TR SNIPPET - MONTE CARLO FIRST DAY

MyVegas set me up with a night here, followed by a night at Mandalay Bay and then another here at Monte Carlo.

I had misgivings. I thought perhaps I would just be hassled by the check in check out of staying in one place for only a day.

Had I known that Monte Carlo does not add an early check in fee unless the check in is before ten. Somehow I got the idea the fee was as universal as the resort fee.

One thing to remember when booking a frugal trip is that the resort fee does not go up on the weekend, so if you manage a “free” room with only that fee to pay, a weekend night is really wonderful value. Weekends are hard to cover in long trips.

I stretched out my time at the Orleans, thinking that I did not want my luggage in storage for too long. I probably could have gotten in earlier.

However, getting in at 1:15PM makes a huge difference when only staying one night. I could head over for the Aria lunch buffet LINK and still have time to swim in the pool. LINK

The check in required nothing except my credit card and photo ID. It was simple.

I found it a long, long walk from the strip to the lobby, but it was no distance then to the poker room or the pool.

Aria was a little bit of a walk, but not bad. So, I was very comfortable.

ROOMS

I know from reading posts that I have the lower end of their rooms. It is fine, but in spots a bit thread worn. It does not equate to my room at the Orleans in size or comfort.

There is also two bottles of water in the room and the tap water is cold.

There is a coffee maker, but it has no tray for the bags of coffee and there was no coffee left, just three bags of condiments.

So, I ask a fellow with a clip board in the hall.

“So which do you need?” he asks me.

“I need both. I need a tray to hold the coffee bags, and.......coffee.”

It seemed like a fairly silly question to me, but he was pleasant.

He went off to find something for me.

And I never heard from him or anyone again.

These sorts of details would not be missed at the Orleans.

The machine did work to make the tea I had packed along in my fine glass cup. So, I started my pack out morning with tea and peanut butter wraps and a few mixed nuts.

POOLS

I have always been attracted to the lazy river, and I found it was very nice. I did not bother with a tube. Without a tube, I traveled faster and had to swim a bit to keep my legs from brushing the water, so it was a water ride with exercise built in. Very nice. The water was heated and the pool was in the sun.

Tubes are just $5, but I think I like not being quite that lazy.

Another pool directly behind the lobby area was nice but a bit cooler. It is in the shade, and so the life guard explained that it does not retain the heat as well. It was fine for swimming around and getting exercise, small than the Orleans pool but deeper so it was easier while swimming to keep from touching.

I was there from three to almost five and had the shaded pool to myself. That seems a good time to swim.

The jacuzzi behind the pool was smaller than the Orleans, but the jets produced much better water massage, and that was a delight for my arthritic ankle. I liked it very much.

No personal ID other than a room key was needed for admittance. Towels were abundant and very large. However, don't leave one on lounge with nothing else there or they will pick it up.

Bathrooms are at the Lazy River.

There is also some great cold water there, iced for drinking and free in those small paper cups that make funny hats for little kids.

CHECK OUT TIME

Official check out time at MonteCarlo was eleven. I called and extended that to noon. Note that this is an hour earlier than I managed at the Orleans.

TR SNIPPET - Second Night at Monte Carlo

My second MyVegas night at the Monte Carlo held too many choices. I wanted to play another 5 hours of poker to earn the freeroll on the following Saturday as well as build my comp dollars into something close to a free breakfast buffet on Sunday.

I also had three shows of interest all on Saturday night.

One was Naked Magicians with Tommy Wind, but I napped through that late afternoon time. Another was to use a 25% off coupon to see Dana Carvey at the Orleans. I decided not to bother with the bus or worry that the Orleans would require a player's card and the coupon would work to reduce my daily gambling average.

So I picked seeing Jimmy Buffet at the MGM although that did not work well with the poker. I was on my way to see if the half priced ticket booth had a deal when right outside the Monte Carlo was a Jimmy Buffet cloned band and they were very good.

So I saved myself the price of a ticket and managed a good music/poker compromise by just sitting there on the steps and listening to a couple sets. I don't have the bands name, but Rick the lead was very personable and relaxed in a Key West sort of way although he lives in California where he is also a boat captain.

Much of the music had that theme so popular in island music which promises happiness if we simplify and move away from the stresses that are bothersome.

I can feel that.

During the first set two young people danced an incredible swing. She was petite and he was wiry but in great shape. He wrapped he up and unrolled her in multiple turns. One time there were so many swirling turns that it drew applause from the crowd. It was all graceful and fun to watch, especially when he picked this tiny girl up and turned her head over heals, he log hair flowing behind.

I don't much like improvements and I as much as I could see that the redo of the front of Monte Carlo was very nice and allowed eating and drinking outside, part of me missed the old European look of the place. The columns are still there, but it is not the same.

