Visitreno

[LilyJDragonfly]

The Dog and I did a HUGE Amtrak trip (four different trains/routes over three weeks) and realized the California Zephyr stopped in Reno on our way from Chicago back to Sacramento. The stop is for less than five minutes so we rebooked our tickets to stop off in Reno for two days this past weekend. During this big trip, we also hit up the Grand Casino (a Harrah's property) in Biloxi and Harrah's in New Orleans (I'll post commentary on these adventures later).

Our train pulled in pretty much on time (prior to 9am - scheduled at 836am) and we grabbed our bags and trucked across the street to Harrah's for comped rooms. Our room was ready when we got there so we dropped off our bags in our room and got to gambling downstairs!

We had less than 80 bucks between the two of us so we played for a bit at Harrah’s to get our Great Race points and then planned to take that Sierra Spirit free bus thing down to Bank of America. We strolled outside to discover the street closed off and Sierra Spirit had been rerouted somewhere else. Maybe next time we'll test out this free service. The street was closed for some sort of offroad vehicle event. It was still early so everyone was just setting up. We went over to Eldo to pick up new cards and swipe; The Dog won A Free Donut with purchase of a coffee – it actually flashed up a graphic of a donut on the screen. I won 20% off any ONE item at the gift shop.

Over to SL to get new cards and swipe. Nothing of note there. Down to the bank and with our cash money replenished, I decided we should pay a visit to Circus Circus – the first Reno casino we ever visited and the first place we ever got comped rooms. Neither of us had played at CC in at least two years. When we went to get our players cards, they didn’t have us in the system anymore! So as a result of being “new” players, we got a free entry into the slot tourney, scheduled to start later that day. (We didn’t return for it). They are also offering Win Cards where you pay $10 and get $15 in play chips for the tables with “Win Cards” that show you the strategy for playing table games. I think we wound up $5 up from this.

I lost $20 playing video poker and then we cruised over to our beloved Club Cal-Neva. It’s so good to be back home! Those dank carpets, friendly staffers, and loads of nooks and crannies filled with slots. Our host doesn’t work on Fridays but they loaded our $47 of free play. It was then time to go get breakfast at the Top Deck. A true throwback to the old school 24-hour diners of casinos long gone, we enjoyed breakfast and hit the slots.

They have slightly rearranged the main part of the casino downstairs and REMOVED THE BIG TRAIN!!! Gone. But they have added a Museum of Memorabilia where the gift shop stood years ago (upstairs by the video games). The Dog jumped on the $10 poker tourney and wound up in first place, scoring $171. I screwed around with slots and blackjack, steadily losing my bankroll.

By 4 or so, we decided to head back to Harrah’s and play a bit. Nothing of note there and by 530, we grabbed a cab to go see this Grand Sierra Resort casino we’ve been hearing so much about. $13-ish for the cab over from Harrah’s.

Per The Dog, GSR is “very Un-Reno”. They have a huge marble lobby area when you arrive and there is a girl dangling from ribbons doing twists and turns by the fancy bar area, plus loads of trendy-named restaurants.

The line to get a players card was long and the place was overrun with small children. We waited patiently and signed up for the cards – no bonus for new players. They misspelled The Dog’s name on the card so I guess we’ll be able to see if they sell our info to anyone. We checked out the slots and he sat down at Day of the Dead – a newer slot we haven’t seen anywhere else. Within a spin, he had hit a bonus for $250 bucks. Nice! I steadily lost cash in my slot. The Dog cashed out and went to the poker room. He played a 1/2 NL and picked up a quick $65, then spent $80 for their bounty tourney, picked up a $20 bounty, then got knocked out himself. While this was happening, I replenished my severely depleted bankroll with a 4OAK for $200 or so. We screwed around on the slots there a bit more (they have a large non-smoking area of slots, which some of y’all may like, but if you’re gambling, you might as well be drinking AND smoking!) and then hopped back in a cab to downtown.

It was around 830pm and those tasty Phat Philly Cheesesteaks from the CalNeva were calling out to us. We hopped out and picked up a comp from the players club (you can swipe your comps at CN for the Top Deck at the register, but for the Casino Grill downstairs, you have to go get a voucher from the players club) for the Cheesesteaks and the cook got to cooking.

Having spent some time in Reno trying out various foods, I will say without a doubt that the freshly cooked Cheesesteak at the Cal-Neva ranks as my favorite thing to eat in Reno – yes, even more so than the Awful-Awful! With the combo, you get fries and a drink for about $7.50. Amazing. The meat is freshly grilled (not at all pre-cooked) for each sandwich and it’s so big you have to eat it with a fork.

Side note about sodas at the Cal-Neva: The Dog decides to order a soda with one of the meals at the Top Deck. He asks the waitress, “Do you have Coke or Pepsi?” She replies, “We have cola.” Love it! If you go to the Casino Grill, you can see the generic labels on the fountain machine there.

We enjoyed our Cheesesteaks, played a few more bucks in the slots, and cruised back to our room at Harrah’s.

Commentary about Harrah’s: I really think that CET is getting ready to dump this property. The carpets are looking rough and almost on par with the casino carpet in the Cal-Neva. The west hotel rooms are starting to show their age – bedskirts looking shabby; lamps/fixtures showing chips/grime. They have completely done away with the poker room now – it’s just an empty space downstairs. The buffet doesn’t open until 10am. The sushi bar (Ichiban) isn’t actually owned by Harrah’s and thus you can’t use Reward Credits there UNLESS you’re a Diamond or Seven Stars. We didn’t see any new banks of slots in there, though they were removing the Cash Spin (You Spin to Win!) slots that are down by the hotel registration area. I did find the Triple Trouble video poker machine down by the old card poker area, though I didn’t win anything from it.

