Vegas - The Final Frontier – Voyages of the Barship Rumsomething

Since my father passed I have been making an effort to make sure Mom gets out of the house and travel a bit.
She likes Vegas and we really enjoy gambling together. This is our third trip this year.
We both have been Star Trek fans for many years; this will be my 4th convention and Moms 7th.

Wednesday around noon, I finally pry myself from my desk and tell everyone in the office “if something goes wrong to fix it themselves and I don’t want to hear about anything until I return on Monday”.

I head over to Mom’s and climb behind the wheel of her new Camaro, I still get a chuckle every time I see her in that car.
We have a nice smooth drive from “The Valley of the Sun” to “The Valley of Sin”, 315 miles in 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Boy that car just loves to run at 90 MPH.

We pull in to the Rio valet and give them the car; I give the attendant a couple bucks and tell him not to pull any Ferris Bueller stunts with it.
We make our way into the hotel via the giant rotating door.
Mom is in the lead and starts turning left for the check in line, I get her attention and turn right. She asks what we are doing and I just lead her over to the glass doors with VIP check in on them.
I open the door and say “remember that credit card I made you apply for? Well, this is one of the perks that go with it.
We walk right up to the counter hand the nice clerk my info. “Welcome Mr. Molder, do you have any special room requests”.

Being the sly Fox I think I am, instead of requesting a Samba Suite I opt for
“lowest floor and quiet room please”.
She replies no problem, a little typing on her keyboard, she promptly hands us our keys and off we go to Ipanema 386.

The room was just what I expected, 2 queen beds, a couch, a chair, and a desk. It’s perfect for our needs as we don’t spend much time in the room anyway.
We spend a few minutes unpacking and loading the fridge with the water and soda we brought with us.
Then it was off to the casino.
I put mom in the elevator down and tell her I’m going to scope out the stairs. I expect the elevators will be very busy over the weekend, I thought having a low floor for stair access would be a great Idea.

I’m so proud of my slyness.

I find the stairwell and head down the 2 flights to the 1st floor. As I reach the bottom floor and look for the casino access door, I only see a long hallway with an alarmed door that has a big
“Emergency Exit Only” sign on it.

(Golly, gosh darn it)

Back up the stairs I go. On the 2nd floor I find a locked door with a number pad on it. I go back up to the third floor and ride the elevator down.
Once I reach the first floor, I meet mom with that “where the hell have you been look on her face”.
I explain my failed plan and we head for the nearest bar to get a drink.

On the way to the bar I see a member of the security team; I stop and ask him about casino access from the stairs. After a couple of conversations through his “fancy little ear bud secret service communication system” he apologized and said all the stairs only exit to the outside of the building.

Great, the sly old fox I am has just managed to secure a low floor, just OK room with no access the casino from the stairs.
Next time, its’ Samba suite all the way…

After that, I’m ready for a drink. We still have 2 hours before our time slot to pick up passes for the Star Trek convention. Walk up to the Shutter Bar, find a seat, insert player’s card and $20.00. The bartender walks up and asks what we would like to drink.

“How about a rum something” I ask? The bartender replies that he has never heard of rum something and asks what is in it. Of course I reply “Rum and something”. He laughs and brings back a very colorful drink with all kinds of fruit hanging out of it.
I say thanks, introduce myself and put $5.00 in the tip glass.
I push all the fruit out of the way and have the first taste of one of the worst drinks I have ever had.
When I make a face and ask him what’s in it. Dominic replies Rum and something, he then replaces my drink with one he called a Coral Crush. Now that’s a nice drink, Rum, Peach Schnapps, Amaretto and some sweet and sour.
I have a few more Coral Crushes and manage to dump $50.00 on VP before I started hitting.
I started out playing 9/6 DBP and soon switched over to 8/5 DDBP after I hit 2’s with a kicker.



When it was time to pick up our credentials for the convention, I was already feeling no pain. Plus I was up $100.00 already.

On a side note, a couple months ago I moved up to $1.00 VP but just couldn’t talk myself into it on these pay tables.

We stagger down the never ending hallway and gather our credentials. Take a peek into the vender’s room, which I decided is just one large Star Trek rummage sale. I couldn't believe all the tables set up for actors to have autograph sessions lined up throughout the room.
It was Wednesday night and already I counted 15 actors sitting in their assigned chairs patiently awaiting that fan who was willing to pay up to $50.00 for a signature.
After about 20 minutes reviewing junk, I swear was for sale five plus years ago, we decided to go have a few more drinks.



