Note:  This is an older Las Vegas trip report that I am posting for the entertainment of Las Vegas addicts and anyone else who loves fun.  It was written back in 2008.  Most of this information is now outdated and some places mentioned no longer exist.

Sunday, December 21, 2008 – Day Ten of Twenty One

My trip is now half over. More whining about this in my notes.

I am up at the Riviera at 7:30. I go out to lose my $55 left over from last night. I put in and win:

Invaders From the Planet Moolah = $0
White Orchard = $20
Monopoly = $40

I don’t stop playing even though I think I am going to. I lose more in Invaders From the Planet Moolah and more in a Frog Princess slot machine. On my way back to my room i get a muffin and and a Diet Pepsi.

I check out, bill is $23.60 – from “What Happens in Vegas”, “Heroes” and the $3.81/night energy surcharge. Are you really still charging this? Jerks.

I leave my stuff at the Bell Desk and walk over to Sahara. The daily free pull gets me nothing. Invaders From the Planet Moolah gets me nothing. Double Double Bonus nickel video poker gets me 8’s.

My next stop is the Gold Coast buffet. I assume I did the 108 bus to the 202 bus to get there.

I have brunch with my American Casino Guide 50% off coupon. My server is awful. It was impossible for me to get a refill on my coffee. At one point she actually surfaced and had a coffee pot in hand. She started filling cups and when she got to me, the pot was empty. She never came back. I tipped her a dollar, which kills me because I have it in my head to not undertip even if they were terrible. But if you dont undertip, then what is their motivation to SERVE you? They get the same tip if they bring you no drinks or seven drinks. So I left the lonely dollar and walked out with guilt eating away at me.

Invaders From the Planet Moolah doesn’t love me so much today. It goes give me two hits, for $19 and one $34, but other than that, nothing. I play an eBay and get the community spin for $7.50.

I leave here up ten bucks.

It’s 1:35 as I wait for the 202 bus and this seems ridiculously early.

It is here that i decide to not gamble for the next two days, in order to make the budget for the following days bigger. I still have a cash machine option – there is close to $900 of my intended budget just sitting there that I can use at any time during this trip, but I don’t want to touch it.

I’m still gambling tonight though, you just try and stop me.

I stop by Planet Hollywood. Their daily free pull gets me nothing, daily slot tournament gets me a flashlight. It’s state of the art. I could not care less.

I also lose $55 here. It’s okay, I’m not gambling the next two days, right?

i take the Deuce bus to the Riviera, where I collect my stuff and get in a cab to go back downtown to the Golden Gate. The cab driver begins lecturing me on the Golden Gate being a bad place. He also asked me if I’ve been there before. Yes. He asks me how much I am paying to stay there. I tell him its comped. He still insists I don’t know what I’m in for there. Yes I do.  I just told you I am comped.  Clearly I have spent enough time there to earn said comp.  I know what I am in for.  SHUT UP.

Then as I’m not paying attention because I am texting furiously to try and get out of any further conversation with this guy, he pulls up at the Gold Spike instead of the Golden Gate. Before I could unleash all my pent up anger onto him, he realizes his error and takes me to the correct hotel. The fare was $13, gave him $15. I usually tip closer to $5 but it cost more because he went to the wrong hotel and he didn’t turn the meter off when rerouting to the right hotel.

Hello Golden Gate! I’m here on a three night offer that comes with free slot play. The check-in-ling is very nice. He tells me I can’t check in until I go to the slot club to get my voucher for the free nights. I don’t think they have bell service here, there certainly isn’t a Bell Desk. The check-in-ling takes my suitcase behind the counter so I can go get my voucher without lugging it through the casino. The player’s club booth-ling was VERY nice to me. She asked me if I had reservations and told me that people often show up to claim their voucher without realizing you need reservations and then they get screwed. She also told me free play is automatically loaded on your card so you don’t need to stop by for that.

Back to the front to the nice nice nice check-in-ling. I have encountered so many not-nice people on this trip so this is all such a great experience for me. I get room 348.

They have very recently redone the entire hotel and I am so excited to see what the new rooms look like.

Walking down the hallway, I reach the door to my room.  I notice that for some reason, the door is sunken in further away from the hallway than the other doors.

Here are the other room doors, coming straight from the hallway:

Here is mine, sunken in:I open the door and I instantly fall in love with this adorable room.  LOOKIT how adorable it is!

I am so in love with the windows.

They have flower boxes outside of them!

Day time view:

Night time view:

Yes, the room is small.  Look at the closet compared to my suitcase:

But I love it.  So far, my stay here has been so very pleasant and I’ve just gotten here!

I go downstairs with plans of spending only $55. I want Starbucks. On my way there, I pass through the Four Queens to do their free pull. I’ve been doing this for YEARS and I’ve never gotten a damn thing. Nothing changes this today.

I do lose $25 while walking through though. So no changes here either!

At Starbucks, I get a Venti Peppermint Mocha Frappucino and then head back to the Golden Gate. I activate my Las Vegas Advisor 5x points coupon and get going.

i lose $5 free play on a nickel video poker machine and then start putting my own money in a Hitchcock slot machine. WOW. I get a $74.20 bonus and then I hit for $181.10.  I took this before the credits stopped adding up:

I cash out with $255 and get it all in $5 bills . I go back to the room to situate myself and put money aside for the future. This means i dont have to do the two-day self imposed gambling boycott! Because you know, I was ever going to really do it anyway.

Once I’m done figuring everything out, I go back downstairs with a planned spending of $55, keeping the $200 to add to whatever is left of my budget for the next two days, which is practically nothing.

I kept a very detailed log of what I played for the rest of the night.

Reel Rich Devil – $5 to $30
lose $5 and stop

Crystal Forest – $5 to $10
lose $5 and stop

As I’m on Crystal Forest, a family with a kid walks by and the kid goes BOLTING to Invaders From the Planet Moolah. Scram, kid.

I then play Invaders From the Planet Moolah (neener neener, im over 21) and do $5 – $15 and then lose $5 and stop.

Monopoly – $10 turns to $0.

Hitchcock – $10 – $25
then lose $10 and stop

Super Aces Bonus Poker – get four 9’s – turns my $5 into a $10.

Wheel of Fortune – $10 – $0

White Orchard $10 – $15, then lose $10

Wizard of Oz – $10 – $0

Monopoly $20 – $0

Double Stampede – $5 – $0

Crystal Forest $10 – $0

Club Moulin Rouge $5 – $10. I hate this game so i dont try again.

Hitchcock:
$10 – $15
$120 – $15
$10 – $20
$10 – $0
$10 – $0
$10 – $0
$10 – $0

I should keep records like this every day I gamble. I kind of like noting where it was I went degenerate. Maybe if I do this more often, I can stop myself in the future.  Right

I hit my room for a break at 9:00 with gummy bears and a Diet Pepsi. Dinner of champions.

Once I get to my room, I begin to feel very ill. I didn’t even get to eat my “dinner” that would have made that little kid more jealous than he was that I was able to play Invaders From the Planet Moolah. I’m all shaky and I feel kind of dizzy. My hands look so weird – blue veins popping out all over the place.

I decide to shower and crawl into bed with clean pajamas. This is when I realize the shower is tiny and has no door or curtain. It’s just a sunken in the floor type thing.  See it to the left of the sink?

I also notice at this point that the bathroom counter around the sink is about to fall off. The room clock also runs fast, as in if I reset it to the correct time, it will not stay at the correct time, because it keeps running fast.

I have to turn it backwards so I don’t wake up and get confused.

I’m asleep by 11:00.