Vegasworm and Family Dodge Mud & Rockslides to Enjoy Red Rock Casino & MJOne (7/27-7/31)

Great report.....may have to check out Red Rock next trip.

 

Why are you not doing stand up comedy in Vegas @Richard Alpert?

Vegasworm

 

Had a really enjoyable read - love the way you do Vegas with your family.

 

Such an amazing read and I love seeing all the fun you and your family have together! Looks like a great trip!

I also may have to check out Red Rock in the future

 

Loving the report. You have a great family and I love reading your description of the trip.

 

Love this report and your prior ones. Thanks so much for taking the time to share. You have a lovely family [emoji4]

 

We've never done a cabana. I always thought they were a waste of money for what you got.

But that is about the nicest cabana set-up I've seen. And with the treats and bevs, and being able to have it for 12 hours, I would certainly consider it at Red Rock.

You've really got me looking into another Red Rock stay! And thinking about contacting a host upfront for the first time and scheming about backend comps, of course.

Fun reading with you and your family!

 

I was skeptical the first time we got a cabana, considering the cost. I was sold after our family spent a whole day with shade, drinks, a safe to lock stuff up in, etc. We've gotten one ever since and it's become one of our trip splurges we always do now. We even got one twice at the Grand Californian during a trip to Disneyland several years back. Thanks for reading!

Vegasworm

 

First day of school went well for the girls yesterday! Like seems to happen with things, it almost felt like we had never left. Sorry to see our summer break over considering there is still over a month of true summer left.

Going to work on Day 4 today and get it posted...hopefully will get to our departure day too and wrap this trip report up. Thanks everyone for following along!

Vegasworm

 

Great TR so far as usual! You guys really know how to do the family vacation!

Mudslides? No thank you, I'll take my regular hurricane flood water please.

Pancho's, ahh good memories. Glad to hear it wasn't the buffet because I can't imagine going across country to eat at Pancho's buffet..lol.

Your kids buying all those MJ souvenirs cracks me up! Some of that stuff seems like it would only be of interest to someone our age who grew up with him. I'm shocked to see a kid interested in a glove since they weren't around when it was such a big shtick back in the day.

 

Day 4 - Tuesday, July 30th

We slept in again and then took our time getting ready. We had been pulling longer days and later nights with the girls, than we had on some of our previous Vegas trips with them. One thing about Red Rock Casino is you didn't feel that out of place having a kid walking around at midnight (considering KidsQuest was open until 2am on weekends and 1am on weekdays). On the Strip, we've always had the girls tucked away in the room fairly early in the evening and V will stay with them while I go gamble. Here though, we seemed to utilize both day and night as a family. It was catching up with us! I don't mean to imply that RRC was overrun with kids, it just seemed to have a more natural flow for families than other Vegas locations...almost like we weren't at a casino with the girls.

The long first travel day and the long days playing at RRC had led to some cranky girls. S had wanted me to wake her early to go have the graveyard breakfast special at the Grand Cafe (we did this once just the two of us at South Point, and she wanted to recreate the memory). I knew she needed rest and did not wake her to do this. She was ticked. G had been begging to do the breakfast buffet. By the time we got out for the morning, it was almost 11:30am and the buffet had stopped serving breakfast. She was ticked. H doesn't even like breakfast (mostly the food selection). I told her we were going to the Grand Cafe since they served breakfast 24 hours a day and all of us except her still wanted breakfast food despite it being closer to lunchtime. I told her she could order lunch foods which I thought would please her. Well, H is my child that gets hangry and it had been a long time since she had eaten the night before. She was ticked. Everyone's sour moods started to get to V and me. We were ticked.

The Grumpy Vegasworm family made their way to the Grand Cafe where at least we were promptly seated. V and I ordered a Bloody Mary each, using a BOGO coupon that came in the Summer Play coupon book. G and S ordered hot chocolates. H boycotted the whole affair and had water.


Nice the Bloody Mary was a BOGO. Our drinks didn't look nearly as exciting as the one pictured on the coupon.


Hot Chocolate for G and S.


Girls weren't thrilled because Mama Vegasworm told them to put away their electronics. Somehow we ended up with an extra kid's menu, so I challenged them to a race with the word find. I won.


E and V figuring even with grumpy kids, we're in Vegas, so hey life is good!


E and V split a Belgian Waffle with added strawberries and cream.


E and V also split Eggs Benedict and Hash Browns.


G had the kid's Pancake and Bacon. S ended up eating most of the bacon.


S looking thrilled with her waffle. We gave her the option to add berries and cream, but she said she wanted it plain. Notice she has her MJOne hoodie on?


