Hedy and I recently returned from a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean on
Celebrity's brand new ship, the Solstice, and that came right on the heels of
our five-night junket out of Newark to Harrah's Laughlin.
I wish I could report that our sizzling streak in the casinos kept right on
blazing, but the law-of-averages pendulum swung hard and hit us smack dab in
the face.
Actually, the turnaround started in AC right after Harrah's changed the pay
tables on the 5 machines that had 9/6 JOB and 9/6 DDB. The three replacement
machines nearby that have the 9/6 payoffs were nowhere near as friendly and
we went through a couple of thousand just before we left for Laughlin.
Our goal in Laughlin (besides winning tons of money!!) was to get Hedy a
diamond card by doing diamond in a day and that went well the first day there as
we knocked out the required 3,000 points in a couple of hours on the 50-play
nickels machines that offer 9/6 JOB. We even showed a $400 profit while doing
so and figured we were on the road back to VP prosperity. NOT!!
It was all downhill from there for the next three days as the 50-play
nickels and 50-cent 9/7 DB machines just kept draining one Benjamin after another.
We did hit seven royals ($200 each) while playing the 50-play machines but
that couldn't come close to stemming the tidal wave of red ink.
On the positive side, Hedy did win $50 in a video poker tournament and we
were assigned one of the nicest suites we've ever had in a casino/hotel. It was
a newly remodeled suite in Tower 3 and was at the and of the hall with a
mahogany-framed door. It had five rooms (living room/dining room, bar area,
bedroom and two bathrooms) and encompassed the entire end of the floor with four
sets of wraparound windows offering breathtaking views of the Colorado River
below. It had four flat-screen HD TV's with a 50-inch wall TV in both the
living room and bedroom.
The main bathroom was amazing. The shower stall was huge (you could have had
a party in there) with four shower heads, two on the walls and two overhead.
The tub also was huge and had Jacuzzi jets. On this trip, we spent some time
in the suite, watching a couple of still-in-the-theater movies on the
big-screen TV's.
All in all, we had a very nice time, ate some exceptional meals, saw a
terrific show (the Rat Pack, with very talented impersonators of Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.) and enjoyed the balmy weather of Southern
Nevada. But, we just couldn't get anything going in the casino while putting
through over 120k in four days of gambling.
Three days after flying back to Newark we jumped on another plane and flew
to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up our cruise. The ship was incredible and we
thoroughly enjoyed the cruise but again our luck turned sour in the casino. We were
thrilled to find out the casino was completely non-smoking (the first time
we've ever seen that in all our days of cruising) and it actually offered some
decent plays (9/6 DB on triple, five and 10-play and 9/5 DB on Super Times
Pay) but despite Hedy hitting aces five times for $200 each, and once with a
kicker for $500, and me winning a Texas Hold 'Em sit and go tournament ($240
first prize) our bottom line again was not a good one.
We were approached by an onboard casino host during the week, however, who
told us our play qualified for the cruise line's Blue Chip Club. They gave us
special players' cards and told us on our future cruises with Celebrity or
Royal Caribbean we would be eligible for things like cashback, free drinks in
the casino, waiving of fees in the ship's specialty restaurants and possible
cabin upgrades.
We were traveling with friends from Phoenix who are big players and who
already had been enrolled in the Blue Chip Club. They had played extensively on a
14-night RCCL Mediterranean cruise a few months earlier. When they got
onboard, they went to the casino and were given $6,500 in cashback for their
previous cruise!! So, we'll see what happens on our next cruise on Celebrity in
October.
We'll be back in AC at Harrah's tomorrow and Sunday nights, hoping to bust
out of our slump. Hopefully, we'll have better news to report.
Regards,
CoachVee & Hedy
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