GVR and MSS - May 11-16

Me & my husband “P” (both early 50’s) flew into Vegas on SWA from Houston, arriving about noon. We go to Vegas about 5-6 times a year and are planning to move out there in another year or so. We usually stay at Stations properties, preferably GVR or Red Rock. This trip we are also staying downtown for a couple of nights. We are mostly quarter VP players and we also have some coupons to burn.

We saw this at our Houston airport and were jealous that we couldn’t be on this plane, the Texas flag! Funny too, we actually saw it a few days later flying across the Vegas sky.



We have one of the last remaining $40 for $25 free slot play coupons from Tropicana (now discontinued), so after a quick hit at a nearby Subway for lunch, that’s our first stop. I had emailed to ask if they would still be honored, and although they were supposed to be, we were turned down at the player’s club. The people that issue the coupons are super-responsive though, and immediately credited back the $50.

We walk next door to Hooters to use our $10 free slotplay coupons. We each have two (from two different books) but they will only let us use one per day (geesh). We used the one you didn’t have to play $10 to get $10 and both played a 6/9 JOB quarter machine. P got at $15 profit and I got zilch. We also made some bets on the Nascar race that evening. P enjoys watching Nascar, and he also likes to make sports bets. NFL is his big thing, but at this time of year he just bets some random stuff now & then. More on the results of our Nascar bets will follow.

We stop in a nearby Smiths for necessities—it’s still amusing to me that they have slots in grocery stores, and here there was even a sign advertising 10x points on Sunday! Then we’re off to Green Valley Ranch to check in. Our host has comped us for a three-night stay but has informed me that they are tightening up on comps and unless we really “step up our play” this might be the end of the gravy train for us. I asked her to please specify and she returned my email saying she was on vacation and would get back to me, but she never did. Like so many others on these boards, Stations used to send us monthly offers for free rooms, free play and buffets, and we never had any trouble getting rooms through hosts. But things have changed.
At least we’re set this time, and we agree that we’re not going to get desperate and play like banshees just to get future comps.

So we check in and get a room with a pool-view, and although palm trees nearly block the view it’s still nice. We are also right over the “adult pool” which makes for some amusing entertainment, but I never see anyone topless, I don’t even know if that’s still allowed. I always find GVR comfortable and I could even say, peaceful. It’s true that the rooms are starting to show wear & tear in places, especially the bathrooms, but I love the quirky mix here, sort of Old West meets quasi-contemporary.





It’s our tradition to pop in the CD they have provided in the rooms at GVR and Red Rock for the last 5 years or so now, VINYL. Really cool mix of ambient-chill-groove music. Anybody else out there ever pop it in and give it a listen? As relaxing as it is, it really prompts a horse-in-the-starting-gate mentality for me! But I manage to at least unpack and have a glass of wine in the room before going to the casino.

I am trying to pace myself a little better this trip and not just keep hitting the machines….I’ve been losing money almost every trip we’ve taken for about the last year; thankfully P has been winning so at least we come out OK in the end, but it does take a toll on my attitude no matter how hard I try not to let it happen.

We go to the casino via the outdoor route, it’s always nice to stop and sit and admire the property.



In the casino we find a kiosk--Stations is having a swipe & win deal and a drawing today & tomorrow. For the swipe, I got a $5 table bet and P got 500 points. That equals 50 cents. Are you kidding me?

I hit the Drop Bar, P heads to the sports book to watch the Nascar race. I get queens pretty much right away and am playing along and down about $25 when I realize they have changed the paytables on the bonus poker in here to 5/7. I get up immediately. Here is one of many times during this trip when I realized some machines have a sick sense of humor.



P had a burger from the nearby Turf Grill, so I went into Tides and had a delicious shrimp cocktail along with their special (home-made?) cracker bread, it’s as big as a Frisbee (should have taken a pix of it, sorry!)



After dinner, I tried different machines here & there, some DDB mixed in with the Bonus. I was playing at the bartops near the new bingo room and having a good time when two guys next to me started having a conversation and every other word was F*. I’m no prude but there are limits and I couldn’t tune them out, so I asked the bartender if he would maybe turn up the music to drown them out, and he did! It completely did the trick and I played on. But I only hit one more 4OK and after a while I got tired and went up to the room about 9:30.

