Day 5
Saturday December 24, 2005

Trip to airport:
After getting off the cruise ship and gathering our luggage we took a shuttle over to the hotel we stayed at last week and then Anne drove us over to the airport.

Flight:
After getting to the airport we made our way to check in. Things here went slow. Not only that but I found out my flight was delayed over 2 hours. Security was a breeze although having to sit in the terminal for an extended period of time was really going to suck. Today’s flight is on Jet Blue flight number 280 and was supposed to depart Long Beach at 1:45pm and is scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas at 2:25pm. Due to fog this morning everything was delayed and we wouldn’t be leaving until at least 4:05pm. We finally departed at about 4:45pm and arrived in Vegas at about 5:30pm.

After gathering the luggage I jumped on the shuttle over to Avis. I reserved a full sized car for $142. Much like Dollar being much cheaper than everyone last week, Avis is about ½ the price that Dollar was this week. I also have a $15 off coupon for this rental. They gave me a Chevy Impala that was brand new with only 2500 miles on it.

Hotel:
Today I’ll be checking into Main Street Station. I had a mailer good for 4 nights, $100 in food and 2X points. I called marketing and instead of the $100 in food vouchers they offered me a silver card instead. Of course I took it and can get food at all the downtown Boyd properties in the casual restaurants. I only booked 3 nights for this stay. Check in was quick and easy like always and I was on my way to room 302. The rooms here have been remodeled since the last time I stayed here and look good. Nice new beds and all new furniture, new carpet and a small desk has been added. The bathrooms are still a little to be desired though and I was a little disappointed to see they didn’t replace the fixtures, particularly in the shower.

Dining:
Lunch was at the Long Beach airport. I had a grilled sandwich that was turkey, ham and cheese on grilled sourdough. It was pretty tasty but, OH the pain of having to pay for food!

For dinner I had a $20 coupon for food at the Hard Rock so after getting back my first stop was there. I met up with Rich and Dawn and we had a few drinks first, then went to Mr. Lucky’s. I went with the Tupelo Chicken (it’s just chicken fingers).

Gaming:
NOTE: While on the cruise I played a little blackjack over 4 nights. I did pretty good and wasn’t going for the kill and finished ahead in 3 out of 4 days. The break down was +$100, +$300, +$150, and -$300 for a total win of $250 for the week. Only a few hands were worth mentioning. One amazing thing was getting dealt a pair of aces (and splitting them) on 3 consecutive hands. Of all 6 hands I won no money but each time pushed over all. Another was getting dealt 2 blackjacks on both of my hands (I was playing 2 hands) back to back. The killer was the last night at the end of the cruise. I was up $500 for the session. I placed $50 on each spot. On one hand I got dealt a pair of 9’s and split getting 2 double down hands and had crap on both. The second hand was 8’s that I also split. Hand one got me a 3 that I doubled drawing a 9, and hand 2 got me a 2 for 10. This I doubled too getting a 10. I was feeling pretty good to at least breakeven again the dealer 5. That was until she turned it over. There was a 5 under it. Luck would have it she drew a 6 for 16. Then on the next hit draws a 5 for 21. OUCH. $400 of the hard earned profits gone.

Tonight at the Hard Rock I had another 50 free bet coupon. I played one hand of blackjack and was dealt a 13 against a dealer 6. She turned over a 2 and dropped a 10 on it for 18 beating me out of yet another free bet coupon.

At Main Street Station I met up with Rich, and Dawn at the Boar Bar and played video poker. I’m also getting double points this trip. I played for about 3 hours on $100 before losing it on the short pay bonus poker progressive ($1105). After this I switched to some DDB and pulled 4’s with a kicker for $200. I was up a little and played a bit more before cashing out even for the session. I had a total of 5 scratch cards. 3 for $2, 1 for $3, and 1 for $5 for a total of $14.

Total win/loss for the day: $0
Total comps for the day: $99