Have a Wynnderful Christmas

Did someone say free kiosk game swipe and wipe buffet lunch at Main Street? Yes, someone did. And that someone was some me.

Day 8 part 2

Carefully crafted hand-assembled dog's breakfast on a plate. It tasted great, especially the carnitas.

Is this a casino or a church picnic?

After lunch, we headed back to the Cal. I had a secret Double or Nothing spy mission to perform - stash a card for a faithful reader of the blog.

Nice looking wreath...

Looks even nicer with an Official Business Card 2.0 stuffed into its bosom.

I later got word that the intended recipient spy had successfully retrieved the card and the microfilm.

Microfilm is great, it holds 10 to 12 grainy black and white shots of vaguely Eastern European-looking men in trenchcoats getting into oddly shaped cars, the models of which you've never heard of. Like the Krakaren Skittermobil sedan.

Jimmy Poon keeps telling me I could fit all my spy photos onto one tiny chip and still have enough room for a couple of seasons of Married at First Sight Australia (Davina you hussy! Billy, grow a pair! Jessika you faker! Cam and Jules... awwwww. So cute. Even if Jules is a foot taller than Cam.) And that's no mean feat, given it runs over 40 episodes a season these days.

Flusher's reputation for inanity is world-wide!

I have a very warm feeling for Australia and New Zealand and am especially proud when I see that someone down under is reading the blog.

With just a little while to go before we had commitments... I realized I had better shoot some dice! And Mrs. F had a hankering for 10-play Bonus Poker (which always makes me nervous, because one can do some real damage to one's bankroll with that).

I bought in for a hundred and the table was solid. I took the maximum double odds no matter what the point and the first three were the outside bad boys, the 4 and the 10. But they all came in.

At some point someone told me we're allowed to take the odds on the 6 and 8 to $25 on this table. Good to know.

The session went flat for a while and then we got a couple of good shooters. By the time we got to a couple of point seven outers to clear the table, I'd done alright for myself.

I played about an hour and the Quad Queen had hammered the 10-play all that time on $100. She went up. She went down. She went up again. There were a number of quads, as you can imagine, but nothing worth stopping for a pic for. In the end, she drained it.

I did a little triple play on some stupid high volatility carny game to keep her company and got one of my own, but also went out.

Our work at the Cal was done for now.

For the next and final part of the trip, we'd be based at Wynn.

We've been playing the Wynn Slots game since last summer and so far have scored 7 free nights at Wynn, including 4 in this trip, plus two buffets that we didn't enjoy. What's not to like? The buffets.

What can I say about this game? It's been fun and engaging, and we are getting real value out of it. It only a requires commitment of 14-16 hours a day. OK, it's not that bad, but it has taken a bit of time.

But the rewards have been real, and valuable. The best part? The free nights incur no resort fee.

All packed up, we left the Cal and grabbed yet another Lyft down to Wynn. Just before we arrived, I got a twenty dollar bill ready to go, folded in quarters, and stashed in my spy utility truss.

The place was humming with the holiday hordes, and navigation with luggage meant everybody under the sun getting in your way. Or stopping dead in front of you. Or blocking the walkway along with their 19 family members, all standing in a circle. All part of the fun.

Anyway, we got to the check-in area and to my relief, there was minimal line-up. We began the check-in interrogation with a very nice young lady. We had three nights under one Wynn Slots reservation, and one under the other. She said she could bridge them so that we could keep the same room. And she looked for a room with two queens, instead of the one king.

Part of this effort included a phone call over to Encore, where a two queen setup would have been fabulous - I perched my twenty between my fingers and rested my hand lightly on the counter.

Nope, no such rooms available at Encore.

The twenty retreated into my shirt pocket.

Would I need the potential check-in twenty dollar trick bill in Wynn's casino? Likely!

Then she looked into some other options and the twenty eased out, poking its head above the edge of the pocket, peering longingly at the lobbyist.

That didn't work out either.

Back into the pocket it went, like a prairie dog diving back into its hole.

In the end, we got a one king room with a Strip view. And what the hell, it was Christmas Eve! When all the paperwork was filled out in triplicate and keys were handed over in their little cardboard caddy, I gave over the $20 tip.

"It's Christmas Eve," I said. "Thank you for working tonight, and making our check-in experience so Wynnderful."

I didn't really say Wynnderful, but I should have!

She was really pleased and thanked me and wished us a Wynnderful Christmas and good luck in the casino and she hoped we didn't get our asses kicked from here to Tacos El Gordo.

I may be paraphrasing here.

Wynn's rooms are gorgeous. There's really nothing like the feeling of luxury that comes from every perfect detail.

(These pics are actually from my August stay. But the room layout was identical.)

So - ensconced in a luxury hotel for free, on Christmas Eve, after pouring a couple of stiff travelers, we hit the casino.

As one does.