Day 4
Saturday October 25, 2008
Well it’s a sad day because my cruise to Mexico has come to an end. However, it’s a great day because I return to Las Vegas today. Disembarking off the ship was about as smooth as it gets and the whole gang met up in the passenger pick up area. The hotel where we stayed at last week lets you park the car there while you’re gone and they come get you when you return. After we got back to the hotel and got our things loaded into Anne’s truck we were on our way to LAX. While the rest of the bunch decided to stay in Santa Monica for the night I was flying back to Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines. Anne dropped me off at the Southwest terminal. I had checked in online yesterday from the cruise ship’s internet café and scored an “A” boarding pass. I was surprised by this since I didn’t do it until about 8 hours after I was able to. Checking baggage was a little long but the line moved well. One thing that’s great about Southwest is they don’t nickel and dime you for everything and luggage is FREE unlike the bigger airlines.

Security was a breeze here as well except for the lady that had on a ton of jewelry that set off the metal detector. In just a few minutes I was at my gate and my flight was scheduled to leave on time. Since I had quite a bit of time before the flight I called up Dee who I had just received a text message from. We kept in touch by e-mail from the ship once per day but it was good to be able to actually talk to her. We chatted for about an hour and then it was time to board the plane. Most people don’t like the way Southwest does things but I have to say, it’s pretty damn good, especially if you have an “A” boarding pass.

Today I was on flight 628 scheduled to depart at 1:28pm. The flight only had 75 people on it and everyone pretty much had their own row to themselves. This was nice! We actually pushed back early. I had never flown out of here before and the view was really cool of the LA area. The flight was quick and uneventful and next thing I knew I could see Red Rock Canyon, Red Rock Resort and then the Las Vegas Strip. We actually flew past the strip and circled out by Fiesta Henderson to make the final approach into the airport. We actually arrived 26 minutes early!

I took the monorail to baggage claim and for some reason the bags took forever. I found it odd since there weren’t many people on this flight but my bag finally arrived and I was off to the rental car facility bus. Today I was renting from Avis. I had a coupon good for a free weekend rental. Passing by the rental counter my name was on the scoreboard with my spot number. I did have to stop by the preferred member booth to drop off my coupon though. I wanted to book 4 days but their daily rate after the weekend was way too high, especially by Las Vegas standards. So for this 2 day rental I would only have to pay the Facility tax of $6. I had a full sized car reserved on this offer and I was upgraded as an Avis First member (an upgraded tier of their frequent renter program) to a premium. They gave me a Buick Lucerne with 17,000 miles on it. The car was in great shape and I was on my way to Planet Hollywood.

On my way I made a quick stop at Jack in the Box for their tacos to hold me over until I had dinner later on in the night.

I had great hopes for Planet Hollywood but over the last few stays here I really don’t like the place. Mainly because of the parking situation here and the fact they are trying to attract the “Hard Rock” crowd. With that said though they sent me an offer I couldn’t refuse, identical to the offer I got from them for the summer. It’s good for 2 nights in a suite, $250 cash, $100 food and 2 free passes to the Spa. I only needed this room for 1 night as I will be moving tomorrow but the perks are what made it worth taking.

After parking my car and taking the 42 miles walk I arrived in the check in area. There were no lines and I was right up to the counter. The agent there said they had blocked a room for me but it wasn’t ready so she went in the back for about 10 minutes. When she came out she apologized for the wait, and for my room not being ready and said she’d gotten me upgraded to their executive level on the 51st floor in room 5160 and I’d need to swipe my key to access this level.

