Everything I Never Wanted to do in Vegas Family Trip Report

Long time player and LVA member: First posted trip report ever. 

Myself, I have been going to Vegas 20+ years playing mostly good games, although I hadn't been going very much for the last 10-15 years due to work and family. Been married almost 20 years, and we learned early in our marriage that the wife and I don't go to Vegas well together. Son in High School, daughter in Middle School, and this would be their first trip ever to Vegas. We wanted some type of family vacation before the daughter started her summer theater camp, and they wanted to go to Vegas where Dad usually goes alone when he goes.

Of course I got LVA Member Rewards books and ACGs for both myself and my wife. We studied many of the "city-pass" options and compared them to the "attraction coupons" in the coupon books, and decided a 3-day "Las Vegas Pass" would certainly save us money on top of the coupon books for the types of attractions we would go to as a family. The LV Pass for 3 days is normally $180 per person. A 5-day pass is available for almost $100 more per person, but we were going to plan it out to get as much done as we could in 3 days. There were many 20% off links around the internet, but the only one that worked when we were ready to buy the pass was a 5% off link. Many items on the pass required advance reservations, and I will get to those in the report. Note that these four 3-day passes, while still cheaper than theme park tickets, already made this my most expensive Las Vegas trip ever.... But that’s OK family vacations are never cheap.

This trip goes through all these attractions I never wanted to do in Vegas, as well as random comments on things I still did. I only finished the first two days, so LVA members, please let me know if I should finish this report or not...

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Day 1: We got an early flight that touched down around 8 AM Vegas time, round trip flights on award miles.

Rental Car: I was not going to take my family to any of those sleezy "second shuttle stop" car rental centers to save money on this trip, but I was able to get a midsize for $151 (after taxes and fees) for 1 week  on a Dollar Rental car at the Swenson Street location. The Swenson Street location was the old airport Dollar/Enterprise lot where not that long ago savvy shoppers could find cars for less than $50/week before the airport opened its swanky car rental center and all the new Nevada tourist taxes came to play. This location is forbidden from allowing any shuttle service to or from the airport because of the tax breaks they get, but what we were saving more than made up for the $8+tip cost of a Lyft each way. Also, taking Lyft each way between the airport and the door of the rental car location I actually thought was much more convenient than taking the rental car bus to the rental car center.

Palms: With our car, our first stop was the Palms. Getting my wife a player’s card was very fast. The AYCE Sunday Champagne Brunch Buffet is usually $22 per person, but a single LVA 50% off coupon got all of us in for about $44 + server tip. The kids were very impressed with their first ever Vegas buffet. The boy kept loading his plate so much, I warned him he might earn his first security escort out of a casino before he was even old enough to gamble. We had our $10 LVA matchplay coupons which we could play right out of the book on the tables without a long validation process, which we did while our kids watched the sharks in the casino tanks.

Venetian: Our next stop was the Venetian where parking is still free. In my opinion, with only one very busy lane each way in and out of that garage, and so much traffic going in and out of each parking level at any given time, the Venetian would create massive bottlenecks if they tried to put in charging stops, but who knows what they will do. I used to get great mailers from the Venetian, but if you don't play there for a year they consider you a nobody, and they have been really pulling back on giving players anything. We went to the Canal shoppes to pick up the free coupon book through ACG. At first I thought this coupon book was a joke, but then after the wife and daughter started finding stuff they liked in the shoppes, I found some value in this book. For example, my daughter was loving the rocks at Kalifano, and we learned the coupon book gave her a free rock (err, pebble) that she liked also. We left our kids at the Canal shoppes when wife and I used our first two UA $25 freeplay coupons downstairs in the Venetian casino.

Orleans Hotel: I had a two night stay offer for paying just the resort fee at $24/night. The resort fee covers free valet parking, but I refuse to use it their because I have always found both drop off and pick up very slow with them, when it’s easy to find good free parking anywhere around their hotel. I had never been to their swimming pool, bowling alley, or movie theater before this trip, but the kids loved them. When we first visited the bowling alley, there was a professional tournament going on with TV cameras, spectators, and the works (I didn't even know people still watched bowling on TV....) At check-in, we were given a buy-one-get-one for up to 3 free rounds of bowling in an otherwise useless hotel coupon pack. The wife and kids played two rounds of bowling each, and watched the new ant-man movie in their theater (reporting their theater has the modern automatic reclining seats that they enjoyed very much) all while I was in the casino...

