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Category: gambling
A quick trip to Tampa
5/6/2013-5/7/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed 233 47.8 43 Driving listening:
This was a business trip just for one night, but it adds to the stats, so here it is. On the way to the hotel I stopped at the Seminole Hard Rock to make a donation to the tribe. I have a lot of ancestral guilt about how the Native Americans were treated — despite, I think, most of my ancestors not arriving here until the 20th century – so I consider the money I left there to be a charitable contribution.
Yeah … you know, I wonder if I can write it off on taxes …
5/6/2013-5/7/2013 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Wyndham Westshore (3.5 star) $76.29
($61 bid)$151.37
($135.15 base rate)$75.08 50% The hotel itself was a little dated, but had some nice touches. Like dueling M&M dispensers at the front desk (plain on one end and peanut on the other) and a rack of hardcover bestsellers for loan to guests.
Free candy and books goes a long way.
Unfortunately the room was subpar. The bed was memory foam and I think it was remembering a 400-pound previous guest. Deep divots on either side had me trying to sleep in the middle and waking up periodically.
There was also a serious lack of hot water. Took a long time for the shower to heat up and then only at its highest setting – which continued to heat throughout the shower, so had to be continuously adjusted . Frustrating, but only for one night.
I only had time for one real meal this trip and made it at Jimbo’s Pit BBQ. I got the combo platter with sliced beef and pork ($10) and a sweet tea (very good).
The pork was a little fatty for my taste, but the beef was lean and tasty. The bottom of my beef pile had been cut from the end of the meat, so it was a little dry, but I like that. The hush puppies were a little undercooked and doughy in the middle. But the beans were delicious – homemade and thick. I like baked beans, but in moderation — I’m not normally one to eat them by the heaping forkful, but these were fantastic.
“I hate Nassau and the Bahamas. It’s one of those places I’d always wanted to visit since reading Ian Fleming but it was full of casinos with Americans in shorts.”–Tony Parsons
No driving, no Priceline, just a three-day cruise to The Bahamas on the Carnival Sensation.
I’d been promising the girl-child a cruise for quite a while, but she didn’t have a passport and I could swear that I’d heard you need a passport or passport-card now. But I found I was wrong and you can still cruise with a birth certificate if you’re sailing from/to the same port.
So I booked the cruise and gave her the option of inviting a friend along – she picked her boyfriend. Yeah … three nights in a small cabin with my daughter and her boyfriend … thank god for the Fun Ship Special:
In all fairness, he seems like a decent guy and it worked out well. They went off and did their thing, leaving me free to relax and enjoy myself instead of worrying about her being entertained.
Other than dinner the last night and some time in the cabin, I saw very little of the two of them.
We met up at my place around 12:00 Thursday and drove over to Port Canaveral. With much less waiting than I’ve had on previous cruises, we were onboard and, yes, I picked up my first Fun Ship Special within twenty feet of the gangway.
We left port and there’s not a lot to write about a cruise. Pretty good food – and a lot of it. Shows, casino, and fruity-rum drinks – which maybe they’d had too many of when they decided on the description of this show:
So Thursday night was a nice dinner – a duck appetizer served on spicy glass noodles, followed by a pork steak; a couple shows; and some time in the casino.
Friday we arrived in Nassau – the last of the arrivals as Carnival Fantasy, Disney Dream, and Norwegian Epic were already in port when we got there.
Epic is one of the ways I’m considering for a trip to London next October or April (2014). Round-trip airfare, Orlando to London, is around $1000 – but Epic repositions between Miami and Barcelona those months. When I checked for this year’s 4/20 sailing, it was $399 / person for an inside cabin – 11-days, Miami to Barcelona; $50 on Ryan Air from Barcelona to London; and $600 one-way from London to Orlando … even with a few hundred for taxes and fees, that’s pretty close to just airfare, but you get an 11-day cruise too.
I went into Nassau to do some shopping, including Cariloha bamboo sheets, and visit the pirate museum, while Aryn and Michael went to Atlantis on Paradise Island (formerly Hog Island, which doesn’t work as well for marketing purposes), where Aryn took advantage of the 18-year Bahamian drinking age to get somewhat plastered.
So I returned to the cabin later that day to find my daughter stumbling-drunk with her boyfriend. Thank god for the Fun Ship Special to help me deal with that.
More food, more shows, more drinks, and more time in the casino. Carnival actually has a player-friendly blackjack variant, called Fun 21. The dealer has to hit on soft 17, blackjack pays 2-to-1, and the player wins a tied 21 – all of which are positive-expectations for the player.
So I played some of that and some Let It Ride. Saturday I played both those again, along with some craps and even some roulette. After totaling things up, I was down for the trip, but that can be attributed to heavy tipping and dealer-bets, something I find myself doing more of lately.
