Live from HGVC Flamingo 22 August-5 Sept 2013

Not quite there yet but all checked in and packed. One more sleep and then the trip to Gatwick and the awfully long flight to LAS. Online checkin was easy and we managed four rows from the front of Economy with two aisle seats of a three seat mid section. Just watch us get the only person in the whole World that wants to sit between two friends and be in a centre seat, lol. We are hoping that if there are empty seats that one will stay empty, if not hopefully that person will be very pleased to have an aisle seat when we switch. We will see tomorrow how that pans out! Could be a very bad plan. BA managed to mess up the car hire booking due to them changing the flight timings, cancelling the booking and rebooking it and not telling us the *confirmation number had changed. Then after getting the new number we still couldn't access it and they had changed the driver's name as well. Hoping to check in online with that as well later on if Avis Preferred accepts it all now.*

Background: Myself and Julie with two friends, S and T, arriving on Friday for 10 of our 14 days. S has been to Vegas once and T is a newbie. We are all staying at Hilton Grand Vacation Club at Flamingo. This is fantastic and we love it. Staff are very helpful and walking into the lobby we feel we have come home. We can always get sunbeds and there's free wifi and NO resort fee. One of my better ideas in my life!

Warning: could be a bit boring for you guys that like plenty of degeneracy and Vegas antics. We are a bit past all that but there may be a few cocktails partaken and who knows where that could end? I hope there will be some interesting gambling and my strategies may work. I always think of new ones but nothing has made me win thus far. My luck has to change soon.

Not sure how often I will be online but for sure if I make notes and attempt it all when I get home it just won't ever get on here.*

Things we have planned: Human Nature, Brad Paisley, Red Rock Canyon and Casino, Lake Las Vegas for Saturday night live music and meal, Veronic Voices for the great deal of $2.50 each, Wynn Jazz Brunch, lots of MyVegas rewards, $100 food comp at Gordon Ramsay Steak*with my first ever and never again diamond card, two free nights at Cosmo and probably lots of other things I've forgotten about.*

Just got to get the flight over now.*

Back tomorrow. Hope I sleep.

 

Can't wait to hear more...

 

Friday morning - not enough sleep

Woke up after just four hours sleep despite the jet lag remedies. Together with the four and a half hours the night before the flight it could be a very long day today. Anyway, back to yesterday. Seating plan on BA sort of worked out. Guy in middle seat (flight full) was more than happy to have an aisle seat. Flight was uneventful, just far too long at over ten hours.

Luckily the customs was empty and they said they were due four more flights into terminal 3 very shortly so we were sure lucky on that score. Waited a while for the luggage then off to the rental car place. Got to the Avis Preferred desk, your reservation has been cancelled. WTH British Airways is happening here? We had all the reservations numbers and after a bit of detective work she finally found the correct booking. Picked up a Kia something or other which seems fine.

Got to HGVC and the room wasn't quite ready. They had very kindly prebooked us into a room by the elevator with two rooms that were becoming available for today for our friends. Went to Bellagio to get new MLife cards for me. Asked about a discount on the MJ One show with the Platinum card. Nope, nothing. Oh well gonna have to pay full price for that one. Looked for willy wonka but none there.

Checked out prices for Human Nature at Tix4tonite and they are the same as Goldstar so will book those soon. The Diamond show tix at harrahs include Million Dollar Quartet so will be sorting that out soonish as well.

Finally got to the room after getting waylaid at the new Wizard of Oz Machines in Bellagio and we were both winning a few dollars. Unpacked, bought a few essentials from the deli and drove down to Silver Sevens for Bingo. Yep, I know, how sad is that. All the way from England and we go and play bingo. We lost, surprise surprise. Not a lot though. Had chicken tenders and fries, starter size that was huge and would have been more than enough with one portion. Very good though, just hit the spot. Paid with points so just a tip to pay. It was 50% off with using point. Really good deal.

Finally left there at about 2.30am even though I had nearly fallen asleep on the bingo cards 7 hours before. Played for a few hours in the triple play DW VP. Lost about $60 but Julie gained about $100 so not a bad session. Have written down the paytable so will check later what the payback was. Not sure it was great. We lost a few hundred between us but had had a huge amount of fun on the new machines. Hopefully the gambling will get better.

