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TR – My first Trip Report. Five nights at PH. 5/29 thru 6/3

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Mark H, Jun 13, 2017.

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  1. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

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    Location:
    San Antonio
    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    My Trip Report

    Trip would be for me and my wife. I am 58 and work as a systems programmer; the wife is 64 and happily retired. I am admittedly overweight and have chronic feet pain from years of being a diabetic. We live in a small town near San Antonio, TX and have made numerous trips to Vegas over the years. We have tried to visit LV at least every couple years when possible; but due to job changes and life getting in the way, we had not been in over 4 years. I’ve read many a TR the last few years so I could live vicariously thru others as they visited LV. Thanks to reading about everyone’s adventures and all the new and exciting things going on in LV; I decided that we needed to GO! It was time to visit LV and waiting till the fall was NOT an option. We had decided many, many years ago to NEVER go to LV in the summer again; yet here I was planning an end of May trip. I’ve obviously gotten so old it has affected my memories of the LV heat. Technically, however, summer doesn’t actually “begin” until the end of June so we should be ok!! Silly boy. The wife approved and I started shopping for decent flights and room rates, and ended up planning a 5 night trip leaving on Memorial Day. This meant I would only have to take 4 days of vacay, and the rates were reasonable (not including tax, title, resort fees, parking fees, etc). I will post details as replies below. Apologize in advance for the length, and hopefully won’t be too boring!
     
  2. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

    Joined:
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    Messages:
    32
    Location:
    San Antonio
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Day one – Memorial Day – 5/29


    For several days before our scheduled departure, I had been having some strong back pains. It felt a bit like kidney stone pain, which I have had in the past but it had been many a year since I actually had one. Just my luck. I’m an “early to bed, early to rise” guy…as in usually to bed by 9:30pm and always up by 6am if not sooner. Night before our departure, went to bed around 10pm and got to sleep reasonably quick but was up around 1:30am for a trip to the bathroom (old age, remember..). Getting back to bed, the back is really bothering me. I get up again to take something, and now I am awake… I toss and turn and toss some more, and cannot get back to sleep. This is due largely to my pain in the back, but also to the anticipation of going to Vegas! This went on for the rest of the night before I finally decide to just get up around 5:45am. I am awake and ready to go. I’ve had all of about 3 hours asleep and I know this will catch up with me later but I don’t care at the moment. I have several things to do before leaving at 11am for our 2:15pm flight out of SA on Southwest. Finish packing, shower, get the dog to the boarders, etc…etc. This all gets done as expected and we are leaving the house at 11:15am for the 45 minute drive to the airport. Park at off site location, shuttle over, security…done, light lunch..done, one last bathroom trip…done, and finally boarding for our non-stop to LV! Haven’t flown SW and a long time, my wife is not a fan, but the price was right. Now I know I am a big dude, but man these seats are getting tighter and tighter! We won’t even discuss the closet they refer to as bathrooms. Oh well, you get what you pay for. The flight overall was good, with some bumps here and there but nothing we can’t handle. Next thing we know we are landed and at the gate and walking down the jetway….and then there it is… the slight jingle, jingle of a slot machine. The sweet, sweet sound that I have missed so dearly. I am tempted to drop in a chair and start playing, but I have waited this long I can wait a bit more.


