September 18-23, Mirage, Michael Jackson One, Heritage

I'm not one for writing trip reports but I did want to note some of the things I've saw on the strip this past week.

Gambling:
Two royal flushes on STP machines at the Aria.
Blackjack was awful to me. Lost every single time I sat down. I lost tons of money at blackjack. Much more than I made at everything else.
Craps wasn't much better. I think I press too much too often. I did manage to hit the all small and had box cars outstanding for the all and all tall. I must have rolled a dozen times without hitting the 12. Needless to say... I was pretty disappointed that I didn't hit it.
Sports betting was great. I made 7 bets. 5 of them won. 1 of them lost. 1 of them is still outstanding. Unfortunately, I kept meaning to get over to bet the Nats all weekend but because they kept playing so early Vegas time, I kept missing getting my money down. Needless to say, they swept the Marlins. I did manage to get a bet down for Tuesday though and won that one.
At the Cromwell, some friends sat down at cheap 6:5 blackjack. They hit a blackjack and each of them received a voucher to take a ride on the High Roller.

Sports books
Mirage has new reserved sections. They also have interactive TVs on some high tops and one in a reserved section. It said the food and beverage manager is in charge of reserving the tables/areas. The ticket writers were much nicer this trip than they have been in the past. Offered drink tickets without asking for them.
Lagasse's Stadium had two ticket writers on Sunday morning to serve the guests. There was almost a riot because it took so long to write bets. While the viewing experience is awesome, the food there is subpar, and so is the service. I had a pizza and I swear it tasted like a frozen pizza. It definitely was not fresh. I've eaten there before and had similar experiences. Don't order food there.
Aria was surprisingly dead on Saturday morning around 830am. I mean, I sat down easily right before the 9am games started for college football. Plenty of seats available. Not the best ones... but plenty of seats.

Restaurants
Heritage. We had a decent meal there on Sunday evening. Nothing special. We had a tasty seafood platter to start and I had the duck.
BLT at the Mirage. We had a late night meal there on Monday evening. They closed at 3am and kicked us out. It was an above average turkey burger.
The Pub at Monte Carlo. Stopped in for drinks and football watching on Saturday. Pretty decent service from Wanda.
Aria Cafe. I eat there every time I go to Vegas. It was awesome again.
Japonais. I heard it was closing and took a large group over to it on Saturday night. We had a great time and everyone loved their food. Sat in the lounge area.
Pantry. Went there on Tuesday morning. I just had coffee there but everyone in my party ate and what they had looked really delicious. They all commented that it was great.

Hotel.
Mirage. I've stayed many times. My room was on the second floor without a view. Overall the room was okay... same as in the past. Unfortunately, the air conditioner was not quite up to par and never really cooled off the room. That was my complaint.
Elara. Friends were staying there so we ended up at the pool on Friday and Saturday. I got severely burned on Friday... to the point I think I got sick from it (probably dehydrated as well). Overall, I really liked the pool at the Elara. It wasn't overly crowded and we had a great waitress that was really prompt. There is basically no shade at the pool though.

Shows
Michael Jackson One. I've seen O, Mystere, and Love (twice) and MJO was ten times better than all of them combined. Well... maybe not ten times better, but definitely much, much better. If you like Michael Jackson's music it's guarantee that you'll love this show. The one knock on it, was that it was a little loud. But the entire performance is mesmerizing... and it just gets better and better until the end of the show. If you have to choose one cirque show to go to while in Vegas, MJO is definitely the one to go to.

Slotzilla
For some reason we had our hearts set on trying this out and went downtown to check it out. First of all, it was so crowded downtown. Unbelievably crowded. We got down there and because of the lightning in the sky, they shut it down. That was around 9pm. We went and grabbed a quick bite and came back around 11pm and it was still out of service. Never got back there to try it out. Still on the bucket list. We popped into the Golden Nugget and drank at a small bar with a large aquarium behind it and had a good time.

Overall it was a fun trip. Came back down only a few grand which is a win in my book considering the amount I lost at blackjack. The sunburn slowed me down but a few drinks picked me back up in a hurry.

 

Good summary!

But curious on the first line. You got 2 royals? What denomination? On 8/6 Boner Deluxe? Pics? :evillaugh

And the first time we stayed at mirage, we got a corner room that the a/c couldn't handle with the 2nd wall being directly exposed. That plus the extra set of windows was bad enough for us to switch rooms.

And they are still offering vouchers for the high roller for blackjacks? Damn, should have tried to get some, but ran out of time.

 

Thanks for the observations.
Will keep the MJO recommendation in mind.

 

Only one picture of the royal because my phone was dead on the first one. It was the day I got there and very late at night. I was pretty drunk and can barely remember how it paid out. This one was in the morning.

I like to play quarters. Most of the reason is because I don't feel comfortable playing 5 play STP yet for $30/spin. I reserve that for the last day of my trips. And, playing .50 seems like waste because hitting the royal will trigger a tax form so I'm not getting much more than the quarter royal but I'm paying double for that little extra.

 

Nice hits on the royals. Thanks for the info. I think I want to see the MJ One show now.

 

Appreciate the trip report. Will try the aria cafe when we go in November.

 

Figures I would see a King of Clubs royal pic when I asked for it...lol Good hit nevertheless!

That was the card I needed on one of my 4 to a Royal bricks on my trip to Vegas this month. D'Oh! Only one chance to hit it though...

And yeah 5-play on quarters w/STP is pretty swingy as is. I just play one line since I'm a poor bastard. And if you want to channel your inner BeeeJay next trip, 8/6 "Boner Deluxe" is actually Aria's best option at quarters+.

Again great summary! I need to learn that skill a bit...:evillaugh