Going to try and get a bit more sleep. Excuse any iPad changes, too tired to proof read it all.

 

Flamingo

Haven't looked around inside the hotel much yet but didn't get any smells yesterday on the quick walk through. However last night at the timeshare the music from Carlos and Charlie's in our room was bad until 3am. It must be worse for the rooms in Flamingo that overlook the gardens. They even have earplugs and notices to give the guests here about it. Coming back last night the smell was there by the parking garage quite bad and around our little pool we get getting wafts of sewage when the wind blew this morning. Hopefully that is as bad as it gets.

 

Geeezz. I'd be pissed. Flamingo is a dump. A HAZMAT hangout if you ask me.

 

No smells inside flamingo last night and all seemed fine. Very busy and all food places are open. Still a few wafts around the pool though but nothing awful.

Gambling went well last night and I ended up $100. Helped a bit with the loss from the night before. Played all my favourites including the new Wizard one. A couple next to us put a fortune in and were quite inebriated. They were playing on max the whole time. I did well on it and then went to the dingle dangles. Don't know what they are called but that's what we call them. They are in the wheel of fortune gang and have three bonus arrows and that hang down and fall in with cascading reels. Mostly do well but sometimes have to lose a fair bit before a decent bonus. Always play I'm five coins on this.

Time to go out. Sky is black. Lake las Vegas is not going to happen tonight. Not worth the risk of getting stuck in any floods.

 

Flamingo update: restrooms by food court are still closed. Music from Carlos and Charlie's is only thursday, Friday, saturday.

Went to Bacchi Burger near the airport for lunch yesterday. Best burger ever. The place has appeared on tv on a show somewhere and was very busy. Worth the wait though.

Spent far too much money today, couldn't control the max bet finger, lol. Those machines sure are addictive.

We cancelled lake las Vegas due to the weather forecast (storm didn't happen). We went to Human Nature instead at Venetian. Fantastic show as usual. The show is similar to the old one at The Quad but a few new parts. Those guys voices are just amazing. Went to Grand Lux after and shared fish and chips. Can't better that for sure.

Tomorrow is the Jazz Brunch at The Wynn.

 

Thanks for the updates!

This last December I had a room overlooking Carlos and Charlies and again in June. The thumping from the music was pretty loud at night, it stopped at 1am one night and 2 the next night. I guess most people aren't in their rooms at that time of night, but sometimes I just need my beauty sleep! haha.

Thanks for keeping us updated, looking forward to more posts.

 

Thanks for the tip. Never heard of this place. Looked it up on-line and the menu, with pics of burgers, looks great. Prices are good too. Have to see about getting there next trip.

Nice trip report. Thank you for taking the time.

 

Love to hear more about your room/suite at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club when you have time. Anyplace nearby to get groceries or wine & liquor?

We have a timeshare that could trade for HGVC, but I'm really not sure I want to do that given that we usually can get comped rooms or very inexpensive rooms. Thanks!

 

Enjoying reading so far

 

The studio rooms have a king bed and double sofa bed, fridge, sink, microwave, coffee maker and toaster. There is a laundrette on the 17th floor. There is a jacuzzi bath behind a half wall in the studio with the sink opposite. Only the toilet and shower is a separate room so you need to be fairly friendly with your roomie. Large flat screen tv, table, two chairs and coffee table. There is a pool with plenty of us loungers and easy, free access to Flamingo pools if required. You get a 10% reduction in most of Flamingo food places also. Free room safe and free wifi In rooms and public areas, even around the pool in most spots. They have a deli on site with great food and very good prices and they have all the basics you could need. There is a bigger supermarket next doo to Batistas, behind Flamingo, a five minute walk away. Absolutely love it here. They have just taken over Elara behind PH and some ot Trump as well but we will continue to come here. The only drawback is the pool doesn't get sun until about 10am which is fine for us. They have a gym, indoor jacuzzi as well as the outdoor very warm pool and jacuzzi there as well. Free cabanas(well sort of cabanas) and BBQs for use of anyone. There is also a bar by the pool area.

I think that about sums it up. You also get the vouchers that Harrahs give out to their guests. If you want to go on the timeshare talk while you are here you get $100 food credit vouchers. I think my friends are going to do this as they think it's worth a couple of hours. They say one hour but from experience it's two. Not high pressure though.

Hope that helps.