I’ll sit down at a table and start placing a $1 bet for the dealer alongside mine, then see how long it takes before others at the table begin doing the same thing. Usually, at a full table, two or three others will soon be placing regular bets for the dealer. It’s an interesting exercise.
More of the same Saturday and then home Sunday morning.
But now I want to take a longer cruise to different ports – I’ve been to Nassau three times now – or maybe one of the all-inclusive resorts.
Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler
Miles MPG Avg. Speed 1326.8 42.1 60 
Priceline* Hotel* $ Savings % Savings New Orleans Downtown Marriott At The Convention Center (4-star) $73.46 ($61) $178.08 ($159) $104.62 59% * New hotel data format. Priceline amount includes all taxes and fees paid while hotel amount includes the hotel’s web rate plus an average 12% room tax. In parentheses is the hotel’s base-rate from their website and my Priceline winning bid, respectively.
Friday – Arrival
Within minutes of arriving in New Orleans I learned a Cardinal Rule:
Thou Shalt Learn the Parade Schedule and Keep It Holy
As I blithely followed the directions given by my GPS app toward my hotel, I discovered that someone had dumped a big ol’ party in the way.
Worse, it wasn’t just one parade, it was two – following much the same routes but with staggered start times. The GPS offered the suggestion of cutting through the French Quarter … via Bourbon Street … on a Friday night … during (albeit oddly scheduled due to the Super Bowl) Mardi Gras. Yeah … that would end well.
So I backed and filled my way down the city looking for a way through and, eventually, made my way around the crowds at the starting point of the parade and got to the river. Once there I had a clear shot to my hotel, but the traffic and crowds had turned the ten-hour drive from Orlando into something closer to twelve.
My plan had been to drop my things at the room and then park at the Harrah’s garage down the street, since they offer 24-hours of parking with thirty-minutes of gambling. Since I was going to gamble over the weekend anyway, this was a much better deal than the $31/day the hotel wanted. But with the drive and stress of getting past the parades I decided to call it a night.
So I got a mediocre shrimp po’ boy from room service and called it a night.
Saturday
I started Saturday early by walking into the French Quarter and having First Breakfast at Café Dumonde – beignets and black chicory coffee. Then I spent some time walking around the Quarter early enough to be out before the day’s bread deliveries were brought in.
The GPS turned itself off early that day, so no track, but I walked down through the French Market to the Old Mint, then farther up into the Quarter before heading back through it to Canal and then took a stroll down Bourbon Street.
Bourbon Street was empty, but those who were out … including these guys and their eight friends who passed me … were already hitting the Bud Light at 9:30 AM.
After browsing through some galleries and shops, it was time for Second Breakfast, which was a bacon, egg, and cheese po’ boy at Johnny’s, followed by more wandering through the Quarter.
Apparently New Orleans turns me into a Hobbit, because it was soon time to combine Elevenses and Lunch with another stop at Johnny’s – this time for a shrimp po’ boy that was significantly better (bigger shrimp and not as powerfully seasoned) than the one I got at the hotel the night before.
I caught the streetcar to the cemetery district and spent a peaceful afternoon touring the tombs.
On the way back from the cemeteries, I got a second lesson in learning the parade schedule when the street car stopped and it was announced that the rest of the line was closed and we all got to walk from there.
If you look closely, way far in the distance, past the last, tiniest palm tree, you can see Harrah’s, my destination.
So I went back to my room, showered, and moved my car to the Harrah’s parking garage to avoid further parking fees, then spent the evening at the tables.
After gambling I wandered around the Quarter for a bit, but the average blood-alcohol level was too high for my taste, so I headed back to the room for the night, stopping at Mulate’s near the hotel for dinner.
The BBQ shrimp were average, with more heat than flavor, but the fried crawfish tails were wonderful.
Sunday
The GPS worked Sunday and I wish it had been working Saturday, because I know I covered more ground Saturday and I’d like to know how much more than seven miles it was.
The morning started the same, with First Breakfast at Café Dumonde and then a stroll through the Quarter. Sunday’s Second Breakfast was at Stanley near Jackson Square where I got an Eggs Benedict po’ boy.
Such a simple change to replace the english muffin with french bread, but it made a very tasty difference.
Full of food, I headed for the National WWII Museum.
WWII Medal of Honor Recipients Wall
Monday
Up at 6:00 AM to get out of the hotel and retrieve my car from Harrah’s, then into the Quarter for breakfast – driving this time. Parking was difficult even this early, because much of the parking lots were covered with equipment for the Super Bowl the next weekend.
All of that enclosed by the temporary wall and cones should have been open parking spaces. Even Jackson Square was mostly closed to the public while they built the CBS event spaces for the game.
I finally found parking near the French Market before walking back for beignets, coffee, and a final eggs benedict po’ boy to tide me over for the drive home.
