Good morning from the Bellagio hotel! When we last left off, I was having an issue with redeeming my free play reward from MyVegas. I figured I could go try again this morning.
I stopped for some photos of the Bellagio conservatory. One poor bear was getting brain surgery.
Good morning from the wonderful Orleans hotel and casino, located in fabulous Las Vegas. If you are just joining us, you may want to start at the beginning of this report, which you can find here.
I slept with the bathroom door closed, which meant the bathroom window did not wake me up by screaming “LOOK AT ME! THE SUN IS OUT!”
I had intended to get up early, go use a MyVegas reward for breakfast, and then come back and check out. Instead, I gambled.
I stopped at Java Vegas, where the line was so very long. GIVE. ME. MY. COFFEE. PLEASE.
I gambled around Orleans and did not win anything because only winners win and I am a loser. I said a last goodbye to all my favorite machines and went upstairs to grab my stuff.
I looked at my bill on the television and I owed $1.87. I went and counted out $1.87 in change to pay at the front desk. That is a thing I have noticed while in Vegas, the accumulation of change. Once I started getting comped everywhere, I stopped using cash daily. So all that change you collect when you play slots and cash out with change, just grows and grows. I used to use it to pay change on bills at restaurants, gift shops, etc. Now I just use my slot card and watch as my wallet grows fatter in the wrong compartment.
As I get ready to hand over my $1.87, the guy at the front desk asks if I want to use my points to pay for the charge. YES. Oops. I guess I will use this change to pay for the bus.
I go outside and walk to the bus stop. You walk the entire parking lot, which is ginormous. Then you cross Arville, which is easy peasy. Then you cross Tropicana, which takes forever. And of course, during the time you are waiting for the light to say “walk” your bus comes and leaves while you just stand there on the wrong side of the street, watching it pull away without you.
If you are just joining us, this is a Las Vegas trip report for my annual Christmas trip to Las Vegas. You can find part one here.
Despite going to bed at 3:00, I am up and wide awake at 6:15. Nope, not because I am in Vegas. Not because of the time change. And not because the machines are screaming my name. But because of the bathroom window.
See, Orleans has windows in their showers. That means that while you are showering, you can have this pretty view.
Although I wouldn’t suggest maybe viewing it WHILE you are showering. If you can see these car windows, then the drivers can see you. Or maybe you are a voyeur. In which case, get thee to Orleans NOW!
If you are a regular here, you know that every year I vow I am done going to Las Vegas. The more I travel the world, the more I want to keep traveling the world. Las Vegas takes away from that. Not even just in time off, but in budget. If you are a believer that “Las Vegas is the cheapest destination in the world!”, you may want to fact check that. I am not at all trying to talk anyone else out of not going to Las Vegas. I would never do that. But for me personally, having traveled outside of America, I realize that all the times I proudly stated “Las Vegas is the cheapest place on Earth to visit!”, I was mistaken. It is a cheaper destination in the United States. And yes, you can win enough to cover your meager costs. AND YES OF COURSE, if you want to go to Las Vegas ten times a year, then by all means, you should do exactly that. I however, do not wish to do that.
So why am I going again? Fate is making me go.
Last January I was supposed to fly to Chicago. That flight got cancelled because of a blizzard. I used the flight credit to book a flight to Niagara Falls over the summer. That flight got cancelled because of a thunderstorm. I was left with JetBlue credit that needed to be used by the date of the first cancelled flight back in January. I did not want to take a long trip in January. Or any trip at all in January. Why would anyone want to use up their vacation time so early in the year?
But I am a cheap fuck and I could not let that flight credit go.
I already had the week of Christmas off from work. Now I have a “free” plane ticket. Then MyVegas* went and put out two night rewards at MGM properties. Here is my chance to spend two nights at Bellagio for free. FINE. I’LL GO. BUT I WON’T LIKE IT.
I woke up at 6:15 am. I was tired and thought I should go back to bed, but we all know how this goes, right? GAMBLE.
I went out to get some iced coffee at Starbucks. I meant to time the walk, but forgot. My guess is that it is about ten minutes? I got a trenta iced coffee (that is a size up from large) and a McDonalds breakfast sandwich and went back to the room….where I immediately dropped my trenta iced coffee. It landed upside down, which was good in that it didn’t all spill out since the top was on it. But was bad because it made the straw shatter and there were a million tiny green plastic pieces now floating in my coffee. No no no no no no no no noooooooooooooooooooo. NOT MY TRENTA ICED COFFEE YOU BASTARD.
