The Palazzo July 29th- August 2nd

My husband and I took a 16 day road trip down to Southern California and spent the last 4 days of the trip in Las Vegas.

Day One July 29th


We got an early start (9am) from Irvine, California and didn't hit any traffic getting out of the city. I saw all the sites on the drive that I have read about here. We stopped in Barstow to refuel at Love's. We gassed up the Edge and then went in to use the restroom and get a cold drink. We like Love's because the restrooms are cleaner than other places. I noticed when we got back to the car that there were handprints and forehead prints on my passenger window that weren't there when we went in. It seemed as though someone thought about breaking in. However, my lovely husband remembered to lock the car and the only thing I left out was my MP3 player from 2006. Guess they didn't want that! :evillaugh

We arrived at the Palazzo at 5 pm and self parked to get our bearings and took the elevator up the casino. We found the check in desk and there was only one person in line. There was a very nice gentleman who was a bellhop or greeter of some sorts who asked us what our name was and walked us up to the agent at the desk and gave her our name. That was a nice touch. We got checked in very quickly and decided to upgrade to a strip view which made the suite $199 a night not including resort fees. We were asked if we wanted a $50 dollar food credit if we took a survey about their bed linens so we said sure.

We got the key and quickly headed up to room 42-700 to check out the room before we went to the car and got our stuff. Now if you have never been to the Palazzo you are in for a treat. All the rooms are suites and they are beautifully decorated. We had a nice view of the TI and a partial view of the Mirage. It was definitely worth the money to upgrade. I couldn't stop looking out the window.

My favorite part of the room were the 3 flat screens and the remote controlled blinds. The bed was heavenly and the linens were soft.

We went down and hauled our stuff up to the room and quickly changed into our swimsuits so we could hit the pool before it closed at 8 pm. We went to the main pool at the Palazzo and snagged two nice padded lounge chairs up front. The pool was nice but there were too many kids in my opinion.

Went back up and changed and went to Grand Lux for dinner. I had the Sicilian pasta and a glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc and husband has pasta telefono. Both were delicious and we had a great server.

Took a walk after dinner on the strip. Headed down to "character row" as I call it. I love to look at the pathetic characters on the strip however I was impressed with the "Alan from the Hangover" who has upgraded to an almost life size plastic tiger as part of his props. The worst character is definitely the Homer Simpson one that hangs out by the fountain as well as the Joker who is just plain creepy.

Anyway, we kept walking and crossed the street to the Flamingo and I sat down at the Grease machine. Put a $5 in and won $18. I used that to gamble at the table top VP machine at the Flamingo but didn't win anything except 2 Coronas. I needed a bathroom at one point while we were there but couldn't find one. The one I did find which I believe was by the front desk had a line of about 15 women for 4 bathrooms. At the time I was unaware of the plumbing issues the Flamingo was facing but once I did find out that explained the smell and the long lines.

Also checked out the Quad since I hadn't been there since my very first Vegas trip back in 2005. The Quad is an interesting place and it is very smoky. Smoke doesn't bother me usually but it was overwhelming in the casino. I don't think I could stay here now. The Dealertainers were also mildly interesting however I didn't think many of them looked very much like their counterparts and I had some trouble figuring out who some of them were impersonating.

At that point I decided I had enough and went back to the Palazzo to go to sleep. It was about 1 am. However I forgot to buy bottled water so I got stuck drinking tap when I got back to the room. The water from the faucet is awful by the way. However I did get to fall asleep in a very comfy bed so it all balanced out.

Stay tuned for day 2!

 

Day 2 7/30

We got up late because we closed the blackout blinds. We usually don't sleep past 9 am but because of those blinds didn't get up until 10:30 am.

The plan for the day was to shower and get down to the urgent care clinic for my husband who was suffering from an ear infection. The last thing we wanted to do was leave the strip and go to the doctor but sometimes you don't have a choice. We found an urgent care clinic that got good reviews and went and got checked in. We sat there for a good 20 minutes until my husband told me I should leave and go to Target to shop because he felt bad that I had to wait for him. I told him I'd go and get provisions for the room and then come back and check in on him. I was gone for at least an hour and would check my phone periodically to make sure he didn't finish and need me to come get him. I didn't hear from him so I finished the shopping and went back to the urgent care. He was still waiting and was getting agitated that it had been almost an hour and half spent in the waiting room. I was surprised at the wait because the urgent care by our house locally usually gets people in within 30 minutes. Anyway, we sat for another 40 minutes before the doctor saw him.

When the appointment was finally over it was close to 3 pm and we were starving!! We headed over to Grimaldi's and shared a pepperoni pizza, ceasar salad, and Pepsi. There were no leftovers! After we ate we went back to Target and dropped the ear drop prescription off and got frozen yogurt at U-Swirl. Then went back to Target to pick up the prescription and hit up Trader Joe's along the way. Got some banana muffins and lots of water from TJ's.

When we got back we hit up the neighboring pool to the main pool at the Palazzo to catch the remaining rays of the evening. There weren't very many people at the pool at this point and it was lovely.

