40 and fabulous- highlights of two Vegas virgins 6/21-6/25

I joined this site a few months ago to contribute and also to research for our first trip to Vegas.

The participants
Myself and Mrs Wallew. I urned 40 last fall and the Mrs turned 40 two days before we arrived in the desert. We have been Atlantic City locals all our lives. Not sure how it took us this long to get to Mecca but when you married with 3 kids things happen.

The wife announced that she was going to be 40 and fabulous and I thought what better way than to kick off her birthday that our first trip to Vegas.

Home Base for our adventure
I’ve been diamond with AC Caesars for years so I booked 4 nights at Caesars palace through the calendar. I got 4 nights comped in a Forum Classic King and would try for an upgrade upon arrival.

We arrived arrive Thursday afternoon at CP around 2:30. Proceeded to the VIP check in and used the $50 sandwich and asked if any upgrades were available. The woman that help us was extremely nice and put us in the Octavious tower with pool view. I asked about using the mini bar as a fridge. She told us no but she would have a second mini fridge delivered to our room at no charge. Score!

I apologize because pictures seem to be loading before the text.

 

Thursday 6/21

We were situated by 3:30 and I was in desperate need of a drink and nicotine. We didn’t have any plans for arrival day just check things out and get our bearings a little.

Played some VP by the circle bar outside of the buffet at CP. Odd were terrible but small hits were way more often than we get in AC and let you play for quite a while on little money. Did hit this though the first day.

The first day we also checked out the Bellagio fountain, the Cromwell and the Flamingo.

Gambling did not go so well. Neither slots or tables treated us well but we had a great first day and definitely over indulged in alcohol.

 

Happy Birthday to you both. Looking forward to reading more. Love Trip Reports with photos!!

 

Friday 6/22

This is the day that things started to become a blur.

Start the day with breakfast at Cafe Americano at CP. Food and service were good but pricey.

Checked out the bellagio. Gambled a little and lost quickly.

Checked out Paris and Bally’s. Gambled some more and also had no luck.

We checked out the pool at CP for about 2 hours. The pool was very nice but drinks were pricy. Felt good roasting in the sun and sweating out the booze from the night before.

This was the night that we decided to head downtown. We cabbed it down there around 5:30.

Ate early at Nacho Daddy. Ended up sitting at the bar for happy hour. Drank way to many draft beers and the wife had too many shots of tequila. Service was ok and food was pretty decent.

Ended up bouncing around Fremont till about midnight. This was a very cool and kind of depressing experience at the same time. Great party atmosphere but it was hard to escape to charm of homeless, drugged out tweakers and general low life’s that seemed to be everywhere.

Gambling on Fremont went pretty terrible also. With the exception of a little roulette and the sigma derby at the D.

Got back to the strip around 12:30 or 1:00. Continues to drink heavily and I think we only stayed at home base of CP.[/ATTACH]

 

Happy birthday to both of you! Enjoying your report so far!

 

Saturday 6/23

This day started terrible but ended up being a great day.

I woke up around 5:30 with intestinal issues and the worst hangover in years. Mrs Wallew woke up around 7:30 and felt ok at best. I was in a pretty crappy state of mind between the way I felt and the way gambling was going. We could hit anything the first two days.

Only plans for the day were check out The Venetion, the mirage and we got our free Diamond tickets to go see John Caparulo at Harrah’s at 10pm.

Went downstairs at CP around 8:00 for coffee and nicotine. Gambled a little and lost more. Then decided we needed to hit CVS in front of Bally’s for a few supplies so we headed that direction.

On our way to cvs we decided to stop at the Cromwell for some VP and Bloody Marys. Played VP for a maybe 20 minutes and then Mrs Wallew relished that her wristlet purse was unzipped and she didn’t have her phone. At this point the “freak out” was on. The Mrs swore she had it when we left the room and it must have fallen out somewhere. The bartender at Cromwell called over to Caesars security to see if it was turned it but it wasn’t. We left in a hurry and decided to backtrack out route. In the process I called our 17 year old daughter to tell me how to use the find my iPhone thing.

