Happy Birthday Dan!!!
Day six and I'm feeling it. I miss my bed, I miss my couch, I miss my cat, I
miss my TV, I miss my computer with the full sized keyboard. I miss the humidity
at home as well as the 70-degree temperatures. I'm ready to go home. Not because
of anything bad, just that travel always wears me out. Maybe I wouldn't be so
ready to go home if I hadn't hurt my back so early in the trip. Maybe I wouldn't
be so ready to go home if it weren't so hot. Maybe I wouldn't be so ready to
go home if I were doing better in the casino. :-)
Dan got dressed and got us bagels and coffee for breakfast. After eating, Dan decided that he wanted to go see Speed at the Sahara and check out the construction at Aladdin as well as return to get some daytime pictures of the Bellagio Conservatory. I wasn't feeling well, so I stayed in the room for some rest and relaxation. Okay, so I really checked email and did some work on my websites. :-)
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Click here to download Bellagio Conservatory mpg - 0.6 mb - 14 seconds
From a distance, the Aladdin looks ready to go. Get closer, and you'll see specs a white moving around on the façade like worker ants. Those are the construction workers in their hot-weather clothes, putting up landscaping and final touches in and out of the next major resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip.
We shot our video from the end of the Bellagio walkway. I also shot some pictures as a walked south on the Strip from across the street on my way to Harmon Avenue, and straight through the chain-link fence as I walked north to Paris.
Peeking inside I saw large rooms high ceilings, but could determine little else. There is a large façade of something going up along Harmon as well.
With this location - MGM on one side, Paris on the other, and Bellagio across the street - there is no reason for the financial backers not to invest every cent they can into the place to make it a worthy rival of its neighbors.
Click here to download Aladdin Construction (day) mpg - 1.6 mb - 40 seconds
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Former Country Star Restaurant
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Harley Davidson Cafe
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When I visited the Sahara a year and a half ago to drive the Las Vegas Cyber Speedway, the resort had a "has-been" feeling in it. To get to this attraction, I had to walk through what felt like 100 yards of empty former casino space, decorated only by the occasional dragster or formula-one race vehicle.
Now, the renovation of this wing is complete, and the NASCAR Café is open. The entire wing of the building is decorated with NASCAR-themed displays, gift shops, and a restaurant. The atmosphere is very similar to the Race Rock in downtown.
The crown jewel NASCAR Café is a high-speed roller coaster simply titled "Speed - The Ride." Unlike most roller coasters, there is no long slow time giving the riders time to contemplate the coming drop question there decision to climb in. Instead, a magnetic acceleration system shoots the train out of an opening west on Sahara Blvd.
Less than a second after the acceleration stops and the your eyeballs return from the back of their sockets, the track banks 90 degrees for a sharp left down the Strip, and drops into a hole in the sidewalk, emerges just a quickly into an inverted loop. The loop exits into an uphill section with more magnetic accelerators, pushing the riders into the backs of the seats. The track curves around the Valet area, and climbs straight into the air. When the train loses its momentum, it starts rolling back over its course, backward through the inverted loop and dip under the sidewalk, around the banked curve and back into the loading area.
The entire ride takes less than a minute, but it is all adrenaline with no dull parts.
Click Here to Download Speed - The Ride mpg - 1.4 mb - 33 seconds
Here is Dan's New Ranking of roller coasters/thrill rides in and near Las Vegas:
1: Desperado at Primm: One of the highest drops you'll find anywhere, and thrills 'till the very end as you encircle the Buffalo Bill Hotel. Serious coaster enthusiasts rank this one on their top 10 steel coaster lists. If you consider yourself a serious coaster fan, it is your duty to drive I15 45 miles south to ride this.
2: Big Shot at Stratosphere: From 1,100 feet over Las Vegas, shoot up another 200 feet and look at the street between your toes 1,300 feet below. Wow!
3: Manhattan Express at New York New York: Best ridden during the day on the right-hand side of the car, from where it takes very little imagination to see the car flying off the track into the cars and taxis at the corner of Las Vegas & Tropicana. Unfortunately the thrills peter out too soon.
4: Speed - The Ride at Sahara: A short but effective adrenaline shot.
5: Canyon Blaster at Circus Circus. Standard roller coaster under a pink air-conditioned dome, but nothing special. Unless you have kids with you (there are a lot of things to do nearby for those aged 4-20), skip it.
