Pre Trip Report -July 19-22 Flamingo

First time posting…I have been lurking on this board for months now in order to plan a birthday trip for my sis.

Any comments or suggestions would be most appreciated.

She’s turning 45 – it will just be the two of us celebrating, neither of our husbands like to gamble, so we’re leaving them at home to take care of the dogs (and kids, but they are all teenagers and pretty much take care of themselves)!

We’re not exactly Vegas virgins, but neither sis nor I have been to Vegas in the past decade or two. I went for a hen party at Hard Rock back in the early 2000’s and sis went to Circus Circus and MGM back in the 90’s.

Originally planned on staying at NYNY. Joined mLife online, signed up for myVegas, and even got the mLife credit card. Have managed to rack up enough points to get to Gold. Goal was to use express comps to take care of the hotel bill and some meals.

Well we’ve changed plans a little. Now we are going to stay at the Flamingo. Sis went to casino in Baltimore earlier this year, signed up for Total Rewards. Got a “birthday” email about a month before our trip with an offer for a free room and some bonus points. So now we’re going to try for the Total Rewards Quest. We arrive on a Wednesday and depart of Saturday, so there should be enough time to visit all 9 properties to get the badges.

Sis is a big fan of Louis Vuitton, so we’re planning to visit the store at Crystals. And I booked an appointment to visit the art exhibit that’s in some back room of the store. Should be interesting!

Also booked a sea turtle feeding at Mandalay Bay aquarium. Sis loves turtles so I thought it would be a good activity for us.

Gambling plan is to play slots mostly , some low limit blackjack if we can find it, and some 3 card poker .I also want to try my hand at roulette and/or craps.

As for myVegas rewards, I booked the BOGO at Aria buffet, the BOGO at Nine Fine Irishmen at NYNY, and some carnival game credit at Circus Circus (my sis is silly about carnival games) I originally booked BOGO at Bellagio buffet but two different people have told my sis that she would be disappointed at Bellagio’s buffet so I cancelled it.

As for food, our bucket list is Oyster Bar at Harrahs, Wicked Spoon, Secret Pizza, Mon Ami Gabi, some tasty treats at Lucky Dragon and Joe’s Stone Crab.

Besides hitting all 9 Total Rewards Properties we plan on visiting Casino Royale for the free play, NYNY, Mandalay Bay, MGM, Aria, Bellagio, Circus Circus, Lucky Dragon, and the Cosmo. I realize this is a LOT of casinos to visit in the 72 hours that we are there so we may have to skip some and just plan another trip!!!!

 

Your plan sounds really ambitious to me. Fun, but I would be exhausted! As long as you are ok with not doing some of things you have planned, you'll be fine.

 

Wowser!! That's a lot to jam in three days sister! Sounds more like work than a vacation but to each their own

 

Welcome to the Board, Rebecca!
Sounds like a whirlwind trip coming up!
Enjoy!

RICHARD

 

I don't want to feel stressed out about hitting every place on our wish list....what do you think is a reasonable number of casinos to visit per day?

 

If you're going to do the TR quest, I would concentrate on those properties and just visit the others if you have time.

 

A couple of thoughts for you.

You've got a ton of stuff to squeeze in for just 3 days and it's all over the place. I'd pick one or two must do's each day and leave the rest of the time to just explore and do whatever grabs your attention.

As far as how many casinos, you're in a great place to max out the number you can see. But it really depends on your style and what experiences you want to have. Do you want to just walk through them or spend some time soaking them in? Will you want to spend time checking out shops? Do you want to hit the bars?

Don't know your flight times, but assuming you get in fairly early Wed and leave fairly early Sat, here's a plan to max it out.

When you get there, take the monorail (it's about $5/per person) to MGM then cross the strip to hit NYNY, then head south to do Excal, Luxor, and MB. I'd cab/uber back from MB, but there is a free tram that runs between MB, Luxor, and Excal, so you could use that to get back for the BOGO at NFI. RiRa by MB has a much better whisky selection tho!

One of the next two days, work one side of the strip going south though Bally's and Paris (they're connected inside) and have lunch at Mon Ami Gabi (although it's a breakfast tradition for me!) then Planet Hollywood. Cross over the strip and hit Cosmo, you could hit Aria too, it's kinda out of the way, but...Carbone! Then go to Bellagio coming back north. If you have time, you can cross from Bellagio to Caesars on your way back to Flamingo. You can hit Cromwell easily anytime from Flamingo

The other day start on one side of the strip and work north. I'd start at Caesars and then to Mirage and TI. Cross the strip from there to Palazzo/Venetian (have lunch at Grimaldi's pizza, MUCH better than Secret Pizza) and work back south through Casino Royal, Harrah's, and the Linq. Finish up with a nighttime ride on the High Roller bar car! You obviously could work it starting at the Linq and finish at Caesars.

You'd miss Wynn/Encore, Circus Circus, and a couple of others with this, but I've done it and it's pretty efficient. If you must hit Rio, there's a shuttle from Bally's but it's not worth it to me. Also, are you going to get enough out of the bonuses on the quest to really make a difference? Unless you want to hit all the casinos to see them or the bonus points will get you to the next tier, it may not be worth the effort to go to all those places, especially Rio.

Regardless, don't get too uptight about hitting everything. Just do what's fun at the time and leave the rest for next time!

 

I'm in town at the same time,
hope you have a fabulous trip!

 

I guarantee you, that will take care of itself.

And this ^^^^.

 

Thank you so much for all the helpful tips!!! Especially Irishdave! I can hardly wait!!!!!