I have finally gotten some time to post my most recent trip report. This is a general overview with a few details about the shows and meals, but I will be posting detailed show and restaurant reviews - plus more trip photos - over the next few days. Enjoy!
March Madness Trip - March 24th-27th
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| I'm leavin' on a jet plane... |
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| Over Arizona...I think. Could be New Mexico. |
Saturday, March 24th
This was a long overdue trip for gambling. My mom tried to check in at Harrah’s Platinum desk when we arrived, but they re-directed her to the Diamond check-in. Apparently they are doing away with the Platinum check-in as part of the “new” Caesars Entertainment. Platinum players don’t get to use the Diamond Lounge, however; I already asked.
We ended up at the Flamingo Tropical Breeze Café for lunch because the Harrah’s Café had just closed for the switch over to their “Italian Nights” dinner service. I am extremely unhappy with Harrah’s doing this every day of the week. Sometimes I just want to go in and have breakfast in the afternoon, and now I will have to find another place to eat outside of Harrah’s if I want to do that. I’m just saying I don’t like it.
At the Tropical Breeze Café, mom and I shared the Calamari Ringers and Spinach Dip for lunch. We should’ve just ordered one or the other, because they were huge appetizers and we didn’t finish either one of them. The appetizers and two teas came to $26.98+tip, which I paid for.
We checked out the Margaritaville casino, which is attached to the Flamingo casino. I liked it very much for its music selection, of course, as well as its atmosphere, but there’s not a lot to it otherwise. The guys will enjoy the cocktail waitresses' uniforms, I’m sure. Mom and I tried the Wizard of Oz Big Event game there and I could not get any worthy bonuses because they were all going to MOM, apparently. This would be the trend for the entire trip outside of a couple of nice bonuses for me when she wasn’t around.
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| Wastin' away again in Margaritaville... |
I found the Ghostbusters slots in Flamingo and took a chance on them. There was not a single bonus round to be had. I did watch the woman next to me get a couple of them, and they definitely look like fun. I would like to see the Stay Puft bonus just because that whole part of the movie cracks me up. I also played The Hangover slots there only to have my money run away like a small, naked Chinese man into the desert.
We did check out O’Shea’s to see if there were any worthy souvenirs (small and simple, preferably free was what we were looking for on behalf of my cousin) before they close their doors for good on April 30th. We attempted to print out a redemption ticket for a penny, but when we printed it out it said “Flamingo” on it. It also says “Flamingo” on the plastic cups, the water bottles, and just about everything else that has a name on it. Because of March Madness, all the table games were crowded, so there was little chance of playing a couple of hands of anything and getting a $1 or $5 chip, either, and that was as much as we were willing to spend.
Before we went to see Matt Goss at Caesars Palace that night, we ate shrimp cocktail and salad at the Caesars Food Court because all the restaurants in Caesars were extremely busy. That was something we hadn’t planned for, so our thoughts of trying a new restaurant on Saturday night went out the window. In hindsight we should’ve made reservations somewhere.
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| Gossy tattoos! |
We were both a little disappointed with Matt Goss' show overall. While I recognized many of the songs he sang (lots of cover material, like “Hotel California”), mom was expecting him to do more of Frank Sinatra’s songs or his own. The seating for us was fine, but it’s a small room when the curtains are closed. Most of the barge is taken up by Matt, seven musicians, two backup singers and four dancers, and none of them had room to really move around. Plus the pillars in the Cleopatra’s Barge area blocked the view of part of the stage when they were dancing at the end near the bar area. Matt came on late and performed for about 45-50 minutes. Apparently they continue a bit of a party with him and his band afterwards, but it had been so loud that mom just wanted to get out of there, and I didn’t blame her.
