Trip Report - Nov. 14-21 - No longer a Vegas Virgin!!

I'm probably going to need to do this in a couple of different parts, since we were in Vegas for a week! I'll start with a little background. It was me, my husband and two other couples on the trip. The one couple flew out with us from BWI, the other couple was from NC. We were going out for a conference (IAAPA - International Attractions and Amusement Park Association). The conference was there all week, but the group we were with had us there for three days - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The three couples decided to tack on a couple of days before and a couple of days after just to have some fun. Live and learn - next time we go for three to four days max. Not that we didn't have fun, but our livers and wallets can't handle seven days!!

Day 1 - Saturday Nov. 14th
Flew out early Saturday morning and arrived in Vegas at 10:30am. We flew Southwest and got a really good deal. We started drinking right after take off. I wasn't going to drink, because I'm a light weight - but I said WTH, I'm going to Vegas baby!! Ordered a vodka/cranberry and husband had the same. His friend was drinking beer. Well, I've never heard of anyone getting cut off on an airplane - but leave it to my DH to get cut off. That's right folks - we got cut off by a flight attendant!! LOL Our bar bill at the end of the flight was only 100.00 (boy I wish we had some of those SW drink coupons!).
Anyway, the flight out was pretty good - seemed pretty quick to us! We arrived around 10:30am, DH and the other couple went to get our bags and I went out to check on the transportation. Saw the shuttle line and in my drunken stupor thought - no way am I waiting in that line without another drink... Went back to break the bad news to the crew I was with and luck was on our side. A limo driver came up to me (I must have had the "I don't want to wait in that shuttle line" look) and said do you need a ride? I have a limo. I asked how much and he asked how many? I said four and he said 45 bucks. SOLD! We grab our bags and head off. He even had ice cold coronas for us. SWEET.
We head off to our first of three hotels. The Imperial Palace. I had two comped nights from my total rewards card I got in Atlantic City. I had low expectations, since I had read the reviews on this place. Check in was a breeze. No more than 10 minutes. It was clean, but the rooms were like a 1980's Holiday Inn. Not bad for a freebie, but I wouldn't have paid for it. This casino was definitely a party place. The dealertainers were funny and you can't beat the location. We played a little in the casino and had some more drinks then I called it a night. My husband and his friend headed over to Bill's Gamblin Hall and I think they went to Cesears too. I was just beat.

Stay tuned for day number 2...

 

Love hearing first timer reports!!!

 

Trip Report - Nov. 14-21 - No longer a Vegas Virgin!! Part II

Sunday Nov. 15th

Up bright and early Sunday morning and decide we are going to rent a car and go to the Hoover Dam. The car rental desk was at Harrah's next door. No big deal, just walked over and got a midsize car. The four of us (my husband and I and the other couple) were on the road by 9:00am. We brought our own GPS with us, which was better than paying to rent one. Got to the dam around 10:00am and walked around. We were just amazed. We decided to do the expensive tour (30.00 ea) and it was well worth the money. They took us inside the dam and showed us all the inspection tunnels. It was very fun! We were done the tour around 2:00pm and headed back to Vegas. Just a note, if you want to do the Hoover Dam, go early!! The traffic going towards the dam at 2:00 when we were leaving was backed up. We were really glad we had an early start. I mentioned Red Rock Canyon and everyone decided they wanted to go. I thought we were going to Red Rock Canyon Casino. The other three wanted to see the actual red rocks, so we went through a park which was cool. It was a thirteen mile drive one way through the park. You could get out and hike or take pictures at certain look out points. On the way back from red rock we saw a place on the right that had horseback riding. Little did we know that we would be returning there later in the week (more on that in Wednesday's report). We stopped at a grocery store on the way back for some snacks and liquor to take back to our rooms. After a fun day exploring, we returned the rental car and went back to the IP. I lost some money at the slots and my husband lost some on craps. We drank some more and hung around, then went to bed. I packed up all our stuff since we would leave tomorrow and check in at the Gold Coast for our three nights there. Staying there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night.

Monday Nov. 16th

Left the IP and caught a cab to the Gold Coast. These three nights were paid for by my husbands company. This hotel room was nice, but the shower sucked. There was no door on the shower. I'm sure it's easier to clean that way, but even with the door to the bathroom closed it gets a little drafty. Made for some quick showers. LOL Maybe they are saving on water that way. The company was having a bowling and pizza night, so we joined them in the bowling alley at the Gold Coast. Fun night of pizza and bowling. We then played a little at the Gold Coast (didn't win anything - a theme for the trip. and called it a night. The following day we would go to our show at the convention center.

