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Bally's April 8-10, Paris April 10-13

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by mjames1229, Apr 17, 2016.

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  1. Blonde_4_ever

    Blonde_4_ever LasVegas4ever.com

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    Enjoying your report MJ!
     
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  2. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    Monday, April 11 -

    By far, the worst day I've ever had in Las Vegas... and it was STILL better than a day at work.

    I woke up at Dark:30 to go to the bathroom and I've got quite a headache. I had only one cucumber martini at the Foundation Room and two Jameson and Ginger Ales while losing $400 to dollar VP... no way I was hung over. And with an average temperature of 55 degrees and more humidity than most of the Wisconsin winter and spring, dehydration wasn't an issue.

    I climb back in bed and get up at Almost-light:30 for another bathroom trip. Now I am more concerned because I had gotten six hours of sleep (which is what I normally get anyway). Back in bed, and my wife wakes me up at 8:00 AM to start the day and my head is really hurting... I can't even sit up on the bed. Luckily my wife (a chronic migraine sufferer) has her injectable Sumavel and offers to give me a shot. She says that it starts working in an hour, so I fell back asleep. I wake up at 10:30 AM without any relief, so she hits me again.

    At some point, she wakes me up to say that she has to leave to go bowling, and I immediately fall back to sleep.

    (Side note in the form of a paragraph; I just now explained to my wife that I "just started typing about Monday and I have a headache". She said... and I quote "Don't forget to tell them that you sent me out into the wilds of Las Vegas, by myself, to find South Point without breakfast. And most importantly, I had to try to put my shoes on myself without being able to bend my right knee". This is the woman that I treated to the Foundation Room. Good thing I liked it, too...)

    I wake up at about 12:30 without head pain. However, the side effect of those shots is that out-of-body, groggy feeling that is like your body is revolting against the forced medical intervention against its will. I manage to take a shower and leave. My wife started bowling at Noon, so I want to get down to South Point before she was done. To do that, I'd need to use the Uber "First Ride Free". Great that I got down there without spending a fortune, not so great that I may have to pay to get to the airport from the Westin on Wednesday. But I've got two days to worry about that.

    I get down to the pick-up location outside of Paris, and for the first time in four days, it is REALLY BRIGHT OUTSIDE... and my sunglasses are in the car, which is eight miles south. Luckily the Uber driver has tinted windows and effective air conditioning, so I get to South Point just fine. It was the 2.4 mile walk to the Bowling Plaza and the cacophony of bowling pins that just about dropped me to my knees. Luckily the trek was over and I could collapse in the seating for the last hour of her competition.

    As I sit there, I see Las Vegas channel 8's sports crew down there. They were doing a short piece for the evening news. You only get a passing glimpse of my wife, but the 91-year old lady they showed was on my wife's team (and she is really 93). The skinny lady with the pink hoody was my wife's doubles partner.

    My wife finished bowling and we headed out with only a brief stop at some slot machines (I wasn't feeling the Gambling Jones... I think it was more out of habit than anything). We go back to Paris... her to ice the knee, me to try to get back into this world before going to dinner.

    At this point, it is now about 7:00 PM and the only constructive thing I've done is breathe... time to pull it together for my wife's second celebration dinner (this for completing her first National tournament) at Lago by Julian Serrano at the Bellagio. I again had requested patio seating in advance, and though it was warmer than the previous evening, they also had the heat lamps on.

    The view, though a different angle, was just as stunning as the night before...

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    Very neat watching the fountain show from the other side...

