Visitreno

[Mammothgambler]

Hi, hope everyone is doing good!

I jumped back on the bus for Reno last Friday, July 6, with $100 of free play at the Grand Sierra and $100 at Harrah's Reno. Both were time-sensitive offers, and I'm never one to pass them up if at all avoidable - to me it's like throwing money in the garbage! (Different story if it's real money!)

Fortunately, they've completed relaying the 395 at the NV/CA border by Topaz, so the ride was fairly smooth - except for the overturned chicken truck on the highway in Minden that caused a half-hour delay.

Arrived at the airport at 12:15 and had just missed the shuttle bus for GSR. Not wanting to fork out cab fare, I decided to walk (uh, sprint!) over there and I was inside the casino in about 15 minutes.

Lo and behold, the first thing I noticed was that in not even two weeks, GSR got a ton of new machines - including 2 brand new kiosks of Blazing 7s! I guess lots of people requested more of them, because one of the kiosks is quarter denomination, so now they have both. They're all brand new and remind me of the new Wheel of Fortunes - the reels are still mechanical reels, but everything else is digital. My $100 of free play went in about 5 minutes among 4 machines. Got a whole whopping $4, and jumped in a cab to head to Harrah's.

Unfortunately, there was a goof in the mail and I didn't receive any of my coupons at Harrah's for July or August, which is not good, because there are about 10 of them, so I'm going to be hitting up their Total Rewards center every week now until the end of August! I get concerned when this happens because there's been a couple of times where they haven't honored them because I didn't have the physical coupon in hand. This time, I brought a printout of an email I sent to customer service who mentioned it shouldn't be a problem just to be on the safe side.

There were three people ahead of me in the line, but there was an almost half-hour wait - they were apparently from out of the country, could not speak English, and were trying to claim their bonus $30 of free play, not realizing they needed to produce 1200 tier credits in 24 hours to do so. After a bunch of madness (for some reason, the lady behind the counter couldn't figure out if my $80 or $100 coupon was valid that day, and after going back and forth a few times, she finally decided the $100 coupon was the one!), I was given my voucher and then had to proceed to the cashier cage to get my Express Play coupons. Thank God there was no line there, as it was already about 1:25 by this time.

Got about $11 in cash off the free play among the Blazing 7s. The progressive on that one Double machine I keep referencing still hasn't rolled over and is now at about $6800 - I'm going to check it out again next week!

Ten minutes later, it was back in another cab, back to the airport, and back on the bus with about 2 minutes to spare. Almost 8 hours on a bus for 25 minutes combined at 2 casinos? Yup. Can you tell there's just not anything better going on right now in Mammoth?! haha

Next trip is scheduled for next Tuesday-Thursday, July 17-19, where I've gotten in contact with the director at the Pep who's comped me two nites in an Imperial Suite, with two more free nights available anytime moving forward. According to his email, he made a few notes and "pushed a button" in the reservation system to ensure I'd get the room type I reserved. He also suggested I utilize their online checkin at 9 am the day before arrival. Jeez, I guess this is just what you have to do these days to check into the Peppermill, but, free is free! I have a feeling it'll be another casino hopping trip as the last one was, because all of my free play and food comps are either downtown or at the GSR. But, some prime rib and hash browns from the Café Milano is sounding really good right now!

Mammothgambler

[BC Dave]

Good try Mammoth! Hope your next report is full of Blazing 7s win pics. You deserve to win that Harrah's progressive.

[LilyJDragonfly]

Love the in 'n out... sorry to hear that you didn't flip that freeplay into something tangible!

[Zydeco]

This reminds me of a 23-hour trip we took many moons ago. Details are sketchy, but I do recall no room, a long roll of craps, a buffet, tequila sunrises...and that's where it gets foggy. I do recall arrival at the airport with only moments to spare....that was a fun 23 hours.

Thanks for the TR, I enjoyed it!

[Shooty]

Nice report.

I wasn't previously aware of bus service from Mammoth along US395. I thought maybe Greyhound runs that route, but there's actually a public transit option, the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority. Pretty impressive.

[CaSwede]

25 minutes in the two casinos? That has to be a record. It is not uncommon for me to do an 18 hour trip but that is rushed for me.

Do you suppose GSR and Harrah's may not be too happy with you for just cashing in the free play?

Good to hear that the Topaz Lake detour/construction is done. That has been a major delay.

[Mammothgambler]

Hi everyone, thanks!

BC Dave - yeah I've been watching it like a hawk all summer. Definitely worth a few pulls because you just never know...

Lily - yes, always a bummer when you don't get a good payback, but that's when you can look up, smile, and realize you didn't blow $200 of your own hard-earned real money!

Zydeco - I hear ya! I'm looking back at my scenario 5 years ago when I was still coming out here as a visitor from Florida. I would jump on the 6 pm from Orlando, get to Vegas at midnite, drive 8 hours to Mammoth, snowboard for a day, drive 3 more hours to Reno, gamble all nite, and be on the redeye back to Orlando and back in the office at 8 am right after driving two hours home to the beachside. Dunno how I did it...Reno's kept my adrenaline going this past decade for sure.

Shooty - yes, the Eastern Sierra Transit authority is the bus line here, and it rocks! The route can get you all the way to Lone Pine and eventually to Lancaster and Los Angeles if need be. They also run the town transportation here in Mammoth, and starting this upcoming season (if the town is still alive by then, because Mammoth just filed bankruptcy two weeks ago!) they are also going to take over the Mammoth Mountain shuttle buses. Seriously, I sold my truck when I moved here 4 1/2 years ago because I've never lived in area that has a transit system like this (still counteracting all the damage from all those 2 hour, 1 way commutes I did for over a decade back east!) All of the town transportation is completely free, and the Reno route from here is actually cheaper than driving, wear/tear and gassing up, $46 each way and if you go and come in the same day, they don't charge you for a round trip. It's usually in Reno for two solid hours but there were major delays. I get discounts for buying punch cards since I'm a CA local. For being a bus with many people on it, it only takes about 20 more minutes than driving so it's really not bad. Not to mention the scenery on the 395 is almost as addicting as the Blazing 7s!

CaSwede - yeah, I was wondering about that too. I don't think Harrah's is going to stop with anything because I'm almost at Diamond status there, and that's of course the first place I'll play with real money downtown, the SL being the second. I'm still trying to figure out GSR's system as far as the ongoing slot play offers - I've only given them about $600 of my own money in all my trips there. So far so good...I'm almost thinking Harrah's only stopped in the past when I just plain up and out didn't play there. Yes, the 395 is fixed, although now they're laying new cement guard rails through the Sonora Pass and Bridgeport, always something.

Mammothgambler