Vegas Trip Report + Pics III
January 15th, 2015 at 2:01:12 PM
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*** VEGAS TRIP – DECEMBER 2014 ***
I have been very fortunate to enjoy trips to Las Vegas once or twice per year for the last few years. I recently returned from my Winter 2014 visit, and wanted to once again share my experiences through a trip report.
As I’ve noted in prior reports, my jaunts to Vegas typically consist of me and my son. However, this particular trip was comprised of me and my wife. She had never been to Vegas before and, after years of listening to stories about the fun my son and I have, she expressed an interest in going. We were celebrating our 25th anniversary around that time, and putting a Vegas trip into the mix was a nice addition.
Our trip was from Thursday, December 11th, through Monday, December 15th, 2014. Our room was at New York-New York Hotel, and we had a rental car for our transportation needs. Since it was my wife’s first trip to Vegas, we enjoyed quite a few events such as a Cirque show, Hoover Dam, Fremont Street, etc., etc. I had already taken part in some of these activities on prior trips, but it is always a delight to enjoy them again with someone who is experiencing them for the first time.
My Vegas trip reports are usually fairly light on the gambling & drinking (I’m a lightweight at both, my wife even more so than me), and fairly heavy on the eating & activities. This Winter 2014 report will be no exception, although hopefully it will still provide some entertainment to the reader.
I will make a separate post below for each day of our trip, and will include some pictures & such wherever I can. And, as usual, I'll blur out our faces on any photos to protect the innocent.
:)
I have been very fortunate to enjoy trips to Las Vegas once or twice per year for the last few years. I recently returned from my Winter 2014 visit, and wanted to once again share my experiences through a trip report.
As I’ve noted in prior reports, my jaunts to Vegas typically consist of me and my son. However, this particular trip was comprised of me and my wife. She had never been to Vegas before and, after years of listening to stories about the fun my son and I have, she expressed an interest in going. We were celebrating our 25th anniversary around that time, and putting a Vegas trip into the mix was a nice addition.
Our trip was from Thursday, December 11th, through Monday, December 15th, 2014. Our room was at New York-New York Hotel, and we had a rental car for our transportation needs. Since it was my wife’s first trip to Vegas, we enjoyed quite a few events such as a Cirque show, Hoover Dam, Fremont Street, etc., etc. I had already taken part in some of these activities on prior trips, but it is always a delight to enjoy them again with someone who is experiencing them for the first time.
My Vegas trip reports are usually fairly light on the gambling & drinking (I’m a lightweight at both, my wife even more so than me), and fairly heavy on the eating & activities. This Winter 2014 report will be no exception, although hopefully it will still provide some entertainment to the reader.
I will make a separate post below for each day of our trip, and will include some pictures & such wherever I can. And, as usual, I'll blur out our faces on any photos to protect the innocent.
:)
You serious, Clark?
January 15th, 2015 at 2:01:36 PM
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DAY 1 OF 5 - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11TH
My wife and I had been anticipating and making plans for this trip for several months, so we were excited when the day finally arrived. We had purchased tickets (with points) on Southwest for a non-stop flight which was scheduled to depart Nashville at 11am CDT and arrive in Vegas at 1:15pm local time.
We arrived at the airport two hours before the scheduled flight, parked the car, and took the shuttle to the terminal. Things at the Nashville airport always seem to run pretty smoothly, so we made it inside the gate area with plenty of time to spare. And, as is my tradition, I utilized my spare time to enjoy a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit & a coke ($10) from Whitt’s BBQ inside the terminal. The meal was tasty as always, and it served to mark the official start of the trip (since it is the first expenditure).
Our flight boarded, and we took our seats in the very last row of the airplane. Sitting in the last row makes deboarding kind of slow, but it also eliminates the possibility of somebody sitting behind you and bumping your seat during the flight. I like to catch a few zzz’s when flying, you know? :)
The plane took off on time, and we were soon in the air on the way to Vegas! The flight was nice and smooth, and about 3½ hours later we were passing over Lake Mead on our decent. My wife had chosen the window seat, and she was pleased to see (and take a picture of) Hoover Dam from the air on our way in.
After landing and deboarding, we retrieved our luggage from the baggage claim area and then made our way to the rental car shuttle. I had reserved a full size car through Enterprise, and we ended up with a dark blue Hyundai Sonata. We were offered a free upgrade to a mini-SUV, but declined since we knew we were not going to check in to the hotel immediately and didn’t want our luggage visible through the back windows when left in the parking lot. Anyway, we were very pleased with the Sonata since it had a spacious trunk and a smooth ride ($171).
The first item on our itinerary was a light lunch at Fuddruckers in the Orleans Casino, so we put the address into the GPS and headed that way. Finding a place to park at the Orleans was not super easy, but we eventually found a spot and made our way inside. We were both pretty hungry by then, so we were looking forward to enjoying a good meal from Fuddruckers.
I chose a bacon cheeseburger combo, and my wife selected a gluten-free burger served on a bed of lettuce. Both burgers were very tasty, and it was nice to eat at one of our favorite “chain-type” restaurants that we don’t have access to in Tennessee ($21).
We finished our meal around 2:30pm, and then went back to the car to head over and get checked in to the hotel. Although my son and I usually prefer to stay at the Rio (or Harrah’s), since this was my wife’s first trip to Vegas I thought she might enjoy staying at one of the main Strip hotels. So I had chosen New York-New York as the hotel for our trip this time.
Check-in went smoothly, and we ended up with a Madison Avenue room on the 8th floor ($439 total for 4 nights). As you can see from the room-map picture below, our room was kind of on the “corner” of the building so it had a little extra space in it.
The room itself was very spacious and comfortable, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in it. Although the NYNY roller coaster was pretty close outside of our window, it didn’t ever disturb us at all. They must have some good sound-insulating windows!
We got all of our stuff unpacked and situated, and then decided to go downstairs and explore the property a bit. We strolled around for a while checking things out and familiarizing ourselves with where everything was located. I of course noticed one of my favorite pizza places in Vegas, New York Pizzeria (NYP), on the upper level of the property and vowed to try to eat there at least once on this trip. All of the restaurants on the “official” itinerary had been researched and chosen by me to accommodate my wife’s gluten allergy, and NYP unfortunately didn’t fall into that category. However, I kept high hopes that I’d get to enjoy some NYP before it was over with (which I ultimately did).
We finished exploring around 5pm or so, and since we had a show to attend we decided to ease back up to the room to get ready. After a brief period of relaxing in the room, we headed down to get the car and make our way over to the Paris to catch the 7pm showing of Jersey Boys.
There was some construction around NYNY, and it ended up being a bit of a challenge every time we left the hotel during the trip. It was a right-turn-only out of the parking garage onto Tropicana, so we had to drive over I-15 and then do a u-turn at the bottom of the hill on Dean Martin Drive to get back on Tropicana headed the correct way. We took Tropicana past the MGM and then made a left on Koval Lane in order to ultimately get to the parking garage for Paris.
We arrived at Paris around 6:15pm and had plenty of time to park and make our way inside to find the theater. We were in our seats by 6:45pm and were ready for the show.
I have seen several shows in Vegas over the years, and Jersey Boys turned out to be one of my two favorites ever (second only to LOVE at the Mirage). At 2 hours+ it was a fairly long show, but it had a short intermission about halfway through. For me, it was one of those events that is so entertaining it seems to fly by without any dull moments and is (sadly) over with before you know it. Long story short, my wife and I both loved the show and it was one of the highlights of our trip.
I had thought about trying to sneak a quick picture during the performance, but I’m glad I didn’t. A lady sitting right in front of us pulled out her phone and started taking a video during the show, and about 30 seconds later an usher appeared and made her stop. The usher then made her pull up the video on her phone and delete it right there on the spot. Awkward!
We left Paris around 9:20pm and headed back to NYNY. We had originally planned to have some dinner either before or after Jersey Boys, but we were both still somewhat full from Fuddruckers and decided to just go to the room and enjoy some of the light snacks we had brought with us. It had been a fairly full day with all of the traveling and such, so we called it a night pretty early. The room was quiet and the bed was comfortable, which made for a good night’s sleep to recuperate from the first day’s activities!
.
.
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DAY 2 TO FOLLOW…
My wife and I had been anticipating and making plans for this trip for several months, so we were excited when the day finally arrived. We had purchased tickets (with points) on Southwest for a non-stop flight which was scheduled to depart Nashville at 11am CDT and arrive in Vegas at 1:15pm local time.
We arrived at the airport two hours before the scheduled flight, parked the car, and took the shuttle to the terminal. Things at the Nashville airport always seem to run pretty smoothly, so we made it inside the gate area with plenty of time to spare. And, as is my tradition, I utilized my spare time to enjoy a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit & a coke ($10) from Whitt’s BBQ inside the terminal. The meal was tasty as always, and it served to mark the official start of the trip (since it is the first expenditure).
Our flight boarded, and we took our seats in the very last row of the airplane. Sitting in the last row makes deboarding kind of slow, but it also eliminates the possibility of somebody sitting behind you and bumping your seat during the flight. I like to catch a few zzz’s when flying, you know? :)
The plane took off on time, and we were soon in the air on the way to Vegas! The flight was nice and smooth, and about 3½ hours later we were passing over Lake Mead on our decent. My wife had chosen the window seat, and she was pleased to see (and take a picture of) Hoover Dam from the air on our way in.
After landing and deboarding, we retrieved our luggage from the baggage claim area and then made our way to the rental car shuttle. I had reserved a full size car through Enterprise, and we ended up with a dark blue Hyundai Sonata. We were offered a free upgrade to a mini-SUV, but declined since we knew we were not going to check in to the hotel immediately and didn’t want our luggage visible through the back windows when left in the parking lot. Anyway, we were very pleased with the Sonata since it had a spacious trunk and a smooth ride ($171).
The first item on our itinerary was a light lunch at Fuddruckers in the Orleans Casino, so we put the address into the GPS and headed that way. Finding a place to park at the Orleans was not super easy, but we eventually found a spot and made our way inside. We were both pretty hungry by then, so we were looking forward to enjoying a good meal from Fuddruckers.
I chose a bacon cheeseburger combo, and my wife selected a gluten-free burger served on a bed of lettuce. Both burgers were very tasty, and it was nice to eat at one of our favorite “chain-type” restaurants that we don’t have access to in Tennessee ($21).
