Vegas Round 1 (Sept 20-23...aka trip with the girl at the Wynn)

No time to pregame this TR…so I’ll get right down to business!!!

NOTE: All photos in this post are thumbnails. I shrunk the originals down to a respectable size and if you click on the thumbnail…you can see a larger photo!!! Also, while I would usually take a few hundred pictures on a trip like this…I actually only took 129 and a lot of them are the same shots to use for creating panoramic shots. I’ll try to bring back some new photos from my trip this weekend.

DISCLAIMER: All of these photos are originals. I haven’t yet had time to go through and PP (post process) my favorite shots…so anything going in this TR is an original and might have something sticking up in the corner or lighting that is less than perfect because of my time constraints.

Thursday, Sept 20th

I thought this was supposed to be a vacation. What the hell am I doing getting up at 6AM??? Oh that’s right…I have to finish packing before my friend comes to take me to the airport at 8. Get that taken care of…only forgot one thing (deodorant…dang it) which is good for me. We stopped at Panera for breakfast and then he dropped me off at DAL (Dallas Love Field…home of Southwest) with plenty of time to spare before my flight boarded. I was 3rd in line and was able to snag my favorite seat on the plane (12F) and even save the seat next to me for my girlfriend. 45 minutes after take off we landed in Lubbock (stupid Wright Amendment restrictions on SWA….just wait AA…2014 will be here soon and Southwest will be kicking your behind all over the US hehe). The GF joined me and we were off to Vegas baby, Vegas! (Sorry for the Entourage reference)

First view of Vegas from the plane (after I woke up, pulled out the camera, and zoomed in a bit):



Upon arriving at McCarran…we headed to baggage claim were the GF noticed a man in a tux holding a sign with our name on it. I played this one up well since I told her I had cancelled my car at the Wynn (which I had) and we would instead take a taxi or maybe get lucky and find a towncar for hire outside. Our driver was Rick from Presidential and he was very helpful. He took us down to the Welcome to LV sign and then drove us all the way up the strip to the Wynn.

Cool kids in their big sunglasses:



At check in, I hopped in line for a guy named Johnny. I slipped him a $50 along with my cards and asked if he could see if there were any upgrades available in the tower suites. He said he would check but that the resort registration desk didn’t have any direct access to the tower suites. He checked and was unable to do anything but he did put us in a corner room on the 30th floor (#3067). He also put us on the guest list for Tryst and offered a discount on bottle service if we were interested. We declined on the bottle service since even 1 bottle of Grey Goose would be a bit much for the two of us. Onto the room…the corner room is about 100 sq ft larger than the standard rooms. When we arrived in the room, we noticed a smoke smell and upon calling downstairs found that it used to be a smoking room but that they had changed it over to non-smoking. At first we didn’t find it to be an issue…but later the problem grew…but we’re not to that part of the story yet.

We dropped off our bags and headed over to the Palm (inside Forum Shops) to catch the lunch special before 3PM. We had an excellent meal over there that I can’t wait to have again. The filet was good but the pasta of the day (fettuccini w/ a bolognese sauce) was FANTASTIC!!! We ordered to glasses of pinot noir as well. They included a free dessert of our choice since it was our first visit to The Palm and we chose the cheesecake. I must also speak very highly of it as it wasn’t too rich and had a perfect balance of filling, crust, and strawberries w/ whipped cream. Bill including tax and tip came to $70 and we also signed up for their membership club ($25 up front but you get a $25 gift certificate in the mail) as it had a few nice perks and we’ve wanted to try their location in Dallas.

Upon returning to our room…we both started to notice the smoke smell and quickly realized that it was going to be a nuisance for us. We called down to the front desk only to find out that they were out of corner rooms for the evening but that one would be available in the morning. They offered to send up an ozone machine to try to clean the air as well as replace the air filters in the room. We were heading out to see LOVE @ Mirage so that wasn’t a problem. We didn’t want to move back to a regular resort room though and knew that spending the night in the room would be less than ideal as I was getting a pretty bad headache. On our way to the show, I stopped by the desk and spoke to Johnny again and he told me to go talk to a lady at the Tower Suites reception desk (Svetlana) and that she would take care of us. I did just that and within minutes Svetlana had secured a room on a high floor for us (#5711) and waved the $50 night/upgrade charge as well. She held everything for us until we could return from the show to switch rooms. We stopped at the Wheel of Fortune quarter slots for about 30 minutes. While looking for 2 slots together…we notice a lady that is about out of credits so we decide to wait on her to finish playing. She runs out…stands up and goes to her husband at a machine behind her to get more $$. Bummer…we sit down at the machines between her. 2 spins later…her machine is going crazy and she just a $4,000 jackpot. I won’t ruin the rest of the story…but that’s as close as we came to hitting a jackpot this trip. Oh well…we played for a bit and almost earned enough points (100) to earn our first round of buffets. It was time to head over to the Mirage so we hopped in cab (we were running late) and were off to LOVE.

