This trip has been sort of planned since last October. Actually I think it started as a joke a few years ago when the KISS mini golf opened. I suggested to some friends from high school that they renew their vows there and a couple of us would come be their witnesses. We'd all wear KISS concert t's. Fast forward to October 2014 and a group trip was suggested. One couple, G & R, I haven't seen since the 25th reunion and another gal, L, since the 20th reunion. Then there's C that I see at all the reunions and last year hubby and I had a visit with her in Vegas. C shares our love of Vegas. The funny thing is that we all live within a 3.5 hour drive from each other.
In January after we got the bad news about our dog having cancer, then the surgery and radiation, hubby and I had to cancel our February anniversary/bday trip. I needed something to look forward to so I sent them all a message to ask if we were doing this. Everyone said yes so we planned May 15-18. L's bday was that weekend so we had an extra reason to celebrate. I suggested Ballys since it's reasonable and centrally located. Everyone agreed so I watched rates. My marketing executive got my jubilee room comped and got a good friends and family rate for G & R in the same tower. She could only do one room but I was able to make L's reservation with a friends and family rate through the players # but I couldn't get as good a rate so I put them in the indigo tower. Her hubby P had decided to go too. C was thinking of bringing a friend so her room was up in the air for awhile. My hubby told me to go have fun with my friends, he'd stay home with the pooch (we did get to take a belated bday/anniversary trip in March so he was good to wait til my birthday in July for his return trip). C ended up not bringing anyone and bunking with me. 2 weeks before we left I had an email from CET about new summer rates so I looked to see if I could change L's reservation to the jubilee tower and was able to do it and save twenty cents! This was the 2nd weekend of Rock n Rio so I thought there would be no way to move them to the jubilee one cheaply so I was happy. Then about a week before the trip I get a call from the diamond reservation people calling to confirm my res, so I asked if they could maybe put us on the same floor and they said they'd link our ressies and do their best. I will start by saying that this was one of the most fun trips to Vegas I've ever taken. I do love my trips with hubby, but we do more power gambling when it's just us. This trip had a lot of drinking, talking and so MUCH laughing, it really was so much fun.
Flights, I left from Austin early Friday afternoon, C left from SA at the crack of dawn and the others left
IAH at 5p. C arrived first and checked her bag at the hotel and wandered some. I worked til 11 and hubby took me to the airport. I got to watch the honor flight ceremony taking off on its way to DC, pretty neat! I posted on
FB that I was about to leave and would see everyone soon. When I landed and turned on my phone another friend from high school B said he was coming to town on Sunday so I posted back to him that we'd meet him for drinks after he arrived, he was staying at Cosmo.
So this group was pretty much letting C and I plan stuff since we're veterans. There were a couple of must do's, I'd gotten a groupon for KISS mini golf and they wanted to go to minus 5. I knew this trip would be heavy on the alcohol and I'm a pretty lightweight but I'm in!
