A Procrastinator's Trip Report

I spent 5 nights in Vegas and got back on September 19th! But I'm quite the procrastinator! During the trip I jotted down the trip report but stopped midway through, so my recollection was not great. Here is the Cliff Notes:

A buddy and I went and stayed at The Mirage. It was my 2nd time there. It's nice, I like Wynncore and Palazzo better, ldo. Gambling wasn't great but my friend's not a gambler so I had/made less opportunity, Also, I did not play poker great and tilted at the suck outs. I should know better. Absinthe was great, Jubilee was great in a different way. Valley of Fire was great. I want to like downtown but am not getting it. Society Cafe was great, Delmonico's was great, Carnevino was great.

Here is the report:

Vegas TR

Friday

Arrive - The Mirage buffet was meh, not much selection at lunch but the roast beef was good and chirozo was good. Other than that I would say I was not thrilled. I'm not a buffet expert, I've only been to a few but I was disappointed.

Parasol Down - strawberry & grapefruit Collins, hit the spot, not sweet but refreshing. it was very relaxing vibe sitting there and drinking and not worrying about things. We had 2 cocktails each and went back to nap. In retrospect it was a very nice time because it was so relaxing.

Dinner - Delmonicos. It was great. I wasn't super starving so I just had the mixed greens salad, which was just a great simple salad, we split asparagus and potatoes gratin. I had the dry aged bone in ribeye. I will say this, Carnevino makes a point that their dry aged steaks are aged longer than everyone else's and it gets a little funky, which is good. But Delmoico's dry aged steak had a nice funk, like meat and strong cheese. It was just great. We went on the lower end of the wine scale and had a $100 bottle of wine, which was perfect for pedestrians like ourselves. Top tip, if you ask for a recommendation for a sub $100 wine the waiter will recommend a $100 bottle of wine, duh. All in all a great experience and the waiter was great.

Afterwards we went to parasol down to try to see the lake of dreams show but there was a wait and we just had a cocktail each, I had the ginger Collins. We walked around and then headed back to Mirage and had drink at the revolution lounge. It was okay, but pretty boring. The club part looked way too young for us. I needed to gamble something so we went to the sports bar and dumped $40 in the VP machine with crappy odds.

Saturday

Woke up early due to being on NY time and too much alcohol in me, but turned on my relaxation hypnosis app and went back to sleep. Eventually got up and went to Carnegie deli for breakfast which was good. We got tickets for the bus to go downtown. People are slow and stupid when it comes to using the ticket machine, sorry, I'm a New Yorker. As it turns out, the driver didn't seem to care if anyone had a ticket. We went downtown and our first stop was the Mob Museum. I enjoyed it, it was interesting and fun. The videos looked like they came from a History channel DVD. Afterwards we walked along Freemont St. and went to El Colrtez, it seemed a little depressing. We looked at some of the cocktail bars but they were closed or empty, it was too early for them to get going I guess. We went to the MSS buffet and it was great, I've been there before and was confident in that. The prime rib was my favorite but in general it was a great buffet and blew away the Mirage buffet in both our opinions. We walked through a few casino's including the Golden Gate. I wanted to see it because it is the oldest existing casino, at least I think I read this. Well we walked in and out. There was a smell that was a combination of several bad smells. We decided to cab it back to give us time to nap and meet for our evening plans. Our plans were Absinthe and I have to say, wow! It is one of the two best shows I've seen in Vegas, the other being Love, and they are very different. It's been said before, don't go if you are at all shy about language. I was shocked at some of the banter but I loved it. Angel Porrino, 'nuff said! After that we went to Spago to eat, it was good as expected. It was after 11:00 so we didn't want to go looking around for a perfect place. After dinner we wanted to go to a bar and wanted a place that hopefully has age appropriate women, namely 40's to 50's. Since it was a Saturday night all the bars we saw were pretty packed and a sausagefest. I heard the Chandelier bar at Cosmo was a good bar, we went but we were not loving it. Then we looked for another bar, we went to Vespers and decided to just have a drink. The vibe was odd and I think it's a cougar bar, which does us no good. Plus these were cougar's that were older than me. I think our vibe was off due to jet lag catching up and our lack of game. At least I'm honest, lol. We headed back feeling out of place. But honestly Absinthe made it all worth while.

Sunday

My friend is a sports fan so the plan was Emeril's Sports Bar. He got there first to make sure he got the table. I got there around 10:30 and they were no longer serving breakfast. I ended up having a oyster po boy for breakfast. That was rough on the hungover stomach. So I had a few Bloody Mary's, which helped. My friend had the French Toast and loved it. Afterwards we just walked around a bit. That evening we went to another show, Jubilee! It was pretty empty so they moved us up. My friend described it as "Terrifically Cheesy". That seemed fitting. We saw the late show so it was topless. Afterwards we drank. Then I plyed some 3-6 poker at The Mirage. It's been a while since I played live low limit and I did not adjust well, lots of suck outs, etc. One player got annoyingly drunk and told me the dealer was rooting for her because she tips more. She started calling another player stupid and the dealer told her to calm down basically. I didn't do well, but it wasn't horrible.

Monday

We got up early and headed out to Valley of Fire. It was my 3rd trip there and my friend's 1st. It was great. Afterwards we headed back and what else, napped! The evening meal was another attempt at a simple meal. We decided to go to Public House at The Venetian. We got there and the waitress was great and made great suggestions on the beer. Unfortunately the regular menu was no longer being served and their late night menu is not really good enough for a proper meal. It's a shame, I really liked the vibe at Public House and was in the mood for it. We went into burger panic mode. I suggested the burger place between Bally's and Paris. When we got there it was closed. So we cabbed it back to The Mirage to go the burger place there. In the cab there was a Wynn ad and Steve himself suggested Society Cafe at Encore, but I did not listen to Steve and I regret it. BLT did what I hate happens at lesser restaurants, the burgers came out with the appetizer. This makes me crazy because we had a full plate of nacho's and my burger is rare and will get cold or they will keep it under the French Fries light, ruining it. The waiter even tried to claim that we would get a fresh order, which is just BS. I have nothing good to say about that experience. I was in no mood to fight with the waiter or manager and the burger pissed me off. I think we drank more afterwards, lol. If I had listed to Steve everything would have been different.

Tuesday

We met up and walked around and decided to go walk towards The Wynn. We were both hungry and went to Society Cafe. I had pancakes with eggs. It was great. Steve came through. We walked around a bit and I played more poker at The Mirage and was very tilty at the suckouts. Tuesday evening's meal was Carnevino. We were in steak heaven, a Fantasy land of food happiness. It was a great last night meal. Also, when we told the waiter we wanted to keep the wine under $100 he came in at $90. My friend liked the fact that they played Aerosmith.

On the flight home my friend asked me, "So when is the next trip?"

 

Nice report. Reminds me if Sergeant Friday ever went to Vegas, then wrote a trip report about it. Had me laughin'.

 

Good stuff!

Sorry about the suck outs and lame late night dining...at least now you know, The Steve won't steer you wrong, lol. Sounds like you had some good steaks, though.

 

I had a good time, I did suffer from post Vegas Partum Depression afterwards though.

I forgot to add the Circus Circus acrobatics show. Glad it was free.

 

I've been dying to see Absinthe. Maybe we can see it the trip after next trip. We are planning to see LOVE in February. Thank you for the TR!

 

Now that's funny. But to the OP, enjoyed the report. And yeah, you should always listen to Steve.

 

good description.

Sounds like you all had some low-key fun & mostly good food, good TR!