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Harrah's Laughlin Oct 23-26

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Trip Reports' started by Mango68, Oct 27, 2013.

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  1. Mango68

    Mango68 Tourist

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    My Trip Report

    arrah's Laughlin Trip Report

    Who: Hubby, 47th Birthday Trip, myself, Hubby's 49 yo brother and 50 yo sister in law. We flew from Seattle, they flew from Minneapolis. We met in

    Vegas..BIL and wife had flown the night before and got to experience their first time on Fremont! We flew in next afternoon, rented a car from the

    worlds worst car rental agency (but pretty foxy cheap!) and picked them up at the Plaza. Hooked up our GPS and headed toward Laughlin. We'd

    been talking about trying a trip here for a year or two, as a change from Vegas. We had a comped River View room and a friends/family rate for

    the other couple at Harrah's.


    About halfway through our 1.5 hour drive we were pretty thirsty and hubby and I were itching for our first gamble since our feet hit Nevada 3 hours

    ago. Stopped at Terrible's in Searchlight. Wow, what a classic dive! 1.00 Coors Lights were attractive though. Much to our dismay their machines

    are hand pay for EVERYTHING! If you have 38 cents you want to cash out, the 70 year old bartender has to come and hand pay you. And she doesn't

    move very quickly. Crazy! We sucked down a couple of beers and headed back on our way. It was dark by now, so it was cool and eerie to drive

    through the desolate desert. Another 40 minutes or so and we are in view of the casinos along the river in Laughlin. All lit up at night, very pretty.

    Got into Harrah's, valeted the car and headed in. About 7:30 on a Wednesday night, so no line. My first trip with Platinum status so we had

    a super nice desk agent who got us great rooms right across the hall from each other. Every single employee that we dealt with while at Harrah's for

    3 nights was exceptionally helpful and friendly. 5 stars for customer service. Our room was on the 10th floor of the Central Tower with a really

    great view of the river and the family pool area. This would prove to suck the next morning when kids started screaming and playing there pretty

    early, but we're up fairly early anyway. Room was basic, King bed, no fridge or microwave, no safe..small coffee pot but not K-cup which I had

    brought a box of so that was a waste of suitcase space. Room clean except a sandy coating in the very slow draining sink. Decided to just wipe it out

    and not bitch, because I was ready for some beer and gambling! We didn't leave the property that night, played around on slots for a few

    hours, drank a lot and caught up on family news. Played new Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and a few others I'd been wanting to try. Best hits for

    the night for me were on Quick Hits...a few bonus rounds and left up about 100 bucks. Hubby won 200 on some Australian Outback Platypus game.

    Ate a midnight dinner at their 24 hr Beach Cafe, where we had the worlds best waiter, Juan. He was fantastic! So accommodating and attentive to

    us drunken middle aged weirdos. We tipped him well and headed off to bed as we planned to get up and get on the first water taxi at 9am to go

    explore the River Walk.

    I'll post more later, and a few pictures from our room.:wave:
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2013
  2. RedRiverRose

    RedRiverRose VIP Whale

    Joined:
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    Enjoyed your report. I love Laughlin.
     
  3. Mango68

    Mango68 Tourist

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    Day 2..

    Got up fairly early on Thursday, enjoyed the sun coming up over Bullhead City. Met at the bar for some Bailey’s coffees and some VP..nothing memorable about their paytables. Played a bit of Super Times Pay 5 play, won about a hundred in a few hands and then we made our way down to the Water Taxi. We bought the all day wristband for 15 bucks..well worth it if you plan on spending the day going up and down the river. It was a beautiful morning, the river is so clear you can see to the bottom in most spots.

    First stop was the Colorado Belle. Really old casino, wandered around a bit, slot-hopped, nothing memorable. First beer of the day..10am! :beer: We then hit the River Walk and went to the Edgewater, then the Aquarius. The Aquarius had a really nice casino floor..spent about 2 hours here and decided to go for lunch to Bubba Gump’s. Caught the water taxi again back to the Golden Nugget and ate out on the deck at the Shrimp Company. Great drinks and service, a bit expensive but got 25% off with my Landry’s card so that was good. Got 2 souvenir “hillbilly wine glasses” for my brother in law. Back on the water taxi to Harrah’s for some pool time at their adult pool. Fairly nice pool, but the pool bar was closed as it was off season..in some ways this was good with no loud music but we had to schlepp into the casino to get our solo cups of beer. Definitely an “older” crowd here..no Jersey Shore action in this pool. Sun goes behind the towers about 3 so we lost our direct sun. Napped a while then went back to the room to freshen up for the evening.