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    Since Lago is solely Italian small plates, my wife and I had numerous items. We started by sharing the Caesar Salad ($12) and Bruchetta ($7). She then had the Quail Saltimbocca ($17) and I tried the Veal Picatta ($20) and all was wonderful. For the next item, she ordered the short rib Cannelloni ($17) and I had the Gnocchi Romana ($15). I tried her Cannelloni - which was very good - but I couldn't get her to try the Gnocchi for anything. It was heavy, rich, and heavy... and they gave 6 silver-dollar sized pieces. The first one was great. The second one was OK. By the fourth one, I'm considering feeding it to the ducks. The funny thing was, the six pieces didn't look like a large portion, but it was just too rich for one person. I finished the sixth one (followed by a pitcher of water) and though I was past stuffed, I didn't want that disaster to be my last meal so I ordered the Shrimp Gamberi ($15). The shrimp was excellent, but I should have never ordered it. On a scale of 1-5 fountain shows, I rate Lago a 4. I'd like to suggest how they could change the Gnocchi portion size... 2 is certainly enough for one person, and 3 would be fine for two people. But I don't know if they could price it to match the portion size. It's a tough spot. Maybe someone should just destroy the recipe. The total cost with two soft drinks plus tax and tip was $140. Again with the quality of non-Gnocchi food, the view and the overall experience, I was happy to pay it.

    Other than being over-stuffed, I started jonesing, and if I thought that being out of service half a day with a migraine was bad, I hadn't seen nuthin' yet.

    Gambling Jones 9, Not an Idiot 1 in what is becoming a blow-out. I spotted the $1 Sizzlin' 7s just outside of Lago, and one had a progressive around $1180. Not only was that far and away the highest progressive, but the fact that I'd owned Sizzlin' 7s so far on the trip... well, it was just meant to be, wasn't it?

    Five separate hundred dollar bills later, I left the machine with the progressive at $1199.58. I couldn't believe it. Sizzlin' 7s had failed me spectacularly. That meant just one thing... tilting on bad paytable $0.25 video poker. Two hundred dollars later, we left Bellagio, me with my tail between my legs.

    For comparison, after three days (through Sunday) in Las Vegas, my cumulative gambling total was only -$151. I dropped $700 at Bellagio. But I wasn't done. You can't chase losses playing blackjack (Gambling Jones 10, Not an Idiot 1) so I sunk another $150 into Paris' slot machines. It was about midnight, I felt like crap, couldn't hold my head up, didn't even have one drink... and I schlepped off to bed. One big, defeated man.

    Evening came and morning followed, the fourth day.
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2016
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  3. smerrian

    smerrian View from Bally's

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    Ah...the ups and downs of gambling. Glad you're doing so much fun stuff on the Strip so that even if you end up down on the machines you still can rate it a great over-all trip.
     
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  4. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Good report so far! Hopefully you can start winning! Neat to see the wife's team on the TV!
     
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  5. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    Some housekeeping duties...

    This morning, the Vegas Bright article about my Vic & Anthony's experience posted.

    And the first time that someone clicked the link for the $59 deal, it came up as a $52 deal (with no chicken, but with the choice of side dish). That left me working hard to not look like an idiot. Luckily, I found the $59 menu on the Internet Wayback Machine so I had proof that I wasn't making it up.

    So, for the record....

    This link takes you to the "old" Deal, which was $50.
    This link takes you to the $59 Deal that I referenced in my post above and on Vegas Bright.
    This link takes you to the current $52 Deal.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  6. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    Sorry about the delay... writers block last night.

    One other thing that I forgot to mention about Monday; when we got back from her bowling, we redeemed a MyVegas reward for HEXX (at Paris) for a BOGO of bulk candy. I am not a big fan of sweets, but I grabbed a couple of peach rings and some Unbearably Hot cinnamon bears (they're delightfully hot) and a couple of other things. My wife, meanwhile, went crazy on chocolate. I am kind of glad she did because their chocolate non perils and English toffee are absolute a gems. I know the sweet MyVegas weekend hotel comps are probably gone forever, but there are some nice deals that are being added all the time. I redeemed six different MyVegas rewards and only one was from MGM.

    And I STILL have over 711,000 gold coins to burn through.

    Tuesday, April 12 -

    Tuesday morning came, and practically begged me to put Monday in the rear view mirror. It was to be a very busy day, and once we left the hotel, we didn't get back until about 2:30 AM.

