Vegas Notes December

Here are some rough unorganized notes for Vegas in December. Ask if you are curious about any part of them. I am saving them here more for me than for readers

TO DO TO DO TO DO

set up buffet list of prices and call to see if 2 for 1 can be split in half in Vegas and in Laughlin.

Print out DDB sheets for 10/6 games. They have this at Gold Coast. The strategy must be close to DB strategy.

print in and out secret menu

walking to the In N Out at Dean Martin at Tropicana is easy, just stay on the Excalibur (south) side of Tropicana Ave. There are sidewalks the whole way (about a 15 min. walk) except for one I-15 ramp (about 15 ft. wide) that you have to cross.


POKER POKER POKER

O' Shea's has a one dollar blind spread limit game. 1-5 dollar. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Dewey, you might like to know that the Excalibur poker room also runs a 2-6 spread limit game, though it's really not like the El Cortez 1-3-6 game. Also, you might like to know that much of the poker in Laughlin is spread limit format.

Of course, Excalibur takes a 4+1 rake, for a total drop which is twice the $2.50 cap at Jackie's downtown joint, and a peculiarity in Laughlin is that while it is common to only rake $3 for the house many of those rooms will drop $2 for the jackpot rake.


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VIDEO POKER VIDEO VIDEO

The Plaza and the Vegas Club clearly mark their VP machines that have 99% payouts. One at the Plaza has (DDB) with 6-10 payout. They are all multi-play machines and you have to sort thru them to find the good games.

Confirm Budget car rental including double upgrade LVA
Tim Arnold's Pinball Hall of Fame.
I just rode the bus there last week. Take the bus in front of Hooters on Tropicana east to Pecos. When you get off the bus, look back over your left shoulder and you'll see it. It's right across the street from the grocery store and nowhere near a half mile. It looked perfectly safe to me.

return bus
This one I can't answer since I walked west a few (normal sized, not Strip sized) blocks to the Gun Store to play with a machine gun, however there are stops every few blocks at most. Since you'll be in the area I recommend giving this a try as well. Both are on the north side of Tropicana and I'm sure somone there can tell you if the nearest stop is east or west but it likely won't make that much of a difference if you can't spot one from the street.

Also, that area of town is residential/light commercial so there's really nothing to be concerned about as far as safety, beyond the ususal warnings in any large city. Buses come about every 15-20 minutes during the week. I found the bus back to the Strip got very crowded on the ride back, I may have been heading there close to a shift change

PHoF Location

3330 E. Tropicana, Las Vegas NV 89121

North West corner of Tropicana and Pecos.

About 30 blocks (3 miles) from the 'strip' straight down Tropicana, about a 20 dollar taxi ride.

Next to the Tropicana Cinema 2 dollar movie theatre. If you somehow miss the machines staring at you through the window, its just around the corner from the movie theater, between the comic shop and Putters bar.

Hours & Contact Info

Hours: 11am till 11pm, Sunday to Thursday.

11am till Midnight, Friday and Saturday.

Telephone: N/A

Email: pinballhalloffame@msn.com

Much to my pleasant surprise, I discovered that the bar by the poker room in Bally�s serves draft Alaskan Amber Ale. That�s been my favorite since I discovered it in Seattle a few years ago, but it�s regional and I can�t get it in Texas. YUM!

Treasure Island gives $2 an hour on your card.

Friday and Saturday, December 14 and 15 at 9 p.m. Squirrel Nut Zippers is a jazz and swing band formed in 1993. In 1996, they released the album Hot, selling more than 1 million copies.

ACG changes

Fremont Street Experience - One of the locations for redeeming this coupon has changed. The information booth in front of Binion's has closed and the coupon can now be redeemd at either the O2 Bar & Spa located at the Fremont Street Experience between Binion�s and the Golden Nugget, or at the Fremont Street Experience office located at 425 Fremont Street, 2nd Floor (above Walgreens).

