It seems that my trip naturally breaks up into three parts. Here's the first part:
Friday, September 25
I thought I would have plenty of time to park my car at Bob’s and get to Philadelphia airport before 2:00 for my 3:00 flight (I left the Washington, DC area a little after 10:00 AM). But I had to make a few stops and traffic was heavy at points. Waze actually had me drive right by the airport, which I wasn’t expecting. I called Bob to see if I’d still have time to park at his place (and save around $70 on parking) and said it should be okay.
I quick transfer of bags and we were off. We arrived at the airport a little after 2:00, but I wasn’t able to check in with my bag until around 2:15, which the attendant informed me that since I was checking in within 30 minutes of the flight (I thought it was 45 minutes), my bag might not make the flight.
Fortunately, I have TSA Pre-check, which let me skip the long regular security line, and I was able to get to my gate just in time for my boarding group (A40) to board. I was wondering how things would be in the airport during the pandemic. I didn’t really notice a lot of people walking around, but they all seemed to be packed in the security line.
Southwest’s boarding is slightly different. Instead of the whole A 1-60 going up at once, they call them up ten at a time. There still seemed to be a bit of confusion, but we all managed to board. They are also keeping all the middle seats empty, so there didn’t seem to be an issue with bin space.
I had a short flight from PHL to BNA, all they served was a snack. I thought they were going to serve ice water, but I didn’t see any. I had about a forty-minute layover in Nashville, time enough for me to look for something to eat, since I didn’t have time to get lunch, and I only had two slices of bacon for breakfast (well, and a bag of chips in the car). There only a Hudson shop close by, and I picked up a ham and cheddar Lunchable.
The flight from BNA to LAS was pretty uneventful. I was drifting in and out of sleep. I did get snacks and ice water (although I was able to fill up my water bottle in Philadelphia). We seemed to arrive a bit early, but that was fine. The tram from the terminal to baggage claim was a bit crowded, but the departing trams weren’t as full.
My worries about my bag not arriving were alleviated when I finally saw it drop down from the conveyor. I headed over to the rental car shuttle, which again, was not totally socially distanced (although the driver did not seem to handle any bags).
When I got to the rental car facility, I walked up to the Hertz Gold board, and next to my name it said to see the clerk. Going inside, we got things straightened out (I’m not sure what the problem was), and I even got upgraded (at least I think it was) from the medium sized car I reserved.
I had to pick up distilled water for my CPAP machine, so I stopped at the Target on Maryland Avenue. The only distilled water they had was on the top shelf and at the very back, very much out of my reach! Fortunately, I saw one bottle on the shelf below that (although at the very back as well), but I was able to take another bottle and move it closer where I could reach it (while standing on the bottom shelf).
Next stop is Wynn, where I’ll be staying two nights, courtesy of the Wynn Slots app. I was able to book the rooms before they changed the level requirement. Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn’t change my two-bed room to a one bed (I think saving a few gems).
After I parked in the self-park garage and entered the casino, I noticed many uniformed (and other people in suits) doing security checks. They were using metal detectors on everyone and doing bag searches. I was talking about this with the guy inspecting my bags, and he said they just started doing it that night. I said so I won’t see things like I saw on Facebook and YouTube, and he said yes.
I was waiting in the registration line for quite a while, when Timothy on the other side of the room said he could help me. During check-in, I asked if it were possible to get a king bed, and he said he could, and he also gave me a higher floor with a Strip view. I’m on 35, so it’s about halfway up, but the Strip view is nice. Picture of the room can be seen here.
My friends at home were having an online poker tournament, which I couldn't join, but I did drop in their Google Meeting video call. We chatted for a while before I said I needed to get something to eat.
I thought about a few places, but then Fat Choy popped into my head. I was looking for something within walking distance, and although technically anything is within walking distance, depending on the amount of time you have, I decided I’d drive over to Eureka.
The parking lot was pretty full, but it didn’t seem crowded to me. I headed over to Fat Choy, there were a few people in there, but they had socially distanced the tables. The guy told me there were two tables available for me, and I chose a booth near the entrance.
I ordered a cup of the chicken noodle soup (which still came out in a large bowl). It was good, I think it was Progresso. Then I got the short rib grilled cheese, which I got the last time I was there, and it was apparently feature in Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives. They have Guy Fieri’s picture and a caricature of him on their walls. I was going to have a scoop of ice cream, but then decided to get the root beer float, which was huge. That might have been a mistake.
The "cup" of Chicken Noodle soup.
The famous short rib grilled cheese!
