Cruiser's Pre-Trip Report for 6/19-6/23

My wife and I head back to the Tropicana tomorrow, flying out of Austin, TX on Thursday, 6/19 at 1:45PM (CST), stopping in Phoenix, AZ for just over an hour, then on to Las Vegas. We're flying on Southwest and we have two books of drink coupons. The only 'problem' I might run into is with my doctor's appt. this afternoon (6/18) to review my last blood test results. If I can't drink (alcohol), I will not be thrilled but it's not the worst thing that could happen. We arrive in Vegas at 4:20PM at which time there'll be a limo waiting to take us to the Tropicana. And no, we're not paying for the limo, just the tip.

Based on past play at the Tropicana, we're rated high enough to get comped to their various tournaments they put on through the year. For this trip, we are comped to their 'Rumble in the Jungle Slot Tournament' 6/19 - 6/22. This 'comp' includes a three nights complimentary, welcome reception, breaksfast buffet, tournament play, and an awards dinner. The $1000 entry fee is also comped. We added a fourth night's stay which again is comped up front.

Unfortunately, on our last trip to the Tropicana (for a comped blackjack tournament last Nov) my luck at the blackjack tables was non-existent so I only got in 13.5 hours of blackjack playing time over four days which hurt my rating. In the prior two trips to the Tropicana last year (12 days total), I actually got in 108+ hours of blackjack. My wife wants me to cut that way down.

Since our rating dropped, my host won't commit to comping any of the meals (up front) we have at the Trop (outside of the meals that are included as part of the Tournament event) so we'll just have to put those on the room bill and depending on our gambling over those four days, we'll see what our host can do for us in terms of taking the food off our bill too.

Actually, from the mailings we've been getting, we have a 'Complimentary Dinner for Two at Tuscany Italian Cafe' coupon and a 'Complimentary Dinner for Two in Pietro's' coupon, both at the Tropicana. I just have to show the coupons before we order. Before we order, we'll also ask if there's a $ limit on these coupons. There might be but anything that we have to pay for will go on the room charge.

Before the welcome dinner, we plan to walk down to Walgreens to pick up a 12 pak of diet 7 up and two or three 6 paks of water. We'll have a room in the Paradise Tower that includes a small refrigerator for the drinks. When I'm drinking (alcohol), I have a huge tendency to get dehydrated when I play blackjack. It probably has something to do with the bailey's on the rocks I drink while I play and in the morning when I play, I sometimes switch to Coffee Kahlua.

After the welcome dinner and we've picked our tournament playing times, probably two 15 minute sessions on Friday and two more on Saturday, we'll have some gambling time to ourselves. My wife will play full pay deuces wild and I'll sit down at a green chip blackjack table and hope I don't get too many third base players like Mikey seems to have to put up with. Hopefully, I can start the trip with a good 3+ hour session and still come out ahead. But as you know, some days you're just not going to beat the house.

Friday morning, we'll start the day with the breakfast buffet, play our two slot tournament sessions (we may alternate which of us actually plays the sessions), and have dinner at Pietro's. Sometime that day, I plan to get some serious blackjack playing time in. Saturday will be about the same except dinner will be the awards dinner. First prize is $30,000 and some number of players will win lesser cash prizes.

On Sunday, we're on our own for breaksfast and for dinner, it's the Tuscany Italian Cafe. We also plan to see the Comedy Show Sunday evening at the Trop. And of course, I hope to get some serious blackjack play time in.

Either late Sunday or early Monday morning, I'll get a printout of our room charges at the from desk (just so I know what charges are on our bill). Monday morning, I get in touch with our host and she looks over our account and depending on how much gambling we got in, she would adjust our final bill. We have a 11:10AM flight home and we'll also take a limo to the airport.

Hopefully, our rating will stay about the same but I'm guessing it'll drop again. The question is how much. And depending on how I do at the tables will have a direct effect on the time I spend at the pool.

T-1

 

I bet Cruiser is just bouncing off the walls in anticipation today...

Mikey

 

Mikey,

You're right - I just finished packing and can't wait to get back to Vegas in about 22 hours from now. Since we don't have to leave the house until about 11AM CST, I thought I could sleep in a bit in the morning. Wrong! Even if I could sleep the night before another trip to Vegas (who can sleep??? ), I've got a couple errands to run before we head to the airport.

I had my doctor appt. this afternoon and the news was not what I had expected. My liver enzymes (sgot/sgpt) are both still elevated after being taken off Lipitor for 4 weeks so my doctor wants me to have a ultrasound of my liver done as well as another blood test. I've scheduled both to be done in the morning before we head to the airport. No alcohol for me on this Vegas trip. When I get back from Vegas next week, I'll make another appt. with my doctor's office to review these latest tests.

The good news is I'm going back to Vegas tomorrow!

 

Cruiser--

Here's to Good Health, Brotha!


I don't know how I'd handle Vegas without being able to enjoy the free drinks. Probably win more, I guess

I hope you win big and have nothing but good news from the Doc.

Mikey