Random Musings: Semi-Free Play-palooza, the trip to Las Vegas, Day six

Plaza hot tub!

Well, we might be checking out of Plaza, but we're going to hit that hot tub! We were up relatively early. We still had to finish packing, take our bags to El Cortez, go to Aria to meet Lola for brunch at Salt & Ivy, do some play at Binion's, eat at Whiskey Liquor Up, drop Lola off at the airport, have dinner at Top of Binion's Steakhouse, and the late drinks at Velveteen Rabbit.

But first, the hot tub. I told Kip we were going, so we went. Alas, the fair skinned Kip wasn't prepared for the hot tub to be in direct sunlight, so she had to use a towel to keep from burning. I did convince her that we could take our room-made mimosas in, even though the sign on the door said no outside food or drink.

The bundled up Kip enjoying her in-hot tub mimosa!

I said it would be relaxing, and it was. We spent about half an hour there, dried off (pretty easy to do in the desert) and headed back up to the room to shower and head out.

The Document says we dropped our bags off at El Cortez, but I think we may have driven directly to Aria. I do show "checking in" at Aria around 1:30 PM. Salt & Ivy closes at 2:00 PM. They also don't take reservations anymore, but fortunately Lola was already there and she procured a table for us and held it until we arrived. The three of us ate here back in February 2021 and we really enjoyed it and since I had several hundred dollars in comps, I decided I'd treat us.

The very good smoked Old Fashioned.

The very average bacon and eggs.

We closed the place down (we were about the last people to leave), but it was an enjoyable meal. Even though it was closing time, we never felt rushed to leave.

I had $210 slot dollars in my Mlife account, so I also got one of the $25 myKONAMI free play rewards. I went to the main slot club desk (which had a fairly long line) and they loaded up the myKONAMI free play. And once again, when I went to a machine, it didn't show up. By this time, there was an even longer line. So, I recall one time when I had issues with my free play, in the high limit area, an attendant was able to help me, so I went in there. Sure enough, there was no line, and the person was able to take care of the problem (secret tip).

While I was getting that taken care of, Lola and Kip ordered drinks. I played my free play on a $1 8/5 Bonus Poker machine. While I didn't get anything going on the machine, I did end up cashing out for $215, so less the $15 seed money, that was +$200. Better than nothing, eh?

We headed to El Cortez to get settled in and see what we were going to do, getting there close to 4:00 PM. We put in a little play there for Kip, since we're there on her comp, and then we headed to Binion's for our meal/drinks at Whiskey Liquor Up at 5:00 PM. And here's where things went south.

The comp issues that we had been experiencing at Four Queen's had gotten worse. They were not accepting comps at the restaurants since the system was totally down. I heard that it was spreading to the machines, although I didn't see them. This was throwing a wrench in our steakhouse plans as well, since we were planning on using comps for that meal.

A command decision was made and instead of Whiskey Liquor Up, Lola, Kip, Bob, and I went to Starboard Tack. Some got food, some got drinks, I didn't get anything because I wasn't sure if Binion's was still going to be an option after we dropped Lola off at the airport.

So Kip and I took Lola to the airport and while that was going on, Kip was in contact with Top of Binion's Steakhouse, they confirmed they could not accept comps so we cancelled our reservation. Scott was supposed to join us and Kip contacted him to discuss alternatives, and it was decided that we all would be on our own for dinner. It was now around 8:30 PM, and shockingly enough, places were closing around 9:00 PM. We batted around a few ideas between us and finally decided just to go back to Starboard Tack (even though we were already planning on going there tomorrow).

So, knowing what the meal situation was, I ordered a drink and food at Starboard Tack.

Rob Roy (it was a special of the day)

Fried Chicken Fried Rice

It was all very good. And, since we were close by, we went by Eureka to play some Multi-Strike. Unfortunately, this session didn't go as well as before and we took a small loss.

We headed back to El Cortez for the night. Which I will say, we were in one of the remodeled rooms and it looked pretty nice. If they send me an offer, perhaps I'll take them up on it.