Low-Rolling in Vegas for Not Quite Free - Part 3

Sunday

An original photo, for a change:  our breakfast.

Breakfast at Harrie's

We forewent free breakfast and instead headed 3 minutes up Swenson to our other favorite restaurant in Las Vegas, Harrie's Bagelmania, located in a shopping strip on Twain Ave. that has seen better days.  Once inside, this place feels like old Miami Beach.  Correction, this is Broward County all the way.  You will be welcomed and the person sitting behind you (and it is always one particular person in a party of two or more) is talking so loudly you can hear his entire conversation whether you choose to or not. That, and their website doesn't even have its own domain name, looks like the owner did it herself in 1997 when someone said she needed to get herself a website, and features the disclaimer, "If you have any comments, suggestions or ideas please visit the restaurant."  I did, but I'm fairly certain it had no impact.

Low Rolling for Not Quite Free in Las Vegas: Summary of Accounts

Friday 

Tips for shuttle drivers @ SAN and LAS $4
Expenses (excluding CVS purchases) for 2 people:

Burger and Yogurt in San Diego Airport : $23

Rental car (total for 3 days): $67

1am breakfast for 1 (incl. tip): $10

Plus 12,837 southwest points + $10 for flights

Plus 24,000 Hyatt points for room

Total cash spent: $114 (of which $6 was tip)

Low-Rolling in Vegas for Not Quite Free: Part 2

Saturday

Woke up and exploited the Hyatt House Las Vegas's standard complimentary breakfast buffet:  fresh fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, cereals, scrambled eggs, sausages, breads/bagels.  The bagels were pretty hard but everything else was fine.

The Hyatt House had an interesting mix of clientele.  Being a small airport hotel with breakfast and airport shuttle service, it didn't have the anything-and-everything of a Strip resort.  Guests largely consisted of Southwest employees overnighting between flights, but there was also a sizeable contingent of people in their early 20s who looked like they had just come from the gym and seem to spend a lot of time there generally.  A bunch of dudes were preening around at the breakfast buffet in nothing but shorts, muscles, and attitude.  (Actually their attitude was fine, other than their violation of the implied dress code.)  It seemed peculiar, until I realized we were across the street from the Hard Rock hotel.  They were most likely  going to spend their weekend at the Rehab pool party, but were too cheap or too late to get a room at the Hard Rock itself.

Low-Rolling Winning in Vegas for Not Quite Free: Part 1

Our first trip without the kidz in 2 years - Memorial Day Weekend in Vegas.

A lot has happened since my last blog post: most significantly, relocating to San Diego.  And, of slightly lesser significance, I obtained 2 Chase Southwest credit cards in order to get a Companion Pass, which allows one other designated person to travel with me anytime I travel on Southwest, even on a rapid reward ticket. The Sister in Law and her husband racked up a bunch of credits with us for bringing their family out for their early summer vacation and staying here, and offering to keep our kids with her while we do some mostly-childlike stuff for grownups.

Friday

The Flight

With the companion pass we were able to get a round-trip flight from San Diego to Las Vegas for 12,837 points (equivalent to $183.38 using the 70:1 exchange rate), plus $5 TSA charge, and a second companion ticket for only the $5 TSA charge.  At that price it isn't really worth driving, especially on a heavy-traffic holiday weekend.

The flight was late, as seems to be Southwest custom.  Nancy bought a hamburger at the airport and I bought the world's most expensive yogurt cup for $6.  The last Friday Night flight from San Diego to Las Vegas was the usual party bus: a bachelor party right behind us, a bachelorette party a few rows behind them, everyone getting in the zone.  Used my Southwest coupons for the kickoff special: Bailey's and coffee, to get the buzz going while needing desperately to not fall asleep.

Ground Transportation

Arrived at McCarran airport on time, around 11pm, and hobbled to the rental car terminal as fast as possible, given my foot still slightly sore from a recent flareup of gout, the Disease of Kings, in fact, as it was once known, or the disease of Fat Old People as it might be known today.

Getting to the rental car terminal, we observed this at the Thrifty/Dollar counter:

(This actually wasn't my picture, it is posted on yelp.  But it looked the same.)

Each person waiting will spend about 10 minutes at the desk giving a reservation number, being upsold for a higher level car, a tank of gas they won't use, and all kinds of bizarre insurance products they don't understand, and giving a credit card number.  For 30 groups being handled by 4 clerks, that's about a 60 minute wait, maybe more.

