First TR Who: me, my boyfriend, his brother and sister in law. All of us have been to Vegas many times. We made no prior plans and had no agenda – just go and gamble, see the sights, eat some food, and drink a few drinks. We accomplished our mission. Flights US Air Tampa to Las Vegas nonstop – completely full flight – red eye back (yuck) had a mechanical problem and sat on the ground for over an hour on the way home – otherwise uneventful. Taxi Did not get tunneled. Nice drivers both in and out – almost the exact same fare both ways – just under $13.00. First time I ever had a female taxi cab driver. She talked non-stop – she was from Armenia and proceeded to teach me how to make Armenian food the entire trip. Gave both good tips. Line was very long coming in – we arrived at 11:00 pm and they had the entire length in use all the way to the door. Amazingly, it only took about 25 minutes. Hotel – Flamingo – not a renovated room – 11th floor overlooking the pool. Room was clean but in need of serious updating. We don’t spend much time in the room so I didn’t try the $20 trick – as I really didn’t care. Boyfriends brother and his wife also got a room on the 11th floor – theirs was not renovated either but was in need of repair – leaky shower head, many cracked tiles. We both had two comped nights and two nights at $69.00. Gambling – No one had any real luck. I play mostly slots – pennies and nickels. BF does the same, his brother and SIL play slots and table games. I did play a little craps, three card poker, and blackjack and broke even or nearly even on all three. Slots, in general, were not good to me – everything was extremely tight. I did have a couple of runs. One was on a Reel Power machine (something to do with dragons). I was playing 25 lines at .02 = .50 , put in $20 and took out $150 – just kept hitting the bonus and great wilds. Cashed that out and put in another $5 – just to see if it was done – and it gave me $100 – tested with another $5 and it was done! This was at the Flamingo – right before going to bed on the second day. Prior to that I had not cash in a ticket so it didn’t cover my losses for the first two days. Second good hit was on the Sea Monkeys – I was playing .60 and was down to $6.00 on my $20 without a win – changed to $1.00 to run it out and hit the free spin bonus – it keep adding free spins and increasing my multiplier – I think I ended up spinning it about 30 times and my multiplier was at 12 x. Cashed out at $220.00 (this was also at the Flamingo). That was it until the last day. I am one of those set aside a daily gambling budget and stick to it – if I didn’t do that I would spend all my money the first day! The last day – we were at the Wynn – it was about 5:00 pm and we need to be on our way to the airport by 9:00 pm. I had $20 of gambling money left and I told my BF that this was it – last machine. I put $5 in some sort of a machine that had a magic theme (sorry – can’t remember the name of it). The reels were in a different pattern and I really never knew why I was winning or losing – lol. Anyway, it also had a rotating wild – which is hard to explain. Long story short – it just kept winning and winning – I was only playing .25 or .30 a spin I finally cashed out at $65.00. We began the walk back to Flamingo and stopped at Harrah’s on the way. I saw this Big Ben machine on an end and said that machine is calling me. Put in $5.00 played .25 – machine was paying up and down – never falling below $3.00 and never above about $8.00 – but it was playing. Hit the bonus and the first free spin paid $100.00 – could not believe it – one line alone paid $60.00 – on .25!!! The free spins ended up giving me $140. Cashed out and went to the airport. I don’t know if it was last day luck or taking my bet down to .25 or .30. Either way – at least I had a few good hits at the end that allowed me to bring money home – to me that is a successful Vegas trip!! Food: Planet Hollywood – Yolo’s Mexican Grill – good but not great – $100 for four Flamingo – Tropical Breeze Café for breakfast twice – good food, good service – comped Flamingo – Paradise Garden Buffet – Sunday brunch – good food – comped Palazzo – Grand Lux Café – very good food, great dessert – we ordered the apple pie and the Chocolate Molten Cake (you order these when you first order your meal as they are baked fresh) – HORRIBLE service. Three of our meals came out together – mine did not come until everyone else was finished eating. Waitress came by once and said did “they†tell you that there was a delay? I said yes – but that they didn’t tell me why. She said they didn’t tell me either????? Isn’t that “her†job to find out?? She walked away and never came back until she brought the bill. No apology, no offer of reduction of bill – no nothing. Needless to say – NO TIP. $170 for four with one drink each Fremont Hotel – Second Street Grill – great food, great service, beautiful presentation, fair prices. Will definitely eat there again. $118.00 for four people – two had Filet Mignon, two had T-bone and we each had a cocktail. Large portions. Wynn – Buffet – very good went at 4:00 pm – got right in - no wait. I had never signed up for their card and neither had my BF. So we signed up and got $10 free play. I managed to get my 50 points on the free play winnings. I cashed out free play winnings at $25.00 put it into a machine and once I had my 50 points I took out $15 and gave it to my BF – he got his 50 points on that. The machines we picked just played that way – never giving you a big win but played up and down long enough to get the points. Was going to try the Roulette trick but didn’t have to. Funny – while I was playing I notice a guy getting his card and he walked up behind me and asked a staff person where the video roulette was – I am sure he is a reader here – lol. Overall, had a great time – drink service was good everywhere – I was surprised. I liked the Palazzo – but was not overly impressed. The City Center project is unbelievable. Weather was great and I can’t wait to go back.
Nice TR - thanks.... I seem to have the same last day luck. WIN WIN WIN - nice way to finish up as you always want to come back after that......
Nice report and good info. Wish you had better luck gambling though Thanks so much for taking the time to write it up. I felt the same about Palazzo..... nice, but not "God, I must stay here or spend lots of money here"....guess I am getting old
Nice report. Enjoyed it. Sorry to hear about the bad service at the Grand Lux. They have such good food there. You would think they would have done SOMETHING on the bill. And those free buffets with the new Wynn cards....aren't those great? Sounds like you had a really good time. Thanks for posting. Got me pumped up for my trip in June.
Sounds like you had a great time. I am never a fan of penalizing the waitress for slow kitchen service (since I waitress on weekends), but boy did she miss the boat. Even comping the desserts (if not a huge chunk of your meal) would have been in order and probably made you feel a whole lot better! So I don't blame you for not tipping. If she was too embarrassed to come back out, then that's when you have the server manager come out. Good Grief.