Plaza, yes I said Plaza, Feb 12-16

I have gotten out of writing trip reports because of the wonderful, humorous and insightful reports that are posted and mine pale in comparison. But, I felt compelled to write one just to give a shout out to Curt and the Plaza.

A very different trip for us since we didn't stay at MSS.

I know nobody really cares about flight info, but I just am including this because I got screwed. We paid for the TSA background checks so we could get pre-check and keep our shoes on etc. Our last flight in Dec, my wife didn’t get pre-check. This flight, I didn’t. I complained to SWA and they look it up and tell me the Known Traveler Number is in the ticket purchase, but TSA does random screening of KTN people. WTF, what did I pay the fee for? End of rant!
Wednesday night we had tickets to the Bucks game and rather than driving back home 35 miles, only to turn around and drive back to the airport 43 miles that next morning, we stayed at the Hyatt, a block from the arena. We hit a couple of bars in the downtown Milwaukee area and I didn’t have to worry about driving. So, our morning drive to the airport was only 8 miles.

We must have had a hell of tailwind because we arrived in Vegas 40 minutes early. For sure I thought we would sit on the tarmac waiting for a gate to open, but no, right up to the terminal. In all my planning I had the WAX times all written down, but not for being early. No, I don’t have a smartphone and I’m really not sure we wanted to schlep luggage from Walgreens to Plaza. So, I said what the hell, when we stay at MSS and they send the limo for us, I always tip $20, how much more can a cab be to Plaza? Get the cab, tell him no tunnel and take Paradise. I swear we hit every red light. $27.50 cab fare, plus tip. As an aside, on Sunday we ran into another couple from Wisconsin who cabbed from the airport to 4Q via the tunnel and the freeway. Their fare was $40 w/o tip.

I want to thank Curt who reads and posts on this board and admits he is a host. He upfront comped us 4 nights and apologized that he couldn't upfront comp us a suite. Check-in at Plaza was quick and we got a south facing room in the south tower on the 17th floor. They call it a Strip View, but the Strip is 4 miles away. Anyway, nice size and clean room with two queens. Vanity area was very nice with an open closet area and large sink space. Here is a bitch…no luggage racks in the room. I hate throwing my luggage on the bed to unpack. Bitch number 2…the toilet/tub area is tiny. From the tub to the door 30 inches at best. The door swings within 2 inches of the toilet. Positive note: Nice high shower head with plenty of pressure.

Thursday was my wife’s birthday, so down to gamble and then Curt arranged dinner for us at Oscar’s at 7 PM. Dinner was very good at Oscar’s, but the Broads part of Beef, Booze and Broads was so-so. Heavily made up woman trying to tell us facts about the menu names of items that are supposedly named after mobsters. When she got to the Spilotro steak which my wife ordered, she wanted to talk about it being a lean cut because of it being named after Tony Spilotro. I began talking about Tony being an enforcer for the mob back in the 70s & 80s in Vegas. Yes, I’m a Vegas & the Mob nut, but she had no clue and just wanted to talk about the meat being a lean slice.

Ok, on with the meal. My wife did have the Spilotro steak ($29) and I had the NY Strip, ($48) supposedly Prime cut. Not sure about the Prime part. I’ve had Choice that tasted just as good and as tender. For sides, hers came with smashed potatoes and I ordered the asparagus for $9. They did give my wife a cheesecake for her birthday and it was very good. Curt said charge it to room and we’ll look at your play. I’m not a big fan of that system, since we are Gold Card at MSS. I think our total bill was around $130 and true to his word Curt covered that. Unlike the jerk host (Fred) out at Suncoast who really screwed/lied to us when we stayed there back in April and only covered $100 of food charges after we gave them $40,000 of coin in over 4 days.

Building that stage at the end of Fremont certainly has cut down of the view from Oscar’s. I have heard this and don’t know if it is true, but Vegas Club and Plaza won’t pay the annual dues to the Fremont Experience, so they built that stage in front of them to spite them. Urban legend or true?

LADIES: Every Thursday in the lounge at Oscar’s between 5 – 8 PM, you drink free well drinks and some wines. Men, 50% off well and some wines. They had a piano player and very good lounge singer when we were there on Thursday. They also have decent specials on appetizers. We don’t usually get to Vegas on Thursdays, but if we do, I’d certainly go back.

Plaza has much improved video poker paytables.

