Day 9 sees me up at 8:00 am at Paris hotel. Early morning reflection of the Eiffel Tower in the Paris pool.
I wake up at 8:00 am, am out by 9:00 am. The lines for coffee options are both super long but I have to wait on one of them or else I will just DIE.
Since there is no housekeeping, people are putting their trash out in the hallway, myself included.
I play some Wonder 4 Buffalo / 5 Dragons and lose $100 before breakfast. This is bad, but yet also not as bad as it could have been.
Breakfast is at Hexx. I have never eaten here before, which is why I picked it. I had a cinnamon roll waffle and got syrup all over my shirt. Wonderful. Am I the only person who cannot figure out how to eat anything with syrup and not get it all over themselves? I tried making my napkin into a bib one time and just got white lint all over myself. How do people do this? How I am almost 50 and cannot do this?
I am offered an iced tea to go, which I love.
I stop at the Buffalo machine that gave me a W2-G back in December and lose $200. My daily budget is gone and it is only 10:10 am. But I have an iced tea!
I take a trip to CVS and then head to the room. The Dunkin Donut gift card I bought on eBay has come through my email. $100 gift card for $83. YAY. But it came through in $5 and $10 increments so I need to move all of them over to my card, which I cannot because there is a limitation on how many cards you can have in your account. So I have to merge them with my current card. But there is a limitation on value. Like come on, this all took me like half an hour. But better to be winning at Dunkin Donuts than losing at Buffalo I suppose.
When I wake up, I need to figure out what I am doing. I want to go to Sam’s Town, but want to be AT Sam’s Town. I don’t want to travel to Sam’s Town. I decide to go Downtown.
I stop at Total Rewards and collect my free play and lose it on my way outside.
It is fucking HOT outside. I have to wait a very long time for the bus. Why are the bus stops not covered here? I am sitting on the bench waiting. There is a guy who looks homeless, also sitting on the bench, drinking some can of some alcohol. A third guy, who may or may not be homeless, comes over and is just being so god damned annoying. He is pissing off the OG homeless guy. He is talking and spitting and jumping all over the bench. Finally he leaves and OG dude asks me if I know him. Nope.
Finally the bus comes and I get on it.
The bus is hot, the air conditioning is malfunctioning. Not every person is wearing a mask. One woman is completely passed out, with her uncovered mouth wide open. Some seats have signs on them to not sit in them to social distance. People sit in them anyway. It is one of those bus rides where we never move. It takes forever to get Downtown. I don’t understand how Vegas has yet to figure out making public transportation efficient. The Monorail should have been built down the middle of the street. It should be extended to Downtown.
I get off the bus FUCKING FINALLY and am absolutely thrilled to be sitting in a cold casino, drinking Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, losing more money in Cleopatra Keno.
At 6:32, I find myself in Binions Cafe eating dinner with comps. I should be using a reward from the Binions app, but whatever.
After, I head to Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee, of course, before heading back to Binions to play. Someone is on the Wonder 4 machine I have been playing this entire trip, so I play the one on the other side. I lose $80 and then my machine is free so I play there. I almost lost $100 but ended up cashing out at $80.
I move over to video poker and I am dealt 9s.
Nice.
Other than that, there are no photo worthy wins.
I get back on the Deuce for the last time this trip. Again, the bus is hot and the air conditioning is not working. Less than half the people have on masks, and out of that half, most of them are not wearing them correctly. I had purchased a 3-day pass, but this will be my last time on the bus during this trip.
I got off at Cosmopolitan. I have an email offer for $25 free play. I found an Ultimate X machine with no one anywhere near it. This was fun.
Normally when I have great hits at Cosmopolitan, I turn around and lose it all on Buffalo. Not tonight! I manage to cash out without stopping anywhere other than bathroom, where I find a phone in the stall. I can see all these texts coming through “Where U at?” I turned the phone into security. I hope the owner got it back!
I am out the door with $180 in winnings. I don’t think I have ever done that at Cosmopolitan before.
Back to Paris where I then lose the $180 on Buffalo. And added bonus, I didn’t have my card in the machine while losing it. YAY.
It is interesting to consider that I usually avoid Paris like the plague since I don’t do well here. But I stayed here in December when I was doing my “only stay in hotels you have not stayed in for a minimum of 5 years” tour. I got a W2G on these Buffalo machines. So I was happy to book it again to relive that. Unfortunately, it looks like it may be another decade before I make that mistake again.
I am in my room all ready for bed at 10:45 pm.
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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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