"Semi-Live" TR - MGM and other places TBD - 3/18 to 3/21

That is very interesting and I am starting to think the MGM must think I might abuse a pool table since I never get one in the Lofts either. I will say a pool table can be used for something other than pool.

 

It was a start and as you will see a finish but the in between had something to be desired.

 

Fair comment and them were some loud crickets.

 

Summoning some of my last brain cells to remember where I left off.

Just a quick note before that. I was up at 5am east coast time and started drinking as some as I hit the plane ... first mistake but who is counting. By the time I hit whiskey down for that drink, I was well into it. I am pretty sure that is where I left off and this went queit.

After a few drinks at WD, headed up stairs to get ready for dinner. got ready and back to WD for another drink and some VP. one of my favorite bartenders was there and I started to complain that the earlier bartender said they couldn't make our drinks. Matt told us he could make them and had what he needed tucked away behind the bar. A couple more drinks and off to Mandalay Bay for dinner at Charlie Palmers.

The limo was one of the brand new MGM Cadillac. Very nice but I got a kicked out of the lights when the door was open.







More on dinner later .....

 

Glad you are going to finish this TR! I've enjoyed the couple you have done. I see mgm got the same new limos as aria.

 

Yeah, had one of these when I was there earlier this month. They are sweet, and the light thing is cool. Also note that the drink holders in the new limos are round instead of square. The Fiji waters not longer fit, so they moved to Voss. We thought that was pretty funny.

 

Thanks. I will get it done between all that unimportant with stuff.

 

It is funny you mention that because the driver pointed that out. I have been spoiled with Voss in the Lofts so it was nice. However, what Tina said was they could stock both. The holes were slightly squared enough for both. It barely shows in the picture. I wouldn't have noticed if she hadnt said anything.

 

I think I should rename this a Semi-Live TR that is done post trip ... but here I go ....

We got to Mandalay Bay about an hour before dinner, so it was time to find a VP machine and for SH to find some slots ... I would love to say I hit it big no suck luck. I found a bartop and proceeded to drop about $500 over the next 45 minutes. It was worth a few more drinks. Then off to Charlie Palmer for dinner with my Host and her husband.

It had been a long time since I had been to CP and took me a little bit to find it and completely forgot it was downstairs. Found it.




We were seated quickly and had another drink quickly in front of me ... by this time I realized that getting up at 5am ET and starting drinking at about 9am ET were catching up to me as is was about 8:30 PT (11:30 ET) and I had been drinking for about 14 hours ...... I was hungry and I wasn't going to stop just yet...

Order a great dinner. I always like to start with a Caesar salad and while they didn't have the classic there was a good substitute. (Side note: what is it with all these places trying to put their spin on a caesar salad? Some have done it well other not so much) CP has a Proscuitto Wrapped Romaine Hearts which was pretty good. I also ordered the filet. It was well cooked but I thought the shallot on top was a little weird but still a good steak. As for sides, I always like to try the mac & cheese at different steakhouses but noticed it wasn't on the menu. I asked the waiter and he checked with the kitchen and was able to make some up. It was good for something on the fly but not something I would order again. Also had the potato puree and potato gratin. I know there were a couple more sides on the table but for the life of me I don't remember what they were. The gratin was probably the best of all of them.


Salad


Sides


Steak


We finished up dinner and were going to head to one of the bars at MB for some live music. My host and husband knew the band and are there a lot . However, on the walk over to bar, it HIT ME HARD ... and I wasn't going to make it much longer. Called for a limo and did a little more VP play until the car got there .... It wasn't one of the MGM limos but a contracted one from Exec (I believe). I almost thought the guy was trying to just score a fare and I questioned him pretty hard as I hadn't had contract car pick me up .... I remember him even showing be the text from MGM with my name in it ..... once in the limo, i found the long side seat and laid myself out for the short trip to MGM .... this is about what the inside of the car looked like to me ..





Back at MGM, Tried to rally but only made it about another hour or so .. no big wins, lost a few hundred ... didn't even make it to a table. Wished I had as missing one night led me to a bad decision the next night which I will get to....... I was probably out about 1 or 2am. ... which was about 24 hours up .. not as much as some on here but a long day ...... will get to rest as soon as I can ...

 

Hard to stay up 24 hours straight while mostly drinking! Good stuff!

 

Thanks for the details, looking forward to the rest! I know it is hard once back in the real world to remember everything. Thanks again.

 

Got up the next morning and surprisingly didn't feel too bad. A little tired but not hungover. I would count that as the first win of the day. Took a quick count and I was down a little over $2k .. so even with the $1600 hit in the beginning, I still couldn't book the win ... I did play a lot of $2 and some $5 VP, so it wasn't too bad.

The plan today was to do a little walking and hit a few of the casinos on north end of the strip. It seemed like we got a late start to the day after a few work calls (I have to stop going to vegas during the week). Had one of the cars drop us off at SLS and we would walk back from there. It was about 11:30 and I was getting real hungry .......

SLS




Decided that pizza sounded good and gave 800 Degrees a try ... It was good but nothing I would rush back to. I have had better and worse. Hit the spot either way.












After lunch we headed over to sign up for The Code .... you get a free spin with the new sign up for the chance of somewhere between $5 and $5000 .... well, both SH and I got $5 but I didn't expect much else. The casino was very dead but then it was a Thursday at noon ...



