10/16 - 10/19 Main Street and Jreamz

An October trip to take advantage of 3 free nights at MSS and see Jabawockeez Jreamz.

Wife and I got up at 2:00 AM for our 5:20 flight from PDX to Vegas on Monday, 10/16. I was surprised that I actually slept for a couple of hours! We parked the car in long-term and headed to the Southwest desk to check our bag at around 4:00 am. We were early enough that the lights weren't all on yet in the airport! Southwest desk had a couple of employees already working and there was no line so it took all of 3 minutes to print the bag tag and boarding passes and were off!

We got a quick bite at McD's and then set off to find bathrooms that weren't closed for cleaning before our 2 hour flight. If there's one good thing about getting on the o'dark thirty flight, it's the fact the flight is on time! We had a crew and a pilot with enough sleep so off we go.

We landed in LV around 7:10 AM, about 10 minutes early. Our bag was third off the carousel so grab it and head out to the Budget rent-o-car counter via the shuttle. Only 2 people in line so it's a short wait and the agent that helped us was friendly and fast. We booked our car through Costco so it was already paid for and the Costco credit card provides the extra insurance for rental so we declined the optional coverage. I was expecting the usual lecture about not taking it but she just said "OK, you are responsible for any damage" and that was it! We got into our Kia Rio lawn mower sedan and headed to Green Valley Ranch, a destination that we've never been to.

At GVR we head to the players club to get cards and remark that it's only 8:40 and we're already in full fledge casino mode! We went to work quickly on the video poker. Both of us were able to secure Bloody Marys and turn out quad 8's in a short time frame! I really liked GVR. We're both slot/VP players and this place had everything we wanted. A great mix of new games, Video Poker, and old school video slots.








At around 11:00 am we decided to head to our homebase for this trip, Main Street Station, to let them know we arrived and play until our room was ready. Front desk says "we have a room now if your preference hasn't changed from Non-Smoking/King". Scored our room early, yes!! 9th floor, facing the Cal and at the end of the hall. The room was just fine however the only thing we noticed is it smelled like cooking bacon. Depending on your preference, that may or may not be a good thing! We figured the grill vents from the kitchens below our room must be sending the aroma up our way and the AC unit made sure it found its way into our room. Later in the day the smell was gone so that must have been the case.

Just gotta mention, I really love the entrance from the Cal into MSS.


By now we're pretty hungry 'cause we've already been up for 9 hours so we hit 777 for lunch and a couple of the Red ales. Tasty as usual!


With stomachs no longer growling we hit the floor for slots/VP and had some decent hits. Just enough to keep us floating.



And yes this happens to me too:


As the 3:00 hour approaches we decide to head to the strip so we can be in the right area for our 7:00 PM Jabawockeez show.

Traffic wasn't bad at so it takes us less than 30 minutes to get into the Planet Hollywood parking garage to take advantage of free parking. We crossed the street to Bellagio for a couple of games.


Nothing good happened there so we decide to head down to NYNY to grab a drink and some table-side guac at Gonzalez Y Gonzalez via the oh-so-crowded tram to Monte Carlo:



It's happy hour at GyG so two-for-one Margaritas and they hit the spot. We don't gamble at NYNY but instead cross the street to MGM. The show starts at 7:00 and by now it's only a few minutes before 6:00 PM. We tried a few slots around the Jabawockeez theater and get absolutely nothing and are now kicking ourselves for even trying. At 6:30 the doors open so we head to the theater.

The Jabawockeez theater is actually quite small. We handed our ticketmaster tickets to the usher and he hands us 2 Jabawockeez pins and two tickets for a drink and popcorn at the bar and says "these are included with your tickets". That was a nice surprise. The usher shows us to our seats in the "B" row, center stage. These seats were perfect. We were up above the front row and just above the stage level. I think the front row would have been just a bit too low. We head to the bar and get 2 Coronas with our tickets and 2 popcorns. I knew I wouldn't eat my popcorn so while we were in line I noticed there was a kid in line behind me with his Mom (this is an all-ages show and is quite family friendly) so I asked her if I could give my popcorn to him. She didn't object so I passed the popcorn over then wondered how I was going to show the huge lime wedge sitting on my Corona into the can.

