Awkward! So I don’t mention anything until later on.
As we were coming back from the OG yesterday, I asked the cabbie to point out where the Peppermill was, so that we could head there for breakfast tomorrow, turns out it’s only a 10 minute walk from the Encore, easily doable!
I wake up this morning, shower , change and get all pampered up ready to head out, usually I’ll wait for Bryan and head out together, however since he was so tired yesterday, I told him to sleep in. I head downstairs, find our Blackjack machines, only to find a couple of old guys sitting there playing Keno? WTF is ken-know? So I don’t think much of it at the time and choose a different machine, thinking the other machine might have better luck. Nope, I blow throw my $100 pretty quickly. Should have taken it as a sign and just waited it out. Then I try to win it back by hitting the tables playing $10/$15 a hand, that doesn’t go so well. So now I’m down $200, time to face the music and head on back up. Bryan’s all ready to go!
We walk on over to the Peppermill for breakfast, we each order the same thing and I cover breakfast since Bryan had earned us a free dinner from yesterday’s play. The food was a couple dollars higher than what we’re use to paying for breakfast, but it wasn’t that bad, neither of us were able to finish the 3 pancakes that came with our 3 eggs, 2 strips of bacon and 2 sausages.
After breakfast we headed on over to the Riviera since it was just a couple of blocks away. We go in, I direct him towards the Player’s Desk and he signs up, the lineup is really long and slow moving, just like the last time I was there. I think he only got a deck of cards and a small amount worth of slot play, needless to say, we were outta there in no time!
Across the street was Circus Circus, we’ve heard so many great things about this place, that we had to check it out. We get in and notice that the place is almost empty, dark and smells! Gross! I want to get out of there right away, however they have a rather interesting promo going on. Instead of the usual $10 for $15 worth of chips, you get to do it twice! $30 for $40 worth of chips? I just couldn’t pass that up. Waited in line for about 20 minutes before I finally made my way to the player’s desk.
The cool thing about this place is that some of the slots still drop coins; maybe I’ll head over to Slots-O-Fun next time and give it a whirl. I want to play, but they only have one pit open, that only allows for 1 small roulette table, and 2 blackjack tables, all of which are full of people playing on them. So we circle and hover for a bit, finally get some standing room for the roulette games, so we play a bit. I use my ones and cover all of the numbers in the third section, luckily I hit the #24, so I’m able to make off with even money right about now. We stand and play a bit more, playing colors, thirds etc.
Finally decide to walk over to the blackjack table to use another match play, turn that into money, and then quickly get the heck outta there! That place sucked the living daylights out of us!
By the end of it all even though we were both +money, we were already dead tired, even though we had only woken up a few hours ago. So we decided to cab it to TI to explore the other side of the strip.
Once we get there, we do a quick pass through TI, make our way over to the Mirage, look for the nude pool and the Secret Garden, then mosey on over to the Forum Shops inside Caesars. Amazing! That place is huge! It’s like a hidden mall, we get there too late for the Atlantis show and only catch the last couple of flames, it’d be an entire hour before it shows again, we don’t want to wait that long.
OMG! Something is wrong! We don’t have any energy and we don’t have any alcohol in us! Quick! Let’s stop by the bar top, play some video BJ and get free beers! 2 Red Bulls please, you can’t do Red Bull? But can do Rockstar instead? Fine, we’ll settle! Now that we have energy we need beer! 2 beers please! I think Bryan loses his buy in here and I manage to cash out @ even money, it wasn’t easy though.
After that we start walking on the overpass and head on over to Bellagio. Wait, what’s this? Brand Name sunglasses for sale? Only $10 a pair, and 2 for $15? Bryan! We have to get them; these sunglasses just fell off the truck, who knows how long they’ll be available for. So after spending about 15 minutes looking, we finally settle on two pairs (I need two pairs….insert Nelly’s Air Force One Song). Eh Muchacho! $13 dollars for two! Silence…….I’ll take that as a yes. Done!
So now we be rockin’ shades, poppin’ bottles, sipping sizurp, we be ballin!
So we make our way over to the Bellagio, walk around the observatory, snap some photos, begin making our way across the fountain to the City Centre, that’s when I notice that it’s rather warm out @ 2PM today. I know we’re supposed to do something when it’s warm out in Vegas, but what is it…..oh wait, I know! Hit da pool! I figure if we hurry we can still catch the last bit of the sun and maybe get in a good solid hour of pool time! So we hoof it over to Paris to get a cab. OMG construction there has the entrance/exit @ a stand still. Guests must be livid there trying to get in & out. So we quickly head on over to Bally’s to catch a cab back to our hotel.
Quickly head on up, change, grab and head on back down to the pool. It was warm but still not warm enough for everyone to be out enjoying the nice warm weather. I guess the fact that we’re Canadian helps?