UGH.
DEATH.
NO.
BAH.
BAD.
Once upon a time I was booked for a trip to Europe, for a fest. As it got closer and the lineup didn’t get anywhere near as great as I had come to expect it to be, the less I wanted to go. Finally I threw in the towel, but decided to keep two days off work to get a break. Where oh where should I go with this newly found free time? Oh hey, GAMBLING sounds good.
My last day in Las Vegas starts at the Four Queens hotel. My handwriting is horrible so it appears as if I either started the day off by going to Petco, or Petra. I most certainly did not travel to a pet store, nor did I travel to the country of Jordan. If anyone has any ideas where I actually was, feel free to let me know!
I had breakfast at Magnolias at Four Queens, to use up my comps here. I wanted to play live Keno, but it was not open this early. Is this even possible? Why am I having such a horrible time playing live Keno in Las Vegas? The house odds are very high, why would you not want me to give you my money?
I walked over to Fremont for Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and my last time visiting my favorite SuperTimes Pay machines here. I was hoping for a parting gift here. These have been my favorite STP machines for as long as I have been playing video poker. I visit them on every trip. You would think that would count for something, but my babies felt that they were the ones who deserved the parting gift, and happily accepted it in cash form.
I played some Ultimate X. I did:
$35 – $60
$25 – $60
$20 – $70
$20 – $0
$20 – $0
$20 – $40
$20 – $0
This morning, I woke up at the California hotel in Downtown Las Vegas for my last full day in Las Vegas. Aw.
I walked over to The D for breakfast, using a voucher from a mailer. I had French Toast. It was really good and after the $10 voucher, cost me $1.35. I miss when this casino loved me and sent me offers. OH WELL.
I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for some iced coffee and then played in Binions. Last full day = slot play to win big = $216 win.
I tried playing Double Double Bonus video poker on quarters, but the stupid button was stuck so I had to keep slamming it. I just cashed out. Got my voucher for a deck of cards, threw out my voucher for a deck of cards and headed back to California. I am ending a two night comped stay here and have yet to put any money through any Boyd machine. This is the beauty of knowing you are not coming back, you do not have to keep your comps. I ran through $60 and got nothing.
I am at California hotel in Downtown Las Vegas. I didn’t sleep all that well because I am on a party floor. There are several rooms with what appears to be a very large, extended family, who are celebrating their “Most Important People on Earth” win and being the most important people on Earth, they have no reason to consider that anyone else may be trying to sleep. Must be nice!
Today I am headed to the Strip. I want to eat breakfast at Planet Hollywood and visit my beloved Riviera. Breakfast is $10 off with the Las Vegas Advisor coupon. I had some comps as well and it ended up costing me $1.07.
There is only one other table near me with people at it. Either my server was invisible or I was, because I only saw her one time. That’s okay though because this buffet has smoothies.
After eating, I got an iced coffee from Starbucks and walked across the street to Bellagio. I wanted to play in Cosmopolitan, but I had only been inside one time during this trip and lost money. I love Cosmopolitan too much to risk losing a second time and killing my extreme love for this place forever.
This morning I woke up at Longhorn casino. I am up and out by 9:00. I go down to the casino and play. I am playing quarter Double Double Bonus video poker. I want to be playing four card Cleopatra Keno. There is only one of those open and I instinctively know that if I sit there, between two people, at least one of them is going to ask me for a cigarette. Turns out I didn’t even have to sit there as one came over to me to ask me for one. I hate that so much. I don’t know what it is about casinos that make complete strangers feel like it is okay to ask you to give them something you paid for with your own cash.
I gave him a cigarette and then said fuck it, I guess I can now sit at Cleopatra Keno. As I am playing, the cigarette grubber gets a phone call. He asks me where he is at, so he can tell the caller where he is. “Longhorn.” “What?!?” “LONGHORN.” He leaves, putting out the grubbed cigarette directly on the machine. Not in any of the billions of ashtrays sitting around. Longhorn literally has a clean ashtray on EVERY machine at all times, every single machine, every single time.
I am playing and I am doing pretty well. No HUGE wins, but I doubled a few $20 bills. I thought I had $70 in wins. When I got back to the room, I only had $50 in wins. I am pretty sure I dropped money somewhere. The TITO machine was spitting my money out so that it did not land in the tray and I caught a loose $20 falling to the ground. I think I may have missed another one. I sure as all hell hope it was found by someone other than that jerk who put his cigarette out on the machine.