Trip Report from March 2009

I've decided to add another one of my "older" trip reports - this one from March 2009. On this trip I traveled with my cousin and my mom in order to celebrate mom's 60th birthday in her favorite place. This is a kind of long report, so dig in!

Vegas Trip Report – March 25-27, 2009

Well, another trip has come and gone. At least this time I felt like I had time to myself! October’s trip was so crazy I needed another vacation just to recover from that one. This trip was so much more relaxing I was able to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it! Looking forward to leaving on a very early 7:35 a.m. flight, I drove to my cousin’s apartment to meet my mom and cousin for the cab ride to the airport.

This was the first trip in quite awhile where the plane was not completely full or overbooked on the way out, and was only about half full on the way back. I’m used to SWA employees asking if anyone would like to go standby and be guaranteed for the next flight with some cash involved. No begging or pleading needed, and we didn’t have to avoid meeting anyone’s gaze while we waited.

On the approach into Vegas, I was glad to see that we were near Hoover Dam and I could actually get a photo, although my camera was *technically* stowed away, I swear. It’s as close as I’ll probably ever get to Hoover Dam.

Upon arrival, my cousin and I tried to delay my mom a little bit because we knew the limo driver would be there, but we wanted to make sure he was there and waiting. Well, even though we stopped, I pretended to get a pebble out of my shoe, we adjusted carryon bags and purse straps, and thought of all sorts of diversions, my mom was practically running to the baggage claim area! Finally I told her to slow down because I had something for her. She figured it out and thanked me but wanted to know WHY I did it. I told her “You only turn 60 once!” Our limo driver was waiting in baggage claim, and she would’ve missed him because she was headed straight to the taxi area. He was a nice guy, very talkative and funny, and he gave us an ‘old Vegas’ feel because he had a thick New York accent and gave us thoughts of the mob on our journey to Harrah’s.

We checked in but were unable to get into our rooms because it was only 9 a.m. Vegas time. We stored our bags and headed to The Café at Harrah’s for breakfast – we were all starving! We didn’t have breakfast before our early flight out of San Antonio, so we absolutely had to get a little bit of food before we headed out to Encore for a bit of sight-seeing, picture-taking, and gambling. Mom paid for our breakfast with her Total Rewards points since she has a LOT of points, and we let her ‘cause we’re nice that way.

Encore – what can I say? Everyone has been right – it is very, very RED! Beautiful artwork, chandeliers, tapestries…everything. We walked around the property for quite awhile, but I’m sure I missed some things. In fact, I KNOW I did because I remember there were some very specific things in a friend’s photos that I was looking for and never found. I did feel that the casino floor was very small because of all the curtains, but I didn’t get that feeling when I was sitting near the atrium or one of the large windows. With all its beauty, I think I still like Wynn better. I don’t know why, though. I can’t explain it.

I took some photos outside of the Sinatra restaurant, but the dining area was well roped off and I didn’t try to venture in and take any more photos than I already had (even though a roped off area doesn’t usually keep me from taking photos if I really want to). I also managed to have a couple of good spins on a penny Wolf Run machine, so I was happy with that. A little Asian lady next to me was not happy with my wilds, though, because she kept gesturing to my machine and telling her companions something that sounded very angry to me. I finally got annoyed with her leaning over my shoulder, so I gathered up my mom and my cousin, and we headed for Wynn.

At Wynn, I continued my long-standing tradition of losing, losing, losing in that casino. I love the place – love the buffet, love the atmosphere, love their variety of machines. But I can’t win a dime. Or a nickel. Or a penny. I don’t know what that casino has against me, but it doesn’t want me to take anything from it. As long as I get to visit my money every so often I guess it’s okay.

From there we walked to Palazzo. For some reason, this casino’s layout gets me turned around. I can’t find the same place twice. I did find a very nice Hot Hot Penny China Moon machine that let me play on the same $20 for almost 3 hours, so at least I wasn’t just feeding money into the machines all day long. As we were leaving Palazzo to walk to the Venetian, we managed to catch the performers in front of the Palazzo fountain by the escalators. Interesting to watch for a little while, but I wouldn’t stand around waiting for them. I liked their “fountain fingers” – whatever they had on their hands to make it appear that water was spouting out of their fingertips was interesting. (There's a photo of these ladies on my blog page.) Now I can say I saw it and check it off of my list of things to see in Vegas.

