Monte Carlo: 8/7-11

Long time lurker, seldom poster.

More of a summary then anything, but I'll try to hit the High/low lights of it all. 7 couples, no kids. Stayed at the MC this time around (last year was the Mirage and the year before, Rio), 3rd stay as a group, 12th overall for wife/I. Got in on Sunday the 7th and half of us upgraded our rooms to suites for $25 more per night. Too good to pass up and I'm glad I did.

HighLights:
-Everyone liked the Monte Carlo. For the price, the location, hard to beat.
The rooms were clean, in good condition and very nice. The jr. suites were quite nice.
-We will Rock You. 3 couples saw it and loved it. I didn't see it, I picked door #2 (Blue Man Group) .
-Smith & Wolensky. Wife/I ate there and loved it once again. My Ribeye was awesome and the crabcakes my wife ordered were really good. $120 w/ tip for the 2 of us.
-Blackstone. We ate there as a group and we really had a good time. Lots of different meals ordered then dessert. Everyone passed around/shared their dessert and wow, was it good! I had the prime rib and liked it. No complaints from anyone in the group! Cost w/ tip was $80 per person.
-NineFineIrishmen. We went there twice after 9pm when the band plays. If you like Irish music and drinking Guiness, then this is the place for you. One of our favorites and we are never disappointed.
-Dueling Pianos at NY NY. Again, went as a group and enjoyed ourselves. I'd rather go to 9FineIrishmen myself and listen to that music (i can only listen to so much billy joel or Elton John), but as a group, it was fun.
-ESPNZone. Got our $20 vouches, ate, then played their mini bowling game upstairs. It was a good afternoon diversion.
-MonteCarlo BrewPub. Great beer, good food. We met there every night to plan our evening.
-The Weather. Only in the 90s there, infact one day, high was 86. Great for walking the strip!
-CVS. The place to go avoid paying high prices for soda, tea, water, etc.

LowLights:
BlueManGroup. 6 of us went to see it. 4 hated it (me included) and 2 loved it. I would say the crowd was the same way. Some people were laughing others just sat there thinking, I paid how much for this? I liked EFx & Chicago when they played in Vegas, and thought Momma Mia was "OK", but this was just awful. Maybe as a $20 afternoon show....

MonteCarlo Pool. I can't say it was a lowlight, but, comparing it to the Mirage pools or even Rio, it came up short. A bit too small and crowded with lots of kids. Wave pool was broke last 2 days. The lazy river is nice, but pretty crowded.

Rooms at MonteCarlo. I said I enjoyed upgrading to a suite and I really did, BUT, I could hear our neighbors. We had a door that would connect us to the next room and thats where all the noise came from. Twice our neighbors came back at 3:30 a.m. and woke us up. We could hear every word they said. Luckily, there either passed out or went to bed and this only happened twice. None of the other 6 couples had any problems. I would stay here again.

 

Sooo....is steak all they serve now in Vegas?

Just kidding. Thanks for the report. I've always thought I'll probably do the MC on my next trip to Vegas.

 

Glad you had a fun trip!! That's a lot of people to be travelling with and still have a great time.


The Monte Carlo thing with the "thin walls" has always amused me (it seems to come up in MC reports far more than any other hotel in Vegas) And people either hear it or they don't (put me in the "don't" category) I wonder if it's different floors or wings that make some people hear neighbor noise and others not??

 

One interesting note. For the past 3 years, a guy in our group has run into Mike Krzyzewski, the Duke Basketball coach. It's always the same week in August too. 2 years ago it was at the Palms, last year at Mandalay Bay (momma mia) and this year he ran into him at Wynn. It looked like Coach K just got done w/ a round of golf. What are the odds???

 

Last fling before school starts, I guess. I just read about him and his family eating at Michael's (Barbary Coast--he seems to eat there a lot) He seems to get out to Vegas a lot--so do tons of NBAers, maybe he's visiting old players?? Or just relaxing....NC in the summer sucks, and he DOES have that huge salary going for him.....

 

Hmmm, wonder if he is a sports bettor? lol

I hate to hear BlueMan sucked. It seems either you love or hate it. They are winding down at the Luxor so maybe they have scaled back the show? I have bought tickets for thier first week at the new theater at the Venetian, hopefully it won't be that bad.

 

Nice, concise TR. MC keeps growing on me, although too bad about the pool.

Coach K's moving up. Apparently the endorsement checks have started arriving.

 

I have stayed at the MC several times in the past couple of years and only had the "thin wall" experience one time. It was the one time that I got a room with a doorway joining my room to the one next door. I could hear the neighbors even when they were talking in a low voice, and I'm sure that they could hear me too.

I think that the people who are complaining about the thin walls must all have been in one of these "connected" rooms.

 

Yeah am in the "Don't" category too because when I was there in July we couldn't hear our neighbors. We were on the 20th floor.

 

Not true because my room had that adjoining door which we thought was odd. We never heard anyone from that room and we know there were people in there because they had the Do Not Disturb sign on their door one morning on our way out to gamble, etc.

 

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing with us! I agree about the Monte Carlo pool. I got kicked in the face by numerous rugrats during my trips around the lazy river..... I go to Vegas to get away from my kids, not to be beat upon by other people's kids!!! My question is, did you ever get over to the side of the pool with the comfy lounge chairs (big fluffy cushions on them)? Maybe I was a little toasted, but I couldn't figure out how to get over to that side of the pool......