No trip report this time out, just some random thoughts from my trip, that I'll add too if I remember more. I stayed at Luxor for first three nights and then Bellagio for last three, both on players club offers. 1. Luxor is waiving resort fees for comp guests, a nice move and consistent with what they did last summer, except now they are telling you they are, you still get to use all the amentities, which essentially is internet access and fitness area. 2. Last summer Luxor took all their VP bars to $1 min. I mentioned it from my spring trips, but they have gone back to multi denomination starting at .25 3. I played very little VP this trip, too many trips where I was just shoving money into the machines with neither points or profits to show for it. I was fresher though for the sessions where I played, and noticed a number of 4 card royals this trip, those of course were after the draw, but were more then I've seen in a while. I only drew once with four cards to a royal and missed. I hit no premium 40aks and only hit a few non premium. 4. Gambling was not good this trip, I have a couple games I play for the most part to generate points and they worked for that this trip, the other stuff I played was a variety of slots, .25 and dollar level and I hit diddly for the whole trip, I rarely got above my buyin, had three wins of about $100 each, which considering 5 days of play isn't great, and really never had a win higher then $20 outside of those 3 $100 winners. It was rough, to the point where if I hit some wins on a machine, I was fairly ecstatic. (I should clarify a bit, I do remember some wins bigger then $20 but those only happened on the 2nd last night, late at MC, and the next day at NYNY, which for all intense purposes means they were sort of worthless as I was playing out the day, prior to that wins were few and far between). 5. Considering I think the gambling was bad this trip, I'm pretty psyched I managed my budget so well and came home with the same percentage I did in August, along with some devoted sessions at what I would refer to my low volatility point earner machines, I actually recorded more points then I have in 3 or 4 trips to MGM properties, which was needed as my tier level has been falling a bit, hopefully that will put it back up there for awhile. 6. Bellagio service is the best I've experienced in vegas, while I know it's worn a bit around the edges and not "wynn" there is still a lot of pride I see in the employees for working at the Bellagio and I think it comes down from management. I literally enjoy checking in there, considering I've been going for about 15 years and no resort has ever made me feel that way and there's no actual examples I can point out to reference, it's just the overall experience that seems to be holding up nicely. 7. Cabo Wabo Sunday night was fun, they have a band and if you sing with them you get a free shot of Cabo Wabo. I sang a couple songs and the bartender decided to free pour Cabo Wabo all night for me, by 5 generous shots) (and after a very generous rum pour in my mojito that I ordered a shot for as it was way to sweet) the bartender advised he was impressed I was still on my feet. Especially considering I had been drinking all day, in retropspect I was as well. Well it did eventually hit me, upon getting up I had a severe stumble going on, and the next thing I remember was waking up in the morning after 7 or 8 hours of sleep. It appears I made it back under my own power though, as my contacts were out, and some other things I do like remove things from my pockets and place in certain areas were done as well, but I honestly cannot remember the walk across the street or through the bellagio. I can also honestly say it's never happened to me before in my life, however the very generous shots and short time frame definitely contributed, plus I'm not getting any younger. Some of the shots were so big it actually took three swigs to do. I reference it only for informational purposes, as most know from my trip reports, I imbibe plenty when in Vegas and have had many a good night of buzzes going on, but it's pretty damn rare I get sloppy drunk in Vegas, and not to that level. Pure stupidity on my part in this case, as I was enjoying the free pours, on top of that I rarely drink tequila and never have in that amount, and if there is one thing a person who drinks a lot can tell you different alcohol's will affect you differently and in this case it certainly did. 8. There is never enough water on a Vegas trip. Luckily I hydrate heavily, and when I say heavily I mean huge bottles of water every couple hours in Vegas, thankfully it almost completely prevents hangovers in addition you typically don't get drunk too quickly, between the heat, hangovers, and instances like free pours, it's never a bad reminder, drink the water and do it often. 9. Friday night was fun with Rog, as I already posted, we had a great time downtown. I'm glad he convinced me to go downtown for the night, as I was close to skipping it as I just didn't want to go back and forth. 10. I got to walk the strip from Wynn to Luxor Friday night after Rog got dropped off. It wasn't as bad (thug or hookerwise) as I've seen before, I may start walking it again once in awhile. Although it was still about 2am, which isn't bad for a Friday night. 11. Rhumbar's still one of my favorite spots and I only made it there twice this trip. One reason I'm excited to stay at the Mirage in November as I can hit it up nightly. 12. Luxor is just too far out of the way for doing anything that's not at Excal, Luxor, or MB. 13. I usually start my trips fairly slow and build up to some of the nightlife stuff, this trip was a bit different with going DT on Friday and then Cabo Wabo on Sunday, Saturday night I had a fairly early night, as I just didn't want to make the journey out of the Luxor and MB really had no options that weren't super crowded and the other nights at Bellagio, I just took it easy and gambled. One reason there isn't a trip report for me, is outside of these thoughts, most of the trip was spent chilling out either in the room, pool, or gambling, I just didn't do a lot. 14. I tried to avoid the heat this trip, usually it doesn't bother me, but for some reason, i just wasn't feeling it this trip and didn't feel like heading out only to become soaked in the day time. being at Luxor and Bellagio probably contributed to it, as they both are fairly isolated. 15. Couple thoughts on bad food, although I didn't eat alot this trip. I had the worst Reuben Sandwich I've ever had at Toby Keiths on Friday, the food at Cabo Wabo is not very good either, the tacos I had were crappy along with tacquitos that were way too hard. 16. Good food notes, the rasberry stuffed brioche french toast at Cafe Bellagio was outstanding, the beef tartar was great at Petrossian bar, (along with the atmosphere there). The best pizza on the strip is at Slice at Caesars in my opinion, although I got a piece on the last night there, after getting a piece for lunch (what can I say I was impatient) and I swear they use something different at night, as cheese, crust and everything was different and much lower quality in my opinion. 