Shooing out the Teens
12.31.2019 Went to a party just last night*
Hey Now! Welcome back my friends as we bid goodbye to the first fifth of the millennium. Enter the Roaring 20's. Sweet Ti & I boogied our way up the coast before dawn and caught the early ferry leaving Lewes. We slept our way across the Delaware Bay.
Joisey
Foggy and 62º in Monopoly City.
Since it's still early we left most of our stuff in Foxy. I called Maggie yesterday and she said she would try her best to have our room ready. New Year's Eve is always 100% occupancy so there is that. Maggie and her sister Renata greeted us at the Front Desk and sure enough- our room was empty but not yet cleaned. No biggie. Maggie tells us to come back in half an hour and it should be ready.
There's been a change in policy regarding free play. For years it became available at noon. Then they changed it to 1 p.m. That made no sense. Now it's 6 a.m. which make lots of sense. Let's play some, shall we? Sweet Ti has 25.FSP today so she loads that up along with 50. seed money. .50 denom. 1.50 maxi bet. 12 Times Pay. It wasn't pretty. I had 93. FSP and added a 50. seed also. .50 denom 2.50 bet. Barney Fife. We take a break for a Soupman lunch. Way overrated. Even as a comp! Time to get serious with the FSP action. I finagled Mark's card and pin number plus permission to use it. Today he's got 150. Insert card instead of coin. 5x pay. .50 denom. 1.50 bet. Sweet Ti is doing the button slapping. Most wins were cashed out. Some were either too small or we forgot.
total: 228.
Thanks son. Maggie texts that our room is ready. I slipped her a 20. as she handed me the key cards. Room 4306. Downbeach and to the right when exiting the elevators. Perfect for fireworks watching later on tonight. It's T-11 hours till the new decade. Let's just hope the carpet doesn't stink too bad. We go up for an inspection. The smell is not too terrible, but there is a wet spot on the carpet near the table but it wasn't bad enough to move out. We just blot it up with a towel- make do. I retrieve various items from Foxy Plum and we settle in.
Next stop: Hollyrock Hills!
Tough crowd.
Stretch on duty
fireworks here later
Hey Now! We prep for dinner. According to Stephanie, we have 5 o'clock reservations at Capriccio's. We are so there.
Minimal decorations
We stop by Ulysses Bar to say howdy to it's namesake then announce ourselves to the Maitre De. But it turns out our name isn't on the list. "Looks like you are on the Breadsticks list. Same menu though. But you need to go over there and pickup your tickets." Okay. So we go stand in line and retrieve said tickets for dinner and tomorrow's brunch. Never had to do that before. But Breadsticks is right next door and we are not really too late. It's interesting to see what's basically a diner transformed into an upscale joint. We will be today's local, Samantha's customers tonight. She is assisted by Bil. Just one L if you please.
5 courses!
Capricciosticks
Sweet Ti ordered some wine and I asked for still water. Sam brought me sparkling. I really don't think she knew what I was talking about. She only recently was hired on here. Her experience lay in slinging brewskis at a bar. We went easy on her. Sam was admiring Sweet Ti's bracelet. We explained that it was a Robin Lee Becker piece we got at Zephyr Gallery. Turns out that Sammy's grandparents used to run a jewelry store at Atlantic Palace just downbeach. She is pretty sure they know the Zephyr's owners too.
Here's some food porn.
Very nice repast. Sammy didn't have too many missteps if you don't count having to share a knife. And a desert spoon.
Still water runs deep
The presentation was done very well. No rush at all, which was nice. There were very few customers when we arrived, but by the time we left they were getting busy. I would call that perfect timing. We left Darren and Sam a 35% tip. Still a great price for a comped meal.
awww......
We stashed our leftovers and went back down for the evening session. I see from the notes that we played a variety of various slots. But there's nothing but red ink everywhere. A kind lady walked up and asked if we wanted 2 tickets to see Taylor Dayne tonight. She had some sort of emergency at home and needed to leave like right now. We took them and thanked her, telling her to please drive home safe.
souvenirs
We had some fun on this model, but not nearly as much as Mark and I had on our Not-a-Veteran Weekend trip last month. Then we made a couple more non-descript donations and stopped by Häagen-Dazs for a treat to take up with. There I re-arranged the furniture in preparation for the show. We pretty much had a perfect view. My video didn't turn out, so here's somebody else's. If you please Jimmy...
