porte-cochère

Here is a new Vegas word to learn:

porte-cochère
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porte-coch%C3%A8re


Many of the Vegas hotels have them.

Orleans boilerplate information

My favorite at Al's Oyster House is the oyster chowder.  It is not on the menu, but they will make it for you if you ask.


I am a very poor judge of rooms, because I am too easily pleased, but I always think of the Orleans as having the best standard rooms in Vegas.


It was once the gem of many discussion boards.  Then the gambling declined.  In particular they took what was their signature VP, full pay 10/7 DB out of everywhere and replaced it with 9/6DB.  That seemed crazy because 9/6DDB was everywhere.  I think they now have 9/7DB is some places scattered around the casino.  The only other full pay game that I know of is 8/5 Bonus and that is not such a great game, even if that pay table is considered  full pay.  


That said, I like the 9/7 DB nickle progressives. I think there are two banks of them and sometimes it is hard to get a seat as they are favorites with the locals.  Sometimes the progressives (three of them all different) can be high enough to make this a very attractive game.  And for only 75 cents a pull we get three lines to play.  So I find them fun.  the bank I play is located near the buffet and to the right of Brendan's and the bathrooms.
I also found last time a quarter 9/7 progressive and I played it for a while, but it was not in an advantage place as the progressive was low.  
There is no JOB 9/6.  You can find that at the sister casino Gold Coast and earn points there that can be used at the Orleans.
I don't play deuces but this was noted:

They have a couple of NSUDs (99.73% payout). Though they removed the ones in front of the buffet. (Heard there are some 3-play ones still there, not sure).
So the nsuds left should be found somewhere all back where the pokerroom is and there very far to the back. And you can find them near the bingo.

I have enjoyed their shows.  Often you will have a two for one.  Last time Wild Bill and I went to use a 2 for 1 for $55 seats and we were just given free tickets to $65 seats and told, "this is your lucky day."  That makes me think that if you went a little late to the ticket box and asked if there were any good deals on seats, they might have a freebie.


The used dice and the used playing cards are good deals in the gift shop.  Unlike most other cards they are clipped at the corners but not black marked so they are good for poker.  They are white backed.  there are sometimes great deals in this giftshop.




Their all-day deal on food is a good deal($24 on everyday except Friday when it is $27) especially when breakfast is expensive.  It is not 24 hours, but you get a wrist band and can use until 9PM and it will let you skip lines and enter at the VIP side.  I like the buffet there.  If you have the experience of feeling you feel encouraged to eat too much at a buffet because you are there and then you are gone,  but like the selection, this is a great deal.  I play poker or VP and just skip out for a half hour of  fruit and coffee, and back to the game as often as I like.


The poker games are fun, but not the softest.  2/4 is not very difficult and can be soft.  4/8 attracts good players who know one another and may be hard to beat.  No limit is not for me there.  The max buy ins seem too steep to me.  But they have Omaha and many people like this venue.  They do comp and you can earn your oyster stew there.  I have.


Orleans  has an Irish pub, Bendan's with some Irish music at times announced , but there is also an Irish bar right behind called the orleans and across the street called McMullen's
[URL="http://www.mcmullansirishpub.com/"]http://www.mcmullansirishpub.com/[/URL] 
that has great homemade potato chips with dips, good food in general, and a fine ambiance.  Sometimes Restaurant.com has coupons. Smithwick's is on tap.  And as you can tell they have some fun events although when I have been there it was never noisy.


You can bowl at the Orleans.  You can do "dance, dance, revolution" there.


The jacuzzi is not just a little outside hole in the cement, it is really pretty with rocks in the center and plenty of room. Reminds me of the Flamingo jacuzzi.


When the coffee place near the check-in was Seattles, there was free wifi there and in the morning it was never crowded, and you did not even have to buy coffee if you did not want to.  Now it has a different name, but I expect there is still free wifi.  High seats along a counter looking toward the casino offered a pleasant place to do a bit of email and catch up. 


The fitness center had nice machines and was pleasant.
There is a spa, with a $15 daily fee.  I have used it years ago and liked it.  It was free then.


Nightly music in the lounge is usually good for dancing.  As I remember, not on Monday.  Usually it is uncrowded.
I like parking in a small outside lot that is just to the right of the hotel entrance (beyond a cement divide) and I just park there to check in if I have a car.
Without a car the free shuttle takes you to Bill's on the strip or to the Gold Coast. 
But just across the street the Tropicana city bus takes you in uncrowded comfort to the strip at Tropicana casino or will take you all the way to the Pinball Hall of Fame if you like.  For me, that means great location. 

