Trip report 8/19-8/30 - TI/Delano/El Cortez/Laughlin/Vdara

Aria has 6 craps tables, all 25 all packed.

they opened 2 more 25 dollar tables.

 

Did you pop into any downtown places before or after your Pizza Rock dinner?

Whats the game plan for Sunday?

 

We didn’t go into any DT casinos yesterday. Way too busy and way too loud. There was a country band that was so loud walking from Pizza Rock I had to yell to have a conversation with my wife. That is way too loud in my opinion. I’m less and less a fan of DT after this trip.

Todays plan: South Point this morning, Bootleggers for lunch, Ellis Island in the afternoon. Then over towards Bally’s so my wife can get her Dole Whip and watch the Bellagio fountains. Will likely play at Park MGM (for her slots) tonight. All is subject to change.

 

Thanks for the DT update. Shouldn’t be an issue coming in the last day of the rodeo. From all reports.. the DTG should be an oasis w/ decent bar top vp. id love a pic of the beer fridge and the taps.

 

South point at 10am on a Sunday morning, 1 $5 table and 2 $10 tables.
3 psi how open 10 dollars. Lots of bj table open.

 

Made 40 at the craps table. Hit a hard 6 parlayed. Took 75 and pressed to 25. Didn’t hit it again. Dealers were with me and thankful for the bet.

Over to Bootleggers. Wife got the Cheese ravioli with rose sauce (Alfredo and marinara mixed). It was very good. I got the chicken parm. It was decent, but I’ve had better chicken. Like that it came with angel hair pasta as I like my pasta a little past al dente.

Wife played video poker at Bootleggers bar and got 50 in free play after earning 200 points.

 

Back to Jerry’s Nugget for our last time. Both lost 100 playing UTH. No hits. Made 40 playing Roullete. Wife made 150 on her roll st craps and left. I stayed and gave it back. Walked with my buyin plus 5 bucks.

 

Drive to Ellis and played craps for about an hour. $5 table, lost 60 but had a good time. Wife lost a little bit. Bought dice from Ellis as I don’t have any from there.

parked at Bellagio. Used our 2 for 1 gelato from myVEGAS and watched the fountains.

Walked through Cosmo for the first time, just the first floor. Over to Park MGM and now to NYNY for a quick slice of pizza before playing at ParkMGM. Big fan of the no smoking here.

 

Quick slice of pizza at NYNY and back to Park MGM. Holding my own on 15 dollar table. Wife is up and down on slots. No smoke is a huge bonus.

 

Back to the room at Vdara. Wife lost about 800 in slots and I lost $200 playing craps.

At the end of our trip, we are down half our bankroll, which I won't complain about. We fly back to Detroit tomorrow.

Some thoughts on our trip before heading home:

+ Bootleggers was really good. I'm glad we went. The good was great for the price. The waitress told my wife to try the rose sauce (Alfredo/Marianna) mix and it was very good. They have bartops which were fun and have entertainment at certain times.
+ Master Donuts are really good. Local mom and pop place. Big donuts for cheap. Some of the best donuts I've had in Vegas.
+ Pizza Rock is always great. We went twice, once for happy hour and once for the Sicilian. Great food and a great place to hang.
+ Jerry's Nugget treated us well. Wife hit 1K on a 10 cent video poker machine. I hit a straight flush on UTH for $750. Made some money playing craps and roulette. Generous with the comps. We always hit this multiple times.
+ Ellis Island continues to be one of my favorite places to play. Great dealers, good vibe, good food and close to the strip.
+ Laughlin was a pleasant surprise. If we get sent another junket and can go, I will gladly take them up on the offer. Harrah's wasn't great, but it was were we slept. We gave them no play, but loved Aquarius.
+ Delano continues to be a favorite to stay. Not a busy or loud since it's not a casino. Really nice rooms, tub, etc
? Cannery wasn't good to us this trip. Both times we ate at the cafe was great and free. Their pancakes are huge and just the way I like them (crispy outside with a soft center). Wife didn't hit anything on slots and I broke even at craps.
? We walked through Cosmo for the first time. It was fine. I know a lot of people like the place on the boards, so I'll leave it at that. I don't see myself going in there again. Had the worst mask enforcement of any place we visited.
? Vdara was really nice, but I don't like it being in the middle of the strip or not being close to parking. Parking at Aria was fine. But it's a bit of a haul. We might stay here again, but I'm on the fence. Center of the strip is too busy and too expensive for me.
- Downtown has really lost me as a customer. Too too too loud. Walking back from Pizza Rock at 4PM, there was a country band playing. We just got to Fremont (crossing from Pizza Rock or DTG) and I could barely talk to my wife as I was holding her hand. It's fine to have the music up, but it's way too much. And you can still hear/feel the base at El Cortez, a block from Fremont. Table mins are too high and we aren't getting treated like we used to downtown. I'm glad Circa is here, but I think they are screwing up downtown. It's basically a mini strip now with their mins. I see myself spending less and less time down there.
- Steven's properties. All are too loud for me anymore and their mins are too high. $15 for GG on a Thursday afternoon? I gave them zero play and my wife used mostly freeplay there. We took the food credits and ran. Likely will be moving our play somewhere else.