    We first headed to Caesers Palace to have breakfast at the Bacchanal buffet, using our Total Rewards credits. I had been there a year and a half ago, but my wife had never been. I tried to warn her to not waste time on the breakfast, but she didn't believe me as her first plate had biscuits and gravy. Personally, I went straight to the spicy Portuguese sausage, the pepper steak, the cured meats and the shrimp (which was a fallback choice when there were no crab claws in drawn butter), washed down with a bottle of freshly squeezed... cucumber juice.

    Ugh. I thought that the watermelon juice on my previous visit was bad, but dear Lord... On the second trip to the buffet, I brought back a bottle of freshly squeezed... Tropical juice. Far, far better choice! I didn't think the buffet was as good as eighteen months earlier... but that may be due to the lack of discovery this time. On a scale of 1-5 little plates of red velvet pancakes, the Bacchanal Buffet rates a 3-1/2. I am not sure if it is worth $30 for a weekday breakfast, but it is some mighty fine eatin'.

    Next on the agenda is a return trip to the Neon Museum. My wife and I last visited seven years ago, when the cluttered office was across the street, and signs were randomly scattered on both sides of the property. This time, the La Concha building used as the gift shop and waiting area was great to walk through while waiting for the tour to start. Though it had rained for the first three days of our trip (and Monday was cloudy and cool), Tuesday brought warmer temps and that typical piercing blue sky. Another Neon Museum nicety is that they offered umbrellas to shade the tourists.

    The tour itself was a little more compact and dialed in since our 2009 visit... and that was a little better and a little worse. Part of the charm years ago was the scattershot signs kinda all over the place because they weren't in any particular order. These days, the signs are positioned nicely to highlight the better ones, and there is a defined walking path. From the tour, you could also see more of the boneyard across the streets with some signs reaching over the chain link fence (including the Lady Luck). Seemed a shame to honor some signs and let others rot across the street.

    Then again, they are inanimate objects without feelings, so I didn't have to look into their sad, puppy dog eyes like you do when you leave that one really older, cute dog behind when you visit the humane society.

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    Also tight was the precisely one-hour tour time, which meant that if you didn't use the courtesy umbrella, you got a little bit of sun.

    We had purchased the Neon Museum / Mob Museum combo ticket, but with my wife hobbling along, I didn't think it a good idea to spend three hours walking the Mob Museum. The attendant at the Neon Museum mentioned that we had three days, so we figured that if she was feeling better on Wednesday that we could attend then.

    With a big hole in The Matrix where the Mob Museum used to be, we decided to instead do Wednesday afternoon's schedule of spending time at Palace Station, Gold Coast and the Palms.

    After my wife signed up for the Stations card and I redeemed my MyVegas vouchers (for a $10 table games match play and a free T-shirt), we sat next to each other at a bank of slot machines. The first $40 went pretty quickly, so I re-evaluated my casino strategy and decided that craps was the way to go. Gambling Jones 10, Not an Idiot 2... time for a comeback!

    However, I think it took me all of about 6 minutes to blow through almost $200 at the $3 table. Not only do I think that nobody hit a point in the five shooters (including me, twice) but I am not sure I ever collected money from my placed 6 and 8, either. Now down almost $250 in a half hour (after a thorough butt-whipping the previous day) I needed to stop the bleeding until my wife decided it was time to leave. I found a $10 double-deck game that paid 3:2 with DAS... and proceeded to lose another $150 or so. During the festivities at the blackjack table, my wife found me and (sigh) showed me a cashout ticket for over $800. Playing the $1.35 max on the same machine I left her at, she hit nine gold 7s for the progressive jackpot.

    That was (apparently) exactly what I needed to see to bring back my sunny disposition.

    I colored up and cashed out and headed to the gift shop for my T-shirt and learned that there are no complimentary MyVegas T-shirts in size 3XL. What was a reward for me playing their stupid slot machine video game became a souvenir for our 18-year old daughter (who had been told that there wouldn't be any souvenirs). We had spent more time than expected at Palace Station, so Palms (which we've never played at) was chosen as the next destination instead of the Gold Coast.

