First Trip Report - First Royal - Day One

Went solo for five nights, October 16-21.

Thursday October 16,
Arrived at 11:30 on Southwest out of Des Moines. Best flight in a long time. Since it was just me to look after me this trip I decided to pace myself and just enjoy a soda and the peanuts/Chex mix, put on some music and relax on the way. Perfect flight, right on time, now get out of my way, i gotta pee. Damn meds anyway. Seemed longer than normal for Vegas but the bags were just starting to enjoy their ride around the carousel when I got down there. The fact I got lost and saw way more of the terminal than I needed to see, then walked right past the tram and needing to rely on my casino navigational training (stay near a wall and just keep walking till you find a door out) to finally get downstairs had nothing to do with it I'm sure! Stepped into the beautiful Vegas weather and turned to the right just to get smacked right in the mouth with the longest cab line I have ever entered. 25 minutes later and a good cardio routine, I finally jump in a cab and feel the adrenaline starting to rise! "NYNY" I say. "Take Paradise if you would please" and I am on my way, or so I thought. I get asked if I would like to take the freeway and sight see the strip since I am a tourist...WTF? No, let's stick with the quickest route dude! Poor guy, I feel bad, I realize now I only tipped him 2$. Stop with the tunnel already. Checked in for three comped nights in a standard Park Avenue and right up the Century tower to the 19 th floor, then a measly 278 steps to my room (yes I counted, what else was I going to do for four minutes in a hallway?) I double checked myself every time I would leave the room, cause I wasn't going back if I forgot something! Nice room, good view, good enough for one anyway. Unpacked and heading into the world at 1:30. Not bad! Found a slice of pizza and a beer before heading to the casino floor. Lost about $100 in 20 minutes playing STP and trying some stupid Star Trek thingy. Decided I better go back to pacing myself and headed out for a walk through MGM. Bounced around a few different video poker machines before I came across a Texas Tea machine. Now I only play this slot for old times sake. A previous trip a buddy and I played Texas Tea at 9c a spin and drank ourselves into brain dead state telling stories and laughing at the dancing armadillo. Sat down thinking it was again a 1c slot. Playing along with nothing happening and thinking I would show it whos boss, I jumped up to max bet, 90 on a 5c machine. Didn't realize that fact however, until I finally hit a bonus with 5 oil wells. Picked the five highest zones and as it racking up 9000 credits I switched from credits to currency to see my credits surge past $500. Ok, good mistake! Cash out and decide a walk is in order. Made it as far as the Tropicana before I needed fluids. The cab line marathon depleted some reserves I think. Up and down on a monopoly game and it is getting close to Thursday Night Football time and decide to give Dicks Last Resort a try. Walk into Excalibur and not really hungry yet so I find a 25c progressive and settle on giving DDB a try. Eighth hand I hold 10h Jh and Ah, press deal, look up to see kick off and look down to see my screen frozen. Blinks a couple times, I remind it that I still have money in it and it will stop this nonsense right now! Then a light on top goes on, awesome, I broke it. Nope, gives some scrambled jargon and goes jackpot winner. First ever Royal and it was a progressive for $1,496. 30 minutes later I get my first hand pay and W2. Decide to lock this in my safe up near the Stratosphere . Back down to the casino and find a drink at round center bar while losing $20. Finish up the night watching the Jets keep it close enough to win my bet with shepherds pie and a beer flight at Nine Fine Irishman. Walk off the beer calories on the way back to the room, falling asleep as crawl into bed. Sadly, a great day one came to a close.

 

Great read so far, can't wait to read more!

 

Well done on the Royal, what a great way to start your trip

 

Great read so far. I like your dry humor. Looking forward to reading the rest . Oh and do share pictures if possible.....

 

Enjoying your report. Congratulations on the Royal!

 

Keep it coming!

 

Congrats on the Royal!!!

 

You gotta love the progressive royal. Great hit!

 

Great start! Please post pics when you have a chance. It helps us all to live vicariously through you.

 

good report, looking forward to more

 

Great start!!