    This is the first trip that we will not rent a car. We always liked the flexibility of having our own vehicle but with the addition of parking fees everywhere and being able to Uber/Lyft around…we decide to forgo a rental car. I hope to not regret the decision. I have my apps downloaded for both Uber and Lyft, have some promos added in and I am ready to rock. We’ve never used either; it’s not something we have in our small town but I have read enough about it I feel confident we can get it done with no issue. I have decided we will just taxi from the airport, I don’t expect it to be significantly higher and just want to get moving. Jump in a cab, tell him “Planet Hollywood, no tunnel please:….. the words I have heard about so many times and finally get to use. The ride is fairly quick, traffic aside and we get to our drop off. Fee is $17, make it $22 with tip. The line at the registration desk is fairly short, so we hop in. Now I get to try $20 trick, something else I’ve never done in Vegas. Cross that off my bucket list. I approach with the $20 tucked between my DL and CC, and ask for any “complementary upgrades”. The FD clerk asks if that is for her and her wonderful service. Not sure if that means I’m NOT gonna get an upgrade, but oh well. I also point out that I would like something quiet and not too far from the elevators. We had originally booked an “Ultra Hip King” room and the FD clerk assigned us a room on the 21st floor and made it sound like an upgrade. We arrived and the room was great, but not sure it was anything different then the Ultra Hip we had booked originally. We did have a strip view, that over looked the pool. I expect this may be the upgrade but since I have nothing to compare it too, I am just not sure. I am happy with the room, it is large with King bed, the bathroom is nice size and most important there is a refrigerator in the room. That is something you don’t always find, so am pleased with that.


    By now it’s pushing 5pm and we are starving since our bodies say its 7pm. I give my wife some dining options for things at PH and she picks Planet Dailies (which I would have bet on..). My wife is not a big eater; she is the person who eats to live, not visa versa. She is happy with one or two small meals a day and will snack a bit in between. I, on the other hand, love to eat. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, a good ole meat and potatoes kind of meal. So we go and grab a table at PD. I remind my wife that we are in Vegas, and servers have their own speed here. I also remind her of our “four dollar rule”. The four dollar rule is; are you thirsty enough to want to spend $4 for a tea or soda? We both decide no and stick to water. My wife orders an egg white omelet and I order the Country fried steak with two eggs, over biscuits and potatoes. Interesting thing with the PD menu, we found the same items on different places at different prices. My wife’s omelet was on the breakfast menu at a dollar more than the one on the “all day breakfast” menu from which she selected. The CFS I ordered was listed under the dinner section as Country Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables for $18.99. It was also listed under the all-day breakfast as CFS with two eggs on biscuits with a side of potatoes for $16.99. That is the one I selected and was happy I did. We have a 20% off coupon given to us a check-in, so we get out very reasonably. Now it’s time to hit the slots for a bit, but first we stop at the Total Rewards desk to update our cards and address. That done it’s FINALLY time to win some money. Now we are not big gamblers dollar wise. We play a lot but play on the low end of the dollar scale. My wife is even more conservative than me. We play penny slots, but on the lower end. We do always play all lines, but usually only one or two coins per line. I will do more and will even play some roulette here and there, but for my wife she wants a slot and preferably not more than 40 cents per spin. We wandered around a bit; marveled at some the new slot machines that reached for the sky. We settled down at some of our old favorites and played for a bit. We lost a few dollars but not too much. We had decided to stay nearby for the evening since we were already dragging some. We needed to go to CVS for some drinks, etc. so we went out and tracked down the CVS over near Bally’s. I was a bit surprised being the end of the holiday weekend just how crowded it was, but apparently a lot of people stay thru Monday and leave on Tuesday. We gathered our drinks and a few snacks and made it back to PH. We had decided to venture over to Bellagio and watch a water show. In all our trips here we had never went to the trouble. We rested for just a bit; waiting and hoping it would cool down some. We ventured back out around 7:30pm and walked over to Bellagio and found a spot for the water show at 8pm. The shows only last about 5-6 minutes so we watched and took a few pictures and then went into Bellagio with the masses. We needed to visit the MLIFE desk to update, etc. just like we did for Total Rewards. The desk was busier naturally by we got it done. We then decided to make a donation and played some slots; no luck. After about an hour we headed back to the hotel and called it an early night. I had been awake for pushing 22 hours. That would have been no big deal in my younger days, but I was starting to know how those on the walking dead feel.
     
