The PLAZA Trip…..Day Ten. March 31, 2023

Managed to sleep until 6:30 am today. I feel a little more rested. My mission today is to use the free play that expires today. Happily I get more free play starting tomorrow.

I left the room around 8:30 am and headed down to Binion’s.  Fremont was lovely and calm at that time of day.  I need a new Binion’s card and I wanted to check how much I had left in food comps. $57. Amazing.  Food comps are easy to come by here.  I went to the cafe for breakfast.  I tell you, that cafe is the most efficient place I have ever seen.  It runs like a well oiled machine.  They handed me a coffee as soon as my butt hit the chair. Took my order immediately. ( I was good today and ordered an omelette.  Managed to restrain myself from ordering French toast. Ha.). My food arrived in approximately ten minutes. I ate it and was out the door in less than a half hour.  And they do that with hundreds of people all day long.  I find it amusing that I recognize some of the staff now.  I truly appreciate the free food.

I decided to play a hundred dollars in a Game King to keep the comps coming. I went over to a quiet corner by the Deli.  Honestly it was the quietest casino experience I have ever had.  There was some classic rock playing in the distance but it wasn’t loud.  The Deli wasn’t open until noon. I was literally the only person in that corner. I could have laid my head down on the slot and fallen asleep, it was that quiet.

I ended up playing Deuces for three hours on that same hundred!  That never happens.  The machine was being so cooperative I thought it was going to give me a jackpot for sure but it didn’t.  I left at 1 pm and as I was walking out I thought that Boyd needs to take a lesson from Binion’s; the comped food in that efficient cafe, the cooperative machines etc.  Binion’s was packed. The table games were full, the slots were busy and that coffee shop was full as usual.  Main Street could be that busy again if they made some changes.

My next stop was to use my $30 in free play at the D.  I put that plus $100 in one of those firecracker slots and played for a long time. When I was done I stopped into the D’s gift shop and discovered I had $32 in comps there so I bought a bunch of room snacks.

I walked down Fremont to my next destination, Golden Gate.  In front of the Golden Nugget I stopped and used an APP that Scott Roeben mentioned called Soundprint.  I am including the reading of how loud it was at 2:45 pm. 90. Crazy.

At Golden Gate I sat at the same kind of firecracker machine and loaded my $20 free play and some of my own money. I was doing well for awhile but then the machine took it all away.

I came back to the Plaza at 4 pm.  I needed to stretch out and rest my back for a bit. At 6 pm I went downstairs and played at the Plaza for two hours.  Three guesses what I played? Wicked Wheel! I got another one of those bizarre line hits like I did at NYNY and won $540!!!  Shocking.  At 8 pm I walked over to the end of Fremont to test the volume again.  This time the reading was 99.

I was too tired to go anywhere for dinner so I just grabbed another Big Mac and retired to my room.  Sad I know. Today was a great day. I have been having chats with the nicest people.  I love it.

  

The PLAZA trip- Day nine. Thursday, March 30

 I  was up at 5 AM again today. I don’t seem to be adjusting to the time change very well.  I couldn’t stop thinking about having to do a room change so I got ready and called the front desk to see if it was ok if I did it at 7 am.  They said fine so I switched and I was thrilled to have all my appliances immediately connect as soon as I walked in the door of the new room.  I sat on the bed and got to work on the trip report for an hour and suddenly it hit me.  I left my cash in the safe in the previous room!!! I didn’t have the keys anymore because they had told me to leave them in the room.  So I went tearing back down to the desk (as much as it is possible for me to tear) and told them what I had done.  They gave me another key and the room had not been touched yet, thank goodness. That is the second time in my life I have done that.

My new room faces Main Street Station so it made me want to visit and try their current buffet. The sidewalk by the Plaza is closed due to the construction so I crossed the street only to be confronted with a person who was quite clearly in some kind of altered state.  It was just him and me on the sidewalk and I had no desire to get closer to him so I ducked into Circa and asked them if they had a back door that opened onto Ogden.  They do, but they didn’t seem very clear about it.  I wandered through the casino towards the back of the property and there were doors but a man was controlling them and he let me out. Anyhow I managed to circumvent a meeting with the strange fella and went into MSS. If you zoom in on the video you can see the fella in question and the little dance he was doing. 

As everyone has noted, poor Main Street is practically deserted.  So sad to see. I made my way over to the buffet.  I remember paying $14 for it. Now the weekday buffet brunch is $26 and open from 8 am to 2 pm.  The buffet itself was partially closed in places and doesn’t have the same variety it used to.  There was no Asian section but maybe they put that out later.  Everything I ate was tasty.  No pecan pie anymore, sniffle.  I was talking to the waitress about how dead it was now.  Makes me very depressed.  They need to do something to attract business again or I fear they are in trouble.