As the show starts, one of the Jabawockeez works the crowd a bit dressed as a police officer. Some hijinks ensue with the folks he decided to pick on so we had a good laugh at other's expense (sorry others). As the show starts, he jumps on the stage and acts out the pre-recorded message playing for the crowd (the Jabawockeez do not talk) that states in no uncertain terms that you cannot film or take any pictures. Bummer 'cause we really wanted to take some pics but it's an understandable and acceptable policy. The show was fantastic! We went there to see impressive hip-hop/B-Boy dancing and that's exactly what we got mixed with a lot of laughs. They used a wide variety of music in their act ranging from classic hip-hop, classic rock, lot's of Michael Jackson, and modern hip-hop. They even did a Street Fighter II bit which I really loved! The show lasted about 75 minutes and by the end our faces hurt from laughing. It was a great time and we were absolutely not dissapointed. We headed back downtown and call it a day early. We were in bed by 10:00 PM and laughing at ourselves for how early we called it. Considering the time we started the day, I don't think we did too bad!

Day 2 starts and we decide to just stay downtown so I could have drinks and not worry about driving. Head to the MSS buffet around the time it opened (early-to-bed, early-to-rise!) to use the 2 free buffets included in my wife's offer. With breakfast down we started at the Boar's Head bar but the relatively good luck we had at MSS the day before had evaporated. We couldn't turn anything this time but we did get 2 fantastic Bloody Marys to help put out the flames. A gentlemen 2 seats down hit something good (I'm thinking 4 aces) and looks at us as says "your turn next". I wish it was but unfortunately cannot report that was the case. We grabbed two High Roller ales to-go and crossed over to the Cal and played a bit there. I did fine ($100 win on Micheal Jackson Icon which was a blast to play) but wife wasn't having the same luck. We decided to head onto Fremont and do hit and runs in Binions and Fremont. Lunch time rolls around so we had to Chicago Brewing for a sampler beer carousel and a thin crust pizza. That hits the spot so we head out to El Cortez.



This is another first for me as I've never been there. Had a couple of decent hits on the slots but nothing picture worthy. We bop around a bit and end up at 4 queens and take a couple of spots at the bar. I think I was sitting in @royalflusher 's throne (not that throne, the other one ).


Grabbed a local beer (for us): Deschutes Mirror Pond. The cold breeze and beer was awesome and I had a couple of great hits!





I also wanted to get a "Fall" silver strike from 4 queens because I already had "Spring", "Summer", and "Winter". I found an open Silver Strike machine and finally hit the Silver Strike symbol after about $20 in. The strike falls and it's "Fall"! Mission accomplished!!!

We head back to MSS to see if we can get some scratch tickets and try some of our favorite slots there. Wife and I noticed the "Big Ben" slot jackpot was at ~$86. For those that aren't familiar, this jackpot starts at $50 and increases as people play. In our experience it usually hits by the time it reaches $100. To hit the jackpot, the Big Ben bonus symbol needs to appear in the first and fifth columns which then starts the bell chiming. If the bell chimes 12 times, the jackpot pays! The jackpot can pay at any bet level. We throw some $$ at the machine all night long and nothing. We decided to give that up and go back to VP. Wife got a couple of quads but I got nothing and we are thinking we've reached the daily limit so lets head to bed.

3rd day starts and we head out to Sam's Town, another new place for us!








Grab a quick bite at Dunkin Donuts there and hit the floor. I hit a small bonus on Stinkin' Rich but wife is not so lucky. Move over to video poker and spend quite a bit of time 'floating' but no big wins. Bloody Mary's are flowing again though! There's a deuces wild variant there that pays $750 for quad deuces. I didn't have any hits worth a pic so no images and now I cannot quite remember the name. I know it had the word "Emerald" in it though. Decide to go back to slots and try our luck again. For about an hour nothing good is happening. I sit down at a Outback Jack pretty much just because it was next to the machine my wife was playing. After a couple of spins I hit 3 bonus symbols but don't get too excited because bonuses happen pretty regularly on this game. The bonus starts out with Outback Jack jumping into a jeep and driving to one of a few locations in Australia. The jeep drives into Big Rock which dissapoints me. In this bonus game Outback Jack just throws a boomerang. The boomerang circles around the win meter and while it's circling the win meter counts up. Usually it stops around $3.00 for the level I play at. It got up to $6 and still going so now I'm impressed! I noticed the "Take Win" button starts flashing which I've not seen happen before in this bonus game. I hit the button and wouldn't ya know:


So now I'm quite happy with the way things are going!

