5/13-5/20 Mirage, South Point Old Farts Have Fun

Room Videos

Mirage A054 http://youtu.be/HgzXJtIFx4o

South Point 2574 http://youtu.be/yOnAnnGs2Ng

Assorted pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.557041417653364.127458.100000425316731&type=3

My apologies if my links are bad....I mess them up sometimes.

Me and husband Mike (12th trip) MIL and her friend (in their 70s and 80s) will call them the elderlies.
No hookers, drinking or other debauchery so if you are looking for that stop reading now.

Spent the night at the airport 5/12 due to an early flight Monday. Springhill Suites, fine place to stay but not as nice as Homewood Suites across the street, where we have stayed in the past. Up at 3:30 am ( well everyone else, I didn't sleep a wink), leave the hotel at 4:45 and in 2 minutes we are at the airport. MHT Manchester NH our favorite airport. Hubby dropped us off curbside so the elderlies wouldn't have to haul their bags far, checked in with the skycap, quick security line and off to find breakfast. First time in 10 years NOT taking a nonstop. 6:45am flight 4+ hours to Denver had a 90 minute layover in Denver then a 90 minute flight to LAS. Get the bags hop the shuttle to the Car Rental Center...straight to the garage since we are Dollar Express members. Quick and easy, get our Black Chevy Impala. My only concern is that our reservation said $194 and their records said $204. I didn't know this until the end of our trip so they got $10 out of us somehow. Flights for me and Mike totaled $55, used SW points and paid for EB and Security Fees. Full flights as always, haven't seen an empty seat in 5 years on our Vegas flights.

Instead of a right on LVB we took a left and hit Food 4 Less. Liquor, snacks, water and soda. Back up LVB to Reno, Koval, Sands, Spring Mountain and we are in the Mirage parking garage. Hauled our bags from the garage and dropped them with the bellhop. Front desk had a line but didn't take too long. We had a great clerk who was able to connect my 2 night reservation and Mikes 2 night reservation. So 4 nights in a Tower suite for free (thanks myVegas). The elderlies had a 2 bed volcano view room on the 18th floor. We had suite A 054 (that is the 26th floor). FYI – The elevator buttons had a nonsmoking sign on just the A button. In the halls on the A floor were signs for nonsmoking. At check-in I told the girl I had a SMOKING room reserved. She told me that smoking was optional on the A floor and to just ask housekeeping for ashtrays. So this my friends is why people complain about their nonsmoking room smelling like smoke.

Monday got settled played slots at Mirage and ate at Carnegie Deli. Mike and I split the club sandwich w/side of potato salad, elderlies had the veggies over rice. Big portions but nothing to write home about. I won on slots everyone else lost.

Tuesday breakfast was our normal Mickey Ds yogurt parfait and hash-brown. We all went to Belagio for the lunch buffet, thanks myVegas all 4 for free with VIP line. Food was okay but not blown over by anything except the cheeseburger sliders. I could have just eaten those and I would have been happy, they were great! Hiked over to Monte Carlo. By the time I got there I could barely walk. I had hyper-extended my knee a few weeks back and it wasn't happy with me. I was supposed to go from here to NYNY for a meet with fellow VMBers...I didn't make it. Between the 100+ degree heat and the limping leg....I just limped my way back to the Mirage to ice it down. Gambled at Mirage, Belagio and Monte Carlo no one hit anything good. All 4 of us went to Donny & Marie that night, great show and all of us said we would go again. 40% off on Travelzoo was a great deal. After the show we were ready for something to eat, had the buffet back at 12 noon...BLT didn't have a line so that is where we went. Great burger. Charged the bill to the room so I would have something to spend my Express Credits on.

Wednesday breakfast the usual at Mickey Ds. We decided that 2 days of over 100 degrees and my aching leg...we needed to go for a ride and NOT walk the strip. We were supposed to go to Hoover Dam this day but we all decided it was too hot to stand on that cement in the sun...so Ethel Ms and the Cactus Garden wound up being our destination. Drove over to Green Valley Ranch from there. Grabbed a snack at GVR, big mistake. Fatburger had 4 people working. We ordered 1 fry and 1 soda...took 20 minutes. I wasn't impressed with their casino, I thought it would be like Red Rock....I like Red Rock better. Back to Mirage in time to play slots and rest before our dinner reservation. Circus Circus Steakhouse (thanks again myVegas) was dinner for me and Mike. Food was good for Mike, okay for me...Sinatra music was nice. After all the bragging I have heard about the place I expected more I guess. Everyone raves about the breadbasket, I hated it. All hard dark breads or pretzel types. I love a good breadbasket but not any of the types they had in theirs. Mike had the rib-eye, I had the small prime rib. Both came with salad, mashed, green beans almondine. We split the crème brulle. Total bill only came to $114 and we had a $150 voucher. I left more than half of my food. It was too dark in there for my bad eyesight and to tell you the truth I've had just as good a meal at home for less money. So gambling for the day was Mirage, GVR and Circus Circus (where I LOVE to play). No wins to speak of, but I was happy to get to play at CC again, we have skipped it the past few years.

