Trip Report: Extended Edition

This trip to ‘da boat was one of the better ones that I’ve had in recent memory, at least since the times when me, Mom, and Dad all used to go together. 🙂 Great weather on the way down and back (which is more important than you’d think), awesome lightning over the Ohio River during the couple of evening thunderstorms while we were there, and Cassi and I were able to play and play and play – and I still came home with the same amount that I took to spend, and she was able to go home over $200 ahead and with some comp’d jewelry and goodies from the gift shop. 😃

Oh, and of course we poofed ourselves on the awesome brunch buffet. Mmm… 🤤 not just the regular buffet food, but also all of the important breakfast stuff at the same time. 😁 They must be doing alright, because the entire place is in the middle of renovations. From the giant entry way, to the lobby, to the hallways, to the rooms… everything is getting cosmetic updates. 😯 They’re still in the middle of ripping up all of the faux “stone” flooring in the giant common area and laying down “wood” strips… and for the rest of the hotel, the entire color scheme has changed. The only inconvenience in all of that was that the updated WiFi wasn’t working yet. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Our time on the actual boat was limited the first day, because the machines kicked our asses. 🙄🎰 That was okay though, because the trip was as much about “just getting away” as it was for gambling. We got one of the nicer rooms with probably the best view of all of them, looking right out onto the boat, the river, and the outdoor patio area for the indoor pool. 😎🚢 And, as it often goes, we took our swimsuits but couldn’t muster the “oomph” required to go down and actually swim with the larger-than-normal amount of assholes already in the pool. 😏 (For some of them, I think it doubled for their weekly bath.)

Day two on the actual boat was much better. 😀 I hit a big enough bonus that I was able to set back (to take home) the amount that I took with me to lose, and still have enough to keep playing and to share with Cassi so she could do the same. 🤑 And it wasn’t just that one win. (I missed catching all the winning “sevens” in that video… meh) But both of us kept hitting nice “little-big” amounts that kept us going for the better part of the day. It felt like a totally different experience than the day before. 💁🏻‍♀️🎉💁🏻‍♂️🎈

It sucked to wake up after that second night, knowing that we had to head back home, but the winning came at a time and in a way that it let us both come home with a decent amount money, so we sure couldn’t complain. Besides, we were both anxious to get home to our kitties… especially me, since I knew that Maven was all by herself and probably wondering if I had permanently disappeared. 😿 She was happy to see me when I got home of course, but she didn’t even act grumpy… so perhaps I wasn’t as missed as I had presumed. 😄 We absolutely had a good time on this trip… the last one we might be able to take for a while… but it was sure nice to be home again too.

Oh, Is That So?

I’ve been on and off the phone so much in the past couple of days, I’m fairly certain that my brain is at least partially melted. 😏 I joke, but Jesus I hate talking on the phone. 😑 Especially when it deals with “shit that needs to be taken care of” or the like. One of my calls should have been relatively painless (or at least as painless as phone calls can be for me) since I thought it was gonna be just a brief conversation with my casino host about reserving a room at the Rising Star casino boat.

Feeling rather miserable here at home still, I was thinking that a change of scenery could do me some good… so I decided to call and see about getting one of those little mini-suites like I’ve gotten several times before when I’ve stayed. 😎 Now, it’s been while since I’ve stayed and played there, but not that long. So I didn’t think I’d run into any problems. 😒 Wrong.

I wasn’t able to speak to my casino host, but the one that I did speak to… she informed me rather quickly that they couldn’t guarantee me one of the suites, and that they wouldn’t even be able to tell me until I was actually there and preparing to check in. 🤔 What kind of bullshit is that? I mean, just type in my player’s card number… look at my history… this shouldn’t be a complicated decision.

But nope… they’d reserve a room for me, but if I wasn’t one of their higher ranked players on the day that I was checking in, it would be a standard crappy room for me and whoever I end up taking with me. And to that news I replied, “Okay, well thanks anyway.” and hung up. In a followup e-mail with my casino host, I told her that I was literally staring at a stack of flyers, cards, comps, and calendars from Jack Cincinnati – including an offer for a suite in my choice of several downtown hotels.

And it’s not like I even played that much the last time I was at Jack. They just have better offers, and they don’t hesitate to reserve a suite for me when I’m arranging my accommodations. 🙂 They don’t make me feel like I have to be in competition with my fellow guests just to get a nicer room. I concluded the e-mail by telling her that I wasn’t saying what I was saying in an effort to fish for more comps or anything, and that, in fact, she should remove my name from their advertising list.

Better comps, better room, bigger casino, 45 minute shorter drive, less hassle… the final decision of where to go was suddenly no decision at all, because the place where I had gone for years with my family and then on my own… it just left a bad taste in my mouth now. Funny thing is, after that conversation I was kinda done thinking about casinos for the day – so I haven’t even bothered to try and set anything up with Jack yet, and I’m not even sure if I will. 🙄😏