Seven nights in Vegas with a 17 year old

The 17 year old is my son--not a young woman who prefers mature men. Those of you looking for that type of voyeurism should click over to someone else's report.

Instead of skiing this year, my wife, son and I spent spring break in Vegas. It worked pretty well because my son is trustworthy to leave alone for a couple of hours at a time so Mom and Dad can do a little gambling.

Our trip focused on stuff a 17 year old can do and food.

We saw 10 shows. I think this was the order.
1. Second City at Flamingo. Improv in a small room. Lots of fun and worth the money. Got tickets at 1/2 price store.
2. Vinny Favorito at O'Sheas. A lot of laughter followed by a thought of OMG, I laughed at that. Uses the F word like most of us use salt or pepper. Had free tickets when you bought a cd or t-shirt.
3. Foiles Bergere at Tropicana. Covered show at insistence of my wife. Still a good show. Article in Las Vegas paper said to enjoy it while you can. Got tickets at 1/2 price store.
4. Gordie Brown at Golden Nugget. Great show. Better than Danny Gans IMO. Showroom is closing for renovations soon. Gordie says they haven't invited him back yet. See this show if you get a chance. $5 off coupons.
5. Viva Las Vegas at Stratosphere . Dancers were lame (no pun). One of them looked like she was about 4 months pregnant. Magician and comedians were good. Big John (defender of manhood) deserves a bigger gig. Free when you buy a drink.
6. Riviera Comedy Club. Don't remember who the comedians were, but we enjoyed the show. Had 241 tickets.
7. Ronn Lucas at Rio. Great afternoon show. Very talented and entertaining ventiloquist. Got free tickets outside Harrahs. Had to buy a drink. Bargain!
8.Dirk Arthur Xtreme Magic at Tropicana. Very good afternoon show. Bought tickets at Tropicana ticket booth day before and sat right by stage. Used 1/2 price coupons from a Vegas magazine. Worth your time. Lots of big cats.
9. Tournament of Kings at Excalibur. A bone for my son who is into that stuff. Food was surprisingly good. Good show if you like knights, etc.
10. KA at MGM. Great show. Quality would stand with O. Worth $125/ticket.

We also went to Red Rock Canyon (worth 1/2 day of your life), Hoover Dam (ditto) and the Mohave Desert in California (not worth 1/2 day).

We got two free buffets at Wynn. You now need 150 slot points. It was a very good buffet. Got there at 3:45, paid lunch price for my son ($19) and enjoyed ourselves completely. If you like buffets, it is worth trying out.

We did the Paris breakfast buffet and Alladin weekend brunch buffets as we always do. Both are top quality and reasonable values IMO.

We sent my son to the movies and gambled a little at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson. Very nice casino. The evening buffet was good but a notch below the top buffets on the strip. Service was very poor on drink refills, taking used plates, etc. Don't know what the problem was, but I left a smaller tip than I usually do at a buffet. We were ignored.

Tried the Rio seafood buffet on Friday night. It is Lent and Catholics don't eat meat on Friday during Lent. Lord, I am not claiming any sacrifice points for that meal. If you want a lot of variety, quality and quantity on seafood and don't mind $30+, this is a buffet for you.

We ate several meals at Ellis Island. It was a close walk to our time share. The $4.95 steak dinner is still there and was pretty good. I have had better steaks, but not better steaks for $4.95 (at least not in the last 40 years). We ate breakfast there several mornings. The coffee shop is quite good. My son really enjoyed the microbrew root beer.

We stayed at a time share called Summer Bay. It sits in behind the IP. Our unit was nothing special, but it worked for us.