In Venetian, we checked the time and saw that it was already 4 p.m., so we decided to head over to Grand Luxe Café for a snack. We shared two appetizers – a plate of fried calamari, rock shrimp, and vegetables in a tempura batter, and another appetizer called Cheese Steak Spring Rolls. Those spring rolls were awesome! They came with a spicy cheese sauce and a more traditional lumpia (spring roll) sauce. The other plate had some kind of lemon tartar sauce and a chipotle sauce for dipping. I think we dipped all the appetizers into all the different sauces just to try them out. No bad combinations there at all. Those two appetizers were big enough for regular meals, and the total for both of them and our three teas was $24. My cousin paid for that because she said she owed me for the limo. Fine by me!

Back at Harrah’s, my cousin ended up with one of the remodeled Premium rooms in the Mardi Gras tower (room 408) that have the flat screen TVs, but I opted for a non-smoking Deluxe room on a higher floor in the same tower (room 1848) so that I could have a Strip view – finally! I saw their room and felt the bathroom was too crowded with the TV mounted on the wall, so I’m glad I got my room with a view. I’ve been going to Vegas for 12 years, and this was the first time I’ve had any kind of Strip view at all. I had visions of sleeping with the curtains open so I could see the lights from The Mirage, Rio, and Caesars Palace. Oh, I was a happy girl, indeed.

After a few room photos, we met downstairs and decided to head over to Imperial Palace (IP) to play for a little while before we settled in for some serious gambling at Harrah’s. We walked around to see what new machines were available, and found IP to be very crowded for a Wednesday night. The craps tables were all full to brimming as usual, and the crowds were very noisy but seemed to be having lots of fun. I finally found a new Monopoly Up, Up and Away slot machine near the front and sat down to play – I just love Monopoly machines! On my second spin, I got a nice little line win for $100. Cool!

A very nice, older lady from Canada sat down next to me, and we chatted while we played. However, it seemed to annoy her that I wouldn’t cash out my ticket with more than $100 on it and just insert another bill to play on. I just don’t do that. A lot of people do, but I play down to even numbers ($100, $80, $60, etc.) and may cash out then if I’m staying there for awhile. Still, she was quite funny and we had a great time admiring each other’s bonus rounds – lots of fun bonus rounds on those machines!

At about 10 p.m. we headed back to Harrah’s. It was EXTREMELY crowded! I walked around for quite awhile trying to find an open seat at my favorite Gold Fish or Double Dolphin Super Jackpot Party machines, but there were none open anywhere. Not only that, there were usually people literally lined up behind the other players, waiting for them to get up and move so that they could get on those machines. I walked all over the casino trying to find some new slots with open seats, but there were none available. I finally gave up and went to find my mom. We played DDB VP side by side for a long time, and traded back and forth four of a kinds (4OAKs) that kept us afloat each time we dwindled down to less than 10 credits. A lot of points were added to our HET cards that night!

I almost forgot to mention my favorite new casino drink: Bailey’s and hot chocolate. I had about 6 of them that night, and they were yummy and strong…*hic!* They went down reeeeeeaaaaaalllllll smooth! All in all, I lost about half of my day one bankroll because of earlier losses at Wynn, Palazzo, and Venetian. It was nice to be able to go back to my room and look out my window lovingly at the beautiful Vegas Strip before I hit the hay. You can’t ask for much more than that, can you?

Day 2 was mom’s birthday. I called my mom in her room to wake her and my cousin up - as is my job in Vegas - and I wished her happy birthday from my Strip view room. I got her tacky birthday card ready and headed down to meet them for breakfast at the IP Teahouse (mom’s choice – it’s her birthday, after all) before we headed down the Strip for our second day. It was all her choice of stuff to do for today. My cousin paid for breakfast with her TR points. I’m still not complaining!

