Day twelve is here. I wake up at Paris. Despite last night’s itch fest and a surprise trip to CVS in the middle of the night, I am up at around 8:00. I take a trip to CVS to get some drinks. I do not stop at Buffalo.
I am checking out of here today and moving to Luxor for one night. I do not like staying at MLife properties because I am a smoker and they do not have smoking rooms. Yes I know, Bellagio has one smoking floor. I tried getting a room on it when I stayed there and failed. But my Luxor offer has $40 free play and $50 dining credit AND I got a one bedroom suite. Bonus, I can travel between Mandalay Bay, New York, New York and Excalibur to collect MyKonami free plays, while having a home base to go back to in case I hate wearing the mask while traveling between them.
I used mobile check in and I have to say, this was pretty cool. I did not even need to stop at the front desk. They even send you directions on how to get to your room. I did have a bit of an issue trying to get the elevator to stop at my floor because I could not get it to read the barcode for my floor. I think this was probably user error. Happened again when I got to my room. This + I really don’t want to keep holding my phone up to the sensor in the elevator during a pandemic = I ended up getting a physical key at a kiosk when I went back down.
Luxor room 13345. 100% wasted on me.
Closet with a safe up so high I almost could not reach it.
And the view.
I went downstairs to get my free play. I have $40 with my room offer, $25 with my MyKonami reward and $20 birthday free play, which I almost had to fight for. You cannot get this if you are on a corporate birthday offer. I am not. This took some back and forth before they agreed to load it to my card.
I went to the Pyramid Cafe and left my name and number for them to text me when they had a table ready. Then off to Buffalo Wonder 4!
Something was wrong here. I was playing $4.80/hand but it was only giving me $1 free play back per hand. Then it started giving me $4.80. The only thing I can think of is that the birthday free play is limited to $1/hand? I don’t know. I did get a nice win though, on free play(ish – because I was losing $3.80 on the hands it only gave me $1 on)
As I was taking the photo of the TITO, I got a text that my table was ready at Pyramid Cafe. Perfect timing!
After eating, I got a trenta iced coffee from Starbucks. Mmmmm. Starbucks.
I played some Ultimate X Double Double Bonus video poker. I won $20 and then lost $20 and went up to my suite to deposit some winnings in my insanely high up safe. Not before cashing out of course, which was a whole calamity. I put a ticket and nothing came out. NOTHING CAME OUT. What the fucking fuck. I have $300 in there! No error message, nothing. I look around to find an employee. None. I run over to a bank of slots and hit the service button on all of them. No one comes. I start panicking. What if I don’t get my money back?
I have no fucking idea what the fuck triggered my brain, but after waiting a bit, I realize that the cash did come out, and I had put it in my wallet. And then immediately after forgot? And flipped out? Does anyone know if you can overdose on Cortisone cream and black out?
YIKES.
I sat in my suite a bit to charge my phone. It is 2:01 pm. I go back out with $200.
I lost $40 at Luxor while looking for the walkway to Mandalay Bay. I got my $25 MyKonami free play loaded at Mandalay Bay and lost that, and then some cash on top of it. I hate Mandalay Bay. I always lose my money in less time than it takes to smoke a cigarette. I make an executive decision to never come here again. Which sucks because I love everything about this place except for the fact it always steals my money. As I am typing, I am 26 days away from my next trip to Vegas. I will not even purchase a MyKonami reward from here. I would actually love to stay here again though. The rooms are super nice and right now, I can get a comped night in an Executive King room, which looks incredibly nice. It comes with $65 free play and $25 dining, which outweighs the resort fee. I don’t even care if I lose my future comps with MLife so it would be perfect for a relaxing night during a long trip. But I can’t smoke in the room. And I cannot smoke in the casino for less than $100 for the amount of time it takes to smoke a cigarette. So I guess I won’t do that.
OH. WELL.
From here, I take an Uber to New York, New York because fucking walking either outside in 113 degree weather or inside through the maze of malls. My Uber driver had a lot of ideas of ways I could get toilet paper in Las Vegas to bring back home to New York with me. I am not sure how or why we got on this topic. I stalked Amazon and managed to get two cases of toilet paper delivered and will not run out in all of 2020. But…thanks?