We finished our meal around 2:30pm, and then went back to the car to head over and get checked in to the hotel. Although my son and I usually prefer to stay at the Rio (or Harrah’s), since this was my wife’s first trip to Vegas I thought she might enjoy staying at one of the main Strip hotels. So I had chosen New York-New York as the hotel for our trip this time.
Check-in went smoothly, and we ended up with a Madison Avenue room on the 8th floor ($439 total for 4 nights). As you can see from the room-map picture below, our room was kind of on the “corner” of the building so it had a little extra space in it.
The room itself was very spacious and comfortable, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in it. Although the NYNY roller coaster was pretty close outside of our window, it didn’t ever disturb us at all. They must have some good sound-insulating windows!
We got all of our stuff unpacked and situated, and then decided to go downstairs and explore the property a bit. We strolled around for a while checking things out and familiarizing ourselves with where everything was located. I of course noticed one of my favorite pizza places in Vegas, New York Pizzeria (NYP), on the upper level of the property and vowed to try to eat there at least once on this trip. All of the restaurants on the “official” itinerary had been researched and chosen by me to accommodate my wife’s gluten allergy, and NYP unfortunately didn’t fall into that category. However, I kept high hopes that I’d get to enjoy some NYP before it was over with (which I ultimately did).
We finished exploring around 5pm or so, and since we had a show to attend we decided to ease back up to the room to get ready. After a brief period of relaxing in the room, we headed down to get the car and make our way over to the Paris to catch the 7pm showing of Jersey Boys.
There was some construction around NYNY, and it ended up being a bit of a challenge every time we left the hotel during the trip. It was a right-turn-only out of the parking garage onto Tropicana, so we had to drive over I-15 and then do a u-turn at the bottom of the hill on Dean Martin Drive to get back on Tropicana headed the correct way. We took Tropicana past the MGM and then made a left on Koval Lane in order to ultimately get to the parking garage for Paris.
We arrived at Paris around 6:15pm and had plenty of time to park and make our way inside to find the theater. We were in our seats by 6:45pm and were ready for the show.
I have seen several shows in Vegas over the years, and Jersey Boys turned out to be one of my two favorites ever (second only to LOVE at the Mirage). At 2 hours+ it was a fairly long show, but it had a short intermission about halfway through. For me, it was one of those events that is so entertaining it seems to fly by without any dull moments and is (sadly) over with before you know it. Long story short, my wife and I both loved the show and it was one of the highlights of our trip.
I had thought about trying to sneak a quick picture during the performance, but I’m glad I didn’t. A lady sitting right in front of us pulled out her phone and started taking a video during the show, and about 30 seconds later an usher appeared and made her stop. The usher then made her pull up the video on her phone and delete it right there on the spot. Awkward!
We left Paris around 9:20pm and headed back to NYNY. We had originally planned to have some dinner either before or after Jersey Boys, but we were both still somewhat full from Fuddruckers and decided to just go to the room and enjoy some of the light snacks we had brought with us. It had been a fairly full day with all of the traveling and such, so we called it a night pretty early. The room was quiet and the bed was comfortable, which made for a good night’s sleep to recuperate from the first day’s activities!
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DAY 2 TO FOLLOW…
You serious, Clark?
January 15th, 2015 at 2:12:28 PM
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Looking forward to the report as always
January 15th, 2015 at 2:14:16 PM
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Oh no, the faceless people again. What do
your photo ID's look like.
your photo ID's look like.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
January 15th, 2015 at 2:24:40 PM
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I always enjoy reading your trip reports. Thanks.
January 15th, 2015 at 4:01:28 PM
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Quote: BeardgoatLooking forward to the report as always
Quote: HowManyI always enjoy reading your trip reports. Thanks.
Thanks! Posting the report sort of allows me to "re-live" the trip again. Lots of great memories!
Quote: EvenBobOh no, the faceless people again. What do
your photo ID's look like.
Lol. They don't look much better, I'm afraid. :)
You serious, Clark?
January 15th, 2015 at 4:02:02 PM
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DAY 2 OF 5 - FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12TH
I’m an early riser, so I was up around 5:15am Friday morning and proceeded to embark upon another one of my little Vegas traditions… which is to sneak out by myself and enjoy a caramel macchiato from Starbucks while playing some of my favorite penny machines. I have found this to be a nice relaxing routine, and it is a great way to start out my day when on vacation.
NYNY has a 24-hour Starbucks, so I didn’t have to wait until 6am for it to open like I’ve had to do on previous trips at other properties. I gave the cashier at Starbucks my MLife card and asked if there were any points on it to pay for the coffee, and I had a cool $6 on there. So the coffee on that first morning was free (although I never earned enough points to get another one free on this trip). :/
Coffee in hand, I slow-played some of my stacked lions, dragons, and panda machines and got a couple of small hits here and there.
I had planned to play some VP, but had a hard time finding any machines at the 5 cent level that weren’t multi-line machines. So I played a few hands in a quarter machine as well as a multi-line nickel machine. On the nickel VP machine I was dealt 3 of a kind on my first hand, and it had some kind of multiplier thing already activated on it where it paid me 12x my bet on one line. I think you had to be betting the max to keep it activated (which I wasn’t), so the multiplier feature didn’t stay on.
A member on another Vegas forum I like plays quite a bit of the Caveman Keno game, so I tried giving that a shot. I really liked the slow pace of the play, but unfortunately I didn’t win anything picture worthy.
Around 7am my wife texted me and said she was up, so I swung back by Starbucks to pick her up a regular coffee ($4) and then headed back to the room to get ready for the day’s activities. The original plan for Friday had included a trip to Hoover Dam, but because there was now rain in the forecast we switched the itinerary around and moved several of Saturday’s planned activities to Friday (and vice versa).
After getting ready, we headed out for breakfast at Crossroads at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay. We intended to ride the tram from Excalibur down to Mandalay Bay, but when we walked over there we discovered the tram didn’t start running until 9am. Since it was only 8:15am, we decided to just get the car and drive over there for breakfast. We took a few pics before going to get the car.
We arrived at Mandalay Bay around 8:30am and proceeded to walk from the parking garage into the casino. We found the Crossroads restaurant and put our name on the list. It was a short 10 minute wait for a table, and we were seated around 8:45am.
For the meal, I went with the chorizo breakfast burrito and my wife chose the Three Amigo skillet. Service was prompt and we were enjoying our food in no time. Both dishes tasted delicious, but I think her skillet was maybe a little better (although it was way too large to finish). I had a 2-1 LVA coupon (with drink purchase), so the meal came to a total of $28 including tax + tip.
We left Mandalay Bay around 9:45am and took a leisurely drive over to the Gold Coast to play some bingo. After getting my B-Connected card reprinted, we eased on upstairs to the bingo hall to purchase our supplies. While my wife went to the back of the room to get us some daubers out of the vending machine, I stood in line and got each of us a blue paper pack and an electronic machine to share ($30 total).
The bingo session started on time at 11am, and we had a great time playing. My wife had not played bingo before, so it took her a moment to get the hang of things. The caller was calling the numbers mighty fast which put some pressure on her during the initial learning phase. She quickly got the hang of it though and really enjoyed it. We didn’t hit any bingos this time, but we got within 1 number on several of the games which was exciting.
The session ended at noon, and my wife said she wanted us to stick around the Gold Coast for a little while so we could play bingo again in their 1pm session. This was fine with me, so we eased downstairs to look for a $5 Pai Gow Poker table to play in the meantime.
We didn’t have any luck finding a $5 PGP table, so we ended up sitting at a $5 three-card-poker table. We both bought in for $100 and proceeded to play for about 40 minutes. I had explained to my wife that I always played the Q-6-4 strategy, so she played the same way. We had a brand new dealer who was very friendly and always asked if she was paying us correctly (which she was).
Things kind of went up and down at the 3CP table, but ultimately ended up down. We both cashed out with around $75 each, so that was a $50 loss between us. My wife opined that gambling is probably more fun when you are winning money. I told her winning money in casinos wasn’t really my style, so I wouldn’t know too much about that. ;)
After the light beating we received at the 3CP table, we headed back up to the bingo hall for the 1pm session. I bought the exact same setup as before, but for some reason it was only $29 instead of $30. We once again enjoyed an hour’s worth of entertainment, but also failed to hit a bingo this time as well.
Bingo’ed out for the time being, we decided to proceed onward to the next item on our agenda which was to go check out the Bellagio Conservatory. It was still raining and traffic was a bit heavy, but we ultimately made our way to the parking garage at the Bellagio around 2:25pm. We weren’t sure exactly where the conservatory was located, but we lucked up and it turned out to be right inside where we entered from the parking garage. It was decorated in a Christmas theme, and we really enjoyed all of the festive exhibits.
Finished at the Bellagio, we walked across the Strip to Planet Hollywood in order to stop by the box office at the Saxe Theater and pick up our tickets for the show we were planning to see later in the evening. The theater box office is located on the far side of the Miracle Mile shops, so it was quite a walk!
Tickets now in our possession, we walked back through Planet Hollywood and enjoyed a late lunch at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro near the front entrance of the casino. We were seated around 3:30pm, and service was quick since it was between the regular lunch and dinner hours.
I ordered the sesame chicken with iced tea, and my wife ordered the Chang’s spicy chicken with iced tea and egg drop soup. My wife found her dish to be excellent, and mine was pretty good as well. I think my favorite sesame chicken is at Koji’s in the Orleans, and this wasn’t quite as good as theirs (in my opinion). Total for the meal came to $42 with tax + tip.
We left P.F. Chang’s around 4:15pm and walked back to get the car at the Bellagio. Full and satisfied from our meal, we headed back to NYNY to rest up in anticipation of our 7pm show.
We recuperated in the room and filled out some postcards & such until around 5:45pm, and then proceeded to execute our Friday night plans which consisted of seeing VEGAS! The Show at Planet Hollywood at 7pm. We exited NYNY and did the now familiar u-turn on Tropicana to get back to Koval Lane and made our way to the Planet Hollywood parking garage.
VEGAS! The Show is a production show that tells the history of Las Vegas through multiple musical performances with some variety acts in between sets. My son and I saw this show back in June of 2012 and were both very entertained, so I thought my wife would probably enjoy it as well. I was right, and she did indeed enjoy it very much!