Tuesday Nov. 17th - My birthday!!

My birthday always falls on these trips my husband has to take for work. I'm not complaining. We always have a great time and I always get to do something interesting for my birthday!! We went to the convention center today and saw all the new stuff for the attractions industry. This show is a lot of fun. Just think of a huge carnival where they are giving all kinds of stuff away. We stayed at the show until around 4:00pm and then went to a couple of different hotels to sight see. The company was taking us to a show at TI that started at 7:00pm so we figured we had some time to look around. We took the monorail up to the Stratosphere and went to the top. Beautiful view and saw the crazy people riding the thrill rides. No thanks. I love rollercoasters, but hanging of the side of the stratosphere doesn't do it for me! We left there and went to Circus Circus, the Rivieria and the Sahara. We then caught the monorail back to TI for the show. We made it just in time. 6:45pm. The show was Mystere. I enjoyed it, but it was not my husbands cup of tea. He was ready to walk out, but I asked him not to... I told him he could take a nap and I would wake him when it was time to go. He didn't nap, but he didn't enjoy it either. Oh well. We had tickets for David Copperfield on Thursday and I was hoping he would like that better. At least he knew who David Copperfield was...

Wednesday Nov. 18th

My husband and his friend had their meetings today with the company, so me and his friends wife went to Bingo at the Gold Coast Wednesday morning. I've never played electronic bingo before and wanted to give it a try. Cost was 26.00 and they give this electronic board that pretty much does everything for you. Kind of takes the fun out of bingo. It marks all your cards (I was playing 42) and when you are one away it beeps. Then if you win it plays "your in the money". Needless to say, it beeped a lot for me, but didn't play me a song. Sigh. Still had fun though and now I know how the electronic bingo works!! After bingo, we (the two wives) decided to play some slots. Had a great time playing and we played a long time on our first twenty bucks. I'm happy as long as I get to play a little while, so it was a good day! They guys wrapped up their meeting around 12:00 and we went to the TGI Fridays in the Gold Coast for lunch. The company was taking us on an adventure that afternoon/evening and we found out that it was horseback riding and a campfire dinner @ red rock. Turned out to be a really nice evening. We left around 2:00pm and went to the same horseback riding place we had passed on Sunday. The cowboys were all really nice and we had a really good ride. Then we sat around the campfire and had a nice cowboy cookout, beer and music. This was right up my husbands alley. He was having such a good time that he didn't want to leave!! We left the campground around 9:00pm and headed back to the Gold Coast. This would be our last night there. Thursday we would go back to the strip to check into the Venetian for our last two nights in Vegas.

Last part to follow soon...

 

Thanks! I'm leaving out a lot of the drunken details... but we had a blast. Can't wait to go back now. If anyone has any questions, just let me know!!

 

for some reason a horseback riding, cowboy campfire just doesn't scream vegas to me, but i'm glad ya'll had a great time! that was cool of the company to do that for their employees!

 

Loving the trip report, so far!
AND - my birthday is November 17, too! I just turned 40 last week!


Roy

 

hehehe my husband(who also was a Vegas Virgin) and I were there Nov 14-19 we should have hooked up I'm a pro at 6 trips now haha

 

Happy Birthday!! (and to Royski, too )

sounds like the *company* went the extra mile to keep you all entertained!
would be a nice break from the glitz n glam of the strip hehe

Looking forward to the rest of your report

 

man, you probably could have saved us from a lot of walking (knowing where to go and where not to!!). I think we walked about 20 miles last week. We did see a lot though. Next trip we will know where we want to go and we won't be so in awe of everything. LOL I do regret not getting to visit Fremont street and we forgot to go to the Vegas Sign and get a picture. We can always do that next time!

 

Thanks Vegas Diva and Royski - and happy birthday to you too Royski! I just turned 37, so I'm not too far behind you!!

 

heh, after 29 yrs with the man, I told him I hadn't lead him astray yet and didn't do so in Vegas , except for a couple times in casinos where I got a bit mixed up lol

 

Trip Report - Nov. 14-21 - No longer a Vegas Virgin!! Part III - Final Part!