I went to get my MyKonami free play loaded and someone cut me on the MLife desk line. I yell “YOU CUT ME” and the woman actually says “Oh well” and I wish her death.
I went to Starbucks and had to say my order 832483274 times. I wanted a pineapple coconut drink, sans Matcha. After explaining this quite a few times, the woman had to call someone over and I had to verify that yes, I just want pineapple and coconut milk. No Matcha. Next time I will just get the Matcha.
The drink was very delicious. Kind of like a virgin Pina Colada.
I went a bit degenerate on Buffalo with my free play. On my last hand, I was really hoping for a big bonus. Instead I got 2 9s which got me a very small blep sound that this guy lip synced for me.
I walked over to Excalibur to get my last MyKonami free play reward loaded. I also got my birthday free play. This was a slight success!
Back to Luxor where I got this:
Nice.
I moved over to SuperTimes PayDouble Double Bonus video poker. I got 5s with a 5x multiplier. I was trying to get a photo without the glare. A security guard told me no photos were allowed. I took one anyway because fuck you I won’t do what you tell me, but it unfortunately it came out horribly because I was not free to try better.
My Aces came out tiny too. Thanks Luxor security dude!
It is now 6:30. I decide to go up to the room for a bit. I am up $120 from the $200 I originally left my room with.
I took a shower and kind of sort of not really got ready for bed. I knew this would not be it, even though I was okay with it being the end of the night. But I had to smoke a cigarette before going to sleep.
I lost $100 on my Buffalo machine from earlier. I moved back to SuperTimes Pay. I played for hours without any photo worthy wins, but enough smaller ones to keep me going. A guy was playing behind me, telling the cocktail waitress it was his birthday. Oh hey, mine is in two days! Let’s celebrate! Except only inside my own head because I do not like to speak to people.
I was in bed by midnight.
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I love reading your trip reports even if this one is from August. I’ve been itching to go to Vegas since July but having to stay home two weeks afterwards is a no go for me unless I’m able to work remote from home. I will get to if the infection rate reaches 3% in the city. I hope to run into you at some point either in nYc or Vegas so you can teach me how to earn all those Vegas comps or you can use the binions food credit on me! Enjoy your next trip in a few weeks. Jealous!
I am fortunate that I am working from home (or Vegas) for now. I may go again at Christmas / New Years since I have 2 four day weekends in a row. I feel like if you want comps at Binions, all you have to do is breathe inside and they accumulate on your card 🙂
wow- such a good report – even with having to work — but now you are on vacation… I love this report since this is all the traveling I will be doing for a while..
Thanks Nancy! I am surprised I did not hate working in Vegas. Who knew?
Oh goody! I love to see Jennifer putting her life on a shelf in Las Vegas in my inbox! Let me get a vanilla Crown and diet coke and settle in for a good read!
LOVE this!
wow- you have had some decent hits — keeps you going.
haha- putting the hot dime in your bra…surprised the host called and gave you the $30…but glad you accepted it as a win… never stayed at Paris but it looks nice
Nice TR! Did your itching areas has red dots? I had it the Hawaii a few years ago and it turned out to be sun poisoning. I’m thinking it’s age catching up to get even for all that time roasting in the sun when you’re younger.
Seems like downtown was much nicer to you than the strip slots.
I didn’t have red dots, but it did occur to me it might be sun poisoning. I was barely outside, but considering there are weeks in a row where the only time I leave my apartment is to throw out garbage, my body is not used to the sun at all.
Downtown is my favorite. But when you are losing, you have to get out of there because it is too easy to just keep going. At least on the Strip, a walk to the casino “next door” takes a bit and breaks it up.
I loved your trip report, as always. You have such an interesting style of writing!! I was there for a week in June, staying at the Plaza, just before the mask mandate was announced.
We had a great time staying downtown. I am not a strip type of person at all, I prefer the likes of the Orleans and/or Palace station for my play. I always play video keno, rarely do I play pennies.
