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Cal, April 15-19

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Joe, Apr 25, 2016.

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  1. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    My Trip Report

    A summary of our trip April 15-19.



    First, some of you might be saying Cal? Joe is a die hard MSS person. That is true, but we are trying to change things up a bit and my wife doesn't sleep well in Vegas. All the suites at MSS have a king bed and she now prefers two queens. At home, it's one king and no sleeping problems. That's also the reason for the next Suncoast trip. No problems at MSS, just looking for some variety.

    We had a nice suite on the top floor of Cal West tower, room 2320. The room overlooked the 20x odds craps sign at MSS, meaning it faced West and I must say it was almost as loud as a suite at MSS. Maybe freeway noise was a little less, but train whistles just as loud. Next time I’ll ask for an odd number room and be on the other side of the west tower.

    [​IMG]

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    Odd thing, this suite had two refrigerators. One standard hotel size and this larger one.

    [​IMG]


    But, unlike a MSS suite we had to request a coffee maker be delivered to the room and there was no place to set it up except in the bathroom.

    You shouldn’t have to say this in mid-April in Vegas, but we come back to the room around 1 AM and can’t get the heat to work. It’s not one of those wall units, but built in, with a wall thermostat. It just continues to blow cold air and the room is cold.

    Saturday morning I call down for a fix and they tell me I have to remove the DND sign so maintenance can come into the room. We don’t like doing that on our normal 4 night stay. We just catch housekeeping in the hall for some extra towels and keep the DND sign on for the entire trip. Anyway, they fix the heat and since there is no DND sign, the maid comes in and cleans the room.

    Sunday morning and my wife usually wants to get an early start, while I’m a lounge around the room person, especially if I’m losing. OK, losing I am, so I’ll watch a few Sunday morning news/talk shows. The cable isn’t working!!! Call down to the desk and ask if it’s our room or bigger outage? I’m told they are not aware of any problems, but she’ll check and call me back. Two minutes later she calls back and says it’s a hotel problem and they are working to fix it.

    OK, I guess I’m taking a shower and heading out. To lose some more.

    I finish the shower and there is that metal tapping on the door, even though the DND sign is on. Wrapped in a towel I peek and see it’s hotel maintenance. OK, let him in and he says he has to reset my cable. What followed was a scene from a bad sitcom. Me, wrapped in a bath towel, he comes in, turns on the TV and says, ok, the cable is reset and working!

    Gambling-wise: My wife played quarter BP or JOB and lost about $200 for the trip. Me, $ DDB for the entire trip. Not one 4oak with a kicker and in fact not one premium quad of any kind. Saturday I played for 13 hours at MSS and ended up with ONE scratch card. Yikes!

    Some of you may remember my whining from our Feb trip where I had to tap my line of credit 3 times for a total of $6,000. Anyway, I burned through the $2,000 I brought with me and went to tap the LOC again on Sunday morning. I’m told I’m over my credit limit! WTF? I’m broke in Vegas with two days to go! :cry:

    They call a supervisor to the cage and he tells me they never received my marker payment from February. I mailed it to them about 2 weeks after we got back. So mid March. Unlike some casinos MSS sends an invoice to my house and I send them a check for the amount I owe. So the supervisor says he'll authorize an additional $2,000 to my LOC. Whew, no longer broke, but now wondering where the hell my check went.

    I came home and did an online check and sure enough the check was never cashed. I wrote them a new check for the Feb and April marker and mailed it in.

    We met VMB member Outsider for dinner on Monday at Redwood. A nice meal and good conversation. The rest of the meals pretty normal stuff. Garden Court buffet, 777, and Chicago Brewing for pizza.

    I had made a reservation at Hugo’s for Saturday, online and even though I have almost $350 in 4Q comp points coming, we just blew off the reservation. Normally I am very good about cancelling a reservation when we change our mind, but I didn’t in this case. Anyway, I get a kind of nasty phone call from them which in essence said, where the hell are you?