After eating I wondered whether my beloved old Loose Deuce machines were around and I was surprised to see there were there. So even though I no longer have a functioning Boyd card I sat down and stuck in a $100 ( or $200) to see if it remembered me and would give me those glorious 2500 coin deuces.   It did not.  Sigh….

I left MSS and walked over to Circa.  What is it with Vegas and bumpy GD sidewalks? If it is not cobblestones, it is brick, and if it is not brick it is whatever the hell this stuff is!  ( See picture)  I notice surfaces a lot now that I have some walking issues. Anyway, I went in Circa’s back door because I knew I had 75 dollars in free play. I spotted my Wicked Wheel Fire and Ice and played that. I got a few bonuses but that is one machine that sucks up your money really quickly.  It was noon by now and I was ready for a nap.

I returned to the Plaza and went to my room for a rest. Around 3 I showered and got ready to go out. At 5 pm I went to Oscar’s lounge to have a good Rusty Nail in a real glass glass! I enjoyed my beverage then went to the casino. I played Wicked Wheel for a bit but then returned to the bank of old Game Kings that I often sit at. While I was sitting there, trying to get a premium hand or two, a man from two machines down held up that enhanced picture of me and said “Excuse me but is this you?” Of course I answered in the affirmative. I am actually amazed that he could recognize me from that picture.  It turns out that he is a huge fan of all things Vegas and has been reading my stuff for years. He is a private person so prefers not to post or participate, but he knows all about the Vegas community. We had the most lovely conversation, probably the nicest conversation I have had in years.  I really enjoyed meeting you, if you are out there reading this.  It made my night.

I continued to wrestle with my machine but it wasn’t giving up any deuces tonight.  Dinner was just a Big Mac I grabbed on my way to the room.  This particular location has done away with the menus that used to grace their walls and now you have to deal with this automated sign thing to order your food.  Annoying.

Here are some pictures from today.  The message I was getting when my wifi wouldn’t connect, construction in front of the Plaza, the crazy dude,  Circa, the darn bumpy sidewalk, how empty MSS is, my buffet etc

The AZA trip - aka Plaza. Day Eight

My last morning in this lovely suite. Today I am moving down to the Plaza.  I was up at 5 today so I got my morning toilette over with early.  I still have $187 in food comps here.  I should have gone back to Heritage Steak and had another fancy dinner by myself but I didn’t. I feel self conscious in fancy restaurants all by myself.  I just ate that leftover piece of chicken from lunch for my dinner.  

I decided to have a big breakfast to use up some of the comps.  The Pantry restaurant was absolutely packed.  There are several things going on here.  Something called SIA and a pizza expo?  Some guy ran up to me and said hello.

I said “Where do I know you from?” And he said “ Aren’t you part of the conference?” I said “Uh no but nice to meet you”. Apparently I look just like some lady at the conference.

Even though the Pantry was packed they managed to wedge me in as a solo diner.  I was exceedingly naughty and ordered French toast and bacon.  ( 35 bucks)  I made sure to ask for half and half with my coffee this morning. OMG it was fabulous.  Normally I would bring half to my room for later but I couldn’t pull that off today with the move so I forced myself to eat it all.  So yummy!

When I returned to my room I noticed on the TV that I had $346 in food charges. I wanted to make sure that the $400 food and beverage that Unity had given me was applied.  So as I was leaving I stopped at the Unity desk and they did that for me.  I am not sure if it would have been properly handled if I had just left without doing that. Then I went to the front desk and got a copy of my 0 balance bill.

Next I called a Lyft. Several times this trip I have gotten such tiny cars from Uber and Lyft that I can barely fit me and the walker into them. On one trip my head was literally touching the car roof! So I chose a Lyft Preferred this time. They have larger cars and five star drivers.  I got a huge Mercedes Benz and a very nice man so I had a comfortable trip down to the Plaza. ( Only $14.26!)

My room wasn’t quite ready so I went to play for awhile.  I love playing those old Game Kings.  I managed to get the deuces and replenish my wallet. Then I checked into 1705.  To my dismay I could not connect to the Plaza wifi on either my phone or my IPad.  I have stayed here a million times and never had an issue before.  I was still connected on my phone because I bought two weeks of data in the USA from TMobile however it was quite weak.  That is why I always use the hotel’s wifi because it is usually stronger.  Several people suggested some things that didn’t help so in the end I had to change rooms.  I did that at 7 am and boom, instantly connected.  I don’t know what was going on in 1705.  Just glad it is over.