As some of you know, I only play at bartops, so all paytables are based on that.
Dollars
DDB 9/6
BP 8/5
DBP 9/7
JOB 9/6
BP Deluxe 9/6

Quarters
DDB 7/5
BP 8/5
JOB 9/6

We spent most of our time playing at the Omaha Bar. They had a threesome playing at night starting around 9 PM and they were pretty good. Lets just say the bartenders there are no Jose or Kelli from MSS.

On Friday morning I sat at the Omaha bar playing $1 DDB. I played for 5 hours on the same $100 bill. We went to 4Q & Downtown Grand and I then proceeded to lose ~$1,000 in 4 hours.

Now this is odd…The bar closest to the sportsbook has different VP paytables and only has quarter or fifty cent options. No dollar play.
Quarter:
JOB 8/5
DDB 7/5
DBP 9/6
I did check the half dollar options but lost those notes.

I am not sure how much coin-in play we gave them. Probably close to $10,000 per day on one card, but Sunday we went down to 4Q to watch the Badgers play Illinois. The game was at 10 AM and we started drinking at 10 on empty stomachs. We got a little sh*tfaced and it was an early night for us and our plane was at 9AM on Monday, so Sunday was probably a low day for coin-in. VP coin in is $3 per point. I was kind of shocked to find out that 4Q is $8 per point. Boyd is $1 equals a point.

I’m 62 and the music selection at Plaza was 95% my kind of music. Maybe a touch loud, but nothing compared to the terribly loud volume at the D.

Saturday we did our Main Street Station day. It turns out if you swipe your B Connected Card at anytime, it counts as a gambling day and against your daily gaming average. OK, fine. I’ve got 2 million points on my card and decided we would pay with points at the buffet in the morning and then have dinner that night at Redwood and also pay with points. In between we would give MSS some play, which turned out to be $9,700 coin in. I only mention that because a slot manager told me that for the perks we get, we need to do around $10,000 coin-in per day.

We didn’t go in, but the Pasta Pirate replacement, the California Noodle House, looks very nice and I really like all the glass windows facing the casino. Next trip when we are back to having a Gold Card and will try them. I’m a carnivore but always open to trying something different.

As always, the buffet was terrific. Manny made me eggs just the way I like them and the carved brisket was delicious! Redwood for dinner was also great.

One more bitch…Plaza. No glassware, everything in plastic. I cannot stand drinking a glass of wine from a plastic cup!!! After the first day I started bringing in my own glass from other casinos. They even tore out their dishwasher and are back to the 3 tub sinks to clean what little glassware they have. It’s been more than 10 years since the California had the outbreak of roto-virus or something similar, but even they just brought back glasses in late 2014. Also, I try and be “Green” when I can, so the thought of throwing away all that plastic is annoying.

We ate pizza at Chicago Brewing Company (4Q) one day and also had their Chicago dog on a different day. Both very good. We never made it to Hash House but we have eaten at their original location years ago. We also didn’t make it to Pop Up Pizza.

We needed food Monday morning before our flight, so we tried DuPars at Golden Gate. First the host tried to seat us at table that couldn’t have been more than 25 inches long and 14 inches wide. I asked for a different table. The entire back room was open and there was one person sitting there. Oh no, that section is closed and when my manager comes in, she might be pissed if you are sitting back there. We looked at the menu and left. $9.50 was the overnight special. 1 egg, 2 pancakes.

We walked over to 777 at MSS and had their overnight special. My wife had the steak (8oz) and eggs, potatoes and toast. ($7.79) and I had the ham, two eggs, potato and toast ($6.25). btw, it is a 10oz ham slice.

Going home at 6:45 AM Monday morning we were waiting for the Plaza limo that Curt had arranged for us. A woman outside was waiting for Bell pickup. I mentioned that Bell is notorious for not showing up for the return trip. She got on her phone and called them again. The Bell shuttle showed up 5 minutes later. He drove into the circle driveway at Plaza. She started walking towards him and he just drove away, he never stopped even though she was following behind him, almost chasing him! A very funny scene to watch, but she wasn’t happy at all. We invited her to her share our Plaza Escalade ride to McCarren and she was very happy. She gave me $10, I tipped the driver another $10 for $20 total. I’m not sure what the Bell one-way cost is to the airport from downtown?

Final thoughts…Curt and the Plaza treated us well, but it really is hard to give up the Gold Card, Suite and limo to/from the airport. If MSS continues to cutback our offers for no apparent reason, then for sure Curt and the Plaza would certainly be an option.

