#VegasHalloween 2023 -- chapter 1

 I'll spare the history and the almosts, I went to Vegas for Halloween. Again. 

It was my ninth time in Vegas on Halloween night since my first visit in 2011. 

Yeah, I love it. 

I don't write a trip report every time I travel to Vegas, but here are memories from this trip, in chronological order, for the most part, spread out over a few chapters. 

I traveled with my life partner, who doesn't have the same affection for Vegas that I do. But she enjoys our trips, and I try to make sure she gets to check a few boxes on her personal wish list. 

We chose Downtown Grand as our hotel of choice for this trip. Fremont Street is a great show on Halloween night, and we don't stay downtown that often. Staying at the Grand meant I could enjoy the show late into the evening, and my life partner could retire to our room when she had seen enough. (I'll write about Downtown Grand separately in the days to come.) 

But before reminiscing about Halloween, here are a few details about the days leading up to Oct. 31. 

We arrived on Sunday evening, Oct. 29. We rent a car. It makes a lot of sense for us. Some people wouldn't consider renting a car while in Vegas. It has made sense for me for more than a decade. 

We drove to Downtown Grand immediately to check in. Then we were back in the car and off to Ellis Island. Some folks love Ellis Island, others find it beneath them. I visit every trip. 

We often have the prime rib dinner at Ellis Island during our trips, and this year was no exception. We've had several cheap prime rib dinners over the years, and Ellis Island does it best. The cheap dinner has jumped in price plenty over the past 10-15 years. It's up to about $27 these days, which isn't the cheapest meal out there, but we always have an American Casino Guide coupon for a free meal, so two plates cost us about $30 total, before tip. 

We had to wait about 30 minutes to eat, so we had cheap drinks at the bar, and I played low rolling keno at the bar while we waited. Such a simple pleasure in life, and yet one I can't enjoy here in Minnesota. Sure, I can gamble. Sure, I can drink craft beer. But enjoying a comped beer while playing 25-cent keno? Not around these parts. 

We had thick cuts of prime rib for dinner. We didn't order thick cuts. We ordered the simple prime rib dinner. But you'd think we had ordered king cuts. Thick and tasty, no complaints at all.

Pictures of prime rib inevitably elicit moronic comments from your friends on Facebook, such as "Is that before they cooked it?"  

After dinner I failed to hit on a $10 match play at roulette. (This would not be the last time.) We sat in the Front Yard and played keno and blackjack at the bar while drinking comped drinks for a while. I managed to hit a small win on keno and pocket a few quarters for my time. Literally. I think I was $1.50 ahead. But the $10-12 I spent on tips for drinks for me and my life partner before and after dinner was the real win of the night. 

It was late October 2023, and a few weeks before a much hyped, and maligned, Formula 1 race takes over Las Vegas. Given I spend little time on the strip, driving to Ellis Island from the freeway was the biggest hassle of my vacation. Lanes were reduced along Flamingo Road as we went east toward Koval Lane. And when you get to the intersection of Flamingo and Koval... wow! 

Given the F1 race goes down the Vegas strip, it has to loop somewhere to bring traffic back to the strip. I haven't paid much attention to the race plans, but I knew the race would bring the action past Ellis Island. My mind was blown when we approached the intersection at Koval and my choices were either veer off to the right awkwardly to turn onto Koval or climb the giant, odd, temporary bridge that flows traffic over the intersection as it moves east and west along Flamingo. I knew temporary bridges were a thing, but I was not mentally prepared for what I saw. I'm not going to copy and paste a picture from the internet to show you, but this link will take you to such a pic if you really want to see one.

As we turned the corner and onto Koval, it was equally bizarre. It was dark and I was driving, so I didn't get a great look, but the giant grandstands and/or other race structures built along both sides of Koval near Ellis Island were mighty impressive. I realize they are building grandstands on the strip for race viewing, but it's easy to forget how much construction is happening in an already busy, heavily-traveled corridor. I wish I would have had a chance to see it during daylight hours, and walk around a bit. It's such a bizarre, incredible, ridiculous spectacle, I wanted to experience the lunacy firsthand. But I must admit, not having to deal with a lot of hassles during my visit to Vegas caused by F1 was a consolation prize worth winning. 

When we left Ellis Island we took the scenic route, which gave my life partner a closer look at Sphere in its illuminated glory. We made it back to Downtown Grand and I spend a couple of hours playing Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em. I never was down much, and I was never up much, either. My life partner, who shouldn't have been as tired as I was, retired before I did. I made it to 2 a.m. Vegas time before I had seen enough, which was 4 a.m. back home. Given I had less than 10 hours sleep combined the past two evenings, I was more ready to sleep off my first night of beers and cocktails in Vegas. And I was a winner. I pocketed $15 for my trouble.

It's better to be lucky than good

During my May trip to Vegas I didn't have very good luck. I didn't even gamble during my first day in town. My Sunday night began with an appearance at the Riviera, and during the time my girlfriend and I were there, we had drinks at the bar. The tables were full for the final night at the Riv, and it looked like a fun atmosphere, but my girlfriend doesn't play cards, so I figured I'd spend an hour playing blackjack on Monday morning.

