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M Resort/Paris Nov 2-8

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by LindaP, Nov 18, 2013.

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  1. LindaP

    LindaP Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2010
    Messages:
    434
    Location:
    Texas
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    30

    My Trip Report

    Another trip under my belt – this one was the best trip EVER!!! Have I said that before??? Actually, this one was, despite the fact that the gambling was absolutely horrible!!

    My sister and I arranged to meet in Vegas Nov 2-8. I had a free ticket on American so it only cost me $25 each way for my bag. I don’t know why, but I had the “TSA pre-check” on my boarding passes. So both ways I got to go to the short line (didn’t have to open my bag or take off my shoes or belt).

    We got a decent rate at Alamo for a weekly rate of $106 (all in) for a compact car – she gave the lot guy a tip and we upgraded to a full-size Impala. Since it was just the two of us we really didn’t need the bigger car, but the trunk space alone was worth it.

    She picked me up at the airport and we went directly to the M Resort. She managed to get a 2-night comp. She’s stayed there before, but this was my first time. What a GREAT place! The room was so nice – very modern and probably one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever slept in. The shower pressure was extraordinary and the bath products were spa-like. I really LOVED staying here! Later on I would come to realize that I was spoiled now for any other hotel I would stay in.


    We set off to gamble immediately and agreed to meet up later at the buffet. We both had a comp buffet in a mailed offer, but thought we might be able to “earn” another one just from play alone. It was a Saturday so we needed to earn 700 (slot) points to earn a free weekend seafood buffet. No problem earning the points but unfortunately no wins either. We noticed a line of people snaking around most of the casino. We were thinking “Holy Crap! Is this the buffet line??” Thank goodness it wasn’t – they were in line to collect their free hoodies. The line literally wound around the casino and it didn’t let up for hours (must have been some hoodie!) The buffet was really wonderful, as usual. I can’t think of a better way to start a Vegas trip than with crab legs and champagne and the M Resort didn’t disappoint. I might have embarrassed myself with the number of crab legs I had, but they were really good (I had them a number of times on this trip and the M Resort’s were the BEST!).

    After dinner I played $10 blackjack and $10 Pai Gow - no wins, but I did get to play for a long time. A really bad gambling start to the trip (that continued throughout).

    We remembered to “fall back” for daylight saving time the previous evening and got up at a reasonable time. We did a little gambling and met up at the buffet again – this time using our comp buffet with the line pass. The buffet was incredible again. Too early for crab legs? – I don’t think so! I again embarrassed myself with how many I ate!

    Again, our luck wasn’t with us so we decided to go over the Gold Coast and kill a little time before our show at the Luxor. The Gold Coast had a “Pick a Turkey” kiosk game when you earn 25 points. My turkey earned me 3000 points ($3).

    We headed to the Luxor for the “Menopause, the Musical” show, but we were still a little early. We walked over to the MGM to pick up our KA tickets for Tuesday (courtesy of MyVegas). They couldn’t find our tickets at the Concierge but a quick call had it all resolved. We gambled some at MGM (it wasn’t pretty) and headed back to the Luxor. I got a great deal on the Menopause the Musical tickets from the Vegas4Locals eBay auction site ($25 for both). They originally couldn’t find our reservation either, but one quick call and it was taken care of. We are both 50+ and we absolutely LOVED the show. The song parodies were so funny. For an afternoon show, it was very well attended. One of the characters in the show is a large, black woman – what a voice and she has got some pipes!!! I may wait a few years, but I’ll definitely see this show again!

    We headed back to the M Resort. I lost, again!

    Monday morning we checked out of the M Resort and headed for Ronald’s Donuts on Spring Mountain Road. This was one of our bucket list items that we finally got to. We were worried that we were a little late (11am) – would all the apple fritter’s that Westie raved about be gone??? Nah, we’re good. And they were absolutely as good as advertised. We split a buttermilk donut and an apple fritter! OMG! They were sooo good! This is an EVERY TRIP visit from now on!

    Then we made a beeline for the Palms. We both had the slotplaycoupon.com deal (pay $25 for $40). No problem cashing it in at the player’s club but unfortunately, another loser.

    Next we stopped at the Gold Coast for their 10xpoints day and some bingo. I cashed my points in for a Bingo voucher where I also found out that my table game points from Shreveport, LA would be good for food comps (previously, they were only good to use in Shreveport so this is a major find!). We headed up to the Bingo room and found it fairly well occupied. No wins here.
    Time to take a break from losing so we headed to Paris to check in for 4 nights. We used the Platinum line even though there wasn’t much of a line anyway.

    We both received 2 free 24-hour buffet-of-buffet passes with the TR Visa card. We went to the TR desk to have the buffet put on our player’s cards and then went to the Platinum line at the buffet. They had just started serving dinner and were offering free wine with the meal. We really like this buffet and try to make a point to visit every trip, but we were majorly disappointed with this visit. It wasn’t that anything was “bad”, it just wasn’t very good. Their crab legs were just o.k.