Our seats were in Sec 207 Row L (2nd row) and offered a great view. I must say that there really isn’t a bad seat in the room (except for maybe the limited “upper deck†seating) as the stage is circular and there is something going on in at least 4 different areas of the stage almost all the time. The boy with the frazzled hair and ever increasing bouquet of flowers was our favorite character. I sure wish that he would “get a girl†by the end of the play…maybe they should make a script change!

We interrupt this trip report to provide you with a few photos from Thursday night as I wandered the north strip and our hotel room with my camera…much to the chagrin of the GF hehe…

Partial shot of the billboard outside the Mirage. I couldn’t get any closer to it as there were tons of tourists outside trying to take similar shots:



Probably my best shot of Treasure Island:



One of the waterfalls outside the Wynn Esplanade:



Shot from the table near our window in Room 3067. I like the way the room reflected in the upper half of the photo:



The Wynn at night…yeah it’s not that great of a shot but I wasn’t feeling all that patient. Hopefully this is the worst photo you see in this TR:



Upon returning to the property…we had a bell man meet us at our old room and within minutes we were set up and good to go in our lovely Tower Suites room. Back downstairs for more slot play and a late meal at Zoozacrackers. After the GF went to bed I went back down for some VP, Poker, and Blackjack into the wee hours of the morning.

Well that’s about all for Day 1…I really don’t want to stay at work and later than I have to…so you’ll just have to wait for the rest of the trip report tmrw!!! I’m sure the suspense is killing you. Here are a few things to look forward to:

- trip and photos downtown
- a nightmare trek on Saturday afternoon to the South Strip
- photos of Bellagio sans fountains
- thoughts on Mamma Mia
- bragging about the Wynn
- not winning any money at the Wynn
- other good things from our trip…mostly related to the Wynn

See ya tomorrow!!!!!

 

You have us in suspense...so unfair :evillaugh I guess until tomorrow...

 

Thanks for the start of what sounds like an interesting TR. The Wynn is such a nice place, but I doubt I'll ever stay there (I'm a little lower budget). Funny that many of the pics you have look identical to those I have taken on previous trips. I appreciate the photos.

 

so far so good...

great pics! what kind of camera do you use?

 

I use an Olympus E-500. I only took my 14-48mm lens with me on this trip. I'll try to get the rest of the trip posted today. I forgot how long winded I can be at times!

 

Come on! How about the rest of that report!

 

working on it right now!!!

 

Vegas Round 1...the rest of the story!!!

This is the continuation of my trip report...the first part of the report can be found here:

http://www.travel2vegas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30693

NOTE: All photos in this post are thumbnails. I shrunk the originals down to a respectable size but if you click on the thumbnail…you can see a larger photo!!! Also, while I would usually take a few hundred pictures on a trip like this…I actually only took 129 and a lot of them are the same shots to use for creating panoramic shots. I’ll try to bring back some new photos from my trip this weekend.

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Friday, Sept 21st

NOW I’m on vacation. After staying down at the tables until after 3AM (LONG EXPLANATION ALERT!!! I had a great dealer at the Wynn named Charlie. It was me (lifelong BoSox fan) and a few Cubs guys down at the tables chatting it up for a while. Whenever drinks came…Charlie would say, “guys…take a break and “admire the scenery†(aka the girls going to/from Tryst and Blush) and enjoy your drinks. It was obvious that he was doing this to help us out with comps…and he was rewarded generously)…I “slept in†until about 10AM. We then hurried down to catch the breakfast buffet before it ended at 10:30. However, even the “front of the line†line was long…so instead we went across to Terrace Pointe Café. Now I’m not the type to like waffles….but dear God these were AMAZING!!!! They were big and fluffy. The syrup was perfect and the butter tasted like it was freshly churned and not from a distributor. I know I know…I’m getting excited about waffles. These were by far the best I’ve EVER had. I can’t wait to go back this weekend for more hehe. (I know…be jealous cuz you aren’t going to Vegas two weekends in a row). Anyway…after breakfast is was back to the Wheel of Fortune slots for a few hours and then a bit of video poker mixed in. At this point I don’t quite remember what we did for a few hours after gambling. I think it may have involved taking a nap…but other than that I’m not too sure.