The best part was that they went off at 9 p.m. which is just about our normal bedtime. We earned me 11 points, and lost a few hundy.
01.01.2020 Wanted to bring the year in right*
Hey Now! Happy New Decade! 4:45 a.m. and I still got damn near 8 hours of sleep in. A peck on the cheek for luck and I descend to battle. I hit the kiosk to activate what I thought was 8x comps till 6 a.m. But it turned out to be 8x cash back, which isn't quite the same. Regardless, it is what it is. There's still quite a few low rent partiers out and about. Maybe the Taylor Dayne groupies. B7's Jim!!!
Not such a great start. VP me James>>>>
Nice recovery though...
It's always nice when the first quad of the new decade is a delta! That gave me a stake to risk on a Crack Whore game- A.C. style.
9/5 DDB .25 denom 3 hand 5.25 bet
non-spinners
spinners
10x
As usual for me, I stayed too long at the fair. I did stop by the kiosk as it's after 6 a.m. 5x points sucessfully activated till the end of January. Well, this trip. Not coming back again in Jan. Then just to put a finer point on it, I stumbled into Hollyrock Hills. Hit it Jimmy....
Time for coffee Elizabeth....(psst-Jim!!!!)
Dunkin' Doughnuts comped caffeine. . I awaken my Sweet Ti to the 20's and her first words are Rabbit Rabbit. That's my girl. We have 9 a.m. reservations at the New Years Brunch, so I have given us a bit of time to awaken to the day. Speaking of the day, it's gorgeous out. Not that we are planning on going anywhere. In due time we ease our way down to the Ocean Ballroom. I'll give Resorts credit for really putting on a fine spread. The first thing we see once inside is a Bloody Mary bar.
Na zdrowie
Mine was a virgin. There's hardly anyone here yet which makes it nice. We seated ourselves near the front and perused the offerings.
The first stop for me is the Prime Rib station. Sure enough, Chef Randy is there. This dude makes just about the finest prime rib I have ever tasted. We were here a couple of years ago and had it. He explained that he dry rubs the meat the night before. Delicious. As per usual we immediately began making friends. Today's local, Joanne worked the fruit juice table and her husband Nick was one of the lighting techs. Great people. They only had about 2 hours of sleep as they both worked the events last night too. Joanne also does web PR and said she could help me get the word out about my site and grow my YouTube channel. Trust me, I need all the help I can get. Joanne, email me!
I even made her a "business card"
Seated at our table we also met Melvin and Ida, an older couple. Then there was Brady. Brady kept shaking hands with the various Hosts and other Resorts suits that were walking around. He's a Red Carpet player. I guess the name of the card says it all. I picked his brain for some inside info on which slots he prefers. I was surprised to learn he plays mostly newer video slots like 5 Dragons. He said that 3 reel slots and VP were too boring. He showed us some screenshots of some massive wins. He's from York, PA and also trout fishes. So we also talked trout. While I was in the dessert line, a guy in front of me was in a Rascal and bumped into another guy in front of him with his wheel. The dude told him to stop and before you know it these 2 dudes were having it out Jersey style. They were both around 80. The f-bombs were flying. The Rascal dude got up and that was my cue to split. I grabbed some goodies on the way back for the room.
By now it was getting pretty busy and we bid our new friends the best of luck in life and gaming in the new year. Back to the room.
just in case we don't win this-
no spoiler alert necessary....
Stopped by the player's club and deposited the 2nd chance chits. The drum is still fairly empty, so this is our best chance at pulling off a win. Then it's the kiosks to activate S.T. & Mark's promos for the day. We start our session with some old school 3 reels. Sweet Ti blows through her 25. FSP and a hundy. So she switches to Mark's card and loads up his 90. FSP. Time to make some duckies back...
recoup 82.
I lost my 90.FSP on an RWB .50 5 line machine in short order. Next up we hit a Monopoly machine of some sort.
We were joined by a local, Rose Marie. We took turns rooting each other on. We had a blast!!!
Queue the Stinkin' Rich Jim......