However, this little theater formed by a small fountain and circular stone steps that become seats was brilliant. What a treat to hear all this fine music while watching the strip change from daylight to nighttime and seeing the parade of people whooping at a song or two.

To it with the Key West flavored music was perfect. It felt like a little Key West band had been plopped down in the the center of the Vegas strip. The air was delightful. What a treat!

And just about the time the stone seats were beginning to wear on me, I could head in to the poker room.

POKER

Once again I came when there was a 2-6 spread game going but no seat, with me first on the list. I thought I'd go up to my room for a paper and cap drop off. I made a coffee there and freshened up, but I was a few minutes. When I got back, the entire table had changed from old guy rocks to mostly women, but there was still no seat for me.

They took care of me, however.

Within a few minutes a fellow moved to NL and I had a seat. And it was ahead of one of the women who had come with the group because I had my name on the list.

Early on I won a pot of over $100 with just a pair of Aces. I played up and down with those winnings until I left, down $38 after 6 hours.

My worst loss was when the river 6 gave me the nut flush but my opponent quad sixes. I put him on something smaller and raised when he bet into me so it was expensive.

Again it was tough to keep the game going. I wanted the hours and I drank a bit of red wine so I did not want to have to get them by playing no limit.

We were down to three of us and I kept the game going by negotiating away the high hand award rake. They raked just a dollar with one blind of a dollar.

Of course the pots and action were small.

So I suggested we play Pineapple and the others agreed. People later came to the table and they were fine with Pineapple as well. It sure added a great amount of fun the poker, and I was more comfortable than most because I play it once a week with my local poker buddies.

The people were lots of fun. I talked one woman into playing who was just watching another who worked in the same field, helping people get out of debt. These were two Southern Black women, one from North Carolina, one from Greenville, South Carolina and they were just delightful. One was very pretty and fun to watch during play.

All in all it was some of my favorite poker.

Added to the fun was this one dealer who just delights me. His name is Daniel and he has very animated facial mannerisms, a very pleasant sense of ironic humor, and a smile and voice that liven up the game.

So I played about six hours. When the game broke, I was down $38 but qualified for the freeroll.

One thing to note is the 1-5 PM Aces Cracked. I think the payout is $50, but you only get paid on Cracked Aces if your opponent uses both hole cards to win the hand. Such a strange condition because during play you don't know for certain you will get the insurance on your Aces. I suppose this is a move to stop the players from limiting the pots by just hoping the Aces will be cracked.


Here are some photos of the great art in the poker room.

 

TR SNIPPET - MANDALAY BAY

MANDALAY BAY

room art

The difference in this room from the room at Monte Carlo was dramatic. This has a huge bathroom with a separate tub and shower and door for the toilet. The table for the computer is kidney shaped and spacious. 

Plugs are convenient. By the bed the four socket plug is waist high so there is no fishing around wires to connect my sleep apnea machine.

The room was huge, spotless, and very comfortable.

I made very good use of it.

BUFFET

The buffet was fine. The beef was a bit tough. I think there was garlic in the au jus. Mixed veggies and the Brussels sprouts were fine. I like cabbage cooked more than is the standard, but still it made a tasty dish with Parmesan sprinkled.
The cordon Bleu chicken was best with ranchero sauce and a bit of cut Mexican roasted pepper. I should never take two roasted jalapeno peppers. I was in hiccups after only one.
My favorite was the seafood chopino, a fine chowder full of mussels and crab and shrimp and mushrooms and all sorts of good tastes.
For dessert I made a bowl of large black raspberries, a few strawberries, some chopped pecans and just a taste of yogurt. There were also whole fruits so I used a banana. And there was some sugar free cheese cake.
POOL
The wave pool was disappointing. It was fine and fun, but no match for any real beach. The lazy river was great, but more populated than the Monte Carlo at least in the afternoon which meant being rushed through more delightful bikinis, but also meant finding my way between the slower moving tubes.
I spent an hour to an hour and a half in the river each day, and it is the finest exercise I ever had. Swimming in this uses many more muscles than just swimming. It is fine exercise and not as dull as just breast stroking around in circles at the pool.
POKER
I was so exhausted with my day that I went to bed at 5 PM and woke up at 11PM to play some good late night poker and play it the way I like, fresh, while my opponents are a bit into cups and exhaustion.
I had to wait a long while for a 3-6 limit seat at around midnight. I played an hour of no limit, but I did not like it much and it cost me $30.
At the limit I found some really poor players and had good cards, so I cleaned up with a $129 profit.
OLD CAR
At the Burlesque and Bourbon I saw an old 1923 Ford that was used to transport musicians and special people, I think in Atlantic City. It was quite a machine. They claimed it really put cars on the roads.
PENS
Mandalay Bay has very classy looking pens, silver like a stainless steel pen. They were not well made, but they sure looked classy.

