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Just got back from Vegas after 16 days of pretty much losing. Lucky that the frugal nature of my rooms and food offset the losses.
Total cash paid for rooms was $146 (minus $32 back from the El Cortez unusual freeplay room deal.)*
15 nights computes to*
$7.60 a night for rooms.
$10 a day average over 16 days for food
Lost $1516 or an average of*$94.75 a day over 16 days gambled away
$5.66 a day over 16 days*for transportation and entertainment (including a rental car day trip and hike to Red Rock Canyon.)
So, (not counting any tips,) the trip cost me*
$117.66 a day.
Well, my "eat only when it is free" diet did not work this trip, but at least I only gained 5 pounds back of the 25 I put on while training for Vegas buffes.
I just had too much free food.
At the end*I had $25 of food comps and a $25 restaurant.com coupon to eat up at the El Cortez.
I had been eating out so much on this long trip, Chicago, Denver and that did not help either.
I just have not had any great desire to search out any of the restaurants I took notes on from all those Westie reviews.
Since even the most basic buffet is so much a change from my rigid diet that it is a treat, I did not even need to use my Spice Market $5 coupon.
The Orleans buffet was as good as ever. Lots of delicious meat choices.* *
The poker room at Cannery East offered a free buffet after 4 hours of play which is not deducted from any comps earned, but must be eaten on the day earned. It is not the most wonderful of buffets, but like all such small places, it has some interesting foods.
I am dieting everywhere but Vegas, so things taste just great to me. The beef was good. The sweet potatoes were a favorite. They had a fine selection of cookies, including these little black and white moon cookies. I don't care much for buffet desserts short of places like Bellagio, but I like a good M and M cookie.
They had baked potato with toppings of mushrooms, onions, bacon bits. I like the onions by themselves with some Mexican taco beef mixed in.
Also served were some interesting cold salad mixes. One with broccoli caught my attention.
They did not have Cholua hot sauce, but did have TapaTio. I do like it that most places here have a choice of hot sauce because I dislike Tabasco unless it is green. Main Street Station only has Tabasco as does Gold Coast. I actually carry Cholua with me, but I did not pack that down to any buffet. I do sometimes take it into a restaurant at home because up North Tabasco is the hot sauce most commonly served.
It tasted good on some left over popcorn from the $3 senior theater at Sam's Town. I bought the large popcorn with a free refill and had the leftovers for a couple days afterward. Sometimes popcorn does not keep well, but this did. It was much better than any bagged and purchased popcorn. I don't bother with that stuff.
At Sam's I had a good breakfast. I liked the biscuits and gravy.
I have found no crisp bacon except a few crumbs at the bottom of the pan at any spot.
Once again I am not too fussy. I order my eggs over easy and simple.
Well, actually there is nothing*simple*about the term "over easy." At home this would never get me eggs with runny whites as it did at the Gold Coast. Were I to question them, I am certain that they would advise me to order "over medium," but in some places that does not leave the yolk runny.
At the Bighorn I talked to the waiter and had him note that I wanted the eggs so the whites were cooked and the yolk runny. There I forgot to mention that the biscuit should not be burned black. That meal was won on the American Casino Guide site by posting and being picked. Matt (The Bucket) came along but I am afraid it was not the best of treats. We both used our comp to get a 16 oz steak with eggs, but the meat was laced with grizzle and odd bits of bone. It had good flavor. The waiter listened hard to get it just right, but it was not the kind of meal that folks talk about at their sister casino, the Longhorn.
Prices were the best part of my buffet meals. At the Orleans I had $10 comp on the free room. I used $5 points. I used the senior citizen Tuesday half priced coupon, and for some reason they gave me another $5 coupon when I went through that line, and I used that for a graveyard meal of steak and eggs. The steak is pretty basic, but I like the special.
At the Cannery I always ate on Poker comps.
At Sam's I paid or one breakfast with points. I have two free buffets, but these must be redeemed together, so I am hoping one of my relatives may meet me. Giving blood at the blood drive earned 2 vouchers (and 1000 points on my card). Then I still had the ACG coupon for a free buffet with 200 points earned that day. I guess I'll save that one for my next trip.
I used the comps to have a meet up with my relatives and that seemed to work fine. With the buffet comps from the ACG came two drinks as well so I was able to treat them to a margarita and to a mixed ginger ale.