The find my iPhone took me back out of Caesars by way of the 7 stars valet. I walked out to flamingo and saw the dot on my phone right were there was a homeless guy walking about 200 yards away. I told the wife to stay at the valet area while I chase the guy down. I then jogged up flamingo to the homeless guy. I scared the crap out of him but he swore he didn’t have the phone. I walked back to the wife and told her no luck. At this point I’m sweating my ass off, hungover and stressed because my wife lost her phone. We walk back into the AC at Caesars and look at the phone again. Now it is showing her phone out by the pool so we head that way. No luck out by the pool so we head up to the room to regroup and see about having my wife’s phone turned off and getting a new one. When we get to the room housekeeping is in there and the woman says hello and then telling us the cell phone on the counter has been ringing and beeping like crazy since she came in to clean. After this whole ordeal my wife left her phone in the room after she swore that she had it and the find my iPhone thing sent us on a wild goose chase for over an hour.

 

Happy birthday!

 

Saturday 6/21 continued

At this point it is somewhere around 10:00 I think and we finally have my wife’s phone and I feel like total crap.

We decide that we still have to go to cvs so we head in that direction for a second time. We decide that we need food and I realize that the Paris buffet is close to cvs so we decide that is the ticket for and easy brunch.

Quick stop at cvs then off to the buffet. The bad luck continues at the Paris buffet. We go in the special Diamond door to get in and it’s packed. Two huge groups. One guy buying buffet of buffet passes for like 15 people. This took forever then at the end he realized he only had 14 people and then he had to get a refund for one. Next up was a bachelorette party. The mother of the bride was platinum but only paying for herself and her daughter then the other 9 people in there party payed individually they were all only gold members. At this point I’m fuming. What the hell good is a diamond line if you let anyone use it.

After the ordeal of getting into the Paris buffet the food was decent but I felt like hell but Mrs Wallew was felling pretty good by now. Bellies filled we head back to home base by way of Bally’s.

In Bally’s we continue to lose at gamboling. After a couple of hours we head for home base at CP. the wife and I discuss how we have never had bad luck like this. Almost everything we gamble on whether it be slots or tables we just lose. At VP we have held our own and stay proud even but never really get ahead.

Get back to the room around 3:00 or so. Time to refresh, get cleaned up and get ready for Saturday night on the strip.

 

Saturday 6/23

At this point it is around 4:30 or 5:00. The only set in stone thing is a 10:00 comedy show at Harrah’s to see John Caparulo.

We decide to take a cab across the street to Harrah’s to get a basic lay of the land. Hit the Harrah’s diamond lounge for a free drink or 3. FYI diamond lounges in Vegas are depressing compared to AC where we live.

Head over to check out the Venetian that we have heard so much about online and from friends. That place is definitely beautiful. The wife wanted otters for dinner so we checked out whatever the raw bar was there. Only stayed for one drink because the wife refused to let me spend $60 on 1 dozen oysters that we can get locally for 1/3 of that price.

Now for the people on this forum that like to wager a few buck, this is where the tides turned on our horrific luck so far gambling.

We walk out of the raw bar towards the casino. I tell my wife to sit down at the first machine on the edge of the floor while I look on my phone for a new option for oysters. It’s some giant Monty Python machine that we would never play. I tell her to put $20 in while I figure things out and smoke a cigarette. She begrudgingly puts a $20 in. All of a sudden the machine goes crazy and I ask her what’s going on and she said she wasn’t sure what the hell was happening. It was her 4th pull on a random machine and she hit $543 on a $2.50 bet.

After cashing in that ticket at the Venetian we head to the Oyster bar at Harrah’s. Wife was happy the oysters. The rest of the food was ok but not great.

After dinner we head over to the Mirage to see the volcano show. Pretty cool but I only need to see that once. Definitely overrated.

