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Live TR & Pics Encore Tower Suites 6/13 – 6/25

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by MikeOPensacola, Jun 11, 2021.

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  1. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    It was so beautiful at the very tail end of the Golden Hour. Once I get home I’m going to crop out all the clutter of cars and people and post the best pics from tonight and last night.

    It takes forever on the east side of the strip to get Caesars out of the sight line. Not necessarily a bad thing, but that’s the reason there are so many pics of Caesars from tonight’s strip walk pics.

    B39DD8A6-E271-48C7-84FD-27FBB631B955.jpeg 64410D94-22E7-4C5D-BBBD-6F64D322C4DE.jpeg 9C3B4308-795C-483C-AC14-C23DA7CE61A4.jpeg C023DC2E-024F-4B22-8B04-8B28CD822B2D.jpeg DA5E4A3B-92A9-4045-9BF3-C55FF420ADDB.jpeg 230CC189-71C9-4BB8-A55E-CD054D76C8CD.jpeg EB27FCED-9D38-4791-914A-4A60F0FB476D.jpeg E8226979-DF59-4251-A2CB-368CA30E4FF0.jpeg 3CBA829A-EA63-49D8-B676-AA2BF872EF10.jpeg 456377E1-A59C-4696-9428-FBEF52210513.jpeg 9AF212B7-85EE-43D7-8CB8-9A4464A9EE73.jpeg
     
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  2. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    Gift shop at Cromwell was closed tonight.

    E54CE97B-FA2F-44BB-8627-848CA345E105.jpeg


    After all these years this still is the best neon on the strip.


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    By the time I got to the Flamingo gift shop, to get some water, this cooler chock full of beer looked SO good.


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  3. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    530B000B-6A09-4A08-A9A8-83BB5BBD5DE7.jpeg 3D2AF394-0316-404A-8944-BE64D827A882.jpeg


    This little group of performers outside the Linq caused a big time bottleneck. Still, they were fun to watch for a few minutes.


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  4. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    The pic immediately below depicts, IMHO, the most boring part of the entire strip. C’mon Linq!! :D:D:D

    A71A25AD-53C1-4F07-8462-22EEA0E288B6.jpeg B4828AD5-CE18-4B49-987E-AA75E5095433.jpeg A9CF2116-6588-4ACF-86AC-20807F344DF7.jpeg 9F788755-D1C1-47E8-9BAE-2783D6C995D2.jpeg 84006836-C873-4061-94FD-BCD4E43DC72C.jpeg 79A88B9D-3886-4250-AAC9-811BF5367392.jpeg



    The Piano Bar at Harrah’s was dark tonight. No play bill with details onanistic events.



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    Phoenix outlasts the Clippers. Go Suns!!


    F8331869-39A0-47EF-B393-4AFBFEA915F2.jpeg 8F352D19-7CC9-43C8-A0A3-42E9CC529AEF.jpeg
     
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  5. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    BC7F95BC-0FE3-4409-892D-51F0D072646A.jpeg E54945C1-0454-45A8-AD07-5664826E241E.jpeg 08FBA847-7B98-4455-9809-C247146C4CE6.jpeg 776D1E40-979B-4156-AB5D-BDF8D6329BB7.jpeg 11DA11ED-0199-4673-8D1A-CE14EEA85FF4.jpeg 98B35A0F-3A5A-46CC-8F23-1D4C68A1A774.jpeg 963100C0-F759-4556-834D-D185466B1510.jpeg 6D38016E-C45D-4CEE-913E-D61E419F7B8B.jpeg 330B568C-8C2B-4574-9C8C-B17A9A0353F9.jpeg
     
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  6. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    Finally getting close back to home base. At this point I was starved; that foot long hot dog at NYNY was great but not a lot of nourishment for so much walking tonight.