    DDB gaming losses of approximately $3,200. I’ll get em next time!.

    Friday 6 PM through Tuesday, 49,000 card score points. Late arrival, time difference, so only 4,600 points on the Friday play.
     
  2. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    nice report Joe..sucks about the losing trip(s) though.
    also hopefully that 4600 point day doesn't come back to bite you in the ass.
     
  3. Royal Flusher

    Royal Flusher Savvy Gambler

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    Sucky trip, that's a real drag, especially to have two bad ones in a row. Sorry to hear it.

    Where was the second fridge?

    And has Redwood been renovated?
     
  4. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Second fridge was a mini (same size as MSS) in the hallway that led to the bathroom and the separate makeup table area. It was a nice suite.

    No Redwood changes so far.

    San Francisco Bar still covered with tarps. The sportsbook is moving downstairs, but not sure where. GM replied to my email that the snack bar area is going to have slots while they make the move of the sportsbook from second floor to first??
     
  5. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Well how low can they go. I was at zero in freeplay, now back at $25. Our host, so far, has no problem comping the suite, limo and Gold Card. It's still $49,000 over 4 days. No play on morning departure day.

    We get in at 5 PM, casino at 6:30 and then the drinks kick in; 2 hour time zone change and we're in the room by 1 AM Vegas time. I also guess we must have chatted up with a lot of employees we know and that slowed down our coin-in. But, we come to Vegas for a good time, not like your sig!
     
  6. daveg000

    daveg000 VIP Whale

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    Joe, sorry to hear your wife has trouble sleeping in Vegas, My wife had a similar problem.

    We both worked in an auto Factory for years and of course it slightly effected our lungs (dust, contaminated coolant mist, welding smoke, asbestos, who knows what!). We both smoked for decades,

    I explained to her that the change in altitude, from Wisconsin to Las Vegas was just enough to cause a slight Feeling of Claustrophobia, keeping her awake.

    After that, she relaxed and has not had the problem since (knock on wood).

    I think I was telling the truth, I recognized it during earlier trips when I still smoked and still worked in the factory. We both have been retired for 7 years and both haven't smoked for 4 years, and neither of us has had the problem in years
     
    15 NIGHTS, 16 DAYS, May 8-23, MGM PK, GOLDN NUGGET, TIMESH, MANDALAY
    15 NIGHTS, 16 DAYS, May 8-23, MGM PK, GOLDN NUGGET, TIMESH, MANDALAY
  7. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    I never gave that a thought, but yes the elevation of the Milwaukee area is 600 ft, while Vegas is over 2,000 feet.
     
  8. casinokid68

    casinokid68 Caesars Diamond Member

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    Thanks for the trip report. Sucks about the video poker results. I must say, some hotels are so run down, it's horrible. The heat not working, cable not working, noise from train tracks. What a horrible hotel. To go through that while on vacation? There must be better places to stay, even downtown. i have never stayed downtown, I only stay on the strip. There are certain hotels on the strip that are worn as well, but sorry dude, this California hotel sounds like a disaster. Go back to MSS next time. You seem to enjoy it there. Variety is not always good, at least as far as hotels go. :nono:
     
  9. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    I didn't mean to imply our hotel or room was run down. We did have some issues, but they were corrected. I get free room offers for the CET properties every month, but no way in hell do I want to stay on the Strip anymore.

    A year or two ago we decided to use one of my offers, again for a change of pace . We double booked and checked into Paris for 3 nights. We never made it to the room. After 4 hours of the Strip, crappy paytables, porn slappers, crowds and not wanting to pay an early check-in fee, we said fu*k it, and headed back to downtown, for the room we had double booked at MSS. To each his own, but I know downtown is our happy place, not the Strip.

    Its been 20 years since we gave up on the Strip for downtown and we don't regret it at all.
     
  10. Ty

    Ty ?

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    Joe, thanks for the TR. I enjoyed it.