The fun begins! Sean, my buddy from presidential limos, picks me up at the airport. He's also going to get us a stretch on Sunday to take us to the sign for pix, then to Monte Carlo. I catch up with him, stories of his kids and the next thing you know, we're at Ballys. C is waiting outside the hotel on the side so I introduce them. Sean's wife is from the town C lives in. Tell Sean see you Sunday and off to diamond check in we go. I put her name on the room and ask if they're able to put us all on the same floor and they say yes, just bring the others in when they arrive. Our room faces the Eiffel Tower and is a few floors from the top of the hotel. We unpack, play $100 in the high limit slot room then we head to the Palm for appetizers and a drink. C and I sit at the bar and talk for 2 hours. It's funny, every time I see her it's like it was yesterday. Hard to believe we graduated from high school 34 years ago! We had the lump crab appetizer and the calamari, way too much food. It it was delicious! I had a Sauvignon blanc, she had a dirty martini. We decided we'd better get back to Ballys to wait for the rest of the gang. As we're walking I get a text, the eagle has landed. We stop at the Cromwell and I put $100 in my triple double wild cherry machine, it's not kind. By the time we get back, I get a text that the gang is in a cab so we go out front to meet them. We see them getting out of their cab and head their way. Hugs all around and we go to check in. I tell them that we won't be waiting in a lot of lines this trip, one of the perks of my gambling problem, then we head past the lines at the check in and go to the diamond check in. They get checked in and we're looking at their room numbers and not only are we in the same floor, G & R are next door to us. We get up to our hall, L & P go to their room, they were facing Cromwell about 5 rooms down from us, and we go in G & Rs room. Show them their safe and fridge and G says she's hungry. We sit and talk for a few minutes waiting for everyone to come to their room and then we went to PHo to eat at planet dailies. By this time it's after 9 p.m. We stopped to say hi to my pit boss friend at Paris on the way over so I could introduce him to all my friends. Sadly the service at dailies wasn't great this time and the food was marginal, but they all were so hungry they probably would have eaten dirt by that time! 2 ordered something sushi-y, I had the worst Greek salad ever, one had a burger, one had prime rib and I think one had a sandwich. Next stop Cosmo, chandelier bar. We went to the 2nd level, we probably should have gone up to the top since then night club crowd was in the 2nd level and it was loud. We did snag a group of seats when a group of ladies got up to leave. 3 of us ordered specialty drinks from the menu, the others had a Guiness and Tito's. My drink had ginger beer in it and some pretty flower but wasn't all that memorable but whatever R had he loved and talked about it for days....a tropical passion or something like that. After drinks we ran back to PHo for sodas and water for our rooms, G said she can't function without her diet coke in the a.m. We dropped our bags in our rooms and head back to the casino. L & P aren't really gamblers and G & R dabble in it where C and I are more hard core. L & P decide to go to bed around midnight, we tell everyone to send out a text (L's daughter had set us up on some sort of group text thing that was a huge help for the trip) in the a.m. and we'd go eat breakfast. C head up about an hour later and I left G&R at the bar by the poker room so they could play v/p and I could go play slots in the high limit room. I was ready to turn in before 2 and found G&R at some quarter machines. They'd moved because the bartender was charging them for beer, I guess they weren't betting max coin so they moved to quarter machines and said the CW was keeping them properly lubed. I bid them a good night and went to the room and found C already sound asleep. It didn't take me long to fall asleep, even with the thump thump of
Chateau.
More tomorrow. Those that are reading, thanks for joining our trip!
In January after we got the bad news about our dog having cancer, then the surgery and radiation, hubby and I had to cancel our February anniversary/bday trip. I needed something to look forward to so I sent them all a message to ask if we were doing this. Everyone said yes so we planned May 15-18. L's bday was that weekend so we had an extra reason to celebrate. I suggested Ballys since it's reasonable and centrally located. Everyone agreed so I watched rates. My marketing executive got my jubilee room comped and got a good friends and family rate for G & R in the same tower. She could only do one room but I was able to make L's reservation with a friends and family rate through the players # but I couldn't get as good a rate so I put them in the indigo tower. Her hubby P had decided to go too. C was thinking of bringing a friend so her room was up in the air for awhile. My hubby told me to go have fun with my friends, he'd stay home with the pooch (we did get to take a belated bday/anniversary trip in March so he was good to wait til my birthday in July for his return trip). C ended up not bringing anyone and bunking with me. 2 weeks before we left I had an email from CET about new summer rates so I looked to see if I could change L's reservation to the jubilee tower and was able to do it and save twenty cents! This was the 2nd weekend of Rock n Rio so I thought there would be no way to move them to the jubilee one cheaply so I was happy. Then about a week before the trip I get a call from the diamond reservation people calling to confirm my res, so I asked if they could maybe put us on the same floor and they said they'd link our ressies and do their best. I will start by saying that this was one of the most fun trips to Vegas I've ever taken. I do love my trips with hubby, but we do more power gambling when it's just us. This trip had a lot of drinking, talking and so MUCH laughing, it really was so much fun.