Anti-breakfast food H ordered a kid's Cheeseburger and Fries.


Here's the receipt before the BOGO Bloody Mary was taken off. I tipped $12.

Bellies full and in a little bit better spirits, V took the girls to CyberQuest which is the arcade next to KidQuest while I hit the casino floor in search of that handpay. I didn't find it. They had a bank of progressive machines that promised to hit by $5k and by $500 for the Grand and Mini progressives. This machine was close to both and you could win on any bet level, so I played it for quite a well and kept having decent hits on a .50 cent bet which I would cash out and then put in another hundy.


I thought I had hit the big one when I filled the whole screen with oysters and pearls, but alas it wasn't. At least I was up over my initial buy in.

I kept getting texts from V who was sending me pictures of the girls and telling me I should take them to the casino with me. They were lucky ducks at CyberQuest! They kept winning tickets right and left including some rolls of tickets from a giant claw machine.


Little gamblers in the making. Tee, hee.


They were strategizing which rolls of tickets to aim for.


G won a 1,500 ticket roll! They're holding over 2,000 tickets in this picture. CyberQuest doesn't use tokens or actual tickets, instead everything is loaded to a player's card which makes it much easier. The girls took these ticket rolls to the counter and had them loaded to the card they were sharing. They also got to spin a wheel for additional tickets because of winning the claw machine ones.

My slot playing started to go south, so I came to check in and watch the girls play, then I went over to the movie theater that was adjacent to CyberQuest to see what the movie times were.




Originally, we thought we would see "Yesterday" since we are all fans of the Beatles' music. Instead, we saw a 3:30pm showing of "The Lion King". It was pretty good in typical Disney fashion. H used to be obsessed with "The Lion King" when she was little and even had that as her birthday theme for her 5th birthday. The tickets for the 5 of us came out to $34.00 which is pretty cheap compared to what we pay back home. The girls each got a small Icee and we got a large popcorn and large Coke. V went to get the free large popcorn refill during the movie. Total for concessions was $31.73 which is pretty good for us too. I forgot to mention that one of the nights I had picked the girls up from KidsQuest, I had stopped off at the movie theater and let them get Icees to take back to the room. $19.78 for 3 small Icees...the cups were huge though and looked more like larges. I am a Regal Cinema rewards card holder, so I got some points for these purchases.

When the movie was over, we went back to the room to freshen up and get ready to head to Downton Summerlin for some final shopping and our last dinner out. We had a 7:00pm reservation at Trattoria Reggiano.


G, H, and S waiting in the Red Rock Casino lobby before we headed to dinner. S looks like a thug. LOL!

There is a nice water feature area in Downtown Summerlin that we walked to so V could take some pictures with his SLR camera. I snapped some pics with my phone.


G waiting to go shopping.


H enjoying our last evening in Vegas.


I told S to take off her MJOne hoodie considering it was 100 degrees out!


H snapped a picture of V and me.

G wanted to go shopping to look at purses and makeup. H came with us while S hung back while V took pictures. We of course stopped in at IT'SUGAR for yet more candy purchases. We then went to H&M, Sephora, and Macy's. Even though the girls all brought a decent wad of spending money, they spent very little. Close to our 7:00pm reservation, we met V and S over at Trattoria Reggiano. I believe they have this restaurant at the Venetian too. S's favorite cuisine is Italian and the Italian restaurant at Red Rock Casino was closed, so I had chosen this place as the last night of her birthday trip. S embarrasses easily and did not want to be sung to, have a birthday dessert, etc. during our outings, so we never mentioned that we were belatedly celebrating her birthday. I had looked at the menu online and it seemed pretty pricey to me, but our other Italian option in Downtown Summerlin was Maggiano's which we go to here in Denver.


We were seated around a large round table. Some of the windows behind the girls were cracked, giving an open air feel.


E and V at Trattoria Reggiano.


This guy sang the whole time we were there. He sang Rat Pack, Neil Diamond, Elvis, and similar styles using an iPad type Karaoke system. He was really good and the girls put $5 in his tip jar twice. We left when he finished at 9pm. He had my heart when he sang "Wichita Lineman". I love that song!


Weekender Martini for E. It was basically a Lemon Drop Martini that included Limoncello.


Negroni for V.


Complimentary antipasto platter. The parmesan cheese was so yummy!


We attacked the complimentary Garlic Knots like a school of piranhas and were brought a second basket.

V ordered a glass of Caposaldo Pinot Grigio to have with dinner, and I switched to an Italian Martini.


