Day 8
Wednesday December 19, 2001
Up early today and time to pack. I really like this room and don’t want to move but there is really no choice. After I got ready and checked out I decided to go check out the Palms. I parked over at the Gold Coast figuring it would probably be easier. There has been a lot of talk about the Palms on various discussion boards. I actually liked the place. It has a similar look to the Hard Rock, but also has a look of it’s own. I was expecting crowds here since it’s still a new property but I guess everyone was up at the new Green Valley Ranch since it opened last night. This place was dead. They are running a promotion where if you swipe your card you can win a prize. I won $2.50 in slot play. Unfortunately the line at the slot club where you redeem this was about a mile long. I decided they could keep the $2.50, as it isn’t worth my time to stand in line for an hour to get it.

I found a bank of FPDW with a progressive right near the front door. I parked it here and hoped for some decent playtime for my money. I was up and down here and in about 2 ½ hours I lost yet another $150. No deuces but a few wild royals kept me going. I left here and made my way back to the Gold Coast to get my car and then go over to the Las Vegas Advisor.

I had 2 reasons for going over to the offices of the Las Vegas Advisor. The first to renew my subscription and the second to pick up a few books I had ordered on line. This saved me the shipping charges. I was able to pick up the new edition of Max Rubin’s book comp city. It was actually listed on the bargain bin page earlier today. I got a great deal and was able to pick it up for just $5. The book had finally arrived after months of speculation and the staff was in the back busy packing up over 2,000 copies to be shipped out. The staff here at the Las Vegas Advisor was fast, friendly and efficient.

From the Las Vegas Advisor it was now time to go over to the New Frontier to check in. I have a 2 night complimentary stay here and that comes with a free holiday gift valued at over $50! Even though I have 2 nights here I will only be staying for one. These one night moves are a real drag but I had made a change to my original plan and this night got lost in the shuffle.

Check in was fast here since there wasn’t anyone in line ahead of me. The lady at the desk asked when my last visit here was and I told her March. She said the made a few changes to the phone system and they now charge $1 for a local call, $1.50 for a 1-800 number, and long distance was very expensive. She said they also have bottled water in your room that costs $3.50 if you open it. I guess 1 hotel started this trend and they all followed.

From the check in area I went over to the slot club to get my gift. They’ve actually moved the slot club to a new area and they have a real counter now instead of that worthless booth that used to be in the center of the casino. When I got up to the room I opened my gift. It’s a clock. It has a wood base and a glass back. The clock portion is silver and has the New Frontier Logo on it. It’s a nice clock but it’s not worth $50.

I am in Atrium Suite 1086. All the suites here are the same with exception of the carpet colors. The color of this room was green. These suites aren’t all that fancy especially when you compare it to the suites I’ve had earlier this week. They are actually real suites since the bedroom is in a separate room from the living area, not just a huge room. The living area has a couch, arm chair, console TV, dining table and chairs, kitchen counter with coffee maker, sink, and refrigerator. There is a hallway that connects the living room to the bedroom and in the hallway is a large walk in closet with an iron and ironing board. The bathroom is large and basic. The bedroom is about the size of any standard hotel room with a king bed, nightstands, dresser, TV cabinet/dresser combo and another TV. There is also an additional sink and vanity area in the bedroom with a hair dryer. I have a view of the north end of the strip that includes the remains of the Desert Inn, Stardust, Riviera, Circus-Circus, Sahara, and Stratosphere.

I only unpacked what I actually will need for this stay since I’ll be leaving tomorrow. Once I was situated I went down to the Panda Express Chinese Restaurant down in the casino. I ordered some Egg Drop soup, white rice and an egg roll. This was only going to be a snack but was so filling it ended up being my dinner.

After eating I walked over to the Venetian, Casino Royale, and Harrah’s to pick up some chips. On my way back through I stopped at the Venetian again and found a machine with silver strikes as a prize. I actually won a silver strike but the hopper was empty. I sat at this machine and looked for someone to come help me. After 10 minutes there was still no one in sight. About the only good thing about this wait was I was right outside of the cocktail waitress station so I got to watch half naked women walk past me for a while! After about 20 minutes one of the girls stopped and asked if I was still waiting and said she’d go call someone. Finally someone arrived. She asked how I was doing and I said not good since I had been waiting nearly 25 minutes for someone to show up. She shrugged it off like she didn’t care and that really pissed me off. It turns out it was a hopper jam, and not an empty hopper. After she cleared it she said “here you go” and left. I cashed out my remaining coins and left. The waitress came over and apologized for the problems and said she actually called 2 times before someone showed up. I thanked her and said it wasn’t her fault. It’s no wonder the Venetian gets such bad press on the internet. With service like that it’s all they deserve. It’s pretty bad when a cocktail waitress has to track down a floor person and apologize for a lack of service on their behalf.

After this mess I went back to the New Frontier. The casino was very slow. I’d say there were maybe 30-40 people in the whole place. I parked myself at the FPDW progressives. The first machine sucked up $100 in about 15 minutes. I moved to another machine and lost another $100 even though it took a while. I moved to a 3rd machine and was down about $70 here when I finally hit the 4 deuces. I played down my remaining credits to nothing. I think I’m the only loser that can actually hit 4 deuces and still have a losing session ending down $50. It was now after 1am and I was tired so made a quick stop at the gift shop for a snack and then went to the room and called it a night.

Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $49