Welcome to my trip report for October 13-20, 2003. This trip wasn’t originally planned for this year but some additional time off from work has allowed me to add an extra trip in for the year!
As promised in my last report, I won’t be doing the long and detailed reports that I have done for the past few years. Instead I will use a new format to bring you as much of the action as possible. With that in mind let’s get started!
Day 1
Monday October 13, 2003
Trip to airport:
Dropping off the car went well and in a few minutes I was on my way to the terminal.
Flight:
Other than a gate change the boarding process went pretty smooth with the usual problems of people trying to board before it’s their turn.
This is flight 193 and is non-stop form Newark to Las Vegas. We are flying at 35,000 feet and the flight will take 5 hours and 15 minutes. The captain has just come on and told us we should land right on time at 10:32am local time.
Today’s movie is Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp. I decided to pass on this movie and try to get some sleep since I didn’t sleep much at all last night and I was tired. The flight was pretty uneventful other than a few air pockets.
Just as the captain promised we landed at 10:32am.
After a short wait in a very crowded baggage claim I was on my way to the Dollar rental car shuttle and off to get my rental car for the week.
Rental Car:
Hotel:
When you walk into the room on the right is the bathroom area. The first room has a long counter and a sink. This counter also has a dresser built into it and the closet contains a refrigerator. The next room was the toilet shower and another counter and sink. Gone is the stupid window the leads from the shower to the bedroom. It is now a shelf inset into the wall.
The room has a couch, armchair, and coffee table in the sitting area. By the window there is a work desk and as I type this I can see the entire strip out the window from the MGM all of the way past Treasure Island (or TI as they now call it!).
There is also a king bed with a nightstand on each side and a TV cabinet with overpriced snacks in the bottom of it.
Meets:
Dining:
Gaming:
Next move was to the 10-coin FPDW machines. Things were worse here than they were over on the quarter machines. Nothing was hitting on this machine at all. I dropped another $100 here and left Fiesta.
Next stop was Palms for some craps action. When I got to the table the dealer asked if I was a don’t bettor and I said no. He replied you should be this table is ice cold. I got the dice and had a 10-minute roll. Why did I do so well? Of course there was a don’t bettor on the other end of the table. My next roll was just as good but the rest of the time the able was choppy. As usual every time I would get the table loaded up with money the 7 would appear. A few more good shooters got the profits back up and I left after 2 hours and a $600 win.
Total win/loss for the day $400
I’m flying out of Newark today so yesterday I picked up a car at my local airport to drive down there. I had a Buick Century that was pretty worn out with almost 20,000 miles on it. Not a big deal though since I’m only taking it 75 miles. I left my house at 5:15am and the ride to the airport was uneventful and there was no traffic until the end when the tollbooths at the airport exit of the NJ Turnpike were all jammed up.
I’m flying America West today as I usually do from Newark. The fare was $266 after all taxes and discounts were applied. Check in was a breeze and in 3 minutes I was on my way to security. Things went well here except for the dumb ass that tried to make it through the metal detectors with all of her jewelry on. Not just 1 ring or a necklace, but this woman could have given Mr. T a run for his money in the jewelry department.
I reserved a full sized car from Dollar for $132 for the week. I got 10% off of that by using the DESLV code on the website. I’m also a fast lane member so things should go quickly. But they didn’t. The driver informed me my credit card was expired so I had to go in the office and get that fixed. After this was fixed I was told to pick a car out of row 3. The rental car places were packed and there was a shortage of cars in town this week. All the places in the airport had signs up that said no cards available without prior reservations. As fast as cars were coming back, they were going right out again. There were only mini vans in this row and there was no way I was driving a friggen mini van around all week. Then an Intrepid appeared so I grabbed that. The car was still filthy even after being washed but I took it anyway. Anything would be better than driving a mini van around town.
I’m spending the first 4 nights of this trip at the Rio on a mail offer of 4 complimentary nights. After fighting traffic from Paradise Rd to Tropicana I decided to take Trop to Industrial and get to the Rio the back way. I have a platinum card at Harrah*s/Rio so I used the platinum check in and in a few minutes I was on my way to Ipanema tower room 1245. It appears this wing of the floor was recently redone. The carpet in the hall still smelled new and the room was spotless. The furniture wasn’t all bashed up and everything looked new.
After I got settled into the room I was on my way to a meet at Caesars Palace that was organized on the Las Vegas Talk Discussion board. It was held at the Galleria Lounge. After parking the car and walking about 1 mile to get to the casino I remember why I hate going to these giant strip mega resorts!
After the meet I was hungry and I was off to Henderson to the Fiesta. When I walked in I ran into my host and we talked for a while. I told her I as going to go get something to eat and she offered to comp it which I happily accepted! Went to Baja Beach Café but instead of the usual Feel Good Soup I had the Chicken Alfredo over Fettuccini. It also came with soup and garlic toast. The chicken was good but the Alfredo wasn’t that good.
The real reason for going to Fiesta wasn’t really to eat but to redeem a few coupons I got in the mail that were only good today. The first was good for a $5 gas voucher at Rebel/76 stations around town. The other was a 5X points coupon. I found a FPDW machine over by the sports book and was able to watch the Red Sox-Yankees playoff game. Unfortunately the Yankees lost and so did I. I dropped $100 in this machine with no major hits. 4 of a kinds were far and few and I only had 2 wild royals.
Total comps for the day $185