Venetian 3/12-3/14 A Little Long

I had booked this entire trip just one week prior to leaving and I still was able to get really good deals on flights and the room. We payed $220 each using JetBlue out of JFK nonstop to LAS and I got the room at the Venetian for $88/night thru Priceline. So deals are to be had for those trying to make last minute plans to visit Las Vegas.

We left home giving ourselves an hour and a half to check in, do security and get food for the flight. The lines for curb side check-in were long but they were even longer inside. The staff went around making sure no one was going to miss flights and pulled people as needed. Security was a little long but again, staff pulled people if they were getting close to departures. We found the gate and we were told that they had already boarded most of the passengers and if they got everyone on early, we would leave early. We left JFK Wednesday morning at 8:30 right on time, there were stragglers so no early departure. We prefer JetBlue over America West because the seats are a little bigger and they are a little more comfortable and we don't feel crammed in like sardines. They offered an initial flight drink and snack service (blue potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, bagel chips mix or cheddar gold fish, your choice) and they came around again later for a second service with a snack pack of cheese spread, bread sticks and a tootsie roll. Not very filling but still better than the typical bag of 5 roasted peanuts. Free Direct TV is also nice but I do kind of miss a movie. We arrived on time at LAS at 11 AM and off we went to get our bag and get a cab.

We had an interesting cab driver from the airport. She was a women that was on her 4th husband and enjoyed discussing the faults of the first 3. Let me just say here that I am so glad that I have a good husband and everyone reading, remember why you love your spouses or significant others!

Arrived at the Venetian around 12:30 and they allowed us to check in. Just a quick side note here. The walk from check in to the elevators isn't too bad, we have had worse but the walk from the elevator to your room is brutal by the end of your trip! Ask for a room close to the elevators. We found our room and just oohed and ahhed once we put everything down. The marble entry hall led to the bedroom. There are steps down into the living room area and dining area. The bathrooms are huge. Big soaking tub (no jaccuzzi ) seperate shower, double sink, vanity table with mirror and lighted make up mirror, seperate water closet. Very nice, very roomy. For those interested in room amenities. . . sewing kits (2), bathroom kit (cotton balls, q-tips, emery board), shampoo, conditioner, lotion, shower cap and oatmeal bar soaps. Two bathrobes, very comfortable and plush. The bed had 2 pillows each with a spare blanket and pillow in the closet. Ironing board, iron, safe, hairdryer. In room fax and copier. Mini bar, be forewarned, don't move anything or you will be charged whether you eat that item or not and then you have to deal with convincing the staff you just wanted to see what a $5 bag of M&M's looked like! Two TV's, one in the living area and one in the bedroom. The view wasn't great but we still managed to enjoy it. Overall, I would recommend the room to anyone. Our only draw back was the group of young men that arrived Thursday for a bachelor party. They were very loud and very drunk and had a little bit of trouble finding their room at 4AM Friday morning.

We took a short nap and went to Treasure Island to see what we could find to eat. My husband loves buffets, alot. I on the other hand hate paying full price because I rarely eat that much food. We happened to arrive at 3:59PM, payed the lunch rate and got dinner (the group of six behind us was not happy they had to pay dinner rates). My husband headed for the prime rib which turned out to be way too rare for him. I had some nice roasted chicken, fresh green beans and some caesar salad. Sadly, the dessert table was by our table and I was drawn in. I couldn't believe how wonderful the chocolate mousse bomb was. Huge dome of chocolate mousse on a rich chocolate cake drizzled with a raspberry sauce. For buffet, I was in shock, one of the best mousse desserts I had ever tasted.

We changed our slot cards over to the MGM connection card and went to play for a little while. I played Double Diamond 2000 (nickle slot) and cashed out $100 up, played Enchanted Unicorn and cashed out $50 up. Chickendales, up $100. The majority of slots that I played gave tickets for the payouts. Husband wasn't doing as well, he was down $100 already playing video poker and was ready to go back to the room.

