Hipfest VI: Back for more comps! - Day Five

 So we're taking the day off from Plaza and putting in a full day at Vue Bar.

We stopped at Saginaw's at Circa for breakfast. Yes, you can have a Loco moco for breakfast:

There's an egg, so it's breakfast!

We got to Vue Bar around noonish.  It must have been a very uneventful session for me, because this is the only photo I have:

Must have been a brutal session. . .

But, hey, we're back at Andiamo!

Hey, it's lobster bisque!

The New York Strip this time!

It was the end of the month, so I had to blow out the rest of my monthly comps, so I got Victor and myself some Johnnie Walker Blue.

Hurray for Johnnie Walker Blue (comped)!

So this appears to be a short and sweet day, except for the fact that I had A LOT to drink while playing at the bar. I told Kip that I would be, indeed, staggering back to Plaza, which is not uncommon for people on Fremont Street.  At least we made it back. . .

Hipfest VI: Back for more comps! - Day Four

Maybe, hopefully, today will be a better gambling day.  Well, it was going to start off right with in-room mimosas!

Kip "borrowed" the fancy glass when we were at Sand Dollar yesterday!

We started our estimated two hours of play doing okay, down a few hundred when we hit this:

Oh yeah!

After this, it seemed like a good time to have brunch.  We went over to Hash House a GoGo and charged it to the room.

Tractor Driver combo!

There was so much food, we basically shared the meals, Kip had some pancake and I had some of her potatoes.  The total was $37.37, not including tip.

We had a few more hours of play after brunch, so Kip had a celebratory cigar:

Okay, that was just a posed photo, I actually enjoyed the cigar:

Victory!

We headed to The D and Vue Bar, our favorite place to play, to hang out for a while before dinner at Andiamo, pretty much my favorite place to eat downtown.

I only hit one quad at Vue Bar, but they were the best ones to hit.

Aces are always nice, even with useless kickers!

Kip hit deuces, so I guess we did okay for about an hour's worth of play.

We had an "early" dinner (5:15 PM) to accommodate one of our friends.  It was an excellent meal, as always.

The ever popular lobster bisque!

Going totally crazy this time (and also because I'll be here tomorrow), I ordered shrimp scampi!

We had some post-dinner Vue Bar play. . .

Well, I have good news and bad news. . .

This one was a little better. . .

It was late, we headed back to Plaza. . .

Hipfest VI: Back for more comps! - Day Three

It's checkout day at Flamingo, moving Downtown to Plaza for four nights.

We were planning on leaving a bit early and have breakfast at Saginaw's at Circa, but Kip's food poisoning curtailed that plan.

We hung out in the room as long as we could, which I guess was a little after 11 am, and headed to Plaza.

We got to Plaza around noonish and had no trouble checking in to our room. No suite this time (as I mentioned on Day One, since I had to change the reservation, we lost the suite) just a Luxe room on the 16th floor, but it was an accessible room, which meant a large bathroom with a roll-in shower.  There was only one chair in the room and no table, otherwise it was very similar to the Luxe room I had in November (which was 1615). The room faced the railroad tracks, so we did hear the occasional train go by. . .

The view.

The large accessible bathroom.

The large accessible bathroom.

I had $100 in FP (for the next four days), so I loaded it up and we started playing, it didn't go too great. Kip was feeling well enough to have a slice of pizza at Pop Up Pizza and then we played a bit more a the Sand Dollar Lounge.  It's a very nice place to play, even with their $10 limit on comped drinks (although if you're nice and tip well, they can be a bit accommodating on your drink choice).

Even though it's January, it was still warm enough to hit the hot tub. We went down for a quick 30 minute soak. It was apparently Kip's first "winter" hot tub and she really enjoyed it.

Hot tub time!

As I recall, I was waiting for Kip to do something, so I was playing on the floor while I was waiting.  I was playing some $1 Bonus Deluxe and was rewarded with the following hits:

And just like that, we're up!

We went down to Four Queens to get some play in to keep from losing our comp dollars. Sadly, we took a beating here.  For some reason, my offers were cut from Four Queens/Binion's, so that's pretty disappointing.  I still have hundreds of comp dollars to use though. . .

We had 9:15 PM dinner reservations at Oscar's, a last minute reservation, pending on how Kip felt, plus I had $125 in F&B comps.

Kip ready to order.

Of course, the lobster bisque!

The Defendant and Ranch Hand drinks.

Carolyn's prime rib.

Mashed potatoes.

Dinner was good, as usual, the service was excellent, and we had a nice view down Fremont Street.

We didn't have any further luck on the casino floor, but perhaps tomorrow. . .

Hipfest VI: Back for more comps! - Day Two

 

Morning view!

