Trip Report: March 16-20 Bally's/4 Queens

A lot to post, so I will take the cue of others and do it in sections.

Day 1: After a hectic pre-trip day, the morning of the trip went smoothly. After dropping off the kids and the car, we (wife and I) made it to the airport early and right through security fairly quick. Southwest flight was delayed 45 minutes, for reasons unknown, as the weather was fine. After finally getting boarded and taking off, the pilot announced that it would be about a 6 hour flight due to strong headwinds. It was a long flight, but we arrived at McCarran a little after 7PM, waited in a long cab line, which did move fast, then arrived at Bally's a little after 8PM. The check in lady was extremely nice. She set us up on the 20th floor with a decent view of the North Strip. Didn't bother with the $20 trick, but gave it to her as a tip anyway. Trying to create some good kharma. She said she could help us more, but we were happy with what we had and all 4 nights were comped anyway.

After a quick change of clothes, I gambled for a few minutes at Bally's and won $20. Then we headed to Margaritaville. We ordered the volcano nachos and they were excellent. With five drinks, the nachos, & tip the bill came to $66. Not cheap, but par for the Strip.

We stopped at Bill's for a quick session and I lost about $35. Then over to the Bellagio conservatory for a quick look. Looks like they were starting to change the display. The Chinese New Year theme was still there and it was ok. Not as nice as the Spring display we saw last year, but still nice. We walked around a little more, but since it was around 3AM EDT and very chilly, we decided to call it a night and rest up for the next day. Which was St. Patricks Day.....

 

Day 2: Woke up around 8AM to a nice view outside. Showered (water pressure not great at Bally's, but adequate), shaved and headed to the Stratosphere . Took the Deuce and it was not crowded at this time. Headed to the Top of the World restaurant for lunch, where we had 11AM reservations. As soon as we stepped into the TOW, we were just staring at the view outside. It was pretty incredible. The restaurant revolves all the way around in about 80 minutes, so while we were seated we snapped some pictures. Lunch was very good. Wife had 3 course Salmon lunch & I had 4 course Surf & Turf. Portions were not real big, but the quality was great and the service was excellent. Total price was $104including tip, but I felt it was more like eating dinner than lunch. Went to the observation desk after lunch and enjoyed the beautiful view for a little longer. Went downstairs eventually and gambled for an hour or two.

Then it was time for our first trip to Downtown Vegas. Took a cab ($9 + tip) there and checked into Four Queens, where we had reserved a room for 1 night for $45 (Priceline/no bid). The room was very nice and clean. View toward Strip as well. What a deal. We then hit Fremont Street and it was pretty happening. Great vibe and lots of people enjoying St Pat's day. We did Mermaids first (great waitresses/small place), then decided to just start hitting everywhere and signing up for the players clubs. We did Fitz, Golden Gate & Plaza first. I won $100 on $1 WOF at Fitz. We then did some souvenir shopping for the kids. At this point it was time for dinner, so we dropped our bags off at 4Q and headed to Main Street Station for their buffet. It was as good as advertised. Not in the same league as the Strip, but for about $24 for us both it was a great bargain. We hit California, on the way back to Fremont. At this point it was dark, so the canopy was doing a show. It was not really great, but ok. There was also a motorcycle show that was much better. 3 cycles on a small steel globe barely big enough for all of them and they were flying around in there. Pretty cool. Hit La Bayou for one of their huge $18 drinks. With the extra shot of alcohol, it kicked our butts a little. But it was St Paddys day, so no harm. We did some more gambling at Fremont, Binions, then LV Club. I liked all of the downtown casinos except LV Club. It was pretty filthy and smelled pretty bad. Ended up crashing a little after 1AM.

 

Nice Report!

Thanks for reconfirming that the Four Queens is a nice hotel.

Also, that LV Club is going downhill - I noticed that when I was there last year. I don't take them up on any offers they send me now...not worth it.

 

Sounds like you were having a pretty good time.

 

Now on to Day 3 (hope everyone is still awake):

The day began around 7AM. Got ourselves together (side note- 4Q shower is decent with good water pressure) and decided on Bay City Diner for breakfast. This diner is located at the Golden Gate. The breakfast was very good and reasonably priced (about $20 with tip for 2 full breakfast's). Decided to gamble at GG for a few minutes and it turned out to be a good choice. I took about $250 from them in about 30 minutes. Nice start to the day. Went to Binions and gave them a quick $100 back. Checked out of the 4Q around noon and decided to take the Deuce back to Bally's. The lady at the checkout desk gave us a great tip- Instead of catching it at Fremont, go up 3rd Street to Stewart (it dead ends neaxt to the Lady Luck) and catch it at the main depot. This was a great tip and we had a decent seat, while many others that got on at Fremont had to stand. The ride itself was very long at this hour, but we finally got back to Bally's. I changed into shorts, due to the weather finally heating up a bit.

We decided to hit the Monorail and go back to the Stratosphere to finish up our points and collect our free slot play and T-Shirts. I like the monorail. Much quicker than the Deuce and cheaper than a cab. Since we were stopping at the Sahara anyway, we joined their club and played for a little while. Not much luck there (think I lost around $75), so we moved on to The STRAT . It was well past lunchtime by now, so we decided to try Roxy's Diner. The food was good and there was a little bit of entertainment there. Not real cheap ($44 for 2 of us), but the portions were very large. We got our T-Shirts and I finished a few dollars ahead.

