10 Days in Vegas 6/14-24 (Paris, Cal, Cosmo)

I've been to Vegas a couple times in 2021 to pickup free play at Binion's/Four Queens, but this was my first time on the Strip this year. The dates (6/14-6/24) were picked for three reasons:

1. My four months in Nevada in 2020 earned me a ton of CZR tier credits. So much so that I earned a Signature Experience. The only experience option that appealed to me was a second $500 folio credit. Unfortunately, while all other benefits were extended due to COVID, the Signature Experience had to be booked by the end of January and completed by the end of June. Not a very customer friendly policy, but my new host made a tentative booking back in January that could be modified later.

2. There was a decent CZR Apple/Electronics offer this week.

Apple Watch Series 6 or $400 free play 0 tier credits
iPad Air 10.9" or $600 free play 5,000 TC
iPhone 12 Pro" or $1000 free play 8,000 TC
iPad Pro 12.9" or $1200 free play 10,000 TC
Macbook Pro 16" or $2000 free play 15,000 TC
All of the Above or $10000 free play 50,000 TC​

The goal was 15,000 TC for $2000 free play and, if by some miracle I hit a royal or two, I would contemplate going for 50,000 TCs.

3. My buddies R and M have been champing at the bit to get back to Vegas (or any casino). All of us were fully vaccinated back in April and they couldn't wait any longer

4. Matching Seven Stars to Wynn Black became a goal at the last minute.

This trip report won't be quite as thorough as my previous reports. I often forgot to take pictures of meals because I would get distracted by conversation.

 

Mon 6/14

Nearing flight time I thought it was going to be my third consecutive LAS flight finishing #1 on the upgrade list. But somehow I won the lotto and got to ride up front for the five hour flight. I was good and had just one Buffalo Trace on the rocks. There was a short taxi line in the blazing heat at 1:30pm. The $23 flat fee to Paris was less than UberX rates.



No room was available at check-in so I bell checked my big bag (got the "this is the last time you will see me, a different bellman will bring your bag to the room" tip hustle . The electronics offer did not show up on the kiosks and I wasn't going to play without it counting so I just wandered around to kill time. Lt. Cmdr. Data seems to be permanently gone from Planet Hollywood If anyone sees him please let me know. They still have Will Smith's costumes from Independence Day on display.

After not too long a Calais suite was ready (XX01P). It had a great view of the tower and part of the fountains. The only drawback is that there was no desk. Luckily the sofa table was adequate and the extra height got the computer monitors up to eye level. The living room TV was undersized, but I'm not here to watch TV (I say as I'm watching Last Crusade on it while writing this).



The clerk at check-in said the only thing she saw coded to my stay was the $500 Signature Experience. Ruh-roh! It took some phone tag to get in touch with my host, but she managed to get it added on quickly. Phew! I was ready to burn CZR in Vegas to the ground.

Video poker was calling me, but first dinner. I was happy to see Harrah's Oyster Bar is open on Mondays and accepts both drink and food vouchers. I started with my traditional Bombay Sapphire martini. There was a new menu item and I had to try it, the Oyster Sampler. 2xraw, 2xgrilled, 2xrockefeller, and 2xfried oysters. It's perfect for indecisive people like me, and it was delicious. I forgot to snap a pic of the shrimp scampi...it looked like shrimp scampi After comping off the martini, wine, and $10, the total came to $50 RCs. They're back to no reservations, but Seven Stars can cut the line.



After dinner I finally got to gambling at Bally's. Spin Poker was just eating hundys until this happened:



It was exciting to get my first hand pay at Bally's, but unfortunately this barely brought me above even. The rest of the 5000 TCs went better, but I still finished down on the day.

 

Tue 6/15

I decided not to pack my coffee brewing system to save weight. That was a mistake. Paris at 9am is just a collection of coffee stands with 20-30 minute waits. I was working an eight hour day and didn't have time to deal with that. I ended up paying $5 for a coffee at Gustav's Bar. There was a time that that coffee would have been on the house with a flash of my Seven Stars card. Lame.

After work I tried to play at Caesars Palace but all my preferred machines were taken. Over at Harrah's some jerk was watching TV on his phone at the one good machine. At that point I gave up and decided to get dinner.