Believe it or not, we got "long-hauled" from IP to Luxor! How the hell does that happen? I suspected something was afoot when the cabbie turned LEFT onto the Strip instead of turning RIGHT to go behind IP onto Koval and make a quick trip to Luxor. He didn’t say a word when I asked him what he was doing by taking us this way. He headed down past TI and turned by the Fashion Show Mall – headed for I-15! I asked him why he didn’t take Koval behind IP. He shrugged and said, “This is faster.” Dirty looks and lots of grumbling from us followed while we were stuck in traffic on I-15. Forget stink eye – I was sending some serious ojo his way. The fare was $14.70, and he got $15. That should’ve been a $7-$8 fare out the back of IP, easy.

Since we hadn’t been to Luxor in quite a few years, I had some photos to take. In fact, the last time we were there I still used disposable cameras on my Vegas trips! I left my mom and cousin at the entrance and walked toward to tram for some photos before we finally headed inside to look around and gamble.

I’ve heard that the casino had changed to a more modern feel. I didn’t really feel that at all. Sure, there’s a bar right inside the main part of the casino that looks a little modern-ish, but the place still feels very old Egyptian to me – just like it always has. It didn’t stop me from taking new photos, though.

A photo shoot was underway at one of the craps tables when we got inside. My guess is that they’re getting ready to update their marketing materials soon. There were lots of 20-somethings all dolled up and crowded around, yelling “Go!” over and over again and throwing the dice. This led to lots of cameras flashing in my eyes where I was sitting. I was initially blinded by the flashes and had to find another area to gamble in because it was really annoying. Then I noticed some open Wizard of Oz (WOZ) machines – cool! I played for about 15 minutes before all my money was sucked away. Then I realized that I had been playing 5-cent instead of 1-cent WOZ. That was the only place I made that mistake. It gets expensive!

I did visit the atrium level because I wanted to see if anything had changed up there. I’m just glad King Tut’s Tomb is gone – it was so lame! I did find out that the Titanic Exhibit opened at 10 a.m. each day so I could plan my visit for July. Otherwise, not very exciting up there at all. There was a pretty cool looking bar up there, but I don’t remember the name of it.

My mom and cousin finally decided they’d lost enough money in Luxor and we walked to Excalibur. They headed for the VP machines near the sports book, but there were open Gold Fish machines nearby calling my name! I sat down at one on the end and stayed there for another couple of hours, finally cashing out $100 for my $20 investment. I was very happy because I had a few visits from Goldie the Goldfish herself – 10 spins, 15 spins, and even 20 spins. I was just glad to know she decided to pay me a visit on this trip, since she has been avoiding me for awhile.

After Excalibur, it was over to NY/NY. I wanted to show my mom the scary Hitchcock slots, since she was in another area when my aunt Mina and I were playing them in October. She got to experience the random surprise of Alfred popping up in the corner for herself – at least it’s not just me! I also found a Hot Hot Super Jackpot Chariots slot that lasted for awhile, but nothing was hitting bonus rounds for me. Disappointing.

I’m glad that they appear to finally be done with all the remodeling in the NY/NY casino. When were there last, the restaurant area in the back was still like the streets of New York with cobblestone walkways, and the casino was partially modern with a lot of temporary walls up everywhere. I still like the old look better personally, but it’s a vast improvement for them to be finished and have the casino looking like it’s all one place and not a hodge-podge of different looks.

Next on our list was a stop at MGM. For some reason, they’ve taken out a lot of their penny machines near the lions. We didn’t find anything that we wanted to play for any length of time, and my cousin was getting perturbed by the lack of VP hits above 3OAK. There was not a seat to be found at Sigma Derby – again – so it’s still on my list for the next trip. The decision was made to walk to Planet Hollywood from there.

I don’t know about the wisdom of this decision because of the WIND! Had it been just another beautiful, sunny spring day in Vegas, it would’ve been great. The sidewalks were very crowded with people, but throw in some swirling dirt and dust from all the construction in the area and it made for a rather unpleasant walk. I did finally get to walk past the Hawaiian Marketplace and other areas I’d previously only heard about, though, and I think I’ll be paying another visit to the area in July, as my companions didn’t want to stop in the wind and dirt. Not that I blame them.

