Trip Report: NYE trip to Caesars

WE LEFT EARLIER THAN PLANNED

We came back early in part because Linda had work to do and wanted to get everything organized for when her son returns from Christmas vacation with his father in Chicago. He returns Sunday morning. Our original plan was to return Saturday night but that would mean turning around to pick him up early Sunday morning at LAX and it was just too much for a short window.

WATCHED FIREWORKS FROM OUR ROOM, SEE VIDEO

Speaking of window -- that's how we watched the fireworks at Caesars. I took a video with my cell phone and put it on YouTube here:

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After a couple of minutes I realized that if I stood next to the window with the curtain behind me it would block the lights in our room and the video would be better. Yes, it took me a couple of minutes to realize this and this is why I am not a professional cameraman.

You can hear me talking with Linda as we watched.

Our room was different for this trip. Normally we stay in the Augustus Tower with a view of the Bellagio fountains. This time, we were on the other side of the Augustus Tower facing the Strip with a view of the Mirage and Wynn and the High Roller and I think we had a great view of the fireworks. Even better we were on a high floor and the fireworks were literally exploding right outside our window.

ONLY ONE RESTAURANT MEAL

We had one dinner in a restaurant -- Old Homestead following Celine's show on NYE.

Old Homestead was perfect -- shrimp cocktail (shrimp was the size of a banana) and filet mignon with lobster tail for entres. Cheesecake for dessert. Linda doesn't drink (like me) and she had Diet Pepsi. (No diet coke at Old Homestead.) I had a sparkling water. and our dinner wrapped up at 11:30pm and we made our way back to our room to watch the fireworks.

We had a reservation at Mr Chow for Friday night but cancelled it.

WATCHING FIREWORKS

A lot of people were in the lobby areas, by the doors, staying warm until just before midnight when I think they made their way outside to watch. It was a cold night.

At about 7:00 from the start of my video the fireworks were most intense.

When the fireworks ended I made the mistake of thinking there was a fire at the Mirage but it was there "fire display" and not an out of control fire.

ROOM SERVICE

As I mentioned only one restaurant meal -- we had room service 6 times. Average wait was 1-hour and one time the food arrived luke warm and not exactly what we ordered. But for 5 out of 6 room service meals the food was right.

You saw my other thread about a room service server asking me to pay for a meal that was already paid for by a folio credit.

My $500 7 Stars Experience plus some spare reward credits covered all of the room service charges except tips which I paid with my credit card. I also paid for the tip at Old Homestead.

My Old Homestead dinner was paid for using part of my 7 Stars Annual Dinner credits. I have $200 remaining which I have to use before March 31st which is the expiration date printed on the two remaining $100 vouchers.

BAD TRIP FOR GAMBLING

Gambling for me was bad. I actually won some money playing craps but I lost miserably at video poker. Unfortunately I played a mix of games from $1 to $25. The good news is I got quad aces and a straight flush, and quad 3s FOUR times at Bonus but ALL of those big wins came when I was playing $1 video poker. I didn't get one four of a kind at $25 VP, and that killed me despite a couple of full houses. At $5 video poker my best hand was quad 3s but that $1,000 win went quickly after that. Yes, in all, I got 3333 a total of five times this trip. Besides the AAAA I got 5555 twice at $1 and JJJJ once at $1. I got quad-tens once at $5.

On our way out of the hotel, I stopped by Total Rewards and converted Reward Credits into free play because Linda wanted to try playing video poker. Her only previous gambling experience was playing three-reel slots and playing craps with me at both Caesars and Bellagio. Linda started with $360 of free play from my Reward Credits and cashed out $395 playing 7/5 $1 Bonus. This makes her a lifetime winner at video poker. (Take note Rob Singer.)

HOUSEKEEPING AND IN THE ROOM

We never bothered with housekeeping. When they knocked on the door we just asked for fresh towels and soaps.

We watched a couple of movies but the movie selection wasn't good. I guess they didn't want us watching too many movies.

PLAYING CRAPS

The casino was jammed. Even the craps tables were jammed -- and I mean it was hard to get a spot to play. I mentioned that Caesars replaced the FireBet at craps with the Small, Tall, All bets. I never got a payoff on the Small, Tall, All and twice I was one number away for both the Small and the Tall.

I heard about the All being hit only once.

Ironically at Bellagio I have a much better record with the STA bets and hit the All a total of 3 times there in just four visits. And I hit the Small or Tall a couple of more times at Bellagio. Frankly, I like the tables at Bellagio better because they are shorter and have a more limited bounce. I also didn't shoot as much at Caesars because the tables were jammed. I threw the dice only four times my entire trip.


THE VALET AND RIDES

I used the Octavius/Augustus valet which is open to 7 Stars and it was a mess with all of the limos picking up and delivering holiday guests. It took forever to get there and another forever to get out of there.

Our drive to Vegas had normal holiday delays but we weren't in a rush and made several stops including a drug store because Linda forget her prescriptions at home, so she had to call her regular pharmacy who had to call the pharmacy in Barstow so she could get an "emergency" three day supply. That took about two hours.

Linda is a diet coke drinker so we made multiple pit stops at drive-thrus so she could get her diet coke fix. I did too. Linda is a perfect match for me because she's the first girl in years who doesn't criticize me for drinking diet coke.

Speaking of diet coke: Caesars had diet coke for New Years Weekend. This is unusual. Caesars usually stocks only Pepsi products but for this weekend there were Coke products.

