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Back From The Pep.....

 
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alison



Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1150

PostPosted: Oct Sun 18, 2009 9:13 am    Post subject: Back From The Pep..... Reply with quote

Hi Everyone!
We made it back.

We left Friday the 2nd at 8:00 p.m. and drove all night till we got to Reno. Arrived at The Pep around 10:00 a.m. Went to VIP check in and got our room. Room 80305 in the Tuscany Tower. Room was on the 2nd Floor. We had a Veranda Room, so we had a balcony overlooking the pool area. Loved that. The coffee they give you in the room now is really bad. They give you styrofoam cups for the coffee, they cant even give you mugs? How cheap! Room was great, besides the fact that there was a huge gap under the door and you could hear alot of noise from the Hallway. Apparently, this is caused by the building settling. Only floors 1-3 are like this. They are working on fixing it. Below is the view from our room.







Restraunts:
We ate twice at Romanza. Had the Lasagna both times. It was really good. We also tried out Bimini. Dawn had a Salmon dish which she said was really good. I had he NY Steak. It was fairly good. Way overpriced for what you get though. The steak was $33.00. Thats all you got! It was $8.00 for a dinner salad that was small. A baked potato was $5.00. Rip off. They should at least give you some type of potato with the steak. I really like the other steakhouse better. I think the quality of steak was much better at the old steakhouse. I can say i will probably never eat there again. We had the dinner buffet twice which was pretty decent. Room Service twice which was really good. My salad i ordered was HUGE! i could not believe the size of it. Had a few meals at the Coffee Shop. Thats always a dependable standby. Heres a camera Phone Photo inside Bimini:



Gambling:
To sum it up in a couple words...SUCKED ASS! lol.....It was nearly impossible to win anything! I have never had such a bad experience there. Both of us had no luck at all! Also, they have tons and tons of the 40 and 50 line IGT games now. They have gotten rid of alot of my old favorites. I really was not impressed with the slot variety there now. My local Indian casino has a much better variety. I inquired why they did not have many WMS games anymore. Apparently they aren't as popular, so they are selling them off. I find that hard to believe. They are very popular up here. I think it's a ploy to make more money personally. Minimum bet is either .40 or .50 vs .20... hmmm...... I noticed now when you go swipe your passport card, you can see how many points you have earned. The machines were so tight this trip, that i ran thru the least amount i ever have.

Sum up:
We still had a great time. It was nice to have the week away. We did come home a day early since we were just loosing and getting no play out of our money. We had charged about $500.00 to our room over the week. Food is so expensive there. Luckily we got it all taken off, even though our play wasn't much. We did loose the same if not more then we usually do, so they still made money off us. Smile The one thing i almost forgot to mention is the Coupon book they give you. If you wan't to use one of the coupons, you have to pay cash or credit card. You can't charge it to your room. So we never got to use any of them. Except the coupon for $15.00 off a $40.00 room service order. That's the only one you can charge to the room. The Pep was sold out a few days we were there. A few conferences going on. Never seen it so packed there. Not sure how we did that drive all night again. it is brutal! By the time we got there though, we were wired and ready to hit the casino. Lets see if we end up doing this next year...We say no, but you know how that goes. Smile

So thats about it. Nothing to exciting to report. I am headed to my local Casino, Tulalip Halloween weekend. Have a comped room there. The rooms there are so nice. Much better then the Peppermill. If your interested, you can check it out at www.tulalipresort.com

Oh, and thanks John Wink
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JD



Joined: 18 Dec 2005
Posts: 956

PostPosted: Oct Sun 18, 2009 2:49 pm    Post subject: Pep stay Reply with quote

About time Allison.

I drive the 451 miles from my house in Portland to Reno Arch in 9 hours driving time.

Did you do the I-5 S. to Hwy 58 thru Oakridge/K Falls/Alturas/with the A-3 shortcut at Standish? Any stops can kill your time. I stop for gasoline ONCE at K Falls (close to 1/2 way from Portland). How far North of Portland did you have to drive FIRST?

That you can now CHECK points on your card is great! Keeping it secret of where you stand, how often they purge points is a real turn off. Can you guess what $ 100 coin in is worth for points? And do they publish how many points = what kind of comps?

Any table games?

Thanks for the report.

Tulalips? HAHAHAHAHA Shocked Embarassed
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alison



Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1150

PostPosted: Oct Sun 18, 2009 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JD-
We stop alot. We have to pee like every two hours, no joke. Wink We stop and get gas once besides our initial fill up. We also usually have a stop thats a little longer, for food.

We did not take that route. We took i-55, to 44, ect. I have taken that route you are talking about once i think. Oh and portland is about 3 hours or so south of where i am at.

No they dont publish what amount of points = what. I figure though it takes about $20.00 coin in to get 1 point. It seems too that they gve you about 10% of your coin thru in comps. My friend had earned a little over 300 points and was able to get a $60.00 food comp. This is all just my assuming though.

We didn't play any table games this trip. Just stupid slots. Smile

Yes Tulalip! it's a really cool casino actually. check it out! www.tulalipcasino.com
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JD



Joined: 18 Dec 2005
Posts: 956

PostPosted: Oct Sun 18, 2009 5:21 pm    Post subject: Driving Miss Allison Reply with quote

Interesting.

With what must have been at least 5 pause 2 P stops, the Portland to Reno leg alone must have been nearly 11 hours... 740 miles/14 hours total?? That stretch from Shasta to Susanville is terrible... especially at night.

Next time try:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Portland&1s=OR&2c=Reno&2s=NV

The 88 miles over Willamette Pass from Eugene to HWY 97 only has about 15 or 20 miles of that same kind of slow, steep, twisting, dark mountain road like a lot of that stretch from Shasta to Susanville.