***Jump ahead to post-dinner (at the buffet…which was also very good but the desserts were for the most part a let down)***

We wake up in our room to find that it’s raining outside. We had seen the storms building across the mountains all afternoon…but it waits until we are on our way out to start pouring. No biggie…we hopped in a cab and headed down to Fremont St for some fun and “cheap table games!!!†We went into Binion’s and quickly found a $5 BJ table where we played for a few hours with 3 middle-aged guys…one of whom thought he was James Bond and said it was his birthday. Who knows…either way it was really fun and we even won some money so that’s always exciting!!! After that we walked around to some of the other properties but after leaving Binion’s…the vibe just wasn’t the same in any of the other casinos so we didn’t stay much longer. I did take this “extended pano†that of the Nugget and Binions. Yes I did edit the photo…too bad I can’t get that damn tree out of the shot:



Four Queens:



Golden Nugget:



Binion’s:



From downtown…we had our driver take us to In N Out Burger (the GF had never had it before) and then back to the Wynn for the evening. We didn’t do much else and were actually in bed sometime around 12:30. Oddly enough…I didn’t feel bad about it all!!!

NOTE: I remember what we did late in the afternoon. We ordered Evan Almighty to watch in our room while watching the sun go down and the strip come to life!!!

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Saturday, Sept 22nd

Well you know that you’re going to wake up early if you go to sleep as early as we did. We got up and headed out the door about 8AM on Saturday morning…and right down to the champagne/bloody mary brunch. The waffles on the buffet aren’t quite as big as the ones served at terrace pointe café…and they weren’t quite as good…but very enjoyable nonetheless. After breakfast…it was time for some early morning WHEEL…OF…FORTUNE!!! At this point, the slots were turning downright evil on us so we made a break for the VP machines. As an FYI…the only $1 9/6 JOB machines I could find were “multi poker†machines right next to Zoozacrackers. Evidently there are others over near Red 8…but I didn’t notice them and/or look hard enough. I also stopped by the sports book to pick up my winnings on BlowU (Oklahoma) and to bet on Wake Forest (yay!!!) and Texas Tech (tear…tear…). The GF really wanted to go shopping at Zara (across the street at the Fashion Show Mall) so we loaded up for the afternoon/evening and headed that way.

Shots of the Wynn on a GORGEOUS Saturday morning:





Being the good guy that I am…I bought her a few things at Zara (because she bought off the sale rack) but for some reason I just couldn’t coax her into buying this lovely hat:



Now it was off to the Bellagio sportsbook to catch the first half of the Texas Tech vs Okie Lite (Oklahoma State) game. I must say…I was rather turned off by the people that I encountered at Bellagio. While those that helped us at the Wynn were very nice and thorough, the employees at Bellagio (or at least at the sportsbook, bar, and players club) all seemed to have an air of, “If you’re here…you should KNOW what you’re doing†that kinda rubbed me the wrong way. Tech is up 35-28 at half…so we decide to go catch a fountain show and then make our way to Mandalay Bay for the 2nd half of the game, eat at the Burger Bar, see Mamma Mia…and then who knows after that…

***Warning…this is where the trip briefly takes a trip to hell for a few hours. I apologize for the negative thoughts that I’m about to share with you.***

We get out to the fountains just before 2PM. There is already a huge crowd so we figure that the next show shouldn’t be too far away. 2:00….2:10…2:15…2:30…no fountains. GRR!!!!

Quick shot of Bellagio sans fountains…sorry I don’t have time to crop out the black areas around the photos right now:



We decide we can’t wait any longer as the 2nd half of the game has already started so we decide to catch a cab and head to MB. We try mightly to hail a cab…and many of them pass us in the right lane…with nobody in them…yet nobody will stop. We keep walking…long story short we finally get to NYNY and decide to duck into the ESPNZone to catch the rest of the game. We walk in at about 3PM and while there are plenty of tables available…we are told it will be at least a 45 minute wait. Well the GF has been wanting to eat for over an hour now…and while she is a lovely woman…she’s less than thrilled to hear about this wait time.

We decide to catch a cab outside NYNY down to MB. Well the cab line is quite long so we walk the bridge to Ex and tram it down to MB. We make the mistake of confusing a timeshare desk for an MB help desk (grr…I HATE HATE HATE these timeshare people at every property south of Venetian) so there goes another 2 minutes of our lives that we won’t get back…but we press on. Stop by the MB sportsbook and see that Tech is tied at 35…and make it back over to the Burger Bar ready to try the kobe beef burger. We ask for a both for 2 and are told it will be about 5-10 minutes for a booth. 15 minutes later…there are 2 open booths yet the hostesses aren’t sitting anybody. I ask how much longer until a table is ready and they say, “Oh it shouldn’t be but another minute. There is only 1 table ahead of you.†10 minutes later…they’re still chatting away and their manager walks up. She too joins in on the conversation for a few minutes before walking back into the restaurant. She notices one of the open booths and calls over to the girls to make them aware of it. They do nothing about it and she goes about her merry business. By this point…there are 3 or 4 groups “huddled†around the hostess stand trying to ask when/if they’re going to sit anybody. They try their hardest to ignore everybody and continue to talk. Finally…they sit one party. You can see where this is going so I won’t continue on my rant any longer. Needless to say…we say “forget it…it’s not worth it and we won’t enjoy our meal†so we head back inside to look for a place to eat. We try 4 other places and they either don’t open until 4PM (it was 3:55ish when we asked) or they’re full (aka we don’t have any servers). We finally find a place to grab a quick bite. It’s a café near the front of the casino and next to the high limit salon and noodle house. While there I get a call from my friend describing the final plays of what turns out to be a heartbreaking 49-45 loss for Texas Tech. I turn to the GF and say, “Well…there goes the national championship!!!†After drowning my sorrows away with a few diet cokes…we were off to Mamma Mia.