    Later took the water taxi back to the Golden Nugget (that wristband is the way to go!) and played here for a while, some table games and roulette. Hit on my birthday number twice (17) so a nice little profit at the roulette table. Laughlin's GN is a nice property, I'd stay there in the future. Slotted around a bit then went to the Pioneer. Great little old fashioned place..played VP at their bar, didn’t realize it paid in silver dollars! Cashed out with 65 dollars and had to go find a bucket. We seemed to win the most here..well, at least our winning sustained us for a few hours. Slots seemed friendlier to us here. Took the last water taxi of the night back to Harrahs for a few drinks and another late night meal. Played some 3 card poker, let it ride and black jack. Harrah’s doesn’t have a bar/nightclub to just sit and visit, which is a shame. We all hit the sack about 1am.
     

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  4. Mango68

    Mango68 Tourist

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    Day 3

    Up by 7 again..down for some Starbucks and stop by the bar for a shot of baileys to pour into it. I introduced my sister in law to this lovely morning drink and I think she had 3 or 4 of them each morning! :wink2: We decided to try the walk down to the River Palms, which is the next property down from Harrah’s. Harrah’s is situated a bit away from the rest of the casinos and isn’t connected to the River Walk. After navigating the parking garage and climbing a bunch of stairs we made it to Casino Drive. A refreshing stroll down the hill and we made it to the Palms. Another nice property that we might consider staying at. Played slots here and there then hit the river walk to hop through most of the casinos all the way down the river. Hit my birthday number again at Roulette at the Colorado Belle.

    The only property we didn’t make it to was the Tropicana, which is situated across the street and just seemed like too far to walk! Took the water taxi back to Harrahs for another few pool hours. Ended up napping in the room till about 6 then headed back out for our last night of fun and to celebrate hubby’s birthday.

    We took the taxi all the way to the end to Don’s Riverside. Met lots of locals and regular visitors here..had fun sitting at the bar. Very relaxed older crowd. Hung out here for a few hours then went back to the GN to sit in their Gold Diggers nightclub. The boys had some fireball shots to celebrate the birthday. I skipped that one! Stayed till about 10 till they turned up the music a bit too loud and started roping off for bottle service. Seemed a bit ridiculous as there was about 10 people in the whole place. Had fun laughing and drinking here though. Back on the last river taxi of the night at 11pm. The guys definitely didn’t want to hike back up the hill loaded on fireballs! Spent a few more hours playing table games and hit the sack about 2. Late night for us! Gladys Knight had a concert at Harrah’s on Friday so the hotel was fully booked and we sure noticed the crowding in the casino that night.

    Drove back to Vegas the next morning for an early afternoon flight. Searchlight is pretty darn decrepit looking in the daylight!

    Overall impression: We had fun. I’d have enjoyed staying at Fremont more, but we got out and about in the sunshine in Laughlin which was nice. The river taxis are fun and you get a great view. Definitely not Vegas. We saw not a single soul asking for money. No costumed street performers. Not much outdoor music or entertainment at all, actually. But fun to walk the River. The atmosphere might be different in summer time. Weather was phenomenal..85-90 for 3 days. Very friendly bartenders, dealers, waiters and hotel staff all over town. Might skip Harrah’s next time..too far from other casinos and no central bar for just chatting. They did have a nice sandy beach though, which no other property seemed to have. Didn’t do the buffet but it looked good. We’re not foodies..just like to gamble, chat and drink. A little dancing would have been ok too! I don’t think anyone in their 20’s would enjoy it here..no dressing up to the nines or high heels were seen. Plenty of scooters around the hotel. But for us in our late 40’s it was a perfect short getaway. Thanks for reading!:peace:
     
  5. luckylinda

    luckylinda High-Roller

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    Nice report I like Laughlin. This is a great time to visit weather usually great. Agree the water taxis are fun. There are also regular taxis that would be cheaper with more than one person.
     
  6. SW

    SW Well-Known Member

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    My wife and I and our friends were in Laughlin on the 16th - 19th and had a great time. Your trip report and pictures brought back some very good memories. Thanks for sharing!
     
  7. warpdrvr

    warpdrvr Low-Roller

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    Nice report. We are going on a comp for 4 nights starting Christmas night. Bummed to hear there is no in room safe. Hopefully they at least have safe deposit boxes to use. I have done a lot of reading about this place and it seems it's average, so we should be happy there.

    Being big VP players, I know we won't be doing most of our playing there as the paytables seem dismal.

    We play mostly DDB VP and table games, BJ and PGP. Heard Aquarius has good paytables for VP, so will probably spend a lot of time playing there. Does anyone know what it takes to get comped room offers from there?

    Anyways, we have never been to Laughlin and thought we would give it a try..

    Thanks for the report!
     
  8. Mango68

    Mango68 Tourist

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    We stayed for the comped nights...Harrahs is fine, nothing fancy and a good home base...a water taxi away from most things but that kind of made it fun. I like VP, fairly new to it so I did know enough to read the paytables. I'd try the Pioneer or the Riverside..they seem to have a lot of machines and we did win a bit at those. But cruise them all...there's not too many to do in a day! Have fun and enjoy the good weather. I'd go back! Here in the Pac NW we're expecting a big rain/wind storm and I'm wishing I was there now!
    :beer:
     
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