Day 13
Wednesday December 27, 2000
Final day and the flight home

I slept quite late today but that was part of the plan. I have a red eye flight home and it's going to be a late night. I checked out a few items on the net and talked to my buddy for a while. Now it is time to get ready. There is a meet today at 1:30 at the Battle Bar in Treasure Island.

I figured the easiest way to get there today would be to take Boulder Highway to Sahara to the strip, then right up to Treasure Island. This worked out well until I got to about Circus-Circus. Traffic was at a dead stop going southbound on the strip. There was nothing going north though. It took me 20 minutes to get from Circus-Circus to the Fashion Show Mall. I decided to turn down Fashion Show Drive and park at the New Frontier and walk over to Treasure Island from there.

I arrived to Treasure Island just in time for the meet to start. This was another meet organized on the Las Vegas Talk Discussion Board. Some of the people that attended were Mike In La, Italicus, Mary & Jack IA, JJI in Silicon Valley, Ginny & Larry OK. It turns out that I was actually playing blackjack with Ginny and Larry last night at Binion's.

After the meet I walked down to the south end of the strip stopping in most casinos to pick up some $1 chips. This was the first time I had done that much walking in a long time. I went from Treasure Island, to the Mirage, across to Harrah*s, Imperial Palace, O'Sheas, Flamingo, and Barbary Coast. Then I crossed over the pedestrian bridge to Bally's, and Paris and then over to Aladdin. I walked through the Aladdin again and gave it a second look. It still does nothing for me. I went upstairs to the London Club again actually walked through this time. It's really quiet up here even though there are some slots and video poker machines. It's strange to see the dealers wearing tuxedos and gowns though. This is not really my kind of place.

From the Aladdin I walked down to MGM, and then over to the Tropicana. Then I crossed over to the Excalibur. This place was packed. I left here without getting my chips that's how busy it was. The next stop was NYNY and then Monte Carlo. The last stop on the walk was to Boardwalk.

From Boardwalk it was just a long walk back down to the New Frontier where my car was parked. I was able to catch a fountain show at Bellagio as I was walking back too. From the looks of all the people there and the traffic forming on the strip I could see the after Christmas crowds forming. I can't really remember ever seeing this much traffic and this many people here on a weekday in a long time. It was odd seeing so much commotion after seeing the city so dead for the last week.

I always hate to walk around the Mirage and Treasure Island at night because between the volcano and the pirate show it's wall to wall people. One thing I do enjoy about this though is watching assholes try to cross the street when the sign says DON'T WALK. It's funny to see them freeze up right in the middle of traffic when a car comes right up on them. Today's best one was 2 genius parents taking their kids, one in a stroller, the other barely old enough to walk and trying to make it. A cab driver got pretty close to them and blew the horn. Then they had the nerve to give him the finger. Some people are just ignorant effs.

I finally made my way back to the New Frontier to get my car. I left and there was no way I wanted anything to do with the strip traffic. I left out the back way out onto Industrial Rd. This comes up to Sahara and I took Sahara back to Boulder with a quick stop at K-Mart. I needed to buy a roll of tape for my suitcase since it's getting worn and the zippers are starting to fall apart. The plan is to wrap the suitcase up with tape just in case.

When I got back to Sam's I called the host office and found out how many comp dollars I had left. She told me I had $410 left and they are going to expire on Sunday. Originally I was told they were good for rooms, (if I needed to pay), bingo, bowling, cigarettes, and of course food. Recently they added a new feature and that was you could book hotel rooms for the year 2001 and pay for them with your comp dollars.

She said that since I was a comped player already that probably wouldn't be the best way to use them though. I told her after this trip I probably wouldn't be a comped player anymore since I cut my play to about 1/4 of what it usually is. I did this based on the changes to the comp program and that if it weren't for the comp dollars I'm using for rooms next year, I probably wouldn't return. She said she was sorry to hear that but she's heard that from many players.

The good part about using the comps for rooms is that even if you need to cancel the rooms, you can choose new dates. I booked 5 nights in July and 5 nights in December. Each block of rooms ran me $191 comp dollars. She gave me casino rate for all of those nights. It worked out to $38.20 a night.

