Star Trek & Matt Goss - Flamingo 8/9-12

This was Star Trek Convention weekend at the Rio and we booked an offer with a dinner party featuring Matt Goss and the chance to win an Aston Martin (spoiler, we didn't). We booked our usual comped GO Luxury with View at Flamingo. On a normal weekend, we would have left LA early on Friday and gotten into Vegas around 1100, but the hubs and I both recently started new jobs, so we decided to take only the Monday off for the drive home, which means we didn't leave LA until 1900 on Friday and, of course, got into Vegas around 2400. Knowing this, I called Friday morning to see if we could block one of the rooms we prefer for late arrival. It all sounded like the whole place was going to hell in a handbasket. The nice lady in VIP check in told me that two of the towers were currently shut down and there was a major power outage. She couldn't promise us anything. "Oh, no," I was thinking, hoping this didn't bode poorly for our entire trip. I called back later in the afternoon and spoke with the same nice lady. This time, it seemed, the power was back on and all was well. She mentioned we were in a room on the 18th floor.

When we arrived, it was a bit of a mess. The entrance on the Las Vegas Blvd side was closed. You would think they could e-mail people in advance to let you know or something, but we ended up driving all the way up to Sands to come back around the back on Koval. The parking structure was a nightmare. We couldn't find a spot and when we first drove past, it looked like the valet was closed. We weren't sure what to do, we drove back around and finally saw a person directing traffic through the valet. The situation is completely untenable and I hope they do something soon. I mentioned it in both surveys they sent me after the trip. The VIP check-in was closed, so we went to the Diamond line at the desk. It turns out we actually had been upgraded to a suite (a real two-room suite) on the 18th floor overlooking the habitat and pool. It was awesome! The living room was huge with a TV and couch and a dining table and chairs. There was a powder room and then the usual GO bedroom, but the bathroom had a big jetted tub (which we never used, but hey, still cool). A great way to start the trip.

We didn't initially notice any construction in the hotel, but we did walk by the food court once and it was closed off, but opened later and once the casino side entrances to the restrooms were closed off, but I think they reopened as well. We detected no smell anywhere, as some have mentioned.

The first night we tried the new(ish) Spiderman slots. Pretty fun, but no great wins to speak of. We moved around a bit that night playing Ghostbusters (left that quickly because the sound in one of the chairs was broken) and Lord of the Rings. We finally hit the sack at around 0300.

Woke up early to get over to the Rio for the convention. We started out with lattes from Java Detour and oatmeal raisin cookies from the Diamond Check in (no peanut butter this time, bummer). We walked over through the construction to Paris to pick up our passes for the dinner party later that night and the $150 free play that came with it. While we were there we played the Plants vs. Zombies slots for a while. These are pretty fun and we did relatively well. Got our passes and walked through Bally's to catch the shuttle to Rio.

We spent the day at the convention, which is always fun. So many like-minded nerds and geeks; always a good time. Finished up there, used a coupon for $10 in free slot play, played Spiderman again and took the shuttle back to the strip. Stopped in Tequila at Bally's for some decent $2 tacos to sop up some alcohol. Played some more there and back at Flamingo with nothing worth mentioning happening.

Got cleaned up and headed over to Paris for the "Shaken, Not Stirred" dinner party featuring Matt Goss. As I said, we did not win the Aston Martin, but the dinner was actually quite decent. I had wanted to see Matt Goss for a while, but we just hadn't made it over for his show at Caesars. I got the impression that he was not used to playing for such a large audience (several thousand people) in such a large space. He had a hard time connecting, but he sounded OK. I would still want to see his show in the smaller venue, which I expect fits his style better. After the show, we popped around Planet Hollywood and Bally's playing CSI, Lord of the Rings and Spiderman with little success. We finally went back to Flamingo and played a bit there and finally gave up for the night, had a slice in the food court and went to bed around 0200.

We did not go back over to the convention on Sunday. Got our lattes and cookies, then we decided to head north and played at Harrah's for a bit, CSI mostly. We did the free $1M slot pull twice. No wins. Darn.

We went down to the Quad and played for most of the rest of the day. I had an epic run on Spiderman. I was max betting for hours and kept winning $100, $200, $150, over and over. I must have won $700 or more over the time, feeding it all back into the machine, of course. We love the drink system at Quad. It's so much quicker with the one person taking the order and a separately person who delivers. I hope they start this at all the casinos.

We had two free passes to the Bacchanal buffet so we went over to Caesars and stuffed ourselves on crab legs, etc. Played Lord of the Rings Two Towers for a while there and did OK. By this time, we were totally drunk and things start to get fuzzy. I know we went back to Quad and played Family Guys slots. I'm pretty sure they were fun, but I don't remember winning or losing. Ended up back at Flamingo for an Italian sub in the food court before passing out cold around 0230.