CELINE'S SHOW

Celine's show NYE was fantastic because it was not her usual "scripted show." She did a lot of ad libing about the holiday and how grateful she was for her career and life and she showed a video of her family during a song of thanks (don't remember the name). The crowd applauded when her husband Rene was shown in the video. I actually started to cry because I know the guy.

Celine also did something I'd never seen in the 12 other shows (or was it 13 other shows) I saw: she went into the audience to sing and paused the song to take selfies with audience members. This went on for several minutes -- with the song paused as more people crowded around her. She actually loved it and welcomed more people to come up and take photos -- so this was planned for the show.

However, after the "planned photo op" was over another fan wearing a "Celine Loves Me" tee-shirt tried to jump up on the stage and he was tackled by security and they pushed him out of the Colosseum. Celine was visibly surprised and was saying apologies to the fan as security was pushing him out and yelling "out, out". She was saying things to security such as "be gentle" and "I'm sure he just wanted a hug" and "be gentle, it's New Year's Eve." I think she was honestly worried the young guy would be hurt.

We left Vegas Friday night about 8pm and the ride was easy and uneventful.

Sounds like a great trip. That's a memorable New Year's.

Everything went great but the gambling. Since your main goal was to have fun and be entertained, you had a good trip.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob.Singer

Everything went great but the gambling. Since your main goal was to have fun and be entertained, you had a good trip.

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We don't know who YOU are pal but what have you done to Rob?

New Year's in Las Vegas! Linda must be digging your action, Alan.

Linda surprised me during the car ride home. She was using her cell phone to look for homes in the Vegas area.

I left out of my report how Celine sang Adele's "Hello" and that is getting a lot of buzz on the Web today along with a cell phone video on YouTube.

Alan, I just embedded your YouTube video into your post, so people can play it easier.

A few comments:

1) Why did you get a room facing the other way? Admittedly, it was interesting to see your view of the fireworks, especially the sensation of them exploding right in front of your room (kinda cool), but I have to imagine this wasn't your desired room assignment. Did you just not lean on Caesars hard enough beforehand to get a room facing the Bellagio fountains? I actually put a lot of effort in to get my Bellagio fountain facing room in Augustus, but I imagine it would have been easier for you, since your hosts are more likely to lock in such a room for you, whereas mine had to be done from the hotel side.

2) I did the same with the housekeeping, though I let them in the room on December 31 because I had people coming over that night. Typically I don't like housekeeping in my room, unless I'm there for more than 5 days. I don't get a maid at home every day, so why do I need one in a hotel?

3) Why so much room service? Was it because you were spending a lot of time in the room with a relatively new girlfriend? If that's the reason, I approve.

4) I'm a little bit concerned about you and the $25 VP. Normally I don't like lecturing/advising people on gambling limits, as I don't think it's my place to do so. However, it does seem to me that you may have been influenced by that nice $100k hit you had last year, and now are less "scared" of that high limit denomination! I think you should stick to $1-$5. I have never played higher than $5 in my life. $25 scares me!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson

Linda surprised me during the car ride home. She was using her cell phone to look for homes in the Vegas area.

I left out of my report how Celine sang Adele's "Hello" and that is getting a lot of buzz on the Web today along with a cell phone video on YouTube.

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Why does Linda want to move to Vegas? Did she have any desire to do so prior to your trips with her there?

Of course that's top shelf advice about the $25 games. But as you may already know, gamblers who hit big winners almost always become over-confident and won't leave the unaffordable denominations alone until the machines slap them upside their heads.

A friend of mine just sent me a pic of his first royal of this year, and he was thrilled to death. It was on dollars in Michigan and he left with a $3100 profit. He normally plays 25c thru $5. He'll start at 25c again when he goes in March.

Dan let me take them one at a time:

1. When Linda and I stayed at Bellagio our room was right over the fountains. When you've seen the fountains that way at Bellagio, why bother with a room at Caesars that looks at the fountains? (Photo below.)

2. We just didn't bother with housekeepers. Room Service people took care of the tables. Housekeepers dropped off towels. We were all set.

3. Linda is private and prefers to dine in-room. She also doesn't like loud places and what restaurant wasn't loud during New Year's weekend? The steak house after Celine was something we both looked forward to. We actually cancelled our reservation at the new Mr Chow and had room service instead.

4. While I did play a LITTLE $25 video poker, I still kept to my budget for the trip. To me keeping to my budget is what counts. And when I was done, I was done. I would estimate that my total time in the casino during the trip was no more than 6 hours and that included about three hours at craps where I did win a little money.

5. Linda is intrigued by the relatively low prices of large houses in Vegas. She grew up in Wyoming and has lived in California for more than ten years. She would like a large house again -- not the overpriced smaller home that costs $800,000 in California. She also knows that Jason and I have discussed moving our businesses to Nevada for tax reasons. He has an online music equipment business and ships worldwide, and my Infomercial business can operate anywhere.

I agree with your getting a nice home in Nv. vs. wasting your money on something in Calif. And the other smart thing you'd be doing is using the business & personal tax situation to your advantage. I hope you follow thru on it. And just think of the reduction in traffic. You can't lose. Don't divorce this gal!

Ironically, if we move to Vegas we figure we would have to make at least two day trips back to the LA area each month to shoot new videos for the weekly Best Buys Shows. And then if we have an Infomercial to shoot it could be several days.

But then, we've traveled to Texas and Vegas and other places to shoot Infomercials too.

But if it's just for the Best Buys Show, one day in LA every two weeks will be sufficient. And we would make that a day trip just like we sometimes now go to Vegas as a day-trip (or night trip).