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trip report April 10-15th

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by greaseball, Apr 21, 2002.

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  1. greaseball

    greaseball Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2002
    Messages:
    106
    Location:
    Kelowna BC Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    20

    My Trip Report

    Day 1
    Got up at 4:00am to be at the airport for 4:30 for our 6am flight. As we are coming from Canada it's deemed an international flight. Security was pretty good, Lynda, my sweetie got pulled from the line and did the shoe thing but nothing to extreme. Boarded Horizon Air for our 1 hr flight from Kelowna to Seattle ( 55 min.) Clearing customs was a little slow , especially since only 23 passengers but nontheless went through without incidence. Airport turnaround time in Seattle was about 1.5 hrs.and finally we got the call to go. Great flight as we have never come in early in the day and once we landed the wait for the baggage was quite quick. I noticed that the baggage checkers when you leave the baggage pick up area were no longer there. Picked up our car at Dollar. Full size 1 week rental for $124.95. Booked it on the net. It is worth a person signing up for the Fastlane or whichever priority service that your rental agency offers as you avoid any lines or time wasting as our time is sooooo!!!! valuable. Anyway checked in at Excalibur( again through VIP) avoiding that long check in line as well. All you need is your crown club card which is now the One Club. Automatically upgraded us to a nice view room which looked right at NYNY and the memorial. Quite touching. Lynn's mom and her friend Leonard, have been vacationing in Vegas for a month so we grabbed our car and visited them at The Budget Suites behind the Stardust. They come down from Thunder Bay, Ontario every year and stay anywhere from 4-6 weeks.Pretty reasonable $1000 for the month and they split everything 50-50. Have not seen them since August of last year so it was pretty emotional for Lynn (and me too). Anyway we just visited for a while then headed to the Frontier as Lynn's mom had 4 coupons for the restaraunt. While the place is not first class I must say we all had a steak dinner and it was quite good. After supper we played a little VP but couldn't hit anything. Dropped them back off at their hotel and we headed to The Excalibur. I always have a ritual that I go up to the room with Lynn when she wants to turn in,then head back down and play till about 1 am. This is kind of my playing time at night. Then I head up to bed for a few hrs and head back down around 7:30 or so next morning. I actually prefer the am as I order my coffee Drambuie or coffee/Baileys (no whipped cream cause we need room for those buffets.) If you folks are staying at the Exc and you like playing vp there is a progressive JOB machine near tower 1. These machines are 8-5 but on $20 bucks while you may not make a ton of cash, you can play for quite a while and really rack up points.The three end machines on either side closest to wheel of fortune are a little better than the others. Sometimes your 1st 20 will go quick, but then the second one will seem to let you play. If your just trying to hit the Royal it will go off either Sunday or Monday. I have scoped these machines for the last 4 years and it is the same thing each time. If you arrive on a Thursday afternoon it should be reading around $1700 or so. I'll tell you what happened to me a little bit later.


    Day 2
    Got up at around 7:30, showered and headed on down without hardly making a sound to wake Lynn. Sat down at my JOB and proceeded to rack up close to 90 points, got 3 coffee/drambuie and cashed out for 240 quarters. Headed back up around 9:30 and Lynne was just getting ready to go. Headed over to her mom's and had a real nice breakfast. We would do this each day as they have full kitchen facilities and her mom would insist that we ate there and save the big meals for supper. Ok by me.After breakie, the ladies wanted a little shopping so headed over to Boulevard mall and while the ladies shopped Leonard and I just hung out. Later that night got our wagerworks at the Mirage buffet. Had no problem and I even left my conf # at the Ex. We were super disappointed with the meal as the selection was very limited and would surely not have paid that kind of cash for that quality of a meal. After dinner we gambled a bit at the Mirage, then headed out for a walk to Bellagio to the Conservatory. Absolutely breathtaking and the smells of the flowers would just take your breath away. Headed to watch one show of the fountains. We actually lucked out with the weather as it was and was going to be in the high 80's, low nineties our entire trip. Found a nice little bar and sat outside adjacent to the strip sipping on drinks and watching people and traffic going by. Dropped off Mom and Leonard and headed back to the ex. Hit 4 deuces for 800 quarters on a double bonus and went up to bed.

    Day 3

    Same ritual but after breakie headed over to the indoor flea market.Kind of a neat place. Bargains galore and also a lot of junkie cheap stuff but someone is always buying something. I picked up 2 nice leather wallets for $6 each so I could put all that Vegas cash inside(ha ha). After that stopped for Mom at the grocery store and more importantly the liquor store. Dropped off stuff at her place,had a few drinks, then headed to Mandalay for supper. Their buffet was awesome. Worth every penny.Gambled a bit there,then trammed it back to the Ex. Onto my job of which now I racked over 800 points to date and the Royal pot was at $2100.
    Drove mom and Leonard home ready for tomorrow.

    Day 4

    Kind of slept in and didn't even get my early morning coffee fix. Today I told Lynne that I'll take them to Primm to the new Factory outlet stores. So we headed out after a quick bite and got there about 1. Dropped the ladies off and Leonard and me went to the casino attached. Didn't really hit much there so we took the tram over the highway to Whiskey Pete's. Lots of locals and California players. Neat place. Dropped about $80.00 over 2 hrs. Met up with the girls around 3:30 and headed back to Vegas. Stopped at the Belz as well before going for supper at the Rio. I have been reading alot of negative stuff about the Rio buffet, but we found it ok. I especially enjoy their shrimp and hawaiin pizza. Stayed and played until the masquerade in the sky came out. I will say that their show isn't as good as before. They have kind of chinzed out with the floats and even the amount of beads that they used to hand out.Headed back to the Ex and checked out that job machine now at $ 2400.

