Welcome to part 2 of this split trip. As you may or may not know my trip this year is split into 2 separate weeks because I took an Alaskan cruise in the middle of the trip. With that now over let’s get back to Las Vegas!

Day 1 Sunday July 25, 2004

Trip To Airport:
After getting off the cruise ship we were shuttled back to Seattle-Tacoma airport.

Flight:
Today I’m flying Alaska Airlines flight 660. It was supposed to leave at 6:16pm and arrive in Las Vegas at 8:41pm. The line for Alaska Air was really long and it took over an hour to get to the counter. Of course when we get there the agent tells us they can’t check luggage more than 4 hours in advance. That would be fine but our flight was over 6 hours away. Luckily the agent found seats for all of us on an earlier flight. Now instead of flight 660 we are taking 662. It leaves at 3:43pm instead of 6:16pm so that worked out well. We had plenty of time before boarding so we grabbed something to eat in the terminal.

Once again Alaska Air amazed me as they boarded first class and then ALL rows like they did on my way out of Las Vegas.

The flight was pretty bumpy and the captain came on and said there were a lot of thunderstorms on the way to Las Vegas. I caught about 45 minutes of sleep on this flight and it was much needed since the last night of my cruise I was up until after 2am and had to disembark first thing in the morning.

Rental Car:
I reserved a rental car with Dollar again for this trip. I got a great rate for an 8-day rental of $14.99 per day. I also used the CTI code for this rental. This code gives $15 off per rental but again I’ve read lots of reports that say this code has been giving $15 off per day when you return the car and on my last rental this was also the case for me.

I told the shuttle driver I had a fastlane reservation and he didn’t seem to give a crap or know what I was talking about. Instead of dealing with him I found one of the lot attendants and told him. He said I could have a PT cruiser or if I could wait a few minutes he could put me in something bigger. Since I think PT cruisers are crap and refuse to drive one as a full sized car I gladly waited. He came back in a few minutes and offered me a Magnum or a Chrysler 300. I took the 300 and it was brand new with only 604 miles. It also still had the “new car smell”.

When I got to the guard booth the boothling there said she didn’t have my contract and I’d have to go inside. What a pain in the ass this was. I had to back the car up and park, then go inside to the office that was in turmoil. Finally I got to the fastlane desk. My name was on the fastlane list but said to see a rep. For some reason they had my credit card as expired but yet this was the same credit card I used twice last week on fastlane rentals just a week ago.

This really screwed my plans up because now the agent that went by the name of Bonn tried to hard sell me and use scare tactics to sell me insurance. Then when I got the contract my discount wasn’t on there. I told him my discount ode was CTI. He said that’s $15 off per day but that would b a free rental and refused to honor it. I was really losing my patience with him and finally before losing it and ripping him a new asshole I agreed to a 15% discount off the entire rental. I was not happy at this point and if they hadn’t somehow effed up my credit card’s expiration this mess wouldn’t have happened. After over an hour on the Dollar parking lot I was finally on my way to drop off my friends at home and then heading to the Sahara.

Hotel:
I’m checking into the Sahara for the next 3 nights. This room is booked on a mail offer that gives 3 nights and $75 in EZ-Money their new version of free play. This is the first time I have ever received a mail off for free room nights room this place since I got a card on my very first solo trip back in 1996 even though I stop in just about every trip.

When I arrived there was only 1 person in line ahead of me and I was checked in with no issues. I was given room 2232 in the Alexandria Tower. The room was very basic but quite roomy. It has a king bed with 2 nightstands, a dresser, and a small table and chairs. I think the housekeeping department needs a lesson in cleaning here at the Sahara. The room wasn’t filthy but it was far from spotless. There were crumbs on the dresser and it looked as if the room wasn’t vacuumed in quite some time. There were also numerous stains on the carpet and the furniture was pretty beat up and worn.

The bathroom is very large but basic with a large counter, tub, and toilet. The only extra in here was a hair dryer. It’s all I needed in a room and had it been in better shape I would have been satisfied. One other thing that pisses me off is they charge a stupid $3 energy fee even on comped rooms plus $1 for unlimited local phone calls (as long as they are 30 minutes or less each).

Dining:
For a late night dinner I went to the Caravan Room at the Sahara. This is their coffee shop. Things didn’t start out very well when the hostess walked away and didn’t return for 10 minutes. She finally sat the people ahead of me and then I finally was given a seat after waiting 15 minutes when there were plenty of seats available. I have no idea what the hell she was doing. I ordered the hot turkey sandwich and a bowl of vegetable beef soup. The food was good and the server did a good job, especially compared to the hostess. You can also now have your card swiped at the register at the Sahara restaurants to redeem comp dollars. One odd thing that I saw in the coffee shop while I was eating was a guy sitting a few tables away that was flipping through the pages of a Playboy magazine. It was a pretty entertaining meal after all!

Gaming:
My room came with a special offer of $75 in free play. This is what actually made me choose this offer. Sadly since the last time I was here all of the pay tables on the video poker machines have been shorted. All of the 9/6 jacks were now 8/5 and the 8/5 bonus games were now all 7/5. With nothing playable in this place anymore I decided to use the $75 in free play on a progressive 9/6 DDB game. I was a winner as soon as I sat down because someone left a dollar bill in the coin tray. I ended up cashing out with $40 of the $75 after I ran it all through. This worked out well because I used the $40 for the $50 for $40 coupon they sent me in the mail. This is the coupon where they give you $50 in no cash value chips for $40. I found a blackjack table with a dealer that was pulling 6 and 7 card hands and ended up turning the $50 in funny money into $25 of real money. Not exactly how I had planned this to work out. I finished the day off with a small $25 win but I guess that’s not too bad considering I used their money all night.

Total win/loss for the day $25
Total comps for the day $137