The blood drive here at Sam's that offered 1000 points and two free buffets. I decided it would be a good time to donate and very convenient. Unfortunately they were not really ready for the turnout and the waits were quite long. I made an appointment, but I did not realize how long it would take after the paperwork was done to actually have the blood taken. They should have had many more people. I guess I waited almost two hours after the paperwork. I went back to my room and got a book.
Giving blood sure has changed over the years. So many questions. At least here a young woman typed in my answers, and I did not have the long four page form that I saw at home.
I used to giver regularly, but have fallen out of the habit. Now they will remind me periodically.
I used one of the buffets for Saturday night and that was good value because the buffet was $17, prime rib night. It came with a bit of red wine or beer as well. I enjoyed it. Off my diet again, but I had not eaten anything except a couple cookies at the blood drawing station.
I enjoyed the Main Street Station buffet again even if my favorite treat, soul greens mixed with kalua pork could not be topped with crunchy Chinese noodles because they were out. I added a bit of jalapeno pepper, but I like it better plain.
The waitress was friendly as always. I love the ambiance here. It is all delicate lighting in a huge high ceiling with Victorian arches of metal. I just feel so comfortable. For dessert I had iced cream laced with M and M type candy and butterscotch topping and taste of sticky bun on the side.
I also tried a new pork stew from the Hawaiian section that I thought was very good as well as a piece of very tasty fried chicken.
At the Golden Nugget I had a pattie melt served with potato chips and a fine dill pickle. I also got a huge and decadent brownie which was the best dessert I ate all week. It is filled with a creamy chocolate filling and just rich in sweet chocolate taste. The waitress warmed it up and I ate it first, hot and wondeful. Nice use of the poker comp. The entire meal cost me a dollar.
At the El Cortez I had a couple prime ribs at the cafe and a pattie melt that was good as well. *I had breakfast one time and that was great. *Finally, I ate this huge meal at Flame which I wrote up separately at this link:
put in Flame lin,
ROOM FOOD
I ended up with trailmix, an orange, some figs, and pistachio's in the room, so I never a trip to Walmarts or Walgreens downtown. I will bring pistachio's again. They are a great little meal in the evening.
There are plenty of food choices at Sam's Town, but they shut down in early morning hours. Walmarts is right across the street so were I not well stocked, I could get something to eat there.
There is one of those fine collections of dispensers of candy and nuts right in front of the movie theater. For a quarter I got a little taste of something, usually jelly belly jelly beans which are individually flavored and quite a little treat.
They are off the diet, but I can enjoy a quarter's worth. Unlike the average bland sugar of normal jelly beans, each Jelly Belly bean has a distinctive flavor, so I have to discipline myself to pop just one at a time and take my time with the gourmet flavor.
Sam's also had a Mcdonald's with dollar hamburger choices.
And the decadent popcorn refill as I left the movies tasted great as well.
My last meal was the only fancy feast
Sometimes the planning of a Vegas trip so absorbs me that I do foolish things. So in spite of having $25 dollars a night in comped food, when I heard of a board member's coupon deal, I was tempted, and gave in to a $6 restaurant.com coupon that bought me $25 in food at the Flame.
Certainly, I thought, I'd have some relative or some poker buddy or some board friend, and I could use the coupon and comps to have a fine night out and not dine alone at Flame.
Where is my VP playing pal Catherine when I need her and could treat her to her "happy place"?
My second plan was to petition the management to let me spend for appetizer and perhaps the high priced lamb entree and so get around the rule that the coupon must be used for*TWO*entrees.
Well, that plan proved impossible. It was out of their hands, they said. They had to send in all the paperwork and there would have to be two entrees regardless of how much I spent.
Okay.
I am not easily defeated.
I went to plan C.
I decided to dine on two entrees. After all the Flame is set up so that each vegetable or potato cost extra. I just would have two entrees. I ordered the signature porterhouse steak and the walleye pike.
I also used my room coupon for a free bottle of Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge cabernet sauvignon. I expected one of those small two glass bottles.
No, this was a full bottle.
Now I just needed some dinner conversation.
And I got that as well.
