Dean Martin
VIP Whale
Well gang….another Vegas trip come and gone and for the regulars here you know I was pretty pchycotic up to the end about where we were going to stay. All I can say is I love this place as much as I did the first time I set eyes on the town. I’m not real good at putting things in chronological order since I don’t take any notes or anything like that so I’ll do my best at piecing together the week and hope you enjoy.
We did the SW non-stop flight out of Norfolk that is about 5 hours there and 4 ½ getting back. Great flights both ways and w/ my boarding pass in hand we checked our bags at the electronic kiosk and were on our way to the security check (in Vegas) about 15 minutes after arriving at the airport. I sat next to an older woman on the plane (I’m guessing 80+) on the way home and she was a hoot.
We did the Presidential Limo RT deal for $108 and it was excellent. He loaded the bags for us, had cold champagne and a rose for my bride. I asked him to stop at the liquor store on the way to the Wynn and he said “no problem, I don’t have another ride for 2 hoursâ€. We picked up a bottle of wine and a liter of VO and we were set.
Check-in at the Wynn was about 4pm and there were 2 other people in the lobby. We were checked in, in minutes. I asked if we could get a panoramic view room… no twenty in hand by the way. He looked and said I have 2 and I asked him for the highest floor and he gave us room 5267. They are really nice but actually, I don’t think I’d ever pay the extra for that room. You have 2 chairs in lieu of the couch because of the wall of windows. Oh, yea… I did tip him for the room.
For dinners we ate at the Mexican place and Kahunaville at TI and both were very good. Another night we ate at the GVR at the Irish Pub and that was good too. We almost stayed at the GVR so we felt like we really needed to check the place out never having been there before. Now, it is a beautiful place but I just like the feel of the strip and all the action. It reminded me a little of the Indian Casino’s in Wa. When we lived there… lots of locals and the 10 yr olds watching the 3 yr old while mom and dad were gambling really turned me off. At the Wynn, we ate at the Clubhouse Grill, Corsa Cuchina, the Deli (Zoo Zaa Crackers) and room service. All of it was most excellent. We did have reservations one night at the Bartolotta (sp?) down in the shopping promenade area. We were seated and I could hardly make heads or tales out on the menu and really couldn’t decipher the crypto code on the wine list. All $100+ and a lot over $300 bottles of wine…yea, right. The waiter was getting down on Ca. wines and was all about the Italian wines and blah, blah, blah… I took a few minutes and said “you know, this really isn’t what we were looking for, I think we’re going to try something elseâ€. He wanted to know what the problem was and what he could do to change our minds. I said “for starters if you could bring me a wine list I could understand, that would be greatâ€. By this time I was getting a little obnoxious like I can do. It seems as I get older, I can cycle up pretty quickly when somebody is feeding me a line of bullshit. This guy was like the used car salesman of restaurants. He said he could get a Ca. wine list (you know the stuff he was disrespecting a few minutes ago). I said fine… but when he was gone for 10 minutes, I told my bride “we’re outta hereâ€. She said we can’t stiff em’ for the bottled water (she had ordered) and I said F-‘em, they know our room #, he can bill it to us if he wants to. They didn’t and we went and had an awesome meal at the Clubhouse Grill. It was really not that big of a deal, I just spun up for a few minutes and then things were great the rest of the night (as you will see later). I’ll just never set foot in that place again….but, everything else at the Wynn was top notch.