If you find yourself too late for the last free shuttle, getting the bus in front of NYNY right in front of the porte-cochère is an easy way back, or getting a cab in the NYNY circle is cheap and convenient.  The cabby  just pulls  from the NYNY circle under the porte-cochère out on Tropicana and in less than $10 he is at the Orleans.
I find some interesting inexpensive shows in that Tropicana/strip area.   On the South side of Planet Hollywood is a little theater.  I saw [URL="http://www.yelp.com/biz/hypnosis-gone-wild-las-vegas"]Hypnosis Gone Wild[/URL] there and loved it.  By checking all the coupon free magazines you can find $10 off.  I saw a comic in that same little theater and that was fun.
I think this little theater might change its name because I don't remember it as being Empire Theater.  


Anyway, I like the easy bus access.


Also, from Excalibur there is a free tram to Mandalay Bay with a stop at Luxor.  So a room at the Orleans gives very good access to most of the strip.
http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/referenceguide-transportation.cfm?type=Free%20Shuttles


Don't walk from the strip to the Orleans.  Working women you do not want to know walk there.  Sometimes they meet at Denny's for an early breakfast half way between the Orleans and the strip, so skip the graveyard special there as well.  Wild, Wild West is not a local's place you want to explore unless you are training for a night at the Western downtown.
But the walk across the street from the bus stop feels comfortable to me.  Walking across the street to McMullen's seems easy even after dark.


Senior days have been on Tuesday.  5X points on VP and 7X points on slots until 4PM, cheap movies, half priced buffet deals and a few cash drawings.  I like that day.  I hope it won't go away before May when I go, but did not see it in Vegas Values this week.  The last time I called it was still a working promo.
American Casino Guide has enough coupons for Orleans and Gold Coast to pay for the book.  However, one person gets a coupon deal once in a year.  No use having two books unless you have two people.


Down Arville (a road parallel with the strip, but where the Orleans is) there is an easy laundromat. CalleWizard of Suds http://www.dexknows.com/business_profiles/wizard_of_suds-b40822 It is safe to walk there in daylight, but it is a half hour walk.  It generally is uncrowded and you don't need to bring anything but clothes.  You can buy the rest.


Okay, that is all I know.

Thebeat coffee house.

Here are some very informative reviews about one of the most exciting new places around the El cortez.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-beat-coffeehouse-las-vegas#query:emergency%20arts

Me and Rocoe at Main Street Station

 I caught a Vegas board thread moaning that Main Street Station had raised the price of its microbrews from $1.50 to $1.75.  Of course, we can still get my favorite Black Chip Porter at the Boars Head bar playing video poker.

Here was my thread response:

Yeah, a hell of a thing to raise the price of that beer.
Why should we go to Vegas and pay $1.75, when for just $4.50 we can have a similar porter right down the street??

And consider the tip.
If the beer costs $1.75, and we tip a buck, well...then we are tipping 57%

But if we tip a buck for our local beer, then we are tipping pretty close to the conventional 20%.

Read a few of the tipping sites. No one recommends tipping 57%. It's outrageous! Tipping in Vegas has gone way out of all sense. How can the same tip on the same beer be 37% higher??
They raise the price of the beer and then they want a 57% tip.
How does that make sense? How is it fair?


And if you want one of those "free" beers that MSS Boars Head folks are always raving about, why you gotta play one of those complicated video games.
So you gotta do work, and you might lose money doing it. You might win a thousand dollars, but you might lose twenty.

And they still expect you to tip!!

So I was at the Boar's Head one night with my pal Rosco and I get the free black chip porter and start doing the work of the video game and Rosco says, "Don't forget to tip, Dew."

"Well," I says to Rosco, " the beer is free, right?"

"Yeah, but you gotta tip."

"Okay, " I says, " You know that I never have any problem with tipping, and I always tip 20%."
"Fine," Roscoe says. "So tip already"

"Well, no, it ain't fine at all," I answer." If the beer is free, what is 20% of zero?"
I had old Roscoe stumped there, so he gets out his calculator and starts to try to figure this out and he keeps mutterin' and sayin'
"Damnit, that can't be right 'cause it says it is nothing." And sayin' a few other things that I won't report.

Now right there you can see that Vegas beer is just a lot of trouble. Either the tipping is through the roof at 57%, or it ends up with two of you doing mathematics while the beer gets warm. Why poor old Roscoe never did have a chance to tell a story or go into a political rant because he was too busy with the calculator.