The gambling was very ugly. IP no longer has cheap tables. Blame it on Harrahs. Spent some time at Barbary Coast. Enjoyed the games but do not like their drink service. Only draft beer that seemed a little flat. Had the worst luck at blackjack in 40 trips to Vegas. Ugly does not begin to describe it. Sat at a table at Bellagio and watched several young, dumb, well lubricated, loud Texans (was it redundant in there somewhere) drop quite a few thousand dollars in about an hour. By my count, their stupid play cost me four hands and saved me one. Unfortunately, they cost me on some double downs that amplified my loss. I should have left, but the floor show of their losing Daddy's money was very entertaining. Played blackjack with a lot of poor players this trip. What is discouraging is they seemed to do better than me.

My son said he enjoyed this trip more than going skiing. I think I did, too. We found a lot that a 17 year old could do including a couple of casino arcades. If your teenager is trustworthy, Vegas can be a good vacation site.

I hope the tables are a friendlier next trip!!!

 

Glad to hear everyone had a good time! Even more happy to hear that you may have created yet another one of us!

 

Sounds like a fun trip. 10 shows? Wow. I agree with the trustworthy child and Vegas being fun for them too. What an awesome parent, he will love this city just as much one day (if he doesn't already).

Thanks for sharing.

 

Gordie Brown is moving to the Strip (Venetian?) so I wouldn't worry about him!

Thanks for all the info on the shows--sounds like you did indeed find lots to do! What was your son's favorite arcade? We spent quite a bit of time in the arcades last year--my husband is a bit of a pinball fanatic and was trying to find machines he could review for a pinball website....I'm personally a fan of air hockey--it's one of the few games where I can actually give my husband something of a run for his money. We played at Gameworks. I also rode the mechanical bull there

 

Arcades

He spent some time at the arcade at the Rio and at the Luxor. He didn't comment a lot about them, so I don't have any way to evaluate. It seems like most of the casinos have an arcade now. There are also major stand alone places like Gameworks that are huge.

I think parents have to be careful leaving kids in arcades. Our son is 17, stands over 6 foot and is a good sized young man with reasonable judgement.
I would give him 30 minutes alone max in a public arcade inside a major casino. There are a lot of creepy people in this world that prey on kids. It wasn't Vegas, but a few years ago a child was abducted and killed from a Nevada casino arcade while the parent was gambling. That child was pretty small if I remember correctly.

 

I visited Vegas many times as a teenager...and everytime loved it! I really think the arcade at NYNY and Gameworks are really the best thogh. Treasure Island used to have my personal favorite- until it was revamped.

Glad you guys had a fun time. 10 shows wow! That's awesome! Sounds like a blast!

Kristin

 

Table Limits

Bob you mentioned that the IP no longer has cheap tables. Can you give us some examples of what the table limits were. Ex: during the week verus the weekend? I ask cause I'm staying there in 3 weeks.

 

IP table limits

We never played IP but walked through about 20 times as it was the shortest way from our condo to the strip. I don't recall seeing a table for less than $15. IP used to have a lot of $10 tables and the occasional $5. Vegas was packed last week with a big electronics/computer convention. The tables were always full everywhere. MGM had some $10 blackjack tables open after KA on Friday night. Found a $10 table during the afternoon at Luxor. Barbary Coast had plenty of $10 tables. Excalibur had $10 tables. I don't think I ever saw a $5 blackjack table except for Ellis Island.

 

I enjoyed the read. Well, except for the “young, dumb, well lubricated, loud Texans†redundancy comment. I’m trying hard to be offended, but it might have hit a little too close to home.

If I knew how to insert the stick-poking icon it would be right here…

 

Gordie is moving to the Venetian in the late summer 2006

 

Glad you guys had fun!

Well first off,glad you guys had fun! that sit this topic just gets me in trouble so i'll shut up... I am just old school on this one,the worst thing Las Vegas ever did was go after the "family market" But glad you guys had fun.
Doug and Patty

 

Sounds like a nice trip was had! I first visited Vegas when I was 17 and I was completely memorized, I adored Vegas long before I was able to drink and gamble... I wandered the strip and downtown, rode rides, played in arcades, caught shows, shopped, etc. There's plenty to keep a teen occupied.