Gaming – We play mostly VP w/ some Roulette and Pai Gow for table fun. We stayed Sat to Sat and by Wed evening we hadn’t won a thing and were down about $2500. Now I love Vegas even when I’m not winning and I know you lose more often than you win but 4 days of it was wearing us down a bit so we decided to take a break and order room service, crack our bottle of wine and watch the lights of the Vegas strip from our room. We sacked out early that night… about 10 and got some much needed mid trip sleep. Thursday morning I got up about 6, went and got my usual large coffee w/ a little cream and fake sugar and headed out to find my destiny… or density. I normally play 50 cent and some qtr VP but saw a $1 progressive BP bank that was at about $5,900+ which is pretty high for them. I decided to run a $100 thru and see what I got. I hit a 4OAK for $125 which gave me about $200, so I figured I would play a while and see if I could win a few hundred and turn the tide on this trip. 5 hands later I was dealt AT of spades and 3 junk cards. I held the AT and took a nice swig of coffee and the thing filled in like a math equation for an Algebra teachers wet dream… as in the 3 faces to give me the RF for $5,976… sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet
We pretty much were picking up a hundred here and dropping a hundred there after that but the bleeding definitely stopped. Friday night after we had our little fiasco w/ the car salesman/ wine guru, we headed to the Grill for a great dinner and bottle of wine at the bar. Afterwards, the lady BT that was helping us was really, really nice (tipped her very well) and she made us 2 Baileys and Coffee’s to go. We wandered back down the hall and into the casino just taking in the beautiful Wynn casino and the crowd and the music. It was a Vegas moment for sure. We decided to go over and play the 50 cent bank of progressive VP. We were having a great time w/ our wine and Bailey’s buzz. My wife was hitting 4OAK pretty good on her machine playing Bonus Poker. She says to me, “I hit itâ€. I’m thinking the 4 Aces for 400 credits (or $200). Noooo…. As they said in Oceans 11 “All Redâ€â€¦ a RF in hearts for $2,973. Let me tell you… right about now our vacation couldn’t have ended on a better note unless we were naked and had a full glass of CR rocks
So… as one of the great T2V’ers said to me before we left …. “just maybe the Wynn is the replacement for your beloved Mirageâ€. Thank you Mrs. Hoya… you are so right!
The rest of the trip was pool time, an evening at the Bellagio Fountains and drinks and a tour of the MB. We had also been thinking of staying there too but had never set foot in the place so we needed to check it out. It is nice and had a good vibe but I do have to say for VP players, it’s pretty much a waste land. A beautiful property though and I think in the spring or fall when the kids are in school, it would be a great place to stay. But as you might guess…. I’m thinking we’ll go back to the Wynn
One other thing.... one day when we walked from the Wynn to TI, there was this guy about 35 sitting on the ground at the end of the walk-over w/ his hat out for money. He really loooked poor and hungry and was not obnoxious at all. We made eye contact for a second and he kind of hung his head like he was a little embarassed and nodded. We went on down to the landing by the Fashion Show mall and I told my wife. "I just can't do it". I said, "We've been blessed w/ a great life and we've won some money and for whatever reason, he has a life that pretty much sucks right now". I turned around, went back up the escalator and put a generous amount in his hat. He smiled and said, "thank-you sir" and I said "you get yourself something to eat buddy". I told my wife that I hoped he went and got a few meals but you know what... if he spent it on booze and that's what he really needed then so be it. Sometimes you just feel like you gotta "pay it forward".
Thanks for staying w/ me to the end… Man I love that city
~ Dino
We did the SW non-stop flight out of Norfolk that is about 5 hours there and 4 ½ getting back. Great flights both ways and w/ my boarding pass in hand we checked our bags at the electronic kiosk and were on our way to the security check (in Vegas) about 15 minutes after arriving at the airport. I sat next to an older woman on the plane (I’m guessing 80+) on the way home and she was a hoot.
We did the Presidential Limo RT deal for $108 and it was excellent. He loaded the bags for us, had cold champagne and a rose for my bride. I asked him to stop at the liquor store on the way to the Wynn and he said “no problem, I don’t have another ride for 2 hoursâ€. We picked up a bottle of wine and a liter of VO and we were set.
Check-in at the Wynn was about 4pm and there were 2 other people in the lobby. We were checked in, in minutes. I asked if we could get a panoramic view room… no twenty in hand by the way. He looked and said I have 2 and I asked him for the highest floor and he gave us room 5267. They are really nice but actually, I don’t think I’d ever pay the extra for that room. You have 2 chairs in lieu of the couch because of the wall of windows. Oh, yea… I did tip him for the room.
For dinners we ate at the Mexican place and Kahunaville at TI and both were very good. Another night we ate at the GVR at the Irish Pub and that was good too. We almost stayed at the GVR so we felt like we really needed to check the place out never having been there before. Now, it is a beautiful place but I just like the feel of the strip and all the action. It reminded me a little of the Indian Casino’s in Wa. When we lived there… lots of locals and the 10 yr olds watching the 3 yr old while mom and dad were gambling really turned me off. At the Wynn, we ate at the Clubhouse Grill, Corsa Cuchina, the Deli (Zoo Zaa Crackers) and room service. All of it was most excellent. We did have reservations one night at the Bartolotta (sp?) down in the shopping promenade area. We were seated and I could hardly make heads or tales out on the menu and really couldn’t decipher the crypto code on the wine list. All $100+ and a lot over $300 bottles of wine…yea, right. The waiter was getting down on Ca. wines and was all about the Italian wines and blah, blah, blah… I took a few minutes and said “you know, this really isn’t what we were looking for, I think we’re going to try something elseâ€. He wanted to know what the problem was and what he could do to change our minds. I said “for starters if you could bring me a wine list I could understand, that would be greatâ€. By this time I was getting a little obnoxious like I can do. It seems as I get older, I can cycle up pretty quickly when somebody is feeding me a line of bullshit. This guy was like the used car salesman of restaurants. He said he could get a Ca. wine list (you know the stuff he was disrespecting a few minutes ago). I said fine… but when he was gone for 10 minutes, I told my bride “we’re outta hereâ€. She said we can’t stiff em’ for the bottled water (she had ordered) and I said F-‘em, they know our room #, he can bill it to us if he wants to. They didn’t and we went and had an awesome meal at the Clubhouse Grill. It was really not that big of a deal, I just spun up for a few minutes and then things were great the rest of the night (as you will see later). I’ll just never set foot in that place again….but, everything else at the Wynn was top notch.
