Honeymoon - Sept 8-12

Honeymoon - Sept 8-12 - Monte Carlo

Thursday 9/8 - Where have all the cocktail waitresses gone??

Woke up at the crack-o-dawn to shower and go wait for the cab driver. I was so half asleep and out of it, I don't even recall any horrors of the cab ride to the airport. Got there, got our boarding passes, went thru security pretty quickly. The flight was pretty uneventful (although we scored exit row seats.... LEGROOM!). And oh yeah, guy next to me elbowed me the whole damn flight. Bastard... you got the isle seat, why are you nudging in on the little space I have????

Loved seeing the strip as the plane landed. I will never tire of that.

Got off the plane, headed out for a smoke before the luggage started coming out. I think I dropped like a dollar or two in to the airport slots... obviously no return on anything.

Uneventful cab ride to the Monte Carlo.

Unlike our last trip, I was instantly impressed with the Monte Carlo when we arrived. Great service getting our bags, and unlike our last trip to Luxor, the bellman suggested trying to check right in (it was like 10am or 10:30) - the Luxor guy looked like he wanted to string us up when we dared ask about an early check in time. We opted to just wait a little while, I was starving and wanted some food. Nothing in the food court tickled our fancy (another plus... easy to find food court, I was at the Luxor for three days before I found theirs). Headed out to the strip, and figured we'd be able to find SOMETHING somewhere in the Desert Passage shops.

We ended up at Cheeseburgers. I was salavating at the thought of macadamia nut pancakes, until I saw a chili cheese omlete. I didn't even ever think of doing that with eggs!! (The man and I are chili cheese FIENDS) Ordered two, a couple cups of coffee. Chili cheese omeletes are GOOOOD. Walked off the food through the remainder of the mall... I was not aware that there was a Wild Pair shoes in Vegas!! Used to be my absolute favorite shoe store. Was kinda unimpressed with their selection though.


We headed back to the hotel and checked in. Was friendly with the clerk, some jokes and general good humor, scored us a 18th floor room that overlooked the Strip. Was an AWESOME view! Could kinda see the Bellagio fountains. Unlike last trip where we couldn't see anything, the whole strip was on display to us. Very neato.

As soon as we got in the room, I realized I left my laptop cable at home. D'oh. Didn't think much of it, but the man had hoped to use the laptop, so he called down to the concierge to see about someplace that might carry them or whatnot... he suggested the Fry's that was - quote - "just a little bit past Mandalay". Uh yeah RIGHT. What we figured would be a $10 cab ride ended up a $20 cab ride. Cabbie so graciously offered to keep the meter running for us... uh.... no?? Went in, got the cable (there went $80 of my gambling money) and headed out. I figured we'd walk until we could catch a cab. We were hardly out of the store when a cab drove by.... guy was headed there to pick up something for himself... but picked us up. Very happy.

Relaxed a bit, then headed out to do a little site seeing. We ended up back at the Desert Passage for dinner time, and went to the Oyster bar there. Very unimpressed with the food, the sevice, and then an 18% service charge tacked on to our party of two people. Whatever. Just wanted to get out of there.

Back up to the room for a bit, and then down to the casino for some fun. Not a jackpot to be seen for me that night, nor a cocktail waitress to be spotted anywhere around the penny or quarter slots. While the man and I were doing some side by side action, he managed to score a nice mini jackpot of $250. I thought he was going to explode from joy when they handed him the money right there on the casino floor. Too cute.

As I envisioned that money being spent on some nice shoes for me, the man envisioned dropping it at the poker tables. Off he went. I continued to play with my low slots (and man, the selection of penny machines at the Monte Carlo sucks). We rejoined when he hit a loosing streak. Then it was off for an early midnight bedtime, we'd already been up for like 22 hours.



Friday 9/9 - Ho Dog Day

Slept in on Friday. When we awoke, we decided it would be Ho Dog Day. (I so love the lows and highs of Vegas... the Mega Dog on the same day as we had reservations for Commander's Palace.....). Hopped in a cab down to the Ho. I know a lot of people talk down about the place... but it really struck me as one of those places that may be run down and get a different client base then other places.... but they make no bones about it. You can see what you're getting yourself in to.

