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FINALLY.... Flamingo, I mean Bally's - 8/17-8/20

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by arukc, Aug 21, 2013.

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  1. arukc

    arukc Tourist

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    My Trip Report

    The why - I turned 40 in July and the wife offered up a choice for the big present. I could either get a new phone OR she'd take me to Vegas. That would be the equivalent of asking a hockey player if they'd want new skates or to win the Stanley Cup. I picked the Stanley Cup. Sorry for excluding most of the country with that Hockey reference. Being from Buffalo basically means that we are Honorary Canadians and as such have hockey in our blood.

    The who - just the wife and I

    The when - August 17 - 20

    The where - initially booked at the Flamingo (my favorite), but, after reading about some of the sewage issues, we made a last minute change to Bally's. Having the bladder of a 3 year old does not bode well if there is only one bathroom available on the casino floor. It was either move to another hotel or pack another package of Depends.

    The how - couple of things made the trip extremely affordable. First off, used a bunch of southwest miles to pay for 1 of the 2 flights. Second, I signed up for the Total Rewards Visa which offered free Buffet of Buffet passes for 2 plus equivalent of $100 in reward credits. All card holders are also automatically bumped up to Platinum. Being low rollers this didn't seem like anything too special when I first read it. More on this to come... and Third, Caesars properties are very liberal with their room comps.

    The mission - to hit that ever elusive Royal. Ever since I can remember I've been on the hunt for the royal. People much smarter than I have figured out that a royal is on average hit about every 40 thousand hands. Using my ridiculously accurate quantification skills along with the Pythagorean theory and a touch of basic quantum physics I estimate that I've played over 80,000 hands with nothing. Hopefully, no one sees the title as any sort of foreshadowing....

    The epic trip report is to follow soon. Ok it's not so epic, but, it is a trip and a report of said trip so what better place to share than my favorite forum on VMB.
     
  2. LV_Bound

    LV_Bound VIP Whale

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    Hurry up with the trip report and tell me about the Buffet of Buffets.
    We got the free offer and leaving in a few days for Vegas and interested in your feedback. :thumbsup:
     
  3. VegasDave

    VegasDave Addicted

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    I thought your title was referring to finally getting back out to Vegas, now I need to know more!
     
  4. bshowell

    bshowell VIP Whale

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    Ooh waiting!
     
  5. bclub

    bclub Tourist

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    A fellow Buffalonian awaits the report as well!
     
  6. bubbamsu

    bubbamsu Low-Roller

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    Being a life long hockey player and a Detroiter, I loved the reference. Hopefully you found the elusive white whale and had a few hand pays. Could you say......"He shoots, he scores!"
     
  7. arukc

    arukc Tourist

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    Day 1 - bring on the quads

    We had a 8:35am flight out of Buffalo and we landed in Vegas in a record 4 hours and 20 minutes. Maybe the jet stream reversed for our trip or the plane had a third engine, either way we were in Vegas early and raring to go. As we left the plane and walked through the throngs of people waiting to return to their real life it became apparent that we have built more than a few traditions into our trips to Mecca. First one is that for some reason we always stop at Villa Pizza on our way to get the bags. It's a perfect stop for a quick bite after being couped up for 4 hours. Hit the cab line and was sweating after about 5 steps. It was like a billion degrees. But, it's a dry heat, right? Wait a minute, why is it so humid? Someone mentioned it was monsoon season. So it's a billion degrees plus about 90% humidity. Who goes to Vegas in August? Well, I would go at any time apparently, including right now again if the wife would let me.

    Anyways, we grab a cab and off to Bally's. We arrive and are standing in front of Bridgett, our friendly front desk clerk, at 10:30am. I slip her the $20 sandwich, she types a few lines of War and Peace into her word processor and then offers us a Junior suite. Yes, please. So let me get this straight, for a measly $20 I'm staying in a junior suite for 3 nights, with no resort fee, and checking in and up to the room by 10:50. I'm starting the trip way up. We literally throw our stuff in the suite, which is really just an oversized room, with a large bathroom area, and scurry down to the casino. First order of business is to get my Platinum card. The nice lady from the Total Rewards desk must've really liked me because she also offered us 2 for 1 show tickets for a number of shows as well as 15% off anything in the gift stores....Anything!!! I'm sure this was because of my charming personality. We then ventured over to play some VP near the keno slinger. After just about losing through my first session, I held two aces and hit draw. BAM! The other two popped up. Drinks please.... Hit another 4oak before leaving home base riding the high of being up within the first hour of play.