Seared and Smoking in Las Vegas: 2012 Trip Report Part 8 (Friday)

Part 1: The Plan
Part 2: Baker
Part 3: The Buffet
Part 4: Monday (arrival)
Part 5: Tuesday
Part 6: Wednesday
Part 7: Thursday
Part 8: Friday (departure)


Packed up the car and left Tuscany.

We stopped for some perfectly edible bagels and coffee at the Del Mar Deli @ South Point, and then headed back to California on Interstate 15.

It should have been 8 hours home, but as usual it took us closer to 10 1/2 due to lunch, bathroom breaks, and fatigue.

That said, our luck wasn't all that bad on this Friday the Thirteenth.  All in all, a relaxing vacation that didn't break the bank, and that's all we can really ask for these days.

The End

Seared and Smoking in Las Vegas: 2012 Trip Report Part 7 (Thursday)

Part 1: The Plan
Part 2: Baker
Part 3: The Buffet
Part 4: Monday (arrival)
Part 5: Tuesday
Part 6: Wednesday
Part 7: Thursday
Part 8: Friday (departure)


I opened my eyes, and realized I was in a room at the Flamingo hotel, neck deep in liquid.  The hairs on the back of my neck froze.

Seared and Smoking in Las Vegas: 2012 Trip Report Part 6 (Wednesday)

Part 1: The Plan
Part 2: Baker
Part 3: The Buffet
Part 4: Monday (arrival)
Part 5: Tuesday
Part 6: Wednesday
Part 7: Thursday
Part 8: Friday (departure)

Wednesday morning, we had cereal for breakfast in the room.

The Mrs. had her massage appointment at "La Riva Spa," which is a small massage studio that sublets some massage rooms from the Tuscany in the fitness center building.  There is no other spa facility to speak of.  Meanwhile I hung out with the kids at the pool in the hotel.  I purchased an iced coffee poolside from the waitress for the surprisingly affordable price of $2.25.

Nancy said she enjoyed the massage, although apparently her therapist had some negative things to say about the guy running La Riva.  Hearing this second hand, it sounds like they haven't been paid for their work, and particularly for any of their groupon / Living Social deals, of which Nancy's massage was one, and she said they are threatening to walk out if they are not paid within the week.  Also, she said (and this was also posted by someone on Yelp) that the owner is extremely hard to work with.  In particular, if someone calls to change appointment times, the guy makes a federal case of it.  Again, this is hearsay, albeit from multiple sources.  The upshot is that La Riva Spa may not be long for the world.

Seared and Smoking in Las Vegas: 2012 Trip Report Part 5 (Tuesday)

Part 1: The Plan
Part 2: Baker
Part 3: The Buffet
Part 4: Monday (arrival)
Part 5: Tuesday
Part 6: Wednesday
Part 7: Thursday
Part 8: Friday (departure)


Ok, back to the Vegas trip report.
Since the Tuscany has a refrigerator, we had shopped Monday evening for breakfast items, and just had cereal in the room.

You know it's going to be hot when you go outside at 7:30 a.m. and it's already 95 degrees.

We had called a few babysitters that we had found through Care.com, after shelling out the $35 fee for a month of subscription, but they didn't call us back.  We found one on Craigslist who sounded promising, and she invited us to meet her at her house.  After talking with her, we were going to hire her, but afterwards we both felt less than 100% comfortable, mainly because she was so far away, and also because she spent most of the time talking to us and spent very little time with the kids.  So we called to cancel.

Seared and Smoking in Las Vegas: 2012 Trip Report Part 4 (arrival and hotel review)

Part 1: The Plan
Part 2: Baker
Part 3: The Buffet
Part 4: Monday (arrival)
Part 5: Tuesday
Part 6: Wednesday
Part 7: Thursday
Part 8: Friday (departure)


Las Vegas greeted us with 111-degree heat on Monday afternoon.  Thanks, Las Vegas.  Nice to see you too.  We pulled into the Tuscany and I went to check in.  

Check-In

The wait for check-in was about 5 minutes.  The Tuscany never seemed to have more than two people working the front desk as long as we were there.  Although, more than 3 would make it crowded.

