We got our things to the room and rested for a bit before heading out to dinner. We were meeting my cousins for dinner at a place called Grandma's. They offer home cooking and are known for their pies! After a few hours of eating a visiting we went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the night before trying to go to sleep.

Day 1
Saturday July 28, 2012
NOTE: The first 3 days of this report are about Phoenix and Harrah's Ak-Chin. If you're not interested in this portion of the report skip to day 4.

I was woken at 3:45am by Dee's alarm clock in disbelief that it went off so early. I had set it last night for 4:30am but she felt she needed to have a little extra time. I guess that meant I did too. It worked out though because as she was getting ready she realized she hadn't packed her hairbrush. Since we were up so early it gave me time to run down the street to Hannaford, a 24 hour grocery store to buy her one.

Once we were ready we went down to the lobby to catch the shuttle. There was one catch though. They didn't have a shuttle driver today and had to cab everyone over to the airport. This worked out well as we got the next cab and were at the airport in no time.

The line at the Southwest counter was short and we were checked in quickly. They even filled out the wheelchair form for us and sent us to security. We got through there quickly too because we got to skip the line (which was short). I got to go through the nude o scanner and Dee was felt up by a TSA agent. Everything went well there and we didn't even experience any idiots trying to smuggle contraband through either.

Boarding was just about to start when we got to the gate and we pre boarded. Normally we sit in the back of the plane but today, for ease we sat in the front row. These seats have the advantage of extra leg room but, there isn’t any storage or tray table available when you sit here. It was kind of strange being the only people on the plane for the first few minutes.

This is flight 2519 into Chicago Midway. We departed right on time at 6:30am. During the flight there were some pockets of bumps but nothing major. Of course you've always got the people that feel they are above the rules and decide it's ok for them to get up and roam about the cabin while the fasten seatbelts sign is on.

Today's snack was a small pack of Vanilla wafers from Nabisco. I fell asleep before my soda arrived so I missed out on that. We landed in Chicago right on time around 7:45am local time and just had to wait for them to bring Dee's chair to the jet way. One of the airport attendants helped Dee up the jet way and to the next gate which was actually right across from where we got off.

We only had a short layover and then they started to pre-board for this flight. We were right on the plane again and took the front row seats again for ease. After everyone got on with their oversized carry on bags and finished jamming them into the overhead bins we were on our way. We departed on time from Chicago at 8:30am. It's about a 3.5 hour flight into Phoenix from here. When I booked these flights I used an old reward ticket and booked each of us on half of the reward. I was happy to have this award because these flights were originally $306 from Albany to Phoenix. It sucks to see fares like that when I used to get fares for half that round trip.

This flight was pretty smooth the whole way. The snack for this flight was a choice from an assortment of Nabisco snacks and you could choose anything you wanted. After the snack both of us pretty much slept through the majority of the flight. We arrived in Phoenix 20 minutes early and everyone was happy about that. Once they got Dee's chair up an airport attendant took us from the plane to baggage claim. She even took Dee to the bathroom and waited for her before we got the luggage. Once we grabbed the bags we were off to the rental car shuttle. The guys there were great with Dee as well tying her chair down making sure she was comfortable.

When we got to the rental car facility I was off to Avis. I originally booked this car back in March. The rate was $320 for the 3 day rental which was totally unacceptable. Oddly if I prepaid the rate would drop to $108. I also had a coupon for a free day that I added in dropping the rate lower. I don't normally like to prepay but in this case it saved me over $200. I still checked rates regularly on this car and a few weeks ago the base rate had dropped to $118. Even more odd was the pre pay option was down to $39. Yes, that says $39. I checked and double checked and made sure I had everything right. Even eating the $10 cancellation fee by canceling the previous rental this car was a steal. I also added the coupon to this new rental and booked it. Thinking there was something wrong with their website I looked up rates with Alamo. Their rates were even cheaper by a few bucks so I booked a back up with them just in case. I'm Preferred here and my name was up on the scoreboard in spot P29. I stopped at the booth to drop off a coupon and asked if the Chevy Impala was large enough to accommodate the chair and he said it was. Everything went well here and after checking the car over we were on our way. The car was brand new with only 200 miles on it.

From the airport we were off to breakfast at a place we saw on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri on the Food Network called Over Easy. It’s not far from the airport and in just about 15 minutes we were seated and ordering. I had the Chicken Fried steak that was featured on the show and Dee had a build it yourself Omelet. The food was great and it was cool to go there and order the meal after seeing it made on TV.

Next up was a quick stop at CVS for some survival items and then it was on to Maricopa to check in at Harrah's Ak-Chin. I booked this back in February but couldn't get all 3 nights comped, probably because it was a weekend. Even adding in Dee's account number all I got was reduced rates for Saturday and Sunday and comped on Monday. Even though I would have liked to been comped up front, we've got close to $2000 in comps with Harrah's so I'll just apply those to the room rate when we check out. Checking in here was quick. We had originally booked a balcony room overlooking the pool but Dee said she’d feel more comfortable in a handicap accessible room so we got moved to the newer tower. They had built this since we were last here in 2010.

We were given room 2005 and it's very modern. It's got 2 queens, 2 benches, a night stand, a work desk, an extra work table, 42" HDTV, coffee, fridge and a large closet. There is not much of a view because of where they jammed this tower and all we can see is the balconies of the older tower.

The bathroom is huge starting with a large vanity area outside the bathroom itself. The bathroom is a huge wet room designed for a wheelchair to be rolled right into the shower with the toilet in the far corner. There's also a bench at the back of the shower and we ordered a shower chair for Dee. Overall it's probably one of the nicest rooms we've had while traveling.

After we got into the room I went back to the car and valet parked it and got a bellman to help with the bags. I was going to do this myself but with it being over 100 degrees and needing to take 2 trips I said eff that!

We took a break and rested for a while after a long day of travel. We were getting hungry so I ran down to the Copper Cactus Grill. This is a fast food style place with cooked to order sandwiches and burgers. I got Dee a club sandwich with onion rings and I got a Philly Cheese steak with fries. The food was actually really good for a quickie take out place.

While I was down there the casino was offering a free 4 pack of Frappucino and a free swipe. Based on the ad they e-mailed me I was under the impression that I was going to win some free play. Instead I won 1000 reward credits that would be credited in 3 days. Really? $10 in comps? I guess they felt in needed more to add to the $1200 I already had. That sucked too because the lady in front of me won $20 free play and the guy behind me won a Kurig Coffee maker. Oh well, what are you going to do?

After we ate we just rested for the rest of the night and didn't play at all. I finally went to sleep around 10pm (1am my time) forcing myself to stay awake to avoid the jet lag and to be on west coast time tomorrow morning.

That pretty much wraps up day one of this mega trip. Good night everybody!

Total win/loss for the day $0
Total Comps for the day $197