TR: Aladdin 9/28-10/1 Part Deux

Monday 9/29, about 5pm
The four of us (me, hubby, and my 2 best friends) return to our rooms at the Aladdin to freshen up and change for our 7:30 show at MGM Grand. Of course, we ladies change our minds about what to wear. Every one of us

We needed to pick up our tickets at Will-Call at 6:30, and get into our seats at 7:00. We decided to drive, since we did rent a car and it hasn't been used yet! It takes maybe five minutes for Aladdin's valet to bring around the car, and about the same amount of time to drive down Koval to MGM Grand. We had no trouble getting the tickets, and finding the Hollywood Theatre was also easy, so we settled down nearby to try our hand at their games. Hubby wandered over to a blackjack table, where he was having decent luck until the final hand of the night which he described as the hand from hell: pair of eights vs a four. Split. Dealt a 2 on the 1st hand, so he doubled down. Got the 10 for a 20. 2nd hand: drew another 8 so split again. On the next hand, he got a 3, so you doubled again and drew a 9 for another 20. Hand 3, got a 10 for an 18. These were $50 hands btw, so he had $250 at stake. But it looked pretty good... until the dealer shows a 4 under the other 5, then drew a 2, then a 10 for the dreaded 21

We ladies played various machines, and settled at the bar to get a drink and play video poker. The bartender was cool, although not as fabulous as Robyn at Harrah's. We played without much luck until just before 7pm and went to take our seats.

I had thought we had really good seats based on the seating arrangement I found online. They were awesome! We were in the 2nd row, on the aisle. David Copperfield ended up going up and down the aisle several times during the show, and at one point, he stopped right behind me! I mean, he was maybe 4 inches away from me!!

The show was awesome - and I'm not really into magic that much. But he has wonderful stage presence, and is so funny too! And yes, he really IS that good-looking from four inches away!! I did get to shake his hand afterwards too (his hand was MUCH warmer than mine - it was very cold in that theatre).

Post-show, we got into the car to head down the Strip for the Grand Tour for our 1st time visitor. She had asked about several hotels when we were first searching for where to stay, based on their prices... and thankfully she understood what we were talking about when we told her "no we don't want to stay at Stardust or Riviera"... bad location and they're showing their age.

We parked at Golden Nugget's parking garage, primarily because we knew how to get there from our most recent visit, and knew it would be convenient to coming & going after catching the Fremont Street Experience. At this point, BF1, who is diabetic, is feeling that awful sick beyond hungry, and we have to make food our #1 priority. We stopped at Carson Street Cafe, since we had eaten there before and knew it was ok, and because we were already there. We ordered sandwiches, but sadly BF1 had reached the stage where she was getting nauseous, and the brisket she ordered didn't taste good to her. I gave her a big wedge of my turkey and avocado sandwich, and she did start to feel a little better. We went outside to catch the 11pm show, which was a Vegas Legends show, featuring Elvis, Louis Prima, Maguire Sisters (huh?), Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank, plus a couple of others. I got a few good pictures, and BF1 videotaped the whole thing.

We played for just a few minutes at GN before heading back to home on the Strip. BF2 had won a nice jackpot on her previous trip to GN and wanted to see if lightning would strike twice. My luck at GN continued... my running joke since the year before was that I was so unlucky there I couldn't win a tampon out of the vending machine in the ladies bathroom (hope no one takes offense - it's just a joke!)

We returned to Aladdin, we all decided to call it a night. I know... it was midnight or slightly after - shamefully early for Las Vegas standards!

Tuesday 9/30 - our final full day in Sin City. It's already gone by so quickly! Instead of waking up early, I slept until quarter after 8. For me, that's sleeping in!! Both hubby & I got up, showered, and dressed, and went down to play for just a few minutes before contacting the BF's next door and let them get ready for breakfast. We were in 100% agreement about returning to the Paris buffet for breakfast. I could go there every day for a week and not get tired of it. Save room for a berry crepe with berry sauce and whipped cream for "dessert" at breakfast! Oh so good!

