My Trip Report

Hello Everyone! All that planning I did and its done in a blink of an eye. Not the most exciting report you will read but we had a lot of fun. So here we go...

We left Pittsburgh on 10/31 via USAir. Flight was full but not too bad. Arrived on time and that was that. However, at baggage claim it was a disaster...the screens were all down and no one knew which carousel was for which plane. They kept announcing overhead but with all the noise you couldn't hear a thing. Luckily I have a very colorful bag and my hubby saw it
so we grabbed luggage and we were out the door.
Used Dollar rental...Fast lane member so it was quick. Honda Accord, 7 days for $120. Car was OK.
Off to WalMart for some things then to the Las Vegas Club. Didn't know if we could check in early since it was only noon but they did. Yippee!!
Room 1225 in the north tower. Right off the elevator. Now I know folks have had negative cooments about this place but we had absolutely not 1 complaint. Room was n/s, large, bright and clean. View of MSS and the Cal.
Safe and fridge in room which we used and asked for the daily charges to be removed at checkout which they did. Housekeeping was great and we were very happy with our decision to stay there. Even parking in the garage was not an issue.
We went straight over to the GoldenGate for shrimp cocktails and sandwiches.. YUM!!
Spent the first day up and down Fremont, playing here and there.
Now we were in town for the Pro Bullriding Finals so Thurs to Sun the evenings were at Thomas and Mack for the competition. Great seats and we had a great time.
Thursday night after that night's event we went to Sunset Station to say hi to Mikey...he was off. We still had a fabulous time playing there and met several extremely nice staff members. The best part was we went back to LV club and while we were playing BJ my hubby says "Isn't that Mikey over there?" and pointed to pai gow table. Sure enuff there he was with Sticky.
Went over and said hi. Sticky is much cuter in person than any picture can convey.
Over the next few days we hit Red Rock,Texas,Orleans,Wynn,Sunset x3,
Harrah's, MSS,Plaza,Terrible's, Palace and Mandalay Bay. We were up and down with my best win was at 3 card poker at Red Rock... $20 on pairs bet with $10 on play and ante...hit a straight flush for $800 and change.
Brought home what we came with and Alan figured with tipping and general spending we were actually ahead. Whatever.
Final thoughts...
Wynn was very pretty. Got my 250 points so we ate dinner at the buffet
but would never pay the $$ to eat there. We ate fairly cheap this time.. alot of 241 coupons. Ellis island was a good meal. Had the steak special, very tender and tasty.
People out at 3 am with TINY kids...go home!!!!
Sunset Station was a fabulous property...get your butts over there!!!

Flight home was fine but I will never leave at noon again. I do so like my red eye flight home.

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself, Jamie. I too enjoy the occasional celebrity sighting. Would love to hear more about bullriding.

As for people with tiny kids at 3am, I have enough difficulty imagining kids in Clark County at all....

Thanks for the TR!

 

Hi Jamie!
It ws great meeting you and Alan. Thanks for the kind words You two seem like a blast and I hope sometime we can spend more time together at the tables. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip!

Sticky

 

I agree!

Jamie--it was good to see you and Alan again, and fun to have ya'll at my table. Glad you had a good experience there at Sunset.

Mikey

 

Great TR~and I too am interested in more info on the PBR...hubby and I have been thinking for years about attending yet every year we end up watching the finals on OLN. opcorn I'm up to speed on the accomodations part but was wondering about how to get the best deal on tickets to the event itself. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

thanks for the report!

any new places that you found to eat, always looking for places to try and to avoid...

having been to the nfr at thomas and mack a couple of times, spent more time watching the action on the big screen than in the arena, is it the same way with the bullriding?

caught just a little bit of the pbr on tv this last weekend, and they showed a tribute thing to the 17 year old grandson of cotton rosser, it really seemed like they drug it out a little on tv, though i know if they spent that much tv time on the tragedy this kid must have been everything they said...was it pretty emotional and touching at the arena, or did it kinda drag out a little, what with the performance by jewel and all that?

if you have been to the nfr, how did the pbr compare?

 

Thanks for all the comments.
In answer to questions regarding the PBR...here goes.

you can get tickets thru Thomas and Mack arena now for next year. Also on the website pbrnow.com. Ticketmaster might have them. Get them now.
There are 2 weekends for the finals. Last weekend in Oct and first weekend in Nov. The weekend in Oct is at Mandalay Bay and you have to go thru thier website for tix there. The BIG weekend is the Nov one coz the champion round is Sunday, and very exciting.

The PBR is alot more exciting than NFR IMO coz it is all bullriding. Very flashy beginning with a lot of action going on. The originators of the PBR are 20 bullriders who used to be in the NFR and split away to for the PBR since the bullriding was the big draw. The bulls themselves are stars too. There is a big Fan Zone at M-Bay for 10 days and you can meet riders everyday. They are very approacable and really enjoy thier fans.
Hope this helps.

 

The tribute was very nice if a bit long and Jewel's song was very touching. I think it was harder on the parents of the boy...his mother looked pretty emotional. I think her grief should have been kept to her and not bandied about on the jumbotron...hard enuff to lose a child and then have it on the big screen.

 

pbr

Thank you Jamie for the additional info re PBR. ...eleven months should be enough of a heads-up to get our act together... (you'd think!)