Neither my mom nor my cousin had been in PH since it opened, so I took them on a little tour of the casino floor before they settled in to gamble. My cousin spotted the Big Six wheel and remembered that she still hadn’t made a bet for her sister. Her sister's luck continues on each trip with a $2 bet on 40, and it doesn't matter if she plays it herself or if someone plays it for her. She won for herself at Bellagio during our October trip, and my cousin hit the $2 on 40 bet for her AGAIN! She is one lucky chickie when it comes to the Big Six wheel and her $2 on 40 bet.

We headed over to the area near The Earl of Sandwich deli because my cousin saw some VP machines she wanted to play. I found a machine I hadn’t seen before: Lucky Meerkats, which is a version of Lucky Lemmings. What a hoot! In the bonus round, one of the meerkats does an MC Hammer “Can’t Touch This” dance to award points. I’m obviously easily entertained, because even though I eventually lost my $20, I was laughing my butt off at all the silliness.

Finally we decided we were getting a little hungry, so we headed over to Paris. Once there, we decided to wait just a little while longer to get the dinner menu at Mon Ami Gabi (MAG). I followed another LV4E friend’s advice and had a seat at the Gold Fish machines near the cabaret bandstand. Goldie decided to visit me again and again, and I was happy to see her. We had a nice little visit, and the cocktail waitress was quick and deadly with her delivery. I think I had about 5 (small) Kahlua and cream glasses before my mom decided she was starving, and we had only been there for less than an hour!

When we walked up to MAG, we saw they were now offering breakfast starting at 7 a.m. each day. Breakfast at MAG?!?!? I think I’m in heaven! Oh, it looks like July will be a wonderful time to stay at Paris!

The hostess offered to seat us on the patio, but we opted for a window seat just inside, as the winds were still blowing furiously and you could see the spray from the Bellagio fountains all over the place on the Paris side of the street. I was actually surprised that the fountains were not turned off, but they stayed on the entire time we were there.

For dinner, we decided we would get three different entrees and share them, and then share desserts. The reason for this was because we always wish we’d tried something else no matter what we get, and this way we’d all be able to try several things and still be happy. This turned out to be a good decision – we weren’t stuffed, but we enjoyed a really good meal. We ordered Steak Classique, Steak Bernaise, and Gabi’s Fish and Frites. We cut them into thirds and exchanged pieces. Mom and my cousin both ordered a glass of the house red wine, and I finally got to try the Frangria that my friend Tania had mentioned before. I will be trying it again – it was good but strong. I’m such a lightweight!

The desserts were delicious, too – mom’s favorite flourless chocolate cake was the first choice, and the sorbet of the day was actually two: banana and pineapple. They were both fan-freakin’-tastic! I’ve never met a sorbet at MAG that I didn’t like, and these were delicious. I discovered that if you mixed the banana sorbet with a bit of the flourless chocolate cake it tasted a lot like those frozen chocolate covered bananas that used to be so popular when I was a kid. Also, if you mixed the banana and pineapple sorbets together, it tasted like a pina colada. We were very happy with our choices and think we’ll do that again so we can sample more stuff and not be OVERstuffed. My cousin paid for dinner, as well, as this was her birthday present for my mom. The total for all three of us was $112. Not bad at all.

From there we decided to head into Bally’s, which was extremely crowded – the slots, the tables, the sports book were all very busy – and mom decided we should just catch the monorail back to Harrah’s. She’d already worn out her hip on the walk from MGM to PH earlier, so I didn’t push it and we took the easy way back.

Back at Harrah’s, it was already time for me to print the boarding passes for the next day. Got A24, A29, and A31 – the lowest numbers we’ve had in a LONG time. We headed up to the rooms to put them away and freshen up for the evening.