So, I figure, it is a lot better to just go down to the local pub and pay $4.50 for a pint of porter. That way I can tip the correct 20% without all that mathematical work.
And tipping there saves me 37%. That has to add up over time.
And if I have too many.....well.... at the Boars Head I am a drunk trying to do mathematics and remember advantage play. At the local pub I can actually fall asleep, wake up in an hour and not have missed anything. In fact, I can wake up in the middle of one of Roscoe's stories or political rants and know exactly how to finish it, because I've heard the same damn thing sixty or seventy times from the same guy, so I know it by heart.
Hey, try to do that at the Boars Head in Vegas!!!

Downtown

I think the key to the Four Queens is staying in the South Tower and asking for a room away from the Freemont Experience noise.
I have been comfortable doing that, but I can't speak for the rooms on the North Tower.
The Binions pool is not fancy, but it was fine when I was last there. It is really not much different to walk a short distance across the street, as it is to take long trips to find the pool in larger hotels. If you like helicopters there is one time of day when they fill the sky, sunset.
A half priced ticket place is located right there in the Four Queens, so if you get bored see what is cheap that day.
The RatPack show at the Plaza is good.
http://www.plazahotelcasino.com/ente...t/rat_pack.php
Live poker at the Golden Nugget will get you ten dollars off the buffet for four hours of play, and you can enter in the VIP section and avoid the buffet line.
I think they are still having morning tournaments.

Playing late at night, just ask for the voucher to be dated the next day.
There is a coupon in the American Casino Guide that will get you ten dollars extra on your buy in. Also, unlike the strip casino coupons, downtown coupons in this guide will support a nice matchplay run with freeplay at the El Cortez. Downtown easily makes the book pay for itself.
Main Street Station has guides to its antiques. Ask at the desk. A good daytime activity.
While you are there, running $1000 or so dollars through any of the full pay video poker can get you a free buffet with no reduction in points. Just ask at the Player's club. This is a good buffet.

Sam's Town at Boulder offer a free shuttle from California out to Sam's Town on the Boulder Strip.
http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/refer...p=SamsTown.jpg
You can get a 2 for 1 buffet there as well.

The new SDX bus just steps away makes it easy to escape and play other places during the dull daytime hours. Avoid the Deuce as it is reported overcrowded and slower than ever.

If you bring a computer, free wifi can be had not far away at Krispy Kreme and you can sit outside. But bring a mouse pad or something to use as one as the tables have a metal grid.
Another source is a new unique coffee house called TheBeat which is on Freemont just shy of the El Cortez. Wifi with the sound of old vinyl records. Or just coffee with that sound and maybe breakfast or a sandwich.

Here is a pretty upbeat view of downtown that might give you some ideas
http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/trave...5875-22953852/

Not certain when this opens, but keep an eye peeled for another non gambling diversion up near the El Cortez

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011...eo-games-bar-/

__________________

Thinking ahead to May/cosmopolitan buffet

Well, I just booked my first two free nights in May at Harrah's in Vegas.  Seems a bit odd to be booking now, but I got the offer and I took it.  I think it will be a great place to start my next trip.  Very comfortable.  And I am amazed that for the little play I gave  the generic Harrah's(now  Caesar's) last trip that I still get a free come on offer.

I will want to take a walk through the Cosmopolitan and perhaps try the buffet.  Here is a good thread.

http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60366

These little serving dishes will be perfect for Elizabeth's complaint that the food is always cold at a buffet.

American Casino Guide article

Monday, December 6, 2010

Article signing

Well, it was a bit cheeky of me to turn one published article into a book signing at the local bookstore, but it was a lot of fun just the same.  I asked my friends to come just so I would not look too pathetic and they did so it was a bit of a party.  I did well with what was ordered and sold three of the John Blowers signed leftovers as well.
Lots of good Vegas coupons left the store.

Here is how it looked:
(clicking on photos will make them larger)

With granson Casey and his mom Jen

l to r:  Jerry, Gail, Kathy, Charlie, me

Meliss and her daughter

Casey brought along his favorite toys

Don and Bonnie

VEGAS TRIP REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 2011

An Overview


I suppose I will have a good bit more to say about my 17 day November trip to Vegas than is posted in the following 19 separate blog posts, but I have already delayed reporting the trip too long due to illness. I divided my trip into these 20 topics so readers could easily skim for information by looking at topic headings, and l could also post a link in board discussions.

This was a very unusual trip in that it was not solo. I had hardly any time to myself and what I did have came at the end of the trip at the same time that a hard cold came too.

The cold stayed with me for a few weeks and was very unpleasant. That an another illness add on is why it takes me so long to post these observations. I have been spending most of my time in the house sleeping with little energy for writing.