Another note about the Cal-Neva: Most of y'all remember the post about the Cal-Neva limo


Okay - so check this out - they are now offering this:


Saturday's adventures will be posted later today....

[BC Dave]

An entertaining report as usual. Looking forward to more. Congrats on the win at the GSR. Love the bit about the generic "cola". I was in the Top Deck some years back with my brother and his wife. We asked what type of noodles were served with a certain dish. The response...."hard".

[john]

Yeah, Dave. There's nothing quite like a pile of noodles crunching in your teeth. That's how real Italians like their spaghetti.

[Zydeco]

THE TRAIN?!

[Mammothgambler]

Hi Lily, great trip report and thanks for sharing! Sounds like you guys sure did have an awesome Amtrak adventure. Hope you enjoyed the Harrahs properties in New Orleans and Biloxi, they were a good stop off when I moved here from the east coast - not bad, just not like Reno.

Glad you got a chance to check out the GSR, and beyond that, actually won!

Thanks for the info regarding the Casino Grill at Cal-Neva. I've walked by there hungry several times wondering if it's worth it, looks great!

Regarding Harrah's Reno, yeah, I've also heard they might be getting ready to drop it. Seems like more and more people are complaining about it as time goes by. Jeez, it seems like they just installed those Cash Spin machines there, I wonder where they put them?

Awesome photo of the Cal-Neva limo. How much are they charging for a lift? : )

Mammothgambler

[mjames1229]

Harrah's had better not drop the Reno property. Besides the fact that all of my Great Racing is for my (almost) yearly trips to bowl... well, that's why they'd better not drop it!

And when did the poker room go away? I am 1 for 2 in tournaments there

[BC Dave]

Yup! Crunchy noodles with red sauce washed down with generic cola. Move over La Strada!

Actually, along with my affection for the Cal Neva, I have a big soft spot for the ole Top Deck Restaurant. I've had many a great meal there and couldn't have cooked the food for myself for less $.

[LilyJDragonfly]

So Saturday arrived and we cruised to Eldo & SL for a swipe, screwed around with Pai Gow for a bit at SL (no lucky Royal Flush this time), and wandered back to the Cal-Neva.

Our host Benjamin spotted us going into the Top Deck for breakfast and signed us in for the slot tourney. We headed over to the tourney area and started mashing buttons. My score was good on the first round. It's a two-round tourney and you do your first time in the morning and then the second round is after lunch. Benjamin said we didn't need to wait around for it and let us do our second round right after the first. The second round score was decent for me, too. Later that night, I discovered I had placed and won $25 in cash. (for those of you who do like the Cal-Neva and play there a bit, yes, they do have hosts! If you want some contact info, let me know via private message)

From there, we cruised to Harrah's for some play and decided to do Ichiban for dinner. I think we took a nap at some point and then I scoped out the pool at Harrah's - quite nice! It was quiet with only a few couples out sunning or just hanging in the pool. The water was cool and I had a good nap in the sun. The spa area is nice and I may partake of it on a later trip. (side note: we've been staying at Harrah's quite often for the past three years and I've never checked out the pool!) I used some of my comps to buy some fancy shampoo.

We went down to Ichiban for dinner - an all-you-can-eat sushi place, plus they have the Japanese grill thing with the chefs that flip the shrimp into their hats. We didn't have reservations but they had spots at the sushi bar (which is what we wanted anyway). Our chef was creative, though not particularly chatty, unlike our chef at Siena who was quite personable. So we go to pay with our comps and they tell us that they don't accept TR comps, unless you're a Diamond or Seven Stars. What the hell? We used our TR Visa to pay, but it aggravated the hell out of me. They did give us a military discount though.

Back to the Cal-Neva to continue losing our bankrolls in the slots there and finally, off to bed as the train was arriving at 8:36am and we didn't want to miss it!

I woke up Sunday morning at about four am. Called Amtrak to check the train status and it reported that it was six hours behind! We got up and packed our things to check out and drop our bags with the bellhop. We strolled over to the train station to see if this delay was true and it was.

(Also, did I mention the Mensa convention was in town at the Silver Legacy?? I debated shooting pics and doing a game - Genius or Gambler? - but it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel)

We gambled down our last hundred and pondered what to do with this delay. Screw it - hit the ATM and got back to gambling! We went to Eldo and I played some new slot called Dr. Jackpot or something and cashed out $250 ahead... nice! And my first ever time for walking out ahead at the Eldo.

We played blackjack at the Cal-Neva, slots here and there, and finally at 1:30pm, we picked up our bags from the bellhop and went to the train station. The train was scheduled to arrive at 245pm. The train station has a great exhibit about the excavation of the trench and all the items they unearthed. It was quite cool.

Given that Vance and I had been on the train for days over the course of our vacation (we started in Sacramento three weeks ago, went to LA, then New Orleans, then Chicago, and now Reno), we were sick of train food. I ran back over to the Hash House A Go Go to get take out - a burger and two salads with those amazing polenta croutons. So tasty and they accept TR points.

The train pulled in not too long after I got back to the station and we hopped on and headed back home.....

We're heading back next weekend for our last summer hurrah!

[mjames1229]

[LilyJDragonfly]

Damn! Yup, I did mean The Dog!

[stan_allen]

And I love this business of criss-crossing the country by train (God bless America!), while adding on a good ol' Reno stop!

How many of us have gazed wistfully at that train station downtown, imagining what it's like to glide into the station after crossing the Sierras, and such.

Bravo!