    In signing up for our player's card at the Palms, I got to spin a virtual wheel on an iPad and won $25 in free play. I took that to a $1 Top Dollar machine and turned the free play into a $100 profit... I LUV turning free play into real money. There's something so dirty about it that gives me the tingles in my nether regions. I took that money over to a $0.25 Double-Double bonus VP machine (Gambling Jones 10, Not an Idiot 3... I got burned on table games so I went to fullish-pay games). Before long I hit a quad, so I parlayed to $0.50 and quickly hit another quad.

    Feeling ballsy, I parlayed to dollars. I had gotten hammered on $1 VP at both South Point on and Paris on Sunday, so I did have to convince myself to do it.

    And I gave most of it back. I did go down to half dollars, and then back to quarters. Eventually, I cashed out with that same $100 that I started with from the Top Dollar hit. I went to find my wife, still beaming about being ahead for that session when I saw it.

    Yep. The $1 Sizzlin' 7.

    Yep, three minutes later I left the Palms dead even on the session. Gambling Jones 11, Not an Idiot 3.

    Next on the agenda was a trip to Gordon Ramsay BurGR. I had been two years prior, and we watch all of Ramsay's shows (Side note; does it seem too obvious that Ariel would win this season? She is playing with an injury like Dave - the Season 6 winner - and I don't believe has ever been put up for elimination. I think Kristin will battle with her in the Finals, but I don't think there's a chance that Ariel doesn't win).

    This was the first time that I had over-eaten since arriving five days earlier (not counting those horrible gnocchi at Lago... that wasn't over-eating, that was stupid-eating) and I wasn't happy with myself. I started with the Jalapeno Poppers. Six nice big, breaded poppers, but each one was served in its own shot glass of ranch sauce. That was fine for the first two or three, but the sauce was cold and by the time I got to the last few poppers, the fried crust had gummy and the innards had gotten cold from the sauce. I was quite disappointed because my non-spice-enjoying wife (I don't understand it, either) wasn't going to have one and I am guessing it was plated like that under the assumption that the appetizer would be shared and therefore the poppers would be eaten before they got cold and gummy.

    I had the Hell's Kitchen burger which I enjoyed, though I wish there was a way to keep the avocado from trying to squirt away on every bite. My wife had the Farm Burger (without the egg) and she was gleaming with happiness. We also each had a shake... not sure what she had but I had the Banana Split shake with butterscotch pudding. And here is where I had another issue. I am paying $9 for a shake, and half of it wasn't ice cream but pudding. This butterscotch pudding was very good, but there was so much of it. Then when I was finished with the shake and was trying to slurp up the melty bits, I got a mush full of warm pudding. Not good. But my wife, well, it was her special trip and she loved every moment, so she tried to buy a souvenir T-shirt.

    And they were out of 3XL T-shirts... If I had the video camera running, I could have pinpoint her heart breaking into two odd-shaped parts. The waitress took her phone number and gave us the card of the restaurant manager, but as of a week later, the phone has been silent. On a scale of 1-5 gummy Jalapeno Poppers, this trip to BurGR only rated 2-1/2. Very frustrating as my previous visit had been Aces and my wife was really looking forward to it. Apparently we have to try again next April when we are in Las Vegas.

    The timing was pretty good, as we were able to get to the V Theater in plenty of time for All Shook Up, which had been one of my wife's Christmas gifts to me. I was looking forward to the show, but admit to being a bit apprehensive because the Elvis "tributes" are starting to fade away.

    But not this guy (Travis Allen) who does a spectacular job (especially from the front row)...

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    Similar to the Penn and Teller Fool Us taping, when we arrived at the V Theater we were sent upstairs to stand around for a half hour before we were let in. Once in, the show started immediately, but I don't understand this fascination of having people stand around in anticipation, not knowing if they are in the right spot or how long they will be hanging around.

