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Bellagio, Casino Reality & Losing

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by MNVegasgal, Feb 12, 2004.

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  1. MNVegasgal

    MNVegasgal Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2003
    Messages:
    416
    Location:
    Twin Cities, MN
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    40

    My Trip Report

    This trip was a result of a conference my husband had at the Bellagio for 2 days. Three friends from North Dakota joined us, 1 of those a Vegas Virgin. They drove to our house on Tuesday Night and we all were all up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time. It was a cold start to our trip 17 below 0 temperature here in Minneapolis. After hiking to our gate on the G concourse end gate, they had us move to C concourse, gate 4, as there was a frozen pipe in our original plane. We left about ½ hour late, but they made up sometime in the air. Landed in Vegas to 45-degree weather, a heat wave to us.

    Used Avis Rental Car (corporate contract for hubby so no idea of the cost), they had it running with the trunk up when we got to the lot. Headed to Bellagio to check in. It was only 10:00 – but they told us in advance we could check in early. Hubby had surgery on his Achilles tendon on Christmas Eve and is now in a walking cast. He asked for a room close to the elevator due to this, and she gave us room 11010, 5 doors in, facing the lake. It was a beautiful room and the view was amazing.

    We cleaned up and headed out to eat breakfast at the Paris Brunch. Our friends were staying at Harrah’s on my hubby’s two free rooms offer, so we had to wait to check them in. In all my trips to Vegas, I had yet to see Paris, so off we went. We all enjoyed the brunch with the made to order crepes (berries were huge) and the French toast. I especially enjoyed the apple smoked sausage, had a little bite too it but very tasty. They also have very crisp tasty bacon. Yum. The rest of the crew enjoyed the eggs benedict, but I wanted to make sure I had room for the blintzes, and the fresh French bread.

    We played some at Paris, a little VP, I was up $70.00, some slots, won a little on the Martian slots, but lost on the nickel slots, then won back about $50.00 on a leopard spots 2 cents machine on my last spin I got the bonus. Headed out from there and went to check the girls into Harrah’s. We have never actually stayed at Harrah’s though we get offers all the time. We did check into the Rio once on a free offer, but only used it for the pool as we normally stay at Sam’s Town and they take good care of us.

    Got the girls checked in, nice room, big, with a nice size bathroom and headed down to play. I really like Harrah’s casino, the staff is so friendly and if you have a hand pay, they always say, “Win again so I can come backâ€. I played quite a bit here, and won a little and lost a little, played a few new games, one was a new Senorita game which was kind of fun. I ended up down when it was close to our meeting time so I was heading back and saw Unicorns for 2cents. I put in $100 and was betting up and down when I hit for 3 unicorns in the center (Wild) for 7537 and another hit for over 5000. I ended up cashing out for $500. This was nice and put me up for the day. Hubby and I headed back to the Bellagio. He was going to play some poker and I was going to play around at this casino for a while. We made plans to meet the girls at Margaretville at 7:00.

    Found B’Rat’s Pinball slot machine and played this for quite a while. Started with $20.00 and cashed out $75.00. I also played some VP, and found the 50 play video poker. I did ok on this when I was dealt a few 3 of a kind. Got 5 for a kinds on one of these. Also played a lot of the 2-cent machines directly behind the 50 play. The Uncle Sam one was really fun and I did get the 2 flag bonus twice for a nice return.
    We got cleaned up and met the girls at Margaretville. I was not too impressed, too loud, uncomfortable open seating area, and people on stilts blowing balloons, so you were always stretching your neck to look up. Food was average. It was fun to say I’ve been there, but I would not go again. After eating we headed to Harrah’s where we were meeting some of hubby’s work associates at the Dueling Piano Bars. We had a blast in here. A set of twin sisters play, along with a former Minnesotan named Mark who rotates in. They were really fun and played to the crowd. Our Vegas Virgin Annie got called to the stage two different times, once she had to lay on the piano while Mark serenaded her, pretty hilarious as Annie is quite shy. I made the mistake of doing the motions along with the Song “Joy to the Worldâ€, and he spotlighted me and made me go on stage. Very embarrassing and I’m sure my face was 10 shades of red. I’m not shy, but don’t like to embarrass myself that much. Anyway, we stayed for about 3 hours and enjoyed the company and the drinks. Headed back to our hotel about 12:00 Vegas time. Stayed up until roughly 1:30 (3:30 CST) and I was done.