The show was over around 8:15pm, and we slowly exited out of the showroom with the other patrons. We had plans to walk around and do some sightseeing back down at the south end of the Strip, so we immediately retrieved the car and drove back to NYNY.
After parking the car at NYNY, we walked on over to the MGM to check things out. The National Finals Rodeo was finishing up while we were in Vegas, and it was VERY crowded at the MGM. So crowded you could barely walk through the casino! We quickly decided that we’d had enough of the MGM for the moment, and walked on out to the Strip at the ground level. We stopped by the Grand Avenue store right by the MGM to buy some 2015 Vegas calendars (5 for $5), and swung by the nearby Walgreens for a few items as well (bottle waters, etc.).
We did a little more strolling around and enjoying the lights before heading back to NYNY.
Even though it was a little after 10pm by now, upon entering NYNY I knew it was my time to score a piece of that NYP pizza! I asked my wife if she was hungry, and when she said no I said I was thinking about getting some NYP. She secured a small 2-person table while I went up to the counter to select my slice of pepperoni pizza. It was as tasty and crisp as I remembered, and I was mighty happy to enjoy it.
We then walked around the casino for a short while before heading back to the room around 11pm. It was once again a nice quiet night with plenty of good sleep!
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.
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DAY 3 TO FOLLOW…
I’m an early riser, so I was up around 5:15am Friday morning and proceeded to embark upon another one of my little Vegas traditions… which is to sneak out by myself and enjoy a caramel macchiato from Starbucks while playing some of my favorite penny machines. I have found this to be a nice relaxing routine, and it is a great way to start out my day when on vacation.
NYNY has a 24-hour Starbucks, so I didn’t have to wait until 6am for it to open like I’ve had to do on previous trips at other properties. I gave the cashier at Starbucks my MLife card and asked if there were any points on it to pay for the coffee, and I had a cool $6 on there. So the coffee on that first morning was free (although I never earned enough points to get another one free on this trip). :/
Coffee in hand, I slow-played some of my stacked lions, dragons, and panda machines and got a couple of small hits here and there.
I had planned to play some VP, but had a hard time finding any machines at the 5 cent level that weren’t multi-line machines. So I played a few hands in a quarter machine as well as a multi-line nickel machine. On the nickel VP machine I was dealt 3 of a kind on my first hand, and it had some kind of multiplier thing already activated on it where it paid me 12x my bet on one line. I think you had to be betting the max to keep it activated (which I wasn’t), so the multiplier feature didn’t stay on.
A member on another Vegas forum I like plays quite a bit of the Caveman Keno game, so I tried giving that a shot. I really liked the slow pace of the play, but unfortunately I didn’t win anything picture worthy.
Around 7am my wife texted me and said she was up, so I swung back by Starbucks to pick her up a regular coffee ($4) and then headed back to the room to get ready for the day’s activities. The original plan for Friday had included a trip to Hoover Dam, but because there was now rain in the forecast we switched the itinerary around and moved several of Saturday’s planned activities to Friday (and vice versa).
After getting ready, we headed out for breakfast at Crossroads at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay. We intended to ride the tram from Excalibur down to Mandalay Bay, but when we walked over there we discovered the tram didn’t start running until 9am. Since it was only 8:15am, we decided to just get the car and drive over there for breakfast. We took a few pics before going to get the car.
We arrived at Mandalay Bay around 8:30am and proceeded to walk from the parking garage into the casino. We found the Crossroads restaurant and put our name on the list. It was a short 10 minute wait for a table, and we were seated around 8:45am.
For the meal, I went with the chorizo breakfast burrito and my wife chose the Three Amigo skillet. Service was prompt and we were enjoying our food in no time. Both dishes tasted delicious, but I think her skillet was maybe a little better (although it was way too large to finish). I had a 2-1 LVA coupon (with drink purchase), so the meal came to a total of $28 including tax + tip.
We left Mandalay Bay around 9:45am and took a leisurely drive over to the Gold Coast to play some bingo. After getting my B-Connected card reprinted, we eased on upstairs to the bingo hall to purchase our supplies. While my wife went to the back of the room to get us some daubers out of the vending machine, I stood in line and got each of us a blue paper pack and an electronic machine to share ($30 total).
The bingo session started on time at 11am, and we had a great time playing. My wife had not played bingo before, so it took her a moment to get the hang of things. The caller was calling the numbers mighty fast which put some pressure on her during the initial learning phase. She quickly got the hang of it though and really enjoyed it. We didn’t hit any bingos this time, but we got within 1 number on several of the games which was exciting.
The session ended at noon, and my wife said she wanted us to stick around the Gold Coast for a little while so we could play bingo again in their 1pm session. This was fine with me, so we eased downstairs to look for a $5 Pai Gow Poker table to play in the meantime.
We didn’t have any luck finding a $5 PGP table, so we ended up sitting at a $5 three-card-poker table. We both bought in for $100 and proceeded to play for about 40 minutes. I had explained to my wife that I always played the Q-6-4 strategy, so she played the same way. We had a brand new dealer who was very friendly and always asked if she was paying us correctly (which she was).
Things kind of went up and down at the 3CP table, but ultimately ended up down. We both cashed out with around $75 each, so that was a $50 loss between us. My wife opined that gambling is probably more fun when you are winning money. I told her winning money in casinos wasn’t really my style, so I wouldn’t know too much about that. ;)
After the light beating we received at the 3CP table, we headed back up to the bingo hall for the 1pm session. I bought the exact same setup as before, but for some reason it was only $29 instead of $30. We once again enjoyed an hour’s worth of entertainment, but also failed to hit a bingo this time as well.
Bingo’ed out for the time being, we decided to proceed onward to the next item on our agenda which was to go check out the Bellagio Conservatory. It was still raining and traffic was a bit heavy, but we ultimately made our way to the parking garage at the Bellagio around 2:25pm. We weren’t sure exactly where the conservatory was located, but we lucked up and it turned out to be right inside where we entered from the parking garage. It was decorated in a Christmas theme, and we really enjoyed all of the festive exhibits.
Finished at the Bellagio, we walked across the Strip to Planet Hollywood in order to stop by the box office at the Saxe Theater and pick up our tickets for the show we were planning to see later in the evening. The theater box office is located on the far side of the Miracle Mile shops, so it was quite a walk!
Tickets now in our possession, we walked back through Planet Hollywood and enjoyed a late lunch at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro near the front entrance of the casino. We were seated around 3:30pm, and service was quick since it was between the regular lunch and dinner hours.
I ordered the sesame chicken with iced tea, and my wife ordered the Chang’s spicy chicken with iced tea and egg drop soup. My wife found her dish to be excellent, and mine was pretty good as well. I think my favorite sesame chicken is at Koji’s in the Orleans, and this wasn’t quite as good as theirs (in my opinion). Total for the meal came to $42 with tax + tip.
We left P.F. Chang’s around 4:15pm and walked back to get the car at the Bellagio. Full and satisfied from our meal, we headed back to NYNY to rest up in anticipation of our 7pm show.
We recuperated in the room and filled out some postcards & such until around 5:45pm, and then proceeded to execute our Friday night plans which consisted of seeing VEGAS! The Show at Planet Hollywood at 7pm. We exited NYNY and did the now familiar u-turn on Tropicana to get back to Koval Lane and made our way to the Planet Hollywood parking garage.
VEGAS! The Show is a production show that tells the history of Las Vegas through multiple musical performances with some variety acts in between sets. My son and I saw this show back in June of 2012 and were both very entertained, so I thought my wife would probably enjoy it as well. I was right, and she did indeed enjoy it very much!
The show was over around 8:15pm, and we slowly exited out of the showroom with the other patrons. We had plans to walk around and do some sightseeing back down at the south end of the Strip, so we immediately retrieved the car and drove back to NYNY.
After parking the car at NYNY, we walked on over to the MGM to check things out. The National Finals Rodeo was finishing up while we were in Vegas, and it was VERY crowded at the MGM. So crowded you could barely walk through the casino! We quickly decided that we’d had enough of the MGM for the moment, and walked on out to the Strip at the ground level. We stopped by the Grand Avenue store right by the MGM to buy some 2015 Vegas calendars (5 for $5), and swung by the nearby Walgreens for a few items as well (bottle waters, etc.).
We did a little more strolling around and enjoying the lights before heading back to NYNY.
Even though it was a little after 10pm by now, upon entering NYNY I knew it was my time to score a piece of that NYP pizza! I asked my wife if she was hungry, and when she said no I said I was thinking about getting some NYP. She secured a small 2-person table while I went up to the counter to select my slice of pepperoni pizza. It was as tasty and crisp as I remembered, and I was mighty happy to enjoy it.
We then walked around the casino for a short while before heading back to the room around 11pm. It was once again a nice quiet night with plenty of good sleep!
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DAY 3 TO FOLLOW…
You serious, Clark?
January 15th, 2015 at 4:08:42 PM
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It makes me sad that you vultured with min bet.
Expect the worst and you will never be disappointed.
I AM NOT PART OF GWAE RADIO SHOW
January 15th, 2015 at 4:24:29 PM
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Quote: GWAEIt makes me sad that you vultured with min bet.
I hear you. I sure didn't know what I was doing on that one.
I saw it was a nickel machine that had a low minimum bet, and I was surprised when it paid 12X on that line. Made me wish I had bet a lot more.
You serious, Clark?
January 15th, 2015 at 4:26:47 PM
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Great reporting....... Thanks
January 15th, 2015 at 5:52:14 PM
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I really enjoy your trip reports blount2000. Keep em coming.
I was curious about the "Coke" bears in the Bellagio display. I don't recall them having a commercial tie in before, so when I saw them, and the logos on the model train, it really seemed a shame. On the other hand, what does a, "holiday" display have to do with a Las Vegas casino anyway?
I don't know about you, but I am not used to folks holding up their huge iPad's to take pictures. It really feels like overkill. There were also young folks with phones and "GoPro" type camera's on the end of three-foot aluminum sticks that they were using to take pictures and video of themselves. The world is changing... and I am apparently falling further behind.
I was curious about the "Coke" bears in the Bellagio display. I don't recall them having a commercial tie in before, so when I saw them, and the logos on the model train, it really seemed a shame. On the other hand, what does a, "holiday" display have to do with a Las Vegas casino anyway?