The maid arrived while I was working and again I got to experience that awkward feeling of having someone else clean up my mess. I need to be more of a diva and get over that. When the maid was finished I tipped her and asked for some extra oatmeal soap. I got 5 extra bars! YAY! That's 7 bars in the suitcase for use at home. The oatmeal soap at Rio isn't as great as the soap at Mirage Resort properties, but it's still pretty good.
After some work and some TV, I decided to go downstairs and find my Sneaky Queens and give them a workout. There are only four of them at Rio. They used to be right next to the Pai Gow Poker tables, but they've moved them to the other side of the bar. Now they're in that hallway towards Fortunes and the pool area.
One of the four machines had a bill acceptor that isn't working. There are three others and I like the end one and the 2nd from the left. There were two people sitting at the machines at the 2nd and 3rd seats from the left. I took the machine on the far right and fed in a $20 bill. It wasn't too long before I hit 4 of a kind - Kings for 125 coins. That was pretty fun and it gave me some room to play for awhile.
I hadn't been doing so well with the gambling on this trip. I had been playing for awhile, but I'd been losing my budget for each day. Granted, my budget was sort of low for this trip, but I still usually didn't lose EVERY session.
I played for about another hour going up and down and up again. After about 90 minutes on that machine, I was dealt a King - Queen - Jack - Ten - Nine of clubs. I wasn't feeling brave so I decided to be a good student of Bob Dancer and I held the Straight Flush for 250 coins.
I played for about 20 more minutes, mostly going down, but then I hit another 4 Kings that put me exactly at 400 credits. I figured that an even one hundred dollars was as good a place as any to cash out. I pushed the button and quarters started to fall into the hopper. I placed a cup into the hopper and collected my coins.
About 150 coins in, the machine jammed and the light started flashing. About 2-3 minutes later a change person was there and called a floor person to open up the machine. The change person and I waited and waited and waited. Finally she had to leave to go make change for someone else and I waited on my own. Five minutes later some very angry guy came up to the machine and gestured me out of the chair. He never said hello, or even made eye contact. He just opened the machine, mumbled something as coins fell all over inside the machine and slammed the lid back down.
I asked him what he said and he turned in my general direction and shouted "You can't catch the coins in the cup or you jam the machine!" I was shocked that he shouted at me and perplexed as to why you can't catch the coins in the cup. Everyone I know catches the coins when they can. Scooping them up is a pain in the neck and usually results in a pile of them on the floor, lost forever in that busy carpet.
He had taken a handful of quarters and threw them in my bucket before he closed the machine. I guess that was to make up for the ones that fell all over inside the machine. He stood there, staring off in the opposite direction from where I was standing while the coins fell into the hopper.
A woman walked up and asked him where the wheel of fortune machines were that used to be in that area. He grunted and mumbled something about Masquerade Casino and she asked again. He made this big sigh and then said, "In the Masquerade tower casino" and looked away again.
At this point I told her where the machines were located now and how to get there. She thanked me, looked at the floor person strangely and gave me a sympathetic smile and left. By this time the coins stopped dropping and this guy walked away without a word to me.
I thought it was really strange as I've always had such excellent service from the staff at Rio. Everyone is usually so friendly and nice. And if they can't be friendly, they are at least nice. This was totally out of the ordinary. I guess he was having a bad day.
I walked over to the change booth to cash in my coins and found no line. The cashier dumped my coins into the counter and I watched the numbers scroll up to $98.25 and stop. I looked to find more coins in the counter, but there weren't any. I stopped her before she counted out money. I said that I had just been playing that machine over there (pointing to the machine with the blinking light less than 50 feet away) and that I had cashed out 400 coins. I then told her that the machine had jammed and some guy had thrown some coins into the bucket to make up for those that fell, but apparently I had been shorted a few coins.
She got on the radio right away and called whomever you call for that sort of problem. And we waited.. and waited… and waited… and … well, you get the picture. Nobody showed up so she called again. At this point I told the change girl that I didn't want to make a big deal out of this. After all, we were talking about $1.75 and that wasn't enough to make a fuss about, it was more about the principle of the thing.. and the fact that guy had been so surly when he "helped" me.
The change person at the other window in the change booth said that the girl should just make a note of the amount and pay me and have a supervisor straighten it out later. I offered her my slot club card and my room charge slip to show that I was staying in the hotel. She wrote down the information and called on the radio one more time. I heard back over the radio, "Where's John, he needs to get that?" A minute later I heard "I'm busy" back over the radio. I was about to just say that we should forget it and I'd take the $98.25 when the change girl pointed towards someone walking over. It was the same guy who had "helped" me before. Oh great.
