Trip Report 1/17-1/19

Trip Report Jan 17-19
This is my first trip report and dedicated to all Vegas junkies and the trip reports they have posted here.

Plan:
To meet up with my brother from L.A. and a friend from Portland. I flew in from Phoenix.

Flight: We all flew in SWA and all landed within 40 min of each other. Gotta love SWA!

Room: Flamingo for $55 per night. Clean, nice, pool view. Staff was friendly but have had some issues in the past.

Day 1
We checked in to the Flamingo at the airport check in at 2 pm with no line. We grab a cab to the strip and stash our bags in the room. It’s now 3pm and lunchtime so off to the Margaretville. We were all disappointed by the food, cheeseburger was OK but the fries SUCKED. And the volcano show was a joke. We all decided that would be our last visit.

I was playing tour guide for the group so we started with an old favorite of mine the Barbary Coast. We walk the 20 yard from door to door and start looking for cheap blackjack and craps. Craps was $10 and blackjack had a few $5 tables but no seats available. It’s Wednesday at 3pm and the tables are packed, don’t any of you people have jobs?

It’s still early so we decide to head over to Bally’s and Paris for some sightseeing. We all enjoy the Paris casino but the tables there are just way out of our price range. We are now getting nervous that we won’t be able to find any cheap, fun place to play some cheap games.

That is when my knowledge from reading this web site kicks in.

I shout out “ O’Sheas†and point to the door. They look at me like I have lost my mind but follow anyway. As soon as we see the sign we know we have found our home. 18 hour happy hour with $1 drafts and $5 blackjack. We played $5 blackjack and 25cVP while enjoying all the free Smirnoff and Soda and Fosters we could guzzle. I put $20 in a bartop VP and play 25c JOB for 2 hours and turn it in to $50. The music they played rocked the house. My bro and friend proclaim me “THE MAN†for finding this great place.

For some reason my memory is fuzzy after that except for a drunken message I left on my voicemail at 2:30am from Bugsy’s bar at the Flamingo. What the hell was I doing there I have no idea but at least I made it home safe.

 

Trip Report 1/17-1/19 Day2

Day 2
I wake up at 9am and ready to go. I call my bro and he is not ready and ends up sleeping until 11am while I play Vp/JOB and drink Vodka at Barbary Coast. Finally we are all ready for some breakfast/lunch so I suggest the Peppermill because I have been there before. I had the French toast which was great, I don’t remember what the others had but no complaints at all. My bro ordered a Bloody Mary and loved it he thought it was cool that they had the old school cocktail waitress. I took them to the fireside lounge in the back. It was empty so we sat for a while to digest, relax and enjoy the fire. WOW! We all love the Peppermill and promise to return the next day.

We then head over to low roller heaven, SLOTS A FUN!!!

I have been there many times in the past and love the craps table near the front door. There is something cool about playing craps while basically standing on the strip.
I get my craps virgin brother to stand next to me and play. When his turn to roll comes he proceeds to roll 8-10 rolls makes a couple points before craping out to a cheering clapping table. He is hooked.
We walk the casino floor and find our friend playing $3 BJ. We join him and played for hours while enjoying the best, most friendly drink service anywhere.
We all decide that SLOTS A FUN is now our new favorite.

My bro and friend wanted to see “old school Vegas†so I took them to El Cortez. I gave them a quick history lesson and tour but it was just too smoky and stinky for these non-smokers.

We walk up Fremont to the Golden Nugget. Now let me say I was at the Nug in August and it was almost unrecognizable. The pool area was spectacular and my brother’s first comment was that he is coming back next summer with his wife.

Watched a FSE show while we walked to MSS for dinner at the 777. The food was OK for the price and we had a little problem.
A waitress at another table dropped a drink and it splashed red goop on my friend and his coat. She never spoke just picked it up and walked away. What the??? We asked our waitress for the manager who said he had to call security over to make a report. The ARMED security arrives and inquires as to what OUR problem was. He looked at the red goop on the jacket and walked away. The manager comes back and informs us that all he can do was take $8 off the bill. No apology, nothing but attitude from an armed staff. I will visit the MSS casino again but never the 777.

I don’t remember gambling a penny downtown.

We cab it back to O’Sheas. They now have a band playing that is not bad. We continue to play and drink until 1am. That is where all the liquor catches up with me and I head back to the room. I get to bed and spend the next 8 hours staring at the ceiling and not sleeping. How is that possible?

 

Trip Report 1/17-1/19 Day 3

Day 3 Last day
Again I wake first at 9am and head to Barbary Coast for some JOB VP. I start playing at the bar about 10am and ordering Vodka and Club soda. Back on the GRAIN TRAIN. OMG.
The others rouse about noon and we grab a cab to Wynn. None of us have ever been there so we all want to check it out. It is very beautiful and we were all impressed for the architecture and arts craft of the tile floor. There were workers patching some areas which I would guess is a non-stop effort. The fountain and gardens are wonderful and we spend some time just relaxing. 5-10 minutes because there no time to loose.

Now hungry we head back to the Peppermill for some hash and eggs. I thought they had homemade corned beef hash, but it was canned. We still love the place but the corned beef hash was, well canned.

We then head back to heaven… you know SLOTS A FUN!!!
More $1 craps and $3 BJ and drinking until 4 pm. Again the waitress was great remembering our drink orders from yesterday.

OH POOP it’s time to grab the bags and catch a cab to the airport.

Return Flight: 27 people on the plane back to Phoenix on a Friday night at 8pm. A strange thing happened on the way home a pretty young lady asked me to sit next to her and hold her hand until we were in the air. Um, OK. She explained this was here first time flying alone and was very afraid.

Overall: We all had a great time, it was just sad to see the demise of the low roller places. When Slots A Fun is no more do you think Vegas will ever have a craps table that close to the strip? I doubt it. Oh well goodbye old girl until we meet again.

Mike

 

didja have any Red Bull to go with that Vodka????

 

Barbary Coast, El Cortez, and Slots 'O Fun.....Don't get much better! My kinda trip!

 

the exact opposite order i hope my trip runs-elcortez, slots then barbary..whose says Vegas is for the rich..

 

And you got her digits, right?

Sounds like a T2V trip report to me. Good stuff Mike!

 

Now this is my kind of trip...stay at the Flamingo and play cheap !! Glad to see there are some low rollers here.

With all the high comped, expensive hotel reports, I have been skipping over most of these trip reports. Glad to hear you had a great time.

 

Wait - if you didn't have grain alcohol (Everclear) in it, it isn't officially the GRAIN TRAIN! There probably are places to get that on the Strip but the only two I know of off the top of my head are Downtown: Mermaids and La Bayou.

Just a minor sniggle though - sounds like a really great trip. Sorry to hear about the issues about two places I've had great fun in - Margaritaville (I was well oiled by the time I got there, that might have been the deciding factor) and 777. At least you can get the good beer elsewhere at MSS...

Thanks for writing up your first trip report!

 

With the HO now gone, Slots-A-Fun is about all there is left for us "High Roller North Strip Faithful"...Gotta love the huge $2 draft beers and margaritas..

Plus you can get a pretty good replica of the (in)famous "Ho Dog" there...

By pretty good, I mean looks similar, not trying to say either theirs or the original are "good"....