7 Days in Vegas

Day Six (Monday) was a day set out for gambling, sightseeing and relaxing. By the end of the day it turned out to be a full day of gambling and some cheap eats around town. We woke up after an uncomfortable sleep in our medieval beds at Excalibur and headed down to the in house McDs for breakfast. Large Double Double and a Sausage McMuffin is a great way to recover from a long night of drinking in Vegas. I had to keep remembering when I order coffee in the morning that they don’t know what a double double is so you have to say large coffee with 2 cream and 2 sugar and then repeat yourself two or three times until they figure it out. Weird, I thought double double was a universal code for ordering coffee but it must be some weird Canadian thing.

After I score my McDs I go and sit in the Kripy Kreme area in Excalibur to score some free wi-fi internet service. I still don’t understand why every hotel in Vegas charges $14/day for internet. It seems like a matter of time before some outsider (Google) comes in and broadcasts free Wi-Fi throughout the entire city. Why not give out free Wi-Fi and have sponsored ads all over it. You already have taxi billboard advertising in Vegas so it seems like a natural progression.

After breakfast I head back up to the tower to get ready for the day. The plan was to go win some money playing Baccarat at South Point then head over to the Hard Rock for some NL Texas Hold Em. We ended up glued to the tables at South Point from about 3pm-midnight drinking Miller Chill’s and having a good old time. Ended up losing a bit of my bankroll at first then fighting my way back up to even for the session. We even took a break after losing a few hands to release our anger on the bowling pins at the Bowling Center on the second level of the hotel.

July 1st, 2009 | Tags: Excalibur, Free WiFi Vegas | Category: Gambling in Vegas, Vegas Attractions | Leave a comment

Day five was a relaxation day and time to have a little fun down on the casino floor.  We had a 12 noon checkout time at South Point and woke up on Sunday morning, checked out and loaded our luggage in the car.  Then we went back into the Casino and played Baccarat for a good 5-6 hours.  The Baccarat at South Point was the best Baccarat I have played in Vegas, they have several tables running and they have great drink service.

After an afternoon on the tables we decided to head up to our final hotel destination which was Excalibur on the South end of the Strip.  I had purposely booked the low end rooms @ $39/night hoping that we could do the $20 Sandwich Trick for a free upgrade but I failed miserably in my first attempts and we ended up in the medieval rooms with a semi-strip view.   You can read about my attempt at the $20 sandwich trick here.

Once we got checked in at Excalibur we decided to do a little casino wandering heading through Luxor down to Mandaley Bay and back.

Some photos from Day 5:

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June 15th, 2009 | Tags: $20 Sandwich Trick, Excalibur, South Point Baccarat | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Gambling in Vegas, Trip Reports | Leave a comment

Day Two:  Gambling on Fremont, Outlet Malls, LA Comedy Club.

9:00am: The day started out way too early and we were still running on Eastern time.  We get up around 9am and head out only to find everything is closed.    I guess 9am is the crack of dawn in Las Vegas because everyone is up all night partying.  So we head to McD’s for breakfast just south of Mandalay Bay and notice this is the first McD’s I’ve ever been to with flowers in it as if they were trying to be a fancy steakhouse or something.  What a joke, the fast food places in Las Vegas are like night and day from Canadian fast food.  I can’t believe how expensive the coffee is in the States, it’s more expensive than beer.   For some reason I can get 18 beer for $15 in Vegas but it’s $2 for a large coffee at McDs….it really makes my blood boil.  I’ll just start drinking Miller’s for breakfast I guess.

Vegas Breakfast

11:00am: Alright, time to head down to dirty old Fremont and start raking in the cash hand over fist.  At least that’s what our intentions were is to go win a couple hundred so we could get show tickets or a cool trip somewhere.  Head on up the highway to the Golden Nugget, Valet the car and get ready to throw down a few bucks on the baccarat table.  Used a baccarat money management system I have been reading about and it’s nothing to write home about but I was able to turn $100 into $180 in about 45 minutes of playing very selective baccarat.  I find the Baccarat at the Nugget fun and fair.  The shoe’s don’t go on crazy streaks and they always shuffle the cards by hand before each shoe so It feels more authentic to me.

12:00pm: Go cashout at the Nugget and head on out to Fremont St to see what’s going on.  I stand and watch as a street artist does a few paintings with spray paint and sells them to tourists.

Fremont St Spraypaint Artists

After watching this guy for a while I hit the road and walk over to Binion’s to catch up to my friend who is kicking some butt at the roulette table with his free match play coupon you get when you take a picture with the Million Dollar display.

Some more photos from Day Two:

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May 17th, 2009 | Tags: Binions, Binions Poker Room, Fremont St, Gambling in Vegas, Golden Nugget, Vic and Anthonys | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Fremont St, Gambling in Vegas | Leave a comment

Wanna to get a free room upgrade on your next trip to Vegas?  Check this story out:

OK, so I was browsing along the net a few days ago and came across the $20 Sandwich trick web page which pretty much tells you how to get a free room upgrade when you arrive at check in at select hotels in the Las Vegas area.

Basically you grease the front desk staff by placing a $20 between your ID and your CC when you hand it to the front desk clerk and they will do their best to see if there are any ‘complimentary upgrades’ available.

On the Front Desk Tip webpage there are some pretty good stories I would suggest you take a read for yourself and you might have found the best $20 you can spend on your next trip to Las Vegas.   I’m sure this trick has been around for a long time and I’m definitely going to see if it works on my next trip to Vegas in April 09.  Until then, just monitor people’s success rate on the Front Page Tip web page.

**Update**

I just got home from my 7 nights in Vegas and during that time we stayed at 3 different hotels.  I only wanted to try to $20 trick at the Excalibur because I had purposely booked a crappy low-end room hoping that I could simply slip the desk clerk a $20 a get upgraded to the new flat screen rooms.

So there I was waiting in line, getting the $20 all nicely folded between my license and my CC.  I walk up to the desk clerk, a middle aged women named Remosa or something hand her the $20 sandwich and made small talk,  asking her in there were any upgrades available to the nice Flat screen rooms.  She takes my CC, starts typing away into the computer not even recognizing the $20 bill sitting in front of her.  She goes on to tell me the rooms are $30/night extra to upgrade and I ask if there is anything she can do for us and basically the best she could do was an old crappy room with a decent view.  We at least had a strip view in a medieval styled room.

So after she books us into the crap room, she then bills us a $5/day ‘resort’ fee and asks to take it from my $20 or the CC sitting in front of her.  I tell her to take it from the $20 and then I don’t bother tipping her at all because I don’t think she even understands the concept or she would have made a quick 3 hours salary in about 3 minutes by trying to help me out.

My standard room and failed attempt at $20 Sandiwch Trick @ Excalibur

Oh well, back to the drawing board.  I guess I’ll try this trick next time at a hotel where the desk clerks are used to being tipped.

Cheers,

Alfie11

May 12th, 2009 | Tags: $20 Sandwich, Excalibur, Front Desk Tip, Sandwich Trick, Vegas Tip | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Featured, Gambling in Vegas, Vegas Tips | Comments (1)

If your ambitious enough you could go casino hopping and sign up for all the player’s clubs just to get the $10 free slot play or the free t-shirts if you are looking for something to do on your next trip to Vegas.

Here is a great site that provides a list of all the player’s club sign up bonuses that are being offered at various Vegas casinos and resorts.

Glad I found this list, I’ll be there in 5 days to test it out.

Alfie11

April 24th, 2009 | Tags: Players Club Signup bonuses, Vegas Casinos | Category: Gambling in Vegas, Signup Bonuses, Vegas Tips | Leave a comment