Mother's Day Weekend

A group of 5 left for Vegas on May 10 to May 14 to celebrate wedding anniversaries. The wife and me (5 years), our friends (3 years) and my father, who is 68 and was his first time there.

Left Chicago on SWA with no problems but the flight was too long, felt like days not hours when you go to Sin City. Arrived 10 min early, on the way to claim baggage I checked pockets for loose change and found one quarter. I know the airport is terrible but we were in Vegas had to do it, one spin for a quarter, blue 7, wild and wild for $100 win. :thumb: Now that’s the way to start a trip! Claim baggage and off to Enterprise (it was the cheapest) to get car. Reserved full-size (21.99 a day) but up-graded for trunk space to a premium for an extra $5 a day but they never charged us the new rate. Total bill for 4 days in a premium was $131, not bad. :thumb:

Off to the Monte Carlo (MC), damn traffic takes forever, checked in at 11:30 am but the only 3 rooms, on the same floor, non-smoking with a king size bed was on the third floor. We decide to take the rooms to keep everybody close but there was absolutely no view. Dropped bags off and hit the casino, playing Let It Ride (LIR). The last hand before I left to go eat, I was dealt trips. I was praying, praying and more praying but no luck for the fourth. Left and went to eat at the MC café. The café had decent food, slow service and over-priced. Sandwiches cost $8 and no free refills on Coke, what a rip off. After lunch, went to Mandalay Bay (MB) to see the Shark Reef. It was enjoyable but not for $15, maybe $8-$10. Liked the Golden Croc’s with snout to glass staring at me, made my father touch a stingray, and enjoyed the big shark tank. It was cool to see a shark in the dark distance coming closer and closer reminded me of Jaws. Back to the MC to relax (wife) and gamble (me) for a few hours. At night, we walked down to the Bellagio and caught the fountain show sung by Billy Joel and walked through the butterfly exhibit, which was boring, but the flowers smelled nice. Took some pictures on the staircase before it’s torn down. Walked over to the Barbary Coast (BC) to eat the $10.95 steak dinner special :thumb: in the Victorian Room. Had to wait an hour so we walked down to O’Sheas, Flamingo and BC to gamble before dinner. Dinner was great. Big salad, lots of bread, big baked potato and lots of fries but cant forget the big, tasty piece of meat. Now that was a great Las Vegas value. After dinner, walked back and stopped at the Boardwalk (BW), I know Mikey doesn’t like this place, but can’t beat the $3 tables. It had BJ, LIR, 3 Poker, roulette and mini-craps. After gambling there for an hour we called it a night. Back to the room for, wait can’t tell you that part. :no:

Its Mothers Day, my wife is upset she can’ spend the day with our 2 year old daughter but I surprised her with pictures and had the phone ready for her to call her. Went downstairs to enjoy a traditional Mother Day meal with juice, coffee, bagel and danish. Boy, do I go all out! Walked over to NY, MGM, and Tropicana to gamble. Back to MGM to see the lions and then to the M&M store to get that real bargain on candy at $8 a pound. Now that’s a bargain. Back to the MC for that Mother’s Day lunch at McDonalds, I know how to treat a woman right. :thumb: Take lessons guys; this will come in handy one day. After lunch, drove down to Treasure Island (TI) to pick up Mystere tickets. Walked over to Venetian, checked out the Grand Lux menu and decided to eat there after the show. Walked down to Casino Royale, I hate this casino , to gamble but it was too crowded. Drove back to the BW and gambled there until it was time to get ready go to Mystere. Mystere was awesome but I would not recommend close seats. We had second row seats, which were great for the stage acts, but there was too much going above us that my neck was starting to hurt. There is no way to describe this show in detail; it was bizarre but awesome. After the show, ate at the Grand Lux Café for dinner. Food was delicious and had big portions for a decent price. Hint: when ordering Fried Chicken, expect to receive chicken strips. Found that strange. Headed back to the BW for more gambling and called it a night. :sss:

Monday dropped the ladies off at TI for their spa treatment and the men went to check out Slots of Fun, Circus Circus, Riviera and the HO. Played $1 BJ somewhere, forgot, some guy was actually staying on 13’s and 14’s while the dealer was showing 7 or higher, stupid. After the shoe was over we left, I known it is only a dollar but I still can’t play with idiots. :et: After that little visit we head down to MB for the daily poker tourney but only one spot left, so I grabbed it. Finished 8 out of 30 but strange thing happened. I was the blind and all in, no way to protect my cards without chips; the dealer actually mucked my cards. Since I was all in, I didn’t look at them so they had to give me my money back. Next hand was dealt K-Q, went all in K-Q –7 on the flop, then a K on the turn. Filled up to last a few more rounds were my 9-9 lost to A-A, we both had flushes. Went to Luxor for the noon tourney but no seats, gambled until the ladies called for us to pick them up from Caesars, were they had lunch. The wives convinced us to go to the pool back at the MC. Wave pool is small but comfortable, lazy river is not lazy, that moves pretty fast. Spent most of the time in the shade around the lagoon pool, sun was beating down that day. After getting cleaned up from the pool, time to put the feedbag on at the Aladdin buffet. Now that’s a buffet, had to try a little of everything but mostly the crab legs. That was the beast meal we had in Vegas. After dinner, headed downtown to see the WSOP but could not recognize anyone but watched a little and left. Spent the rest of the night down there and headed back to the MC for sleep. :sss:

