Solo Vegas Semi Live TR

In the money in two poker tournaments, you must be pretty good.

 

Day 4 contd....sorry got behind. Things went from bad to worse at PH. My new room had a defective safe and my stuff (passport, cash etc) got locked in it. Will expand on that and lots of other stuff when I get back home. About 7pm I was finally in the third room that day and headed to Bellagio for the buffet dinner (using myvegas comp). From a vegetarian's point of view, it was fantastic. I played a bit of poker at PH and Bally's (had no luck) and slots at Ballys, PH and Paris. No luck that night at all but still well within budget so it's all good.

 

Day 5
I wake up and hwad down to the crepe place at Paris and have a fresh berry crepe. It was delicious. ! am supposed to be going home tomorrow. I don't want to go home. I call expedia to find out how much it would cost to change flight, I am ok with the change fees ($404aud) and I change it to give me 2 extra nights. I got an uber out to a store called big lots to buy a halloween prop that I knew they had from seeing it on line...we don't get many good halloween props in Australia. I call Ballys to find out how much a room will cost (it was over $650 thru expedia. I was shocked when they said they wou sd comp it! I pay resort fees but who cares? Being a low roller and it being a Friday and Satursay night, I reckon I did very well! Will continue shortly, I need to get out for a snack.

 

love following along.

 

Fun report. All the way from Australia! Long flight, good you got two more days.

 

By the time I sorted out all my travel and petsitter, it was about 8. I went down to the Mexican restaueant at PH (forget the name) and had the nachos which were tasty. I have been to Vegas many times but have never been to Luxor or Mandalay Bay, have't been to Excalibur for 10 years and was last in the Trop with my family in the 70s! So I decided I had to check them all out. Unless I want to see a sjjow down that way I doubt I will go back. After that I came back to PH, lost some money in the slots and went to sleep annout 2.

 

Enjoying the report! Great that you got an extra 2 nights! Hope you will be lucky and have the best time!

 

Sorry everyone, no longer live....just got home and will do best I can to remember the rest of the trip! Day 6....woke late, called downstairs to see about a late checkout, and they won't even give me til 12! Hurriedly pack and get over to Ballys. Check in was fairly quick and easy and before i knew it I was in a renovated Resort Tower room. I was thrilled with the room! Will type some general observations about hotels etc at the end. From there I went over to Caesar's box office to get a ticket to Enrique Iglesias for his concert the following night. From there I went over to the Flamingo to see the flamingos and discovered it was pelican feeding time. A lady who worked there was feeding them and telling us about them and all the other birds etc that live there....I really enjoyed this. I played and busted out of a tourney at Ballys (all in pre-flop with QQ v JJ)....opponent hit a jack on the flop and I was saying good bye! Played some slots at Ballys (and maybe elsewhere) and the budget lasted ok....didn't have to hit ATM til I was into my extended 2 days, so was happy with how I was doing even though I was generally losing. Went down to get a snack from the bakery place in the walkway to Paris, but passed the pizza slice place and stopped there to have a slice of mushroom pizza for dinner....it was yummy! I then got 2 desserts from the bakery (a chocolate pistachio mousse cake and a chunk of fudge....both super delicious). I decided I would spend the night at Ballys and played on the slots there til the wee hours! I think this was also the night where I took an uber to try Releaf dispensary and got 2 more pre-rolls! So basically I spent the night gambling, eating too much dessert and getting stoned.....lol. Lots of fun!

 

Day 7
Woke and wasn't hungry and decided to get out to the North Premium Factory outlets. It was super hot and I got to all the handbag stores and a few others. I had breakfast there at Cheesecake Factory. Haven't eaten at one of them for many years and really enjoyed the blueberry pancakes and was thrilled with how little they cost! After more than a few hours I got an uber back to the hotel. I had to hurry to get ready to get to Enrique. Enrique was amazing and I'm so glad I went! He is quite the performer! I then went back to Ballys, played slots til around 1 and then went to bed knowing I had a big final day in front of me!

