May 2021 Trip Report, incl Caesars, South Point, the D, Zorro, Golden Nugget, 4Qs

I'm going to change my approach for this trip report. Instead of spending weeks writing and proofreading my entire report and posting it all at once, I am instead going to post it in more or less a day per post. I'll first add the post to my blog, https://deamonlv.blogspot.com/2021/05/may-2021-trip-report.html and then, sometime later, copy the updates over to here. The blog has full resolution versions of the photos, if you click on them.

While I play at least 8 hours a day of VP, I find posting pics of winning hands pointless and boring. I typically have near 100 four of a kinds in a trip. Sure I like getting them, but getting that many can and usually will still mean a losing trip! The hands are forgetful in the longer term, while instead, the experiences I put in these report are the true memories of the trips!

As usual, I caution those that need to see pictures of video poker hands or slot wins in trip reports should stop reading now. I have none in this report.

The Report Contents will cover:

• Free sushi!
• How I "fired" a host and casino.... but then replaced it with a casino that is maybe the only true "old Vegas value" casino remaining! (and it felt good!)
• Dinner with the fishes.
• The "return" of Zorro!
  
• Pussy face
• That's the way the cookie crumbles.
• Caption/describe a humorous scenario for this picture taken on the way back from Jerry's Nugget.
• O'er the Ramparts we watched
• A slight reduction in Lamb dinners (out of respect to VMBer "booker" ;-) )

 

Arrival Day

The flight with connection would bring us in about 630pm on a Saturday. I had a car reservation, but with the shortage, I had major concern that there would actually be a car available, as by the time Sat night comes, who is returning a car then to be re rented?

This gentleman was at our connecting gate, with his original pants, and stance, and turned out to be on our flight! I was hoping to find the person wearing the other halves of these pants, but did not have any luck.



Pow, pow, bang, pow! That was the sound of the baggage claim at my airport bag claim area. What the hell were all these noises? Bowling balls! Cases and cases containing bowling balls, in their special carrier bags. Each of them mashing into the rim as they slid down the ramp. Must have been 20 bags on our flight alone. Later, I would see where most of them ended up.

I had an Avis rental using a code that was posted on another board, that was eliminated by Avis shortly thereafter. I got a $225 rate, all in, for 7 days! I ended up waiting for almost half hour, but finally got a car.

With the time difference, checking into Caesars after 8pm, the last thing we wanted after 12 hours of travel is to sit down to a big meal. The plan was to use a $25 Cosmopolitan food credit that I won in their online anniversary game last fall. It just so happens that the Tekka Sushi bar in Cosmo has a $25 8-piece take out special. https://assets.ctfassets.net/sahy2rpqbnsp/35d1Nmy7aizfDrmCCPFFco/355ab6212f015a9fb2aaa62dddb22793/tekka-to-go-menu-2.18.21.pdf

We would bring it back to Caesars, have some, and hopefully have leftovers for daytime snacks the next day or two.

Well Sat night in town was insane with crowds. It looked like New Years eve, but it wasn't!



We managed to walk over to Cosmo, make it up to Tekka, place our order, and give them my players card (I had logged on the day before to verify the $25 food credit), but they told me there was no credit. The manager came over and I explained the situation. She said that to use the credit, I'd have to head down to the players club booth, have them activate the credit, and then come back. She then offered to call down to the players club to have them do this, but it was so busy that no one picked up the phone. Then, suddenly, she announced to us that to avoid having us potentially spend a half hour getting this done, that she was going to personally comp our sushi! Wow! What great customer service! Who does something like that these days?





Blue crab, and Toro, were the choices, along with Yuzukosho & Tekka Spicy dipping sauce.








Yes, for the observant ones, two pieces didn't make it back to Caesars.

We watched as the chef made the sushi before our eyes, using some very automated equipment. Having this light small meal was just what we needed, and we kept about half of it refrigerated to have during the next day. The next day, we went back and gave Cosmo some play, in order to "thank" them for this gesture.