I started this trip with my poker buddy Wild Bill who is similarly frugal, a coupon saver, a "twofer" as I heard we are sometimes derogatively called by casino staff. We gambled and saw a couple inexpensive shows.

Then my wife came and we met her brother and his wife and the entire flavor of the trip changed. It is hard to convince my wife to come along, but with five free nights at Harrah's and a promise to focus on shows and visiting the area, I managed to show her a good time.

For me the week she was here helped me downscale my own gambling and just enjoy Vegas a bit. My last trip I seemed driven to play poker every breathing minute, and perhaps I played badly. I knew if I could take my time, relax, gamble in spurts I would do better. My goal was to use up my free room comps with no compunction to gamble to get them again and so manage to make the sum total of both trips reduce my overall losses.

I cut down to only low limit poker and walked away from games that seemed too tough. I like no limit here at home or in Florida, but then I am gambling for a day and have the bankroll to play. I don't have the bankroll to play no limit for 17 days, so I end up playing with scared money.

Also, staying in the Harrah's rooms where the high rake is a discouragement to many of the local regularly has given me table primarily filled with an assortment of tourists.  I can beat them but not by much. Still a fair assessment of my play suggests that I might have a median gain of about $25 a session with any high hand bonus awards on top of that.  This won't pay for my trip, but it will restrict major losses and generate a good portion of food and room comps if I concentrate on Harrah's casinos.

I used an old money management scheme.

$20 in.  Lose it, Walk away.

Win and set two limits, one win limit and one loss limit.  

Say I win and am at $50.  Decide to quit at $30 or at $70.

Now suppose I win on a quad so I jump to say, $90.  Now I might say walk away at $80 or at $100.

This does not improve my odds, but it does restrict the volatility and so restricts the losses.

No more popping in $100 and pushing it.

I have played less video poker and probably not generate those free rooms on Weekends at Coast, but I won't have an experience like last trip when the trip itself cost as much as going where hotel room rates are $100 a night.

I guess I did right. I ended up $470 ahead. Still it is hard to know because I did not really lose many sessions. At the nickle 9/7 progressive triple play at the Orleans, I say down and was dealt four 5's and so had a great bit of money to play with. Elizabeth played as well that night. I ended hitting first four aces and then the royal.

Waiting for food at Ellis Island I my limit was two 20 dollar bills. When they called me for the table I had one hand left to play to deplete the money. I hit four 8's for enough to play a bit after eating and quit when I broke even.

My poker playing improved, so that I left very few sessions with losses. I concentrated on matchplays, free plays, short sessions, and put solid stopping places into the video poker, win or lose.

I spent more in shows and food, but I got good value for most of that.

Overall I am delighted to have refocused a bit and not let the gambling overwhelm all the other possibilities of Vegas.

At the end of my last trip I wondered if I ought to just give it up. Now I look forward to going again in the Spring.
Okay, skim ahead and read and comments are welcome, but if you come from a link I posted on a  discussion board, then probably the richest place to comment is there.

TR snippet: Orleans jacuzzi

I was determined this trip to shift my focus from gambling to indulging the simple pleasures of travel and especially to enjoy more of the amenities included in each hotel.

This visit to the Orleans, although it was in cooler Autumn weather, I decided to use the pool area.

I found the large jacuzzi very pleasant with moderately heated water and plenty of space. I could store my Kindle and shirt wear I could easily see them while to enjoyed the massagin bubbles and the fine back scratches of protruding rocks that form the center of the Jacuzzi.

I think that having my back scratched is second only to sex as pleasure inducing and these rocks performed that task as did some of the textured parts of the pool on the bottom of my feet.

Outside of Taos, Elizabeth and I paid a good bit of money to soak in pools with similar textures. The water was of various minerals, including arsenic which surprised me. Other than that this pool did all of the things that the Taos pool did and for no extra money.

While soaking I took a good look at all the green around me. When I was a boy, my family never traveled out of the Northeast, so when I went to Air Force basic training at Lackland in Texas, I was fascinated to see my first palm tree. We would stand at attention, drill marches, get lectured, and all around us were these wonderful new trees. I could see them, but I could not walk over and touch them until my first day of liberty, a couple weeks into basic training.

And that is the first thing I did on liberty. I took some time to touch and explore these great trees.

Here in the pool at the Orleans there were no lectures or drilling or any of the constraints of basic training. While I would not mind putting up with all that again if I could also be the age I was, it is some comfort in old age to know that I am free to look and touch and enjoy the pleasure of the water, sun, and greenery ??

In the trees were those blackbirds so common here in the West. And I watched and listened to them as well.