 

Day 8
I actually set the alarm for 6:30 this morning as I had a lot of halloween shopping I wanted to do before catching my plane that night and I knew Home Depot opened at 7am. I wasn't overly hungry, but love buffets and because this was my last chance for a buffet, I went back to Paris for their buffet breakfast. It was as bad, if not worse, than a couple of days earlier. I don't recommend it at all! From there I had a crazy day of shopping, hitting Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, 99cStore, Dollar Tree store, Michaels, Target, Spirit Halloween and others. Around 11:30am I got back to the hotel (I had a few trips out that day) and called down for an extended check out. I was told I could have til 4 complimentary, and if I wanted to stay beyond that they would give me another comp night but I'd have to pay the resort fee. I bought bags of stuff and then had to go down to the business centre to ship a box of it home! I had packed one extra suitcase to bring my shopping home in and filled it quickly! Problem was, at about 3:50pm, when I went to close it, I realised the zipper was broken! I had an hour til I had to be in an uber to the airport and now had to check out, buy a new suitcase and get over to Sketchers at PH to buy my neighbor a pair of shoes in less than an hour! I almost did it, but still made it to the airport with a bit of time to spare. Flew to San Fran, then caught flight from there to Sydney (that flight alone was 14 hours 15 minutes!), then from landing at Sydney airport til getting home was about another 3+ hours so I"m pretty exhausted right now!

 

