Day 8
Friday December 22,2000
Comps at Caesars, Check in at Paris and VP and dinner at Reserve

I got up early today and had to get all packed up to make my move to Paris. I ended up running behind and check out is at noon here. No big deal though. After I got all packed up I went down stairs to the slot club to see what they could do for me on the cost of the room. I had racked up over 600 points during the trip. This got me a gold Caesar’s medallion, an Emperor’s Club cap, and an Emperor’s Club T-shirt. I also got $60 cash back. On the room charges a host came over and said she could comp 2 of the nights and offered me lunch. She said I could have up to $50 for lunch. I took her up on the offer but knew I would never be able to rack it all up. She told me to charge it to the room and it would be taken care of at check out.

I went to lunch at Cafe Lago. It's their version of a coffee shop. Far from a coffee shop though. This place is the most up scale coffee shop I've ever been in. They hand you your napkin when you sit and a different person brings your drink, appetizer, and meal. Your main server is mainly there to take your orders. Nothing on the menu was just plain food though. Everything had to have some sort of strange things added to it. Even the burgers came with all sorts of weird stuff added on. I started with a bowl of soup. Today they had chicken Florentine. It was a huge bowl and it was very good. Huge chunks of chicken made this almost a meal in itself. I also ordered a BBQ pork sandwich. This was the most normal thing on the menu other than steaks and a few other dinner entrees. It came with a choice of fries, potato salad or fresh fruit. I chose the fruit. It was pineapple, cantaloupe, honey dew, and 2 raspberries. The service here was very good. There was a lot of attention paid to making sure you were happy while eating. When my soda glass got half empty there was someone there to replace it with a full glass. When a plate was emptied someone was right there to remove it. This was actually the type of service I'd expect from Caesars. This type of service was also reflected in the prices though as soup and a sandwich with a soda ran over $15.

After lunch I went to check out. The clerk at the desk printed a copy of my bill to verify the charges. Of course as I figured would happen, the slot club never notified them of the comped rooms and food. After a few minutes of punching buttons he found the message from the slot club. He went over to the guy in the VIP area and then came back. He said it was all in there now. He said I had $50 in food but only used $15 and asked if I wanted to go to lunch before checking out. I told him I just finished lunch and the only reason all $50 wasn't used is I only got the comps about a half an hour ago. After the 2 night room comp and the meal comp I only had $4 left on the bill (the first night was pre-paid) and that was for 4 local phone calls (for Internet access!) He said he would go ahead and take care of those charges too and I owed nothing. This was a great way to start the day.

After I checked out I walked over to Paris where I was able to check in. I have 2 comped nights here from a mail offer. This is a pretty good comp considering I have no play at Paris and very little at Bally's. Tonight’s room was going for $115 on the Paris website and $145 for tomorrow. When I checked in I asked about getting an upgrade since I was in town for my 30th birthday. The girl said my host already upgraded me to a preferred view room. I told her I don't have a host here and she looked again and she said sales made the change. She said that would be all she would have been allowed to do with no extra charge anyway.

I was given room 1611. It has a view of the Eiffel Tower, and the pool area. I can also see the 2 ends of the Bellagio fountain show. The tower blocks the center of it. There are floor to ceiling windows and there are small vents on them. When they are opened you can hear the music from the fountain show.

The room has a king bed with nightstands on each side. There is also a large closet, TV cabinet, dresser combo. In one of the closets there is a safe, and an iron and board. There is a work desk with an additional phone on it. Near the window there is a small couch coffee table and an arm chair.

The bathroom has a glass enclosed shower and a separate tub. The toilet is in it's own corner. The bathroom counter is large with plenty of space. They supply 2 bars of soap in metal tins, shampoo, hand cream, bath gel and mouthwash. There is a hair dryer on the wall. Not your typical Sunbeam 1220 though. This was a fancy French hairdryer. The only thing I didn't care for was the tacky way to try to sell bottled water. They put 2 large bottles of water in the bathroom and hang a small sign on them that says if it's opened your room will be charged $3.95 each. Very tacky if you ask me.

After I looked over the room I walked back over to Caesars and got the car. I was headed up to the Reserve to meet my friend Anne. After a quick stop at the Huntington Press offices to drop off my renewal payment for the Las Vegas Advisor I was on my way.

Today is the dinner special promotion at the Reserve. If you earn 1,000 points ($1,000 coin in) you get a comp to the Steakhouse, Tusks. 750 points earn a comp to the Serengeti Spaghetti Co. and 500 get you a buffet. Plus the points aren't deducted. I played some Triple play NSUD wild for quarters. Shortly after I hit the 1,000 point level I cashed out at 1010 coins for a hand pay of $252.50 or a win of $152.50. Great deal. Not only is the meal comped, they paid me money on top of it! Anne was playing dollar video poker but wasn't doing too well. She was down quite a bit so her comp was expensive at this point. After we got our comps we played some single deck blackjack. I was betting lower than my usual green action and was doing well. I ended up cashing out $100 ahead. Anne was even. She went back to dollar video poker and I had to leave to meet VG and CC at Sam's Town for dinner. We will be using those comps tomorrow night.

When I got to Sam's the place was packed. There were lines a mile long at every restaurant and the line at the slot club had to be 100 people deep. We decided we didn't want to wait in the line and decided to go to the Reserve for dinner instead.

When we got there Anne was still playing VP on the same machine. She had gotten all her money back and then some. I had a comp for 2 good for the Serengeti Spaghetti Co. that the Reserve sent me for my birthday. Since it was dinner promo night I took VG's slot card and gave it to Anne. She racked up 750 points in no time and Gary got his comp to the Serengeti Spaghetti too. This was the first time I had ever been here. The food was good, as was the service. I ordered a 4 cheese pizza, CC had an eggplant dish and VG had chicken. They both said their food was really good. When the waiter came to bring the check he added our comps together and they were worth $37. He said the bill was a total of $37.01! WOW. Without even looking at the prices we were off by 1 cent. That's impressive!

After dinner we played a few machines. I only lost a few dollars but VG and CC were lucky enough to win with the help of a few quads on dollar and half dollar video poker.

We went our separate ways and I came back to Paris. Right now as I type this up there is a fountain show going on across the street. It's "Time to Say Goodbye" or the song that everyone calls the Bellagio song. Time for a snack and then time to call it a night.

Total win/loss for the day $300
Total Comps for the day $314