Still feeling a bit peckish, we headed to Max Brenner in the Forum Shops for some nice chocolate desserts. This was my third trip to Max Brenner's for chocolate. Mom had the "OMG Chocolate Cookie" and I had the Banana Fondue. Mom paid, so I don’t know what the final amount was. Mom’s cookie had really hard edges again, but otherwise her dessert was enjoyable. My bananas were deep-fried and presented in a Chinese takeout container along with some strawberries for dipping in caramel and chocolate sauces, and it tasted a lot like Bananas Foster (which I love). Either way, it was too much for one person to eat. I’m beginning to think that everything Max Brenner makes is either served on a graph plate or in a Chinese takeout container. It’s still good food, though. Mom wanted to steal the little tin container the bill came in and I told the waiter she wanted it. The waiter told mom what he “didn’t see, didn’t happen”, but she decided not to take it. I think she should have, since she basically had the waiter’s permission. I would have.
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| OMG Chocolate Cookie...and the graph plate |
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| Banana Fondue...and the ever-present Chinese takeout container |
On the way back to Harrah’s, we got to witness Las Vegas’ finest in action. While passing Imperial Palace, we saw two police officers arresting a couple of very young, very drunk men. The kicker was that they were filming an episode of COPS at the time, and I became one of “those people” and took a photo of the arrest with the COPS crew in it because…well, how often does that happen? Even in Vegas? That’s what I thought.
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| Bad boys, bad boys...whatcha gonna do? Get arrested! |
Mom went back to her favorite video poker machines in Poker Place and I headed back to Lord of the Rings (LOTR). The Harrah’s LOTR machines were nice to me before and after the show, so it’s no wonder I keep going back to them like a crack addict. They brought me back to down only $75 at the end of the night, which is good because I was WAY down before that. Mom was up $50 by the end of the night because of 2 separate aces plus the kicker hits. They were changing out the slot machine hoppers when we went to bed around 3 a.m.
It seems that the best place in all of the casinos for WiFi is the LOTR seats at Harrah’s. I was able to tweet from there with no problems, but had a hard time finding a connection anywhere else I played, even inside of Harrah’s.
Sunday, March 25th
I couldn’t sleep and finally gave up around 7 a.m. It sounded like someone was kicking a huge, metal trashcan somewhere in the hallway at about 4:30 and 6 a.m. It only happened twice, but it was loud enough to freak me out and get my adrenaline going. I ended up typing notes on my iPad until mom woke up. She can sleep through my dad’s snoring (which is amazing), so nothing wakes her up.
The brunch at the Wynn Country Club was mom’s birthday celebration gift from me. I cannot say enough good things about this brunch (neither could my mom - and I will write up a separate review for it later with all the photos and details because it was sooooooo good!), but it was easily the best meal of the trip and on par with the Jasmine Brunch at Bellagio, even though the menus and experiences are vastly different. The Jazz Brunch is $59 per person, and that does not include any beverages. With two coffees and tax the total was $132 before tip. They have a good selection of Cajun food on their buffet, as well as several items you can order off of the brunch menu that they prepare fresh and bring directly to your table. We sampled some great items from the buffet and ordered shrimp and grits (fantastic!), the omelet of the day – pepper jack cheese, bacon and green onions (mom said it was delicious) – and French toast bread pudding (heavenly) from the additional menu. I would love to eat here again. Our waiter’s name was Yo and he was fantastic, very attentive, and funny to boot. He brought mom a special mango sorbet with berries and a “Happy Birthday” sign made from white chocolate, but she broke it when she tried to hide it in her purse and take it with her. We realized we completely missed the mac and cheese, fresh veggies and mini cheeseburgers as we were getting ready to leave, but we were completely stuffed and there was no way we could eat anything else.
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| Best birthday brunch ever? Possibly! Many more photos to come in my restaurant review - delish! |
One note about the buffet dress code: it is listed as “business casual/no jeans”, and we took clothes so that we wouldn’t be under-dressed, but there were people in there in pool cover-ups and flip flops. Of course, they could be high roller children (they were younger people who were part of a larger group of Brits), but why aren’t restaurants enforcing their dress codes if they have them? This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this situation recently (Olives in Bellagio last July was another occasion I found people way under-dressed for the restaurant). I'm just saying don't tell me I have to dress a certain way and then let just any Joe Schmo like they own the place.
