I stayed at Sam’s Town in Henderson over New Year’s Eve, 2020.  I had also stayed there a few year ago.  I enjoyed it both times.  It really has everything I need, most importantly, a Dunkin Donuts!  I don’t know if the Dunkin is open 24 hours in normal times.  It wasn’t during this stay, but this stay was during Covid where all bets were off.  Except the bets I made while gambling.  Degenerately.  Because degenerate.

I do wish Sam’s Town had a coffee shop other than TGIFriday’s though.

Sam’s Town is owned by Boyd.  I was able to book four comped nights over New Year’s Eve, which mostly came from my Downtown play.  I usually only hit and run here, once a year at most.  Sometimes I will even skip a year.

I took an Uber here from The D and it cost me $20.86.  My driver had never heard of Sam’s Town, which I thought was very odd. Continue reading →

Ah yes, I am beyond overdue in bringing you yet another 18 day trip report from Las Vegas at Christmas.

What is kind of amusing is that I am well aware that these do better when posted somewhat timely.  And you know what?  I could actually lie and tell you this trip was recent.  All I would have to do is leave out all mentions of Christmas, and avoid Bellagio conservatory photos (which I absolutely hate taking and editing) and you would never know.

But I can’t actually do that.  Because then how could I show you the Dunkin Donuts Christmas tree?!

Hotels for this trip:

California
Circa (on opening night!)
The D(ick)
Sam’s Town
Flamingo
Bellagio
Cosmopolitan
California x 2

I take an Uber to the airport.   I am still not used to doing this, since pre-Covid, I would take public transport.  I leave my apartment 4 hours before my flight.  I don’t have any idea what traffic is going to be like.  Yes, it is the night before a holiday weekend.  But it is also a pandemic.

Well I didn’t leave early enough, that’s for damn sure.  We sat in standstill traffic forever and I got to the airport 1 hour and 15 minutes before my flight, making the car ride 2 hours and 45 minutes.  For reference, I live 19 miles from JFK.

I keep saying next time maybe I’ll book a room at the TWA hotel before my flight.  Maybe next time I actually will?

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Circa is the first new construction hotel in Downtown, Las Vegas in 40 years.  All us Vegas addicts watched it grow higher and higher as it was being built.  Back in October, I and many others, visited the casino for the first time.  Well tonight, the hotel is open and I am here on day one.  Typing in the dark.  Because the sensor thing is not working.

I arrived here just before noon, walking over from the California Hotel.  I checked my bags and got incredibly excited.  I saw Derek Stevens outside welcoming people.

I had 3 hours to kill so I did that and came back.

First glitch was my check in.  I had booked through Orbitz so I could use some of my Orbitz cash.  Problem is the check in date.  See, Circa announced people booked for opening night could check in up to 48 hours early.  That would be me!   When it came time to check in, there was something going on behind the counter that took 45 minutes to fix.   No problem, that’s why you are letting people check in early, to work out the glitches.

Finally I am off to my room.  I cannot turn the lights on.  Or the air conditioning.  It is VERY hot in the room and also very dark.

I am sweating.

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WHY LAS VEGAS, WHY?   I don’t want to go home.  Today or ever.

I am up at 6:00 and out at 6:40.  I lost $100 on dollar Double Double Bonus video poker because that’s my thing now.

Over to Binions for breakfast, then to Fremont for iced coffee and Ultimate X video poker.
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LAS VEGAS!  I am awake at 7:00 at the California hotel Downtown.  I want to go back to bed but I am going home tomorrow so I need to soak up every last second here.

Breakfast was at Binions using their app.  I had a feeling that they were going to remove rewards from their app and they did shortly after I got home.  I still have five more rewards to claim, I will do that THIS WEEK because as I am typing this, I AM GOING BACK THIS WEEK MOTHER FUCKERS.

I stop at Dunkin Donuts for iced coffee and head over to The D.  I lost $100 on a Cleopatra Keno / video poker combo.  Another $100 on Buffalo.  Another $100 on a Dragon Link and $100 on Keno.  I am doing great.

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I am awake at 9:00 at the Bellagio hotel with my beautiful fountain view.   I don’t want to get out of bed because it is too comfortable.  I do have to get out of bed because nicotine fit.

On the way to breakfast, I lost $40 in Buffalo.  I hate that.  Not just because I lost, but because I have been having such a great run that I would hate to spend my last few days losing all my winnings.  Which would not be possible if I would stick to my budget.  But degenerate.

Breakfast was at Sadelle’s.  I confess, I don’t like this place.  I ate here back in December and my food smelled weird.  But I am going to try again because (a) I have dining credit with my offer and (b) people LOVE this place so maybe it was just a one off.

I place my order, the server says something to me that I don’t quite get and do that thing I do when I don’t understand people and just smile and nod.   As he is walking away, I realized he had asked me if I want a side of hash browns, which I didn’t.  But since I said yes…and that put me over my dining credit.

I get my coffee, but no spoon.  It took quite awhile to flag down my server for one.   The food was okay, but I don’t seem to have taken a photo.

I took some photos of the conservatory without actually entering it.  There is a long line to do so and I didn’t want to wait on it. Continue reading →

Las Vegas!  I wake up at Flamingo on day 13 at 6:30 am.

I grab some iced coffee at Starbucks, obviously, and head to my Buffalo slot machine, even more obviously.   Holy shit, she is not taking bills.   NOOOOOOOOO.   I hit every service button in the bank and someone came to  help me.   WHEW.

I bid her goodbye.  As much as I would love to keep traveling back here to see her, we all know how that goes.  I am honestly surprised she lasted so long as a winning machine.

One last shot at the Flamingo Buffalo went well too. Continue reading →