 

 

TR SNIPPET - GOLD COAST

One of the great ironies of going away to Vegas for 24 days is I have encounters with friends and family who I don't otherwise see, and I have them without interruption.

It was grand to see my oldest son Frank in just this sort of context. We were very close when he was a young man, and Vegas held good memories for each of us.

We got to process family business, update each other on events and feelings, plan for the future.

We laughed to be planning my death.

What should I do with all my tshotchkes? I am not like intelligent older people. I am still collecting LP records and odd cups for tea. I like all the old bits and pieces of my past, but what a chore for my kids to have to sort through when I'm gone.

So at least he wants me to write family history, to record photos of all the bits and pieces of my junk and write up the story of each. It will help them know what to keep. It will help them get rid of things and still have a record of them.

Vegas is such a strange context for this conversation.

We got to plan for my next modern purchase, a Smart phone. Seeing what he and my wife have I lean now to a Galaxy, perhaps the newest that number 5, that advertised the best sort of camera.

But frank says I need to at least see a Fablet.

My wonderful new cargo pants change the entire sense of carrying a phone.

Big is quite possible.

Frank is very encouraging. He wants me to write more. He wants a Vegas book to come out of all my experience and perspective of frugal approaches.

He lost $350 in three days, but he knew that he was getting the best advice on VP and going very cheap for the rest of the trip. His wife will be pleased enough because his budget for loss was $600. We stretched it.

And there were other processed bits that I can't write here.

It was all good.

He had a ticket to Chris Angel from playing a bit of MyVegas. I bought one for $87 to go along with him. I think he was a bit disappointed in the show. There is too much self aggrandizement in the show now, less magic and more memoir. And it was not perhaps what Frank expected in a Cirque show.

Still, it was something to see. I was not disappointed. The tickets at rack rate were $130 and the seats were great. When Angel disappeared off stage and appeared in the audience, he came hooded into a seat right in front of us.

My favorite trick was for him to make an entire motorcycle appear, one from his collection chosen at random by an audience member.

I liked that he wanted random folks and developed a system for getting them, but it too took too long from the show.

I like MacKing better, but that could be because I like his personality better.

Frank and I paid $26 each on a 2 for 1 to see 40 is the new 20 at the Riviera.

http://www.rivierahotel.com/las-vegas-entertainment/40-is-not-the-new-20.aspx

I thought this was not going to say much about being 68, but I was wrong. The comic was not focused on 40 but on after 40.

This was my favorite comedy of my trip. Matt Kazam layered the jokes, one punch line on top of another and his pace was fast and his timing perfect. He was very likeable. He was raw in spots but not the kind of raw that just depends on bad language and gross comments for a laugh. I taught inner city for 30 years. Bad language and gross comments were an everyday joke, and while I'm not often offended, I just don't think today's comics are anywhere near as creative as my tough mouthed students in that area.

We played poker tournaments at The Plaza and some video poker there, JOB at the bar with comped Guinness for Frank. The tournaments are so cheap that I can't believe they will last, but are just there to entice folks to set up cash games on the Poker Pro machines. And right across the casino was a three piece jazz group playing the sort of music I like.

LINK TO THE PLAZA

What was very different from our visit years back was that Frank was not interested in playing the horses on the Sigma Derby. I remember when we walked the strip with very little money to gamble, we always stopped at the Stardust for some time with quarters in the Sigma Derby.

Sharing a room with Frank was fine and that was a bit of surprise to me.

I used to advertise that I had rooms and an extra bed and different friends or family might take advantage of those, but these days I sleep so poorly that I did not want to share much room space. But I shared with him and we seemed to do well.

Of course, there was very little sleep. We got perhaps 3-4 hours at most at night and were on the go when normally I might be in for a nap.

Once there was a malfunction in his room key. I was happy to have added his name to the room because it was late at night and he managed to solve it without my getting dressed. He was locked out. Security helped. I was too sleepy, so I don't remember the details.

After he left on the WAX for the plane, I planned to sleep the day away.

That was when the D owned new city block venue for loud obnoxious noise rehearsed and then performed some heavy metal grinding awfulness right behind my room.

So there was no sleep, but I was just too tired to go play poker.

I watched some mindless TV, but the noise was so loud even that was a challenge.

There are no quiet rooms at the Four Queens any longer.

It may change how I arrange my trip more than any changes in comp formulas.

LINK TO FOUR QUEENS.

Fortunately, it is not every night, just some selected weekends. However, it is the weekend nights I like to cover at the Four Queens.

TR SNIPPET ADVENTURES WITH MY OLDEST SON FRANK

One of the great ironies of going away to Vegas for 24 days is I have encounters with friends and family who I don't otherwise see, and I have them without interruption.

It was grand to see my oldest son Frank in just this sort of context. We were very close when he was a young man, and Vegas held good memories for each of us.

