Las Vegas Travel Blog: Yes, I Packed 9 Hotels Into an 11 Night Stay

Ah the life of Las Vegas travel blogging. While posting my most recent Las Vegas trip report, I mentioned I had planned to link to past photos I have taken of the rooms at Fremont.  But it seems I didn’t have any posted?  I found it impossible to believe I have never taken room photos of the rooms at Fremont.  I went to my poor, old PC to see what was left on there and found 23 Las Vegas Trip reports I never put up.

Did somebody mention Las Vegas trip reports?

I always joke that I am such a creature of habit that I could probably post an old trip report as current and just not mention the year and no one would even realize.  Boy was I wrong.  Reading this was so weird.  I was on the cusp of morphing from degenerate slot player to degenerate video poker player.  I was much more of a low roller and apparently my biggest lifetime hit was a whopping $300.  I also used to love cabs and paying for meals.  Who knew?

And back we go to 2005…

Well I’m back from 11 nights in Vegas and I wish I weren’t!

I stayed at nine hotels this trip:

Stratosphere
Golden Nugget
Luxor
The Hotel (before it was Delano)
Monte Carlo (before it was Park MGM)
Westin
Circus Circus
Plaza
Fremont

As I am posting this on my blog in 2020, let me just say that I used to move hotels pretty much every night in an attempt to stay in every hotel.  I loved doing this. I still love doing this and move hotels often. Anything longer than three nights in the same room seems boring to me.

It is okay if you don’t like moving hotels during a trip. You don’t have to. But since I like it, I do it.

Overall, this was a great trip. I am a very low roller. My daily budget was $175 and every day with the exception of one day, I hit for at least $100.  Being that this was 50% of my entire day’s bankroll, I felt rich!  I didn’t come home with any of my winnings mind you, but it was really nice to have that extra playing money.  It was also nice waking up in the morning with a bit of extra cash to play with.  So, I’ve decided that it is time to up my daily budget to $200/day and I will start that on my next trip.

I hit four Royal Flushes on this trip!  But none of them were “real”.

2020 called, it wants you to know that it pains me to look back on how I used to play when I was green to video poker.  I almost want to delete all of this and act like it didn’t happen. But it is a good reminder as to what it is like to be a newbie to something.

The first Royal Flush was on a 3-way machine and I got it on the third way.   600 quarters (I was not playing maximum coins).  My second was on a penny 100 play. I got a whopping $2.50 for that one.  Same with my third!   My fourth royal netted me $40.  I feel that I have now had enough practice and am ready to take on a real royal.

Not only did I get approached by my very first time share person, I also got approached by my second AND my third!  How very annoying!  I guess my age is finally showing.

I want to take one last moment to point out that this report is nearly a full page and I haven’t even left for the airport yet.   I wasn’t kidding when I said it would be long.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 – Day One

Today I work a full day and then take the AirTrain to JFK Airport.  Too bad the plane didn’t take the AirTrain because it ended up being 25 minutes late.

We are supposed to arrive in Las Vegas at 10:00pm and instead arrive at 10:30pm.  No big deal as I flew JetBlue and I had television.

I decide to shuttle to the Stratosphere.  There is actually a long line at check in.  For some reason, I find my longest check in lines are late at night. I check in and get room 20846 in the Premier Tower. Nothing the least bit exciting about it.

Feast your eyes on what rooms at Stratosphere looked like back in 2005!
I head to Lucky’s Café with the fun book I got while checking in and I saved $2.29 on my soda.  I get their prime rib special.   I vow to eat prime rib every night I’m in Vegas.  I don’t think I ever had it again this trip. That’s how it goes in Las Vegas though. You never do get to do everything you want to do, or that you planned to do.

I had a bag of quarters and a bag of nickels I lugged with me from New York.  I couldn’t find any machines to take these at Stratosphere, although to be fair, I wasn’t looking too hard.  It was my first night and I just wanted to PLAY.  I tried some video poker and lost.  I tried a quarter slot machine named Kazoingo and lost. I played a new IGT penny slot machine called Party Fantastico that was less than fantastic. I was in bed by 1:30.

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