Trip Report;1Week,2 Royals,3 cancelations,4 people & 5 hotels,

Hi all and Greetings from the UK.

Nearly a week has passed since we got back to blighty after a 11night trip to Nevada & Southern California, Originally we planned 5 nights in vegas (for me !!!!) and 6 in SoCal for the beaches/parks etc (for the wife and kids !!) although not everything went to plan.


Flights.
Flew American out of London to LAX and the only good thing was the flight took less time than scheduled. Let me tell you 10 1/2 hours without any working entertainment system (although it worked for the last 3/4 hour) and a flight crew who obviously missed the customer service part of their training was not enjoyable in the least. Still the return was good, this crew knew how to smile and be polite to people.

After an overnight in LA we hit vegas nice an early on Sat 20th October.

Hotels.
1 Night Excalibur- Got a decent rate for a saturday night on ther strip, booked and received a widescreen viewroom, not bad at all, very very comfy beds and certainly an improvement on the castle rooms of old.
2 Nights Sunset Station- I love this place, excellent service from every employee, good rooms, nothing too fancy but evertng you want, good food options, plenty of things to and decent gaming. Overall my number 1 place in vegas. And the best thing one night was free with a LVA coupon !!
2 Nights -Paris Booked paris after harrahs amazingly gave me 2 nights for $83 total, which considering my level of play is pretty spectacular. Once again fantastic service and great rooms, with a good view over the city centre at an angle.

After that it all went a bit Pete Tong as we say over here. We had booked the next 3 nights in San Diego but with all the fires raging we had to make some quick changes of plan, so on our arrival at paris we all sat down and decided on one extra night in LV, then 2 extra in LA, so after finding an internet cafe I managed to book Santa fe station for the thursday night (pretty much everywhere else was jammed). Which I did not mind as it was somewhere new and had a 5* points promo on. Btw I hope no one on the board was affected by the fire, my best wishes to any of you that were.

Santa Fe was Ok, I like the buffet and casino but they need to spend some money on the rooms, and having to walk past the employee smoking area to get to the pool (heh it was warm to us !!) is just crazy.

Then after our Night in Santa Fe we had to make another change as the winds had blown all the smoke right over where we were going to stay in LA !! So we ended up for another night in Vegas, this time at the MGM which was surpringly not fully booked given it was a Friday,nevada day and J Lo was in town. Cracking room, paid the price however as they could probably add an extension on with the amount I lost in the casino on one night. The family loved the lazy river aswell.

Gambling;

I brought home money which is always a bonus, infact i managed to pay all my LA hotels and my car hire in cash thanks to winnings, and provide she who must be obeyed with plenty of shopping vouchers !! Mostly played VP and was lucky enough to hit two royals, firstly at Sunset on the same machine I hit one on last year. The payout is set at $1199 so no nasty tax payments, has been playing around an hour on this 25c DDB and was thinking about cashing out as I had recently hit quad 2's for a nice profit, glad I did'nt as I was dealt AQJ10 spades and up popped the king to fill the royal. After this success I then went to play pai gow poker for the 1st time and this will be my table game of choice I think as I really enjoyed it and even won $40 for an hours or so's play.

The 2nd royal came at Santa fe, in the evening I was dog tired and thought I'll play for 1 more $20 note as it was my (or it was at the time) last night in vegas. Found a bank of Bonus DW near the BBQ place and noticed the royal progressive was very high at over $1200. Played for a while, won a little and went off to bed. When I woke up in the morning before the family I came back down to the casino and decided to play the same bank . Glad I did because after 1/2 an hour I was dealt a wild royal flush with 1 wild, I dropped the wild and up popped the Queen this time to fill my royal. I was very happy until i realised I wa going to pay 30% witholding tax as the win was over $1200 . But the slot lady who dealt with me after taking my ID etc rang up the company auditor at 6am in the morning to find the excemption code that UK citizens can use due to tax arrangements between the 2 countries, now that is customer service at it's very best, this lady saved me over $300 without asking fantastic. Other wins included ace's with kicker a couple of times, and other assorted 4oak's, whilst I donated my usual losing style to the roulette and LIR tables.

Food;

I won't bore you with details as I am Mr average Jo, just to say the buffets at both Silverton & Santa fe were very good, yet i found Sunset's a bit disapointng. Oh and Lucille's BBQ near Green Valley Ranch is awesome and on my must do every trip list now.

Final Random Thoughts;
1) Was finally asked if I wanted to party by a Hooker, after all these trips !. Pretty young thing, nice ego boost for me but I think the wife might have been upset if I took her back to our room whilst she was still sleeping in there with the kids !!
2) A pet clothes shop in mandalay place, wow some people have really got too much money to spend !!
3) Luxor looks awful now, it is just a poorer brother to MB,Mirage etc.
4) Coming at the same time every year is amazing to see the growth within that time.
5) Sunset Station cannot get many British visitors, this dealer remembered me from the previous year's trip !!
6)after giving in smoking finally this year, vegas was a real test but I managed it !!

That's all folks, next year hopefully I will be over to celebrate my 40th with just my wife if I can convince her !!

Thanks for reading
Graham

 

Very nice report, Graham. Do you think that you could change your next years date to March? :evillaugh

 

Great trip...unfortunate the fires took a toll on your trip in CA, but either way, who can say no to extra days in Vegas!!

good call on the hooker btw, don't think your wife would have appreciated that very much

 

Very nice write-up. I would agree that the outlying "local's" places probably don't get too many British tourists. Glad you got out to Green Valley Ranch's District. I'm surprised I didn't bump into you there!

 

Love the perspective...

And why do people always assume that wives hate hookers... jeez....:evillaugh

 

One word: incall.

 

Thanks for the reply's guys.

Don, March will be a struggle but I might be able to swing NSF 3 as my 40th is in October and we will definately be just the 2 adults next time round.

I'll spend the next few months pampering my wife (some peopl might call it crawling !)

Cheers
Graham

 

great read, Graham. 2 nice wins sure make for a better trip!!

 

Excellent read. It's unfortunate that you didn't get to spend time in SoCal because of the fires; but, if you had you wouldn't have hit your second royal. Very nicely played on the two royals. I'm still chasing my first. This just gives me inspiration to continue the hunt. Good call on the hooker it's not an easy thing to explain when the wife rolls over and there's you and the hooker.

 

TY for your report!!

I am also a former smoker, and find your fortitude, about NOT smoking awesome!!!! Faced with what you had too, on this trip. I am amazed you didn't fall back to smoking

 

Blimey- bloody good report Graham! It sounds like you and your family had a good time. Congrats on your VP wins. I hope to someday see one hit on the machine I am playing.

 

TR

Nice report...Thanks

 

Great report! Thanks for sharing!!