After breakfast, we tried to prioritize what we wanted to accomplish on this day. I came to the sad realization (and it happens on every vacation trip anywhere) that there was simply not enough time to do everything I wanted to do. But, the good news that follows that is "I'll be back!" So I never got to take lessons in craps, never got the gondola ride, never got to NYNY to pick up my player's club card (they still send me offers though) nor did I ride a single roller coaster out there. The coupons I have are mostly good until the end of next June, so now we're trying to make sure we get back there prior to then.

Hubby decided he wanted to play poker, so headed to Mirage to do that. We gals decided to meander and have some fun, although we did toy briefly with the idea of renting a limo for an hour

First we played at Paris. We signed up for their slot club, which came with a nice packet of coupons, including some match play. All 3 of us tried the blackjack (at a 3-2 table - the 6-5 tables were ALL empty!). Only BF2 won her bet. Then we played slots. I did pretty well, continuing my decent luck at Paris (which is odd since the decor in the casino does nothing for me, but that's where I find I have the best luck). Twice I went to cash out slightly ahead of what I put in, and found I had emptied the machine and needed a hand pay. In both instances, the attendant was very prompt to come to see me, and was friendly to boot!! All in all, the people working at the Paris were the tops!! The people at the blackjack table understood we were only going to play our matchplays and be on our way, but when BF2 sneezed while watching BF1 play her hand, it took 2 seconds before the pit boss was handing her a tissue! How's that for service??

Next we stopped back at Aladdin, dropped some stuff off at the room and sorted out our coupons. We also checked out Aladdin's London Club, the High Roller's room upstairs. It was a ghost town!! I think we were quite possibly the only players in the room. I put $100 in a video poker game ($1) and cashed out in about 10 minutes up $15. Good enough for me!

We walked over to Bellagio, to watch the fountains some more. I heard the best place to do so is at Fontana Bar, but didn't realize they don't open until 5pm. We sat down at the bar inside the casino, as close as we could get to Fontana, and checked the bar menu for interesting drinks. I put money in the video poker machine in order to get a free drink. My "free" drink cost me $150... it would have been a lot cheaper to just buy it!

We moseyed through Bellagio and the Conservatory, taking pictures, and decided to stop and have a light bite at the Cafe Bellagio. It was a pleasant stop, and we 3 girls were having fun without my hubby (dear as he is) hanging around. After that, we headed back to the slots. Hubby called to say he was on his way over, having completed his poker play. I found out that it's true you CAN get a glass of champagne while playing nickel slots at Bellagio. Too cool!

With all 4 of us back together, we decided we needed to see Caesars and the Mirage. We took the quick walk to Caesars and hubby signed up for the slot club as well, linking his account to mine. Because we are linked, he didn't get his name on a card, he got mine. That was the first time that happened. So the first dealer to see it thought perhaps he didn't have the correct card. Stupid! We used a coupon to take a free spin on a slot machine (none of us won anything), then checked out the menu at 808, where we had a coupon for. Unfortunately the discount wasn't good enough to make it affordable. Another time - I hope!!

I've heard that mostly East Coasters like the "vibe" at Caesars, and think that might be so, since all of us enjoyed it there. No idea why some people hate it and some love it... different strokes for different folks, right? We played blackjack - all four of us for once. BF2 quickly ran out of her $20, but BF1 was happy to cash her $20 into $50 or $60. I ended up even, and hubby ended up $225, so we were mostly happy there. We headed down into the Forum Shops and watched the show at the Atlantis fountain. Then we decided to have dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

I wouldn't normally consider Cheesecake Factory to be a treat since I work within a 2 minute walk of one of their restaurants. But the Vegas Vibe is something you just can't get anywhere else, and I do like their food (and drink), so in we went. We had a scant five minute wait (if that) and got a table waited on by Bill. Bill was great. We ordered drinks - hubby got a beer (Sierra Nevada), I had a tropical martini which was incredibly good, BF2 had an apple martini (she says I'm a bad influence - she never liked martinis before) and BF1 had a frozen drink with Kahlua. Bill came back to the table to get our food orders and noticed that I had a leak in my martini glass Yep, a really big hole in it, right at the top! I knew I was pretty close to my limit however, and wanted room for food.

