Sunday, August 15, 1999
Dan woke up before my brain was ready, so he took the camera over to take some pictures of the other properties. I slept another 30-45 minutes and got up and packed up our things. We checked out on the television and were on our way by 10:45 am.
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Entrance to the Outlet Mall
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Primm Valley Resort's Pool
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Ten minutes later we passed the casinos at Jean and 20 minutes after that, we were at the Las Vegas Blvd exit at the south end of the strip. We checked in at Main Street at 11:30 am. I didn't expect there to be a room as they were sold out for Saturday night, but there was.
I have to say again how much I love this casino. After our bad experience with rude people at Primm, it was a 180-degree difference to arrive at Main Street. I walked to the desk (no line, no getting lost, and no crazy maze through the casino) with my letter and they had my room ready. It was 1422. I prefer the opposite side of the building with a view of Stratosphere and downtown (well south Fremont Street and the Plaza anyway) to the freeway and mountains and they switched us to room 805 without problems. They addressed me by my name and were smiling and happy to see us.
(Just a word about rooms at Main Street Station - Main Street is very near the freeway and the train tracks. If you're easily bothered by noise, you should request an low, odd numbered room on a high floor. Anything above floor 6 or 7 will not have street noise and rooms X01, X03 and X05 (with X being the floor number) will be the furthest away from the train tracks.)
I have played at Main Street Station on each of our last four trips to Las Vegas. I am not a high roller. I usually play quarter Video Poker or nickel triple play, and Dan plays $3-5 blackjack about 1-2 hours a day. Very low rollers to say the least. However, we receive about 6 letters a year, each with at least 3 nights free. I love the way we get treated at this casino for just a few hundred dollars in action.
I asked for some help with our bags and within a minute, John was there. He had to call a taxi for another woman but said he'd be outside in just a minute. Imagine my surprise when he was there faster than Dan could get the car to the curb from 30 yards away.
John and I took the bags up to the room while Dan parked the car in the garage (the valet is on the opposite side of the casino and the garage is close and easy to access for us. It makes more sense for us to park it ourselves). John told Dan to take a back way into the garage for better parking.
If you've ever been to Main Street Station, you know that there's a parking garage across the street from the big lot, next to the freeway. There is a big entrance right where you pull in from the street. However, if you drive towards the entrance and turn right just as you get past the building next to the parking garage (next to the rail car), there is another entrance to the parking garage. It's where the old valet parking used to be. Dan used it each time we came in and he always parked on the 2nd floor, right next to the stairs and elevator. It saved us tons of time and hassle. (If you read this, Thanks John!!)
Main Street Station Pictures can be found HERE.
Dan:
Here's a few words about Main Street Station & Downtown. Some folks from my parents' generation look back fondly on the days when the Mob ran Vegas. I wasn't around then, and even during the period depicted in the film "Casino" I was still too young to legally drop a coin in a slot. A popular view is that the Mob run casinos were better at treating their guests.I don't know if that is true or not, but if any hotels treat their guests like the old days, its Main Street and other off-the-strip Casinos. Main Street doesn't have pirate ship battles, live lion cubs or the rock bands you listened to in high school. What do they have to bring people in and keep them coming back? Good, caring service and generous comp offers to those who don't have $10,000 to risk at their tables. Main Street is far from the largest hotel and far from the largest casino. And that is a good thing. The casino is large enough that everyone in your party can find their favorite games, yet small enough that you'll be able to find each other again after splitting up. Main street is a block off of Fremont Street Experience, that's true, but getting to the hourly free show is a shorter walk than that from one southern-strip mega-resort to the southern-strip mega-resort next door.
Back to John's parking tip. Every time I returned to the Main Street parking structure, I parked right near the 2nd floor elevator and stairs. I don't think there is any mega-resort where you can consistently get from your car to your room and back as quickly.
John and I chatted a little bit as we rode up the elevator. I told him about my website and he promised to check it out. I wonder if he did and I also hoped I didn't say anything bad about the bell service on any of my previous trips. (I knew I didn't... but I thought it was a funny thought.) I gave him $5 for carrying up all of our bags and he seemed grateful. Be sure to ask for him if you go. He's really friendly and helpful.
