Our Las Vegas trip started about the same as any other trip. I did all the pre-planning weeks in advance (to read click on the Pre-Trip Report Links on the main page) of the departure date. What originally started out as a trip with our next door neighbors ended up being just my wife and I. The high airfare from the southeast (Atlanta GA, Augusta GA, & Columbia SC) was the deciding factor in Patty & Mike's decision to cancel Las Vegas and go on a cruise. I hope someone in power in the Las Vegas tourism industry is working with the airlines to remedy this situation. From what I've seen with Delta, (not sure about other airlines) the reduction in the size of the jets used for Las Vegas routes is a major reason for the high airfares. Delta used to fly their biggest jets (Lockheed L1011s) to Las Vegas from Atlanta. Now they are flying the much smaller Boeing 757 & 767s. Less seats translates into higher fares and judging from our last few trips they had no problem filling the L1011s. If you combine the thousands of new hotel rooms being built with the 125,000 already available, add in the lack of airline seats, that equals room glut to me.
After about two hours sleep the night before, we got up very early Saturday morning (6/26) for the 6:15 am flight from Bush Field in Augusta GA. The MD 88 took about thirty five minutes to get to Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport.
No time for in-flight service so we were ready for at least something to drink during our 1.5 hour layover in Atlanta for the non-stop flight to Las Vegas. Found a TGI Fridays on B Concourse serving breakfast so we sat down for a little caffeine. One of the cheapest items on the menu is a Bagel and coffee for $5.29. Damn I'm glad I don't drink coffee.
The scheduled 8:50 am flight departed Atlanta 40 minutes late and was uneventful. I've always tried to sleep during the 3 hour and 45 minute flight but have never been quite able to do it. The excitement of heading to Las Vegas keeps me alert during the entire trip. I usually buy a USA Today and a Baseball Weekly to read during the flight and this trip was no different. It's one of my rituals and helps to pass the time.
The Boeing 767 pulled up to the gate at the new D Concourse and it is just as nice as everyone in the alt.vacation.las-vegas newsgroup has said. Many shops and food joints are located in the new wing as well as a wide selection of slot machines, Wheel-Of-Fortune included. McCarren used to allow smoking at the slot machines but like everywhere else, that has changed. Like Hartsfield, McCarren has smoking chambers setup inside each concourse. After a long flight these small glass enclosed chambers are a perfect place to satisfy that nicotine "craving" or should I say "addiction". You don't even need to light up, just walk inside and breath normally. I can see law suits in the future because of the concentrated smoke filled atmosphere inside these gas chambers attributing to the lung cancer related deaths of other wise healthy one pack a day smokers (here come the flames, don't you just love trolling). To top it off there are slot machines inside the smoke chambers. Not only are they providing an enclosed poorly ventilated area to smoke but they are encouraging us to stay.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm glad to have a place to smoke a cigarette after getting off the plane without having to walk forever to get to the outside. I just wish that they would install a fan or something to ventilate these rooms a little better. Now who in their right mind would gamble on an airport slot machine inside a smoking chamber ? Those machines must have the lowest payoff percentage in the world. While I smoked a cigarette I saw a guy run twenty dollars in quarters through a two coin Double Diamond without one single payoff. More on this later.
We then took the train (reminds me of Hartsfield) from D Concourse to the baggage carousel, and after a short wait grabbed the bags and headed to gate 5 which is where Las Vegas Limo's (LVL) pickup area is located. For $4 per person to the strip or $5 to downtown you can ride in a stretch limo and arrive in style at your favorite hotel. To compare, cab fare from McCarren to the Tropicana is about $7. We bought our tokens at the booth and were whisked away by LVL to the Trop.
Check-in at the Tropicana was a breeze through the VIP Services desk. To use this check-in area you have to be a member of the Tropicana's Island Winners Club and/or have a casino host tell you to check-in there. No one else was waiting to check-in, of course it is now about 11:00 am on a Saturday morning. I don't remember anyone waiting in line at the hotel registration desk either. The room that was reserved for us in the Paradise tower is not ready. No problem, the girls at the VIP desk found us another room that was ready and also handed us an envelope that contained a nice hand written note from our casino host and new slot cards. Stopped by the Bell Desk on the way to the elevator to give them the room number and up to the room to wait on the luggage.
Our room is in the Paradise tower, that's the tower closest to the Las Vegas Blvd. / Tropicana Ave. intersection. Access to this tower is just a short walk from the check-in desk to the elevator. The room was on the twentieth floor with a great view of NYNY, Excalibur, Luxor & Mandalay Bay. On the table in front of the window is a gift wrapped basket that contains wine, cheese, crackers, fruit and another note from our casino host. Nice touch. Other room amenities: King size bed with two night stands (one on each side of the bed), three drawer armoire with a small color television, table with two chairs, safe, refrigerator, desk and chair, & a large closet with two sliding mirrored doors. In the closet is an iron and ironing board. The room is nothing fancy but is large and quite comfortable. The bathroom has a large tub with shower, long vanity with full length mirror and one sink, hair dryer mounted on the wall and a standard commode.