We got to process family business, update each other on events and feelings, plan for the future.

We laughed to be planning my death.

What should I do with all my tshotchkes? I am not like intelligent older people. I am still collecting LP records and odd cups for tea. I like all the old bits and pieces of my past, but what a chore for my kids to have to sort through when I'm gone.

So at least he wants me to write family history, to record photos of all the bits and pieces of my junk and write up the story of each. It will help them know what to keep. It will help them get rid of things and still have a record of them.

Vegas is such a strange context for this conversation.

We got to plan for my next modern purchase, a Smart phone. Seeing what he and my wife have I lean now to a Galaxy, perhaps the newest that number 5, that advertised the best sort of camera.

But frank says I need to at least see a Fablet.

My wonderful new cargo pants change the entire sense of carrying a phone.

Big is quite possible.

Frank is very encouraging. He wants me to write more. He wants a Vegas book to come out of all my experience and perspective of frugal approaches.

He lost $350 in three days, but he knew that he was getting the best advice on VP and going very cheap for the rest of the trip. His wife will be pleased enough because his budget for loss was $600. We stretched it.

He did not lose anything here because they no longer deal limit poker efficiently.  We waited awhile on a list of just our names.  NO interest.

 

And there were other processed bits that I can't write here.

It was all good.

He had a ticket to Chris Angel from playing a bit of MyVegas. I bought one for $87 to go along with him. I think he was a bit disappointed in the show. There is too much self aggrandizement in the show now, less magic and more memoir. And it was not perhaps what Frank expected in a Cirque show.

Still, it was something to see. I was not disappointed. The tickets at rack rate were $130 and the seats were great. When Angel disappeared off stage and appeared in the audience, he came hooded into a seat right in front of us.

My favorite trick was for him to make an entire motorcycle appear, one from his collection chosen at random by an audience member.

I liked that he wanted random folks and developed a system for getting them, but it too took too long from the show.

I like MacKing better, but that could be because I like his personality better.

Frank and I paid $26 each on a 2 for 1 to see 40 is the new 20 at the Riviera.

http://www.rivierahotel.com/las-vegas-entertainment/40-is-not-the-new-20.aspx

I thought this was not going to say much about being 68, but I was wrong. The comic was not focused on 40 but on after 40.

This was my favorite comedy of my trip. Matt Kazam layered the jokes, one punch line on top of another and his pace was fast and his timing perfect. He was very likeable. He was raw in spots but not the kind of raw that just depends on bad language and gross comments for a laugh. I taught inner city for 30 years. Bad language and gross comments were an everyday joke, and while I'm not often offended, I just don't think today's comics are anywhere near as creative as my tough mouthed students in that area.

We played poker tournaments at The Plaza and some video poker there, JOB at the bar with comped Guinness for Frank. The tournaments are so cheap that I can't believe they will last, but are just there to entice folks to set up cash games on the Poker Pro machines. And right across the casino was a three piece jazz group playing the sort of music I like.

What was very different from our visit years back was that Frank was not interested in playing the horses on the Sigma Derby. I remember when we walked the strip with very little money to gamble, we always stopped at the Stardust for some time with quarters in the Sigma Derby.

I was surprised that Frank had never been to the Bellagio to see the blown glass in the lobby ceiling or a display in the garden area.  He was delighted.

 

Sharing a room with Frank was fine and that was a bit of surprise to me.

I used to advertise that I had rooms and an extra bed and different friends or family might take advantage of those, but these days I sleep so poorly that I did not want to share much room space. But I shared with him and we seemed to do well.

Of course, there was very little sleep. We got perhaps 3-4 hours at most at night and were on the go when normally I might be in for a nap.

Once there was a malfunction in his room key. I was happy to have added his name to the room because it was late at night and he managed to solve it without my getting dressed. He was locked out. Security helped. I was too sleepy, so I don't remember the details.

After he left on the WAX for the plane, I planned to sleep the day away.

That was when the D owned new city block venue for loud obnoxious noise rehearsed and then performed some heavy metal grinding awfulness right behind my room.

So there was no sleep, but I was just too tired to go play poker.

I watched some mindless TV, but the noise was so loud even that was a challenge.

There are no quiet rooms at the Four Queens any longer.

It may change how I arrange my trip more than any changes in comp formulas.

Fortunately, it is not every night, just some selected weekends. However, it is the weekend nights I like to cover at the Four Queens.

Frank lives in Chicago, and he loves beer, but he missed this one.




Guess he will have to come back.

TR SNIPPET RED ROCK CANYON WITH SON FRANK

In exchange for a free bed son Frank rented a car for a fine trip to Red Rock, one I'll remember for a long while.

For my October birthday my old college buddy Robin had sent me this photo from 1998 which I passed on to son Frank.  It shows too old college buddies, Frank and me.