Dan arrived just a few minutes later. We were in our room on the 8th floor, looking down Main Street with the Stratosphere and part of the Strip in the distance. The rooms have shutters and I prefer that to the blackout curtains. You can control just how much light comes in rather than all dark or too bright. Dan thinks that it's too hard to get them to close all the way at night, but it just take a little bit more time. Move the shutters to the closed position and then give them a push with your hand and they close all the way.
We were both hungry and decided to go downstairs to Main Street's Triple 7 Brewpub. Seating and service were quick, although our waitress was new and wasn't sure what was on the menu. My favorite Texas steak quesidilla appetizer has been renamed the Pancho Villa Quesidilla. It's still the same thing, but just has a new name. It's still $4.99 ($1.20 extra if you want to add chicken) and a yummy treat with your beer while you play video poker at the bar or at one of the tables by the window.
This time I ordered the marinated chicken focaccia sandwich for $6.79 and Dan had the Triple 7 Beer Bratwurst and a sampler of their beers. (Highroller Gold, Royal Red Lager, Marker Pale Ale, Black Chip Porter and the Brewmaster special, a Lemon Lager). My sandwich was huge with a giant pile of fries. It was on focaccia bread and was a marinated chicken breast that had been grilled. It was topped with grilled red pepper and baby greens. The whole thing had been drizzled with a balsamic vinegar dressing and was FANTASTIC! Dan's bratwurst was smothered in sauerkraut and was good with his beer. More on his beer review: (COMING SOON)
Dan:
The brewpub is in a large room with high, inlaid ceilings, and with the usual beer-brewing hardware on the other side of glass walls. In the center is a stage area for live entertainment at night. They have a few tables with built-in video poker. This is where we would have sat had I not been preoccupied with sampling Main Street's brews. See the Best Beer page for my notes on Main Street's beers.
Our total bill came to $21.70 with tip and we were stuffed. I charged it to
the room and we went up to change into walking shoes.
Our plan, because it was Sunday and still crowded on the strip and downtown from weekend visitors, was to do the outlying area. Our first stop was the Reserve. I always tell people that this casino is way out there, but it only took us 12 minutes from door to door from downtown. I think it's necessary to have a car if you stay there, or play there, but it's very possible to do Las Vegas from their location.
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I took a few pictures from the outside as we baked in the parking lot. It was hot… damned hot on that asphalt and Dan was more than happy to get inside. I took a quick picture of the airplane crashed at Congo Jack's and went to the slot club to get our cards reactivated. (We hadn't been since June 1998 and cards had expired) We played a little deuces video poker and ended down, then made it up on bonus poker. We left there with me even and Dan down about $20.
The Reserve is an African theme casino with the cocktail waitresses in "Me Tarzan, You Jane" type outfits. The place is great. I really love it and it's full of full pay video poker, so how could you be unhappy?
Our next stop was Sunset Station. We decided to just drive towards it as we could see it from the parking lot at Reserve. That worked out almost perfectly except that we kept driving in on streets that didn't quite connect to the back of the parking lot.
Eventually we found the parking garage and frightened an old couple with Frank Sinatra blaring on the stereo (Luck Be A Lady for those who are interested). We went inside the casino and found the slot club. We switched our Station casino cards over to the new gold card that links the station casinos together and headed for the microbrewery. Dan's review to follow: (COMING SOON)
Dan:
Other than Blonde Bikini, I didn't care for the beer here. Sunset Station in general seems like a decent choice for families, with a big kid care center and movie theaters. OTOH, its sprawling casino would make it difficult to locate adults wandering among the multitude of gaming machines there. (Sonya - Dan only says this because he lost me twice in 10 minutes time. I was standing there waving my arms around, but he couldn't see me. I thought it was funny. Dan was not amused.)