At the next table were two couples in their thirties. The woman who faced me was dressed in a delightfully designed black dress which featured one shoulder of revealed flesh and one of the black dress sleeve decorated with a series of delicate shaped slanted slices down the arm, each one with just a hint of lace. Picking up the black color of her dress was a bit of black mixed in her otherwise blond hair. And she had finished her outfit with a silver chain that held a huge turquoise pendant and some wonderfully large but tasteful silver rings.
Turquoise is my favorite jewelry.
These were delightful dinner companions even if they did not suspect I was one of them.
I did no intrusive staring.
Completing the ambiance was some very gentle and relaxing music as well as a screen that spanned various beautiful places around the world, many of them delightful peppered with small fishing boats in blue water. I could watch the changing views of famous cities around the world, but still overhear their stories.
My night was made when their conversation turned to catching, cleaning and preparing crabs; the details were fascinating to the ears of this old fisherman. And I loved the juxtaposition of the classy look of this delightful woman and her description of how she cleaned crab. It is not an easy task.
Her husband described going scuba diving for crab and then making a large grill of the tasty morsels.
The red wine mellowed me in a way that just let all of this sensual pleasure into my psyche, and the visions of water, the conversation around catching seafood, the sophisticated and gracious look of the woman describing how she cleaned and prepared crab made what could have been an isolated and rather downscale final night celebration into something quite wonderful.
The staff was delightfully attentive as well. There was no rebuff because I was the "coupon guy." In fact, they felt a bit badly that I could not spend just as much money (or more) on the lamb and appetizers and such.
Along with my protein came two garnishes, one of green onion and one of something called bean seeds, small green tasty bits that I want to use for my own fish dishes cooked here at home.
Both foods were just wonderful.
They also left a basket of break which had two nice slices of a sweet bread like raisin bread as well as two fine onion rolls.
I certainly had enough to eat. For dessert I was left with a half dozen chocolate mints.
Nice.
Of course, the tip was more than I usually pay for a meal. They added 18% to the bill and I added another $5.
Because the remaining charges were simply billed to my room, I was also able to use up the remaining food comp. Over two days it is hard to eat $50 worth of free food when traveling solo at the El Cortez unless we spend one night at the Flame.
In past years I had not cared so much for this spot or thought of it as special, but I'd go again, even solo.
Total cash paid for rooms was $146 (minus $32 back from the El Cortez unusual freeplay room deal.)*
15 nights computes to*
$7.60 a night for rooms.
$10 a day average over 16 days for food
Lost $1516 or an average of*$94.75 a day over 16 days gambled away
$5.66 a day over 16 days*for transportation and entertainment (including a rental car day trip and hike to Red Rock Canyon.)
So, (not counting any tips,) the trip cost me*
$117.66 a day.
Well, my "eat only when it is free" diet did not work this trip, but at least I only gained 5 pounds back of the 25 I put on while training for Vegas buffes.
I just had too much free food.
At the end*I had $25 of food comps and a $25 restaurant.com coupon to eat up at the El Cortez.
I had been eating out so much on this long trip, Chicago, Denver and that did not help either.
I just have not had any great desire to search out any of the restaurants I took notes on from all those Westie reviews.
Since even the most basic buffet is so much a change from my rigid diet that it is a treat, I did not even need to use my Spice Market $5 coupon.
The Orleans buffet was as good as ever. Lots of delicious meat choices.* *
The poker room at Cannery East offered a free buffet after 4 hours of play which is not deducted from any comps earned, but must be eaten on the day earned. It is not the most wonderful of buffets, but like all such small places, it has some interesting foods.
I am dieting everywhere but Vegas, so things taste just great to me. The beef was good. The sweet potatoes were a favorite. They had a fine selection of cookies, including these little black and white moon cookies. I don't care much for buffet desserts short of places like Bellagio, but I like a good M and M cookie.
They had baked potato with toppings of mushrooms, onions, bacon bits. I like the onions by themselves with some Mexican taco beef mixed in.
Also served were some interesting cold salad mixes. One with broccoli caught my attention.
They did not have Cholua hot sauce, but did have TapaTio. I do like it that most places here have a choice of hot sauce because I dislike Tabasco unless it is green. Main Street Station only has Tabasco as does Gold Coast. I actually carry Cholua with me, but I did not pack that down to any buffet. I do sometimes take it into a restaurant at home because up North Tabasco is the hot sauce most commonly served.