 

 

There were the four of us hiking somewhere in Red Rock in 1998 long before Frank was married and with his little girl, long before we all took various forms of debility. Robin's eyesite is worse. The dark haired old college chum Mike will get two hips replaced this year. And then there is me weighing a good deal less in those days. 

Just a short hike into rocks at Calico, the easiest of paths left me with some right foot blister damage. I am never going to Vegas without my hiking boots again.

But it all is healing.

My feet would let me go back today.

However, this was one of those magical times in life. It came to cheer both of us after a long bout of illness suffered by my youngest son, Frank's brother and all the stress associated with that.

And it was dedicated father/son time with no interruptions from wives, other siblings, children and next to no work responsibilities for Frank.

He relieved my car rental anxieties by getting the full damage waiver rather than patch together personal insurances and credit card promises which may be a mess to recover and never would cover a “loss of value” situation.

We had to check out of the D and into the Four Queens that day, but I managed it quite early by taking whatever room they had available.

It was a bit scruffy. I try for the rooms that end in 26 and are on the corner. This was actually the scruffiest room of my entire trip.

But it freed us up to get going.

I always stay off the highways, but Frank as an everyday Chicago highway driver with his GPS on his phone decided to face the spaghetti bowl.

Well, we made one mistake, spent about ten minutes getting back to where we could start over once again. At least no traffic jams or accidents.

I'm still an advocate of no highway driving and with a GPS separate from my phone and mounted on the dashboard where I can see it. But that's just me.

We spent the morning hiking Calico, brought in a bit a lunch to eat at the large rocks. 


 We took our time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I noticed that I don't hike as well as I once did over irregular rocks. Calico is the easiest of trails and still enough for me.

We stopped at a large cluster of wonderfully colored rocks and most of these photos are from there

The rocks to our left which we would visit when driving out were rather foggy, but by the time we got to that side, the afternoon and almost setting sun hit them just right to bring out their colors. We actually took a bit of a nap in the car, falling asleep to an open window and the look of mountain rock areas.

When we finished the loop, we went back up in the area and into the Visitor Center. We sat on the back picnic table until the sun was just about gone. The park closes at 5 in October. There was no one else there.

Even that was so delightful and such a contrast, juxtaposed to the clinging bells and whistles of slot machines.

Red Rock is the antithesis of Vegas:

Quiet not noisy. Permanent not changing weekly.

We did not get a look at much wildlife. No burros. No snakes. Some lizards and some fine grasshoppers. A few fast birds. And there were some very faint smells of greenery.

On the way home we had a huge moon,

twenty times the size of average. It refused to be photographed well, but shinning across the desert after our day of hiking was peaceful icing on a delightfully sensual day.

Afterward we went to Red Rock Casino for my first visit, and Frank played a bit of JOB. I coached using the simple sheets available in the American Casino Guide. They don't deal with penalty cards, but are pretty good, and easier for me to navigate. When you razor blade your coupons out of the 2015 American Casino Guide, consider razoring out page 52 and folding it into your wallet.

Then we took the American Casino Guide 2 for 1 and went to the buffet. I had heard good things, but my diabetic diet often does not let me take advantage of the rich choices most folks enjoy.

Red Rock turned out to be perfect.

I filled up on roasted vegetables, one of my favorite dishes. There were brussel sprouts and carrots and a mixed section, at least three separate section of roasted veggies.

I have forgotten other tastes, but I know I was pleased.

And then I looked at the desserts.

At home I eat nothing for dessert but fruit. Sugar free does not mean carb free. No sugar added does not mean sugar free.

However, with all the exercise my blood sugar rates had been tolerating one sugar free taste per buffet, just once a day.

Generally, there is only one that appeals to me.

At RedRock the sugarfree section was huge.

I took four.

I still remember them, a cheesecake, a chocolate chip cookie, a plain cookie and this piece of rich chocolate cake.

With these on my plate, I called a fellow from behind the counter and asked,

“Are all these really sugar free?”

“Did you get them from the section that is labeled?”

“Yes.”

“Then, yes, they are all sugar free.”

Well, I ate three of the four. The plain cookie was not very tasty. The chocolate cake was absolutely wonderful. Half way through I told Frank this could not be sugar free, and I supposed it would spike my sugar count.

But it was. Two hours later I tested at 99, a number I can't seem often to hit here at home.

Red Rock Casino is an hour bus ride from Vegas, but I'll bet I get tempted to ride out there next trip just for the chocolate cake even if I don't rent a car and hike the canyon first.

I'm also hoping that Frank sees this as the first of our annual trips to Vegas. He had a fine time too.

 

 

TR SNIPPET-Palace Station

MyVegas is not getting any profit from my buying chips, but perhaps their form or advertising does work. I have not been to Palace Station in many years. I don't think I ever rode a bus there, certainly not the nice, new Sahara Express.