I don't know about you, but I am not used to folks holding up their huge iPad's to take pictures. It really feels like overkill. There were also young folks with phones and "GoPro" type camera's on the end of three-foot aluminum sticks that they were using to take pictures and video of themselves. The world is changing... and I am apparently falling further behind.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
January 15th, 2015 at 7:06:45 PM
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Glad you finally got your pizza. My wife also makes us go to the Bellagio conservatory every trip.
January 15th, 2015 at 8:33:42 PM
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Quote: blount2000
My wife opined that gambling is probably more fun when you are winning money. I told her winning money in casinos wasn’t really my style, so I wouldn’t know too much about that. ;)
I can tell you that winning money in casino is not fun at all, it is bloody hard work .
Spending money (if you have) is fun, earning money is not fun.
winning streaks come and go, losing streak never ends.
January 15th, 2015 at 11:34:31 PM
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Quote: pokerface
Spending money (if you have) is fun, earning money is not fun.
Having the money is fun. Getting the money
is a pain in the hind quarters. Anybody who
tells you different isn't a real player.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
January 16th, 2015 at 6:53:20 AM
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Great trip report so far Blount! Sounds like you guys had a great trip. Can't wait to see what events you guys did on the following days.
Playing it correctly means you've already won.
January 16th, 2015 at 6:56:36 AM
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Quote: ScanGreat reporting....... Thanks
You are welcome!
Quote: AyecarumbaI really enjoy your trip reports blount2000. Keep em coming.
I was curious about the "Coke" bears in the Bellagio display. I don't recall them having a commercial tie in before, so when I saw them, and the logos on the model train, it really seemed a shame. On the other hand, what does a, "holiday" display have to do with a Las Vegas casino anyway?
I don't know about you, but I am not used to folks holding up their huge iPad's to take pictures. It really feels like overkill. There were also young folks with phones and "GoPro" type camera's on the end of three-foot aluminum sticks that they were using to take pictures and video of themselves. The world is changing... and I am apparently falling further behind.
Yep, Coke was definitely represented in those displays at the Bellagio. My pictures only show two of the bears, but there were at least five or six bears total.
I also saw quite a few folks using their larger tablets for pictures and videos. My windows phone is almost too large to easily take in and out of my pocket, so I imagine I'd have a tough time carrying around a full size tablet myself!
Quote: BeardgoatGlad you finally got your pizza. My wife also makes us go to the Bellagio conservatory every trip.
Yeah, I was mighty pleased to get my NYP fix. I had hoped to maybe even hit it one more time on this trip, but sadly it didn't work out that way. What I didn't mention in the report was the fact that I actually ordered two slices of pizza for myself when I ate at NYP. They automatically served them on two separate plates, so I ended up looking a little gluttonous sitting there eating two plates of pizza while my wife ate nothing. :)
Quote: pokerfaceI can tell you that winning money in casino is not fun at all, it is bloody hard work .
Spending money (if you have) is fun, earning money is not fun.
Quote: EvenBobHaving the money is fun. Getting the money
is a pain in the hind quarters. Anybody who
tells you different isn't a real player.
I always have such a great time in Vegas that I sometimes imagine what it would be like to live there. It seems like it would be nice to have 24-hour access to all of the gambling, dining, entertainment, etc. But who knows, maybe it is a little like going to the beach whereby some of the allure is the fact that you don't get to do it all the time (which in turn is what makes it more special).
Quote: RomesGreat trip report so far Blout! Sounds like you guys had a great trip. Can't wait to see what events you guys did on the following days.
Thanks! It was indeed a great trip with plenty of low-roller fun and entertainment. :)
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 6:57:00 AM
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DAY 3 OF 5 - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13TH
I was up and moving around 5:30am Saturday morning and headed downstairs for my coffee and penny machines. As I mentioned previously, the free coffee arrangement from Starbucks was very short lived so I parted with $6 for my caramel macchiato before settling down to play my penny machines.
I enjoyed my “stacked” machines for a while with no luck, and then moved on to a Queen of the Wild II machine that was a little more kind to me. I had a fair amount of luck on this game when I played it at the Rio the previous year, and it turned out to be a good game on this trip as well.
I then strolled around again trying to find some nickel VP, and came across some quarter VP machines that appeared to have a decent pay-table. I played on these for a while and hit a few things here and there. For some reason, these particular VP machines did not have a place to insert my players card so I wasn’t able to get any credit/points for my play.
I headed back up to the room around 7:15am to take my wife her coffee ($4) and get ready for the day.
The first item on our agenda for Saturday was a trip to Hoover Dam (which we had rescheduled from Friday due to the rain). We originally had plans to enjoy a nice breakfast at a restaurant called The Cracked Egg, but neither one of us was super hungry this morning. I typically plan for three substantial meals per day on my vacations, but then usually end up only eating two big meals. That seemed to be the case on this trip as well.
With the decision made to skip The Cracked Egg, we retrieved the car and got on the road headed toward Hoover Dam around 8am. Along the way we did swing by Jack-in-the-Box on Horizon Drive so I could get a bacon/egg/cheese croissant ($5) which would tide me over until lunch.
We arrived at the Dam around 9am, and proceeded to the Visitors Center so we could purchase tickets for a tour. We chose the Power Plant Tour ($15 each) that included a short movie along with a brief tour into the dam itself to view the power plant area. We had an entertaining guide, and he did a good job of keeping our attention during the tour.
The power plant tour completed, we were turned out onto the dam to explore on our own. I of course had been to Hoover Dam several times in the past, but it was nice to experience it with my wife for her first time. She really enjoyed it and was glad we had included it on the itinerary!
We spent a total of about 2 hours at the dam, and then decided it was time to head back into Vegas for a bite to eat. Our lunch plans for today consisted of enjoying a burger at BLT Burger in the Mirage, so we left Hoover Dam and drove directly to the parking garage at the Mirage.
It was around 11:45am, and the Mirage was VERY crowded (once again with folks associated with the rodeo finals). After walking through the lobby and making our way around towards the restaurant area, we immediately saw BLT Burger was totally packed. A line had already formed outside the restaurant that stretched almost to the entrance of the casino by Rhumbar. :/
We did not want to wait that long for a table, so we decided to just place an order at BLT’s “to go” counter located on the side of the restaurant. I ordered the I-80 burger with a drink, and my wife ordered the classic burger (no bun) with a drink as well. After putting in our order, we stood and waited for about 15 minutes for it to be prepared. The have a big open grill in the back where you can see the food being made.
Once we received our food, we walked into the casino area close to the Cirque LOVE theater and found some open high-top tables where we unpacked our meal. There weren’t any chairs or anything, so we enjoyed our burgers standing up at the tables. The I-80 burger from BLT is one of my favorites, and this one did not disappoint! It was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious.
BLT is not an inexpensive place, and the total for the two burgers & two sodas came to $46. Totally worth it to me though as a splurge.
Finished with our lunch, we went back to the car and proceeded onward to the next item on the itinerary… Frankie’s Tiki Room! As I’ve mentioned in previous trip reports, Frankie’s is one of my regular stops every time I come to Vegas. It is a tiki-themed bar located over on Charleston Avenue, and it has a very unique and pleasant vibe associated with it. Frankie’s also periodically releases custom ceramic tiki mugs that I have been collecting as Vegas souvenirs over the years.
We arrived at Frankie’s around 2pm and went on in. It is very dark inside and it took a few minutes for our eyes to adjust to the low light. There were only a few other people inside, so we were able to get a seat at one of the regular tables. Frankie’s had released a new tiki mug since my last visit and I was eager to add it to my collection.
After perusing the drink menu, I walked up to the bar and ordered a Kahiki-Kai in a regular glass for myself, and a diet coke in the new “Frankie-stein” mug for my wife. The Kahiki-Kai is one of my favorite drinks at Frankie’s, and this one was as smooth and fruity as always (total for two drinks and the new tiki mug came to $33). My wife really enjoyed the atmosphere at Frankie’s, and later said that she definitely wanted to go back again on future trips.
My wife and I relaxed and hung out at Frankie’s for a while, and then around 3:15pm decided to head back to NYNY for a little recuperation and maybe some afternoon slot play before our evening activities.
We got back to NYNY around 3:30pm and immediately hit some of the slots for a little afternoon entertainment. We pretty much stuck with playing the “stacked” machines, and my wife took a real liking to the Queen of the Wild II machine I had played earlier that morning. We had a couple of decent hits between us, although nothing life-changing. ;)
Around 4:45pm we headed up to the room to rest a bit and get ready for our first Saturday evening event, which was to attend the 7pm Cirque Mystere show at Treasure Island. We freshened up in the room and then went to get the car around 5:45pm to make our way over to TI.
When leaving the parking garage at NYNY, we decided to try driving between NYNY and the Monte Carlo even though there was some construction. We had a map, and it looked like you could get to Frank Sinatra Drive which would then turn into Industrial Road closer towards TI. Traffic was a bear, and although we successfully made our way onto Industrial Road, we missed our turn that would take us to the TI parking garage. So we had to go turn around on Industrial and fight the traffic back to the turn we had missed. We eventually got to the parking garage, although I was glad we had left NYNY in plenty of time to allow some wiggle room!
I purchased our Mystere tickets online in advance ($177 for both) and had chosen center seating, so we had a nice view of the action. The show started on time at 7pm, and my wife and I both enjoyed Mystere very much!
Following the completion of the Cirque show at TI, our agenda led us towards Downtown in search of some good pizza and some Fremont Street entertainment! We drove downtown and parked at Main Street Station. On previous trips I had been able to show my players card at the gate to get the parking fee waived, but they wouldn’t do it this time. They did give me a receipt and a card and said I could get it validated inside Main Street Station to get the parking fee refunded. I put the receipt on my dash and took the card with me, but later realized I was supposed to have the receipt itself validated and that the card was just instructions on how to do that. So no free parking for me at MSS this time!
It was around 8:45pm by now, and we were both pretty hungry. We had previously selected a place on 3rd street called Pizza Rock as our dining choice, so we walked out of the parking lot at MSS and headed in that direction. It was only a few blocks away, so it didn’t take long to get there. Although it was fairly crowded inside, we were lucky and there was no wait for a table.
Pizza Rock turned out to be a mighty cool place with loud 80’s music (and music videos) playing on screens throughout the restaurant. My wife and I shared a gluten-free pepperoni pizza, and it tasted fantastic! Cost of the pizza and two sodas came to $30 including tax + tip.