Thursday breakfast at Mickey Ds. Stuck around home today since my leg was still bothersome. Played at Mirage, Casino Royale, Venetian and Harrahs. Hit a little bit on slots. Lunch was Harrahs buffet with TR points. We finally saw Human Nature at the Venetian. Another 40% off deal on Travelzoo. Mike has been wanting to see it for a few years now. Was a very good show but the audience didn't get into it like they should have. There were groups here and there that were up and dancing...but many others sitting like lumps on a log. I liked Donny & Marie better. Stopped in at Casino Royale after the show for a bite...wound up splitting a subway grinder. Slots played a little better for us today. The elderlies spent the day at the FSM, Secret Garden (free thanks myVegas) and Mirage buffet (using my LVA 2/1 coupon)

Friday breakfast...gotcha...Peppermill! We are leaving the strip for South Point today and I have a new routine of Peppermill on the day we checkout. I had eggs, sausage, hash-browns this time...next trip going back to the french toast. Everyone enjoyed it just as much as last year. Play some slots and checkout of Mirage. Mike and I were staying on the myVegas 4 night plan so the only thing on our bill was the BLT check from Tues night, Express Comps took care of that. The elderlies did a little better, they had a volcano view 2 bed room that they were paying for plus resort fees. They gambled less than us but still managed to get $200 taken off their bill by the mlife host. Eveyone was more than pleased by this. Addendum to this...Credit Card bill came in and the charge for BLT was on it. Mlife said they comped it, but it still got charged...currently in email communication with the Mirage about this.

Instead of the back roads that we usually take, Mike turned right and followed the strip all the way to South Point...nice to drive the strip and there wasn't much traffic at 10:45 in the morning. Stopped at the Outlet Mall to kill a little time, didn't want to get to SP until we could check in. Haggar store for Mike and Vanity Fair store for the Elderlies. Off to SP, was able to checkin about 1 pm. 3 nights in a comped 1 bedroom thanks to my host there. This is the one casino I do spend $$$ in. Also had $50 resort credit and $50 free play. I don't get these offers anywhere but South Point. Suite 2572 facing south for us. Great view of those funny hills to the west of the M Resort. Mike loves those hills. Elderlies had a mid view room 2033. Unpack and off to Mikes favorite Steak n Shake. Hit the slots for the rest of the afternoon/night. First of 2 handpays Woot Woot! Penny machine bonus round gave me $1200+. Cashed a lot of tix that night and of course played some through.

Saturday breakfast from the coffee counter, yogurt and a cheese danish to share. I was in the casino before 8 am and hit my second hand pay $1500+ on a penny quick hit machine bonus round. The one that has Quick hit fever as one of the bonus picks. Dropped off the elderlies at the outlet mall for a few hours. Before dropping them off, Five Guys for lunch. The elderlies loved it and had never been to one. Slots for the afternoon for me. Dinner that night was Don Vitos. We had never been there before Mike and I both had the veal parm, the elderlies had lasagna and some sort of veggies over pasta dish. I would call it average. Strange bread but good. We all had our free desert coupons from the coupon book we received at check-in. More slots before calling it a night.

Sunday Mike ventured out on his own bright and early to find the Broad Acres flea market in North Vegas. He found some things to buy, but couldn't figure out how to get them home...so didn't buy anything. He plans on going back again next time we are there on a Sunday morning. Lunch was the Del Mar Deli and Dinner was the bowling snack bar for a hot dog. We had had our fill of food by now..we don't eat heavy at home and the past week had been too much for us. This day I finally sat down at the 3 card poker table. Hit early my first session, nice straight flush. Sat for 3 more sessions over the course of the day/night...hit nothing. Slots were okay...nothing was going to top Fri night and Sat morning! We had warned the elderlies that in our opinion the South Point buffet was crap (only thing we dislike about the entire hotel) they ate there Sunday and laughed when they told us they agreed. Kahlua and creams were pretty good and ice cold the whole time we were at South Point. I am not a big drinker and drink service on the strip was pretty bad. South Point I had no problem getting a waitress. Friday and Sat SP was packed with tons of kids thanks to a cheering competition. There were always 50 people those nights waiting for the elevators.

