Trip Report April 26-29

Hi all. Long time lurker here. Will post my trip report from my recent birthday trip to Vegas. It is loooooonngg so buckle in! I will include a link to pics at the end for anyone interested.

exquizite

 

April 26th – My Birthday, Whoo Hoo!

Our first night we were at the Rio and arrived by shuttle at about 9:30am. I decided on the shuttle so my mom could get her first glimpse of Las Vegas since I knew they would head down the strip first. It wasn’t bad, but I’m not sure there is a need to do it again in the future unless you’re with a Vegas Virgin. We couldn’t check in right away so we went over to Gold Coast for a few hours.

I liked gambling there even though it was an older crowd. Lots of good slots and very good BJ rules. I already had a Coast Card, but they couldn’t find it so they set up a new account and gave me 7,500 points on my card for my birthday. Played a lot of slots and had my first try at single deck BJ. It took a few minutes to get used to it, but you eventually get the hang of it. Over the course of the trip, my card under the chip technique improved slightly, LOL. We went to the GC buffet and used our 1st ACG coupon and lunch was free based on the points I had accumulated on my card. Overall, limited selection, but for the money, it was a pretty decent buffet.

After lunch, headed back to Rio and were able to check in around 12:30pm. We had a room on the 12th floor Ipanema tower. It was a remodeled room and great! The view was overlooking the top of the parking garage, but we were able to see the mountains and there were no complaints since we were paying $40 for a Saturday night stay. My mom loved looking at the mountains the whole trip and we both laughed about how they looked airbrushed into the background since we are from corn and flat land.

After gambling for a few more hours and losing more money than we wanted to, I decided against going to VooDoo Lounge for dinner and we voted on going DT for the evening in the hopes of stretching our money more. We took a cab and had our 1st encounter with “off” taxi drivers. This one wasn’t driving erratically like I’d read about but after I mentioned it was my birthday, he started going on and on about being “re-born” and how people aren’t living right, etc. Now, I consider myself a spiritual person, but getting preached to in the taxi was a bit much. I don’t know, I guess you had to be there, it was just weird. Speaking of religious…we met a bellman named Church at the Rio! You don’t meet a Church every day, so it was just interesting. Anyway, I digress…

I really thought my mom would like DT and I was right. She loved all the casinos being together and being able to casino hop. We went to just about all of them and used a lot of free plays from our ACG. We definitely used more coupons DT than on the strip, but it was definitely worth the $5 we spent. Ate at Magnolia’s and I’d give it a C for cheapness. The food was ok for the money we paid with our BOGO coupon, but I’m not sure I’d make a special effort to go there.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the casinos, just enough to put in a few dollars because I wanted to make sure my mom got to see them all. Also went down through Fremont East and it is looking great. We walked down to El Co where I was able to recoup a lot of my losses on the BJ table. El Co had some great rules, but the casino was eerily quiet. We had a blast DT and I would probably consider staying down there at some point. It was packed and there was a group performing. I didn’t know who they were, but I think it was the group mentioned in another report I just read that was performing Queen songs. Also saw the shark tank at the Golden Nugget and pictures don’t do it any justice. Another great thing was getting Krispy Kreme in the middle of the night! Yummy!

Took another cab back to the Rio and gambled until we couldn’t stay up any longer. After being up for 23 hours, we called it a night at about 12:30am (3:30am EST) and got a good night’s rest.

 

Sunday, April 27th – We arrive on the Strip and Late night gambling to the extreme!

Got up early at 7am and went down to check-out and head over to Harrah’s. Our plan was to take the hotel shuttle, but we didn’t know they don’t allow you to take luggage. We decided to take our time so we could head over to Palms. I really like the Palms and it wasn’t too busy that early in the morning. My mom had some crazy incident where they wouldn’t cash her TITO saying it had been redeemed twice in 2007 (I think). Obviously someone needed to get their head out of their a** because all they needed to do was see that she was a new club card holder and there was no way we could have a redeemed TITO. FINALLY a manager came and fixed the problem. On the way out, I saw a Star Wars, Dark Side and decided to play. I had never played one before and it was fun! Got the bonus and got over $100 just on the bonus round! Not bad for a $20 investment.