We woke up early on Thursday morning. Here is were we enjoyed the view from our room. We faced the mountains and we watched the sun come up. Very beautiful and just inspiring (then to your left, construction and below you, the Sands Convetion Center, oh well so much for beauty and inspiration). Back to Treasure Island for breakfast. The line for the buffet was too long so we decided to eat at the cafe. I ordered Banana Nut French Toast thinking it would be french toast with bananas and nuts, wrong. It was huge thick slabs of banana nut bread prepared like french toast and again, I was in heaven. It was impossible to eat the four slices and even the women at the table next to ours decided that upon seeing mine and hearing my comments, they had to have it too and they also just couldn't believe how good it was. Highly recommend trying it if you like banana nut bread.

I wanted to play in the Aladdin daily slot tournament so we walked down and just enjoyed the weather (its been so cold in NYC!). We just strolled and I was shocked that there was no gauntlet of porn (oh, they arrived later). Upon arriving at Aladdin's, I signed up for the tournament. For $25 you get $10 free play on your slot card, a gift (various items) we took the $20 food credit, we got coffee mugs, and two $10 coupons for 2 stores in the mall area. They give you 300 points to play on any machine in the roped off area that you want to play. No time limit, just play at your leisure. You won't earn cash prizes unless you get 9000 points or more. I got 7,500-ish points. Oh well, had fun playing. I went to find a slot for my $10 free play and no machine recognized the free play, back to Players Desk. "Oops, we forgot to put your money on " Back to find a slot. Played their money, no luck. Played my money, no luck. I won $50 on a Press Your Luck but it took 20 minutes to get a hand pay, not happy with playing here. I lost $70 and just wanted to eat and leave. Off to the buffet (yes, my husband again). With the food credit for $20 the bill came to $9. The food was actually really good, I just wasn't that hungry. I had some fresh homemade mozzarrella marinated in fresh basil and olive oil, very good. The tandori chicken, also very good. They had a large variety of foods, Italian, American, Asian, Midde Eastern, Mexican. My husband really like the turkey and prime rib. We figured we would eat here again just wouldn't gamble here. We cabbed it back to the room and took a nap.

After our nap, we decided to stroll through the Canal Shoppes and just look around. Now, we had already dealt with the time share hawkers, they are posted right at the door were the WB restuarant used to be and again around the corner in the canal shops area. Little tip here, they go after couples. My husband and I would seperate a little before we came to the hawks and they left us alone, if we were together every time share person in a row of 4-5 would try to snag us, even after hearing us say NO to their coworker standing not 2 feet from them. At this point I just wanted to get out of the Canal Shoppes just to get away from these people. My husband and I began joking how cult like it was, "Hi, welcome to Vegas, would you like to see a show tonight? How about dinner, on me of course?" Just very aggressive people, at least the porn pushers just try to hand you something then back off which brought up the question, which is worse, porn pushers that end up littering the sidewalk with naked women or time share hawkers that follow you around annoying you to no end? We decided to head to the casino and play for a little while. Absolutely no luck what so ever in Venetian, we played MegaBucks here. Put in $21, cashed out at $45 so I guess we had a little luck but trust me, they got more than we did in the end. My husband is hungry, yet again and I flat out refused to do a buffet. So we headed to the Grand Lux Cafe. Really nice menu, large variety. I ended up with a small fruit salad and the iced coffee that I bought on the way in. He had an open faced steak sandwich on grilled garlic bread and loved it. The only thing I didn't like about the place was the noise level, very loud. Off to bed, getting late (we tried to stay on East Coast time).

