Visitreno

[LilyJDragonfly]

The Dog was graciously given a four day weekend for the 4th of July, so we decided to go to Reno for a couple days using our comped rooms at Harrah's for two nights.

We got on the road late Thursday afternoon - traffic was easy and we missed the Artown parade by an hour. We checked in, handed off our bags to the bellhop, and headed over to Silver Legacy. I headed to slots and promptly lost $100 playing the Sirens game - only one bonus round for $17. Ouch. And not one cocktail waitress anywhere to be found. The Dog did well at blackjack, but I was ready to go. We went to buy some World Cup tickets at Cal-Neva for a friend.

For dinner, neither of us were very hungry, so we opted for garlic fries and hot dogs at Cal-Neva. The dogs were tasty - grilled - but the garlic fries were less than exciting.

We threw a few more bucks in the slots - I hit a few bucks on Davinci Diamonds and doubled my $20. The Dog hit a super bonus round on Shrimpmania and was up by $60+. We cashed out and went to the cage to redeem. While standing there, I noticed two handwritten signs behind the counter - one said "Do not accept chips from Sienna. 6/11/2010" and then one beneath it said, "Do not cash any checks from Sienna. 6/22/2010". Interestingly enough, two days later, the local paper reported that Sienna was in talks with Cal-Neva to run Sienna.... (Sienna had their license suspended that day - 7/1, but got a stay when they proved they had enough to pay jackpots for the weekend).

We went over to Harrah's to play a bit before bed - loss, loss, loss for me and The Dog stayed even. Enough! Off to bed.

We woke up bright and early on Friday, redeemed our buffet comps for breakfast, and played a bit at Harrah's. It was finally time to go to Peppermill.

Peppermill is very Vegas-y. I love that it's DARK inside, even when it's light outside. All the other casinos seem to let in plenty of daylight (hell, Harrah's has even totally removed the doors from the Virginia St entrance - yup. No doors at all!) There were all these fancy lights inside and lots of mirrors and glitz. Very cool.

The Dog lost $100+ at blackjack before I could even get settled at a machine and he joined me at the slots. Got a couple Bloody Marys and fooled around with the slot machines - found a Davinci Diamonds and Secrets of the Forest. I cashed out even at Davinci and The Dog again hit a killer bonus round and cashed out up $100 or so.

Frankly, we were just checking out Peppermill so I would have an idea of what the place looked like so I could enter their Be the High Roller video submission thing (see earlier posts from me about it - and I'll post when I get the video pulled together....) Anyway, we cashed out at the cage and while walking to go get the car, I spotted the Dino Slots??? Dino something. Anyway, it was all lit up in neon and I'm attracted to flashy things, so we had to go scope. There was a big screen by the Dino Slots (these ten or fifteen machines are all connected and randomly award progressive jackpots) and he watched World Cup while I sat down at Hoot Loot. I hit five eggs in the Hoot Line and won $220! Freaking awesome!! We decided to leave while we were up.

While we were out cruising, The Dog wanted to go scope out Bizarre Guitar over near Sparks, so we drove out that way and picked up lunch from Carl's Jr. He didn't spend a lot of time in Bizarre and we headed back to Harrah's.

The Dog and I settled in for some slots and entered the Friday drawing for HSN giftcards and other junk. I played Hot Hot Penny and went up quite a few bucks. I promptly went down several bucks on that damn Wizard of Oz machine. I swear to God, I have to stay away from those machines. Everyone else seems to do great on them, but it's almost always a loss for me and never hit the bonus round. Arg.

We bought tickets for the X Burlesque show for that night and had planned to go to dinner at the Steakhouse that night, too. However, neither of us were very hungry and we canceled the reservations for dinner and just went to the show.

The show was decent. The lighting of the show was fantastic (I work in the arts and love seeing great lighting design). I thought they should have waited at least two numbers to show off the goods, but they were out on display within the first three minutes. There's nothing X-rated about the show, in spite of what Jerry Lewis says during the preview reels. Nonetheless, if you like pretty girls dancing in fancy outfits, go have a looksee.

After the show, The Dog headed to Zone 21, realized it was 6-5 blackjack and decided to play poker. I went back to the slots and continued to chase bonus rounds, only to run out of cash. I went to bed around 11pm and he stayed playing poker.