After our stint at Palms, we got our bags and took a taxi over to Harrah’s and were able to check in right away. We were supposed to have a strip view, but we didn’t since we took what they had available at the time. Room was fine. It wasn’t remodeled, but not in bad condition and had another crappy view of the side of the building. But who cares? It was comped and clean, so we were happy.

Anyway, headed out to the strip where our plan was to do one side each day. We started at the Wynn to try and earn points so we could check out the buffet. As of Sunday, they were still doing the $10 freeplay and 25 points for 1 buffet or 50 points for 2. It took me a little longer than mom to get my points, but we both got 50 and had planned to go to the buffet for lunch since we were starving. Went to get in line and it was about 100+ people deep. We decided we were too hungry to wait, so we headed over to Venetian to check out either Bella Panini or San Genarmo to use our ACG BOGO coupons.

Ended up going through Palazzo to get to the food court and it is gorgeous! Took a lot of good pictures here, but kept moving through the casino so we could get food. Went through St. Mark’s Square and marveled at the place. I love the inside of the Venetian and it has always been one of my favorites. I must say that the Venetian is VERY easy to get turned around in and we had a hard time locating either of the places to use our lunch coupons. Finally found San Genarmo and I’d give it a B+, food was pretty good. Both mom and I had different Panini’s and they were both good.

The rest of the day we casino hopped all the way day to Planet Hollywood through all the major casinos. One thing that stood out was there were A LOT of places with bad BJ and bad VP rules just as I had read about here. I could not believe the number of people playing BJ switch at Bill’s. Was really surprised. After P-HO, mom started getting tired so we headed back, but didn’t make it to Wynn for dinner. Oh well, we will have to check and see if we can use them the next time. Went to Toby Keith’s for dinner and had burgers. They were huge and pretty average bar fare. Give it a B- and the bar was hopping with a band from Reno. We are not country fans at all, just stopped there to eat, so we didn’t stay too long. Went back to the casino where mom said she was tired and went to bed. To each their own. It was waaayy too early for me, so I stayed up to gamble some more and headed to bed at read it…8:30am people! Yes, it was a looooonnng night for me and unintentional to stay out that late, but I had fun with a lot of people on the BJ tables and people I met playing slots. The dealers at Harrah’s were all really nice and I like the fact that everyone always asked if there was anything else they could do for me and “thank you for choosing Harrah’s.â€

So, on to the exciting thing of the night. What DOES the dinging of 51,300 pennies sound like? Really shocking when it’s not you, but it’s exciting to watch! I was sitting next to this couple on a bank of four machines when I heard the woman yell, “OMG, OMG I just hit for 51,300 pennies!†Of course, I had to go look at her machine in awe and her husband tells me this is the 2nd time in as many hours she has hit for $500+ on a penny machine. Lucky her I’m thinking. We start to talk and I find out they are both from OH and Midwesterners too. Really nice couple. She says her mom showed her this machine and lets me in on the secret. This machine’s max bet is $1.00 so it can hit really good if you play max bet all the time. It’s called Nurse Follies and is really fun. She told me she liked to play it because she was a nurse. So, guess who goes to play Nurse Follies after they leave? I wanted to try my luck and must say I had a blast playing. It was really late and not too crowded and I played for a good 2-3 hours on the same $20! I hit the bonus round over and over so many times that I ended up cashing out with 10,000+ credits. Not bad for a $20 investment!

After playing for awhile, I headed back over to BJ where I played so long, I finally look up and it’s broad daylight! I was exhausted, but for some reason could not bite the bullet and just go to bed. At one point, I was so tired, I actually almost fell asleep at the table. I had been up and down all night, but was finally close to breaking even. I had a feeling my mom would be wondering where I was and calling soon and sure enough, she sent a text at about 6am and couldn’t believe I was still gambling. We finally met up and ate breakfast where I promptly felt the sleep taking over. I had been up for now 25 hours and hit the hay and was back up after 2 ½ hours of sleep. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the day, but it’s Vegas baby, so who cares about sleep?

Up next…last full day in Vegas and my favorite part of the trip – SIGMA DERBY!!!

 

Monday, April 28th – The Ugly Stick and Sigma Derby!

So, we rejoin our all night gambler who has been asleep for 2 ½ hours. After hearing mom come back in for the second time, I realize I better get going. I can sleep later. Of course, my day started with a big ‘ol Grande White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks to get myself going. I looked like crap, but oh well, that’s what big sunglasses are for, LOL.

