Caesars Anniversary & Supercross May 2-5

Another great Anniversary/Supercross trip to Vegas is in the books. We had such a great time. Here are the highlights for your reading pleasure.

THE DRIVE AND HOTEL

We left LA around 5:30 PM on Friday. The drive was surprisingly smooth (we would pay for that blessing later) and we pulled into the Augustus Tower valet at Caesars at around 10:30 PM. Our “Casino Sales Executive” had booked us in the Octavius Tower and we were supposed to be comped for Friday and Saturday night, but would have to pay about $78.00 for Sunday night, we assumed due to Cinco De Mayo. Knowing we would be getting in late, I had called early in the day to block a room so we wouldn’t have to play that game when we arrived. At that time I had already been told that we had been moved to the Augustus Tower, but the room was confirmed for our late arrival.

Well, of course, we walk into the Diamond check in and we have been moved, yet again, now to the Palace Tower. This is an upgrade, we are told. We have a petite suite and the Palace Tower is the closest to the pool. Too bad, we have zero intention of spending any time at the pool this trip. The room is on the 6th floor at the very end of the hall. It’s very nice and quiet, but has a lovely view of rooftops and it was showing a bit of wear. It did have a very comfortable bed and a huge two person shower between the his and hers bathrooms. The real issue for us, again, since we didn’t go to the pool, is that it is a very, very long walk from that tower to pretty much everything else. I requested to have the charge for the last night waived, but haven’t heard back yet.

We did enjoy the level of service that comes along with staying at Caesars. Everyone was extremely friendly from the valets to the cocktail waitresses and made sure that we had everything we needed while we were on property. I used the fitness center on Saturday and Sunday morning. It’s a very nice facility with plenty of equipment and I loved walking on the treadmill looking out the windows at the Bellagio. We also enjoyed coffee and very tasty little cookies in the mornings in the Diamond check in room.

The drive home on Monday was less pleasant. We left just around 11:00 AM after some confusion where the valet couldn’t find the keys to our car. We made it to Victorville shortly after a major construction accident closed down the 15 Freeway completely. It is still closed as I write this. That added about 2 hours to our trip as we found a detour around.

THE FOOD

As I mentioned, the Diamond check in has very good coffee and little cookies in the morning. We enjoyed those on Saturday morning. We didn’t eat anything else on property that day because we were out at Sam Boyd stadium for the Supercross. Sunday morning, we decided to go to Java Coast in the food court for lattes. They have a great selection of pastries. I can recommend the blueberry donuts and the lattes were quite good as well.

We had reservations on Sunday night at Mon Ami Gabi. We were meeting friends for one of their birthdays (and sort of to celebrate our anniversary). I admit with shame that over the many trips we’ve had to Las Vegas, this was the first time we’ve eaten at Mon Ami Gabi. I also admit with shame that by the time we got there, we were rather inebriated, so my memory of the meal is spotty at best. I believe we ordered some sort of seafood platter and we meant to order beef burguignon, but we got beef wellington, I believe. What I remember of it was good and we ordered several deserts that I think we enjoyed. I really wish I could remember more of it. I guess we’ll have to try it again.

Very late that night and after many, many more drinks, we also ended up with a few slices of pizza from the food court at Flamingo. That is always great drunk food.

THE ENTERTAINMENT

So, the Supercross was fun, as always. We went out to the stadium around 3:00 PM on Saturday. Wandered around the pits a bit and then found a shady spot on the grass to relax and nap a bit until closer to show time. The weather was great. There have been years where it was so hot it was almost unbearable. This year was rather pleasant. We were disappointed that for the past several years they have discontinued the military fly-overs during the opening ceremonies. They always had interesting aircraft from nearby Nellis AFB. We assume this was too disruptive to air traffic at McCarran. The racing in the lighter class was great, although several of our favorite racers missed this event with injuries. In the main class, our favorite rider ran away with the win making the event a little less exciting, but we had a great time.

We got tickets to see Jason Alexander at Harrah’s on Sunday with our friends. I didn’t have great expectations about this show. We never really watched Seinfeld and I don’t know much about him, but our friends wanted to see it. He was very funny. We enjoyed ourselves and, although we had not bought our tickets at the same time as our friends, we were able to get the door man to seat us all together in one of the booth seats, so we were very comfortable and had a great view, although it’s a small theater anyway.