    The show lasted about 65 minutes and was fantastic. He sang just about every song that I can recall (without consulting the internet, I can come up with two of his non-Gospel songs that he didn't sing). Elvis even had the Vegas Elvis moves down, right to handing out scarves to the ladies in the crowd. He dedicated An American Trilogy to veterans, which was doubly cool as I hadn't expected him to sing that as I thought I was the only one that loved that song. Not sure how much my wife paid for the tickets, but they were worth every penny, and it is certainly something I'd do again on a future trip.

    Since we were in the neighborhood, the next stop was a ride on the High Roller. And this, my Vegas Obsessed friends, started a divide that may never be rejoined. See, months ago in planning, I am absolutely positive that my wife said that she'd like to take a ride on the High Roller and - again, this being her trip - who was I to argue? So from that day, it occupied the post-Elvis spot in The Matrix. But when we were actually there, she is adamant that her fear of heights would not allow her to enjoy it, and she's only going because I said I wanted to do it. I don't know... I know personally that I could take or leave it, so I am not sure how she figured I wanted it.

    Regardless, here I was with two evening tickets in hand, so dammit, she was getting on that pod. I've never seen her so relaxed while holding on for dear life...

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    I may have dismissed the High Roller, though, but it wasn't without its charms. The view is spectacular, and the thirty minutes seem to breeze by, leaving me wanting more. Pretty sure my wife's taken her last ride, though.

    It was starting to get late and I was concerned for her knee (which hadn't been iced all day) but she insisted that we continue onto the Cosmopolitan so that I could try my very first Verbena. We were looking for 1.5 at the Chandelier Bar, but the bartender said that wasn't open that night. I had asked if we could get a Verbena from him, and he said "Sure". My wife and I sit down at two adjoining video poker machines and before we slide our money in, he serves each of us a Verbena, with the information that in order to drink free, we have to play at least a dollar per hand continually, and that he could provide one drink every 10 minutes.

    That was great, but my wife doesn't drink and didn't want a Verbena. It appeared that I would have two of them.

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    And then the moment arrived. I had been waiting for years to try this drink, and I pop the Szechuan button in my mouth, chew for a second and swallow hard (the button tastes, well, horrible... like eating a dandelion) then take a sip.

    It was a'ight. A little tingly, nothing too remarkable. Then the bartender (who I am sure was watching) said that I should take the second one right away, and chew for a full 30 seconds. I did as I was told (no problems with authority in the James household), swallowed, and took a drink.

    My Lord Jesus, God Almighty, I think I saw my Lord Jesus. My tongue was on fire, but in a good way. I can't explain it, but it physically hurt to drink this drink... which meant that I had to start hammering them because I didn't know when the feeling would end.

    Then, when I was close to done with my second one, I see a big, black hair on the bottom of the glass. The bald bartender apologized and replaced the drink with an extra large one, but the buzz was starting to wear off. And since I am an amateur drunk (who was driving) I nursed that one while playing VP, even though I was well past the time limit for another one. But I learned a very valuable lesson... CHEW THAT BUTTON!

    It was around 11:00 PM and I thought our day to be over, but my wife wanted to go back to the South Point. She had signed up for some bowling jackpots (that pay off based on her score relative to others) and she wanted to see if she had won. Turns out she won some money, but not quite enough to make a profit. However, we made the trek to South Point, I told her that we may as well hang around and play for awhile.

    I had a so-so session. Some Batman slot payed me $60, so I took that to a Quick Hit game and turned that into $0. Then I found a multi-denomination Double-Double bonus game, and I decided to adhere to the Strict Rules of Parley. I slid in $20 (also participating in Royal Flushers "Drilling test holes" technique for finding that well paying machine) and on the very first hand was dealt four 4s (no kicker, though). It took one hand and I was ready to parlay to half-dollars, and just like at the Palms, I had a quick quad to send me to dollars.

    And I was ready. In the two days since my headache developed, I had lost $1290. And now my $20 in the machine was $220, and I am on dollars. The chase is on. I strapped in, ordered a ginger ale from the waitress and entered The Zone.