What a great show Mamma Mia is. The GF had seen it in London a few years ago and raved about it…and she was exactly right. While I’m not “big on theaterâ€â€¦I found myself thoroughly enjoying this show. The music was good…the writing was great…and the performers did an admirable job of pulling off the “cheesy fun†that is Mamma Mia.

During intermission…I called our concierge and requested that a car be sent to pick us up after the show. We were told that the car would meet at THE Hotel @ MB entrance as it was right next to the theater. 8:45 comes…no car. At 8:50 I call and find out that they have no record of my reservation. At 9…I get a call and back and am told that a car will be there in a few minutes. He does show up and takes us back to the hotel…only he takes us the resort entrance instead of the Tower Suites entrance after I told him multiple times that we were going to the Tower Suites. When I go to tip him…he stops me and tells me that I owe him for the car too. Long story short…since I called on such short notice…the concierge just went outside and sent one of their “cash cars†to come and pick us up. Now instead of paying $40 for a Wynn car…I paid $72 for a 3rd party company to transfer us…and we were only in the car about 10 minutes. If I had known in advance…I would’ve made him drive us around a bit longer hehe.

Ok that’s enough of the negativity of my story. Here’s what I learned:

1. “Nobody puts baby in a corner.†(our inside joke about the day) translation…When the GF says she wants to eat…get her food. Anybody can become upset when they have to wait 2+ hours to eat after they become hungry.
2. Don’t go to the “south strip†and/or the burger bar. Bad things down that way man…bad things. Also, the general cleanliness level of both patrons and surroundings drops significantly once you head that way. I guess I knew that all along…but it became really evident to me when I was staying at “north strip†for once.
3. Make sure you know what you’re getting when having a car sent to pick you up on short notice. Always ask questions and don’t be afraid to ask price and payment.

***It’s getting late in the day for me so I’m gonna make the ending short and sweet.***

Our car was coming at 8AM the following morning to take us to the airport…and it was almost 9:30PM when we arrived back at our room. We had wanted to eat at Red 8 the entire trip…and we had yet to get really dressed up for anything. We went up to our room to clean up and the GF put on an absolutely stunning black dress. I’d show you the photos…but I don’t want to make you jealous. She ordered the pad thai and I had beef chow mein. Add in 2 glasses of red and a cup of hot and sour soup…and the bill came to around $80 before tax/tip. Another very good meal in a relaxed atmosphere.

After dinner we hit the slots one last time (bye bye money) and got in some VP (she doubled her money playing 5 and 10 line $.25 VP). Bye now it was 1AM and we had an early day ahead of us…so we packed our bags and said goodnight to the city lights one more time…

Until we return…

 

Great Pics and except for your excursion south and the gambling gods not smilling on you it sounds like you had a really good trip; and, you did score the free room upgrade.

 

Great report! Just as a point of information, cabs are not allowed to stop on the street...you have to get them at a hotel or other designated cab stand. Ah, the things I learn from watching TV

 

Nice report. Hmmm, too bad about the burger bar. I wanted to try that on our next trip.

Can't wait to hear about this weekend's trip.

 

Thanks!

Hahahahahaha.....when I saw the picture in front of the Vegas sign, I thought, "Why is she posing with the limo driver?!"
For some reason I thought mctrees02 was FEMALE. So I began reading the story thinking this was a trip for 2 girlfriends! Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, the two of you sure squeezed alot into this trip. And holy cow! $73 for a trip half-way down the strip. CRAZY! Many times I'm embarrassed to ask the price of things because I don't want people to think that I'm cheap.

You really sound like you roll with the punches and don't hold a grudge against things that don't exactly work the way you plan. That's great! And it makes for a much more pleasant trip if you don't fret over the small stuff.

Thanks for the tip on the upgrades.
I have a "small" suite reserved at the Wynn on October 9th (midweek). I wonder if they ever consider upgrading to a better suite if it's available?

Thanks again. And you're right. 2 weekends in a row....I'm for sure jealous!!

 

TR

That Binion's pic is my wallpaper for the next week or so.

Thx.

 

Nice trip report - and great pics!!! I love the one of Golden Nugget (in color) - it was absolutely beautiful!