P played Bonus at the sportsbook bar and was down a couple hundred, he stayed at the casino for another hour or two. On the sports betting we had some heartbreakers. I had Kyle Busch for $10 to pay $60, he was leading the race almost every single lap but had a cut tire at the end and lost the lead in the last few laps. P was going to bet on Kenseth like he always does, but an article said that Kenseth does poorly at Darlington and so P bet on some other drivers instead. Kenseth won. P also had the Texas Rangers to win by 2 runs and they were ahead 8-3 in the 7th inning, the Astros scored a run and then 3 runs in the bottom of the ninth. Ouch! More to follow.....

 

Day Two - GVR & MSS With Pix

Sunday, May 12 – Day Two

In my Day One report, I forgot to say that P did get 4 deuces on NSU before heading up to the room yesterday, which he usually likes to play last thing in the evening. He didn’t take a pix of it then, but it is still on the machine this morning, so we take the pix.



We are up around 8 am and head to the fitness room/spa for a workout. For those of you who haven’t been, it’s a beautiful facility. There are many grapevines growing along the pathway to the spa, and the grapes were just beginning to grow.







After the workout, we hang out at the spa pool for a couple of hours, just relaxing & reading. They play nice ambient music and it’s usually much more peaceful than the main pool.



While reading the morning paper, I see that P has an interesting horoscope…



We go to In N Out for lunch, double animal style & fries for me. P goes for the double & fries.



After lunch, P drops me off near MGM and he goes back up Tropicana to the Pinball Museum to play for a couple hours while I wander the Strip and put some obligatory points on my total rewards card so they don’t disappear.

I don’t walk the Strip too often these days, and today I find what really irks me is that almost every single block now has a crossover/walkway so you have to go up & down all the time. I miss being able to just simply walk on the Strip! There are people taking “contributions” for water and those in cheap costumes….the usual. I see now the porn slappers have to keep their cards in a sort of metal lunchbox looking thing? What? And should there really be a t-shirt hanging right outside in public at a shop facing the strip that says (in the actual real words) “F* You, You F*ing F*?”

I feel that the area in front of Aria is especially claustrophobic and in that section, it looks more like Times Square than the Strip, which to me is not a good thing. I stop in the Coke store and buy a really cute pair of PJ’s. I enjoy a fountain show at the Bellagio. I walk into to Planet Hollywood and stop at the Extra Lounge for a nice cold glass of chardonnay and put $40 into a short-pay bonus bartop game to keep my points alive. Quick shout-out to a bartender there named Larry, a big tough looking guy with a real teddy bear personality. I get four to a royal in clubs but do not connect, and eventually lose my $40.

I walk back to MGM and look for the Lion progressive game while I wait for P to come pick me up, but I can’t find it this time. MGM smells like bad patchouli incense or something, yuk. I don’t know what’s worse, smoke smell or the stuff they use to try and cover it up. P had fun at the Pinball Museum and took lots of cool pix.





We get back to GVR and rest a bit before hitting the casino at about 5 p.m. We do our swipe and win and today we get…..wait for it……1000 points ($1) and 500 points (50 cents). And of course we never got chosen in the drawing either night. What a joke.

We play Bonus at the sportsbook bar for a bit, where the progressive is up to $1139. Even though we only come to Vegas about 5 times a year, the bartenders at the sportsbook always remember us, and they are great, fun guys. P likes his Mic Ultra and I usually go for chardonnay or maybe Jim Beam on the rocks. We play for about an hour and get some 4OK, both end up about even when we decide it’s time for dinner, and actually the buffet line is not bad so we do that. Decent food, the pizza they have seems especially good this time around.

P goes back to the sportsbar to continue playing Bonus, while I skip around. I get 2’s no kicker on DDB



and then I find a game I’ve been having some fun playing on line, Winning Streak. I just play nickel (25 nickels at a time) Deuces Wild at some atrocious pay table. I play a bit when I get the streak up to 10 for about a $20 win, lose a bit, and then I get a Wild Royal that I push up a couple of times to the 5x line. I cash out at a meager $36.25 win, but it was fun! Imagine how exciting it would be if you had a Royal and pushed it up to 10x, you would get $2000 on a nickel machine!