The man felt like a rockstar when someone wanted to take his picture holding the Ho dog. He started in on it, I made myself happy with my 99 cent pizza slice... which was worth no more or no less then 99 cents. I did take a bite of the dog... nice garlicy dog, a lot like the Polish hot dogs the man is really fond of. I CAN'T BELIEVE HE ATE THE WHOLE THING. He did. And I took pictures.

He decided we needed to walk after that. Headed back down the strip, since this was the first time we were on this end. Marveled at the Stardust sign, even unlit. Didn't head in to the Wynn... as much as the construction of it peeved me in April, it is a pretty neat looking building. We decided to head in to the Fashion Show mall, since the man needed to find a belt.

I have a fear of heights, so it was REALLY bad idea to take the outdoor staircase. Bad bad bad. When we walked in the food court, I wanted to throw myself on top of the Hotdog on a Stick counter and hug a solid structure (it's a weird fear of heights.... I can be high, just not in fresh air, lol). Wandered the mall, pretty unexciting. We've got most of the stores around Chicago. For some reason, "Painted with Oil" sent me in to hysterics. I'm waiting for "Painted with Oil on Velvet" until I buy artwork in Vegas. I picked up a pair of shoes, the man got his belt and a book on Vegas history.

Headed over to Imperial Palace after that to see the cars. We were only going there for the cars, someone handed the man free passes for the cars, and what did he do? Just tossed them. Silly husbands. Spent a while walking around, looking at the cars and listening to the man describe the finer points of engine construction to me. Pretty cool though, a lot of neat stuff there for people who like looking at cars and dreaming which one they'd buy if they won a big jackpot.

Then, over to the Flamingo. The man wanted to see the Bugsy memorial, and since we were thinking about staying there this trip and may for the next, checked out the digs. The memorial wasn't as hard to find as I figured it would be. Pretty neat. It was back to the room after that... where we found the Convention channel that was running a whole bunch of A&E and History Channel stuff on Vegas. Left that on for background noise as we lounged. Eventually got ready and headed out for dinner at Commander's Palace.

Note to self: New four inch heels and walking though lots of marble floors at the Bellagio do NOT mix. I think the hubby had perminant marks in his arms where my nails dug in the whole walk to Aladdin.

Food and service at Commander's Palace were fantastic. He had the soup combo and crab cakes, I had the turtle soup and andoulle crusted soft shell crabs. Yum on all fronts, and service was fantastic (as expected). Split bananas foster for dessert.

Back to the hotel, in to comfy clothes, and back to the cocktail waitress-less slots. I finally got fed up and headed over to the brew pub. No big winnings to speak of... man was I getting the biggest crap dealt to me in video blackjack. EVERY 20 was beat by a 21 and I did not draw one Blackjack, while the machine got about 8. Finally called it a night.



Saturday 9/10 - So what do two Elvises talk about?

On the way to the Ho on Friday, the man had seen a lingeire store that peaked his intertest (hey... it was our honeymoon after all). He went down to rent a car and we hit In & Out burger and then the store. Wasn't super impressed with the store. As the hubby put it... "I expected it to be a little more exciting for the den of iniquity!" Very nice drag queen waited on us, but was a little to insistant that I go "try things on in the private dressing rooms wink wink". I know my sizes, thank you, and I really don't trust sleeze lingerie store dressing rooms in strange cities. Attempted to drive the rental car up and down the strip a little bit but the man got way frustraited... we turned around and he turned the rental keys back in.

Back to the hotel, we hit the pool. Neat pool, but bad layout and crowded.