THE GAMBLE

It was a pretty good trip overall. Not quite as exciting as our February trip where it seemed we just couldn’t lose, but overall more in the plus column than the minus column, which is not to say that we came back with profits, only that we didn’t lose much.

We started out Friday night after we checked in at Caesars on the Lord of the Ring: Return of the King game. Caesars has just completely given up on connecting these games to the servers, so, while they’re still fun, some of the excitement and draw of the previous games where you could save your progress and achieve goals over time has been lost. Additionally, these are basically the only machines in all of Caesars that we have any interest in playing. The selection there is really minimal for as big as the place is and they don’t bring in new games very often. We did relatively well and came away with 500 Tier Credits (for the 125 bonus) for just under $300 of our own money, plus the $300 if free play that came with our stay.

We didn’t have much time to gamble on Saturday since the race was that evening so we decided to head across the street. We did the free slot tournament at Flamingo, played Ghostbusters there for quite a while, headed up the Harrahs and did the free slot pull there and played the other Lord of the Rings game. No real wins to speak of on any of it.

Then we decided to walk down and check out Cromwell. It is really beautiful inside and the cocktail waitress was very friendly and quick. They had the new Avatar game and we wanted to play but there was only one seat open, so my husband sat down at it and I sat down at the game directly next to him so we could both play something. The machine was called Little Green Men, I think. It was pretty fun and the bonus game was like a video game. There was a joy stick and you had to shoot at these aliens flying around the screen. I suck at video games, but I was holding my own. Then, just before we were about to get up and leave to go back for the race, my screen filled up with 7s! It ended up being $800 or thereabouts, so we were up for the trip (not including the free play) by about $150 at that point and we made the 500 Tier Points again for the day for the bonus. Things are going pretty well.

Sunday was the day for most of the gambling and it started out well. I had a coupon for another $15 in free play to be used at Caesars. This time we gave Hangover a go. The sound track of that game is one of the most fun and really makes it enjoyable to play. Additionally, I put in my $15 plus a $100 bill and we played for quite a while. I racked up 100 Tier Points and still cashed out with $100 in cash. We repeated most of what we did on Saturday. We crossed the street to play Ghostbusters and the Flamingo slot tournament. This time Ghostbusters was sucking down the cash, but when we did the slot tournament, I got 4,500, which put me in first place so far for the day. Unfortunately, I later learned that someone shortly passed me with just over 5,000, but I still got second place and the $400 in free play prize! Which I quickly wasted in the high limit slot room on $2 and $5 machines where I was able to salvage less than $200 in cash out.

The ups and downs continued at Quad where we played the older Lord of the Rings again to no avail and then back up to Harrahs for the free slot pull there. We couldn’t win a thing on the games and the drink service was nonexistent, but I won 2 for 1 show tickets on the free pull (which we didn’t use because we didn’t have time and the list of shows is the same we can get 2 free as Diamond). The Hubs won $5 in free play, which again was wasted with no wins.

We were supposed to go get changed and ready for dinner and the Jason Alexander show with our friends, but many, many drinks and some more fun on the Avatar game at Cromwell conspired to ruin that plan and we had to race to meet up with them in time. The day seemed a little hit and run, but somehow we managed to get 1,000 Tier Points for the 1,000 bonus, so overall, we were down $700 cash for the entire weekend.

THE WRAP

We had a wonderful time, as always. Other than having to cancel my credit card halfway through the trip because someone was trying to buy $400 worth of something at Walgreens with it, it all went pretty smoothly. The plan now is to get in swimsuit shape and hit the pools and the Star Trek convention at the Rio in August. Thanks for reading!

 

Enjoyed your trip report, thanks for posting. Was the slot tournament at Flamingo free we are staying there in a few weeks.

 

Great trip report with a variety of activities to hear about!

 

Good report.

Sorry about your cc. How did that happen I wonder? Did you actually lose it?

 

Yes, there is a free slot tournament in the Margaritaville casino at Flamingo on Saturdays and Sundays. There is a free slot tournament at Quad on the weekdays. Have a great trip.

 

Nope, I had it the whole time. I can't figure it out either. At that point, I had only used it to check into our room.