It was adding on some free buffets and a tee shirt that motivated to take a ride up, and Wild Bill decided he would like to see it as well.

We both liked it.

The bus ride was simple, and we came from downtown. I like this Sahara Express. It was spacious, clean, fast and uncrowded. I thought it would be fine with luggage.

Even if this was a stop over after the Orleans or something on Boulder the ride with luggage would be easy enough. The 104 from the Orleans comes to the Sahara not far from the Palace Station. More and more I want to try to move from casino to casino without using the strip buses with luggage.

I liked the ten cent full pay VP. It is in my bankroll even if I am losing when I get to it. Quarter VP in a bad run can really hurt. I lost $100 at the Four Queens this trip just waiting to go out to the bus, just 15 minutes of play.

Nickels are fun, but dimes double the value when winning. I think they are my favorite comfort level.

I suspect since I have been there that the casino has been set closer to the road. It did not seem like so long a walk as I remembered.

I liked the look of it.

I especially liked the poker room. Perhaps I'd get disgruntled playing with so many locals. Sometimes they just outplay me and they have information about opponents that I don't have. But I was comfortable at the 2-4-6 when I played an hour or so and they have my other favorite 2-6 spread limit. It at least would be worth trying.

The food was fine, and regular prices are very low there.

I know there are rooms that are really very, very basic, but generally I am not very fussy.

The Palace Station is the first place I stayed in Vegas on a real trip. My wife and I stopped at the old Continental (now Silver Sevens) for just one night on our way to California twenty years ago, but the Palace Station was my first serious booking with an old college buddy and my oldest son, then in college.

I wanted to encourage Palace Station to stay in the MyVegas program. Because their offers can be redeemed after the 3 redemption quota of the M Life offers, it gives me something to use the chips for.

Also, I am curious if they will give offers or at what point the resort fee is waived. How much play? That is always the question when thinking of changing casinos.

Finally, I have to rethink the Four Queens. The noise there now on all sides, as well as the casino noise where I play the VP is intense.

The MyVegas promotion brought me to Palace Station for the first time in many, many years.

And I brought my buddy, Wild Bill.

We did not have much time to gamble very long, but only time to sample a bit of what we liked, but we were impressed with the casino and both plan to stay there on our next trip.

I liked seeing full pay VP and a really well run poker room with two fine limit games that I like.

I liked it that when I misread the fine print on the buffet voucher, the clerk at the buffet managed to get us the Sunday buffet anyway for just the additional upcharge.

We had already redeemed the voucher, so it was only good for 48 hours. I'd suggest that the Player's Club remind folks that it is not good on Sunday if they are redeeming it for that day.

The MyVegas tee shirt promotion was less than satisfying.

Of the totally free shirts none matched the shirt in the photo on the MyVegas page.

There were none in large or extra large sizes. Apparently the promotion had reduced the stock. We did find just one extra large shirt with the Palace Station logo tucked away in the back.

It was 95 cents more, but at first the clerk wanted to charge $2.40 more. I explained that I did not think I had to pay tax on the free portion of the shirt, and she adjusted it back.

If you continue the shirt promotion, I'd say more coordination with the Gift Shop was in order.

Overall, we had a fine experience. The resort fee along with good mailing offers has always put other inexpensive casinos (Arizona Charlies, The D, The Four Queens) in a better competitive position for my trips, and I play where I stay, but I will take another look at that because I'd like to stay at Palace Station, after visiting. Perhaps you could tell me at what amount of play the resort fee might be waived for video poker play.

Do you ever match mailed offers from other casinos?

Thanks for your time and attention.

LAST TR SNIPPET - Last Day and a bum foot

Well, all the dancing and walking wore out my right foot. Being old is just not fun.

So, I ended the trip is a bit of pain, but at a fine place to have the pain, the Orleans.

I brought with me a wrapping bandage and these garbage cans are just the right size for icing my feet.

The internet actually let me connect to my favorite John Pizzarelli's Radio Deluxe. I figured out how to sidestep whatever ad virus I picked up that wants to dominate every time I go on line. I can't search, but the the address is on my menu, I can keep clicking it until I get it.

Otherwise the bad site comes up and then McCafrey comes in with a warning and I have to start again.

I had to cancel my bus ride to the museum and also any thoughts of swimming or the hot tub. Too bad.

However, debility is better now than at the beginning of the trip.

So, much of my last day was icing the foot and listening to Sinatra. 