 

Friday October 17 - Day 2

Woke straight up and ready to take on Vegas at 5:30! Darn it, I almost slept the day away. Showered and ready, I take out day 2's envelope and smile as day 1 is still intact, actually bulging. Breakfast of choice was the New York omelette at the Americana Cafe. Not fantastic but hit the spot. After the breakfast was had, I head out on the floor to find some orange juice flavored vodka and within seconds found one...well three. Tried some Let's Make A Deal slot near the sport book. Just betting the 50c minimum as this was purely for the orange juice. I was sitting next to some really nice "young" lady (I think I heard her say she went to school with Moses). She thought it was good to see people just drinking juice at that time of day. I agreed, and added that with Ebola going around I could use all the vitamin C I could get. She let me know that no one had won a thing where I was sitting so not to get my hopes up. Ok. Having hope sounds like to much work anyway and I am on vacation. I didn't even get a smirk from her, maybe I wasn't the only one with that return comment today. We continue to exchange pleasantries while she keeps adding to her balance and I keep the form of the seat and consider just handing her my cash. Decide not to as 1) I wouldn't be accumulating Tier Points and 2) even though she was 180, it may have appeared that I was, well you know, hiring some "help" shall we say. Drink service is really good at NYNY at 7am, but I may have been her only customer. I am down $45 including tips and hate this slot but decide one more $20 since I am at least having fun and the waitress knows where I am. I finally get a bonus, don't ask which one cause there were a lot of different ones and I didn't care. I was just glad I finally got to experience what my blueish, grayish, whitish haired friend had been dancing to since I sat down. I get to pick a door and then spin some wheel, awesome! I spin, i win 50c. At this point I realize there is not nearly enough "juice" in my juice! I hate slot machines especially this one, then notice, I get to spin again. You better f'n believe I do! Next spin, slows and I see the major award and $6 coming into my winning zone. Awesome, I just won my tip money back, but wait it blips one more time for the major award plus $200 plus bonus extra spin! Sweet, now I have $450 plus the first spin win of two quarters! Spin again. Minor award $175 plus extra spin. Holy Crap! Last spin finds another $25. I turn to share my love of this game just to find my dinosauer riding friend long gone. To be honest, it kinda freaked me out until the cocktail waitress confirmed someone matching my description was sitting there. Whew, better bring me another drink then. Cash out and replenish my daily allotment, I take the rest to the go home envelope a hell of a long way away, but worth the trip. New frame of mind, I head back to the stip, drink in hand I join the joggers enjoying the city coming to life. Walk past the Harmon and watch them lower pieces down as the welders cut away. Shame, but rather it come down empty. Enjoyably so, the rest of the day on Friday was spent strolling along in and out of casinos, placing Sundays football bets, and seeing the new Cromwell and quad. Slow drain of funds as the day went along and returned to my room about 8pm. Feeling a bit hungry, I grab a slice of pizza on the way up and watch some tv and helicopters circle by for an hour. Remind myself I am in Vegas and get the heck back down there. I find a $15 BJ table (yes I know it's 6:5 but it's my money and it was fun). I bought in with my last $300 for the day and join a nice couple my age (40's) from England and a fun young couple (20's) from New England. The five of us shared a table, discussed which England was better, and had a lot of laughs for 5 hours before we decided to call it a night. I color up with $302 dollars, 6:5 haters be damned I say at least for tonight. I turn in and realize I am completely relaxed. The goal of this trip is looking achievable after all and I fade away watching the planes angle out over the dark mountain sky.

 

I appreciate the kind words and encouragement. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of anything as is my custom in Vegas. I usually try to keep a drink in each hand (it is a desert ya know) so I don't tend to mess with phones, cameras, etc.

 