We hang out for a bit, grab lunch at TGIF, then head back downtown. Park the car at MSS and walk over to Downtown Grand; another place I have never been to! No big hits but the drink service was top notch. In fact, it may have been too good because as we headed back towards Fremont I realized I no longer had my phone. Beeline it back and check our last machine but nothing there. Went to the machine before that and there's a guy playing so I ask if there happened to be a phone there. He replies "No but you should check the security desk". I thanked him and headed to the desk which just happened to be close by where that machine was. I ask the security guard if someone turned in a phone and he says "what kind?" so I answer "android phone with a phone case that has movie quotes on it". He pulls out a sealed envelope and I can tell by the shape it just had to be my phone. It is!! Whew that was close. He told me it was found on Buffalo which was the machine before the machine before the last machine I played so I had gone quite a while without it and didn't realize it. I asked him who found it and all he would tell me is "an employee". Many many thanks to the unnamed employee that fixed my drunken mistake!!

Worked our way through Binions on our way back to MSS. Now I am not sure if it's always the case or just an off night but the drinks at Binions were downright awful. My wife won a "free beer/wine/well" drink in the player's club kiosk game so she cashed that in at the bar nearest the deli for a rum'n'coke. The drink was practically see-thru and if there was any alcohol in it they figured out a way to make it taste like water. We chalked it up to maybe a bad coke fountain and sat to play a bit. I ordered a 7&7 and when it got to me it was the same. I honestly thought it was just icewater but the CW did announce it as 7&7 when she handed it to me. Called it quits then and walked back to MSS.

At MSS, we headed back to Big Ben and notice the jackpot is now at $270!! Again we throw some $$ at it but still no joy! A few other small hits but nothing big so we find ourselves getting close to our daily limit and we should call it a night and head upstairs. On the way, I notice I had a $5 crumpled in my pocket so I said "let's stop at the Pay the Aces/No Faces" coin dropper and see what happens: Well this did:


Cash in the quarters and scratcher and we kept playing on that for 3 hours longer! A few decent hits and we find oursleves up from $5 to $150. Why not one final full court press? Wife and I sit down at a quarter triple play next to the Megabucks machine at the front of MSS. Play for a bit but slowly losing. Meanwhile a guy sits down at Megabucks and starts playing with a $100. I hear his machine making a lot of noise and turn around to see triple/double/7 and he's up over $1000. Must be nice . At $80 we decide to cash out and call it a night for real. Hit the button and no ticket prints. Machine puts up "Call Attendent, Hand Pay $80.05!" and starts playing the "happy music". Now I've never heard the "happy music" on my own machine and here it is ruined for me for not-a-jackpot. Bummer. After about 5 minutes a suit walks up and says the system is down and someone will be by soon to pay us out. To top off the experience he puts the "jackpot in progress" flag on our machine.


Sigh. Someday it will happen. About 25 minutes later someone finally comes to pay us out our $80 and off to bed we go.

Final day approaches and we don't have any big plans on flight day. Head back downstairs and go right over to Big Ben. Jackpot is now at $298.86 so we put a $20 in and start chasing it again at .50 a pull. A few spins in I see a Big Ben in the first, third, and 5th column. The bell starts chiming........


Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know it's not huge but we conquered!

We pack up, check out, and head out to Jersey Mike's at Corporate/Paradise. Great service and great sandwiches. Turn the car in no problems, even had a credit because we turned it in about 30 minutes early. Shuttle back to the airport, grab some hair-of-the-dog in the form of Shock Top and wait for our flight back home to reality.

So we didn't come back rich in $$ but we did come back rich in memories of a fantastic time.

