Visitreno

[RenoLady]

I did a pre trip report. Now those can be dangerous in a couple of ways. One, you’re going to have certain expectations that cannot possibly be met and two, there is a permanent record of your naivety which can be compared later with the actual trip. During the trip, I found that once I let go of the high expectations and just enjoyed where I was, the less I cared about whether I measured up to my pre trip goals. Anyway…….

We headed up the hill about 10:00 AM, Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend. We had a handful of coupons and flyers, our first $300, and grins plastered across our faces. We would hit Fitzgerald’s by 12:30, cash in the birthday $50 O’Lucky bucks (my birthday a few days before), turn that into gas (vouchers for the Shell station) and use the $25 food flyer at Molly’s. No gambling here today.

Well…..the Player’s Club guy put the $50 O’lucky dollars on our account. So far-so good. Can I get $40 in gas vouchers? Uh, no. We don’t do that anymore. Okay. Do I take this flyer to Molly’s direct? (It says so right on the card, but I verify.) Yes. Off we go. Once in the restaurant, I give the server the flyer, she gives it back and says she hasn’t seen it before, I ask her to check with the cashier, who, it turns out, hasn’t seen it before either. Oh? It was what we got for R’s birthday, and mine last year.

They call in the Food and Beverage guy and “solve” it. Happily they tell me to take it the Player’s Club. My expression has gone flat, I’m not mad, but my humor has left. R knows this look and is begging me with his eyes to let it go. I now am on a mission. I return to the Player’s Club guy and tell him the problem. He says to take it to Limericks. I tell him not only is Limericks not open for 4 hours, but we have ordered in Molly’s I show him the wording that says take it to “any” restaurant cashier. He suggests Limericks again. I ask him to call the cashier at Molly’s. He does, I listen to him try to explain it to her for several minutes. He gives up and hands me the flyer suggesting a casino host in marketing.

I laugh in a bitter scary way, and head toward the host’s office. Luckily there was someone in there. I approach him with, “I have been to the Player’s Club twice, through the waitress, Molly’s cashier and the food and beverage manager, they have sent me to you. No one knows what to do with this flyer, but as you can see, it says to simply give it to the restaurant cashier. The host (who I have never met) looks at me, the flyer, back at me, and says follow me. We go next door to the cashier, he suggests I return to my table and food, and apologizes. I don’t know what he said, but there was no problem when we left.

I had asked the server not to put our order in until after I found out if the offer were good. She did not listen, my food was waiting for me, I wasn’t hungry. What is it about bile and appetite? R ate, we boxed mine and headed out to Atlantis. We passed over the cash from Harrah’s cuz I couldn’t find the coupon for it. Best laid plans and all…..

Atlantis’s addition is nice, but what is it about this place that makes it hard to maneuver? Even with the additions, I was confused and couldn’t find that warm and fuzzy comfort place to lay in with a beer. So after a $20, we left for Carson City. On the drive over (30 minutes), I admit to R that I have been looking forward to this trip, and now I’m not feeling it. We talk about it and realize we’re trying too hard, planning too much and need to relax! Attitude adjustment complete and we’re there!

I share my Molly’s club sandwich with R, throw the bag in our $36 room (yes, on a Saturday on Labor Day weekend-anyone price) and split for the casino. I buy in for a Sierra Nevada Pale ale at the bar, talk cigars with folks while lighting one up, and settle in. After a few hours of silly non-winning, but fun play, we head back to the room to change for a Frank Sinatra tribute and dance. The venue was nice in the upstairs room at the Nugget, large, cool, neon and brass music pouring out of the room. “Frank” joined us later, and even though he was our Grandma’s time, we really did know most of the songs. The room was folks twice our age, but what fun they had! We bought drinks, something I rarely do in a casino, and just chilled.

After the show we played a couple more hours, and called it a night by 10 PM. We didn’t want to burn out on the gambling since we were here for 3 nights. We also had blown through our first $300, and didn’t want to go into the next day’s money.

The next day we slept in, packed up and went to the Nugget for breakfast, except breakfast was Bailey’s and coffee and a look at the long line into the coffee shop. We cashed out our points for $30, and played that for 2 hours, taking it with us. We then headed to Fandango to cash out that slot play. On the way, we decided to pick up a couple of those 2- fer 99 cent Jack in the box tacos, and breakfast was served. Fandango was kind and we left with $35 more.