Orleans Casino: The Orleans has NSUD for quarters, and for dollars lots of 8/5 BP, 9/7 DB, 15/9 DW44, and some scattered 9/5 jacks. I also like their poker room with lot of tables and game selection, with a $3 max rake per pot which is the lowest both in vegas and and the country, $1.25/hour in comps which is higher than other rooms with higher rakes give players, and lots of jackpot promotions that non-locals can claim even if they don't have a players card when they hit. However I wouldn't have time for a poker session. When the others finished their movie, the wife and I used our ACG $10 matchplays and our LVA $10 freeplays and then it was time for dinner. 

Bailiwick (Orleans Table Service Restaurant): The ACG has a "$15 off an order of $30 or more" at Bailiwick, but the coupon states there can only be one coupon per check. Our server however confirmed we can have two checks per tables, so we got about $60 of what we thought was very good table service food for $30+tip. They didn't care one bit that we strategically added stuff to each check to get them to $30 each, including a real nice piece of chocolate cake we split 4 ways for dessert but could not finish.

Day 2: (First Day of LV Pass)

Breakfast or Orleans Buffet: We used both our LVA 2-for-1 buffet coupons, and after subtracting comp points from previous day play it came to less than $10+tip for the 4 of us for a decent buffet breakfast. We loaded our water bottles with ice waters.

Downtown Pop Culture Walking Tour: (normally $30 per person, free on LVA pass) This tour is normally at 4 PM, but our tour guide Rick allowed us to reserve a 10 AM tour just for our family, not just because of the conflict with the 4 PM Adam London show, but also because it would be cooler in the morning, and family tours don’t mix well with adult tours. We used the free valet parking at El Cortez because that would be where the tour would end, and then we walked to the Mob Museum where the tour would begin. While I am quite familiar with Fremont Street, Rick gave us a lot of the history I never knew about, from the early mob, the stories behind historic points, restaurants, and attractions, to the current stories behind the "people in the circles" and how the ACLU granted them permission to stay on Fremont street, and the lottery process they go through to get their circles. The tour normally comes with a free cocktail, but because we had kids he was able to give us a choice of milkshakes or fruit smoothies. He ended the tour at Container Park shopping center, a nice little shopping center just past El Cortez that I had never ventured to in all my trips. Rick also mentioned he does not take tips from LV Pass tourists (when I had a green chip for him), and I could pass on that info. We both agreed the Las Vegas Pass should include more downtown attractions, because the way the attractions are setup it requires many stops in and out of downtown. The family enjoyed the 90 minute tour, I know I learned a lot about downtown.

El Cortez: Our original plan was to have lunch at Siegels 1941 (with LVA 2 for 1 coupons), but none of us were hungry at that point. We had the LVA "$10-$1000 free spin" coupons (that always hit $10). There were only a couple people in the player’s club line, but it was REAL slow, and when we finally got to the agent she really pissed off my wife by telling her our kids who were minding their own business on their smart phones needed to stand by a garbage can. I normally like El Cortez, as they still have single deck blackjack that pays 3 to 2. But not this trip, we ran our free play money on 8/5 BP, cashed our tickets and green chip, and then called for valet to get us out of there.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum: This cute little museum just north of Fremont street is usually $12/person, but free on LVA pass. We spent about 30 minutes here, impressed with the animated dinosaurs and king tut's tomb, but our kids were a bit old for this. We saw several toddlers there who absolutely loved this place.

