7 nights Flamingo/Orleans

Arrived Sunday, June 10, going home Sunday the 17th. Hopefully there will be some gambling this trip, but as yet (Wednesday) that isn’t the case…
Landed Sunday around 1:00 PM, got the car, and went to check in at Flamingo. We have my SIL this trip and she has never been, so I wanted to spend a couple of nights on the strip before we moved to the Orleans (which I am currently in love with). The check-in line was HUGE, but there wasn’t a soul in the gold line, so I breezed right to the front. Chatted up the desk, and a polite request got our Go rooms upgraded to a mini suite with an adjoining double with fountain views. She lit right up when I toked her $20 afterward. From there we stopped by Total rewards to pick up our cards (always forget to bring the darned things). When I mentioned it was my birthday trip he said “Wait a minute, I think I can do something special for you”. He disappeared into the back and came back with free balcony seats to Nathan Burton (which you can print from dozens of places on the ‘net, lol). After getting the bags to the room we went to Margaritaville and did the margaritas and volcano nachos.

Given that we were acting as tour guides for SIL, I had no plans for Sunday and Monday besides wandering up and down the strip gawking, so off we went. Headed North , making the usual stops until we got to Peppermill, where we enjoyed dinner and a couple of Scorpians (huge, delicious, and potent!). My omelet was good as always, and whatever hamburger my daughter got was “the best I’ve ever eaten”. After getting as far as Circus Circus, we cabbed it back and called it a night

Monday we started South, beginning with a bucket list item, breakfast on the patio at Mon Ami Gabi. My french toast and OJ was awesome, and the other 3 in my party were equally happy. More gawking and we hit Cosmo around lunch, so we scratched another item off the bucket list and went in search of secret pizza (it didn’t disappoint). South to Mandalay Bay, which included another “gotta do that someday” item, Minus 5. Entry (which included 2 drinks) for 4 people was a relatively steep $140. The place is tiny, the drinks are strong, fruity, and delicious, and the bartender was a blast. The minus 5 is supposed to represent the temperature, but it is Celsius, to US citizens that translates to somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, or in Kansas what we call late fall, lol. We made our way to Luxor for our appointment with Carrot Top. I had been taking quite a lot of crap for buying these tickets, and was frankly very unsure about it myself. Every review on the ‘net starts out with the reviewer hating Carrot Top and being dragged to the show, then loving it, and that is pretty much how it went. We had a blast! Every time I looked to my side, my daughter (22) was wiping tears of laughter from her face. This is definitely the best show you never wanted to see.

Tuesday was the move to Orleans, and began with an acceptable if unremarkable breakfast at the Flamingo buffet. We got a late start so we checked the bags with the Bell while we ate and the girls picked up some shirts from Margaritaville. No idea why they didn’t do that while we were there two days ago, I find I’m happier if I don’t ask and just roll with it. Here was one of the big surprises, Margaritaville casino had a table going with $5 3/2 BJ!! Shoe game, but of course, the girls were now ready to move on, lol.
Got checked in to the Orleans, I requested and received a higher floor with strip view. They had lost our reservation for one of the rooms, but the desk handled it with no troubles, duplicating the rate I had received on mine. Kudos! As always, I had a refrigerator sent up for a very reasonable $15 for the entire stay. We wanted a nice, easy day here since we were getting up early tomorrow for a Grand Canyon day-trip tomorrow. Seems most of my “bucket list” items are food related (lol) so we asked the nice GPS lady to find us Metro Pizza. It was without question among the better pizzas I have eaten (IMO, better than Cosmo "secret pizza"), and as a great finishing touch, the ticket came out at half price since it was my birthday! Back to Orleans and early to bed, tomorrow will be a long day…

Wednesday begins our Grand Canyon adventure, much more of an adventure than I had planned on. On the way out of town we FINALLY stopped and got a picture at that damned sign! Been meaning to do that for how many years? A couple of pictures and we’re off! About an hour out of town the car started making a very scary-sounding noise coming from the engine compartment (yay). It was running and handling okay so I kept going as I called Alamo roadside assistance to see how they wanted to handle it. I explained where we were and what was going on, the very helpful gentleman said we could stop in Bullhead City and do a vehicle exchange at the Enterprise location there. I reinforced that we didn’t want to waste a lot of time with this, as our time at the Canyon would be very limited already, he reassured me that it would be a fast key exchange and only 5 minutes out of our way. After making the turn to Bullhead City (opposite direction from the canyon, BTW) we arrived at Enterprise 40 minutes later (big GRRR). Small location at a small local airport. The very nice lady at the counter was very surprised to see us, as no one had called her, and she regretted that she had absolutely no vehicles available to give us (sigh). She called Kingman (no cars) and Flagstaff (no cars). We’ve now wasted most of two hours and still have a half hour drive to get back on route, so I decided Hell with it, we are going on to the canyon and hope for the best. Three more calls to Alamo finally got us a “It will probably be okay, just call us if it dies and we will get you a car somehow (again, awesome). The car squalled the entire rest of the trip, but did make it there and back. The canyon was amazing (ahem, all three hours of it). I had hiked it to the river when I was 18, but that was many more years ago than I like to admit. We took Bright Angel trail down a half mile or so, so the girls could get the perspective from below the rim, but that and Mather point and a bit of the rim trail was all we had time for (incredibly sad about this). Arrived back in Mecca around1:00 AM and crashed.