 

Let's get the negative stuff out of the way. I "fired" my host, and a casino!

For about 5-6 years I was a "Red" players card (top level) holder at the Arizona Charlies/Strat/Aquarius Laughlin franchise. That might sound impressive, but it was just a bit more play than to earn Diamond at CET.

It was a great program. I will illustrate by listing all the cutbacks they made to the program once Golden Entertainment purchased them, about 2 years ago.

• Revamped the players/slot club to add a new tier, and tiered such that my play, which got me the old top tier, needed to increase just to make the 2nd from top tier!
• The card downgrade resulted in me losing the comp pool cabana benefit.
• They also eliminated the permanent 4x points multiplier tied to my level, and instead instituted a "random multiplier", which knowledgeable players quickly found, was less on average than the old 4x. What a surprise!
• A year or two later, they removed the random multiplier and had the nerve to say it was to "avoid customer confusion" with the program! (Yes, something random is a strange concept to someone who plays at a casino!) How kind of them! Instead, there is now a calendar that is not published far in advance, which lists certain days of the month (about 10 days) where there is some sort of multiplier. If you are out of town, you are just drawing straws when you book, hoping that you will be there on one of the multiplier days!
• In the last year, they rebranded one of our top 10 restaurants in Nevada, The Vineyard, and downgraded it into a low end pizza/pasta restaurant. This was the only restaurant there that we had any interest of having dinner in! (Outback is their "steakhouse".)
• Last year, they eliminated their weekend VIP comp brunch buffets (understandable due to Covid restrictions) without ANY substitute or alternative (not understandable - just more cost savings). Players with the two highest level cards used to be invited to a roped off VIP area, with no cost in comps, to have brunch.
• The former weekly benefit of 2 appetizer/sandwich vouchers, which typically got me $30 worth of food, along with the 4 drink vouchers, were all in total, replaced with only a $15 weekly credit to your comp account. Meaning the alternative benefit could be viewed as being 1/3 the value of the former plan, and even less, depending on the value of your comp drinks.

Next, my great host there, retired! The new one is poor, to put it mildly, as I will show below:

• Once, I lost out on $100 in free play because the host did not respond to my email for a freeplay bonus offer.
• Last summer, I received a voicemail from my host asking me if we were currently at our Arizona location, when we never spoke of any second residence to her, and never spoke to her about Arizona in any conversation. She obviously has us confused with someone else! How comforting!
• She sent a gift basket after the prior voice mail (with freebies like Casino logo sanitizer, dice, casino cards, etc) to us which never arrived. It took over 3 weeks of emailing back and forth before a second package was sent and received. Given the prior incident of the "Arizona residence", I think it is quite possible that she sent my package to someone else, and that maybe I wasn't even supposed to get one!
• Host balked at comping a $40 food charge, after a heavy day of play, and significant losses, where my former host would have picked up 3x that amount, without even blinking, even on a winning day. Watching her hem and haw as she looked at the screen and typed for 5 minutes was so ridiculous that it was comical, after the fact. It was as if her life was on the line. She then said, "well I can comp that.... because of your losses".
• I did not receive a response to email expressing interest in a room with a week's notice in February, until I re-forwarded the email some days later, then finally received a response after I had given up and booked a room elsewhere.
• Did not respond to my post trip email after I had played at her casino on a day trip which was on her day off.
• Host sent me a birthday card postmarked more than a month after my birthday, saying "hope you have a great birthday", note, "have" not "had".

To rub salt in the wounds, they also replaced the custard in their legendary Eclairs at the Duet Coffee/snack bar, a favorite on each trip, with a vanilla whipped cream. Once you start messing with my desserts, things get serious!



If I had to endure 4-5 of these things, each alone might not have driven me away, but taking all of this into consideration, I say, why do I want to drive 90 minutes each way, to a place that eliminated one of our favorite restaurants, and cut or eliminated so many of the benefits that made them so unique? Why would I patronize a place where a host doesn't even respond to more than half of my emails?

