Halloween Weekend Trip

Spent last Friday (10/27) through Monday (10/30) in my favorite place, Las Vegas. Here is a summary of our trip and some observations.

Wife and I landed Friday morning, checked into hotel (Imperial Palace), and hit the strip. Bought tickets at Fashion Mall 1/2 price ticket outlet for LeAnn Rhimes at the Luxor. The tickets were listed as $90 tickets and ended up costing about $59 with fees and taxes. I could not understand how they could sell tickets for a limited engagement at this price, and the explanation was they have an agreement with the venue for a limited amount of tickets. To make a long story short, when we got to the Luxor box office, we were given two $59 face value tickets that happened to be in the second last row of the theater. We were not the only people who received the same type of tickets after they had bought at the 1/2 price outlet. As the old saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true........" The tickets were still OK since it was a concert and the sound was great and Ms. Rhimes did not do much in the form of stage theatrics, choreography, etc. The show was excellent and I am not a big C&W fan, my wife is.

We used to stay at the Flamingo or Bally's all the time until they stopped offering any kind of decent rates. I am not a big gambler by any stretch, but the IP knocked $140/night off their listed rate for my three night stay. The best I could get from either the Flamingo or Bally's would have been between $160 and $180/ night higher than what we paid. Our room at the IP was a deluxe room, very clean with a very comfortable bed. Although the views we have had at the IP have never been very good, we have been very pleased with the rooms and the service. And we have never experienced extensive elevator waits and other problems. Our first couple of stays we were given free buffets and those were not the best. We have never eaten at any of the restaraunts and wonder what others who have eaten at these restaraunts think about them. We also love the dealertainers and the drinks are not weak and the drink service excellent.

After sleeping in Saturday, we went to Caesar's and messed around and gambled. Walked to the 4:00 mass at the church across from the Stardust and afterwards went to the Stardust. After gambling for awhile, we ate at Tony Roma's. This is an every trip stop as both of us love to eat there and are going to miss this place. We went back to gambling and listening to stories people were telling about the night before. It must have been wild with the "Fantasy/Fetish Ball" people there.

After gambling some more we headed back to the IP. My wife suggested stopping at Harrahs to get tickets for Bare Naked. I gambled while she went to get the tickets. She returned to tell me the show had closed. With Showgirls and Eroktica, is this not the third Greg Thompson show to flop in the last couple of years? BTW, anyone know what happened to Shannon O'Keefe? Both my wife and I enjoyed Skintight and had seen her before in Reno and thought she was an excellent dancer. With no show to go to, went back to gambling.

Sunday went to the wax museum at the Venetian. If you have never done this, go and don't forget your camera. Picked up tix for this at the 1/2 price outlet again and also got tickets for Fantasy at the Luxor. You can skip the part of the tour through the haunted high school - somewhat lame.

After the wax museum, took the double-decker bus to the Luxor to pick up the Fantasy tickets. Got really good seats - 8th row directly in the center. Went through the King Tut's tomb replica which was OK. If you have watched the specials on either the Discovery or History Channel about the tomb it is old info, but my wife had not seen these and thought the exhibit was pretty good.

Both of us thought Fantasy was good. The dancers and the singer were good, and the comedian was great. They ought to give him more time or maybe break up the dancing by letting him do another set.

Some random thoughts. The double-decker busses were great. Bought all-day passes and used them a lot. Never had a long wait or had to stand w/o a seat. The north bus stop at the Luxor is a little remote late at night. I would still recommend the busses over the monorail, especially since they have jumped the prices on the rail.

I mostly play slots (pennies to $1) and video poker and once in awhile, craps and pai-gow. The best luck we had was at the Luxor and the Stardust. We did OK at the IP because we hit on the big "Wheel of Fortune" machine by the entrance twice. Any of the other Harrah properties (Caesars, Ballys, Paris, Flamingo) were stone cold, especially Harrahs. Harrahs does have Carnival Court where we love to go in the afternoon and eat lunch and listen to music. Really enjoyed a band called "The Verge." Last summer we saw a band there with a female singer who looked like the singer/lead from Eroktica that was the best band we had seen there until The Verge.

Now it is back to work for us until this spring when we will look into going again.

 

Nice TR..sounds like you had a nice trip overall.

Cheers, ECS.

 

...there's another Tony Roma's Downtown at the Fremont Hotel so perhaps you can try it next trip. Sounds like you had a good time! ...very smart not eating at any of the IP restaurants...