Hard Rock - The Fab Five Pack is no longer available. Instead, you will get $10 in free slot play and a shuttle coupon book which contains a $10 match play, plus the following: other coupons: free deck of cards or pair of dice, free alcoholic beverage, 15% off at love jones, 2 for 1 cocktails at AJ's, 20% off at Pink Taco, 2 for 1 cocktails at Simon's, 20% off at Mr. Lucky's, free size up at Starbucks, free pool entrance mon-fri, 15% off services at Rock Spa, and complimentary admission to Body English.

Vegas Club - The coffee shop has closed. However, the 2-for-1 cheeseburger coupon is still being honored at the Great Moments Restaurant.

Better see the Gold Spike and play a little before it too is gone to renovation as a chic bouteque hotel.

Terribles slot tournament

CHEAP BREAKFAST AFTER POKER ON THE STRIP

8. Breakfast Special - 4 Locations - 12 am-11 am - $1.49

New to the Top Ten this month is a $1.49 breakfast special served from midnight to 11 am at the newly designated “Wild” Station casinos. At $1.49 for two eggs, two bacon or sausage, hash browns, and toast, this is the best breakfast we’ve seen hereabouts in a while(d). The previous deal at WWW, which flirted with a listing, was $1.99 and ran from 11 to 11. This one’s nearly equal on the hours and better on the price, plus it’s available in four locations.

Good review of the 2-4 game at the Riviera.

Note that Terribles breakfast time ends at 10 AM
Breakfast 7am � 10am - $4.99
Lunch 11am � 3pm - $6.99
Dinner 4pm � 9pm - $9.99 $13 on Thursday
Sunday Brunch 7am � 3pm - $8.99
Saturday & Sunday - Champagne Brunch

Themed Dinners
Monday - Tuscany night
Tuesday - Cattleman�s BBQ Round-up
Wednesday - Country Kitchen
Thursday - Seafood Extravaganza* $13.00
Friday - Dinner buffet
Saturday - Dinner buffet
Sunday - Prime Rib & Shrimp

Plaza. It’s called, Viva Las Vegas. The first part of the show was OK to pretty good, but the comedian that does the last part of the show was great. Everyone was cracking up. I don’t laugh out loud too often, but this guy had me going.
The show is at two and four in the afternoons and they have coupons for two tickets for $5.

VEGAS CLUB
Vegas Club ACG- The coffee shop has closed. However, the 2-for-1 cheeseburger coupon is still being honored at the Great Moments Restaurant.

steak and lobster meal

Pasta Pirate in the Clalifornia downtown on the other hand is a very decent meal. Small sirloin and small lobster tail. The meal also comes with a loaf of fresh baked bread, soup or salad and a glass of house wine. Nice atmosphere and good service have always rounded out the meal.

Now you're not getting a prime cut of beef but it is a nice, but small sirloin. They have always managed to cook it medium rare like we enjoy it. Some places like to kill that steak twice when it's a small piece of beef. We generally go into the Pasta Pirate at least once during our visits to Vegas and to date have never been dissapointed. It's really hard to find consistancy from year to year on the inexpensive meals but somehow they've managed to maintain it at the Pasta Pirate.

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STATION CASINOS

Better call on ACG coupons

Steve

I have read on other boards that Fiesta, Red Rock Station and Boulder Station are no longer accepting LVA and ACG buffet coupons because of counterfeiting. Is this a system-wide decision by upper Station Casino management?

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LAUGHLIN

Edgewater has a $1.99 breakfast if you show your card
Colorado Belle has good barvecue:

For good Q, I chose Mark Twain's in the Colorado Belle casino. My wife had baby backs with brisket. Baby backs were a litlle overcooked, but very tasty. The brisket was to die for. I don't know how they could make it so tender and still be able to slice it so thinly. I has the St. Louis ribs with tri tip. The ribs were not fall off the bone, good texture and moist. They had a galze that was great. First the sweetness hits you, followed by the heat, and then a hint of fennel or anise. The trii tip was over cooked for me, but the smoke flavor was the best.