I play until about 10 p.m. never really getting anything of note, and I also encounter another machine with a sick sense of humor (hereinafter referred to as a SSOH). P stays at the sportsbook bar on Bonus and is down another $200 or so for the day. More to follow…..

 

Enjoying the report

 

Monday, May 13 - Day Three

Up about 7:30. I love to watch Jason & Monica on Fox 5 News in the morning when I’m in Vegas. Good chemistry, they have fun together.

I do my morning money count and I’m down a little over $300, which actually makes me happy for all I’ve been playing and my recent history of losing my a**. P is down about $400 by now.

Another workout and spa pool session for us. I could get used to this life!

I go down to play DDB a little before lunch and get 7’s but then lose $50 so I cash out down about $10. Some guy two machines down from me gets a royal for $2K and the Happy Royal Flush Music is playing while he waits for the hand pay. He is super jazzed about the whole deal which is nice to see.



We have lunch at the café. The food here is downright average at best, but we get to pay with points. They do have an egg white & spinach frittata that I usually order and enjoy. P has a club sandwich & fries.

Our realtor picks us up and we go to look at lots/model homes. We go to an area we like that is further south than GVR and sort of close to M Resort. Houses are built into the mountains here so that you get great views and see only the rooftops of your neighbors’ houses below you. We look at the models and one is perfect for us, but this development is about 5 years old, so there are not many lots remaining, and there’s only one that we really like. They release 6 lots every 6 months and you have no control over how it goes down, so I guess we have to wait & see….we aren’t in a hurry but if we find something we will pounce.

Back at GVR, I play Bonus on the Suited Royal machines for a while and get Q’s and 3’s but end up cashing out minus $50….time for dinner.

We are going to Casa di Amore tonight because we have coupons that give us up to $20 off dinner and play $20/get $20 back on the machines. We’ve never been here before but I’ve read pretty positive stuff about it on the boards….most people are attracted to it by the free limo rides they offer, but we drive our rental car over there. We see this on the drive over...



It’s a true throwback Vegas experience. Our waiter’s name is Tony, of course. I have lasagna and P has chicken parmesan. Food is average or a bit above. I have wine and P has a couple beers and a salad with his dinner, and even with the coupon the bill and tip come out to about $60 so there’s no big bargain here….still it is a fun experience and I would recommend it.








Me & My Honey

We go back to the bar and play Deuces, the way the coupon works is you play through $20 and they hand you a $20 bill. I get a glass of wine (comped) and the woman behind the bar is totally familiar with the coupon and cool about the whole thing. They have a fun promo going where if you get 4OK card of the day you get to “spin” a fake cardboard wheel, then on a computer screen on the wall the wheel spins and you get whatever $ it landed on loaded into your machine. I get 5OK with the card of the day on deuces and the wheel lands on $15 so that’s loaded into my machine. P gets a couple small hits on his machine too, so we end up leaving the bar with about the same amount of $ we spend on dinner. Good times!



Back at GVR, we once again take the outdoor route from our room to the casino. The pool grounds are beautiful at night, with the lighting and the palm trees, and there are many couches and chairs to just hang out.





I hit the Suited Royal machines again and decide to try an old method I used to enjoy of trying to hit a 4OK on every machine in the bank. There are five machines on each side, and no one is playing any of them, so it’s perfect. My plan for now is to switch machines when I either get a 4OK or I’m down $50.

I get 5’s, switch, get K’s, switch and then I am down $50 on machine #3 when I get up for a break because drink service is non-existent back here. I remember I have that $5 free bet I got on the swipe & win promotion, so I go to a happy looking blackjack table and put it down. I have King. Dealer has Queen. I get 9. Dealer gets a 6! Then he gets a 5. Geez.

I go to Quinn’s for a decent beer. I love Quinn’s, it’s tucked in the corner, always dark and usually pretty quiet. Bartenders there play their own mix of music from their ipods. This time it’s good obscure 80’s tunes and a bartender with a long beard, cool guy. They have lots of good beer back there and they are happy to recommend. I can’t remember the name of what he gave me from the tap, but it was really tasty. I play through $50 there but am highly entertained by some locals talking about scorpion issues….I guess they come in on the palm trees and are very tough to get rid of. One guy shows me pix on his iphone of how they glow when you shine a black light on them, he was the self-proclaimed SCORPION KILLER. Man, I hope I don’t see any of them when we move out here! His wife got stung on her foot and said it was extremely painful.