Italian Martini for E - It looked awful and tasted about the same. It just was too sweet (and I like sweet drinks) and the various flavors didn't go well together.

I love me some fancy cocktails, and I have to say that I've had much better luck getting great tasting drinks when we've stayed on the Strip. I just didn't have very many amazing cocktails this time.


My Shrimp Scampi was $32, and I was hoping to be blown away for that price. I was. It was truly amazing. I ate every last bite of it minus sharing a shrimp with V.


V ordered Linguine in Clam Sauce and it was delicious too. It was $28.


S had the kid's Linguine Alfredo. It looked good and she enjoyed it. $10.


Picky G ordered plain old Buttered Noodles. It was also $10. She had requested linguine pasta and was brought penne pasta. We told the server that was fine and that we didn't want to waste. Next thing I know, a plate of buttered linguine noodles was brought out and food was wasted.


H enjoyed the kid's Spaghetti and Meatballs. Her dish was $12.


I can't believe how expensive kid's menus are becoming! At least a drink and dessert was included.


Each girl got a mini Canolli. I helped S eat hers. It was yummy!

As is pretty typical, V and I opted for liquid desserts while we enjoyed the lounge crooner.


Margarita for E.


Tequila and Soda for V.


My alcohol flush reared its ugly head.


Not a cheap Italian joint, but we all did enjoy our meals and the two hours we spent listening to the lounge act. I tipped $32 for a total of $207.37.

After dinner, a lot of the shops were closed, so we made our way back to Red Rock Casino. The girls decided to go for one last hurrah at KidsQuest, and V and I decided to hit up a bar in the hotel/casino since we had not done that yet.


The twinkly lights in Downtown Summerlin on our walk back were pretty.

We got the girls checked into KidsQuest and then made our way to the Lobby Bar where we had a BOGO coupon from our Summer Play book.


It was kind of funny and ironic, because we settled down in the plush couches and chairs since there weren't two seats together at the bar. The one bartender came over to take our order, and I asked to see a cocktail menu. He said they didn't have one. Okay, kind of odd for a bar that has a BOGO cocktail coupon, but whatever.


E went with her old standby, a Lemon Drop Martini.


V got a Vodka and Soda.


Right after our drinks were brought, the bartender brought the tab and said he had to leave to go work the bar on the main floor of the casino. Everyone at the bar had to cash out. Well, at least one of our drinks was free! We hung around and sipped our drinks while watching confused patrons come up to the bar and stand around waiting to order a drink until they realized there was no bartender. When he left, he didn't leave a sign or anything saying they were closed. It was confusing.


E and V at the Lobby Bar at Red Rock Casino.

After we finished our drinks, we parted ways. I went to play slots one last time and V went back to the room to chill. We agreed to meet at the Onyx Bar before I picked up the girls for a final trip drink. Our dog's name is Onyx, so we thought this would be an appropriate tribute.

Here are some of my better slot wins. I ended up going on a losing streak and called it quits earlier than I had planned.









Although I didn't play a ton on this trip, I managed to cycle through my $2k and then some. When it was all said and done after a purse dump, I found myself down only $71 for 3 days of sporadic playing. I'll take it!

I texted V to meet me at the Onyx Bar, but when I got there, it was closed. At least they had the decency to put a sign on the bar top, so I didn't stand around waiting. Though there were other bar options available, we took that as a sign that we were done and stopped off at one of the two Starbucks at RRC for a Cafe Mocha for me and an Americano for V. I had some money loaded on my Starbucks app, so that was nice.


Sad we didn't get to try out the Onyx Bar.


Late night Starbucks run before picking up the girls from KidsQuest.

When we had gone to the movies earlier in the day, the girls still had some credits loaded on their CyberQuest arcade card, plus they hadn't redeemed their tickets. We promised them after KidsQuest, we would go to the arcade and let them play and cash in for prizes before calling it a night. We had used a $5 BOGO coupon there, plus I had purchased $100 in credits for the three girls to share. The cost of 2 hours of childcare for 3 kids plus snacks for KidsQuest had been $71.04. This price includes $5 off from a coupon in the Summer Play book.


G, H, and S working it to earn those tickets.


They had so much fun both at KidsQuest and CyberQuest. I'm sad this will be G's last time at KQ.


I was a little shocked that they had over 4,000 tickets and what it got them. I don't think I could have bought that stuff for $100. H is holding a hamster lamp!


Quite the arcade haul if you think about the fact that we also have our 5 foot tall alien, Frank!


Pocket dump...glad I only lost $71...spent more at the arcade. LOL. I was hoping to win back my $1,700 loss from our June trip though and obviously that didn't happen.