But then, there's not so many places 2 P... lol

I like Three la lips casino more.
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alison



Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1150

PostPosted: Oct Sun 18, 2009 6:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh yeah, we had at least 5 stops. Smile We try to hit pilot for coffee and food break too. Love those Pilots.

So do you really think that route is shorter? It may not have been quite 14 hours. At least 13 though. Every stop is at least 5-10 minutes. Plus a gas stop. We probably wasted good 30-45 minutes in stops. Which let me tell ya, we stopped at some way off the beaten track gas station, Wolf Creek. Wasnt right of the freeway. We needed gas though so we had to stop.
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Mammothgambler



Joined: 25 Dec 2005
Posts: 619

PostPosted: Oct Sun 18, 2009 9:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey Alison, thanks for posting! Looks like you all had an awesome time, even if the gambling wasn't up to par. I did so bad there last time I think it's time to take a breather until, oh, next month or so? LOL

Looks like the Bimini is really decked out! I kind of figured that most the newer restaurants were kind of overpriced. Just give me the coffee shop any day!

Where exactly can you swipe your Passport Card to let you know how many points you have? Somewhere at the Passport booth perhaps? That's definitely a good addition, as it's always been confusing to see how many points one really and truly has.

What a riot about the local Indian casinos - I just got back from Pismo Beach and Morrow Bay to get one last surf trip in before the water gets wicked cold. Stopped at the Paiute Palace in Bishop on the way out and lost $75. Hit it again on the way back in and won $130 - all on quarter machines, go figure.

Hope you have better luck on your next trip, and have fun at the Tulip (or however you say it.)

Mammothgambler
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BC Dave
Site Admin


Joined: 18 Dec 2005
Posts: 1592

PostPosted: Oct Sun 18, 2009 10:06 pm    Post subject: Thanks for warmin em up! Reply with quote

Hi Alison.
Good trip report, nice pics. It's easy to see why the Pep can't afford winners for awhile...Having rebuilt ancient Rome etc. Does it strike anybody else that the Pep now has this weird duality between Tuscany and Neon? I hope the neon wins out. That's what the Peppermill is all about.
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john
Site Admin


Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 1181

PostPosted: Oct Mon 19, 2009 6:27 am    Post subject: New concepts in interior design Reply with quote

Dave, the new decorating era the Peppermill is ushering in is called "Tuscaneon". It's the anti-Feng Shui of interior design.

alison wrote:
Oh, and thanks John Wink

You're more than welcome, Ali. I'm always happy to be of service, especially to someone as amazing as you.

When the Pep first started awarding free play based on points earned during certain weekly time periods, the flier said points were earned at the rate of 1 point for each $40 played on VP and 1 point for each $25 played on slots.

Good to hear you had a great time and I'm looking forward to your next visit, and I promise to make sure the seat's warm this time.

John
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alison



Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1150

PostPosted: Oct Mon 19, 2009 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jon-
You may be correct about the points. I know its at least $20.00 you must run thru on slots, to earn a point. $25.00 may be more like it though.

Bc Dave-
Yeah it makes sense why no one is winning. They have alot to pay for. Smile I too wish it was the old neon place i have grown to love. Unfortuantely, its not.

Mammoth-
Its prononced Two lay lip...lol...The rooms are soooo nice there.
Yeah you can now view your points at the passport kiosks where you swipe you cards to get your Peppermillions letters, Big Spin Drawing Tickets, ect. If you select "passport" from the menu, it shows your your card level, how many points you have accrued this past year, and shows you what you earned the previous year. Pretty cool.

I earned about 750 points this past trip, which is very low for me. I figure i only ran thry $18,000 or so in my week there. The highest i have ever ran thru was $50,000. So i really was not doing well this trip.
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stan_allen



Joined: 19 Dec 2005
Posts: 1129

PostPosted: Oct Mon 19, 2009 2:30 pm    Post subject: Styrofoaming at the mouth... Reply with quote

Great stuff, sorry the gambling wasn't so good.

As for the in-room coffee, I'd say, at least it was there! And the cups? If they put in mugs, I think we all know what would happen to them!
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alison



Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1150

PostPosted: Oct Mon 19, 2009 2:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The thing is with those cups, it gave the coffee a weird tast. I dont know why. Its some cheap ass coffee though. the boyds stuff was much better.
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CaSwede



Joined: 28 Feb 2006
Posts: 866

PostPosted: Oct Tue 20, 2009 3:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is tough when you drive all that way and just lose, lose, lose. Sorry to hear about the bad luck. Maybe you should try a new game? The video poker is great at the Peppermill. Your room looked great.

Good luck on your --- Tip Toe to the Tulip.
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BoldtsWagon



Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Oct Mon 26, 2009 8:10 am    Post subject: Ditto on the Pep Reply with quote

My wife and I just got back from last weeks 5 day stay at the Pep. I agree with the comments. Removal of favorite slots. Tight slots. Hard to accumulate points (will no doubt slip a level on the Passport card). Food more expensive. The $10 resort fee is a rip-off to increase room rates to pay for the renovations. Place does look nice though.

On a positive level, we decided to check out the Grand Sierra, went there twice during the 5 days. Have not been there since it was the Hilton. Pleasantly suprised with slots and full pay JOB. Appeared to be good value food specials at the cafe and good food. Had the prime rib one evening (2 for 1 early bird special for over 55 crowd). The prime rib was good and larger than the advertised 16 ounces.

We signed up for a slot card and probably will be staying at the Grand Sierra the next trip. Since we drive there and have the car, the location is just as convenient as the Pep.
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