 

Finally found Willy Wonka last night. Love that machine. Came off there with a slight profit but had a whole load of fun. Trouble was all the rest of the machines thought I was feeding them chocolate money and they ate it all. Going to try hard to play more tables, craps machine and vp from now on because the pair of us always think that if we are losing and up the bet then that big win is gonna happen. Nope, it's not. We know that but someone needs to inform our brain cells and max bet fingers.

Sun is out. We have a table booked outside at The Wynn Jazz Brunch in about two hours so better get this show on the road and get out of bed.

 

Enjoying your report, have fun!! You mentioned earlier in your trip report that Million Dollar Quartet is now a diamond show. Have you confirmed this? I hope that is correct, would love to see that show, especially using diamond tix.
diane

 

Up until the end of August for sure, then it may change. I will still be here do I can type the list out for september if it helps anyone.

 

The sky is so dark, something is looming! Forgot to say yesterday that we used the restrooms in Venetian and they were disgusting. Didn't look like they'd been cleaned all day.

Did the Jazz Brunch at The Wynn. Fabulous food. We sat outside and overlooked the waterfall and golf course. So peaceful and the service was outstanding. Our newbie friend had never seen tea bags like the ones they had and wanted some for her display cabinet! Takes all sorts I suppose, lol. She was so excited to see them and the server brought her half a dozen different ones so she can make a display of them when she gets home. The Wynn staff and hotel certainly are special. We all had the buffet and three of us had something off the menu as well. It was all delicious. My friend that went with me in December told me I HAD to take her back a chocolate lollipop so it's in a bag. What it is going to look like when I get home I don't know but even if it is a congealed mess in a plastic bag she will get it.

Spent four hours gambling there while the others went shopping to the Mall. Lost a lot on the slots and then won it all back on video poker 3 play deuces $5, 1 coin, in the high limit area. Not sure of the paytable or even if it was better than playing than the $1 but I liked it in there and luckily I didn't get the RF or I would have been very annoyed. Phew for that. I can't quite cope with trying to work out the payback percentage on the deuces wild but have decided to just play where I want and forget it. After all it's supposed to be fun not a maths lesson.

Off to Silver Sevens shortly for two bingo sessions. Then hopefully an early night. Best laid plans and all that!

 

Thanks Corinne, and yes, I would be very interested to know if the Million Dollar Quartet is on the diamond list for September.
Enjoy your trip!
diane

 

Best laid plans all changed, no surprises there. Silver Sevens Bingo is still great and even better when you win the $500 Coverall. We always share at bingo so that went in the joint purse (wallet) to be used for everything we just do together. They all went to the cafe there at 10pm and had a Club sandwich between J and S and T had a small salad. Not sure what the salad was like but the two that shared the sandwich still left some and said it was fantastic. $5 each, excellent value. Took about half an hour to get the food though. I played BJ while they ate as I was still full from brunch. S wasn't keen on the bingo after her first ever bingo session anywhere and played Cash Wizard while we played the next session. Needless to say that wizard magicked away all her money. J and I both had about $20 freeplay from out first night there so that helped too. Nice to actually get something back. All they give for new members is a pack of cards but we did find a voucher for $5 freeplay for new members in one of the freebie magazines so if we go again S and T can have some free money.

We dropped them off at the timeshare and parked the car. Unfortunately once in Flamingo parking garage (timeshare has its own floor there with loads of parking) we didn't have to persuade each other to 'just pop in to the casino for a few minutes'. Famous last words and so much for an early night. We sat down at a $10 Crazy 4 Card Poker table by mistake and once we reslised it was $10 we were already settled so decided to play one hand. I had two pairs so had to triple down. Luckily we both won and then moved to a $5 table. We had used $200 dollars from the joint money and came off an hour or so later up $85. There was a young guy playing alongside us and within just a few hands he had a straight flush and then two 3oak. Amazingly lucky, he was so happy and went to bed with a big smile on his face. Love it.

Sky is very grey so outlet mall shopping may be this morning instead of after the pool.

 

Enjoying your report - Thanks for the info on the room. Hope your luck gets better and better each day!

 

Great to read about the Hilton Grand Vacation Suites. We'll be headed there in a few weeks. Didn't know about the free wifi - great news! Also, thanks for the info about the grocery near Batista's.

Looking forward to the rest!