Anyway, I return to the Suited machines to continue my quest. I get 8’s, switch, J’s, switch over to the other side and get 6’s. Switch and get ACES! Switch and get ACES again! I get Q’s on the next machine, then I go back to the machine on the other side I lost $50 on and get 10’s out of the box, so there is only one machine left to go…..and it won’t take my money. Maintenance man comes and fixes it (and gives me a lucky penny that was on the floor), and I play down to $53.75 wondering what I’m going to do this time when it gets down to $50…..and I get ACES out of the box. KILLED THE BANK!






My Lucky Duck

I put $100 through DDB with no 4OK. I call it a night at about 12:30. P follows shortly thereafter. He spent the evening playing Bonus at the sportsbar, watching basketball & hockey. He did get Aces but utlimately down another $150 or so. He was pretty much the only one playing so the progressive was going up slow and he quit when it was about $1179.

 

Enjoying the report!

You mentioned scorpions and you moving. When we bought our house in Vegas, as part of the closing process, we had to sign all of these forms acknowledging items. The funny part was one of the acknowledgments was that there was gambling in Nevada. Another was that there were over a hundred different varieties of scorpions in NV. Snakes was another one. There were more, but I forget what.

We never saw any of them, oh wait, we did see gambling:evillaugh

The most annoying thing to us was the outside roaches that came out at night on to our patio. Apparently they come from the palm trees, or spend their days in them, also.

I did find a great trap solution using coffee grounds, water and a glass jar.

 

Thanks, Joe! That's hilarious about the forms!! :evillaugh
Here in Houston we are all too familiar with the roaches, we have the bug-man come out every couple of months to keep them at bay. Ugh. At least Vegas doesn't have mosquitoes like Houston!

 

Tuesday, May 14 – Day Four

Today we’re checking out and going downtown, so we do an abbreviated workout/spa pool session, have a quick lunch and head out.

This morning’s money count is $262 down, so I gained some back from yesterday.

For some odd reason, the buffet line for lunch is insanely long, maybe it’s the new Bingo Room…we decide to just grab something at the Turf Grill. I have a ham & swiss sub and P has a burger & fries. Pretty good basic food and pretty cheap too, we pay with points.

We stop at Orleans to burn some coupons. We need to play $10 to get $10 free play, so we sit down at the bartops to play Bonus and I get a Shocktop on tap. P gets aces on his second hand! I lose my $10. We go to the booth and have them load the free play and give us our $10 matchplays. I get my $10 back on 100-play penny DDB and P plays 100-play penny deuces and gets a $15 profit. We each have two $10 matchplays, I win one on blackjack and one on roulette, and tip each dealer a dollar to soften the blow of the hit-and-run. P wins one on blackjack and loses one on craps. So we have a net profit of $65 plus the extra money P got by getting aces.

Next stop is Palms where we have $40 for $25 slotplay coupons. We play Bonus at the $1199 machines and I stop with a profit of $17 and P stops with a profit of $21. I lose my matchplay on blackjack and P loses his on craps, so a small profit of $18 here.

We check into Main Street Station on a two night comp I received through b connected. We are going to try & give Boyd more play and stay at their properties in case Stations doesn’t come back to their senses. We used to stay & play at Orleans all the time, but I just feel like GVR and Red Rock are a better fit for us these days. We might try Suncoast, and I hear the new rooms at Gold Coast are very nice.

We have stayed at MSS a couple of times before and I really like it there. I think the rooms are charming and we request a train view (P likes trains). The room is comfortable, but at night we find the trains are pretty loud even though we always bring a small fan with us, and the A/C goes off and on all during the night, which can be somewhat annoying.

We have coupons at the D, $5 in free play for every 50 points earned, up to $100. We’re both going to play on one card. When P signs up we find out the D runs their own promotion on this for new sign-ups, and the nice lady tells us we can use our coupons some other day, so now we will have four shots at this promotion, which is great! We are going to play Bonus upstairs at the bar. We’ve never been to the D before, never even been upstairs when it was Fitzgerald’s.