These birds are another example of common pleasures that are so easy to ignore.

On the strip yesterday I saw the parrots at Margaritaville and they were fun to see. But these plain black birds had songs and squawkes and those parrots were silent.

What a variety of sounds these birds make. I sat drying in the sun and one perched right over my head and talked to me. I answered with just a bit of a simple sound I heard him make and he answered with so many different sounds that I laughed with delight.

It was fine for me to finally not be so drawn into the gambling that I missed indulging these fine pleasures.

Also most pleasing was my Kindle. I had packed the last morning and my reading glasses were no where to be found, so I just upped the letter size on the Kindle and read easily without difficulty.

I used it to when I arrived before the pool opened. Just in the doors on the way to the Fitness Center there are some fine, large cushioned chairs and I waited there reading the Kindle. On the the attendants asked if I would like a juice and offered me four kinds. I am going to remember that place. That tomato juice and the free poker doughnut I had earlier was my free breakfast at the Orleans.

Since the swimming area does not open until 10 am, I was worried that I might miss my checkout time, but they easily extended my checkout until one PM. This helped me relax and enjoy the pool and meant that by the time I made the walk to Flamingo Avenue and caught a bus to the Super 8, it would be time there to check in. 

TR snippet: Bill and Me

Bill is a great gambling companion.  He likes the same things I do, a lot of live poker and a lot of coupons and 2 for 1 deals.  We had a good week together.  And any walking we did was eased by long and loud discussions of everything from poker to politics.
We had a fine time playing the free bingo at Ellis most weekday mornings.  We won nothing.  We did a side bet for breakfast and ended even.
Since he was there I also saw some shows on the 2 for 1 coupons.
I liked them very much.
At the Orleans was a mentalist, really like spiritualist who talked to the dead.  Bill did not like that much so it was fine that instead of the 2 for 1 $55 price we were going to pay, they gave us free tickets.
Bill did some sports betting, but he will have to tell you about that.
Generally, we played at the same poker table, but rarely against one another.
There was one time at the Flamingo when I was last to act and I bet just to steal the pot.  Bill knows me so when it comes around to him, he raises also with nothing and steals it from me.
"I hate playing with you," I tell him.
Other than that we mostly stayed out of each other's way.  That was pretty funny, however.

TR snippet: One Poker Tournament

I was only in one poker tournament in Vegas.  I don't like them because I don't much like playing the end game, when I get tired and have to use the bathroom and the blinds are ridiculous.  But this one was free so why not?  It turns out that the Flamingo freerolls are populated for the most part by Vegas locals and the custom is that when the tournament gets down to 20 players, they agree to split the $2000 and each walk away with $100.  So I liked that tournament.
I was lucky and stayed for the $100 after some exciting  no limit play on no investment other than four hours of play the night before.

TR snippet: The most memorable poker hands

I held two jacks at the Imperial Palace and two more came on the flop.  I slow played correctly and found the table betting in to me on the turn and pot built up very nicely.  On the river only two of us were left.  I bet and my opponent raised and I reraised.  He called.  Perhaps he did not really understand what he held.  He held the 8-10 of diamonds which made the nut straight flush.  I was in a true badbeat.
I lost the pot, got $50 for my four of a kind, but the real tough piece of randomness to gnaw on was that this was the hand of the lifetime.  Had I been in the same situation on my last trip to Foxwoods where they have a huge bad beat award, my lost hand would have won for me $200,000.

I got a little drunk on cognac at the 2-4 at the Flamingo.  When I get drunk, I usually win.  I wish I knew why.  I can't get drunk very often, so I can't win every time.  It may be that I play tighter.  It may be that the table plays me much looser.  Anyway, I started drinking when I was $100 down and won that and $25 more before I ended.  I also hit a nice straight flush on the river and that paid a bonus of $100 from the house.

I had my kings cracked at Imperial Palace where some hours of the day they pay $50 for that and I got it.

All in all I had the same kinds of hands I always have, but I think I played much better.

In the video poker I got very lucky.  I even hit a royal on progressive nickle machine at the Orleans.

TR snippet: Super 8 hotel

Someone asked about parking at the Super 8, but I can't locate the thread, so I'll note it here along with all that I know.