When I get home tomorrow night, I'll add more thoughts.

 

Just missed you at Park MGM, have a good trip back home and thanks for the report!

 

Thanks for the report!

And agree with you about FSE. It's too much chaos for us now at night. Maybe We need to go during a weekday afternoon next trip. We've seen the hourly shows enough I think. Haha

 

Great TR! Hope you have safe and easy travels today!

 

Really enjoyed following along! Thanks for a great TR!!!

 

Got home safely. No incidents at the airport or on the plane. Will likely add some additional thoughts tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the reporting

 

Nice report, thanks for sharing.

 

Didn't realize the Bootleggers pictures were so red. I guess I didn't realize how dim the lights were.

Vegas seems to be back. Seemed to be busy at most places with weekends being crazy busy.

As someone who prefers lower limits, I think Vegas is pushing me away. Just like my wife remembers going to Disney with her family when she was younger, it was a lot cheaper. Now Disney charges you for everything and will charge you to get in line faster. Even a Mickey Bar is $6. Vegas is nickel and diming everyone and everything here. We pulled our play from Stevens properties as it's too loud and the mins are too high. Caesars we were never big into, but have pulled our play there and burned free nights because they are pouring lighter drinks and taking away perks.

My wife is 5K away from Gold, so we will probably visit Detroit to get those points and see how gold treats us. I would guess that our next trip will avoid DT for the most part. I can play 10/15 craps other places. Might push more towards Boyd and stay at Cannery next time (We have a local Boyd property that we frequent anyway). Jerry's we visited much more than the last few times, probably went 5 out of 11 days because it was affordable. We will also look at staying at Ellis. Good mins, good food. God people.

I think I'm a big fan of Laughlin and could see myself spending a week or so there. Plenty of places to gamble and eat for me. We don't eat anywhere fancy, nor are we seafood fans, so the food in Laughlin would work well for us. Even the south end of the strip was packed due to Jonas Bros, PsychoFest and a WWE event. We like the south end because it's quieter and has some lower limits. Even that might push us away.

Hopefully things will be back to normal for our trip next year and we can make some decisions as to where we go to play. Vegas is still a nice place to visit and soo many places I haven't been, but I think I'm getting priced out of the market.

Thanks for following along.

 

Thanks for the great TR Necrochaos loved all the different casinos you hit.

 

I think pricing people out of the market is going to be a common complaint. You pretty much hit the nail on the head, but I go to Vegas because I do everything I could do here for a fraction of the price. I don't need to play the $15 craps games my local has, because I can go to the Vegas and play $10 (or even $5). I don't need to pay for a hotel room, because its comped (I went dt because the strip wanted to still charge fees on top of the comp at times), I can charge meals to my room and other expenses and get them comped off the backend. And once I arrive I can drink as much as I want with good drink service and walk anywhere (within reason) in relative safety. Most of these statements are not as universally true as they once were. If I'm going to be forced to play $15 craps, maybe I play locally - or play on a cruise like I recently did (and had a great time!). Realisitcally with how much I lose in a typical vegas trip, the cruise was still cheaper! I recently posted I was reconsidering my Vegas trip next week - I've since changed my mind and am going - but your report and the increasing cost of Vegas is a big reason for that. (Not blaming you, I'm agreeing with your concerns).

While I have the budget to play $15/$25 craps, if I'm not having any luck I'm going to be really upset. If I have bad luck at a $5 or $10 table, I'm still not happy but at least I don't start counting my bankroll. I like being able to have cheap fun that doesn't stress me out. The moment Vegas starts adding to my stress, it needs to go. I currently have a trip planned for next week and then early October. Hoping to do both.

One thing I'll say is that while I still have a room booked at Circa, I'm actually going to be staying at Plaza. The criticisms of the Stevens properties and how they are impacting DT I cannot ignore and while I know I'll spend some time at Circa for the sportsbook/megabar, I'm hoping to find a new home DT at Plaza for the foreseeable future and work away from Stevens'.

Anyway, don't mean to hijack the thread - thanks for a great report - its much appreciated. I'll be curious to see what things are like midweek next week (I'm there Tuesday to Friday).