Home is so boring!

So here's my little report. Be warned, it will not be terribly detailed, as I'm not a big note-taker, and will probably be out of order, but who cares?

This trip I was meeting my 3 sisters and my mom, heretofore referred to as S1, S2, S3, and the mom. They all got there on Saturday, and I was arriving on Sunday. S1 had IP Saturday night and PH for the rest of the trip. S2, S3, and the mom were at the Gold Coast.

It all started at 3:15 am when I woke up to prepare for my 7 am flight. All of that went well, so I'll fast forward to my landing in Vegas at about 10:20 am. After braving the fairly long cab line, it was off to Bally's. I encountered a very nice check-in clerk and asked if there was a fountain view on a high floor available (I love being on a high floor). Well, there wasn't, but he got me into room 2329 in the north tower, a smoking room with 2 queen beds. I was in the room by noon. So, I watched some football and took a shower to get the travel ick off of me. And may I just inject here, GO COLTS! As for the room, it was costing me a total, with tax, of $70 a night. Not great, but not too bad. The view wasn't much...back of the Flamingo, Caesar's to the left, Wynn straight ahead, and one of those Trump buildings that had a giant "TRUMP" across the top. I liked the room, for the most part. My only negatives were....$3 a day charge for the safe. Now, I knew this going in, but I still find it irritating. I took my chances and didn't use it. The street noise on that side is fairly substantial, even on the 23rd floor. Not enough to keep you up at night or anything. The water pressure wasn't so great, and the hair dryer was on its last legs...the low setting didn't work and the high setting wasn't as hot as it should have been. A big plus was, no tacky bedspreads! The bedding was just white linen with a brown runner across the bottom. All in all, I thought the room was quite nice, and I would stay there again.

Now it gets a little fuzzy. I just can't seem to remember what order we did things in. I think that Sunday night we went over to the Gold Coast. That's a pretty cool place. My sisters told me that they really liked their room there, but the location was kind of lacking. There was a $5 blackjack table that I played on with the mom for awhile. The mom is a very good blackjack player, and on those marginal calls, I asked her advice on what to do. I played for over an hour, and think I lost about $35. At some point we decided to eat dinner. We went over to the Palms and ate Mexican food at Garduno's. It was quite good, and the portions were big. The mom picked up the tab, so I can't comment on the price, but I'm pretty sure it was quite reasonable. After dinner we went over to the Rio to hang and gamble. Let me add here that "gamble" to me means mostly slots and sometimes video poker. On occasion I'll play some blackjack or 3-card poker. So we arrived just in time for that weird Masquerade in the Sky thing. After a while we took a shuttle to Bally's. I don't think anything much happened after that.

I think it was Monday night that we went downtown. We got there at about 4:00 and wandered around for awhile. We decided to eat at Binion's Ranch Steakhouse, which opened at 5. I signed up for player's cards at Binion's and the Golden Nugget and, of course, shoved some money in their slots. At 5 we went to eat, and the food was very good. The mom had shrimp cocktail (5 HUGE shrimp) and french onion soup. Sisters had steak, and I had chicken. They all loved the food. My chicken was a little dry, but it had a nice honey mustard dipping sauce that offset the dryness. The whole bill, with 5 glasses of wine and 2 beers was $206 without tip. A very nice meal. After dinner we basically walked around , gambled, and watched the light show. We saw 3 different ones, all of which were very entertaining. I also bought a mudslide from Le Bayou. Yummy!

