I arrived in Newark and parked the car and jumped onto the monorail to the terminal. It's just a short ride and the first stop along the way.
I only had a carry on and checked in on the app I went right to security. Not too bad other than the usual people not listening to anything they are told to do.
I had plenty of time and still had a one time pass to the United Lounge set to expire at the end of the month so walked clear to the opposite side of the terminal to head there. When I arrived I was greeted by multiple signs saying that they weren't accepting one time passes today. WTF? I'll be contacting United about this one, don't worry about that.
Instead of the lounge I grabbed a snack at one of the kiosks to get me by and waited for the flight.
Boarding went well for this flight and we actually pushed back early. This is flight 390 scheduled to depart at 6:30pm and arrive in Las Vegas at 9:09pm with a flight time of 5 hours and 39 minutes. An announcement was made that it was only going to be 4:55 and we might get there even sooner.
The flight was smooth except for one patch of bumps.
I felt us starting to drop and the captain came on the PA and said we were on our final approach. We touched down at 8:20pm, 49 minutes early!
Made a quick stop after the flight at the usual place and then off to the rental car shuttle. Fairly empty this evening and the facility was pretty slow too.
Tonight's rental is with Avis and as is almost always the case in Las Vegas my name wasn't up on the board so I had to stop at the Preferred Booth to get a car. I commented to the agent that this is a regular occurrence at this location. I was met with the excuse that I was an hour early. I argued that I really doubted this would have been ready if I was on time and got no reply. I would buy this as true if cars were tight but the lot was full of cars so there was no shortage tonight.
I was given a Toyota Camry with 25,000 miles on it. These rental car places are telling everyone how good a job they are doing cleaning and sanitizing these cars but there was sticky shit on the console and there was a napkin between the seat and console. How good are they actually cleaning these cars?
Being late and a short trip there were no stops needed so I went right to the hotel.
The only hotel for this trip will be at Virgin (formerly the Hard Rock). I got an offer that was hard to refuse for $200 free play and $75 momentum dollars. Those are 1:1 for comps and 1:2 for free play, so worth another $150 in free play.
When I got there the check in area had a few people ahead of me but the line went quickly. I was assigned a room in the Ruby Tower, room 10517. This is billed as a suite but it's more like a mini suite. You enter into a short hallway with closets and a make up table. Once into the room there's a small living room with couches and a table and chairs along with a big screen TV. On the other side of the TV is the bedroom area with a ling bed with nightstands, and a dresser with another big screen TV on it.
The bathroom is huge with a glass wall separating the bathroom from the bed room. For privacy there is a curtain that can be pulled over the glass. The bathroom has dual sinks, a huge soaking tub, large walk in shower and separate toilet room.
The view of this room was of the parking garage. If you looked to the right some of the south strip and to the left valet area.
I threw my stuff into the room and then hit the casino for a little bit of play time. I stuck to penny games tonight but I was even too tired at this point to play much. No big hits or losses and won a few dollars.
I decided to get something to eat before wrapping it up . I went to The Kitchen. They were deep cleaning so had a limited menu. I opted for the Virgin Breakfast. Three eggs, hash brown, bacon or ham and toast. Add this place to the list of asshole places that are only serving 1 slice of toast with an egg breakfast. WTF? Is the 4¢ slice of bread going to lower your margins that much? Especially when this plate of crap is $18, I don't get it. The food was good but at $18 they should have fed it to me.
After I ate I came back to the room to wind down and wrap up day 1.
Total win/loss for the day + $6
Total Comps for the day $238