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  3. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

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    Day two – Tuesday – 5/30


    I wake up to sunlight creaking thru the cracks in the curtains. I look to check the time and it about 5:45am. Naturally!! I lay in bed for a bit reviewing the different shows that are on. I had done this many times before coming but wanted to re-check prices, etc. I know my wife will be inquiring when she is up. We have a morning routine when we travel that works out well. My wife is not an early riser, and she also does not eat much for breakfast. I am the opposite. I get up, shower, get dressed, etc. and get ready for the day. I let my wife know I am headed out for breakfast and she grunts and rolls back over. Breakfast today will just be McD’s which is located just outside of PH. I head back to the room and stop along the way to get the wife a muffin. Wife is up and we start planning the day. She has recommended going to see “Menopause – The musical”. We also decide we want to see Human Nature at the Venetian and also Mat Franco at The Linq sometime while we are here. I buy tickets online at vegas.com for Menopause at 4pm. They do have some evening performances but we decide on the 4pm one. The wife wants to go to Luxor and Mandalay Bay, so that will be our first destination. The wife still needs about an hour to get ready so I will go down and play some slots until she is ready. I go down to the casino and play a few different machines with no luck. This trip is just starting but all my luck so far has been less than good. Around 9:30am I go back up and grab the wife as she is now ready to go. I tell her she looks great; as we’ve been married over 30 yrs and I am well trained. We head down to the lobby and are looking for the Lyft pickup area. I know all casinos have different pick up areas, and the one for PH is down at the tour bus pickup/drop-off. This is my first time using Lyft so I am figuring it out as I go. A driver is assigned and we get the car info and wait. It’s interesting to watch the wait time change as you waiting… two minutes, then one minute…then back to three minutes. We see a car coming around the curve it I think it’s our driver but he passes on by. We continue to wait and eventually he makes it back and to the correct location. Apparently we found the pick-up location easily enough but the driver didn’t. I hope this is not a bad omen for future trips. Our first Lyft ride is starting, and I realize our driver speaks about 6 words of English. We are able to communicate (loosely) and we are on our way. A few minutes later we are at the Luxor. We have stayed at the Luxor several times so we know our way around. Our plan is to spend some time at Luxor and MB then head to Harrah’s around 2:30pm so we can pick up our tickets by 3:00pm. These sites all warn you to pick up your tickets within an hour of Showtime or risk losing them! Not sure if that would really happen, but why risk it. At Luxor we hit the slots and start dropping money in some of our favorites and some of the new ones also. My bad luck continues and I am dropping twenty’s left and right. The wife is doing somewhat better and holding her own; not ahead but not in the negative either. We play at the Luxor for a while before deciding to walk over to MB. Now I need to digress for just a second and talk about MyVegas. I have been a player for the last few years and have racked up about 500K in points. Before we left, I was checking the available rewards for things we might use. To my dismay, I came to realize that you must be staying at a MLIFE property to take advantage of the better rewards. If I had realized that earlier in the process, we may have stayed elsewhere. There was, however, a 2 for 1 buffet available to MB for just a few thousand points. My wife in not a big buffet fan because she doesn’t eat enough to justify the cost. Since I can get us in with a buy-one get-one, she is on board. I make the reward request via my phone and receive an email with directions to pick up at the MLIFE desk. After stopping in a few stores along the way, we make it to MB and head to the MLIFE desk. After a 10 minute wait in line, we are able to redeem our reward which is added to my MLIFE card. This is my first time redeeming any MyVegas rewards and the process was easy-peasy. Unfortunately this is the only MyVegas redemption we make this trip. Next trip I will definitely have to look at staying somewhere that I can redeem some of these free play awards.

    We shimmy over to the buffet and there is no line so we get in quickly. I was pleasantly pleased with the MB buffet; finding many options to choose from. The wife also seems to enjoy, taking plenty advantage of the different offerings. After lunch, we stop and gamble for a bit before heading for the rideshare pickup to head out to Harrah’s. Requesting our Lyft ride, as usual it tells us about 3 minute wait. Our driver arrives, and we are on our way. Our driver takes an odd route, but we have a $10 free ride so no worries. Being a new “Lyfter”, I am not sure how it works with the promos. I feel sure the driver still gets paid, but I don’t know how it works for them. From ride one I am tipping $5 even for the short trips. All drivers are very thankful and I am getting a ride for $5 so it’s a win-win.