As the often quoted philosopher, Popeye, used to say, "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more". And with that, one of the casinos in our rotation for the last decade, the Aquarius Laughlin, is now gone from the rotation!

So coming up, I will try to turn this negative into a positive, and transition to a place that is maybe the one last true value/promo packed casino, and a place that I probably should have been patronizing for years.

 

I found the person!!

 

But first, the rest of Caesars

We did well at Caesars Palace, since my host blocked us off a Studio Suite? in the Augustus Tower. It really isn't that much better than a regular room, but since it is on the end of the hallway, it has a bit more space, and windows in two directions. We had another tower in the way a bit in one of our views. Not a big deal, as we were happy to not get stuck with a crappy room checking in on Saturday night.







Sunday we had our one breakfast in the room for the trip, using some milk we bought across the street at the CVS in front of Bally's. Sat night, we waited on a line in CVS that had about 30 people in front of us, but the line moved so fast that they wait was only a few minutes.

I started play early at Caesars and for the first 2/3rd of my coin in, I was even! I knew it wouldn't last, and by the end, I had a bit of a loss. Not too bad.

I took a picture of the check in area early in the AM on Sunday,



and then again, mid afternoon.







The check-in crowds were crazy then, and this is on a Sunday eve, so weekday traffic! It used to look like this on Sunday's when the convention people were checking in, but this was weekday leisure travel!

We had a pool day out at Caesars main pool. All of the other pools were only open to those that paid for cabanas or day beds, etc. A very nice peaceful time, in a rare pool where lounge chairs have some distance between them, and this, on a day with slightly below average temps, and a nice breeze.






For dinner we used my Diamond Celebration virtual voucher to help pay for dinner at Rao's. We had eaten there once before, years ago. Since then I've learned much more about their history. As you may know, due to its small size and the tradition of regulars having reserved regular tables, it is next to impossible to eat at their original New York City location.








We requested to be seated in the room which is supposed to be identical to the New York location. One of their traditions is that they have their Christmas decorations up all year long.






In general it was a very good meal, but overpriced. They actually want to charge $5 for having bread at the table. They don't tell you it isn't complimentary, they just ask "would you like some bread"? We passed.

Their house salad, for $16, was the worst dish of the entire week. It was if you bought a head of lettuce, sliced a bit of onion, quartered an almost ripe tomato, and poured some Wish Bone Italian dressing on it. Kind of what I would expect of a low end place where the salad was included in the entrée cost.



I was looking forward to trying their meatballs in person, as we make them here at home using their recipe. Theirs was a bit better than the recipe version, and very good, for $21. The waiter tried to take the remainder away from us before bringing the entrees so we had to tell him that we' purposely left some to have with the entrees.



For entrees, one of us had Uncle Vincent's Lemon Chicken. This is one of the legendary dishes at Rao's. We wanted to try this despite the fact that I normally am not too found of heavily lemon flavored dishes. However, since the dish is roasted so much, with the lemon, the lemons take on a different flavor than raw lemons, and aren't so tart. It was very good!

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/203-raos-lemon-chicken-our-way



For the other dish we had Lasagna. I was surprised the serving was on the small side, but it was very rich and decadent and was a good enough portion without feeling too full. Plus, where else you get a doily under your dish these days?



The final check, for just a split salad, a meatball appetizer, chicken, and lasagna (certainly not a typical high end, high priced meal) was about $110, which although everything but the salad was excellent, is still a bit overpriced.

As we came out of dinner, we came across employee Bacchanal Day at the Buffet. As part of a dry run before opening to the public, they had the buffet open for employees to eat, as a way to work out any kinks in the menu or service. My attempts to get one of the employees to slide a dessert over to us between the curtains, was not successful!


We did our duty and walked over to the Bellagio gardens, nice as always.