    I exited The Zone an hour later after giving it all back. But in the big picture, I was only down about $60 since getting to South Point and my wife looked very comfortable in her chair playing slots, so I told her that I was going to play slots near the center of the casino by the buffet entrance. By the time I had gotten there, though, I decided that I was due for a blackjack run. Gambling Jones... hell, I lost track of the score. But I do know that Not an Idiot is not going down without a fight.

    I find a double-deck $10 game near the center of the casino by the buffet and sit down with four other guys. And you know what? I had a lot of fun. Lost about $200, but it was a fun $200. Then it occurred to me... I think I had lost my wife.

    At 2:00 AM they changed cards, so I took that time to get up and look for her. I find her barely able to walk, and almost in tears that she had been looking for ME for over a half hour. Discretion being the better part of valor, I go get my chips, cash out and get her back to Paris with an extra large ice bag. We get back around quarter to three and I make one of those Poker Trip discoveries... Five days earlier we got up at 3:30 AM CDT and now it was almost 3:00 PDT. We had lost an entire evening's sleep since we had been in Las Vegas! I love this town...
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2016
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  7. mafig

    mafig Low-Roller

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    Thank you (again). We'll be sure to head to the Palms next week. Never been there and will go now knowing we get a sign-up bonus.
     
  8. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    You spin a virtual wheel on an iPad. I think my wife got $5 off at a restaurant.
     
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  9. WWGB

    WWGB High-Roller

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    Thanks for the tip about the coupon. I'm planning to stop by there in 3 days.
     
  10. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    Wednesday, April 13 -

    The last day is always a sad day. Anyone that says that "I've had enough of Vegas" is cray-cray. Even though I'd lost about $X (with "X" equaling a number that I'm embarrassed to admit to my parents who might read this) in two days, every day in Las Vegas is a new day... full of adventure and discovery. Waiting for me at home is a lawn that looks like crap, a humdrum job and a bathroom sink that leaks.

    But here I was on Wednesday morning. Us young go-getters had gone to bed at 3:00 AM and greeted 8:30 AM as a pair of curmudgeons. We went down to Mon Ami Gabi for breakfast, but to get the comps you need to go to the Total Rewards desk. While there, I spied with my eagle eye a 3-reel, five credit, quarter Quick Hit game. That is the Quick Hit that I fell in love with at the Horseshoe Hammond, and nurtured at Potawatomi. It's kismet. This game would make me a winner.

    Bastard gave me the first two Free Game symbols 22 times before giving me the damn free games.

    I do enjoy breakfast on the patio at Mon Ami Gabi, and dining outdoors in Las Vegas just seems like the right thing to do. We had done that once on a prior trip, and if I remember correctly, we got the exact same table this time, too.

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    My wife had a cinnamon apple waffle and she enjoyed it. I, however, drew a blank on what I wanted. I hadn't begun eating eggs since Sunday, and I recalled not liking their pancakes. So I ordered a modified Chuck buffet and ordered hash browns, bacon and a croissant. Breakfast was great, though service was a little slow and we waited too long for drink refills. On a scale of 1-5 scavenging pigeons, this rates a 3-1/2 because the woeful lack of options for non-egg eaters. I'm sure we'll be back again for the view, and I'm sure to grumble about the menu, too.

    While packing and getting ready to check-out, my wife and I agreed that there was still no way she could walk for hours at the Mob Museum. I didn't want to see them go to waste, so I got on a couple of Vegas Facebook groups and offered them to anyone who could use them by Thursday. Turns out that not only did someone want them, they were headed that way and were close to where we were while we were texting, so I was able to make a couple of guys happy and not waste a lot of my precious last day in doing it. Now, to wait for the karmic moment when I am standing outside the World Cup final without a ticket...

    Although we weren't going to the Mob Museum, we did end up going downtown for a couple of hours. My wife wanted to do some cheap souvenir shopping while I had to do some serious bankroll repair.

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    She vaporized and I headed into Binions (where I had a $20 free play). The PIN for my card didn't work, so I went to the player's club desk, and while there I spied stacks of Binions playing cards on a nearby counter. The clerk went on and on about earning points, swipe over there, do this, do that, etc., and if I am lucky I can win hundreds in free play. Though free play would be good with only one life left in my bankroll, I only wanted a damn deck of cards.