It tasted good on some left over popcorn from the $3 senior theater at Sam's Town. I bought the large popcorn with a free refill and had the leftovers for a couple days afterward. Sometimes popcorn does not keep well, but this did. It was much better than any bagged and purchased popcorn. I don't bother with that stuff.
At Sam's I had a good breakfast. I liked the biscuits and gravy.
I have found no crisp bacon except a few crumbs at the bottom of the pan at any spot.
Once again I am not too fussy. I order my eggs over easy and simple.
Well, actually there is nothing*simple*about the term "over easy." At home this would never get me eggs with runny whites as it did at the Gold Coast. Were I to question them, I am certain that they would advise me to order "over medium," but in some places that does not leave the yolk runny.
At the Bighorn I talked to the waiter and had him note that I wanted the eggs so the whites were cooked and the yolk runny. There I forgot to mention that the biscuit should not be burned black. That meal was won on the American Casino Guide site by posting and being picked. Matt (The Bucket) came along but I am afraid it was not the best of treats. We both used our comp to get a 16 oz steak with eggs, but the meat was laced with grizzle and odd bits of bone. It had good flavor. The waiter listened hard to get it just right, but it was not the kind of meal that folks talk about at their sister casino, the Longhorn.
Prices were the best part of my buffet meals. At the Orleans I had $10 comp on the free room. I used $5 points. I used the senior citizen Tuesday half priced coupon, and for some reason they gave me another $5 coupon when I went through that line, and I used that for a graveyard meal of steak and eggs. The steak is pretty basic, but I like the special.
At the Cannery I always ate on Poker comps.
At Sam's I paid or one breakfast with points. I have two free buffets, but these must be redeemed together, so I am hoping one of my relatives may meet me. Giving blood at the blood drive earned 2 vouchers (and 1000 points on my card). Then I still had the ACG coupon for a free buffet with 200 points earned that day. I guess I'll save that one for my next trip.
I used the comps to have a meet up with my relatives and that seemed to work fine. With the buffet comps from the ACG came two drinks as well so I was able to treat them to a margarita and to a mixed ginger ale.
The blood drive here at Sam's that offered 1000 points and two free buffets. I decided it would be a good time to donate and very convenient. Unfortunately they were not really ready for the turnout and the waits were quite long. I made an appointment, but I did not realize how long it would take after the paperwork was done to actually have the blood taken. They should have had many more people. I guess I waited almost two hours after the paperwork. I went back to my room and got a book.
Giving blood sure has changed over the years. So many questions. At least here a young woman typed in my answers, and I did not have the long four page form that I saw at home.
I used to giver regularly, but have fallen out of the habit. Now they will remind me periodically.
I used one of the buffets for Saturday night and that was good value because the buffet was $17, prime rib night. It came with a bit of red wine or beer as well. I enjoyed it. Off my diet again, but I had not eaten anything except a couple cookies at the blood drawing station.
I enjoyed the Main Street Station buffet again even if my favorite treat, soul greens mixed with kalua pork could not be topped with crunchy Chinese noodles because they were out. I added a bit of jalapeno pepper, but I like it better plain.
The waitress was friendly as always. I love the ambiance here. It is all delicate lighting in a huge high ceiling with Victorian arches of metal. I just feel so comfortable. For dessert I had iced cream laced with M and M type candy and butterscotch topping and taste of sticky bun on the side.
I also tried a new pork stew from the Hawaiian section that I thought was very good as well as a piece of very tasty fried chicken.
At the Golden Nugget I had a pattie melt served with potato chips and a fine dill pickle. I also got a huge and decadent brownie which was the best dessert I ate all week. It is filled with a creamy chocolate filling and just rich in sweet chocolate taste. The waitress warmed it up and I ate it first, hot and wondeful. Nice use of the poker comp. The entire meal cost me a dollar.
At the El Cortez I had a couple prime ribs at the cafe and a pattie melt that was good as well. *I had breakfast one time and that was great. *Finally, I ate this huge meal at Flame which I wrote up separately at this link:
put in Flame lin,
ROOM FOOD
I ended up with trailmix, an orange, some figs, and pistachio's in the room, so I never a trip to Walmarts or Walgreens downtown. I will bring pistachio's again. They are a great little meal in the evening.