I wasn’t going to do much gambling, but they do have 9/6 Jacks on Multi-Strike at dimes, so I gave that a shot. I wasn’t doing great and lost $50. I put in another $50 and hit a few decent hands, including a quad. I was up to $130, which would have made me even, and covered dinner, but I pressed on and lost it all. ☹
I headed back to Wynn. By the way, Las Vegas Boulevard is under quite a bit of construction, lane closures and metal plates on the road, not fun. I drove into the Encore self-park and had to turn around and go one more light to the Wynn self-park. I remembered to park on level 2, so I didn’t have to take the stairs of the elevator.
Going through security again and passing through the security at the elevators (you must use your key on the plate to make sure it’s an active key). I got ice for my cooler and I decided to take a bath (after the bath I took at Eureka). It was nice to relax, and it would have been nicer if the tub had jets.
I spent around 30 minutes writing this and now I’m heading to bed.
Saturday, September 26
I was hoping to have a good night’s sleep, but I woke up about an hour and a half after I fell asleep with severe muscle cramps in my shins. It was quite painful, and it took around 15-20 minutes to get them loosened up. Then I fell asleep without my CPAP mask on, so I woke up again a few hours later with a headache. I did finally get up around 8ish, since I wanted to get to the pool when it opened at 9.
I went to get ice, and when I passed an employee along the way and saw his mask on, I noticed that I forgot to put one on. I went back to my room and put my mask on for my trip to the ice machine and back.
There was no temperature scan at the pool that I recall, but they did check your room key. There were not many people at the pool at this time, so it was a nice time to relax. They have signs that say you should be wearing face covering unless you are in the water or eating or drinking. I saw a few people not observing that rule, just sitting in the loungers getting sun doing none of the above.
This was my first visit to the Wynn pool, although I have only stayed on property once before (in January, so I’m pretty sure the pool was closed, plus I checked in at 6:00 PM and left at 6:00 AM (or so). I had stayed at Encore many years ago, but unfortunately didn’t visit the pool then either. The pool is nothing special, two circular pools connected by a long canal. I picked a spot in the middle, where there was some sun. I got in the pool right away and it was a bit chilly at first. I noticed some of the water coming in was warm, but one strong jet was steaming ice cold water.
I did a few walks up and down the length, did some swimming. I talked with the lifeguard about sports, hockey came up and she said she was a Blues fan, so I should she was able to celebrate last year. She said the same to me when I mentioned I was from the Washington, DC area, with the Capitals and Nationals.
Finally, some pool time!
Not too busy in the early morning!
View of the Wynn tower.
I spent a little over an hour at the pool and then headed to my room to get cleaned up. There was a hangtag on the door handle indicating that they did not service my room since my Privacy light was on. That didn’t bother me, I wasn’t expecting housekeeping anyway. I was supposed to do some casino hopping to use some coupons before my friend’s flight came in at 1:30. It was around noonish when I was heading to Ellis Island for lunch when I got a text from my friend at 12:13 saying they were landing in 5 minutes. Well, that was unexpected, she said their flight was early (yeah, really early). I hadn’t arrived at EI yet, so I continued to the airport. They were arriving in Terminal 3, but when I got there, she said they were in between terminals, so I told her to meet me at Terminal 3 and just let me know which stop she was at. I had driving by the pickup area once, so I decided to park in short term parking. I had heard that if you parked like 15-30 minutes, it was free, but the signs I saw said parking was $3 for the first hour. I only had to wait about 15 minutes for them to meet me at the bridge to passenger pick up. AH said she’d pay for the parking, but when I put the ticket in, it said $0, so it seems parking was free.
I headed over to Cosmopolitan to drop them off. The drop off area there is a bit messy, but I managed to get them there without any issues. I then headed back to Ellis Island to have lunch. I could have gotten the $9.99 steak special, but I was going to use the LVA 50% off coupon, so I decided to get the steak and shrimp, which was $13.99. I also treated myself to a beer. The total was $17.29, but the coupon gave $6.99 off, and I used my $6.79 in comps, so the final bill was $3.51. I left $7 in cash, meaning the tip was $3.49.
The steak and shrimp!
I decided to play a bit to kill some time, so I put $20 in a 25c Pinball slot and cashed out $45. I then tried a poor double double bonus progressive ($1,358.40). I only hit one quad (8’s) and dropped $60 chasing the royal. I dropped a $20 in 25c Shockwave with no luck, and then $105 in 25c 8/5 ACE$ Bonus Poker. I hit four quads, including 2’s, and cashed out for $65, a $40 loss overall. I discovered I earned a little over $10 in comps for my next trip!