Flights, I left from Austin early Friday afternoon, C left from SA at the crack of dawn and the others left
IAH at 5p. C arrived first and checked her bag at the hotel and wandered some. I worked til 11 and hubby took me to the airport. I got to watch the honor flight ceremony taking off on its way to DC, pretty neat! I posted on
FB that I was about to leave and would see everyone soon. When I landed and turned on my phone another friend from high school B said he was coming to town on Sunday so I posted back to him that we'd meet him for drinks after he arrived, he was staying at Cosmo.
So this group was pretty much letting C and I plan stuff since we're veterans. There were a couple of must do's, I'd gotten a groupon for KISS mini golf and they wanted to go to minus 5. I knew this trip would be heavy on the alcohol and I'm a pretty lightweight but I'm in!
The fun begins! Sean, my buddy from presidential limos, picks me up at the airport. He's also going to get us a stretch on Sunday to take us to the sign for pix, then to Monte Carlo. I catch up with him, stories of his kids and the next thing you know, we're at Ballys. C is waiting outside the hotel on the side so I introduce them. Sean's wife is from the town C lives in. Tell Sean see you Sunday and off to diamond check in we go. I put her name on the room and ask if they're able to put us all on the same floor and they say yes, just bring the others in when they arrive. Our room faces the Eiffel Tower and is a few floors from the top of the hotel. We unpack, play $100 in the high limit slot room then we head to the Palm for appetizers and a drink. C and I sit at the bar and talk for 2 hours. It's funny, every time I see her it's like it was yesterday. Hard to believe we graduated from high school 34 years ago! We had the lump crab appetizer and the calamari, way too much food. It it was delicious! I had a Sauvignon blanc, she had a dirty martini. We decided we'd better get back to Ballys to wait for the rest of the gang. As we're walking I get a text, the eagle has landed. We stop at the Cromwell and I put $100 in my triple double wild cherry machine, it's not kind. By the time we get back, I get a text that the gang is in a cab so we go out front to meet them. We see them getting out of their cab and head their way. Hugs all around and we go to check in. I tell them that we won't be waiting in a lot of lines this trip, one of the perks of my gambling problem, then we head past the lines at the check in and go to the diamond check in. They get checked in and we're looking at their room numbers and not only are we in the same floor, G & R are next door to us. We get up to our hall, L & P go to their room, they were facing Cromwell about 5 rooms down from us, and we go in G & Rs room. Show them their safe and fridge and G says she's hungry. We sit and talk for a few minutes waiting for everyone to come to their room and then we went to PHo to eat at planet dailies. By this time it's after 9 p.m. We stopped to say hi to my pit boss friend at Paris on the way over so I could introduce him to all my friends. Sadly the service at dailies wasn't great this time and the food was marginal, but they all were so hungry they probably would have eaten dirt by that time! 2 ordered something sushi-y, I had the worst Greek salad ever, one had a burger, one had prime rib and I think one had a sandwich. Next stop Cosmo, chandelier bar. We went to the 2nd level, we probably should have gone up to the top since then night club crowd was in the 2nd level and it was loud. We did snag a group of seats when a group of ladies got up to leave. 3 of us ordered specialty drinks from the menu, the others had a Guiness and Tito's. My drink had ginger beer in it and some pretty flower but wasn't all that memorable but whatever R had he loved and talked about it for days....a tropical passion or something like that. After drinks we ran back to PHo for sodas and water for our rooms, G said she can't function without her diet coke in the a.m. We dropped our bags in our rooms and head back to the casino. L & P aren't really gamblers and G & R dabble in it where C and I are more hard core. L & P decide to go to bed around midnight, we tell everyone to send out a text (L's daughter had set us up on some sort of group text thing that was a huge help for the trip) in the a.m. and we'd go eat breakfast. C head up about an hour later and I left G&R at the bar by the poker room so they could play v/p and I could go play slots in the high limit room. I was ready to turn in before 2 and found G&R at some quarter machines. They'd moved because the bartender was charging them for beer, I guess they weren't betting max coin so they moved to quarter machines and said the CW was keeping them properly lubed. I bid them a good night and went to the room and found C already sound asleep. It didn't take me long to fall asleep, even with the thump thump of
Chateau.
More tomorrow. Those that are reading, thanks for joining our trip!
