When we last left off, I had just had my biggest win of any Vegas trip. I went to my room for a break. But not for long because I have a ticket for Mystere, right next door at Treasure Island. I took some pretty photos on my walk over.
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.
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 wake up at Longhorn with ear pain left over from yesterday. It has now grown and I can feel it all the way in my jaw.
I get up and get dressed and go downstairs to…you thought I was going to say “gamble”, right? Well WRONG. I went to fucking Walmart. That’s right, I am crushing the American Dream. I am not sorry. Oh man. Walmart. This place was like a total tourist attraction for me. I live in New York City. We do not have Walmart. This place is insanely huge. I probably could have spent a day in here just marveling at everything. But I am on a mission to get ear drops so I can numb the knife that is stabbing me through my ear drum. It was so tempting to not go completely insane in here and buy everything.
I came back to the room and decided that today is laundry day. Okay I didn’t decide this, my lack of clean clothes did. Longhorn hotel has a laundry center, two washers and two dryers. I put my clothes in the washer and went to the casino.
I used two coupons I got at check in. One is for 2400 free points. I noticed the sign behind the counter with the food specials for points. I could get an entire meal with these points and still have some left over. This is a great deal. I also used a “play $5 get $10 free” coupon. That one works by handing a cashier the coupon and $5 and she hands you a TITO ticket for $10.
My alarm went off at 6:00 am this morning, on purpose. My brilliant logic was that since I am at Cromwell, I can simply walk across the street at an insanely early hour and get pictures of the Bellagio conservatory before everyone else wakes up. But when I woke up, I laughed at myself and went back to sleep. Now I am kind of annoyed because I am doing that thing where I have 20 days in Las Vegas and am somehow still not doing all the things I wanted to do. Like walk across the street and take pictures. Sigh.
I went downstairs for some coffee. I ended up drinking seventeen cups total during my stay here at Cromwell. That makes the resort fee kinda sorta almost not really fair.
Every gambler knows about the $200 cup of coffee. You go downstairs in the morning, you order a cup of coffee from the cocktail waitress. You lose $200 before she comes back with your coffee. Since Cromwell has free coffee, I am trading out the $200 cup of coffee for the $100 cigarette. The hotel is non smoking, so I can only smoke down here or outside. I am not going to go outside when there are video poker machines inside so…
My bed at Cromwell is probably the most comfortable bed on the planet. Because of this, I was actually able to sleep in a bit. I may have stayed in bed all day if this hotel allowed smoking. But since it does not, I need to get up and get dressed and go downstairs.
I made the mistake of looking into the mirror. Have you ever been so hung over that your eyes are completely bloodshot? Well I have that look going on, but I haven’t drank any alcohol since I arrived here. I also do not get hangovers, not even when I drink for twelve hours a day for four straight days at a fest. I am not sure what is going on here, but let’s just pretend we didn’t look in the mirror and go about our day, shall we?
I continue on my mission to consume as much free fancy schmancy coffee as I can, to offset the resort fee. On this morning’s third (or fourth or fifth?) cup, they ran out of milk. Sigh. Do not think that will deter me. This fancy schmancy machine has the option of adding steamed milk. SO I SHALL!
I played for a while on Ultimate X. I love this game, I love this particular machine. It allows me to actually play without sucking up all my money in the blink of an eye. Then I hit Aces with a multiplier. Wheeeeeee!
For nickels, figuring out how much you won is easy. Divide the number in half and knock off the last zero. So 2400 nickels = $120.
I finally make it to The Cromwell. I am insanely excited about this. I loved this place when it was The Barbary Coast. Hated it when it was whatever the hell stupid name they tried using after changing it from Barbary Coast. Am so curious to see what it looks like now.
View from outside:
And some bonus Strip photos since this is my first time on the Strip during this trip.
I am wide awake at the California hotel at 6:00 am this morning. I shower and get dressed and walk over to The D to use my $10 dining voucher. Fremont Street is empty except for me and the homeless.
I saw this sign which drove me nuts. It is a huge pet peeve of mine when people spell “Fremont” as “Freemont.” I even once saw someone spell it as “Freemount”. Although I guess since prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas, all mounts should be free. Yet whoever made this sign, must work on Freeeeeeeeeemont. And here we are.
Oh hey, the coffee shop doesn’t open until 8:00. Remember when these things used to be 24 hours? I have to use my credit today as it will be expired when I return Downtown later this trip. So I get some coffee from Dunkin Donuts and sit down at my favorite Supertimes Pay machine in all of Las Vegas, conveniently located right outside Dunkin Donuts.
This machine is my baby and I have not played her in a year. When I was here briefly in September, she was always taken. I am so glad to be reunited with her. She isn’t doing too good. Her screen is shot and fuzzy. Aw, poor baby.
This morning, I was wide awake at the California hotel at 5:00 am. I wanted to stick to my itinerary, which tells me to go to Santa Fe Station for breakfast. I almost didn’t. First, I am starving and don’t want to go all the way there. Second, when I went outside, holy shit. It is freezing out here. I mean FREEZING.
Let me explain something, I know that Las Vegas is cold in winter. I have been here every winter for the past twelve years. It is usually colder here than it is back in New York City when I am here. I have a winter coat with me. I get it.
But today it is so painful. Colder than normal. There is a wind storm going on that is blowing frozen knives into my skin. I am going to die. The only time i remember it being this cold in Vegas was during yet another wind storm in whatever year it was that my sister was here with me. I remember we went to the movies at Neonopolis and then had to run into Walgreens to warm up because simply stepping outside the theater was too much for us.
Much like summer “oh but it is a dry heat”, winter here is “oh fuck it is a wind storm.” Horrible. I almost turned around walking to the bus. Then I almost left the bus stop and said fuck this. But I stuck it out and my first trip to Santa Fe Station was on!
Here is something you should know about people who frequent Las Vegas: They all love to talk about how cheap a trip is, and how you will never find another city in the world where you can go and stay in beautiful hotels and eat fine dining, for even a fraction of the cost as Las Vegas. Note that I said “they” and not “we”. I used to be part of that group. I used to love the idea of staying in a nice hotel that I was comped in, versus paying $150/night for some shitty motel in Anywhereelse USA.
But then something happened. I started traveling outside the United States. Guys, I have to tell you something. The world outside of the United States is so much cheaper. Sure there are lots of countries you can travel to where the cost is relatively the same, or even higher than travel in the States. But then I went to Eastern Europe. And China. Suddenly, that “Wow, this is such a great bargain!” Las Vegas trip morphed into “Wow, for less than the cost of a two week trip to Vegas, I can spend six weeks in China!”
So I began vowing that every trip to Las Vegas would be my last. But see, I didn’t tell anyone this, except for my cute little stuffed dog. He doesn’t judge or hold me accountable for things I say, so I was free to break that vow at will.