I’ll look forward to your October trip. I Hope the Flusher visits again soon also, but with Canada being closed, it’s not likely.
Thanks Janice! I think Flusher is waiting for a vaccine. There’s the whole issue of not being covered for Covid if you are traveling from Canada. It really seems unfair.
I keep staying on the Strip because I am Diamond, so no resort fees. And MLife likes me right now, but they won’t after they realize I keep stiffing them. But I want to get some content to start doing hotel reviews. May as well before those comps all dry up.
I will miss Vegas this year for the first time since 1969, well over 200 trips since. I’m bummed, pissed and depressed. So I stopped reading blogs and trip reports. That is, till yours came up on FB. I loved the shit out of it. So much so, that I promise not to hate vegas until I can go again myself. I stopped writing my own trip reports about 4 years ago. But maybe I will now be inspired! Thanks so much….
Rick1323
I am so sorry you are missing out on Vegas this year! I love looking back on older trip reports so I can see a common theme of what causes my degeneracy and I always find something I had forgotten about. I definitely recommend writing them even if you keep them to yourself.
My morning was so great because I got to read an entire trip report from you! So happy you had a winning tip and another in the wings! Keep finding pennies!
Thanks so much Cathie!
Nice report!
We went last July and despite COVID, had a great time as usual. Our next trip is Oct 27 – Nov 3 so we will be there the same time as you. Were at Bally’s and then GVR. We usually stay the 2nd leg of the trip at the Cal but Boyd has pissed me off with their lack of points for VP.
I am actually considering the Cal for this trip because I want to start doing hotel reviews and I have not stayed there in awhile. But it is not as close to the Dunkin Donuts as Fremont. I might die.
“The machines here only have seats at every other machine. Some guy pulls a chair next to me and asks me if I like the machine I am playing. Go die. I asked him if he wanted the machine and he said no. So like…don’t do that.”
lol, your trip reports always crack me up. As a woman who likes to go to Vegas to actually GAMBLE, I can relate. There’s always some drunk douche at least once a night, and I’m like, uh, no, you are getting in my way of losing money.
Hahah YES, I love this! You are getting in the way of my losing money! Go away and stay away.
Jennifer, you crack me up every time. I laughed out loud when you described your door kick stretch fake out move. Are any buffets still open in Vegas?
Hi Joanne!
The only buffets currently open are Cosmopolitan and South Point. I know nothing about how South Point is operating. At Cosmo, there are barriers up at the buffet to keep you away from the food. You point from 6 feet away at what you want, and an employee grabs it and puts it on your plate. I assume they also have limited options.
I didn’t want this to end but its only 10 days until you are back again…. I know I already commented a few times on this report but so what? I want to say I want to stay at the Luxor next time I am in LV… haven’t stayed there in years but always had fun times in that casino and your stay there reminded me of that… I can’t imagine what all those kids were doing – sounds like they were camping! crazy…
Oh I cannot wait to be out of here! I am staying at Luxor again on my first night. This time in a pyramid room. I have a lot of comps I normally would not have (Bellagio, Aria, etc) and am considering doing a mega trip and trying to get current photos of all rooms so I can do reviews. Some of my room photos are 15 years old by now! I tried planning it out and realized sadly that even 31 days in Vegas is not enough to do all of this AND also, degenerate gamblers should probably not go to Vegas for 31 days.
At one point before, you had mentioned that this trip might not happen, but I’m so glad it did. Once again, another great report. I lost track, but I’d like to think maybe you came out a little ahead from playing. Either way, I think the trip was definitely worth it. I was unable to get out to LV this year; to many hassles after the Covid closures, so waiting until next years seemed like the right move for me. You did it and had your usual great time. Good for you. Thanks again, and I know the next trip will be just as great or better.
PS; your quote about the Fremont; ” Noticeably gone is the cantaloupe scented cleaner. Whatever they are using instead, smells like Raid. ”
You. Are. The. Best.
You. Are. The Best.
Thanks for the kind words! I did NOT come out ahead, but just a tiny bit under. I hope my next trip can fund my December trip. Crossed fingers!
And it really does smell like Raid. HATE.
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