Las Vegas March 5th to 9th 2007

I haven’t done a report for several trips now, so I guess I should contribute since I love to read everyone else’s.
This trip was taken with my wife Anita.
Flights were non stop to from Columbus, Ohio on Southwest. Both flights were delayed but no other problems.

Monday
Arrived at McCarran after 7:00PM and shuttled downtown.
We had 2 nights comped at the Fitz so I tried the $20.00 trick at check in and asked for a free upgrade to a suite, the young lady said she could not give that upgrade without a host approving it, so we settled for the corner king I had originally requested. We have stayed here several times and the room was pretty typical for Fitzgerald’s. The room had a safe, was clean but worn, had a nice size bath with a hair dryer; I noticed a new water saving shower head had been installed; shower did not have the pressure like I remember on previous trips but was very adequate.
For supper Anita and I split a sandwich at the Golden Gate Deli and each had a big shrimp cocktail. We walked around under the canopy for awhile, but after the long day of travel Anita was not feeling well, so I walked her back to the room. Then I went to Main Street Station and played bar top video poker and had a couple of micro brews before calling it a night.

Tuesday
Up early, I get us coffee at McD’s while the little lady starts her 1st slot session of the trip. After I get the coffee all fixed up I join her at the machines for awhile. Had breakfast at the Golden Gate diner followed by a walk to Main Street for more slot play for the wife and a couple of after breakfast beers and video poker for me. Went back to the Fitz, I played black jack for about an hour and broke even, then had a short craps session and lost half my buy in after about 15 minutes, so I colored up and met back up with my bride.
I needed a snack, so we went to Binion’s and I had a bowl of chili while Anita played machines. The chili was spicier than normal, it was good, but too hot for me and I couldn’t finish it. Anita had won some money while I was eating. I had left our player cards in the room. I told her she should have a card to earn points and future room offers if she was going to play here for any length of time. So, she asks if Binion’s has ever sent me any kind of offer. I said no. She says, well have you ever done anything in here besides eat chili. I must have had the right amount of drinks in me because I found that statement to be hilarious. I started laughing and she was laughing at me, it was probably 5 minutes before I could go to the players club for new cards.
We had the pleasure of meeting up with Falcon Rob at 4:00 PM and had late lunch at the Brew Pub at MSS. Anita and Rob had big burgers with fries, I had a Philly cheese stake and fries. We were all satisfied with our food and portions. I also tried one of the special Belgian Wit Beer that is available in the restaurant. To me it looked and tasted like a Hefeweizen, except the fruitiness of this was much stronger than any Hefeweizen I have tried. It had a cloudy pale gold color, nice foamy meringue-like head with a pleasant strawberry smell and flavor, a great thirst quencher. I would like one right about now.
Rob is a super guy to visit with, we had a beer at the bar after the meal and I enjoyed hearing his stories about working at Nevada Palace. It was great to see you again Rob, take care.
We gambled small amounts in several casinos downtown the rest of the day and had supper at the Market Street Cafe at the California. We both had the prime rib special and were very happy with the meal there.