    We gambled around Bally’s and Paris for the rest of the night. The was my best gambling day so far – I was only down $50.

    Tuesday morning we got up and the comparisons with the M Resort began. The toiletries at Paris don’t smell nearly as nice as M’s. And the water pressure?? I don’t think they HAD any water pressure at Paris. And the shower was really small too – at M Resort it was so large and roomy. Yup, the M Resort spoiled me.

    We again tried the Paris buffet for breakfast. Same result as the previous night. Nothing really bad, but nothing really great either.

    We grabbed the car and took off for Southpoint. We got there in time for the 11am bingo session. No winners for us but we did get to see the $2400 hot ball go (got split between 2 winners). The bingo session ran just a few minutes longer than usual (a debate about whether a certain number had been called resulted in them pulling all the balls and doing a ball by ball comparison) so we had to hustle across the casino in order to get to Bob Dancer’s noon Video Poker class. Today’s class was on Not-So-Ugly Deuces (NSUD) Wild. Great class and pretty well attended too. He gave out a great hand-out that I subsequently used throughout the rest of the trip. He also handed out a coupon good for 30 free days of gold membership on his VideoPoker.com site.

    After the class we went to the Orleans to participate in their senior day and play some free play. We each won a t-shirt in the kiosk games and some extra drawing tickets for the 4:30 cash drawing. I was getting a little hungry by then, but my sister wasn’t. I was just going to grab something in the food court but Big Al’s Oyster Bar drew me in. Their clam chowder is just wonderful!

    We met up and then drove down to MGM for the 7pm KA show. We were so impressed with this show beginning with walking into that magnificent showroom. I had comp tickets in the 5th row from playing the MyVegas game. I was initially worried we would be too close – they had gas balls of fire exploding in the stage area prior to the show and you could really feel the heat! The seats turned out to be excellent and the show was just incredible. There are so many scenes where my mouth had literally fallen open in amazement – just spectacular. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but I guarantee if you go there will be several moments where you’ll just think “wow”!

    Wednesday began with another MyVegas comp for 2 lunch buffets at Aria. This was our first visit to this buffet and we’ll definitely go back. We got there in time for both breakfast and lunch options. My sister fell in love with their Muesli and you couldn’t go wrong with the freshly made naan from the Tandori over. I had some crab legs, but they weren’t as good as the ones at the M Resort. Just a note – every place I had crab legs this trip (M Resort, Paris and Aria) served split snow crab legs. I know many of you like to have them split, but I just find them much messier to eat that way (but I powered through).

    We walked back to Paris to grab the car and went down to Southpoint to pick up comp tickets for Thursday’s Dennis Bono radio show taping. The start giving them out at noon on Wednesday (definitely get them early – when we got to the show on Thursday it was “sold out” and there was a line of people waiting in case there were no shows). You can get a free ticket at the box office with your player’s card (one ticket per card).

    Next we headed downtown for a coupon run. We stopped at Main Street Station, 4 Queens ($10 free play when you show another downtown player’s card), Binions, El Cortez, the D, and The Downtown Grand (free play for new sign-ups). We stayed downtown for a few hours and then went back to the strip.

    We parked the car and walked over to Caesars hoping we might be able to grab some last minute tickets for that evening’s Rod Stewart show. Lucky for us they still had some $49 cheap seats. You can’t use your points at the box office so we had to walk across the room to the Total Rewards desk and get a voucher. We both got vouchers for $49 (no taxes or fees) and went back to pick up our tickets. We were about 3 rows from the back and I was really surprised by how good those seats were. My sister is the bigger Rod Stewart fan, but I’ll have to admit the show was fantastic! He sang all his hits and just one or 2 new ones. His back-up singers and band were all so talented. He brought out his adult daughter to sing a song or two – she wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t that long either.

    After the show we walked over to the Aria (used the Bellagio tram) to use yet another MyVegas comp. I got the 5-item Antipasti for the Italian restaurant Sirio. We sat at the bar and ordered. They wouldn’t let us use the comp for anything other than the antipasti. The value of the comp was $52. They didn’t list the 5-item antipasti on the menu anymore, but they had a 6-item for the same $52. We got a selection of 4 meats and 2 cheeses. It also came with a variety of breads, a few grapes and some olives. It was a really beautiful presentation. My sister had a glass of sparkling Moscato and I had a glass of Pinot Gregio. She paid for the wine with points and we left a nice tip for the friendly bartender.

