Part Two of the trip is where I take a side trip to Laughlin.
Sunday, September 27
I checked with AH and we decided to get to Peppermill around 9:45. I told them I would pick them up, so I was deciding whether I was going to check out of the room before or afterwards. I went ahead and checked out of the room. I would have liked to use the pool one last time (and I probably could have asked for a later check out, but I decided I’d be okay).
Sunday morning pick-up at Cosmo was
easy, and we were at Peppermill in no tlme. We must have gotten there at
the right time, we did have a little wait, but it was much busier by the time
we left. We did wait in the lounge, and AH ordered
a drink while we sat at one of the lounge tables.
I think we had around a 10-15 minute
wait before we were seated. The booths had plexiglass shields around them.
I ordered coffee and orange juice and hash and eggs. The portion seemed
smaller than the last time I ate here, but it was still
good. AH was very kind and picked up breakfast. I
guess because she said she’d treat me dinner because I was driving them around,
but we didn’t have dinner last night.
Coffee and orange juice
Masked for safety!
I dropped them back off at Cosmo and headed to Oyo to redeem a few coupons. I had two $10 slot match plays and a $10 table match play. I put in $50 and cashed out at $25, I got the $20 free play and decided to play a little. I lost the free play and $5 ($20 cash loss) and earned 104 points. I don’t think I’ll receive any offers; I think in prior years I just received a casino room rate. I used my $10 match play on roulette, playing black. Black did come up, and I needed a chip for my collection, so I took that dollar, and gave a dollar tip, for a $19 win.
I then headed to The Orleans, where I had
a $10 slot match play, and two $10 table match plays. I played some 9/6
Bonus Deluxe video poker, and had horrendous luck, not hitting any quads.
I tried my free play on Not So Ugly Deuces wild video poker, with no luck there
either. I split win and loss with my match plays on roulette. I
liked Orleans when I stayed there years ago, so I decided to try to give some
play to see if I could generate an offer. I know they changed the slot
club, and it isn’t as generous as it once was (although I think Orleans was
less generous than Gold Coast, where at least I received room offers).
I played a Hexbreaker slot, which
looked like it could be good, and at one point I was up a few dollars, but
ended up losing the lot.
I played longer than I wanted to at
The Orleans, and it was time to leave town and head to Laughlin. When I
first planned my trip, I had booked three nights at Caesars Palace in an Octavius Tower
room (because I could), but I decided to take a road trip out to Laughlin,
because I could get a comped room at Harrah’s, and I wanted the diversion.
The drive was pleasant through the
desert, and then through the mountains to get to the Colorado River and
Laughlin, about 100 miles away or about an hour and a half drive.
I arrived around 6:00 PM and had to go
through a temperature scan before check-in. The Diamond check-in was
closed, but there was a short line anyway. I originally booked a two-bed room in
the North Tower, but a friend of mine told me to ask for
the South Tower, since he said the North Tower was the family tower. I
also only needed one bed since I was travelling alone. I asked for a
South Tower room, but was told there was none available. There were also
no one-bed rooms in the Central Tower, but he could put me in a two-bed room in
the Central Tower. That seemed fine to me.
A short walk to the elevators and a
short wait for social distancing and I’m up to my room, 21260. It is
right across from the elevator, which I’m not a fan, since I hear all the foot
traffic. It’s a smallish room, with a table and two chairs crammed in the
corner. It does have a refrigerator and a coffeemaker, so I’m
happy. I also got a river view, which was nice. Pictures of the room can be seen here.
I did a video chat with my wife and
daughter at home. I showed them the view and the room and
caught up with what was going on the past few days. At least the wifi was
free.
I walked around the casino for a bit
and then decided to figure out what to have for dinner. I ended up just
going to the Beach Café. I had stopped at the Total Rewards desk to get
new Diamond cards and was going to use comps for dinner. The waitress
asked me if I had a card, and I said I did, but the cards were not in my
pocket. She said it was okay, she would give me the discount
anyway. That didn’t matter as much as the fact that I wanted to use comps
and I had just gotten the cards! A quick search revealed that they had
fallen out of my pocket and between the bench seat and the back. I
crammed my arm between the seats and was able to reach my cards.