    Arriving at Harrah’s we find the box office and pick up our tickets for the show at 4pm. We now have about an hour to kill, so we do what we do and find some slots to donate too. We do our initial “slot machine tour”, which basically consists of wondering the casino floor checking out the machines and denominations. My wife is looking for something that ‘speaks’ to her. We finally settle down and start dropping twenty’s into machines from whence they will never return. My bad run continues and the wife is also striking out. I am glad when Showtime rolls around, and I can actually stop losing money for a bit. We wonder upstairs to the showroom, which I realize is where the old Harrah’s comedy club was. The showroom is not overly large, and basically the same from the standup days. This showing is only about 50% full at best and we have good seats. The show was funny and entertaining. If you have had Menopause or if your spouse has; you can certainly relate to the humor. Cindy Williams from the old Laverne and Shirley days plays a small part in the show if you have any interest. After the show gets out about 5:30pm, my wife decides we should walk back to PH. Not sure this is a great idea, as it is very warm out but we do and make it back in one piece. We decide on dinner at PF Changs in PH as it is close, and we have a gift certificate we can use. I get online and make a reservation for 8pm and we crash and rest for a bit. PF Changs is busy when we arrive for dinner, and glad we made the reservation. Dinner is good as expected and after we head out to the floor for more slot play. My luck up this point had been nothing but bad, but things take a turn for the better as I turn my first $20 I put into a reel ‘em In machine into $80 and then turn that $80 into $160 on a Cleopatra machine. I basically hold even around there for the rest of the night before we stop around midnight. My evening success helps cut my losses for the day significantly. It’s been a good day, but it’s time to hit the sheets.
     
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  4. breanna61

    breanna61 Super Moderator

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    Great start; looking forward to the rest.
     
  5. carolineno

    carolineno VIP Whale

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    Great read so far!
     
    Ladies getaway, somewhere on the strip with a pool :)
  6. bshowell

    bshowell VIP Whale

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    Good start!
     
  7. gailtherese

    gailtherese Upper Middle Class ?!

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    Glad your luck has finally turned around - keep it up!
     
  8. justchuck

    justchuck Low-Roller

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    You write a great report, I'm looking forward to more.
     
  9. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

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    THanks everyone. Here's the rest.
     
  10. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

    Joined:
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    Day three – Wednesday – 5/31


