The taxi dropped me off at the Pairs in Vegas. This place was fancy, and it was more or less in the middle of the strip of Vegas. Making it quite easy to go anywhere along the strip and make it back. They also had a nice sign outside making it easy to locate the hotel from a fair distance away.
Just how fancy are the Pairs? This was the check-in area. I arrived early enough that if there had not been a line they would have charged me an early booking check-in fee. Which I had someone warn me about beforehand. After waiting in line for a short while I was exactly 2 minutes past the regular check-in time and did not have any issues with an extra.
I did however have some other unexpected fees. The booking agent assured me all costs for staying here were already included. Turns out the “resort fee” was not. This was a couple of weeks before the Superbowl and the there TV provider ended up having issues starting before one of the last football games.
While I was not here to watch TV I sure took advantage of their situation. They ended up waving each day's “resort” fee. It however required calling down daily to the front desk and giving them peace of mind. For how much per day they were looking to charge it was well worth a couple of moments on the phone while taking a break from exploring and gambling in Vegas.
I’ll admit I did not find the room I got that amazing. They did a horrible job on the trim around the wall. There were holes and stains I don’t want to know what they were from in the chair. The sheets even had holes in them. They tried to make it look fancy and it seems to cut the wrong corners.
I ended up keeping the curtains shut for most of my stay in Vegas. There was no point in paying extra for a view while I did not expect to be in the room for long each day. It was quite clear when they tried to upsell me at the desk for a “better” view that it was not going to be great.
The only real star here was going to be the bathroom. At least I thought it would be from the online photos. There were multiple days of water issues. I guess since it’s all “French” I was not working the shower correctly. I’d say the shower was not working right till the third day at the very least. Vegas is, however, known for having water issues from time to time.
At least it had some nice tiles in there. The shower was large enough to hold a party in. Not that I would know anything about that. My time in that room was just for sleeping. I was about to embark on around 10 miles a day walking around casinos and the Vegas strip.
The casino floor of the Pairs is set up to look like you are on the street. With fake buildings around the edge of the floor. Along with outdoor lights and street signs. They even have a fake sky above. Everywhere I looked I’d see statues and other fancy-looking things.
While I was not expecting the gambling here to be that great with how much it must cost to maintain the look of this place. It would end up being one of the casinos I spent the most time gambling at. There was also a connection to several other casinos that took you down further along the strip. Making it even more confusing trying to get around if you ended up taking a wrong turn.
For the first little while I decided to walk around the floor trying to find out where things were. My first main task was to find the players' club and get myself a card. Most casinos along the strip are either owned by MGM or Caesars. Meaning I was not going to get a lot of free play for signing up for cards.
Also, if you gambled at one Caesars casino for instance, they treated it separately from earning any free play at another one. So, during my trip, I might have been to 10 different Caesars casinos. I however got next to nothing. Just my intro free play for signing up at the Pairs.
I can see why so many are not happy about two casinos owning most of the strip. I was at least hoping there would end up being $10-20 in free play at every casino I could hit up. That was not the case. Even when I was playing in a casino where they were not owned by one of the two it seemed they could not be bothered having any signup rewards either. Taking some rather long walks to dead casinos is not worth much of my time.
At the time these Carnival Jackpot machines were not in every casino as of yet. I had first seen them in Atlantic City at the Ocean Resort where I think they were an “exclusive” for a short while. They were yet to be at my local at that time in the state I tend to gamble in.
At least the Pairs did end up having a few of my favorite slot machines as well. I ended up playing this one a few times as well. No massive wins like I’m used to getting on it. I at least did get a few nice line hits.
Gambling overall seemed to be quite tight during my entire trip. Which made me play my bankroll rather tight as well. I was mostly looking for stuff I’ve always wanted to play but is not at any casinos I can get to within a reasonable amount of time.
I was a bit disappointed by Vegas in how lacking they were in a lot of older games I was hoping they would have. They were either turned into a high-limit slot or you just could not find them in a single place, and I went too far more casinos than I can even recall.
At the very least drinks while gambling at these casinos were free. I made sure to enjoy quite a few mudslides. That was when you could find drink services. When you could not and were desperate for a bottle of water you could shell out over $8 or more at the number of shops in these casinos.
I made this mistake once and never again when I walked into a store in the Pairs. There were no prices on anything which should have been the first red flag. The next red flag should have been a sign stating if you touched something due to the “pandemic” you had to buy it. Nothing like getting fleeces over the water after gambling for hours and not seeing a single person serving drinks.
I was so disgusted by this practice. I made it t point to not eat at any of the restaurants while I stayed at the Pairs. The prices were so outrageous like most of the Vegas strip it was not hard to stay away. I could either gamble or eat at how much they were overcharging for food. The cheap days and a deal on a meal are in the past for Vegas it seems.
Final Thoughts
After a while, it was time to head out onto the Vegas strip and check out what was close by. At least the Pairs had quite an easy-to-see sign to always find my way back. Trying to use GPS here was a nightmare. Even more so since the strip was being converted for the Superbowl and many of the normal walkways were closed or under construction.
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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.
Oh yeah, no price tags is always a bad sign.
I knew it would be bad. Was not expecting that bad. Thankfully I did not have to walk far for almost normal prices.