First attempt at a TR (Live Hopefully) - Tropicana and Caesars 8/13 - 8/17

Great trip report! Wish we'd collected chips when we first started going to Vegas....instead, we collected match books. Kind of funny now that casinos are one of the few places you can still smoke!!!

Jeff

 

The wife and I felt the same way about KA. Parts were pretty cool but I'm positive I took a short nap during some of the slow scenes. I would have been disappointed if the tickets weren't free.

Mark

 

I have seen 2 Cirque shows and honestly, I'm with you.... each time I come out scratching my head and wondering what the heck I just watched! LOL

 

Thank god it's not just me. My wife and I saw "O" at Bellagio in November, and it was so freaking odd. The producer of these shows has to be on mushrooms when they come up with this stuff. I paid nearly $300 for our tickets, and tried to fight off the sleepiness the entire show.

The only thing that kept me awake were the two pretty girls sitting to my left. She was confused as hell, and would constantly wake me up to ask what was going on in th show.

 

Can you please tell us more about these uncircumcised chips?

 

Oh no! The wonders of autocorrect. How embarrassing.

Obviously meant uncirculated....

Last day and wrap up of trip coming likely tomorrow. I am beyond wiped out after getting home just now.

No big wins to speak of, but had a great time as usual.

Can't wait for the Super Bowl Guys' Trip in February (trip #17 for me)...

 

LOL!!! YES! I got dragged to Mystere and there was a grown baby-man in a diaper and other weird stuff going on ... I said to my husband "what the hell was that?" ... never again. LOL

 

It is called Chili Chili Fire. It has a feature similar to DaVinci Diamonds where symbols fade away and new ones drop. Sometimes it keeps repeating until bonus symbols are visible. Fun game but a tad volatile.

 

After leaving Caesars, i headed North on the I-15 toward Bighorn Casino. It is owned by the same entity as Longhorn. Bighorn was a bit bigger and the dealers couldn't have been friendlier. The floor person at table games was also very nice. They had a bunch of old slots and three blackjack tables with dollar minimums. There seemed to be a good number of security guards around for such a small place. I have no idea if I was in a sketchy area or not... Played some blackjack and left even after trying a bigger bet on the last hand, getting two aces, splitting them and getting 19 and 21. Dealer flips 12 and draws a 9..... I colored up and headed out.



Next stop was Lucky Club. It is located near a highway on ramp so I passed it and had to turn around because the entrance is off of a side street. Place was about the size of a CVS and had mostly old slots with some new models. Had one craps table and 4 blackjack tables with 2 dollar minimums. I cashed out down a little and moved on. Overall a clean place, but dealers and floor person were pretty emotionless.



Next, I stopped in Cannery. Very nice casino with friendly dealers and what appeared to be some nice restaurants. They had 3:2 blackjack and various gimmick side bets (lucky ladies, royal match, etc.) left there up a little off of some slot hits. I thought the door handles actually looking like cans was interesting.




Last stop was Aliante. Wow, what an impressive property... I was at the extreme end of Las Vegas for the first time. Nothing North of me but desert.


Aliante is beautiful inside. Looks and feels like M Resort and Red Rock. I remember when it was built by Station Casinos. I played some 3 card but eventually lost my buy in after about 40 minutes of play. They have their own in-house progressives on table games with a dollar bet.

One thing that really irritated me was while I was playing Buffalo Gold, there was a guy next to me who was talking to himself a great deal. He put in a hundred and was betting max. Every 4 or so spins, he would mutter something and loudly and aggressively kick the machine. Thankfully he lost the money he put in and turned around and left. I didn't get any shots of Aliante casino, just the hotel lobby.



After this, I realized I was over 23 miles from center strip and needed to head back to make our dinner reservation at Rao's.....

Dinner and our final night to follow later tonight or tomorrow.

 

Good luck on the final push!

 

Loving all your details! Lots of "new" casinos to me...

 

Great trip report and love all the photos! Glad to hear you got your chips. I've been collecting them for some time now........just wished I would have kept one from the Dunes . Funny, out of all the casinos I go to, the Tropicana is the only one that would not sell me a chip from the cashier as they claim it's against their policy to do that. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

Thats silly that they wouldnt sell you a chip. Seeing as how you can easily go do that at a table game and waste your time and theirs.

 

Nice TR! Really interesting seeing the local casinos you visited.

Vegasworm

 

I know right? I asked to speak with a casino manager which they were sending over. Then I noticed a sign posted at the cashier stating something about not allowing the sale of chips, so I didn't even bother speaking with him. Only casino in Vegas I've had that happen.

 

Well, our last night was to have dinner at Rao's for the first time, then no specific plans past that. Got to Rao's on time despite my mad rush driving from Aliante. We were with another couple of which one them had an urgent work call which delayed the start of our meal, but was not big deal at all. Once we ordered, we got an appetizer order of meatballs and the others got salads. I am an extremely picky eater, so I ordered penne Alfredo, not on the menu, but obviously they have the ingredients and they happily obliged.

The bread served with the meal was a combination of baked cheese Flatbread and Multigrain Italian bread. It was served with a trio of butter, one was regular, one was onion infused, and the last was a red pepper garlic blend.

The meatballs were outstanding. Hard to decide between these and Andiamo for best meatballs in Vegas.

Main courses were all excellent. Everyone left full and satisfied. We did order some desserts, but I can't recall what they were. I didn't take a single picture all night.

After Rao's, we decided to head to Planet Hollywood for some cards. Got the car, and for one of the few times this trip, put the top down on the convertible. Was going Flamingo to Koval to Harmon. But as we were driving by one of my favorite places, Ellis Island, we decided to stop. Wife wasn't too thrilled, but I convinced her to check it out. Played blackjack with their 'singing dealers' who rotate Karaoke singing after their breaks. Many are dressed the part.

At our table were some German guys who knew little English. One of the guys playing was standing up and was a bit back from the table. He kept making, in my opinion, ambiguous stay or hit hand signals. Sort of like waving his hand in a downward motion. One hand it happened where he did this signal and he busted, but swore he motioned to stay. This caused arguing with the pit boss who voided all the hands and made the guy sit down.

After I had a root beer (outstanding there, they brew their own), we went on to Planet Hollywood. Very uneventful session, both of us losing buy ins. At this point we called it a trip with the gambling, and overall, as it was midnight and we had a 9am flight. Back to the room to pack and get some sleep.

Final thoughts and observations tomorrow....

Thanks everyone for following along. I hope to improve on future reports.

 

Excellent report!!

Loved the pics of the "out of the way" casinos

 

Wonderful report and photos!

 

I made a reservation at Rao's for my trip next week as I have not dined anywhere in Caesars Palace for some time now. Thanks again for sharing the reviews

 

Ricky,

One of the details i left out was that there is an exact replica of the NYC Rao's location off to the left as you walk through the main dining room. It has the 12 table setup that the original has. If possible, call and ask for a table in that room if you are interested. It will give you the feel of eating at the original, which from what I hear is one of the toughest places to get a table in NYC.