I typically am not a real big fan of some of the gluten-free foods my wife has to eat, but this pizza was terrific. Almost as good as my NYP. Almost. :)
We asked for the check at Pizza Rock around 9:30pm because we wanted to have enough time to walk over to Fremont Street for the 10pm canopy light show. We stopped along the way to take a picture of the big Christmas tree.
The light show started at 10pm, and it was a country music themed production that was especially for the folks in town for the rodeo finals (that was my understanding anyway). The show itself was very good and my wife really liked it.
When the FSE show was over, my wife and I walked around a bit and ended up going into Binions to check things out. While inside, we stumbled across some Star Wars penny machines that are like the ones I love so much over at Casino Royale!
Although I already had the Star Wars slots at Casino Royale on my itinerary for the following day, we went ahead and played the ones we found at Binions for a while. And boy am I glad we did, because unbeknownst to me I was headed for a heartbreak in less than 24 hours!
Anyway, the Star Wars machines at Binions were kind to us and we enjoyed a couple of nice hits.
We eventually left Binions and strolled around downtown for a while longer before heading back to the car around 11pm. This is when I discovered I had incorrectly taken the card instead of the parking receipt with me for the MSS parking validation. It wasn’t worth the trouble to try to fix it, so I absorbed that $5 parking fee as the cost of doing business. ;)
We left downtown and drove back towards the Strip, arriving at NYNY around 11:30pm. We had another full slate of activities planned for the next day, so we called it a night and headed to the room.
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.
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DAY 4 TO FOLLOW…
I was up and moving around 5:30am Saturday morning and headed downstairs for my coffee and penny machines. As I mentioned previously, the free coffee arrangement from Starbucks was very short lived so I parted with $6 for my caramel macchiato before settling down to play my penny machines.
I enjoyed my “stacked” machines for a while with no luck, and then moved on to a Queen of the Wild II machine that was a little more kind to me. I had a fair amount of luck on this game when I played it at the Rio the previous year, and it turned out to be a good game on this trip as well.
I then strolled around again trying to find some nickel VP, and came across some quarter VP machines that appeared to have a decent pay-table. I played on these for a while and hit a few things here and there. For some reason, these particular VP machines did not have a place to insert my players card so I wasn’t able to get any credit/points for my play.
I headed back up to the room around 7:15am to take my wife her coffee ($4) and get ready for the day.
The first item on our agenda for Saturday was a trip to Hoover Dam (which we had rescheduled from Friday due to the rain). We originally had plans to enjoy a nice breakfast at a restaurant called The Cracked Egg, but neither one of us was super hungry this morning. I typically plan for three substantial meals per day on my vacations, but then usually end up only eating two big meals. That seemed to be the case on this trip as well.
With the decision made to skip The Cracked Egg, we retrieved the car and got on the road headed toward Hoover Dam around 8am. Along the way we did swing by Jack-in-the-Box on Horizon Drive so I could get a bacon/egg/cheese croissant ($5) which would tide me over until lunch.
We arrived at the Dam around 9am, and proceeded to the Visitors Center so we could purchase tickets for a tour. We chose the Power Plant Tour ($15 each) that included a short movie along with a brief tour into the dam itself to view the power plant area. We had an entertaining guide, and he did a good job of keeping our attention during the tour.
The power plant tour completed, we were turned out onto the dam to explore on our own. I of course had been to Hoover Dam several times in the past, but it was nice to experience it with my wife for her first time. She really enjoyed it and was glad we had included it on the itinerary!
We spent a total of about 2 hours at the dam, and then decided it was time to head back into Vegas for a bite to eat. Our lunch plans for today consisted of enjoying a burger at BLT Burger in the Mirage, so we left Hoover Dam and drove directly to the parking garage at the Mirage.
It was around 11:45am, and the Mirage was VERY crowded (once again with folks associated with the rodeo finals). After walking through the lobby and making our way around towards the restaurant area, we immediately saw BLT Burger was totally packed. A line had already formed outside the restaurant that stretched almost to the entrance of the casino by Rhumbar. :/
We did not want to wait that long for a table, so we decided to just place an order at BLT’s “to go” counter located on the side of the restaurant. I ordered the I-80 burger with a drink, and my wife ordered the classic burger (no bun) with a drink as well. After putting in our order, we stood and waited for about 15 minutes for it to be prepared. The have a big open grill in the back where you can see the food being made.
Once we received our food, we walked into the casino area close to the Cirque LOVE theater and found some open high-top tables where we unpacked our meal. There weren’t any chairs or anything, so we enjoyed our burgers standing up at the tables. The I-80 burger from BLT is one of my favorites, and this one did not disappoint! It was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious.
BLT is not an inexpensive place, and the total for the two burgers & two sodas came to $46. Totally worth it to me though as a splurge.
Finished with our lunch, we went back to the car and proceeded onward to the next item on the itinerary… Frankie’s Tiki Room! As I’ve mentioned in previous trip reports, Frankie’s is one of my regular stops every time I come to Vegas. It is a tiki-themed bar located over on Charleston Avenue, and it has a very unique and pleasant vibe associated with it. Frankie’s also periodically releases custom ceramic tiki mugs that I have been collecting as Vegas souvenirs over the years.
We arrived at Frankie’s around 2pm and went on in. It is very dark inside and it took a few minutes for our eyes to adjust to the low light. There were only a few other people inside, so we were able to get a seat at one of the regular tables. Frankie’s had released a new tiki mug since my last visit and I was eager to add it to my collection.
After perusing the drink menu, I walked up to the bar and ordered a Kahiki-Kai in a regular glass for myself, and a diet coke in the new “Frankie-stein” mug for my wife. The Kahiki-Kai is one of my favorite drinks at Frankie’s, and this one was as smooth and fruity as always (total for two drinks and the new tiki mug came to $33). My wife really enjoyed the atmosphere at Frankie’s, and later said that she definitely wanted to go back again on future trips.
My wife and I relaxed and hung out at Frankie’s for a while, and then around 3:15pm decided to head back to NYNY for a little recuperation and maybe some afternoon slot play before our evening activities.
We got back to NYNY around 3:30pm and immediately hit some of the slots for a little afternoon entertainment. We pretty much stuck with playing the “stacked” machines, and my wife took a real liking to the Queen of the Wild II machine I had played earlier that morning. We had a couple of decent hits between us, although nothing life-changing. ;)
Around 4:45pm we headed up to the room to rest a bit and get ready for our first Saturday evening event, which was to attend the 7pm Cirque Mystere show at Treasure Island. We freshened up in the room and then went to get the car around 5:45pm to make our way over to TI.
When leaving the parking garage at NYNY, we decided to try driving between NYNY and the Monte Carlo even though there was some construction. We had a map, and it looked like you could get to Frank Sinatra Drive which would then turn into Industrial Road closer towards TI. Traffic was a bear, and although we successfully made our way onto Industrial Road, we missed our turn that would take us to the TI parking garage. So we had to go turn around on Industrial and fight the traffic back to the turn we had missed. We eventually got to the parking garage, although I was glad we had left NYNY in plenty of time to allow some wiggle room!
I purchased our Mystere tickets online in advance ($177 for both) and had chosen center seating, so we had a nice view of the action. The show started on time at 7pm, and my wife and I both enjoyed Mystere very much!
Following the completion of the Cirque show at TI, our agenda led us towards Downtown in search of some good pizza and some Fremont Street entertainment! We drove downtown and parked at Main Street Station. On previous trips I had been able to show my players card at the gate to get the parking fee waived, but they wouldn’t do it this time. They did give me a receipt and a card and said I could get it validated inside Main Street Station to get the parking fee refunded. I put the receipt on my dash and took the card with me, but later realized I was supposed to have the receipt itself validated and that the card was just instructions on how to do that. So no free parking for me at MSS this time!
It was around 8:45pm by now, and we were both pretty hungry. We had previously selected a place on 3rd street called Pizza Rock as our dining choice, so we walked out of the parking lot at MSS and headed in that direction. It was only a few blocks away, so it didn’t take long to get there. Although it was fairly crowded inside, we were lucky and there was no wait for a table.
Pizza Rock turned out to be a mighty cool place with loud 80’s music (and music videos) playing on screens throughout the restaurant. My wife and I shared a gluten-free pepperoni pizza, and it tasted fantastic! Cost of the pizza and two sodas came to $30 including tax + tip.
I typically am not a real big fan of some of the gluten-free foods my wife has to eat, but this pizza was terrific. Almost as good as my NYP. Almost. :)
We asked for the check at Pizza Rock around 9:30pm because we wanted to have enough time to walk over to Fremont Street for the 10pm canopy light show. We stopped along the way to take a picture of the big Christmas tree.
The light show started at 10pm, and it was a country music themed production that was especially for the folks in town for the rodeo finals (that was my understanding anyway). The show itself was very good and my wife really liked it.
When the FSE show was over, my wife and I walked around a bit and ended up going into Binions to check things out. While inside, we stumbled across some Star Wars penny machines that are like the ones I love so much over at Casino Royale!
Although I already had the Star Wars slots at Casino Royale on my itinerary for the following day, we went ahead and played the ones we found at Binions for a while. And boy am I glad we did, because unbeknownst to me I was headed for a heartbreak in less than 24 hours!
Anyway, the Star Wars machines at Binions were kind to us and we enjoyed a couple of nice hits.
We eventually left Binions and strolled around downtown for a while longer before heading back to the car around 11pm. This is when I discovered I had incorrectly taken the card instead of the parking receipt with me for the MSS parking validation. It wasn’t worth the trouble to try to fix it, so I absorbed that $5 parking fee as the cost of doing business. ;)
We left downtown and drove back towards the Strip, arriving at NYNY around 11:30pm. We had another full slate of activities planned for the next day, so we called it a night and headed to the room.
.
.
.
DAY 4 TO FOLLOW…
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 8:17:32 AM
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Did you photoshop all those pics where we can see others walking around? I mean I only counted 1 cowboy hat in all of them. Having been there the same days you were I know just how many cowboy hats and belt buckles were in town.
Fridays weather was pretty bad so I decided to head to Death Valley that day. Heading over the little mountain range on Blue Diamond it was snowing.... by the time i got to Pahrump the roads were flooded so I turned back around ...guess it wasn't so bad in Vegas Friday after all.