A little more chilling in the hotel room, then over to Fatburger so the man could get an egg on a burger. I opted for the standard burger. After that, we went over to Paris and grabbed a cab to downtown for the big Elvis thing that was happening on Freemont. It was a blast -- some good Evli, some bad Elvi, and Elvi in every shape, color and whatever you could imagine. Two Elvi were standing right in front of us the whole time.... I so wanna know what they were talking about (the man - former roadie - offered up the most plausable explination... in a battle of the bands, all you do is rag on everyone else). We parked our asses near the beer stand at 4 Queens. Much fun and jovial times were had. The cab ride back was a hoot, the cabbie was ranting/telling us the whole time of the wonders of being a cab driver in Las Vegas. Showed us his cab driver trade magazines as we wizzed down the highway at 70 miles per hour with his stories about how many bucks per head he gets for dropping people at strip clubs. Next time the man and I are outta work.... we're moving. Seriously.

After that, headed back to the hotel for some more gambling. Again, no luck, and ONE cocktail waitress sighting. Um, hi? Need to maintain a buzz here?? The man, however, had much better luck at three card poker and ended up with about $600 including his prized $500 chip. We took many, many pictures of the chip. Him with the chip. The chip alone. The chip with the other chips.



Sunday 9/11 - Football and Geishas

On Sunday morning, after champagne brunch at the Monte Carlo, I turned in to a football widow as the man hit the sports book and I went off to get our souviner shopping done. Nothing super exciting but the sale items in one of the Monte Carlo gift shops. Again, more gambling for me... and oh my... cocktail waitresses! Real live cocktail waitresses!!! And dude... a Geisha! A real live Geishsa in the casino!!! NEAT!!!!! And a couple VERY angry with the fact someone insisted on turning on tennis at the brewpub (which was kinda "wtf?"). Finally hit some good payouts... $75 off $20 in on slots. Then another $40 off ten. I was feeling pretty happy. The man only got one out of the three games he bet on, but he was still a happy camper.

Being the television addicts we are, we planned to spend some of Sunday night in the room for Fox's Sunday premieres. Picked up some grub from the food court, and sat and happily watched another totally unexciting Simpsons. Back down for some more gambling.

Hit some more fair payouts... was pretty happy. Even started doing good at blackjack. The man's luck had run out though, he dumped all his money back at the three card poker table. We tried his few left chips at roulette (on the number of years we have been together.... 11) and lost (it landed on 10, damnit!). I cashed in my winnings, picked up some tall boys (beers) and again back to the room to finish up our packing before marveling some more at the beautiful view and heading to bed. Oh.... and Oceans 11 was on the TV. How friggin sweet is that?????



Monday 9/12 - Home again home again

Up at 6am to shower before our flight. Why is the cab ride to the airport for the home trip always so much shorter? And why the heck is it so hard to find milk at the airport (at least the United terminals)???

Uneventful plane ride home... botched some info about our ride home so we were off to try and find a cab that would take us to the 'burbs when a guy offered us a towncar ride for $60. Drained all our available cash... but at least we went out in style!!!! It took walking in to our stuffy, humid, 97 degree apartment until I really, really wanted to back in Vegas again. Is it April yet???????

 

So this was a honeymoon? Where's the honeymoon? WHERE ARE THE PICTURES!!!

That's for the trip report! Sounds like you had a great time.

 

You needed a laptop on your honeymoon?????? You actually left your room to go do things?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! HE LEFT YOU FOR THE SPORTSBOOK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Glad your dinner at CP was fantastic and that all in all you had A GREAT TRIP

 

LOL. Relax people..... we've been together 11 years. Time apart is hard to find and enjoyed at this point.

And heck... I went to this trip knowing very well that Sunday would be alone time while he was at the sports book. Left me time for shopping and slots... and a big ol' 44 oz beer from the brew pub. I ain't complaining.

 

That was a nice trip report. My husband, sister and I stayed at the MC in July of this year and we loved it. We had a room on the 20th floor facing the strip and Bellegio fountains without having to do the $20 dollar trick to boot.

Sorry to hear about the drink service at MC. We kind of had a hit and miss on that too but normally it was good. I mostly play quarter slots and the best spot was right by the bar near the poker room.