We then had dinner at Grand Lux (again!!) We got the pleasure of being served by Linda who is a little brash but let us know it took 20 minutes if we wanted to order fresh chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We didn't order those but I had a yummy Cobb salad and an iced tea. Husband had what I had the night before (Pasta Sicilian) and an iced tea as well.

We ate and then decided to call it a night and just hang out in the room and enjoy the view and go to bed early.

Day 3 coming right up!

 

I agree 100% with you about the Dealertainers especially the blonde singers. Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Lady Gaga, all of the above?

 

Thanks for sharing so far. Sucks about the Dr visit mid-trip.

 

Nice report thusfar. Sucks about the ear infection for your husband. On the bright side, at least you are driving and not flying.

 

Sorry to hear about the hub's ear infection. Hopefully, it's resolved for him.

As far as more trip report...Yes, please!

 

Day 3 7/31

Today was my husband and I's 2nd wedding anniversary. We like to go to Vegas to celebrate because it is relatively cheap and easy to get here from Vancouver.

Anyway, today I woke up early and went downstairs to get coffee. The Coffee Bean is right next to the elevators so I ended up going there. I ended up getting 2 plain coffees because I didn't feel like paying 6 dollars for a smaller size specialty coffee. The Coffee Bean was pretty crazy for it being only 7 am in the morning. However, I got the coffees and headed back upstairs. 6 dollars for 2 large plain coffees! Oh well, I'm willing to pay top dollar to get my caffeine fix!

When I got upstairs husband was awake and we drank our coffee and ate the muffins I bought from Trader Joe's the day before. We decided to get up early so we could get a good spot at the pool.

The pool opens up at 9 am but I think you are allowed to go in before that time to claim seats because we always arrived right at 9 am and lots of the good chairs were already claimed. We skipped the Palazzo pool today and went right to the Venetian Pool because it had sun at the early morning hour and also because the pool is deeper and larger in size.

We ended up finding great spots in a set of 4 chairs next to this other couple. The spots were under a tree which I didn't like at first but was grateful for once it got hot. We stayed at the pool from 9 am to 12 pm and had a great time. I mostly like to read and people watch while I am at the pool and let me say there is plenty to see at the Venetian Pool and it's fun to watch all the people go into Tao Beach.

We called it a day at the pool because we needed to get ready for the rest of the day which means shower, dry hair and put on makeup. We had plans to catch the Wheel of Fortune taping at the Sands Expo at 3 pm. We got ready fairly quickly and grabbed the car and got a quick lunch at In and Out. We then got in line at the Sands Expo for the taping. We ended up waiting in line for 45 minutes and got placed like sardines in the far left bleachers. Wheel of Fortune tapes 3 shows at a time so after the first taping about 40 percent of the people got up and left so we moved down the folding chairs in the front where we had a better view. We watch Wheel of Fortune almost every night on tv so it was very cool to see the set and Pat and Vanna in person.

The taping was about 3 hours and after we got out we gambled a little bit at the slots in Palazzo. I found my new favorite slot called Fiesta Chihuahua. I was drawn to it because I have two chihuahuas at home as pets so I had to sit down and play. Fiesta Chihuahua was good to me as I won 40 dollars after putting in a 5 dollar bill. I cashed out but didn't convert the ticket to cash as I was planning on possibly using it later in the evening.

We hung out in the room a little bit and then decided to go to Grimaldi's again for dinner. We went to a different location that was farther out from the strip in a nice outdoor mall. We sat outside and I enjoyed two sangrias and we split a pepperoni pizza. I know it's weird that we eat the same places all the time on our trip but we really LOVE Grimaldi's and don't have it where we live. It's also cost effective as we had already spent a lot of money earlier in the week on the trip to Southern California.

After Grimaldi's we went back to the strip and walked around some more and took pictures around the Venetian. Then the Fiesta Chihuahua slot was barking my name and I sat there for an hour playing. Got up to about $85 dollars after putting the $40 dollar ticket in but lost everything. I was a little disappointed but my husband asked "did you have fun doing it?" and I said yep. And he said then it's all worth it!

My husband also put some money on roulette but lost it all. He loves roulette.

After that we headed back up to the room to relax and call it a night.

 

When will the episodes of Wheel of Fortune you saw air on TV?

I attended a taping on Sunday the 28th of July and those shows will air Sept 26 & 27. I'm assuming yours will air later in the season?

 

We love the pizza at Grimaldi's too.
Thin, charred and bubbled crust with excellent sauce and toppings.
Soooo delicious.

Hitting it up again in a few weeks.

Glad you had a great time, TJ1980.

 

The episodes that will air will be for the week of New Years Eve. December 30, 31, and Jan 1st. It was pretty fun to "pretend" it was already the end of the year. The magic of television!

 

I attended that very same taping. It was very cool to see how they are produced.

I know we weren't suppose to take pictures, but I had to. It was a quick periscope shot, so the quality isn't so good.

 

Breaking the law!!! J/k. I would have taken a pic too!!!!