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NYE festivities! Gwen... Celine... VGK... Gambling... Booze... *semi-live

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by JRRestoule, Dec 30, 2018.

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  1. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Celine was pretty awesome!
    Go see her before she's done!

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  2. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    A nice little hit while waiting to go I to the show...

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    In for $40... out for...

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  3. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Pic dump...

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    Great night at Cosmo and P-Ho!

    Last day today, Go Hawks!
     
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  4. amk121

    amk121 VIP Whale

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    Enjoy the last day there!
     
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  5. Iratus

    Iratus Low-Roller

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    Nice TR, you’re getting about a bit.
     
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  6. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Go Hawks!

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    Not a bad way to watch the game...

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  7. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    In for $400, out for...

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  8. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Nice double up!
     
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  9. spicole

    spicole No shirt, no shoes... NO DICE!

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    Keep it up! Loving this trip report!
     
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  10. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Last pic dump of the trip....

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    Wynn gave some love...

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    Palazzo...

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    Some love from Mandalay Bay before departure...

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    Safely made it home... missing Vegas already haha

    I'll post a more detailed recap in the next couple days. I guess this was more of a pic report than trip report... hope you enjoyed!
     
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  11. mdee

    mdee VIP Whale

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    We saw Gwen on Dec 27th. It was a great Show and
    a Colorful Stage! I can't believe she's 49 years old.
     
  12. julia

    julia VIP Whale

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    Loved the pics! Glad you had a great trip! Bummer about the Hawks, but there it is.
     
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  13. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Yes, I was thinking the same regarding her age, she looks great!
     
  14. BigWW

    BigWW High Roller

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    Thanks for sharing!
     
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  15. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Not sure how many are interested, but as promised I’ll give a little more detailed post-trip recap. You can see most of the trip and how it played out in the picture report I had posted while on the trip... so I’ll do it in sections and try to keep it brief.

    Before I get into it we tried something new this trip... we made a spreadsheet and outlined our plans for each day. Nothing set in stone, just a sort of guide to keep us going in the right direction. We had a few things we wanted to do and a bunch of options so we laid it all out and I must say it definitely helped! We veered off here and there but by the end of the trip we actually did most everything we had wanted to do. This is something I most likely will do again in future trips.

    Hotels

    We had booked Luxor in a 1 bedroom Tower Suite from Dec 30-Jan 3. We had a Julius Tower room at Caesars from Jan 2-5. We were double booked for the 2nd. A couple reasons for this... as the Luxor offer included the resort fees there was literally no extra cost in keeping the room for the extra night so it allowed us to not be in a rush to check out on the second and drag our luggage to check-in a Caesars. Secondly, it allowed us to use a couple of the MyVegas rewards on the 2nd and 3rd which require a hotel stay. Most of the MyVegas rewards were blacked out one the 31st and the 1st.

    We got to the Luxor late on the 30th, close to midnight. Unfortunately their invited guest section closed at 11:00pm so we had no choice but to wait in the enormous check-in line. Fortunately the gf decided that we needed a couple of the giant Pyramid slushie drinks (70 oz of yummy strawberry daiquiri) which she grabbed and that tided us over until we got checked in, and beyond :D

    The snafu at check in was that they no longer had any 1 bedroom tower suites available. They wanted to put us in a Tower King Premium room. We specifically reserved the 1-bedroom and were not willing to take a downgrade. So they offer the Pyramid corner suite. I was hesitant to take it as when I had called about it a couple months back they said they weren’t renovated, but the agent assured me that it was very recently renovated. So we took it. I asked if he was able to throw anything in food-wise because of the mix-up and he offered 2 free buffets.

    It actually worked out well as we initially wanted to stay in the pyramid to experience that. But because the suites were not renovated and the Tower rooms were we had chosen the Tower. So, in the end we actually got what we wanted; to stay in a renovated suite in the pyramid :D Sorry, no pics of the room :(

    The room was nice and spacious, but there is an enormous amount of wasted space. The bathroom is huge, but not well laid out. The same can be said about the room itself. Outside of the noted wasted space, the room was good and I would stay again.

    We were in the 22nd floor in the southwest corner facing west. As you seen from previous posts, we had a good look at the building of the Raiders Stadium which was kinda cool. Looking forward to going to a game there in a couple years!

    One of the things I was looking forward to was walking on the balcony’s overlooking the interior of the pyramid and it didn’t disappoint. Loved it every time. That is a cool view!