Stratosphere Tower Observation Deck: The observation deck is normally $30 for out of state residents, $28 for Nevada residents, $5 for hotel guests, but free on the LVA pass. The Stratosphere is about half way between downtown and the strip, so this made a good next stop. This was our first LVA pass disaster because only 3 of our 4 tickets showed active when they scanned them, and we got held up about 45 minutes calling the LVA pass people and escalating to Stratosphere management, what a pain. We did get our tickets, but due to lightning, all of the rides and the outdoor rooftop were closed, but the observation deck was still open, and that was perfectly fine for our family. We spent about 30 minutes on the deck looking down on Vegas. The LV Pass mess set us back so much time-wise, we wouldn't have time for lunch, so we grabbed some quick snacks from a 7-11 on our way back downtown for our next scheduled show at the D.

Adam London Laughternoon at the D. Normally $34 per person, free on LV pass.  This is a one man magic/comedy show. Fortunately valet parking is still free at the D, so we could quickly drop off our car and got to the show just before it started. Drinks were reasonable at $6 for alcoholic and $4 for non alcoholic. I admit I enjoyed the show, and the family really enjoyed it also.

Xterious Escape; Bugsy's Nightmare (Normally $30 per person, free on LV pass): After the show, we had to ditch downtown for the opposite end of the strip to make our escape room reservation time. On the LVA pass, they allow one escape room per day with reservation, and we had made our first reservation for Bugys's Nightmare for 6:00 PM. They told us we could pay extra if we wanted to guarantee the room entirely to ourselves, we declined, but we still had the room for ourselves. This was a fantastic family experience for our kids ages, forcing us to solve puzzles together as a family. We were federal agents in 1945, raiding Bugsy Siegel's home trying to find his plans and prevent him from taking over Las Vegas... They gave us a walkie-talkie for help, but we refused to take any clues for the first hour, but then once we started taking clues and realized how bad we were at this sort of thing, we warmed up to clues so we could solve it before the 2nd hour finished. It was a lot of time, but it was really an excellent family experience. 

Ellis Island: Very close to the escape room, we didn't notice the storm clouds overhead as we drove to their parking garage. This place used to be famous for their $4.99 complete steak dinner at their restaurant, and sweating coupons in their casino. We had a lot of coupons, but no signs of the casino sweating them at all. We had the LVA 2 for 1 menu items at their village pub to feed the 4 of us at the restaurant very cheap, and while the food may not have been the best in vegas, it was fine and we all enjoyed it. We had LVA $10 matchplays and $10 freeplays as well as ACG $10 matchplays and $10 freeplays, and two ACG play $5 get a free t-shirt coupons. We completed the slot plays first and then headed to the BJ tables to play our matchplays because the dice tables were too crowded. With just the few matchplays we had, the lights went out in the middle of a hand due to the storm outside, the patrons started laughing loudly, the dealer professionally threw herself over the cash tray (i suppose as dealers are taught?) and kept her hand over the last card she pulled, while my wife cried "the kids!" and ran off to where they were just fine. Generators kicked in a half minute later. I finished the hand and returned to the family. The family would let me finish the matchplays and we would leave. The pit had no problem with me playing my wife's match plays given the situation, and even paid 3 to 2 on a match play coupon when it hit a blackjack (when they only needed to play even money on the match play potion of the bet.) After we selected our free t-shirts, on our way to the cage to cash our chips and tickets, the lights went out again, and a bunch of latino patrons bursted out in some loud spanish drinking song. Thankfully they were able to process our cashout tickets with the lights out. Never been to a casino before when the lights went out, but I would have actually enjoyed to have played longer here....

Skips: Our original plan from Ellis Island was to go to the Titanic Exhibition at the Luxor, the Roller Coaster at New York/New York, and then Kiss Mini Golf at the Rio to finish our first day (all free on the LV Pass), but it was storming and the family really wanted to get back to our hotel at the Orleans. I dropped them at the valet entrance under the cover, and parked the rental car in their parking garage.

Orleans bottled water: The Orleans hotel does not give water bottles to the guests, but told me I could buy them at the VP bars. The bartenders at the Orleans VP bars will give a first comped drink (or small bottle of water) just for standing outside the bar and staring at one of their vp bar tops, but getting a 2nd drink can be very difficult even if you are sitting down playing max bet for max credits for a substantial amount of time... So I decided to bar hop a little between all their vp bars until I got 4 of those tiny water bottles to take up the room for the family.