Fridays weather was pretty bad so I decided to head to Death Valley that day. Heading over the little mountain range on Blue Diamond it was snowing.... by the time i got to Pahrump the roads were flooded so I turned back around ...guess it wasn't so bad in Vegas Friday after all.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:28:19 AM
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I am enjoying this very much. As I always do when you post a TR. It's funny, I've been to Vegas dozens of times and haven't done most of what you have. I'm always gambling too much. Maybe we'll actually get out to the Hoover Dam the next trip. Which will be in the spring most likely.
Stupid is a choice
January 16th, 2015 at 8:33:54 AM
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Quote: coilmanDid you photoshop all those pics where we can see others walking around? I mean I only counted 1 cowboy hat in all of them. Having been there the same days you were I know just how many cowboy hats and belt buckles were in town.
Nope, all of the photos are original & unaltered. I mentioned to my wife while we were there that I wasn't seeing as many western outfits as I expected to based upon my trip last December at the same time during the NFR.
Maybe it was just the timing of when we were out & about, but the only time I really saw the expected proliferation of cowboy hats was when we did our short walk through the crowded MGM on Friday night.
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 8:41:54 AM
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Quote: texasplumrI am enjoying this very much. As I always do when you post a TR. It's funny, I've been to Vegas dozens of times and haven't done most of what you have. I'm always gambling too much. Maybe we'll actually get out to the Hoover Dam the next trip. Which will be in the spring most likely.
Thanks! The Hoover Dam is great and I've enjoyed it every time I've been there.
It's kind of spooky to lean out over the edge for pictures though. I always have this fear that some crazy dude is going to run up behind me, grab my legs, and flip me over the edge. Strange, I know. :)
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 8:43:24 AM
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Places like SOUTH POINT where they converted the lower parking level to a horse stable were jammed full of cowboy hats. As was GOLD COAST and RIO
January 16th, 2015 at 8:49:55 AM
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Blount, I don't think I'd have any trouble recognizing you or your wife even with the blurred faces.
Did you walk on the Tillman Bridge and did you purchase any Nevada lottery tickets? I hear they are extremely difficult to find. :-)
Did you walk on the Tillman Bridge and did you purchase any Nevada lottery tickets? I hear they are extremely difficult to find. :-)
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth. - Mahatma Ghandi
January 16th, 2015 at 9:25:06 AM
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Quote: 1BBBlount, I don't think I'd have any trouble recognizing you or your wife even with the blurred faces.
Did you walk on the Tillman Bridge and did you purchase any Nevada lottery tickets? I hear they are extremely difficult to find. :-)
I've driven over the Tillman Bridge several times, but never have walked it. This probably would have been a good trip to do it though since the temps were mild. I can't imagine how hot it would be walking it in the summer time.
Nope, no lottery tickets for me! I stick to TN for my meager lottery play (especially since there aren't any casinos here). I don't remember even seeing any lottery tickets in Vegas, which may be what you meant! :)
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 10:27:19 AM
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Cool,
You took the dam tour with the dam tour guide.
I did it also. great tour.
Had a dam good tour guide :-)
You took the dam tour with the dam tour guide.
I did it also. great tour.
Had a dam good tour guide :-)
When somebody doesn't believe me, I could care less. Some get totally bent out of shape when not believed. Weird. I believe very little on all forums
January 16th, 2015 at 10:35:45 AM
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Quote: terapinedCool,
You took the dam tour with the dam tour guide.
I did it also. great tour.
Had a dam good tour guide :-)
Lol. When the guide asked if anyone had any questions I was so tempted to pull a Cousin Eddie and say "Yeah, where can I get some dam bait?"
My wife knows me too well though and had already warned me beforehand that I'd better not do it unless I wanted to walk back to Vegas.
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 11:09:30 AM
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DAY 4 OF 5 - SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14TH
Up once again at the fairly early hour of 5:45am, I headed downstairs for my coffee ($6) and penny machines. This morning the penny machines were not very kind to me. I almost always have some “decent” hits here and there each morning (which keep me afloat), but not today. I burned through $40 without a single decent hit almost before I could finish my coffee. Although I obviously prefer winning, I don’t mind spending (i.e. losing) my allotted gambling budget as entertainment as long as I get some good play time out of it. Oh well, that’s just the way it goes sometimes!
I headed back up to the room with a coffee for my wife ($4) around 6:45am. Our morning plans included a drive out to Red Rock Canyon, but we lazed around for a while first and checked some emails, finished up a few remaining postcards, and did a little preliminary cleaning/organizing since today was our final full day.
We eventually left the room around 9:30am to get the car and head towards Red Rock Canyon. It was a nice sunny day with plenty of blue skies which made for a pleasant drive to Red Rock. Once there, we paid the admission fee ($7) at the gate and proceeded to enjoy the 13-mile scenic loop that goes through the area. We stopped several times to do some light exploring and take a few pictures.
We completed our scenic drive through Red Rock Canyon around 11:30am, and proceeded to make our way over to the P.F. Chang’s on Rampart Road. My wife really loved her meal at the P.F. Chang’s at Planet Hollywood earlier in the trip and wanted to enjoy their food again.
I ordered the crispy honey chicken, my wife ordered the lemon chicken, and we split an order of the chicken fried rice. I was extremely pleased with my dish, and we both left there full and happy. Sunday full-prices were in effect, so the total cost for the meal came to $52.
As we were leaving P.F. Chang’s, we decided that we would try to make it over to Red Rock Resort to play in their 1pm session of bingo. Time was tight and we had to scramble to make it in time, but we arrived there and were able to purchase our paper packs + an electronic machine ($31) just in time to sit down and start playing.
The bingo hall at the Gold Coast is very large and has rarely been crowded when we play, but the Red Rock bingo hall was almost completely full. I liked the additional energy brought about by the larger groups of people at Red Rock, but I could really tell that winning would be harder here with all of the additional people playing. We didn’t bingo, and only got within 1 number one time. The bingos seemed to be hitting very quickly (by other people) here at Red Rock. It was still a blast playing and we had a good time!
The bingo session ended around 2pm and we left Red Rock and headed back towards NYNY to regroup and collect our thoughts (i.e. take a nap). We got back to the hotel around 2:45pm or so, and rested up for a while and continued to do a little preliminary packing since our flight left in the morning.
Around 4pm we decided to stroll around and go check out Excalibur. We exited NYNY and made our way over the crosswalk to Excalibur. We played some Gold Fish penny machines, and looked around (without success) for a machine called Seven Rush that my son always liked to play. I was hoping to maybe hit something nice on Seven Rush and then send him a picture of it, but we never could find the machine. We spent about 45 minutes in Excalibur and then eased back to NYNY to get ready for our dinner plans later that evening.
Just like Frankie’s Tiki Room, one place I always have to hit when I’m in Vegas is Battista’s Hole in the Wall Italian restaurant. We had a 6pm reservation at Battista’s, so my wife and I left the room at NYNY around 5:15pm and headed that way. We arrived about 15 minutes before our reservation time, but they were able to seat us right away.
I guess I’m a creature of habit, because I once again ordered the Chicken Rio & salad for the meal, and my wife ordered the Veal Marsala & salad. The meal comes with unlimited wine and garlic bread, as well as a salad or soup.
My Chicken Rio was fantastic as usual. And although my wife said her Veal Marsala was tasty, she said she would probably choose a different entree next time. I had a $10 coupon, so after that the total for the meal came to $65 including tax + tip.
One aspect of the evening at Battista’s my wife really enjoyed was the accordion player who comes around and plays a short tune for each table. He usually asks where you are from and then plays a song relating to the location, but this time he played ‘O Sole Mio’ which was a nice change.
We finished up at Battista’s and drove over to the Harrah’s parking garage so we could engage in some mid-strip activities on our last night in town. It was getting close to 7pm, so we hurried through Harrah’s and walked across the street to watch the volcano in front of the Mirage. It was a little chilly outside, so the heat from the volcano made things nice and toasty at times!
Once the volcano show ended, it was time for us to head over to Casino Royale so I could play my favorite Star Wars machines.
I have been playing these same machines for years, and have mentioned before that they are rarely in use whenever we go to sit down. I guess this “lack of use” finally caught up with them because when I turned the corner at the back of Casino Royale I was shocked and disappointed to discover that my Star Wars machines were gone!! I think the physical machines are the same, but they have been “repurposed” with different games. Here is what I saw:
I sure was sad to see this because enjoying those Star Wars machines has been a long-time tradition for me, my son, and my cousin whenever we come to Vegas. I certainly was glad my wife and I had played those other Star Wars machines at Binions the night before.
We eventually made our way back to Harrah’s where my wife saw one of the Queen of the Wild II machines, and she ended up hitting a nice $35 win on this machine.
It was around 8:30pm, and we decided it was time to head back to NYNY to finish up packing and prepare for our early morning check-out and flight back home. After pulling out of the Harrah’s parking garage, we stopped and took a quick picture of the High Roller wheel. We had originally intended to ride this while we were here, but ended up electing not to. It will be something to look forward to next time!
We swung by the Chevron on Tropicana Avenue to gas up the rental car ($24), and then made our way back to the hotel. It is always a little sad when the final night of a vacation is coming to a close, but we had enjoyed so many wonderful things on this trip that the sadness was very small. We got back to the room, completed our packing, and called it a night in anticipation of the early morning that was right around the corner!
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.
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DAY 5 TO FOLLOW…
Up once again at the fairly early hour of 5:45am, I headed downstairs for my coffee ($6) and penny machines. This morning the penny machines were not very kind to me. I almost always have some “decent” hits here and there each morning (which keep me afloat), but not today. I burned through $40 without a single decent hit almost before I could finish my coffee. Although I obviously prefer winning, I don’t mind spending (i.e. losing) my allotted gambling budget as entertainment as long as I get some good play time out of it. Oh well, that’s just the way it goes sometimes!
I headed back up to the room with a coffee for my wife ($4) around 6:45am. Our morning plans included a drive out to Red Rock Canyon, but we lazed around for a while first and checked some emails, finished up a few remaining postcards, and did a little preliminary cleaning/organizing since today was our final full day.
We eventually left the room around 9:30am to get the car and head towards Red Rock Canyon. It was a nice sunny day with plenty of blue skies which made for a pleasant drive to Red Rock. Once there, we paid the admission fee ($7) at the gate and proceeded to enjoy the 13-mile scenic loop that goes through the area. We stopped several times to do some light exploring and take a few pictures.