    I got my five points, swiped, spun and was awarded "A Free Gift". I took the voucher back to the desk and was given...

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    She could have saved so much time by just handing them to me the first time.

    I played my free play (and then some) and headed towards The D where I had a $10 table game match play. I figured I'd play the match play, win, and make my scratch back before we left.

    I got as far as the Bonus progressive VP bank at the Four Queens (Gambling Jones wins the World Championship, folks). The good news was about 90 minutes of break even play. Hit a couple of quads, gave it back, and netted $0 when I walked back to meet my wife to head to the final stop of the trip.

    For close to 20 years, I'd wanted to get to the Bellagio buffet. And thanks to the fine folks at My Vegas, I was going to get there on a BOGO reward at about 2:30 PM... right at the time of the dinner changeover. I was thrilled - and I admit that half of the fun was the discovery - with the meal and had everything I wanted - and more. I knew this was the last meal of the day and I ate like it. Meanwhile, my wife started coming down with a headache, and we were hoping it didn't become a migraine because, well, I had used up her shots! Other than her quieting down, the only real casualty were the crab legs that I didn't get around to trying. On a scale of 1-5 uneaten crablegs, the Bellagio Buffet was a 4. Slight downgrades because some of the food was lukewarm instead of good and hot, but I'd happily take another MyVegas BOGO in the future.

    And with that, the worst part of the worst day... heading to return the rental car at the Westin. Since Enterprise will pick you up and drop you off, I checked if they could take me to the airport, but the Taxi Mafia has that locked down.

    Then I remembered that my wife has a checking account (and debit card) in her name, so we downloaded the app and set her up with a free ride on Uber. Worked like a charm, too, except for the driver who couldn't help load the bags because of his recent back surgery, drove like my grandpa (who has been dead for 33 years) and kept the air conditioning on at the "I am a local who did not help with your bags" level.

    Other than that, the ride to the airport, the flight and the drive home was all uneventful... which is fantastic when talking about air travel.

    As you can see from my timers below, I already have the dates of my next TWO trips planned. November will be the Poker Trip, scheduled to coincide with a trip to Rum Runners to watch the Packers host Indianapolis, and next April will be MY shot at bowling the national tournament at South Point.

    And as always, I can't wait. Gives me time to rebuild my bankroll, too.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2016
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  11. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    I'm not just incredibly handsome, I'm quite helpful, too.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  12. mafig

    mafig Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Bellagio's lunch buffet changes to dinner at 2:30? We went to lunch a few years ago (early) and I thought it was just OK. However, if we go later it might be better ?
     
  13. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    Officially it switches at 3:00, but they were starting the switch as I was going for Plate 2, so I wasn't sure of the exact time.

    Our goal wasn't to time the real food, our timing was relative to our flight schedule.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
  14. Royal Flusher

    Royal Flusher Savvy Gambler

    Joined:
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    Flusherville, Canada
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    Nicely done, MJ. Sorry that big hit didn't show up on the last day.
     
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  15. oldcrabtom

    oldcrabtom High-Roller

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    Thanks for the interesting report, Mebby better luck on your next adventure............:drunk:
     
  16. bretmc

    bretmc Low-Roller

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    Awesome trip report very good read. Sounded like a great time!
     
  17. kkinwi

    kkinwi VIP Whale

    Joined:
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    Very much enjoyed your details...I was there that rainy weekend and lost my a$$ because I didn't have a car and was not able to be out and about.
     
  18. D in the D

    D in the D Oldest ride, Longest Line

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    Great report, thanks for sharing. Sorry the big hit didn't come. Next time.
     
  19. KnowItAll

    KnowItAll VIP Whale

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    Great report, thanks foe taking time to share
     
  20. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

    Joined:
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    Thanks for all the good words.

    Going to Reno for 3-1/2 days at the end of May... look for another trip report in early-June.
     
    USBC Nationals are back in Vegas
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