They had one of my all-time favorite dishes, macadamia nut crusted ono, a Hawaiian fish, very sweet and delicate, and I ordered that. I didn't have room for dessert - the horror!! It was one of the better meals I've had, and I enjoyed it a great deal. Everyone enjoyed their food, but no one could clean their plates.

Well-fed, we wandered over to Mirage to see the white tiger on display and check out the rain forest and volcano. We did all that, and played for about an hour. I played blackjack at $5 a hand - it changed to $10/hand while I sat there but they "grandfathered" me in to play at $5. But they did tell me upfront that I needed to be playing no less than $25/hand in order to even present my players card. I ended up down about $5. Hubby ended up about $200. BF's played slots, but I have no idea how they did. They never hit a major jackpot anywhere this trip.

We enjoyed the volcano - this was my first time to see it even though I've been to Vegas several times. We walked back towards Bellagio, and caught the fountain show at night. Pink Panther again.

I was hoping to go to Bally's and use the matchplay coupon I had, and was considering Flamingo for the same (not as good a coupon but worth using), but knew it was getting late, and we had a flight to catch the next morning. Sigh...

We headed back to Aladdin, and I just couldn't bring myself to go to bed. Hubby & BF1 went upstairs, but BF2 was willing to stay up with me. I had a voucher from Aladdin (ticket in/ticket out) for $115 and wanted to play a little on that (it was the one from the morning's trip to London Club, from my $100 input). I put the somewhat wrinkled voucher into a video poker machine, and the machine counted the money but I couldn't play anything. The light was blinking... it wasn't working. I sat and waited for an attendant. And waited. And waited. Finally one came by to help a person down my row. Then she walked right by me. Excuse me, ma'am - can you help me? She gruffy said "the door is open". and started to walk away!! I didn't touch the door - I just put in my voucher and it started blinking! She did pay me my money (and I noticed that even after she had shut the cover, it still was malfunctioning). But she was so snotty I didn't want to play in her area anymore.

So BF2 cashed out and followed me to another area of Aladdin's casino. I tried to find a game that looked interesting. Of one I did find, there was a fellow smoking a cigar where I had a chance to sit, and the smoke was bothering me, so I moved on. I found one in a location I normally wouldn't choose, but the casino (as was the city) was more crowded on Tuesday than it had been since we arrived, so the options were not as plentiful. I played that machine for a few minutes before deciding it was not a fun game, and went to cash out. Bah! Not enough money in the machine to cash out my 353 quarters. I waited another 40 minutes for my hand pay.

Needless to say, I am seriously grumpy by this point with the poor service I feel I am getting at Aladdin (esp. compared to the Paris next door). And I'm getting tired. But I had seen the Elvis slots, and remembered how much fun Mikey had on them, and said I'm going to try that for a little bit before going to bed.

I sit down at Elvis and put in my voucher (* Revision below). I hit Play Elvis the very first spin and win 50 credits. Cool! This is a fun game I play some more, and am getting little hits, and before too long hit a 100 Play Elvis winner! I look at my credits, and they are nearing the 400 mark, which means I would have made back some money on this game. I decide to play either up to 500 credits or down to 200 before heading to bed. All of a sudden, my win credit meter is going beserk. The reels say "Double" "Double" "Elvis". We try to figure out how much. 800 coin, we say to ourselves! Great! THe meter hits 800 and keeps going. We check the payout schedule again. No, it's 1600!!! That's $400!!!!! Way cool! I have over 2000 credits on the machine when it's done. I play to an even amount and hit the cash out button. An attendant comes over almost immediately. I get 5 Benjamins and a $10. I give the attendant the $10 and decide it is bedtime! (I did wake hubby out of a dead sleep to tell him about my win btw) and crawl into bed at 12:30am, figuring my win had come just about the stroke of midnight.