We completed our scenic drive through Red Rock Canyon around 11:30am, and proceeded to make our way over to the P.F. Chang’s on Rampart Road. My wife really loved her meal at the P.F. Chang’s at Planet Hollywood earlier in the trip and wanted to enjoy their food again.
I ordered the crispy honey chicken, my wife ordered the lemon chicken, and we split an order of the chicken fried rice. I was extremely pleased with my dish, and we both left there full and happy. Sunday full-prices were in effect, so the total cost for the meal came to $52.
As we were leaving P.F. Chang’s, we decided that we would try to make it over to Red Rock Resort to play in their 1pm session of bingo. Time was tight and we had to scramble to make it in time, but we arrived there and were able to purchase our paper packs + an electronic machine ($31) just in time to sit down and start playing.
The bingo hall at the Gold Coast is very large and has rarely been crowded when we play, but the Red Rock bingo hall was almost completely full. I liked the additional energy brought about by the larger groups of people at Red Rock, but I could really tell that winning would be harder here with all of the additional people playing. We didn’t bingo, and only got within 1 number one time. The bingos seemed to be hitting very quickly (by other people) here at Red Rock. It was still a blast playing and we had a good time!
The bingo session ended around 2pm and we left Red Rock and headed back towards NYNY to regroup and collect our thoughts (i.e. take a nap). We got back to the hotel around 2:45pm or so, and rested up for a while and continued to do a little preliminary packing since our flight left in the morning.
Around 4pm we decided to stroll around and go check out Excalibur. We exited NYNY and made our way over the crosswalk to Excalibur. We played some Gold Fish penny machines, and looked around (without success) for a machine called Seven Rush that my son always liked to play. I was hoping to maybe hit something nice on Seven Rush and then send him a picture of it, but we never could find the machine. We spent about 45 minutes in Excalibur and then eased back to NYNY to get ready for our dinner plans later that evening.
Just like Frankie’s Tiki Room, one place I always have to hit when I’m in Vegas is Battista’s Hole in the Wall Italian restaurant. We had a 6pm reservation at Battista’s, so my wife and I left the room at NYNY around 5:15pm and headed that way. We arrived about 15 minutes before our reservation time, but they were able to seat us right away.
I guess I’m a creature of habit, because I once again ordered the Chicken Rio & salad for the meal, and my wife ordered the Veal Marsala & salad. The meal comes with unlimited wine and garlic bread, as well as a salad or soup.
My Chicken Rio was fantastic as usual. And although my wife said her Veal Marsala was tasty, she said she would probably choose a different entree next time. I had a $10 coupon, so after that the total for the meal came to $65 including tax + tip.
One aspect of the evening at Battista’s my wife really enjoyed was the accordion player who comes around and plays a short tune for each table. He usually asks where you are from and then plays a song relating to the location, but this time he played ‘O Sole Mio’ which was a nice change.
We finished up at Battista’s and drove over to the Harrah’s parking garage so we could engage in some mid-strip activities on our last night in town. It was getting close to 7pm, so we hurried through Harrah’s and walked across the street to watch the volcano in front of the Mirage. It was a little chilly outside, so the heat from the volcano made things nice and toasty at times!
Once the volcano show ended, it was time for us to head over to Casino Royale so I could play my favorite Star Wars machines.
I have been playing these same machines for years, and have mentioned before that they are rarely in use whenever we go to sit down. I guess this “lack of use” finally caught up with them because when I turned the corner at the back of Casino Royale I was shocked and disappointed to discover that my Star Wars machines were gone!! I think the physical machines are the same, but they have been “repurposed” with different games. Here is what I saw:
I sure was sad to see this because enjoying those Star Wars machines has been a long-time tradition for me, my son, and my cousin whenever we come to Vegas. I certainly was glad my wife and I had played those other Star Wars machines at Binions the night before.
We eventually made our way back to Harrah’s where my wife saw one of the Queen of the Wild II machines, and she ended up hitting a nice $35 win on this machine.
It was around 8:30pm, and we decided it was time to head back to NYNY to finish up packing and prepare for our early morning check-out and flight back home. After pulling out of the Harrah’s parking garage, we stopped and took a quick picture of the High Roller wheel. We had originally intended to ride this while we were here, but ended up electing not to. It will be something to look forward to next time!
We swung by the Chevron on Tropicana Avenue to gas up the rental car ($24), and then made our way back to the hotel. It is always a little sad when the final night of a vacation is coming to a close, but we had enjoyed so many wonderful things on this trip that the sadness was very small. We got back to the room, completed our packing, and called it a night in anticipation of the early morning that was right around the corner!
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DAY 5 TO FOLLOW…
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 12:20:42 PM
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DAY 5 OF 5 - MONDAY, DECEMBER 15TH
Time to go home!!
Our anticipated check-out time was 6:15am, so I went downstairs around 4:50am for one last caramel macchiato ($6). I knew I didn’t have enough time for any serious penny machine play, so I stuck $20 in a Wheel of Fortune progressive machine and figured I’d take a quick shot at maybe hitting some real money to cap off this trip. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and I was on my way back up to the room a few minutes later.
After getting ready, we gathered all of our bags and belongings and prepared to check out on the TV. I pulled up my account on the TV, and went through the express check-out process. Strangely, it made me perform a separate check-out for me and another one for my wife.
Check-out complete, we took our bags and retrieved the car from self-parking one last time. We made it to the rental car return center around 6:45am, and caught the shuttle to the airport without any delays. Going through security inside the terminal was about as quick and smooth as I have ever experienced, which was nice.
We had enough time to enjoy a light breakfast from Burger King ($13) inside the gate area, and then shortly thereafter our flight arrived. We boarded on time, and once again chose seats in the very back row. This time I sat in the window seat and had a wonderful view of the Strip as we were taking off. I snapped a picture, and then took a little video of the takeoff. Although we were happy to be on the way home, it was mighty tough seeing that Las Vegas strip get smaller and smaller as the plane flew away!
The flight back to Tennessee was nice and smooth, and we arrived in Nashville about 15 minutes earlier than expected. We retrieved our luggage, got the car out of long term parking ($45), and then made it home about an hour later (bringing an official end to the Winter 2014 Vegas trip)!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall, I think this Vegas trip was probably one of the best I’ve had. Although the gambling was a bit lighter than when my son and I go, my wife and I immensely enjoyed all of the fun activities, shows, food, etc., that we experienced on this trip. The drinking was quite a bit lighter as well. I had a $50 drink credit at NYNY that I didn’t even touch (had my son been with us, I’m sure that credit would have been zero’d out!). I’ll have to play catch up on the next trip. ;)
Total cash cost for this trip came to around $1,900 for everything (including small gambling losses of around $200). Keep in mind we paid for the airfare with points so that is not in the cash total, which saved us about $750.
As noted in the past, I always prepare a tentative agenda for my Vegas trips which we use as a guide. And as on prior trips, some activities on the itinerary were completed, some were shuffled around, and some didn’t make the cut (which is totally fine). Below is the itinerary we used for this Winter 2014 trip. I imagine some items will make their way onto the agenda for the next trip!
Cheers!!
Time to go home!!
Our anticipated check-out time was 6:15am, so I went downstairs around 4:50am for one last caramel macchiato ($6). I knew I didn’t have enough time for any serious penny machine play, so I stuck $20 in a Wheel of Fortune progressive machine and figured I’d take a quick shot at maybe hitting some real money to cap off this trip. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and I was on my way back up to the room a few minutes later.
After getting ready, we gathered all of our bags and belongings and prepared to check out on the TV. I pulled up my account on the TV, and went through the express check-out process. Strangely, it made me perform a separate check-out for me and another one for my wife.
Check-out complete, we took our bags and retrieved the car from self-parking one last time. We made it to the rental car return center around 6:45am, and caught the shuttle to the airport without any delays. Going through security inside the terminal was about as quick and smooth as I have ever experienced, which was nice.
We had enough time to enjoy a light breakfast from Burger King ($13) inside the gate area, and then shortly thereafter our flight arrived. We boarded on time, and once again chose seats in the very back row. This time I sat in the window seat and had a wonderful view of the Strip as we were taking off. I snapped a picture, and then took a little video of the takeoff. Although we were happy to be on the way home, it was mighty tough seeing that Las Vegas strip get smaller and smaller as the plane flew away!
The flight back to Tennessee was nice and smooth, and we arrived in Nashville about 15 minutes earlier than expected. We retrieved our luggage, got the car out of long term parking ($45), and then made it home about an hour later (bringing an official end to the Winter 2014 Vegas trip)!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall, I think this Vegas trip was probably one of the best I’ve had. Although the gambling was a bit lighter than when my son and I go, my wife and I immensely enjoyed all of the fun activities, shows, food, etc., that we experienced on this trip. The drinking was quite a bit lighter as well. I had a $50 drink credit at NYNY that I didn’t even touch (had my son been with us, I’m sure that credit would have been zero’d out!). I’ll have to play catch up on the next trip. ;)
Total cash cost for this trip came to around $1,900 for everything (including small gambling losses of around $200). Keep in mind we paid for the airfare with points so that is not in the cash total, which saved us about $750.
As noted in the past, I always prepare a tentative agenda for my Vegas trips which we use as a guide. And as on prior trips, some activities on the itinerary were completed, some were shuffled around, and some didn’t make the cut (which is totally fine). Below is the itinerary we used for this Winter 2014 trip. I imagine some items will make their way onto the agenda for the next trip!
Cheers!!
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 12:27:14 PM
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Great report! I'm glad you and your wife had a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing, especially with all the great pictures. I haven't seen a show in my last few trips, and I think I might just have to next time I'm in town =).
Playing it correctly means you've already won.
January 16th, 2015 at 1:41:28 PM
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Quote: RomesGreat report! I'm glad you and your wife had a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing, especially with all the great pictures. I haven't seen a show in my last few trips, and I think I might just have to next time I'm in town =).
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the report!
We definitely appreciate the multitude of show opportunities Vegas has to offer. There are so many to choose from that it would take MANY trips to see all of them!
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 1:48:55 PM
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Quote: blount2000I've driven over the Tillman Bridge several times, but never have walked it. This probably would have been a good trip to do it though since the temps were mild. I can't imagine how hot it would be walking it in the summer time.