Today was going to be a pretty casual day.  Walk around a few casinos, pick up some souvenir chips for my collection, then drinks and dinner.

We had our morning coffee (since Kip packed a percolator), and we also picked up Carolans for our coffee.

We also had some large mugs, since my friend gave us the giveaway mugs from a Stations promo.

We walked through the habitat before we headed to LINQ.

Photo Op!

We get to the LINQ and not many table are running.  I decide to buy in to a craps game to get my chip.  I wait until I'm the shooter.  I set a point of four, hit a few numbers and then I make the four.  I set another point, but then seven out.  I made a $10 profit!

We were going to Caesars Palace, and we saw signs for "Caesars Forum" and mistakenly thought that was for the Forum Shops.  I knew we were walking the wrong way, but we followed it to where the convention center was when I concluded we were indeed going the wrong way.

We tracked our steps back to Las Vegas Boulevard,   We stopped in Cromwell, since I needed a chip from there (even though we had stayed there last year) and then walked across to Caesars Palace.  We were meeting Jill for drinks at Cabinet of Curiosities around 1ish, and we didn't want to be late, so we just headed to Horseshoe (formerly Bally's).

Still slightly decorated for the Chinese New Year.

We were a bit hungry, so we ended up just eating at the S'barros at the food court.

Possibly our least fancy meal?

Jill met us while we were finishing up.  She was hungry too, so she got something while we were there.  Kip and I were a bit concerned when we walked by Cabinet of Curiosities and it was closed, but we discovered that it didn't open until 1, so that was convenient.

After we finished eating, we headed to the bar.  Kip and I were in there briefly waiting to get into The Lock, but this time we were just having the drinks at CoC.  The drinks were a bit pricey (I mean, price is relative, right?), but they were quite good. 

Two Festival of Lights and one In the Blink of an Eye.

Some view of the bar:

After drinks, we went to the casino floor to get a picture with the $1,000,000.  After looking where we thought it would be, we asked someone and was told it had been removed.  Well that was quick.  We were told, however, that a Chinese New Year parade was going to happen at 2:30, so all was not lost.

We had a 3:30 reservation at Golden Tiki.  It was originally at 4:00 to coincide with their Happy Hour, but we added people to the reservation, so we rebooked at the closest available time.  We'll just kill 30 minutes until Happy Hour starts.

We met at Flamingo, and Rob had a big enough car to take Kip, Lola, Mike, and myself.  We arrived a wee bit late, so that kinda worked out in our favor, although the reservations are only good for two hours.

It's always a fun time at Golden Tiki.  We got some apps and drinks and had a nice time.  It was the first time some of us were meeting.

Appetizers!

Dole whip!

The meet!

We had 7:15 dinner reservations at Bugsy & Meyer Steakhouse at Flamingo, so we bided our time with a little play.  The elevator bank to our room was right next to the restaurant, so that was very convenient.

We arrived and were seated.  Other than a spill of a glass of water, things went well.  We were going to use our Diamond Plus drink credits, but the credits were up to $25, and many of their "special" cocktails were slightly over that amount.  We did work out using Lola's four drinks and two of mine.

WhistlePig perfect Manhattan (at least that's what I ordered)

Lobster bisque

Rib eye!

After dinner, we were going up to the room and then head down to do some play.  It was close to 10:00, so there would be a The Mirage volcano show coming up.  We waited until 10:00 to catch the show, we had a pretty good view.

So, the gambling went bad.  We went to Bugsy's Bar to use my last two Diamond Plus drink comps.  We should have suspected that the drinks weren't going to be good, and they weren't.  We did get Kettle One lemon drops, but they were bad, and the bartender salted the rims (I'm like, what is this, a margarita?).

We decided to cut our losses and went up to the room, however Kip hadn't been feeling well since dinner.  Turns out she and Lola got food poisoning from dinner, seemingly from the scallops (they were the only ones to eat them and the only ones to get sick).  It was a long night for the Kipper. . .

Hipfest VI: Back for more comps! - Day One

The view from our room at Flamingo.

I was just getting ready to head to Las Vegas for an impromtu trip over November/December when Kip was talking about our annual winter trip.  Originally it was in January, but we had moved it to Feb/Mar a few times to cover our birthday months.  She said March would work for her, and I said I really should be in Las Vegas during my birthday month, since I had some extra birthday perks.  So the day before I left, she booked a decent airfare for a Jan/Feb trip.  She has a companion pass on Southwest, so I was going to fly for free, but the better airfares were in my area (Washington, DC) and not her's (Philadelphia).