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  7. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    Fairly large electronic gaming area at Venetian. Looks fun….. :beer: :beer: :beer:

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  8. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    At last, home sweet home. MGM to Encore tired me out a bit but it was well worth it. The fountains were off by the time I got back, but I was probably too tired to watch them for very long anyway.

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  9. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    Just like last trip, every time I see this out of the corner of my eye I immediately think “WTF!!! What is a Target teddy bear doing in the Wynn Esplanade?” :D:D:D


    D372EC0F-A8F3-4EDC-85E0-27AB59FF8FEA.jpeg


    If I don’t lose a lot of $$$ downtown tomorrow I’m going to treat my self to a pair of one of these. I like the silver better.


    D1325892-35B7-486D-903B-A24CC23558AB.jpeg
     
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  10. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    Even when the fountains are off it’s cool to see this right before going inside for the night.

    ADE2B6A9-086D-4BB8-A549-6271FA69E484.jpeg

    :beer: :beer: :beer:
     
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  11. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    I just did a little accounting and was surprised to see that after 10 days all is fairly well on the gambling front. In terms of cash, I only have 18 fewer Benjamins than what I started with. After spending a good chunk of change on a rare casino chip at the CCA show, tons of taxi rides and all kinds of miscellaneous expenses I’m happy to see that I really haven’t done that bad. That’s always a nice feeling with only a couple of days to go at the end of a Vegas marathon and good vibes before bedtime tonight.

    :beer: :beer: :beer:
     
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  12. Timothy

    Timothy VIP Whale

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    Great stuff, as always.

    Must indeed be a good feeling knowing that your BR is fairly intact with only a few days left!
     
    It’s about time I’m back!
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  13. MikeOPensacola

    MikeOPensacola El Jefe

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    Day 10 recap.

    I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked last night, but like most days in Vegas I force myself to get up and get on with the day. Yet another wonderful breakfast at Terrace Pointe. Over my last two trips I have become expert in maximizing every penny of the $50 breakfast credit without having to go very deep into my pocket for any overage. Today was my best effort yet; the bill before tip was $49.14. Score!!

    Putzed around Encore a little before going down to the Wynn sports book to catch the England vs. Czech Republic game in my new England Futbol shirt. England won 1-0 so the day was shaping up nicely.

    I took a cab down to Vdara to check it out for a possible stay for my next trip. It might be a little too removed from restaurants and quick access to neighboring properties for my taste, but it is a really nice hotel. At some point I will definitely stay there, just not sure if it’ll be during next trip or not.

    A little bit of a setback at Cosmo when Holstein’s wasn’t open for lunch, as well as a couple of other places, so I had to settle for a donut, albeit tasty, at District Donuts. Finding mid-range places that are open for lunch, along with reasonable lines, has been a constant struggle this trip and it really started to make me raw today. Wasn’t having a good time, at Cosmo of all places, so I figured I needed to hoof it back to Cosmo to get some rest to get rid of some of the irritation.

    A quick nap did me a lot of good and I went down to NYNY with the intention of getting a few slices of pizza for dinner, before heading over to MGM to start my northbound strip walk. Instead, I found a deli that I had never visited and gave it a shot. I wasn’t in the mood for a massive sandwich so I got an all beef foot long hot dog. Hebrew National, my favorite brand. Score. The dog was good and the potato salad was rather pedestrian, but not bad.

    You’ve seen all the pics from the strip walk so I won’t go into any detail about the walk here. I took a ton of pics and posted most of them without cropping out any of the foreground clutter. The reason I take so many pics with my iPhone is because I never really know when I’ll snap “The One” that turns out near perfect. After I get home and do,some editing on the pics I took this trip I think I’ll post them in some sort of ‘greatest hits of my June 2021 trip’ fashion in my TR once I get back from Montana in early July.

    I came away from my strip walk tonight with a few very favorable impressions:

    1. The area between MGM and Planet Hollywood has really cleaned up its act. Most of the storefronts are in much nicer condition than only a few years ago and there really aren’t any long stretches where there isn’t something right there on the sidewalk. That area also seems to be a lot cleaner and spiffed up.