After the $382 was removed form my account it left $28. It was around time to eat so I headed to the slot club and got one last comp for dinner. I decided on Mary's Diner since everyplace had a line and here I can skip the line and go right to the counter. $28 is more than enough for one person to eat at Mary's. I'd say it's even more than enough for group of 3. I asked my waitress Debbie if I could order a few sandwiches to go since I needed to use up the comp dollars. She said no problem. Quite a few people this week were coming in there getting meals to go and that last night she had a $98 take out order. It was a man trying to use up his last $100 in comps. I'd say he was successful. I ordered a chicken breast dinner. It's a grilled breast with vegetable of the day and choice of potato, rice or macaroni and cheese. It also comes with soup or salad and I chose the meatball soup. It's a tomato-based broth with small meatballs in it as well as some vegetables. I finished off dinner with a slice of peach pie.

For my to go orders I got Sam's triple-decker. It's a turkey club. I was still short so Debbie said to order another sandwich too. I also got a plain turkey sandwich to go. These both came with small bags of potato chips. Once the orders arrived I headed back up to the room to finish packing up and get ready to leave. This didn't take too long since most of what needed to be packed I had done during the week. I knew it was just about over when I started wrapping the tape around my suitcase.

I left Sam's around 9:30pm and made a stop at the Rebel 76 station out front to top off the tank. I took a few last pictures and video footage and then was on my way. I took Tropicana to the strip and there wasn't much traffic that way. From the strip to Sunset was smooth as well. I got one last look at the lights on the strip and a look at the back of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

When I got to Alamo to drop-off the car there was no wait. In minutes I was on the shuttle us and headed back to McCarran. When I got to the America West check in the line was like a mile long. I thought I was never going to make the flight but they had a few special lines open for those passengers going to JFK, Newark and Columbus. This worked out great. I was second in line now. Of course 2 rude assholes that thought they were special just walked up to the next available agent without waiting and the ignorant agents allowed it. If that wasn't bad enough after it took 2 agents to check in a family of 4, and told them they were all set, they found it necessary to chit chat for the next 5 minutes about how much they like living and working in Las Vegas. The family said they love Las Vegas but are glad they’re living in Arizona. This is the sort of crap that pisses me off. There's line of people waiting to get checked in for their flights and the agents are over there bullshitting instead of doing their jobs. I think this might call for a letter to America West. Since Continental is already getting one for the crap they pulled last week, I might as well rip America West a new one too.

I finally got checked in and headed up to the gate. When I get to the metal detectors there were only 2 open. Of course each line had about 50 people in it. This is another case of great planning by management. It's the holiday season, and one of the busiest travel times of the year and they have 2 lines open at the security check point. No one tried to put an oversized carryon through the conveyor, which was a change, but for the second time in a week I saw some dim wit walk through with a backpack. Are people really that dumb?

I got to the gate a few minutes before boarding started. I could see this wasn't going to be a very full flight so I was hoping I'd have the whole row to myself. I picked my seat for this flight on the website when I bought my ticket. Of course of the whole plane, some genius decided to book 2 people next to me when there were at least 5 rows with no people in them at all. A good note here though is the flight attendant came over and asked if the other 2 people or I would like their own row. Since I had a window seat in a good location, I didn't want to move butt the couple next to me went to their own row so it worked out well.

When we took off I had a great view of the strip. As many times as I've seen it, the view from the plane is always the best. We circled the back of the strip and then came back around flying over downtown. I could see the lights at Main Street Station flashing and though that just over a week ago I was checking in there. Also as we circled I could see all the casinos on Boulder Highway including Sam's Town. I thought damn, here I am in this plane looking down at this place and I am still a registered guest of the hotel. Even though I'm ready to get home, it still sucks having to leave this place.

Right now I'm about 2 hours into the flight. It's scheduled to be 4 hours and 19 minutes. I'm sitting on an AIRBUS A320. It's got a cruising speed of 528 mph and seats 150 passengers, 12 in first class. The movie feature is The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. They have already passed out soda and snacks. We got 1 small bag of mini pretzels and a small back of snack mix. Both come from the King Nut Company in Solon, OH. A guy sitting nearby asked if there was a meal and the flight attendant told him they don't serve meals on the night flights. I knew this and I am already eating my Turkey Club. Nothing like eating a nice sandwich when everyone else is eating mini pretzels! To make things better, remember, this sandwich was comped!

There is a guy a few rows back snoring sporadically. It's the funniest thing. It's quiet and the suddenly there is this sound like someone is letting the air out of an air tank. A grunt, and then a moan, then a few follow-up snorts follow this. Then it gets quiet again. Then a few minutes go by and it happens again.

This pretty much wraps up this trip. The only thing left to do at this point is land in Newark. Then I need to get my rental car from Avis to drive home in. I think right now I'm going to try to get a little bit of a nap since we have about 2 hours before we land and there isn't anything else to do.