So I’m just laying there on my beach chair catching some Z’s. Phelps over there is getting his 90 laps in. While I was laying there, I could totally tell whenever someone walked by and they blocked the sun for a second or so, because I could feel the instant change in temperature, weird
I would have totally ordered a couple of drinks and charged them to the room; however it was kind of chilly for ice cold beers. Next time!
So after the pool, we go back to the room to change and begin to head out back to the City Centre, where we last left off.
Us: City Centre please
Cabbie: Do you want me to take the back roads or the freeway? (mentions something about getting back on Tropicana Ave)
Us: (OMG. Is he trying to long haul us? With the freeway crap?). The back roads are fine.
So he drives us right past the City Centre and we end up between New York New York & Monte Carlo. We both thought that he had still long hauled us and “missed” the City Centre entrance and brought us right to the end of the strip, so we were a bit displeased.
Us: You can drop us off here, it’s fine, we’ll walk it.
Cabbie: Okay, that’ll be $12.50
Us: Here’s $15, I’ll take $2.00 back
Cabbie: You guys staying @ the Encore?
Us: Yeah?
Cabbie: And you’re only tipping 50 cents?
Us: Yeah, you’re right, I’ll take a dollar back then.
Turns out there was no direct entrance that we could see to the City Centre due to construction of the Cosmopolitan.
So, since we’re at the end of the strip we explore NYNY first. We get in walk around, oh look! A giant slot machine. We line up, each take out a dollar and give it a spin. I thought about pulling out $3 and putting it to max bet and trying to go for the progressive, but after watching so many people spin it and not hit a thing, I decided against it.
After that, I was feeling a bit hungry, so we went up to Nathan’s for some Chili Cheese Fries. Delish!
Then we headed back down, totally skipped Monte Carlo and went straight for Arai/City Centre. Man, that place looks nyce! The Aria casino area looked pretty full, everything was so nice and new!
Finish looking around there, head on over to the Mandarin Oriental. Walk in, wait chairs and an elevator that’s it? Where is the lobby? What? It’s a sky lobby? 23rd floor? Okay!
OMG. Is that a chair in the elevator for the long ride up? WOW! Ding! OMG. Is this place ever so dark! I can’t even tell if the receptionist @ the front desk is hot or not. Oh well, time to check out their washroom, oohhh ahh, everything in here is so nice. Oh look! Nicely rolled up hand towels. You’re gonna take one? Seriously bro? Okay, go ahead, I won’t tell.
We then head on over to the Crystals place and walk around inside, this place is pretty big, empty, a lot of the stores are still under construction and have yet to be opened. I wonder what this place looks like during the summer.
Oh? What’s the building over there? That’s the Cosmopolitan? Its scheduled to open December 15th? Maybe I’ll come back in January 2011 and check it out then. So we begin to make our way back to the Encore, but due to construction the overpass leads up to Planet Hollywood, as we’re walking by, we see the giant slot machine that you can spin each day. So we line up to spin it. Mr. Slots over there spins it and gets $10 worth of free play. I on the other hand only win a free appetizer; with an entrée purchase @ P.F. Changs. No thanks.
So Bryan first has to go line up @ the Player’s reward desk to redeem the coupon he got outside for another coupon, then he had to take that other coupon to the Cashier which is on the other side of the casino, only to have the cashier give him another coupon that he can insert into the slot machine? Holy!
While he’s in line @ the Player’s desk, I’m just standing there watching this couple play this giant Deal or No Deal machine. It’s not the slot one, where you only get to play the game once you get to a bonus stage; it’s just simply the game. I wanted to play it, but it didn’t seem like they were going to leave that machine any time soon. Oh wells. Something to do on my next trip!
Finally, he’s done! So we both sit ourselves down @ the Multi-Black jack machine playing $0.25 a hand, 7 hands at a time. I input $5, I think. I get to about $15 at one point, look over and it doesn’t seem like he’s ready to cash out yet, so I continue playing, next think you know, all my money is gone. So I just sit there and watch him play for a bit, then when he has about $15-$20 he cashes out too.
I think we then make our way over to a VP Bar top to get some comped drinks while playing $1 / hand BJ. We ask for Red Bull, they provide, look @ the receipt it says Red Bull Vodka. It was awesome! Bryan loses his buy in pretty quick once again, wtf? I get another MGD, play until even money then cash out.
We leave P.Ho and continue to make our way back to our destination, we do a quick stop by Carnival court, watch a flare drink get made, stand around for a song, then we’re on our way again.
We finally make it back to the hotel, but before we go use our comp @ the buffet, let’s see what kind of food the Society Café is serving as well. Judging by it’s name, I thought it would serve café type foods and have sandwiches @ best. Little did we know that it was actually one of their high end restaurants. They served steak, seafood, the whole nine yards. Who would’ve guessed, a high end restaurant @ the Encore.
