Thursday, December 18, 2014: Day Three of Thirteen
This morning I got up at 7:00 to get my day started. I planned to eat breakfast at the Bellagio buffet. I have not eaten here and years and wanted to treat myself.
I walked over from MGM since honestly, it is the quickest way to go. Public transportation here is awful. Even when it is available, it takes forever to go ten feet. I took pictures along the way.
Monte Carlo done up for Christmas, and a random gingerbread house:
Time for breakfast at Bellagio! It is odd to me that people always say “how bad can you screw up breakfast” in regards to lower end properties. Uh, you could have your scrambled eggs be sitting in a huge vat of raw eggs. Like I saw today at this fancy high end buffet. Gross.
Everything else was good and would have been more enjoyable if some woman had not been staring at me. I even stared back and she won the staring contest. At some point, the boy next to her stood up and blocked her view of me so she craned her neck around him. I thought okay, maybe there is a Keno board behind me and that is what she is looking at. I turn around, there is nothing behind me. I mouth “Fuck you” at her and she turned away. For a few seconds. And then turned back. Sigh.
After breakfast, I played some Cleopatra Keno. Surprisingly enough, the Bellagio may just have the best paytable I have ever seen for this game. I ended up cashing out at $75.
Next up is a spa treatment. When I booked it, I really wanted the reflexology massage. It was a combo with an Ionic Dexox foot bath. What is an Ionic Detox foot bath? Well they hook you up to a machine while your feet are soaking in water and supposedly this machine does a fine job of extracting toxins in your body, through your feet. The internet tells me this is a hoax, but who cares? The Reflexology part was what I wanted, it was cheap and bonus! If this fairytale detox works and takes all the bad luck out of my body, I win! Literally!
Some pictures I took walking from Bellagio to the bus stop. The Cromwell, which used to be whatever the hell they renamed the Barbary Coast, which used to be the Barbary Coast:
I always forget how the world outside of New York exists. I got off the bus and there is a huge shopping center. I walked all around it until I realized I was on the wrong side of Flamingo. In New York, we don’t have all these super wide roadways and shopping malls. You walk on a sidewalk and can see the numbers without having to go through a ginormous parking lot looking for the numbers on the stores in the Strip mall. Then you realize that you need to go to the other side of Flamingo, which means crossing ten lanes of traffic. This is not what I am used to and it is things like this that forever remind me that as much as I want Las Vegas to be a public transport type of city, it just really is not.
Finally, it is spa time! My Ionic Detox turned the water in the foot bath practically black. The woman working there told me this is a sign that my body is very toxic and I should probably start getting detoxed on a regular basis. I decided to not tell her that I saw a demonstration on Youtube of water turning a dark color with no feet in it. I did enjoy my Reflexology massage, to the point that I pretty much cancelled out the rest of my day to go back to my room and take a nap since I was so relaxed.
My plans had been to go from the spa to Sam’s Town. The spa was on Flamingo, far west. So all I had to do was stay on the bus and go far easy. But my hotel bed was calling so I did that.
When I woke up later on, it was time to start free play day, many hours late. I started with $50 at MGM Grand that I got from MyVegas. I quickly turned this into $100 from a combination of nickel SuperTimes Pay and Cleopatra Keno.
After this wonderful go at Free Play Day, I changed up my route and was going to do Hooters next, and then take the bus to Sam’s Town and make my way back from there. After losing my free play on Cleopatra Keno, I tried a Family Guy slot machine. It ended up being one of those nights. You put a $20 into a machine and the next thing you know, many hours have passed and you still have your $20. I hit every bonus except Stewie’s Progressives. I had so much fun just sitting there. The next thing I knew it was midnight and I was starving. I never did eat lunch or dinner. I made the executive decision to not continue on free play day, being that at the rate I was going, I would be hitting casinos with the likelihood of the Player’s Club booths being closed. So back to MGM I went, passing by to the food court next door and getting Wendy’s for dinner. In Las Vegas. In a town I have lots of comps and yet somehow overpay for fast food from time to time. Sorry, not sorry.
Here was my failed itinerary of the day:
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Breakfast: Bellagio 7-11
Spa 11:00
Free Play Day!
Gold Coast $10 LVA
Tuscany $10 ACG
Ellis Island $10 ACG
Ellis Island $10 LVA
Gold Coast $10 LVA – play 200 points ACG buffet
Lunch:
Dinner: Sams Town LVA 200 points = free, 4-9
Sam’s Town $10 LVA
MGM Grand $50 MyVegas
Hooters $10 LVA
Hooters $10 ACG
“The Cromwell, which used to be whatever the hell they renamed the Barbary Coast, which used to be the Barbary Coast”. Oh how I miss the Las Vegas of yesteryear. Westward Ho, Sahara, Frontier, Stardust etc.
I find more and more that although the hotel theme is different, the casinos of the new Vegas are all the same on the inside. This is why I still enjoy Fremont St where I can still find a video poker machine that I can actually stick a quarter into when I am trying to slow my play. Years ago, I was perplexed as to why even though penny slots are abundant, I was spending more money than ever. It then occurred to me that the old machines, where you had your bucket of nickels, quarters and dollars, the machines only took a maximum of three coins. It physically took longer to place a wager and pull the handle. Now, the machines inhale in my bill, stimulate my endorphins with flashing lights, sounds and I’m sure subliminal scents, and suck me into playing 500 pennies at a time. This one transaction takes less than 5 seconds. On my return home, usually after a loss, I crave broccoli because I haven’t eaten one nutritional item in 4 days, I am dehydrated and fatigued, and I say to myself loudly “THAT IS IT, MAYBE FOREVER!!!!!” Two days later, I am back on the internet looking for cheap flights to get me back. (and craving fried chicken) Here’s the kicker…when I am home, I am frugal. I research the best value for an item I plan to buy and refuse to spend more than $30 for a pair of jeans, which by the way, will probably last me more than 10 years. AND YET, when I am in Vegas, somehow I am okay with losing $100 in 20 min ($116 converted to Canadian dollars) and walking away with absolutely nothing to show for it. No receipt, no bag. Nothing. Zip. Notta. Zilch. Make sense? While I’m there, it actually does. 🙂
It makes total sense when you are there. You are there to gamble so therefore you gamble. When you win, it makes even more sense. I like being able to take all my change and put it into a machine at the end of my trip. I got to do that this time at The D with my quarters in a Sigma Derby.
I never buy anything at home so that I can travel so much. It has been hitting me more and more that these Vegas trips are really keeping me from doing that. Although I will confess I checked airfare when I got home. Even though I have no vacation time available in 2015 (It’s already been booked for other places so that I could not use it for Vegas, sigh)
That new casino that is going across from Encore – Resorts World – will have a China theme! I miss themed casinos so much and CHINA really has me excited. There is just nothing that sets these places apart once you are inside any longer. Bring back themes!
wow – I can’t get over the woman staring at you at the Buffet – I would have had to go over and ask her why she was staring…did she think she knew you?
I have no idea what this woman’s deal was. I should have asked her.
Love your blog! I live in Vegas, and work at the spa at Caesars. I would love to hook you up there some day! 🙂
Joanie
Thanks Joanie! It will be a while before I am back again.
I miss Vegas so damn much. It’s been 5 years since I’ve been. I hope my 2016 trip ends up happening.
Five years is an insane amount of time.