We landed in Newark early and they didn’t have an open gate for us to pull into. They needed to wait until the plane that was in it to push back. After about 10 minutes of waiting we pulled in.

The luggage arrived very fast considering this was Newark. They are usually very slow when it comes to getting your bags to you. After I got my suitcase I made my way to the shuttle bus and the Avis office. I had a premium car reserved. This car was a great deal at only $36 plus taxes. It was only $4 more than a mid-size and $6 more than a compact. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with this deal. I also think it was a mistake on the website when I originally booked it. By the time I left for this trip it was priced near $70.

When I arrived at Avis there was no line. I got right to an agent and she really pushed the insurance. I had to repeatedly tell her no. The main purpose of the car was to drive from Newark to where I live and drop the car off the next day. She finally gave up on the insurance and I was on my way out to the parking lot. I had a tan Buick Park Avenue. This is a huge car compared to the other cars I’ve rented. After looking the car over I was on my way home. The only real problem I had with this car was it was filthy. I didn’t realize it until I got out into the sun so it was too late to bitch about it. The windows and mirrors were so dirty it was hard to see in them. The rest of the car was not very clean either. It ran well but is a real gas-guzzler. I went 70 miles and I used over 1/3 of a tank of gas. A little over an hour later I was in my driveway and the trip was over.

Total win/loss for the day $0
Total comps for the day $128

Final Thoughts

• The monorail being down in Newark is a major inconvenience
• Service at Continental Airlines in Newark sucked.
• For the most part, most people have no clue about what is going on around them how things are done or what they should be doing.
• Alamo tried to use some slick method to sucker me into insurance.
• Weather was great for December. 50’s and 60’s during the day and 30’s at night.
• It was nice, yet strange to see the El Rancho gone.
• The same goes for seeing the Desert Inn closed.
• Main Street Station is a nice place. Good rooms for the price other than the rooms being right on the freeway and train tracks.
• Blackjack was my biggest downfall this trip.
• It was exciting hitting a royal flush on a dollar machine.
• Great food deals are starting to disappear. There are still plenty available though.
• Palace Station is a nice property. It’s only downfall is that it is a Station property.
• 4X and 5X points at the Reserve are a great deal. The points really add up quick.
• Hopefully Stations won’t ruin the Reserve.
• Terribles is a nice place but has nothing to offer other than a small hotel and food. Good video poker is available but there is not much of it considering that it’s a local casino.
• Local phone call charges are a bit much in some places. Paris charges $1.25 for up to 30 minutes and an additional 10 per minute after. Some places like Main Street Station are only 50 cents per call.
• I stayed at Caesars Palace for a change and to see if it lived up to the hype. It did live up to the hype as far as customer service goes. Everywhere I went in the property service was very good. The room didn’t live up to the hype. It was nice but very worn and the head stains on the headboard are unacceptable for a 4-star hotel.
• Caesars Palace slot club is pretty good for a strip hotel.
• The outside of Caesars is just about finished and looks really good.
• Service at the Victorian Room at the Barbary Coast sucked as usual.
• The 50-play video poker machines were not kind to me this trip.
• Coffee shop at Caesars Palace is hardly a coffee shop. More like an upscale restaurant.
• I attended my 11th, 12th, and 13th meets that were organized on the Las Vegas Talk discussion board. It’s neat meeting the people that make all the posts.
• Paris rooms are really nice.
• Paris gets a bit tacky by placing $3.95 bottles of water in the bathroom with stipulation they are charged to your room if you open them. Why do they do this? Are they that desperate to make a few extra dollars from hotel guests? If that’s the case, just charge an extra $5 per night. It’s not as tacky.
• I played about 100,000 hands of video poker hitting 2 royal flushes. One on a dollar machine and one on a nickel machine.
• Aladdin did not impress me although I didn’t spend too much time there.
• The change in Sam’s Town comp policy is very bad. They now want almost 3 times the amount of play for the same level of comps. The levels they now want are more that some strip hotels.
• The city turned into a zoo starting on December 26th.
• I liked eating in some of the more upscale places but I don’t think the food is that much better or worth 2-3 times the price.
• People still don’t seem to know better than trying to cross the street when the sign says don’t walk.
• Why is it that when people step out of an elevator they stop right in front of the door so no one else can get out? The same would be true for the top or bottom of an escalator.
• This was my 9th winning trip in a row and my Las Vegas record now stands at 9 wins, 3 losses and one trip where I broke even.
• I’m hoping to return to Las Vegas in the spring.

Total win/loss for the trip $1050
Total comps for the trip $1610