    Our second full day starts with a few clouds and the forecast calling for slightly cooler temps with a breeze. Our morning routine is basically the same as the prior day; lather, rinse and repeat. Our entertainment for this evening will be Human Nature at the Venetian. We don’t know much about them but the reviews are promising. Plus, they are at the Venetian so I expect good things. We decide to head out to Caesar’s Palace and the Forum shops. The weather out is really not bad at 10am so we decide to walk over and save our free Lyft ride. We hike over and get there with minimal pain and take a look around but everything seems basically the same. We begin our “slot machine tour” and eventually settle down to play. The casino is fairly quiet at this time of the morning which is ok by me. We play for about an hour, no real gains or losses before we stop and head out to the forum shops. Going to the Forum shops is one of those things we do every trip. The wife enjoys looking around. After about an hour in the shops, we head out and go over to Mirage. It’s about 1pm and time for some lunch so we go to California Pizza Kitchen in Mirage. It’s another chain restaurant but the food is good and we sit and relax and enjoy our lunch. We decide we want to head back to the home base for a bit before going to the Venetian for the evening. We find the Lyft pickup spot at the Mirage and make the request. We only wait a couple minutes this time before being picked up. An experienced driver this trip that gets us back to PH in no time. We decide to rest for a bit before heading out again. The wife loves a quick afternoon nap if the opportunity provides for it. We get ready about 4:30pm and head down to the Lyft pickup spot at PH that we are becoming very familiar with. Short wait once more before we are picked up and shuttled to the Venetian. We stop at the Grazie booth to make updates to our player’s cards and then head over to the ticket booth to pick up our tickets for the show. It’s about 5pm and we have some time to gamble, etc before the show. We once again do our “slot machine tour” before sitting down at a Goldfish machine. Our luck here is nothing but bad, which seems to be a theme. We bounce around to a few different machines, looking for some luck that never appears. After about an hour we decide to stop the madness and go wonder thru the shops. My wife picks up a few small things, but with the way our gambling luck was going it probably saved me money and the long run. We head over to the theater and get seated about 15 minutes prior to the show. I know I’ve been in this theater before, but can’t remember who we saw. It’s not a huge theater so there are really no bad seats. Unfortunately it is only about 50% full at best. Not sure why the small crowds, but I am going to assume it is a mid-week thing. Human Nature is a group of four singers from Australia that have been together for over 20 years. Apparently they have been performing in Vegas now for four years or so. The show was great; they sang many songs old and new alike. The energy was great and the crowd, though small, was definitely into it. I would defiantly recommend. After the 90 minute show; we were definitely hungry. Eating in Vegas is so different from home where we have dinner most nights by 6pm. Here it is now 8:30pm and we are just going for dinner. Last trip to Vegas we stayed at the Venetian and really enjoyed the Grand Luxe café’ so that is where we are off to. We sit in the back room and have a nice dinner. I have the chicken parm which was excellent and my wife has (another) omelet. The waitress told her the omelet was made with four eggs, which was about twice as much as she would be able to eat but they didn’t seem to have any interest in making a smaller one. We enjoyed our dinner and ate way too much. This we figured called for punishment of a walk back to PH. We headed out into what was a pleasant evening. The temperature was not bad and there was even a cool breeze blowing. It’s nighttime so all the “crazies” are starting to come out. As I’m sure you know you see all kinds along the strip. I’m no prude but it amazes me how little clothes some people wear. The sad part is a lot that do; don’t have the bodies to carry it off. Just divert the eyes.. What also amazed me are the people dressed up offering to have pictures taken for a fee. The girls with painted boobs, and that’s it, were the ones that I had not seen before. Along the way we stopped in at the Cromwell and gambled for a bit. No wins or losses here. We made it back to PH around 11pm and played the slots for about an hour before calling it a day around midnight.
     
  11. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

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    Day four – Thursday – 6/1


    Our third full day has already arrived. I am always amazed how quick the time goes. Our initial thought was to rent a car for day and go visit some of the off-strip casinos and go downtown for a bit. The wife seems to have lost interest in this plan, so we adjust to not renting a car and just taking Lyft downtown. The show on tap for tonight is Mat Franco at the Linq. We also plan to visit the shops at the Linq Promenade prior to the 7pm show. The morning routine is just a prior mornings; lather rinse repeat once more. We are ready to depart for the day around 10am and head down for our daily Lyft pickup. This will be our last free ride (booo!) and actually ends up costing a few bucks over the $10 free part. We head downtown and the driver drops us off at The D; somewhere we’ve never been. We will check out the casino and do our usual gambling for an hour. We would gladly stay longer if we have any resemblance of luck, otherwise we go try elsewhere. We play on several different machines here and even find a few I had not seen elsewhere. When done at The D we head out to Freemont Street to see if anything has changed. It is still early in the day so it is mostly quiet. A stop into Binions to visit the pile of money and do some more slot playing. We leave Binions and head to the GN and play there for about an hour before deciding to get lunch. We’ve always enjoyed the coffee shop in the GN, as their food has always been good. We head back to find it has been changed to a Claim Jumper (chain). I’ve been to CJ in other states so we will eat here but a bit disappointed to the change. We have a nice lunch and then decide to head back to PH. This Lyft ride is the first “full fare” we have to pay. I’ve been spoiled by the free rides I got with the Lyft promo. This ride ends up costing just over $12 before tip which I think is very reasonable. We get back to the Hotel and it’s time for a rest (afternoon = naptime). Our show is at 7pm but we haven’t been to the Linq or the shops so we head out about 4pm to the Promenade. We spend about hour checking out the shops, food locales (can you say Ghirardelli?). The wife wants to load up on some chocolate, but doesn’t want to carry it around so I promise we’ll return after the show.