 

Hey Zig. I can never decide if you are more informative than you are hilarious. I've decided to go with equal parts. Rock on man. Looking forward to your next trip as well.

 

Thanks for the compliment, especially coming from an outstanding member like you! Haven't had that many opportunities for humor in this one, so far. I very well understand that some might think some of these comments are serious (begging for free desserts to be slid between the curtains, for example), which makes them even more fun to write.

A lot more to come in this report, with a few very entertaining (at least for me) events! (BTW, I miss your reports!)

P.S. Did you notice that I referenced you in my October report, in the Caesars section?
https://deamonlv.blogspot.com/2021/02/october-2020-trip-report.html

 

One casino lost, another one gained!

Where do I begin? South Point is the place that I should have been playing at, years ago! What stopped me? Well, we had more than enough places to choose from for our typical week-long stays already. There was really no room in our schedule for a new casino, until I "fired" my host at Aquarius. The other aspect is that I've read numerous times that a day of decent play there may not result in any future comp room casino marketing offers. So, what did I do?

I cold called a host, and gave them info on my background and play level. They agreed to bring me in at the casino rate, and if my play was what I had suggested that it would be, they'd pick up the room. Fair enough!





So, what makes South Point so old school/high value? It's the last place that looks at the big picture as to what to offer guests to attract them! All casinos did this, years ago. You know how Sam's Town has been reduced to having one overpriced ala carte steakhouse, from its former handful of company owned good quality/great value eateries? Well Southpoint is still like the former Sam's and Boyd properties. Good VP, good comps, and get this, ELEVEN company owned restaurants! No McDonalds, no Outback, or the like! And those 11 are open even NOW, when many LV casinos have yet to reopen all their restaurants at their full schedule, even their damn buffet! While all other casinos (except Cosmo) closed their buffets and laid off the employees during the peak of the pandemic, South Point staffed UP their buffet, to have foods served, and kept it open! Bravo, Michael Gaughan!



What else? An abundance of multi-play, full pay, VP! This helps smooth out some of the swings in VP. You can cut your denomination played, and instead play a multi hand game for the same total $ per pull! And unlike in most places, there are many machines like this with 99%+ pay scales!

How many 9/6 Jacks or Better 25c multi-play games exist in the entire city? Well at South Point, they have them, as well as even single play 9/6 JB at quarters, at one of their bars! What is this? 2003?

No drink tickets, no flashing lights telling the bartender to slap you for not playing fast enough for a comp drink. Things are just like you remember was the case everywhere at bar video poker machines, just ten years ago.

What else? Crazy old school LV values! How about two "happy hours" a day (weekdays) where at Steak N Shake, you can get a half price shake! Their already reasonably priced shakes are $2.49 during happy hours! https://southpointcasino.com/steak-n-shake-1-2-price-happy-hour

How about their legendary hot dog cart, with the $1.25 quality hot dogs in the afternoons? Of course, we had to try a shake and a hot dog.



What else? How about a deli with $6.50 "slices" of cake that could each feed a small family (these pics don't do justice to show the true size, these things were intimidating!), along with $5.50 brownies that look like they weigh over a pound each!


Obviously, the wrong tag there.





These turnovers were about 10 inches along the diagonal! Note they take the width of the tray.

What else? How about a thing called a fun book? You remember those, right? Coupons offering freebies or significant discounts? Okay, so there are no gaming coupons in this one anymore, but they did have a coupon for a free drink, a free Budweiser, and a free bottle of wine for ordering two entrees at Don Vito's, their Italian restaurant!



Maybe your issue is that the South Point is so far from the Strip that it would be costly to get transportation to and from the airport? If so, they have a free airport shuttle, that you can actually make reservations for! https://southpointcasino.com/hotel/airport-shuttle

What else? On what planet does a casino gift shop sell wine and liquor at prices similar to discount package stores, while allowing you to pay with comps? I was shocked looking at some of the shelf prices, at how low they were! Gift shops are notorious for having high prices which people will pay for the convenience factor! I picked a couple of samples to verify, and found the South Point prices to be the same or less than some liquor stores! Who does that? The list: South Point! End of list!