At this point it was like 9:15 and we are back at Harrah’s. Sit down to play some vp for some drinks. The wife did ok miking here $20 but I ended up hitting a 4OAK with kicker. Things were turning around.

After the VP we went to the comedy show. It was ok but we were both falling asleep because of the long day. After the show we decided to hit Starbucks for so gogo juice.

 

Nice report so far! Glad your wife didn't lose her phone!

 

Saturday 6/23
( I promise this is the last post for Saturday)

After hitting up Starbucks to wake us both up we wondered though the Linq, the flamingo and the Cromwell. Had mixed results up some and down some but we would take it after losing our asses the first 2 1/2 days.

Finally stumbled back to CP around 3:00 or so. Wife wanted to go to bed but I wasn’t done yet. I decided to play some old school single line machines. Probably wouldn’t win much but at least I would get to play for a while with getting small hits. Then I stumbled across my money makers. Hit two small progressives in about a 1/2 hour with multiple $200-$300 hits.

Ended the day walking away with winning back all gambling losses so far plus up $2800. It was hard to fall asleep when we finally got to the room.

 

Very nice.

 

Sunday 6/24- the last full day

The Mrs and I fell out of bed some time around 9:30. Cleaned up and headed downstairs for caffeine and nicotine.

Hit up the speacial slots a little more for a few more hits. At this point I felt like I found secret slot machines. It seems like everyone would just walk by and look at them like I’m not playing those lame old machines or they would stop and just throw $20 in then move in. It became clear a few select others also new these machines paid if you were will to spend a little time massaging them.

After a little gambling we decided to head over to the flaming to check out the habitat and grab brunch at the buffet while there.The habitat was nice but smaller than I expected. The buffet was kind of generic but decent enough.

From brunch we gambled at flamingo for a little while then back to home base at CP to hit the pool again.

We ended up staying at the pool for about 3 hours and drinking way too much. I think the drinking helped because the wife suggested that we head into the Venus pool for the last hour so we could check it out. It was our first time at a European style pool. It was nice and we had a good time but there were a few creepers in there.

After getting showed and ready for the night we went to Old Homestead for dinner. Service and food was excellent. We enjoyed it better than the one in AC they we have been to a few times.

Went to the 8:00 show of Absinthe. The show was awesome and we both really enjoyed it. After the show we had a few drinks in Caesars then proceeded back across the street at Cromwell.

Mixed luck at Cromwell on slots and roulette after and hour of so. Walked away about even.

Walked into the flamingo. Lost some money on roulette there then stumbled on a blazing sevens machine that diced to play nice. Stayed at the Flamingo until about 3:00 then stumbled back the CP to pass out.

 

Monday 6/25- the last day

Rolled out of bed around 8:00. Typical trip downstairs for caffeine and nicotine. Gambled a little with some not very spectacular results.

Walked around and took care of getting souvenirs for the 3 kids.

Breakfast at Americana Cafe again. Food was good again but we’re got a terrible server.

Wondered over to the bellagio again and threw some more money away.

Cab to the airport around noon for our 2:00 flight home.

The last day was pretty uneventful other than giving back to the gambling gods.

That about wraps up this trip report. I may throw in a few more observations later as I remember more from the blur of our first trip to Las Vegas.

 

Sounds like you had a great first trip. Thanks for sharing.

 

I always like a good Caesars TR. Well done. Looks like you guys had a great time. Nice score with the $50 trick, it definitely paid for itself. Nice slot hits at Caesars!!! Thanks for the report and great pics.

 

Great TR..awesome job...your wife cell phone story reminds me last year when I actually lost the phone in the strip but nice older gentlemen founded it and I got it back...(it was very stressful hour looking for it).

 

Like the report! Did Vegas for my 40th as well in November. I can see your trip is going better than mine did however!

 

Trip #1 looked like a whole lot of fun!
Congrats to you and the Mrs., @Wallew!
Thanks for taking the time to put together your TR!

RICHARD

 

Very nice report and congrats on the wins!