Saturday - October 18th - Day 3

Slept in today...got up at 6:30. Head down about 7:30 and go next door to the Monte Carlo for college football. Placed bets on fifteen games that will be played over the course of the day at NYNY on the way. Mosey over to McDonalds and have the healthiest sausage muffin and hash brown on the planet. It's my story and it can be as healthy as I say, but the ole PCP doesn't even need to know about this week at all if you know what I mean! Found a 3 card poker game for $5 and thought why not. Committed the ultimate sins...didn't really have a clue what I was doing and kept putting money on the sucker bonus bet. Played for a couple of hours and if I would have charted my play it would appear I was in perfect cardiac rhythem. I was up, no down, wait even, now up, whoops down again. Felt like I needed a Viagra for my 3 card poker game but low and behold, the sucker bet won me enough on the last hand to keep my shirt on when I left, everyone applauded for that feat! Grabbed a seat outside the sport book at the bar and enjoyed a beer while slow playing bar top JOB and catching the end of my early games and the start of mid morning games. It wasn't the plan, which is silly because there were no schedules, itineraries, and especially no plans on this trip, but I spent the rest of the day wandering around the Monte Carlo. Dabbled in this and a little of that all day. Nothing spectacular to note as I just kept circling and trying everything that caught my eye. Finally around the time Notre Dame was getting ready to start in Florida I decided to take a break and headed back to the room for a bit. I stopped off at Carnegie Deli and ordered a cup of chicken noodle and a Reuben sandwich and a Pepsi. I know, it was shock to my internal systems to be drinking a virgin drink. The pepsi made me sick, so I switched to water which was in a machine over a hundred steps from my room. Stupid hallway. I am big Earl of Sandwich fan, and maybe it was the Pepsi/water interfering with my taste buds, but either way, that was a very tasty dinner and just as good as EoS. Watched most of the game and then started doing some preliminary packing as I received an offer from Harrahs and thought I would give them a try this trip so I will be moving in the morning. As if I needed a reason, Notre Dame won me a whole $20 so I had to go back down stairs to collect. After collecting, I didn't get a good vibe from the casino so I did what I do best...grabbed a beer and wandered. Headed to Excalibur and heard a band. Thought great, he sounded pretty good so I headed over to see. Then SHE started squealing! I grew up head banging to eighties music, but good grief! I was expecting her to give birth to a porcupine right there on stage. Heard enough and even though my progressive bank was back up $1250 I kept strolling down the back moving walkway to the Luxor. Never played here much, probably won't go there on purpose in the future but did spend a couple of hours bouncing around different games. Found a Back to the Future game and Ghostbusters. If ghosts really picked and farted money, I would want them haunting me all the time. They paid enough to keep me playing, but what kept me there was the chair massage they give ever time a bonus is close. Time well spent I say! Headed back toward home and heard HER still in labor as I passed by. Yikes! I was really enjoying the people watching so I found a hotel themed slot at the bottom of the stairs at NYNY and watched them all. I wonder if I look that ridicules to everyone else? Sounded like a lot of fun at the center round bar so finally made my way over there and fell in love with some buffalo/train themed thing by the bar. It was a great time and I left dead even after an hour went by. I call that a success. Up to bed around 1 as I want to get an early start to Harrahs before the games start. Took longer to fall asleep Saturday, I think I saw four planes.

 

Loving this report! Thanks for sharing.

 