Dominic meets me with another smile and a shot in his hand. I’m reluctant to take it as I am already feeling real good and fear a shot will put me over the edge.
But what the hell, were in Vegas right?

I drink half the shot and as I’m commenting on how good it is Mom grabs the glass and drinks the other half.
“Yum” she says and then asks for another. I agree and we spend the next 2 ½ hours drinking Rum Something’s and shots of Fireball.
I hit a few more quads but being my drunk self didn’t manage to take any photos of them.
I did however wake up with $261.00 more than I showed up with.

Hope you don’t mind this report being long winded.
I was just going to write a quick one but as I started writing it just started flowing out.
More to come.

 

Great start! Hubs and I agree completely about the dealer room. Same stuff every year that has been there for decades. We always take a walk through, though, mostly to chat with people and see if there are any good nerd t-shirts. I assume you had Captains Chair or some other package. We only ever do the general admission anymore because we find that we miss large parts of the con while we're drunk or gambling elsewhere and then regret having put down the cash for the "expensive" passes. Hope the rest of your trip is as profitable as the start!!

Live long and prosper.

 

Shutters Bar is still one of my favourite bars to play and hang out....in spite of the craptastic pay tables. Love the bar staff and have fond memories from the Marnell days before CET took it over.

 

Good start so far!

 

Nice report thusfar. Love the mother/son vegas bond. My wife and I will be taking my mom in a month or so for her 70th birthday.

 

Thursday Morning, 6 am, my eyes open.

Great , I wanted to sleep in.
On the positive side, I don’t have a hangover at all. The 3 Motrin and a bottle of water before bed worked its wonders again; I was surprised from the quantity and varieties of alcohol I had consumed.

The convention doesn’t officially kick off until almost noon so we have some time to kill. Put the little coffee thingy in to the machine fill it with water and hit the button, then into the shower.
When I’m finished, I encounter Mom trying to figure out how to run that “darn new fangled coffee maker”.
I give her a lesson, “put your glasses on and read the instructions”.
I get her set and let her know to meet me at the bar when she gets ready.
I head out to the elevator bank and push the button. Surprisingly an empty car arrives within seconds, of course I decide it’s only a quarter to seven and no one else is moving around yet.
I take the quick two floor ride and exit out by the Starbucks stand. Well, I not the only one up. The line was about 30 people deep for an overpriced cup of sweet milk and espresso.
I find a seat at the bar, slide in $50.00 and order a cup of coffee. I play, drink my coffee and have a few cigarettes.

That’s when it comes on me. Why I like go to Vegas so much.
It’s one of the only places left in the country that you can still sit at the bar and smoke.
Mom shows up around nine, we have another cup of coffee. All said and done, 4 cups of coffee only cost me $50.00. so much cheaper that the sweet mild and espresso.

We head over to the Total Rewards counter to redeem the first of our two Buffet of buffets.
It went smooth. Walked right up to the counter, handed her my player’s card and ID, told her I wanted to redeem my BOB and a few minutes later we were off to the Buffet. I have to as the quality of food for breakfast was above average and they had a very nice selection. Using the VIP entrance was a plus and they actually have a section designated for VIP customers.

After having a little fruit, (have to stay healthy you know),
I stuffed myself on omelets, eggs, bacon, sausage, gravy.

We went back to the bar to get another cup of coffee. I slid $20.00 into the bar top VP machine. Not paying attention to the game I was playing I just hit max bet while ordering a coffee.

BOOM first hand




I play a couple more hands, I grab my cup of coffee and off we go to the convention.

We make another quick trip through the glorified garage sale while waiting for the opening ceremony to begin.
The opening videos were very entertaining and I sat through the first couple of speakers before I had finally had enough, Mom had a couple autographs she wanted to get so I left her there and let her know I would be around the bar so she could find me.

I knew I had a couple hours before she would be at the bar so I made a lap around the casino checking all the VP machine pay tables and looking for a Bonus Deluxe game. Well no luck on the Bonus Deluxe but I didn’t really find any pay tables that were going to get me away from the bar or to switch to $1.00
I find my way back to the bar, insert $20.00 and order a beer. While complaining to the bar tender about not finding any Bonus Deluxe he lets me know that there are 4 triple play machines around the end of the bar with Deluxe on them.
Of course at that time they were full but I would hit them up later.

Play was break even, hitting mid quads just in time to keep me going. But only one that I thought was photo worthy.