One final note: We didn't notice any difference in the atmosphere based on current events. There are #VegasStrong signs pretty much everywhere you look including a large banner over the Mandalay Bay windows. The only big and obvious change we noticed is every place we went had security at the elevators to check for room keys, even the off-strip properties.

 

nice report! Love MSS!

 

Nice report and congrats on that big $80 jackpot win.

We were there 13-17 and same thing at Cal with guards at the elevators. Just a knee jerk reaction and something that will have no effect.

 

Thank you for the very, very informative and detailed report. You two did it up right!

 

Great trip report...thanks!

 

Great report, thanks for sharing.

Where in PDX are you? I'm over in Eastmoreland. Always nice to meet people who love MSS as much as I do

 

Nice report...so did you get the 12 chimes and progressive on that Big Ben? Not sure if I understood that or not.

 

Great Report! Really enjoyed it! Great job on Big Ben!

 

Love getting to the room. Smells like bacon. Lets go eat. Thanks for the report!

 

Was at MSS 14-18 and appreciated the guard at elevator. I hope it's not a "knee jerk". Have seen them posted at Orleans elevators for years and think it is a good move.

 

Enjoyed all your details.....nice wins! Glad you got to some new places....Sam's is a nice break. FYI....there is a bus that leaves from Fremont and the Cal in case you don't want to drive.

 

Thank you all everybody. We did have a great time.

We're on the far east side on the way out to Multnomah Falls. I already miss the sun!

Yes. We snapped the picture while it was counting up so the win meter doesn't show the full amount yet.

Thank you kkinwi. We did know about the transportation options but decided to drive 'cause we thought we may go from there to Red Rock. It didn't quite work out that way though

 

Great TR!

 

The shooter in Mandalay Bay also had his room key on him. He would have bypassed the security without a problem. I understand that people say that you have to be aware of your surroundings, but really, if there is a psycho out there who wants to do major damage, can you really do anything about it? It could be on a bus, a train, inside a movie theater and even in a casino. There really isn't anything we can do about it. Can you tell if a person is carrying a weapon on him? Just pray that we are not there when the next animal decides to strike. Sorry if I am very blunt, but if you really think about it, it's a fact. The 58 innocent people who lost their lives could have looked at their surroundings, and then what?

 

Enjoyed reading your TR, thanks for posting.

 

Great report - really enjoyed following along!
Thanks for sharing!!

 

Really enjoyed your report as MSS is our go to place.
And thanks, now I understand the Big Ben machine. Tried it once because I'm a Steeler fan. Didn't play very long on it as I wasn't getting anything. Obviously I did not do my homework first. Shame on me. Will give it another try this December, AFTER I read the instructions.
So your first day was 20 hours straight I will guess your age to be 34. Let's just say I'm at retirement age. No way I could do that anymore. I remember one of our first trips to LV. Wife and I went to bed late, but our eyes just would not stay closed. Got back up and went over to Binion's Horseshoe for the early morning strip steak for some ridiculously low price. Those were the golden years for us, I hope you enjoy yours and don't bust my bubble and tell me your 70 years old LOL.

 

Thank you for reading!

Thank you TKO - I'll take 34 but reality is 45.
Not so many years ago we would come to Vegas (or even a local casino resort) and go to bed at 3 and get up at 7 each day and be happy doing so. Now that just means headache and sore eyes the next day so we opt to get at least 6 hours each night. I thought that would help us save some $$ too but funny, that hasn't happened!

 

Makes sense, and I'm glad I made you feel good on the age although it wasn't intentional.
Everyone is different. Wish I could get my body to do what you do. I'm definitely NOT a morning person. Really do not take kindly to alarm clocks since retirement. Almost never set one, Enjoy waking up naturally.We always fly in nonstop late afternoon and fly out non stop late afternoon. A few years back, we had to take an early flight leaving at 9 am. Just ruined the entire day as I had to get up in the DARK with an alarm clock.

 

If it's to Vegas I go, I will wake up at any hour of the night and get on that plane!! Sleep is overrated when Vegas is calling!! I'm 49 and still get excited like a 21 year old when a trip to Vegas is on the horizon!!