According to the confirmation email I received, "Resort fee includes:  2 for 1 entree at your choice of 2 restaurants: Cantina or Marilyn's Cafe, $20 food credit with $40 purchase at Tuscany Gardens, Match play on table games, Valet Parking, use of Fitness Center, In-room safes, Local Phone calls, In-room coffee, Internet throughout the reception building and convention public area; extra fee for internet use in suite."  It is ambiguous with regard to the number of coupons you get if you stay multiple days or with multiple people.  It turned out that you get the promo coupon book once no matter how long your stay is.  So if you plan to use the coupons multiple times, make separate reservations for each day you stay.  I didn't, but the check-in clerk seemed sympathetic and gave me a second coupon sheet.  Incidentally, each coupon sheet includes two $5 match play coupons, one of which can be used per day.

After checking in, we shlepped our own bags to the room, relaxed for a bit, and went down to Marilyn's for dinner.  We took it easy the rest of the night, swimming in the pool while I had some laundry going in the laundry room.  I didn't realize the laundry room was locked at 10pm; I still had clothes going in the dryer.  I was able to get someone to open it for me.

The following are reviews of the Tuscany Suites Hotel and dinner at Marilyn's Cafe.

The Buffet: 2012 Trip Report Part 3

Part 1: The Plan
Part 2: Baker
Part 3: The Buffet
Part 4: Monday (arrival)
Part 5: Tuesday
Part 6: Wednesday
Part 7: Thursday
Part 8: Friday (departure)


By buffet, I mean a veritable smorgasbord of cheap lodging options, some of which in fact come with a free actual buffet.  Arriving in Las Vegas on a Monday in mid-July and staying until Friday means hotels are practically begging you to fill their rooms that would otherwise be free of human occupancy, and free of income production.

Most folks in this situation would make a beeline for one of the big strip resorts, which can be had way cheaper than investors in the hotels built since 2000 had ever intended - but that is not how we roll.

The strip had rooms this week that were perfectly affordable, even for a tightwad such as myself.  However, we are traveling with kids, so our priorities are different.  A view of the fountains isn't nearly as important as easy access between the parking lot and the hotel room.  It's also nice to have a kitchen, or something approximating a kitchen, at least with a refrigerator and a table with chairs.  As I've said before, we want to be in a place where we and our kids are welcomed and appreciated.  We would like to be able to leave the premises without a long adventure in the parking lot or long wait at the valet station.  Finally, one other reason I don't seek out the higher-end Strip resorts is that I really feel like I can appreciate the trappings of luxury only when I've gotten them for free, or nearly so.  Otherwise, five stars doesn't do much for me that three stars can't.

Taking the Kids to Vegas? Really? Part 6: Slot Clubs and Positive-Expectation Promotions

This is the sixth in the series "Taking the Kids to Vegas?  Really?"

Part 1:  Intro and Helpful Hints
Part 2:  What to Do
Part 3:  Where to Stay
Part 4:  Where to Eat
Part 5:  Deals and Finagles
Part 6:  This Page



First of all, let me get upfront about what you probably already realized:  This page covers topics you CAN'T do with your kids.  The title is very misleading and whichever blogger cavalierly posted that should be ashamed of him or herself.  Nonetheless, anyone over 21 can do the following, and any bottom-feeder worth her silt who is going to Las Vegas should know about slot clubs and positive-expectation promotions. So let your sweetie spend a few hours at the pool with the kids, and do a coupon run.  Or, since you will need a membership anyway to get the lower price on the buffet, why not just sign up while the rest of the family is waiting in the buffet line.

If you haven't already read about Don Johnson (no, not that Don Johnson), occasionally referred to as "The Beast of Blackjack," I recommend doing so.  What is important about this story, and what is relevant to the casual gambling public such as you and me, is not what you might think is important.  I don't suggest you learn to play perfect blackjack or expect to be treated like someone who bets $100,000 per hand.  First-timers can read about him in the Atlantic, and you can read a little more detail about the numbers here.

What Don Johnson got out of the Atlantic City casinos, which is relevant to the rest of us 99%, is an edge.  In his case, he was able to negotiate with desperate and naive casino managers to refund a percentage of his losses.  Blackjack has a slight edge in favor of casinos of about 1% if played perfectly without counting cards, and it may even tip in the gambler's favor depending on the rules.  (Card counters have a distinct advantage over the casino, until they are persona non grata.) If you play perfectly and you can negotiate a refund on 20% of your losses, you clearly have an edge which, over the course of a few days of playing, can and did cost several casinos millions of dollars.

With respect to comps that the rest of us would think to envy, Don put it best:  "What can they give you – a suite? Big deal. You’re not even spending any time up in the room... If they give me the right game and the right discount, they could give me an umbrella on the beach."

Caveat Emptor: Some Deals are Too Good to be True

Update 4/5/12:  It appears that Exotic Escapes has cancelled this deal and issued refunds to all buyers.