Slowly heading back through Palazzo, The Venetian and over through The Mirage, we gambled our way back to Harrah’s. Star Trek bonuses helped me out with a few bonus rounds at The Venetian, and Kirk1234 is still a good login to access all bonuses.
We went back to Harrah’s to change, and then I decided to try The Hangover slots there. Hit a good spin that netted $91 and a couple of good bonuses, as well before I finally put it all back in and headed back to my old friend, LOTR. There was a mean-looking man sitting at the machine on the right end who didn’t seem to like the bonuses, even though he was betting max and was getting them frequently, he seemed to want them to hurry up and hit the spin button over and over again while the bonuses were playing. Why play bonus slots if you don’t like the bonus rounds? Isn’t that kind of the point of bonus slots?
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| THIS is why I keep going back to The Hangover slots - random wins! |
It was on to Imperial Palace for more LOTR for me while mom played video poker. I picked up our tickets for Human Nature, and then we decided to play more Wizard of Oz Big Event with two funny young guys before the show started. I ended up winning $100 there before we headed to the show at about 7 p.m.
Human Nature was absolutely fantastic! The booths were all reserved, but we did upgrade to center seats in the second tier, as our original ones were in the lower tier and off to the left, away from the stage. It was a great show with lots of energy, and there was lots of audience participation, too. Tickets were $44 each through Goldstar.com, and well worth the price. After the show it was too crowded to get any souvenirs or autographs from the guys, so we headed up to Hash House a Go-Go (HHAGG) for a late snack.
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| Adorable Aussies - go see them! |
I really enjoy HHAGG and would like to eat there yet again on a future trip. Service was a little slow for them not being busy on a Sunday night, but the food was very good as it was before. We ordered iced tea and mom ended up choosing the Crispy Cornmeal Tiger Prawns while I chose the Blue Crab Cake with pasta salad. Mom paid, but this time I saw the bill was $27 before tip.
Monday, March 26th
I finally managed to meet up with my LasVegas4Ever friend, Rick, at Starbucks when I went down to get coffee for me and mom on Monday morning. We had been playing “text tag” since Saturday afternoon, and we were actually in the same place at the same time at last! It was nice to put a face to the name, since Rick insists he only has two photos of himself: the one on his old work ID, and the one on his driver’s license. We had a nice lady take our photo, since we couldn’t do it ourselves.
Breakfast was at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris for mom’s actual birthday. After all the times she’s eaten at Mon Ami Gabi, she’s never had breakfast there. We had mimosas for starters (very strong), and mom ordered the Cinnamon Pancakes with a side of bacon. She said all the cinnamon was on the top pancake, but she did manage to eat most of her big stack. I had the Eggs Florentine with hash browns, since I’m trying to eat something different every time I have breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi. It was very good and I would recommend it. Don’t know what I’ll have next time. Mom paid, so I didn’t get to see the bill. She was insisting on paying for meals since I paid for the Jazz Brunch and I told her how much it was (mostly because I was actually surprised at the total before tip). I see a trend here...
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| Mon Ami Gabi's Eggs Florentine |
We decided to walk to MGM, and it was a bit of a chilly morning, but at least the wind wasn’t blowing a gale as it had been last night or we would’ve taken a cab. No luck at MGM on this day, and I just realized as I typed this that I totally forgot to take a photo of the Sigma Derby game once again. One of these days it’s going to be gone and I’ll still not have a photo of it.
Nothing hitting at MGM, we decided NY/NY would be a better gambling choice. I walked all over the property looking for the Hitchcock slots, but it seems they’ve taken them out. I ended up playing Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers and hitting lots of good bonuses, which made me happy. I think I won back everything I lost at MGM, so that was even better.