Awoke at a wonderful 4AM due to the drunk men trying their room key at our door, "Next room idiots!". I so tried to go back to sleep but everytime I was almost out, loud drunken laughter. Now, I don't know if it was thin walls or just very loud drunk men but that was the only problem we had with the room. Finally got out of bed at 5, called down to the Front Desk to ask for a late check out since we had the red-eye home. We got an extra hour, they had a very large group of people coming in. Went down and had a very nice cup of coffee then my husband joined me and we walked back to Treasure Island to see how many points we had. We ended up with a voucher for free breakfast (yes, buffet again) and cash back. We played for a little while and then decided to eat. Huge line for the buffet but the voucher was also a line pass. Now my husband is embarressed bypassing all these people, me, Ha! Line Pass Baby! This is the same man that gripes about long lines, go figure. We actually had a couple come over and ask why we got to go ahead of everyone and I explained the whole line pass thing, the women slapped her husband on the arm and said, "D*$@it, you better find out who to ask for one of those pass thingies!" and stalked off. Nothing notable for breakfast, just your typical breakfast buffet foods. I was a little upset that they didn't have an omelet station. They have a bin with pre-made eggs and omelet fixings on the side, you put on it what you want. Just prefer to have my mushrooms in my eggs, not falling off the sides (just me and very petty but that's how I like my omelets). Played some more after breakfast, they had a new Monopoly called Hot Properties, nickle slots. Sat and played that for quite a while, nothing major but lots of bonuses. It was a new game so a lot of staff kept coming over to watch. I ended up talking to 6 different staff members about what I liked and disliked about the game and they in turn sent some one over that worked in the department that made decisions about which games are purchased, evidently someone told this guy that I was very good at describing what I liked and didn't like and he wanted to ask me about some of the games I had played while at TI. Was kind of interesting. Time to head back to the Venetian for check out. Packed, took a little nap and headed down. A bell cap met us at the elevator exit and took our bags for us so we didn't have to walk thru the casino with everything.

We decided to take a walk down to Bellagio since we had 8 hours to kill. Stopped at Harrahs, they have a large outdoor party type area. Lots of drinking, lots of good music, the band was playing 70's disco, and a lot of drunk folks already making fools of themselves. We sat and enjoyed to floor show (the drunks falling down will trying to disco dance) and the music for about an hour. Headed into the casino, played for about 30 minutes, no luck. Walked over to the Barbary Coast and sat on the benches right outside the door and people watched for about 30 minutes. Walked over to Paris and went in for an iced coffee. Ended up playing for a while. No luck Enchanted Unicorn, no luck Double Diamonds 2000, no luck Life, won $50 on Elvira Mistress of the Night, won $50 on Slingo. It was getting late so found the husband and walked over to Bellagio so we could watch the fountains before we had to head back to the Venetian. We decided to cab it and ended up in a line that just took forever, we could have walked quicker but by this point my feet really were starting to feel all the walking from the trip. Got back to the hotel, grabbed a cab after standing in another long line (but at the Venetian they have a gentleman that sings while you are waiting, very entertaining).

Off to the airport with another interesting cab driver, this one from Bulgaria. Arrived at LAS, no line at curbside checkin, breezed thru security and ended up waiting alot longer than we thought we would because of the quickness of everything. Waited an hour and a half. The flight wasn't too full so my husband and I had an emergency row all to ourselves. Our flight left at 10:40PM, right on time. They served the initial drink/snack service early so folks could go to sleep and the next thing I knew it was 5:30 EST. We arrived JFK on time at 6:30AM to 32 degrees and patches of ugly, dirty snow still on the ground in places.

There was construction in several places, for those who are interested in such things. There was a mall farther north (below Stratosphere but above Treasure Island), the Fashion Mall maybe? that had some constuction going on. They were building a covered area around the mall. There was construction at the Venetian, new tower being added were a parking garage once was. Caesars is just becoming huge. Lots of building going on around the whole property it seemed like. Celine Dions new theater is very big. Construction in front of the Flamingo, it appears that Margarita Ville is going to be built here but it is just a gutted mess right now.

Overall, the trip was great. Wonderful weather, surprising food finds, interesting stories from people one always end up just chatting with. I ended up $300, my husband down $350 so we were down for the trip. Sorry this one is so very long, but I hope you enjoyed it!

 

I enjoyed your trip report and glad that you and your husband had a good time. Very informative.

 

About your room at the Venetian - which direction were you facing? Was there any construction noise? I'd like to take Mrs. Doc there in June but am a little bugged by all the construction...

 

Dr Al ~ We were on the 10th floor, room 333. We faced towards The STRAT and LV Hilton. We could see the construction but truly never heard it at all. I am a very light sleeper and I had no problems with construction noise. I think if we had been in the towers to your left (as you come off the elevators) we might have heard the noise but I am sure if you request a room away from the construction, but close to an elevator (very long walks) you will be fine. Enjoy your trip!

 

Very good trip report. Sounds like you both had a great time.