5 days at plaza and rio

what an unoriginal title! first of all, let me say thanks to everyone else submitting a trip report, it seems like before we left on our trip on 8-28, there were no new reports to help pass the time, and now that we are back, there a lots of them!

this was our third and last trip of 2006, all a combination of two or three days of trade show, along with at least one day of just playing, with a lot of playing on the nights of the trade shows, too.

left the house at our usual 3 am, to get to the airport and depart at 6 am. the good news with that is that we connect perfectly in salt lake, usually, and are in las vegas before 9 am las vegas time. all went well on that front, we split up at the airport, wife into a cab to the venetian for a trade show, me in the shuttle to take all the luggage to the plaza, and hopefully to check in early.

plaza does not allow early check in, told me it would be noon, had to go back down from the stupid third floor checkin to the bell desk, and get some stuff out of my luggage. went to the golden nugget, found by big split machines, and lost a hundred there, and to my lucky dollar machine at the four queens and it ate a hundred really fast. i was not to have much good luck on the machiens this trip, but after the last three trips where i had extraordinary luck, i knew it was about time and cant complain.

having lost enough, went to the golden gate deli for the breakfast/lunch of champions, a french dip, original shrimp cocktail, and a beer. back to the plaza and up to the checkin, just after noon, a twenty minute long line, with just the same two clerks there that were there two hours ago. they had no record of our name, luckily one of the things i had gotten out of the luggage was our confirmation number, and that worked enough to get them to give us a room, though i had to go back later to check that the room was at the FREE rate that we were in on. the room was actually very nice, a view up main toward the strip, with a good bed. the furniture and the carpet did not show near as much wear and age as our room at the four queens last year, i guess with the total experience in mind, i would stay there again, but it would again have to be free or very inexpensive.

after the checkin, then you call the bell desk, and they actually got the bags there pretty rapidly, though i should have just went down and got them myself.

went down, got a cab to The STRAT , cashed a coupon they had mailed us for 30 dollars free cash, at the cage. checked the pay table on one vp machine, did not like it, walked out with the 30. cab to the venetian took another 12, so i think i netted 10 bucks on the trip. walking into the venetian, from their valet/cab stop was like walking into another world! nice young lady, greeting and answering questions as you walked in, pointed me very accurately to the box office, where i picked up our tickets to phantom of the opera for that night. made my way to the trade show, met my wife, we made a couple more purchases there, but she had gotten most of the days business done!

we played at the venetian for a couple of hours, great cocktail service in the race book as always, and it was time for our 5 pm reservations at delmonico! having gotten up at 3 am, the timing for dinner was actually just about right.

everything great we had heard about delmonico was true. perfect timing with everything, had a discussion about what medium rare meant there, and both our steaks, although ordered medium rare, were different and perfect within our requests of how we wanted them. we had their bone in rib steaks, their specialty, along with sides of button mushrooms and a twice baked cheddar potato, and an appetizer of emerils barbecued shrimp. the 70 page wine list had everything on it, and we found a 40 dollar australian shiraz that was perfect with our meal. total tab, with tip, was 225 dollars, and we would return to delmonico again tomorrow, and certainly will do it again on another trip.

from dinner to the phantom theater. the show is a spectacle, we enjoyed it, although our early rising time was catching up on us, and we learned that doing a show on our first night is just no longer an option, we must be getting old! the stage and special effects are worth seeing, the story line is a lot sketchy when the show is shortened to an hour and a half from the 3 hour broadway show, (so we have heard). anyway, if you have done the cirque show and blue man group, this is probably next, but i think i wish we would have went to LOVE instead.

by a little after 9 we are back down at the plaza, the end of a very long day, down about400 on the gambling plus the cost of dinner, time for the day to end.

tomorrow, another trade show at the hilton, more gambling unluck at paigow, racing, and video poker, and dinner at the redwood grill in the california.

 

forgot to mention the french onion soup at delmonico. rather than the bread and cheese cruse on top of the soup, their french onion is served in a large shallow bowl, with a round piece of bread topped by the cheese placed on top, covering only a small portion of the bowl. this soup is the best french onion i have ever had, and we were commenting about the taste, thinking it had wine added to it, and when we were overheard by the waitstaff, they informed us that it was actually jim beam that was the special ingredient!

anyway, woke early the next morning at the plaza, and went down and had a forty dollar cup of coffee at the video poker bar while my wife was getting ready. when she came down she bought one at the snack bar, that is what i should have done! cabbed to the hilton and the convention center, worked the show for most of the day, when wife went to work the jewelry booths, i headed for the casino.