Back in the room after midnight and with a long drive the next day, we did our best to pack up before we went to bed. The girls were hyped from their loot, so it took a while for all of us to settle down. I took one last look out the hotel window at the Strip lit up in the distance and had my usual sad feeling about leaving Vegas. This city wears me out, but I hate leaving it every time!


The Las Vegas Ballpark looked neat from our window all lit up.

And that concludes Day 4! I'll wrap up with our departure day either tomorrow or this weekend. Real life is back in full swing for sure! Every time I sat down to type this today, I got interrupted with a phone call or text, plus just the usual daily grind. School is definitely back in session folks!

Vegasworm

 

What a wonderful, fantastic, fun, etc., vacation! So much fun following along. As far as gambling, I thought you did quite well! Thanks for sharing.

 

Departure Day (Wednesday, July 31st) and Wrap Up

After a late previous night, the last thing we wanted to do was wake up early, but we had about a 450 mile drive to my in-laws in Pleasant View, UT near Ogden. I figured we would give G her wish of going to the breakfast buffet. We had one final BOGO coupon to use there from our Summer Play book. I painfully awoke everyone near 8am, so we could get dressed and finished packing. It took us a while to get going and a bit after 9am we made our way to Feast Buffet at Red Rock Casino.


H, S, and G ready for breakfast and in better moods this morning albeit tired.


Feast Buffet was pretty big and had decent stations throughout with various breakfast choices.


This was my one and only serving from the buffet along with coffee and water.


V's breakfast buffet plate. He went back for oatmeal when he saw mine.


G getting her wish and having breakfast at the buffet. All of the girls enjoyed hot chocolate and water and green Jell-O seemed to be a theme.


H showing off that lime Jell-O.


Can't remember if S got Jell-O too or had eaten it by the time I took her picture.

One thing about Feast Buffet that I had looked up before going were the prices. My Stations Boarding Pass status was Gold+ which meant $8.99 for breakfast (Boarding Pass Preferred is $9.99). We had the BOGO coupon to cover V's meal. The regular breakfast price is $12.99. Children over 2 were $8.99 but it only went up to age 10. I warned my girls that they were 8, 9, and 10. G may be 12, but she eats like she's 3. Well, it turns out I didn't have to white lie myself through breakfast. The cashier rang them up as kids without my input.


If you can see through all of the hen scratches on the receipt, our total after applying the BOGO coupon was $28.50 and using up the $9.63 (this equaled to 9,630 points) in comps I had earned from my playing. Not bad for a family of 5 for a breakfast buffet! I left $5 cash on the table. We stacked our dishes and never needed refills. We're pretty low key buffet folks.

After breakfast, we decided to do one last walk around the casino to see the entrance near the casino's Restaurant Row. We had never gone through this entrance, and V had done some exploring and said it had a pretty Red Rock sign, so we wanted to take the girls' picture there. The casino was starting to get busier, and I had that sad feeling that this was it and no more gambling for me until November if we actually stick with having Thanksgiving at Delano in Las Vegas.


Bye Red Rock Casino, it was fun!


Go figure, the water feature out front was broken. LOL.

After taking some final pictures and walking around, we went back to the room to double check everything was packed up and call for a bellhop. V stayed and waited with the luggage, while the girls and I went downstairs to check out and retrieve Olive from valet. We waited out front and our minivan arrive before our stuff and V did. After loading up, we were on our way to the drive to my in-laws in Utah. Though sad to leave, the girls were excited at the prospect of 4 nights with Grandma and Grandpa and their cousins Sa and N who were featured in my very first trip report.


We did pretty good! Only 15 items for the bellhop....not 27 like last year! I think we probably carried about an additional 5 pieces on us for a total of 20. We didn't use the topper this year and still fit everything pretty nicely. Bellhops make a killing off of our family tip-wise.

We didn't get too far before we decided to stop and eat and ride out some pretty heavy rainstorms in Mesquite, NV. We always see Peggy Sue's Fifties Diner when we drive by, so we decided to stop and try it for once.




Some tables had cleared out when I took this picture, but the place was pretty packed for lunchtime on a Wednesday, I thought.


E had a good old Cheeseburger, Fries, and a Coke.


V had a huge Club Sandwich, Side Salad, and Coke.


The girls had burgers and chicken fingers. Holy cow what a cheap bill when you don't order alcohol and you're not getting ripped off in the heart of Las Vegas! We tipped $8.

It looked a little spooky out after the rainstorm when we went to leave.



