Different trip. My son is 18 and a senior in high school. He wanted to go and bet the games. We could only get away for the first 32 games, but bet 18 of them and only won 8. It was mostly an excuse to do some father son bonding, the games and running $10 through a "Walking Dead" penny slot were all the gambling I/we did.
SWA was reliable for us, as always. MGM had a pretty good deal, $120 a night with a $50 food and beverage credit. MGM also let us charge a buffet at Aria to our room at MGM and apply the credit. So that worked out real well.
Arrived Wednesday night. Check in, kind of slow for a Wednesday night, but fine. Grab betting sheets and hit the buffet. Use myVegas 2 for 1 and enjoy watching 18 year old put a dent in the buffet. We made our picks and decided to wait until tomorrow morning to actually place our bets. We took a cab to the Kiss Mini Golf place across the street from the Hard Rock.. Lots of fun, blacklight, animatronics, memorabilia, smoke and just good clean fun. Kind of a bad part of town, could have walked it, but would have been more comfortable in the day time.
Get up the next morning, place our bets, very long line. Very. If I wasn't staying there, I would not have placed bets there. Try to get our money's worth of the resort fee by working out. Then to counterbalance any salutory effect of the workout, we went to the Peppermill for breakfast. Nobody stopped us from going into the lounge, so he got to see the firepit, etc. Essentially walked the Strip back to MGM from there. Stopped along the way to watch games at the Venetian (where we also picked up tickets for Rock of Ages) and the Quad and maybe one or two other places. Good basketball.
Got cleaned up and went to Aria for a buffet dinner. Best buffet I have had since Paris was brand new. Everything was flavorful. That's my biggest buffet gripe, is that most seem to have found a way to suck all of the flavor out of the food. Quite good, hot and cold crab legs, crawdads, peel and eat shrimp, carnitas, barbacoa, prime rib, ham, really good dim sum, mediocre sushi, great desserts, including a good selection of gelato, flan, meringue cookies, we got our money's worth!
Then went to Rock of Ages. Great show, lots of energy and talent. The female lead was the only voice I found disappointing. Who doesn't like classic rock. They hand out fake lighters to the crowd so we can hold them up during the best songs. Headed back to MGM, picked up our betting sheets and made our picks, but waited until the morning to make our bets. The line had to be shorter, didn't it? I don't know how many of you have a 'fitbit' or equivalent, but my son put in over 25,000 steps! 10,000 is the typical goal.
The next morning, hit the fitness room again, checked out, kind of a hassle about the credit, but straightened out with good humor. Dropped our bags and printed boarding passes. We went to 'Tap" the new sports bar at the MGM. There was a line out front, walked up and were told that there was a $50 per person per hour minimum! Even if I were there with my college buddies we might not be able to do that kind of damage, at least not for any extended period of time...
Went to what used to be the ESPNZone at NYNY. It's now the NY Sporting House. Same exact interior, great tv coverage. $15 per person per hour minimum, well that we can do. Watch the Stanford Cardinal beat New Mexico and then go back to MGM. We did the CSI Experience. With a $10 off coupon, definitely worth it. It's a little dummed down for the masses, but fun crime scene and labs. As we walked out of that the CBS people caught us and asked if we wanted to watch a 30 minute show and do a focus group. We'd get $50 cash for about an hour and a half of our time. I don't know if I'd do it again, but he really liked it.
Go a 2 for 1 at Haagen Das for our time too, so we ate it. Watched more games at the MGM, one of the lobby type bars, cashed our last bet and then headed back to the airport. Overall, a really great time spending all that one on one time with my son, although my hands were itching to shoot some dice or play some bj or at least some VP. We were bummed that neither the High Roller nor the Voodoo Zipline had opened yet. Especially since they had been slated to come on line before then. The costumed folk need some marketing help, Chewbacca was hiding behind the pillars out front of Bally's and leaping out to scare people. Not going to pay for that!
SWA was reliable for us, as always. MGM had a pretty good deal, $120 a night with a $50 food and beverage credit. MGM also let us charge a buffet at Aria to our room at MGM and apply the credit. So that worked out real well.
Arrived Wednesday night. Check in, kind of slow for a Wednesday night, but fine. Grab betting sheets and hit the buffet. Use myVegas 2 for 1 and enjoy watching 18 year old put a dent in the buffet. We made our picks and decided to wait until tomorrow morning to actually place our bets. We took a cab to the Kiss Mini Golf place across the street from the Hard Rock.. Lots of fun, blacklight, animatronics, memorabilia, smoke and just good clean fun. Kind of a bad part of town, could have walked it, but would have been more comfortable in the day time.
Get up the next morning, place our bets, very long line. Very. If I wasn't staying there, I would not have placed bets there. Try to get our money's worth of the resort fee by working out. Then to counterbalance any salutory effect of the workout, we went to the Peppermill for breakfast. Nobody stopped us from going into the lounge, so he got to see the firepit, etc. Essentially walked the Strip back to MGM from there. Stopped along the way to watch games at the Venetian (where we also picked up tickets for Rock of Ages) and the Quad and maybe one or two other places. Good basketball.
Got cleaned up and went to Aria for a buffet dinner. Best buffet I have had since Paris was brand new. Everything was flavorful. That's my biggest buffet gripe, is that most seem to have found a way to suck all of the flavor out of the food. Quite good, hot and cold crab legs, crawdads, peel and eat shrimp, carnitas, barbacoa, prime rib, ham, really good dim sum, mediocre sushi, great desserts, including a good selection of gelato, flan, meringue cookies, we got our money's worth!
Then went to Rock of Ages. Great show, lots of energy and talent. The female lead was the only voice I found disappointing. Who doesn't like classic rock. They hand out fake lighters to the crowd so we can hold them up during the best songs. Headed back to MGM, picked up our betting sheets and made our picks, but waited until the morning to make our bets. The line had to be shorter, didn't it? I don't know how many of you have a 'fitbit' or equivalent, but my son put in over 25,000 steps! 10,000 is the typical goal.
The next morning, hit the fitness room again, checked out, kind of a hassle about the credit, but straightened out with good humor. Dropped our bags and printed boarding passes. We went to 'Tap" the new sports bar at the MGM. There was a line out front, walked up and were told that there was a $50 per person per hour minimum! Even if I were there with my college buddies we might not be able to do that kind of damage, at least not for any extended period of time...
Went to what used to be the ESPNZone at NYNY. It's now the NY Sporting House. Same exact interior, great tv coverage. $15 per person per hour minimum, well that we can do. Watch the Stanford Cardinal beat New Mexico and then go back to MGM. We did the CSI Experience. With a $10 off coupon, definitely worth it. It's a little dummed down for the masses, but fun crime scene and labs. As we walked out of that the CBS people caught us and asked if we wanted to watch a 30 minute show and do a focus group. We'd get $50 cash for about an hour and a half of our time. I don't know if I'd do it again, but he really liked it.
Go a 2 for 1 at Haagen Das for our time too, so we ate it. Watched more games at the MGM, one of the lobby type bars, cashed our last bet and then headed back to the airport. Overall, a really great time spending all that one on one time with my son, although my hands were itching to shoot some dice or play some bj or at least some VP. We were bummed that neither the High Roller nor the Voodoo Zipline had opened yet. Especially since they had been slated to come on line before then. The costumed folk need some marketing help, Chewbacca was hiding behind the pillars out front of Bally's and leaping out to scare people. Not going to pay for that!