    Thursday we walked over to Caesars to start our second 24-hour buffet pass. We got to the Bacchanal buffet right at noon. There was no line at all, but we still used the Platinum line. There’s a $20 upcharge and we paid with points. What an experience – It was almost overwhelming. The selections are extraordinary and the quality of the food is exceptional. We did our best sampling quite a bit. They had raw oysters on the half shell. I’ve never tried them before and what better time than now? When I was selecting my oyster there was a woman there making herself a whole plate of them. I quizzed her on the appropriate way to eat it (chew or not chew?, condiments?). She recommended chewing (another gentlemen in line chimed in his agreement) and cocktail sauce/lemon garnish. So that’s what I did. To be honest, all I tasted was the cocktail sauce and lemon. I was expecting it to be chewy – it wasn’t at all. Nice and tender. I don’t think I’ll ever order a whole plate of them, but I’d eat them again. Our other adventures in eating included red bean ice cream (tasted like vanilla) and fig/balsamic ice cream. We had a marvelous lunch and we’ll definitely be back (although the $32.99 lunch price is a little steep).

    We hurried back over to Paris to pick up the car and headed to Southpoint for the 2pm Dennis Bono radio show. We made it with a minute to spare and shared a booth in the back of the showroom with another couple. The place was packed! We’re in our mid-50’s and thought we were probably some of the youngest in the room. This show is very well attended by locals and for a very good reason. It’s a great show! Dennis Bono is a great host – he sings and does some entertaining interviews. Today’s show included Paul Williams, Corrie Sachs, Sin City Dolls, Ronnie Rose, Laura Schaffer and Rita Lynn. We were so entertained for an hour. This is a great, free show and something we’ll certainly do again.

    We played a little at Southpoint. I found a great group of Buffalo games (Buffaloooooo) with a railroad train related progressive bonus. I hit very well there and twice made it up to the level where I was playing for the 19k progressive. The man next to me was certain I was going to hit it – he was wrong, but I did appreciate his thinking!

    Our final show for this trip was Veronic, Voices at Bally’s. We got the $2.50 Ticket Master tickets and had great seats in the second row after the floor tables. We were not as impressed with this show as some. She certainly has a lot of enthusiasm and energy, but in the end we didn’t think her “voices” were that great.

    Friday dawned and it was time to check out. We checked out on the TV - $0 due. We packed up the car and then walked over to the Flamingo for the Great Gift Wrap-Up. We were a little early and were the first one’s in at 10am. I only had enough for a $10 Home Depot card (3000 points). My sister got 3 $10 Shell gas cards. While we were waiting to get in we were talking to the guy behind us who had 466k points!

    Our last meal was at the Planet Hollywood buffet. They also have a platinum line, but there was no line @ 10:40am. We caught the end of breakfast but were disappointed with the offerings. We were much happier with the lunch selections. Service was incredibly bad.

    We went back over to Bally’s to do a final bit of gambling before heading to the airport. I won $25 and quit gambling just so I could say I had ONE winning day!!

    Final thoughts:

    We did many shows this trip and that was great. Rod Stewart, KA, Menopause the Musical, Dennis Bono and Veronic/Voices. We were really surprised at how much we enjoyed the Dennis Bono show. Rod Stewart was a last minute, FABULOUS fling! At both KA and Menopause I was able to take in drinks I’d gotten on the casino floor after transferring them to provided plastic cups.

    We tried a few new buffets: Bacchanal (fantastic), Aria (very good). The M Resort buffet remains one of our favorites. The Paris buffet slipped way down.

    I had a list of new slots to try and found most of them: Plants vs Zombies, Let’s Make a Deal, Willie Wonka, Lord of the Rings – Return of the King, Ferris Bueller, Monopoly Prime Real Estate, Twilight Zone 3D and a few new iterations of Buffalo slots
    .
    The MyVegas game on Facebook paid real dividends with very little effort – 2 free Premium KA tickets, 2 free lunch buffets @ Aria and a $52 6-item Antipasti platter @ Sirio. I’ve still got 600k points to spend and a trip in May to plan!

    I had planned to take many pictures, but my camera setting got majorly screwed up early on in the trip. Of course when I got home, my husband hit a few buttons and magically “fixed” it.

    Despite all the losses, it was an AWESOME trip!! Thanks for reading.

    - Linda in TX
     
  2. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2013
    Messages:
    31,307
    Location:
    Chicagoland
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    28
    Hmm...Dancer gives a free month of gold membership at videopoker.com when you attend a class? I might have to bother to go to one just for that if I am in town...:evillaugh I'm guessing you didn't hit the 4 Deuces or the Royal though given your results. :(

    And I agree with you on Veronic. She was okay...easily worth $2.50, but most of this forum overrates her, imo. My g/f actually fell asleep during the show. :eek:

    And yeah, we felt the heat at Ka too! We were in the 7th row I think, and I also worried that we were too close. And after I picked those seats, I read a post from the well-respected GREGRIO (RIP :() that suggested Ka was better from the center and further back. But during the show, I didn't have a problem tilting my head up a bit to have the closer view.

    And don't feel too bad about the "Great Gift Wrap Up". I attended that last year since I was in town then. I was lucky enough that ~30 hours of live poker at the IP and tiny amounts of video poker at CET Vegas properties was just enough for one $10 gas card or a kitchen timer...lol I took the gas card.

    Glad you had a good time! Hope to check out the M next time!
     
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