    We cashed in a buy one get one 3 day monorail pass from MyVegas and headed down to MGM. This again seemed very familiar to previous trips and we looked for the Sigma Derby game that we love. We couldn't find it so we decided to work the full four corners - trop, Excalibur, NYNY. First stop the Trop, and they still have my favorite Monopoly game there where you can "ride the train" and move around the board. I threw a $20 in and..... nothing. Wife came by and threw her $ in, and she did hit the bonus. Next thing you know she has 25 free spins then another 20 or so and she's moving around the board. She ended up going around the board twice and collected quite a bit of money for a 40 cent bet. We moved onto play some $10 Pai gow which turned into a ridiculous 10 hand streak where it seemed neither of us pushed at all. As most hands were a loss we high tailed it out of there and moved over to Excal.

    It never seems like I spend too much time at the Excalibur so we decided to take it slow and check it out some. I'm a big fan of the themed casinos, and can't understand why there has been a recent turn away from them. I think I'm just getting old. Why not design a sports themed casino(not Vegas Club) or one based on animals or one based on a middle aged male with a drinking and gambling problem. We play a few slots and end up at a casino bar playing vp again. We're pounding away and three twenty something's sit down near us and order a couple gin drinks and something flowery for the girl. It cost them $16 for those drinks plus tips. Who pays $16 for three drinks? I on the other hand, being the frugal one, lost $60 playing vp and got 3 "free" drinks. I showed them...

    Moved on to the Big Apple casino and it became apparent that we would hit another one of our traditions, dinner at Gonzalez y Gonzalez. As we take a table it hit me that I've eaten dinner here the first night of each of my last 4 Vegas trips. Oh no!!!! I started to sweat for no reason. Does this also mean that my luck will also remain the same and I'll never hit that damn royal? Nope, just that the salsa was a bit too spicy. Dinner was excellent as usual.

    After dinner we proceeded to play a bit more at NYNY and I hit another quad, then it was back to MGM to take the monorail to Harrah's. We spent the rest of the night working our way back to Bally's, with a couple notable exceptions. We miss O'Shea's and Bill's. We would normally spend a chunk of time at both places, we poured a little bit of our 40's on the ground as we passed by each. Once back at Bally's I settled in to chase the royal again. Nothing, but, I hit another 3 quads including another in Aces. For the first day, can't beat 6 quads including two with Aces. East coast time kicked in (and the countless drinks over the past 12 hours) and kicked me up to the room before midnight for just the second time in my Vegas lives. A little embarrassing yes...
     

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  8. VegasGarden

    VegasGarden Low-Roller

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    Great start. Thanks
     
  9. BigWW

    BigWW High Roller

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    Nice! And what a great post about your day.
     
  10. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    Nice hits!
    Maybe my problem with losing is I'm not playing the right games (damn those 10/6 DDB, 9/6 JoB, and NSUD!) I need to play 8/5 DDB and 6/5 JoB
     
  11. arukc

    arukc Tourist

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    Thanks timspeed. The problem with 10/6 DDB is that you win too much. You don't want to upset the VP Gods. Much better to play at the CET bend over and grab your ankles pay tables.
     
  12. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    LOL, I see that!
    As an aside...that's what I always thought too...the lower "payback" machines actually win MORE to make up for the "payback" (quote/unquote)
     
  13. arukc

    arukc Tourist

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    Day 2 - losing day...

    Going to bed early leads to waking up early, and that early for me was 4:30am, ridiculous. I sat in bed trying to go back to sleep, but, all I could think about was getting a royal or at least adding to the quad total. After drifting in and out of sleep for a bit I was showered and out the door by 6:30 with strict orders to return with breakfast at some point in the near future. Back to the grind it was at my favorite bank near the keno area. First $20, nothing. Second $20, nothing. Third, nothing. Look at phone to check the time, 6:55am. Only a true gambler is down before 7am. Took a quick walk around to regroup and noticed a bunch of gussied up folks stumbling around. They were leaving Drai's which has been temporarily moved to Bally's while they ruin, I mean recreate Bills into the Gansofart. The folks coming out of Drai's were putting on quite a show this fine morning. There's 2 girls with 10 inch heels stumbling over near the Tequila Bar with 5 dudes drooling all over them. There's two dudes holding up another dude which looked like a scene taking directly out of Weekend at Bernie's. I kept thinking, if someone pukes, it is going to get insane up in here. Then out of no where a group of paramedics storm in and I'm guessing someone called in a code 414, which is a female with a broken ankle, or is it a dehydrated person.? Can't really remember, but, what I did remember at that time were my strict orders for breakfast.