Of course I arrived on Monday morning to find out the tables were already closed. And I'm not much of a slot machine or video poker player, so I never gambled a final $20 at the Riv.

Four nights of our trip were spent at the Orleans, and the final two nights were downtown at Downtown Grand. I had lousy luck at the Orleans. Really lousy. Luck was not on my side.

I had a few match plays for the Orleans, and I had one left on Thursday morning before we relocated to downtown. My luck had been terrible, so I decided that my luck couldn't be worse by using a match play at the roulette table. And instead of picking red or black, I made my girlfriend pick the color.

The match play was for $10, so I put it and $10 down on the color my girlfriend chose. I won $20 just before I walked out the door of the Orleans. I'm a low roller, so winning $20 on my way out of the casino was a nice consolation prize. I was down about $250 at that point. That's an hour's worth of gambling for some. For me it represents a couple of nights of non-winning blackjack.

I had match plays for downtown, some from the Las Vegas Advisor coupon book. Downtown Grand also gave us match plays since we were hotel guests, so I had a few to play there. I had a pair of $25 match plays and one $10. I didn't play them all at one time, but my girlfriend went three-for-three with them. Three correct calls with match plays netted me $120.

I also cashed in a $25 match play coupon at The D. And sure enough, my girlfriend picked the right color again. (Every bet was red or black. We never picked odd/even or 1-18/19-36.) That was another $50 in my pocket.

Now here's another example of how not chronicling everything immediately after my trip turns out to burn me. I'm not sure where I played the final $10 match play. It had to be downtown, but I can't figure out where. Perhaps I had two $10 match plays for Downtown Grand.

What I do know: I played six match plays on roulette, put up $105 for the bets and won all six of them, netting $210 in the process. According to one online source I found, the odds of betting correctly on six such bets is 74.4 to 1. There's a 1.33 percent chance you'll pick six in a row correctly.

And since we had multiple match plays at Downtown Grand, my girlfriend played a $10 match play with her own money. And of course she lost.

Six nights in Vegas

When all goes well, I make it to Vegas twice per year, typically in the spring and the fall, at least according to my recent history.

That changed last year, I only made it to Vegas in mid-November. I had to forgo a spring 2014 trip because my girlfriend had her heart set on San Antonio. She had been to Vegas with me three times in the two years we had been dating, so I couldn't tell her no. While I have no desire to hurry back to San Antonio, I enjoyed it and would welcome a return visit someday, even though the $630 bill for three nights at an Embassy Suites pained me greatly. 

Part of the ability to sell my girlfriend on a return trip to Vegas less than six months after our last trip is the weather. We've been in Vegas on Oct. 31, March 31, Oct. 31 and Nov. 19 during the past four trips. We had decent weather for Halloween during that first trip, and had a really nice afternoon at Palms Place during that March 31 trip, but the dates we've traveled haven't coincided with ideal pool weather. The idea of 90F weather in early May appeals to my girlfriend, even if we should be seeing daily averages of 60F or so here in Minnesota. Nobody swims outdoors in Minnesota in early May. It can get hot, but that's unlikely. Heat in Vegas is unavoidable come early May. Bring it on, we say!

Part of the reason I contemplated the first week in May was my interest in being a part of another sad chapter in Vegas history: the closing of the Riviera. I happened to be in town on a solo trip a few years ago when they closed O'Sheas (April 30, 2012). Being at a casino when it closes isn't a spectacular experience, but it was an entertaining atmosphere that Monday afternoon, and I won't miss the chance to do it again since I'll be in town for the closing of the Riv. 

I'm looking forward to those final hours at the Riv, in part because I've already arranged to meet with one member of the Vegas online community whose contributions have been appreciated by many in recent years. And I'll be able to share words and pictures from those final hours with my friends back home, as well as the tiny online community I'm connected to via this blog and its Twitter account. This blog isn't here to make money, it's an outlet for my recreational writing. But it would be nice to know my effort reaches some sort of audience. And if one member of that audience appreciates the effort, I'll be a happy bear. 

During our last trip in November we went to a few shows, which isn't something we've always made a priority. We were in town four nights, and we saw three shows. (More on this another day.) We may go to one mid-level show while we're in town later this year, but it's not a priority this time. 

Four nights will be spent at the Orleans, a regular destination during my visits, and two nights will be at Downtown Grand, our first time staying there. I enjoy being downtown, and I enjoy the Orleans a lot, so I'm always happy when I'm able to split my time between the two destinations. 

My biggest disappointment about the week we'll be in Vegas: I won't be able to attend a Las Vegas 51s game. I've wanted to go to a game for years. When I went to Vegas solo in early May 2012, I managed to visit when the 51s were out of town. Three years later I've done it again.

While I had been considering this trip for a few weeks, it wasn't booked until three nights ago. As soon as that happened my online activity increased exponentially. I keep tabs on the happenings in Vegas throughout the year, but I spend far too much time online during the weeks prior to departure. I'm terrible that way. 

Needless to say my blogging average will likely be better than an entry per week for the next month. Everybody wins!