    We head to the Linq and pickup our show tickets. Not sure what the plan is at the Linq but it seems with some of the barren walls in some places that they may be doing something? This was mostly noticeable upstairs near the showroom. We gamble on slots for a while and actually stop a bit ahead. The amount is nothing to gloat about, but better than being in the negative. We head up for the show and take our seats. We are near the back of the theater and it is a good size theater. Not overly impressed; as it seems like a bunch of seats and some tables just thrown in. It seems they could do a much better job.

    The show itself was great. It’s a magic show (or illusion would fit better) but you will leave asking “how did he do that”. If you are looking for a show I do recommend this one. My wife wasn’t too hungry after the show and wanted something light so I offer for us to go to Denny’s near Harrah’s. Service aside the food is generally ok at Denny’s. That turned out to be false on this trip. Our food was tepid at best and the sandwich I ordered was blah to say the least. After our “wonderful” meal we headed back to PH via our feet. We decided not to go back down the Linq Promenade, and put that on a Friday thing to do. We got back to PH and did our late night gambling until calling it a night around midnight.
     
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  12. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

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    Day five – Friday – 6/2


    I can’t believe our last full day is here. It’s true that time does fly when you’re having fun. When we checked in we were told we had a $25 food credit and also got some discount coupons; including several $5 off the buffet at PH. I didn’t want to waste either so decided to visit the breakfast buffet this morning. The normal cost is $20 so with the $5 off and added tax it was around $16. I found the buffet to be very good. There are only so many breakfast items you can think up to put on a buffet, but I think they had them all. Included in that was a “build your own” omelet station which is a must for any breakfast buffet. After a nice breakfast, I continue our morning routine of taking my wife a muffin or something small, and gamble while she greets the day. When the wife is ready, I ask her where else she would like to go today. We are having some trouble picking a show for our last night. We think about going to see Ron White, but his show is not till 10pm and we decide to pass. Many of the other shows are either dark, we’ve seen on previous trips, or we have no interest. After some discussion we decide to go see Piff the Magic Dragon from America’s Got Talent. I’m a bit skeptical on how good this will be, but the price is right so what the heck. I buy the tickets online for the 8pm showing at the Flamingo. My wife decides she would like to go to the Monte Carlo, so we go down and grab a Lyft ride over. My charge for this short ride is $7.11, which we incur on other short trips here soon. I’ve come to the conclusion that this may be a “minimum” charge for a ride. Just my hunch. We get to MC and do some gambling as normal. No luck here. I notice there is a lot of construction going on, but the casino area we were in seems about the same as I remember. After losing money at the MC for a while, we decide to head over to NY-NY and spread the wealth there. When we arrive it’s lunch time, so we decide to take advantage of their food court like eateries and grab some pizza. The pizza is good; I would compare it to a Sbarro’s at your favorite shopping mall. After quenching our hunger, we head out and hit the slots. No luck initially here, but after a bit my wife decides she wants to hit the “Ellen” machine. This is the first time we have played it and it turns out to be very friendly to my wife. Me, not so much. Now my wife is a nervous winner. She can turn a $20 into $40 and want to stop. I have to convince her to keep playing if the machine seems to be “hot”. This happens here, and she continues to play and continues to hit bonuses. She gets it up to about $100 and I think she may stroke out at this point. I tell her to pick an amount, and play until it drops there and if she want to stop go ahead. She plays it down to $80 and decides she cannot take it and cashes out. While she was having her fun, I was basically just giving it back in a different machine. The wife not is exhausted and has a headache on top. We decide to head back to PH for a bit before going to the Flamingo for the show tonight. We get back to PH and she wants to lay down due to her headache. I decide to head down and play more since this is our last full day. I decide to hit the Roulette table for the second time this trip. I play for about 1.5 hours and walk away down about $40. I decide I want to get a “snack” since we will be eating dinner late, and lunch was not all that. There are many places around PH you can pick up something quick; McDonalds, Taco Bell, Subway, etc. I decide to hit up Pink’s Hot Dog stand which seems to be popular. Now I have eaten many a hot dog in my time, but I must say I was NOT impressed with Pinks. I’m sure it’s me, but I just didn’t think it was good in fact I think it was downright bad. After my hot dog, I head up and rouse the wife. Her headache is gone and we get ready to depart. We head down to Lyft pickup once again and head to the Linq Promenade. We’ve hit the shops for the most part so head over to The Flamingo to pick up our show tickets. I had noticed on Thursday night and it was even more noticeable today that the crowds were picking up. The weekenders were arriving and the casinos were becoming packed. We tried to find somewhere in The Flamingo to gamble, but never found anywhere we wanted to hang. Eventually we decided to head back over to the Linq and found some less then friendly machines. My wife had been and was complaining about always being cold. They tend to pump the A/C into the casinos and showrooms. We head over to one of the gift shops so she can find a sweatshirt for warmth. She finds one she’s happy with and we make the purchase. Not sure why she waited till the last day, but hey who am I to argue?? We head back to The Flamingo and get in line for the Piff show which starts at 8pm. This theater is the smallest we’ve been in, and it is packed. The show was entertaining and we enjoyed it. If you’ve seen Piff on AGT then you know what to expect. The magic was mostly sleight of hand but you certainly shake your head in amazement on some of the things done. I would recommend Mat Franco over Piff, but they were both good and the price is reasonable. When the show ends, it is now after 9pm and we have still not had dinner. We decide to hit IN-n-Out burger for the purpose of speed. I have had In-n-Out burger before but the wife has not. The place is packed as expected and we had to wait just a bit. The food is good, but it’s just a burger. I’ve had better and personally think Whataburger is better (for you southerners). Before heading back to PH, we stop at Ghirardelli and pick up some chocolates as previously planned. We then make our trek back to PH and stop in the ever busy casino and do more slots until about 12:30am when we call it a night.
     
