Wednesday, August 13, 2008

snippet 2008 - Why laughlin? and How?

When I used to rent a car in Vegas, I often used free rooms at the River Palms, Laughlin to offset the high cost of Vegas on some weekend nights. Once I got used to the ease of the CAT bus routes (other than the Deuce) I found staying downtown cheaper and satisfying. However, comps downtown are beginning to dry up for me.
The El Cortez is basically gone. Although I was a Saphire level player, and they still cut me that card, their last promotion offered me a laughable $30 a night rate. They have eliminated my 10/7 VP so there is really nothing left for me to do there except the live poker table. I love that, but it will not generate any room offers.
For an offer from the Four Queens I had to call a VIP host. They sent no mailing for my August trip and then sent a $25/$49 offer for the fall. It included $50 freeplay, so it was still "free" but it pushes me more to just go to Laughlin where free is totally free and based on live poker play, a miracle in promotions.

Figuring out how to go there, however, has been a challenge.

I have been discouraged in renting a car by recent issues in car rentals, like the failure of credit cards to cover loss of use fees because car rental companies refuse to send required logs, the fact that I would have to cover difference between my coverage on my old vehicle and some $35,000 car I might rent, and especially the total lack of coverage by any insurance for diminished value. These new rip off strategies to push the selling of waivers have confused me and my insurance agent

CAR RENTAL ISSUES (click here)

Added to that, I began to see the advantage of being over tired or inebriated on buses versus being disciplined and sober for the driving. Often Myers rum or microbrews add more to the EV of video or live poker play than my skill level. So remaining perfectly sober seems like poor money management. And yet even a few beers combined with a car accident cancel all insurance coverages and invite jail. I like risk, but not that much. I am a low roller. Why worry about it when i am trying to be uninhibited in Vegas?

However, finding transportation to Laughlin excpet for cheap day trips was difficult and the cost of the trip by car discouraged me . Then, on a $5 day trip in April, I played a bit of the 2-6 spread limit poker and found it a fine game. With only one blind, I could wait through the bad hand streaks. And there seemed to be fewer aggressive tables in Laughlin than in Vegas. So I was motivated to look at Laughlin as a good option.

When I found that the River City Shuttle picked up at Terribles,I was thrilled.
I have wanted to stay at Terribles because it offers the low roller almost complete bus access to any part of the strip and after a 5 hour plane ride to Vegas is fast easy and free from the airport. So after a few days Terribles , I could be delivered to my hotel in Laughlin, be dropped back at the airport after my Laughlin days, and take a bus downtown. So I set up that agenda.

It was a fine plan. Terribles picked me up and delivered me for free from the airport. I was the only person on the free shuttle. I called, he came, and I was checked in quickly and soon
in the pool to stretch out those airport cramped muscles and joints.

River City picked me up at Terribles after I checked out (there are three times each day to choose from). They gave me a fine ride directly to my casino of choice in Laughlin. On the way back I was picked up again at another casino and delivered to the airport. I took the 109 to the DTC downtown and rolled my bags across to the California. Easy.

The shuttle cost was $110. I estimate that gas cost alone in a rental is $40. So this was a bargain when traveling solo.

I managed four days of free promo rooms (2 at Aquarious and 2 at River Palms.) The River taxi for $4 took me from hotel to hotel.

It was a good pick in August too. I had less walking with bags from hotel to hotel. In fact, until the end of my 11 day stay when I pulled luggage from Main Street Station to the El Cortez, I was picked up and delivered from hotel to hotel with very little bag rolling.



POSSIBLE MISCONNECTIONS:
The River City company advertises that they will get you where you want to go when they say they will. But I can see that coordination with airplanes is still a big issue. On my trip out an airplane was delayed so that meant a woman missed the shuttle. It can't wait for anyone. She would get the next one, but it would be a three hour wait.
On the way back an emergency sent the shuttle back for a passenger before they picked me up and it cost the schedule 45 minutes. The company called and was clearly agitated. The driver told me that in a year and a half of driving he had never gone back for anyone, but that this was very important, and that they had checked first to see I was not catching an airplane. It was no real inconvenience for me, but still they were late.

So I would not try to go directly from an airplane to the shuttle. I had no desire to do that going into Vegas anyway; after 5 hours in a plane I want to get in my room and settle for at least a couple days.

On the other hand there were regular customers for both trips who had come in on aircraft and lived in Lake Havasu so the shuttle must be fine most of the time even when linked immediately to a airplane ride. I liked visiting a bit with them. I learned quite a bit each time. I also napped part of the trip each way.


SOMEWHAT VAGUE ON WHERE TO BE PICKED UP

One driver said that there had been times when he had shown up to pick someone up and they were there and did not see him, only to call later and say he had not arrived. His story seemed to point out the dysfunction of the passenger, but my take on the situation was that the driver needed to have a sign like a limo driver and actively search for passengers. If the driver was proactive about calling out, "Any passengers for the River City shuttle?", who would have missed him?
There are no marked bus stops so normal bus stop body language does not work. At ground zero in Vegas there is no designated single spot as there would be for a CAT bus, but a long row of possible places the van might enter. The logo on the side of the van is tough to read at a distance. He came up to me in Terribles lot. I had not spotted the shuttle van parked out in the parking lot. I was picked up at the South entrance, but the driver said he thought he had worked it out so that I could be picked up at the valet. I was glad that he had found me, but it made me decide to take some time explaining this issue when I booked next time and getting a clear sense of what the backup was if we did not easily connect.

Leaving from the River Palms in Laughlin I was confused again. The valet sent me quite a ways from the shaded canopy to wait for the shuttle. I had remembered the driver had told me to wait by the valet. I shared this anxiety with the office contact person who called me to explain the delay and I described myself and my suitcase so the driver could find me. If I go again, I may make a bit of a limo like sign myself and just hold it up. I certainly will confirm my pickup that morning so that the company knows I am there and the driver takes the time to find me if either of us is confused.
I doubt this is a real problem; I expect it is more my own paranoia. At worst, I would expect a driver would call me on the cell if he could not find me. Also, now that I better know what the van looked like, I think I could pick it our better although I got confused it with the River Palms shuttle because neither logos are really large and easy to read and both said "River."

COMPETITION

Tri City shuttle is their competition. The driver told me that he has often had to go after stranded single passengers that Tri City has abandoned. Granted, that could just be a way to trash the competition, but he seemed sincere. He said the owner was adamant that people would be picked up and delivered on time, and that no one would ever be stranded by River City. The tense and apologetic tone I sensed in the office worker who called to tell me the driver would be late reinforced my sense that the company understands that they cannot generate business unless they are where they say they will be regardless of circumstances. She was not telling me that stuff happens; she was apologizing over and over even after I assured her it was no big deal to me.

ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE
PS Upon checking it seems this alternative will not work for me. Those flights don't fly anymore.

As well as this shuttle, there is an aircraft company that has had some great deals on flights into the Bullhead City airport that include transportation to a Laughlin casino. They actually had specials of $89 round trip, cheaper than the shuttle. The hard part for me was to figure how I might get cheaply to the airport. I asked at the DTC and the fellow there assured me that the CAT 106 would get me to the North Vegas airport in about 30 minutes. So that is another option to explore.

Anyway, I am pretty decided to begin to plan trips to Laughlin with just a bit of a flavor of Vegas at each end. The River City Shuttle would be the last to book because any cancellation just means you can use the ticket over the course of the next year. No refunds. No shows after no call to cancel don't get that advantage. But they told me that I could book with as little as 12 hours notice and be fairly sure of a seat on one of the three shuttles that day.

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