I stopped at Kids Quest to get more information about their childcare services and Dan went to take some pictures of the casino. I played some Bonus Deuces and lost $20 then switched to a regular deuces machine and won it back. I think I like breaking even almost as much as I like winning. I did say ALMOST as much.
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One thing about Sunset Station. I think it is one of the nicer looking "off Strip" hotel/casinos we have been in. I think the Venetian/Caesars Forum Shops type ceiling and the facades around the buffet add some class. I think that the pit area is one of the most beautiful in town with the stained glass above the tables.
After Sunset Station, we went to Sam's Town. I wanted to see the construction. It is a mess out front. They've torn up the front and have moved valet parking to the side. That has messed up the traffic patterns around the casino and it was quite confusing to get to the garage. We finally did find a space in Parking Barn 2 and went inside.
Despite a little construction to the left of the registration desk, it was the same gorgeous atrium. I sent Dan out to take a picture of the front while I talked to an employee to try to find more information out about what is going to be at Sam's after the construction is finished.
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They are completely redoing the front of the hotel, including the valet area. The employee wasn't sure if they were removing the western façade, but it sure looked to me like they weren't keeping it. They're adding an amphitheater for concerts and shows, adding a 14-16 screen movie theater, adding a seafood buffet and redoing the buffet area they have now and they're redoing the pit area, including lowering the ceiling. Okay, except for that last part, it sounds fantastic. I'm still trying to get in touch with someone at the corporate office to give me specific facts, and will let you know when I have them. Until then, I think this is pretty solid information that I got from this one employee.
The only construction inside that might be a problem is being done on the 2nd and 3rd floors. If you're standing in the atrium, looking at the registration desk, it's to the left of the desk. I'm guessing that a low floor in that area would have quite a bit of construction noise. From what I saw, people who asked about the noise were moved to the opposite side of the hotel.
We played some video poker for about 45 minutes. I sat next to a disgruntled local who seemed to be having a bad weekend. He kept getting dealt three deuces, but couldn't seem to make the 4th. I almost felt bad for getting two in row the night before and decided not to mention it to him. When a woman on the other side of him hit a Royal Flush, he grumbled something about how she couldn't speak English, but she sure knew how to call a change person over and left. I don't know why he was so mad, his wife was playing Triple Play behind us and she was dealt 4 aces with a kicker! She won a pile of money. Maybe she doesn't share.
I don't mean to make that guy sound bad. He was having a bad day and I felt for him. But he seemed very nice. He was actually the first person who ever asked me if his cigarette smoke would bother me. I'm one of those horrible ex-smokers. I quit in 1990 when my fiancé at the time got tongue cancer from smoking. He died three years later after 3 more bouts of cancer and I'd love to see everybody quit smoking. But I figure that people have a right to make their own decisions. If you ask me, I'll tell you to quit, but I won't bother you about it. Also, when I'm in a casino, I expect that people around me will be smoking. If it's bad, I'll move, but I'll rarely ask anyone to put it out or hold it somewhere else. It's one of the hazards of casino life I guess.
We ended our play at Sam's Town down $31.75. Not great, but we killed there in December 1998 (my first Royal Flush and Dan took a black chip off the blackjack tables after buying in for $20) so I didn't feel too badly. We put some points on the card and hopefully that will keep the good offers coming to the mailbox so we can stay there again in the future.
We decided to have a little bit of a small dinner at Papamios on their patio. I wasn't very hungry after that huge sandwich at Main Street Station, and Dan said he wasn't very hungry either, but I figured we should have something and it was as good a time as any.
We were seated on the patio sort of near the waterfall. I joked that we were right next to the escalators to the parking garage, so we could skip out on the check by jumping the wall and making a run for it. Dan didn't think that would be such a good idea. Because we weren't hungry, we decided to split an appetizer and entrée. We ordered the calamari and Veal Parmesan.
Dan was about halfway through the breadbasket before the waitress put it down. Apparently he was hungrier than he thought and he tore through the calamari too. I had to ask him to slow down because I'd like to have a piece or two for myself.