When I stepped out of the elevator I was already impressed with the hallway. I rolled up to my room and it was huge. It had a small foyer. Straight ahead was the living room that had a work desk, wall unit with TV, coffee table, sitting chairs and a sofa. There was also a stereo with an iPod docking station. To the right was the “make up” room. This room had a hue make up table and 4 closets. While this seems excessive to me it was kind of neat. From here it was into the bedroom. This was a standard Planet Hollywood bedroom with a king bed, nightstands, arm chair and a wall unit. The bathroom was huge with a large soaking tub (again, they skimp on a jetted tub in these rooms as well), duel sinks, glass shower stall, and separate toilet room. There was also a 6 inch LCD TV on the wall above the vanity. They also had full sized bottles of Gilchrist & Soames toiletries. Now I’ve had larger bottles in suites before but never full sized ones. Talk about a waste of money! This room was at the back of the hotel so I had a view of the Hard Rock and Ellis Island. It was a shame I would only be here for one night!

Once I got settled in I text Dee to tell about the suite. She was getting ready to watch Hockey. Since my car had XM Satellite Radio I was able to listen to part of the game on my drive to Eastside Cannery. I caught the tail end and the Senators choked in the closing minutes. I only found out the next morning that Dee fell asleep before the end of the game!

Just before heading out I stopped at the cage to cash in my coupon for the $250 in cash in my offer. I didn’t realize it but there was a change from last time I was here. I had to stop at the Slot Club booth and get this coupon validated. What a joke and a waste of time. After I did that there were no issues and away I went with $250!

Anyway, on to Eastside Cannery. This was my first visit here since it opened and I was hoping it would be as good to me as the original Cannery. When I arrived I got a slot card and then inspected the video poker inventory. It was also their Neighborhood Partners day so I’d be able to cash in points for gift cards, although not at the same rate I usually do at the original Cannery it was still a decent deal. After scouting out the video poker I found a bank of 10-play machines. These had 8/5 bonus on them. I was having a hard time staying alive here. I had hit no quads and I was into the machine for $500 already. The dealt winners were far and few and the best dealt hand I had 2 was pair. Finally I hit a decent hand. I held 2 cards to a royal and scored a jackpot on line 6. This put me back ahead for the day and in a better place. The only thing I hate is Cannery likes to make royals hand pays instead of letting them rack up on the meter. After a lengthy wait I finally got paid and they rounded the change up to the next dollar (I hit a high par on a few other lines) so I made an extra 50 cents!

Shortly after the royal I was dealt 3 aces. I was hoping to score the quad on at least one line sine I was playing 10-play. As luck would have it I scored 3 sets of quad aces! I cashed out shortly after this hit up $800 for the session on video poker.

Next up I bounced around playing penny slots. As has been the theme for most of the trip so far I did well on these. I wasn’t winning much but I was getting to play and was hitting bonus rounds. I played a Monopoly slot and hit a bonus round for over 4,000 coins and then on a regular spin hit for over 12,000 coins. I cashed out after this and moved over to a 50c triple play machine. It seemed that as soon as I put in my $100 it was gone. I hit a few pairs of jacks and nothing else and didn’t even get a dealt winner. Since I didn’t want to lose the royal money I decided to give up for the day. I hit the slot club booth and scored a couple of Wal-Mart gift cards for my points. On the way out I played a $10 match play from the ACG on the roulette wheel on black. Red came up and I lost. This made me 1 for 2 on match plays at this point in the trip. I was done here at Eastside Cannery and went back to Planet Hollywood.

Other than some Jack in the Box Tacos I hadn’t eaten anything today since I left the ship so I hit Planet Dailies, the coffee shop at Planet Hollywood. My $100 in food that came with the room was in the form of two $50 coupons and they were use it or lose it. I tend to overeat when I have a situation like that and tonight was no different. Actually compared to the food I consumed on the cruise, this was a light snack! I started off with chicken wings. This in itself was enough for a meal. I followed that up with a pork chop dinner. This chop was huge and it came with all the fixings. I was still way below the $50 of the coupon so I ordered a slice of cheesecake to go. I was tempted to go for the chocolate cake, but Dee and I have had that twice in the past and it’s enough to feed 4 people so I passed. My bill came to just over $40 but that was plenty. It was about 2am now and I had a long day so hit the room and called it a day.

Total win/loss for the day $900
Total comps for the day $629