Back to yesterday….I spent the afternoon on that same old Game King.  I contemplated doing something more adventurous but decided against it.  I saw Jonathan Jossel for a minute and he stopped to say hello.  When I was too tired to play anymore I grabbed a slice of Pop Up pizza and took it to my room. 

I have included some pictures from the day.

The MIRAZA trip … Day Seven

 Today, Tuesday March 28th, was another relaxing day.  I left the room around noon and went down to the Pantry restaurant for a meal.  This is the first time I have ever eaten here, despite staying here many times. I ordered chicken and biscuits with country gravy.  It was ok.  I wouldn’t order it again.  I could only eat half and brought the rest upstairs to lounge around the fridge.  I find it odd that most of the restaurants this trip have brought me MILK to put in my coffee.  This is new to me.  I want cream, not milk.

After eating I walked over to the Walgreens across the street. I stopped to admire the gorgeous front area of Mirage.  I am going to miss this.  I needed a few items and wanted to pick up some things for my daughter.  I was successful in that endeavour .  I haven’t been out on the streets much this trip. I passed a woman who was cursing and swearing at everyone who walked by.  It is not a Vegas trip if you don’t see any crazies, right?

I put my purchases back in my room and went downstairs to play.  I tried a few of my usual favourites but they weren’t behaving.  The pigs that loved me in September, hated me now.  The one machine that was fun was something called Monopoly Cheaters Edition.  It was huge and had lots of  entertaining bonuses.  No decent wins on this day.

I contemplated seeing LOVE for one last time but I have already seen it about 5 or 6 times so I decided against it.  

There is a convenient ice cream place at the foot of my elevator.  I had some salted caramel one night.  I am including pictures of the ridiculous sized cups they use. They call them small, medium, and large.  That is laughable.  I would say they were one ounce, an ounce and a half, and possibly two ounces???  I have bought a lot of ice cream in my day but those are the tiniest bowls I have ever seen.  I bought a large.  It was nine dollars. Ha.

I feel like I should be doing something else tonight but my desire to put my ouchy feet up wins out.

I took a few pictures of myself in this suite because I am pretty sure I will never be in a room this nice again.  I need to document it.

The MIRAZA trip…Day Six. March 27, 2023

 As always, my morning was taken up with sleeping and getting presentable.  When I had myself pretty much as good as it gets I contacted Maureen, or as she is known on the LasVegas4ever forum, MammaCat.  She was staying down at Cosmo so I decided to Lyft over there to spend some time together.

Unfortunately the first Lyft they sent me was a Silverado truck.  Beautiful vehicle but there was no way I could climb into it.  Those things sure are high off of the ground and I am not very good at climbing or hopping at this point.  The nice young driver offered to hoist me but I declined.  I asked if he could send me another vehicle and he did.  Thank God the next one was a minivan.  Those I can get into!

I made my way over to Cosmo and Maureen came downstairs to meet me.  We decided to have lunch at the Henry but they were full.  We gave them Maureen’s name and went and sat at some slots and chatted.  They called us in less than a half hour I think.  It was wonderful to have a nice one on one chat.  Maureen was a good girl and ate salad.   I should have had a salad but chose the grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Maureen said it was Dan’s favourite.  Actually it was the best grilled cheese I have ever had!  We yapped and yapped then Maureen brought me upstairs to show me her room and the spectacular view.  Then we both came downstairs to gamble.

I tried a machine or two with no success but then I spotted what I had been searching for, the Wicked Wheel Fire and Ice version.  There was a bank of four of them but I had the only machine that was hitting.  I love that game. I played for two hours but then I had to take a washroom break.  Of course when I returned there was someone on MY machine.  Grrrr. I wasted a bunch of money trying to make the other ones perform like mine had been.  No luck.  I only played for about three hours at Cosmo. Probably not enough to get them to send me offers.  Actually I don’t think I ever updated my address with them.  Oops.

Eventually I gave up and Lyfted back to Mirage. It was around 6 and I was hungry again so I stopped into Snacks for a burger.  I don’t know why I keep returning to this place because I am never very happy with my meal and this time was no different.  Oh well.  At least I was full.

I took a stab at giving Mirage some play but nothing was hitting and I was tired so I came upstairs.

Mike and Terin flew home today and got there safely.

Terin is a baker so she was determined to have a piece of Buddy’s cake before she left.  The kids went to visit the flamingos. I didn’t realize they were back “home”.

Here are a few pictures from today. Maureen, her view, my favourite machine, the crappy burger, when my view looks like through this damn wrap, etc.

One thing I adore about this suite is the ability to turn on the aquarium channel.  It is so soothing.