    Woke up Thursday to the sound of construction, not sure what was being done, but I couldn’t get back to sleep. Ran a bath and soaked in the nice big bathtub and got ready for my spa treatment. My husband was treating me to the spa for taking care of him that past month or so after his surgery. He and I went and had a cup of coffee (I had a Mocha) and a muffin at the Bellagio Café. It was very enjoyable to drink a nice cup of coffee in that BIG mug instead of the standard paper cup. After this mini-breakfast I headed to the spa enjoyed the flowers in the conservatory during my walk. My hubby headed to his convention. I really enjoyed my time at the spa. I had a seaweed detoxification wrap, and added on a facial and an eyebrow waxing, then switched rooms for a Ginger Lime Stone Massage. This was heavenly and oh so relaxing. Both women who provided the treatments were very friendly, talkative when I wanted to be, and respectful when I was dozing. I would recommend these treatments to everyone. You had full use of the spa for the day, but I did not take advantage as I was only there for a short amount of time. You could use the exercise room; the sauna, the Jacuzzi etc and many women were taking advantage of this. I did shower up and use the amenities as well as the blow dryers, curling irons etc provided to get ready.

    Then off I went to meet my friends in the lobby. We were taking Annie down to see NY, NY & MGM. We walked through and I played $20.00 in Bunco. Actually got a Bunco and cashed out at $40.00 since we were just passing through. Walked through and had a slice of Pizza and went to view Coyote Ugly, wasn’t open, but we did get to peek in and see all the Bra’s lining the bars and ceiling fans. Can’t imagine myself drinking in their, but my 13 year old loved the movie, so I had to go see it for her. Headed over to MGM as I needed to look for something at the MTV store (again for my 13 year old). After a long, long, long, walk to the back and to the shops, I had no luck in finding the item she wanted. Played a little on Elvis Slots and lost, played another quarter slot that I can’t remember the name of. The dial spun and it offered you an amount, you could accept the amount, or spin again and add that total to your first amount. Each time you kept one; it was blacked out so if you hit it again, you lost everything. I cashed out $80.00 on this one. It was fun, as I seemed to be hitting the bonus quite a bit.
    Played some penny Beverly Hillbillies and could not hit the bonus. I don’t think I have ever hit the bonus on this account. Headed back to NYNY to play for a little bit before leaving. Played quarter Unicorn, and actually hit 3 unicorns for 1000 coins. Cashed out my 250 and played nickel munsters. It lasted a long time, but I just couldn’t hit the bonus. Headed back to the hotel telling the girls we would pick them at 5:45 to head out for the night.

    Picked the girls up and headed to the Hard Rock Hotel. None of the girls had ever been here so we ventured out. They were on a limited budget, so we told them about the $7.77 Mr. Lucky’s special. They really seemed to enjoy this and felt it was a great bargain. Hubby had the early bird Prime Rib special for $6.95 and felt it was a good deal. Headed out to play for a little while. I played a multi denomination Uncle Sam that was nice to me, I cashed out for $100 after starting at $20.00. I played a few more games and couldn’t seem to hit. Tried a new 25 cent game called Skippbo, I love the regular card game, but couldn’t hit anything.

    We cashed out and headed downtown to show Annie Freemont. It sure was sad to see Binions all closed up. We went into the Golden Nugget with plans to meet up at 10:00 out front. I played around quite a bit and lost at just about everything. I actually managed a win on a 5-cent Lucky Lobster mania. The only problem is getting paid in here is insane. It took at least 30 minutes for someone to acknowledge me and another r20 to get paid. There were at least 11 lights flashing in my small area, and one guy had been waiting for 1.5 hours. I did stop a guy in a suit coat and he rudely said “They are sent in by computer and someone will pay you in orderâ€. The poor drink servers were getting pulled into the loop with people asking for help, so I’m sure they were avoiding our section to avoid the questions.