Wednesday
I get Anita coffee while she starts playing machines, and then I go to the gift shop to get a Gatorade type drink. I tried to use our comp points but the clerk says she can’t access our comp dollars, I pay for the drink. I go to the slot club to see what is going on and they say we have a negative balance, WTF. How does that happen? They can’t understand it either and suggest I talk with a host. So I get Anita and we go to the host office and talk nicely with the host. She says they will review it and straighten it out. I tell her that we are checking out today and wanted to use our comp dollars for breakfast now. She writes us a buffet comp for 2 and says she will have it straightened out when we are finished. The buffet is limited in selection but what we had was good, they do have an omelet station. If I can have eggs, bacon and coffee for free I’m not complaining. We go back to the host office and they explain that they upgraded the computer system since our last visit and somehow our account had gotten screwed up. She said we have comp dollars available now and apologizes for the problem. We go to the gift shop and spend the comp dollars before packing up to move.
Grab a taxi to MGM; the driver was a friendly sort with limited English vocabulary, however I am sure the he is working toward being an instructor at the Richard Petty Driving Experience. We are flying down I-15 and passing everyone, don’t bother me to much, but my bride is not comfortable with his driving. We get to the MGM for under $17.00 on the meter and I round it up with tip to $22.00 for not putting us into the guard rail.
We leave our bags with the bellman and go to check in. I figure we won’t get into a room for awhile because MGM was fully booked for this night and we hear other guest being told their rooms are not ready yet. Well we get to the counter; I give the gentleman my license, credit card and reservation confirmation. (I had made this reservation online for a Grand Tower King using the MGM Grand Exclusive offer that SHOCK had posted in the Hotel Offers & Discounts section.) He looks at the reservation and asks me to wait one moment please. He goes back to an office, and then comes back. He says he is upgrading us as special guest to a Signature Suite in the new towers. I ask if the rate is still $69.00 and he tells me yes. He calls over a hostess, gives her instructions and talks to us all for a few more minutes telling us what will take place. The hostess takes us to the bell desk, cuts the line and tells the bellman to bring our bags out to the limousine. She walks us to the limo and gives the driver instructions, then wishes us good luck. Our bags are right behind us and loaded into the limo. The driver tells us the MGM is full and they are sending some guest to The Signature today. I don’t know how we got selected, but we are thrilled. We get to tower 1 and doormen and bellmen are falling all over each other trying to help, but I am out of small bills now so I tell them I got the bags. We get inside the door and are greeted by a gentleman asking if we would like a bottle of water. Check in is quick, the rate is correct and we head for the 25th floor Junior Suite 25611. Nice, really nice big room. King bed, separate sitting area with couch and chair, plasma TV, kitchen with stove top, refrigerator, small appliances, huge bath with whirlpool tub, big glass shower, double vanity sink, robes, bath towels were huge probably 6 feet long, floor to ceiling windows. We were very happy.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at MGM just playing machines and checking it all out as this was our first time staying there. We ate at the buffet, Anita got along fine, but something did not agree with me and I lost my supper when we got back to the room. I think I had to much shrimp.

Thursday
It is a 7 to 8 minute walk from our room just to the edge of the casino so you want to make sure you don’t forget anything. We had a McDonald’s breakfast in the food court, and then split up for awhile. I wanted to play some poker. I put my name in for a 2-4 holdem table. I kept checking back every 20 minutes for about an hour, but they couldn’t put a table together because apparently everyone that wanted to play this morning was in the tournament. I played some VP, had a few beers, and walked through New York, NY. Went up to the half price ticket store at the coke bottle and got 2 tickets to see Carrot Top for tonight, Anita loves him and I wanted to surprise her. Just did my own thing most of the afternoon, did some people watching, had several beers, played machines all over MGM. Met up with the wife and told her about the show vouchers, she was happy about it so we went to Luxor right away and got the vouchers traded for tickets.
Then I walk into the porker room and got a seat right away at a 2-4 hold em table. Anita said she would meet me in front of the porker room at 7:00 PM so I played until then. The players were friendly, I had a good time, and it took almost 3 hours to lose most of my buy in. Met the little lady at 7:00 and we had a quick bite at the food court before the show. I was surprised I liked this show as much as I did. Anita likes the stuff Carrot Top does on TV, I can take it or leave it, but this was really funny and worth seeing. We give Carrot Top 2 thumbs up. I felt the ½ price tickets were a bargain, the showroom is not very big and all the seats looked like they would have a good view.