I'm feeling some B7's and decide to risk a hundy. It's going to shit very quickly. " I would like to at least get mixed " RB exclaimed.
as RB was speaking....
Sweet Ti when off upstairs to talk to her girls and I took my winnings over to a WD machine. It's a Brady special. Roll it James>>>>>
Max bet= Max mediocrity
Time for a VP session. I know the spot. There's a bank of .25 9/5 DDB Progressives. They are slants and don't have those piercing pin-point laser beams shining down and reflecting right in your eyes. Plus the smoke there is at a minimum. The progressive is 1015.25. Insert coin and here we go. I was just plugging along minding my own business. I'm kinda feeling it. Then this happened.
1016.50
I mean I didn't necessarily know it was gonna hit, but sometimes you just kinda feel like something's gonna happen. Sweet Ti joined me and I re-introduced her to Pick-a Pair. I always used to play the full pay version at the Fremont- at least till they took them out.
.09 a spin
Ladies and Gents, it's time for Top Dollar Battlezone! We each pick a likely machine and insert coinage....
our contestants
I strike first-
But Ti blows right by me for the win!
more local color
cock-a doodle-doo
Time for a break. For our dining this evening, Sweet Ti suggested Burger Bar. Always very tasty. I ordered the Thai Burger and fries while Sweet Ti went with the Sunny Side Burger and sweet potato fries. Because Sweet Ti.
Y'all have to try this place. The burgers are ground from Gallagher's dry aged beef. Quite reasonable too, expecially comped!
Hey Now! It's time for us to not win the Mercedes or the slot cash that they are about to giveaway. We run into Brady playing some video slot max bet. He didn't win either. It was some dude who lived in Little Egg Harbor. Semi- local. Time for some quart sized B7s...
We each started with a hundy and Sweet Ti once again took the lead- then I hit....
Not to be outdone Sweet Ti goes in for the kill! Roll tape please Jim!!!
That's Sweet Ti's 2nd handy of her illustrious gambling career. Way to go babe!
S.T. ends up with 350. profit on that fun session. We went around hitting various slots looking for our next score.
W4 Jackpots low betting. Max bet on these in pennies is 10. here. And I thought the old W4 machines were expensive. I'm feeling the QH Progressive machine calling me. It's only like 2 rows over from these. Sweet Ti is playing a B7's machine next to me. This is the one that I got my first dollar progressive on a few years ago. S.W. runs out of credits and is texting on her phone. After a few small hits, BOOM! Jimmy?????
It's turning out to be a hella year so fat. Sweet Ti is getting sleepy and I need to go up to the room anyway to make a deposit. Noice!
we are officially up.
Sweet Ti finds some Netflix BBC show to binge out to sleep on and I head down for a bit of VP. To the ol' trusty slants! I.C.
That was about all I could manage. I followed the Strict Rules of Parley- sort of but ended the session like this-
Next up was some DSTP. There's only 1 machine here that I know of that here that has this game. It can be pretty busy this time of the evening, but it's vacant. Insert coin, repeat previous results. I finish up the evening back at that DDP Progressive. I was dealt K,Q,10,9 of spades and a throwaway card. I was in a bit of a quandary. I believe in this game the proper play is to hold 4 to a straight flush. But damn! I got that Royal earlier on this very machine. What to do. So I whip out the WinPoker and punch in the hand. I was right.
We will never know......
That looks like a good stopping point for the evening. What a day. 3 handpays without any paperwork. A great start to the decade. 29 points. About 1.4k to the good on the day. Noice.
Good ol' Mervin
01.02.2020 Woke up this morning- I don't know how*
Hey Now! 6:15. I did my usual sneaky preps and peck on the cheek for luck. Time to hit the kiosk and check out what's up.
5x helps immensely
There's an All-Star Poker machine between the DDB Progressives and the DSTP. It's empty, so I peruse the offerings. Boner Deluxe in quarters at 8/5. The Wiz sez 97.59. all 9 lines cost you 11.25. Insert coin and........ouch! Used up credits like a hurricane running after a subway train. Don't forget the pouring rain. Speaking of completely out of context song lyrics- Here comes sunshine
And finally-
The Money Shot.