Thursday Nov. 18th

Checked out of the Gold Coast and caught a cab to the Venetian. The Venetian was the only hotel we ended up paying for, so not bad for a week! The place is absolutely beautiful! We had a taste of three different types of hotels this week. A budget hotel (IP), a step up from a budget hotel (Gold Coast) and spent the last two nights in Vegas - in style!!! The only bad thing about the Venetian was the smell. I had read here on the boards that they pump some kind of air freshener in the place and they aren't kidding! It just about knocked me over. It was overwhelming. I think I would rather just smell smoke, it was that bad. I did get used to it after the second day, and thank heavens it wasn't pumped into the rooms or I might have had an issue with it. Other than that, the place was fabulous. The staff was great, and made you feel like royalty! We had tickets to David Copperfield (my birthday present) and took the monorail over to the MGM Grand. The MGM Grand is beautiful too, and big! We ending up eating dinner at Fiamma's. We did the tasting menu for 49.00ea which was great and then we added the wine pairing with it for 25.00ea. My husband ending up drinking all 6 glasses of wine, since I didn't really like any of them. I had some kind of martini which was really good. Overall, great meal and would recommend the place if you want a nice meal. David Copperfield was great. Very entertaining and a good show. I know it's all an illusion, but WOW, how DOES he do that stuff?!?! We walked around the MGM for a while and then headed back to the Venetian. I made another donation to the slots and we went to bed.

Friday Nov. 19th

Friday was a good day, we weren't up quite as early as we were starting to get worn out from all the drinking... We decided to go to the Luxor and go to the Titanic Exhibit. Neat seeing all the artifacts and reading all the stories. So sad though. We finished the exhibit and went to one of the bars in the Luxor. I got an italian margarita and the girls went and played the slots while the guys sat at the bar and drank. I probably shouldn't have started drinking that early, but WTH... we were having fun. I saw an oxygen bar and was like huh?? People sitting there sucking up oxygen... pretty weird I thought!! Anyway, we had dinner at Delmonico's that evening with the whole group (9 of us total) and it was really good. Kind of reminded me of Morton's or Ruth's Chris. Pricey, but a good steak. I made my final donation to the slots and turned in early so I could get packed for our trip home. We were in the airport and I asked my husband for 20 bucks to put in one of the slot machines, just so I could say I had played one at the airport. He told me it was a sucker play and rolled his eyes (but he gave me the money). I played a Wheel of Fortune quarter machine for a little while and ended up cashing out for 65.50!! I gave him 40 bucks, kept 25.50 and he was happy! So ends our first trip to Vegas... Can't wait to go again, but will only go for probably three or four days max. I can't handle any more than that!!

Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you have any questions!! Thanks for all the tips/tricks/hints from all the Vegas Veterans, it really helped us enjoy our first trip!!!

 

Glad you all had a great trip!! and a fun way to spend your actual bday there!
I've done
2 ~3 nite trips
1~4 nite trip
2~5nite trips
1-6 nite trips
(my first ever trip was a overnighter for like 12 hrs on way to Disneyland when I was a teen back in the early 1970's lol)

I think I like the 4/5 nights the best

 

how cool would that be, to get a free birthday trip via your spouses work? very cool. Spouse works, you get the free trip!

 

Enjoyed your trip report, my first trip to Vegas involved staying at the IP also. That was almost 20 years ago, and it was an experience.

 

I think a lot of vegas 1st timers loss it to IP, I know I did lol

Enjoyed reading your report, we tend to visit for 10-14 days as it's so far to come from the UK, we now try to break it up with a visit else where in the USA otherwise we come home needing a week of work to get over it.

 

Wonderful report.
You crammed in a lot.
I have never heard of a campfire when in Vegas either
but it sounds like fun!

 

Yeah, the campfire was fun. We rode horses for about 1 and 1/2 hours first then had a "cowboy" dinner around the campfire. I passed on the beans...LOL It wasn't far from Vegas either - about 20 minutes or so. Right across from the scenic Red Rock Canyon. I didn't even know there was an actual Red Rock! I suggested it to my friends and I thought we were going to the Red Rock Casino - then I saw signs for the Red Rock Canyon conservation area and knew I was toast... no casino for me

 

Very well done Trip Report. Thanks for posting.

later, GVJ