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  13. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2017
    Messages:
    32
    Location:
    San Antonio
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Day six – Saturday – 6/3


    Go home day is here, booo!. I am awake and up early, don’t want to waste what time we have left in bed. I decide to hit the breakfast buffet again and utilize another $5 off coupon. With the $5 off and the $25 food credit it ends up costing me $7 for two breakfast buffets. Not a bad deal. I take some breakfast up to the wife, and she apparently has a different idea about the morning. She is still sleeping and lets me know that is her plan for the immediate future. I’m good with that, it is her vacation too and I can gamble on my own with no problem. Our flight out leaves at 4:45pm so I first head to the check in desk and inquire about a late checkout. They tell me they will give me till 1pm, so take it and thank them. I head to the casino which is about three times busier at this time of morning than it has been during the week. My goal for these last few hours is to hit up some of the slots I have yet to play on this trip. I stop and play at several different ones (Big Bang, Ted, Wonder Woman, etc). No big wins or losses on any but enjoy the time. At about 10am I go up to check on the wife. She is just getting moving and asks I “give her one more hour”. No problem, I had back down to casino land. I know she wants to play a bit before we leave, but she is moving slow. This trip down I decide to take one more spin on some of the machines I have had some luck on this week, just in case. I apparently have worn them ragged this trip as they have nothing left to give. I stop and play a Beir Haus machine (sorry don’t recall the actual name). I enjoy this machine as it gives me a lot of bonuses and I am doing reasonably well. I unfortunately have to stop and go back upstairs. I have not heard from the wife and hope she is not still sleeping. I arrive and she is ready so we had back down for one last go-round on the slots. We only have 1.5 hours left so try to make the most of it. I play a few quarter slots, and hit up a VP machine before I head back over to the Bier Haus machine I had been playing earlier. We play for a while, basically holding even. Our time is about up and I am getting ready to stop and go find the wife. I hit the spin button and I get one of the biggest bonuses ever. I end up with 30 free spins, and sit there and watch the reels roll by. I’ve found that a high number of free spins doesn’t always mean big $$ wins. I end up with about an $80 win, which is not as high as I hoped for with 30 free spins, but I will take it. I decide that is a good way to end it, and cash out. I go find the wife and she cashes out and we head up to get our bags, head back down and checkout. Since it was after noon, we could not logout from our TV in the room, but we did use the kiosk down in the lobby. We head out to the Lyft pickup area with bags in tow. There is a lot of activity as I expect many are leaving. We will be using Uber for the first time for our ride to the airport. I had a $20 off first ride with Uber, so have been holding it for the ride back. I work thru the Uber app, and finally get a driver requested. We end up waiting about 10 minutes before our ride shows up. We have another driver who speaks broken English, but we get the bags in the car and we are on the way. This driver seems more like a cabbie; making turns from the wrong lane etc. We get to the airport in once piece and head in. Now, when we came out we only brought one large bag and one carry on even though we could have checked two for free. The weight on our bag coming out was about 44 lbs. When we checked the bag heading back it was now 52 lbs. We had to take a few items out and stuff in the carry on. I gently and caringly remind the wife we could have brought two bags to check. I am not right often (ever?) but want to make sure she knows I was right this time. We have some time before our flight so find a place to drop and eat some lunch. I had thought I might kill some time gambling at the airport, but the vibe is not the same and decide to end the trip on my last success I had before we left PH. Our flight leaves on time, and is fairly bumpy for the first 20 minutes or so, but settles down after that and we get back in town on time. We had a wonderful time that went way to fast as vacations tend to do. I look forward to a future visit.
     