ADVANTAGES

*COLD WATER FOUNTAIN ON THE WAY TO THE POOL IS A NICE FILL UP FOR WATER BOTTLES
* PARKING EXTENDS AROUND THE BUILDING AND THERE DOES NOT SEEM TO BE ANY TROUBLE FINDING A SPOT
* TELEVISION INCLUDES HBO STATION AND TCM SO IT IS POSSIBLE TO RELAX COMMERCIAL FREE EVEN WITH THE ROCO LEFT HOME
* FREE WIFI
* GENERALLY UNCROWDED BUT SMALL LAUNDRY ROOM. BRING QUARTERS AND A BOX OF SOAP. TWO WASHERS AND TWO DRYERS. I COULD NOT GET THE TOP BUTTON ON THE TOP DRYER TO WORK AND SO CHOSE PERMANENT PRESS. I took the hangers from my room and used them to immediately hang my shirts. I waited for the cycles and went on line using my laptop. It is located on the second floor. Ask the desk clerk before you walk around with laundry as it requires some navigation.
*FREE SHUTTLE TO AND FROM THE AIRPORT WORKED WELL FOR MY BUDDY WILD BILL
*VERY ACCOMODATING STAFF. I miss booked and did not confirm correctly either. I was scheduled to leave a day earlier than I thought. Luckily Bill was overbooked a day so they moved his day to me. When doing these sophisticated deals get the manager. One staff always knows the difficult answers. The other knows only routine. All were very pleasant
* COFFEE MACHINE IN ROOM BUT ALSO IN LOBBY. I like the vanilla choice of coffee with an extra expresso shot tossed in on top. Bringing a covered cup will let you get two coffees and an expresso at one time.
* POOL WITH SMALL JACUZZI ONLY IS CLOSED FOR CLEANING ABOUT 5 AM OR SO. Otherwise it is open 24 hours and heated in the cooler months. I like a daily swim about 6 am so this was perfect. Never crowded. Usually deserted.
* LOCATION TO ELLIS ISLAND A FINE FRUGAL ADVANTAGE- Each weekday at 9 Bill and I played free bingo for small prizes but a shot at a 1000. We had to bring a marker. There is no sharing of markers allowed. Nice free start to the day. The food at Ellis Island is cheap and good. 
Bill and I made a side bet on the bingo and the loser bought breakfast.  We tied. 
Sometimes Ellis required a wait.  We waited 20 minutes even for breakfast on Sunday. Played some 9/6JOB. Ellis proved a fine spot for the meetup. We went in the inside bar and just carried our drinks on American Casino Guidecoupons back to where we sat. It was not crowded at 2pm weekdays but was even less crowded at 1pm. Received no hassle on playing matchplays. I never went to supper, but I could have gone, put my name on the list when the line was an hour, come back in twenty minutes to check.
*EASY AND QUICK ROOMS ACCESS- My misbooking also meant keys that did not work. It was three minutes to go back to the desk. There is an elevator, but there are only two floors of stairs, so I generally took those. No long wandering down a maise of hallways.
*ASK AT THE DESK FOR MORE TOWELS OR PILLOWS. The maid said she could not provide them directly from the cart.
* LARGE SCREEN TELEVISION IN MAIN LOUNGE - Waiting for Wild Bill was easy as I could sit in a very comfortable chair or couch and watch a bit of the news in the lobby with my free coffee.
* DESK CLERKS KNEW THE BUS ROUTES - They get plenty of bus folks there and are used to answering questions on buses. 
*WALK LATE AT NIGHT DID NOT SEEM DANGEROUS- Because theFlamingo bus has increased the time between buses we usually walked back from our poker on the strip. There are some homeless some times but none seemed the least aggressive. 
*BUYING ROOM DRINKS AND SNACKS WAS EASY- 7 eleven was just next to the casino and we grabbed some things there. My wife came the last day with a car and bought some things for the Harrah's room by driving past Terribles and going to the drugstore on the left.
*$2 senior 24 hour pass bought on the Flamingo bus is good on the Ace/Goldline/ Downtown Express or on the Deuce. This is a $5 pass if you are not a senior. Upcharges have been dropped. Now that might change any day. All bus information here is not expected to be correct for long.
*ROOMS ARE SMALL- We stayed with one queen bed. Two bed rooms can be had for a bit more money.  I like the cozy feel of a small room when it is just me.  My wife came for one night and we did fine there.  Bathrooms are small, but the sink area is outside the bathroom area. A round table was great for the computer. Another desk area and chair are in the room as well. Only two drawers and about a dozen hangers for clothes.
* 3045 is my favorite room. Bill liked 3049. I suggest you do stay where access to the lobby is very quick.

TR snippet: The other hotel rooms

HARRAH's

Very nice.  A real step up from the Flamingo.  Thanks to information from the discussion boards, I chose a quiet room in the Mardigras Tower.  Better rooms could be had but they wanted money for those.  The check in people were very nice and talked to us about the room choices.  Elizabeth was pleased.