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    We got an email from Caesars a week prior to check in offering upgrades to various rooms at various costs. One of the options was an upgrade to Octavious Tower for $8/night. We almost took it but we read it was a bit of a hike to get to the Octavious Tower so we had decided to wait and see what we can get offered at check in.

    We had heard Caesars was usually lenient with their upgrades so we asked to see if they could do anything. We didn’t do the $20 trick, just decided we’d ask and see. Unfortunately the only thing they offered was a move to a 2000 sq ft room in the Augustus tower for an additional $600 per night. No thanks.

    We got our regular Julius Tower room on the 11th floor and to be honest we really liked it. The room itself was very recently renovated. It wasn’t huge, but it didn’t feel tiny either. The bathroom was great, a nice size with a nice big walk-in shower and the hand-held shower head was great for cleaning the undercarriage ;)

    The location of the Julius tower was one of the biggest selling points to us and it didn’t disappoint. We loved exiting the elevator right in the middle of the property. Speaking of elevators, we never had to wait more than about 15 seconds for one. No exaggeration.

    Most of the rooms don’t have a view. But we lucked out ( a little) and actually had somewhat of a view. It was definitely better than completely facing another tower. Here’s our view...

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    All in all we were very happy with the rooms we had and would recommend either.
     
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  16. breanna61

    breanna61 Super Moderator

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    @JRRestoule, I have never stayed in the Julius Tower; are the balconies shown in the photo accessible from the room?
     
  17. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Unfortunately they weren't. Not in the Julius tower anyway.
     
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  18. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Food

    Eating is one of my favorite things to do in Vegas... just behind gambling, drinking, going to shows, gambling and drinking. :goofy: Even though I am no foodie, I love eating. We usually overeat every day, but this trip we were quite disciplined with our eating I found.

    We had the Luxor brunch buffet on Dec 31st which was decent, but nowhere near worth the $50-$60 they were charging for 2 people. Ours was comp’d due to the room situation at check in so at that price it was worth it.

    We ate at Tender for our NYE dinner and the food was great. We both had the filet and shared the potato wedges and mac’n’cheese sides. Unfortunately the MyVegas reward for $75 off of $150 or more didn’t work as it was a blackout date. I had called both MyVegas and Mlife prior to booking to make sure the reward could be used as it was not indicated in the T & C whether or not Dec 31 was a blackout date. They said it should be fine to use. It wasn’t. Oh well, the $100 in resort credit that came with my Mlife offer took care of most of the bill.

    For lunch on Jan 1st we had Grand Lux Cafe at Venetian. I usually make it a point to stop here for at least one meal a trip. Great food as usual here. We went all fancy for dinner at Sirrico’s New York pizza at NYNY ;) We walked through the new Eataly at Park MGM but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Simple works for me.

    Jan 2nd we went to the buffet at Aria, which was insanely busy. We had 2 free buffets via MyVegas which saved us the $57.98 it would have cost for 2 people. We got in quick via the Mlife special guest line for pearl members and higher. The wait was about 10-15 minutes. We overheard people in the regular line near the front say that they waited for an hour and a half. That is crazy! With so many places to eat in Vegas why would anyone wait an hour and a half to get into a buffet? The buffet is good at Aria, but to wait over an hour and a half in line for it? I wouldn’t, that’s for sure.

    Something you don't see every day... because the Golden Knights shut-out the LA Kings the night before, everyone with a ticket could get a free dozen donuts at Krispy Kreme. So we picked up the free donuts as we walked by the Krispy Kreme at Excalibur and carried them with us while we gambled at Aria and then we brought them to the buffet with us. Who brings a dozen donuts to a buffet?? We do! lol The funniest part of all this was after dragging them around for 2 hours then bringing them to the buffet... we forget them there! haha So if you had a Krispy Kreme donut for dessert at the Aria buffet on January 2nd, you're welcome!

    Dinner was at 9 Fine Irishmen at NYNY. We used 2 MyVegas rewards which combined gave us $56 in comps. We got a variety of appies and a couple drinks which took care of this. Food was good and so was the value, especially so using the MyVegas rewards.

    Jan 3rd we went on our low-rolling off Strip tour. Lunch was at the Orleans in their Copper Whisk Cafe. Food was good! We had a late night snack at the Sports Deli at the Rio. I told you we were fancy diners :p

    January 4th we had a quick bite at the Forum Food Court at Ceasars Palace. Earl of Sandwich hit the spot here. For dinner I used my $100 diamond dinner at Gordon Ramsey Pub & Grill and we both enjoyed the Beef Wellington and shared a pigs in the blanket appy. As you can imagine, the food was good! A late-late night snack (or early-early morning) was had at the Earl of Sandwich in Planet Hollywood.

