Day 3
Friday December 14, 2001
I got up early this morning at about 7am. It’s still pretty dark here at this hour. I opened the curtains and the strip looked eerie. There was a dark cloud over the valley and it seemed foggy too. Today is moving day so I will be packing up. I have to make a quick stop at the Plaza downtown in order to get my deposit back on the room. These geniuses require a $30 deposit to book the comped rooms and don’t accept a credit card deposit. I had to send a check back in October when I booked. When I checked in I was told I get my deposit back when I check out. This is a pain in the ass but for $30 I have to do it.
When I checked out of the Reserve I was surprised to see they removed the energy surcharge from my bill since I was a comped guest. That was a surprise to me. From here I made my way back downtown to the Plaza. Check out here was quick and easy and I was given my $30 back.
It was still a little early to go check in so I went down to the Silverton to have lunch. I went to the Fireside Café, their coffee shop. I ordered the Prime rib sandwich that is served as a hot open roast beef. This also came with a huge portion of mashed potatoes. My only complaint was the service was lacking here. One thing that will always piss me off is when someone comes in after me and gets his food served before I get mine. That’s what happened here today and I wasn’t happy. Silverton has a self-comp system for their restaurants. After you eat you present your slot card and ID to the cashier and the correct amount of points are deducted from your account.
Unfortunately they just had a point value change here. It used to be 400 points are equal to $1 in comps. It now takes 500 points. This means my 148,000 points used to be worth $370 and now are only worth $296. That’s a 25% reduction in value. This is worse than when Stations changed the values at the Reserve last year with a 20% reduction.
After I ate I tried some single deck blackjack. I was playing 2 hands at a minimum of $10 each. I was up and down here for about 2 hours eventually cashing out even.
After cashing out I headed down to New York-New York so I could check in. I made this mistake of taking the 15 and it was like a parking lot. I was able to get off at Russell Road and take the Strip down to Tropicana though. I pulled into the self-park garage and at the entrance I was greeted by signs and a security guard that asked for a photo ID. I don’t know what purpose this serves.
The check in area was a zoo but I was on a special offer and was able to use the casino invited guest line. I was staying on an offer that was given to people who had gotten hand pays earlier this year. Vegasplayer board member flaho had too many of these and offered them to anyone that was going to be in town during the valid dates. A special thanks to him. Check in went fast here and I was even upgraded to a Jacuzzi suite for my birthday, even though it’s over a week away.
I’m in room 1605. I don’t know who designed this hotel but the elevator system is absurd. Depending on the floor you are on you use a different set of elevators, no matter what tower you are actually in. My set of elevators is in the center of the casino but my room is way on the other end of the hotel. It’s easily a 2-minute walk from the elevator to my room.
The room is huge, probably about twice the size of a standard room. It has a king bed and nightstands on each side. A TV cabinet/dresser combo with a 19-inch TV is in the center of the wall and there is a table and chairs by the window. In the corner opposite of the window is a clover shaped Jacuzzi that would fit 2 people. Next to the Jacuzzi there is a sitting chair and ottoman which is very comfortable. The bathroom is split into 2 rooms. The vanity area is quite large and there is plenty of room to move around. It has a hair dryer but there is no coffee maker. There is also a full closet in the vanity area with an iron and board. The second room of the bathroom area has the toilet and standing shower stall. They also do that stupid thing of placing 2 bottles of water on the counter with a tag that say they are here for your convenience and $3.95 will be charged to your room. They make it seem as if you are already charged probably in hopes you open them. I still think this is tacky, particularly from a major hotel casino. I’d expect a practice like this from a smaller hotel that needs some extra profits.
I have view of the western part of town. I’m looking down Tropicana at the Orleans. To the right is the Palms and Rio. There is also a great view of the mountains. Half of the mountaintops are covered with snow.
After getting settled into the room it was time to head down to Treasure Island to the meet that was organized by members of the Las Vegas Advisor. It took quite a while to get to Treasure Island today. It was raining and for some reason people in Las Vegas don’t know how to drive in the rain so they move at a snail’s pace. I’d say there were about 15-20 people at this meet and the guest list was capped off by the Queen of Comps herself, Jean Scott. Jean was nice enough to sign my book too.
After the meet I went back to New York-New York and the walked over to the MGM Grand. I was supposed to meet my friend Anne and her mother (Terry) outside the Hollywood Theater. The plan here was to get something to eat and maybe play some. Anne’s mother went to play slots and Anne went to play blackjack. Not being a big fan of the MGM I just watched. This was a shoe game and was tough. No wins here for anyone that sat at this table.
After playing while it was time to eat. Anne’s mother had a comp to the Wolfgang Puck restaurant. I’m not a big fan of these celebrity restaurants but for free, why not! I started out with a Coke and it was flatter than water. I told the server and he seemed like he knew the sodas were flat and wasn’t really surprised. He brought another one from a different machine and it was flat as well. Having some experience with fountain serve soda machines it was obvious that the CO2 cylinder was out and needed to be changed and that both soda machines were hooked to the same system.
Just about everything on the menu here has some sort of strange ingredients added to it. Anyone that regularly reads my reports knows I’m a fan of plain foods, not fancy crap I can’t pronounce. I opted for what seemed to be a safe bet. A BBQ chicken dish with fries. They even have to go screwing with the fries by adding some herb seasoning to them. They were actually good though. The chicken was a whole chicken, the size of a Cornish hen. The meal was good but it was not worth anywhere near the $15.95 they charged for it.
Against my better judgement, after eating I played some blackjack on a shoe game. As always this turned out to be a mistake as I lost another $200. Things weren’t that good here. Every time I doubled I got nothing higher than a 5. One shoe the dealer had a 10 or an ace up about 10 hands in a row. 3 of those resulted in blackjacks for him. I ran from this table glad I only lost $200 and not more.
From here Ann and Terry went to play video poker. I decided not to play here. They had no luck and neither of them hit any quads. After they lost we were standing outside the Hollywood Theater and Terry said that looks like Carrot Top. I turned as he came around the corner I said it is Carrot Top. I guess he heard that and waved as he walked by. He seemed ok just based on the fact he acknowledged us. He didn’t seem like an arrogant prick like many stars can be.
At this point it was getting late and I was ready to get back up here to relax in my Jacuzzi. After a quick jump in the Jacuzzi I was ready or bed. It had been a long day and it was now going on 2am.
Total win/loss for the day -$200
Total Comps for the day $118