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| The 9/11 memorial outside NY/NY gets me every time... |
We walked to Monte Carlo and played Star Wars together. No big bonuses, so mom headed for Deal or No Deal and I headed for more Ruby Slippers. No available seats because one guy was playing two machines, max bet, and taking the tickets out of the machine after he’d hit a bonus and adding a new $100 each time. That’s too rich for me. I ended up at Gold Fish 2, but couldn’t hit anything there, either.
It was a leisurely stroll to Bellagio, and the weather was beautiful. We checked out the Conservatory and I took some photos (of course) of the Spring Dutch theme before we decided that we needed gelato to keep us going. Jean Phillippe Patisserie being a convenient choice, mom got an extremely tart lemon sorbet and I got strawberry cheesecake. Mom paid…again. We watched the crazy people swimming on the (still) cool day. I wouldn’t have minded sitting by the pool and reading, but I wouldn’t get in that water until it’s above 70 degrees at least.
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| Bellagio Conservatory - fake swans, but beautiful. This is my favorite photo from the trip. |
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| Yummy snacks! |
I gambled and lost, lost, lost at Bellagio. I walked everywhere hoping to find Princess Bride or The Godfather slots, but hadn’t found anything yet. I don’t think I was looking in the right places. I ended up playing Hitchcock slots there, but there was only one bonus round to be found.
I was unable to find WiFi connections anywhere today. It didn’t matter where I went, it was “unable to connect to the Internet”. Boo.
Mom and I parted ways while I headed to Aria to meet my friends Diana and Terri at the View Bar for drinks. I walked in a few minutes early and FINALLY found a Princess Bride slot machine right inside the casino. Yay! No bonus rounds in the 10 minutes I played the machine, but at least I know it exists.
It was so nice to see Diana and Terri again! We got drinks and chatted for almost 2 hours before they had to leave for their dinner reservation, and I honestly didn’t pay any attention to the time because I was enjoying the company so much. I had a “Forbidden Fruit” cocktail ($12) and some nuts to tide me over, but I was getting hungry, so it was time to meet mom at Planet Hollywood for dinner.
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| Terri's tea, my Forbidden Fruit cocktail and Diana's Diva cocktail |
We met inside the Miracle Mile shops and walked to LobsterME, which mom had been looking forward to since I mentioned it to her. We ordered the Lobster Grilled Cheese and Lobster Mac and Cheese to share (mom paid…again). We both loved the grilled cheese – very creamy and cheesy. The mac and cheese had a great breadcrumb topping, but I think it needed to be a little creamier. The flavor was good enough, but the grilled cheese was far more delicious, I think (but the lobster roll I had on my first visit was the best). Yet another place I’ll have to re-visit to try something different.
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| Yummy Lobster grilled cheese! Must have! |
Tried the Hot Hot Penny Reels O’Dublin machines in Planet Hollywood for a few nice free spins, but I was unable to locate the Wizard of Oz Over the Rainbow machines that were my personal ATM in November; I think they took them out after I took all their money from them! Mom found some video poker nearby, but it wasn’t treating her well there. We decided to cab it back to Harrah’s because mom’s legs had been through enough for the day.
Lots of gambling at Harrah’s on Ruby Slippers, LOTR, The Hangover and Gold Fish, but to no avail. I seriously overdid it on The Hangover slots trying to chase bonus rounds that night, and it wasn’t smart. My WiFi seemed to have dried up at Harrah’s too, as I was unable to get a signal anywhere on the property for some reason, even in my previous good spots. I ended up down $300 for the day. Yikes!
Mom came by to show me she had finally tried a Bailey’s and hot chocolate. She loved it. That stuff is so addicting. She was still doing very well on video poker and would stop in to check on me from time to time before going back to her favorite machines. Every time I’d visit her she’d have another redemption ticket for a couple hundred dollars or so. Finally went to bed around 1:30 a.m.