End of Day 2

LVA forum members: I got 5 more days of this family insanity trip report. Let me know if I should continue, and please let me know if anyone has any comments, thoughts, or suggestions on any of this. Thanks!!!

Great Report, keep on, super info. Have gambled at Orleans & eaten at Big Als Oyster Bar, food is good. Keep on with your report. Found bartenders at Orleans hit & miss.

I am enjoying your report immensely and look forward to your next posting.

Keep the reports coming, we're enjoying. Although not common, thunderstorms are interesting in Vegas with sharp lightening and very loud thunder with some brief heavy rain.

Thanks very much. I am working on finishing this, but I have just been getting slammed between work and family, and hope to get this going soon.

Bobby, regarding Orleans bartenders, I agree, I remember on other trips playing in the morning and having a bartender all to myself, chatting, recommeding different drinks, and it being a great time. I think in the evening hours, they are all just slammed due to how busy the place gets, and it appeared they had to support the cocktail waitresses in addition to their bar, and I didn't see any of them not busy at any time. But when someone new shows up at their bar, i do see them stop everything to make sure their new patron at least gets their first drink...

Ok, this was by far the longest day:

Day 3 (2^nd Day on LV Pass)

Orleans Checkout: My wife usually doesn’t like changing hotels on vacation, but she understood that the comp stays I get in Vegas are normally short for each hotel. She had actually done a fantastic job of packing for the 4 of us with all our clothes grouped by day as opposed to by family member. This is not stuff I ever think about planning a Vegas trip.

Gold Coast: The Gold Coast is a nearby sister property of the Orleans. It sits right next to the Rio off strip, and patrons from the Rio will frequently eat here because food prices are absurd at the Rio but reasonable here. We had our two LVA 2-for-1 buffet coupons we were going to use for breakfast, when all of a sudden, the cash register lady gave us our first coupon sweat and told us the coupons couldn’t be used with our kids who were both under 21. I don’t take coupon rejections like this well, so I politely turned the coupon around and told her yes, the user of each coupon needs to be over 21, but it doesn’t say anywhere that the beneficiary of the “get one free” needs to be over 21, she disagreed, and I asked to talk to a manager. While I never give the casinos an inch on such things, this unfortunately embarrassed my wife tremendously. The lady pretended to get on the phone and call someone, then told me we could get 2 breakfast buffets for my wife and I at the regular price of one for 9.99 (which is normal for this coupon), but the kids had to pay the player/guest price of 7.99 each, making the total for the 4 of us $26 instead of $20. Only because I didn’t want to make my wife any more uncomfortable, I went against everything I hold sacred and let the casino win this time.

The Gold Coast ha­­­­s on­­e of the lowes­­t rated buffets of Vegas casino hotels, but we did not find it bad at all for breakfast. Out server was extremely nice, offering to fill our water bottles for us when we asked for waters at the end. My wife was concerned I might not tip her well after our coupon rejection, but no, I always tip buffet servers well! However, in this casino I wasn’t going to play much more than our gambling coupons. Both of our ACG matchplays won at the tables for +$40, then my wife went to be with the kids while I played our LVA freeplays on an NSUD machine for quarters, where I hit a 5-of-a-kind (+$20), bringing the very short gambling part of this stop to around +$80. OK, I am not going to rock the coupon boat over the buffet thing, but I would say to anyone coming here planning to use a player promotion or coupon with a non-player, make sure to call ahead and ask someone if the promotion can be used with non-players before visiting.

­­On the way out, I asked my kids if they needed to use the restrooms, but they said they preferred to wait to use the restrooms at the Venetian. Enjoy that Sheldon Adelson...

LV Pass Skips: We were next to the Rio where the LV Pass offers a free ride on the “Voodoo Zipline” between the two Rio towers. For some reason, visitors under 18 can’t do this in the evening, but regardless my kids didn’t want to do it at all. The WSOP was going on at the Rio at the time, so parking would have been a pain anyway. The only other LV Pass free attraction on this part of town was the Hollywood Car Museum, which we also decided to skip.