    Day 5

    Got up early and headed down to check out that darn job and see if it went as today is Sunday. Still there!!!. Played till 10:00 am with no luck hitting the Royal but hit a straight flush and 4 of a kind 4 times. Cashed out $220.00 then headed up to see Lynn. She actually headed down to the pool to catch some rays as it was another gorgeous day. I told her I had a funny feeling about that machine and that it was going to go and possibly soon. Anyway we headed up, showered and headed over to her mom's. While there, we were discussing that machine and it was apparent that now I was obsessed with this.They told me and Leonard to go back and play for the day and they would head to the forum shops. So me and Leonardo headed off( by the way he just turned 80)to the ex to win that damn money. We played there for 4 hrs straight, he on one side me on the other.I had a $40 dollar investment while he dumped in $60. Then both of our machines really got hot. He had over 900 credits and me close to 400. Lynda showed up at around 6 and the jackpot just turned over $2700.00. There was no one else playing at the machines other than us two. Then my machine went cold so I figured I would cash out at 200 credits and we would go for dinner as I figured it wouldn't go until later that night. As a joke I said to Lynne, " you know we been here for 4 hrs and our luck some little old lady will just sit down and hit it". We walk over to the other side and see that Leonard's machine cooled off too , so he said he'll cash out at 800 credits. While cashing out the machine went empty so we had to wait for a fill. We were standing there having our drinks and bullsh----ng when Lynne saw the # kind of flash and it came back on at $1000. Stunned we looked and there was no one playing on our side and heard no scream or yell. We headed over to the side I was on and who was sitting there? You guessed it, a little old lady close to 90 with her son who said that she just sat down and played 5 hands. I thought that I would be really p----- off but you know I was actually really happy for her.She was like my granny so how can anyone get upset with that. I just chalked it up to not meant to be. Anyway we went and had a nice supper of which Leonard bought with his winnings. He was thrilled to have a machine that let him play for so long and make some money to boot. After supper we headed over to Slots of fun and said our goodbyes to Mom and Leonard as we were leaving next day.

    Last Day or so we thought

    Went for our Wagerworks at MGM for lunch and it was good. Much better than the supper at Mirage.It was pretty windy in the late morning and we had walked from the Ex to Mgm. Man we were picking sand out of our teeth. Anyway had the meal and started to drive to the airport. Really windy now and visibility was not that great. Dropped off the car and got onto the shuttle when we heard that the planes were being turned back.We asked the driver and he really didn't know but we had to check in at the counter anyway. To our total dismay we were told that the flights scheduled were cancelled and we would probably have to stay another day or wait out the storm and leave later except that we would never make our connector flight so we would have to overnight in Seattle anyway. This was a difficult decision and we had to decide what to do. I think the total time was about 3 seconds to make our decision. So we called the Ex, got a room on our comps at our same rate, picked up a compact car for the day and headed over to see Mom and Leonard. They were just thrilled to see us and actually relieved as they were nervous with the way the weather was. So it was just like winning a jackpot anyway. Spent the rest of the day with them, had supper and breakfast on our comps and played until 3 in the morning. By the time the morning rolled we were actually ready to leave. The weather was great, sunny and no wind. Phoned over to Mom and said goodbye and headed out.

    Can't wait for next year.


    Joe I am Canadian
     
  2. Jer

    Jer “The Walrus has spoken”

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2002
    Messages:
    8,852
    Location:
    Southern California
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    999
    Great report...

    One thing, "got up at 4:00 to leave at 4:30?"

    WOW!!! lol [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  3. greaseball

    greaseball Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2002
    Messages:
    106
    Location:
    Kelowna BC Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    20
    Hey Jer

    Yeah up at 4:00 out the door by 4:20. Everything was ready the night before, plus we are 5 minutes from the airport. Even the coffee was ready. Just had to drag our sorry asses out of bed and boogie.

    Joe I am Canadian
     
  4. VEGAS $$$

    VEGAS $$$ Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2002
    Messages:
    107
    Location:
    Kansas
    Great trip report!

    Where is that indoor flea market? My hubby LOVES flea markets and he could use a new leather wallet for cheap. [​IMG]
     
  5. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 1999
    Messages:
    44,189
    Location:
    Western Washington
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    25
  6. greaseball

    greaseball Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2002
    Messages:
    106
    Location:
    Kelowna BC Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    20
    Thanks Vegas $$$

    As Sonya has already posted it is at 1717 Decauter. Quite a large facility so you won't miss it.

    Joe I am Canadian
     
  7. greaseball

    greaseball Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2002
    Messages:
    106
    Location:
    Kelowna BC Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    20
    Sonya

    I figured for sure that either Leonard or myself was going to hit it. Wouldn't you know that it went as soon as we stopped playing. I say "What are the odds of that happening"? Anyway I hope that someone on this forum will go there someday on a Sunday and hit it too. Usually that sucker climbs by $150 per day right after it's hit and then on the Friday starts to go around $250 or so. I swear if someone kind of times it, it is like a clock. The other machines if you like vp is close to Tower 2 and is the double bonus poker machines. Very seldom does the 4 Aces/w2,3,4 go beyond $620.00 and the Royal sets off around $1300.00.Royal went twice while we were there. 4 Aces with 2,3,4 went off 4 times.

    Good luck to anyone playing them. They are a little hungrier though then the other progressive job's.
    -------------------------------------------------

    Joe I am Canadian
     
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