Basic bus information

Since we now have a fine special section for transportation and no bus posts, and since old posts have been lost, I thought I'd start a general bus thread. Perhaps you have other bus tricks or strategies to add.
I find downtown a frugal stay partly because I can get just about anywhere cheaply by bus. The DTC is air conditioned in hot months so I don't mind waiting there. It is often the beginning of a bus route so it is easy to know which way the bus will go.
Many visitors to Vegas have only ridden the Deuce and a couple experiences in tough traffic makes that less than a desirable choice at busy hours. I like 108 and 105 to get me out of downtown and near the strip. 105 takes me to Ellis Island and along the way will let me get off in the rear of many strip casinos in the Circus Circus area of the strip. 108 takes me to Terribles for a cheap breakfast or Hard Rock for a coupon run. From Terribles I can catch the 202 and go down to the Gold Coast rather than worrying about the free shuttle at Bill's. If I then use the free shuttle to go to the Orleans and walk across to the 201 (Tropicana) I can go to NYNY and MGM section of the strip.

So a typical frugal day using buses might look like this:
108 to Terribles for cheap breakfast and matchplays.
202 to Gold Coast for 10 AM poker tournament ($22)followed with lunch there, a bit of free jazz in the lounge, and a free shuttle to Orleans or McMullan's Irish Pub for supper. The 201 to Tropicana for evening comedy at the Comedy stop. Some poker in that area of the strip. The Deuce back to downtown at 2-3 AM when the traffic is eased up. All those areas covered for $3.00 total ($2.50 for pass and 50 cents for one deuce ride) in transportation, basically one cab tip.


Last time I found that $40 for unlimited rides for a month paid for itself over my 15 day stay in Vegas. Next year I am old enough (62) to get that same deal for $20. But even the daily 24 hour deals are great. If you start on a bus other than the deuce, the 24 hour pass is just $2.50. You do have to add a couple quarters for every Deuce ride, but usually that means just once for me to get back downtown late at night and avoid the walk from the DTC in the dark.

I love this trip planner which creates a unique schedule for any itinerary. It recognizes most of the casino names. But you can also just list a Vegas street address. You plug in your details and print out a schedule to take with you. It includes various route possibilities and which routes to combine for a trip as well as estimated travel times.

http://ttpweb.rtcsnv.com/

The 107 gets me to the Boulder strip in a half hour.
The 106 gets me to Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho.

All day passes bought for the Deuce are $5 a day. If you are certain you will be just going on the bus twice, then paying the $2 one way fee saves you a dollar over the day pass.
All day passes bought on a route other than the Deuce are $2.50 and you must then add 50 cents ( correct change only) for each Deuce ride. You might as well buy the 24 hour pass because the price is the same as two rides.

The web site says you need to prove you are a senior to get the senior rate, but I met some fellows who were riding the Deuce for just a dollar each way by simply saying "senior" when they put their money in the machine to pay.. However, that was last year. I did not see that dollar deal on the website.

These prices are paid right on the bus, but you need correct change so it is a good idea to drop single collar bills and a few quarters in your pocket for the local routes both to purchase initially and to add the 50 cents for the Deuce. . Day passes are stamped with the time you boarded and good for 24 hours after that. So if you go out at 5 PM from downtown, the same pass will get you back home at say 2AM the following day and out again providing you go earlier than 5 PM. It pays to stretch out the time for buying the next pass if you can because sometimes two all day passes will meet your needs for three calendar days.

If you plan ahead and buy on line or if you visit the DTC downtown, you can purchase a month long unlimited pass for $40 (or if you are over 62 for $20)

If you ride the non deuce routes then you also get a normal bus view of where you are going. The deuce often has a strange form of advertising that makes you look out through a black grid, sort of a noir view of Vegas. I think it is a little depressing. The exception is up on the top level in the front where the view is as good as any tour bus. You can more likely get those prime viewing seats if you board the Deuce at the DTC rather than by Neonopolis.

Lots of other questions answered on the website

http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/cat/