Las Vegas Strip Attractions:  This day was originally going to be centered around seeing “Divas Las Vegas” at the Linq, the only strip show that was free on the LV Pass. However, that show had just been cancelled and the cast excommunicated themselves from CET. Something about the cast raising money for charities after each show, but the charity money they collected never making it to the charity in question.

We parked at the Venetian again for free parking for our strip LV Pass attractions.

Madame Tussauds: (Normally $32 per person, free on LV Pass) Cute little wax museum in front of the Venetian. The family took a lot of pictures with of themselves with the wax figures. Cute “4D Marvel Experience” show at the end.

Marvel Avengers Station (Normally $44 per person, free on LV Pass). Crossed the strip from the Venetian on the street walkway, and the TI was a short walk north. This was a museum for marvel comics fans, with a life-sized video game at the end, and a gift store with all sorts of marvel themed items.

Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat: (Normally $22 per person, free on LV pass.) The walk from TI to the Mirage still has the big statue of Siegfried and Roy. The pair had the most watched show in Vegas before Roy got bitten by one of his tigers during a show. In the late 90s the duo received the nickname for the poker hand pocket queens. Their attraction behind the Mirage had both a dolphin pool, and cages with both white and gold tigers. For an extra fee, they would allow visitors to swim with the dolphins, but they had no offers to allow visitors to pet the tigers. In a shaded area of the park, Siegfried himself was there chatting with visitors, and kindly allowing pictures. My wife insisted we wait in the short line to get a family picture with him. There was no charge, and he didn’t have a tip bucket either.

Planet Hollywood Restaurant at Caesars Palace: LV Pass users get $10/day credit if they want to visit this restaurant. Basic items at this restaurant are $15-$25, but they would allow us to combine all of our credit together against 3 items. The wife got a salad for about $13, the kids got personal pizzas which were about $16 each, and I just got a soft drink. All of the menu items were HUGE, and we couldn’t finish any of them. This feast at Caesars costed us about $15+tip.

LV Pass Skip: The next hotel up on our side of the strip was the Bellagio, where LV pass members could get into the “Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art” for free. We decided to skip this one:

Eiffel Tower Experience: (Normally $18 per person, free on LV pass.) From Caesars we crossed the strip again at a pedestrian bridge, and then after a short walk south through some sidewalk construction arrived at the Paris. For the 2^nd time, after they scanned our 4 passes only 3 showed active. I wasted no time calling the LV pass phone number and asked to the ticket rep to get a manager. After about a 15-minute delay, we got our 4 tickets to the tower. Another nice panoramic view of Las Vegas, we were able to watch the Bellagio Fountain show from up in the top. However, our most memorable part of the Eiffel Tower Experience had to have been:

Vearn: Vearn is a tour guide who works at the top of the Eiffel Tower and is a fast-talking human encyclopedia. Vearn does not hide that he has Asperger’s and is terrified of people, but he has overcome his fear by avoiding eye contact when he talks. He can tell you anything you might want to know or not want to know about Las Vegas in encyclopedia like detail. If you like Jim Parsons’ portrayal of Sheldon Cooper on Big Bang Theory, Vearn is the real deal. Google “Vearn Eiffel Tower Las Vegas” for some videos of him. If you ever plan to go to this attraction, I strongly recommend calling ahead to go when he will be there. IMHO, CET does not deserve him as an employee.

LV Pass Skips: After we were finished at the Paris, we returned north on this side of the strip back towards our car. We walked through Bally’s to behind the Flamingo, where we skipped two attractions we could have done for free on the LV Pass; Real Bodies is a museum of preserved dead people that my kids did not want to see even for free, and Twilight Zone Mini Golf that we didn't have time for.

High Roller: (Normally $25 per person, free on LV pass). This is the oversized Ferris wheel behind the Flamingo, Linq, and Harrah’s. It’s another panoramic view of Vegas, but unlike the Stratosphere Tower or the Paris Eiffel Tower, when you are ready to leave, you still have to wait until the ride ends. The ride is normally 30 minutes around; unless it stops like it did on us, and we were stuck another 20 minutes getting torched by the sun from the west. The glass bubbles are air conditioned, but that does not stop the sun beating through the glass. If you ever do decide to ride this thing, make sure when you get in to try to claim one of the few seats with a little bit of shade from the side arm, or be prepared to be making your own shade with whatever you brought.