Mom showed up around 4:30 and we decided it was time to hit the buffet again.
I was happy with the spread they had out. They had everything I would want, nice salad bad, Italian, Chinese, crab legs and all the meat and potatoes. Just remember to add salt and pepper as nothing was seasoned very well.

After dinner we decided to walk over to the Gold Coast and check it out.
We spent more time walking over and back that we did in the casino.
If you haven’t been there IMHO don’t waste your time.

We decided to spend the rest of the evening at the Shutter Bar as we had such an enjoyable time the night before. Our expectations were met as we did have another enjoyable evening.
Dominic greeted us with a smile and a couple Rum Something’s. I was happy to find the triple plays were open and sat down at the one on the corner of the bar. Mom sat at a single line machine on the other side of the corner and we settled in for the evening.
My $100.00 lasted quite a while with full houses and random quads keeping me going.
I was down to just a couple deals left when I was dealt quad 3’s for a nice $300 payout.
Sorry, no pic as I was well on my way from Rum Something’s and Fire Ball’s again.
Of course the win resulted in another round of Fire Ball’s and a ten into the tip glass for Dominic.

Now for the “Hooker Story”

While setting at the triple play machine I had a great view over the bar and through the casino. I love people watching, someone always seems to pull off one of those “Wow, did I just see that” moments.

I spotted her wondering around the slots across the aisle from the bar. She eventually made her way to the bar. Took a seat about 4 spots down from Mom and struck up a conversation with a gentleman.
No luck he finishes his drink and leaves.
She checks her phone and after a couple minutes moves down about five more spots to the next guy.

I bring moms attention to the situation and we enjoy making up our own version of the conversation. It all had to do with her having very poor vision and him explain that he was blowing his bonus check he received for collecting welfare for 25 years.

Finally a couple of the guy’s friends showed up and she had struck out again.

Looks like Hooking is a tedious as telemarketing, making hundreds of cold calls trying to get that one sale.

A few more minutes pass and she slides down a few more stools and starts her line again. After a few minutes, it looks promising.
She gives his arm a little stroke and a couple minutes later they are gone.
We have another round of Rum Something’s and decide to call it a night.


Friday

Wow, Slept to 6:45. What happened to being able to sleep for hour upon hour? I guess that’s just a phase you grow out of.
Same morning routine other than Mom was able to get the coffee maker to work. I head down to the bar, and proceed to pay "$25.00 a cup" for four cups of coffee.
No worries, the bankroll is still about $80 in the positive. Guess I do better when I’m drunk.
Mom made it down and we decided we were not even close to wanting anything to eat after visiting the buffet twice in one day.

The morning was filled with Star Trek.
Around 11:00 we finally decided we were hungry and decided to have a bite at the São Paulo Café.
The Café is located in the walkway to the convention center so the line was huge. I’m guessing there were over a hundred people waiting to get in.
Luck have it none of them were Platinum or higher card holders as we walked right up and were seated immediately.
Food was great and the portions were big.
We were stuffed again.

Back down the never ending hallway for more Star Trek.
I have to say I really enjoy listening to the speakers epically some to the technical and back ground people.

We had a about 3 ½ hours to kill before we had our captain’s chair dinner was scheduled. We relaxed in the room and watched the end of the football game.

After the game was over, we went to the bar for a pre-dinner tune-up.
I decided to switch to beer as I didn’t want to be totally trashed at the dinner.
Well I should have been trashed. Dinner was at the VooDoo night club. We rode the elevator up, the doors opened and you were in the dinner line. The food was just OK, seating was nonexistent, many people were standing on the rails trying to balance their plates to eat.
It was not the exciting fun that was advertised.
We managed to squeeze in to a booth on the lower balcony and eat off our laps.
There was entertainment on the upper level but it was way too crowded to get up to.
We finished our two complimentary beverages and headed back to Shutters.

Another enjoyable evening at the bar and we had some great conversations with other Star Trek fans.

Surprisingly, the VP was still being kind to me and kept me about even. No premiums, but just enough quads to keep me going.

Around 2am we had filled up on Rum Something’s and Fire Balls and started the journey back the room. We were both feeling no pain and bounced off the hallway walls a couple times each.
But we were laughing and having a great time doing it.

 

This is a very enjoyable trip report so far!

