free, I can definitely live with that! I just wish I would have had more than one winning day. But there's always next time!

L ended up losing about $1000, J lost about $200, and S was up about $1000. I think S hit 4 aces with a kicker about 3 or 4 times throughout the week for $500, and hit a 4 Aces without the kicker a couple of times for a couple of hundred. Usually she hits at least one royal during the week, but not this time. In fact, I don't think I saw one royal anywhere all week long. The machines sure are tight!!! We saw one nice hit at Green Valley Ranch for $9000 that some lady got on a poker machine.

Overall, it seemed like Vegas just isn't as busy as it used to be. We always enjoy the people watching though. And I don't think I'll ever fathom why young women (and probably some men, too) want to wear those super high heels walking on the strip! They can't be all that comfortable! And they're surely not improving their looks! Give me sensible shoes like flats or tennies any day!

I hope everyone has enjoyed my report!

 

Nice detailed TR, thanks so much for sharing!

 

Sorry to hear about "Old Man" having a bad day at the Pawn Shop. When we went in March of this year - my wife & I met Rick & ChumLee. Both were really nice - stood around for pictures and talked to everyone. Oh well - I guess we're all entitled to a few bad days.....

 

What a great group of ladies.....you gals gamble on everything! Thanks for the TR....very enjoyable read!

 

Thoroughly enjoyed your TR, love how you gamble on almost everything before you get to Vegas, you sound like a fun group of ladies, too bad you didn't have better luck. There's always next time:evillaugh

 

The Gold Coast (and the Orleans) still has a birthday promo. I just returned from Vegas 11-18 June and my Birthday was during the trip. I swiped my B-Connected card at the Gold Coast and it offered me several balloons to choose from on the kiosk monitor. I picked the red baloon and was awarded 1500 b-connected points. I could have earned up to 15,000 points if I had picked the right balloon.

 

Thanks for the responses, everyone! Yes, we really look forward to our trip every June. I keep racking my brain trying to think of more things for us to gamble on prior to the trip. Any ideas, anyone?

Liondownnow - As far as the birthday promotion at the Gold Coast, J went up to the player's club and asked and they said they didn't have that anymore. J's birthday was 2 days ago so she wasn't there on the actual day. Do you have to be there on the actual day?

 

It has to be done during your birth month. I did it one day at the Orleans and the next day at the Gold Coast. I didn't hit any other Coast Casinos that trip.

 

We were at the Gold Coast on June 14th and J's birthday is June 19th, only 5 days later. It sounds like she should have gotten the birthday promo but they told her they didn't have it anymore. Oh well, that's how our luck ran all week.

 

Fabulous TR , ty for sharing love how you ladies gamble on everything and anything! hehe

 

Really enjoyed your report. We have lots in common as I also go with sisters or girlfriends. Loved reading your system regarding sleeping arrangements. Usually there are 3 of us sharing a room with two double beds. We go by the BJ arrangements--during a session of cards, the first one to get a BJ gets the bed to themselves the first two nights, the second one to get a BJ,etc. We also use this method if one person is needed to go pick up show tickets, etc.

Sounds like a fun trip, despite the losses.

 

Thanks, Northern girl! Reading your system of sleeping arrangements reminds me of the time when I went to Vegas with my 3 sisters and 1 brother for a whole week. We had 2 adjoining rooms, so we 4 girls rotated bed spots and took turns sleeping in the extra bed in the room with our brother. Nobody wanted to sleep in the same room with our innebriated brother. Well, one time we 4 girls were all sitting by each other gambling and our brother comes strolling up and asked, "So, which one of you babes is sleeping with me tonight?" So we're all thinking about this and saying, "Let's see, who's turn is it?' and looking at each other real serious-like. In the meantime, we happened to notice an old couple standing close by and apparently they could hear our conversation. Their jaws dropped and they were totally shocked! We played it up a little for their benefit and got a big laugh out of it afterwards. You know what they say! What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!!