Tuesday, March 27th
Today it was time to head home. We packed and checked out, storing our bags so we could gamble some more before we had to leave for the airport. We finally ate at Harrah’s café for breakfast and played KENO, and mom hit her birthday numbers for $42 on our final $1 game. I swear the woman had the magic touch this trip!
I walked over to Sugar Factory at The Mirage to get a shirt for Hayley that I’d seen on Saturday, then played more LOTR at Harrah’s and held my own. I made a last-minute (last hour) decision to play The Hangover slots ONE MORE TIME, and it turned out to be a good decision. I hit Doug’s and Stu’s progressives and came out ahead for the day when I finally managed to drag myself away from the machine. I was having fun, chatting with the lady next to me, and I was happy to finally be doing well; so much so that I didn’t want to leave my seat, even for the airport.
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| One... |
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| Two... |
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| Three! Time to go... |
Mom left a Vegas carryon bag with her jacket and book in the cab. She said, “I left my purse” just after the cabbie pulled away from the curb, and my heart sank because I thought she meant her PURSE purse. It was a small loss, but she didn’t want to take the time to try and get it back.
I saw the breaking news report about the Jet Blue captain just before we got ready to board our plane home. Scary stuff.
I don’t have a trip planned as of yet, but I’m trying to get back to Vegas at the end of October. Here’s hoping!
Observations:
Mom said she hit a total of 14 four of a kinds on this trip. Three of these were aces with the kicker and one was aces without, plus she hit deuces with the kicker once. Most of these wins were at Harrah’s, with one aces with the kicker and the 4 deuces at Wynn on Sunday. She also managed a straight flush once (or twice, I can’t remember), but no royal. She came out ahead while I lost half my money. She also played on winnings after day 1, never touching her own cash. That’s very good, I think.
Cab fare was the same both to and from the airport - $16.40 before tip. First time ever!
WiFi was usually pretty easy to find in Harrah’s, but not at the other properties.
The Strip was very crowded on the weekend, but there were still no really long lines anywhere.
COPS filming took place "on location with the men and women of law enforcement" on Saturday and Sunday night. That was interesting. Mom saw them inside of Harrah’s, chatting while waiting for their next arrest, but I don’t remember when.
Monday night and Tuesday early daytime were very chilly and a bit windy, but the overall weather was great for March with highs in the 70’s and lows in the 50’s.
Obliviots were everywhere, annoying us by just being stupid and ignorant in general. People still don’t know how to move over and let other people walk by when they want to stop and chat, take a photo, or figure out where the hell they’re going, and it’s annoying.
There seemed to be fewer homeless and street people out, but it could be that we just weren’t out at the right time. I did see two people on different occasions (on the bridge from Crystals to Planet Hollywood and near Bally’s) with cats in sunglasses, sitting like humans. I’m wondering how A) they got the cats to actually WEAR the sunglasses in the first place, and B) how their cats remain so calm. My cat would freak out if I tried to get her to sit like a human, let alone attempt to put sunglasses on her.
Linq work has started behind Harrah's and Imperial Palace, but I can’t imagine them being finished by 2013. The Ghiradelli shop and the t-shirt place have been torn down completely, and a construction walkway has been added between Harrah’s and Imperial Palace. I totally forgot to take photos when I saw it. The walkway is about as annoying as the walkway was heading over towards Palazzo from Venetian during their construction, but it’s not horrible. They’ve also modified the walkway you can use going into IP from the Harrah’s side, but it’s still safe and out of traffic.
I am putting all the restaurants I missed – Central, Payard’s and Mesa Grill at CP, and Otto Enoteca Pizzeria at The Venetian – on my next trip “to do” list. I am determined to make all of them, too.
Mom said this was her favorite trip ever - what a compliment! I try to be entertaining and do lots of fun stuff, but it's nice to know that we have lots of fun together and try new things while enjoying the old!
Once again, I have rambled on and on, and I’m on page 10 in Word. And I haven’t even given all the meal info or added photos!
Thanks for reading!
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