    Run over to Nosh to peruse the breakfast options. My orders were simple, obtain a breakfast sandwich, or a toasted bagel, chocolate milk or water, and any leftover scraps for me. Much to my surprise there was only one couple in line when I strolled up. I scanned the menu, breakfast sandwich, check. Chocolate milk, notta. Water, check. Ok I was ready to order. Still ready, what the H is going on up there. The couple ahead of me is talking some foreign language to the Nosh worker. This continues for at least another 5 minutes. Ok , they finally stop talking and the worker walks to the back for sec. Upon her return, the couple is still standing there and they start placing their order? WTF? Don't they know that if there's one thing you don't mess with, it's breakfast for the wife. Another 5 minutes and the couple finally completes their order and slowly pays. I place my order in however long it takes to say "two breakfast sandwiches with bacon egg and cheese, one water, and one pepsi "(or pop if you are from Blo, shout out to bclub). Two minutes later I'm out of there on my way back to the room.

    Breakfast was actually real good, some sort of magical mixture of bacon, egg, and yummy croissant. After eating, wife jumped in the shower while I went back down to Paris to chase like a chaser should. The next hour went like this: slap! Thank you sir may I have another.... Slap! Thank you sir may I have another. The quads from yesterday were all but a distant memory. I don't even think I got any three of a kinds. In fact I would've been better off giving my money to the guy with the "Kick me in the Nuts" sign I saw later in the day. At least two people would get some enjoyment out of that.

    Wife was ready and we were off for the day. After my great start to the day I was ready for a change so we looked at the options for the 2 for 1 show tickets made possible by my degenerate need for platinum status. We decided on the Jeff Civillico show at the Quad. It was presented as a 2pm family friendly show which sounded a little like it could've been a disaster, but, it couldn't be any worse than my morning was going. We got our tickets and got to the theatre to see there was a special line for platinum and diamond members. Sweet! Doors opened and we proudly held our noses high as we walked past the commoners. We were given the booth smack dab in the middle, best seats in the house. Platinum has its privileges. The show started with Turf from America's Got Talent fame. This dude is like triple jointed or something and the wife and I took turns trying to watch him and not throw up. It was great. Then Jeff C comes out and knocks it out of the park. Not hard to describe the show which is him basically juggling different things. Normally I wouldn't be impressed, but, what was great was his interaction with the crowd and the folks he pulled up on stage. At one point during the first piece he had his butt and his junk in the face of a complete stranger while trying to board a unicycle. I guess I'm still 13 years old cause I was giggling like a schoolgirl.

    After the show we spent some time checking out the new Quad. I don't like change, but, I must say I did enjoy the new digs. Surprisingly we were drawn to the dealertainer area and spent some time trying to figure out if that was the real Tina Turner. They also seemed to have $5 craps for most of the day. This is a huge plus in my book.

    It was time to start our free buffet of buffet passes and we headed to PHo via monorail harrahs to ballys cause we could, and it was starting to sprinkle. Our original strategy for attacking the 24hour buffet clock was to have a late dinner, breakfast, lunch, and early dinner. This plan was thrown under the bus when we started to get hungry at 4pm. We headed over to the spice market buffet a bit before 6 and were greeted by another sign where platinum/diamond members get to skip the line. We were then seated in a VIP section. Score! I enjoyed everything I had, especially the beef kabobs at the Mediterranean section, mmmmmmm.

    After dinner we continued to play multiple things including a bunch more vp. I hit two quads, but, no premiums so the losing day was guaranteed at this point. Everything I touched basically turned to crap. Up to room before midnight again... That's what happens when you wake up at 4:30, should've just stayed in bed.

    Final tally for day 2 - measly 2 quads bringing trip total to 8, royal count = 0, 1 guy I didn't kick in the nuts, and now down for trip.
     
  14. LA2VegasTrekkers

    LA2VegasTrekkers High-Roller

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    Loving your report so far. I have the same problem in the morning in Vegas. It seems no matter how late/early I pass out, my eyes open before 0730 every morning. I think I'm just so excited to be there and I don't want to miss anything. It's silly since we go four times a year. Plus, the Hubs needs about 20 hours of sleep a day and wants to sleep in, while I'm tossing and turning trying not to get out of bed. Of course, then late at night when we want to keep going and I'm starting to run down, I always wish I had slept in more. Ugh.

    Keep the story coming!!
     
  15. breanna61

    breanna61 Super Moderator

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    I'm really enjoying your witty, entertaining TR! I can't sleep in Vegas either, even when I'm dead drunk but in my defence, I'm not in bed at midnight old-timer:wink2: Loving the report and looking forward to more!
     
  16. arukc

    arukc Tourist

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    Day 3 - FINALLY

    Day 3 - FINALLY....


