This was originally going to be a solo trip but I finally convinced my wife to take a couple of days off and join me on the second day of the trip. All events described below are to the best of my recollection. I do not take notes while in Vegas.
I left for the airport extremely early for my 8pm flight as the drive across the top of the city can take forever. Traffic was horrendous and the 30 minute drive took 90 minutes. I arrived at the extended stay parking and parked the car with plenty of time left to clear security for my flight. I took the monorail from the parking lot to the terminal and was airside in no time.
With the stress of security behind me I headed to a small out of the way bar in the food court that has a nice view of the tarmac and the aircraft, where I enjoyed the first few beverages of the trip. My Air Canada flight was on time and uneventful and I was finally back in Las Vegas.
The cab ride to the Flamingo was quick, check was fast and very friendly, and I was in my GO room in no time. It was too dark at this point to take any pictures of the view, that would have to wait until morning. I went out and purchased a few beers for the fridge in the room, got back and consumed a couple while I explored my new digs.
Later I headed down to the Casino to play some VP. I sat down at the first machine and started playing. Drink service was prompt. A Justin Bieber song was playing (I hate JB), but my toes were tapping anyway, I’M IN VEGAS!! I got into one of those grooves playing where you feel you could sit there all night and come out even or ahead in the end. This lasted for a good hour before things started to change. Two hours later I was $200 down and ready to give the penny slots a try.
I wondered around checking the place out and playing this and that. I did give the Hangover machine a try with no luck.
Played some other machines and finally had a nice hit on Quick Hits, and I had my $200 back. It was time to retire for the evening as it was very late on eastern time.
The next morning I took a couple of pictures of the GO room and the view.
I spent most of the second day playing a tug of war with the VP machines at the Flamingo for that $200. By the time my wife arrived at about 11pm, the Flamingo had snatched the $200 back plus about $100 more. We gambled a bit more and my wife won $100 on a penny machine. We retired for the evening anticipating our move to Caesars Palace the next morning.
We had morning coffee and some pastries before checking out. My thoughts on the Flamingo are as follows:
The GO room with a view – The room was reasonably clean, comfortable and the view was nice. The bathroom was nothing special.
The Casino – Although the Casino won this time, I enjoyed it and felt comfortable there. Drink service was excellent.
Common areas, hallways etc. – filthy, I don’t get it. I did not hear or see a vacuum cleaner my entire stay, the same debris littered the carpets when I left as when I arrived.
We made the short walk across Las Vegas Blvd. to Caesars Palace and joined the line to check in. When it was our turn to check in I politely asked about the possibility of a free upgrade from our Forum Tower room to an Augustus Tower room. The nice gentleman checked his computer and informed me that the Augustus rooms were all full but he could move us to a huge suite in the Forum Tower. We thanked him and headed up to check out our suite.
Here is a link to a video I shot of the suite, for those not interested in watching the video I took some pictures as well.
Click here for the video
We spent some time exploring the suite before heading down to the casino. The gambling here went much like it did across the street at the Flamingo, playing for several hours and breaking even followed by losing streaks, and no major hits. My wife did hit one royal but she was only playing pennies.
We had lunch at the Lago Buffet which was okay, I have to admit I was expecting better. We then spent some time exploring the forum shops and picked up some bubble bath for later. While we were shopping in Harry Rosen something caught my eye, well two things actually. It was a lady with giant breasts in some very revealing clothes, then, I noticed who she was with. It was Ice T from Law and Order and she is his wife Coco. They seemed very nice, Ice T and Coco I mean.
We gambled and lost some more. Drink service here was very good, my beer was rarely ever empty. I believe dinner that evening was something from the fast food area, followed by more losing before we retired to our suite for the evening.
On our second day at Caesars we tried to venture out and do some casino hopping but only got about 100 feet before turning around. We just couldn’t be bothered in that heat. I may have been losing at Caesars but we were enjoying ourselves there so we headed back in. You can’t win every trip can you? We had lunch at P.J.Clarke’s which was pretty good. The rest of the day and evening was spent gambling and enjoying our suite.
Thoughts on Caesars Palace:
The Suite Huge! Plenty of room to entertain a few guests if you wish. Very nice bathroom and a great tub.
The Casino We didn’t win much this time but we enjoyed the casino, we felt comfortable, safe, and the drink service was good.
Common areas, hallways etc. Spotless, everything was nice and clean.
The next morning we checked out and cabbed it up to Palace Station for our last night. Our room was not available when we arrived so we checked our bags at the bell desk and hit the casino. Again, no big hits here but we did break even or close to it for the day. At first it seemed like an eternity to get a drink so I headed to the gift shop and grabbed a beer. I like the atmosphere in the smaller places but hate the smoke.
We finally got our room around 3:30 and headed up with our bags. The room was renovated and nice enough but felt so tiny after being in that suite. We felt like we were living in the walk in closet at Caesars.
We had dinner at the buffet and were not impressed. I guess we were expecting more because we had heard such good things about the Stations buffets. Our favorites are still the Wynn and the Spice Market. I have to say the price was right though, so I wasn’t bothered. We gambled some more after dinner and watched some of the Roulette. Drink service was much better later on. I have to say all of the staff were extremely friendly.
The next morning we gave the buffet another try with the same result. Much of the food was left over from dinner the night before. Anthony Bourdain was right in his book, about skipping brunch buffets. Again though, it didn’t cost much so no worries. My wife was flying home around noon so I kissed her goodbye and she took the free shuttle to the airport. I was flying home later, on the redeye, so I had booked the room for the night even though I was checking out at 10pm.
I spent the rest of the afternoon playing VP breaking even, and enjoying the frequent visits from the cocktail waitress. I headed back to the room around 4pm to try and get a few hours sleep. No luck with the sleeping and after a shower I checked out around 10.
Thoughts on Palace Station:
The Room Nicely renovated and clean. Very small.
The Casino I enjoyed it. Friendly staff and decent atmosphere. Way too smokey.
Common areas, hallways etc. Clean and well maintained for the most part. Some areas showing their age more than others.
Free airport shuttle!!
I enjoy the smaller Casino’s like this one and the ones downtown, the smoke just really gets to me.
I was unable to sleep on the redeye flight so the drive home from the airport was hellish. I will never do the redeye again no matter how much the savings.
All in all we had a fun time and we got ourselves on the Total Rewards radar as the comps are starting to show up now. Took a bit of a hit this time gambling wise but it happens sometimes. I’ll get that back betting NFL games on our October trip .
Thanks for reading.