at the hilton racebook, i asked for a form, they charged me a dollar for it, when i questioned that just kinda got a shrug..they always had been no charge. rio charged me two bucks the next day, but gave me one the next day when they recognized me. also got one at treasure island on thursday for free, but with a smiling good luck thrown in. had no luck on the races, made my way to the pai gow table. the dealer was helpingme set my first few hands as i was recalling how to play the game, but doing things the house way wound up costing me twice, so then i just quit. i had been about 45 dollars ahead playing at 15 a hand, but left 25 down. still one of the fun games, where you can hold your dollars together, especially in a place like the hilton where i have a tough time finding a good video poker game. hilton poker room, at 5 pm, was absolutely dead! could it be the poker trend is cooling off?

wife joined me, cabbed back downtown, and went to get reservations at the redwood grill in the california. got there at 630, were able to get a rez for 730. lost 140 playing vp, should have just went into the lounge, which is what we did about 715. piano player immediately asked what we wanted to hear, requested a song from our wedding, wife got teary that i remembered the song! got to talking with both the piano player and the waitress, he was a former philosophy professor at the u of montana, while she wanted to sell her las vegas home and move to montana, so we all had something to talk about.

dinner was their off menu special, 18 oz porterhouse, or what we call a t-bone in montana, with soup or salad, and dessert. also ordered their crabcakes to split as an appetizer, and had drinks we had carrried in from the bar. total tab was about 60 with tip. while not delmonico, the redwood grill is a nice place, a quiet little place that many people dont find, and one of the values of las vegas.

played a little around downtown, mostly at the golden nugget, and scored a straight flush times a 3 of a kind on my big split machine there to somewhat salvage the day, ending up down 320, in total including the cabs and meals, for the day.

 

Thanks for the report Kitson.
I have not heard a complaint about the Redwood Grill ever. It is one of those places that you can depend on for a good meal at a reasonable price.
As for the Racing Forms, many places are now charging for them. Even the El Cortez does, but, they give you back the buck or two when turn it in. That's fine with me.

 

wednesday morning was our move over to the rio, for two free nights there.

cabbed over, and just walking in is a delight. all five senses are treated better than they are downtown. went up to the desk, smilingly asked if there was possibly a room ready, we had gotten up early. the nice girl punched up our info, queen non, which puts us in the masquerade tower, and yes, i do have one for you! what a contrast to the plaza, which probably had hundreds of empty rooms, and told me to come back at noon to stand in line! up to our just cleaned room, 27th floor, pool view.

our last trade show is just downstairs, at the rio convention center, as we leave the room, our maid is cleaning next door, asks how the room is? and tells us her name and just to ask for anything we need!

one of the nice things about the trade show at the rio is that they serve a free lunch right there, partly to protect themselves from having the customers leave for lunch elsewhere in las vegas and never return! i made it until about 4 pm, while my wife shopped until closing, i went to find a paigow table, and found one for 15, the others already marked at 25 minimum, but empty. i played for a while, probably about an hour, and they raised the table i was at to 25, too, though i kept playing at 15. the second dealer at my table was a guy, not nearly as friendly as the first dealer and he was drawing some good cards, so i had to leave, and had to ask the pit boss for my players card back. for the rest of the stay, the paigow tables were at 25 minimums, with the dealers standing there, and one table at 15, with a full table and others potential players crowding around. i could have told them what to do...

had a 10 dollars each off coupon for the seafood buffet that was in a brochure in our room, and even though we had had a terrible experience with the rio seafood buffet, we decided to try it one more time. even with the coupon, it was still 53 dollars with tax for the two of us, but the service was good, we found the food much better, and warmer, and enjoyed it very much.

went our separate ways to play, did not have much luck, but had a twofer coupon for the erocktica show, and figured that was cheaper than pushing some more money into the machines, so went and got the tickets, still 60 for two, with the taxes, and then told the wife we were going to the jiggle show.

she was game, bought her an eight dollar gin and tonic to help things along. theme of the show is sex, sweat, and rock and roll. one male singer, a female singing "star" named gabriella versace and seven dancers with, according to the wife, some seriously nice boobies! when gabriella spoke, she had this really weird, so fake it might have been real italian accent. the posters show her with her head thrown back singing, with a view of the bottom of her chin, and this might have actually been her best profile. nice body though, but did not witness her boobies. the male singer, as expected, made the usual side comments about the rest of the show performers. both of the stars could sing pretty well, thought maybe they were lip synching, but at the end of song lines they would kinda trail off. at least i understood this show a little better than phantom of the opera. most of the audience was made up of couples, with a few scattered groups of just guys, and while enjoyable, i dont think it goes on my list to go see again.

ended the day, down 504 bucks for the day, luckily had better luck the last two days, so while laying out cash those two days, too, won some of it back and spent only 1421 for the entire 5 day trip, including a couple more nice meals and one more spur of the moment show.