We really like it up there on the second floor. You can sit and play and watch zip-liners flying by outside. They play good music all over the spectrum, the bartenders goof around practicing their flair (most of them need the practice), you can hear the Sigma horses galloping nearby, and those little progressives on the lesser 4OK’s and straight flush help to keep everybody engaged in the game.

We play for about an hour and a half, I get Q’s twice but end up about $50 down. P ends up about $40 up. I did manage to get another SSOH…ouch I know I did the right thing holding the 9 but it makes you wonder…..



We are hungry for dinner so we walk over to Magnolia’s at Four Queens and snag a ringside seat over the casino, our favorite. I have a pizza and P has Loco Moco, which he usually orders there and enjoys. Pizza is pretty good but I’m not sure it came from the adjacent pizza place or not? We use the BOGO coupon.



We have $10 free play coupons here, P plays 50-play bonus deuces and gets a $14 profit, I play quarter DDB at the bartop and lose.

We go back to the D for another hour of play. I don't get another 4OK but I hang in there for a profit of about $20. P has a profit of about $20.

We walk back to MSS on Fremont Street. How in the world does Bon Jovi rate a canopy show? I’m just sayin.

P decides we are underserved on 4OK’s, especially bonus ones, so we play 5-play quarter Bonus side by side at MSS. This proves to be a great decision as about 10 minutes later, P scores this:



We both do pretty well, getting 18 scratch-off cards between us (all $2). I go up to the room at about 11:30 and P plays a little NSU.

Report for the Last Day coming up……

 

Very enjoyable read. Thanks for taking the time to write up a TR. I Look forward to the last day post.

Later, GVJ

 

Great report so far, thanks! My wife and I also enjoy Jason & Monica, sometimes they are the highlight of the trip for us. Told my parents to watch them when they were out there in March, they liked them too!

 

Ha! You and me both, sister!

Enjoying the report and all the pics!

 

Thanks for the report.........How in the world do you remember all those details ?..

 

May 15 – Day 5 – Last Day

Our flight is at 10 a.m. tomorrow, so this is our last day in Vegas. It happened so fast!

I wake up at 6 a.m. and can’t go back to sleep, so I mess around on my iphone until P wakes up. My money count reveals I’m up about $40 from yesterday, so I’m climbing back. P is on the positive side after his Royal, so we’re doing just fine, thank you!

I’m ready to go before P, so I head downstairs to play a little NSU (quarter). I play for about an hour and end up with a small profit of $16.25 and three scratch-off cards (I got 5OK twice and one 4OK with 9’s).

We head to the Plaza for a coupon burn and lunch. Tough to make anything happen with $5 of free play, but we have fun with P playing Cops ‘N Donuts and cashing out at $3 and me playing some ancient Haywire quarter reel slot for zip and zilch. We both win our $10 matchplay on roulette, however—me first on Black and then P the next roll on Even.

We go to Hash House A Go Go with a $10 off $25 coupon. We order the same thing. And we agree it is the BEST BLT we’ve ever had in our long lifetimes. All the components are perfect, but what really sends it over the edge is the buttered, toasted Texas Toast. Sure they are ginormous, but somehow we both manage to pull it off.



We walk over to El Cortez for more couponing, $10 free play here. P gets $8.60 on Uncle Sam and I get $4.50 on 10-cent DDB.



Walking back to the D, I am amazed by all the new little bars and restaurants popping up on that side of town, DT3 as they are calling it, or Hipster Zappos Land…..it looks like somebody is trying to put Austin, Texas in the middle of Downtown Las Vegas. It’s pretty cool and I hope it works out for everybody that’s investing in it. The new zipline tower looks ridiculously high, and ugly.

We go back to the D to hit the Bonus for another couple of hours. We decide to stop at about 600 points which will equal $60 in free play. I end up about even and P is $110 ahead, he gets aces. I manage a couple more SSOH (two were actually from last night and I forgot to include, one from today).







We go down to the player’s club and our free play is loaded. There is also going to be a drawing at the end of May for a sweet little black Camaro with dark red stripes, and because we earned so many points in a 24-hour period, she gives us what seems like 100 drawing tickets, and we have to put P’s name and player number on each one. No need to be present to win, so we have every confidence we will be flying out to pick up our car next month.