Gordon Ramsay's Fish & Chips is one of the few places that takes both the Laurel Lounge $10 dining credit and free drink tickets. I ordered the off-menu G Spot combo (chicken, shrimp, and fish). OMG! It was the best fried food I've ever had. Everything was perfectly cooked, the breading was tasty and not oily. The chips could have used a touch more salt, but I am a salt fiend. Even better, after using certificates, a Stella plus food cost just $8 RCs.



After dinner I wandered back to Harrah's to earn 5,000 TCs. The good machine was open, and I cranked away on eight handed $1 VP for about 100 minutes. There were no hands of note and many rebuys

I decided to take the monorail to get back to Bally's/Paris. I'm still holding out hope for the Laurel Lounges because at least they haven't removed the signs. Also, there was some kind of conference at the new Caesars Forum Conference Center (at Harrah's). Lot's of people with badges on lanyards. Good thing Harrah's has no place for them to eat.



The nice thing about the conference center addition is that the walk to the monorail station is now fully air-conditioned. I didn't check to see if they made the same mistake with the new signs. The monorail was quite crowded at 5:30pm on a Tuesday.



At Paris I verified that the kiosks saw my play.



I used drink tickets to get some beers to take up to the room. At 6:00 on a Tuesday it took about 20 minutes to order, and it's not like the bartenders weren't working. People were getting angry. Under-staffed seemed to be the theme at CZR properties this week.

 

Loving the report. But it needs some more quads in it. Can you get on that?

I feel that Gordon Ramsey Combo coming my way sometime next week. It's just an off the menu request then?

 

Sounds like a wonderful trip was had by you. I’m enjoying the read so far. Cannot wait to hear more about it.

 

Was that a typo?

 

Wed 6/16

After Tuesday's coffee debacle, I knew to sneak downstairs earlier today. At 7:43 the line at JJ Boulangerie was bearable. A large coffee was $6.75 , cheese danish $5, and slice of breakfast pizza was $8. Yowser!

After putting in eight hours of work, I went over to Bally's to find my buddy M who had arrived late morning. We popped over to the CVS so he could stock up his room. I got a not very good chicken pesto pita to hold me over until dinner.

500 TCs at 5x$1 VP at Bally's was again boring and not profitable. At this point I decided there was no way I was going to be going for 50,000 TCs. I had not hit any royals and my losses were greater than the free play I had coming. I adjusted my goal to getting 2500 TCs this day to leave more time to hang out with my buddies.

Over at PH 2000 TCs at 5x$1 VP cost almost a dollar per TC Just rotten luck so far this trip.

At least dinner was on the house. I forgot to take a picture of the smoked tartare. It was good. I had a ribeye (medium-rare), M had the kobe skirt steak, and R had the bone-in NY strip. Everyone loved their steaks. The mac & cheese was delicious, and the mushrooms were good. House red wine was covered with drink vouchers. The total came to $109 per person, covered by my folio credit. The only complaint is that the server was rushing us along. We got out of there in just over an hour. I was too full (and/or irritated at the server) to get the sticky toffee pudding, and I love sticky toffee pudding.



After dinner we managed to find three adjacent seats at Gustav's bar at Paris. I'm not sure if 6/5/30 BP is the best quarter game they've got, but it is definitely better than the 6/5/25 JoB game on the same machine. Go figure that I actually managed to eke out a $1.25 profit playing $750 through this horrible game. And I had plenty of Ballast Point Sculpin IPAs. Good thing I rarely play Double+ Bonus games...for your viewing pleasure here are Aces with kicker for 150



Not sure what the boys did afterward, but I didn't stay up too late since I had an eight hour work day ahead of me on Thursday.

 

See my Aces with kicker pic above

Nope, the restaurant's websites mention this special but it not on the menu at the restaurant. The Gordon spot? The cashier knew exactly what I was talking about and she didn't slap me

 

It typically is.

Unless you sit at this unit, which I luckily stumbled upon earlier this month. All the bartop games on this unit were set the way they were before Spring of 2015. Maybe this machine has been this way for 6+ years, no fucking clue. So 7/5 Triple Bonus Plus is the best game on that machine at 97.67%. I really could have used your Aces there, I've never hit them while playing that game.



Nice report so far! And lol at the "G Spot Special".

 

That Paris suite is the exact one I want. Unfortunately I don’t think I will be playing there enough to earn even a bit of it anymore. Their drink distribution puts off even low rollers like me.