Downstairs again, I finally found an open Village People Party machine that I had been eyeing the day before. Again I was hitting enough bonuses to keep me from going down to $0. After I had been at the machine for about an hour, a girl sat down at the machine next to me and was extremely excited each time she hit a bonus round on whatever it was. She kept yelling “Fireballs! Fireballs!” every time she’d get the bonus rounds, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I found her to be very entertaining – as did others in the area - and she finally cashed out and left. I cashed out a little while later and went to find my mom. We played side by side VP for awhile again, drinking Bailey’s and hot chocolate - mom loves them, too! - and the 4OAKs kept me alive yet again tonight. The next time I looked at my watch it was 1:30 a.m., and I was just dead on my feet. I said good night and headed for bed, down a little less than half of my daily bankroll.

For our final day we had breakfast at Harrah’s café yet again. We had originally planned to eat at the Mirage buffet for breakfast, but we had eaten dinner so early the day before that we just couldn’t wait to eat – what pigs we are! I tried their Southern Eggs Benedict: two biscuits with sausage and eggs on top, covered with good ol’ cream gravy. Heart attack on a plate! I couldn’t finish even half of it, but it was good and filling. My mom paid for breakfast with her TR points – again – and again I wasn’t put out by either of them spending a small portion of their vast amount of TR points on my food. We checked out of our rooms and took our bags to the bell desk since we wouldn’t be leaving until 7:40 that night and were planning on being gone for awhile.

We walked to Caesars on a beautiful, sunny Friday morning. If every day in Vegas were like that, it would truly be heavenly. I FINALLY got to play my Dancing Dolphins Super Jackpot Party machines! I saw less of them on this trip, and when I did they were usually taken. I picked the wrong dang shell almost every time I got the free spins, and I never got a chance at the Super Jackpot Party bonus. It was depressing.

I also went back to visit my favorite Gold Fish machine that paid my lovely five Goldie win last March, but it wasn’t showing me any love, either. Finally I gave up and went and found my mom and cousin to tell them I was heading to Bellagio to take some photos in the conservatory, as they were planning on skipping it this trip. We agreed to meet at Flamingo at 2 p.m.

As usual, the Bellagio conservatory smelled absolutely wonderful. The spring display includes the butterfly house, as well as different styles of gardens from around the world, including an Italian garden with a funky head statue, a traditional English garden, and a Japanese Zen garden. I could spend all day in there, truly.

I walked over to Flamingo and found my mom had just hit 75 free spins on one of the new Happy Days machines. She had put in $5 and was up to $160. I left her there and headed for the Quick Hits slots. Up and down, up and down – finally I remembered that I hadn’t gotten the Margaritaville T-shirt my DH requested. Mom and I headed over to get the shirt and pick up my cousin and head back toward Harrah’s.

We stopped by Ghiradelli’s for some chocolates at Hayley’s request (she’d rather have them from Vegas than from San Antonio), and listened to the band WonderBoogie in Carnaval Court for a couple of songs. They are so good! Then it was on to a couple of shops in Harrah’s to look for anything else that caught our fancy before we did our last gambling of the trip.

Once again I was able to find an open seat at a Gold Fish machine and hit quite a few bonus rounds. Goldie was really visiting me on this trip, but unfortunately her bonus rounds consisted of a lot of consolation credits. I still love her, though, and I’ll be back to visit her again in July.

We decided for a quick snack at the café again before we headed to the airport, and I just ordered a bowl of French onion soup. Not too bad. My cousin paid for that with her TR points, so I officially didn’t spend any money on food for the entire trip!

At 5:45 we grabbed our bags from the bell desk and caught a cab back to the airport. This time the fare made sense - $14 from Harrah’s to the airport is pretty low these days, actually. I gave the nice guy a good tip and headed up to the craziness that is the new C gates.

For the first time in Vegas history (for me, at least), the TSA agents were all very nice and friendly. Usually they are staring straight ahead, or they are very business-like, but they were actually funny and cutting up with some of us crazy customers and each other. It was a nice change.

Our plane was at the gate early, and we left on time. I couldn’t resist taking one last photo out the plane window before takeoff – once again, I swear my camera was *properly* stowed the whole time.

Anyone who’s going to Vegas soon – please say hello to my money. I left about half of it there for you all to take a crack at. Let me know if any of you give it a good home.