17. Some casualties of the trip. my money clip, (sans money) that dropped out at a slot machine at Mirage (and had made it through about 10 trips to Vegas). A pair of sunglasses that were Vegas exclusive sunglasses, that I got from Sahara a couple years ago. I did pick up some nice replacements though, to give you an idea of my fanaticism on details, those things are casualties, as they are in the travel bag I replenish after trips for future ones. 18. Bad experience at Luxor, Saturday night, I noticed about 5 before I left, that there was a party going on in the room next door, music was loud, but not offensively loud, I thouhgt nothing of it, until getting back to the room at 2am, by 2:30 am I had enough and called the front desk for security to come up. The levels were jaw dropping and I swear they had a full dj setup in there, the amazing part to me, is there were no other calls during that time. I know it's Vegas and everyone stays up late, but this had to be audible for at least 2-3 floors and we were on the top floor. Security took care of it within 20 minutes after my call. I debated whether calling about the music for about 30 minutes with myself, maybe it's just me getting older, but I honestly think I could have tolerated a moderate level, this was like being in line for LAX, the walls and windows were rattling. That's all I can think of, as I mentioned a pretty mellow trip for me in truth if I wouldn't have had Bellagio last, I probably would have cut it a day short a week or two before, but after being so disappointed last trip with Bellagio first and Flamingo falling short I did the opposite this time around, I was definitely ready to go fly home Tuesday rather then Wednesday, but it just didn't work out this time. My March 5 night trip seemed about right, so maybe that's what I'll do going forward 5 nights solo and 6 nights if I'm going with someone else or other people. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. _________________
Funny - sure read like a trip report to me! Thanks for the details - sounds like you had big fun - sorry about the losses though!
Miss your trip report, they are very entertaining, but this was a long set of "points", at least. : ) Your lack of decent bonus rounds/jackpots are sounding very familiar; it makes it more like work. Do you mind sharing the low volatile games you play for points? or would that be counter productive to corporates that might be reading and change it up? Man I think I'm getting a bit paranoid! Sierra
Thanks all, glad some of the points read like a report at least, I did want to make it interesting, especially considering I spent 75% of the time gambling this trip. I don't mind sharing, although I'm paranoid about the powers that be as well, there's two things I play for points. The video ultimate hold'em machines, which are like the virtual BJ machines, while it seems fun watching the two buxom dealers, you'll soon find that a handy ipod and just focusing on your cards goes along way to dealing with the mindlessness of the game. I've found it's fairly easy to keep volatility down on a $100 buyin and $2 or $3 bet (which is actually a $4 or $6 starting bet). If MGM rated games for under $25 I'd play it on the floor, but since they don't I'll play it on the video side and generate points. It's easy to get on a run where you hit all your big bets (4x your ante bet before flop) but there are times when you'll be killed in this game just like any other as well, where you swear they have it rigged, as the dealer continues to pull second kicker wins, one above flush wins, etc. It takes a bit to play well though and besides the repeat loop of the dealers and their boobs, your likely to get frustrated by the players who sit down and don't realize until they put their money in that it's not BJ, or that take forever to try and learn the game/make a decision or decide they need you to explain it. I actually don't think this game is long for the strip floor in the video form as it doesn't draw much of a crowd and it's fairly complicated, which means most machine players can't stand it if they try and play and the ones that do are likely to be the ones playing close to even. The other one, the casinos are already aware of and have made adjustments, it's the video roulette single zero. Many of them no longer generate points, but there are one or two that still do and offer a bet that is the low house edge for single zero, other bets on the machine have been changed in many cases to increase the house edge, so you need to be fairly aware of that. I tend to play these where i push my bets when I get ahead and if I do well can usually work up a pretty decent stack and continue to play high and earn points rather fast. I had very little luck with getting up on these machines last trip, it's also one of those machines where you tend to chase after playing for a bit and I've had sessions with a big buyin where I've lost 10-15 hands in a row to wipe out that session. When that happens on these, it's easy to chase and try and make it up but can definitely kill you. Those are my current two, I used to grind on the world series of poker machine, where it had a nice bonus that allowed me to get to $800 without a royal on a .50 bet and it broke up the monotony on vp, again though too complicated for the masses and likely not a huge revenue generator. The ultimate texas holdem has a 500 to 1 ante win for a royal flush, so it's like having a slot machine payout, which at it's worse gives me something to play for while grinding points, at $3 ($6) hand it's a bigger payout then a .25 royal. I'll probably go back to vp at some point, but just haven't wanted to lately, as I'm a bit tired of it. Just to note as well, Harrahs properties has neither of these types of machines (well except PH, which had roulette before the takeover and still had it on the floor last week, no idea whether it generates points though). Hope that helps some.
I've never had an issue asking them to do it and this has been at least the third or fourth time I've done so. I was told last time I booked, that sometimes it's at the discretion of the resort you stay at second, but usually when I've booked, they've seen that I have another offer already in front of it and have mentioned it as well. I do believe there are property specific offers and MGM marketing overall offers, and that you can't book two of the marketing offers, but I've never had that come up. So my suggestion is book the resort at the beginning of your stay first then the follow on resort and I'd try and stay away from the generic style offers, the property specific have a bit more too them, small resort credit, etc.
I have never even tried because I read somewhere you couldn't. I'll have to give it a try and see what happens. Thanks!