Day 1
Monday March 27, 2000
Went to bed at about 1am this morning. Slept well for a little while but then kept waking up every half-hour. Typical sleep pattern the night before my big trip. Finally got up at 5:30am and got ready for the trip. Finished up packing, checked e-mail and shut the computer down then headed down to my aunt and uncles house. They will be driving me to Newark Airport to catch my flight.
Made it to Newark with plenty of time to spare. The check in desk at America West had no line so I got right up there. Check in went well. I got this ticket on the Internet special America West ran a few months back. Round trip price for this ticket was only $189.00. That’s a great price from Newark especially since a week before I bought the ticket they were getting more than double that price. I was on flight 2109 and we left right on time at 11:10am. This was a non-stop flight too, so there was no wasted time making connecting flights. The flight was smooth for the most part except for a few bumps out over Arizona. The meal on the plane was a sausage, pepper and onion calzone. Since I hate peppers and onions I thought I was going to end up starving on this long assed flight. But when I opened it up there was about 2 tiny pepper pieces and 3 or 4 little onions. It was loaded with sausage and cheese though. It really wasn’t much of a calzone though. It was more like a hot pocket. It wasn’t the greatest meal I had ever had but it was pretty good. This also came with a small Caesar salad and a cookie.
When we were over Arizona the captain came on and told us we would be getting the tour of the Grand Canyon. We were only about 18,000 feet up and the views were really great. He even made a few turns so we could get a good view of it. I thought that was pretty cool. Of course, I never have my camera when there is cool stuff to take pictures of.
We arrived in Las Vegas about 30 minutes early. The landing was so smooth that it never felt like we touched down. This was probably the best landing I ever had. The guy sitting next to me was very impressed.
Went to baggage claim to get my suitcase, which only took a few minutes. Then out to the shuttle bus Alamo has to take me to the rental office. The rental price of the car before all the taxes and fees was $315 for a full size car for the 12 days. This was booked on Alamo’s web site. I also had a coupon good for 15% off the price which was worth over $47.00. After taxes and the discount my total cost for the rental was $325.51. When I got to the desk the agent told me that my coupon was no longer being accepted. Just about to blow up I told her I had a printed confirmation that said it was. She tried again and said it was her error, that she entered the wrong number. Good thing because a coupon that’s worth almost $50 is worth me fighting over. There was no pressure to buy any insurance either. Actually, she never even mentioned it. That’s good though since I had no intention of buying any. She did offer to sell me a tank of gas at $1.60 a gallon and told me the street price was $2.00 a gallon. As in the past I figured it was probably about 20-30 cents less than that. I declined and took the chance of just paying the street price and filling the tank before I returned the car. I was given a brand new Chevy Malibu. It only had 175 miles on it. Still had that new car smell too.
After loading up the car and checking it over I headed down Sunset to the Strip. Even though I was staying at Sam’s Town for the next 4 nights and it would have been quicker to go the back way, I wanted to look at the sights and see if there were any changes since my trip in December. About the only change was that the Aladdin was a little more finished than it was. Also, the gas prices at the station right outside of the Excalibur were $1.74 for regular unleaded. Just about what I figured it was going to be. The station right down the road in front of Monte Carlo was getting $1.99 for regular. Quite a difference considering it’s just a few blocks away.
Traffic on the strip was terrible. It took me about 40 minutes to get from Tropicana to Flamingo. I made a stop at what used to be Albertson’s at the corner of Flamingo and Boulder Highway. This store wasn’t an Albertson’s anymore though. It was called Raley’s. The prices in this store were so high it wasn’t funny. Just needing a few items to snack on though, it was ok since most of that stuff is pre-priced. Got out of there quickly and headed across the street to Sam’s Town where I would be staying for the next 4 nights.
When I arrived at the check in desk there was no line and I got right up to there. My host had set me up with full RFB (room, food, and beverage) reserved an “A” suite for me as well as a gold card that is used for charging all my meals. The suite was really nice. It was done in a southwestern theme. You entered the room through a short hallway that leads to the living room area. In this area there is a nice chair, a sectional corner sofa, coffee table TV cabinet and a 19” TV and an end table. Over near the windows was the dining table with chairs. The view out of the window was of the park in the atrium of the hotel. These suites are located behind the Sunset Stampede laser light and water show so there wasn’t much of a view of that from the room. On the other side of the living room was the bar area which included a refrigerator and a coffee maker and coffee. There are also real drinking glasses and an ice bucket instead of the plastic cups and plastic tub they give you in the regular rooms here. The bedroom area is separated from the living area by a 4-foot high wall done in tile. Inset into the wall is another 19” TV. On both sides of the king bed are nightstands. Across from the bed is a Jacuzzi bathtub. It’s just a small tub, only large enough for one person. Connected to the surrounding area of the tub was a long counter top also done in the same tile the wall was done in. There was a dresser built under it and a mirror on the wall above it. There was also a hair drier in this area. At the end of the counter is where the closet was. There was an iron and ironing board in here.
The bathroom was also done in tile but for a suite the bathroom was not very large. There was enough space to move around though. It had a shower stall with a glass door. One thing I did like about the bathroom though was that you could watch the bedroom TV from the toilet! The bed was double sheeted around the blanket so there was no chance of pulling the blanket up and having a crunchy spot from the previous guest on it. I’m noticing more and more hotels are doing this now. I can only imagine how nasty it would be snuggling up with a blanket that had a hard crunchy spot on it from the last guest. Unless they do double wrap them, I never use them and the bedspread I never use either.
After getting to the room I was hungry so went to eat lunch down at Mary’s Diner. I had the hot open turkey sandwich and it was good. The service was lacking as it has many times in the past, but it wasn’t terrible.
I went back up to the room after lunch to get settled in and then it was time to play. I started off with the Lucky Draw 4 play machines and some 8/5-Bonus poker. Not the best play, but I like the game. I played for about an hour before I lost $100 even though I hit quite a few quads including aces. I moved to a Triple Play machine and played the 4/4/3/2/1 version of Deuces Wild. I lost another $200 playing here. Decided to try some single deck Blackjack. Quickly I got up by $250 but lost it back. Then slowly I worked my way back up. I left the table up by $500. I took that money back over to the Triple Play machines where I played for about an hour and a half. Still have not hit the deuces and lost another $150 on these.
Went back up to Mary’s Diner for a late night special. I had the steak special which is a strip steak, veggies, potato, and soup or salad for $3.49. This is one of those great deals you can get on food if you want to stay up late at night. While it may not be worth a special trip to Sam’s just for this special, if you’re already planning on being there it’s worth a try. I also ordered some ice cream to go. I was just expecting a scoop or 2 but my waiter brought me a 22-ounce paper Coca-Cola cup packed full and only charged me the one scoop price. (Not that price mattered, I’m a fully comped regular here) He was tipped accordingly and I headed back up to my room.
When I got back to my room I filled up the Jacuzzi tub, turned on the TV and relaxed while eating ice cream for a while. After I was done relaxing in the Jacuzzi it was now 2am (which was 5am my time) and with the exception of a few short naps on the flight I’ve been up for 24 hours. It was now time for bed.
Total win/loss for the day $ 50
Total Comps for the day $313