Our drive went smoothly and we arrived at my in-laws a little after 8pm. The girls had a full on cousin fest until we made our way back to Denver on Sunday. As I've mentioned, school started this past Wednesday and it's felt like a whirlwind since!


S, N, H, G, and Sa - They all went ice-skating twice while we were in Utah. In the span of 4 years, my in-laws had 5 granddaughters born! How sweet is that! My girls are shrimps compared to their cousins. LOL!

Final Thoughts and Wrap Up (In No Particular Order)

• Red Rock Casino is perfect for families. I wish we had tried it sooner! I look forward to going back someday.
• The cocktails on the Strip are a whole lot better than what I found going off Strip.
• I was a little disappointed not to see some giant grasshopper plague that I could take pictures of. It was a little anti-climatic only seeing a few including the one that drowned.
• I did better gambling wise, but that's probably because I didn't gamble nearly as much as I did on the trip with just me and V.
• With all of the continuing controversy regarding MJ's past and the questionable Cirque quality of the show, I don't see Michael Jackson One lasting.
• S sure loved that MJOne black hoodie!
• Downtown Summerlin is a really cool place to eat and shop. I can see why it's a favorite among locals.
• I'm definitely taking my girls gambling when they all turn 21! They are lucky!
• I didn't notice any homeless people, druggies, or riff-raff our entire time at Red Rock Casino. Mostly a boring suburban crowd around RRC and Downtown Summerlin.
• I need to buy stock in IT'SUGAR.
• I forgot to mention that the day we arrived, the pool closed early because the Gypsy Kings were performing in the pool area that night. We hadn't planned to swim, but I can see being an upset guest that the pool closed on a Saturday for a ticketed event.
• I also forgot to mention that there was a dance competition going on when we arrived, and there were young girls everywhere dressed in dance garb with makeup on. We learned that the dancers were from all over the US and even Mexico. G was intrigued as she's a dancer. Being a girl mom, it just made the casino environment seem all the more natural to me. Ha!
• Cabanas are definitely the way to go for our family. We've loved every long pool day we've done in our many trips to Las Vegas.
• Much as I love Vegas, and it's a frequent destination for our family, we're branching out this next year with some other locations and more historical based trips. I would like to think I could sneak a couple's trip in with V, but don't see that happening. Our Thanksgiving Vegas trip will be another family one.
• I alternated between my sparkly and non-sparkly finger clickers on this trip.
• Mudslides suck unless they're the kind you sip through a straw!

Well, that's a wrap VMB! Hope you gleaned some useful tips and information about Red Rock Casino. I appreciate those of you who take the time to read what I write. I know several of you have read my various reports throughout the years and have seen patterns in our travel style - eat, gamble (lose), drink, drink, drink, gamble (lose), eat. We all enjoy Vegas, and I'm glad it's a destination where my kids love to go. We've made some great family memories there!

Real life is in full swing and my two Vegas trips this summer are becoming distant memories. It's nice to know another trip is just a few months away!

Adios!

Vegasworm

 

Great report....I am amazed at the ability to give such a detail review of your time in Vegas, as I typically drink so much I forget by the next day what I have done in Vegas! You daughters are beautiful and appear to be true Vegas troopers! Look forward to seeing your next trip report!

 

Another Din-O-Mite TR. Thanks!

 

Fantastic report! You have the cutest kids and great looking family...There are responsible adults who take kids to LV and you guys are the example.

 

What a great trip report you write! I will miss your reports from Vegas when you and your family spread your wings to other places, but please write your non-Vegas trip reports in the future.
I know you will be back when the kids get a little older to your Vegas trips! Hope I'm around to read them

 

Your girls are adorable and it looks as though they have a great time together. Having them so close must have been a hum-dinger when they were all babies!

I'm with you Sista, I still haven't won a hand-pay. It sucks balls!

I so enjoy your trip reports. I love how you are not at all pretentious, just a down to earth gal enjoying life with her fam. From pictures of pee in a Ziplock, to buying the kiddos the fake candy cigs - I fricken love it!

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with all of us.

 

@Ezzy711 my wife and I have seen pretty much every notable Cirque show in Vegas and although there is less “cirque tricks” (If that makes sense) it was by far our favorite Cirque show highly recommend it if you enjoy MJs music. I’d rate in order One, Ka, Love, O, Mystere, and then Zumanity. We did like them all.

 

Really REALLY enjoyed your report! Great family, great trip. Red Rock and Downtown Summerlin seems to have really grown since I was last over there.

The only thing missing was a picture of all 3 girls with candy cigarettes hanging out of their mouths