    2. That particular portion of the strip, which saw a helluva lot of mayhem in 2020, was totally enjoyable tonight. The patrons down on that end made it seem like I was in a 2015-2019 time warp. Fun, energetic crowds without all the crap that was happening during 2020. Even as day turned to night there just wasn’t that looming feeling, and almost expectation, that things weren’t as they should be. For me, this has unquestionably been the biggest win of the trip. The type of people who are here now seem to be the ones who looking for good times and aren’t looking for trouble. I can’t really put a finger on it but if you get to that part of the strip you’ll understand what I’m failing to articulate.

    3. There are still many restaurants, bars and lounges closed. However, every employee that I’ve interacted with from the venues that are open has been working their butt off and delivering quality customer service. A massive tip o’ the hat to these people for putting on their game face and bringing their A game in what must be very difficult circumstances. Kudos to them for picking up the slack and making the best of a pretty shitty situation.

    I drank six one liter bottles of water tonight and I think it did the trick. I’ll know tomorrow morning if I didn’t drink enough.

    It always amazes me when I haven’t visited a casino for a few years that I know where three things are, from previous visits. 1. The Cage. 2. The gift shop for H2O. 3. The location of the restrooms. Knowing where all these are located really helped to make my trek tonight very efficient.

    Didn’t win big today but I won enough to end the day with a little more than what I started with. Slots were more fun today as I was getting some bonus opportunities. I’ve never equated winning with having fun. As long as I can play the games I like and get enough bonus rounds that might turn out well I’m good with it. When I play and there is nothing doing at all, no potential good bonuses popping up, that’s usually the recipe for a shitty times in casino land for moi.

    I had a really pleasant evening. Kind of proud that these 58 year old bones can still make it from MGM to Encore in some fairly stifling heat.

    Chalk up another great day in Paradise. Gotta catch some ZZZs because I have a fun-filled day planned on Fremont St. with @cvkelz & @cvkelz hubs. Fun times with those two…..

    The trip is winding down but the good times are holding steady.

    :beer: :beer: :beer:
     
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  14. HighLimitorBust

    HighLimitorBust Tourist

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    RE Vdara, I stayed there once and really liked it. Only downsides are the pool area is tiny compared to other resorts (and the music from Marquee overpowered Vdara’s) and the furniture is a bit tired and needs a refresh. If you’re doing a longer stay, the washer and dryer are great to have! I did 3 nights there and 2 at Aria- nowhere near as long as yours but was great to have all fresh clothes.

    You’re so close to 3 of the best resorts that I didn’t mind that it was quiet with no casino. The Aria hosts cover players staying at Vdara by the way.
     
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  15. Timothy

    Timothy VIP Whale

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    Have a good rest!

    I’m looking forward to downtown observations and beautiful photos!
     
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  16. cjcjcj

    cjcjcj VIP Whale

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    What restaurants can you use the breakfast credit at? Terrace Pointe only? Cafe?
     
  17. carolineno

    carolineno VIP Whale

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    Amazing strip walk once again! Glad to hear it's not as strange from MGM to Planet Hollywood.

    I have a quick question - can you get these Sinatra Smash drinks at most Wynn bars or only specific ones? Can you get it on the casino floor? I've been reading about them for years and this might be the year I try one at last!
     
    Ladies getaway, somewhere on the strip with a pool :)
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  18. Fafa2e

    Fafa2e High-Roller

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    Great report. Enjoying all the pictures. I never really noticed the power lines in the MGM Grand area until your photos.
     
    My Longest Trip Ever
  19. zerofan

    zerofan VIP Whale

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    Great report, Mike. I love these photos.
     
  20. Not at the table Carlos

    Not at the table Carlos Cheapskate

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    Man I’ve been trying so hard to keep up with your report but there’s SO many posts! Love all of your pictures. I’ll try to find you guys on Fremont today.
     
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