5X MegaBuffet Trip Report

Wednesday, June 13th. Day 6

The routine is still intact, woke up again at 9.  No alarm 
clocks either.  Is this turning into a rut ?  I hope not.  The 
Trop's slot club sent me a package a month ago with several 
coupons good for free coin, free shows, and free nights.  Since
we had used the free nights and the free coin all that is left 
is the free show.  The free show coupon is good for your choice
of Follies Bergere, Rick Thomas's Magic Show, or the Comedy 
Stop.  Having seen Follies and Rick Thomas last trip the Comedy
Stop seemed like a good choice.

We went down to the casino and over to the Comedy Stop ticket 
office and exchanged our coupon for two free tickets to the 
show tonight.  They have two shows each night, the first is 
non-smoking and the late show is for smokers.  All right ! A 
show where smokers are welcome.

We decided to eat breakfast at Mandalay Bay so we left the Trop
and headed for the tram station in front of Excalibur.  After 
the short ride we walked thru the casino and found the buffet 
entrance.  The buffet cost around $10, comparable to the others
that we've tried so far this trip but is nowhere near the value.
The food was definitely better than the lower priced buffets 
but not as good as Paris, Aladdin or Bellagio's.  The room 
setting is the best of the others, overlooking part of the 
swimming pool area and gardens.

After breakfast we made our way back to the casino.  Since I 
hadn't had my morning fix of Video Poker I thought I'd try the 
VP machine that I'd hit four deuces on earlier in the week.  
About a third of the way thru my $100 buy-in lightning struck 
again, four deuces !  On the same machine !  After playing the 
remainder of my buy-in down I cashed out and soon received 
another $1000 hand pay.  We then tried our luck on MegaBucks 
each losing $100 (can't win every time) before walking over to 
Luxor.  No luck on MegaBucks there either.

Since we missed the wax museum at the Venetian yesterday our 
mission for the day was to try and get there before it closed.
We walked thru Excalibur, crossed over to New York2, and hit 
the sidewalk towards Monte Carlo.  Once inside we made the long
trek all the way across the casino, past the restaurants and 
stores to the stairs leading up to the tram station where we 
found "The Sign".  CLOSED ......

THOSE RACKENFRASEN DUMB SON-OF-A ??$*&@!!! SO IN SO'S.  Make me
walk all the way thru their damn casino, thru their damn 
restaurants, thru their damn shopping mall and the damn tram is
closed.  They could at least put up a sign some where that would
save you the trouble of walking all that way.  That kind of 
inconsiderate sheep mentality planning makes me look for the 
nearest exit with a vow never to spend a nickel in their 
??$*&@!!! casino again.  Which is exactly what I did.  We turned
around and walked back to the hotel registration area, out the 
back door and caught a cab to the Venetian.

Once back at the Venetian we jumped on the escamovingsidelator
and rode it to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.  We stood in line
waiting to hand over our money and the $3 off coupons we found
printed on the tray liners at the Food Court.  Inside you can
closely examine, mingle, touch and be photographed with any
of the figures on display.  Having read many positive reviews of
this museum I guess I kinda expected more life-like realistic
replicas of the celebrities portrayed here.  I was somewhat
disappointed in that to me they looked more like mannequins 
from the department store that resembled the different 
celebrities.  The one exception was of a young Elizabeth Taylor
which photographed very well.

We soon left the museum and crossed over the strip headed for
the Mirage.  By this point we had only one idea, go into the
Mirage and find the MegaBucks machines.  We circled the casino
twice, never found them.  Either we missed them or the Mirage
doesn't have MegaBucks.  I ended up playing some VP with no 
luck.  We then cabbed back to the Trop for some rest before the
show.

Since I hadn't played BlackJack at the Trop yet I figured I'd
sit down and try my luck.  You have two choices in BJ at the
Trop, six deck shoe or four deck shuffle master.  I found a
four deck table with 3rd base open so I bought in with $300
and started playing.  I started out betting green and played
for about 30 minutes not getting up or down more than $50.  Then
my luck returned.  I started winning almost every hand.  The
dealer helped a lot dealing me many pat hands of twenty and 
several BlackJacks.  The other people on the table had very 
little knowledge of basic strategy hitting totals of twelve to 
a dealers bust hand, not hitting their own bust hands when the 
dealer showed ten, I even saw one guy split tens.  The strange 
thing is, these dumb moves almost always helped me.  Several 
times the person next to me hit their hand when they shouldn't 
of, taking the card which would of busted me.  I started my 
round betting $25 per hand and as I steadily won kept 
increasing my bets, getting as high as $175 per hand.  By far 
the most I've ever wagered on a BJ table.  During that run I 
even had the attention of the pit critters.  Four of them 
hovered around the table, every once in a while whispering to 
the dealer.  What ever he said to her must of worked cause I 
soon started losing.  Since show time at the Comedy Stop was 
getting near I colored up with a nice little profit of $1300.

After the big win on the BJ table we went to the late show at 
the Comedy Stop.  Three young comics entertained the room for an
hour and a half.  If you've never seen a standup comic in 
person in one of these small venues you're missing a hell of an
experience.

After the show we went to the Trop's coffee shop Calypso for a 
late dinner/early breakfast then called it a night.

That was Day 6 of the 5X MegaBuffet Trip Report.  I'll
rap up our trip and the report in the final part, Day 7.