“There was a new menu item and I had to try it, the Oyster Sampler. 2xraw, 2xgrilled, 2xrockefeller, and 2xfried oysters. It's perfect for indecisive people like me”

I should definitely try this. As a New Englander I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never had raw oysters. They still seem very weird but I’m willing to try!

 

Where is Tarpie?

 

@Gaggles .....I think drunk you has wandered into the wrong trip report. Will relocate your posts to your own trip report

 

I wondered the same thing at Christmas when I sat down at a quarter hot roll at PHo and got 1TC per $5 coin-in. Thought it was just a messed up display but went back later for science checking my TC in the app before and after without playing anything else, and indeed had gotten $5/TC. Tried a machine next to it (same game/bank) also for science, and it registered the expected $10/TC

 

Thu 6/17

Almost no gambling this day. Worked another eight hour day. Snuck down early morning to grab a ham & cheese crepe and coffee for lunch. The crepe was decent and filling, but a little too sweet. And the long uncovered journey up to the room cooled it down too much. It and a coffee came to $20 of reward credits.



This was the day that Juneteenth became a federal holiday. Company HR came through and gave us Friday off. Score!

After work I wandered up to Wynn to status match CZR Seven Stars to Wynn Black. There was a short wait but the process was quick, though the clerk did not seem to be enjoying all the paperwork this promotion was causing her. By the time I walked away with my cards there were at least a dozen people in line.

Tonight's dinner was at a long time favorite, Old Homestead at Caesars Palace. Another day, another Bombay Sapphire martini, a little dirty. After disappearing from the limited COVID menu, the thick-cut bacon appetizer was back and was as amazing as ever! The classic wedge had plenty of bacon and bleu cheese.



My medium-rare ribeye was perfect. The side of mashed potatoes and a flight of sauces were good. R's NY strip was well prepared, and M loved his burger. None of us were able to finish. Total with tax came to $480 (that included martinis, a bottle of wine, and quite a few Jack & Cokes). It doesn't take any effort to use the $500 folio credit at steakhouses.



After dinner we tried Montecristo for after dinner drinks and cigars, but it was full. We were told that cigars were permitted in both the Alto and Vista bars. We found a table in the corner of Vista and hopefully didn't bother too many people with cigar smoke.

Later we ended up at the bar at Bally's near the poker room for my only gambling of the day. Free beers ended up costing $40 of 6/5/30 quarter BP. I still went to bed happy since I had the next day off.

 

Ummmm. I'm going to need some of that thick-cut bacon. And that salad looks pretty awesome. I'm thinking I'll need to belly up to the bar for apps and drinks.

 

If you fail at getting through the variance, along with @Joe , @Not at the table Carlos , and other reposts in progress, like @Ty . I guess thems the breaks?

 

Bacon and a wedge salad might be enough for dinner solo. And the spicy ketchupy/bbqy sauce for the bacon is amazing.

Thems the breaks. I wasn't complaining when I took CZR for tons of money last summer

 

Fri 6/18

Noticed this fun sign:


2000 was just a couple years ago, right? Surely people born in 2000 are still in pre-school.

Paris has a wide variety of lines to wait in at 9am on Fridays. Take your pick.



Actually, JJ Boulangerie's line wasn't too bad...I'm not sure people realized it is hiding behind the crepes.

R wanted to check out Ellis Island so we headed over there for breakfast. I've been there for karaoke but had never tried any of the specials they're known for. Before hitting the restaurant we signed up for player's cards, assuming we needed them for the steak & eggs special price. That does not seem to be the case...maybe that's just for the dinner specials?

After signing up we got on the wait list at the Village Pub Cafe. They have a system that texts you when your table is ready. Very smart of a casino to do this. During the 10-15 minute wait R and I played enough to earn the sign-up $5 free play. I managed to come out ahead $9 at nickel 4 line 9/6 JoB spin poker after all was said and done. Nice.

Breakfast was great. I had to try their country fried steak. It was a bit over fried, but it came with a nice peppery gravy. The breakfast potatoes were awesome, which I don't get to say in Vegas very often. R had a Denver omelette that he really enjoyed. Total came to $33 mostly because R splurged on a side of sausage and toppings on his omelette. The CFS is just $9 and coffee $2.50, so you can get out of there pretty cheap if you want to.