ORLEANS

I always like the room here.  They were such fine treats for free weekend nights.  They are very clean and very comfortable.  After on weekend I went to the Super 8, so I just walked down Arville for 20 minutes of good exercise and caught the Flamingo bus for a dollar.  Going downtown was much more complicated.  Three buses.  But I do like spending my last couple nights at the El Cortez.  However, next trip I many just extend at the Super 8 or Orleans.

EL CORTEZ
I tired of the Pavillion rooms last trip and this time I went to the Vintage Rooms which I liked just fine until someone turned a television on in the middle of the night and woke me up.  The walls are old fashioned and too thin.

In general, I saw again that I am just not good anymore at dragging 17 days worth of clothing too far.  I liked staying a long while at the Super 8 and then again at Harrah's and I think I will try to extend my stay even if it costs me a bit of money.  I am just getting too old for hotel hopping to save a few bucks.

TR snippet: Vegasmessageboard Meetup

Some folks from the Vegasmessage board decided to meetup while I was staying at the Super Eight near Ellis Island, and so we arranged the meetup at Ellis Island.

It was frugal. We brought our American Casino Guide coupons, got free drinks at the main bar, and then carried them into the enclosed bar area and had a fine table to sit around and put names and stories to faces.

I took down plenty of information so as not to be stuck for names, but then I lost that sheet.  So my deep apologies to anyone I confuse in the photo, misname, miss.  Fill me in if you can.

Left to right:  Boomer's wife Sue and Boomer from Depew NY, Pebbles (Elaine) from North West of England. Nearer to Scotland than London, Jimbucc (Jim and Kathy), NannyD (Diane),  Magicfish from Vegas, Sarah9Nascar, and me.

It was a fine visit, lasting a couple hours, and we talked about our experiences. The oddest thing was meeting Boomer and wife from near Buffalo who knew where my old neighborhood was and knew people who lived there when I was growing up.
It was also cool that otherwise we came from very different parts of the world.  That is one thing I love about Vegas.  Also, our Vegas experiences were very different.  Pebbles was staying for a couple months, others were there just for a few days, Magicfish was there for life.  The perspectives and stories were quite varied and interesting and yet we all had this community in common.

Thanks for coming all who could manage the time. Sorry to be so long in posting and so dysfunctional.

TR snippet: FOOD THIS TRIP; ELEGANT AND FRUGAL

Food over the 17 days of this Vegas trip was all over the map, from my usual frugal and free eats approach to enjoying meals of decadently affluent indulgence.

My wife and her brother decided for a rare celebration over two nights. Elizabeth bought a meal at Morel's Steakhouse at Palazzo http://www.palazzolasvegas.com/morels.aspx and Jim bought an incredible tasting journey at

http://www.bellagio.com/restaurants/le-cirque.aspx in Bellagio. 

 Fortunately, I had packed my nice pants and black dress shirt.

I thought Morel's tasty but unremarkable. However, I just was not in the mood for a steak, having had the Ellis Island special for brunch that morning, and perhaps the sea bass did not fully reveal their art. It was good, just not incredible. I cook my own fish often and the topping sauce did not seem any better than my own inventions. I tasted Elizabeth's steak and found that fine, but nothing to ebulliently praise.

The Circo experience was, however, simply incredible! It was featured as a taste journey and so it was with multiple courses and choices. Jim and Anne added a wine journey with their meal. I declined that, but it was entertaining when for each course a new wine was introduced to the table and explained in detail. I did lightly taste a few of their wines and none of them really caught my taste. Perhaps I was just put off because the night before a few glasses of an excellent red from the Palazzo wine and cheese tasting room(that came with Jim and Anne's suite) had prompted a migraine.

I don't know anything about wine, really. I like red. In my younger days I loved a Monte Real

http://www.thewinedoctor.com/weekend/riojanasmonterealgranreserva78.shtml

but I could buy it for 75 cents at the Air Force Base at Torrejon.

Lately, I look for wine from this region of Spain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribera_del_Duero

However, usually I am content with some inexpensive bottle and perhaps now the migranes will put me off red wine completely.

I like sangria, much to the disgust of my old Spanish friend who thinks of it as an unforgivable corruption of wine predicated certainly by the American addiction to ice in everything.

It is a cultivated taste. I was happy not to have added the expense of the wine journey to the bill.

The food, however, was incredible! I liked everything and just when we thought we were done, out came four different and huge deserts, all rich and wonderful.

The rest of my time in Vegas was less elegant and more to my usual habits. However, because I went with my poker playing buddy Bill and then with wife Elizabeth, I did eat much more and more often than I do solo when most days I only eat what is free and seldomly treat myself.