 

thursday was our last full day, had a ten oclock appointment at the trade show, then dumped the briefcase, out to the shuttle and over to caesars. played a little at the machine where i had hit my royal in may, but no luck. went through the forum shops, found a gadget or two for our son at brookstone, and wife had found a designer named purse for our daughter earlier, so souvenirs were taken care of.

ate at joes prime steak and stone crab in the forum shops. service was fantastic, food was good, though after the seafood buffet we passed on their specialty stone crabs, we want to go back here sometime for dinner. lunch with one beer and a tenderloin sandwich for me, no drink, coconut shrimp and soup of the day for the wife, with tip, was 55.

out of caesars, over to mirage, tram to ti. split up there at ti, to play, i was playing a nickel, five play, multistrike, double double bonus machine. for those of you who can decipher what this is, great! so, i was playing 20 hands at a time, max coins. i had gotten a pair of jacks of something on the deal on the first level, so was live on all 5 hands on the second level, which pays double. i was dealt 4 fours, with the 3 kicker, so won 80 bucks on each of the five hands! dealt three of a kind on the third level, and then a pair of aces on the fourth 8x level. that machine sang and sang, and after playing a little longer, waiting for the cocktail waitress to return and giving some of my winnings back, cashed out with the 400 profit.

up the escalator, over to the fashion show and tickets for tonight. was thinking mama mia, but Carrot Top tickets were half price, still 62 for two, with the taxes and fees, so got carrot top tix. back over to the ti, met my wife, who also had went shopping at the fashion show instead of playing. met her at the race book and had a ticket on a race upcoming so she went out to the casino for a little while and came back and we headed for the luxor to exchange our carrot top voucher for the real tickets. halfway or better to the luxor, i asked, where is the brookstone bag?

she had left it hanging on a hook in a ti restroom! uturn the cab, 13 bucks down the drain. to the restroom, no it was gone, and the attendant had not seen anything. calmed down, went to ask about a lost and found, they directed us to security, and the very nice people there listened, said there was nothing, but gave us a card and number, and told us that sometimes it takes a few hours for something to work through the system. not much hope, but a glimmer.

to the luxor, really did not feel like playing, finally ate a bowl of soup and nachos at their coffee shop place, and went to the show. wife did not feel like a drink either, but i had one, and carrot top did his job and entertained us and pulled us out of our disappointment. really, when a person can waste a hundred dollar bill in ten minutes or less in a machine, what does the loss of 80 dollars worth of souvenirs mean, we can always go buy them again! but we were still kind of in a funk for a while about it.

home to the rio for the night, total dollars down for the day, 19.

 

woke up friday, first action of wife is to call the security dept. at ti. it is! god bless you! this is turning out to be a great day! a serious thank you to whoever turned that package in, whether it was a customer who saw it hanging there and took it and turned it in, or the restroom attendant who thought twice and turned it in later, we are grateful.

instead of our usual last day routine of going from the rio to the gold coast, hurdling oxygen tanks to the front door and going to the palms, we got on the shuttle, went to harrahs, across the street to the ti tram, and to their security dept. thank you also to the professionals there, who did their due diligence in determining that we were the original losers of the package.

played a little through various places, and would up at the flamingo. since we may not make it back within 6 months, and harrahs only gives us that long before points expire, we went to the players club desk at flamingo, got our harrahs points from the rio moved over into their system, and used the points to have lunch, up on the third floor deck of margaritaville, listening to the tunes, having a daquiri and looking out toward caesars, misters keeping us cool. saved money too, keeping us off the machines in our last few hours.

over to caesars, made our way to the shuttle pickup point, waited maybe 3 minutes and the bus to the rio pulls up! back over to the rio, played the horses for an hour, hittting a little, and played a progressive .25 ddb for a few minutes. hit a four of a kind, played down to an even number, and cashed out my last session a little ahead!

hope there are some helpful details hidden somewhere within this very long report that will help some of you. like i said before, other peoples trip reports help me pass the time between my own trips, this is payback for some of those, i hope in a good way.

 

Nice TR. I think the best part for me was reading that you got you package back. Hearing about honest people always makes me smile. Glad you had a good time too!

 

thanks for the report