On Tuesday S2, S3, and the mom were leaving. I slept in late, so I didn't see them before they left. I spent some time wandering around on my own. I went to PH to spend a ticket I had from earlier. While I was there I got in that mini slot tourney thing they have. I got over 6000 points and won a tote bag. Woo hoo, I guess. I was kind of thrilled, as up to that point that was the only damn thing I had won. I also visited the Bellagio and saw the Conservatory display. It's kind of a fall country kind of thing. It's nice, nothing spectacular, but I liked it better than the Route 66 thing. At some point I met up with S1 and we had dinner at Cheeseburger at the Miracle Mile Shops. She had a Mahi mahi sandwich and I had a turkey burger. I also ordered a basket of fries. All of the food was good. After that we ended up at Casino Royale. We started playing the slots, but my sister had her eye on the craps tables. They were very crowded, but she loves the craps, so she kept watching until she could get a place. While she played craps, I played the new electronic 3-card poker game. I've heard people talk about these things here, I think at Indian casinos. So there were 5 spots around the table, and a video screen where the dealer should be. The thing is, there were these recorded dealers telling you to place your bets, etc. The "dealer" changed every so often, as did the background. The thing is, the video was SO badly edited, it was like on of those movies you would see in movie theatres long ago.....the movie would have played for so long, and had broken so many times that there were constant splices and skipping. Plus, the virtual dealers were kind of creepy. All that said, it wasn't too bad...kind of fun, actually.

So, my sister left on Wednesday, and I slept in very late. I headed out in the afternoon for a day on my own. I had a ticket for Spamalot, so I thought I'd start heading toward the Wynn. I started at Bally's at the $1 WOF slots, where I spun $500. Good start, for a change. Basically, for the next few hours I stopped at a few places on the way to the Wynn and dropped some bucks on the slots. So, I finally made it to the show. I must say, I was very excited to see this show, and went in with a very positive attitude, being a big Python fan. Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It had it's moments, but overall I thought it was just OK. I really didn't care for all of the wink-wink nudge-nudge Vegas jokes. I guess I was expecting something different. After the show I headed toward Harrah's, where I found, you guessed it, the $1 WOF slots. So, long story short, I hit a triple bar and two 5 times pay for $750. After my intial $100 in I cashed out for $950. Finally, a lucky day!

So, I headed back to the room where I got lucky again, as there were back-to-back South Park episodes. I went to check out on Thursday and they comped me the total room charge. First time for that for me.

The flight home sucked a bit. We had to sit in Vegas on the plane for 2 hours before we could depart. I had a connection in Denver, and I had to sit on that plane for about an hour. After all that, I only got back home about 15 minutes later than scheduled, about midnight. Good to be home, but inevitably as soon as I get home I wish I were back in Vegas!

Random thoughts.....drink service at The Palms sucked....the show we saw at the Rio was kind of skeezy and the clowns wandering around were creepy....the porn slappers annoy me more every time I visit....a football full of mudslide is delicious, but who can drink all of that?....The Wynn and Venetian at night are beautiful outside....you can meet some nice people at the slots when you're by yourself....the weather was perfection....I went from gold to platinum on my total rewards account, for whatever that's worth...I spent quite a bit of time on my own, and it was pretty ok....I think I may be ready for a solo trip!

So my total losses were about $1300, but I brought $4000, and my hotel was comped, so this was a fairly successful trip for me. Like any good message board dweller, I'm already plotting my next trip. We start bidding leave spots at work soon, so we'll see what I can get.

This ended up longer that I had intended, since I had so little actual substance...so, if you made it this far, thanks for reading!

 

Great report. Thanks for sharing. I love playing table games with the family. Especially my Dad. He is the luckiest 3-card poker player in town. Oh yeah...SD Chargers Baby!

 

Good Job!

What a good report!
Couldn't help but smile when you state mom picked up the check for the meal. I don't know how old you are...but my daughter is 25 and it's really hard to break the habit of taking care of your children, especially when it comes to feeding them.

I highly encourage a solo trip. I do this often and have never regreted doing so.

Thanks for taking time to post.

 

Nice report. Thanks for sharing.

 

Some of my favorite Vegas trips are solo. Take yourself on a special get-away or at least make sure you have a couple of days to yourself. Don't forget to take advantage of the platinum/diamond lines at some of the Harrah's restaurants such as Cafe' St. Louis, Paris Buffet, Bally's Buffet, Rio Seafood Buffet, etc. Saves a lot of waiting - more time for the slots, LOL!!

 

Three's nothing like having fun with the family in Vegas; but, it's nice to have a day or two to yourself. Nice going from Gold to Platinum.