He comes in to the room around midnight or so and I ask how it went. "I've only got six chips." "That's okay," I reply. "Yeah," he says. "Thankfully, three of them are black." Woo-hoo! Apparently, there was a pushy guy playing 1/2 at the table and he was betting up $5 to just see the flop, then $20 for the next card, and so on. The Dog decided to call him and he raised. So The Dog raised and one more raise and The Dog was all in for $130 with only a pair of tens. And then another ten popped on the river... nice.

So we get up on Saturday and The Dog wants to stay another night. I know that online I could have reserved Saturday night for $30, so I call the front desk to find out if we can stay and for how much. They decided to comp up the Saturday night.... yay! (By the way, the rooms in the West tower at Harrah's are MUCH BETTER than the East tower rooms...)

We head down to slots for a bit and then over the Silver Legacy. Big mistake for me. Loss, loss, loss. He stays even at blackjack and we headed over to Eldo for some play time. I cash out up from some spinning progressive - no progressive hit, but a couple good re-spins.

The Dog is playing poker at Eldo; I'm hungry so I go ask him if wants to go to dinner now. "It's FOUR PM," he says. "How old are you?" <grin> I decide to go get a snack and some coffee.

An hour or so later, he finds me and we head to the Steakhouse at Harrah's without reservations to see if we can get seated. No problem!

We had the most delicious meal, served by a professional staff. Ozzie was our table captain and he prepared my Steak Diane (a tableside thing that gets set on fire), The Dog ordered the duck (perfect lightly crisp skin and well-seasoned) and then we got Bananas Foster for dessert - another flaming tableside preparation - and just had a truly excellent experience. Other than a bit of cork floating in The Dog's glass of wine, everything was spot on and I can see why they have a four-diamond rating.

So after that epicurean experience, The Dog was needing a nap and I needed to go play slots. A rotten idea again. I lost all my cash that night.

Sunday morning, we get up and decide to go cash out the World Cup tickets for our friend and cash out the couple bucks on ElDo and Silver Legacy tickets. We foolishly put all our Eldo and Silver Legacy winnings BACK INTO MACHINES AND WALKED BACK TO HARRAH'S WITH ONLY A FEW NICKELS LEFT. <sigh>

However, we had a great time and will be back for another visit in August.....

[stan_allen]

What a rollercoaster! I've defended the Silver Legacy in the past as a hotel, but I've never seen much worthwhile by way of their casino, except that it's a nice layout, and has decent atmosphere.
Drink service, slot tightness, and table minimums are absolutely outside the range of acceptability there!
Otherwise, glad you had fun - sounds like the usual - up a bit, give it back - up a bit, give it back.
Go back soon, and ride the rollercoaster again!

[LilyJDragonfly]

That's funny you mention all that about SL - we would love to stay there so we decided to go talk to one of the hosts about where we were as far as play vs. comps.

Apparently, all our play over the past three trips has only brought us to level 4 which would give us the "casino rate" at the hotel. What??? Really? Yup. (maybe they're mad that I won 300 bucks at Davinci Diamonds last time... <smirk>)

Carl, the host we spoke with, was very gracious about it and said he would love to have our play, but if Harrah's was comping as much as they are (rooms and usually at least two buffets a day), he would probably stay there, too... he did say we should be getting some mail offers, though. We'll see.

So for now, Harrah's is our home casino.... now that we've gotten on the rooms roster for comps, I can't see us straying - unless Peppermill throws something good this way....

[stan_allen]

"Casino Rate"? What's that, the "rate" that the "Casino" charges? I guess it's not very attractive, whatever it is!

It's a shame, really, 'cuz the SL has a lot going for it - for example:

-Nice, high-up rooms with lovely views (of course, you have to agitate for those, or pay more, or get a "Corporate" rate, which is what I used - they specify that you have to stay there once a month to "qualify" for that, but the closest I ever got to that was once every other month - but they always gave me that rate, which came with coupon books, which were actually pretty good - free drink, free newspaper, free entry to the "Health Club", for which you are otherwise charged, apparently, and some other stuff).

-The atmosphere on the floor is very good; if I were one of those non-smoker types who hates smelling smoke in casinos, SL would definitely be my preferred place to play. It's spacious, and has a good feel to it.

-There are decent restaurants and bars, which there are throughout Reno, of course, but SL always seemed to do a decent job.