Wednesday 10/1 - gotta gome home and I don't want to!!! I'm up just before the wakeup call comes at 6:30 (ugh). I get packed and showered, and Elvis is calling my name! The BF's are going to go to breakfast with us, but their flight is several hours after ours, so they will take a taxi to the airport later. We call them and tell them we're going to play while they shower & dress for breakfast. Hubby goes to blackjack, I make a beeline for Loose Elvis. Hubby comes over to me with a big smile on his face. In about 20 minutes he is up $400 or so. I smile back. I put $20 into Elvis, and cashed out for $75. Then I did it again. I love Elvis

The BF's show up, I show them which Elvis to play later on, and we go to Aladdin's breakfast buffet, having to wait five minutes for it to open at 8am. Aladdin's breakfast buffet is nice in its own right, but it cannot compare to Paris'. Aladdin's best feature is the unique bananas with a passionfruit sauce. It reminded me of Hawaii so much that my eyes watered.

After breakfast, hubby and I get our stuff, say our goodbyes and head for the airport. We got to the gate as our plane was beginning to board. We had our final Vegas win, however, because although we were "back of the bus" late - we managed to get two aisle seats right across from one another!

Trip home was uneventful compared to the time in Vegas. We did have a stop at Midway in Chicago. And we got home to find rather chilly weather.

I'm ready to go back!!

Kitty

* Revision: I remembered that I had a bucket of quarters to begin play on the Elvis slot machine instead of a voucher. I was maybe half way through the 353 quarters when I realized that I had almost that much in credits in the machine. Soon after that was when I hit the 1600 winner, and by the time I had finished the quarters in my cup I had over 2000 credits.

[ October 08, 2003, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: Coaster Kikky ]

 

Great trip report CK!

You've gotta love those "free" drinks.

 

Kitty--

Great report! Glad that you discovered how much fun the Elvis machines are.

Mikey

 

Kitty,

Great trip report! And I can relate to those blackjack hands from hell. Been there, done that.

T-68 (I think)

 

Ooh--I gotta try Elvis. Apparently, though, I'm the good luck piece for OTHER people, never myself

Kitty--where are important Vegas pictures? You know, the Aladdin BATHROOM!!

 

Great Trip report(s). Sounds like you had a great time.

Did you have dinner at MGM before the show? I remember you asking about places to go.

 

Sorry Hoya, I never even thought to take pictures in the room! But the bathroom was very nice! The Resort room (one step up from the standard room) had two huge counters, great big shower with bench, separate potty room, and the tub up against the wall - a window would have been superb... it's long and a little on the narrow side, although I fit in it and I am not on the narrow side

And, no, we did not eat at MGM Grand prior to the show. We found ourselves at Venetian with not a whole lot of time to get back to Aladdin and shower & change, so we grabbed some dim sum at Noodle Asia. It was tasty! We also took in a post-dinner small meal at Carson Street Cafe at the Golden Nugget before seeing the Fremont St Experience.

Kitty

 

Now I'm excited (we're in a Resort room, according to the pkg we booked, at least. One never knows what will actually happen until check-in )

[ October 07, 2003, 05:19 AM: Message edited by: HoyaHeel ]

 

Kitty,
Fun report. I can't wait to play those Elvis machines next month
How many cats do you have ??

sunni

Hoya,
I am sooo jealous want to go to Vegas..now..

 

I'd sure prefer to be there than at work.....

 

Well.... first off I have to say that we have a really big house - five bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, etc.... it's over 3000 sq feet. So the cats have plenty of room, and we can (usually) find an empty bed when it gets too crowded on ours LOL. We have 12 cats of our own. That number will probably be 13 by the weekend, as I will choose one of the yellow kittens we are fostering to keep. We have 9 foster kittens (ranging in age from 10 weeks to 6 months) and 1 adult foster. So... a grand total of 22 cats in the house (but 8 of them are really tiny!)

Kitty

 

so true...

i had my share of some very costly "free" drinks