The walk to/fro Ellis Island from Bally's/Paris wasn't bad at all. We used the entrance by the Johnny Rockets at the back of Bally's to maximize our time in AC. We did pass a homeless guy in front of the 7-11 next to Ellis. He mumbled "Len Bias, Stacey Keibler" before asking for change. We thought that was weird. Eventually R realized that I was wearing my O's cap and this guy was just naming people from the state of Maryland to establish a rapport. Not a bad tactic.

After M woke up we all walked down to the Pinball Hall of Fame. It's two miles straight down Las Vegas Blvd from Paris, but we casino hopped Cosmo->Crystals->Aria->Park->NYNY->Excalibur->Luxor->Mandalay Bay to avoid the 115F heat. It's a hike but I had a big breakfast to walk off.

The focus is on pinball, including quite a few wooden machines from the late 50s early 60s. But they also have a number of old arcade machines. I played all the Star Trek games they had (STTNG pinball, some kind of rip-off of the raytraced Star Wars games, and a Voyager shooting game). M and I played coop TMNT...that really brought me back to my days of riding my bike to the mall arcade in 8th grade.

We did Lyft back to Paris. Just a warning that Lyft directs drivers to the vacant lot next door instead of the parking lot right in front. I highly recommend the Pinball HOF is you have any interest in pinball machines or old arcade games.



M and R rejoiced, finally a none-steakhouse dinner. We sat at the bar at Martorano's. We had a meatball salad and fried mozzarella as appetizers. When they came out, the super awesome bartender offered to split them onto three plates for us. Just top-notch service. Sadly I forgot to take pics, but both dishes were great. As I always do, I had the carbonara as my entree. It used to be bucatini but now it's spaghetti as it should be. It was almost as good as my homemade, which means it was great



Total came to $280, including wine, beers, and a Weller Antique 107 for R. Steve Martorano looks like if a Fast and Furious movie came to life, but the food keeps bringing me back.

Finally, it was time to gamble. I needed 2500 more TCs to get to the next free play tier. I hoped to be able to do it at Bally's, but I ran through the remainder of my marker after 1200 TCs. Doh! I did not want to take a second marker, and I still had my entire Caesars Palace marker in my pocket.

At Caesars "my" machine was taken in the circular high limit room. In the enclosed high limit room a very large man was playing one of the two good machine and was severely encroaching on the other machine. I checked my progress on the kiosks and when I turned around the guy was gone. Sweet! But when I went to checkout the machine he still had money in it and was playing slots nearby. That's fine, I'll just play the other machine. But then the guy told me it was broken (something about the bill collector being full), so I gave up.

I ended up playing 5 handed 7/5 BP STP. That has almost 33% more house edge than the 9-5 JoB I had wanted to play. But on my third rebuy I finally went on a nice little run. Dealt trips with multiplier, quad aces, dealt full houses, etc. No handpays, but in the end I had my first winning session of the trip. I came out ahead a whole $20 earning 1300 TCs for 2500 TCs on the day. Hilariously, those 2500 TCs cost a bit over $800 and earned me exactly $800 in extra freeplay



While playing it dawned on me that the guy might have been lying to me when he told me the machine was broken. Sure enough he was playing it when I was done

I wandered back to Bally's to play the free play. After activating on the kiosk I used the Caesars Rewards app on my phone to load it onto a machine with single-line $1 9/5 JoB. I kept losing track of the number of hands I had played. I did not want to play any more than the 400 hands I needed to play. I blame IPAs for the number of times I had to cashout to figure out where I was



$2000 of free play became $2020 of cash money. Nice! Of course it was a blood bath earning the 15,000 TCs to get that free play. I ended up in the hole 3/4 of a dollar royal. That tracks since the 30,400 hands I played is roughly 3/4 of a royal cycle and I definitely did not hit a royal.

After that I wandered around Paris and PH with a beer in my hand (expertly hiding a bottle from the cops in front of PH). I spotted Trooper97 inside in front of Cabo Wabo...I would have said hi but he was loudly talking on speaker phone in public

 

That guy is a jerk. All the machines aren't for one person!