    Sorry to hear about your loss. I'm a bit surprised MSS hadn't called you about the unpaid debt. Did they charge interest or any late fee? And, if you don't mind me asking, is the credit line at MSS joint with your wife?
     
  11. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Ty, I didn't think about a phone call, but never got one but it does make sense. As far as interest, no never. About two weeks after a trip I get an invoice, mail in a check and then about two weeks later they mail back my markers.

    I've been doing it that way for at least a dozen years.
     
  12. Electroguy563

    Electroguy563 Vegas Joker

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    Thanks for the trip report! I'm anxious to be back in Vegas and in my home casino, the Cal. Sorry you had issues with your suite, hopefully the next visit will yield better results.

    I stayed on the top floor suites (rm. 2314 and 2316) my last two solo trips, why I have no idea. I really hoped I would get one this past trip when my Wife came with me but we were given a regular room.

    Sucks that you had really hard luck and was broke after a couple of days. Good that you had a LOC to fall back on. I always fear that it will happen to me (going broke) and I don't have a LOC to fall back on. I don't know what I'd do if it happens.
     
  13. Outsider

    Outsider Tourist

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    Hey Joe, thanks so much for the idea of the get together. I enjoyed the time the three J’s spent together. Sorry you didn’t have more of those 4OAKs like the nines and eights I saw you hit within a few hands of each other at the Boar’s Head on Monday afternoon. Dinner was great, and I appreciate your generosity.

    I didn’t do much better gambling then you, and I stayed another few more days after you went home. To recap, I won just a bit on two craps sessions, as for VP, I hit 4 Aces for $s at the Cosmopolitan, then downtown I got a W-2 at the Fremont for a ½ $, Super Times 4xs 4 Aces, and then the coolest hand I was a dealt was triple play quad 2s, which I got the kicker on one hand. All totaled, 5 loosing days and 1 winning day; I came up short. Better luck for all in the future.
    Best Wishes
     
  14. C0usineddie

    C0usineddie VIP Whale

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    Too bad about the losses but you knew what you were doing.

    you know you can make secure payments online now that are instant, secure and come with tracking data should you need it like you did this trip.
     
  15. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Sorry to hear that you couldn't get anything going this trip. But no premium quads with that card score? Down $3200 is actually pretty good in that scenario! :eek:
     
  16. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Tring, I know you are the number cruncher, but it doesn't feel "pretty good".:cry:
     
  17. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    I emailed the GM this morning asking why my second check to pay off the markers hasn't been cashed either. Somebody from the Credit Department emailed me right back that they were cashed Monday and my markers are in the mail.

    I also asked why nobody contacted me when the original markers were 6 weeks old and no payment had been make. They both chose to ignore the question.
     
  18. makikiboy

    makikiboy VIP Whale

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    Joe, too bad about your problems with the hotel. I regularly stay at the Cal and I seldom have any issues with it. A lot of the problems going on are because of the renovations being done. They are working on the first floor and will be working on the 2nd floor after that. They recently changed cable providers and I heard here were intermittent problems with the cable. I also heard that they will be renovating the rooms after work is done on the first couple of floors but I'm not sure.

    MSS is a sister hotel to the Cal but I would rate both hotels about the same in terms of rooms and comfort.


    I visited vegas in March and it was a little uncomfortable at the Cal, they were making lots of renovations to the casino floor, got rid of the lanai restaurant, putting in new lights, closed off the portion from the down elevator to the noodle house out to the player's club. (maybe they should have given us a room rate discount for our troubles - yeah, sure).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 29, 2016
  19. Jejas

    Jejas VIP Whale

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    Good report Mr Joe. And sorry hear you didn't have good luck while staying at Cal.
    For me I always lose at MSS and win at Cal (I have my win/lose statements from Boyd to prove).
     
  20. Jejas

    Jejas VIP Whale

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    absolutely agree!
    If I didn't get premium quads in one day, I would have lost more than that.
     
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