Our plan today was to hit the other side of the strip from Caesar’s on down and loop around to hit up MGM since we didn’t make it the day before. My mom kept asking, do we have any freeplay for any of these places? (LOL) I told her, no these are the more “high-end†casinos. She had been spoiled from all the freeplays we used DT. Oh, here’s something funny (I’m digressing again) but it’s a good story. While we were walking down the strip, we stopped in O’Sheas. I told her it was a low roller place and where the leprechaun was. We didn’t get a card since I knew it was connected with Harrah’s. Anyway, my mom had been drinking Heineken’s all weekend so when the waitress came around, she asked for one. The lady was like, oh we don’t have those, how about a Bud Lite? I had to explain to her what you can order depends how high or low roller the casino is. It was pretty funny!

Anyway, we went to Caesar’s and walked around awhile, got a little lost because that place is gigantic and we saw the Elton store with some of his crazy costumes. I kept telling my mom, this is way different than our little Caesar’s Indiana, huh? Headed over to Bellagio and got Players Club cards. I already had one and mom was bummed since we didn’t get freeplay, but we played awhile on this Uncle Sam game with these rolling dollars on top. It was pretty fun to get the bonus. It’s hard to explain it, but if you see it, you will know what I’m talking about. Visited the conservatory and was amazed. I knew my sinuses would be messed up the rest of the day, but it was worth it. This was the first time I remember being in Vegas and having so many sinus issues. A lot of smoke will bother me, so I always make sure to take sinus medicine, but do be careful because the air is drier than you think and we did have a couple nose bleeds.

Went to NYNY where the fun really began. Got a snack at Nathan’s using another ACG and headed for gambling. Decided it was time for a big slushy drink and got a $17 Ugly Stick with the extra shot! It was sooo good because it was really hot out today! I told mom not to get the extra shot, but she thought she could hang, LOL. We played there awhile and then headed to Tropicana and I played BJ and got up a little. Headed to MGM and watched the lions and sat down to play. At this point, I’ve been done with my drink and I told mom I would drink hers too if she didn’t stop BABYSITTING as we say. After we were done we were walking through and looking at how massive the place is. I must say this is the first time I noticed the “MGM smell.†My mom thought it smelled like feet, but my sinuses were acting up again so I didn’t really get a good whiff.

As we were walking, I yelled, “OMG it’s Sigma Derby!!!†My mom must’ve been thinking, WTF. I was like a 5 year old going on and on about how I read about this “on the internet.†So of course, we go get quarters to play and had so much fun. I must say, REGULAR people cannot appreciate Sigma Derby. People would stop and watch but act like they were just too good to sit down and play something so archaic. Whatever, it was the best time of the trip IMO. There was this lady there from NY with fingernails that were over 50 inches long! Being slightly tipsy and inhibitions gone, I asked her if they were real and if I could take a picture. Then I realized how rude it might be and apologized. She said, don’t worry about it, people do it all the time and she wasn’t offended. I didn’t take the picture, but she was really nice. The funniest part was as we were playing this man came up to play and you could obviously tell he was an East Coaster from his accent. When one round was going, he yelled really loud, “GET YOUR A** IN GEAR 4!†It was hilarious. I was like, wow you are going to scare the horses into gear buddy!

Once we were done, we went to the cashier (go to the one by the machine) and they were closed. We headed over to the main cage in the lobby and they wouldn’t take the quarters, so he had to call another cashier that had a change counter. Of course, he told us the one by the machine was open now, so we head back over to see they are still closed. Anyway, the lady radios someone to come help us and an older gentleman came and took me back over to the cage again, and was like, what do you mean they wouldn’t change these? Sorry about this ma’am. I told him no problem and we started talking about how much fun we were having and how it was mom’s first time. I told him how I’d read about Sigma Derby on the internet and that it was the last one since Frontier closed. He was like, wow I am impressed, you know your history. I told him there were a lot of people out there that appreciates it and hoped it didn’t go away anytime soon. He then told me the future of Sigma Derby, so I have the inside scoop. He said they are going to leave it in MGM until it breaks down, but there are plans to replace it with a more high tech (still mechanical) version. Should be fun to see what they do with it.

 

Day 3 cont'd...