After unpacking we headed down to the casino to start our gambling adventure. The Trop has all the popular games and slot machines. I found two $1 9/6 full pay Jacks or Better with a $5000 Royal Flush and six in the quarter variety with a 4000 coin payoff for the royal. Four of those were the double up machines that played very fast. The rest were 8/5 with progressive royal pay outs, none high enough to warrant spending the time to play. There are also many of the other VP games like Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, Triple Play and Odyssey. The table games were also in full swing. The Trop had two hand tossed two deck Black Jack tables opened with $25 minimums (dropped to $10 later in the week). The one new twist here was that the cards are dealt face up as in the six deck shoe games. You don't handle your cards like all other hand tossed games. The dealers I talked to couldn't understand this feature, they thought it only helps the counters. I guess that's true but it does speed up the game a little. The rest of the BJ tables were all six deck shoe games with $5 minimums. Standard strip rules. Two Craps tables were opened with $5 minimums and triple odds. The best I saw on the south end of the strip.
My gambling for this trip started out pretty good. I started the day on the BJ table picking up about $600 playing the two deck table before we headed to Calypso, the Trop's coffee shop, for a late lunch. This was the best I did gambling the entire trip. I felt like Clark Griswold from "Vegas Vacation" the rest of the week. I couldn't get a run on the craps tables or hit anything better than three of a kind on a VP machine. It seemed like just as soon as a point was established and I got two come bets working the shooter would seven out. Every BJ dealer I played against looked like the dealer from hell from the same movie. I even started making a cross sign with my fingers whenever I walked by a BJ table. Needless to say I won't bother you with the gambling details for the rest of this trip report. Nobody wants to hear about losing and frankly I'm trying to forget about it myself. One positive thing about BJ at the Trop, green action will get you cigarette comps. After asking for the comp the pit critter will give you a small token that you give to the cocktail waitress. She then will retrieve the smokes. Don't give it to the cigarette girl, it means nothing to them. If you need to buy cigarettes at the Trop be prepared for a shock. $4.50 per pack is a little on the steep side. Both the cigarette girl and the gift shop charge the same price.
Our lunch at Calypso was quite good. They have some pretty tasty and big hamburgers as well as a wide variety of entrees to choose from. I'm not a food critic so I won't go into much detail. The service is quick and efficient and the setting is very nice. Get a table near the window and you have a nice view of the gardens near the pool and the various birds that inhabit this area.
After the late lunch we returned to the casino for the rest of the evening. About 8:00 pm (11:00 pm EDT) the lack of sleep the night before and the busy day caught up with my wife Tootsie and she called it a day. I on the other hand had got my second wind and was not ready to call it quits yet so I went walking. I ended up at New York New York . This was the first time there for me so I spent most of my time just looking around. My first impression of the place was not a good one. Maybe I expected too much but the place just seemed too confusing. Table games are scattered throughout the casino and the placement of the slot machines make for tricky navigation. The place is decorated to resemble New York City but the high ceiling just seems to stop so abruptly. I felt like I was on a movie set located in an airplane hanger.
I found the dueling piano bar which was very crowded with a line of people waiting to get in. Those inside looked like they were having a great time and I did get a couple of pictures of the piano players in action .
After a little more walking around I ended up in the high limit slot area. I was just kind of looking around when one of the people who carry around the small waste pan and broom cleaning the floor directed me to a $5 slot machine that had really been paying off earlier. She was kind of hesitant to talk to me and mentioned a couple of times that the woman who works in that area does not like her and she would get in trouble if she knew that she was talking to me. Anyway I figured she might be on to something so I sat down at the $5 slot that I was directed too. I put in a $100 bill and on about the third pull hit a $200 pay out. A few more pulls and I hit for $400. Wouldn't you know it, the little old lady who pointed me towards this machine came by and said "See I told you so". I thanked her and slipped her two coins and never saw her again. I kept playing hoping for more lightning to strike when a cocktail waitress (CW) stopped and asked me if she could gamble with me for a while. I said sure, if I can take your picture. She was very friendly and spent a several minutes sitting next to me while I fed about half of those tokens won earlier back into the machine but would not let me take the picture. In fact, I could not get one CW at NYNY to let me take her picture (I do have a bunch of pictures of CWs from other casinos posted on the "Cocktail Waitress Page" on this web site).
Not long after she went back to work I was approached by a slot host. She struck up a conversation with me inquiring about where I was staying and if I had a slot card etc, etc. I filled out a form that she provided and in just a couple of minutes she was back with my card. She also offered me a room if I wanted to leave the Trop and invited my wife and I to eat dinner at the coffee shop, comped of course. All this attention for just playing a $5 slot machine. I do have her card and who knows, I may just take her up on the offer on my next trip to Las Vegas.
I then left NYNY and headed back to the Trop through the MGM Grand and called it a night at about 1:00 am.
That was Day 1 of "Brian K's 1999 Las Vegas Summer Tour".
1999 Summer Tour Trip Report © Copyright 1999, Brian K
Send e-mail to: brianklv@yahoo.com
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