I gained weight for the first time in many trips, and it has taken me a week or so in sickbed, eating very little more than a bit of soup or tea, to drop those pounds again to my usual overweight rating.

Because Elizabeth was still ill in Vegas and recovering strength slowly, we did not wander far to eat. She is not one much for coupons or going out just to find a place to eat. She does not like buffets either, although she like the breakfast at the Orleans.

We had a bowl of soup at Ming's in Harrah's and it was okay, but not much for the price. I took her and here brother and his wife to breakfast at Hash-A -Go-Go using my $25 coupon from the dineLV.com Human Nature ticket deal.

I was disappointed.

What is on the menu as hash was not hash, but really a medley of bitesized bits of potato and green pepper and such and tasted fine, but is not different from what I often cook for breakfast myself.

Nothing was ground into a true hash.

On top of that the music was just too loud and too abrasive. The waitress told us that the music is what attracts customers.

Four of us were really unable to talk over breakfast.

Hmmmm. I guess I am getting old. I'll explore this idea a bit more in the following post.

We ate a build-our-own hamburger at KGB and that was delicious, but there again the same music issues arose. I'd like that restaurant with some Sinatra in the background. It was fine however to drink good iced tea and be able to forgo fries and concentrate on just the burger tastes we enjoy. Great service as well.

And then the week was scattered with buffets and a good bit of food at Ellis Island, since Bill and I were next door at the Super 8 for a week. Bill and I played free bingo every morning and did not win once, but we did a side bet on the bingo to determine who bought breakfast.

I saw some sense in the full day buffet at the Orleans because I had to go to breakfast with Elizabeth just before she flew out on Saturday, and I was not very hungry. So rather than dropping $15 and eat just a bit of food (the cafe line was very long) I dropped $24 and just ate what I wanted with her, stopping in for food breaks from playing poker as my solo day went on. I got my money's worth there just with the convenience of beating the line and maybe just having a bite here and a bite there until 9PM.

The Harrah's deal of $39 for a clocked 24 hour buffet pass seems even better if bought a late supper one day and used for breakfast and lunch and supper the next as well. I'll try that once next trip ion May rather than just treating myself to one meal at the Spice Market. So perhaps I'll gain a few pound again.

My favorite tastes of the week were:

*dry rubbed ribs at the Gold Coast lunch buffet

*lamb grilled at the Spice Market near the tandori chicken

*tempura shrimp at the Spice Market

*Prime rib at Ellis and at El Cortez cafe

*smoked salmon, capers, onion, tomato at Golden Nugget breakfast

*Crispy bacon at Golden Nugget breakfast

*Bite sized fruit at Golden Nugget breakfast

*watermelon at Gold Coast buffet

I missed the good potato chips at the Vue bar because I got too sick at the end of the trip to want to walk for them.

TR snippet: Vegas with Jim and Anne

 Jim and Anne

Jim and Elizabeth

It was very cool to have Elizabeth's brother and wife meet us in Vegas for a good talk and a fine celebration of a hard year of family matters.  I talked a bit about our incredible meals in another post.  They were very, very good and totally the flip side of the frugal coin I am usually using for food.  It was quite a treat!  Thanks Jim and Anne.
It was good too to catch up on family and have those long discussions that Jim likes to prompt on ideas and interpersonal issues.  It is always a great conversation.
We went to Bellagio to see the Conservatory setup, but the scene was a bit too dark for my taste.  It was fun, but I have liked the others I have seen better.

In a shop in that area I did like these Christmas Santas.

And we took a look at the largest chocolate fountain in the world

We also had a drink at the bar that overlooks the fountains and took a couple photos there.  That is a fine place to view the shows and they had great live music so Elizabeth had a bit of a swing dance before  leaving.

Jim and I did manage a bit of poker together at the Venetian.  It was one of my losing sessions, and he lost at first, and then won his money back when a classic aggressive fish sat directly to his right.
Jim also helped my poker game by further convincing me that I just play too loose and talking to me about position once again.  I guess I thought that position was much more important in no limit, but Jim convinced me.  I am certain that helped the rest of my play all week.
I just tired out or I might have managed a bit of money from the fish.  Also, I wanted to be certain that Elizabeth was not deserted for the night and that I would be rested enough for the next day's adventures with her, so that my pledge that the intense focus on gambling would not dominate her week.
Jim and Anne stayed at the Palazzo in a very nice suite with access to a room for wine and cheese as well.  We were very close at Harrah's.  It all seemed to work very well.