I ordered spaghetti and meatballs and
treated myself to chocolate cake. The cake was rather large, so I took
the remaining half to my room.
After the long drive, I decided to
take a bath (much smaller than the Wynn tub) and relax in the room. I had
purchased an HDMI cable at Target and connected my laptop to the TV and watched
some HBOMax.
It was a bit unnerving to see this when I was checking out my folio. It did fix itself before I left though!
Monday, September 28
I had some plans to check the surrounding
area, as well as the casinos, but I only managed to check out the
casinos. Harrah’s is at the southernmost part of the Riverwalk (and not
actually connected to the Riverwalk).
I woke up early enough to watch the
sunrise over the mountains (around 6:48 AM). After showering and having
my breakfast of coffee and cake, I logged into my work email because there were
some things I was hoping to get done. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive
what I needed.
Sunrise!
Around 9 am, I decided to start my
casino trek. First, I checked out the beach and pool area at
Harrah’s. Unfortunately, due to high winds, both areas were closed.
The beach area did look nice though, but the hot tub was closed due to
COVID. There are also two pools are Harrah’s, a family pool and an adult pool.
The beach area.
The adult pool.
There is no easy way (that I could see) to walk from Harrah’s to the next casino, Laughlin River Lodge. So, I had to go through the parking garage, walk up steps up the hill to the main road, and then down Casino Drive to River Lodge, a meandering .72 mile walk from Harrah’s.
Laughlin River Lodge is an interesting
casino. They have a main floor casino, and then there are several smaller
rooms with themed casinos, Dotty’s (comfort), Bourbon Street (playful), Red
Dragon (zenful), La Villita (festive), and Points! (social). They also
have an interesting bowling area, an arcade, and beach area. What they
don’t have are table games, so I wasn’t getting a casino chip from this place
for my collection! I also didn’t feel the need to play here.
From here, I was able to get on the Riverwalk, and it was a short .29 mile walk from River Lodge to Golden Nugget. Although they did have table games here, they weren’t opening them until 10 AM (about the time I got there). I wasn’t going to wait for them to open, but I did play some video poker, finding some 8/5 BP spin poker. I played five lines at dimes (I think, maybe it was nickels), but I put $20 in and cashed out for $41.50. After I cashed in my ticket, I went to the cage to get a chip, since the tables weren’t open, and the cashier gave me one.
Next stop is Pioneer Hotel and
Gambling Hall. Pioneer has “River Rick”, who is like Vegas
Vic, as originally the owner of the Pioneer Club in Las Vegas purchased the
Pioneer Club Laughlin and commissioned the River Rick neon sign to be
built. It’s a cute little casino but no table games. I decided to
drop a $20 in a quarter 9-7-5 DB progressive machine (with the RF at
$1,136). I would have liked to hit the less than W-2G royal, but a few hands in, I
hit four queens for $62.75, and cashed out for $79. Two casinos, up
$80.50, I like that!
Next to Pioneer is the closed Colorado
Belle casino. I’m saddened by this, as the casino looks so cool.
It’s designed like a riverboat, and I’m told that the interior looked just as
nice.
The closed Colorado Belle.
The closed Colorado Belle.
Across the street is Tropicana Laughlin, which was a .46 mile walk from Pioneer. The tables were active here, but I just picked up a chip from an empty roulette table. I played a 7/5 BP $1,199 RF progressive, where I hit four queens again, and cashed out for $50, up another $30!
Next to Colorado Belle is Edgewater,
which was a .34 mile walk from Tropicana. I don’t recall there being
decent video poker here, and although there were table games, I didn’t feel the
“vibe” to play here. I did pick up a chip for my collection though
(although I didn’t technically gamble here).
Back on the Riverwalk, it was a .21
mile walk to Aquarius Resort and Casino. I was interested in playing here
because there was decent video poker and it looked nice. I went to the
slot club to sign up, but was told I already had a card, based on my membership
at the Strat (where I had a card at the Stratosphere years ago, and haven’t
been there for years). I did get some of my first casino offers from
Stratosphere (although I never booked any), maybe I’ll get some offers from
here. I also discovered that the slot club is affiliated with a casino relatively
close to me (Rocky Gap, which I liked), so perhaps I’ll be able to earn some
nights in the program.