Tuesday, we decided to go see the Hoover Dam (finally did something my father wanted to do). Was not impressed with it but it was big. Took those famous pictures, me standing in both the states, my wife in Arizona and me in Nevada (like it should be all the time) :thumb: . FYI: it takes 8 secs for spit to reach the water. Drove back and stopped at the Palms, wives wanted to see the Real World Hotel but were not impressed. Men only saw 20 feet of the place to the poker room for 2-4 hold’em. Dealt 3-3, 3 on the flop and a 3 on the turn, won the hand and also received a $108 bonus for the 4 of a kind . At the MC a couple of days ago, my full house in 7-Stud was beat by 4 jacks, three were hidden. He received a $285 bonus and gave me $15 back for the bets, which was nice. After the Palms, dropped the ladies off at Aladdin so they can shop and we headed over to the ESPN zone to play some games for the afternoon, took a break from gambling. Ate dinner at the Rainforest Café in MGM then rode the roller coaster at NY . The roller coaster was weak, one loop and barrel roll, definitely not worth the money. Gambled at the BW were my wife hit a full house on LIR :thumb: , she was very happy she won something. We decided to drive down at midnight to The STRAT to ride the Bigshot and roller coaster ($17). The roller coaster was nothing special but the Big Shot blew me away. Only two of us rode myself and friends wife, the others chickened out. We were a 1000 feet up, looking over the city all lit up, wind blowing in your face and then Bam, launched up the tower and holding on for dear life and falling back down while coming off your seat. That was one of the best thrill experiences I have had in a long time. :thumb: :thumb: We then headed back to the MC; I quickly tucked my wife in bed :sss: and went to gamble. Started at poker and lost $120 in an hour, got up and walked to LIR, there was no one playing so I tried it by myself. Last time in Vegas, I played LIR by myself ($3 table) for 5 hours and closed the table down; no one else could play the rest of the night, started with $40 and walked away with $300, not bad. So that was reason I tried it this night at 4 am. Started with $100, an hour later cashed out $400. Made up my wife’ losses (men don’t lose ) and went to bed for 4 hours. :sss:

Wednesday, after the 4-hour nap, we drove down to the Paris for their breakfast buffet. Just like everybody said it was great, they have everything. My wife loved the crepe station and I almost eat scrambled eggs with salmon, yuck. Filled the stomach’s and walked out. I asked my wife if she wanted to ride up the Eifel Tower but she was still nervous from the Strat. So I had to make the big announcement out in front of the Paris fountain. I presented my wife her 5th anniversary present of $5000 for a trip to Europe :thumb: , her dream vacation; she started crying which caused me to cry. She was excited and could not believe it; I saved and hid that money away for a year and a half without her finding out. Now she understood why I worked so much on the weekend’s umpping and refing. After we dried our eyes we headed back to the MC to pack and one last trip to the tables were the wife and I played LIR and won a combined $100. We return the car and headed back to the airport, landed on time and were back home in bed by 11:00. :sss:

Great trip, everybody enjoyed it. My father did enough walking to last a year but I think he lost the most. He mentioned nothing about any huge wins in the slots, only losses. My friends lost quite a bit, the tables were not that kind to them. We started with $2000 and back with $1500. That included meals, admissions and tips maybe lost a combined $200 between both of us. Didn’t get to do everything but who does, wish I was able to play more poker but have to keep the wife happy because she has to keep me happy. Starting to plan trip number 4 for late 2003, early 2004. I hop you enjoyed reading this as I did writing. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

Great trip report. Glad to read that you didn't have any conflicts with other people in your group. There's usually somebody that doesn't want to do something that everybody else does.

We also had very close seats - front row center - when we went to see Mystere. Friend actually got to be part of the show. He was "Poppa" or something like that. Certainly something he'll never forget.

By the way, pretty cool aniversary present... I guess that made up for McDonald's???

 

That present did make-up for the meals BIG time. Wife has mostly decided on the plans to Europe.

 

Hey Dukie..

Great report!!

I got no problems with the Boardwalk...staying at the MC in July, and my old roomie and her new husband are staying at the Boardwalk, so I'll probably do a little gambling there. I'm for anyplace with cheap tables!!!

That was an awesome gift, by the way.

Mikey

[ June 05, 2003, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: HurricaneMikey ]