We dropped the car at valet at Harvey’s, and checked in, room not ready, come back. Bags to bell, now what? More free play! Montbleu has $15 with $25 play. Problem is, you have to stand in line twice: once to get the card, and then when you’ve put $25 on it. No way to tell when that is from the card, so I went to a 50 play penny, played max for $2.50 a pull and counted 10 times. $25! + 2 more for good measure. R did the same. A bit of a wait in line, he gets his free play, the Player’s Club guy looks at me, the screen and says, you only played $10. I stare back, I know what I did, I counted, but what good to argue? I suck it up, look properly stupid, and wander back into the casino.

Okay, $10 more bucks to play, only I’m not counting this time, I’m playing for as long as I want, (up to a drink at least) and then I’ll return when there is NO line. After the drink, I head back to the Club, get my $15 free play and load it up. I’m playing dimes super double bonus poker, max play, and hold a 10 and Queen of diamonds. No pause, since nothing ever comes of it, and BAM! All royalty, all diamonds, and the credits zoomed up 4000. I look puzzled, I feel puzzled, R’s looks at me and cracks up. I didn’t expect this, especially on free play! Today is our Anniversary of 22 years, our daughter calls to wish us well. Good timing, she gets $100 of the $400 we just won. just cuz.

Now I want to walk with this money, so we do. Back to Harvey’s, get our room, 18th floor, overlooking the lake, windows around and we pop the wine. We had stopped at Raley’s for Brie and pate (liverwurst at Raley’s) and set up a room picnic. We’re looking out over the lake, sipping wine and calling our friends and family to terrorize them about where we are and they’re not. We’re back even for the trip and how can this get better? Well, it does.

After a few hours of non-gaming, we go back to Harrah’s. Oh my Gawd! The place was packed, as was Harvey’s. I have only seen these kind of crowds at Indian Casinos in California on a Saturday night. Most machines full, folks standing behind them with their hands clutching un-played money, bars jammed, walk-ways shoulder to shoulder. We had a hard time finding two machines together, forget about what they actually said on them. We had to team play sometimes, which worked okay when playing the 50 play ones for $2.50 a pull. We stayed even, and then we found these two All Star machines over by Vex and the bathrooms.

I chose my usual 50 cents a pull, 4 coin on a super double bonus poker, triple play. Basically it’s 2 coin on the bottom line, and one on the next two. $2.00 total. This is a good bet because if you hit a 4OAK (4 of a kind) and its bonus, you can win $400 easily. And so I did, 2 times in a couple of hours, as did R, not to mention the $80 regular 4 OAK’s. We’d toss some money back for our daughter, here and there, and continue drambling (drinking and gambling) until we thought the well ran dry. We turned in about 10 PM again, up a grand, and $300 for the daughter (it was her with her May $1000 win, giving me ½ that allowed for my drunken gambling, and subsequent free room offers from Harrah’s, so we thought we’d return the favor as though she were there).

Restaurants were packed so we ordered some room service and went to sleep. Sleep wasn’t good. You would think it would be better than the $36 room at Carson, but it wasn’t. This room was going for $300+ that night too. It was hot, the bed was lumpy and the air was so freakin’ dry! I never have trouble with that in Reno, but I was thinking about putting a wet washcloth on my face to inhale some moisture. After tossing through the night, we got up early and started with some more room service. I like room service. We’re not big eaters, so we split a meal, drink water to hydrate and it’s only about $20 with tip. No crowds, get ready leisurely, stare out at the lake with a cup of coffee. We bring our own coffee (French press), easy to travel with. Just need to boil water. Better like thick, unfiltered coffee, if you like IPA’s in beer, you’d probably like this style of coffee, not for the weak palate.

We had intended to hit Zephr cove the day before, or at least today. But both days were wind advisory and 60 degrees. Now that feels cold. It did NOT feel cold in the casino, so that is where we went. + We were feeling superior with our gaming skills. After all, were we not up a $1000 or more? Where’s yours? Let’s go get more. Yeah, you know what happened. But we only lost ½ of our winnings over this day. So we were only ½ moronic. We are playing our way back to the room, at or before 9 PM, and a worker asks us about the fireworks. We tell him they cancelled them the night before, he says they are going on now. R and I look at each other, shrug and go back to gaming. We’re so matched!