 

Keep up with the convention stories please. I only went on Thursday before leaving town on Friday. I had fun and am considering going all 4 days next year. This was my first convention ever so everything, even the vendors room merchandise, was new to me. Wondered if those premium packages were worth the price but it doesn't sound like it. I'm debating if I would even stay at the Rio during the convention. Easy enough to go back and forth with the shuttles.

 

Oh good, a continuation! Really enjoying how you and your mother are having such fun!

 

Thanks for sharing. Amazing that you hit quad aces on your first deal. The hookers at Rio are very aggressive.

 

I would like to get my mom out to Vegas one day. Unfortunately she doesn't seem nearly as enthused as your mom. Congrats on that and your wins.

 

Saturday
We decided not to attend any of the morning convention activities and took it easy, had a couple cups of coffee in the room and made our way down to the casino around nine.
We went over to Total Rewards and redeemed Mom’s buffet of buffets and went for a late breakfast.
It took a little longer getting the BOB this time as the clerk asked for our coupon which we didn’t have. I could tell the clerk was new and wasn’t trained for redeeming comps of any kind. Finally, one of the supervisors assisted in the transaction and we were off.
We made it into the buffet just as they were switching over to lunch, breakfast items were a little limited but I found enough to satisfy my hunger.

At 11:00 we went down to the convention.
We listened to the ramblings of The DS9 and TNG cast. I really enjoy listening to Frakes and Spiner, those two are real cutups and make a great comedy team. We finished the afternoon with Mulgrew and Shatner.

We decided that four and a half hours was enough and made our way back to the casino.
First stop was at the bar for a drink, then up to the room for a little relaxation.
We were in the room no more than ten minutes, that was enough relaxation time. We decided we could better utilize our four hour break.
Couldn’t do any worse than Gilligan, right?
Back down the two floors on the elevator, out to the taxi line and off to the MGM for a little Lion’s Share action.

The MGM was busy, we worked our way through the crowd and right up to an empty seat at the Lion’s Share. I put in a hundred and after a few spins it started hitting and had me up into the mid 120’s then it hit three triple bars for $300.00.
Wow, that sure changed my thought pattern. Do I play it down to $400.00 and cash out or do I play it all the way down. Well, I only needed 7000 points to gain Pearl status, and I decided to play it down.
It took almost an hour and a half to play it down. I ended up with 25,057 points just breaking the Pearl threshold.
Now just to wait and see if I am back on M Life’s radar again.

We decide to have a drink and head over to one of the bars.
I find Bonus Deluxe on the bar top, I slid in $50.00 and start playing.
Mom is sitting next to me and is on a run at her machine. She has been running cold so far this trip and it’s nice to see her winning.
But the cold streak didn’t have to move very far. I started at quarters,
next $50.00 I bumped it up to fifty cents and then put in another $50.00 and bumped up again to dollars.

Well, Mom finally cooled off and was ready to head out. The MGM was just a bit loud for her.
I was ready to go long before that as I had shoved $400.00 into that bar top chasing and couldn’t hit crap.
Back to the taxi line for our quick trip back to the RIO.

We still have a couple hours before the costume parade, I’m on total tilt after that MGM beating.
What to do? Back to the Shutter bar, grab the open triple play and slide in fifty.
I hit just enough to stay even and then I need out pull out my phone to take the REDEMPTION photo.

Shit, some idiot hasn’t charged his phone all weekend, its dead.

I ask mom to give me here phone because I need to take a pic of the royal I just hit.



High fives commence and a round of Fire Balls please.

I decide to play it down a few spins before I cash out. Three spins later I hit quads. I finish up by playing it down to $1100.00 and cash out.

We head over to the cage, I get my cash and we head up to the room to plug my phone in.

We decide to have dinner before the evening’s entertainment and we head down to the buffet. We had planned to have dinner a Caesar’s buffet but decide just to stay at the Rio.
We had another nice fulfilling meal.
On our way out of the buffet I decided to stop off at the sports book. With my new wad of hundreds in my pocket I decided to make a super bowl bet.

Call me crazy, I have decided that the putting $100.00 on the AZ Cardinals at 150 to 1 is a sure thing. I sure hope I can go back and collect my 15K

After placing my bet we had good intentions of heading down to the costume parade. As we were walking towards the hallway, a Roulette wheel jumped right out in front of us.

OK it didn’t move, I only saw it as we were walking by and suggested we play a few spins.

We each bought in for $100.00, I placed my normal two dollars each on 5,7,17,20,32. Mom played her normal Shot Gun style. No rhyme or reason where she bets but she seems to hit when she needs to.