    Up early again today and on the casino floor around 7am. Headed over to get my daily fix of drunks leaving Drai's and then over to Paris to change my luck. Hit a $10 craps table and was not losing. Awesome. Moved over to vp still trying to capture glory. The pay tables here are ridiculously bad and my bankroll started to show this. Played until the wife came down and we made the second stop on our buffet train. We knew that this was the one stop we didn't want to miss, breakfast in Paris. We skipped the line again, quickly passing the 6 folks in the commoners line. 6 people? When was the last time there were only 6 people in the Paris buffet line? I started with a plain crepe with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce. Followed by brioche? French toast, eggs, and a bacon sandwich (bacon and white toast). Starting to get full at this point I decided that I should at least get another french toast. Second piece was even better than the first.

    Recounting the losses with the wife over breakfast, it became apparent that we needed to make a change. If only there was another option available to us where we could find a concentration of casinos. A nearby grandma overheard us and blurted out "why not go Downtown". "Downtown?" I replied. "Yeah downtown" she said "Things will be great when you're downtown". The waiter came by and mentioned "No finer place for sure, downtown". Then much to my surprise, I swear, a baby cried out something that sounded like "Everything's waiting for you". It was decided, we'd go downtown.

    Our excitement may have been a bit too eager as we were still tied down to the 24 hour buffet pass. So we decided to first stay on the strip until linner then head to this magical downtown place after. We walked past Caesars, into Mirage, then TI playing a few things here and there. We wasted some more time going through The Venazzo and ended up at Harrahs. No good wins to speak of, just more misery and heartbreak. We ended up hitting the Harrah's buffet around 2pm. Another special line for the platinum and such and this time we were offered free mimosas. I wasn't overly hungry but found some excellent carved turkey to supplement my three helpings of Mac and cheese. I don't think I'd ever buy the buffet of buffets at the current price, but, it can't be beat when free.

    After linner we were on our way downtown via monorail to LVH and then cab to Plaza. Our cab driver was Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid, except he was an expert in driving vs karate. He got us downtown in a jiffy and we were in the Plaza before you knew it. We decided to sign up for players cards at a couple DT casinos as we [STRIKE]may [/STRIKE]will want to stay there at some future point. At the Plaza I was upgraded to Queen status because they have tier matching. Queen status? What the H kind of incentive is that. We were also able to enter the daily slot tourney for being new members. We sat down and smashed those freakin buttons until our fingers were a bloody mess. OK, it was only like 5 minutes and neither the wife or I were close to the leader board, but, it was nice to see slot machines where those little symbols actually stop on that little line thingy. We spent a bit of time mulling around the Plaza. Again, no wins to speak of and I was having trouble finding any vp I wanted to play. Weird thing was that it looked like the 5/10/25 cent machines had better payouts then the plain old quarter machines. We had our fill of the place and decided to check out the rest of old school vegas.

    We walked all the way down to the new D, which was equivalent in distance from our bathroom to the bed in our junior suite. We signed up for player cards here as well and got $3 free play!! First win of the day. Couldn't resist sitting at the Longbar, which still has that new car smell, for a few hands of VP and a beer. The Longbar was pretty sweet, not only is it long, but, it's also a bar! I think there's something like 40-50 seats on that sucker. Slapped a 20 in and it was gone pretty quick. Threw another in and also added that $3 free play. Pounding, drinking, pounding, drinking, then I got three high hearts and held them just like I've done thousands of time before. FINALLY....... the other two bad boys popped up and before I even realized what happened the machine had counted up to a thousand credits. It just kept going and going and I could barely even say anything to the wife so I just hit her arm. She looked and we celebrated like we had just won an academy award, and yes I did have a speech prepared. We just left it there staring at it. Then I noticed that it actually paid 4796 credits. Holy crap, it was a progressive and didn't even realize it. Holy crap, the progressive stopped at $1199 so no tax forms. Holy crap, it doesn't say call attendant so I can just print out a ticket and not have to deal with a forced tip.

    rest of Day 3 to follow, or at least what I can remember as it starts to get real hazy after this...
     

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    Last edited: Aug 23, 2013
  17. higgiel

    higgiel Low-Roller

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    Loving the report so far - congrats on the royal! :thumbsup: Anxiously awaiting more. :wave:
     
  18. Barney

    Barney Low-Roller

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    Congratulations on the Royal! Saweeeeeet!
     
  19. luvstp

    luvstp High-Roller

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    Congratulations on the royal! You never forget the first one. :beer:

    Looking forward to the rest of your report.
     
  20. Frankr163

    Frankr163 High-Roller

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    Nice Score.........Top Shelf Where Momma Hides the Cookies!!!!!!!
     
    Anniversary Trip
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