Sunday - October 19th - Day 4

One of the great things about Vegas is that even though it feels like I have slept in, it is in reality only 6am. I get up and showered in about 30 minutes, last pass through the room to make sure I didn't leave anything desired behind and I am stumbling out the door. Wake up neighbors as I tried to catch the door with my foot, but all that accomplished was slamming it harder. Sucks to be them, get up, your in Vegas. I am sure if I could just get straight down from my door I would be at Harrahs, but decide I am not in the jumping mood today. Lugging the luggage, I make the trek one last time to the elevator and down to the front desk. Loved the price of the room and after I stopped by the MLife desk on Saturday night, I learned they would take care of the resort fees and the meals I charged back to the room. Nice of them to do so, and I actually considered calling it a win at the desk when I checked out, but realized the hours I put in to patronizing their establishments, it was the right thing for them to do. Granted, I didn't have any expensive meals, and resort fees are even more ridiculous than some of the nightlife I saw before going to bed, but I liked the feeling of being appreciated even if it was fake. Out to the cab line and surprised to be the only one out there. Cabbie comes racing up and asked which airline. Said Southwest, but not until Tuesday. I would prefer he just take me to Harrahs this morning and we were off. Nice chit chat about the football games of the day. Rolled my eyes when I learned he was a Charges fan and since my Chiefs were in San Diego you can only imagine how the rest of the ride went. Andy Ried must have had that cab bugged, because he told me exactly how the Chargers were going to manhandle the Chiefs, and to my astonishment, the Chiefs took his tattle tale to heart and shut them down for the win. We won't talk about the touchdown right before half, because I am still scratching my head on that one. He gets me there in one piece, however my ears were ringing and I hadn't had my orange juice yet. I figured I am in Vegas, why not make a wager on getting a room at 7am is "in the cards". Thankfully I only have one face whether I am either happy or sad, and it actually paid off this morning. Her tone was on the abrasive side when she asks "what I need", but I try not to judge. Explained that I had a reservation and realizing it was a busy weekend, I was still hopeful there would be a room available to go ahead and check in. I wasn't so much reminded that check in is at 3PM as I was scolded that check in was at 3PM. Explained I understood, but was thinking if there was a room empty, what harm would there be to letting me go ahead and go on up so she wouldn't have to deal with me later? She pounded on the keys a bit and said she had a classic room available with one king. I replied that a classic with a king would be fine if that is all she had, but my reservation was for a premium High Roller king room. That may have been a mistake! I got a look, then a scowl, and a sound I thought was only created in a Hollywood sound studio. But the next thing I heard was fine, I only have something or another (couldn't catch it and wasn't going to ask her to repeat it) but it had two queens. I responded the only way I know how after 19 years of marriage, "That sounds terrific to me!" Turns out I had some suite type thing with a balcony near the front that overlooked the volcano at the Mirage. More on that later. Nice room, everything working, tv in the bathroom, tv in the living room, couch, table and a knock at the door. Hmmm. Housekeeping Supervisor? Told her I haven't made a mess yet, but thanks. She heard I just checked in and wanted to make sure the room was to my liking. Ok, she came in looked around and determined I didn't have any coffee, would I like some. Told her that would compliment the coffee pot nicely and sure bring as much as she liked. I didn't even know I had a coffee pot yet, and she brought back 8 packets of coffee. Thanked her and she was gone as quickly as she appeared. Settled in and still have 90 minutes until game time. Found a $5 coupon in my check in packet for the buffet downstairs, so I decide to tempt fate and go eat with the masses. She takes my coupon and players card, evidently I had enough points to cover my breakfast, well ok then. Omelet made to order, tasty, bacon, crispy, carved meats, good but falling below room temperature, everything else, bluck. Good thing I wasn't starving and was able to enjoy the tasty parts on my plate, but really glad I glad I didn't pay for it. Look around Mirage, Harrahs, and the Quad for a good place to watch football and decide the couch in my room was the best bet for the early games so up I go. Best idea by far and I completely enjoyed flipping back and forth between the games. The late Chiefs game was not on local tv, so down to the sports book I go where I found a bar top VP machine open and filled in the space. I had a great time drinking for free, going from $20 to $80 while watching our rookie kicker seal the deal at the end of the game making for a fantastic football Sunday in Vegas. Cash in my winnings and had decided that whatever I won from the games during the day, I would put half on the Broncos. Figured with only a -7 for the Broncos and Manning going for the record that it would be a lock. Went out in the world and roamed around the Quad, Mirage and Casino Royale until just before game time. Took a pizza and New England Clam Chowder from the new Fultons Café area at Harrahs up to the room for dinner during the game. Very very good food and highly recommend them if you are in the area. They had some tasty looking sandwiches also, but I didn't try any of those while I was there. Got up to the room and realized I forgot something to drink, so out in the hallway I go. I could not find a soda machine anywhere. I passed a nice senior couple coming out of their room as I went by, when I got to the end of the hall and turned around I realized they were following me. When I went to pass them again, they thought I was heading to the elevator, laughed and let them know I knew where the elevators were, but had no idea where the ice/soda machines were. We had a nice conversation as I escorted them back to the elevator, but they had no idea where the ice machines were either. We talked about his service in the Navy, his hat was a dead give away. As we pulled up to the elevator, I found the ice/soda machines, EUREKA! All was well and I was back to the room to find the game starting and my food still hot. Manning does his thing, Hillman just couldn't find the end zone, but fortunately he had enough Fantasy points to squeak out a victory against my division leader. Now as I was sitting on the couch enjoying my Sunday afternoon, the entire wall of my room lit up a bright orange. I jumped up and ran to the window, opened the drapes and learned three things...1} the Mirage Volcano is like right THERE, 2} I have a balcony? and 3} Even at 44, I can still move fast when I get spooked. Watched the volcano go off three more times before the end of the game and enjoyed listening to Vegas rather than the announcers in the fourth quarter of the game. Maybe it was just the low key day catching up with me, but after the game, I actually snoozed a bit only to wake up and pull the blanket over me for the night. A very low key un-Vegas type of day, but in reality, just what the doctor ordered. At the end of day 4, 100% relaxed.

 

Enjoying your report..........paragraphs....please!

 

Enjoying the TR. Patiently waiting for more. Enjoying your writing style

 

Nice hit on the Royal and Texas Tea! I got 5 derricks at the IP on my first trip back to Vegas in 10 years. Only got $9 on a 45 cent bet. I was actually pissed. Only 4% chance to do that or worse... Hope you have more wins in store, but don't forget the enter key...