He walked over to the computer kiosk on the side of the change booth and the change girl said, "John?" He ignored her, so she said it again. He said, "I can't right now" without looking over. I said, "Remember me?" and he didn't even look up. Someone on the radio said something I didn't hear and he screamed at the girl and I (I wasn't sure which of us he was addressing) "How much are we talking about here?" She sheepishly said "$1.75" and he totally lost it and started shouting at us, "I deal with thousands of dollars a day and you're bothering me about a measly $1.75? Don't you think I have important things to do? Why are you bothering me about such a small amount?"
By this time I wanted to just crawl into a hole and disappear and I was pissed off that he'd yell like that whether or not he was addressing me. He works in a customer service related field and needs to have some sort of tact. If he's got a problem with me, he's supposed to swallow it and smile and treat me nicely. That's his job. If he's got a problem with the new change girl calling him for such a small amount, then he should talk to her when she's not dealing with a customer. Screaming is never acceptable and never, ever in front of a customer.
The change girl gave me my $100 and apologized to me. I apologized to her and wished she'd given me something other than a $100 bill so I could give her a tip. I felt really bad about the whole situation and headed straight back to the Masquerade Tower elevators.
By the time I got over to the other tower, I was more mad than anything else. I started to wonder who I would complain to about that guy. I understand that everyone has a bad day now and again, but this guy was surly and rude to everyone it seemed.
I wasn't ready to go upstairs, so I headed over to the Little Green Men slots in the corner of the Masquerade Village. Unfortunately, they were all full, so I sat down at the Bingo slots right behind them. I had played them for the first time last night and decided to play again. I ended up cashing out $20 for my original $5 investment. I was happy about that, but still a little irritated about the John situation earlier, so I headed upstairs.
I called Dan from my cellphone in the room to see where he was. You can hear the phone ringing from my call on the video that he took of Speed. :-) He told me that he was almost done and was ready to come back to the hotel. I told him that I was going to take a nap and to come on up as soon as he got here.
He got there about 30 minutes later and I was still a bit weary. We wanted to go to the Titanic exhibit later, but Dan wanted to get down to the pool before it closed. He was hot and tired after walking around on the strip and wanted to spend a few minutes down by the pool.
We agreed to meet back up at the room at 6:30 and then go to the Titanic exhibit. I watched Dan down by the pool and even used our sneaky zoom feature on our video camera. Dan was reading Players - The Men who Made Vegas and had to turn his lounge chair around so that he could see Mirage and Treasure Island while he read the section on Steve Wynn.
Click Here to Download Spying on Dan at the Pool mpg - .6 mg - 14 seconds
I saw him leave the pool area so I started to get ready to go. Dan arrived in the room, changed his clothes and we were on our way downstairs.
I had seen a woman in the casino earlier handing out these yellow pieces of paper. I asked what they were and she said they were coupons for the exhibit. I got two of them and noticed they said "Senior Discount - $3". I am not a senior and was assured I could still use them. Cool! $6 off! We were able to use them at the ticket booth and I paid $26 for the two of us.
We walked around the corner and were given walkman type tape players and headphones. We pushed play and walked through the double doors into the exhibit.
The thing started off sort of slow, but it's a good foundation for people not entirely familiar with the ship, voyage and people involved. You were basically walked through the construction of the ship and were able to view plans, photos of the construction and even a piece of the hull and rivets from the wreck site.
Then you moved into the next area that was dedicated to the people on the voyage. There were pictures of people in first, second and third class as well as some of the crew. They talked about the different types of people on the ship. They had a great display of currency - paper currency - that they found along with some personal documents. There was one application for citizenship from a German man that broke my heart. Just that one piece of paper really captured this 29 year old man's hopes and dreams for a new future that was never realized. So sad.
From there you go over the first class boarding area and down a long hall of rooms. You got to see the difference between a first class suite and a 3rd class room for 4 people. There was also a reproduction of the grand staircase that was GORGEOUS!
There were also some voices on the tape explaining the feeling of the ship hitting the ice berg. While you were standing in front of the 3rd class room, you got to hear sounds representing the ice berg scraping along side the boat. Scary sounding.
After that, you move into another room that has a giant piece of ice on the far wall. You're asked to touch the ice and to imagine that the sea where the ship went down was colder than the iceberg (sea water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water). Dan even leaned against it to imagine how cold it must have been to be in that water.
There were also video monitors that ran the Discovery Channel video of the ship hitting the iceberg, the damage it did and the sinking. You were walked through the events and the whole thing was very moving.
