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A little old (Jan 04-Jan 07 2010)

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by The Fremont Xperience, May 14, 2010.

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  1. The Fremont Xperience

    The Fremont Xperience Tourist

    Joined:
    May 9, 2010
    Messages:
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    My Trip Report

    I am new to the board and have been to Vegas once. This was back in January of 2010 so I know it's out of date. But I think the main reason I want to post it is to relive it all.

    My Wife, Rachael and I moved from Washington State to Charlotte, NC. We were routing out our trip across the country and decided to stop and see her Grandparents in Needles, Ca. We have a friend who lived in Vegas at the time and he invited us to stay with him for a couple days on our way through, I had never been to Vegas, my Wife was there when she was a teen and loved it so we were more than happy to take him up on his offer. And even after he renegged we decided to just get an off strip pet friendly hotel for that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

    We arrived at about 8:00 on Monday night and checked in to the America's Value Inn across the street from the MGM and a block down from Hooters Casino. Yes, I know most TR's on here are at better hotels, but we were on a very strict budget AND needed a place that accepted pets for our dog and cat.

    I had driven the whole way from Anacortes, Wa (just south of the Canadian border) through Wa, Or and down towards LA before up into Needles and then over to Vegas without stopping for anything other than gas, so the plan was to hit the bed as soon as we got in the room. I don't think I'll ever forget my first glimpse of the strip including the Statue of Liberty from NY, NY and at that moment I knew I should have let my wife win our moving discussion which saw me pulling for an East Coast move and her fighting for Vegas. :eek:

    Tuesday morning we woke up early and went to Cocoa's restaurant next to the motel. A $5.00 breakfast including hashbrowns, pancakes, eggs, and sausage and we were off to visit the strip. Now again, this was towards the beginning of a move across the country, so the whole point of this trip was to do everything we could with spending as little money as possible.

    My wife found a bunch of free things to do. First stop was the Lion Habitat at MGM, then we went to studio walk to do the CBS TV show preview, but instead we went into a focus group and were each paid $75. So at this point we'd spend a grand total of $10 on breakfast, and were up a total of $140 :thumbsup:

    Vegas took back some of it's money when we did the CSI experience at $30 each. Don't know what anyone else thinks of this, but to us it was a huge waste of money. We went over to New York, Ny to look around but didn't really do anything there except donate a little money through the slot machines. We walked down the strip to Planet Hollywood. We wanted to have dinner at the restaurant, so we went to the Casino because (stupid us) we thought the we'd find it there. After talking to the concierge and finding out that the restaurant was over at Caesars we went to the Bellagio for the fountains.

    Dinner at PH was great. At this point I don't remember what I ate, but I remember drinking the "terminator" as well as a peanut butter/jelly shot (which was really good) and my wife who doesn't drink at all, ever, decided to give it a shot and have the Gorilla's in the Mist, and she loved it.
    We took the monorail back to the MGM and walked back to our motel and I was happy to find that our Uhaul had not been broken into :peace:

    Wednesday Morning we started at Cocoa's again and then off for another day at the strip. We went to Hooters casino to use our FREE $100 slot play. It took about 15 minutes between the line and sign up to get our players card, and about 15 seconds to burn through the free slot play. But we got tickets to Todd Paul later for $8.95 with a free drink. We got an all day Monorail Pass and went to the Paris where we went up in the Eiffel Tower. You really get an idea of how beautiful the city of Las Vegas is, from the strip to the amazing mountains all around, truly just breathtaking.

    We took in the rain showers at the Planet Hollywood and then lunch at the Casino. Then back to the motel for a little rest before heading back to Hooters for the Todd Paul show.

    I don't know if he still shows there, and I don't know how he ranks against other Vegas acts, but I can tell you Todd Paul was extremely entertaining. I got pulled up on stage and was used for a lot of his tricks, and that was a great experience, but his whole show was fun.

    Leaving Hooters we were planning to hit the monorail at MGM again but instead we sprang for a cab to the Mirage for the Volcano show. Then the Sirens @ Treasure Island and then we made the walk down to Circus, Circus where we were going to meet our friend (finally) One funny thing that my wife still makes fun of me for was that by this time my feet were killing me and I did not like walking this long. The Circus, Circus kept looking farther and farther away, and by the time we hit the Slots Of Fun casino I said "screw it" and took a 15 minute break to just sit down outside, even though Slots of Fun is technically in the parking lot of Circus, Circus.

    Anyway, friend finally showed up and he introduced us to The Deuce and we took that to Fremont St for the "Experience" which I guess is only ON during the weekends because the only real experience we got was a guy coming up and offering to sell me crack. To be honest though, he was a very nice and polite crack dealer :) who simply walked away when I said "No, thanks though, man" lol

    Finally we hailed a cab (which I didn't know we weren't supposed to do) and went back to our Motel. (All day pass for the monorail system and only used it twice)
    The uhaul still hadn't been broken into, so I chalked it up as a great weekend.

    Writing this out makes me realize we didn't do hardly anything, so some might find it strange that I can't wait until we actually move to the city. But I think that's my reasoning, we had a BLAST and still barely scratched the surface of things to do in the city, and did not go broke.
     
  2. sisyarn

    sisyarn Tourist

    Joined:
    May 12, 2010
    Messages:
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    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    5
    Thanks for your TR! I love your FS experience :) lol

    Your review was helpful tho, cuz we are going at the end of the month and if Fremont is only "on" during the weekend I am going to have to do some re-planning
     
  3. The Fremont Xperience

    The Fremont Xperience Tourist

    Joined:
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    That's the only thing I can get from it. We were there on Wednesday night around Midnight and spent an hour or so there and nothing. It was still really cool though, because it's got a very "old vegas" feel to it.
     
  4. Nancyb54

    Nancyb54 Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2009
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    Wisconsin
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  5. The Fremont Xperience

    The Fremont Xperience Tourist

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    Ah, okay, we must have just missed it. We were there for over an hour but we got there after Midnight. We also missed the free circus show at Circus,Circus getting there after 11:30.
     
  6. Blonde_4_ever

    Blonde_4_ever LasVegas4ever.com

    Joined:
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    Entertaining report.
    It is fun to look thru a first-timer's eyes again.
    Next trip you will have to study the schedules for the attractions.
     
  7. sailor53

    sailor53 Tourist

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Pensacola, FL
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    I always enjoy first timers reports. Think I'd like to try the CBS television experience. Helps the bankroll too. Thanks for posting!
     
  8. gotavegasjones

    gotavegasjones VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2004
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    Location:
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    In July 2001 we took a vacation through several western states. We spent time in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Arizona. My wife wanted to make a stop in Las Vegas. I was adament that there was no way we were going to Las Vegas. She wore me down. We spent two nights in Vegas. I got hooked. We've been back 13 times.

    later, GVJ
     
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