It's maybe 40º out there brrrrr. Yesterday the had the Polar Plunge right where I took that last shot. Not for me thanks anyway. That water is too cold in the summer much less now. Back to the action, the DSTP was open so I inserted coinage there. I was holding my own till the boardlings smoke got the best of me. Time for coffee Elizabeth anyway. D.D. it is. I admire the decorations that are still up.
BYOBreakfast
We hung out for a bit and eased our way down for a session.
One well used alleviator button
Sweet Ti decides to use her 25. FSP along with 50. on some 5x Lucky 7's. .50 denom. 1.50 maxi bet.
I used Mark's 90. plus a 50. on a .50 5x pay. Don't see any pics, but the note said I pushed. S.T. managed a small profit. I talked her into a group pull on these crazy spitfire multipliers. .25 denom, 3.75 bet. we had fun- right Jim?????
more cowbell!!!
Ti to the Sweet wants to follow the little white ball round and round the wheel. Electronic version with an actual wheel. She plays our usual numbers plus a couple of assorted grandkids bday dates. 3 credit minimum. She spreads 5 numbers per deal. Dollar denom. She hit the first 3 spins, then missed one and hit again! Cashed out +100.
Sweet Ti hits her personal ATM
And I hit mine
Let's fortify ourselves shall we? Breadsticks fits the bill once again. I've got a hundy food comp I need to use up. So this will be our major meal of the day.
nice view too.
For whatever reason y'all will be pleased to know I didn't take any more food porn shots. Suffice it to say we pigged out. So Sweet Ti heads to Marshall Rousso to do some comp shopping. I head to Foxy to shop for room supplies. Then it's time to flash the card. Boom. Those 5x comps are sure coming in handy. Aloft with her goodies, Sweet Ti chills in the room for while. Time for some solo action.
I get a call from upstairs. Sweet Ti needs a TV repair man. We brought the Firestick. Seems like the HDMI port is on the fritz. The good news is that these TVs have like 4 ports. Found one. Back in business. Netflix for days. Happy wife, etc. I descend alone and proceed to blow thru several hundy on B7's, DSTP, and a 5 Dragons machine that Bradford or whatever his name is told me about. Sweet Ti got bored on Netflix and texted. I told her to bring down beers and fresh bullets. We hook up and have another Quart B7's mini-tourney.
Chalk that one up to RB.....
While I am tearing up this same DDB Progressive that's been so good to me this trip, Sweet Ti is back at her Top Dollar machine. We can see each other so we're texting back and forth like a couple of kids. Really getting into the role, I send her this-
something may have gotten lost in the translation
I see this dude walking slowly by. I say hello and we start talking. He's today's local, Ben. Ben is a retired Merchant Marine and a Vietnam vet. We talk Newport News terminal. He went thru there many times. My first job was working for Hornsby Oil Co., where my Daddy worked. They were located downtown near the terminal. Also Sweet Ti's Mom used to have a Thrift Store downtown and the Merchant Marines used to shop there. She would bring home sailors and feed them a homemade dinner. But apparently not Ben.
thanks for your service Ben
I cashed out at an even 250. Sweet Ti kept having that Top Dollar seize up on her and hitting the service light. They finally got tired of fixing it and placed it Out of Order. Word is they can't get parts for the ol' geezer, but it's too popular to take off the floor. We decide to call it a night and stop by the food court on the way up for a sundae and settle in for a Netflix binge. Let's call today a push.
01.03.2020 Last night I was a happy man, but the way I feel right now*
Hey Now! 6:30. Up and at 'em- Atom Ant! We are catching the 2:30 ferry back home so that gives me a couple of hours to play while Sweet Ti sleeps in. We ended up watching Olé Olé Olé last night. It's a doc about the Rolling Stones Latin America tour in 2016. Brilliant. I start out on that darned 5 Dragons Grand machine that Bradley raved so much about. 3. bet. Insert coin.
not quite grand
Time to break out the FSP. I'm off to Hollyrock Hills. 120. FSP in. Roll tape please Jim....
good thing I cashed out this
Next up is Mark's FSP. 120. I invest it in some Bonus Times. Glad I didn't shoot a video. It wasn't pretty.
jeez....