We decided to walk back to the South side and stopped at Circus Circus. What a mistake. The place is dirty, stinky (not as bad as LV club though) unbelievably smoky, hot and crawling with kids. We took a quick trip through the Adventuredome just to see it and were not overly impressed. We quickly got out of there and headed for one of our originally planned locations, Slots of Fun. This is located in front of CC and is a really cool place. The have $1.25 daquiris, .99 foot long hot dogs, which we tried amnd were great for the price. They have other cheap specials as well, but the big weiner was enough. I kicked some real butt on the slots here and won about $400 on Triple Lucky mostly.

We also went across the street to Riviera and did some slots there. I was a little ahead, wife lost a few bucks. I'd just like to comment that the Riviera at night is one of the nicest looking exteriors I have seen. I know some may not agree, but I'll post a few pics later that came out real nice.

It was getting late at this point, so we hoofed it back to Harrah's. For those paying attention, that means we walked the whole distance from Strat to mid-strip. I know we spread it out over several hours, but still quite a bit of walking. Anyway, I lost some at Harrah's, but my wife finally won some. We peeked into Carnaval Court briefly, then decided to hit Paris. I lost a few bucks more there, but I was still up around $320 for the day. It was now after 1AM, so we called it a night to so we could rest up for our last day.

 

No problem. 4Q was very nice and we would stay again. We were pleasantly surprised.

I used the LV Club bathroom and it smelled better in there than the rest of the dump.....

 

Sorry for the delay. On to the last part.

Day 4: Slept in a little later and needed to print out my boarding pass for the return trip home. Went to Paris first and grabbed something from La Creperia (or was it La Crepes). Anyway, they were pretty good, but cost around $25 for 2 of them. After printing out the boarding passes and dropping them off in the room, headed down to the Luxor. They had sent me $35 of free slot play, so we took the monorail to MGM and thne on to Luxor. I turned the $35 into $70. By this time it was around 1PM, so time for my first trip to In-N-Out burger. Took a cab there and the driver was very nice. We ate there and the service was really fast and friendly. The burger was very good, but not the best I've ever had (that would be Charlie's in Folsom, PA). We were glad we tried it and will probably go back at some point.

We decided to be brave and walk to the Monte Carlo from there (cabs not in abundance). The walk wasn't really all that terrifying, but my advice would be to cross the street at In-N-Out and walk on the Excalibur side if you walk back. We stayed in MC for a while and did some slots and roulette. I ended up giving back the Luxor money, but we were playing for a while, so not too bad. We walked back to Bally's for a brief rest and to check things on the home front.

Then it was on to the Wynn. We joined the players club and they handed out $10 free slot play and for 25 points we could get a free buffet. 2 free buffets for 50 points. I promptly got up to 50 points playing Triple Lucky and was even $75 ahead. My wife was not quite up that high, but she was up a few bucks on VP. We ate at the buffet and it was excellent. All of the previous reviews were on the money. After dinner I gave Mr Wynn back his winnings, plus a little more. My wife got her card up to 50 points with minima; damage, so on our next trip we will again be getting 2 comp buffets. Stopped in Casino Royale out of curiosity and did not really like it. Very small and kinda filthy. On to Harrah's and Carnaval Court. This place is really fun. They had a live band and there was a great vibe about the place. We stayed for about an hour or so and really enjoyed it. Only negative was the pricy drinks, but that's life on the Strip.

It was getting a bit late, so we headed back to Bally's to play for a while. I was down a couple of hundred, but a $1 machine was good to me and I won most of it back eventually. It was about 2AM at this point and I still needed to pack and be up by 7AM the next day. So I reluctantly went upstairs, pack, and turned in for the night.

Day 5: Woke up 7AM, checked out, then caught a cab to the airport. When we arrived the cab driver realized he forgot to turn the meter on. Since he had been nice and it did appear to be an honest mistake, I payed him the normal rate (about $13) + tip. Got through security quickly, flight left on time and actually arrived 25 minutes early. Finally got home around 8:30 PM and spent some time with the kids. Actually had to work on Friday, but still was up to 3AM.

Summary: A great trip, can't wait to go back again. Still need to do Ellis Island & believe it or not, we still have not been in Caesar's. Will probably go back to Vegas in the Fall or next Spring. Thanks again to all for the great info. I'll be checking in quite often to keep up with the latest news. I'll also get some pics of our trip posted eventually.

Swanny

 

Wow, You did a ton of walking and you missed Ellis which is right behind Ballys. Sounded like you got a lot of bang for your buck. The walking was easier tho cause the weather was so nice. Glad you enjoyed.

 

Did you happen to catch any of the changes to the Egyptian theme of the Luxor?

 

Nice TR. The only thing I liked about Caesars was the mall and that was nothing to get excited over. I have not made it to Ellis Island either. It has been in my plans a couple of times but never happened.

 

very nice TR, thanks for sharing

 

I did not see any noticeable differences on the exterior or in the Atrium area. I think most of the changes are with the clubs and restaurants, but I was not there long enough to really see the whole place. It's still a very nice place to walk around in.

 

Thanks, sounds like I could still get the "Egyptian" experience there!

 

Thanks for the interesting trip report. You certainly did a lot. I have a question about the Luxor freeplay. Didn't you have to be a hotel guest to use the freeplay? I thought that was the case with MGM-Mirage property freeplay offers. Thanks.

Sondra

 

Sondra- There was a group of offers that came to me in the mail together. Some of them were contingent on being a hotel guest, but the freeplay was not. A pretty generous offer, considering I did not gamble at the Luxor much on my previous visit. Spent most of my time gambling at Monte Carlo, where we stayed.

Swanny