Nope, no lottery tickets for me! I stick to TN for my meager lottery play (especially since there aren't any casinos here). I don't remember even seeing any lottery tickets in Vegas, which may be what you meant! :)
Right you are. I knew Nevada had no state lottery. It is one of seven states that do no not, which I didn't know until I looked it up.
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth. - Mahatma Ghandi
January 16th, 2015 at 5:57:43 PM
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Thanks for the trip report blount2000! I'm glad that you and the Mrs. had a great time. I'm surprised you didn't take a picture with the million dollars at Binion's. It is one of my favorite free things in Las Vegas.
Next time you are in the area, do stop by Du Par's in the Golden Gate for a meal. Awesome breakfasts and a great shrimp cocktail. Skip the lemon meringue pie though. The dry Vegas air is not kind to meringue.
On the dam, where is the plaque with the state border arrows? Is it in the middle of the dam?
Next time you are in the area, do stop by Du Par's in the Golden Gate for a meal. Awesome breakfasts and a great shrimp cocktail. Skip the lemon meringue pie though. The dry Vegas air is not kind to meringue.
On the dam, where is the plaque with the state border arrows? Is it in the middle of the dam?
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
January 16th, 2015 at 6:41:47 PM
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Quote: AyecarumbaThanks for the trip report blount2000! I'm glad that you and the Mrs. had a great time. I'm surprised you didn't take a picture with the million dollars at Binion's. It is one of my favorite free things in Las Vegas.
Next time you are in the area, do stop by Du Par's in the Golden Gate for a meal. Awesome breakfasts and a great shrimp cocktail. Skip the lemon meringue pie though. The dry Vegas air is not kind to meringue.
You're right, as much as I love taking pictures I definitely should have gotten one with the million dollars at Binion's! I'll have it on my list next time for sure.
Quote:On the dam, where is the plaque with the state border arrows? Is it in the middle of the dam?
Yep, it is on the "water side" of the dam right in the middle between the two towers that have the big Nevada/Arizona clocks on them.
You serious, Clark?
January 16th, 2015 at 8:26:32 PM
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As always awesome report. I always enjoy your recaps. I need to start doing this. Though I gamble and drink more than you we try to take in a lot of the other entertainment in LV and then try to remember what we did.
January 17th, 2015 at 4:19:25 AM
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Quote: JW17As always awesome report. I always enjoy your recaps.
Thank you!
Quote: JW17I need to start doing this. Though I gamble and drink more than you we try to take in a lot of the other entertainment in LV and then try to remember what we did.
Yep, I know for me, preparing these reports definitely helps "document" the trip and all of the related activities for future reference. I have referred back to my previous reports on several occasions when planning a new Vegas trip, and it's nice to have everything recapped all in one place (in chronological order).
You serious, Clark?
January 17th, 2015 at 9:59:05 AM
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Excellent report as always, blount!
January 17th, 2015 at 1:00:16 PM
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Quote: chickenmanExcellent report as always, blount!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
You serious, Clark?
January 18th, 2015 at 8:46:50 PM
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I'm jealous of how meticulously you plan your Vegas trips. I always have grand plans to lay out an itinerary, and then I never do and the whole trip is gone before I know it.
I mean, I always have fun gambling and drinking, but there are a few things on the list I really want to do and just haven't gotten around to yet.
I mean, I always have fun gambling and drinking, but there are a few things on the list I really want to do and just haven't gotten around to yet.
"So drink gamble eat f***, because one day you will be dust." -ontariodealer
January 18th, 2015 at 9:29:43 PM
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Love the itinerary. I usually try to list out must do's versus like to do if I have time. Lately, I've packed my trips with so much hopping around that I feel exhausted rather than refreshed. Have yet to find the right balance since Vegas is always such a treat.
January 18th, 2015 at 11:06:36 PM
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Great report!
And those 9/6 JoB machines you found at NYNY that don't allow comps are full pay (99.54% max).
And those 9/6 JoB machines you found at NYNY that don't allow comps are full pay (99.54% max).
January 19th, 2015 at 7:43:25 AM
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Quote: tringlomaneGreat report!
And those 9/6 JoB machines you found at NYNY that don't allow comps are full pay (99.54% max).
Thanks! I guess they don't want to let folks "double-dip" by offering a full pay machine and giving comps on top of it. I think those may be the first full pay machines I've stumbled across.
Quote: AsswhoopermcdaddyLove the itinerary. I usually try to list out must do's versus like to do if I have time. Lately, I've packed my trips with so much hopping around that I feel exhausted rather than refreshed. Have yet to find the right balance since Vegas is always such a treat.
Quote: AcesAndEightsI'm jealous of how meticulously you plan your Vegas trips. I always have grand plans to lay out an itinerary, and then I never do and the whole trip is gone before I know it.
I mean, I always have fun gambling and drinking, but there are a few things on the list I really want to do and just haven't gotten around to yet.
Yeah, developing an itinerary for each trip has been a life-saver for me over the years. My cousin and I didn't have an agenda or anything on our first visit to Vegas back in 2004. Because Vegas is filled with a nearly OVERWHELMING amount of options for everything (in direct contrast to the video below) the trip had a lot of the back & forth: "So what do you want to do now?" ... "I don't know, anything is fine with me. What do YOU want to do now?".
That type of back & forthing will eat time up before you know it, and it seems like time in Vegas speeds by faster than normal already!
Anyway, everybody on the Vegas trips always understands that the itinerary is totally flexible, and the only non-changeable items are show tickets that have been purchased in advance. And although we have bumped/substituted items from the planned agenda many times, I have never again experienced the "So what do you want to do now?" exchange.
:)
You serious, Clark?
January 19th, 2015 at 7:48:36 AM
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Quote: AsswhoopermcdaddyLove the itinerary. I usually try to list out must do's versus like to do if I have time. Lately, I've packed my trips with so much hopping around that I feel exhausted rather than refreshed. Have yet to find the right balance since Vegas is always such a treat.
My idea of a vacation is to run like crazy and do as much as I can in a week. I feel that I can relax on weekends. I never understand how people can do "relaxing" vacations. A Co worker of mine just spent a week on the beech and read like 5 books. That is possibly the furthest away from a vacation as I would ever do. To each their own I guess.
Expect the worst and you will never be disappointed.
I AM NOT PART OF GWAE RADIO SHOW
January 19th, 2015 at 7:50:01 AM
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Quote: blount2000Thanks! I guess they don't want to let folks "double-dip" by offering a full pay machine and giving comps on top of it. I think those may be the first full pay machines I've stumbled across.
Yeah, developing an itinerary for each trip has been a life-saver for me over the years. My cousin and I didn't have an agenda or anything on our first visit to Vegas back in 2004. Because Vegas is filled with a nearly OVERWHELMING amount of options for everything (in direct contrast to the video below) the trip had a lot of the back & forth: "So what do you want to do now?" ... "I don't know, anything is fine with me. What do YOU want to do
That type of back & forthing will eat time up before you know it, and it seems like time in Vegas speeds by faster than normal aleady!
Anyway, everybody on the Vegas trips always understands that the itinerary is totally flexible, and the only non-changeable items are show tickets that have been purchased in advance. And although we have bumped/substituted items from the planned agenda many times, I have never again experienced the "So what do you want to do now?" exchange.
:)
I agree with you 100%. We generally do the same thing as you. We even go as far as sticking money in envelopes for each day and type of activity.
Expect the worst and you will never be disappointed.
I AM NOT PART OF GWAE RADIO SHOW
January 19th, 2015 at 12:17:48 PM
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Excellent report! That is the way a TR should be, full of details and pictures!
Blonde4ever's articles on
https://blonde4everdoesvegas.blogspot.ca/
January 19th, 2015 at 1:47:44 PM
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Quote: GWAEMy idea of a vacation is to run like crazy and do as much as I can in a week. I feel that I can relax on weekends. I never understand how people can do "relaxing" vacations. A Co worker of mine just spent a week on the beech and read like 5 books. That is possibly the furthest away from a vacation as I would ever do. To each their own I guess.
To me there is nothing like a beach vacation. I average about one book per day on the beach. I am usually the first guy on the beach as I like to watch the sun rise. Once the sun is up my book is out and I will stay on the beach until about 4pm. If I haven't finished my book I will usually finish it before bed.
I am so looking forward to retirement so I can repeat that every day.
At my age, a "Life In Prison" sentence is not much of a deterrent.
January 19th, 2015 at 8:00:08 PM
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Quote: Blonde4everExcellent report! That is the way a TR should be, full of details and pictures!
Thanks! I have enjoyed reading a great many trip reports on your website so I'm glad you enjoyed my report here.
Quote: DRichTo me there is nothing like a beach vacation. I average about one book per day on the beach. I am usually the first guy on the beach as I like to watch the sun rise. Once the sun is up my book is out and I will stay on the beach until about 4pm. If I haven't finished my book I will usually finish it before bed.
I am so looking forward to retirement so I can repeat that every day.
I probably need to work on this myself. I seem to be kind of like GWAE and have a hard time actually taking a "relaxing" vacation. We take a family trip to the the beach each summer, and I'm constantly wanting to be "on the go" the majority of the time we are there.
Might be nice to try slowing it down for a change. :)
You serious, Clark?
January 20th, 2015 at 6:58:19 AM
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Fabulous Trip Report. Your efforts enhance this site each time you submit a report. Kudos!
January 20th, 2015 at 1:32:51 PM
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Quote: midwestgbFabulous Trip Report. Your efforts enhance this site each time you submit a report. Kudos!
Thank you for this generous comment! I love reading trip reports myself, and I'm always grateful when my reports are enjoyed by others.
You serious, Clark?
January 20th, 2015 at 1:36:41 PM
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I echo the comments of others, great report. Your trips are so much different than mine which tend to be gambling heavy and repeating many of the places I go and activities I participate in rather than trying new things. Looking forward to your next TR already!
January 21st, 2015 at 3:12:39 AM
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Quote: MidwestAPI echo the comments of others, great report. Your trips are so much different than mine which tend to be gambling heavy and repeating many of the places I go and activities I participate in rather than trying new things. Looking forward to your next TR already!
Thanks MidwestAP!
I'm hoping my own trip will be a little heavier on the gambling next time. My play was exceedingly light this time, and it's kind of hard to win a sack full of money if you aren't playing!
;)
You serious, Clark?