We wanted to go to Golden Tiki for Happy Hour, but I couldn’t get a reservation for today. We decided to take a chance and see if we could be seated as a walk-up, arriving around 5. We were lucky, they did have a table we could use, but we needed to be out by 6. I figured that wouldn’t be a problem. I had what I usually get, a Blue Lagoon, while AH and ZH ordered dole whips. AH ordered a second Dole Whip, and ZH and I got another without the rum, which we asked Brittany to add to AH’s, so she got a really boozy Dole Whip! They ordered some appetizers since I’m not sure they were able to get lunch in between when I dropped them off and picked them up. I wasn’t hungry, since I just ate a big lunch.
I always get the Blue Lagoon!
We did have to get up while AH still had some drink to finish, but we just found an empty spot at the bar while she finished it. Always a good time here.
We then headed downtown, since we were going to The Laundry Room, with 8:45 reservations. We were planning on having dinner at El Cortez, but we weren’t hungry when we arrived. I also didn’t have my player’s card handy, so parking garage security told me I had to go to the lot across the street. When I got there, the boothling asked me if I had a player’s card. I did, but it was in my backpack. I pulled into a close spot and got it. I just had the basic card, but it was good enough for half off, so parking was “just” $5. It’s funny how most of the hotels on the Strip have free parking, but downtown, it seems, you still must pay.
Since we had some time to kill, we walked up to Downtown Grand, AH had never seen it before. It looked like they were doing some remodeling, and (like many other places) it seemed like they moved machines around for social distancing.
We walked back up to Fremont Street, where ZH apparently was just shocked at the spectacle. It was fairly crowded, maybe too crowded. There seemed to be a heavy security presence, and there were barricades set up at certain points. I wanted to go into The D to scope out Vue Bar for later in the trip, but I had my backpack with me, and I was not allowed in the casino with it (a note for future reference).
We walked back down to El Cortez, and a $1 Top Dollar machine caught my eye, but my card didn’t work for some reason. I had to go to the slot club anyway because I had my $10 - $1,000 free play coupon that I didn’t use, so I got that loaded (I got the minimum $10). I played that on a Deuces Wild machine and turned it into $5 cash.
We walked around a bit, was checking out Siegel’s, which seemed to have quite a long wait. I said I wanted to go back and play that Top Dollar machine, and as I was walking up, I saw something in the seat. As I recall, when I was going to play the first time, I put Jacques down on the seat, and when my card didn’t work, I left to go to the slot club, forgetting about Jacques! Fortunately, he was still there after we got back! I wouldn’t have heard the end of it if I lost him (again). I guess for my error, the slot gods did not reward me, and I lost $49.
After deciding that we weren’t going to have dinner, I tried texting to see if we could get into The Laundry Room earlier, but they never responded to my text. We got to Commonwealth and knocked on the door as indicated on my text and waited. We waited for quite a while and no one came. Eventually, we went around the corner, as a line was developing there, and sure enough, the entry point had moved.
Since they took over Commonwealth, the “Speakeasy” experience was different. Instead of being in the small room behind the hidden door in Commonwealth, the Speakeasy was now the waiting room, and the service was in Commonwealth and on the roof. There were already many people waiting, and many people waiting after us. A person came out and offered us water and candy and apologized for the wait. I told AH that Kip and I had to wait maybe 15 minutes in Commonwealth to get into The Laundry Room. We were apparently going to be seated, but there was a name mix up, so we were led back down to the waiting area. We also had to have a temperature scan before entering.
In the meantime, I did get a text telling me that the Commonwealth main entrance was closed, and we would need to go to The Laundry Room side entrance (a little late notification, but thanks).
Eventually we were seated right next to the piano player. Since bars needed to serve food to be open there was an automatic $10 charge per person for the gourmet popcorn and some ice cream. The popcorn was good, but the ice cream wasn’t that great, in my opinion. It was like caramel, peanut butter, and something else.
Unfortunately, they do not allow photographs in the bar, so I don’t have any drink or location photos. AH and ZH ordered off the menu, but I had a cocktail crafted for me. I told the mixologist that I was interested in spirit forward, smoky, malty, coffee, chocolate, maybe a little floral. I’m not sure of the ingredients, but the drink was excellent. We each only had one cocktail, since they just got to town, and already had many drinks! The total was $81, so my part including tip was $34.
I dropped them back off at Cosmopolitan and headed “home” to Wynn. I decided to give them a little play and dropped $80 in a $1 Pinball slot. I did win $6.25 playing some Ultimate X video poker. I then dropped $40 on some poor Deuces Wild. I tried some other video poker, again with no luck. I lost more than I wanted to there, but earned 358 points, so hopefully I’ll get some sort of offer to come back.
When I got back to my room, I discovered that housekeeping made up my room. I did leave a tip, just in case (although I guess I could have made up for it the next day). AH, ZH, and I were planning on having breakfast at Peppermill the next morning, and I called about a reservation. They said that they don’t do reservations, and we’ll just have to see how the wait is. That was a bit disappointing, but what could I do?
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