The waitress brought out two huge plates of Veal Parmesan. I thought she'd bring one empty plate and we'd split it, but she brought two. I don't know if she brought us two of them, or if the portions are huge, because I could hardly finish mine. I didn't eat all the vegetables or the pasta. But it was delicious. A little too cheesy with cheese on the pasta, veal and veggies, but the sauce was just tangy and spicy enough and the meat was cooked to perfection. All with the waterfall in the background, etc. It was a great meal.
We finished off dinner with a cappuccino for Dan and mocha for me. I really wanted to try the teramisu (sp?) dessert they are famous for but we were stuffed. Maybe on our next trip we'll save room to try it. The whole dinner came to $35 or so plus tip. I'll surely eat there again. So far we haven't had a bad meal at Sam's Town.
We stopped to buy gas at Flamingo and Boulder Highway. ($1.37 compared to $1.69 here in the bay area - California sucks!) and went back to the room for a 30 minute rest before heading out again.
This time we walked down to Fremont Street. We went to Binion's and lost a BUNCH of money. Dan came and got me just before 10pm and we saw The Rescue show. After that we went back into Binion's for more of a beating at video poker and blackjack. (Dan said that Binion's didn't feel the same anymore.. more of Becky's work I guess <sigh>)
Then we went out at 11 p.m. to see the country theme Fremont Street Experience show. Dan didn't stay for the whole thing, as he doesn't like that one. He went back in to cash in what was left of his chips. ($50) After the show, we walked back to Main Street Station. I went up to drop off my heavy purse in the room and Dan played some video poker. When I got downstairs again, he'd already lost enough at VP and moved to blackjack. I played and lost and lost and lost.
Dan:
The only quantifiable change is that the $2 tables are no longer single-deck. Now some casinos try to make you feel cheap if you want to bet less than $5 per hand in blackjack. Now for me, if noticed that success in blackjack depends on what kind of streak you're having. About a quarter of the time you can barely lose a hand. Another quarter you barely win one. About the other half of the time, you tend to fluctuate around what you started with, or maybe slightly lower. I for one prefer to bet as small as possible during a losing streak, and then increase once I start winning again.
My first table at Binion's had a dealer in his 30s who dealt robotically. I was getting lots of crappy hands -- 8-6s, 10-5s and the like. Fortunately, the dealer did to. He busted a lot, and I stayed more or less even. At 9:55 and $4 short, I found Sonya and went out for the Fremont Street show.
After the show we returned. This time, I wanted to do a $5 single deck game. I selected a table with a youngish dealer in his late 20s. He was tall with thick, dark combed-back hair. He smiled and seemed to have a sense humor. After losing a couple of hands to him, I noticed his smile exposing canine teeth that were a little too long. My dealer was a vampire! Not only that, like Chevy Chase's nemesis in Vegas Vacation, he laughed at us as he drew his 6-up hands into 21s. I decided that if I lost one more hand I would get up and move elsewhere, and he promptly dealt me a blackjack, ensuring that I stayed for another 3 losing hands.
I had enough of him and tried two other tables. On the first, I was doing well enough to recovered from my earlier loss. Then I increased my bet to $20 and lost on a mandatory double down hand (10 to the dealer's 5). After that I seemed to win only one every three hands. Each time I decided to leave after the next consecutive loss, I'd win, only to follow continue the cycle with a couple more loser hands. By 10:55, I had turned my original $100 into $50. I found Sonya and went out for the next Fremont Street show.
There is a bank of triple play nickel machines by the Brewpub and coffee shop that I usually like. They've added some "Boom" slot machines behind them and they had the volume up so loud on the slots and down on the video poker. Two people were behind me playing 6 machines and the noise really got to me. I was tempted to move, but decided to cash out and go to bed instead. Unfortunately, with a huge headache and about $200 less in our gambling fund. Sort of put a damper on the night.
Dan:
The pattern at Binion's continued at Main Street: lose, lose, win, lose, (double down) lose, win, (split 8s) lose, lose. I returned to the room $100 down for the night.