One of my numbers was hitting about every six spins, and I was staying even. We were having a great time and really enjoyed the dealer. After about the fourth time of hitting one of my numbers and waiting six spins. I looked at the dealer and said it’s time, cut out ten bucks and put five each on 17 and 20.
Right on cue, boom 17 hits.
I take my winnings in 2 blacks and change.

We play for a while longer until Mom depletes her buy in and we head back over to the cage as I now have $400 to cash in.

Well that took longer than we thought and we missed the first half of the parade. We decided to skip the rest of it and had a couple more drinks.

We did make it down to the convention room for the Gala Celebration. This year James Darren and his Jazz band were preforming his stage show along with some guest stars. Due to technical problems the show was delayed for an hour but it was worth the wait.

Because the show was so late, we decided to skip the dessert party and head for bed.



Sunday morning was the only day I really wanted to see the first speaker.

Jeri Ryan (7 of 9)

I hadn’t seen her yet and wanted to make sure all the fantasies I’d had about her were worth the effort of my imagination.
All I can say is WOW not only is she still a knockout, and she has a great personality to match.
I loved the stories she had about receiving gifts and photos from overzealous fans.
Unfortunately she is happily married and has a wonderful family.
(Guess you’re safe honey, I not running off with a rich & famous “Borg” babe any time soon.)

After listening to Jeri, we decided to skip George Takei (Sulu). I was turned off by him a few years ago during one of his rants. We went for our final visit to the buffet instead.
Perfect timing, we had 15 minutes to spare when we arrived. We took our time and relaxed in the buffet for over an hour.

After brunch we went back to the convention for the DS9 20th anniversary. If any of the cast members were missing I couldn’t tell you who.
The first group was a little sober with their responses to questions, but the second group made up for it.

Following the DS9 reunion I made my way back to the casino while mom waited to get an autograph.
We had originally planned to leave for home Sunday afternoon. Her signing started at 6pm and she had a high number. I decided to hell with it and extended for another night. I was glad we decided to stay. We attended the convention finale.
Several of the actors put together their own version of the Rat Pack.
It was the best entertainment of the entire week. The guys wrote Star Trek based lyrics to many popular songs, had a few drinks on stage and I think more than a few before. It was a blast. Everyone in the room was cheering.

During the two hour break while I was waiting for Mom to get her autograph, I was able to hit seven non premium quads for another $300.00 profit.

We checked out early Monday morning, with a tab for five nights including meals $86.00.
Gambling: Molder $1358.00 in the positive, Mom was $280.00 negative.

As for Star Trek conventions, this was our favorite one so far. Our plan was to skip a year and then attend the Voyager 20 year reunion in 2015 and the original series 50th in 2016.
But, it looks like next year the Nevada Pops Orchestra will perform “Star Trek: The Concert”.
I saw this show back in 2008 and hearing all the themes performed by a full orchestra was a very moving experience.

We have decided just to hopefully make it four years in row.

I just have to buy a better camera, I couldn't get a decent shot all week with that 5+ year old piece of junk I was using this year.

Later, M

 

This was me last trip. I had to ask a random bar patron to email me my first AWAK hit while actually playing DDB and not things like Deuces Wild or JoB...lol

 

Great ST stories! How do you get all the info on next year's convention and the 20th Voyager convention? It seems like the reunion years are good ones to attend.

I was hoping to attend one full 4 day convention one year. I was thinking next year but may have some other travel plans. But 2015 might be good for the Voyager reunion. Plus 2015 will be two years in between Vegas trips and that seems to work for me.

Was the main theater packed at any point? It sounds like you had reserved seats but did you notice it at the back? Especially for the main DS9 reunion sessions.

 

Great report! Love that roulette hit, it's all about the timing....!

 

DBear

I found most of the information in the program guide that was available throughout the convention. I picked up the future reunion info from the speakers. I also learned that the Gold and Captains parties will not be held at VOODOO next year.

I had reserved Captains Chair seats, I was center section 30 rows back. Saturday and Sunday the theater was full. I you get there early, you will be able to find good seats in the GA section.
We are still not sure about next year either. We may just do the weekend and buy into the Saturday night show.
I have attended from GA all the way up to Gold. We settled on captain’s chair as we like to attend most the evening activities. If you are an autograph hound, gold is the way to go.

I wasn’t thrilled with the new movies, but I was happy to see the increase in the younger generations attending. (Especially the sexy costumes).
I attribute some of that to the new movies but I think Netflix had an impact also.