We can use our comp here? Are you sure? You’re positive right? (The buffet is valued @ $50 yet if we eat here the bill is probably going to be close to $200, how is that fair?). Ah well screw it, if they can’t comp us everything, we’ll just charge it to the room, and then talk to a host about taking it off afterwards. I mean, he did put in quite a bit of coin to earn those comps!
So what are you limiting us to order from? Are you serious? We each can have one appetizer, one non-alocholic drink, one main entrée and one desert? Stop it, please, Mr. Wynn, you’re spoiling us. (Previous to this Bryan had already declared that Encore was also his favorite hotel as well).
We accidentally get a hold of a breakfast menu, on it I see that there is a vanilla milkshake, its $8 though, however they should comp this drink since its non-alcoholic. The waitress goes to ask the head chef, and he says yes, it’s not breakfast but he’ll make it for me. Great, now I’m blushing!
So I’ll have that, the Iceberg Wedges, and the Caramelized Sea Scallops. Bryan will have a glass of red wine, the Jumbo Lump Crab & Asparagus and Bone-In Cowboy Ribeye. They bring us some Whole Grain Mustard Butter with Pretzel Sticks to start off and everything about the service and food was top notch.
Desert time comes; I see some Patron infused drink. Patron? I can’t afford that stuff, $12? I order it, and forget that alcoholic drinks aren’t included. But before I ordered it, I asked the waitress how it tasted and she told me that it’s really good, you can hardly taste the patron. So I gave it a go.
Bryan had the XXXL Chocolate cake. My drink comes; I take a couple of sips of it and eugh! This is gross, you can clearly taste the alcohol, it’s too strong for me to enjoy right now, I’m too stuffed, I can’t drink it all. So the waitress comes by, asks how it is, I tell her, then she goes, well she can go ask the manager to see if they can take it off. Off she goes, she comes back with great news, manager said yes. Awesome. She then goes on to tell me that I can still order desert ‘cause technically I haven’t ordered anything yet, so I end up getting a strawberry cheesecake to go.
Bryan only managed to finish about half of his 14 layered chocolate cake. However, dinner was great; we were there for who knows how long, but neither of us complained since our bodies needed the rest. Dinner came out to about $150 before tip. Needless to say, the waitress got a nice tip!
So we make our way back to the room, we stop by to see the casino host. I wanted to see if they could work their magic and “forget” the glass of wine we just ordered since alcoholic drinks weren’t included in the comp. So we get there, we talk to her, explain our situation, she picks up the phone begins to work her magic and goes “uhhh, there’s no charge here. I don’t see anything” we go “Oh! We just ate there about 10 minutes ago, maybe it hasn’t gone through yet” “Oh wait, I see it now, yeah, take it off” Yeah baby! Take it off! Wait what? Oh, you mean the charge, oops, me blushing again. So now the charge is off and we trot happily back to our room.
So this was our last night of freedom and since we had a 7AM flight, this meant we had to be at the airport @ 6AM, so this meant no strip club tonight. Sorry! So you may have noticed that I haven’t done much gambling this trip. I mean I had little sessions here and there, not for long period of time though.
My idea was to save up all of my gambling till the very last day, and just gamble a little each day throughout the trip, to try and just make enough spending money. That way, if I lost all of my money on the last day, it wouldn’t have ruined the trip for me, ‘cause you know the feeling of losing money sucks!
I still had about $140 of the $150 free credit that I was given for my stay. So I went over to my favorite slot machine the Spin & Win machine. It was a quarter machine with a 3 coin max bet. I liked this machine because we had played on it previously and we just kept hitting the bonus and it kept us entertained for quite some time. At one point I told Bryan that if we hit the 1,000 coin bonus payout he would get half and if we hit the $3,000 progressive, he would get a third of it. Sad to say that neither of those events occurred, I mean we couldn’t even line up 2 of the 3 symbols required to hit the progressive.
After that I moved on over to the $1 VP progressive machine to empty out the rest of my free credit on it. I mean $5/hand that free credit finished rather quickly. I had my Jacks or Better cheat sheet on me of course, only until half way through; I realized the card was not to be used for progressives. I assume that for progressive you just try to go for the Royal more often than normal. Needless to say, I’m still without my first Royal.
After this, I think we floated back and forth for a bit between that Spin & Win slot machine and Video BJ, we even went back to play a bar top VP machine. We found one by the bar that had a larger than normal screen, this one was meant to accommodate two people. So we each put in $20, for a $40 buy in and played $5 a hand on Bryan’s card. He was gunning for that 1,000 points to get that free 1 night stay. So when they review his play, hopefully he’ll look like the baller he was mistaken for down @ Freemont!
At one point we brought out total up to $200, it was just so easy, we would turn 2 pairs into full houses, and we’d turn 4 card flushes into 5 card flushes, a pair into trips. It was unbelievably easy. So needless to say we didn’t stop when we were on a high note and lost the $40 buy in.