Decided to play a little bit... SH headed to the slots and I found the VP machines at the center bar (don't remember the name but the one with the 3D images above). First, I am glad I didn't stay there long .. the bright light of that screen made it hard to see the VP screen .. it was hard on the eyes. Thankfully, I hit the following fairly quick and got out hell out of there before I got a headache from that screen. This was probably one of a couple times I dropped to $1 VP but I will take it.



Left SLS and headed toward Rivera ..... up next.




..

 

It is hard and getting harder as I put on a few more years ..... It also doesn't help that I can't sleep the night before Vegas, so I started on a couple hours of sleep but that is the norm for me.

 

Thanks. I generally can put most of it together, thankfully to the pictures and time stamps. The work thing keeps getting in the way.

 

That definitely is some tough glare. I wouldn't want to play those units very long either. I didn't have an issue like that at the bar by the sportsbook.

 

Let's see if I can get this finished ... I figured I lost just about everyone by now but I hate not having it finished.

Side note on Charlie Palmer's. Until the last 6-9 months (maybe longer), if I went to dinner with my host, she would just pick up the check for the table and I would just cover the tip. However, sometime last year, she told me that they were not able to do that anymore. She can "expense" her dinner and I just charge mine to my room and she comps it off later (seems silly to me but no biggie). Now with CP's, she had to get some sort of pre-comp set up as they are not part of MGM for charging to the room. It had been a long time since I had been there, so I had no idea. Anyway, the dinner was picked up by her on this "pre-comp". Just found it was odd that she could do that at what would appear to be a "off proptery" but not on a MGM prop. Just found that interesting.

headed to Rivera ..... Did a quick walk through? wanted to play some bartops but couldn't find anything available. took a couple pictures and headed to Encore and Wynn ..








A quick walk to Encore ..... I have never been able to win at Encore or Wynn but I also haven't put a lot of time in there. We spent enough time there for me to blow through several hundred at the bartops. I still find it hard to play there when they won't comp a drink while playing $2 or $5 VP at the bars. At least they wouldn't for me or I don't know the right bars .. but it didn't stop me from drinking.

Didn't really take an pictures of Encore. Here are a couple from Wynn.








Headed to Palazzo and Venetian. Same story here as Wynncore. Dropped several hundred at the bartops but they do comp drinks, so I will take that for what it is worth. Still no real wins at either place .... couple more pictures

 

From V/P the plan was to continue to walk that side of strip and hit some of the CET properties ... but SH decided he wanted to play somewhere we would get credit from this trip. Since we were heading to the B for dinner, we decided to just cab it over to Aria. SH said he always has luck there. ..... not today. more feeding the machines. We hit Jean Philippe for a couple gelato shakes and they were very good. Tired to get on the bar tops at the Sports Book area but with the MM games they were all taken but no one playing. I hate when a good VP machine goes to waste. Found some others outside the high limit room and proceeded to drop a quick $500 without even a hint of a comeback. Now, I don't normally play slots but all the Cleo 2 pictures and others on this board have gotten me very interested. Decided to hit the Cleo 2 machine in the HL room. I was playing a $20 per spin (don't remember if that was max on that one) 3rd spin in hit the free spins .... but I think I won less than $200 .. what a let down. A few more spins later, I hit some combination for $1000 (I completely forget to take picture of the slot wins but maybe next trip), played down to the $1000 mark and took a small win from Aria even after my earlier VP loss. I wasn't completely hooked but I was looking for more of those machines. Finshed up there about 4:30 and walked back to MGM through Monte Carlo and they by NYNY. Headed into Whiskey Down for a quick drink and back up to the room to change and go to dinner .... we were hitting up Yellowtail at Bellagio tonight.









....

 

Appreciate the effort to finish this, Riders. We are big fans of Yellowtail, hope you had a great experience!

 

Yellowtail at Bellagio

We headed over to Bellagio for dinner at Yellowtail. Originally, a co-worker and her friend were going to join us but they bailed so it was just 2 of us. I had requested a table on the water just for a change and figure it would be nice. However, when we got there for our 7pm reservation, we were told that the patio was reserved for a private party (i was told it was MGM Resorts CFO but not sure about that). It was empty and didn't look like anyone was out there. She said we could wait and we could get a table at around 9pm. What I found funny, was they way it was presented to us, like it will be just a short wait and we can get you out there ... 2 hours .. is not short even for Vegas. We decided to sit in the bar area again and it was still great. They still have some of the most attractive servers/hostesses of the restaurants in Vegas. Great to views in the bar area. The service is also very good .. almost too good as everything was out very fast. I was so hungry that I forgot to take pictures again .. I have a couple.

We had the following:

Rock Shrimp w Korean Chilli Aioli
Toro Sushi
Hamachi Sushi
Krispi Kalbi Roll - Korean Short ribs

and one of my favorites

High Steaks - Filet Mignon, Shrimp Tempura, A-1 Ponzu

a few drinks and another great meal there.

Rock Shrimp


Krispi Kalbi Roll - Korean Short ribs



as I mentioned, they were just a little to good at the service part and we had some time to kill before the car picked us back up ..... as you might expect, found another bartop and proceed to play. hit one small 4oak but put it all back looking for something bigger ..... nothing found. and heading back to MGM. I have a couple pictures of the ride but will just post one. It is pretty clear that the more I drink the worse the pictures get . ....

 

great stuff much appreciated