harrahs laughlin junket with a 2 day trip to vegas 2/22-2/26

both my brother and i are constantly offered these junkets by caesars entertainment group. most of them are for laughlin with some atlantic city and tunica mixed in. we've never said yes until this one as we need two things, some decent, non ohio weather and a little bit of gambling. it was free for two people but i had to pay $70 for some administrative fees. what a bargain.

when we went to vegas in august, we both agreed that we wouldn't be making any more western trips until this stupid mask situation went away. well that lasted about 6 months....haha.

so we fly out of columbus on monday 2/22 on swift airlines. a friend of ours did this trip a couple weeks ago and said swift was bare bones, no wifi, no nothing. i've downloaded several movies to watch on my ipad so i should be ok. thats the same thing i do when i'm flying southwest so no big deal.

our friend said that laughlin was dead and had lots of restaurant closings. we had already planned on going to vegas one day but instead are making it a two day trip. day one we will stay at golden nugget comped with no resort fee and a little free play. typically we don't stay downtown but we both want to hang at the circa sportsbook and bet some college basketball. day two we will be at our home away from home which is harrahs. i know some of you are not fans of harrahs and i just can't figure that out. we've had free rooms offered at some luxurious places that we have turned down to stay at harrahs. we like the dealers, location, and the loyalty they show us for our loyalty.

we will head back to laughline sometime on thursday only to leave friday morning. hopefully i can stay on top of some things and post some pics during trip but usually i'm very bad at that. i do hope to post a pic of me holding a giant check from some jackpot i won.

talk soon i hope
todd

 

Good luck, the Range at Harrah's is a very good meal if you'd like some food, also the Gourmet room at the riverside

 

I remember when The Range was in Vegas at Harrahs. Was our splurge meal. Thanks for the restaurant recommendations, always looking for good food.

 

The shrimp scampi at the riverside gourmet room was the best I've ever had.

 

I haven't been on one of these, but my wife and I want to try one. Looking forward to your report.

 

At Port Columbus waiting to board. The check in process was smooth and easy. Looks to be 70-80 people here at the gate. Hopefully we have some empty middle seats. Can’t wait to enjoy some warmer weather and hold that giant jackpot check.

 

They are taking temperatures before boarding. I’m so relieved it isn’t a red thermometer. I was preparing to drop my pants though.

 

I actually love the drive between Vegas and Laughlin. Some great desert landscapes. Stop at Railroad Pass and play a little blackjack and definitely stop in Searchlight and pull a slot machine or two. I particularly love the drop into Laughlin with the river background and the casinos. It's especially beautiful when you have some hovering clouds over the river.

 

Harrahs did a great job with the logistics of this trip. When we arrived at hotel, they had packets for each of us with room assignments and key cards. Was probably 40 people on the bus and I waited less than 5 minutes for my packet.

when we walked into casino, I immediately got a little nervous. I didn’t hear anything making noise. Literally not one slot machine was making noise. Must have been because of where we came in because there were people in the casino, just not very many.

we played some UTH, I won a couple bucks, my brother Shon got beat up for 400. He moved over to one of his favorite games, how he likes it amazes me, Mississippi Stud and dropped 300 more. He then moved over to High Card Flush. I had got up from UTH and walked over to check on him and he was in the middle of a 6 card flush with a 3 card straight flush. I know the 6 card paid 1000, not sure total of the hand but he was up because of one hand. To me, that’s the hope from carnival games, one hand can get u back to even. A seat opened up at Pai Gow and I proceeded to take a bit of a beating. Eventually I played a little VP then hit the sack.

we were hungry but at that time, only Smashburger was open. Hope to have something good for breakfast before we head up the road to Vegas.

by the way, we are in a remodeled room in the south tower. Puts me in mind of the rooms in Vegas.

Todd

 

My wife loves High Card Flush. We will have to go to Harrah's if we end up in Laughlin.

Hope things turn around.

 

Got our rental car from Hertz and made the drive north. Was a nice drive. 25mph in searchlight is ridiculous. Just got checked into the Golden Nugget. A two bed room in Carson Tower. Hitting Circa now

 

Good luck! Thanks for taking us along!

 

Once again I completely dropped the ball on my report. Here’s a wrap up. I’m not too hard to please but I’m going to be pretty blunt.

when in Vegas, the most impressive place by far was Southpoint. Tons of tables open, restaurants and a nice sports book.

the least impressive, the mgm properties. They weren’t opening more than a couple tables until 11:00 and even then it was only a couple bj tables.

at Harrahs Laughlin the mask police were out in full force. We were sitting in a side area watching basketball near the sports book. There was only one other person who was on the other side of room, maybe 25-30 feet away. A security guard shows up and tells us to pull up our masks. The masks were just barely beneath our noses. They must have been watching us on surveillance. So a guy gets in my personal space with nobody else around to tell me to pull up mask . As most of u know, while speaking sometimes our masks slide down a bit. Mine does, to the tip of my nose. My mouth and nostrils are still covered but the mask isn’t “high” enough

overall, trip was free but I wouldn’t do it again. Really wasn’t a good time. Gambling was poor, machines tight and big brother watching you doesn’t make for a good time.

I think I’m done for a while. I’m going to spend my time and money at the beach.

todd

 

Good info about Harrah's Laughlin. I got in the habit of personally thanking security officers whenever I see them asking someone to wear their mask properly, in part, to offset the abuse they get from those who give them a hard time for trying to keep the place more safe for everyone. It's not left up to the customer to decide when and where they think it is appropriate to follow the rules.

 

I think occasionally common sense should come into play

 

Thanks for your report. Did you ever end up dining at the Range? If you did, your thoughts. Will be doing an overnighter at Harrahs next month.

 

We did not. After going to Vegas, we got back to Laughlin Thursday around 3 and started looking at basketball lines. After that we started watching games. We were hungry around 6 or so, I asked the employee in the sports book who would be best to use for carry out and he informed me there was no eating on floor or in sports book due to Covid. U can drink or smoke but somehow eating must be much worse . I’m not even 100% sure The Range was open. The Guy Fieri restaurant was closed the entire week. I believe it’s open Friday and Saturday though. We ended up at Smashburger around 8:30

 

One other note, I kind of felt bad about going to Vegas when Harrahs Laughlin provided the trip. Both cabbies we took to airport to pick up and drop off rental car said that they are consistently dropping off fares at airport for people doing the exact same thing. Made me feel a bit better

 

The only risk for you is getting knocked off the flight program, I do take care to never have a full zero day... and I'm going on my 5th Harrah's junket in March in the last two months. I figure my airfare comps are a solid $2k-2500 after figuring in the transfers as well. YMMV, and everyone has to evaluate their own decision. I'm sure Harrah's figures some of this in as well