There are plenty of food choices at Sam's Town, but they shut down in early morning hours. Walmarts is right across the street so were I not well stocked, I could get something to eat there.
There is one of those fine collections of dispensers of candy and nuts right in front of the movie theater. For a quarter I got a little taste of something, usually jelly belly jelly beans which are individually flavored and quite a little treat.
They are off the diet, but I can enjoy a quarter's worth. Unlike the average bland sugar of normal jelly beans, each Jelly Belly bean has a distinctive flavor, so I have to discipline myself to pop just one at a time and take my time with the gourmet flavor.
Sam's also had a Mcdonald's with dollar hamburger choices.
And the decadent popcorn refill as I left the movies tasted great as well.
My last meal was the only fancy feast
Sometimes the planning of a Vegas trip so absorbs me that I do foolish things. So in spite of having $25 dollars a night in comped food, when I heard of a board member's coupon deal, I was tempted, and gave in to a $6 restaurant.com coupon that bought me $25 in food at the Flame.
Certainly, I thought, I'd have some relative or some poker buddy or some board friend, and I could use the coupon and comps to have a fine night out and not dine alone at Flame.
Where is my VP playing pal Catherine when I need her and could treat her to her "happy place"?
My second plan was to petition the management to let me spend for appetizer and perhaps the high priced lamb entree and so get around the rule that the coupon must be used for*TWO*entrees.
Well, that plan proved impossible. It was out of their hands, they said. They had to send in all the paperwork and there would have to be two entrees regardless of how much I spent.
Okay.
I am not easily defeated.
I went to plan C.
I decided to dine on two entrees. After all the Flame is set up so that each vegetable or potato cost extra. I just would have two entrees. I ordered the signature porterhouse steak and the walleye pike.
I also used my room coupon for a free bottle of Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge cabernet sauvignon. I expected one of those small two glass bottles.
No, this was a full bottle.
Now I just needed some dinner conversation.
And I got that as well.
At the next table were two couples in their thirties. The woman who faced me was dressed in a delightfully designed black dress which featured one shoulder of revealed flesh and one of the black dress sleeve decorated with a series of delicate shaped slanted slices down the arm, each one with just a hint of lace. Picking up the black color of her dress was a bit of black mixed in her otherwise blond hair. And she had finished her outfit with a silver chain that held a huge turquoise pendant and some wonderfully large but tasteful silver rings.
Turquoise is my favorite jewelry.
These were delightful dinner companions even if they did not suspect I was one of them.
I did no intrusive staring.
Completing the ambiance was some very gentle and relaxing music as well as a screen that spanned various beautiful places around the world, many of them delightful peppered with small fishing boats in blue water. I could watch the changing views of famous cities around the world, but still overhear their stories.
My night was made when their conversation turned to catching, cleaning and preparing crabs; the details were fascinating to the ears of this old fisherman. And I loved the juxtaposition of the classy look of this delightful woman and her description of how she cleaned crab. It is not an easy task.
Her husband described going scuba diving for crab and then making a large grill of the tasty morsels.
The red wine mellowed me in a way that just let all of this sensual pleasure into my psyche, and the visions of water, the conversation around catching seafood, the sophisticated and gracious look of the woman describing how she cleaned and prepared crab made what could have been an isolated and rather downscale final night celebration into something quite wonderful.
The staff was delightfully attentive as well. There was no rebuff because I was the "coupon guy." In fact, they felt a bit badly that I could not spend just as much money (or more) on the lamb and appetizers and such.
Along with my protein came two garnishes, one of green onion and one of something called bean seeds, small green tasty bits that I want to use for my own fish dishes cooked here at home.
Both foods were just wonderful.
They also left a basket of break which had two nice slices of a sweet bread like raisin bread as well as two fine onion rolls.
I certainly had enough to eat. For dessert I was left with a half dozen chocolate mints.
Nice.
Of course, the tip was more than I usually pay for a meal. They added 18% to the bill and I added another $5.
Because the remaining charges were simply billed to my room, I was also able to use up the remaining food comp. Over two days it is hard to eat $50 worth of free food when traveling solo at the El Cortez unless we spend one night at the Flame.
In past years I had not cared so much for this spot or thought of it as special, but I'd go again, even solo.
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