    Our last day in Vegas we enjoyed lunch at Maggiano’s at Fashion Show Mall. I have eaten here once a trip for as long as I can remember. Gotta have Mom’s Lasagna :D Food was good as usual. For our final meal of the trip we shared a couple pizzas at Wolfgang’s Lupo in Mandalay Bay which was good and the deal even better using the MyVegas reward of 2 for 1.

    Places on our list that we didn’t get to... Ocean One at Planet Hollywood, the Peppermill, and we had MyVegas rewards for Cucina at Crystals and Wolfgang’s Bar + Grill at MGM Grand.
     
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  19. JRRestoule

    JRRestoule VIP Whale

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    Entertainment

    We were excited about our booked entertainment this trip!

    New Years Eve we went down to Planet Hollywood to catch Gwen Stefani. I enjoyed No Doubt in my younger years and knew most of her more recent hits as well, there were maybe 2-3 songs that I was unsure I had heard before. All in all it was a great show! I was hoping she would bring Blake out to sing their song together but it didn’t happen.

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    After the show it was close to 11:00pm, we walked south down LV Blvd as we didn’t want to repeat what we had experienced a couple years back being stuck in the middle of the Strip in front of P-Ho and getting absolutely squashed. By the way, it is an experience in itself to freely walk down the middle of LV Blvd. For some reason I thinks it’s pretty neat.

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    For the ball drop we found ourselves out on the Strip, corner of Tropicana watching the fireworks shoot out of the top of MGM Grand. We filled our giant Pyramids with yummy concoctions and were sipping on those as we took in the festivities. We were able to see to fireworks shooting out of P-Ho as well and we can confirm that they were exactly the same as the ones out of MGM Grand. The fireworks were great lasting close to 10 minutes.

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    New Years Day we went to see some NHL action as the Golden Knights were taking on the LA Kings. As mentioned I had plans to meet up with Bernie Nicholls before the game and it worked out well. We chatted with him and his wife for about 15 minutes in the arena prior to the game. It was nice to catch up and I’m hopeful that he will be able to participate in my golf tournament again this summer. Here’s a shot of us at the golf tournament last June...

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    As I was waiting for Bernie to come up the escalators I seen poker player Daniel Negreanu come up. I recognized him and he looked over so I kinda smiled and nodded. Then he looked back and I gave sort of a half wave. I felt like a total loser lol It was as though we were friends and I was trying to get his attention but he had no clue who I was haha He stopped with the other couple people he was with to buy some 49/51 tickets and I thought of going over to ask him for a picture. By the time I decided to do it they were walking away so I didn’t. One of my friends is really into poker and he would have got a kick out of the picture.

    On to the game... it was awesome! As you may or may not know to Golden Knights beat the Kings 2-0. The game was a fun watch! We went to the Jan 2 game last year against the Predators and I can tell you the vibe in the arena is different now. Last year there were a good percentage of Nashville fans but this game was mostly avid VGK fans. Will definitely go to another game in the future!

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    On January 3 we decided to use the 2 free CET diamond show tickets. Out of the shows available we decided we wanted to see WOW at Rio. We did our off-Strip casino crawl this day and didn’t get to the Rio until about 7:30pm. Unfortunately there were no more comps available for the WOW show. So we decided to go to the Comedy Cellar which was taking place at the same time, 9:00pm. The comedians were pretty good and made for a fun time!

    As you can see in the picture below...our tickets were mistakenly printed for the Jan 4 show. After getting rejected at the door (I hadn’t noticed the wrong date) we went back to the box office to get them changed. A bit of a headache but it worked out.

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    My gf surprised me with FlyLinq zip line tickets which we did on January 4th. The process was simple and the ride was fun. It was a unique perspective to see Vegas from up there and I’m glad we got to experience it!

    Later on the 4th we went to see Celine Dion at Caesars. Another great show! This was the highlight of the trip for my gf and one of the top ones for myself as well. If you haven’t been to see it you should go before she finishes up in June.

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    All in all we had another busy schedule of entertainment and we definitely enjoyed everything we seen and experienced! One thing is for sure, there isn’t a lack of entertainment options in Las Vegas!
     
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  20. amk121

    amk121 VIP Whale

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    Great recap, it looks like it was a great trip and it looks like the game and concerts were a lot of fun to go to as well!
     
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