May 12-16... Let’s Have Some Vegas Fun!!

Wow! What a great dinner at Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen! My wife told me that it was the best thing about this trip.

We started off with two appetizers--I had the Tuna Tartare and she had the Golden Beet Salad. That arrived in a glass-covered dish with smoke under the glass. It was fun to watch the server open it with a flourish...1, 2, 3.... Both were very good!

I ordered a 2013 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a wonderful bottle to accompany our dinner. My wife loved it; she is not normally a red wine drinker. I enjoyed it.

For our main course, we both had the signature Beef Wellington. It was delicious. Cooked perfectly and very tasty. Dessert was the Sticky Toffee Pudding. My wife said that she could not resist in spite of being full... We brought back 1/2 of her Beef Wellington, so I am sure she was feeling full before dessert.

Great meal, better company, and perfect service. We will go back.

 

Headed back to the Aria and the combo of bad gambling led me to shut down by 11. I hit the wall...need sleep...

Craps has not been good to me this trip!

 

Breakfast at the Peppermill on our way downtown...

 

I'm enjoying your food photos! Thank you!

 

Nice report so far. Sorry to hear about the teddy bear. I hope they find it, but not holding my breath on that.

 

Wow, I've never seen it that dead before... it's been packed every time.

 

Chip Collection

 

I sincerely hope you’re not planning on taking those $100 chips home

 

Headed baxk to Houston...Yesterday was almost too much fun; I will add details later.

 

No. I did not cash chips...just tossed them in the safe. I had a nice collection by last night but I cashe all of them in.

 

Tuesday morning started off with plans:

Breakfast @ Peppermill
Short coupon run Downtown
Head back for pool time
Dinner at Javier’s
Elton John
Evening gambling at Aria

It did not go exactly as planned...

 

I had the same thought. Last year we tried to go and it was so full of people just in the waiting area, and with such a ridiculous wait time, we had to leave.

 

Looking forward to hearing this.....

 

Okay...here is how Tuesday really went down...not as exciting as some days people have, but it was a big change to our plans...

Peppermill was great. I am glad we decided to go to breakfast there. Total 70's feel. The food was good and the portions were large enough that we did not eat everything on the plate. We took Uber from there to the Plaza.

We had to get new cards and our match play certificates (ACG) from the player's club before starting our play at the Plaza. I am amazed at the difference between two casinos that were both in the same shape a few short years ago--Las Vegas Club is no more and Plaza is better than it has every been in our time visiting Vegas. I played craps for a little more than an hour with a small profit and my wife played a wide variety of slots and also made a profit. Drink service was good and all of the staff were very nice. We will be back!

Across the street to the Golden Gate. Back to the players club for new cards, some match play chips (ACG) and to make sure our free slot play ($20) was active. I bought in that the table for $200 and the boxman brought me two more $10 match play chips. Play was uneven but I stayed ahead most of the time. The drink server got two drinks for us and would only leave mine, saying that she had to give my wife's to her. I just told her that she was somewhere in the casino playing slots. She found her. Next thing that I know, my wife brings me a TITO for $988. She has not had a slot win that size for a while. Now the visit has changed--we have no chance of losing any of our bankroll downtown and we can play for a long time. And we did. Several hours and many drinks later, we headed further down the way with a profitable session...

On to The D...quick visit to the club and I am in business at the craps table. I made a rather large donation to the casino there while my wife played hours on very little money and evening getting a few small TITOs for the collection. I slid over to the 3 card table and played for awhile before I made some decent hits. I clawed $250 back from my earlier donation. the drinks kept flowing...

Suddenly, it is 3 p.m. We got downtown at about 9 a.m. Six solid hours of playing and drinking lead to a meal at McDonalds. After our gourmet burgers, it was time to Uber back to the Aria.

Dinner is quickly canceled.

I tell my wife that we have some time to play, but she opts for a nap. I play craps for about an hour and a half and then head up to the room. Uh oh. My partner is down hard. I rouse her from her slumber to get ready for Elton John and she puts her best effort into it. I get an Uber and we wait downstairs. My wife calls an audible. She decides that going is not a good idea. I tell her I will stay, but she insists that I go. So, I head out alone.

I get to CP and find a craps table. It is 7 p.m., show starts at 7:30 and I know it will be a few minutes later than that when it actually starts. One lady rolls and I leave with a $500 chip on a $40 buy in. On to the show...it was very good, but not nearly as exciting being alone. The highlight for me is Ray Cooper's work on percussion. It is entertaining and he is damned good at what he does. Elton does a good job and I enjoy the songs that I love. Your Song brings the usual tears to my eyes...in memory of a lost best friend who I will never forget and his favorite artist and favorite song. I headed out during the last song and tried to find my way to the cage to cash my chips in.

Crap. I am lost. I walk around for about five minutes and find myself back in the same place. Some sadist must have designed this damned place. I finally figure it out, cash in the chips, and get outside to the cab line before the crowd gets there. Off to the Aria.

I go up to the room, check on my wife, and cash in my chip bag and various tickets. We're going home with at least part of what we brought...

Two more hours at the craps table with the results being up and down...then back to even...and I am done for the night.

 

This is what I love about Vegas - plans can always change and when something is going well and you are having a blast, you can just keep going! Nice run downtown. Sorry your wife had to miss the concert though.....

 

Oh no, hope your wife is okay now! Was she sick? Too drunk? I would have to feel like real garbage to miss out on that show!

 

She had a touch of the, uh,...flu...

She is fine!! Already asking when we are headed out again.. Thanks for checking!

 

Random Thoughts

Back-end comps--I made a strategic error here. I asked at about 10 pm on Tuesday how much I had available to be comped. The number was $215. I woke up in the morning and went down to ask and the amount was $0 ($28 in express comps). I asked why and was told there was a $300 comp that took all of the $$$ away. So the Cher tickets, which were a comp, had not been taken from my balance until after I checked on Tuesday night. Lesson learned--I should have told him I was shutting it down when I stopped in at the host area on Tuesday night. I would have gotten the $215 taken off and been over-comped (supposedly) a bit.

Where to play--we LOVE the Aria as a great hotel. I am thinking that we will continue to stay there and spend even more time downtown. If we are on a paid visit, as we will be pretty much any time we stay in the Sky Suites, we just don't generate enough comp value to justify playing the whole bankroll with higher table game limits and worse slot payouts. There is no guarantee of better results downtown, but our money always seems to last longer down there. We will consider the Plaza for our Manilow low budget trip. I am comped for the two nights at Bellagio, but I just don't think our budget for that trip supports that level of hotel.

Uber vs Cabs--not that this will come as a shocker to anyone, but I felt much better treated by Uber folks than the cabbies. We used both simply because some places we did not feel like looking for the Uber pickup location, but we used Uber as often as possible. No cabbie was horrible, but one did come down the strip on Saturday night from the Wynn to Aria when that was probably not the fastest route.

Aria Sky Suites--Stay there.

It was a great trip!!!

 

Your title was spot on. Thanks for taking us along!

 

I have the same feelings about Your Song. Sang that to my daughter every night as a baby.