Vegas - Living Large at Ballys 3/31 - 4/5

Hubs and I went to Vegas for our 25th or 26th trip. We've lost count.

Both in our 40's but think we're 30. I have a tendency to over drink so this trip we each downloaded alcodroid on our phones to keep track of our drinks. It worked. I didn't get sick once. I did average 13 drinks a day and hubs averaged about 17, so we still drank, we just kept score, if you will. This app is a lot of fun.

I'll post the report in one long post...

 

Trip report march 31 - April 5

Flew southwest out of Hartford and landed an hour early, but the gate wasn't available so we had to sit on the plane for half an hour. Still a half hour gain. Husband tipped the captain a fiver on the way off to say thanks.

Picked up our car from Alamo. Had a mid size reserved, but upgraded to a "full size" chevy Malibu. Not so big... Thats a good thing. Last time we got upgraded to an impala and I felt I was steering a ship verses driving a car.

About 5 pm on a Saturday night and the strip is packed. Head to ballys via koval and traffic is still heavy. Pull in to ballys via the exit, yep made the same mistake as last October. Except this time I keep going since no cars are leaving and you have total visibility to just wrap around the valet station. There was no way in hell I was going to drive back onto flamingo to turn around and wait another half our to get back to ballys when the coast was clear. I actually think the valets were chearing me on!

Head to diamond to check in. Newbie working the counter so it took another half hour to check in. Yep, no line, we are the only people there and really, a half hour. At least we got 2 waters out of the wait.

Head to the store to pick up some beers for the room. 20% off with diamond card. Nice. Now it's off to the room...

It's always a great feeling when you walk down the hall and see your room number has double doors. 2061 in the north tower. Beautiful room. It looked recently updated. Big tube tv in living room, but 40 inch flat plasma in bedroom. Wet bar was the best! Fridge, microwave, and old style coffee maker with the free coffee. Set up our bar and unpacked.

Bedroom had the regular ballys spa pool in the bedroom with a steam shower and a wonderful dressing area with lighted mirror. Loved it. Our view looked out to the south tower but you could see lake bellagio from the room. Pretty ok.

Now let's get our drink on and gamble! Oh, we haven't eaten in 10 hours...can't we just drink a little first...yes, I know how that ends with me with my head in the toilet, bathtub, or even the sink. Ok. Let's drink our beers on the way to Earl of sandwich. (my husband takes good care of me).

I get the meatball and he gets a hawaiian. Yummy. Head back to Ballys and Sullys bar. What!? No seats for us. Well, we'll just head to the back bar to waste our money playing bad vp for free drinks. Excellent. 2 seats together. Sit there for a few drinks and when we are buzzed enough, we move to the dollar games behind the bar and hubby hits 4 aces with no kicker playing $2. Our first and only hand pay. I wish that kicker had filled in...wish we had more hand pays, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Drink service is great so we stumble our way back to our room and call it a night around 1am. 4am body time.

Day 2

Get up around 10am and head down to the Paris buffet for the champagne brunch. Used the lva $10 off per person coupon to cut costs and charged the other $40 to room. Brunch was good. Champagne cheap so only one glass, but the omelette station was great.

Play some vp, place a bet on the bruins in the bally's sport book. We check out the bar area, but only quarter games. I spy the bartender and think I may like to get to know him. Hubby wants to move on, so maybe we'll meet that nice man later...

Walk north on strip to check out Osheas and to say good bye to the vomit smelling pit that I always have to visit on every trip. Walk through flamingo and the habitat on the way. They were feeding the birds so that was kinda cool.

Osheas was still there and I really like the duct tape work on the carpet. Adds some nice shiny patches on the floor. They are holding that place together with spit and glue. Heading on to harrahs...

Carnival court is a mess. It's just a narrow boarded up walkway until you get to the bar area, but that's the only thing open. Then there's still three stalls around the corner selling stuff, but it's really a construction zone.

Ok, enough of the hell holes, let's check out the forum shops and Caesars. Walk through the shops and head right to the palace casino and our dollar vp games. I make a nice $200 profit. Great. Let's go see Jenny at Cosmo. She makes great drinks for me and wears low cut shirts for my husband. Win, win. Drink a couple of cosmos and coors lights. Win another 2 hundo. Not sure how hubby's doing, but he says he never wins at Cosmo. Too bad, at least he had jenny to look at. I love the Cosmo sports book bar.

By now it's late afternoon and we should head to the diamond lounge. So off we go to Paris to eat chicken wings and make friends. And that's just what we do. We sit at the bar and Freddy and Salvador take great care of us even though hubs is wearing his red sox windbreaker and Freddy's a die hard Yankee fan. No worries, by the end of the night they're hugging it out. It's good to make friends with bartenders.

We also meet a great couple, Jim and Mary from WI. Talk with them for a long time. They have some great stories; shooting wild animals from their bedroom windows, things like that. I guess life in Wisconsin's a little different but that's why I love sitting at a bar, you get to interact with people.