She worked out the travel details and was going to stay in a hotel near my offer, where I was going to park, since I could park at my office for free, and the Metro station was about a 1/4 mile away.  Unfortunately, she had to deal with a few family emergencies (with the trip being in jeopardy of not happening), but things worked out, except she arrived in town around 12:30 AM.  We didn't get to the hotel until about an hour later, good thing we didn't have a super early flight!

We had also spent a month or so planning the trip with a few other people.  Then two weeks before, an opportunity came up where I made some drastic changes to the schedule.  Fortunately, it worked out pretty well, except that there were some other issues during the trip that caused additional changes.

Our original bookings were four nights at Flamingo and four nights at Plaza.  I did a status match at Ocean casino in Atlantic City which one of the benefits were two nights comped at Wynn.  I had to wait until Jan 15 to book, and the brochure said it needed to be booked 30 days in advance, but what's the harm in calling?  When I first called, they said the status match wasn't in the system.  I called back a few days later and they said they would be able to book the room.  The clerk also offered me a room at Encore, which I readily accepted.  I booked the room for the last Thu/Fri for our stay, since we also had a Masterclass booked for Friday, plus I was going to use my Wynn Platinum status $150 birthday credit.

Now I had to contact my host at Plaza to see if I could move my reservation back two nights.  I saw online that rooms were pretty limited.  I was already booked in a suite, but told her having a room was more important than the suite.  She said a suite wasn't available for the change, but she put me in a luxe room.  I had stayed in a luxe room on my previous stay, so I knew it would be okay.  So now that I moved my Plaza reservation back, I called Flamingo and shortened my stay there two nights.  Although there would be two hotel changes instead of one, it cut down on two play days (one at Flamingo and one at Plaza), plus it freed up the last two days of our trip.

We had a 12:35 PM departure from IAD, so we got up and had the free breakfast at the Embassy Suites where we were staying.  I drove across the street to park my car at my office and then we walked to the Metro station.  Metro had recently expanded service past Dulles airport last November, so this was my first time taking the Metro to that airport (I had previously taken connector busses there).

Although the stations is across the parking lot from the terminal, I think it was only like a 5-10 minute walk to get there, probably about the same from walking from the Metro to the Southwest gates at Washington Reagan National airport.

There was no line at the Southwest desk for check-in.  I was worried my bag might be too heavy, and breathed a sigh of relief when the scale stopped at 48 pounds!

We had a connection in MDW, and our flight wasn't full, so we had an empty middle seat.  We ordered mimosas and we going to pay, but the flight attendant tried to put the champagne bottle on a napkin that was covering the divot on the tray where drinks go, and the champagne bottle spilled.  Fortunately in the unoccupied middle seat, well, unoccupied by a person, there was "someone" in that seat.

Jacques D. Monquee was soaking in champagne, but we did get our drinks for free!

We had a slight delay leaving MDW, plus it was a full flight, so that was sub optimal.  Because it was a full flight, we were sitting aisle/aisle.  There were a couple of women next to me, and when drink service came, Kip and I were going to pay for a drink, when the woman next to me pulls out drink coupons and tells me that she doesn't usually drink, so asked if I wanted to use one.  I said I was getting one for my friend as well, so she gave me two tickets.  How nice!  They were asking what to drink (since they didn't drink often).  I was going to get a mimosa, but changed to a tequila and orange juice, so they got the same.  They found the tequila a bit strong for them, but they seemed to enjoy it for the rest of the flight.  We were supposed to arrive at 4:20, but didn't land until around 4:45.  We arrived at the rental car facility around 5:30 with my car waiting for me (thanks, Avis).

We made some stops at Total Wine and Target and arrived at our first hotel, Flamingo, around 7:00.  I had hoped to use the Diamond check-in, but it was already closed.  I had already booked a nice Flamingo Executive room, which was very nice.

A view into the room!

We were supposed to meet my friend, Jill, at Fat Choy at Eureka at 6:30 for dinner, but with the flight delay, we were pushed back.  I thought I sent her a message when we were at the rental car facility, but I failed to send it.  We sent her a message as we were leaving Flamingo, so we didn't get there until 7:45.  Normally that isn't an issue, but Jill keeps East Coast hours for her job, and it wasn't good for her to be eating so late.  We were very apologetic.  I've always had a good meal at Fat Choy.  Since it was Friday, the special was fish, so I opted to have the short rib grilled cheese that was featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives (also using the LVA 2-1 entree coupon).

Short rib grilled cheese, and a side of chili.

We played a bit at Eureka, using the LVA FP coupon (earning $10 FP for 500 points, we didn't win).  We took a small loss overall.  We then headed to The D to pick up the $50 in match plays for showing our Southwest boarding passes.  We went up to Vue Bar (of course).  I don't recollect if we played or not, but I somewhat recall us ending up with a small profit for the first night.

I believe we got back to Flamingo around midnight. . .