 

Response to the new CET policy on resort fees

So Platinum level players at CET are now to be charged resort fees.  There is quite a hubbub on the boards, much talk of loyalty and such.
Here was my comment:

Well, I still think of booking hotels as part of a poker game, with the casinos as my opponent.
Loyalty to institutions whose primary focus is to collect one armed bandits to fleece customers seems ludicrous.
No casino is my friend.
Booking is part of the game as are taking advantage of coupons and sales and anything that gives me an edge.
I just returned from Vegas where 24 nights in various hotels on average cost just $9.25 a night. Five of those were on the strip where I paid only resort fees, 3 with MyVegas points and 2 on a coupon my kid gave me for Planet Hollywood.
I don't gamble on the strip except to play a bit of live poker, and then only sometimes. My kid did not care, did not really understand why he got the coupons to give away. While CET was rearranging their fees to take just a bit more from their "loyal" customers, they also were giving practically everyone who ever breathed in a CET hotel cheap resort fee only rooms. I had an extra one I could not give away. Everyone had them already.
I almost booked twice there, but the pool was to be closed after my first visit.

I did get well absorbed in the 2-6 spread game at MonteCarlo and actually got in enough hours for a freeroll which I quickly lost. Some of those hours were late night with there or four at the table willing to play Pineapple with just a one dollar rake. Man, I love that game.

And the Gold Coast has a heated pool as does the Orleans. I was still swimming outside on November 14th.
A heated pool is a true amenity and well worth the resort fee I did not have to pay.

And while the "free" MyVegas rooms charged a resort fee, there too I found an actual resort amenity. Those lazy rivers, early in the morning, without a tube, were just a wonderful workout. I had them in October pretty much to myself when they first opened. That exercise, along with dancing in lounges, great choices of food at buffets brought my sugar level down to normal and hopefully balanced it so I can continue to not take medication.

Vegas is an inexpensive diabetic health resort.

As long as there are decent VP paytables around Vegas, I'll gamble at those spots. I don't see anyone doing the mathematics seeing the local places as less expensive. One trip to the nearest local casino, New York's Turning Stone costs $40 in gasoline. My entire transportation costs on Vegas buses cost me $32 for unlimited travel, safe when tired or drunk, and with the continuously changing entertainment offered by folks boarding and deboarding.
I am not a fan of the Deuce. But all the other routes are just grand.
I had a losing trip with no big wins this time to bail me out. The entire time, in quarter play I never hit Royal, 4 Aces, Deuces, Treys, Fours. I lost almost $1000.
But where could I go and stay and eat and play cheaper?
My gambling losses are always computed as the difference between what I get in value and what I pay to the casino. I always pay as little as possible for rooms, food, for the poker rake, for shows, for alcohol to cover my losses. So this was still a cheap trip by any measure.

Casinos are coming soon to New York. I can drive to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun and Atlantic City. But I will never get the VP and the bargains in any of those places, let alone the cosmopolitan collection of interesting strangers.
As long as I can manage to play my booking hands and beat each casino into a frugal trip, I'll go to Vegas.
I just have to adjust my strategies as the fleecing game takes on newer and more complicated dimensions and angles.
Sometimes I eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats me.

In poker terms, booking there is a "soft" game and generally I win.
I left Vegas this time knowing that I had seeded plenty of casinos for offers for my next trip.

I added The Plaza to my list this trip. JOB at the bar with comped Guinness and some decent old live jazz as well as the cheapest poker tournaments I've ever seen in my life. Full pay VP all over the place.
Perhaps I'll stay there next trip.

With moderate play the Orleans comps rooms with no resort fees. I had four nights there. Booked on senior day the food is free with miniscule play and the bookings come with $10 free food which (with 80 cents) buys a fine lunch buffet at the Orleans. I pumped quite a few nickels in the triple play chasing $450 progressive royals that refused to be caught, so I expect to still get a couple nights every six months.
With Moderate play the D sends 2 for 1 mailers and does not charge resort fees even on the paid nights. Resort fees there are used to raise the cost of the rooms for nongamblers, but keep the basic rates for moderate gamblers. But I did not hit one progressive at the Vue Bar VP. Not even the quads.
I did overspend there on food because I got addicted to oxtail soup for breakfast.
 Staying there meant half price Scinta tickets.

And the Four Queens still has no resort fee and it is a challenge to actually eat up the new comp dollars. I went in with $40, ate prime rib a few times, paid for one $24 room and still left with over $80 in comp dollars for my next trip.

But I go on the frugal end.
Even with my oxtail soup addiction, I ate for an average of less than $12 a day.

I expected this trip to include some nights at Arizona Charlie's out Boulder. I'd pay for nights at Eastside Cannery just to not have to ride the bus back from dancing at Claudine Castro's Latin Lounge Act at 1 AM.
Neither of those spots have resort fees.
If I still wanted to stay near the strip I'd book at Super 8 at Koval. No resort fee and a heated pool, lots of coffee, free wifi, free airport shuttle.

However, I have no argument with all the folks who posted here of loyalty, the "it's only money" folks who just line up happily to be fleeced by their friendly casino.
As old board poster Gherig, years back on the old Cabby board, used to point out.
"Someone has to pay the light bills."