We then head down to the ballys sports book and cash in our bruins win. Lost my bet on the UConn women...there's always next year girls! While hubby's cashing in his win, I'm checking out the bar tops but he wants to Head back upstairs to get our drink on at Sullys.

And that's exactly what we do. Once I lose my vision, I think it's time to call it a night. Oh, don't worry it's only temporary blindness from grey goose. I'll be able to see again sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Day 3

Get up and my feet are a blistered mess. Looks like a trip to walgreens is needed. We make a quick breakfast of fiber bars, coffee, and monster energy drink - the breakfast of champions.

We don't make it too far. Got to play those dollar vp games by the south tower. I get beat pretty fast so I head to the multi line .50 games and paly ddb. Hum, things don't go much better. Can I really be down $200 in ten minutes? Time to go watch husband play. He's up, he's down, he's even, let's walk (limp) towards Wynn.

Of course we have to stop at each casino along the way just to make sure nothing has changed since yesterday. Oh, flamingo smells good. It must be Johnny rockets. Time for chicken fingers and fries. A nice break.

Continue up the strip to the V/P. We feel compelled to find the Laguna bar to celebrate vegas gator fan. Not being familiar with the v/p this takes a long time and my feet are bloody stumps by now. At last, we find it. But there's no one there. Oh well at least we'll be able to find it again (probably not).

Ok. Now wheres that damn Walgreens. I love you walgreens. You have all the things to help my feet. Hobble out to the fountain in front of v/p to do a little surgery. Ahh! That's much better.

We need to pick up our free play from the promo desk at Paris. This only took us about half an hour to find out. We went to the cashiers cage at ballys and they typed in this, that and the other and couldn't figure out how we got it. Finally the boothling asked someone and they showed him the flier on the desk in front of him. Oh, you can pick that up at Paris. Umm, Thanks.

It was fast at Paris so we head back to ballys with the vouchers and head to the $5 games. We usually play a few hundred through these games every trip. Sometimes you win, sometimes not. This was a not trip...

Got to go place bets on the men's NCAA so back to ballys sports book we go. We spy James at the back bar as we walk by. We cant be rude, so we sit down to say hello and to get some drinks of course. This is James' Friday and he's leaving early so we only stay until his break. About 3 drinks. No luck on vp here.

We head to the sports book and there is a seat at the bar waiting for me. The nice man from the other day is working. We chat with him about what to bet on the game and he keeps the drinks coming.

Hubby places his bet and now we both have seats (KY -3 at the half, i think). Nice. Let's settle in.

The bartender makes a great looking drink so I ask him about it. His name is Po and his specialty drink is called the PoVert. It's yummy, but he warns us that after 3 you turn in to a pervert. Great. Bring it on.

After several drinks and 2 hrs, it's time to get some food. We head to burger brassieres for burgers. Use the lva coupon. Food is always good here.

Head up to the room to "freshen" up then back to see Po and watch the game. Get seats at the bar and I'm playing .25 ddb (only denomination on the game) and I'm hitting four of a kinds like it's my job. Po makes me feel better by making me more Poverts.

Hubby's making more friends. Jeff sells steel and is a great guy from the west coast. Hopefully he'll be out east this fall for the 49's v Pats game and we'll catch up with him.

We end up staying there all night. We just drink and talk with everyone at the bar its a great time.

It's now 11pm and I'm nicely buzzed. Let's get pizza. Go to the Paris pizza place and get the works and a huge water.

Head upstairs and pass out.

Day 4

Our last day with Po, so we cant waist time. We get up and have breakfast at the Paris buffet. Technically it's 11:40am so I'm calling it breakfast. Some may say lunch... Anyways, it's good. Use another $10 off coupon from lva.

We head to Paris to see if Ray is working guastaves. There he is. I'll have an espresso martini please. Get beat on some lousy play ddb, so I put more in for another martini. These are good. Really. $150 in and I finally hit four tens for $125. Nice. Bump it up to $1. Hit another for $250. That's a good start to the day.

Now that I have a nice little buzz, let's go find let it ride. That's my crack. Hubby's going to try it too so we go back to ballys. We spend several hours playing. I loose all my money. Hubby does pretty good but he now has a new addiction. You're welcome.

The drinks were flowing fast and steady so I'm a little drunk. Must be time for Earl of sandwich. Wolf down our food so we can go see Po.

As you can see we are creatures of habit. If you give us drinks, we will come. I'm short on cash so .25 games are just great. I stay away from the poverts tonight as I don't want to get sick, so grey goose it is.

Po's going to Bills for karaoke tonight after work. Maybe we'll check it out. Leave the sports book about 10 pm. We feel the need to play roulette. Upstairs we go.

I lose my last hundo for the night. Hubby's doing well. We drink some more, like we need it. We hit the wall and have to go to bed. It's about 1 am. No karaoke for us.

