Welcome to the 5th annual Christmas/Birthday trip report. Can you believe it? This is the 5th year I’ve been spending my birthday and Christmas in Las Vegas. This year looks to be full of action if things go as I have planned. Of course we all know how plans go in Las Vegas! Some of those plans include staying in a number of hotels I’ve never stayed at before and making my return to Laughlin for the first time in years, and eating in some of my favorite restaurants and not paying a dime for any of it. I’ll also be trying my luck at my favorite casino games like video poker, blackjack (even though it’s been a killer for the last few years), craps, and more. So go grab a snack, pull up a chair and enjoy my 5th annual Christmas/Birthday trip report!

Day 1 Saturday December 14, 2002

I got up at about 3:30am this morning. It’s hard to believe it’s time for another trip to Las Vegas but I’ve really been looking forward to this for a while. After getting all of the last minute things done at the house it was time to leave for Newark. One of those things was to check my lottery tickets from last night. I had 2 free quick picks on a game called Take 5. You pick 5 numbers from the field. Hopefully this is an indication of how the trip will go. I hit 3 numbers on both games. It was too early in the morning to see what the prize payoff was but it’s usually between $20-25. I picked up a rental car yesterday from Avis at my local airport, Stewart-Newburgh. I got a 1 way rental for a full sized car. The total with taxes and surcharges was $46.46. They gave me a new Chevy Malibu. It was a 2003 with just under 5,000 miles on it. When I left the house it was rainy but mixing in with a little snow. I didn’t really worry about this though because it was in the mid 40’s down in Newark already. It was very foggy in spots along the way until I got to the Thruway. Things were clear from here down to Newark.

When I got to Avis to return the car things went well. My invoice was the same price as my estimate was. From Avis you need to take a monorail to the terminal and just as I got to the top of the escalator the monorail was waiting for me. It was pretty early and there weren’t any crowds here yet. I got right up to the America West counter and in less than 1 minute I was on my way to the gate. Yes, I said less than 1 minute. Now this makes me wonder why I can get checked in so fast but whenever I’m in line it takes everyone else forever to get checked in. I got a fare of $250 including all taxes and a 3,000-mile bonus. After this flight I’ll have enough miles for a free ticket.

I got right through the metal detectors since there wasn’t anyone else around. I still don’t understand the purpose of removing the laptop from the case.

I still had plenty of time so I grabbed a snack and read until the plane was ready to board. When they started the boarding process, as always, people that aren’t called feel it’s ok to line up and try to get on. Well for a change the agents stopped this crap and anyone that wasn’t called was told to go sit back down until they were. Good job America West.

I was on flight 78 non-stop to Las Vegas on an A-320. I’d say this flight was less than half-full. The captain came on the PA after we reached 31,000 feet. He said there were very little head winds and we would arrive in Vegas over 1 hour early. So far things are going to well on this trip. I was wondering if I should start to worry. America West cut out all meals on flights but they still pass out the standard can of soda and a small snack. Today we were given 2 Biscoff cookies. They were sort of like a gingersnap. Each one weighs a whopping 3/16 of an ounce. Later in the flight they passed out some peanuts.

Today’s movie was Home Alone 2, Lost in NY. They charge $5 for “entertainment service” on the flight and then collect the headsets when it’s all over. Lucky for me that when I flew in August in 1st Class I swiped the head set and removed the AW logo when I got home. (A little rubbing alcohol and a cloth does wonders). I really had no interest in this movie though so didn’t bother to break out my headsets.

I slept a good portion of the flight since I got little sleep last night and when I woke up I could feel that we were getting lower. Shortly after the captain came on and said we were only 70 miles away. Soon I was able to see the Las Vegas skyline off in the distance. We arrived at about 9:25am, over an hour ahead of schedule.

Once we got off the plane I made my standard stop at the can and then headed to baggage claim. On my way through the terminal I saw a huge line. At first I thought it was for one of the restaurants they were in front of but the realized it was the security check point line going to the D terminals. This line had to be ½ mile long.

The wait at baggage claim was only about 10 minutes and my luck was still running good because my bag was the 3rd one out. From here I went to get on to the shuttle bus to Alamo. As luck would have it there was one waiting for me! It was just me and one other person on this bus. A little something new was the bus actually goes to the National Emerald Isle first. I don’t really understand why though because both of us were renting from Alamo.

There was no line when I got inside and got right up to the counter. As always the agent used some sly wording when it came to insurance. It was something along the lines of how do you want to handle the insurance. I told her I don’t want insurance. This is when she used the scare tactics and told me I was responsible for all damage and down time on the car. I responded there would be NO damage. Then the rental agreement she gave me was about $50 higher than my estimate. Turns out she didn’t take off my coupon. This was partially my fault though because I “forgot” to give it to her. It was actually a great coupon good for 2 free days. I was hoping they would take it off and not take the coupon so I could use it again. No such luck this time though. Just for reference, this coupon came from the Alamo corporate offices based on a letter I wrote them in regard to my March trip when I stood in line for an hour and 20 minutes and the agents were using scare tactics to sell insurance. Maybe I’ll have to write again about the scare tactics that are still being used.