They do have some 100% video poker, so
I settled in on some full pay double bonus. One of the keys to winning,
though, is hitting quads, which I hit none. $20 after $20 disappeared
into the machine as I chased a quad. I lost the money I had won on my
casino run, which saddened me. It was during this time that I did order
my first beverage on the casino floor. I removed my mask to drink and was
told my security that I needed to have my mask on. I asked how I was
supposed to drink with the mask on, and he said I had to pull it down, not take
it off. So not like eating and drinking at a restaurant, where you can
remove your mask, on the casino floor, you must keep your mask on, well, at
least here.
There was a 99.996% Jacks of Better (9/6/90)
game, and after dropping $40 in, I started hitting some decent hands, including
four aces (of course) and quad sixes, and cashed out even for the two
games. I put in another $20 and cashed out for $30, so I was up
$10! I then tried the 99.44% DDB+ and lost $10, so I ended up even for
the session.
I decided to play some $5 dice.
Originally when I went by, the table was empty, but by this time, the table was
full. I finally got a spot and the table was choppy. No one was on
any real rhythm. The don’t bettor was doing okay, until a guy was
hitting sevens on the come out. Then a point was made, and that guy left,
in fact, everyone left. I gave it a shot on my own and made one
point. I cut my losses at $76.
I went back to video poker and decided
to take a shot on the Bonus Poker Deuces Wild progressive, with the Royal Flush
at $1,249.72. I was $60 in when I started hitting some quints. Including
dealt quint sevens and a dealt wild royal flush. I held three aces and a
deuce and drew another deuce for a nice $100 payout and cashed out for $150, a
$90 win and recovered my craps losses! I checked online and apparently, I
earned 410 points (with it being $4-$8/point on the full-pay VP). Not
sure that will generate free rooms, but hopefully I’ll get a casino rate.
The last stop on the casino walk was
Riverside, which was a .29 walk from Aquarius. It was now around 2:00 PM
and I was hungry. I decided to get a player’s card and then get
lunch. There was quite a line at the player’s club, with only one person
working. I eventually got my card and decided to have lunch at The
Riverview Restaurant. I was able to get seated right away, and there was
decent social distancing between tables. I asked for a table with a nice view and was
close to a decent river view.
The silverware came in a small paper
bag and my drinks were in paper cups. I ordered a French Dip with French
fries and it was pretty good. The Pepsi was $3.25, and the sandwich was
$10.95. I paid cash and left a $5 tip.
I decided to try to put in some play
here on the bar top “Illinois” Deuces (98.91%), but I wasn’t
catching enough four-of-a-kinds/full houses to stay ahead. I dropped
around $150 earning 402 points. I did earn $5 free play for 100 points,
but I dropped than and $20 cash on a different DW progressive, but no luck
there.
I had walked around 2.41 miles from
Harrah’s to Riverside, not including all of the walking around in the casinos,
so I decided to take the water taxi back. It was $5 for the one-way trip and it offered
excellent views of the casinos from the river. After a few stops, we
arrived back at Harrah’s.
I decided to give Harrah’s a little play
and settled in on an 8/5 Jacks Super Times Pay machine, playing three lines at
dimes. Things weren’t going well, and I was in for $100 when they turned
around, and I cashed out a ticket for $100.40, up 40c!
I had another video chat with home
while figuring out what to have for dinner. I wanted Chinese food, but
there didn’t seem to be a restaurant in Harrah’s. In fact, the only
Chinese restaurant I recall seeing was Panda Express at Aquarius. I
didn’t feel like going back there, so a quick Google search revealed a Japanese
restaurant, where I ordered a Yakisoba and some gyoza dumplings. They
called me to tell me they were out of soba noodles and asked if they could
substitute udon noodles. KWI restaurant in Caesars Atlantic City offers a
stir-fry udon which I liked, so I told them it would be fine.
I watched the end of the Stanley Cup Finals and then went to pick up my dinner. The restaurant, Minato, had people in the restaurant, but I took mine back to my room. The meal was very good, I’d go back next time I’m in town.