Woke up around 1000 on Monday for the drive home. Won't be back until American Thanksgiving. Sad, but had a great trip!

 

Enjoyed your report....thanks for posting! I didn't know the drink service was that way at the Quad....they've been doing that at the Rio for some time & it is great unless the person taking the order is not clear....we have received drinks that were not exactly as ordered on occasion.

 

Thanks for the report.
I was wondering if anyone had gone to the Star Trek convention at Rio.
We generally attend Comic-Con San Diego in July but it's been much too crowded the past few years and we skipped it.
Next year, we're thinking of hitting this one up if it's around again.

Flamingo sounded like a nightmare at first but that suite sounded like it was sweeet!

 

Hey, ardee. I totally recommend the Star Trek con at Rio. I believe they will have it there again next year. We have never been to comicon, but always wanted to go, but the extreme crowds sort of keep us away. This year was a little lighter on the guest list at Star Trek con, so we only did one day, but on years when they have many of the stars attend, the thing is huge and there are always so many fun people, but still manageable. Plus, it's a great excuse to get out to Vegas in August in case you were running short on excuses.

That was our first time being upgraded to the suite and it was AWESOME! Even on the garden side, we loved it. We generally try to stay in one of the high floor rooms on the south facing side so we can see the fountains at Bellagio. Not sure if there was construction noise that we avoided this time or not, but the room made up for the lack of fountains and the view of the mountains and the gardens was nice for a change of pace.

 

Happy to hear your Flamingo stay was OK for the most part. Thank you for the report.

 

Nice TR, I enjoyed it.

 

He's lost without Luke and Ken backing him up.

 

I really enjoyed Matt Goss at Caesars, but it is indeed a very small and very crowded venue. He is very easy on the eyes too!

 

I went to the ST convention on Thursday. First day of the show so a bit lighter on guest stars and thus crowds. I would love to go for the full 4 days. I wasn't bored at all even though my friend was (not a ST fan). I'm tentatively thinking about going back next year. They've already announced the dates of July 31 to August 3 at the Rio.

They apparently had over 100 "stars" from the show this year. Besides Sir Patrick and Nimoy who doesn't attend conventions anymore, who did you want to see that wasn't there?

It was my first convention and I'm totally hooked! I dunno if I'd do it every year but I definitely wanna try the whole weekend at least once.

 

Hi, DBear. I guess maybe that it's just that we go pretty much every year, so we've seen pretty much everyone year after year. We also missed several of the people we would have liked to see because we weren't there on Friday. I'm hoping they will start having stars from the new movies soon to breathe some new life into it. Either way, we will continue to go for at least one day every year; you just can't beat the fans!!

 

Thanks for the info...I just asked molder66 this question in his TR about seating but I think he was in the reserved seats. Did you ever find the main room packed? So much that it was hard to find a seat?

Creation advertises heavily that they don't oversell tickets like ComicCon does. Is that true? Are there lots of empty seats at the back?

 

We always just do the GA tickets and we never have a problem getting a seat. You won't be close up, but they have huge screens so you can always see what's going on on stage. We don't do autographs and the other party type things, so GA always works for us. You can also usually get discounted GA tickets on Goldstar and this year they were on Groupon. We're really just going to hang out with other Trekkers and soak in the atmosphere, so no need to pay the extra for the reserved seats for us. I hope you decide to go next year. It seems there are a few of us now on VMB who go, so maybe we should all think about a VMB/Star Trek meet-up!

 

I would totally be up for a meet. I'm not sure about next year yet though. Probably won't know until early next year, and then I probably won't even buy convention tix until GA tix become available on Goldstar or Groupon. Right now, I wanna go but I may be going to Europe next summer. Will see. I figure there's bound to be another convention the year after if I can't go next year.

I'm a ST fan but I don't think I could compare my knowledge to any of the other attendees. I'm really only a TNG fan. Still watch reruns 25 years later! Never got into the other ones but this convention has made me wanna watch those shows now.

 

There is no reason to believe that there won't be one every year in Vegas for the foreseeable future. I guess no guarantee that it will continue to be at Rio. Up until a few years ago it was always at the LVH (previously Hilton). We never buy our GA tickets until they go onto Goldstar or Groupon. We, also, started out as TNG fans. It's still our favorite. Again, it's just such a blast to go and see everyone's costumes and hang out with people at the bars and such. You don't have to get the expensive tickets to do any of that.

 

Any pictures of the slot machines you played. I don't recall seeing them.

 

Sorry, I'm so bad about taking pictures. Which one's are you interested in. I can tell you exactly where they were.