Thursday promised another flurry of mostly shopping . Ross, north outlet mall, etc. After dropping the ladies off at Ross I headed to the car facility to exchange the vehicle and yell at someone… anyone... Told my story to the service desk and was offered a $25 discount. No, that isn’t even close, and if that’s how this is going to go you should get a manager now. She called a manager, but by the time she arrived we had settled on a $100 credit and she added a free prepaid gas option to the contract. Figure the value at around $150 altogether. There isn’t any way they can give back what they took from us, but I feel this does at least constitute an effort on their part, and I’m as okay with it as I’m likely to get.

After supper at Cravings buffet at Mirage we went to Love. Section 200 per GregRio. Great seats and a great show! I wound the day up with several hours of bartop VP while the ladies got some beauty sleep. Wrapped it up at 4 AM down around $120. Ahh well…

Slept in Friday and headed out for Freemont Street around 10. Around 11 we once again took our lives into our hands, and had lunch at the Heart Attack Grill. This will be the last time there, probably wouldn’t have gone this time if not for the newbies along. The burger and fries weren’t horrible, they just weren’t particularly good. Great chocolate shake though (no butter pat, is it possible they decided that was too cheesy?) Worked Freemont and got the ladies their match play coupons and sign–up spiffs, At Four Queens, when players club made my card she mentioned that I had $60 freeplay coming. After the ladies played their coupons with mixed results, they headed off to the penny machines, and I found myself a home in the VP machines by the pit. 2 hours later the initial $60 was $100 and I was bored, so it seemed like a good time to cash out. Headed back to Orleans for a nap, then after a stop for the Bellagio fountains and conservatory we headed back downtown for the completely different experience that is Fremont Street at night! We hadn’t had supper, so we had some blueberry pancakes at DuPars before wandering the canopy. The stages were blaring with what turned out to be pretty good Bon Jovi tribute bands, it was a good time!
It was my intent to work our way towards Neonopolis and have a drink over at Drink and Drag. One of the performers working the canopy crowds for tips, however, changed my mind, and I decided that what I thought might be a fun diversion would likely turn out to be simply gross instead (not judging, just wasn’t for me.). We headed back to bed after the 1:00 canopy show, never knowing what we really missed.

Saturday is our last day in town and the overwhelming vote was to just relax and take things easy, so around noon we went to the giant flea market over on Decatur (daughters list). This occupied the ladies for a couple of hours, during which time I was allowed to remain in the car with my Kindle. We both enjoy shopping trips more when I wait in the car. Wrapped up the trip in the Forum shops, which houses the only Fat Tuesdays in town that still dispenses the frozen mudslide, and a combination breakfast/lunch/supper at The Cheesecake Factory (be quiet, they don’t have them at home!). Got back to the room around 5PM and remained there the balance of the evening. A 4AM alarm started us on the trip home, and for the final slap in the face, I realized on the airplane that after 5 nights at the Orleans I STILL have 2 matchplays and 2 freeplay coupons from LVA(sigh). If anyone can use ‘em, hit me up.

 

Definitely sounds like a full trip! Really sorry about the car - not exactly a ringing endorsement for Alamo. I'm heading to the Orleans in October if you wouldn't mind parting with the coupons...thanks in advance!

 

Great trip report! Sorry about the car troubles, but good to hear that Alamo compensated you.

 

Sounds like you had a great time even with the mishapes. Not much gambling but you did seem to meet your expectations for the trip. You spent several hours in a car using a kindle in Las Vegas in June. Please tell me car was running with the AC on!!!!!

 

Lol, oh yeah, definitely air conditioned. On the Alamo front, the CSR said that if I had called them directly they would have brought us a car, even to the canyon! Not sure I believe that, but it's an interesting thought.

 

We told you Carrot top was gonna be great

You sure did a lot great TR

 

You're a good sport! A very busy trip with lots of things to do, but I would of had to have done waaaaayyyy more gambling. You need a return trip!!