Again, back to the room at 10 PM, room service and I had ordered a humidifier from housekeeping, I think I read that on this board. It helped, and sleep was better. Rather than go home Monday, Labor Day, and fight the crowds, we stayed over, and left early Tuesday, working a ½ day yesterday. Plus, I had a “Reel Play” coupon good for $125 free slot play, good starting the 2nd of September. I decided to play my usual super double bonus triple play, 4 units, but at a dime, to give it a chance to pay. It took a ½ hour, I took out $145. Cool.

This was a winning trip. We took more home than we brought or spent, room was free, my Total Rewards points covered all the room service (except tips) and my daughter got $300.00, We gave it to her last night, she was shocked and happy and it was fun giving it to her.

We’re going on a cruise on the 15th, taking R’s mom, who has never gone, and my sis for her roommate. I came home to find out that my sis broke her ankle while we were gone. After the cruise (from Long Beach) we’re going to Vegas for a couple of days, and coming back for a night in Tahoe again. I don’t really want to play in the casino on the ship, the odds are worse than Indian casinos, and there are no free drinks! Best laid plans……

[alison]

First i love what you call gambling and drinking....drambling....Perfect!

So i guess i got lucky with the free play at MontBleu. When i signed up, the guy did not want to deal with people coming back after playing just to get their free play so he just gave it to everyone. He said the lines get so long if he does not do that. Worked for us! I woudl be irritated though about putting the money thru and it not registering correctly. Makes you wonder just how accurate those systems are. Another way to jack us!

Maybe you should write to the management of the Fitz and tell them about the awful experience you ahd with the B-dfay meal. I would have been so frustrated. THey need to have their staff aware of the promos and how to use them. Otherwise, whats the point?

When dawn and i stayed at Harveys, we too had issues with the air in the room. It was so muggy. it just was awful. We had maintanence come up. OMG, if you wold have seen the filter in the a/c unit. Nasty! It was so cacked with lint that when they pulled it out, crap fell everywhere. Once they changed that tho, we were good to go. Still never got really cool, but cool enough for me.

Congrats on your wins! its always nice to actually win some money. When you loose, its such a drag. I just like to win enough to keep playing. Is that too much to ask for?

So what did you think of the Decor of Harveys "premium" rooms? A bit dated? I think they need to move on to remodelling those as well. They are good sized, just need some new furniture, paint ect.

[stan_allen]

Great job! Amazing how much more fun you have once you relax and go with the flow, isn't it?

Excellent work with the free play and such, you're a role model to us all!

[jerry]

sTAN, I love you like a brother (like a brother I have never met).
But if you are going to pick a role model, how about picking an English teacher?

[Ryder]

I learned a new word today!........Drambling.........I love it!!!!

Great trip report and some nice wins on your special day. Sounds like you ended up having a great time after all the crap you put up with in Reno

I cannot wait to do some Drambling next week while I am in reno

[seattlerocks]

Thanks for sharing the fantastic trip report! We have trouble sleeping in Reno because of the dry air - good idea to ask for a humidifier.

[RenoLady]

"Drambling"

I can't take credit for this word, someone else coined it, though I agree it perfectly describes that zone of happiness we all seek. funny, it's little used though, I guess few will admit it?

Alison:

I thought the rooms looked nice, but R pointed out the aged furniture and the fact it was the cheaper stuff when it was new anyway. I guess I was glassy-eyed with the view. I still want to try Harrah's across the street. Some more days are opening up with their availability now.

Stan:

Role model, eh? That's too lofty a place since a lot of the time I stray from my coupons, or remembering to bring some money home. It would also put me in that place a lot of other boards go to, not admitting the losses and only writing up the winning trips. So I respectfully decline the nomination and offer up Jerry as your English teacher role model, no wait! I like your verbage, it has a rhythm to it and is a nice balance to the funny tongue-in-cheek style of some other posters. So don't change a thing!