From there you went upstairs into another gallery where you got to see video of the Nautilis and saw footage of the recovery as well as seeing items from the recovery including china, what's left of a beautiful stained glass window and some other items.
There had been personal effects elsewhere in the exhibit like glasses, razor handles, etc. It was surreal seeing them and then trying to imagine these things so far down on the ocean floor for so many years.
I thought one of the most powerful moments in the exhibit is towards the end where they have giant floor to ceiling plaques with the names of all the passengers. Some were in a different font and indicated those passengers that did not survive. Each panel was divided by the class the passenger was traveling. I was surprised at how much survival depended on the class you were traveling under. The first class had 199 survivors and 130-something that didn't make it. The second class list had a greater number of passengers that didn't make it, and third class even more. Then the list of the crew - Only 1/5 of them made it.
Of course, the exhibit dumps you into the gift shop where you can buy videos, china, tshirts, books, etc. My favorite item was a pen with lifeboats that slide back and forth. You can even make them crash into an ice berg. :-) Seriously.
We walked out of the gift shop just as the 10pm show was ending. We were inside about 1 hour and 15 minutes. We were in there longer than most people were as we stopped our tape frequently to linger and look at things.
We went back up to our room and called to get a reservation at Voodoo Café for dinner. I had planned on taking Dan to Mask for his birthday dinner, but they were closed until the following day. (Funny, they were closed the last time we were there at Christmas too.) Voodoo Café was closed for a private party and I wasn't really interested in any other restaurant at the moment. I was frustrated that it was so complicated to get dinner and I had been looking forward to dinner with a nice view of the strip.
Dan moved the table and chairs from the wall over to the window and I called room service. I ordered a pasta dish for Dan and I got a steak. They said food would be delivered within 30 minutes. We sat down and looked at some video Dan had shot earlier. It was good. Dan saw the video I shot of him at the pool and thought it was creepy. :-) Just as the tape ended, there was a knock at the door and room service had arrived. Perfect timing!
The waiter didn't seem to be surprised we had moved the table. He said that people do it all the time. He set up a table cloth and utensils along with glasses and sauces, etc. He set a big tray on our coffee table where he left our main dishes and dessert. On the table he set up our salads and I signed the check - total cost, with tip was $82.
We tuned our clock radio to a soft-rock type of station (I have no idea what it was but irritating people were calling in to make dedications) for background noise. After some lip-synching to REO Speedwagon we settled down for dinner.
Dan had a bottle of Merlot and water. I had Dr. Pepper. Our salads were huge and delicious with crispy lettuce and good dressing - Ranch. We enjoyed the view and conversation and then I cleared plates and brought up our main dishes.
Dan had ordered a penne pasta dish that had shrimp, oysters, mussels and lobster cooked in olive oil and garlic. Then the whole thing was tossed with a "spicy" tomato sauce. The sauce didn't seem too spicy to me, but it was delicious. The shrimp were huge and the lobster was juicy and tender. I try to stay away from oysters as the idea of them makes me a little ill. :-) Dan's dinner came with a huge plate of garlic bread that smelled wonderful but I was going to have enough trouble finishing my dinner, so I didn't sample it.
My dinner was a big T-bone steak with steamed vegetables (broccoli, bell peppers, zucchini, etc) and a giant baked potato. I ordered it medium, but it seemed a little more than medium. That happens quite a bit maybe I should be asking for medium rare. My steak was wonderful and everything else was great too.
I really like room service. I know that I pay more than I would in a restaurant, but I like the privacy to talk and the noise level at most restaurants is much too high for my comfort. When I'm eating, I want to be able to relax and enjoy the food. I thought this meal was a nice way to celebrate Dan's 38th birthday.
After dinner had settled a little we had dessert. Dan got a Baileys Chocolate Crème pie and I got a chocolate mousse cake. Both were wonderful, but I wasn't able to finish my cake. I was too full from dinner still, so I put the rest of my cake in the refrigerator.(I LOVE having the refrigerator in the room. I wish that more hotels in Vegas offered this amenity. It's great for water, juice and leftovers!)
Dan had bought a cigar and wanted to go up to the Voodoo Lounge and have a drink out on the patio and smoke his cigar. I wasn't interested in the noise and crowds and passed. Dan changed into clothes that better conformed to the dress code and headed out. I cleaned up and called room service to have them come pick up the dishes. We put the dishes on the tray outside in the hallway.