Several of the Vegas blogs and discussion groups have been discussing this deal  that was offered in the last few weeks on Living Social:

For $149 Sunday-Thursday or $289 Friday-Saturday, you get:

• Room for 2 at the Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas
• Four live show tickets
• $300 in slot play
• One in-room massage
• Daily $25 breakfast credit at Island Sushi and Grill 

Tuesday 3/13/12: Groupon.fr dinner deal at le Meltin

Tuesday evening, we had a reservation to use our Groupon for a restaurant about 3 blocks from our hotel called le Meltin, which apparently is the French translation of the Melting Pot (and has nothing to do with the fondue chain).

Once there, I also ordered a beer which was on special for 2.5 euros, and due to miscommunication, Nancy ordered a second glass of wine. 

Our waiter asked if we would like the steak medium, and I said “non, moins, s’il vous plait” and whatever the word he used for rare I tried to say I wanted something between that and Medium.  He seemed to understand.  I should have ordered it medium because when it arrived, it was pretty much raw everywhere except the seared outside.  I’ll eat it that way, but I prefer a nice pink throughout.  Meat was good enough to eat raw though.

The mashed potatoes were also good, and Nancy ordered a salad which she liked.  The additional 2 drinks and salad came to about 10 euros.

In the U.S. I would only order a steak at a steakhouse because everywhere else would buy a lousy piece of meat, or if it was good meat, would ruin it by overcooking.  However this was a good piece of meat and as noted earlier, was not overcooked.  (I once had a very similar experience in Italy also.)  Anyone ordering a steak in Europe should order it 1 step more cooked than how you would order it in the U.S.  If you only eat well-done steak, you may want to opt for the chicken or duck when in France.  (Honestly I don't really understand why you would bother to order an expensive steak at all if you are just going to have them turn it into a piece of beef jerky, but it just goes to show once again that there is no accounting for taste.)

The two people who waited on us were very welcoming, spoke some English, and it was a very nice and reasonably priced restaurant, but it was pretty clear that the restaurant was struggling.  Only two other tables were occupied while we were there, and I had seen them promoted through lafourchette.com in addition to groupon.fr.  I asked them for a menu and left it with the front desk at our hotel in case the hotel was looking for a place to give anyone else a recommendation.

The Finagle

The Groupon.fr deal we bought, which I ordered about 2 months before our trip, we selected because the restaurant was 3 blocks from our hotel.  It included ribeye steak (entrecote) for 2 (total 640 grams, about 22.5 oz.) with a side, plus 2 glasses of wine, for 22 euros.    

Since it's on the internet, anyone can subscribe to groupon.fr, and probably any other groupon site for that matter.  

My U.S. credit card never worked with Groupon.fr in multiple tries for different offers.  However, I finally tried the PayPal option which worked fine.

Another web site which is similar to restaurant.com in the US is called lafourchette.com in French, or thefork.com which ostensibly is in English although most of the content is not translated.  This offers a percentage off the a-la-carte items, although drinks and fixed-price menus (in French called "formule" or just "menu") are usually excluded, so it's not always that different from just walking into a restaurant and ordering the formule.  We never did use this, although I wasted a lot of time researching.

I had been subscribing to Groupon.fr and LivingSocial for the Paris Northeast area for the last several months in anticipation of this trip, but this is the only deal we ordered, because we didn't want to be constrained by knowing we had to go to a bunch of specific restaurants or do certain things.  That is a risk of prepaying for something - you use it or you lose it, and for something like traveling to Paris, it is something one would need to plan around, which might be constraining, or the coupon could be thrown away, in which case it was a waste to buy it in the first place.

There were several good ones for all kinds of different restaurants and a few hammam/spa ones that we considered.  Over several months, I received many offers which I found amusing and some just bizarre, including for example:

• Riding a Segway at Versailles
• McDonalds: Lunch for 2 for 16 euros.  (I actually found this quite disturbing because if 8 euros was a discounted lunch at McDonalds, I feared some serious sticker shock.)
• At least 2 offers a day for all kinds of bizarre weight loss treatments and surgeries, botox, etc.  I had no idea the French were quite so vain and no less desperate than Americans to be thin.  (this was reiterated by the many infomercials we saw on TV for no-exercise, all-you-can-eat weight loss products)
• Fish Spa pedicure, where apparently you dunk your feet in an aquarium and tiny flesh-eating fish nibble away your callouses.  No thank you.