Hiking Red Rock in 1998

 

 

 

Mike, Frank, Dewey Robin

 

Mike and Robin are old college buddies.

Frank is my oldest son.

Plaza host reports upgrading of VP

Check out the announcement on this thread:

http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?112057-Hello-everyone

More taken in fees

Boyd Casinos are up to $14.55 now: Orleans, Gold Coast, Sam's Town, Suncoast.

Delano opened with an unusual one.  It costs $20 a night to park. 

Don't play for comps?? Nonsense

Advice to low rollers is never to play for comps.  I don't get it. 

I'm a low roller.
I only play when there are comps, ie, some added value to the play. Jean Scott outlined that approach in her books and the principle applies, now although the free stuff is less available.
To play a negative game with not comps seems really counterproductive.  Comps put a negative game into the positive.

My strategy is:

* Never play on the strip. Look for casinos where when you play low rolling, you get something.
*This can be done in very simple ways. The American Casino Guide will have plenty of places where you can earn 200 points and get a free buffet. Play just 200 points and move on.
*Choose hotels that give you comfort and cleanliness but not luxury and pizzazz. I treat myself by not choosing the cheapest El Cortez rooms, but when I started, I'd stay in those as well.
* Downtown offers lots of benefits. Main Street Station has full pay VP JOB at the Boars Head Bar. I go with $20 because right away I'll get a nice microbrew for free (I like the Black chip porter) I'll play and sip. I have perhaps two beers and then I set a quitting time because I've gotten my comps. I never put in more than $40 and if I break even, I quit. Or if after my second beer I'm down $20, I might play to broke or to $30. Setting a quitting goal after the comps have been earned is important for a low roller strategy.
* Seeding the Four Queens with play may get you some future offers. Also, seeding the D. Both are cheap places to stay and booking them back to back gives you easy check in and check out over a longer period. When I am really low rolling I put all my bankroll for the trip into Four Queens play because they will cover my weekends. Playing on one trip to prepare for low rolling the next is key. Avoid playing a quick $20 on impulse somewhere where you get no comps. Save the $20 and gamble it with the other $20's from other days at a place where seeding for future offers pays off. Not Bellagio. Four Queens, D, perhaps other downtown joints.
*Overlapping months helps because comps are often during calendar months.
* Air fare adds to your expenses. I go free on a SW charge card and stay for 20-25 nights to get full value from that credit card comp. Generally, I can work it so I pay under $15 a night for my rooms. Overlaping October and November will get you a shot at two comps at the same place. Orleans for example ends one two night mailing in October and begins another in November. I often get 4 free nights. The D offers up to 4 nights 2 for 1 but only together in one calendar month.
* Free shows, Groupon shows, Living Social shows. There is currently a Living Social for $11 for the Nat Burton Comedy. Sam's Town at 1 on Thursday offers a free review with some great acts that change every week. The lounge acts at Eastside Cannery can be seen for a cheap homebrew beer or two ($1.50 each) nursed during the sets.
Combine that with a free buffet earned by playing a free game on the Eastside Website.
*My Vegas is the low roller dream. You play some free games at home and earn chips to buy cheap rooms (just pay resort fee) on the strip and cheap food and free show tickets. I went with my wife and in three days we used $700 in value, all free. Some were 2 for 1.
* True low rollers ride buses. Study the routes and how to buy a cheap all access 15 day pass. Then study the free shuttles. The bus and shuttles can be ridden for less than the tips you give the cabby and half the price you pay for rental car gas.
http://vegasonthebus.blogspot.com/
* Study this part of the board board. Look for hints in the trip reports. Plan the trip with flexibility. Do all the free things.
* Look for low roller places: Skyline out Boulder, Jokers Wild for Craps, other deals at Boulder that come and go. Westin has a happy hour that won't give comps but 25 cent roulette is a comp of gaming pleasure in itself.
* Learning games with low house advantage, or no house advantage will help. VP is one good gamble if you study, learn strategy, watch pay tables, and play for the math not just to be lucky. Live poker is another if you take time and be patient and toss 80 percent of the hands. Low limit 2-4 is the low roller game. But played at CET it is too expensive to beat with huge rakes for the house and for the bad beat that is just a dream. Play from 2 am until 2 pm at the Golden Nugget. The bonus high hands are progressive there and double during those hours by the house. So 4 jacks got me $600 last trip. Play for 4 hours and you have most of the breakfast buffet paid for with a $10 comp. Use an American Casino guide coupon and it will give you $10 in chips free when you buy in. Play the $28 tournament at Sam's Town in the morning. A couple hours of poker cheap. The low roller game used to be the El Cortez but sadly those days are gone and Jackie, the pot splasher gone as well.
*Go with another gambler and share rooms and 2 for 1 food coupons.