Final numbers for me -$1,300 and my wife -$700. I had some nice hits on DDB but it was an up and down trip. Up the first day, then lose it all. Pictures your asking? My wife took one picture of one of my 4oaks, but I forget to and just keep playing. Playing at MSS, you wait for a scratch card and then I think about it, but not at the other places. Speaking of scratch cards, somebody hit one for $5,000 two weeks before we arrived. So I think that is two in six months.

I hope I didn’t bore all of you.

Because this was brought up in a different thread...yes there still is a Chevron gas station on Main Street and it is only one block away from the Plaza. Current price $2.55.

 

Wow, I had to do a double take when I saw Plaza and Joe. Thanks for the report. No harm in trying something different.

 

Great TR, not boring at all! Your reports are always informative and interesting, thanks for sharing this one.

 

No, not boring at all. It's too bad we missed you(we stayed at the plaza feb 5-8), would've been nice to meet another VMBer. Wish I knew about the happy hour at Oscars when we were there. We'll know next time.

 

Thanks for the info Joe. I usually stay at 4Q but I thought Plaza was going in the right direction last time I stopped in. Walking through the Plaza always makes me think of The Sunspots, that Filipino band that always used to be playing in the lounge. They were a riot. Glad to hear you weren't traumatized by a stay away from MSS. Good to be back in WI though, huh? Only a little colder (0 when I woke up today in Fitchburg)

 

Wow what a difference a week makes. It was $2.39 on the 9th.

 

do they still call it the "PRAZA"?

 

Yea, 3 below this morning, but no snow!
I forgot to mention in my TR that Vegas set new high temperature records 2 of the 4 days we were there. Iirc, 79 & 80. Normals that time of year are upper 50s. We had no clue how to pack. Winter the casinos are usually too hot and in summer they are usually too cold.

 

We had that same view from floor 17.

 

Great report Joe from one Badger to another.

 

Thanks for the report Joe. I'll be leaving MKE next week for 5 days in wonderland. Thanks for the detail you put in your reports.

 

Whatever you say is never boring, Joe. Enjoyed the whole TR

 

Not boring at all - in fact I thought it was a great read and really informative. That Thursday/Ladies Night at Oscar's alone was a great piece of information.. I'll need to bring a cocktail dress.

I want more details on your over imbibing!

Thanks for sharing! Appreciate the paytable information as well. have every intention of going down a few times DT..

 

Joe,
I see you said Curt comped off $130 worth of charges, plus the 4 nights of room (upfront)
I also see you said you gave them around $10k a day (so $40k total?)
I'm curious, how much (out of pocket) did you lose at Plaza? (I see you say $1300 + $700, but I don't know if that was all at Plaza)
If you don't mind sharing...Thanks

 

I honestly can't tell you. I just usually go by what is in my wallet the next morning. Thursday, our first day there, I ended the day about $200 ahead playing $1 DDB the entire day and it looks by my drunken notes that I ran about $15,000 through the Plaza VP. Friday, I did around $7,000 in and as I said, I only lost $100 that morning. But we came back that evening and I lost big. More lost notes. I don't know what I ran through the Plaza machines.

I cashed out a $1,200 ticket at 4Q on Sunday, but ended up giving a lot back to Plaza, GG & DTG. Sober accounting I am very good at. After drinking all day, not so much.

I never got a W2G. They were all additive wins on DDB.

As a stated in my TR, Curt treated us very well! Hopefully not a one time teaser offer because he seemed genuine and sincere.

 

Good report Joe, not boring at all, you gave lots of good detail.

Good catch on the change of pay tables at the bars. Did you happen to play the 98% payback machines on the floor near the sports bar? Just wondering about getting points on those machines. I have to agree about the music at The Plaza. We enjoyed it too.

Thanks too for the gas station tip. We will be using it for sure next trip.

 

As usual, I never put a buck into any of the Plaza floor machines. At MSS, I have gotten a little addicted to the 10x STP (.25) next to the crap tables. It has become my only exception to playing floor machines. I will always blame Royal Flusher for getting me hooked on this game. If gambling is an addiction and VP is like crack, what does that make STP? Heroin? :evillaugh

 

OK, thanks Joe!

 

My wife took more pictures then I realized.

View from Oscar's


View from 17th floor at Plaza
"


Morning view.



The Splilotro steak at Oscars. $28.



My NY Strip. $48.



My only winning photo. I forget to take the pictures. My wife snapped this one.



The grossness of FSE

 

I saw her too a couple of weeks ago.