    Got paid and headed to the front to meet the crew. One of the girls noticed a sign about the premises being filmed and by entering the facility you were aware of this. I remembered the whole issue with the reality show Casino, and we headed over to take a look. The had a section near the back of the casino inside of some Iron Rails with a Craps table and Black Jack table and I think roulette, but I’m not sure. They were filming a group of 5 at the craps table as well as a lone guy at the Black Jack Table. It was obvious 4 of the 6 players had been through hair and wardrobe; they were definitely standing out with their shades on. One guy had on a long leopard print coast with slicked highlighted hair. This guy had stacks of banded money in front of him as well as a ton of chips. Another guy to his right had $100.00 bills stacked in front oh him and was wearing sunglasses. There was a girl to the left (named Kristin I think) who was rolling and had been for a while. They were hoping and hollering and seemed to be making some good money. A guy stepped close to the pit, and a gentleman approached him saying you are welcome to enter and play; you just have to sign a release. The guy chose not to go in, but it was cool to see. The individual that was playing blackjack was betting black chips and was whooping and hollering at times too. He would high five one of the two guys when he got a good hand. I’m looking forward to seeing this on TV. We left and went to the Palms for a while, and say the camera crew comes in there also, but I didn’t see whom they were following.
    Dropped off the girls and headed back to the hotel around Midnight. I wanted to play a little more, but had taken a pretty good beating at both Golden Nugget and Palms. I decided to play the $1.00 Pinball and ended up getting the Pinball game a few times and cashed out up $150. Headed to bed after blowing that trying to get the Bonus on Texas Tea.

    Woke up at 6:00 AM to what sounded like tiles being removed or put in. Drilling and hammering. Now I know they have to make repairs in hotels etc, but not at 6:00 AM. I think they could have waited until at least 8:00. I couldn’t get back to sleep, but was too tired to actually get up, tried putting a pillow over my head, but it didn’t help much.

    Hubby headed out to convention and I got things packed up. Went down to play for a while and just kept losing. I was hoping to re-coop some of my losses, but didn’t have any luck. Didn’t play any table games as I don’t like to play at anything over a $10.00 table. I’m not confident enough.

    We checked out at 12:30 and headed to the airport. Flight was on time; we landed at 7:15 and headed directly to a hockey arena where my daughter was playing in a tournament. We only missed 5 minutes of her game. We probably would have stayed longer in Vegas and gone to Sam’s Town for a day or two, but we didn’t’ want to miss the tournament. They ended up in 2nd place, so it was worth it.

    That’s all I can remember, it was a short run, but we did lots in that amount of time. Let me know if you have any questions.
     
  2. Mia4071

    Mia4071 Tourist

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2002
    Messages:
    1,305
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Nice report. I like the details to your spa! Just reading it I got lazy at my desk [​IMG] he he

    I had ? for you. You said
    We stayed @ mgm before & i don't remember the MTV store? Unless I just forgot. Is it also where they have that place where you can watch a pilot show? Just wondering. My little sister is MTV crazy and always wants stuff from there. I would love to get her something from there when we go in June. Any info would help Thanks [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  3. MNVegasgal

    MNVegasgal Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2003
    Messages:
    416
    Location:
    Twin Cities, MN
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    40
    landa4071, The MTV store is way in the back where you do go to watch the TV shows. It has a big MTV sign, but also had CBS (survivor) items and some Nicklodeon stuff. I previously got my daughter a TRL shirt and she loved it. I hope you can find something for your little sister. I was looking for a Platamapus shirt that Jessica Simpson wears in her video ( I guess). I'll be going back in May over Mother's day with my 3 best friends. We all turn 40 this year so that is our treat.
     
  4. Mia4071

    Mia4071 Tourist

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2002
    Messages:
    1,305
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Yep thats the place I was talking about [​IMG] yeah they did have cbs stuff there. I bought a couple of my co-workers some survivor buffs the last time we went cause we are all survivor crazy! [​IMG] I will be sure to check it out the next time.

    Glad you guys had fun! Happy Early b-day for your 40th!
     
  5. btodd

    btodd High-Roller

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2003
    Messages:
    875
    Location:
    Winnipeg, Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    49
    It would be my dream for my husband to have a convention in Vegas to be able to spend some time alone. Thanks for the report, sounds like you had fun. As the Mom of two female hockey players I totally understand the need to be at the tournament, that's what life is all about!! [​IMG]
     
  6. NEON

    NEON Tourist

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2003
    Messages:
    414
    Location:
    Santa Fe
    Great report MN gal!
    Wow, you sure got alot of fun things done in a short amount of time! [​IMG]
    Do they film regularly at the Golden Nugget for the Casino show? That would be neat to see and or play on TV! [​IMG]
     
  7. HoyaHeel

    HoyaHeel Grammar Police & Admin

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2002
    Messages:
    26,509
    Location:
    North Carolina
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    16
    It's a reality show that the new owners wanted to do on the "makeover" and inner workings of a casino. There was a website posted around here somewhere to apply. I'm not sure how long it'll be going on....
     
  8. bigdogmom

    bigdogmom VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2002
    Messages:
    1,430
    Location:
    Prescott Valley, AZ
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    33
    Nice report, MNVG!!! That ginger lime stone massage sounds heavenly! [​IMG]
     
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