I wake up on day fourteen, which just so happens to be my birthday, in my mini suite at Fremont hotel in beautiful Downtown Las Vegas. At midnight. Because the alarm was set for midnight, not by me. Argh. At least I got to wish myself a happy birthday at midnight?
Of course I cannot go back to sleep so I am out gambling at 1:00 am. I only brought $100 with me and I did pretty good!
The machines at Fremont wish you a happy birthday on your birthday.
I played Cleopatra Keno and turned a $20 into $80. Lost $100 on a combination of Ultimate X video poker and Supertimes Pay video poker.
I am back in my room at 2:22 am, make a wish! Mine is that Dunkin Donuts was open 24 hours for days/nights/mornings like these.
I am back up for real at 8:30. Shower, dressed and out the door at 9:45 with $200.
Someone is on my preferred Ultimate X video poker machine so I play the one behind it and lose $80. I grab McDonalds for breakfast because happy birthday? Then I head to Binions. I put $100 in Wonder Four Buffalo and actually cash out when I get down to $60 instead of going for broke. Then I lost the $60 in Cleopatra Keno. Back to Buffalo with my remaining $60 and lose that too. Fuck.
I head back to my room and there are a bunch of kids in the hallway trying to get their room door open. I could help, as it seems they cannot figure out how to use the room key. Instead I ask “Where are your parents?” and the only answer I get is frightened faces from kids who are now backing against the wall in fear. It is 1:54 pm.
I take a nap and am woken up by kids, who I assume are those same kids, SCREAMING like fucking lunatics. Holy shit this was so fucking loud.
I go out to gamble at Downtown Grand. I lose $100 in Cleopatra Keno, great job. Then I remember I have $25 free play. I lose that too.
I go back to my room for more cash and the hallway is filled with kids. WHY SO MANY.
I head over to Four Queens and sit down and realize my bag is open. Today is first Friday on Fremont Street so there are a million people out there. I am lucky no one ganked my walled out of my open bag.
There is $20 free play on my card and I have another $10 from Las Vegas Advisor. I play Lobstermania 3 for the first time and have a perfect session. I hit both bonuses and do not have to put my life’s savings in this machine just to see them.
I find Keno machines with carnival games on them, which are my favorite. They had Wolf Run Keno. It took forever to get the bonus and when I did, it was shitty. I switch to Cleopatra Keno and lose some more money. Switch to Double Double Bonus video poker and hit the sweet spot.
I head back to my room to sort my cash and the room next door is at it. Screaming kids now featuring screaming adults too. YAY.
Head back out for some dinner at Binions coffee shop. Some guy is actually complaining to a manager about the service here, and “You remember me from last week right? Looks like you haven’t fixed the issue. What can you give me to make me come back again?” Yikes. The service here is always great. I think to myself that I should tell the manager this. But at the end of my meal, my server asks me if I want a root beer to go and after I say yes, she never comes back again. I waited about 15 minutes. OH WELL.
I try playing Double Double Bonus video poker here but I am on a machine where the buttons are stuck so this proves impossible. I switch to Cleopatra Keno and she hates me. I stop at a Dragon Link slot machine on my way out and win $100. No photo.
I walked around a bit trying to find something to play but all the machines I love were taken. So I head back to Fremont. I hit 9s.
I stop back at the room and the kids have now exploded into the hallway. There are three open room doors with kids spilling out all of them. One is riding a razor scooter up and down the hallway. I look in one room and there are about ten kids sitting in there on the two beds being very loud. I situate myself while cursing the screaming kids and head back down at 12:40 am. This is when I see one of the open doors, with a woman in the doorway setting up a tent in the doorway. Oh hell fucking no. The rooms here are so fucking tiny. Does she plan on having the kids camping out in the hallway? There are SO MANY OF THEM.
I stopped at security on my way to gamble to tell them there was a party of all little kids going on in the hallway on the 6th floor. No idea what happened from there, but it was dead silent and all doors were closed when I made it back up there later on. It was also silent the entire next morning so maybe they got kicked out for having 9832748327 kids in rooms. I don’t know, I don’t care.
I played Ultimate X video poker for a bit. Nothing came from these full houses.
I went to play MY Cleopatra Keno / video poker machine and she was blocked off! What the hell.
I played the machine behind her, but this machine was not as friendly.
Off to bed at 2:20 am.
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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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