Gaming – We play mostly VP w/ some Roulette and Pai Gow for table fun. We stayed Sat to Sat and by Wed evening we hadn’t won a thing and were down about $2500. Now I love Vegas even when I’m not winning and I know you lose more often than you win but 4 days of it was wearing us down a bit so we decided to take a break and order room service, crack our bottle of wine and watch the lights of the Vegas strip from our room. We sacked out early that night… about 10 and got some much needed mid trip sleep. Thursday morning I got up about 6, went and got my usual large coffee w/ a little cream and fake sugar and headed out to find my destiny… or density. I normally play 50 cent and some qtr VP but saw a $1 progressive BP bank that was at about $5,900+ which is pretty high for them. I decided to run a $100 thru and see what I got. I hit a 4OAK for $125 which gave me about $200, so I figured I would play a while and see if I could win a few hundred and turn the tide on this trip. 5 hands later I was dealt AT of spades and 3 junk cards. I held the AT and took a nice swig of coffee and the thing filled in like a math equation for an Algebra teachers wet dream… as in the 3 faces to give me the RF for $5,976… sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet
We pretty much were picking up a hundred here and dropping a hundred there after that but the bleeding definitely stopped. Friday night after we had our little fiasco w/ the car salesman/ wine guru, we headed to the Grill for a great dinner and bottle of wine at the bar. Afterwards, the lady BT that was helping us was really, really nice (tipped her very well) and she made us 2 Baileys and Coffee’s to go. We wandered back down the hall and into the casino just taking in the beautiful Wynn casino and the crowd and the music. It was a Vegas moment for sure. We decided to go over and play the 50 cent bank of progressive VP. We were having a great time w/ our wine and Bailey’s buzz. My wife was hitting 4OAK pretty good on her machine playing Bonus Poker. She says to me, “I hit itâ€. I’m thinking the 4 Aces for 400 credits (or $200). Noooo…. As they said in Oceans 11 “All Redâ€â€¦ a RF in hearts for $2,973. Let me tell you… right about now our vacation couldn’t have ended on a better note unless we were naked and had a full glass of CR rocksSo… as one of the great T2V’ers said to me before we left …. “just maybe the Wynn is the replacement for your beloved Mirageâ€. Thank you Mrs. Hoya… you are so right!
The rest of the trip was pool time, an evening at the Bellagio Fountains and drinks and a tour of the MB. We had also been thinking of staying there too but had never set foot in the place so we needed to check it out. It is nice and had a good vibe but I do have to say for VP players, it’s pretty much a waste land. A beautiful property though and I think in the spring or fall when the kids are in school, it would be a great place to stay. But as you might guess…. I’m thinking we’ll go back to the Wynn
One other thing.... one day when we walked from the Wynn to TI, there was this guy about 35 sitting on the ground at the end of the walk-over w/ his hat out for money. He really loooked poor and hungry and was not obnoxious at all. We made eye contact for a second and he kind of hung his head like he was a little embarassed and nodded. We went on down to the landing by the Fashion Show mall and I told my wife. "I just can't do it". I said, "We've been blessed w/ a great life and we've won some money and for whatever reason, he has a life that pretty much sucks right now". I turned around, went back up the escalator and put a generous amount in his hat. He smiled and said, "thank-you sir" and I said "you get yourself something to eat buddy". I told my wife that I hoped he went and got a few meals but you know what... if he spent it on booze and that's what he really needed then so be it. Sometimes you just feel like you gotta "pay it forward".
Thanks for staying w/ me to the end… Man I love that city
~ Dino-
Back to Wynn for birthday #71!