Time for Breakfast Elizabeth. I hit up DD for the usual fare. Aloft, I serve up Sleeping Beauty. So here's the scoop. Ti had a lunch date with a couple of her sisters tomorrow, but it got postponed. Maggie isn't feeling well. So Sweet Ti has an idea. Let's stay another day. Brilliant! I call the ferry and change our reservation to tomorrow morning. Then down to the front desk to see Renata. She hooks us up and we are all set. And since I'm already down in the lobby, I might as well take a stab at the Circle of B7's Progressives.
lil' sumptin'
What a blast! Cheap thrills to earn fabulous tiers. Sweet Ti joins me presently and since it's just about 10:15, the Fresh and Hot sign is on in my imagination. That can only mean one thing. Either I'm having flashbacks from the 70's again, or it's time for the first pies o' the day to start popping out of the oven over at Famiglia's
Bfast of Degens
Let's make it rain there Jim- Deluxe style!
We had such a blast playing this machine on our Down Around Biloxi trip. It's about time for another southern trek. We were ambling about and ran into an old friend. She's today's local, Barb. Barb has been a slot tech here since forever. She used to work with Mignon (aka Miggy) and Bill. They were a great crew. Then they had cutbacks and Bill changed shifts and Miggy pretty much lost all of hers. Miggy finally quit after her husband who was a Pit Boss retired. She's working at the Hard Rock next door. Barb even got her on the phone for us and we had a nice chat. She's doing well. The cool thing about Barb is that at the Orleans in Vegas there's a slot attendant named Barb who works there that could be her sister. Coincidence? Who knows!
Resorts Barb
Barb made us promise to send her a picture of Orleans Barb the next time we are there. Can do Barb! We continued our walkabout.
That brought us up to our big meal of the day. Breadsticks once again. I won't bore y'all with the details. Just the pics.
gotta love the comped view
Sweet Ti takes a powder and I take a seat at my lucky DDB Prog. Dammit Jim! Somebody hit the royal. Oh well. Insert coin anyway.
This gentleman sits down beside me. All the rest of the machines are empty. Interesting. I finally strike up a conversation. Go figure.
he tells me that his wife was the one at the other end of the row a couple of days ago when I hit the royal. I remember her. Together they're today's Hershey, PA locals Glen and Barbara. They worked in the water business together for 35 years. American Water. The same company that has the water contract where I work at Ft. Eustis. It's a small world. After all. They have been gamboling here since the Merv days. Thru all of the changes here they stuck it out. We sat there playing and talking for hours. Oh yeah, the results.
Hopefully we will run into these 2 again. They are keepers. Cheers, y'all. I cashed out up a buck fitty. I go up to check on my baby. She's good so I descend back onto the floor before the smoky stench overtakes the joint. Besides, World of Wonka calls. Right Jimmy???
vastly overrated game- great movie though
Time for a new offering. Never played this one before. Let's see how I did James!!!!!
I mean, that was nice, but shit- it was a 4. bet!
that's a wrap.
earning them faster than I can spend them!!!
01.04.2020 It's gonna be a funky new year*
Hey Now! 5:30. It's down to the final countdown. For real real, not for play play this time. Not wasting any time, I jump on Mark's FSP- 135. and invest it in .50 TDRH7's- 4.50 bet.
63. profit
Next up is Sweet Ti's FSP- 40. I invest that in .50 RWB- forgot to take pics, but ended up with 97.50 profit. Finally, my 135. FSP went into my trusty ol' VP slant. I dial up some 1. 8/5 BP.
pure profit!
Well wasn't that fun. Now I'm just waiting on 7 a.m. to awaken my Sweet Ti. So I re-invest in a likely looking .25 TDRH7's machine.
wannabe Cracked Glass Special
And as per usual, I end the trip with a bit more VP-
hell yeah
Nice trip. We do the last bit of our packing and I begin to shuttle various parcels down to Foxy.
Elevator Exfoliation
We stop by and say farewell to the Polish Spinster Sisters and make our way down the Parkway to the ferry. Onward to the DelMarVa...
RoFo- best gas station chicken ever!!!!!
Well thanks for following along y'all! Oh, by the way, even after all those little hits, we netted a loss for the trip. But we managed to bring home about 2/3 of the old BR. And 89 tears. Not too shabby! Stay tuned- as we have yet another fun excursion on the horizon......
The Sadie Hawkins Saga
*Funky New Year, The Eagles