Another change here at Alamo is they don’t assign you a car in the office. They tell you to go to a row with your size car and to pick any of them. The whole row was full so I walked up both sides. Most of these cars were Hyundais and I really didn’t want one of these. There was a Malibu but I‘m not really a big fan of those and there was also one Buick Century. Just as I was about to take this car I saw there some Dodge Intrepids at the end of the row. I looked at the gold one and it had a leather interior and appeared to be fully loaded with all sorts of electronic gadgets. It had everything from a thermometer and compass, fully automated temperature controls for the heat and A/C and a few other unnecessary gauges. It had Oregon plates on it and has 18,000 miles on it. I was going to pass on this one and take the other one but it was too late. Someone else already took the white one. That one wasn’t as loaded at this one was either. The interior of this car wasn’t very clean. The console was covered with what looked to be crumbs and soda. Also the dashboard was covered with dust. I figured I’d still take it and clean it up little at the hotel. I also think I’ll take a few pictures of the condition of this car when I write to Alamo again. After a quick stop at the guard shack I was on my way and this trip was started.

Since I hadn’t really eaten anything all day I was hungry. It was only 10:30am so instead of going to the hotel to check in I went up to Henderson to the Fiesta. My first stop was the Baja Beach Café for my favorite lunch, the Feel Good Wonton Soup. It was good as usual with exception of the chicken breast. Since the Chinese section had just opened I think the chicken was from yesterday. Some of it was dry and didn’t look too good. Other pieces were as good as always though. The rest of the soup was still great too. Since I have about 400,000 points at the Fiesta properties this meal was of course comped!

After lunch I played some $1 craps. They have $1 tables with 10X odds. Since I just got here I took easy and only played 5X odds. After over 2 hours I quit ahead $60.

It was getting a little later in the afternoon now so I figured I’d go down to he strip and check into my room. I made what I thought was going to be a quick stop at the Wal-Mart super center on Sunset Rd. This turned out to be a mistake. This place was packed and people were running around here like they just got their freedom after being in prison for 20 years. I finally got my snacks and soda and headed to the New Frontier where I’ll be registered for the next 3 nights. I say registered because I’ll only be sleeping here for 2 nights before moving again.

When I got to the New Frontier there was no line at check in. I was checked in right away and on my way to Atrium suite 778. This room was booked on an offer that includes 3 nights in a suite, $100 in airline vouchers, free drawing tickets, a $25 bonus for any 4 of a kind on video poker (this is a very strong coupon for quarter play), and a $100 bonus for 3 red 7’s on $1 slots. (This is trash as far as I’m concerned). The gaming coupons are only good from Sunday at 3pm until Friday at 3pm. I think this is a little bit lame if you ask me.

I was so tired by the time I got to the room I rested for a while without even unpacking. Little did I know I was going to fall asleep for the next 3 hours! When I woke up it was dark out and all of the lights on the strip were on. I got motivated and hit the casino. Being this is the end of the National Finals Rodeo this place was packed with cowboys (and cowgirls). There was a line to get into Gilley’s that seemed to go on forever. For those that are familiar with the layout of the New Frontier the line went all of the way past Panda Express. I’ve actually never seen this property so busy. It’s a big difference from even a year ago when you could count the number of people on 1 hand.

As I walked through the casino I noticed they finally put some new carpet in. It’s something this place has needed for years but the lame asses only replaced it in the high traffic areas. Sort of like a road where the heavy traffic runs and the rest of the carpet is still that ugly worn out shit that is duct taped all over the place.

I wanted to play VP here so I went to the 8/5 Aces Bonus machine I hit a royal on in August. The bill acceptor wouldn’t work so I put my $20 in the machine next to it and figured I’d cash out and feed the coins. Well this didn’t work because that machine needed a friggen hopper fill. After about 15 minutes I was able to cash out and play. Nothing was happening here so I moved to another similar machine on the other side of the casino. I lost here too. I was now back into my own money as I lost everything I won at the Fiesta earlier.

I moved around trying a few different machines including a nickel Price is Right machine. It was the Plinko version. I hit both bonus rounds 1 time but there were no other hits along the way and I lost here too.

The next move was some triple play jack or better. It was an 8/6 game. On the 3rd hand I was dealt 3 aces and pulled the 4th on lines 2 and 3. Unfortunately it was just standard jacks or better and not bonus. This caught me back up quite a bit though so I cashed out. I went over to an 8/5-bonus machine. After a few minutes I hit quad aces. 4 queens shortly followed this and I cashed out up $75 here. My next stop was craps. They have a $5 game here with 10X odds. It’s a little too rich for me to take full odds here so I was taking double or triple. This was a very good table and a few shooters held the dice for about 20 minutes each. I played here for over an hour and cashed out up almost $200. I quit while I was ahead for the night and this is where we are now in this report. It’s now 4:30am and I’m going to bed.

Total win/loss for the day $200
Total comps for the day $107