Many other members of our lovely board found little to defend at SL, apparently after one too many run-down rooms, but I never found that to be an issue - so for many years, I argued their case. Eventually, however, El Dorado won my business. How? I'm usually traveling to Reno on business, unfortunately, meaning I have to get up in the morning, and go work during the day. Eldo offers little coffee packets in the room, while at SL, there was a coupon in the book for a free coffee, but it meant I had to stand in line at precisely the moment in the morning when I'm in the biggest hurry.

As always, it's the little things that make all the difference!

So I'm not terribly surprised that their efforts at comping were less than competitive, but it is a bit sad, 'cuz the building holds so much unfulfilled promise.

Finally, I'd add that I'd much rather the Silver Legacy be there than not - we can pick apart the little things all we want, but when we look at the Sundowner, the Comstock, the Fitzgerald, and all the others, the alternative is clearly undesirable.

Continue crossing your palms with silver!

[mjames1229]

[alphabeta]

Nice report. Thank you for sharing it.

I'm glad you enjoyed your time at the Peppermill. You never know; they might take an interest in you. I'm shocked at how much I've already gotten from them.

[LilyJDragonfly]

Yup, MJames, our friend managed a profit... and we took his advice for the first game (I forget which one it was...) and added a few bucks to our bankroll - which we promptly lost in the slots.... <grin>

[hawk]

I get "special offers" for the casino rate at the Eldo all the time. Any time I call to check on it, it seems higher to me than any other rate I have seen. Recently, I think they quoted me about 75 bucks a night during the week. Other places were quoting far far less. Notwithstanding that I had a bunch of completely free offers all over town at the same time that Eldo was giving me the "good deal".

My feeling: watch your backside when you get a "casino rate" offer.

[LilyJDragonfly]

In thinking about SL, Circus Circus, and ElDo vs. Harrah's and what I've heard on here about Peppermill, I've decided that Harrah's (at least for me) and Peppermill are casinos for serious gamblers.

Both Harrah's and Peppermill seem to notice players and actively cater to keeping them happy. I mean, the first or second day I played at Harrah's, they tracked me and found me on the floor to comp some buffets to me and immediately had me in for comped rooms, too, plus plenty in self-comps for the gift shops/restaurants there. (I also love their slot machines that give you a countdown on what you've earned during that particular round of play and your points for the day.) I've not heard anything from Peppermill yet, but we only played there for an hour or two.

SL, Eldo and CC seem to be more for the day/convention gamblers; none seem to care about actively keeping heavy players. I know that I played at CC and SL at least as much as Harrah's, if not a bit more, and the most I've received is $6 in comps from CC and about $20 in self-comps from SL, plus the "Casino Rate" offer from SL when I actually talked to a host. Meh!

[stoneman]

Good report, Lily. Thanks. And good luck finding the perfect casino.

I spoke of Avatars on another thread. Yours looks nice and thanks for sparing us the "Dog's" avatar. We are basically a handsome group here.
And how do you get by calling him a "dog"?

[LilyJDragonfly]

That's my standard avatar - a handheld arm's-length shot I did of myself behind the wheel of my beloved Checker Cab.... though I should probably switch it out because my hair is back to red again.

I don't rightly know how I managed to start calling him The Dog, but it's been going on since before we were married. He's actually quite good looking. I guess it's because of his loyalty and great personality.

Funny thing is he's WAY shorter than I - I'm 5'11" without heels and he's 5'6" in shoes. Sometimes, I put my hair up in a modified beehive and it's quite the sight to see the two of us out cavorting about...

[stan_allen]

Continuing, then, with the punk-rock-hijack thread, I'll submit that Lily's avatar may be a tribute to the classic album, "Double Nickels on the Dime", whose cover it so resembles. As a disciple - or at least someone familiar with the name - of "Black Flag", I'm sure Lily will concur with the connection I'm making.

Oh, I guess I have to post a picture for comparison's sake, so:

[CaSwede]

Lily and Stan- you got me thinking about cabs, and that brought to me the memory of the great Harry Chapin - songwriter/cab driver.

Great song: Taxi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfqjKDRQvWI

[LilyJDragonfly]

Ahh, Harry Chapin - hadn't thought about him in years. My 8th grade science teacher liked ol' Harry, particularly the song "Flowers are Red"... I think I'll go hit Rhapsody for some Harry Chapin now.

And Stan, I'd forgotten entirely about that Minutemen album and never even considered the similarities from the cover.... nice call on your part!