Trip report Flamingo stay 10/28-10/30

Ok, I posted in the $20 trick thread but will also bring that part here so you don't have to read it there too:

I won't bore you with the drive to the airport and the direct flight on SW from Buffalo to Vegas. Pretty uneventful and went quickly since my husband and I rented the first season of "Rescue Me" and watched four episodes on the plane........though this is a great show! Do you know about it?

So we arrive at the airport, I get in taxi line while hubby gets the bags. I tell my husband to tell the driver to take the "non-tunnel route" since one of you guys told me that. I am trying all sorts of new things this trip because of this board but I'm nervous because I don't have experience in some of this. Anyway, I see the cab driver smirk so I think, oh, no, we told him the wrong thing or we are gonna get screwed or something but nope, he took the back road to the Flamingo and the cab fare was about $12 I think so that worked out ok.

We get to the front desk and I'm planning to do the $20 trick. A host asks me if I am a gold card member and since I haven't been to Vegas in like four years I have no clue and think this is a big deal. I look at my card and whaddayaknow I am! So we get in line in the "Gold" line which I think is a big deal until I realize that anyone with a plain old Harrah's card has a gold card....loser. I see a 40ish woman and next to her are two 20 something guys checking people in. I do NOT want the 40ish woman (I am a woman) so I turn around to the people behind me and I say to go ahead and he says, "We're in no rush". Ugh. I should have gotten out of line but this was my first time at this! So sure enough, Suzanne, calls us up. I put the $20 between my license and cc like you're supposed to and ask her "Are there any complimentary upgrades available?" She says, "Let me look" and also notices the $20. She asks if it's for her, I say yes, she says well, thank you. She says she can upgrade us to a mini-suite that is available right then (it's about 1pm so it is early for check-in I suppose). I ask her if the room is renovated and she says no and I ask if we can get a Go room and she says she can't do that without charging us more but this room we are getting is ready now and has a pool view. I say, "Ok, we'll take it". You know, I was fine with a pool view but shouldn't she have offered strip? The room was old but roomy. King bed in a separate room with two nightstands, tv and armoir. Living area with cheesy loveseat with recovered cushion, two chairs, a coffee table, tv with armoir and a desk with a metal chair. Bathroom was old, tub/shower combo with sink etc right in there. I must say I wasn't expecting better but was still hoping for it. The pool there is nice but everything else wasn't. I suppose this was a success as far as the trick goes- I mean $20 for a suite upgrade for two nights is worth it but I felt like she could have done better as I have seen people get a Go room for this trick. Ya know what? The sheets and towels were clean and we only were in there about 7 hours a day to sleep so it was fine I suppose.

So we get settled in our room and we decide, lets get moving. We go to Bill's Gambling Hall (do not play slots here- more later) and settle into some video poker. We are doing pretty well and are having our fair share of Bloody MAry's right at the bar. I've never played this before so am asking the dork next to me what to do but I get the hang of it. After a nice buzz is going, we decide we are hungry so we head over to the Burger Brassiere at Paris. These were GREAT burgers and a great price. Oh yea, had a coupon from the girl at the front desk so she might have thrown those in too...not sure. It's now about 4 in the afternoon so we head over to O'Shea's to play some cards- three card poker and it's not doing either of us right. We leave there and head over to Harrah's. Somewhere in between, I lost my fake Chanel sunglasses that I bought for $15 so I am pissed but that's neither here nor there. I have to say that I have not liked gambling at Harrah's the past but this trip, it was great.

We start right off at the bar again playing video poker, we are having our bloody mary's again and are feeling good. I decide to leave my hubby and go play some slots since he is doing well and I wasn't doing as well. I head straight for the 98% dollar blazing 7's and sit my coolie down on a chair. Within the first ten pulls I have hit for $200 twice. The people next to me had just moved from that machine and so that sucks for them. Then I pull again and MAGIC $1500 jackpot. Yeehaw! I call my hubby on the cell and tell him I just hit a jackpot and had about $1900 in my machine. He is a happy man. This certainly is the right way to start. So I get my payout and my tax form (boo) and my husband starts to play blackjack and I go play some smaller slots. After awhile we are ready to move on but I want to take $27 we have besides our hundreds we just cashed in for and play a little roulette which I have never played. I was up to like $400! Roulette is fun. We head over to Caesar's to play some cards and after a few more hours we head back to the Flamingo. I think it's like 3am by now. I play some slots there,,,,,,,they are not good, no good payouts at all and I'm wasting money. My hubby is playing cards but nothing big. I tell him lets go to Bill's Gambling Hall because I have no clue the slots are horrible in there. He doesn't really want to go since it's like 4am but I make him. We shouldn't have gone. Don't gamble there. The slots are so tight. Bed 5am