Compare the wine price, within $1 or so of some discount wine stores.


What else? Really now? That's not enough? Another pushy reader? Well how about a promo for the month of May where you can redeem points earned for play for Gas or Walmart Gift cards at a rate of 2x the $ that you'd get in free play for those points!





I like to collect pics of unique signs, so the "please limit talking" near the South Point elevators was a first for me, and added to my collection. Insert your chatty relative joke here.



Many, if not most of the bowling balls that were already described above, that arrived with other baggage on our flight, were headed here, to the South Point. This bowling event is so big that it takes the entire bowling center for 2.5 months!



Typical line of bowlers with their bowling ball bags, in line, getting into elevators at the South Point.





Dinner was at Don Vito's. Sometimes dishes look better than they taste, but this one, Osso Buco over saffron risotto, for just $39, was my favorite of the trip, and rivaled the same dish at Andiamo's at the D.



The filet mignon was excellent, even though the pic doesn't really look too appealing. Baked potato, on the side dish, came with the entree.





Yes, that is the Benny Binion statue, moved years ago from Downtown.





If you're a horse or rodeo person, you know what these are, above. If you don't, you now have a google assignment. You can't expect me to do everything for you!

The highlight of the stay, especially considering my difficult Aquarius comp story, was when I checked in with host, after my play. I am of the belief of under promise, over deliver, and so I put in about 20% more coin in than I suggested I was planning on playing there. We stopped in to see the host, late in the day before the next morning's check out. The host asked in a disbelieving voice, "why didn't you charge dinner to the room? I would have picked up the charges"! (We paid at the restaurant, with points earned on my play) OMG! I was being "scolded" by the host for NOT letting them pick up a meal charge! 180 degrees from Laughlin! See, I'm not crazy! Or maybe I still am? She insisted that she pick up breakfast for us, via a comp, in their coffee shop, the next morning. So we ordered a bit extra, to try out some dishes that we'd probably not typically order, like the lox and bagel plate.




Avocado, toast, and egg plate, with a yogurt parfait in the background.




Note the cream cheese rose, nice touch.



The only downside of the stay was our "view" from our low floor room. Next time we'll do better!

Other advantages, compared to Downtown, include the lack of homeless people asking you for money while you are playing the machines (yes, it happened again this trip).


South Point, to me, is the most unique property in town, and quite possibly the best overall value in town. Here's hoping that this becomes a regular on our stays from now on!


Next part.... includes the D

 

Great report.

 

C'mon, don't hold back! What did you really think?

 

Awesome write-up on South Point. I hear they removed their bubble craps machine, can you confirm/deny? It is/used to be pretty close to the front desk area. I love bubble craps for the low minimums, although if they have $5 regular craps, I could always play that.

 

Hi Johnny, I wish I could be definitive, but I think you are correct. I do not remember noticing a bubble craps machine near the front desk. I would have scouted for it there if I had known there was interest/doubt.

 

No sweat, man. I just realized - I might be thinking of the Suncoast anyway. I think at SP, I played the individual machine rather than Shoot To Win. I'm an idiot.

 

Fast forward to the Jerry’s Nugget part!!

 

These are the reasons Southpoint is always busy. ALWAYS. Mid day, mid week doesn't matter.

 

Damn! You sold me on South Point! Great report! And hilarious!

 

Damn. South Point. Every time I read about it I need to make reservations. Perhaps…

 

Well, I was intrigued at Zorro, all in on Pussy face...

 

Sounds like you got an "every pizza place" salad lol

 

A bowling tournament at South Point... you don't say...






Oh, and the shakes at Kate's Korner aren't half price, but you can use any of the 31 flavors and use a multitude of mix-ins. Mine used Birthday Cake ice cream and was drizzled with caramel and had Oreo pieces.