 

Sat 6/19

Started the day with breakfast at Wicked Spoon. I got "yelled" at by the cashier for pre-paying a reservation and then using my Identity Gold 2-for-1. I was told as Gold there was no reason to make reservations...I'm not sure I fully believe that. In the end she refunded the pre-payment back onto my card and I ate for free. So that worked out for me, not so much for R and M

Wicked Spoon was back to self-serve. I ate there a couple of times when it not and they unsurprisingly handled it well. Still, it was nice not having to ask someone to pile on the food. My first round was scrambled eggs (with créme fraiche!), some kind of beef and ham from the carving station, hash browns, bone marrow, and a very stale bagel with lox. All I can remember of the second round is steamed bao. I just cannot be counted on to take pictures when dining with others.



After breakfast it was time to pack and move downtown. Packing after five nights is almost as bad as packing for the entire trip. Lyfts/Ubers were going to be slow/expensive so we tried the taxi line at Paris. There was a decent sized line and taxis were only appearing every minute or so. There is no marked line for this, and evidently Paris has never had one, but I asked the attendant about the Seven Stars line skipping privilege and he took care of us. After verifying the expiration date on my card (which I appreciate), we jumped to #2 in line. In no time flat we were at the Cal.

My room wasn't ready but R's was at 1pm Saturday. I stowed my luggage in R's room and then walked M over to 4Q to check him into my comped room there. After that I played 500 pts at 4Q. The goal was to get 2000 pts on two different days to maximize the summer offer (4000 pts for $400 fp) and hopefully get to diamond 2 status. It took just four minutes to hit four queens at 4Q. And I actually came out ahead $100. Maybe my luck was turning? After a short break I played another half hour for 200 pts and a small loss.



Walking back to the Cal it dawned on me that R's non-smoking room was ready but my room had not been ready. I became concerned that my host had put me down for a smoking room. The check-in clerk said my room was ready, so I confirmed that is was non-smoking. She said it is "non-smoking if I don't smoke in it." And followed up with "it depends on whether the people before you smoked." That just sounds like the definition of a smoking room to me. I agreed to check it out. The hallway on the 23rd floor smelled like smoke, but the room did not. And there were no ashtrays...but it sounds like I could have requested them?

This suite, like the suite I had my last stay at Cal, had no desk. If I want to work from Cal I will have to request a regular room. But I was not working for this three night stay so all was good. This was also not the first time I got a room here with the towel rod just sitting on the counter. Can housekeeping not call maintenance?







Dinner was at Redwood. We arrived right at 5 and grabbed seats at the bar. Again, dining with others lead to a lack of pictures. We were downtown so cocktails were $12 (Hendricks) and beers $6, less than half what we were paying on the strip. Everyone enjoyed their steaks (me: ribeye oscar style, R: ny strip with brandy peppercorn sauce, M: 7oz filet). We did see someone with a humongous slice of chocolate cake, but we skipped dessert.



Before dinner, I had visited Chona at the host desk and she threw a $100 loyalty comp my way. Score! I also had a $75 dining credit on my June room offer. Before comps the total came to $270, very reasonable for the drinks, apps, salad, and entrees we had. I wanted to charge just $75 to my room and pay the rest in points but was told the system can't do that. That may be true, but Keith was in a mood so maybe he just didn't want to deal with it? It ended up working out better for me anyway (story to come on check-out day).

After dinner it was back to the VP grind at 4Q. I still need 1300 pts to reach my target. I earned 1200 of them with 3 hours of $1 9/6 JoB. I ended up down a buy-in

I went up to Chicago Brewing to earn the final 100 pts. It's a much higher house edge per pt at the bartops since I can't handle the swings of DDB. The $1 7/5 BP isn't too bad of a game, but the $16 coin-in/pt sucks. That's the price I'll pay for good beer.



As usual the bartenders and server were frantically running around (10:30 on a Sat night). I still can't figure out if they need to work smarter or if they need more staff. Either way, it was about 15 minutes before a bartender made it down to my seat at the end of the bar. And they were out of the IPA Luckily I enjoy the stout too.

There no exciting hands and I took a small loss getting to 2000 pts on the day.

At one point a completely obliterated young dude sat next to me. He kept looking at his phone but I don't think he was comprehending anything. The gentleman on the other side of him got up to use the restroom. While he was gone the drunk kid snatched the dude's player's card out of the machine. Luckily the dude's buddy noticed and yelled at him. I really think the kid had no idea why he had grabbed the card.

When he got back, the gentleman was annoyed because he had lost his countdown counter, but no big deal. After all that the kid didn't even order a drink when the bartender offered...I'm glad some part of him realized more booze would be a very bad idea.