Next day, arise around 12:30pm. We are hungry but are in our bathing suits and don't want to go far and everyone told me not to eat at the Flamingo so we are trying to find something there that looks appetizing and find nothing but know that Margaritaville is attached to the hotel. We ended up walking down the street in our bathing suits- now I have a long sheer skirt over it but when people think that is your clothes not your pool cover up, they look at you kinda funny. Anyway, we eat there. It was ok. Chain and a little pricey if you ask me but it did the job. We hit the pool for a the afternoon. Get ready and leave around 5pm. We head over to Paris. Start again at the video poker. Husband branches out for blackjack, I head to slots. They aren't do right by me too much. A little bit but nada mucho. I start playing roulette again and was doing really well. Was up a lot but ended up losing it all after a few hours.

We leave there and head back to Harrah's again. This is like midnight by now. We have not eaten since 1pm so we are searching for anything to be open. Harrah's cafe was open and the food was fine. Nothing great but did the job. We gambled in there until 5am. I was playing the dollar wheel of fortunes and the three machines in a row were pretty hot. I played for hours and hours and though I didn't win a big jackpot, it kept me busy for a long time. Hubby was playing blackjack again, I did some more roulette and then it was time for bed.

Next day we got up around 12:30 again. Had to screw around with the front desk and ask for a host to get me a 3pm checkout. Around 1:30pm, we headed down and I talked to a host in the VIP area to ask if any of the charges we had charged to the room could be comped (Someone here told me about this too....we ate at all HET properties and charged everything to the room). I had $105 in comp and my husband had $9.84..how pathetic. I don't really get it because he sat at tables for hours and hours and betting $10-25 a hand. oh well. So we had the $114.84 applied to our charges and that was nice!

We store our bags since our flight isn't until 5:30pm and it's 2pm. We are hungry and want breakfast and end up at the cafe in Paris and it was really good. We head back to the Flamingo, taxi to airport, and fly away into the sunset. We had a great time and I want to thank this board for all of my tips that you gave me! We are looking forward to going again next year but not before a trip to Harrah's New Orleans in February!

Thanks again
Justine

 

Great report! Congrats on the nice wins. Thanks for sharing.

 

Sounds like a fun trip.

In terms of your $20 upgrade and a pool view, the only way to know for sure whether you could have gotten a strip view was to have grabbed the $20 back and said "Thanks anyway"!

I can't place the burger joint in Paris; is it new? BTW, I know everyone else raves about the breakfast buffet at Paris but I think the cafe there is a great spot for breakfast.

 

nice tr.

 

Sounds like you had a great time! I think your $20 trick was a success...you got upgraded. I personally much prefer the Flamingo's pool view over the strip view, so I don't think you lost out there one bit.

 

Great trip report............always nice to try and to succeed with some of the tips from this board!!!

 

Yes - the Burger Brassiere' (sp?) is fairly new. I think it may have already been open in March of this year - I haven't managed to get in there yet thou. It is halfway between Paris & Bally's in the long back hallway.

 

Great report!!!

If that damn Toni Braxton thing is still up on the Strip-side of the Flamingo, you didn't miss out much. Our last three trips we stayed at the Flamingo with a Strip view, and the last two trips, that thing only made the view worse.

And the slots at Bill's are worse than the Flamingo?? I didn't even know that was possible!!

 

Store bags? (I wish I had known about this site before I booked my flight!)

We have to be at the airport at about 4:30am on our final day. So, we contemplated not getting a hotel room for the final night. But, then I didn't know what we'd do with our bags after checkout the day before, so we did.

Is there a place to put bags/luggage, securely, for about 14-15 hours?

 

Yes, the Flamingo will store your bags for you. Ask for the latest check-out available
and call a bellman. They will come and get your bags and keep them for you until
you are ready to go to the airport. We do it every trip.

Wildcat Fan

 

Nice hit on the slots. It seems that you get comped better playing slots than table games at HET; unless you're betting large at the tables.

 

Speaking of late check out

Make sure you ask for a casino host. When I called the front desk in the morning and spoke to the front desk "manager" she could only give me a check out of noon. I said that wasn't good enough as our flight wasn't until 5:30pm and we wanted to go to the pool and gamble more (these were both lies- we just got in at 5:30am). She came back again and said ok, 4pm for $75. I said, "uh, no. Can't you see all the money I've gambled?" She acted like it wasn't a lot so I asked for a host. She gave me a 3pm checkout which was just what I wanted. And what he said about the bags. The bellman will give you a ticket and they'll hold them for you.

Have fun!

 

Great report and even better win. I will definately pay a visit to the burger place during my stay.