Friday
We slept in and I brought breakfast from the food court back to the room, we have to check out at 11:00AM but our flight doesn’t leave till 5:00PM so we are staying in the room as long as possible. After checkout we left the bags at the bell desk and went to the casino. Anita plays and I went to the players club to see if they would buy us lunch. Good news we get a $40.00 comp for lunch at Studio Café, we will use it a little later. First we went to the Centrifuge Bar and played video poker and I had a couple of beers. Then we do lunch, very nice for a coffee shop. I had the fried chicken and Anita had the chicken fingers and a mixed green salad. I told Anita to pick out a good machine and I set it up so she could play all of our point play. She won a little money and cashed it out after the points were played off.
That’s it. I know my reports aren’t the exciting type that has you sitting on the edge of your seat, but if you got through it to this point maybe it didn’t suck either.
Scott

 

Living large!

Wow, talk about being in the right place at the right time!
Junior suite at The Signature. You were a winner on that one!

Don't ever apologize for writing a trip report. I love reading them all!
You can just see the personalities come through the words of the folks who write them. I liked the part about you not being able to stop laughing at the chili remark made by your wife. Don't you just love that stage of drunkeness? Just enough to make simple things halarious!

Glad you and Anita had a good time.

 

Binion's chili too spicy??? You must have some lame Ohio palate or something!

Good score on that room at the MGM! Congrats!!

Thanks again for the free burger and beer last Tuesday Scott! I really appreciate it!! Since then, I've had one or three tallboyz of that strawberry cream wheat at the 777 courtesy of Steve B the other night! YUM!!!

I'm glad you two had a great trip. Let me know if you're ever in town again buddy! Take it easy.

Rob

 

I've never had ANYTHING too spicy in Vegas ( of course I'm from south Louisiana ... lol ).
Nice TR and congrats on the score of the Jr. suite at the Signature.

David

 

Excellent TR. There has been several reports in the last two months of MGM Grand being overbooked. I actually saw someone on another forum complaining about being sent to The Signature - when other people were being shipped to Excaliber. You got a sweet deal especially with that price.

 

Hey, nice score on the Signature. Anytime you get an upgrade like that for the same price it's gotta be a good trip.

 

That is classic. Nothin' like gettin' called out, huh? I'm sitting here at my desk giggling about that one.

By the way, I was with Falcon Rob and Steve B the other night, and now that I think about it, I've been at the MSS Brew Pub three times in the past week, and have had about, oh, eight or ten of those strawberry cream ales. Holy shiat--that's some great beer!

Might have to get a few more this week.

Thanks for the report--it was an enjoyable read.

Mikey

 

Great report. Nice score on the Signature suite! Thanks for posting.

 

Great report

I really enjoyed reading your TR. I even wrote a couple things down to try on our next trip. Thanks!

And even though I'm not much of a beer drinker (much to my hubby's dismay), I am definitely going to have one of those strawberry creme ales! Can I ask a stupid question, though (yeah, yeah, no question is stupid, right? I don't buy it...). Where is the MSS Brew Pub? :confused2:

Thanks!

 

Nice trip report. Suites are SWEET!

 

Main Street Satation Brewpub is downtown in the back of the casino. Good stuff!

And don't forget what Mr. Garrison on South Park says...

There are no stupid questions,just stupid people!

I love that show...

 

Thanks for the comments everyone, I hope you all enjoyed the read.

Leeza14, Vegas Jer is right. Main Street Satation Brewpub is downtown in the back of the MSS casino. I see by your countdown it will be awhile before you are in Vegas, so the strawberry cream ale may not be available then. They change the special brews every so often, but all of the micro brews that I have had at MSS were good. Give it a try.

 

will do!

Thanks, guys. We will definitely go there!

Do you remember the name of the microbrew place that used to be on the strip down by where Wet n Wild was? It had a cow theme -- and had an awesome blueberry beer at one time. I beleive it was the only beer in the history of my husband's 44 years that he hasn't loved. I think the bar was owned by a couple of Midwestern guys, hence the bovine theme. It was a great bar, and we miss it...

I think last year when we went, we tried to locate the building, and if I remember correctly, it had become an office space for Ivana Trump's something or other (and that was all ready defunct, too). The sigage was still in place, and that was it. Or maybe it was a building very close to it...can't remember for sure. Geez, maybe I AM one of those stupid people referred to by Mr. Garrison...