Day 5

What the hell was all that boom, boom, boom from last night?! It kept me up until it stopped at 4am.

Yep. You can hear Hyde over at ballys. Yesterday was the first warm day of our trip and they must have opened the glass wall at hydes for the club. Great. We have to be up at 6am tomorrow. That's 2 hrs of sleep.

Remember, we are in the north tower. The south tower must get the brunt of the noise. I'm a light sleeper and booze disrupts my sleep too so it was a bad mix, but I'm sure it's loud for all those who love the strip view south tower rooms. *FYI, warmwinds.*

Enough of my bitching. On to the day.

Get up and out of the room around noon. Hubs has had a power bar, but I need a little something so I head to the food place near the south tower and get a bagel. We play the vp games by the bar. Don't hit anything so I move to the .50 games around the corner. Good move. I hit four of something for $125 so bump it up to $1 and not much later hit aces no kicker for $800. Hit a few more small things and cash out at $1000. Nice. We'll go home with that.

Go get hubby and let him know. So we decide to walk over to the stage door. No better place to celebrate. Actually, its our first time there and I have to say I liked it. We didn't stay and play, but did a little walk through to scope it out. We'll be back.

We continue north and stop at all the regular places, but we cross the street to get to mirage. We have to pick up tickets to Carrot Top for tonight. Bought them through gold star for $36 a ticket and we had great seats. I highly recommend them. All I had to do was show the boothling my id to pick them up. Easy, peasy.

We decide not to waste time outside on this beautiful day, we have let it ride to play. So we head back to ballys and find a table. Play for a long time and have a few cocktails. We spend all our money on LIR crack. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. Just remember kids, crack is whack.*

I'm sure we ate, but I have no idea where or when...

We head down to the Luxor to see the show. We've never really spent time there so we have no idea where the vp bars are, but we need some drinks before the show! Find one pretty fast and it is a huge bar with 3 people sitting there. Very odd. All the Caesars props are usually packed so you have to have good timing to get a seat or just wait... Anyways, great for us.

Slip in a twenty and play. Bartender is nice and hooks us up right away. We only have half an hour, so we make quick work of the first drink and get another. Hubby starts talking to a guy who sat down next to him. So I leave him to cash in our tito and find out how to get to the showroom.

I go get hubby and we head up stairs to see carrot top. The videos played before the show are great. I laughed, I hid my eyes, and laughed some more. Then the opener came out. She sucked. Really. Not funny at all.

Maybe CT does this on purpose. The opener is so bad it makes him look great. And he was. He was so funny I laughed the whole time. I would see him again without hesitation and I would pay full price if I had to. So if it is his plan, it works.

Show out out at 10pm or just about. We decide to cab back to the PHo to grab some grub from the Earl of sandwich. We decide to break with tradion, I get a chicken Caesar wrap and hubs gets a turkey sub. Delicious.

Walk back to ballys, throw another hundo in the dollar games then call it a night. It's about midnight and we need to get up around 6:30 for our flight.

Hit the hay and at 12:30 I hear the boom, boom, boom from Hyde. No problem. I got some ear plugs, so in they go. I sleep a little on and off. The morning came pretty fast. Get up, get the car and off to the rental car drop off. Get to the airport in plenty of time, but it was packed. We usually leave in the afternoon and it's a little slow then, not in the morning!

Flight home uneventful and on time. Now I just have to make it until July.

*Sent from my iPad

 

I had to laugh when you said hitting four of kinds like it was your job. Had a similar experience on my last trip out (6 years ago)at the vp bar right across from the elevators @ the Mirage.(not sure if its still there or what it was called?) We damn near spent the whole trip at that bar......Nice report!

 

This is my kind of trip to Vegas! When are you going in July? We'll be there 7/2 - 7/6. Awesome report! Thanks.

 

great read! So fun to have interesting people to talk to while you play.

 

Hilarious report!

 

We're heading back July 21-26.

Thanks for the nice comments.

I'm not sure if I gamble so I can drink or if I drink because I gamble. I just know I can't separate the two.

Love to have fun talking with folks at the bar. I've met a lot of working girls who will answer questions about their occupation. They're the best.

Beth

 

Glad to read that I am not the only one who uses the "loss of vision" as a sign to hang it up for the night!

 

Great report, I love your writing style and sense of humor.

Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

Cheers,
Kelly

 

LOL an app to keep track of # of drinks. I don't think I want to know!

Great report and an enjoyable read.

 

Nice Trip Report!

 

Great report...and glad to hear about another good experience with Po.

Macker and I have ran into him numerous times at Bally's (separately) over the years and he is a great guy.

Glad you had a good time.

 

Po really was great, maybe too great. We usually see more diamond lounges and other vp bars, but couldn't beat drinking playing .25 games. Our drinks were never empty before we had another in front of us.

 

NIce report!!! Just what Vegas should be!!!