Monday breakfast at Coronado Cafe I had french toast...pretty good for a coffee shop. Played slots and racked up quite a few more points before we had to checkout. 10:30 was time for us to checkout and head back to the airport. Wanted to save the elderlies from hauling the luggage from the rental center on the shuttle to the airport, so Mike drove back. The elderlies and I and 4 huge suitcases and carryons took a cab. $25 fare with a nice lady from SP to the SW door of Terminal 1. Stopped at Hudson News and bought 2 sweatshirts for myself and a tshirt for the grandson. When I got home I found the tshirt was not in my bag. An email to them and a refund is in the mail, they were very nice and professional about it...their records even showed that my shirt was not put in my bag. Nice to see a company do the right thing nowadays. Long trip home flight from LAS to DEN, sit on plane in DEN then home to MHT. There was still a lot of bad weather in the midwest so they took our plane from Denver up to South Dakota over Canada and then back down to Manchester...flight got in about a half hour late.

Strip was packed but casino lacked “young” people. I now know why gambling revenues are down. Slot players were “older” people everywhere we went. Didn't get to some of the things on my list but there is always next year ( I hope).

Thanks to myVegas, Total Rewards pts, Mlife credits, South Point credits...we spent very little on food and NOTHING on rooms. I call it frugal, some call it cheap. Pick your poison.

Once again we pushed through approximately 10x our bankroll at South Point. Makes me not even want to play on the strip anymore.

Even though we have been many times we had MANY firsts...Staying at Mirage hotel, using Dollar instead of Alamo, eating at Carnegie Deli, BLT, using skycaps, using bellhops, Ethel MS, Broad Acres, GVR and Don Vitos were all things we had never done.

Only the 2nd time in all of our trips that we had $$$ left in our budget. Normal for us slot players is to return home with $100 left. We came home with $2900 of our $5000 budget. Best we have ever done. All thanks to South Point of course.

Boring and long I know, but we had fun and that's all that counts. I just like to show a different kind of trip report. Many that I read are a different type of trip than ours. 7 Nights wasn't long enough Mike is already talking about making the trip longer next year!

 

Great hits at South Point, I'll have to look for them in a few weeks! Enjoyed the report! (And pictures on FB)

 

Thank you - I enjoyed your report. I will visit Vegas with my parents soon and they are from here on out referred to as "the elderlies!":evillaugh

 

great trip report...sounded wonderful to me. i'll be out there in a week

 

I really enjoyed this. Thanks for sharing.
Nice wins by the way!

 

Love how you include videos of the rooms you stayed in. Two great hits, glad to see the slots were hitting for you this trip!

How do you like the Peppermill? I have heard real good things and really want to try it on my upcoming trip.

 

Nice report! Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks for the report and videos. We will be at the South Point in 4 more days though it won't be in a suite which looked great in your video.

 

Thanks for reading. Second time we went to Peppermill. We enjoy the food and atmosphere. JPW I will send you a PM where the hot slots where I always forget things when I write these reports out. 1st time at CC Steakhouse and Mike used his myVegas rewards to get 2 tix to Terry Fator (we had already seen him) and we gave them to the elderlies...they really enjoyed it. Westie don't be afraid to ask about an upgrade at SP. First time we stayed there we only paid $50 night to upgrade, 2nd time they wanted $100 night. Last 2 trips they sent me suite offers.

 

JPW and Westie....the best machine I found for a consistent payback (pulled multiple tickets out of these for $100 -$200) and saw the same people sit at them all day. It is a penny 3x4x5x machine, max bet $2.00. There is a bank of 4 of them on your left as soon as you walk from the elevator hallway into the main casino. There is a sign above them, don't remember if it said New or Hot. If your first $20 didn't get you anywhere, your second $20 would. I don't know why I didn't just sit at them and no other machine the whole 3 days. Make sure you point them out to your wives

 

Great report! Love the info on the myvegas rewards, I am still plugging away hoping for some comps for my February trip!
I travel often with my Mom, I am 49, she is 75.......I related to your report in many ways.......... Thanks for taking the time to write it

 

I wandered out to SouthPoint last week and was reminded of why I don't go there. It was a sea of older people! But... that said... it was a sea of people all spending money and outwardly ALL seemed to be having a great time (though internally, I'm sure they were complaining to each other about darn near everything as older people like to do)! The place was very, very lively and this was like 1 p.m. on a Thursday.

 

Very nice suite at Mirage; those darn wraps sure mess with the views. Congrats on the hand pays!