From the High Roller we walked behind the Harrah’s garage straight into the Venetian garage. After we got inside the garage half way to the elevator, my wife’s knees started hurting, so my son and I had to help her the rest of the way to the elevator. The family was very happy to be back in our rental car.

Xterious Escape: Curse of Mapuche: (Normally $30 per person, free on LV pass.) This was our 2^nd escape room (as the LV pass is limited to one a day) and about a 10-minute drive from the Venetian. While this room did not have a Vegas theme, the Indiana Jones like special effects were very cool, and we did a lot better with our experience from the previous night. We weren’t shy about taking clues so we could get this done in about an hour. Again we had the room to ourselves, and these room are really good for working together as a family.

Sterling Spoon Café at Silver Sevens: Silver Sevens was a very short drive from Xterious. We thought we would have a choice between their buffet or the restaurant when we got their (LVA has 2 for 1 coupons for both), but the choice was made for us because their buffet was closed on weekdays. The café again was good food at very reasonable prices, or fantastic value with our 2-for-1 coupons.

Our family did not want to try to pick up Titanic exhibition or NYNY Roller Coaster we missed the previous night. We would still have another day on the pass, but they wanted to get to our next hotel they were looking forward to.

The Wynn Las Vegas. The Wynn/Encore ranks among the swankiest hotels in not just Las Vegas but the world, even after their namesake owner (who also designed TI, Mirage, and Bellagio) resigned over sexual misconduct allegations earlier this year. While these two mega-resorts are much too proud to participate in any discount coupons for anything, they haven’t been so proud that that they have been emailing me almost twice a month for the last 10 years emails with titles like: “Last Chance! Free Room at Wynn/Encore!”…  About 10 years earlier I got myself their players card, and then earned barely over enough points for their “new member free buffet” promotion (which wasn't a trivial earn by the way), and while most places forget you after 12 or 18 months, this place has never stopped sending me mailers and emails. I always figured this to be a new member teaser offer, so I hadn’t been too excited about claiming it, but when the family said they wanted to go to Vegas, I called them to confirm this offer was still good, and to my surprise it still was, free room for three nights, no resort fee.

We looked at the menus of all 30 or so of their restaurants prior to the trip, and well, we made sure to stop at 7-11 prior to arriving for our next morning’s breakfast. The room offer came with free parking, so we wouldn’t have to park next door at the Palazzo. At check in they gave us free cold bottled water we could bring to our room.

We liked the room. A hotel room is always nice when the shower is not in the bathtub. There was also a TV in the bathroom. The kids were wondering about Wi-Fi in the room, we called and were told the Wi-Fi was not covered in the room comp, but it would cost $19.99 per device per day. Our kids didn’t need Wi-Fi. The far wall was a giant piece of window, with a nice view of the Wynn golf course. The kids seemed to really enjoy the automatic power curtains on that wall.

My final task for the day would be to find our route out of the hotel to the TI to catch our early bus to the Hoover Dam the following morning. The Wynn hotel has a corridor they call “the esplanade” from the casino to the exit with the pedestrian bridge we would need to cross in the morning. The esplanade had expensive stores like those in the Venetian canal shoppes on both sides. However, unlike the canal shoppes, these stores were all open but empty. I thought to myself it could have been just because its late, or maybe Wynn’s new policy of now offering free parking to customers who spend $50 or more in there stores may not have been working as well as they had hoped.

On the way back to the room, I stopped at the check-in desk again for 4 more free bottles of water.

End of Day 3

Ok, that was absolutely the longest day of the trip. None of the remaining days should be as long as this one. Any feedback welcome, or at least letting me know you are still keeping up appreciated... Thanks for reading.

Very, very nice, great detail. You are doing a great job of using every coupon & discount available with  a minimum of movement. Someone would be a fantastic person to be in charge of  logistics. Waiting for your next part.

Love it - keep going!

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed trip report. You and your family are really covering a lot of ground on your vacation. Enjoyable read, looking forward to the rest.

Great use of coupons and a most unusual trip. Looking forward to the rest of your TR.