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  14. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2017
    Messages:
    32
    Location:
    San Antonio
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Some final observations:


    I have nothing but good things to say about our stay at PH. Great central location, plenty of good dining options, room were clean and well laid out. I would definitely return.


    Each show we saw we enjoyed, but it would be a tie between Human Nature and Mat Franco for our favorite.


    Glad we relied on our feet and Lyft for transportation. I did miss the flexibility of a car, but was definitely cheaper to use rideshare. With promos, we only spent about $100 on rides, including tips.


    Also I think the Lyft app is easier and more straightforward then the Uber app.


    The CW service was usually good, except at night when the casinos were really hopping.


    With the exception of Denny’s, all of our meals were good with plenty of food.


    I have read a lot about Gordon Ramsey’s Burgr in PH. We didn’t eat there, but every evening there was a line of people waiting to get a table so I would say it must be good.


    According to my Smart Watch, we put in over 95,000 steps during our trip. Not bad for an old fart.


    Thanks for reading.
     
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  15. richardinbc

    richardinbc Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    402
    Location:
    Mission B.C.
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    10
    Thanks for your report. I enjoyed it. We are thinking of staying at PH next time we go to Vegas.
     
  16. justchuck

    justchuck Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2016
    Messages:
    122
    Location:
    Arizona
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    34
    Thanks, great report!
     
  17. Nivek82

    Nivek82 Tourist

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2016
    Messages:
    76
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    10
    Great report. Question for you about lyft did you sign up while in Vegas or before? I know we can not post promo codes here but anything I can search to get that same type of intro offer?
     
  18. Druck

    Druck Tourist

    Joined:
    Oct 9, 2015
    Messages:
    88
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    6
    Thanks for sharing. Vegas is great, hope you get back soon.
     
  19. Mark H

    Mark H Tourist

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2017
    Messages:
    32
    Location:
    San Antonio
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Regarding Lyft. I downloaded both apps (Uber/Lyft) before leaving but waited till closer to trip to load any promos. Just google "lyft promos" and you can usually find some. I got a $10 off first 5 rides, which worked out great for us. . Good luck. Also something I thought about but not till the end of our trip so didn't do... I should have signed my wife up with a separate account and she could have gotten additional promo's. Just a thought.....
     
  20. dbueler

    dbueler High-Roller

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2007
    Messages:
    636
    Location:
    Hannibal Mo
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    50
    Thanks for taking the time to post this, great report! I also agree the Lyft app is easier than Uber, I like being able to add on a tip. When I last used the Uber app, which has admittedly been quite awhile, you weren't able to add a tip. I have asked every single driver I've used and every one preferred Lyft. I decided early on to use the one preferred by the drivers, happy drivers = happy ride lol. Glad you had a fun trip!
    diane
     
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