We can’t use our free play in the progressive bartop Bonus, so we play NSU and wind up with $55.25. Not a bad ending considering we didn’t lose any money playing to get that free play! Before we leave the D, we play a few races on the Sigma Derby, but while we are there it’s kind of quiet. We like it when people get a little crazy on that game!

We go to Binions where I use my $10 free play on a 50-play penny DDB, get a full house on the bottom, and wind up with $19.50 profit. P plays Uncle Sam again and cashes out at $4.50.

We have plans to go out to Texas Station or Fiesta Rancho to do the Senior Day slot tournament and have some dinner out that way, but Vegas has finally taken its toll on these two old folks and we decide to just stick around and play at MSS.

We have dinner at Triple 7, I have wings and P has pizza, neither of us are wowed by our food. My beer however, a mango heff, is delicious. We pay with points.

We play NSU side by side and after about an hour I get this



And the guy playing 3 seats down gets one too, only he is playing Loose. A half hour later, I get this



And I kid you not, after a few minutes that guy down the line gets them again, too! Loose again!!

P is not doing so well on his machine so he goes off to play Bonus. I too grow tired and move on. I love to play Goldfish, so I put $20 in and play max bet $3.00 and get the fish food bonus, followed immediately by a random bonus where the fish blows out the numbers 461 and that's x10 for a bonus win of $46.10 and I cash out with a profit of $60.



I have read that Lappert’s has good ice cream, so I take a walk over to California and get a single scoop strawberry (Washington Strawberries!) waffle cone for $3.75. It is huge. And the best cone I ever ate! Wow two best of in one day. I’m livin large.

I am charmed by the sight of the old-timer VP machines at MSS, so I put $100 in a DDB machine. Then I realize the stupidity of that idea. They are coin droppers! I do manage to get 7’s and it makes this wonderful WHOOOP noise. I end up cashing out about equal. It’s cool they added a progressive to it!



Me & P play a little bit of Triple Play side by side, he loses his hundred and I stop when I’m about back to even. It’s about 11:30 and I go up to the room while P stays down and plays a bit longer.

Final money count for me reveals a profit of $481 for the first winning Vegas trip I can remember in a while. P came home with $1 more than he left with! We had 12 more scratch-off tickets for a grand total of $60--that promotion is a good deal.

We really enjoyed the variety of this trip and we are quickly becoming fans of downtown. We will stay at MSS again on our next trip in a couple of months.

Thanks for reading...I love reading everyone's trip report and was inspired to do one of my own. I'll never be at Royal Flusher's level of tale-telling, but hey I tried!

Our flight back to Houston was on-time and all-good. The fact that we came home quite a bit earlier in the day and had time for play before sleep was well received by the other members of our family.

 

Thanks, Oldcrabtom. I keep a little notebook with me in my purse to write stuff down, although I realize I'm living in the dark ages and I need to be talking into my iphone or something. Got to be a better way! The photos we take along the way also help to jog the memory.

 

When you move, that's gonna be one heck of a car trip with 3 cats! I did it when we moved from Dallas to Phoenix. I knew one of mine howled in the car on long trips, so I got some tranquilizers for her. She must have spit it out the first day. That was one long day in the car. I made sure I got it down her the other days. We also only had a PT cruiser at the time, so we had enough stuff for us for a week, 3 cat carriers, litterbox, litter, cat food etc. Each time we unloaded and reloaded it seemed like we had more stuff! Good times...

Thanks for the TR. I like really detailed ones like you wrote!

 

Sklyer -- I hear you, we wonder how we're ever going to pull that one off. Drugging them up sounds like a plan! All that in a PT Cruiser, wow.

Thanks for the nice words!

 

Great TR. Thanks for taking the time to write and post it. You guys had a great trip.

later, GVJ

 

betting against the Astros and on the Rangers....both a huge

the Rangers will never win for you and the Astros will only lose when you don't want them to....neither of you look old enough to retire...not really even close it must be the mosquitoes drawing blood to keep you young.....nice trip report

 

Nice trip report I will have to check out the ice cream place next week.

 

Thanks a for a very enjoyable read...I'm a pretty strict Boyd Gaming fan...Stick with them u will like em..

 

Awesome TR and very entertaining. Wish there was more!

Thanks for sharing.