Some General Observations
Hotels
I've never done it before and will never do it again.....4 hotels in 7 days!!! To start with Bellagio. I hadn't stayed there in about 10 years and have seen so much negative stuff about the rooms so didn't know what to expect. There was no reason to be nervous.....Bellagio was every bit as grand and as wonderful as I remembered it! The room was large, had been fairly recently updated and was gorgeous. There were great amenities in the bathroom, including razor, shaving cream, make up remover pads, toothpaste and toothbrush, sewing kit etc. The casino was lively and fun and I have fallen in love with Bellagio all over again! I think different hotels suit different people, and this is definitely the one that suits me best....I'm always so comfortable staying here. Only downside, imo, is the lack of more casual eating options, but hopefully they will soon make some improvements on that front.
The Cosmopolitan.....It was my first stay here but hopefully won't be my last. I have stayed in many of the nicer hotels in Vegas, but nothing comes close to comparing to having a terrace room at the Cosmo! It takes the whole Vegas experience to a new level imo. I've never spent much time in my room at any hotel in Vegas, until the Cosmo. I enjoyed sitting on the balcony there so much! One of the reasons I booked the night there was because of the deal being offered by Expedia, which was to include $100 in FB credit, and I thought it would be super nice to use it for room service and eat on the terrace....at check in they told me all I would be allowed to use the credit at was the buffet.....I called Expedia to complain, and after some time they credited me $100 back to my bank account and I had 2 meals at Wicked Spoon. I used the $20 trick checking in here, and not sure if it worked or not.....I went from a studio terrace "view" room to a one bedroom "view of the strip" room. I assumed the view I would get would be the strip for them to call it a view room but check in agent said they could have given me a view of parking lots or something....hmmmmm.....I could have booked the one bedroom for about $10 more for the night if I'd wanted it, but I preferred the look of the studio....I didn't realise I'd been moved to a one bedroom til I got to the room. 2 very small complaints about Cosmo...1, they should have some sort of bath gel or something for their wonderful bathtubs.....I had to buy a bomb in the gift shop downstairs. 2. What is up with the toilet door being so super heavy?....lol. Not sure if all rooms are like that but mine was. I barely left the hotel during my stay there and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately check out became a bit unpleasant.....lots of people, very disorganized, had been in a line with a bunch of people in front of me, by time it got to me, person who was sending people to the counter had her back to all of us, didn't interact at all, and was just sending people to the counter with no rhyme or reason to it, and she was ignoring me! I finally ask her why I'm not being sent to the counter....she replies "there is no line where you are"....wth? I said, yes there is/was....if they look at the video it was a few people deep when I joined it and they all got to the counter. A manager was called over, who was also rude, but thankfully they soon got me to a counter and I got out of there!
Then I made a stupid mistake....decided to wheel my bags to PH when I should have taken an Uber....took a long time and a lot of hard work to get to check in counter! I haven't stayed at PH since it first changed hands about 13 years ago....I remembered it as having ok rooms and a great location. I was expecting it to be on par with The Mirage, but it wasn't even close. Up until 2 days before I flew out, I was booked for these nights at Ballys, but when PH price came down to less than $100 more for the free nights, I changed, assuming PH would be the better property. I used $20 trick at PH and it has put me off using it forever....lol. Check in clerk was very nice, and told me he could give me a lot better upgrade if I changed to non-smoking, but I wasn't willing to do that. I was first given an "upgrade" to a room on floor 51.....it had high ceilings and nice strip view, but was not renovated and i found it super creepy! I went back to the counter and got moved to the 6th floor. That room was also awful with very low ceilings and machinery outside the windows. It was renovated, but in a cheap k-mart type of way. After the incident with the workers at my window, I got moved to the 33rd floor. The room was much nicer, but still had that kmart upgrade feel to it. I put my passport, jewelry, cash etc in the safe and went out. I noticed the door wasn't latching (I always double check) and had to swivel it a lot to get it to latch, but I didn't feel like moving rooms again or having maintenance up. When I got back and needed to open the safe, I discovered it was broken and couldn't be opened! Security had to be sent up, so at that time I also decided to get the door fixed. Security couldn't open it in the usual way and had to go get a master key. The key got my items out, but the safe was not repairable and they didn't have a spare one, so they had to move me rooms again! Also did get maintenance up to look at door and he said whole thing would need to be replaced and room couldn't be used til it was. So, it's now about 7pm and I've been wanting to shower and get out for hours. I go to put my stuff in the safe and it won't close.....the lock rungs were out.....I'm guessing previous occupants entered their code and hit lock with the door open. Security came back up and fixed it. Was happy to check out of there the next morning, was not happy they wouldn't even give me 12pm check out after all that, and I won't be back! They did end up comping me that one night, but that in no way made up for it. The room was like $44 that night....pfffft.....I frequently put that through slots in 15 minutes or less.....lol. I didn't care about the damn $44, I lost most of a day of my already too short holiday, and for that I was very angry!
Ballys
This was my first stay at Ballys. I had expected to pay for it and given it was a Friday & Sat night, I expected it to be relatively expensive. I was so surprised when they told me the nights would be comped (except for resort fee). Check in was fairly fast and after getting lost for a bit looking for the proper elevators, and walking a long hall, I found a really large, clean and comfortable room. I couldn't, and still can't believe how nice it was for the money they charge. The location is perfect with an easy walk to Cosmo, Bellagio, PH, Cromell and Paris (which is basically attached). The casino at Ballys was always lively, with lots of table games, variety of slot machines and half decent poker room. It also has the shops and restaurants out the front of it. It has now taken over Mirage's top spot on my list for best value hotel on the strip. In terms of hotels I have stayed at, I would rank them as follows (location plays a big part in my rankings!).
Cosmpolitan Terrace Room - though I prefer the Bellagio casino, NOTHING compares to having a terrace in the middle of the action!
Bellagio - beautiful hotel and lively casino.
Ballys - newly renovated large rooms, great locations, lots of food options close by
Aria - nice enough hotel, bit quiet for me and too far off the strip, though I do love the poker room. I feel this hotel is highly over rated (by many) and would likely only stay here again if comped.
Mirage - very nice property, great pool, nice rooms, ok location
Encore - gorgeous rooms, gorgeous property, but hate the location
MGM - only stayed once, west wing over 10 years ago....got bit by bed bugs.....never again! Plus, I don't even much like MGM, I went in there this trip, walked forever, couldn't find the casino, gave up and left.....lol.
PH- I doubt I'd get bedbugs twice at MGM, but fear I'd have further unpleasant experiences at PH. Not to mention, they are usually more expensive than Ballys, and the Ballys room is much nicer.

 

Thanks for the great report. I just returned from a stay in Ballys, and you are correct, their rooms are big, nicely redone and the location is awesome. Sorry about your bad experience at PH though. I happen to love that place. Have stayed there numerous times, and coming back there for my Christmas trip. Never had a bad room or issues there. I always check the safe before I put anything inside. I put in my code, open and close it with nothing inside it just to make sure it works, then I put my stuff in. 4 hotels in 7 nights? That's nuts, especially coming from Australia. I would just want to settle in one place and not do all of the running around.