After this, we decide we are hungry and head back toward Harrah’s. We stopped for a quick bite and head up to drop off our bags. Mom decides she is done gambling and is broke, so I again head down alone. Play for awhile. Should’ve gone up when I was up $100, but what the hell, it’s the last day in Vegas. Went to play Nurse Follies and someone was on “my†machine, dammit. I sit down to play Wolf Run two machines over and what do you know, it’s the nurse from Ohio! We laughed and I told her how long I played after she left and she had her friend with her who lives in Vegas we had talked about. She was telling her friend, this is the lady that works at a College. I laughed and told her how I was telling everyone how I watched this nice nurse when 51,000 pennies. After she was done, I played awhile and it wasn’t as good to me tonight, so I decided to head up. Before I checked the time and was like JIMINEY CHRISTMAS it’s 5am!

It didn’t feel like I had gambled that long! I had checked the time on my iPod and was too tired and tipsy to realize it was still on Indiana time until I got to the room and saw that it was only 2am.

Last day, got up and checked out. Only had 2 meal charges on my bill and one was comped using my points. Got to the airport and forgot to check in early so had B35 and 35 for Southwest. Plane left on time and got more snacks. My mom couldn’t believe how many snacks we got. Pilot got us home 30 minutes early, so yay for Southwest!

We had a great time in Las Vegas and of course, I am already talking about when I want to go back. I hadn’t been since Dec 2005 and that was way too long. I think mom enjoyed her trip, but she went to the ATM a little more than she had planned and I think next time, she will have to show a little more restraint.

I had a great time taking mom for the first time and already thinking about maybe planning a surprise trip to LV and Grand Canyon for her 50th birthday.

Here is a link to pics for those interested and thanks for reading if you made it through!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0QYtGrFm5bsXSA

 

Thanks for the great TR! I can't wait to try out the nurse machine!
Cheers!

 

Great report EX.... really enjoyed the pics too! I'm a fellow Hoosier too & Caesars IN is our home casino....really too close to home sometimes! Our next trip is in August & we are counting down the days on the calendar.

 

Sounds like you did a lot of walking...glad you and your mom enjoyed your trip. I'm going to watch out for the Sigma Derby machine at MGM. Sounds like fun.

 

Very good read! Wow, you sure didn't get much sleep, but who needs sleep in Vegas, right?

Where did you hear the band that sound like Queen when you were downtown? We spend a lot of time there, so I'll have to check it out.

 

thanks - sounds like you had an excellent time!

 

Syb,

Good luck on your next trip! I went to CI one weekend and was overwhelmed because the one floor was closed and there were people EVERYWHERE! Man, if I lived in Jeffersonville, I'd probably be there every weekend. LOL

Kim - The band was playing on a stage, but I think they were just there for the weekend. Not really sure.

Thanks for reading everyone!

 

great report

I enjoyed your report. it was very interesting and the pictures were really nice. i am also a fellow hoosier from indianapolis and leave for vegas on 5-24-08. i am happy you and your mom had such a great experience and many more.

 

Thanks for the TR. A very enjoyable read.

 

Great read and great pics. This just makes Vegas that much closer.

 

I keep torturing myself re-reading my report and looking at the pictures. I'm already trying to find a way to go back! 2 1/2 years was way too long!

 

Great TR, makes me feel like Im there. I'm glad I'm only a few hours drive from LV, I'd go crazy having to go cross country and so long between trips!

 

Great report and great pics.Makes me that much more anxious for our trip:banana:

 

On that Nurses Follies machine -- what was the max bet? Were you playing max when you hit the 10,000??? I might have to try that machine on this trip coming up -- my mom's a nurse and she'll be with me! LOL

Like the Sigma Derby pics, we played that at MGM on our last trip. No big winnings at all, but a fun time to just sit and chill!

 

weluvvegas,

The max bet on the penny Nurse Follies was $1.00! I played max bet the whole time and I didn't hit my 10,000 pennies all at once, that's just what I cashed out at.

But if max bet's only $1, no harm in playing that each spin for a big return. Now, the woman I saw hit the 51,000+ pennies, THAT was on one of her spins. Good luck, it's a fun game!

Oh, BTW, in case you're looking for it. It's by one of the street entrances in harrah's and right across from LIR in the area were the lower limit tables are located. It's in a bank of 4 machines. Court Jester, Nurse Follies, Enchanted Unicorn and Wolf Run. Again, good luck, your mom will love it!