I am a casual cigar smoker - I will enjoy a cigar maybe three times a year. Recently on a business trip to Toronto I sampled an H. Upman from Havana. While I had no big hopes of finding Cubans proudly on display at Vegas shops, there was one experience I was looking for: to enjoy a good smoke in the warm air at the Voo Doo Lounge at the Rio.
I made my purchase at the cigar shop at the Rio, on the second level at the end of the cavernous casino room. On the recommendation of the sales clerk, I selected a Indian Tabac Maduro. That night I took the long elevator ride up to the 52nd floor. I walked out on the deck with my drink, but found it a bit to crowded for my liking. The deck was virtually wall to wall people, and I was a bit to conscious about my cigar fumes to light up. But I did find my way to the edge.
One of the best views of the Las Vegas Strip is certainly from the VooDoo Lounge and VooDoo Café at the top of the Rio. The resorts from Mandalay Bay through Treasure Island dominate the view, and everything still looks good all the way to Circus Circus and Sahara. The large gaps between the resorts of the west side of the Strip afford good views are even had of many hotels on the East side of the strip, such as Imperial Palace. While I didn't use this location to light up my stogie, I did stay to finish my drink and take pictures and video of this wonderful vista.
Click Here to Download VooDoo Lounge View mpg - 1.5 mb - 37 seconds
I put the furniture all back together and got cleaned up to go downstairs. By the time I was finished (about 20 minutes) the dishes were gone. There's nothing I hate more than room service dishes that live in the hallway overnight. Yuck!
I had agreed to meet Dan in the Masquerade Village at the midnight show, so I hung around the smaller casino there. I played some Bonus Poker and went up and down until the show started. It was the 60's show again. I looked around for Dan but couldn't find him, so I just enjoyed the show from the casino floor near the stage.
Click Here to Download Rio Parade In The Sky Show mpg - 3.5 mb - 1 minute 27 seconds
After the show was over, I made my way upstairs to the second floor to look for Dan. That was when I saw him sit down at a blackjack table. I watched him play a few hands, knowing that he likes to move tables a lot. Sure enough, when the dealer got blackjack two hands in a row, he gathered up his chips and left the table. He walked right underneath me and I called his name. He met me upstairs and we went up to the room to drop off the cameras. He had shot some pictures and video of the show and the view from the patio at the Voodoo Lounge.
After that we went back downstairs and Dan wanted to check out the tables in the other end of the casino to see if any of them had less than 6-deck and something other than face up. He didn't find anything that he liked and all my Sneaky Queens were full. I was going to suggest that we go do something else when the people all cleared out of the Sneaky Queens. Yay! Dan was going to head back over to the other side and play some blackjack. We agreed that whomever was done first would come find the other.
I sat down at that same machine on the far right end and put in a $20 bill. My first hand was a flush - hearts. My second hand was four 3's for 200 coins. Not a bad start. Played on that for a long while. I went up and down, but mostly stayed around 250-300 coins.
A waitress came by and took my drink order. I got a water and a Kalua and milk - my first alcoholic drink of the trip! When she brought the drink she wished me luck and said, "Here I'll help" and she put her hand on the light on top of the machine and said, "Be lucky!" I laughed and thanked her and off she went.
I still hovered around the same level and then I held one ace and got 3 more for 400 coins. Yay! The credits rolled up and up and up. I played 2 more hands, getting a pair of something on one and Dan arrived. I told him about my 4 aces and he cheered for me. Then he showed me that he had two black chips from his run on the tables. Yay! Finally a winning session!
I played the coins down to my new low level - 640 coins. I like to set loss limits when I'm playing and winning. I have a tendency to sit at a machine until I put all my winnings back into it. Instead what I do is set a limit, usually in increments of $20 for quarters or $5 for nickels and once I reach that limit, I cash out. I sometimes set a win limit too. Like I'll cash out when I hit 400 credits or get as low as 240. That works for me. At 640 credits, I cashed out and needed a hopper fill.
Dan joked that maybe John would come over and do it for me. Luckily, he had gone home and I didn't have to deal with him. I got my fill from happy, friendly, polite people and we were on our way.
We cashed in Dan's chips and played a little of that Bingo slot so I could show it to Dan. I just played one card. He wasn't impressed. :-) I cashed out $14 something from my $5 investment. Not too shabby. And I got a roll of quarters to do laundry when we get home when I cashed in my coins.
After that it was up to the room. I finished my cake with a little help from Dan and we packed up some of our things like our books and the computer to speed things up in the morning. We got to bed around 2:15am.