We even created our own system of “celebrating”. When we would hit a:
Jacks or Better pair – we’d just sigh out loud
2 Pair – We’d say “two pair” but in a saddened tone
3 of a kind – We’d fist pump, no each other (MTV inspired)
Flush – We’d high 5 each other
Anything higher than a flush deserved 2 high 5’s!
I know I know, very bromancy! We’d even double check each other’s work, I’d be responsible for the deal button and he’d be responsible for the hold button, that way if I didn’t agree or if he missed something I wouldn’t hit the deal button. Hey! After a few drinks and @ that time during the day, it’s a good idea okay!
I looked @ my watch after that and it was probably almost 1AM, the plan was to stay up until about 3AM, head back to the room, catch a couple hour of Z’s and then off we go!
1AM? Okay, time to buckle down and start gambling, I buy in for $200 @ a $10 table, Bryan joins me with 20 bucks. I’m up about a hundred and he’s also up to about a hundred as well. Not bad. Time to call it quits? NO!
Dealers have their tables and they go on break every so often. Our table belonged to Iris. We liked her, she’d give us money, then her replacement, Steve, would take all our money. I’m serious. Iris would give me a bunch of money, then Steve would dwindle me back down to my last bet, then Iris would come back and give me back all of my money. It got to one point that if Iris wasn’t there, we wouldn’t play.
Steve reminded us of Jet Li. The Jet Li in Hollywood movies, because he spoke like him, he had that hint of arrogance when he spoke. So Bryan’s down to his last $10, and he’s holding on to it, for when Iris returns. Jet Li goes, “what are you gonna do with that $10? You know I’m just gonna take it, just bet it!” So Bryan does, he loses that hand, right after he loses that hand. Jet Li goes “ATM right behind you” ROFL!
So Iris comes back from break, time to step it up $25 a hand please. Also the table minimum has also been raised to $50 a hand, but we were grandfathered so we could play $10 a hand if we wanted to. I’m up to about maybe $500, then Steve comes back, he breaks my bank and brings me back down to $350. He then says, okay, one more hand, if you lose, cash out and go home. Done! So I lose it, so I colour up and leave….the table. Ain’t no way I’m going home, I’m still down $300!
So I walk around for a bit, try a different table, lose about a hundred there, no luck. OMG. Iris is back, I grab all of my chips and quickly run on back to her. So then we begin our little dance all over again. I look @ my watch. OMG It’s 4:30AM, we’re suppose to be up in 45 minutes, oh well so much for sleep!
So I play a bit more, I’m down to my last $60. I tell her that I’m going to bet it all, if I lose, then I’m done. If I win, then we’ll see. So lucky enough, I win it, now I’m sitting with $120. Iris, what should I do? What? You want me to bet it all in one hand? Okay Iris, I trust you! Bam! $240 just like that! She jokingly said that I should bet it again, but both of us knew that wasn’t going to happen. So I hand Bryan the $200 and tell him to not let me bet that, and I break my bets into two $20 hands. I win the next one, dammit! If I won, I would have been back up to even money for this trip. Oh well!
I end up losing the $40 and colour up. At this point I am really tempted to go back up to my room, grab the rest of my money, go back down look for Iris and play $100 a hand to either go big or go home. Needless to say I just went home!
We head on back up to the room, pack, shower, change and get ready to wait for 5:30 before we hail a cab. Bryan is dead tired, I kept telling him to go back up to the room to sleep, but he refused to. It’s about 5AM right now, he’s crashed on the bed, I’m sitting on the bed, and it’s getting too comfortable. It’s 5:15AM right now, so I move on over to the couch to sit, next thing I know I wake up and its 5:45. Oh shit! Clap! Bryan we gotta go, its 5:45. So we head downstairs, hail a cab. Luckily the suite has its own set of doors so we don’t wait too long for a cab.
Airport please! Strip or back roads? (What no highway option?) Back roads should be fastest, so back roads! First honest cab driver I’ve seen the entire trip. He gets the full twenty!
By the end of it all, I’m only down $400 from this trip; I see it as spending $100 each day for the 4 days that I was there. So not bad at all. I definitely spent more than $400 while I was there. I mean the comps alone on my end were just over a grand!
I’m getting old, I think next time I’ll have to slow it down a bit, stay for a longer period of time so I don’t have to cram so much all in one day, and maybe get more rest? Naw, who am I kidding! You only live once!
Notes:
· No time share folks this time around. Where did they all go? Both of my previous trips were around this time as well, don’t tell me they went into hibernation.
· No annoying time share people, but they’ve been replaced by Guided Tour folks.
· Sign-up bonuses and perks have gone down the tubes!
Love that pic of Bryan "swimming"!
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